I am a Female Carpenter

After trying to do a Google image search for Female Carpenter, Woman Carpenter, woman wood worker, female furiture builder and various other similar searches. I have come to the realization that the internet has no idea what those titles mean. Replace female/woman for male/man and you get plenty of images. 

But 90% of what does come up for the lady version...is downright insulting. 

I AM A FEMALE CARPENTER

As a hobby...I build beautiful furniture, using a variety of tools, math and reasoning, and techniques that have taken years to learn and develop. I am still learning and will always admire good craftsmanship.

I realize this a is 99% male dominated field, and have the utmost respect for masters of this craft regardless of their sex. 

THESE ARE NOT FEMALE CARPENTERS

They are models wearing costumes and holding props. 

Note there isn't a glue wipe, speck of sawdust, band-aid from a splinter, on her perfectly braided hair or perfectly selected clean clothes. Also...lady, you're going to stab yourself with the pencil pointed that way. And you! close your mouth unless you want it filled with sawdust! Save that look for a porno...if you still have limbs for it after you've been holding the saw like that running. 

Being a female carpenter doesn't mean i look like Paul Bunyan without a beard, never shave my legs, endeavor to be a lumberjack, live in the woods, or crack nuts with my toes. 

It doesn't mean i'm a man hater, ball buster, lesbian, or a body builder. 

NOR does it mean I consider Ikea directions a way to build furniture and can only do so with my low power pretty pink tool set that's sized for a child while wearing a push up bra and a thong.

(Note: Nothing against pink tools, just think you pay extra for less power)

It also doesn't mean that with proper training...these women above couldn't become carpenters. 

I realize in a male dominated world, hot pinup women are the easy way for guys to even think about tools and women in the same sentence. Sex always sells. I get that.

But I've worked damn hard to become a carpenter to the point where friends, master-craftsmen, my father and complete strangers are impressed by the quality, design and care put into every single piece i create. 

I'm proud to be a craftswoman who can look at particle board ikea items with distain and know i can make something better for cheaper, that will last for generations. 

AND I MAY MAKE THEM WHILE WEARING A THONG BUT AT LEAST THE THONG IS UNDER MY STAINED, PAINT SMUDGED, RIPPED, and SAWDUST COVERED

WORK PANTS!!!!!!!!!

This is me (for real) at work. 

Thoughts on the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo remake (Dec 2011)

When i was still in high school, and drawing people constantly, I dreamed of becoming a forensic sketch artist. I started studying what makes faces look the way they do. How just a slight raise in the arch of an eyebrow can change a person from looking sweet to haughty. How mouths that naturally downturn make people seem unhappy when actually just relaxed. And how people who have the crease between their eyebrows look angry even when their minds are just far away.

None of that dream was ever meant to be, but i still notice those details especially when comparing people.

I just watched the trailer for the American remake of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara.

Even despite a dramatic and harsh haircut and dye job...i just don't buy her as a misanthrope, cold and calculated hacker. I just don't. Some people's faces are naturally gentler and less edgy...and hers is one of them. They can put all the dark and overly dramatic makeup on her they want, but it's still a softer person inside than the character Lisbeth Salandar is described as.

Even if you take away all the makeup and get them with similar expressions....Rooney Mara seems softer and more sweet where Noomi (star of the Swedish films) has a more edgy, harder look. Personally i think it's in the tilt of the eyebrows. Noomi's tilt in towards her nose, where Rooney's are start higher and further out. Just that makes the difference for me.








Now...if Boyfriend Jon would finish reading the books so we can watch the movies and then i can talk about them without inadvertently spoiling them.....GRRRR....i could go off for several pages about what i liked, didn't like, and what they left out of the movies that a) would have made a lot more sense and b) were HUGE parts of the storyline and character development that they just completely omitted!

Saving Money via Ingenuity

On Friday when i dropped the wallet thief off at my sister's place (LOL stories below) my sister was watching a TV show called "Extreme Couponing" which i caught towards the end. The woman was checking out and had a $1200 bill which ended up being an extraordinary $103 after she went through a stack of coupons. Amazing right? and then i started looking at the amount of stuff she had. 4 shopping carts, one of them containing over 70 bottles of mustard. Who in this world can eat the contents of 70 bottles of mustard even if it takes their entire lifetime? It goes beyond absurd. I asked my sister what she does with the stuff, and she rewound to show me the part that showed exactly that. Showers stacked full of paper towels, pantries overflowing with cans, even the room for the water heater was filled to the brim. It was another form of hoarding and just as disturbing in my eyes.

I love saving money, and I've been doing a lot better with using coupons lately, but i would certainly balk at buying things i had no need of within the next three months. Even if they never spoil.

My most recent money saving technique had to do with the Kindle. I wanted to throw it in my purse without it getting scratched up by my keys. But i also didn't want it to weigh the kindle down and not be able to fit into my purse because the cover was so bulky. So i decided neoprene would be a good idea. But have you looked at the cost of those things???? Kindle covers themselves cost no less that $35 and Neoprene covers go up beyond $50. I tried to find a cheap one while i was walking around Staples for another purpose, but inevitably, it was more than i wanted to spend.

And then something interesting caught my eye.

It's was a leather notebook cover haphazardly placed on an endcap standee. It was red, which since its my favorite color, was probably the reason i stopped short. Upon further inspection, it was just barely too small for the kindle. I almost walked away from it not once, but twice. But something kept making me think about it. I analized the seams and looked at what was making it too small. I concluded if i cut out the flap where the notebook was supposed to slide in, and then trimmed off the business card flap (as seen in the left of the picture) to just a strip in the middle, it could work. I looked at the price. $12. Certainly worth a shot at that price.

So i took it with me to Boyfriend Jon's place and while he played Lego Indiana Jones, i got out a pair of scissors and my knife and got to work. I carefully trimmed out the flaps, which eventually will need some kind of edging. Boyfriend Jon then got out some strips of velcro that he had laying around and i cut them to size and placed them. One for the new closing strip. and two for the back of my kindle to keep it in place in the cover when i wanted to read. With the extra flaps out of the way, the Kindle fit like a glove.

Here's the results, of which i'm rather proud of. Still in the process of cleaning it up though.

As for LOL stories for Miss Molly, aka the Wallet Thief...She was pretty content to just lay in my lap while i read The Girl Who Played with Fire. But she did catch sight of a crow and just about plowed through my screen door trying to say hello.

Also, i may have accidentally have given her brain freeze, by giving her some ice cubes made out of tuna fish juice. She gobbled up three of them in the time it took Rusty to eat half of his. After that, she sat looking at me  squinting her eyes as her lower lip quivered.

But as far as Molly stories go, it was pretty calm and quiet for life around her.

The return of the Wallet Thief

Molly helping with construction

Molly the Wallet Thief will be staying with me today, and i'm sure i'll have more "adventure" stories tomorrow. We're still trying to get this silly dog acclimated to my place for when Noreen is out of town so that i can help take some of the load off my parents. She's pooped, she's peed, she's thrown up, she's tried to eat just about everything from a tea light to a roll of Tums. But this dog....i'm sure will figure out something new to drive me insane with.

For all that i gripe, Molly is a wonderful dog. It's hard not to laugh when she gets into some of her quirky moods. And then she has her Eeyore droop when she knows she's in trouble.

I'm starting The Girl that Played with Fire tonight while i'm watching Molly now that I've completely finished first book and movie in the series.

I really hate watching subtitles. But i hate dubbing even more. Especially bad dubbing. However, i don't think that American filmmakers have the monopoly on great movies. So subtitles are a necessary evil.

Comparing the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo book with the movie, i stand by my old saying: Books are better than movies. There are a few rare occurrences where the filmmakers are able to capture details in ways that the author has to ramble on for several pages to accomplish. The only movies I've come across that were better than the books were the LOTR series. I just don't personally care for Tolkin's style of writing.

Warning: Minor Spoilers

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo book was well thought out and had multiple characters weaving back and forth, in and out of each other's lives. The movie, immediately changed a key character by saying she was dead instead of abroad. This didn't change the complete outcome, but just how they arrive at the conclusion. And also, in the book, Mikael discovers Lisbeth after confronting the lawyer Frode. Not, Lisbeth helping Mikael out of the goodness of her heart. It seemed to break with her character for me. The other thing i liked in the book was the dynamics with her boss and her job which was alluded to, but not displayed in the movie. Her boss only showed up in the beginning and then you never saw him again. That was unfortunate, but again, it didn't really change the end game.

All in all, the film did a great job of following the story as written, but took minor liberties here and there. It was also 2hours and 20 minutes long. So for the sake of not making it a three hour movie, i can understand some of the omittance was necessary.

Book Review- Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The first book to be read on Kindle that I am temporarily calling mine....was the international best seller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (translated into English of course).

I read about half of it between adding wood to the campfire and snuggling into my sleeping bag so that all that could be seen of me was my forehead, eyes, and the tips of my fingers occasionally as i pushed the page turn button.

This book started off as a relative enigma to me. My friend Annie from Nano had read it and briefly sung praises about it. But it was in the middle of Nano when we're all actively concentrating on our own novels to be. So i didn't pay it much mind at the time. Not to mention...i'm not into paying $20 for a book. That's just not me. I have to have already read the book and be totally in love with it for me to want to spend that kind of money for my own copy.

The last book that was an international best seller that i caved to the hype on was the Harry Potter series. And i was very pleased with the results. So when going through the list of 55 books, i pause and thought to myself "what the hell?" and pressed the OK key. I only vaguely knew that it was a crime drama, but i had no idea as to the details of the crime.

Pacing wise, the story took a long time to gear up to give the reader an idea of what the story was going to be about. However, without much of that, you wouldn't understand the motives behind the characters later in the story. The main male character Mikael Blomkvist, seemed very human. No amazing talents of deductive reasoning, or x-ray vision. Just a normal every-man, caught up in something that's bigger than he realizes. The main female character, the one everyone thinks of, Lisbeth Salander, was complex and faceted, and at the same time, well...logically created...is the best way i can describe her. She is definitely NOT an every-woman. And the roles they play in the story help weave what could be a simple crime novel, into a intricate creation that i honestly couldn't predict. Short of halfway through the book though, i was riveted.

The voice used for writing was very matter of fact. It simple explained how things were and what was going on without adding additional drama to the thoughts of the characters. I was surprised that everyone was referred to by their last names by the writer, but not by each other in the dialogue.

A small point of warning: This story is not for the faint of heart. The translated title for part one is "Men who Hate Women" and it is very much fill with misogynistic themes. I don't know if the author feels that way personally, but many of his characters treat women with varying degrees of mistreatment, as i would define it. There are brutal descriptions of scenes that made me angry and horrified, and at one point, i had to stop and remind myself this is fiction.

I'm going to stop reviewing this book now because i don't want to inadvertently ruin it for anyone. All i have left to say is that this was an excellent find, and i can't wait to get my hands on the next books in the trilogy.

Meanwhile, i'm starting the Swedish movie with Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace on my Netflix to see how it compares to the book. I hope anyone who reads it finds it as interesting as i did.

Damn you Fox!

When i start watching a show on Netflix instant, the only thing i really look at is the rating and the description. I don't look to see how long it runs or how many episodes it has...i just watch it.

I was extremely frustrated when Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles ended on a cliff hanger. Eager for more, I went and looked up when the next season would be out. Except i couldn't find it anywhere. I started Google-ing and lo and behold FOX has struck down yet another awesome sci-fi series.

Between Firefly, Dark Angel and now T:SCC......I have solidified an extreme hatred of FOX.

That and at this point, i think that any sci-fi writer or producer should avoid FOX like the fricken plague.

It's too bad; i was really enjoying the show. Once i got over the "Summer Glau, while an awesome actress, can't weigh more than 100 pounds!" and there she was, taking on guys that were three times her size and kicking ass. I forced myself to just go with it and began to get into the story arcs. I wondered what her place was in the future with John Connor, if Sarah would survive, if they could stop Judgement day or if it was inevitable...and they could only delay it. It was an intriguing plot.

But there's no more of it. Damn.

I did like the made up story ending that one of the threads featured and i'll just make do with this so i can have some closure:

 John connects with Alison and his Uncle BAG in the future. They find Danny Dyson, being held captive by Skynet to help Skynet build and maintain their computers and equipment. Dyson gives our team the answers they need to destroy Skynet in the past. 

With the help of Dyson, John, Alison, BAG and Cameron/John Henry access the Skynet time machine, but at the cost of Dyson's life (mirrors his dad's demise).
Once back in 2007, they reconnect with Sarah, 'Catherine Weaver', and Agent Ellis. Together, they destroy whatever the McGuffin that is Skynet is, but both BAG and Cameron/John Henry die in the process.
John has a touching moment with Cameron/John Henry before it's destroyed. Judgment Day (and the god-awful Terminator 4 movie) are averted. 'Catherine Weaver' turns to liquid metal, and slinks away to the bottom of the ocean, to await a time in the future when humans are ready to use technology like her without destrying ourselves.
Ellis provides new identities for John, Alison and Sarah to live out peaceful lives.
In a voice over epilogue, John remarks about how he and Allison are married with a son, and how his mother died of cancer several years after 2007, but that she lived long enough to see a future without Judgment Day come to pass. 

Anyway, i couldn't fall asleep last night and the subject of time travel began to bother me.  I began to wonder which direction i would choose to go; forward or backward.

If you had a time machine, would you first jump forward or backward?

Forward in time

Back in time

Free poll maker

Personally, I think i would rather go forward. Mostly so that i didn't inadvertently cut myself out of existence. And naturally that brought on the theories about alternate realities, and if i wrote myself out of existence, would i be there in the first place to go back.....

Perhaps you can see why i only got about three hours of sleep last night and eventually did dream about Doc from Back to the Future....cause if he says it, it must be real, right?!

Now i'm running solely on coffee.

Masquerade!

Masquerades have always enchanted me. They're the perfect blend of glamor, mystery, dancing, and fun. Perhaps it's just in my blood since masquerades were made popular by the Italians in the 16th century as part of the Venetian Carnivals. Ok, perhaps not. But something about the gorgeous gowns and glittering masks thrills me as the tomboy side of me could never understand. I'm left with a rather dorky look of excitement on my face, so i'm told.

In the process of finding something to do to celebrate Jon's official recovery from his surgery (as he unofficially scarfs down burgers, tacos and liquorish) that would double as our year+a few months-versary...i landed on the page for the dance studio I've been going to for the last 7 years. Since our (whatever)-versary lands on the 13th or 14th (to clarify, our celebration usually means being together and occasionally a special meal out) and that's when the dreaded Hallmark V-day is for February, I had to find an alternative to the timing. By grouping the recovery with it, i pulled the date up by a week. And wow, did i find the hands down winner.

Side note: I hate Valentine's day. Always have. I hated the absurdity of having to make valentines for the kids in your class so that no one was left out. I hated the day when i was single...declaring it to be "Single Awareness Day" and feeling compelled to fight those pitying looks with proclamations of how happy i was without a valentine. And i hate it now, despite having the wonderful Boyfriend Jon if i did want to celebrate it.

I hate how so many relationships are made or broken on the outcome of a single day of the year because greeting card companies have trumped it up so much... that if a guy doesn't go and spend hundreds of dollars on roses, expensive dinners, or spend weeks planning in advance...then it's just a bla valentine's day for the girl. I'm on the guy's side. What's the big deal? It's just one day.

Quite frankly, Boyfriend Jon is under strict orders to forgo any mention of the v-day, flowers, chocolates, and any kind of romance that he wouldn't show me on any other day of the year.

Ok, back from that tangent.

The dance studio is throwing a masquerade. But not just the masks, not just the costumes...but an all out ball. Variety of dances, both elegant and just plain fun. The second i saw the advertisement, i sent it straight to Boyfriend Jon with a long line of exclamation points following.

Since he...yes he... has been wanting to get back out dancing again (and i'm not really one to say no either) we bought our tickets and have begun the hunt for suitable attire. Since the theme is Hollywood Legends, thoughts of Zorro and his Spanish Rose or Cleopatra and Marc Anthony or Ret Butler and Scarlet O'Hara have been dancing through my head. But at the same time, my heart truly desires the fuller skirt and elegant fabrics of eras more suitable to a masquerade.

I'm quite aware of the cumbersome nature of such garments. But the heart wants what the heart wants! Boyfriend Jon has been patiently indulgent in this obsession. Costume shop shopping tonight. We'll see what rentals they have. Especially since i know the owner and if there's any chance of finding a costume for that will fit my figure, she'll find it.

And if that fails, I'm taking a pair of scissors to my old homecoming dress. Spent two hundred dollars on it, and haven't worn it since. What utter waste.

Once the attire is decided upon...then out comes the craft drawers and the raiding of a craft shop as mad crafter Anne gets to work.

I can't fricken WAIT!!!

It's the attack of self taught HTML

Me+HTML= bad combination.

However, thanks to the world of the internet, even someone as inept as me can figure out how to make things like bold, strikeouts, tables, column widths, and tweak certain things about pre-made templates.

I'm in awe of people who can do this all day every day. I humbly bow to your superior skill and enormous amounts of patience. Just reading all the acronyms gives me a headache. tb, table border, tr, table row. I would rather just do an excel sheet. Which, i'm very aware has a very similar code running in the background.

Thank you so much to those who put in the time and effort to make my life easier so that I don't have to speak HTML on a daily basis. You have no idea how much I appreciate that.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programing!

There's been a Rant and Raves tab at the top for quite some time. But due to the obnoxious way I originally had this laid out, it was rather difficult to look at. I tried colors, different lines....but what i really needed all along was a table. Which i now have!

Go go gadget internet. The ultimate tool.

I'm an opinionated person. I know this sometimes is a bad thing, but other times it can be good. I enjoy sharing my opinions and experiences with others. Most of the time i'm just trying to be helpful...in a blunt, graceless, more than you needed to know way.

I hope someone out there finds my Rants and Raves page helpful. Each of the places are hyper-linked to the post that explains more about why i chose to rant or rave.

So here are a few places that haven't made it on my list yet.

Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park:

Not only is this the workplace of wonderful friend Annie from NaNo, but it's hands down the coolest bookstore around. I never much cared for the overpriced Barnes and Nobel, or the snobbish attitude i seemed to routinely get from the Borders personnel. So i was a "leave me alone" second hand book store kind of person. But this place really rivals my favorite half price books because most likely they WILL have the book i'm looking for at super competitive prices. If i want to sit and read the first couple of chapters before buying...i can. Not once have i been interrupted to be convinced by someone who's never read the book that i should definitely buy it. The crew of Third Place really know their stuff and seem like real bookworms themselves rather than people who just needed a job.

They even have multiple kinds of food stuffs (not just a typical cafe) and occasionally a live band. This place is easily worth the drive.

(They also had Buddy Valastro from the Cake Boss there for a signing! COOL)

Another place that's worth the drive

Legend Nails in Kirkland/Juanita

I'm not big on girly things. But manicures and pedicures just feel SO good it's hard to resist sometimes. So when i go get a pedicure and pay good money, it truly and utterly pisses me off when the nail polish chips or peels after ONE DAY.

It's not like i get home and immediately wash my entire collection of dishes. But invariably, i have a tiny window of looking good.

Perhaps thats why Legend Nails is on my raves list. I don't know what they do special but I have never had a pedicure last less than THREE weeks from them. Manicures are usually good for a couple weeks at least before they start to chip.

I found it just after my sister moved because they had just opened and were having a special. Now, i'm more than willing to drive all the way over there. It's a plus cause i have someone to go with :)

Another amusing dinner with Kenny

Buddy Kenny texted me at exactly 5:00pm last night. "Bored and hungry, want to hang out?" Since i was hungry to and confirmed that i did NOT have plans with Boyfriend Jon, we went to Pho. (Vietnamese noodles).

As i told him my tale of woe about the fall, Kenny started cracking jokes to make me feel better. I normally would have J-walked to beat on-coming traffic and to not have to wait in the cold for the crosswalk. And then Kenny had to go and remind me that i was currently a gimp and probably couldn't make it. Since i had my arm hooked through his and was using him to keep me upright as i limped....it would have been ridiculous to try and argue with him.

As we left dinner after discussing our respective jobs, dreams, mutual friends, and the yummy food, Kenny asked if i wanted to go blow some stuff up (Black Ops). Considering lifting my water glass had been an effort, i mimicked the motions for the controller just to make sure my undignified fall hadn't damped that ability. Thumbs...move just fine. Kenny asked me "what about the buttons?" and i started using my pointer fingers. My left was just a little bit slower than usual. He started laughing at me so i told him to stop because clearly i could still deliver a purple-nurple even in my weakened state. That sent both of us into laughing fits as i made ninja sounds and hobbled along the sidewalk back to my car.

Thus began the next three hours of playing Black Ops and trying to remember not to use the Halo Reach controls. For desert Kenny broke out a gallon of vanilla ice cream and root beer and we had old school root beer floats for desert which absolutely hit the spot. I don't think I've had a root beer float in at least a decade. In a word: Awesome

Another one for my Rants and Raves tab:

Pho Than Brothers on Leary Way in Redmond. If you're looking for Pho and nothing else for super cheap. The small bowl is at least 8 inches across and four inches high and believe me, it's a full meal deal for only 6$. Those with bigger appetites...still can manage to get out of there with full bellies for under 10$.

My only comment is the service is fast, but dismally detached. Servers commonly say just three sentences. "how many?" when seating you. "What would you like?" when taking your order which is then brought out no more than five minutes later. And the total for your meal when paying upon leaving. They don't smile, and they typically cluster around the entrance to the kitchen talking in their own language. Also, don't expect to get are-fill of your water unless you wave one of them down and hold up your empty glass. It's not usually a problem, but something they could improve on.

Let the Geek flag fly!

I. Am. A. Geek!

And proudly so. I'm so glad that this era is the era of technology, that nerds and geeks are no longer tormented as loners because we have the glorious world of the web in which to unite and amass our ever-growing numbers!

I know entirely too much about Star Trek (TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise, and every single movie), Star Wars (yes even the newer ones), Firefly, and Xena....just to touch the top of the list. I game, I WoW'ed (for the Horde!), I Ever-cracked, I Magic'd and I even D&D'd.

My whole life occasionally revolved around one or more of these obsessions. Throwing a fit at my parents if we missed an episode of Voyager. I had the comics, lusted after the more expensive artifacts my parents refused to get me. I argued schematics with my brothers. I won trivia contests. I wondered why we couldn't have money-less/peaceful economies. I dreamed of going to the stars. When I hear of injustice, I feel compelled to fight it.

While I'm more balanced now (hahaha) things like radio show hosts confusing

Mitochondria(power house of living cells) and Midichlorians (the symbiotic force-enabling microorganisms) still drives me insane! I have to remind myself that no everyone knows that Spock's blood is green, or that ATST's from ROTJ are also called chicken-walkers. Or that not everyone in the world knows what i mean when when i use acronyms like that!

I know that in the real world of work, get paid, pay bills, lather-rinse-repeat....these things DON'T MATTER. But I still care about them. To the point of arguing vehemently...i care about them.

I also have a sturdy support group that helps me enable this passion. Boyfriend Jon who has openly accepted my geekiness and professes it often to his co-workers. Of course, he some times uses it to tease them. "Yeah, well my girlfriend plays video games WITH me!" he's told me several times with a very impish grin on his face. I've felt completely free to remind him every other week that i don't mind watching the newest Star Trek movie again, or that i'm going to go home and pop Star Wars in, or that i just finished watching the final season of Xena and I'm thinking about starting in on BSG. We even fell for each other over Firefly.

Kenny indulges me to my bad Call of Duty skills which are progressing far beyond the "Oh my god...i don't know what to do...where am i going...door?WHAT DOOR!...i'm being shot...where are my dudes!....DIE YOU DIE DIE DIE!!!!" (which apparently was sending both Kenny and his roommate into laughing fits) to..."wait...what? I beat you kenny!?" He knows he has a willing and ...entertaining second player for evenings when he knows he's going to be off. It's great for me, because what better way to vent the stress from a frustrating day than by blowing a bunch of crap up? Figuratively that is.... erm.

Kenny is once again putting on a Call of Duty party where we all come and play on a huge projector screen and try to out-do each other. It's something i'm really looking forward to to jump start my weekend.

Wallet thief!

2010 ended on a slightly sour note when my wallet inexplicably went missing.

Somehow between buying coffee for a work party, and leaving the work part about six hours later, my wallet disappeared. Between juggling coffee for six people and pastries, I distinctly remember attempting to put my wallet back in my purse. It's a fairly small wallet, no bigger than the ones guys put in their back pocket. But i was distracted and i didn't actually remember if it went into the purse.

I worked all day until about five o'clock when taskmaster sister finally said "enough". I quickly went to gather my stuff and did my failsafe "keys, wallet, cell phone" mantra that i say to myself every single time i go to leave somewhere. But upon looking for my wallet, it was gone. I hadn't left the house all day, and it was highly unlikely that anyone from the work party would be desperate enough to look in MY purse for extra money.

My parents and my sister joined the search for the wayward wallet, even taking a flashlight out into the cold where my car had been parked. Meanwhile, i rushed back to the coffee shop and asked if anyone had seen my wallet. The lady looked at me like it was my fault but relented my insistence that she check the back office to see if the morning shift had found it and forgot to leave a note. After that, i rushed to my bank to put a clamp on my accounts and cancel my credit cards. After a frustrating hour, my family wasn't able to find my wallet and i was convinced that someone had picked it up.

The next day, i was forced to endure the Department Of Licensing for THREE HOURS.

Yeah, I arrived there at 1:39pm and spent the next 2 hours and 40 minutes of that just waiting to be called. I cannot believe the insanity that they expect normal working people to endure to get a license. That's pretty much half a day if someone looses a wallet as far as the work-day is concerned. It further solidified my opinion that service stations like the DOL, DMV, and Post Offices should be open later in the days than six.

The day after that, I received my replacement debit card so i was no longer dead in the water. Then i began my search for a new wallet to hold my stuff. My wallet is pretty much perfect for me so i had some trouble finding a replacement. Just when i was about ready to order one off line, i get a phone call from my sister

Sister: Hey...i gotta tell you something but you can't get mad until i finish

me: Don't you dare tell me you found my wallet...

sister: Your wallet is safe, i have it.

me: You're kidding! (facepalm) where was it???

sister: i was going to get my work pants out of my closet and i noticed something white on the floor in there. I was wondering what the heck it was and when i pulled it out, it was a bag of pumpkin seeds.

me: Oh?! (I rememberd that i did have a bag of pumpkin seeds that i hadn't noticed was gone.)

sister: I know that i don't really ever eat pumpkin seeds so i got down on my hands and knees and started clearing out.

(She has a double hanging closet so there's a layer of clothes close, but not down to the ground. her dog Molly likes to go in there and walk back and forth under the clothes, we think cause it feels like she's being pet.)

Apparently, that's where Molly has been hiding her toys and some food wrappers also. She pulled out my bag of pumpkin seeds, my wallet and a flash drive that had been taken fifteen feet from the bed where my purse had been and into Molly's closet hideout along with a couple other things.

I wanted so hard to be mad at someone, but I just couldn't do it, i started laughing. Well, now i have a new license and new cards.

Rawrggg!

After 1 week with the Droid 2

Ok so just over a week ago, I got my new Droid 2. Here's how things are going so far:

Battery Verdict so far: not a problem.

• Even after almost a whole day playing angry birds and constantly turning it on to run it down as much as i could, the battery still had some charge to it, although about twenty minutes before i went to bed, it told me to plug in.
• I then spent a day calling anyone i could think of and talking for several hours. This ran down my battery more, but it still lasted beyond the 12 hours.
• I also tried just leaving it in screen off mode for an entire day and was surprised that the battery bar barely moved.

Aps:

• Google Maps seems convinced that my location is about a half mile from where it actually is at any given time, but i did some of the calibration tests and now it's finally got it right.
• I've almost beaten Angry Birds
• I've made good used of Package Buddy and Gas Buddy, Barcode scanner (which has already saved me 30$) and Ringo Lite which has given me back my standard ringtones and alerts.
• The FAST browser was put to use looking up online inventory of DSW to help out my friend Lindsey.

Other:

• The camera took some getting used to: You have to hold it and wait for it to adjust to the lighting to get a better picture. But it still worked capturing a Kodak moment with my dad this weekend.
• One time the phone froze completely, and the other, it decided to dial numbers but not let me talk to people or for them to talk to me. Both of these issues were resolved by following the salesman's advice of popping out the battery to reset the phone. It's not a huge inconvenience but it would be nice if i didn't need to do that.

My only gripe has little to do with the phone itself: The cover that I bought to protect my investment was broken within the week and is now being held on by double sided tape. That and the phone won't fit in the charger stand I got, with the back cover on. That has been annoying.

So far, that's not enough for me to give up on the phone. I can see hundreds of uses for this little guy. I just have to get used to some of it's quirks.

Also some other suggestions: DO NOT PAY 30$ for the chargers in Verizon stores! You can save 10$ by picking it up at Best Buy . If you go online: just the chord charger (not the multimedia station) is as little as 10$ not including shipping. Heck: On Amazon You can get a car charger, a wall charger and a media cable together for under 5$ (not including shipping). Thank you Boyfriend Jon for warning me away from these crazy prices.

Nano 2010 Day 30

While i may have technically finished NaNo 2010, I probably won't be stopping just yet. Indeed i have a full day to continue writing. Which means that I might tap out a few hundred more words or find any excuse in the world to not write.

I mean, my apartment is a disaster. I have piles of clean laundry waiting to be folded. I need to run about a dozen errands. My refrigerator could use a clean out. I have remnants of a Mario brick that i made for my friend Kenny that need to be cleaned up.

I'm getting the feeling that the first half of December will once again be the clean up Anne's apartment marathon.

I'm rather apathetic about the status of my story. It's not finished, of that i'm sure. And while this series sounds exceedingly interesting in my head, getting it out onto paper was a chore. Too many things fell into the realm of "no way would my character do that" and no man's land of "how would they do this without it being totally contrived?"

I know where i want the series to go, and i've noticed it falls along the lines of one of my favorite author's series:

Which in the process of finding these images....found out there's another book *gasp*. Good series about how humans can adapt and find ingenuity even in the most strange ways.

Agonies of planning and being right brained

My dad said to me the other day: "I don't understand why you do this writing thing. All it accomplishes is driving you crazy."

Indeed, he's observed this three year long obsession with his usual disregard for right brain type things. I'm his only right brain child. Even my mom for all her creative talent is an analytical thinker. I'm not sure what he understands less; My need to create for the sake of creating or why i purposly do something that to his mind wouldn't be worth the stress. Indeed I have yet to publish either of my two novels, or even begin to attempt to edit them. So it's no surprise to me that he is confused by my Nano obsession.

Don't get me wrong. When I need help, he's there for me. He calmly explained details of the Godfather to me that didn't make sense during my first year when i wrote a story mirroring the Italian mafia. Both being Italian, and growing up in New York during the height of the Mafia, he had plenty of experience and insight to share with me. When i wrote my second novel, he stuck by his word to not request my help with family projects during the month of November.

But I keep getting the impression that he had hoped my obsession would flame out instead of getting stronger. When he heard of my idea to skip Thanksgiving altogether for this endeavor, I think that might have sent my very traditional father over the edge from indulgence to politely protesting my involvement.

Since this is the place where I can air my opinions I will do so:
Personally, I don't enjoy Thanksgiving. It's another one of the holidays I believe has lost it's essence along with Easter, and Christmas. Instead of spending the time giving thanks for all we have, it's become a stressful day of entertaining, cooking and stuffing your bellies beyond what you normally would eat. Yeah, sure. The prayer might proclaim thanks, but everyone's mind is on the feast laid before them, and if there will be enough mashed potatoes left when the bowl reaches them.
I would honestly be more happy with a simple roast chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and cranberries. A single normal serving on a normal size plate. I would be immensely thankful for that.

Hailing in the month of September

Well, it's officially my favorite month. Labor day weekend is now over and soon fall will be in the air. And the weather is proving it. In the course of one weekend we have gone from warm sunshine and bright blue skies to dark gray clouds and torrential downpour. At least it gives me an excuse to wear my new jacket.

This month is my favorite because it has my birthday and the birthdays of 9! other people in my life whom i hold dear. Longtime friends, old classmates, colleagues....all Libras and Virgos.

It's also what i personally call the gateway month; leading into my favorite season. Very soon the streets, sidewalks and grass will be littered with thousands of felled leaves which glitter with the first frost. Trees will be come bright and vibrant with fall colors. And the chill in the air will give me ample reason to snuggle up to boyfriend Jon. I can't wait!

Labor day weekend was spent doing some much needed and long overdue cleaning. I mean deep cleaning. I threw out three trash bags worth of garbage, broken items, and things I've been holding onto for WAY too long. I went in there with a (if i haven't used it since i moved out...it's going)
Example: I found the tape recorder (yes actual tapes) my dad got my brother before he hit puberty! It didn't even work! I kept meaning to fix it....
Example: expired makeup that i bought and wore ONLY for my junior year homecoming.
Example: 9 pairs of jeans with holes in them...most of them in unwearable places!
Example: Getting rid of multiple bras and underwear. I haven't been a C cup in a very long time.
This is all not to mention the fridge and pantry getting cleaned out, getting rid of 3/4 of my socks (why i had 68 pairs...i have no idea) and a partridge in a pear tree.

I had originally planned on making a sock puppet army....,but elected to go the more altruistic route. I plan on making a couple trips to the good will tomorrow and hopefully spreading some much needed supplies to those who need them a lot more than I do especially once fall weather sets in.

In other news: my job inadvertently has decided to help me prepare for Nano 2010! By...typing a 24 page document word for word...in just 4 days!!!!

And naturally on the heels of that revelation...comes the "oh my god it's almost Nano time!!!!"
Time to start planning for leading the workshops again, prepping materials, reserving the time slots, and oh yeah, working on my plot idea.

Challenges the Status Quo

That's a phrase that has been on every single one of my annual reviews since I was 16.
It's always been listed under the accomplishments or pro side of my review. Before this year, I always thought it could never be a bad trait. Lately, I feel like people don't want the status quo challenged. That they go along with whatever IS because it is easier than provoking, evoking or dragging change to take place. That even if whatever change I suggest makes their lives easier or less irritable...they won't do it. Simply because it is the status quo.

I'm not that way. I see something I don't like, I try to change it. I believe a fresh set of eyes always catches something that has just slid under the radar for a long time. If I'm able to change say a process, a layout, even someone's way of thinking...i will try. I'm all about efficiency and working smarter, not harder. I want harmony, and if change is how that comes about....well, let me roll up my sleeves.

Doing this....ruffles feathers. Regardless if i ask ahead of time, or prep people with my plans first.

Some are amazed at the new concept that never occurred to them.
Some just nod and adapt to the change, sometimes with a mild comment about easier or difficult.
Others....it's like stroking a moody cat backwards.

Quite frankly...I'm tired of moody cats.

In other, happier news:
Getting down to the items which are bulky, or require a lot of work. As usual, that list includes my clothing. As a reminder, I HATE folding laundry. It is the most useless task ever! You spend hours folding neatly, stacking, and sorting...and the second you take one item....the neatly folded items fall apart and the stack slumps or shifts.

I think the end is in sight, and that i might be able to possibly sit down and have nothing left on my checklist to do...this weekend. With the exception of painting. And stretching the canvas paintings i got. and...and...and...... :)

Do I really have to buy the Wilton Cake Kits?

One of my biggest pet peeves about taking a course are the "Necessary" kits/books/other supplies that you are told to buy when taking the course. The prices are jacked up like nobody's business and the kits have things in there that you'll never use after completing the course.

So if you have a spare $30 laying around or have enough time to buy offline and want things that will take up room in your kitchen that you'll likely have minimal use for... Then go ahead and buy the kits.

Me?
I'm frugal, cheap, creative....whatever you want to call it. I'm annoyed that i spent that much money on things I'm not convinced i HAD to have for this course.

Course 2 Kit contains:

Oval cake pans:
7 inch (long) pans aren't very useful when trying to feed party-goers. They'd be nice to make a simple very small cake for an intimate get-together with just a few friends. Or they're almost football, egg, or spaceship shaped if you feel a intense need for a lot of those kinds of cakes.
Me? Wouldn't have bought them if i haven't been made to believe they were imperative to getting a certificate. When it turned out that three other groups had bought hundred dollar kits in a handy-dandy toolbox. The teacher said, "just make a small cake with whatever you got". I hardly believe that any teacher would deduct points for a difference in shape.
My advice: Don't buy the kit just for the pans unless you see a real need for them.

Decorating Tips:
Required: 11 metal decorating tips, #1, 2, 5, 14, 47, 59S/59, 81, 97, 101, 103, 104
This is probably the only area where i agree that quality and precise adherance to the course is necessary. But pay $30......or buy them individually. There are craft stores and cooking gadget stores that usually either have them, or know where you can buy them.
My advice: I recommend getting a kit that's about $20. because you'll already have tips for more advanced courses too. Just make sure you have all the tip #s that you need. I ended up having to buy tip # 21 and 3 (leftovers from course 1). But everything else i already had.

Cake Formers:
Never in my life have i seen these things. They are curved plastic sleeves which you rest your flowers in in order to give them a "more realistic shape" as they dry.
My advice: Cut paper towel holders or old poster tubes length wise in half. For wider scoops: a 12 oz or liter soda bottle. Same thing...just free.

Color Flow Mix.
This one unfortunately is one you can't get out of. They give you enough of the stuff to get you through class in the kit. However, it is a fun technique and thus i personally wouldn't mind buying a small can of it from a cooking store. Same as Meringue Powder for your butter cream icing. Should be near there.

The only way i would buy this kit was if I had a 40% or more off coupon.

Side note: If, like me, you're interested in skipping course 1, i recommend peeking through the course 1 book ($3.00 used on amazon) prior to the class. If you can't get through it on your own...pay the money and take course 1.

Also, for other Skippers. You'll need a "Cake Board" or "Practice Board" which comes with the course 1 kit. Creative and cheap fix? Take a binder with a transparent sleeve on the front (for like presentation covers) and cut off a binder font or back. Same principal, just bigger, and a heck of a lot cheaper.

I hope somewhere out there, this helps someone avoid wasting their money when a little bit of creativity could save it.

The haircut

Ok, so there is an inevitable moment when you have to find another hair stylist. Though i love Talona's work like no-body's business and her rates were unbeatable......i had to plan out a month in order to get even a haircut. And there were no walk ins. She was slammed and though i adored her even as a girlfriend...i had to find somewhere that suited my needs.
I though i had found that at a well reviewed shop within walking distance to my home. So i gave it a shot. I knew with how many split ends i was getting, it was probably past time for a serious cut instead of trims. So i brought in pictures showing the hairstyle i wanted. I figured with about 4 pictures all showing the same length and style...there was no chance for it to go wrong.
Yeah right.
What i ended up with, even though i asked her to cut it just above my breasts......was a collarbone cut that was a good 3 inches too short. She didn't listen to me, even when i said...that might be too short, she just cut it anyway.
I was disappointed and heartbroken. My long hair which took 3 years to grow out was gone. And while i wanted to take off some, i never had anything this drastic in mind. It's going to take about six months to get back to where i had asked my hair to be cut at.
I know it's silly to be vain, and that hair does grow back, but I'm still upset even two days later. "Just a Trim" in Redmond has been put on my blacklist.

Candy Coating

As Halloween creeps up, so comes the masses of candy. It's everywhere and retailers are all but throwing it at you. So comes the visits to the costume shops and decoration stores.

I love Halloween, I really do. Dressing up as soemthing else, mystery and for a change, being allowed to scare the bejeebies out of your friends.

What i don't love...is the price tags. 59.99 for a draped sheet turned into a toga. 39.99 for a zombie outfit of ripped clothes. I mean really? And seeing the same boring costumes every single year. People need to get creative!

My sister and i were discussing cheap and easy costumes. mullet wig+leather jacket+boots = 80's biker chick. Green visor, fuzzy car dice, deck of cards = poker dealer. All black outfit, white gloves hat and facepaint=mime!
I won't tell mine, but I hope to at least be comfortable. not wearing skirts that barely cover the essentails during october weather.

And on a side note:
Why is it, that when you disagree with someone, no matter how nice you are about it...they still get ticked off at you and punish you for not agreeing with them?

I'm blunt. I don't do sugar coating, and I don't beat around the bush about things. Yet what really gets me, is the hypocrisy involved with an argument. So long as you agree with them, even if an opinion is unsolicited....it's OK. As a matter of fact, it's appreciated.
Yet, if you have the audacity to contradict or voice a negative point, even prefacing them with "no offense" or "I'm not trying to hurt your feelings with this...but i dissagree" suddenly you're the bad guy. In a conversation...there is no such thing as constructive criticism. It's just plain criticism.
It can be as simple as a disagreement on necessity, or food, or quality or any number of trivial things and suddenly it's this huge issue. And all it started as was an opinion. A different opinion.

A gripe for the "fashion" industry

I have huge pet peeves with the fashion industry, nearly all of them related to size. These frustrations, outrage, and annoyances are things i've had to deal with my entire life. I'm not jealous of skinny women. But i am jealous of the clothes they get to wear according to fashion "experts". And I'm not sorry that I have curves, I jiggle, and have parts that move no matter how still i try to be. I don't want to cover them up, I don't want to hide behind ugly matronly clothes. I was never lithe, slender, waif-like, or even athletic. And these days, i don't understand how fashion caters only to those who are. Even after dropping a solid 20 pounds, i still find myself stuck in the middle between ugly boxy coverup women's clothes, and beautiful clothes that show off my curves if they could just be ONE STUPID SIZE BIGGER!

Case #1: Wide calf my ass!
I have one true weakness when it comes to clothing and accessories. Knee high black leather boots are so sexy, that i can't help but admire them. I received my first pair at 15 and never have been without a set. But at 18, i started having to buy what were called "Wide Calf" which increased the price by almost 50$. And so called wide calf = 15 inches in circumference. I asked one of my average friends to measure her calf. it was 14.5". Mine, as a more curvaceous muscular legged person: 18"

Case #2: XL doesn't equal 1X (misses sizes vs. womens sizes)
I've come to realize that smaller ladies whom have never had to shop in women's sizes have absolutely no clue what the difference is between XL and 1X. to demonstrate, next time you're in a store, pick up an XL....and lay your hands flat on either side of the waist. That's about the standard size difference between those two sizes. Also i ask you to draw straight lines instead of curves at the waist and bust area.
Do the fashion designers think that because we don't look like a sewing maniquin...that we turn into oil barrels with arms and heads? Many of us plus sized women are exactly the same shape as smaller women, just bigger.

Case #3: I'm 23, not 63
Ok, most 23 year olds are closer to a size 12 if not smaller. But i refuse to believe that women even in their 30s want to wear the same style clothes as their mothers. I know while i love my mother dearly, there's no way in hell that I would want to dress like her. Yet i see the same polyester slacks, button down lace applique tops and boxy sweaters on the sales racks in my size....as are sitting in her closet. *insert horrified recoil and twilight zone music here*
Yet the young, stylish, hip clothes...don't reach to my size. Stopping short at an infuriating XL.
Believe me, i've been shopping in women's clothes since i was 15. (so much for juniors) I know which stores carry clothes that have small selections which cater to women like me. But there's not enough.

Non-related pet peeve:
A simple black cotton pencil skirt....should NEVER cost 268$ unless it's made out of real gold and has re-sale value!!!

Not for the first time in my life am I considering what it would take to start my own clothing line that is not for skinny women, not for those who are older, more matronly, but young and proud of sporting a few extra curves. If only i was better at sewing and not doing a billion other things in my life!