I moved into a two bedroom apartment last week. Dave got heat stroke early in the day because it was nearly 110 outside. Around four, a whole crew of friends came and helped us finish up. It only took like an hour and a half to finish with the extra hands. I am really liking the new apartment. There's more room to stretch out and there's a linen closet too. I had been using my computer to watch tv. Since I have an office now, I have to buy a tv to go in the living room. Dave moved his 100 gallon turtle/guppy tank in. The turtles are living in the bathtub and the guppies are in a friends tank until he can make a repair and fill it. I am going to go shopping today to find stuff to decorate the apartment with.

School is a drag. I have to do a project this weekend in numerical modeling. My partner is the strange anti-social guy who sits in the front of the class. Lesson re-learned: pick your partner early. He's supposed to do one part of it and I'm supposed to do the other part.

I have been stressed out about work lately. It's been hard not to be totally obsessed over it because that's how I spend so much of my time. There are big changes coming up and I am waiting to see how the cards fall. Wish me luck. I'll post pictures of the new place when I get it dressed up a little more.

New Table

I just got finished putting together my new table. I think if you click on the picture it will bring you to a bigger one, until I make a new post. It's bar height and solid wood. Originally, I wanted to put a colorful formica/chrome table there but I saw this one in an ad and it was easier just to go pick it up. The only new formica tables I could find were thousands of dollars and I didn't know how big a hassle it would be to find an old one I liked. Anyway, I do really like this one. It will be much sturdier than the card table and I will feel more comfortable sitting there to do homework. There's a basket on the table so Dave has a place to put his keys when he comes over. I hope those empty jam jars can be traded for full jam jars.

Nikki's Wedding

Nikki's wedding was in the middle of may. That was a fun visit. The wedding was really nice and it was fun to be a bride's maid. All of Nikki's bride's maids were easy going and friendly. Dave came to Ohio with me and he was a great sport about me not getting to stick with him all day. He didn't know anybody at the wedding but he still had fun. I left a trail of glitter everywhere I went. I don't have any pictures of me at the wedding so I'm hoping someone will send some. I had my nails done in Dublin with my Mom and all the girls in the wedding party had their hair done together for the wedding. Nikki looked very beautiful.

School is going well, I guess. I am not so great at taking tests but I have been doing well on the homework. The school wrote up a little article to put on their website. I have a picture and a quote in it.

We got some unusually cool weather for the past couple of weeks and I think the temperature is rising for the summer now. Last weekend I made southwestern style chili (white bean chili with chicken). This weekend I think I'm going to have to make something more summer-y. I made cherry desert again, this time for the memorial day cookout over at a friend's. Well, I should get working on my homework.

one oh one

I don't have much to talk about. This weekend was another busy one. I made apple stuffed sausage from the better homes and gardens cook book. It was pretty good. I served it with green bean casserole and french bread. The sausage was bought at the Hungarian sausage place east of Palmdale. Dave and I went to a park and threw a disk around.

Yesterday I went with a bunch of people to see Iron Man. It's a pretty good movie. I don't like watching violence very much in movies. I used to be able to stomach it more than I can now. I got caught up in the whole thing and screamed a couple of times.

Friday I worked pretty hard to clean up around the apartment and pay bills. I thought that I lost my checks so I went through all of the papers I had organized but not put away yet and couldn't find them. I figured out that, really, I had just used the last one already. So, I reordered them and had to make an online payment for the bill I was trying to pay. This is all boring stuff.

Wish me good luck on my midterm tomorrow.

100th POST

WOOO HOOO If you have been reading my blog from the beginning, wow. You have read 100 random, poorly written, boring posts. Hey, I'm an engineer. I don't get much practice.

I have been trying to cook more. I go out to eat and it's hurting my weight and bank account. Sundays I have been cooking dinner for me and Dave and then I take it in all week for lunches. Last Sunday I made chicken casserole with spaghetti noodles and tomatos and green chili peppers. It turned out really good. Side note – it really bugged me that he told me what I should do next time to try to improve the recipe when he went back for thirds. Today I made pulled pork. I used the recipe that mom gave me for pulled beef and used pork loin instead. I like doing crock pot meals because you get to smell them all day. It made such a big pot that I am going to have to freeze some of the leftovers. I don't want to get sick of it before it goes bad.

My favorite thing to make is cheese cake from scratch. It's rich and thick and awesome. It's difficult to make but I'm getting better and better at it. It's expensive and takes a lot of time to make so usually I just do it for special occasions and gifts.

Sometimes I get pre-prepared stuff and mixes. I bought some stuffed peppers from the grocery store a couple of weeks ago. Next time I do that, I'm going to just buy one stuffed pepper, and one empty pepper. I'll split the meat up between both peppers and fill the void with rice. I think it will soak up some of the pepper juices and be healthier. This doesn't have to do with cooking but sometimes when I eat a frozen dinner, before I stick it in the microwave I'll add a handful more frozen vegetables so that it'll be more filling.

If anybody has a really easy recipe you want me to try, send it on over and I won't have to come up with something new for next week!

California Poppies

Dave and I went out to the poppy preserve today. The hills were solid orange. We took a four mile hike up and down the hills (after playing ultimate the day before). Everybody in southern california should go. Well maybe not everybody because that would be a lot of people. Crowds and yappy jerks and people who don't stay on the path really bug me. It was nice going on the long loop because most people stayed close to the parking lot and we had a nice quiet hike. Poppies don't smell like anything but there were other flowers that did. There were some little yellow ones that smelled bad, but not as bad as a christmas cactus flower. Anyway, enjoy the picture.

runnin' 5k's is fo' sucka's

I ran a 5k race friday march 28th. It was crazy. I ran the whole time, but really slowly. I finished in 44:30. I told somebody at work what my time was and he said, "so you walked it." I made a frowny face and said no. It was up a giant hill and back down its other side. I am going to download google earth and try to take a screenshot of the route and outline it. You won't be able to see the elevation change but you might be able to guess it by the picture.

I played ultimate again yesterday. It wasn't as much fun as the other week. Last week nobody guarded me the whole game so I was in a good portion of the plays. This week i was guarded better and I had a harder time staying on the person i was supposed to guard. Anyway, it made for a game with a lot of running without feeling like I helped much. The rest of the day I went to a one-year-old's birthday party. It was fun. I can't remember ever going to a child's birthday party where there was a keg.

I did my taxes today too. I am checking things off my to-do list and i'm feeling great!