I'm employed outside the home!

Had an interview today with an animal daycare/kennel. I got the job!

Tomorrow I go for my pee test (I will pass with flying colors) and then when they get the results back, I am to start the day after they receive them soooo, yipeee!

I will primarily be dealing with the pet parents, taking phone calls, processing payments and such. I will also be trained to take care of those wagging tails and meowing faces and help out in the main store as needed. I think it's a good fit for me.

It's part-time and I am just fine with that. Being self-employed for so long, this will be a transition for sure but since it's part-time, the transition will be a lot easier to swallow.

Now I am thinking of all the things I can start to work towards that I have put off for so long and some of my immediate needs are a new pair of Danskos because they are the only shoe brand I own that doesn't make me want to cry (I have horrible feet). New glasses and not the cheapest either, I need glasses that can handle me using a tshirt to clean them without the minor scratching...the pair I have now weren't the cheapest but they weren't like my LensCrafters glasses (that I still have) that took a heck of a beating. Also, I can finally look for a comforter for my bed so I am not making it twice a day. Then there are the not so fun things like paying down some debt (all private as I don't have any credit cards, thankfully).

So YAY! That takes a load off my mind and I think it will be a good fit for me. I am confident I can and will do a good job because I am that way. I am not a wuss.

A couple of small projects are in the works. I went to Hobby Lobby to look at the fabric remnants on Saturday because I am tired of using a towel to block the cold air at the front door (it faces north) from the winds we get here. I found a 7/8 yard remnant (52" wide) of basic canvas for $3.67 which would have been $6.11! They had poly fill on sale so I got two of those - one for one of the dog beds (it's gone flat) and the other for making a door draft dodger. I also got two adhesive strips of Velcro to attach the draft dodger to the door so it will keep the air out when I leave the house. I will have to hand sew it but that's okay, I am going for function over beauty here.

The other project will be to use the remaining canvas to cover the front of my craft and computer shelves:


Photo from Sept. 16

I only have black thread so I thought I would have a bit of fun with it using a blanket stitch - we'll see how that goes, I haven't done embroidery stitches in years. How I am going to attach it, that's another story. In my travels tomorrow, I will see if I can find a simple tension rod like you might find for showers but on a small scale. I figure I can fit one up inside and behind the part that comes down in front. I will think more on it. I just want it to look cleaner than it does now.

So, I have a place that I will report to for work, a couple of small projects in the works and feeling like a bit of weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

Life is good. It's not perfect but this will do by golly. I hope everyone has started off their week in such a positive way too, no matter how mundane you may think it is. Sometimes it's the smaller things too.

Copied from my Facebook - reflecting on today and life in general

I may not have wealth but I have my health. Today was a fine day and a few things that made it fine: Sunshine, dog having fun at park, kitty on my lap, looong hot shower, home-cooked meal in less than five minutes (leftovers rock), finishing my tissue box cover, finding a friend from high school...

I mean, life could always be better but sometimes it is the small things that count.

I mean, sure I need a job but right now I have a roof over my head with heat. I have food in my kitchen. I am sober. I have a car (The Flintstone Mobile), though it's not fancy. My cat and my dog help keep me sane and I love them dearly. My family rocks as do my friends.

I don't think I have been this settled in my mind for 12-14 years. I've got a lot of internal work to do but life does not suck.

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Oh and just for grins. Here's a picture from the house I lived in for 11 years because I dislike posting without at least adding a picture...

How I MISS having a kitchen with a decent stove and look at that counter space!:



The stuff on the counter is stuff to make New Mexican Pork Stew aka Chile Verde.

I may have to make some green chile soon! When I do, I will post the recipe...it rivals most any green chile you can find in the state of Colorado. ;-)

PS Don't mind the yellow round area under the paper towels. I had tried with all my might to clean that stuff off but it was not budging. My landlord/friend had the paper towel holder there before I moved in so that wall had seen a lot of years of reaching for towels with dirty hands.

Just Sunday ramblings

So, what's happening? Not much here as I haven't been sleeping well and today has been cloudy and in the low 60s and is now about 57°.

With lack of sleep comes me doing goofy things. I bought a vase back in about 1995 from Pier 1 pictured here on the shelf just above the "EL-YEA" newsprint plate (the one on the top shelf, also from Pier 1 still has the price tag on it!):



Up close:



So I got bored with it, sanded it down and painted it:


Yes, those are Broncos fans - I am watching the game while typing this up...hehe.

I was going to go with an orange but I need more yellow in here to balance out the orange and green I have. I used a basic acrylic paint and while it will take a few coats, I like that it's brushed on. It adds a bit of character. I need to put another coat of "golden straw" on it and then decide what simple geometric pattern to paint on it.

I've grabbed various pictures from a Google search on patterns I like but finding the right one that wont be too hard to paint on there with the nature of the curves is difficult for me. From scale to actually being able to paint on a surface that isn't more uniform (perfectly cylindrical or just plain flat) has me a bit nervous. I am nervous as it is that I may have ruined a good vase but I was bored with the color, it didn't have as much pop as I would like and I already had it on hand.

The vase on the top shelf may meet a similar fate. It is a textured surface so I thought a glossy paint would be fun although I would rather go with a semi-gloss or satin as gloss paint kind of scares me.

Anyhow, with my lack of work, I am constantly mixing things up around here. Sonny (cat) chewed the fake plant that was in the pitcher in my kitchen so it ended up in a vase on my ancient speaker.

Oh that Hobby Lobby piece I painted the other day ended up here:



Another "it needed a place to hang out" like the orange bamboo placemats. I put it there just for grins to cover a nail hole from a picture I put up there before the mirrors went up. I've just left it there and it's grown on me.

On Friday I repotted my plants, seriously trimmed my schefflera (umbrella tree) and my philodendron. Since the move, they have been looking pretty sad. They both survived my stay at Parker Valley though. They didn't get any water for a month and then moving here with a lot less light, they've lost even more of their vigor. Both needed some serious TLC and I hope I didn't love them to death. ;-)

I have a cutting from the schefflera in soil knowing it's a small chance with no rooting hormone, using soil and the particular cutting I used it will grow, but there's hope. I put two cuttings of the philodendron in water instead of soil propagation which I have been successful with in the past but decided not to do it this time.

I guess that's all I have for now. There's just enough juice for my camera to last until Tuesday so if I finish painting the one vase before then, I will certainly post more.

If it weren't so early I would just crawl into bed, watch the game as long as I could and just go to sleep. My brain and body need a very good sleep.

Hope everyone had a fine weekend!

Labs sure shed a lot!

This is a (duh) close up of my dog Jake:


No worries, he's not mad but he is wondering why I am sticking my camera in his face.

Anyhow, you'd think a short hair breed would not shed much but holy heck this guy sheds like mad. I am pretty sure he is not full lab, I adopted him (very long story) when he was 1 year and 3 months and I am his third parent - owner. My dog prior to that was a chow/shepard/lab mix so I expected that with Kodi but never thought a lab that is pretty much lab (he's a bit smaller, his nose is a bit pointier and he doesn't have the typical barrel chest) would shed so darn much.

Now it's my hair (thin and long) that usually stops a vacuum cleaner because it wraps around the roller brush but his fur fills the cup in no time. Thankfully my friend gave me his old bagless Bissell and only after two uses, it was fuller than it should be. Uh, whoops. I didn't realize it was above the fill line until after I had already finished vacuuming today.

You combine his fur with Sonny's and my *shedding* too and good gracious it makes me fear the carpeting.

My preferred flooring in most of a home is limited carpeting. Since I worked in a tile company briefly I learned quite a bit about proper flooring. If you've ever pulled up 20 year old carpeting or even newer (yeah, it should be replaced much, much sooner) where the home is located in a dry and dusty place, carpeting is simply disgusting.

Carpet has its advantages such as: sound proofing between stories, stays warm in the cold months, non-slip and easily carries color from one room to another and especially good when using a neutral color in that manner.

The problem with carpeting is: stains easily, dirt magnet (especially in the dry climate I live in), requires regular deep cleaning, attracts bad smells, expensive to replace, often people buy in colors that only work for three years with their home decor...

Tile is great but I would never put tile in a kitchen, ever. I love, love the look and having sold it in the past, it has a lot of benefits but if you enjoy cooking tile is very hard on the back (and feet too). Tile also is not as forgiving as hardwood, laminate or vinyl when you drop something breakable.

If it were my decision: hardwood or laminate through the majority of a home using throw rugs for warmth and the look of hardwood never goes out of style. Tile in a bath since it cleans up nicely and perhaps wall-to-wall carpeting in a guest bedroom that doesn't get much use. If you must use tile in a kitchen, get some nice rubber chef mats to cushion your back and feet. Vinyl and other such flooring is great for laundry rooms, mudrooms.

While sweeping is kind of a pain in the butt, I would prefer to not have carpeting. Hardwood or laminate can be very easy to care for and if you know the rules of flooring, you'll have the tools to fix areas that may become damaged.

Tip: When buying flooring, buy at least 10% extra. If a tile breaks, you have matching tile. If you've left on vacation to come back and hardwood or laminate flooring has been soaking in water for whatever reason, you have matching planks. Vinyl is hard to destroy but I have seen it done so that can be patched as well. And your carpeting is the same deal.

Oh and as a side note. I remember we had this cool parquet flooring when I was a just a baby through the beginning of my toddler years (I remember weird stuff) that my parents replaced with orange shag carpeting. I would love to have a room or two in parquet flooring similar to what we had:



Perhaps a different design or bigger squares but I like it.

Underemployed and bored

I haven't posted for a couple or so days in part because of problems with my wrist and now both hands. It's the oddest thing to wake up in the middle of the night to your hand (either or both) just tingly and in pain. I've had problems with my right arm since I was in high school (swimming can do that to you) so that's not a surprise but now my left hand is acting up. In addition, I have a sinus infection that comes and goes so that interrupts my sleep too.

So, this limits my ability to do much of anything productive. I could be working on my afghan and at 21" I wish it were magically completed:



I probably wouldn't want to work on it even if my hand/wrist were feeling okay as the indoor temp is 81° and I loathe to pay money to drop the temp down to the recommended 78° for maximum uh, savings? Having grown up in Colorado, air conditioning (except in a car) is a bit odd to me.

Feeling a bit whiney and it doesn't become me. I guess I could get out some paints and some poster board to see what I can come up with. I have an odd idea that I am not sure will work but you never know until you try it.

Hope everyone had a fine weekend and a decent Monday as far as Mondays go.

Blogging about blogging

I've been on this thing called the internet since Feb of 1995. 1995 I say? Yeah. Back when AOL was a paid by the minute (IIRC) service and I even broke a pinky toe once because I need to use the potty! That involved fun chatroom shenanigans, Molson Ice and the fact the bathroom was on the other side of the house.

My internet travels have been pretty extensive and have seen so much on the internet nothing surprises me anymore.

So along comes services like Live Journal, long before "blog" was a mainstream word. I've had some kind of Live Journal since 2000 but didn't start actively using it until after 9-11. Now, Live Journal (and a couple of other similar sites) were pretty ground breaking because of the types of things people would post for the world (or chosen friends) to see. For me, my Live Journal is just like a diary that I share with chosen people and it's a place where I do feel safe and have friends who I feel loyal to though I've only met a handful in person.

Since those early days, journaling and blogging have become a way for people to bring in income. Some are very successful at it too. But what is a blog but words, should it be focused to keep people coming back? This is something I am struggling with since I started this particular blog. I started it as an addition to my Live Journal so I could keep the angst sheltered among trusted company but to document the changes I am currently going through in all facets of my life in a more public arena. But, I am in a very unique group of people so many of my thoughts and words don't appeal to many.

For example, I am not a mom. Many of the blogs I read every morning are moms so I skip on through anything related to children and decorating kids' rooms. I have nothing against kids and in fact I love kids but I know I would be a horrible mom. This was a decision (to not have kids) that I concluded when I was around 16 years old.

I'm not a wife. I was going to be one at a very young age (at 18) and for some reason since that time, I just have never felt a connection but one other man in those many years. He didn't feel the same way.

I'm going to be 41 next month (oh, that hurts to write, 41?) so I don't have the wonders of my younger adulthood to write about. Had I had a blog back then, oh the interesting things I could have posted. I'm not saying my life is over, it's just different, tame might be a good word.

I'm severely under employed as a self-employed person and when I do find a part-time job, it's not going to be anything (I am sure) that a wide audience would enjoy unless unless I am able to get a job dealing with home improvement, construction or the like because I love that stuff.

So what is this blog about? I don't know. I don't know about you but I don't know any other 40somethings, never married, no kids and seriously under-employed. I mean, how can that be remotely interesting?

I lost a lot of self during the years I spent drinking my troubles and boredom away. I'd always been the type of person that could be alone (since I was a little kid) but the isolation through drinking really stunted me as a person that sought things other than alcohol to make my life interesting. I still have those interests (photography is a major one - mostly buildings and scenery) but I also feel stunted because of my low income levels.

Well okay then. I've deduced that I am a small fraction of one percent of the people in the world like me. In older times I would be considered a "spinster", which incidentally, is born from yarn, which I enjoy. I'm unique, that's for sure. Not sure how this blog will evolve, how it will appeal to others or if it will ever have focus; I am ADD after all and in the world of an ADDult focus is hard.

Other than that, it's Friday morning, cat woke me up too early and I should have a plan for the day figured out soon.

I will end this post with a pic of my Jake chewing on a "chewy":


Good morning!

EDIT: PS For some reason this blog's time stamping is way off. I post Mountain time, have an atomic clock and it's about 50 minutes behind the actual time I post. Settings are correct on my end and it bugs me.

DTMMBLB - Do These Make My Butt Look Big?

Odd title that has nothing to do with this post but instead of LOL or BRB or ROFLMAO I kinda like DTMMBLB. In my head it makes a sound like a cartoon character. And you may think my sober ramblings are strange; you should have seen some of my drunk posts!

I was able to get out and about today since the heat wasn't too bad and the car started right up. She did a bit of protesting a bit later though.

I had intentions of picking up an application at Michael's craft store but the City of Colorado Springs had other ideas for getting anywhere quickly. It was only about 2:00 pm and they were doing some road work just north of Woodmen Road and North Academy Blvd and if anyone that lives or has traveled through that part of Colorado Springs knows, it's not a kind intersection most any time of day. I sat through at least three if not four traffic lights...At that point I said a few curse words in my head and decided to plan that stop for another day.

My only option was to take a left which incidentally is also one way to get into the Hobby Lobby. Thank goodness they have some killer stuff on sale and since I am in serious budget mode, I have to think things through. I ended up getting three little baskets (50% off through Sat.) for 75¢ each to hang in my bathroom. Nothing special but the wall behind the door has been blank and bugging me since I moved in. They also had Ceramcoat acrylics on sale for 99¢ and I picked up Burnt Sienna and as far as I can tell, will work well with a couple of small items I want to paint for the living room...and the paint is almost the exact color of the terra cotta yarn in the afghan I am making. Nothing overboard a few items that will go into or are now in service.

Here's an older pic of my bathroom, nothing special really. The towels and shower curtain (also curtain rings) are from Wal*Mart:


The curtain rod is secured to the wall by the complex so I can't move it up or out so the curtain is straighter...but across from the toilet is where I put the small baskets. I'd like to dye them in some fashion but not sure what type of cheap dye to use. I'd rather not ruin them even if they were cheap.

So, I had a not very interesting day and I am okay with that. I still haven't been sleeping all that well and am feeling it tonight. I think I will just take my valerian root, some melatonin and hit the sack. I had a few things on my mind to post but I will wait when I am feeling a bit more with the program.

To everyone in blog-land, I hope you have sweet dreams when you find them tonight.

Car troubles will not break my spirit

Here's my Flintstone Mobile pictured last year:



It was a hot day yesterday (for Colorado Springs) and even though my car is parked in a carport, she's used to being parked in a garage where it could get warm but stay relatively cool given the outside temps. I've had problems with her not wanting to start when it's warm and usually she will eventually comply with my request but yesterday she refused. After some googling, apparently early 90s Hondas and Acuras have problems with the main relay for the fuel injection system (which I can probably replace myself as it's located under the dash). I really needed to run a couple of errands and luckily she did comply in the evening and luckily my bank has an ATM inside the vestibule as the ATM outside is not serviced by the bank...so the deposit I needed to make was done and put on today's business as the other can take up to three days...

It was one of those afternoons where I really felt I could walk up to the liquor store to get something to drown the feelings of helplessness and such but I stayed the course and didn't go.

Sleep was very disjointed and have been fighting taking a nap all afternoon so here I sit...rather than leaving the house (if the car will start) I have been watching TV, cruising around the 'net and painted some skewers black...I know, odd. But I did it for this:



That is what sits next to my monitor. The weather station needs replacing but the atomic clock, indoor temp and humidity work so I am hanging on to it until I get a new one. The remote worked but the two quit communicating so I discarded it when I moved.

The white thing is a 12x12 tile in a white granite (I think, it's been a while since I worked in a tile store) that has black/silver and brown/gold flecks. I have two of them that were in the garage of the house but neither my landlord nor I knew where they came from so I brought them to the apartment anyway. I knew I would find a use for them.

The beehive vase is actually an oil cruet I got at the dollar store that has the stopper and spout. When I was at Tuesday Morning the other day, I saw the same exact (no difference what-so-ever) cruet minus the stopper and spout for $3.99! I think the original price they said was something like $9.99. I kid you not, it even had the same manufacturing lines of a diecast type (non handmade) bottle.

The candles and the holders are from the dollar store and the rock is a very soft river rock I picked up one day and it was so smooth, I couldn't resist keeping it. I'm an odd person.

The orange sticks are from one of the dollar store placemats which started to come apart that I didn't feel like fixing so I put some in the cruet with brown sand, painted some bamboo skewers black (orange and black aren't just for Halloween IMO) and there you go. I have other plans for the cruet as a vase but will get to that when I get to that.

The dark brown square thing is a simple cork coaster I painted with brown paint and now that I have found my hot glue gun, I plan on adding some jute on the tops somehow, in some fashion...

So, I am trying hard to stay awake until an hour that makes sense to go to bed. Too early and I am up around 2:00 am and that's just wrong. Too late and I will pass that point of no return.

Good Sunday Morning

Being a night owl has its upside but I am trying to get back to being a normal wake up in the early morning type person so I can find part-time work to add to my small income.

I launched dateandtime.com yesterday as I am sort of anal about time and like to check the times of sunrise and sunset locally. I checked the calendar and today is 102 days without alcohol. While I am not a "birthday" kind of woman with regards to my sobriety, like many who celebrate with major glee on each milestone, it's interesting to see where I was (oh my, some of my drunk journal posts are horrifying) and where I am today. Sober is good even if I don't embrace AA like many of my counterparts.

After a day of cleaning, straightening up my tiny apartment I called it a day and *gasp* crawled into bed at 10:30. I watched TV for a while and fell asleep during a rerun of "Cold Case" and woke up to a very vocal Sonny who has not figured out that I am far from a morning person. He is a rescue boy so I give him some slack until he realizes I am master of the house and not him...haha, like a cat will accept that gracefully.

One of the first blogs I checked was a penny saved... which stalled me on my usual morning blog check as she has a really cute and dare I say cheap (I like frugal better) way that she's been decorating her guest room.

Oh how I long for a house again. It's been very strange going from a house where I lived close to 11 years (landlord/friend is selling it as he lives across the country now) to an apartment. I don't miss mowing the lawn though. I do miss being able to let the dog out as he needs, the privacy that a house gives you, the quiet, garage....

So I guess I am out of here for the moment to go get a Sunday newspaper, feed the cat and get back to reading my favorite sites later. It is Sunday after all, a good day to be a bit lazy and it's a beautiful morning thus far.