holiday stuff

i got my special order form back from king soopers a few weeks ago. first thought: my boiled custard hath been delivered to the store!!

the front of the card that i filled out in store...

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

well, damn. andy was almost as disappointed as i was, then proceeded to buy egg nog. yak. i asked my mom to buy me some boiled custard from the kroger in georgia and save it for me when i'm there on january 5th. i don't know when the stores stop carrying it, but i think she's gonna be awesome and ask the dairy manager when the last batch comes in. hallelujah. and mom, if you're reading this: i will need ginger cookies to go with the boiled custard.

and another holiday-related disappointment/rant:

my apartment complex participated in an adopt-a-family type gift giving thingy a few weeks ago. they posted a few flyers around the complex telling people to stop by the leasing office or the business center to get a list of items to purchase. i got the list and purchased item X, and planned to buy items Y and Z. i notified the people in the office that andy & i would take care of items X, Y, and Z so that they could cross those items off the list. the very next day we got a note in our door (as did every resident) reminding us of the holiday party and the adopt-a-family wish list. and of course, the items we purchased had not been removed from the list. the next day i had to retrieve a fedex package from the office, so since i was already down there i expressed my concern to the assistant manager that the family was going to get duplicate gifts, rather than have everything on their wish list covered (which is the entire purpose of having a list, right?) see? you like what i did there? rather than accuse him of having crappy logistics i played the demure, worried, humanitarian who wanted the family to get everything on the list (which, i do want that). his response was something like this:  "oh, well, i mean, the way we look at it, if the kid gets three pairs of shoes, then that's great, because that's more than they ever had before." what?! no way. 

so, a few days later when we got around to buying the remaining two items, i sent another email to the leasing staff confirming that we had purchased items X, Y, Z, and would wrap them and drop them off at the party. we showed up at the party with the gifts, and one of the staff members asked us to write down our names and what we had purchased. seriously? i sent two emails with this exact information. anyway, at the end of the night i checked the list and - yep - richard would be getting three black coats, and lisa would get two pairs of slipper boots. good thing we included the gift receipts with ours.

so yes, the family got things that they wanted, but my point is that the people who manage this place are a bunch of ass clowns (and i'm a control freak). had this been better organized, the family would have gotten more of what they wanted. it's really quite simple. just assign items to participants depending on how much they choose to spend. the way my church used to do this is they had a small christmas tree adorned with notecards. each notecard had two items written on it. this is nice because you can see all the items and pick which two fit your budget or shopping habits, then take the card from the tree so no one else will buy the same stuff. genius!

some awesome stuff

well, it's the Christmas season once again. while i do celebrate the birth of Christ as our savior, i don't buy a tree or send out cards. however, i *do* partake in stuffing my face with many seasonal food items: gingerbread cookies, peppermint bark, peppermint ice cream, mary ellen chex mix, pumpkin roll, and... boiled custard.  so, i didn't give it much thought until a few weeks ago WHEN I COULDN'T FIND IT IN ANY GROCERY STORES IN DENVER, but apparently it's a southern thing. maybe you already knew this. anyway, today after work i went on a mission to King Soopers and put a request in at the customer service counter for them to acquire boiled custard and sell it to me. 

if you need more info on boiled custard here is a previous posts about this delectable holiday dairy treat: http://agurley.blogspot.com/2008/11/maybe-next-year-chron.html

and here's my lunch from the other day. food service worker cindy gives me extra if i want it. you rule, cindy!

$3.50, bitches.

my favorite non-reality tv show on these days is workaholics on comedy central. if you're not watching it, you should be. it's incredibly crude, which of course, makes it funny [to me]. its about three guys who are both roommates and coworkers. they hate their jobs and spend a lot of time getting drunk & smoking weed. that may not sound like a great storyline, but trust me, it's brilliant. and again, it's totally crude - if you like always sunny, give this one a try.

i heard a story on npr the other day about financial literacy programs in some colorado elementary schools. i'm not just talking about wants/needs, saving, and interest. some classes were learning about roth IRAs, taxable income, managing real household expenses, etc.  i love the idea of educating younger children about this kind of stuff. maybe these kids will become more fiscally responsible adults.

if you want your hands to feel great and smell like fruit loops cereal, buy the grapefruit & bergamot hand cremé by kiss my face. it's expensive so i don't buy it often, but it's good, and it will totally trip you out how it smells JUST LIKE fruit loops. yum.

one of the awesomest things i've ever purchased is a water bottled called a hydro flask. i didn't know how awesome it would be at the time - basically i just thought i was buying a souvenir water bottle from the masters golf tournament - but it's the miracle bottle. keeps cold water cold in a hot car for hours & doesn't sweat. also keeps hot liquid hot in a cold car. amazing. i usually only fill it with cold water, but last week i filled it with hot chocolate and stashed it in the car all day while we were snowboarding. it was darn cold in the car, but the beverage was still hot when we got back. ahh...it's truly the little things.

anchors aweigh!

a wasted seaman and the U.S.S. ?

hey, it spins!

inspiration came when i found that stylin' navy shirt w/ the epaulets & gold buttons on the clearance rack at Ross for for $8.49. figured i could build a pretty good costume around it. i already had the captains hat (from 1989?) and andy already had the white pants from the colonel sanders costume, so... that was easy. but it took me 2 months to make that stupid wheel, mainly b/c i had to plan it all out so it wouldn't fall apart after wearing it for 10 minutes. i made the wheel from really thick cardboard. the side is thinner cardboard braced with bamboo skewers (hand whittled so that each end would be sharp enough to puncture the front & back surfaces) and then i added a ton of gorilla glue, you know, just to make it extra sturdy. the center section is a foam cylinder shape that i was kinda forced to buy at a craft store due to time constraints, and the spokes are clear plastic tubes for protecting fluorescent lights. i mounted the wheel onto a piece of sheet metal using a 5" screw threaded all the way through, and hung the metal piece from my neck. also had the bottom of the mount strapped to me with a stretchy belt. 

i think i went a little over budget ($30), only because i had to buy two cans of spray paint, and the rope wasn't cheap either. it's definitely a quality piece. maybe i can rent it out next year and recover some of my expenses.

costume phase 3

halloween: the good news is that costume construction is on schedule. as one of my former coworkers would say, "everything's ship-shape!" like i said in the previous post, if i show you pics of the whole thing you'll be able to tell what it is, so here are photos of some parts and some close-ups:


  




freecycle update: previous post mentioned a guy who sent odd text messages. he came for the stuff- no eye patch, no suspicious vehicle. just some middle-age guy and his wife in an old pickup. completely unremarkable.

football: maybe you saw the broncos/dolphins game last sunday. i was never a tim tebow fan - mainly b/c i dislike almost all SEC teams and got sick of the media hype while he was at UF. i wouldn't call myself a broncos fan yet, but i'm getting there (i know the names of four players now, instead of two!) it seems like all the hopes and dreams of the city of denver are on tim tebow. people go absoutely bananas over the guy. it's so bizarre.

radio: my friends know that i love morning radio shows, but denver's stuff just doesn't do it for me. sorry bj, howie, & erica. i gave it a good, solid 2 months but i just had to switch back to atlanta's "the bert show." i mean, you never forget your first love...   unfortunately during my listening gap i missed out on getting to know the new host (kristen). she's ok, but i'm surprised the company didn't hire someone with a drastically different perspective, because in my opinion she's a blend of jen hobby & wendy adams.  i still miss melissa carter, but at least i've still got jeff.  fortunately there's a good afternoon show here so it almost makes up for the pain.

weather: a winter storm is forecast for tonight, continuing into tomorrow afternoon (i think i just heard...thunder snow?). denver may get up to 8 inches of snow, which apparently is a lot for this time of year. my mom (mary ellen) is flying in tomorrow, so i would really like it if she didn't experience horrendous delays; although she's so cool i doubt it would mess her up too bad. i love the way she's always down for whatever these days.

hockey: the good news is that i'm actually playing. the facilities are nice, and they're close to my apartment. the bad news is that i think i'm playing in what's known as the "old man league." there's very little team camraderie, and i think there is only one other female player in the division. if you were to take a team poll, i'm sure i'd be voted worst player. that never feels good. if i were to compare it to playing in the AAHL, i'd say the division is equivalent to playing in middle A. some guys have real skillz but play kinda lazy. i lack skill, but play really hard, so sometimes it evens out.

books: i've been reading like a fiend since the denver library has ebooks you can check out on your digital reader. the checkout period is 21 days and if you don't finish the book it just disappears from your shelf. can't renew. aww. most newer books have a lengthy wait list, so a lot of times i'll put myself on the wait list for several books...and then for some reason they all become available at the same time and then i have to read 3 books in 21 days. so far i've read twenties girl, smokin' seventeen, outliers, and now i'm on the help (i swear i was on the wait list for months). it's pretty nice not to have to visit the library to get your hands on "free" books.

stuffed animals: i have two that hang out on/in my bed. one is a wild turkey. the other is the yellow angry bird.

that last one was really random, but gives you a deeper insight to the girl behind the blog.

costume phase 2

well...sorry to disappoint, but there is no phase 2. construction came together rather fast. if i showed you a pic there wouldn't be much of a guessing game left. so here are some hints: there's no historical or pop-culture basis, mine has a moving part, and andy is reusing the white pants he wore last year as colonel sanders.

oh and check this out - denver got the first snow of the season on saturday. i set my alarm for 7:30am so i could spray paint pieces of my costume. the reason it had to be that early is because the only place for me to paint is in the parking garage and i knew no one would be up at that hour on a saturday. i really didn't need an audience (or people telling me not to spray paint near their cars). i opened my blinds at 7:30, saw that most of the ground was covered in snow, and couldn't stop laughing. i think it was 65 the day before.  then the snow melted 3 hours later. apparently that's the way it goes around here.

----

ok so you think my blatant disregard for proper capitalization is annoying? try this on for size:

Hi. Were. Interested. Thanks. 

this was a response from something i posted on freecycle the other day. weird, but excusable. maybe he was sending from his mobile device. but then later i got this:

Ok. That. Sounds. Great. See. You. Tomorrow yes. I. Will. Call. When on. My. Way.

seriously? man, there are weird people on freecycle.  and then i got another message:

Sorry. Couldn't. Make. It. Today.  Drain. Backed. Up. Had. To. Rent. 100 ft. Snake. And. Roto the. Drain. I can. Come. Pick. Up. In. The. AM. ON. WEDNESDAY i promise. Thanks. So. Much. For. Under standing. 

dude. what is up with the periods?! what kind of person does this? if he ends up picking up his item (don't worry, he's meeting me at work and not at my apartment) i'll let you know what he looks like. i bet he pulls up in a panel van wearing an eye patch or something. 

costume construction, phase 1

I was fortunate to find a good job in Denver after about 1.5 months of dedicated searching. I only applied to jobs that were downtown or a reasonable driving distance from my apartment so that the commute wouldn't suck (i had a 1-mile commute for 3 years in atlanta, and yes, it was amazing). I also only applied to jobs that had regular hours and decent benefits... until I came across an ad for a part-time IT position at a private school 5 miles from my apartment. Now I'm working there as an entry-ish level technician, part of a 4 person team that keeps everybody's stuff working. It's pretty awesome as far as jobs go.

Now, on to the main reason for this post: the halloween costume teaser series (visit  http://agurley.blogspot.com/search/label/halloween and scroll to the post from 2010). if you don't know my deal with costumes by now, you're either a new reader of this blog or don't do enough stalking on facebook. i always go to great lengths to make a homemade costume while keeping costs low (<$30). i'm usually able to think of humorous, original couples-themed costumes that aren't lame. 2007 was construction worker and man hole, 2009 i think we ignored altogether because halloween was on a wednesday and 2008 seemed near impossible to top. 2009 i made (with a little help from mary ellen) the most kick ass cockroach costume one could make on a budget - andy was an exterminator, and 2010 was the year of colonel sanders and the double down sandwich.

my idea for this year is kinda tame, but i'm hoping the originality and construction quality will make it cool. i'm hesitant about putting too much effort into this mainly because we don't have that many friends yet since we're still so new to town, and it's no guarantee that we'll even be invited to a party. i mean how bad would that suck?! maybe i can wear it to work on the 28th, and then during my hockey game on the 29th (i'm attempting to make this costume adaptable for hockey gear just in case). below are some of my supplies. phase 1 has begun.

cardboard, spray paint, rope, foam squares, paperboard tubes

by the way, if anyone in the denver area wants to use my cockroach/exterminator costume i'll rent it to ya. would also be willing to trade for supplies to complete my idea for this year.

Help! There's a Jamaican man trapped in the storm drain!

The city of Aurora, Colorado is big on water education. Storm drains have markers that read "dump no waste, drains to creek" and there are signs in the parks that explain the water system and the effects of pollution on the water supply. There's also another unique educational feature that tends to startle passersby:

I'm the city of Aurora's talking storm drain. I'm here to remind you to take good care of your local storm drain and your watershed.

Hey man, use less fertilizer this time around. It will keep the stream happy, and save you lots of money.

What's up man? It would really clog my system if you wash that mud & road grime from your car into my drain.

I like their approach on personifying the storm drain, but it really did scare the crap out of me the first time I encountered it. The message is pretty simple, and it's fun interacting with the sensor. The Jamaican accent is comical to me. I can imagine the marketing/concept meeting going something like this:

Al: Ok guys, the city of Aurora is using this product to educate the public about the water system. We have a script, but something is missing... go ahead and listen to it.
[everyone listens to dialog A]
Bill: Well, instead of just random blurbs, how about if we make the storm drain the character. That might be cool.
Charlie: Yeah! And give him an accent! An Italian mobster?
Bill: Canadian? Cockney!
Al: Cockney?
Bill: Ay, 'enry 'iggins!
Al: No, no. Come on guys, think. Imagine the most perfect storm drain: cool and mellow, yet concerned about toxic waste. What does this guy sound like?
Charlie: Slappa da bass, man!

So if it doesn't give you a heart attack you might find it entertaining.

Labor Day vacation rental

Hey peeps, good news: I got a job.  They're paying me.  And it doesn't suck!!  Anyway, I'll touch on that next week I guess. Now on to the main feature...

i've rented a lot of condos/vacation homes in the last 5 years. nothing extremely luxurious or high-end, but most of the places have been at ski resorts so they're all fairly nice. almost all of them i found through vrbo.com, although i did get one on eBay (which, while still relatively expensive, was by far the nicest and best bargain of them all). anyway, the owner will usually email a rental agreement as well as another document containing helpful info about the home or neighborhood, stuff like where to park, how to get into the unit, how to work the hot tub, and what to do before you leave. We rented a suite inside a home in Breckenridge over Labor day weekend. This particular ower/manager sent me all of the info, and it was immediately apparent that i was dealing with a crazy person. Get a load of this:

If you plan on using the hot tub, please bring your own towels for that.

Come on.  Really? I can tell you right now if we hadn't been local, we would not have brought our own towels.

another:

Please caution all guests not to use our towels and washcloths to remove lipstick and facial makeup. You will be charged for all permanently soiled linens & towels, or for excessive cleaning time used in trying to remove spots.

'Scuse me? I totally get that you don't want to have to keep buying new towels all the time, but I'm pretty sure that having your stuff stained, broken, &/or stolen is part of having a vacation rental property. Oh, and there's this amazing product...It's sold at the...uh...the store, and it's like, a chemical that removes stains.  I think it's called...bleach?  Yeah, that sounds right.  And let me remind you I paid a $50 cleaning fee.  For two nights.

and another:

Please be sure that all kitchen items and dishes are cleaned and returned to the cabinets. Failure to properly pick up after yourself may result in excessive cleaning required after your departure.

Whaaaat?! But wait, there's more:

Upon check out we request that all trash be placed in the outside wooden enclosure to the right of the front door.

Noooo!!  What is this craziness?!  Fortunately I did not get charged for leaving the trash in the room. Then there was about a half a page worth of instructions about parking, which could have been reduced to three sentences. Inside the suite there was another page of instructions about how to work the thermostat and base heaters that, again, could have been condensed down to three bullet points. I bet this person thinks he/she is the best property manager out there, with all the rules and stupid instructions. Bah. I'm a little mad that I gave this person my business, but I only had about 4 days to book something so I was a little desperate. Our stay was ok for the price, but I would have rather coughed up an extra $20/night and stayed at another place where the bathroom a) had an exhaust fan, and b)wasn't in the kitchen.  that was interesting.

what i've been up to

one great thing about living in colorado: no one gives a shit about the university of georgia.

another great thing about living in colorado: it's hot here, but i'm not cursing about it at 8:30 in the morning.

i just consumed a large Wendy's frosty in a very short amount of time. twas a bit of a celebratory thing, to congratulate myself for a job interview that went really well (let's hope i'm right). i've had several job interviews, many for positions for which i'm overqualified. it's really no fun sitting in a room with an interviewer trying to convince her why you want a job that you're overqualified for, especially when she's looked at your education and work experience and even comments on the curiosity of it all.  i've found some IT jobs that seem good for me (ie. they're not too "corporate" and i won't be in over my head), and if things go alright then i should have a decent job that i don't hate by the end of the month.

ok so here's a recap of what i/we have been doing:

earlier in august i got the opportunity to join some guys on an early-morning weekday ski outing...one of the few perks of not having a job. was a little weird asking a complete stranger to take me out on his boat, but hey, nothing ventured nothing gained, right?

this is just a reservoir at a state park, but i still call it a lake. the best part: it's 6 miles from my apartment.

andy & i went to the new ikea in centennial a few weeks ago. as much as we wanted to avoid the whole situation, andy need to purchase a specific item for his office. imagine that, going to a store to purchase an item. what a novel idea. the reason this is so odd is that we usually only find ourselves at ikea when we've run out of things to do on sunday afternoon. anyway, it was pretty nutso, but we got the item and then gorged ourselves on burritos at illegal pete's.

that same weekend we managed to get up to boulder for a hike. we hit up the farmers market and then hiked the "royal arch" trail at chautauqua.



i think we climbed about 1500 vertical feet over the course of the trail and we did it in about 3.5 hours, i think.  i dont remember. i'd really love to hike up a real mountain, but those are like, all day affairs.  i was really tired after our excursion to boulder so i dunno if i'd be able to make it on a 7 hour hike. i mean, i'm sure i could do it, but i'd be pretty dead.

this past weekend we went to a random yard party for 20s/30s couples - i found the group on meetup.com - and fortunately it wasn't sketchy or weird. we met two other couples who we would probably hit up for another social activity in the near future. one guy invited us to join his ultimate frisbee pickup league that meets in a park near downtown, so we showed up and got our asses kicked (but in a good way). we're not horrible at ultimate, but we're definitely not in peak physical condition so we probably seemed a little weak. we've got one month to train until hockey starts, and this seems like a great way to train off the ice.  we're fortunate that the guys who showed up to play were friendly and obviously just in it for fun & not personal glory, unlike the peeps from the afdc (atlanta flying disc/douchebag club) that we tried playing with several years ago. that was definitely not good times, but makes for a great story. think dodgeball the movie meets ultimate frisbee.

and then on sunday we discovered a hockey superstore practically in our back yard. you'd have to know that it's there in order to find it, as you can't really see it from the road.



we thought we hit the motherlode, mainly since i need some practice jerseys and new shoulder pads, but the stuff wasn't really priced that great.  the only good thing is that you can get your skates sharpened for $5.

ok, well that's it for now. in my next entry i hope to report on this sushi place near us called "sushi train." we have yet to eat sushi out here and have picked this particular place due to its proximity to our apartment and the positive reviews on urban spoon. now that i'm thinking sushi, i might just have to petition to eat there tonight. or maybe i'll just go to this place since i'm low on cash:

chinese food by the scoop & $5.88 dinner buffet: better than remy's II?

a story to distract you from wondering if i've found a job yet (no, i haven't)

well, i finally saw the harry potter movie.  right before the movie started, some people came in with their baby.  not their two year old, but a baby in a carrier seat thingy who needed to be entertained with a noisy rattle toy. i don't even think i need to explain why that was a problem.

and then the crown jewel of all "stupid people on craigslist" stories:

i posted an ad on craigslist to try to sell my two giant canvases. these things are awesome but are just way too big for our new apartment. i bought them (from a woman who listed them on craigslist) when i moved into the condo w/ the super-high ceilings back in february and they were really cool. anyway, here's the ad:

(i'm posting a screenshot since a link will only be valid for the duration of the listing)

The ad gives you all the important information, like the price, how big they are, and the condition. Last night, i got the following question over email:

          How much for your art paintings?

Really, you weren't able to get that info from the ad?  Just in case she wasn't the one who saw the ad, say, her room mate saw it and quickly texted the girl to email me about them, I simply replied, "$120 for both." What I really wanted to say was something like "um, did you even read the ad, asshat?" Of course I would never jeopardize a sale by doing that, but it took an enormous amount of restraint not to.  She responded with a counteroffer, and I replied "Sure, that's fine, as long as you've got a big truck, these things are massive," just reiterating the fact that the paintings were very large.

Next morning I find this question in my inbox, from the same girl:

          Wow well can you give me the measurement of the width. All I have is a pt cruiser but maybe could borrow my room mates truck.

Again, all I wanted to do was type back "OMG?!  DID YOU EVEN READ THE AD? I STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU READ THE AD because you're asking me stupid questions. here's the link..." But again, I dug deep and was able to summon the strength to reply with the dimensions (but only after typing out hateful retorts & quickly deleting them). I really think she never even saw the ad, there's just really no other excuse for it.

some denver stuff, and an anecdote about why i hate going to the movies

the day of my first blog post in denver, 7.11, i actually did get around to taking the train into downtown & locating a chickfila.  took me about 15 minutes to walk to the rail station, and the train takes 30 minutes to get to downtown. a round trip ticket is a little more expensive than i would like - $8.00, since i have to travel in 3 zones. anyway, i got off at the 16th & california stop, right in the middle of the outdoor mall area.  it was about 1pm so the place was still bustling from all the business peeps lunching in the area.  i found the chickfila in the bottom of a food court area, but it was a chickfila express where everything's hanging out under the heat lamps. i mean come on, even some of the crappiest malls have full service chickfilas...the fare was good as expected, but i was a little forlorn since i was alone. it was weird so i ate really fast. then after lunch i walked a few blocks, turned around, went in a few stores then took the train home. it was an uneventful outing, but figured i'd report on it anyway.

so the big event everyone's waiting for around here is the grand opening of the IKEA in centennial. it's about 5 miles from our apartment and of course there are people camping out to get free stuff, and the news reports on it every night.  people talk about it, totally jazzed, and i'm like "been there, done that." but honestly, we kinda need some stuff so we'll probably go anyway.

here's an observation about denver in general: people here drive at or under the speed limit. it's a little weird. every now and then you'll see a few people in a hurry, but they are few and far between (or it's us going 4 or 5 mph over). coming from a land where 55 mph means 75 mph, i've really never seen anything like it. in addition, drivers seem to be a much more courteous bunch out here. they obey the markings on the road, they let you merge, and they actually yield to pedestrians.

as to what i've been up to these days: job hunting. job researching. interviewing. trying not to spend money or eat too much. not playing hockey (but sent in our free-agent forms!), but doing a fair amount of jogging since it's a free activity. haven't seen the new harry potter movie yet, mainly because i hate going to the theater. if it's not the kid pushing on my seat back with his feet it's somebody texting during the movie, or some whiny toddler who shouldn't be there anyway. andy and i went to see some movie one sunday morning (pretty much the only time i'll go) and the place was empty; we sat in the exact center of the room. two people came in after us, just after the lights dimmed, and i shit you not, they entered the row we were sitting on, walked in front of us, kindly left one empty seat, and sat down. really?! i get that you want to sit in the middle, but seriously, why?  who does that? and then of course i looked like the crazy bitch for gathering up all out stuff and moving down. sheesh.  so yeah, i usually go once a year (for the harry potter / twilight movies), and even if the movie is ok the experience has me exclaiming afterward, "see, THAT is why i never go to the movies!!"  but if theatergoers here are half as courteous as the drivers, i might just be able to tolerate it.

and i'll never know how this one turned out...

woooo, i have the internet (and tv) at home now so the regular blogging can resume!

if you know me well, you may recall the story about my car being towed from andy's visitor lot about 2 years ago. i blogged about it here, but didn't include a lot of detail. the main point is that some annoying elderly person on the parking committee had my car towed at 2:30am.  the whole thing was completely unnecessary - several witnesses (woken up by the noise, of course) identified the perpetrator and told me the lot wasn't even full at the time. this person broke procedure and failed to put a warning sticker on my car.  it was obvious he/she was just trying to prove a point by being an asshole. ugh, elderly assholes are the worst, because i almost start feeling sorry for them.

anyway, the night before the big move to denver, andy was going through his stuff and found his parking warning stickers and tow stickers (he had been on the committee as well). all it took was for him to say "hey, maybe we should put these on so-and-so's car before we move out" and, well, see for yourself:

ok so i know this is really lame revenge, but i didn't want to give this person any reason to call the cops for destruction of property or something. figured i'd leave it as a harmless prank. so, we'll never know what happened, because the car was still there the next day as we were moving out, just as we left it. and then we left atlanta for denver.

i'm in Denver now & finally getting around to posting something

We won't have internet & tv in our apartment until thursday.  it really sucks. i blame andy.  i wanted to order comcast the week before we moved so we could have the cable guy come asap, but andy hates comcast (something about it monopolizing the market...yadda, yadda). he was considering another provider and just never got around to making a decision. so i can't decide what's worse: missing the start of the new season of MTV's "teen mom" or not being able to check facebook every few hours. luckily i found my antenna that goes with my hd receiver for my computer so andy hooked it up to the big screen, and now we can get a few channels over the air in hd.  it's definitely better than nothing.  and since i'm sitting here in my apartment complex's business center i'm going to make this a short post.  it's cold, random people look at what you're doing online, the mouse doesn't work well, and worst of all i'm being forced to use a pc.  ugh, such an injustice.

so i had a thought this morning as i was getting dressed, trying to pick out a t-shirt to wear: i've got a ton of shirts that say stuff like "aspen" and "durango, colorado" and "winter x games," you know, cool stuff.  they're some of my favorite shirts.  would wearing one of these now that i live in colorado kinda be like wearing a 311 t-shirt to a 311 concert? nobody wants to be that guy.

btw, i'm jonesing for chickfila right now and i don't have a car...i might take the train to downtown and walk.  it's a 15+ minute walk to the light rail station near my apartment which is a little further than i'd like.  oh well.  i'll let you know how that goes.

upcoming road trip

if you're completely out of the loop, andy & i are moving from atlanta to denver on july 5th.  hired a moving crew to pack, load, drive & unload.  the plan is to drive (separately) to my mom's house in dalton, drop my car off for her to sell, then head to nashville to see my brother. after nashville we'll go to eureka springs, arkansas. next stop was tricky to figure out - i had to ask around to see if anybody could recommend a town or place to stay out in the middle of nowhere. the winner?  liberal, kansas.  my coworker luz (who is moving to colorado...eventually) said she & her husband stayed at a great bed and breakfast inn.  so i was like ok, sold. this morning she brought me a brochure for the place and for the visitor center. now, i'm from a smallish town so i dont really have much to make fun of, but i'll do it anyway:

1. went to the website printed on the blue bird inn's brochure. it went to some page in japanese. i'm not going to link to it just in case its got some crazy malware that installs itself, its a little suspicious.  i guess i better make sure this place is still around before i plan to stay there.

2. and this... the brochure mentioned the liberal bee jays.  naturally i went to the web for more info.  i went ahead and did a screen capture just in case the web page changes drastically from what you see here:

hey kids, how many hilarious jokes can you spot?

unfortunately we won't have much time to see all that liberal, kansas has to offer. and i'm really NOT looking forward to driving through any of kansas. arkansas, fine.  kansas, not fine. 

free money

a few weekends ago i found a bunch of foreign coins in a drawer that i was either collecting for no reason or saving just in case i was to travel abroad again.  beats me.  i figured it was about $10 US so i took the coins home with me. today i went to exchange them for US dollars.  i went to the big wells fargo bank across from my office. teller #1 said sorry we don't do that, try the airport.  and i'm like, uh, you're a bank.  in a major city.  and you can't exchange my coins?  supervisor overheard our conversation and said, yes, we can exchange foreign currency, so teller #2 (my favorite teller, jessica watson jackson!) started counting it all out.  among the british coins and euro coins and a few mexican peso coins i had one coin for the new hampshire tollway system. awesome. as jessica was bagging it all up, the same supervisor came over and said, oh, we don't exchange coins, we only exchange paper money.  i'm like what the hell kind of bank is this? confused, i said "well, is there any place nearby that might exchange them for me?" and she said go to the airport.  huh.  last time i checked the airport was 22 miles from me.  not exactly "nearby."

meh.

the big news

last week i posted a somewhat cryptic photo of my boyfriend andy & me on facebook, with the caption "um...we've got some news...."  actually, here it is again:

since this is only a photo of ourselves and not of an
engagement ring or a baby bump, one should realize that
the graphic on the shirts is the only clue to what the "news" is.   

now, understand that i was being purposefully ambiguous, ya know, just to jack with people.  family, close friends, & coworkers had already heard the news, and people from our hockey league kinda got it because they recognized the logos on our shirts.  i didn't expect the majority of the facebook audience to get it, only because this is not a familiar logo, but at least one of my previous room mates was on the right track when she said "are you moving to canada?"

anyway, we're moving to denver, colorado. i guess i'll have a lot more stuff to blog about when i get out there. here are my priorities for the next few weeks:

• finding a place to live
• finding someone to take over my lease here
• figuring out logistics of a cross-country move
• hanging out with my best buds one last time
• finding a job
• selling my car
• organizing my stuff

ugh. i've already started organizing all my stuff, like, junk thats been in boxes in my mom's attic for years.  i have a bunch of notebooks full of old school crap and even though its pretty organized already i'd rather not have four notebooks full of it. so i've been scanning some stuff & tossing the papers.  i started with the georgia tech stuff. obviously i didn't hang on to all of it after i completed the courses, but i held onto most of my test & quizzes. and then i came across my degree petition & started looking at my transcript.  even though i managed to graduate with honor i didn't do that well in some of my major courses (remember cs 2130?  yeah, i had to repeat that one.  cs 2200?  you betcha, took that one twice as well). performed poorly on tests at the beginning and lost all motivation. didn't do any more work & just went to the lake instead. i used to think it'd be hard fail a class.  like, even if you turned in some work you could manage a D. well, actually, it's pretty damn easy to fail a class, you just don't do anything.  amazing how that works. one semester i actually had a 0.0 GPA, granted, i only took one course. but i'm sure the square root club would let me in.

hordes of zombies

here's a recent email announcement from my office building's management:

nobody panic, the gunfire is simulated.  the horde of zombies, however...

career change

here are two recent ads that were on my facebook sidebar:

YIKES!!

wow, these ads really make me want to become a social worker. damn. and i'm really hoping that the image of the child in ad #2 was digitally altered. 

----

now, for a bit more relevant information: it's freaking hot outside.  and my a/c stopped pumping out cold air.  thankfully my landlord got a repair guy there the next morning...and apparently the compressor in this brand new hvac unit broke. last night it was 86 degrees even with the ceiling fans on, which meant i hung out at andy's (and played snood for 3 hours).  i'm expecting a portable a/c in my unit when i get home from work, and i'm praying that the guy who set it up didn't leave it running all day.  that would deserve a kick in the nuts. 

summer rec league hockey starts this weekend and andy & i back on the stars roster.  i'll miss gossiping with pam & christine, but i look much better in black than in orange.  

also, i'm going to the beach next week for a family vacation. by family, i mean my brother & his girlfriend marissa, minus the rest of my family, and plus a bunch of his friends.  awesome.

weeks, this one's for you

i couldn't remember the password for my firm's gmail account...so i requested a little password assistance. awesome.

nothing to see here, folks.

ok been a while since i posted, my bad.

here's what i've been up to:

last weekend i went to the masters. my grandmother still gets tickets and we spread them out with family and friends as usual so that the max amount of people can enjoy the experience. it wasn't the first time i had been down there for the masters - in 2007 my brother & i drove down there, the entire round was rained out, and we drove all the way back to atlanta. totally lame. somehow it worked out this year that i was able to get all 4 tickets for one day (friday), so i invited andy and his parents. unfortunately andy got stuck in hinesville, ga doing business stuff so i had to find a replacement. you really wouldn't believe how hard it is to find someone to go to the masters on short notice, especially when they know they have to leave if/when andy finally makes it to augusta. fortunately andy's coworker/friend was willing to make the drive and he was a blast to hang out with and really appreciated the experience. especially the pimento cheese sandwiches for $1.50. i think he ended up buying about $450 worth of merchandise at the request of his family.

can't take cameras or phones inside the gates.

as you can see, andy finally made it around 2pm and so we stayed until almost every group finished. the entire day was totally awesome. i've always kinda poke fun at golf since it's often associated with old retired guys and pleated pants, but watching the pros is a different story.  i've got a whole new perspective on the sport. this young dude, ricky fowler, wears neon puma stuff which is a little crazy (but awesome),  and i only saw a few players wearing pleated pants.

the weekend before that we went camping at tugaloo state park.  it's a ways up I-85 almost to south carolina. we had so much stuff it looked like we were going on vacation for a week. and this is not the kind of camping where you take a pack with all your gear and hike in.  we registered online for a campsite and it was right by the lake...but also right by the road. seriously, our tent was about 3 feet from the edge of the road. it was delightfully chilly and not-so-delightfully windy, but thank goodness no bugs and not too much pollen. we busted out a vintage propane camp stove that andy's dad pulled out of his attic:

why is everything from the late 70s this color green?

still playing on two hockey teams. one with andy on the weekends @ the cooler (rec), and then in a beginner league which is every monday night at the marietta ice center.  rec league season ended last week, our team, the flyers, finished in 5th place out of 10 with 7-4 record so not too shabby.  my other team...well, we have yet to win a game (0-7-1). oh well.

i'm still watching too much tv and eating too many cookies.  think i'll switch to ice cream.

making fun of other people's ads, part 3

this was in the "northside neighbor" community newspaper.  i think it's a nice-looking ad, but read the blurb: 

 a "lifetime" of experience, huh?  they must have used the wrong guy's headshot, because the guy i'm looking at can't be a day over 25.  

here's another ad for a children's consignment store (you may remember this one).  maybe i shouldn't put this on the list of bad ads since it's actually decent...all i'm gonna do is make fun of the business name.  why name it something that is not indicative of the products or services?  maybe i'm missing something.  this is like naming a donut shop "bells and whistles" or a pet store "ace hardware."  ok maybe not that bad, but you get it.

costco WIN

check out this enormous bottle of kirkland vodka andy bought at costco for a mere $27:

so huge it won't even fit in the cabinet. sorry if my enthusiasm is a little over-the-top: the costco that's up the street from me doesn't sell liquor, so we tend to forget about the amazing values that await us at the dunwoody store. and let me tell you, we went on a crazy booze-buying rampage. i mean, it'd be a crime *not* to buy the super-size bottle of makers mark when the price was so good, right?  anyway, it was a great day of buying goods in massive quantities. after scoring such amazing deals on alcohol never again shall we pay too much. never again, my friends.

totally looks like v.2

american idol is back, and you know i'm watching.  i thought i was finished watching this crap after last season, but no, i've been sucked in *again.*  i think the judges found a few legitimately talented people this year (casey abrams) unlike last season's fiascos lee dewyze and crystal bowersox. sheesh. anyway, here are mine & andy's thoughts on a few of the contestants who totally look like other people:

naima totally looks like the alien "diva" in the movie the fifth element. the aqua dress really sealed the deal on this one, although the resemblance is most notable when she sang in the wild card round this past week. personally, i don't think she's anything worth getting excited over.

and then we have ashley. probably the most unattractive person to make it to the final rounds of hollywood week. thank goodness she got cut. she looks like a meth-head, so i have her pictured below with two "faces of meth."  i think that ashley was also one of the worst singers they put through to hollywood and i can't believe she almost got on the show. if you want to hear how bad she is, check out her initial audition on you tube.

and now for the obvious - casey abrams & seth rogen: 

if you're not up on how awesome this guy is, you need to check out casey's performance of georgia on my mind and i put a spell on you. he's the real deal.

more awesome/awful ads

my friend melanie forwarded this to me in an email. she saw it on a poster at her daughter's elementary school (brookwood school in dalton) and couldn't resist taking a photo:

whoever designed this either is getting high-fives, or got fired. i mean really, it doesn't take a pervert to see that what we have here is a penis in a hat.

and this ad was in people magazine.  what the...? first of all, people magazine usually has very high-quality ads.  this one is just... bad. so bad, in fact, that i actually stopped flipping pages to look at it. so i guess in that respect it's effective?  *sigh.* their website really isn't much better.  i really didn't want to look at it, but my curiosity got the best of me... good job, crappy company.  but i assure you, my awareness won't result in a sale.

andy, mary ellen, & i showed up late for chad & cathy's super bowl party and got iced.  yes, i know that my buddies & i missed the "bros icing bros" bit by about 2 years...so it lives on, and it's still just as hilarious as it was years ago. and you know, i don't mind getting iced because i actually like the taste of those things, it's the chugging i have a problem with. mary ellen took hers like a champ, and i think the only reason my friends decided to ice her along with andy & myself is because she iced me on Christmas day.  payback's a bitch.  a very bubbly and frosty bitch.

chad gets an "a+" for presentation.