Samantha

hopefully some of you remember me; i'm the girl who got ditched by her boyfriend mid-move and decided to drive 32 hours from texas anyway, without knowing anyone.

i'm here, and i'm happy, and i've made a lot of new friends. you people are so nice! but, now i have a few more questions. they're just basic questions, and i'm sure any local could tell me in about five seconds so i thought some of you would know.

first of all, where's the good cheap grocery? i live near the community co-op, and it's delicious there but also kind of expensive for basic items.

second, where's the good cheap coffee houses? recommend me one. so far, i've been to Three Trees and Wood's coffee, and i liked both of them. is there anywhere i should know?

third, do you have a dollar theatre anywhere? or any kind of cheap movie place? where's the cheapest place to rent from?

and lastly, what do you do during the day? i work a lot, but on my off days i'm not sure what to do. i spend a lot of time walking around and i've been to a lake. i know bellingham has like a thousand cool things to do during the day and i'm just waiting to find them.

thank you, and please let me know if any of you cuties want to hang out!

Tomorrow afternoon I'm continuing the birthday celebration with a trip to the Olympus Spa in Lynnwood. I have an appointment for a body scrub at 2pm, so I plan to be there shortly after noon, and will probably bake myself for an hour or two afterward in their lovely lovely heated energy rooms.

Come join me!

My apologies if you've seen this elsewhere, but I want to make as many people aware of this issue as possible.

I work at The Black Drop Coffeehouse and we participate in a youth work program for at-risk and low-income youths.

KGMI's Morning show with Joe and Patti successfully dismantled a major aspect of it on their talk show July 1. Thanks to their irresponsible message, the homeless shelter we were working with has lost their funding for job training.

If you can stomach it, try listening to the show here http://tiny.cc/Jjnb3

But also be sure to read our rebuttal here http://tiny.cc/jLo1t

Thanks a lot, KGMI - way to go. >:-[

Hulu (www.hulu.com) has Exosquad!

Is anyone heading to Spokane for the weekend of July 31-August 2? If so, I would dearly love to catch a ride with you. I can chip in for gas. Reply here, or drop me a line at nellielovett@hotmail.com. Thank you!

x-posted

Hey! I'm looking for a house for me, my girlfriend, and a friend of ours. About us:
I'm Allison. I'm 21 and a quarter away from graduating Evergreen. I like taking apart electronic toys that make musical sounds, and putting them back together. I also like reading books. I have a pet hamster named Hammie. Hammie stays in her cage, and behaves like a hamster.
Michelle is 21, also a quarter away from graduating at Evergreen. She's an amazing artist, and works as a laundress.
Sarah is 30. She's an Evergreen grad and biologist. She's away 4 days a week during spring and summer counting salamanders and measuring trees and stuff. She has a dog named Piojo--he's 55 pounds, happy, and completely housebroken and trained. When Sarah's in the field, Piojo goes to puppy camp. When she's home, he goes pretty much everywhere with her. Piojo is available for meeting and character evaluation.
We're all financially stable, and have good rental history and cosigners. We're tidy and responsible. We're looking for a two (or more) bedroom house, fairly near bus lines, on the west side, downtown, or maybe on the east side. We need parking for two cars and four bicycles, and we'd love a garage or shed for storage of a table saw, some power tools, or even space to work on projects and art. We need some sort of yard for the dog--it'd be great if it was fenced, but if you'd like to buy materials, we're pretty handy and can definitely fence it ourselves. We're looking for a September 1st move in, but would definitely consider late August so we could avoid doing all our moving on one day. If you've got something that might work for us, know of something, or would like to hear more about us, please send me an e-mail at IGotTheMoxie at gmail dot com. Thanks!

So, I had begun to have an addiction at some point to McDonald's iced lattes. Yes. I undoubtedly liked the coffee, and the preparation better than $tarbuck$ concoctions. (Some of them anyway, the ones I choose to drink anymore) - when, I began to want to hold back on these. Primarily because I've been shaving down my caloric intake to account for the joys of ... wait for it: sitting on my ass for a few weeks with the dandy NSAIDs.

So, I swore off them. Even if they were 50 calories for a small, 60 for a large, and 70 (no flavoring) for a big big one.

Then came the notion that I do have an awesome coffee station that is virtually unused at home anymore. The coffee station, was one of my HUGE enthused items that I was going to HAVE when I moved into 874. So much so, that I made a huge deal to go buy the coffee cart.

Therefore, the thoughts drifted into my head the other day. Coffee itself: 5 calories per cup. Whatever, I don't count it. (I burn 5 calories taking an extra large duke, right?)
So - I do avoid sweeteners when I can. But sometimes, you just get tired of avoiding avoiding avoiding. I decided that for my coffees, I can bare an exception on the Splenda. (All my coffee flavorings are made with Splenda.)

The other day I experimented and created my own iced concoction. The fact of the matter is, I had never tried or even liked iced coffees until about 2 months ago. It was McD's new campaign's fault. I saw they were lower in calories than a lot of beverages. Of all things in my life, I am a huge beverage drinker. When I chose to switch what I ate and drank around, I largely went to water and select diet sodas. (No biggie - but there were indeed things I missed. Like an all around variety).

NEEDLESS to say, I first started with regular nonfat milk + ice + flavoring. Turned out pretty good. This morning I realized I was out of milk. So instead, as I began experimenting, and wanting a more precise measurement so I could not botch it up and be more regimented (what can I say, I am a Virgo) I measured, played and added nonfat condensed milk to my latte.
This being said, I have had 2 iced lattes because my first one I experimented, the second one I decided I had to have to make SURE my recipe and proportions were how I wanted them.

Now I know, and use an ML beaker for condensed milk, flavoring, and I use 6 oz of coffee total. It means the whole coffee drink I make at home is about 1/2 the calories, and double the size, as the McD's ones. This makes me happy. I can have my treat, spend a whole lot less $$$ doing it, have it in the convenience of my home in about... hmmm, 3-5 minutes - make it with any flavoring *I* want, and get more for less as far as calories. I can easily work this into my morning, or afternoon treat list of "stuff I can have that I absolutely love," without compromising quality of taste. To be honest, I am already seeing mine taste better.

When I was out with Mom yesterday, we stopped by Cash and Carry - where they carry the syrups really cheap in EVERY variety you can imagine. I spent more than I'd have liked to (trying to save cash for other important stuff) but, admittedly, this seriously seems like an investment in helping me stay on my game, and keeping me all coffee'd and treated. How wonderful!!!

I just hope the peanut butter syrup is good and not assy. :P
I was thinking I could combine the PB syrup with some chocolate and make a reeses peanut butter cup iced latte. Right? RIGHT? How great does THAT sound????
Wait. Is it apparent I've had 12 oz of coffee????
Normally I've been drinking about 4-8 oz a day.
I'm a bit caffeinated. I'd also like to note that 1 20 ounce iced latte (the size I am making) comes under the amount of OVERcaffeination that I'd like to avoid.

A little is great. Too much is no fun. So, now that I have figured out the secrets to my own blend, I am tickled.

I would also like to note condensed milk is definitely the way to go for this.
Way creamier. I also might tweak the proportions more as I go along. Can I cut back from 40 ml of condensed milk to 30 without feeling it is not creamy enough, for instance?
And next time I might go lighter on the syrup. But I hate not enough syrup so today I went heavier etc.

I also moved the coffee station to a different location in the dining/kitchen area. We'll see how I like it where it is. I love its wheels. I love the whole thing. I re-orged it all.

My "lattes" are - (separate note here) more iced coffees, than lattes. But whatever. :D

Anyways. I could have done a lot of things this morning, but instead I played with coffee.
I think that was a worthwhile endeavor before 7AM.
It is sort of nice to take my sweet ass time in the morning also, with this whole 30 day trial of early rising (at 5AM).
It was way easier to get up first beep at my alarm clock today. I think my body is adjusting. I am very excited for this prospect. If the 30 days ends, I am almost sure I won't go back to sleeping in past 5.

Anyway. After 2 lattes, I seriously feel like I had some TABOO amount of beverage. You know - like it's some sort of "Cheat" day to my regimented diet, hahaha. I better go to work now, or else.

-Angela

In the succession of all the others. What progress can be had today?
Also noted: so much harder to start on projects when Jim is at home at 5AM. (It was his night off last night). Somehow, clearing through my closet and organizing is stifled by movies playing in the background. Guess I start with the Den until that guy goes back to work...

-Angela

I am doing a 30 day early riser trial.
I am on day 4 of getting up at 5AM, no snooze button.

So far, so good. (This includes weekends).
I find I am able to get stuff done in the early hours. Especially before Jim gets off his shift. See, if he gets off work at 8AM, I've already had 4 hours of empty morning house.
I am determined to change the cluttered house and provide myself with the house I dreamed of when we bought this place.

If I alternate between nice, easy workouts for rehabbing, and house cleaning (which seems just as hard on my damn IT bands) then... well, I think I can accomplish what I want!

I have 1 perfect place in my house currently: My Temple Space.
It is just how I want it. It has become my refuge from the rest of the mess.
Now to work from my walk in closet, and towards the Den - and then down to the first floor, and possibly the bedroom, little by little I seriously plan to conquer my 874 clutter and ... live a nice, shiny existence. And Jim can keep his room however he likes.

I should clean more, but honestly. I'm sort of bored with it. I might head out to see mother dearest. Jim stayed up until almost 1PM, which means he will sleepsleepsleep until late evening, no doubt. No need to hang about here. Not until tomorrow morning, when I will commence a mini-cleaning session before work.

-Angela

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

i had to go to the harborview ER last night. somehow i got another bacterial infection. this time it was in my elbow. ~3 days earlier i'd noticed that i had a little scrape on it. i didn't remember bumping it on anything, but i regularly have random cuts/bruises with no memory of what caused them. i put a bandaid on it and thought nothing of it. late last night i noticed it was hurting awfully intensely for a little cut. i went to the bathroom and it had quadrupled in size and was bright red. it seemed to still be growing. last time i ended up in the hospital for days and it cost $6,000 so i decided i'd better not wait and see. i was there for 10.5 hours. sucked. a lot of the time was spent listening to the other patients. most of them were there for drug/alcohol reasons. many didn't know what year it was or where they were. the girl next to me was a minor who'd been given so much liquor by a marine that she was 5 times the legal level and repeatedly urinating/vomiting on herself. another guy was crawling around the floor on his hands and knees.

unlike my other hospital adventures, i wasn't alone this time. stereo99 drove me there, held my hand, sat around the waiting room for hours, brought me food once i was allowed to eat, drove my car home and got my laptop and glasses, and stayed up all night until i finally departed late this morning.

now my sleep schedule is totally fucked. i went to sleep 5 hours after i'm supposed to get up on weekdays. they also insisted that i come back to the hospital tonight so i couldn't even go to bed at the right time and try to go to sleep. i hope they don't make me stay again. i had a hair appointment at emerson scheduled for today. i called and left a message on their voicemail but i woke up to an annoyed message from my stylist who obviously hadn't gotten the voicemail. :(

dj harvey plays tonight at flammable. i've barely slept and have to be up at 6am tomorrow for school. my elbow still hurts a fair amount. but i'm tempted to go anyway.