Saturday, September 22, 2007

A Shocker....

OK, so its time to shock my friends and family....well, maybe it wont shock you but it will be a surprise. If you read the comments from my last blog you know I have some news to share......my mom is going to be a grandma! Isn't that great? I'll leave you to let that information set in, and I will fill you in on the details later! Aren't you happy for me!? Katie

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Time Zones & other fun things!

Hello all! I'm sitting here writing this blog while watching the Emmy's. Now let me say this, I am a pretty big fan of the award shows. I enjoy watching them and rooting them on. Yes, I know they cant hear me, but its still fun to yell at the TV when my favorite actor doesn't win. I thought being out here closer to the shows, we would get some good footage and be able to see it at a decent time. Yeah, not the way it happens. In fact its worse knowing that all of you know who won, who lost and got to see the funny parts (or the missed bleeps). I on the other hand have to watch a program that is "from a previously recorded show". Yes, we may be closer but we don't get to see anything live. We are the forgotten people. I turned on my computer to write this blog and went online, the first page I come to is the AOL page with pictures all over it saying winners! Kind of spoiled it for me. So i read the rest of the story and found out all the times things should have been bleeped and the flubs, of course they have taken care of those for us, so we get the edited version. Fun. Can you tell I'm bitter about it. Next time, I am going to call one of you and have you hold the phone up to the tv for the whole thing. This is ridiculous. lol. Anyway, lets see whats been going on.

Well, I was supposed to be done working at the office I got "farmed" out to, but I my co-workers asked (or rather begged) to keep me, and when my boss asked me what I wanted I asked to stay. So I get to stay there for a little more time. We had a staff meeting on Saturday and they invited me to it on Friday. Turns out it was a potluck breakfast meeting. I had just gone to the store on Thursday night and really didn't want to fight the Friday night after work traffic. So I came home and spent the next 2.5 hours online trying to find a recipe that only involved ingredients I had in my cupboard. Mind you, its a single persons cupboard so there wasn't much. Oh yeah, and I had to find a recipe that would WOW the people, (as I have baked for them before but only from a box). I did finally find one, a french toast casserole with a caramelized topping. It was good enough that I had a few who asked for the recipe. Only one problem, mom was the one who found it and I don't know where she got it from. lol. I'll have to figure that out.

On other fronts, Fritz had a run in with a neighbor dog. We were out for a nice walk when a dog from another apartment came running from across the street and down the sidewalk barking. Fritz defended me well and the other dog (a beagle mix about Fritz' size) was "yelling" at him. The kids at the house where the dog came from stood on the patio and yelled at the dog to come. lol. As if that would do it. I finally yelled to them to come & get your dog. The mom walked (yes, I said walked) over and continued to tell the dog to go home. lol. Finally she picked the dog up by the collar and drug her home. I have found a lot of people trust their dogs too much. I feel that you just never know when instinct is going to take over. When they are out in public they should be on a leash if not for others safety, then for their own. The dog that went after Fritz is lucky there wasn't a car on the street when she was focused on Fritz. So, Fritz and I have had to cut our walks short and I keep my eyes pealed for any loose dogs along the way. I do have pepper spray hooked to my least just in case. I thought about using it this last time, but they were not biting to hurt at that time. It was scary, though.

Other than that its been a very interesting week. I hope you all are having fun and enjoying Iowa. Take care and talk with you later!

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Puyallup and other fun times

**NOTE: I will be online & on Skype from 8pm-? (your time) on Sunday nights. If you are on, drop me a line.**

Hey! Welcome back. Its been an interesting week. I finally made it back to work and got back in the swing of things. Although it was a short work week, it was an interesting week never the less. Work was work, I had to fight a little so I could stay in the place I am in for one more week to finish the project I am working on. I hate leaving things unfinished. Anyway, I am trying to get out more and do things I wouldn't normally do. In watching tv I have been hearing a commercial for the "Puyallup Fair". They have this really annoying song for their commercials and it its with "do the Puyallup" repeating over and over again until it fades out. Its just annoying (I think you'd have to be there.) Here is the site to see & hear this annoying song (http://www.thefair.com/puyallupfair/ click play; or http://www.thefair.com/puyallup-fair/fair-experience/song.php country version). Its just annoying. So I attended the Fair. My trip to it was interesting and the fair was just plain old different. Here is my story of the week.

I was looking at our local paper and noticed that there is a bus that runs from Lakewood (town next to mine) to the Puyallup Fair. With a ticket purchased in advance the bus was only $1 round trip. I couldn't pass that up. So found out where to get tickets (it just so happened to be at the grocery store right next to the bus stop) and got a ticket to the fair. Then went to wait on the bus. They have a bus stop (transit center) at the shopping mall where this bus would pick up, but it said to park your cars in back of the Target store (in the middle of no where, where no one parks their car normally). I decided I wasn't going to park there because if I wanted to break into a car, this would be the prime spot. Away from normal traffic and all the cars owners were gone far away and wouldn't "pop" in. I parked where the employees parked (next to a busy street) where all the traffic for the mall goes by. I went up to the bus stop to wait. Now there were some interesting people there. I figured out that I had just missed the bus by a few minutes, so it would be 25 minutes until the next one came. I sat just listening to the conversations people were having. One was a Bull riding state champ in Texas who now lives here with his sister (or aunt, I cant remember) and was working the games at the Fair. He struck up a conversation with another guy who was waiting for the bus. He works for some online grocery store which had a booth at the Fair. I found out that he is in his mid 30's , and as the guy put it "man, no sh**, you don't look it". The Grocery guy responded with "well, that's why I have me a 21 year old wife". So interesting people all around. Finally the bus came and we hopped on for the 20 minute drive to Puyallup. (I just love that word). As we drove I saw signs for the fairgrounds in Puyallup but the driver didn't get off at that exit. Instead he got off at the next exit, then got back on the interstate and got off at the exit we just passed. lol. Go figure. I think he missed his turn. The bus dropped us off right at the entrance to the grounds.

If you want to picture the Puyallup Fair, picture the Mississippi Valley Fair only about 3 times as big, and 3 times as long it lasts from 7 SEP to 23 SEP. Long time. They get big names for concerts but all the tickets are sold through Ticketmaster and any ticket from there is expensive. So I went to the free shows while I was there. There was a singer who sang all different types of songs , from John Denver, to Elvis (dressed has him) to country hits galore. He had humor too. He said one his songs was stolen and the words were changed, but it was his song. The song was Boot-Scootin-boogie but his version was a song about his dog called Butt-scootin-doggie. It was hilarious. Lots of other great songs. I enjoyed his concert and went back for his second one a few hours later.

The fair has some things its known for. Apparently elephant ears is one of them. From those of you who remember Ady these are similar to her dessert (bunuelos). Anyway, the other thing they are known for is Hot Scones. Yes, people lined up for 5 minutes just to get hot scones. These were basically a Bisquick biscuit with butter and raspberry jelly in it. They were only a dollar, so I thought....when in Rome....and got one. They were actually quite good. Fresh out of the over (warm) and tasty. When I was in line wondering how someone could order their special (13 scones for $11) I didn't know how small and how good they were. There were people talking about them on the bus home, how they get extra to take home for later. Go figure. There were lots of booths from jewelry to kitchen stuff, to teeth whitening. There was even a booth that would spray paint your hair different colors (purple seemed popular).

The ride back was enjoyable, I waited about 20 minutes for the bus to come (as I saw the bus leaving just as I was coming out the gate). Another lady sat next to me talking about how she lost her keys (she works there) and how she couldn't leave until she found them. But she found them in the bathroom, because that is what she does, cleans bathrooms. yes, sir, she has been cleaning bathrooms there for the past 7 years, and only 7 more then she will be done. What a character she was. Once on the bus we left and the bus driver literally was doing 40 miles an hour on the highway that is 60. we were being passed and flipped off the whole time. Then when we got off the highway and were in town, he started flying down the road. It was amazing we made it in one piece. I got back to my car and was happy to be headed home.

As soon as I got to my car, I thought about going to see a movie at the theater. There were 2 movies I wanted to see that were out. I made a deal with myself. I would go the the theater (about 1 block from where my car was parked) and if it was playing shortly I would watch it, but I wasn't going to wait for ever or just pay money for a movie I didn't want to really see. So I went and of course one wasn't playing at all and the other was about 1 hour away. So I decided to try renting a movie. The movie rental place (Movie Gallery) was past my exit to my house, so I went out of my way to get this movie. I get there and of course (its a Saturday night about 5pm) they are out of the movies I wanted to see, so I drove home and cleaned. Fun times around here, right?

So there is my story for the week. Its always entertaining around here. Hope everyone is doing well. take care! Drop me a line and let me know how you are, or give me a call. Toodles for now. Katie