Two tickets to the Bodeans on December 19th at the Guthire Theatre.

8pm, Aisle 1, Row P, Seats 101 and 102

$39 each

This is a sold out show! Snap these up as a pair! :) Cash only, can meet anywhere in Minneapolis, or along the way to Elk River. Thanks!

If anyone is able to help these tickets get sold, the Pantsmom can attend the Happy Merry Christmakwanzaaca party! :D

Saturday, we got together with Brian Quarfoth (who was dressed like a scary mime...lulz) and played this crazy fun game called Red November. The first time, we all died horribly. The second time, we made it to safety. I'm sad we didn't get to play Betrayal at House on the Hill, but it was still nice to get to know the first game better so that next time we play, it's solid.

After he left, we lounged about the house for a bit. Got ready to go to Amanda's rockin' house party, as well as the famed Mansion Party with the Kennedys. At Amanda's place, my team totally rocked all over everyone's faces, which wasn't surprising--I had Amanda AND Chris on my team! What a draw! We won shot glasses and Halloween pencils. :D Amanda was dressed like Flo and she looked GREAT. Chris was the founder of some religious order, and had a massive sword. He looked pretty cool. Their new place is AWESOME. I love their sun room with two arm chairs in it. They are totally settled in to a life of together, which is great. :) I want a room like that someday!

We headed to the Mansion Party and met Chase and Andrea there. It was an ok party. Most of the people were already suuuuuper wasted by the time we got there, so it wasn't all that much fun to me. Nate stopped in, and I kind of wish I had gone party hopping with him. He kept sending me pictures from all of the parties he was at--totes jealous. Erin was supposed to come out with us, but she wasn't feeling well. :( Later in the evening, around the time of DST, we headed to Hard Times Cafe for late night sustenance. I think it was a good idea all around, as some were drunker than others. The water and food was a winner. :) Nate, Ali, Evan and Evan's sister all joined us there.

Sunday, Tiff was kind enough to let me go in at 11 instead of 10. I needed that extra hour. I woke up feeling GREAT and well rested. Awesome! Jerry dropped me off at Dave's to pick up my Jeep, all put back together and working fine. :)

Tiff had worn this crazy Sheera costume, complete with head dress, uncomfortable necklace, and extensions. Her poor neck was irritated as hell from the necklace, and her head was in pain from the extensions in her hair. We spent about an hour in the shower trying to wash them out of her hair. Wacky! Her friend, Brooke, put them in her hair, using glue AND THEN a hair dryer to pretty much cement them in place. I will never use extensions like that. :(

I had to work at Abilene at 2, which I understood, since there was a Vikings game at 3, but I knew we wouldn't get busy. I had ONE table. Dominic was getting his ass kicked and he made good $$, but not me. I left with $6 at the end of my shift. I could have left with less, but the table was generous. I really appreciated that. What I didn't appreciate, however, was that I didn't even make a shot of Jameson in tips. I *really* wanted one on Sunday. :( I figured I'd save my $6.75+tip and buy a bottle on Thursday. Bah.

I started my NaNoWriMo, and got about 350 words in. I'm sure that pace won't keep up, and I'll be writing frantically at the end. We'll see how that train wreck goes. Called home, talked to Mom and Darin for a while. I met up with Jerry at Thad's for Sunday Night Awesomeness. Carmen made cucumber soup, which was tasty and amazing. She is such a great cook!

Monday, I don't remember if we stayed at my place or his Sunday night. Oh well. I had to work at 4, which was teh lame. I made $25 from four tables. $31 in two days. I can't keep living like this! :( I headed over to Erin's to try on and potentially borrow a suit for my Thursday interview. Her suit was super cute and fit great! We had good chats, until she and Nate had to head out to go see Where the Wild Things Are. I would have gone if I hadn't already seen it.

I called Jerry to see what was shakin' before I left NE. I had originally planned on going to Chicago Lake, buying a bottle of Jameson, and settling in with some Katamari for the evening. He was sick, so I headed to the grocery to pick up some juice and dinner, and went over to take care of his poor, sick face. :P We played video games, watched LOST. Ya know.

Tuesday, he got to work from home. I worked on my stuff, sending out lots and lots of resumes, applying for many things at the U, per Amanda's suggestion. Bah, I hate this waiting game! I headed home in the afternoon. I should have headed out earlier, because as soon as I got home, I took a nap. I was full from lunch and probably coming down with a touch of Jerry's cold. Bummer! I still headed to Suzi's, even though I was contemplating not going. I had a good time, and Erin even came! I went apeshit on her crossword puzzle to the point where she had to take it away. :P

Wednesday, all I had on my plate was SPW. I slept in, lazed about. Made cookies for the group. Turned the heat off early so we didn't die. Shit got a little loose, what with three bottles of Jameson, two bottles of rum, and one bottle of Bailey's in play. Eek! We broke an attendance record, too. I believe we had a total of 19 people there, all in all. I will have to check records, but that sounds about right. Amy and her friend, two of Aaron's friends, Aaron, me, Wifey, Crystal, Bertine, Anne and Doug Miller, Ann, Dave, Laura and Joe, Asian Dan and Pete, Jason D...anyone else? That's only 18! That ties last year's Night Before Thanksgiving count. TELL ME if I forgot anyone. :D

Thursday, I had my interview. The company was really cool, and the staff seemed really nice. He is going to call people for 2nd round interviews sometime next week. I hope I get this job!

Post interview, I met up with Nate to have some lunch. We went to a cute little place in NE called Sen Yai Sen Lek. He bought my lunch, which I thought was sweet. :) He let me hang out in his condo building's office room to print and fax some stuff. Awesome! I even printed out a new social security card application. I have to get in and do that soon. Bah. Paperwork.

Thursday night, I went in to work. I made $55 when the night was over. MAJOR BUMMER. I seriously can't live on $100/week at Abilene. :( I ended up at Jerry's after work, which was nice. We watched more LOST. We are addicts!

Friday, I had grandiose plans of sleeping in. Fortunately, I had set a calendar appointment for myself that Anna and I were going to go hit Uptown, and that I was going to pick her up! I tore through the shower, got dressed, and grabbed her from Thad's. We stopped by my place so I could grab a card to write a thank you for the interview. I only grabbed one, and ended up screwing up what I wanted to say, of course. We ate at the Namaste Cafe, which was surprisingly awesome! Service was slow, but they were busy. Oh well.

We walked to the Spyhouse on Hennepin for a coffee after lunch. I can't wait to hang out with Anna more often! She is so great and so much fun to hang out with. :) We stopped by my place on the way to teh Wedge to grab more cards. This time, I grabbed several, so I could NOT mess it up. :P I didn't get to take Anna to the Wedge, but there is always next time. I got her home just in time to go to the gym with Carmen. She looked a little weird, and I realised it was because she wasn't wearing her glasses! I've never seen her wearing contacts. :P I stayed and wrote the card at their place so I didn't put it off and potentially forget. Thad helped me word it. :) Popped it into the mail and went about my merry way.

I grabbed a bottle of Jameson on the way back to Jerry's. I also stopped at a gas station and checked my oil. I need to get an oil change and check the tire pressure, srsly. Talked with Nate on the phone for a bit, which was nice. We made a quick stop in at Thad's, but I wasn't feeling 100%, so we hung out in, watched a few episodes of LOST, and chilled with some chicken fried rice. The oyster sauce made a world of difference! So super good. :) I feel bad that we didn't make it to Kari's birfday. :(

Saturday, being today, I got up and headed to Tiff's. Just got home a bit ago. Jerry and I are making breakfast, and we are going on a walk after we eat. I'm going to go take care of Jeep stuff, like a fresh oil change, and he's going to work. At some point, we're going to go grocery shopping, and there are a few options for tonight. Ah, to be so busy!

My Flickr is about to expire in two days. I am going to wait until this job business sorts itself out to re-up my paid account. That's $25 toward bills, baby!

A few moments I will remember and cherish FOREVER:

* Waking up on October 12th, 2008 with Amanda's glass full of sangria next to my bed, and her Guest of Honor in my bed.
* Eating Luce and drinking beer while playing Wario Ware on my Wii and talking till all hours of the morning the very next day.
* Eating Thai food with Jerry back in January and he wore the only sweater he owns.
* Standing next to the upper floor railing during the intermission of Singin' in the Rain at the Ordway with him holding me from behind.
* Lying in bed on Friday before Eric's Halloween party, just having eaten dinner and cuddling while watching The Mitchell and Webb Look. Legs intertwined, holding hands, touching the other person's hair... :)
* Our first Cheap Date Night at the Red Stag.
* One of many meals at Our Kitchen.
* Jerry pushing me and my dead scooter back to safety.
* Drinking jynnan tonnyx fortified with hail while watching Look Around You.
* Fixing my tank top with twine.

<3

Saturday, I got up and headed to Tiff's. I headed back to Jerry's after Tiff's and we bummed about the house most of the day. We meant to get up and get to Target to pick up his allergy meds, as well as out to Rosedale to get Brandy's birthday present, but didn't make it that far very early. As per usual, at the last possible minute, we picked the most important of events that needed to take place, and rushed about to get them done.

We hit up Kinko's to print out some documents. Then we went to an office store to get presentation supplies. The douche at Kinko's wouldn't even step out from behind the counter to help us look at theirs. Pssht. After that, we went to the cuuuuute Japanese store at Rosedale to get Brandy a birthday present. We got her little ghosts and smoking watermelons. :P On our way to Minneapolis for dinner, we realised we forgot our tickets to the Haunted Basement at the Soap Factory.

After an emergency stop in at Thad and Carmen's to print the tickets, we raced into Minneapolis. We found a good parking spot close to Ginger Hop and had just enough quarters to tide us over until Haunted Basement time. Dinner was...less than impressive. Food was served cold and lacking in flavor in my case, small portioned and tasting of peanut butter in Jerry's case, lacking in flavor in Spike's case, and generally "Meh" on most other people's parts. I think the drinks and appetizers won out. Service was good, but food was lacking. Total bummer!

Brandy and JD joined Jerry and I on our trek to the Soap Factory. Spike told us that they don't let you in if you are late, so we literally RAN to our cars, and raced like crazy people to the door. We found out that they most certainly DO allow lateness, otherwise nobody would get in! :P We had an exciting wait with Kari as our tour guide. She spoiled LOST for us a little. Bummer! We had a good time joking that we wouldn't make it out alive and that Kari would watch us on the TVs. Brandy, JD and I all bemoaned the fact that we agreed to go with Jerry, since all three of us hate scary things. :P

The basement was fun, on the whole. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't gone yet. I'm impressed with myself that I didn't "Say Uncle", which is their safe word. They would escort you out if you did. I made it to the end, clutching Jerry, Brandy and JD the whole way. :D After the basement, we stayed and hung out, watching the cameras in the basement for a while with Kari.

We left NE, heading downtown to meet up with everyone for Rock Band at Grumpy's. The guy running the night forgot the freakin' game! I couldn't believe it! He brought all of his RB gear, his XBox, and all of his sound equipment, but not the freakin' game. FTW. Once it got going, the night was pretty fun. Like karaoke, only with your RB guitar in tow. :) Tara was AMAZING--she kicked some serious ass on guitar and vocals in "You Oughta Know". She also owned all over the drums during some hard Chili Peppers songs.

At the end of the night, we headed back to Jerry's place. Watched some more LOST, drank a Dr. Pepper. The usual. :)

Sunday, Tiff allowed me the luxury of an extra hour of sleep. So great! After Tiff's, I headed to the grocery. I bought some baking supplies and fried rice supplies. Nate met me at my place, and we baked banana bread together. So great! I met Jerry over at Thad and Carmen's place for Sunday night fun. Carmen made this AMAZING Greek-inspired dish in the crockpot. Eggplant and other veggies, tofu, and sheep's cheese on top. Served over cous cous...delish! We headed back to my place for the night. :)

Monday, Jerry got up early and headed on in to work. I slept fairly late after he left...I really need to knock that business off. Get up when he gets up, seriously! I headed in to work at 3pm and made a decent chunk of change. Probably for the best, since I haven't really worked all week since. :(

Tuesday, I felt very domestic all day. I washed lots of laundry, dealt with some paperwork things that needed dealing with. Washed some dishes. Walked to the grocery and back. Baked some tasty bits. :D Jerry was coming over after work, and I had dinner ready for him. Chicken legs, sweet corn, corn bread, and banana bread for dessert. I rock! He worked on some worky bits and I watched Everything is Illuminated. Good stuff!

We headed to Suzi's and he kept right on working on his stuff there, too! Had a couple of beers with good friends. Good times! We stayed at my place, watched a bit of LOST. We are like two old people, I swear!

Wednesday, he headed out to work, and I slept in again. :P Cleaned house a bit more, baked pie crust bits for SPW. We had a great crowd! Nate and Erin, Chris and Abi, Peter, Dave, Crystal, Wifey, Aaron, Ryan...we had a lot of fun with the pie theme, too!

Thursday, I mostly bummed around the house. I stayed up far too late Wednesday night, playing Beatles Rock Band all by my lonesome. :P I got up and ready to head to work, even lugged all of my Halloween gear out to the Jeep, only to find out the bugger wouldn't start. :(

I called work to let them know I'd be late, and they said I could just not come in if I wanted. I really wanted to work, but not if I wasn't going to make any money. :( :( :( I opted to stay home and deal with the car situation. I'm sure the new GM is less than thrilled about my attitude toward the few shifts I have that I don't show up to. To be fair, she offered the night off AND the information that we were slow as all getout. Bah.

I called Jerry and he suggested calling Dave. Dave happened to have his car savvy friend in the car with him, so they came over to take a look at it for me. The mechanic suggested new spark plugs and a few minor parts that would cost less than $60. Dave offered to put them in for me today. I owe him a big one! He's so generous. :)

We went to Jerry's to have a shower and relax for a few before dinner. We headed to Thad and Carmen's to meet up before dinner. I need to learn that Jerry needs to eat--often! He was grumpy and nearly faint with hunger by the time we got to The Anchor. We had a 20 minute wait for a table. We used our time wisely and knew what we wanted to order right away. The food came out quickly, which was good. Everything was so tasty! It was also really nice to hang out with Thad and Carmen outside of the house. We were like normal couples last night! :P

The four of us headed back to Thad and Carmen's for drinks and chilling. I fell asleep on the couch, Carmen headed to bed, while Jerry and Thad played Borderlands. I'm glad they got game time in. I promised I'd get Carmen out of the house for a girly night so they can have a boy night soon. :)

Jerry and I went to his place, watched two episodes of LOST, and fell asleep. We are pretty far in Season 3. If any of you people DARE to spoil anything else, we'll write you out of the new season. SRSLY. Nate spoiled stuff for us, Kari spoiled stuff for us...bah.

I hate owning a car. I really do. Less than an hour ago, I went to start my Jeep to head in to work. It wouldn't start. :( I called Jess to ask for a ride to work, and then called work to tell them I would be late. The manager said that someone else had asked to stay and I could take the night off if I wanted.

I *really* wanted to work, but in the next five minutes, got stressed out to the point where it didn't seem worth it to go in and clean the floors with my toothbrush...we were *that* slow. :(

Now, here I sit, at Jerry's place. He's having a shower before we head out for dinner. I'm excited to get to go eat dinner at The Anchor, since I've heard nothing but good about the place. I'm sad I didn't get to work. I'm happy that I put my resume out to about fifteen different places today. :)

I'm feeling ok that Dave and his mechanically inclined friend were able to suss out the situation--El Jeep needs new spark plugs, some wires, and a couple of other minor parts. Dave is going to steal my Jeep tomorrow and do the work. If you ever find yourself in need of a really awesome friend, look Dave Muggli up in the phone book. You won't be disappointed. :D

This guy is selling a boatload of RB/GH gear on the cheap. I'm only interested in the GH 2, GHWT, GHSH and GH 5 games, in addition to the microphone. He quoted me $80 for all four games plus the mic.

I did a little research, and it's a fair price. The earlier games are going for pretty cheap, and if I really wanted to hold out, I could buy a copy of GHWT on eBay, shipped to my home, for about ten bucks. I think that's the game I want the most. GH 5 wouldn't be bad, either, but I have GH 3 and I NEVER PLAY IT.

I'm going to see if the guy will piece it out even further. Maybe just sell me the mic and one or two of the games. What say you?

I'm so ahead of the times this year--I've already picked out my holiday card and am getting ready to start working on them. If you want one, leave me your address here or send me an email. Comments are screened, so LEAVE ME ALL OF YOUR PERSONAL INFO, KTHXBAI.

I need a real job so I feel compelled to go to bed before 3am and get up before 11:30am. Seriously!

I'm grateful. I am so grateful that I don't have kids, car payments, a mortgage, etc... All I have is rent, loans, Jeep insurance, and personal expenditures.

I just found out, FOR SURE, that all of my management hours have been cut, effective immediately. This is approximately a 40% pay cut.

I am grateful. I am so grateful that I have savings and a strong will to budget. Given what I have saved up, I can float ok for about six months. Ideally, I'd like to see a new job in the works by the end of next week.

If anyone wants to take a look at my resume, I'd be really thankful. I think it looks ok, but a second set of eyes taking a look never hurt anything. If anyone can pass my resume along to any leads, I'd be equally grateful.

I started a new community to keep track of my budget spending. If any of you want to join, it's here:

10dollarsaday

Make sure you read the community info. I laid out some basic ground rules and ideas. Be sure to post your lists of necessary versus luxury spending, as well as emergency spending versus non-emergency spending. I am excited to see what everyone comes up with!

I'm starting my budget next Thursday, October 22nd. That's my next payday. Who's with me?! :D

Happy birthday kalmn, fleur and manoman. That's a lot of birthdays for one day! :)

A year ago today, I went to an awesome house party thrown by the lovely Amanda and her equally lovely roommate, Katie. It was called Party (with Jerry!)

According to Amanda's FB invite:

The date of this party has been specifically and meticulously picked for the attendance of Jerry. For those of you who were at the May BBQ, you may remember Jerry. Some of you (Paul?) flat-out fell in love with him. Some of you were amazed by his scooter (not a euphemism, he drives a scooter, also a euphemism), his crazy stories, or his quippy nature. Some of you may have missed him altogether. IT'S NOT TOO LATE. Jerry has given his word as a scholar and a gentleman that he will be at this party... SO YOU SHOULD BE THERE TOO!

There will be non-Jerry related entertainment in the form of drinks and other people. Bring a beverage or snack to share! Jerry will be providing prizes for those he deems worthy and/or likes the best.

Details:
WHAT: Party (With Jerry)
WHO: Katie, Amanda, everyone they know, and Jerry!
WHEN: Saturday, Oct 11, 8:00 until whenever.
WHERE: Chez Awesome, XXXX Colfax Ave S. Mpls.
WHY: Holy crap, why not?

Amanda writes the best invites. :)

I don't know that I ever wrote out the story of how Jerry and I "started". I've told this story a hundred times over, I'm sure. It's one of the best stories I know, and the best part is, it's true!

.....

I made a few comments on the invite page, as well as in my own journal about not being able to resist Jerry, that I would win all of the prizes, etc...I didn't even really know Jerry at that point. We met back in 2006 when Amanda was back for a week from Japan. She had a little get together at Psycho Suzi's in NE. I mentioned Jerry in the entry I wrote about the night. Our paths crossed again shortly after CVG08 at yet another Amanda function. Jerry, Brandy and JD all scooted to the party, and I did, too! The real turning point was the party in October. :)

I went to the party with the intention of drinking one of Jerry's gin drinks, holding a beer for the rest of the night, and excusing myself home at an early hour. At the time, I lived less than a block away from Amanda. Amanda knew that I loved gin, and told me that Jerry and I would be awesome friends because of it. She was so right!

Jerry showed up at the party and he looked good. I mean really good. ;) He made me one of his gin fizz drinks, and I hated it. :P It grossed me out that it was made with egg whites...srsly. I dumped it out when he wasn't looking, and was like "Mmm, tasty business!" when he was. After that drink, I grabbed a beer, but the party didn't end there.

We ended up crashing the neighbor's party with anney and drinking their crappy keg beer. We drank some of the beer that I brought over from my place. We drank the sake that Jerry brought in celebration of his new job. Before drinking the sake, we of course had to venture to my place to get sake cups. :) We returned to the party and talked with a "Japanese" accent (think O HARRO!) for about an hour and a half on Amanda's bed while totes tipsy. We drank Amanda's AMAZING apple sangria and ate the boozy fruit. At some point, I'm sure we drank more beer. We drank the first bottle of the Lambic that Jerry brought and then decided to sit outside so we could better hear each other.

It was super cold, so he gave me his sweatshirt. After a few minutes of sitting outside being cold and drunk, we decided to go to my place (less than a block away) and play Mario 3 on my Wii. We got SO MAD at Mario for "not being able to jump" properly. We agreed that it was Mario who was drunk, not us. :P

I woke up the next morning in my bed, laying next to Jerry. The only piece of clothing missing from our original costumes from the previous night was Jerry's shirt. It was like something out of a movie, where the heroine wakes up, her eyes flutter open and she gets her bearings. She's thinking to herself that she had a great time last night, but she's happy to be home. She remembers who she was with the night before, and when she rolls over in bed, there he is!

I shyly said good morning. He folded his arms up behind his head and said it back. We made tentative plans for hanging out again soon. :) He gave me a ride to work. So much for that "one drink and then hold a beer all night so I can get to work on time" plan. Whoops!

.....

Today marks one year since that party. A lot of things have happened in both of our lives. Friends have come and gone. SPW/SPS had its first successful season. The Happy Merry Christmakwanzaaka took place. I bought my 2009 scooter. CVG09 came and went. He put his house up on the market. I turned 27, he turned 28. My 2009 scooter officially died for the last time.

So many other wonderful things in there, too. Every day is a wonderful thing, my friends. Be good to each other. <3

Whatever happened to the Bud Ice Penguin? Seriously, that was genius!

Wednesday, I got up and left the Arden B at a fairly early hour. I had errands to run in Minneapolis proper. I hit up the bank to buy a cashier's check for rent and get it off in the mail. Hit the grocery. Ya know. Stuff closer to home. :)

I had to work at 3, on the cocktail side. I had some fun customers, and was done by 11:30ish. I can't remember if I went to Indy or not. I think not. Stayed up far too late, fell asleep on the couch, as per usual.

Thursday was mostly uneventful. When you stay up too late and start work at 3pm, most of your morning/early afternoon is eaten up quickly. Work was fine but slow. Scott gave me a ride home...I don't remember why I didn't ride on Thursday, but it was what it was. Likely due to rain/cold weather.

Friday was crazy busy. I got up, did stuff around the house. Got to work at 3pm again. I had a couple of tables that stayed FOREVER. They tipped well enough, so I didn't really mind. It just sucked when Erin showed up to get me and I was scrambling to get out the door. I hate making people wait!

We went to Nancy's going away party. We are all so happy for her about her new job, but super sad that she had to relocate. Val, the girl who hosted the party, had such a gorgeous house! Her kitty was super cute, too! His name is The Dude, and he's a big bear of a Mainecoon. What a sweetheart, srsly.

Saturday, I had planned on taking the bus to Tiff's, but got up early in hopes of the weather holding out so I could scoot. The forecast looked promising, so I bundled up and headed outside to start my baby up. It died about a minute into warming it up. I was not pleased as I RAN my foolish ass the four blocks to the bus, all while wearing my boots, jacket and full faced helmet.

The lovely Erin came and got me at Tiff's to go eat some breakfast. We went to Luce downtown. Good food! She had a great coupon for brunch food, so that was the deciding factor. Moose and Suzi's sounded fun, but cheap = winnar. :) Many awesome girl chats were had. She is such an awesome friend!

We got back to Tiff's just in time for Asian Dan's stylish ass to show up with my little brother's cake from the Edelweiss Bakery in Prior Lake. Asian Dan, I owe you a big one! :) I hung out and played DS until my Mom showed up to get the cake. We went to my place to give the key to my scooter to Jonathon from Scooterville so he could tow it away. :( That made me so super sad.

I kept Mom company while she ate flautas at El Paraiso. I drank a beer. :P We ran some errands together--my Saturday afternoon/early evening plans were pretty much shot, due to my lack of scooter. We had registered for a Yelp event at the Soap Factory that ended up panning out nicely. Spike, Erin, Nate, Jerry and I all met up at varying points in our journey. The event was super fun! I was totally bummed to have missed out on my earlier plans, as well as the opening night of Marisol. I really need to get over there and see that show before it closes. I can't wait to see the lovely duchess_of_pie on stage!

Jerry and I went to Thad and Carmen's after the event was done. A great night of chilling with the Dahlberg's was had by all. Erin and Nate kept bugging us to come out, but we weren't feeling like being out and about. I looked super cute--Spike, Nate, Jerry AND Thad all said so. I think Thad's was motivated by the fact that I told him the other three guys all said so. :P WTG, Thad!

Sunday morning came all too quickly. Jerry took pictures of me in my dress before we left. I hope they turned out ok. :) I was super sleepy all day. I was late to Tiff's, I ran my bum off to catch buses and trains to Midtown Global Market. I got there just in time to meet Kelly with all of our booth gear. Nobody at the event knew their heads from holes in the ground, so it was a frustrating hour of setup.

Our booth neighbors, from Barbette, were super awesome. They gave us some crazy meat log things. I ate samples of lots of tasty foods at the event, drank entirely too many little cups of wine and beer, and went home fairly toasted. :P The guys from Barbette gave me a ride home so Kelly didn't have to go all the way back to Uptown. Ali lost his car, so the other guy (Matthew?) and I waited with the stuff until he found it.

After the event, I got home and took a freakin' nap. I was so tired! I met up with Jerry, Melissa, Kelvin and the other guy. They all had pizza. Jerry and Melissa had Bloody Marys, which looked more like a sandwich than a drink. :P The other two guys had beer. I had a very tasty Merlot and a Bavarian pretzel. So great! Jerry and I crashed at my place, which was nice. Jess had the heat on per my request. So toasty and warm! It was adorable to see Jerry crashing after one episode of LOST instead of ME crashing. :P That poor kid handles early mornings worse than I do.

Monday, we got up and messed around on the computers. Jerry watched a live online conference thing. We spent some time distracting each other from the conference, which was nice. ;) I made some eggs for breakfast.

Eventually, we got going. We headed to Diamonds Coffee House in NE. It's a super cute little place! I can wholeheartedly recommend that you go there and eat a veggie sammich on marble rye. Tomatoes, spinach, guacamole, pickles, cucumbers, guac...there was so much awesome stuff on that sammich!

We headed out from the coffee shop in the pouring rain toward Thad and Carmen's place. I had agreed to babysit Maewyn and Flannery so they could all go out for Ave's birthday. Maewyn pitched a bit of a fit when she realised that Mommy really was leaving, and again when she realised that Mommy really was gone. I left her to pitch her fits alone, and they ended rather rapidly.

Carmen bought sushi for dinner, and had macaroni dinners for the girls, too. Jerry and I shared the sushi plates, and the girls even ate some, too! They made cards for Ave, which was super sweet. I have my card from Flannery on my fridge. :)

Everyone came back from dinner, and we had pie. The key lime was supposed to have been kept frozen, we discovered, since it turned to pudding on our plates. :P It was still good, though! We all hung out together after Thad and Ave's parents left. Had a cocktail together, and took awesome pictures of Thad with his shirt tucked down in an awkward place. :P We have far too much fun together, I swear!

I told Carmen to keep her $20 that she wanted to pay me. Dinner and dessert were by FAR enough payment. If she had insisted on paying me, I would have just taken the $$ and bought them another bottle of gin. :P We ended up back at Jerry's place since I didn't have to be anywhere in particular until Wednesday at 4.

Tuesday, we got up at an ok hour. Dragging yourself out of bed when it's cold SUCKS. I know it will only get worse, but that doesn't mean I have to like it right now. I worked on my resume and looked around for jobs. I tried to get further on updating, but as you can plainly see, I'm still a few days behind schedule. Whoops!

We did our regular Tuesday thing. Dinner with his family. Homemade chicken noodle soup, omg! It was so tasty! His Mom even made applesauce and potato bread. I could have died and gone to heaven, I swear. Went to Suzi's for the beers. I felt like I was interrupting boy talk time between Jerry and Thad, mainly because they were talking iPhone and computer stuff that I don't understand.

Nate came to my rescue and we talked about life in general. I'm sad Erin couldn't make it, but I hope she can soon. I think everyone would really like her. :) I hope *I* can keep going over the winter. Blerg, MN winters!

Wednesday, we got up and I made some eggs again. Tasty business! And I'm getting really good at it! Tiff, you are a genius in the kitchen. Jerry loves the basted eggs. :) Jerry remembered that he had allergy shots at 1, so we had to jet. We also went to the Aveda Institute for haircuts! Jerry needed one for his interview, and I needed one because my hair was out of control. :P The girl did a great job on mine, but she was so slow! Mostly, I appreciate how slow she was, because I feel like she did a good job. Plus, it's nice to have someone take extreme care when you are doing a fairly major hair cut. :)

After that, we had to fairly fly over to my place. I grabbed my shirt, apron and shoes and bolted out the door. I met with a friend of Nate's from Keller Williams. They are doing a party this month, and want us to cater. Super! Work was fairly uneventful, and I left with $14 after tip-out. LAME. I stayed for an hour or so to do the schedule. I'll do the next week's schedule soon, I'm sure.

I met Crystal at Independent for a beer. We chatted about this and that. Her hair looks super cute! Still fairly red, but it's a darker red. I like it. :) We went to Rainbow to use the coinstar thing. Next time, I told her I'd do it for her at Wells Fargo for FREE. We parted ways, and I tried to find tasty things in the grocery, to no avail. Jerry walked me home over the phone. I watched a bit of 30 Rock, fell asleep on the couch. Blah.

Thursday, I got up at a decent hour. I met a guy in Uptown to take a test drive of his car. It's a nice enough car, and would likely last through the winter just fine. He wanted $1400 for it...I'd maybe give him a grand based on what needs to be done. The lovely Nate came with me for the test drive. After the ride, I headed to work.

We had a CRAZY dinner rush. I made $82 in tips! So great. We literally had zero customers in the place at 11pm, so we got the OK from John to close. I wish we wouldn't have. As I was leaving, a couple of groups of people tried to go in, but it was closed. They were not pleased, and neither was I. People won't know that we're open if we don't consistently stay open til a set hour.

The loaner died when I tried to leave. I walked most of the way home, and then my co-worker brought me home after buying me a shot. Crazy. I called Bob at Scooteville and left a message, so they knew when and how I got home, and that it was NOT on the loaner they gave me.

Of course, shortly after I got home, my phone wouldn't work. Turns out, Wifey's phone didn't work either, so it was some glitch in the T-Mobile systems at 1am. greh.

Friday, being today, has been pretty calm. I got up around 11. Took a call from Anna saying she was sick and didn't feel up to Uptown. I totally understand, and really wanted her to stay home if she was sick.

I met Bob from Scooterville behind Abilene to do the scooter exchange. I had no idea he was going to bring me a Buddy, but I'm glad he did. It's such a nice ride! I'm sad that we are slated to get snow tonight...I'm going to attempt to sneak my baby into the garage for the imminent doom. Holy crap, I just called it *my* baby. EEEEE!

Right now, I'm struggling to keep my eyes open. I think I'm getting sick. I have to pee every couple of hours and I'm tired as hell. No, I'm NOT pregnant, thankyouverymuch. :P

That leaves us where we are NOW. Caught up on updating eljay. Sleepy as all get out. Not wanting to go to work tonight. Not wanting to go to Tiff's super early tomorrow. Not wanting to go to Tiff's at 8 on Sunday. Not wanting to work Sunday afternoon. Why am I so negative right now? What do I WANT to do, I wonder?

Meet The Buddy. The 3rd scooter I've driven in 24 hours. The first was mine, the second was the goofy BnW they lent me, and now this.

Bob himself came out with the crazy Scooterville truck. He took the red one away and left me with the Buddy.

It's cute. I don't know if I like the "sea foam" green...if I did go with a Buddy, I'd lean toward a black one, I think. It's super small, which I actually rather like. Jerry has a Buddy, and it's fierce for its size, physically and engine-wise. It's got a copious amount of storage, and looks pretty awesome with a basket on the back.

I'm impressed that they have been coming out to help the way that they have. They weren't as responsive earlier when I had problems, but now that they see this is an ongoing issue, I'm glad they've shaped up.

Bob is going to crunch some numbers. We're going to stay in touch with each other. I'd ideally like to see myself give up scooting for the season and get a new one in the spring. I just hope that they'll give me the same deal in the spring--if I have to put up the $$ now, I wouldn't be able to buy a car right now. I also would rather have the scooter live on their showroom floor than in my parent's garage all winter.

*sigh*

I just hope this all gets settled sooner than later.

The loaner died. I went to start it after work last night to leave and have a drink with some co-workers, then head home. While they were paying parking, I started it up to let it warm up for a minute. During that minute, it died and the "battery indicator" came on. I tried to start it for at least another five minutes to no avail. I *did* manage to get it started once, but as soon as I hit the gas, it died.

It did not rain last night.

It was NOT that cold out last night.

I called up Jerry, who jokingly suggested that maybe my super power is that I kill every scooter I touch. :P

I really think this is God's way of telling me that I'm not meant to have a scooter. :(

This is the scooter I currently have on loan from Scooterville. This past weekend, my beautiful green Kymco Super 8 was taken into the shop...again...for the same water in the fuel line problem. When I talked to them today, they said they drained out the gas and found a large quantity of water again.

They "rerouted" a tube that allows emissions to exit the scooter. Apparently, they found this tube sitting in a "puddle of water". How that happened, I have no idea. They really felt that rerouting the tube, as well as keeping a cover on my scooter when it is out in the elements would keep it working well.

When I got to the shop to pick it up, they still hadn't done the oil change I had requested on Saturday when they came to pick it up. Jonathon had picked it up at my place, and his face fell when I asked about the oil change--he remembers me asking. I went to Taco Bell and had some lunch to kill the hour that they needed to perform said oil change.

I got back to the shop and my scooter was waiting out front for me to pick it up. The oil level had been pretty low, so they gave me a partial can of oil to keep on hand since I do a lot of high speed travel. I thought that was really nice!

Instead of refunding the cost of the first repair that was done for the water in the gas problem, they took care of the oil change and gave me a shiny new cover. I thought that was alright, since I would have spent more than $65 on those two items alone.

As I was leaving Scooterville to head toward home, the scooter wasn't going forward quite as well as it could have. I knew I should have stayed closer to the shop, especially when a block later, it died and refused to start again.

I called Scooterville and got Laura on the phone. She gave me over to Jonathon, who said he would come pick me up momentarily. I hung up with him and started to cry. Partially because I'm sad, but mostly because I'm so damned frustrated at this point.

Jonathon showed up about ten minutes later. In that span of time, I could have easily walked it in to the shop. On the way back to the shop, we didn't have much to say, and admitted as much. I think at this point, pretty much everything has already been said. I'm not happy, they have tried to fix the same problem too many times, it's time to move on to a replacement or a refund at this point. I still want a scooter, just not the Super 8.

When we got to the shop, Jonathon showed me the options he had available as a loaner scooter. I opted for the red monstrosity that you see in the picture. It was the only 150cc they had, and I wasn't about to go down to a 50cc until they sort this out. I'm covered under their insurance policy in case anything happens, which is good.

This thing is laid out a bit different than mine. It's not as upright, and that's about the only thing I like about it. It's not as zippy as mine, it doesn't handle as well...bah.

I just really want Bob to get back to me as to what is going to happen now. I told them today that I am interested in moving forward with a different brand of scooter. I'm pissed off at myself for not having listened to 433 and Jerry, who tried to talk me into a Buddy. I'm pissed at myself for going with a 2009 model that they have no historical data on. I'm pissed that this will be the second year in a row that I bought a shitty scooter.

I want this resolved NOW, while there is still time to ride this season.

Monday, I got up and finished my laundry. I was super happy that I sent the frozen items home with Jerry the night before. I got bundled up and headed out to Jerry's place to cook him dinner. :)

I bought a tasty steak for him to eat, and had some portabella mushrooms with a white onion to fry up. The butcher told me to cook the steak five minutes on each side. I had Jerry stop in after I did that to check in on it so I didn't mess it up. He added some salt and pepper, as well as some steak sauce. The response was positive, which I thought was good for never having cooked a steak before. :P I also bought an angel food cake, made homemade whipped cream, and had frozen blueberries on hand for dessert.

The suspense was about killing me before the guests began to show up for Jerry's party. Evan called, a few people texted me, and I was SO READY for everyone to arrive. Jerry was setting us up to watch LOST when the doorbell rang. Thad, Dan and Kari were the first ones to come and yell surprise. :) I think he was pretty surprised. The gin-a-thon was a rousing success. Many different gins showed up, and many awesome people came, too. Nate brought ice (awesome!) and Eric brought cucumbers and limes. Amanda even made an appearance, which was so cool. We <3 us some Amanda! A little over a week later, I can *finally* think about gin again.

Tuesday was Jerry's actual birthday. I woke up SO entirely hung over it wasn't even funny. I spent most of the day in bed, except for the hour or so where I was up and made him breakfast. I baked a popover pancake and cooked up some bacon. Best. Girlfriend. Ever. :) I assisted with cleaning up as much as I could...being awake hurt too much. :P

We had dinner with Jerry's family. Ham, broccoli and cheesy potatoes, per his birthday request. His Mom baked apple pie and brownies, too. We headed to Psycho Suzi's for weekly beers. The waitress brought me olives and pickles. That helped a lot with my hangover. :P

Sunday, since I had the day off, I went to Church with Jerry and the Dahlberg's. I headed home after Church to relax for a bit before heading to Thad and Carmen's for the night. I had a couple of stops to make beforehand, too. I got all geared up to go out, and of course it started raining. I had picked up food to bring to Bertine's Camel Party, other tasty treats to bring to Jerry's for his birthday dinner on Monday...blah. I hate the rain. On the upside, it did get me in the house, doing laundry and cleaning up a bit, like a respectable citizen!

Jerry had Killer B's at BNW, and he stopped by after. I had left my computer in his car, and I really needed it. It was nice to see him, albeit silly that he had to head back home so late. :P I stayed up pretty late, but I felt accomplished at the end of the night. :)

Friday, we got up and had our Deluxe Breakfast at the hotel (that didn't include coffee or juice...wtf) and checked out. We convinced the front desk people to hang on to our stuff while we walked around. Super nice! We found a lot of neat art, walked around town, and packed it up pretty early. Both of us were feeling crappy, and we wanted to beat the rain.

Of course, as soon as we got on the road, it started raining. We figured we could handle a little rain...until it started POURING on our heads. :P We pulled off the road at the first paved driveway we found, and hung out on someone's front step with an overhang area for about half an hour. :P We tried to get garbage bags out of the deal to use as raincoats, but no dice. Both of the houses we tried, there was nobody home. Oh well.

By the time we got home, we were soaked to the bone, had water pooled at our elbows, and frozen through and through. We stripped all of our gear off, threw things in the washer and dryer, and huddled under the covers with soup and hot beverages. Watched a bit stuff on the tee vee, took a bit of a nap...got up in time to head to NE for Wes and Lydia Burdine's housewarming party.

We invited Erin to join us, and I'm so glad she did! I really love Jerry's friends, but I don't have the same kind of history with them, so I don't 100% fit in with them just yet. It was nice to have Erin and Spike join the fun. Lydia made PHENOMENAL Minestrone. Wes is such a lucky guy! If he ever gets sick of her, he can send her MY way. SRSLY. ;)

Nate joined the party at some point. Things at the party lasted a little later than anticipated. Wes had gone to bed earlier, and Lydia announced around 2:30 that she was in need of hitting the hay. Since Erin lives directly across the street from them, I suggested we move the party over there so the Burdines could get some sleep. We ended up staying at Erin's place until around five in the morning! I'm pretty sure I was still drunk in the morning when I got up to head to Tiff's. :P

Saturday, I had a very rocky ride to Tiff's. I had to still be drunk, and that turned into a nasty hangover. :P It was a beautiful day out, so we decided to go to the Ren Fest. I'm so glad we did! The crowd wasn't too thick, the weather was perfect, and we had a great time. Ran into Ann and Dani at their booths. We popped in to a couple of shows, one comedy/Robin Hood thing, followed by the belly dancers. Caught a few minutes of Puke and Snot, who added an animatronic bird to their routine...weird. I looked at rings, but didn't see anything that I couldn't live without. One shop had a beautiful ring in a light green, but I wanted the dark green. If they'd had the dark green, I would have bought myself a new ring. :P

I got all dressed up, which was fun. I wore one of my new wrap dresses, my flip flops, and did my hair. I totally looked like a girl! :P We ate pickles, corn, turkey legs, and florentine ice. Jerry had the REDDEST teeth and lips when we ran into Twig the Fairy. We got wishing stones and gave her tips. So cute!

We stopped at my place for a bit and ate some dinner. We ended up falling asleep on the couch instead of parting ways before the parties we had to attend. Whoops! When we came to, we headed to Spike's b-day party at Grumpy's, and then to Crystal's b-day party at Tiff's condo. Both were super fun! People said that we both looked about dead, but they were still happy to see us. :) I was happy to see everyone, too! :) After the parties, we headed back to Jerry's place for the night and passed the eff out!

Sunday, I dragged myself out of bed over to Tiff's again. Good times! I met up with Erin, Jonathon Ford and his lady friend, and Eric at Sally's on the U campus for FOOTBALL. I had no idea what was going on, but apparently, it was super exciting. I enjoyed the free popcorn, the tall glasses of water, and the enthusiastic high five action. You can't go wrong with high fives!

*****

At this point, Sunday is only half completed, but I am out of time. This story and more, to be continued...