Hollywog's Pond

All moved. Will see for how long.

My happiness quotient has increased significantly since the move. My mom even commented on how relaxed I looked. Love this apartment. I did forget just how crazy hot it gets though on a sunny day. Easily twenty degrees hotter than whatever the temp is outside. Nice for winter, not so nice for summer. I collected the fans from the Storage Unit o'Mom and the portable air conditioner will be close behind I'm sure.

The housing hunt, on the other hand, is sad. Getting a second opinion from a lender to see if there are any creative loan options for a wonderful girl with fabulous credit. FHA loans don't get you a whole lot. Can't even afford to look at living in squalor. Anyone want to donate to the cause? I'd pay you back! In a timely fashion even. Especially if I can nab the tax credit.

Finally got to eat seafood where they throw it all on the table and you bash it in with a wooden mallet. Brilliant!

Will have to get one of Evan's "splat mats" and try this at home. Too much fun even if the food was mediocre. I kinda look like a malicious pirate in that terrible photo. Armed and ready to plunder with a squinty eye.

I attempted to make lemon strawberry cupcakes the other day and managed to turn out a fabulous tasting lemon sponge cake with a strawberry yogurt like substance. Not even close to the mark but tasty nonetheless. Will have to attempt again, maybe this week.

Addiction to Molly Moon's ice cream is complete. I can honestly say I'm not an ice cream fan. The problem started when my friends introduced me to magic shell. Oh dear lord, how wonderful is that stuff! And ice cream is really the perfect conveyance for magic shell. So I started eating ice cream. I can now appreciate it a bit more than I have in the past but until Molly I never actually craved it. Balsamic strawberry is my undoing. I HATE strawberry flavored things. Tastes wrong because fresh strawberries are so wonderful. Imitation is common and not hard to pick out. But this is an all natural foofy place and goodness gracious it is amazing. It is to the point that I don't even use the magic shell on this ice cream because I don't want to alter the flavor at all. This is significant.

I get excited on cold, rainy days because that means the line will be shorter.

They make the waffle cones right in front of you too. That really needed to stop so in my infinite wisdom I decided a pint of ice cream would be better. Just slightly more than the waffle cone version and I can eat it in my underwear while watching a British mystery. I'm actually quite pleased with my self-restraint. I don't allow myself to use a bowl when eating said balsamic strawberry manna from heaven. The trick is to only have a spoonful at a time. Then it isn't really an addiction - like my Doritos problem where 1/2 to a full bag in a sitting is typical. So far so good. Check back in a week or so. ;)

Feb is flying by so quickly it makes my head spin. Or maybe that is just the sugar coma from my cupcake/ice cream issues. Either way it means the cruise is that much closer! All hotels have been booked and the only thing left is to plan what to do. And find appropriate, comfortable, close-toed, ventilated, supportive, cute travel shoes. It's going to happen dang it!

Favorite shoe store lady (next to favorite travel store and across from favorite cupcake shop and down the street from favorite ice cream shop - this neighborhood gets a lot of my wallet) had a brilliant idea the other day. I was whining about how all the cute, ventilated, close-toed, cute shoes that would be good for traveling have little to no arch support. And if I was going barefoot ventilation is necessary and would only stave off the foot stinkies for so long. Here was her solution: get those itty bitty socks that ladies wear with pumps that just hide beneath the surface but you put the sock on the shoe insert. Then all the nasty foot grubs and sweat get on the sock which you change out daily. And there are these little arch support bumps that you can slide in to any shoe without altering room in the toe box or heel like a lot of full inserts do. Brilliant! So I need to re-order the shoes that I just returned to Zappos (best site ever) that were oh so cute in every way but non-supportive and try this idea out!

Makes me happy when there's a light at the end of the tunnel. :)

Thinking this much about shoes for a vacation takes my mind off of all the stupid stuff going on at work. Mainly it is our temperamental equipment but there's always some office drama playing out, especially as the official last day of those "effected" by the last lay-off looms closer. Not cool. So distractions are welcome.

I am happy to report that after six months of trying, Sugs has finally accepted the new, robot litter box. Can I get a hallelujah? HALLELUJAH. Bam! Nothing better than having a happy cat and only having to change the litter box once a week.

My language skill practice is woefully behind. I got a phrase book in Italian and I think it will come in handy but I haven't tried the sure-to-be-wonderful link my travel buddy sent me. She's completed over ten lessons now. We tweeted back & forth the other day and I was scrambling for words with my limited phrase book knowledge. Reminded me of college with my worn out Spanish dictionary! By the time I have looked at Italian to my satisfaction (btw, that is an unrealistic goal) it will be too late to get the French in. Ah well. Even if I had eight years under my belt I'm sure the Parisians would still frown upon the tall, pasty white American butchering their language. So I kinda don't feel bad about not practicing beforehand.

I have pics and even one cool video from the RCRG derby a while back. Was intending to post but I'm getting sleepy and well, let's face it; I like being lazy, especially when sleep is an option.

'Night.