Friday!

1. When did you take time this week to play?

Funny, I really haven’t played ANYTHING this week. I haven’t logged into WoW since Sunday, believe it or not, and Farmville is more of a Zen garden experience than actual play.

2. This past week, what would you have liked to rewind so you could experience it again?

In keeping with our “Summer of Cheap”* we went to the Camden Riversharks game on Tuesday thanks to free tickets from work. After a rainy day it was a GORGEOUS night and we had a great time!

3. What happened this week to give you pause?

My boss gave his 2 week notice on Tuesday. Yeah. I’m bummed about that but I understand his wanting to move on. No, I’m not applying for the job. Been there, done that. Besides, I’m no longer qualified for the job I used to have because they added “proven sales experience” to the requirements. I have proven sales experience. It was proven to be bad.

So yay for more change! Zing. Since I’ve been asked to be “Acting Manager” during the transition period (Boss’s boss thinks I’m great), I asked for Monday and Tuesday off to snooze on my sofa, play with my beads and maybe hit the beach? Maybe? We’ll see.**

4. From what situation this week would you have liked to eject yourself?

Finding that Max had…accidents…in the kitchen while we slept one night. A bit of rice mixed in with his food pulled him back on track. But that moment when you FIND that kind of mess? EJECT!

5. In what situation this week did you cede power to someone else?

Erm…I signed my lease for another year here at the dee-luxe apartment in the sky. So my livelihood is somewhat-controlled by the whims and whimsies of the apartment management.

Example: Our air conditioners (both) have been broken since August and we FINALLY got them both replaced. At first, we were victim to a less-than-honest maintenance manager — “The List” we were on did not exist. Once she was let go, I tried to open a new ticket, but they stop replacing air units in the winter and told us to wait ’til spring. Two weeks ago I started calling the maintenance office every other day. Last week I started calling every day. On Tuesday I showed up at the maintenance office. The new manager promised she’d be SURE to get someone out yesterday. Yesterday I called and assumptively asked when I could expect someone to show up. (This is a level of persistence I’d have NEVER had in my 20s, by the way.) The living room unit was replaced yesterday afternoon. The bedroom one was replaced today.

At the moment, we have this place so cold I’m wearing knit socks, pants, t-shirt AND A SWEATER. I’m drinking hot coffee and am enjoying life.

***

* WM out of work + big family wedding in August = 2010 being the Summer of Cheap! We’re filling in our free time with free/cheap excursions. The summer festival season is awesome here in South Jersey. There’s always something free/cheap to do.

**I’m looking for a beach in Central-to-South NJ where I won’t be blanket-to-blanket with the rest of humanity. Probably without a boardwalk. Just a simple beach, y’know? I don’t even need lifeguards. Any suggestions?

While I was digging through I found a brand new pair of shoes that I forgot I even purchased.

I know the sock color choice is alarmingly poor charmingly eccentric but those are some sharp shoes!

In other news, 40 lbs need to be gone from my frame by end of July. It’s so incredibly doable. Right? RIGHT!?!?!?

So we (by then “I” became “we”) went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and, saddened that the Home Cafe was discontinued, bought a Senseo single-serving coffee maker. I didn’t love it as much, because it took longer to heat up the water and only brewed a 4 oz or an 8 oz cup (four ounce cup? Seriously? Who drinks only 4 ounces of anything?). I’d have to cycle it twice to fill my 12-oz travel mug. Plus, it was too small to accommodate that travel mug so I had to brew my coffee into my Pyrex measuring cup and then pour it into my mug.

After commisserating on the coffee issue, WM found a Home Cafe model on eBay. We bought that one & put the Senseo away. Life was good again and I had my mug filled in very little time and only one cycle.

‘Til one day my coffee tasted like burned dirt and melted rubber. The Home Cafe broke. The Senseo returned to the counter, and the stupid Pyrex measuring cup returned. To fill both our mugs for after-dinner coffee, we had to use 2 pods and go through 4 brew cycles.

This week, we did some thinking and realized that we could probably save money and time by ditching the pod system altogether and brewing a real POT of coffee.

Now meet the newest man in my life: Mr. Coffee:

Allo. I weel wake you up good tomorrow, yes?

It makes 12 cups of coffee in a 12-minute brew cycle. Plus, it’s programmable so I can set it to start brewing at 7:45 so I’ll be able to fill my mug at 8 to head out.

The coffee is a LOT stronger than the pods we’re used to, so we’re in the process of determining exactly how much we need to put into the pot.

Yes, Virginia, this is why I have a blog. To detail the boring minutiae of my life and to document that it has taken me 37 years to own a proper adult coffee pot.

I always feel like somebody's watching me...

Inspired by the plant that’s growing so quickly it will eventually eat my television, I drew eyes in Photoshop, taped the printouts to drinking straws and shoved them into the pot. I think this is about as “crafty” as I get.

Hey, guess what? I went to the gym THREE times in the last week. Wednesday, Friday & yesterday. Yesterday I started out on the elliptical machine and after 5 minutes, I had enough and had to switch to the treadmill. Remember when I could do 30 minutes on the elliptical? So do I. It’s pretty depressing. Stupid blog with its stupid deep archives.

Anyway, I did 5 on the elliptical, 20 on the treadmill, 10 bicep curls, 10 knee lifts (my knees sound like Rice Krispies when I do those) and 10 crunches. Tiny numbers, but I can’t wait to see them grow.

Can’t remember what I dreamed of last night, sadly.

We were going to go to the Xponential festival on Saturday, where we would have basked in the sun all day and taken in They Might Be Giants, among other neat bands.

And yeah, I said neat. They are neat.

Then today, we were going to have our usual Sunday breakfast at Starbucks, followed up by food shopping and I was going to bake the best from-scratch cupcakes ever. Chocolate cupcake, peanut butter frosting and Reeses’ cups level of good.

Given I had only baked cupcakes from scratch ONCE, these would have been guaranteed to be the best ever!

There would have been pictures galore of everything, taken with our nice GOOD camera. Perhaps even a nice new picture of me to replace Hostess whatever and my Facebook photo.

But alas, t’was not to be.

I started feeling sick on Friday and declined into a fevery stupor for the rest of the weekend.

Can’t go out and sit in 90-degree weather in full sun when you have a fever. (Well, I can’t…dunno about you.) Can’t bake cupcakes unless you want to infect your friends and loved ones.

So here is the only picture of what looked to be (through my window at least) the perfect summer weekend.

Not pictured: Zicam nose swabs & QVC’s Christmas in July 2-day spectacular.

At least I have off Tuesday & Wednesday to make up for my craptastic weekend.

On Saturday, WM and I went to visit my Dad, who’s up from Retired Guy Land and is staying with his friends. They have a lake house on Lake Gilman, and Saturday was Lake Gilman Day. We got there in time to see the boat parade. If you’re DYING to see these boats, I created a Flickr set. Have at.

Tonight I got it in my fool head to make cupcakes completely from scratch. I’ve been reading too much Building a Bakery.

Anyhoo, I ended up with vanilla cupcakes with lemon-flavored buttercream in both mini and regular sizes. I went too gung-ho with the food coloring in the frosting, because it looks electric. (Boogie Woogie Woogie)

I’m still tweaking my basic buttercream recipe. It took a crap-ton (that’s a baking term) of lemon zest & lemon juice to get the lemon flavor to actually show up in the frosting. And I made twice as much as I needed.

I bought a cake decorating set back in June that had 4 tips and some plastic bags. I think this is the worst thing I could have done because now I just want to bake things so I can test out the tips.

We also got rid of the TV stand today in favor of some more cube shelves. They make a cute corner nook and the TV is elevated higher than before. I’m quite pleased.

I also did a freelance work on a project I haven’t touched since January. It’s due by Friday & I only have one more night to work on it. (Busy week ahead.) Naturally, I overpromised. We’ll see how far I can get with it.

All in all it was a faboo weekend, even if I am a bit chilly. How was your weekend?

As Ollie leaps about and delights us all with his unending enthusiasm, Max is gracefully sliding into middle age. The little beast’s been through a lot, and the amount of bad dreams he has indicates he still remembers a time when he wasn’t loved or wanted.

I can’t believe he’s been with me for almost 6 years. These days he romps and tussles with Ollie and schemes and connives for scraps. He adores napping in the sunlight, even if it’s only one beam coming through the blinds.

There’s a lot I can learn from a scrappy little dog who has been through some serious crap, yet still always manages to find the sun.

This weekend that Sunday-kind-of-feeling ALMOST lasted until we made it into our apartment door, due to a neighbor asking us if we had no water, too.

Faucet on. No water. Blah. Calls to our helpful maintenance department went unanswered, so WM strolled down to chat. Turns out the line that went from the water main to our apartment complex broke. When would it be fixed?

“Don’t know,” the maintenance employee at the desk answered as she ignored the ringing phones. She’s so helpful. She lives on the 2nd floor of my building with a bunch of kids who write on the walls and break the locks on the outside door so they can get in and out easier. Charming family.

A poorly-spelled memo taped to the lobby door stated 12-24 hours until we got water back. Neighbors said to expect closer to 48 hours.

All we need is duct tape and we can start a panic!

After some discussion (and the inevitable imminent post-coffee pee) we headed back out to Target, where we bought 10 gallon-bottles of water and 16 single serving bottles.

And Arby’s Beef’n'Cheddar sandwiches. Hi, emotional eater here, how’re you?

So while the dogs and cats enjoyed their frou-frou bottled water, I learned that it takes 2 gallons of water to fill up the toilet tank so I can flush it.

Monday morning we woke to running water, but with an advisory to not drink from it, cook with it or clean dishes with it unless we 1) boiled it for a minute or 2) added chlorine bleach to it. But bathing would be fine!

Uh…no. I showered at Mom’s and the dogs not only continued to enjoy the bottled water, but requested I get them Evian and not Target brand. Ungrateful beasts.

Finally, FINALLY last night there was a poorly-spelled and crookedly-photocopied memo taped up next to the elevator that said the water was safe to consume. I guess we’ll put the remaining gallon bottles under the sink for storage and finish the bottles eventually. (I’m a Brita girl – I prefer that to bottled water).

Lesson learned: It is EASY to take for granted something as routine (to us) as clean running water. Be more thankful!

Combine me with another human being and too many pets in a 1-bedroom apartment, and you can imagine the chaos that occurs by the minute.

Mind you, we’re not living in squalor. We’re just cluttered.

So last week I started a new program for myself: I set my kitchen timer for 15 minutes and clean. When the timer’s up, I’m free to walk away. I usually end up taking 5 more minutes to clean up after my cleaning up.

I’m amazed at how much I can accomplish in just 15 minutes. Last Tuesday I cleaned the kitchen, counters and all. Saturday I cleaned most of the bathroom. This morning I dusted the bookshelves and Windexed the windows!

I’m confident I can stick with this for 6 days a week. Soon we’ll be all tidy and sparkling!

I am not that authoress, and this is not that blog.

Haddon Township had a neighborhood-wide yard sale on Saturday and WM and I decided to see the sights. We usually grab books or Disneyana, but this time was completely different. For the bargain-basement price of only .50, I purchased this lovely!

Tiki! Tiki! Tiki!

Look how tacky and fun it is in front of the Lucky bamboo plant I bought at the Flower Show in March! Can you believe this beauty wasn’t ever taken out of its box? It runs on 2 AA batteries. I bought the battery operated LED tealight at Michael’s for $2.99.

It’s Tiki chic! And best of all, doesn’t detract from the Judgmental Chicken of Doom!

*Unlike me, who thinks “Is that a subway token mounted in the middle of that 11.5×14″ frame?” or “Wow…a shelf with one tiny sculpture of a fork on it is a lot of wasted shelf!”