crazy past few weeks

So it’s been a few weeks since my last post.  And these weeks have been CRAAAAZY. 

My job was a temporary contract job but there was so much work to be done that I was certain they would extend the contract or make me a normal time employee.  But I found out 15 days before my contract was to end (15 days was the cutoff for them telling me…which I found it a little frustrating that they waited to the last minute to say something) that they were not extending my contract.  I guess it just wasn’t in the budget, which is too bad because it would have been great to keep working on for me and the company!  Oh well, maybe they’ll bring it back eventually and keep me in mind!!

Here’s to trying to enjoy a little time off, and focusing on my next (& last!!!)  Penn State GIS class for my GIS Certificate!!  I will also be making cards, thanks to a certain awesome aunt who got me a paper trimmer! :)

Happy Fall 2012!!!!

So since it is officially September now, it is officially fall!!!  I LOVE the fall season :)  one of the main reasons is all the yummy smells it brings to my house (once I get bakin’ that is…).  On Saturday I drove up to my friend Sarah’s house in Louisville (about 45 minutes away) and we were having one of our craft days!  Before we could start our project we needed to hit up Hobby Lobby, and hobby lobby had a TON of fall decorations…and everything was on sale!!!  Sarah helped me decide on little things to put in a “vintage” milk jug type bottle I bought and we created this masterpiece:

Then today, once I realized the dangerous-to-my-wallet fact that Michael’s Art Supply was having a special Labor Day sale of 20% more of your purchase (even sale items), I went and got even more fall decorations!!!

I just can’t wait to put to use the cans of pure pumpkin I got, bring on the pumpkin gingerbread and muffins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   (can you tell by the number of exclamation points that I am SUPER excited???)  If y'all have any fun/good/tasty recipes that are perfect for fall, please share!

bond, james bond

So my new job is in downtown Louisville and is within walking distance to a lot of restaurants.  But with only a limited amount of time for lunch, there really aren’t too many choices for an employee paid by the hour (aka. Someone who can’t take an extended lunch without missing out on $$$).  A common choice is Jimmy John’s, they’re quick, delicious, and 2 blocks from the office.  **I need to add that I think they put some sort of addictive substance in the bread because it is AWESOME.

A few days ago I walked to Jimmy John’s for lunch and passed by a parking garage, one of those really small ones that actually just looks like they gutted a store and put concrete on the ground and painted in parking spots.  As I walked by the roll-down door was shutting and I had the sudden urge to go all James Bond on it.  By this I mean keep acting super cool and then seamlessly drop and roll under the closing door.  I thought about it for too long and realized that I am in fact NOT James Bond and at that point probably would have gotten crushed.

I’ll leave the James Bond-ing to the man himself.

Pizzaaaaa????

so the other day when I was driving in my car and listening to the radio, I heard a commercial for a pizza place up in Louisville.  I forget exactly what it said but at the end it said "Serving Louisville style pizza!"... what exactly is Louisville style pizza???  For some reason this got me thinking about other types of pizza (I should probably add that at this time I was indeed on my one hour drive home from work and hadn't had time for lunch...aka. very hungry!)

So it leads me to giving a breakdown of the different main types of pizza:

Chicago- a deep dish type of pizza, up to 3 inches high of crust!
New York - thin, large, foldable piece of pizza...somewhat light on sauce and usually hand tossed!
New Haven - pretty much the same as New York style but sometimes baked in a brick or coal oven to the point of "charring"

.........

and now Louisville style???  Check back later for my testing results and conclusion :)

Horrible Southern Drivers

So…I’m not usually one to make generalizations about people, but I’m going to go ahead and do that right now with a little story to start you out:

I got my Honda CRV, who I’ve name Silver Bullet, back in 2005 right as I was finishing my junior year of high school.  Growing up in Alaska is a pretty nice place to learn to drive, compared to Los Angeles or New York City or another extremely populated and busy city.  Because Alaska is relatively light on crazy drivers Silver Bullet’s horn is well preserved.  I moved to Washington State (Tacoma more specifically) to go to college, GO LUTES!!!, where the traffic increased a little bit; I rarely used Silver Bullet’s horn.  After college I moved to Columbus, Georgia (right on the Alabama border) near Fort Benning.

Driver’s in the South are HORRIBLE.  I rarely saw people use their blinkers (thankfully I’m a pretty observant and defensive driver) and sudden and unsafe lane changes were a common thing.  When Derek and I moved to the Fort Knox, Kentucky area it got worse!!!!!!  Most recently, Tuesday morning at 6am, I was at the beginning of my 1-hour (one way) commute to my job up in Louisville, which involves driving on Joe Prather Highway (KY 313)…this high way is mostly one lane each way with the occasional “truck lane”. 

Well, I was cruising along doing my own thang (aka. Driving SAFELY and like a normal person)…when some jerk coming the opposite direction decided to pass the 5 cars that were in front of him (causing him to drive in my lane…TOWARDS ME…yikes!!!).  He was in such a hurry that he just had to get around them at this exact second and barely…and I mean BARELY (as in 4-5 feet from my car)…got back in to his rightful lane.  Anyways, back to Silver Bullet’s horn.  I sure laid on the horn really heavy for about 5ish seconds.  I feel like I should send a bill to the idiot driver for making me use the horn.  TAX!!! Yes.  I like that idea.

That being said, aside from the bad driving…people here are generally pretty nice!