Meow

Thanks to Anonymous Opinion and her comment on my puppy fever entry, Jeff and I have been thinking about getting a cat. Thanks Anonymous :D We are both dog people, though I did have a cat growing up. However, I don't think a dog would fit into our way of life at the moment. Jeff works full time and although I work part time my hours are not always consistent. Getting a cat would fit more into our lifestyle. Cats can be left alone more, you don't have to go home to let a cat out, it can just go in its litter box, you don't walk a cat (though I wouldn't mind walking a dog), and they don't need a backyard. Part me of me wonders if I would be giving anything up in getting a cat rather than a dog, but I don't think I would. Yes dogs need you more and you can take them to parks and stuff, but, cats can show love too. They snuggle and purr and can play too. I think eventually we will also get a dog, but for now a cat would fit into our lifestyle more.

Since Jeff hasn't had much experience with cats we are thinking of going to visit one of the cat shelters in the area this weekend. My friend at work said this is how she went home with two cats LOL. I just want Jeff to be able to spend some time with a cat, to see how they act, and see that they are good pets too. Who knows if we will bring one home or not, though I wouldn't be opposed to doing just that :)

Step by step

This past weekend I bought a pedometer for $6 at target. I spend most of my day at work on my feet running around from place to place so I thought it would be interesting to see how much I really do walk at work. I haven't quite mastered where I should be attaching it to my pants though. You are supposed to take 10,000 steps a day. That isn't if your exercising, thats just the amount of steps you should take in a day. According to the pedometer, I do infact walk a lot though. The pedometer has said that I have reached 10,000 steps twice this week already. Right now it says 11,268. It makes me want to do things to make the number go up. I guess this is a good exercise technique, making me want to walk more.

Abu Dhabi

Before I got my current job, when I was vigorusly job hunting, I signed up to a lot of job websites that would send me email updates. I still get those emails, I haven't bothered to unsubscribe to them. Who knows what you will find in one of them. This morning I got an email from Higher Education Jobs. As I scrolled down the listing a few of the posts were for the The Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. I don't think I will be even looking at that one. LOL, I don't think Jeff would enjoy me being that far away either.

Iron Chef Amybear

Yesterday's chicken was good, but nothing spectacular. Today I tried the recipe from a card I found by the fish department in my groccery store. It sounded interesting so I thought why not. Boy am I glad I did. Jeff and I made it for dinner tonight and I could not believe that we made it. I was very proud of us. Below is a picture of the meal and the recipe.

Balsamic Tuna

4 tuna steaks
2 plum tomatoes, diced
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. orangle marmalade
1/2 sweet onion, diced
4 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place steaks into a baking dish sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and cook one minute. Add tomatoes. Stir in marmalade and vinegar.

3. Serve salsa over tuna. Serves 4.

To give credit where credit is due the card is from Try-Foods Intl, Inc.

Closed beta testing

I have been playing a mmorpg game called Fairyland for a couple of years now. I have tried almost of all of the classes and have taken numerous breaks. I think I have taken my last break from the game now. I got my character to the second character class and I'm annoyed with the game. Time to try something new. I've tried to get into other online games, but I never really got into them. I've tried World of Warcraft, Conquer Online, and a bunch of others I can't think of at the moment.

Today while I was bored I started looking through a site that has a list of all of the online mmorpg sites out there. I found a thread talking about a new game that sounded interesting, called Pirate King Online. I clicked on the link and it seems like my sort of game (I like the cutesy games). After yelling at the registration screen to work for over an hour I finally signed up for an account. Since I signed up through the mmorpg site I got an activitation code to go with my registration. Because of this code I was accepted as a closed beta tester. Yea me. Closed beta doesn't start till September 8th though. So until then I will be trying to figure out their character system to figure out what I want to be.

Cooking

I've been looking for a new hobby lately. One idea that I came up with is cooking. I've decided to try to make more dinners from scratch. Most of the dinners I have been buying are things that are fresh but premade, such as a piece of raw seasoned fish that just needs to be put in the oven. I think I am a pretty good cook, I just rarely put the time into making dinners from scratch. I'm not sure if this hobby will last or not, but it may be fun while it lasts. I'm sure Jeff will enjoy the benefits either way. Last night I went through some of the cookbooks we had and found a handful of recipes that sounded good that I may make through out the next few weeks. Tonight I am going to make Teryiaki chicken. Hopefully it will be good.

4400

The third season finale of the 4400 was on last night. I have watched this show since the very first episode. Jeff and I used to watch some of the episodes over the phone together when we were still long distance. The show has waned in some of the episodes, but over all it is still a great show.

If you have never seen the show before let me try to sum it up. Scientists discover that there is a giant comet heading towards earth and might distroy the earth. Instead of destryoing it, the comet creates a big flash in the forest. From the flash people of all ages and walks of life who were missing or were presumed dead reappear the exact same age they disappeared. Later we discover they all have different abilities such as healing, predicting the future, etc. The whole series is based on finding out where they went, the different peoples abilities, if they are going to use them for good or evil, the 4400 vs the government and non 4400's, and who is going to prevail in the future. It is a really good show.

I didn't get to watch the season finale last night because the Emmy's were on. I did tape it though. I just watched it this afternoon after work and it was a very good episode. I can't wait for next season. According to their website, there will be a next season too :) It will start in the summer of 2007. I can't believe I have to wait until next summer to see what happens. Though it is neat to think about where I will be in life when the next season starts.

Fly Lady

I have heard of the Fly Lady website for a while now. I have heard of people on the net who have been doing her program and have really liked it. I found her website again today through hitting the random button on blogger. I read through her website today and I am thinking about possibly trying it. For those who have never heard of the Fly Lady its basically a website to help you organize your life and get rid of the clutter. The woman in charge of the site sends you many emails through out the week with instructions on cleaning all areas of your house, setting routines and goals, while not overdoing it. Some of her activities I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do such as keeping a notebook with my daily schedules, inspirational quotes and such. But I may use her instructions on focusing on one part of your home and cleaning it so that it eventually becomes second nature. I am not sure if I will stick with it or not, but as Jeff said, "anything that can help you to be less messy and be organized can't be all bad."

Puppy Fever

I got bored today and started browsing the many dog adoption sites I have bookmarked. I'm not sure if this was a good idea or not. When Jeff and I first started to look for a dog we were focused on Shelties or Shetland Sheepdogs. While we were looking there were some available, but they were all far away in different states. Today, I found two in Delaware. Made me want to go out and rescue them right away. Jeff being the logical side of this relationship calmed me down a bit thankfully. We have decided that we want to wait until we have more room, when we buy a house or a townhome. Though I am sure I will try to challenge that as the days pass. But for right now I agree with him. That doesn't stop her from being totally adorable though.

New Digs

As you can see I changed my template again. Though I doubt many of you saw my old one LOL. I have a screen shot saved if anyone wants to see it. It was a very cute goldfish cracker template, but it was very loud and big for my tastes. This template is a lot more cutesy and pastel, which is nice. The only thing that bothers me a bit is that the picture is so big that you almost have to scroll down to get to the entry. I'm sure I'll get used to it though.

Finally Done

I am very happy to announce that last night I finally finished all of our wedding thank you notes. They all have been recieved or are ready to go out with the mail today. Thank goodness. Yes, we have been married for almost three months, but thats what you get when you invite 140 people to your wedding. They are done! Woot.

Puppies

Jeff and I have been researching dogs lately. Ok, maybe I'm the one doing most of the researching. I would really like to get a dog, but there are a few things stopping us. One thing that is stopping us is our experience with Meg. Meg was a sweet dog, but not the one for us. We do not want to have to give up another dog. That was not fun. In addition, I work part time, but my hours are not always constant. It's hard to think about getting a dog when you won't be there half the day to train it or to take it out. School is starting soon so my hours are going to change. I should find out this week. I'm hoping that these hours will match up with Jeff's in that we would be able to care for a dog, but I'm not sure they will.

I have been looking at different breeds to see what would be good for us and our needs. Right now we are looking for a medium sized breed, can be left alone for periods of time, and is ok with one main walk a day with additional smaller ones. So far we have been looking at beagles and cavalier king charles spaniels. I haven't committed myself to a breed 100%. Jeff and I have also not decided on if we want to get a puppy so we can train it ourselves and not have to deal with the things that a random person has trained them to do or if we want to get a dog that is one or two years old so that they are somewhat trained and aren't as needy as a puppy.

In addition, I know that you need to have some free time (at least a week or two) when your not working to be with a new dog, to train it, and to have the dog get used to it's surroundings. When are we going to have the time to do this? I have no idea. We both work all week, and most holidays are only one week and are packed with visiting families. So I'm not sure. I really would like to get a dog, but before we do I want to figure out which breed is the best for us and make sure we will have some time to train it and be with it every day.

It's not time yet

I work in an educational setting with children. I found out today that there is only four weeks until some of the kids go back to school. Damn. The summer is flying by. Today while at the groccery store I walked through the seasonal isle. What did I see? Orange boxes with spiders all over them filled with candy corn. It's not Halloween! Halloween isn't for three months. School hasn't even started yet. Oh well, they always start things early like putting out christmas stuff before thanksgiving.

Interesting view

While driving home from work today, I saw this turn left infront of me. It was massive. I guess someone in the area is having a good time. It was driving slow so I passed it easily and didn't get a chance to see which direction it ended up going.