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Take that etsy!! Wanted a pillow cover but it was $50 for just one. Instead I spent $38 on fabric and zippers and made two! Yisssss

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Southwest Justice Served!

So... a couple of months ago I had an "ordeal" with southwest airlines. during my return trip from chicago google maps put me 20 miles south of the airport. So instead of getting to the airport 60 mins in advance, we got there 20 minutes in advance.

Factor in rental car return, printing out our boarding passes and security... we barely made it to the gate in time.

Thats when everything turned sour. The flight was scheduled for 2:05pm departure. we got there just about 2pm. The ticket agent said we were within the 10minute departure time and canceled our boarding passes. So then we watched her give the standby passengers our tickets and then have them board the plane instead. did i mention that i begged the other people to let us have hour seats back? how awkard!!

so after we watched them board our flight.... we had to wait standby at the airport for 4 hours until we got on another plane home.

my main complaint was that she could have just let us on the plane... but instead decided to be the king of the terminal and screw us over. since i usually fly american, i was kinda shocked. on american, i've run to a gate after my connecting seat was given away and the agent has asked the standby passenger to get off the plane so i could get on. but thats american and this is southwest.

when i got home i canceled my southwest credit card and wrote a complaining email to southwest. about 45 days later they sent me an apology saying that they were justified in taking away my return seat, but here's $100.

not bad. i do hate southwest, but i will take the $100 voucher and let the bf use it to go watch some muay thai fights in new york instead.

scorecard:

southwest : 1 Me: 1

i guess we are even now.

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Engineers...

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heat wave in Socal means that everyone can't stop talking about how DANG hot it is. Its kinda stupid when you think of it. We are complaining about 80 degree weather at the beach, and 100 degree weather inland.  Its like when someone complains when they have too much money. you just want to smack them.

yesterday- i had a nice water cooler conversation with my coworkers about the heat. (what else could we talk about?!) it reminded me of how "enginerdy" we act.

engineer 1: I calculated the cost of cooling the entire 2800 sq ft house against the cost of an AC unit and decided to go to costco to buy one.  it was $389 and it has a duct to suck the heat out. now my energy bill is only $100 a month to cool one room instead of cooling the entire house. the unit paid for itself in 3 months.

engineer 2: I just used my central AC. But then again I have solar panels, so I don't really pay anthing on my energy bill. Last week I climbed on the roof and cleaned the panels so now i have an increase of efficiency.

me: I am too cheap to pay over $100 on some AC unit. instead I will just complain about it for the 2 weeks that its hot.

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Yay! After all the stress my style cure is finished! Just have one more art piece to do and I should be good. Here it is!

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Style cure day 18- arranging furniture. Look at the white walls... Omg

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Style Cure Weekend Assignments

So I spent most of Friday painting the grey wall in my living room back to the"french white" color the apartment was originally painted.  I tried to mix the paint as much as I could, but instead of a pancake like consistency... I wound up with a protein shake/ watery consistency. This made my paint roller spray while it was being rolled onto the wall. Geez, I really wished I bought plastic wrap to put on the ground. Instead I spent about 4 hours painting and cleaning the floors. At the end of it all, I was covered in off white paint speckles and sweat. soooo tired.

The cool part was that after I was finally done painting I re-arranged the furniture and re-set up a new console. Instantly the living room looked better. it felt sooo good to be rid of the dark cave.  next time i will really think twice before painting an accent wall grey in a dark room. rookie mistake.

Saturday I went out and bought a bunch of salvation army picture frames to fill the wall above my sofa. i wanted that empty frame look. but after putting it all together, i'm not sure i like that empty frame look. it kinda looks stupid. so now i need to go out and get some artwork to fill them. thinking about doing a mural for jade.  i have one for andy (RIP!) so it only seems fair that she gets one as well.

Speaking of which.... jade has kinda turned into a new cat since Andy passed away. shes been out more and meowing like crazy. during the day i dont mind her long annoying meows. but at 6am.... i just want to choke her. damn you cat. can't u see i'm sleeping? ugh.

the good news is that the apartment is slowly coming together, and i cant wait. thanks to apartment therapy for style cure! woot woot!

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Day 14: Go with the flow.

Today's assignment was to rethink the floor plan. since i already knew i wanted to flip the sofa and tv location... this was easy!

thank goodness. i was getting burnt out on all the stuff i had to do so far.

:)

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Day 13: Monday, August 19 Assignment: Make some progress on your projects

Dang. So much for staying on schedule.  I spent most of the weekend trying to put up a bookshelf and repainting some old ones I had.

I unsuccessfully got rid of my expedit bookshelf. which means i posted an ad on craigslist and then the person that wants it replys that they definitely want it... and will pick it up some day. and btw- they actually asked if they could disassemble the piece in my living room. dear god, craigslist sometimes it s just too hard to GIVE THINGS away! oh emm geee. so right now this huge thing is sitting in the middle of my living room. its become a new cat bed for Jade. at least someone is enjoying it.

Now... i tried to do the container store elfa project this week. i spent about 2 hours trying to put up some railings. it sounded easy, but for some reason the railings weren't matching up. somehow the wall started to look slanted. after much frustration and panic, i realized that the wall i was working on was not at a right angle to the perpendicular wall. so when i put the shelves up- it had a false level. it was strange. i thought i was at the mystery spot in santa cruz. so now my books are sitting against the wall. no shelves. :(

the good news in this post was that i was able to do a great job painting some old book shelves. yay! heres the pic:

last but not least. in my endless obsession with Anderson (RIP kitty) I made a mural of his cute face. lately i've just been staring at it a lot.

so... style cure. so far i have renovated a bookshelf, created a mural, and decluttered.  i missed my weekend shopping excursion- but will venture out at lunch time today.

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style cure, back to work

even though i've been feeling really crappy these past few days.... i decided that i need to keep trucking on this style cure thing. my living room is really depressing me. especially since i keep imagining andy sitting all over the place (on the couches, under the media consoles... ) so sad. 

the good news is that i have been staring at his photo so long that i decided it was a sign that i needed to use it for my colors and inspiration for the living room. 

back on track with style cure homework:

day 9: find a perfect pairing. i decided to use the mural of anderson as my focal point. with his face, i decided to use the colors (orange/tan, blue, off white, and pink). see another post for his cute face.

day 10: make a shopping list / budget

i need to buy supplies to make the mural. canvas, print out, and paint

need new media stand, width no greater than 55"

new book case to put in empty space, width 24", height 80"

possible reuse of the existing bookcase, paint!

reuse: big brown couches, white shag carpet, acrylic coffee table, tv.

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Things I miss doing for you

  Making room for you on the edge of the bed, so that you could jump up and cuddle with me in the morning

Keeping the door open when I go to the bathroom... because you would rush in every morning and give me a bump

Grab you at zero dark thirty and listen to you meow "NOOOOOO" while I gave you medicine

Vacuum the couch you sat on every day

Fill the small clear glass with water so that you could lay down and drink water easily

Keep the front door closed when I went to get the laundry (otherwise you would run out and go eat grass)

Keep the screen door cracked open so that you could hang out on the patio and watch street traffic

Sprinkle the carpet and blankets with Cat Nip

Work from home so that I could constantly pet you and call you my assistant

Sit on the couch with room on the edge so that you could jump up and hang out

Hide the hawaiian bread from you... since you liked to eat it so much

Yell your name when I come home (because you would run to the front door and greet me)

Lay out the laundry while folding it so that you could sit by and watch

  overall i just miss picking you up and giving you kisses on the forehead while you meows and crinkled your face.

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Apartment Therapy, Style Cure Task of the day:

Draw a floor plan. I u sed the app Magic plan on my iphone which did a pretty good job.

here is the floor plan... just looking at the placement of stuff gives me a headache. can't wait to move all of it. lol

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Apartment therpay task of the day.... take before photos! so the task says to sit in a weird spot for 10 minutes (yadda yadda yadda). but ive known for a while that i hate my living room area....so there you go.

i also snapped a photo of the dining area since all one big room.

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Day 2: apartment therapy style cure.... go out and snap photos of your inspiration!

Easier said than done. I walked around main street and saw some good stuff, but all the furniture stores seemed so stuffy that i was embarassed to pull out my phone and snap a photo.

So instead I went to pinterest and searched for other living rooms that i liked. I loved this orange graffic rug.... and i loved all the living rooms with exciting prints! I liked the funkiness of it all.

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Style Cure Day 1

apartment therapy is doing a style cure month where they help readers with re-styling a spot in their apartment. i dreadfully need this because i hate my apartment. everytime i walk in, i just want to throw everything away.

Style Cure – Day 1 – Interview 

Style Cure Interview Questions:

1. List your favorites in each category:

- Actor: Brad Pitt

- Actress: Kate Winslet (not from the work she did in that corny titanic movie!)

- Artist: murakami

- Writer: jk rowling or jane austin

- Music: right now im pretty into empire of the sun

- Restaurant: Providence. best meal ever eaten.

- Automobile: audi s5 with a manual transmission

- Movie:<hmmm i like a lot of movies> forrest gump, royal tennebaums, pretty woman, little mermaid, julie and julia, perks of being a wallflower, breakfast club, sixteen candles, and so on...

- Television Show: right now- true blood, homeland, newsroom

 - Clothing: superdry jacket

-  Designers: im too poor to have a real designer that i like.

-  Clothing stores: crossroads trading co

-  Furniture:  cb2 or crate and barrel

2. Choose three words to describe your personal style:

vitnage, stripes, fun

3. Think back over all the homes you've lived in, both as a child and an adult. Which rooms would you choose as your favorites and how would you describe them?

Favorite room from a childhood home and description:

My mom's living room. it was bright and airy with a huge white couch that wrapped around. she has such great taste. 

Favorite room from an adult home and description:

My kitchen remodel in san diego. it had bright white cabinets, farm house sink with an industrial faucet. just the right mix between farm and city. 

4. Whom do you consider a role model?

Hilary Clinton

What three adjectives describe the qualities that you admire in this person?

- Strong

- leader

- perservering

5. Every home has areas that are "just right". Which three spots or things in your home do you feel are beautiful and feel proud of, right now, as is:

the bedoom has a great mural wall with a bunch of artwork my grandma did.

other than that... there isnt anything im too thrilled about

6. A month from now, at the end of the Style Cure, how would you like your friends to describe your home?

stylish and welcoming

Conclusion: i've realized why my aprtment sucks! everything is dark brown, and creates this mood of a man cave. dark brown couches, dark brown entertaiment center, dark brown kitchen table. yuck! i cant wait to brighten the whole place up!

let me see.. its got to be a mish mash of all this stuff:

plus

plus

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hey you! what are you doing?

Just when things calm down... something happens to remind me that things still suck at work.

I was named the lead of my team when my boss quit.  I was happy to take the promotion until I realized all of the responsibilities I would have take over.

One of my main problems with being a lead, is that no one wants to listen to me.  Victor (my bf) chalks it up to me being passive aggressive and not assertive enough.  I think it has to do with me being a woman and under 35 - in charge of men that are close to 50.

About two weeks ago I asked an test engineer to go out and collect some GPS data at a specific location so that our airplane could start up in a specific spot.  A week later I find out that he didnt do it because someone else on our team told him he didnt need to do it. Lets call this guy Jack. 

so then there are bunch of emails of me asking the test team to complete my request versus Jack telling everyone don't do it.

A Week later: I get a separate email from another guy  (lets call him Pad-one)from my team saying that data collected from the airplane didn't match any of the existing data. 

This forced me to write an email to upper management to say that we needed data and it wasn't completed. Upper management writes back to say that I never was clear that I needed the data.

So then Jack realizes that he made a mistake and then calls Pad-one for help.  I really wish that Jack had just called me to discuss the situation so that we could get it resolved, but he refuses to talk to me.  So then I have to call Pad-one and formulate a plan.

I tell upper management that we can press forward and make the most of the situation. I tell them to call Jack so that we can all be on the same page.

I don't think we would have gotten into this situation if Jack had just called me initially to discuss what the team objectives were. My impression is that Jack thinks I'm dumb- and that he should be the lead.

I really wish he would put aside his differences with me and work together. Instead, i have to pout and get all my anger out on tumbler.

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success!

soooooo finally after about a month of carrying jade to the litter box and shoving her head through the plastic door to go to the bathroom. she finally went by herself! oh thank the lord!

she finally knows how to go to the bathroom by herself!  yay!

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Poop-a-poolooza

For about 11.5 years my cats were rockstars. I could leave them for about a week without feeling guilty or fear that they would get sick or die...

Fast forward another 1 and a half and everything has changed.  One cat has cancer, and the other seems to be getting Alzheimers or something.

about a month ago, I had to change my kitty litter box to the one with a lid and swinging door. this was a necessary change because my cancer cat could not squat down and poo anymore. so instead he would walk into the litter box and poo out the entrance. leaving me with a nice steamy poo.

after i added the door- he learned that he had to actually go all the way in. crisis solved! yay!

but then my other cat, couldn't figure out the swinging door. she spent the next 2 weeks pooping and peeing outside the litter box or in the shower.

when did pooping become so hard?!?

so then i started carrying her to the litter box... and shoving her head through the swinging door. she would jump in and do her doody and leave. this went on for about 9 days.

on the 10th day... i thought... shes getting pretty good. maybe she can go through the swinging door by herself. wrong. poor thing didnt go to the bathroom all day. instead i woke at 6:24am to a nice stinky gooey poo at the end of my bed. the only salvation was that it was large enough that i could see it without my glasses and not step on it.

I carried the cat to the litter box... where she pee'ed like she was a middle age man that just woke up after a night of drinking 30 beers.

damn you cat poop!!