Since I'm too cheap for a rename token, my new journal is concrete_queen.  My reasons for changing are over there, feel free to friend me, though I don't promise to update any more over there than I did over here.  I'm still on LJ everyday, but I mostly just catch up on communities.

Since I realize it's been December since I've posted, here's an update for anyone who cares: life is brilliant.

I have a job I love. Seriously, I look forward to going to work each day. My coworkers are like a second family.

I have a great house. Rented, yes, but a truly awesome house. It was built in 1880 and just reeks of character (and spiders...but those are easily dealt with with the vacuum).

My health is good. One itty sinus infection easily cleared up with antibiotics.

I'm seeing a nice guy. Not sure if it'll last, but who cares? He's nice.

So there you go, my life in four sentences. Hope all is going as well for the rest of you. :)

Just to let everyone know, after 7.5 years of school, yesterday I sucessfully defended my thesis, and now have my Master's degree in Civil Engineering!!!!!

My computer doesn't have any photo editing programs more advanced than Paint on there. I really really need to get a better program. I'd like to spend <$100. Cosmo recommended Photoshop 6.0. Anyone else have any other recommendations? I'm a fairly competent but by no means expert user. On my last compy, I used the computer's generic photoediting software, which worked well for me.

You know what pisses me off? Curvy as an acronym for "fat". I am curvy. I have a 28" waist and 39" hips. And yet, I am not fat. My weight is well within the normal range for my height. Just today I saw a website offering advice on clothing types for "every body" -- which they divided up into petite, pear shaped and curvy...only curvy meant "overweight". And then I saw another website which advertised the plus sized T-shirts they'd just gotten in for all those "curvy" women out there. Here's the thing. If you are overweight you are FAT. You are not curvy. Quit kidding yourself.

( Posted here )

Thought it turned out pretty well. We did scalloped borders this week, and the bigger pink flowers.

Ok, had to post this:



That's Britney Spears on the left, and Madam Mim from Disney's "The Sword in the Stone" on the right. *g*

Posting a pic of the first cake I've made for my cake decorating class. We did stars this week (icing stars...the shape on the cake is my own idea), and I think it turned out pretty well. The icing was waaay too stiff when I first iced the cake, so it got all crumby. Oh well. Went out today and bought some more colors and a square pan.

( Pic here )

It's been ages since I've posted. April 12th, to be exact. If anyone's curious, I'm here, I'm alive, and I'm returning to HOL Sept. 1st. Right now I'm finishing up my research project and the final report. Then on to the thesis (think I have most of it done in the final report), and finding a job. The cities I'm considering: Kansas City, Pasadena, and Denver. I know Kansas City fairly well, but if you have anything to say about Pasadena or Denver, or know someone who might, speak up! I'll probably be heading to Pasadena for a few days this fall if anyone is in the area and wants to meet.

I guess the major thing here is I got new drawers in my kitchen. They came by today and installed them, and put the old fronts on so they match. The old ones were just on tracks with no wheels, and a bit hard to open. One thing I love about this complex is that the maintenance is good.

I can't decide if I want to cook for dinner or order a pizza. It's 5:40, and it'll take awhile to put something together, then I have to clean up. I'm thinking pizza. Maybe I have some coupons. My roommate has been collecting junk mail in a pile in the living room.

So this posting an entry a day thing is starting to get a bit tedious. And it's reminding me how generally boring my life is. Today I wired up some strain gages, found a topic for my Seismic paper, and went to Concrete class for 2 and a half hours. Then tonight I did my concrete homework (ok, started it), and made cheesecake cupcakes and banana bread.

I'm so ready to be out of school. I've been looking at jobs today, and found openings at the company I want to work for in Kansas City and Houston (the KC one is new). It's all kind of a moot point, since I'm not ready to get a job yet, but I've been thinking a lot about where I want to live, and if I really want to stay in Kansas. Part of me likes the familiarity, and part of me wants to break out and go to a completely different city. In all honesty, somewhere out of reach of my parents. Not that my parents aren't great, but right now, even living on my own they're still just 8 miles away and I see one or both of them about twice a week. I'd like to try being 100% on my own. Even in KC, my parents would be only an hour away.

So my big news for today is that yesterday I did my taxes. Since I'm well below the poverty line, and no longer my parents' dependent, I get every cent back. Between state and local taxes, that amounts to $773. Nice.

Soooo...what to do with it? My dad suggested a laptop, which is an idea, but I really don't want one that bad. I'm thinking I'll spend it on a few things I've wanted for awhile, but haven't been able to justify buying. I also want a complete set of knitting needles, and then I'll just save the rest. The small stuff I want:

Cupcake Charm Bracelet
Wives and Daughters
North and South

I need to go put away groceries now... Meh.

Ok, so I didn't post yesterday, so this is gonna be yesterday's, today's, and tomorrow's post all combined, since it's Easter tomorrow.

My life is seriously mundane. I finished up some stuff at work yesterday, but not enough as I still have to work this afternoon. I stayed up til about 11:30 last night watching an eBay auction for my mom. She called about 11 to tell me it was too expensive, not to worry about it. She wants a knitting book that's out of print, so eBay's her best bet. There's another copy coming up in a few days, I'll try to snag that for her.

This morning consisted of mailing a package, going to the bank, getting my hair cut, buying socks, and having lunch with my dad. Not a bad morning's work all in all. This afternoon I'll be working wiring up some strain gages. Hopefully that won't take long.

Did you know postage rates are going up again?? I had to buy stamps this morning and just bought a pack of 20 or whatever, but in May the rate is going from 39 cents to 41 cents. So I'll need to buy a bunch of two cent stamps. *grumble*

Not much to say today, except that I'm tired, and today was really tedious. I had to find the relative rib area of some rebar (not that that means much to most of you, perhaps all of you), which involves dozens of measurements with a dial gage. So was doing that all day.

Then to night had my corrosion meeting, where one of my group members mentioned a sexual position I'd never heard of, and I made the mistake of asking 'what's that?' It was some comfort that none of the other members of my group had heard of it either. The girl is a serious slut.

And my foot itches, so I have it soaking in oatmeal water in my biggest pot. >.< I'm allergic to neosporin, but I got a cut on my foot that got infected, so on the neosporin went, and while the cut is healing nicely, it itches so bad I'd like to tear my skin off. I really need to go see a doctor and get something I'm not allergic to, but I'd feel silly going to the doctor for a tiny cut. If anyone has any suggestions for OTC stuff that doesn't contain -sporin, please let me know.

Ok, so I didn't post an entry yesterday. I spent the night at my parents' house, so no LJ there. Oh well.

My rant today is about my roommate. I normally have at least one rant to share (she's that kind of roommate), but this one really, really pissed me off.

A few days after I came back from Indiana, I went to watch a DVD. No sound. So I messed about with the sound, trying to figure if something was muted or really low. Nope. So I look behind the TV to check the connections. Three cables are unplugged (you know, the red, yellow, and white ones), which is really, really odd. I'm not talking just a little out, but sitting on the shelf the TV is on a few inches behind the TV. Now my TV and DVD player are in my bedroom. Miriam the Evil Roommate normally has no access to them, so I couldn't figure out what happened. I didn't unplug them. They were in there too firmly to be accidently pulled out by shifting the TV. So it was down to her. But why unplug cords? For that matter, why borrow my DVD player? She has a DVD player on her laptop.

Finally after stewing on it a few days, I think what happened was she moved the TV and/or DVD player and/or cable box to the living room to watch TV with her bf. She knew I was in another state, so no fear of getting caught. I think she then put it back, and got distracted when the phone rang in the middle of hooking it back up (she lives and dies by the ringing of the phone, and has started fires when she got distracted by the phone). This is evidenced by the fact that when I came back, she'd moved her desk into our nearly furniture-less living room. The desk is the right size to hold both, and was curiously free of normal desk clutter. Combine this evidence with fact that she has a strong sense of entitlement and very little liking for me, and I think I can explain the pulled out cords.

It's not so much that she borrowed the TV, it's that she took it without telling me. If I confronted her, she'd lie. She's like that. So the only thing I can think to do is, next time I go out of town, sweetly offer to set up the TV in the living room for her. On the extremely off chance she's innocent, she'll never know my suspicions, and if she's guilty, she'll wonder if I know. Hopefully it will torment her. I can't stand that girl... >:(

I babysat last night and made $36. It's kind of funny how much money that seems like right now. A year ago, living with my parents, $36 more or less was nothing. Now that I'm thisfar above the US poverty line, it's fairly significant. This year, living on my own for the first time, money matters. I think about what I spend. I wanted a $50 dress at my local dept store, but reminded myself that I have to pay for having my suit tailored this week. I also have to remind myself that I have all of what I need and most of what I want. And that I'll be making much much more money soon. I can't imagine living the rest of my life on this budget.

My brother is moving back to Kansas from Portland this summer, and he wants me to make the drive back with him. My mom is contemptuous of this plan, deciding that neither of us have enough money to do that. I will if I save, I just have to decide if that's what I want to do. I also really want a new bike. And my compy's days are numbered. I also to find out if he has enough money to help pay for it, as I can't afford a plane ticket out to Portland and a hotel for two or three nights, and meals.

Honestly, I'm not sure what's going on in my mom's head anymore. I don't think the drive is about the money. My mom seems to have gotten more pushy and opinionated since I've moved out. I don't know if this is because I'm not there, or if I just have more perspective not living with her. Lately her thing is grandkids. As in, she wants them. Rather badly. I don't have a bf, and have no prospects of being married soon. To be reminded so pointedly that I'm single and likely to stay that way rather hurts, really. But that's just my mom. I can't let it bother me.

I've decided that for April, I'm going to try to post an entry every day. Dunno if I'll make it, but I'll try. So here's to starting.

I watch Supersize Me last night. Interesting documentary. Normally I like McDonald's, know it's unhealthy, and probably only eat there once every 4-6 weeks. The interesting part wasn't all the horrible stuff that happened to the guy's body (that's only to be expected if you eat like that for a month), but more the debate about how much McDonald's (or any other fast food chain, really), is responsible for obesity. Does having playplaces indoctrinate children? Is it really on the level of giving them candy cigarettes, like one person said? How do you draw the line between personal responsibility and corporate marketing? One interesting point that was made (by a bystander, not an expert), was that people are suing McD's because they're fat, but what would happen if McD's turned away fat people, or would only serve them salads? Then it'd be discrimination. Personally, I don't think you can really blame McD's. We all make choices. McD's is like any other corporation, out to make money. They sell what's profitable -- cheap, unhealthy food.

I will say though, that after watching that last night, I skipped my unhealthy cheese puffs at lunch and went for an extra helping of fruit. :)

On another note, I found a lovely silk dress at a thrift store yesterday for $15, originally $80 and never worn. I'm down to a size 8 now. Go me!

First week of classes, and all but one are cancelled. Not a bad start.

Work going ok. We poured two more beams, which look like there's a slim chance they'll make their target strength (as opposed to two which have a snowball's chance, but we're letting them cure more anyhow -- it's a pride thing).

Got a few days off work to go visit grandparents over Spring Break. Ok, so it's a long weekend deal. I take what I can get.

Just found out my cousin's wedding reception is going to be a drunken debauchery. Family in an uproar, half not attending. Lovely.

Had a spinning class today. It's harder than it looks. Got approximately 24 yards of yarn from about 6 hours work. It was mostly crappy, but I knit a hot pad out of it anyhow. I need more practice.

Roommate is making "Fungus Chicken" for her bf-who's-not-her-bf. Really really salty. I can still taste it. Yuck.

Oh, and Jim Hensen's Storyteller DVD is really good. Go rent/buy it.

This weekend I've:

-Updated my HOL nest file and posted points (way, way, overdue)
-Edited Alte articles (I've been doing way too little with Alte lately)
-Made Pumpkin Soup (unusual, but good)
-Cleaned up bedroom and bathroom (also long overdue)
-Made work schedules for employees (let the complaining begin!)
-Made Tre Leches cake (well it looks ok, needs to be frosted)
-Marinated cube steak for later cooking (yum!)
-Made Chinese Chicken Salad (very, very good)
-Washed every dish I own, by hand, about five times over (dishwasher still broken)


Still to do:

-Frost cake
-Go in to work and wet down beams
-Find and summarize article on the BP pipeline spill for Corrosion class


Creepy incident of the week: Corrosion prof looks exactly like exBF's mom
Good thing of the week: Snow! Yay for 4" of snow and clear roads!
What I'm knitting: Scarf for cousin (so close to done)
Current fave TV now that I have cable: 'Bridezillas' and 'Gordon Ramsey's F Word'
Last movie watched: About a Boy
Life in general: Back on track :)

My insane roommate is wandering around the apartment singing and humming Christmas Carols. On the day before Halloween. Just thought I'd share.