Leap Day! My favorite day of the year.

Today was a great day! I got up at noon (standard for the weekend) and ate graham crackers with jelly. I then proceeded to take a shower and do crappity crap accounting homework. After that, Nate and I took the bus to the Zen Garden (vegetarian restaurant) in Squirrel Hill for some eats. We took the bus because Nate's car is at the doctor.

I had the "Fortune Noodles," which were fried noodles with vegetables and some sort of wheat gluten stuff. I also had bean curd rolls. Nate had "Peking Veggie Loaf" and Wonton soup. Great! My only complaint about the restaurant is that the wait staff stares at you and constantly refills your water... I have noticed that this is a theme with many Asian style eateries, and it is quite annoying. I would have filled out a suggestion for the suggestion box about it, but I know they would have just stared at me.

After that, we went across the street to EB Games where I was forced (!!!) to buy a Game Boy Advance. Ok, I wasn't forced. I had been toying with the idea of buying one so it would come in handy for those boring bus trips to class and for our flight to San Francisco. So, I bought one. And Tetris Worlds. Nate and I took the bus home and played Final Fantasy - Crystal Chronicles and then we watched Donnie Darko and now I am watching Trading Spaces. I am a true Trading Spaces afficionado.

I found a new fun website to entertain me for minutes at a time. www.FitDay.com. You can sign up for a free account and put in all the food you ate for a day, and it tells you about all your nutrients and stuff. It rocks! Apparently I am eating only like 1200 calories a day and am burning almost twice as much a day. That's according to the site. I am also low on Vitamin A, D, K, and B-12. I think B-12 only comes from like animal sources that I don't eat, so I guess I'm SOL on that one. Everything else is good though... I get like 200% of my Vitamin C requirements. That is only based on the calculations for 2 days, though.

Nate is in bed. What a pussy. It's only 12:19 am and there are many more minutes left of Trading Spaces to watch. Frank is so annoying. He's all, "Let's bring the inside in," and then he glues twigs to everything. Why is he so sweaty? You would think he would start wearing darker shirts or something.

I almost forgot the best part of my day!!! Before leaving to eat, I went outside to get the mail and to say hello to our squirrel friends that hang out in our "yard" and parking lot area. There were 4 out there, so I decided to bring some cashews out and give them some food. It took a few minutes, but they finally caught on that I was tossing them nuts, and they took them and ate them. They wouldn't come too close to me though... why don't they know that I am their friend? I even brought Yippie (our stuffed dog) out and put him on the fence post to hang out. The squirrels stopped dead in their tracks (one was standing upside down walking down a tree) and eyed Yippie up and down, but none came over to hang out with him. Poor Yippie. Tomorrow, I think I am going to make a nut trail into our apartment and leave the door open so that the squirrels can come in and hang.

Posted by Julie at 04:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ash Wednesday! My favorite day of the year. Just kidding.

I think I'm going to go around to all of the places that I had job interviews and find out who got the job that I didn't get and see what's so great about them. I would be pretty busy because I've been on like 14 million interviews. In fact, I should quit my job and go do that and write a book about it. Didn't a guy get famous for selling all of his stuff on Ebay and then traveling around the country to visit his stuff and the people who bought it? This is along the same lines... I could be rich and famous!

I've been on a garbanzo bean kick lately. I have been making really big salads with lettuce, carrots, celery, mushrooms, garbanzo beans, raisins, croutons, and dressing. We are all out of tomatoes, but if we had some, I'd put those on too.

Oh yeah! Duh. My big news. The other day I got this check in the mail about this. Sweet. It was for $13.86. I also got my tax refund, which was $580! I'm rich!

Time to go spend my winnings.

Posted by Julie at 04:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Who the heck knew that garbanzo beans and chick peas were the same thing??? For a long time I have wondered what the difference was. Today Nate and I were making something that called for garbanzo beans, and it inspired me to finally find out what the difference was... and there is no difference!!! They are called garbanzo beans typically in Spanish speaking countries, and chick peas elsewhere. You can thank me for your daily culinary lesson.

So, what else is new? My accounting midterm was "eh." I predict a B, at least I hope so.

Oh yeah, last night we went to see the Mr. T. Experience at Laga. It was a lot of fun. If Laga is really going to close in a few months as is the latest rumor, then that might be the last time I'll have ever gone there, because nothing else of interest to me is coming up. Sucks. :(

So it was warm for a day and it was snowing today. Big freaking surprise. I was all psyched for Spring to be here, but I guess I should face it that it is NEVER COMING AGAIN.

Let's talk about Whole Foods. I love Whole Foods and the bounty of selection it provides, but what in the god damn hell? Why is it so busy 24 hours a day? Since when did it become trendy to eat healthy food? I wish all of Pittsburgh would go back to be being fat, boring slobs so that every trip to Whole Foods isn't the most annoying experience ever. They seriously need to get more space or limit the amount of people that can shop at once.

We are going to San Francisco in approximately 3 weeks. We haven't planned out anything we are doing. I am watching "The Sweetest Thing" right now, and it is in San Francisco, so I guess I will just have to do everything they do. Right now Christina Applegate and Cameran Diaz are in a dressing room in their underwear trying on dresses, so I guess that will be my first stop as well.

Shake your groove thing, shake your groove thing... time for some more snacks.

Posted by Julie at 04:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So tonight is the big night. It is my accounting midterm. After studying for close to 2 weeks, I can now say that I am fairly confident that I will at least get a B. That's confidence.

It is finally not crappy weather everyday. It is still cold, but the sun shines and makes it look deceivingly warmer. I'll prove you wrong, groundhog!

Valentine's Day was Saturday. I bought Nate a vegan cheesecake from DeliciousChoices.com. And, although the point is not for it to "taste like the real thing," I have to say that it was the darn tastiest cheesecake I've ever had. It was actually better than real cheesecake, because it didn't taste so heavy. I got the sampler platter. Oh yeah, but there is an insane story to go along with actually picking the thing up. And I will now tell it.

I always get stuff delivered to my landlord, so I did just that for the cheesecake. It was being shipped FedEx and a signature was not required - this was the cake people's choice, not mine. Anyways, so it was scheduled to come Friday afternoon. I saw the online tracking thing that it had been delivered, so I happily went over to the office after work to pick it up only to find that the woman behind the desk wouldn't accept it because it is their policy to not accept perishables. Whatever. She said that maybe he took it to my apartment, but I didn't think that was possible because he only had their address, not mine. So, I angrily stomped home and called FedEx to find out where my cake was. The guy was like, "I sure am sorry about that," and took my phone number and said they would have the driver call me when he got in. In the meantime, Nate and I drove down to the FedEx building to see if my cake was there. It wasn't. The girl there took my phone number as well (and of course, there was no note in my account or anything for someone to call me already... thanks phone guy) and said that the driver had already gone home for the night and she would leave a message for him. By this point I was pretty sad because my cake had already been floating around the country for 2 days and I needed to get it and refrigerate it. Our next stop was to head back to my landlord's building and creep around to see if the Fed Ex dude put my cake somewhere else. I didn't see it. So, we went to run some errands and as soon as we got back home, the Fed Ex girl from the office calls and tells me that the driver left my cake in the lobby of that building. I was kind of irritated by this because I don't even live there, and I had already checked the entrance way and it wasn't there. The door to the real inside was locked, so I don't know how he could have gotten in. SO, my next plan of action was to enter the building. I lurked around until someone was coming out, and I made it seem like I was going in at the same time and got the door before it closed. I know, I'm a criminal! So at this point I am in the building, and I see no cake and I can't find the mailboxes, where I thought someone may have put it if they saw it sitting in the entrance way. Nate and I both walked all over the building, but no mailboxes. What the heck? I finally realized that a girl in my accounting class lived in that building, so I looked up her name on the buzzers and rang her. As soon as I said who it was, she asked if I was looking for a package. Gah! She saw my package in the mailroom earlier and was just about to email me because she knew I didn't live there. Woo! So after 3 hours of looking for the cheesecake, I finally found it and we went home and ate some. Yum! Also, Nate got me cool pink satin pajamas with hearts on them. Wee.

I spent the rest of the weekend studying. And it will pay off tonight, hopefully, at 6:15 pm. Wish me luck, and don't let me forget my calculator.

Posted by Julie at 04:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I did my taxes last night. It pissed me off. Usually doing my taxes is easy, but this year was the first year I had more than one W-2, plus I had this weird thing that I got about my tuition from the IRS that I had no idea what to do with or what it was even for. It had something to do with my tuition being paid on behalf of UPMC, or something. I did something with it and I think I filled something out about some sort of education credits, but my mind is a blur now. In the end, I got $1 back from the state, and $580 back from federal. Sweet! I started to make plans to blow it all on hookers and beer, but unfortunately I think I am going to take the boring route and pay off some of my credit card debt. Yeah, I know. Boring.

This weekend is Valentine's Day. I will be celebrating by making sweet, sweet love to my accounting book and notes to prepare for my midterm next week.

This weekend was a big movie watching weekend. I watched Back to the Future II, What About Bob?, and Pearl Harbor. All blockbuster hits. I totally forgot at the end of What About Bob? that Dr. Leo tries to kill Bob. That is not very family friendly.

Yesterday, Nate and I went to Target and the Giant Eagle at the Waterfront. If only Whole Foods and that Giant Eagle would combine forces and make a super-mega store... then my life would be complete. I bought a bunch of cool stuff at Target, like pink terrycloth pants, a basket to organize our bathroom stuff, a straightening iron, little plastic drawer thingies for all of my hair accessories, and some barrettes. We then bought 2300 pounds of food at Giant Eagle. I got awesome soy yogurt. I haven't had yogurt since I was like 7 or something. I also found a variety of the Soy Dream ice cream that tickles my fancy... I wanted a kind with something nutty or crunchy in it since I don't like just plain ice cream. I settled for praline with pecans or something. Sweet! I am going to turn into soy.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I found the most awesome dentist of all time. His name is Dr. Leahy and his office is on Ellsworth Ave. in Shadyside. My insurance changed so I was forced to pick a new dentist, even though I was planning on it anyways. Dr. Leahy rules because the building is like pink adobe and it has a Mexican feel to it. He is very friendly and takes the time to talk to you before doing any work and discusses stuff with you about what you can be doing at home. Also, he has a dog that hangs out in the office. The dog watched me get my cavities filled. Moral support. So, if he accepts your insurance, I think everyone should go to him. Actually not, because then everyone will suck up the good appointment times.

Class tonight. And every night for the rest of my life. Not really. This IS class is turning out to be a huge pain in my ass. Whoever told me it was an "easy A" is a dirty, filthy liar!!! Group projects out the ying-yang.

I am seriously considering only taking one class in the summer. That will put me behind though and I won't graduate for like 320423 years. I might take a 3 credit class and a 1.5 credit class. We'll see.

I can't wait to go home and eat salad and change into my "street clothes." I wish I could wear my pajamas to work. I would be so much more efficient, I swear.

Posted by Julie at 04:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi. Today is my dad's birthday. Happy birthday, old man!

The last few weeks have been the most stressful of my life, I think. INSANE! I actually called off work on Monday, thus blemishing my perfect attendance record so far because I was so beat. I don't know why this semester has been so much more work than the last, but it has been. I feel refreshed though only having worked 4 days this week. I think I might be dead right now if I had worked one minute longer. I feel like every minute of my life is spent working, doing homework, going to class, or worrying about work or homework. I've determined that the major problem is accounting and it needs to be eliminated from my life. Tonight after work, I ate dinner and then did homework until 10 pm. Tomorrow I plan on doing homework all day and studying for accounting. Sounds like fun, doesn't it??? And just when I thought that things would cool down for a bit, I have another big stupid group project coming up. Ugh.

Now that that is out of the way, what's up? Survivor rocks and I am glad I have that to fall back on for fun. I started up a Survivor Fantasy League team at CBS's website and they aren't doing very well. Nate's team is rocking the house though and he isn't even 1/4 of the Survivor fan I am! Isn't that always the way?

Right now I am watching Tivo'ed episodes of Trading Spaces. This is the night that I catch up on all of my TV for the week. I like to stay up as late as possible on Friday nights just doing random crap because I know the rest of the weekend will be devoted to doing STUPID SCHOOL STUFF.

I hate this weather!!! Make it end. Today was actually like 50 degrees almost, and that felt like summer compared to the crap that has been going down outside lately. But, of course since it is the weekend, that means that Snowstorm 1342 has to come and ruin everything. :(

Today I found out that you can download new clip art from Microsoft's website and boy was I excited!!! Yes, clip art is now the highlight of my life. There was a really funny one of a "carrot family" hanging out, so I incorporated it into a powerpoint presentation that I made for someone at work. Ok, so Nate found it. Yes, I asked Nate to help me find clip art because I was tired.

I'm going to go and stick my head in the washing machine now. Sweet freaking dreams.

Posted by Julie at 04:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)