A Smattering of Miscellaneous Stuff!

Wow, is the date on that last post right? Has it really been two weeks since my last post? How the time flies. Really, I have nothing of extreme importance to write about (yet just watch as I create an uber long post). So I'm just going to blurb about anything that comes into my head.

Have you heard for Blurb.com, by the way? It is a fabulous way to create photo books, or really any kind of book you want and then you self-publish it and set a price to sell if you want. You can even tell it to take your whole blog and transfer it to a book and it will just like that, ready for you to edit if you feel it needs it. Check it out.

Loralee is engaged! You can read her engagement story here if you like. It's a bittersweet thing for me, because I have a fear of losing friends once they are married. A fear which is not without merit, I might add. We have discussed this though and I am truly happy for her and excited to help her plan the wedding. I have already volunteered, or rather stated to her that I will be doing her cake and engagement photos. She seems to be okay with that. In fact we are taking her engagement photos this weekend. My wonderful and trusting aunt and uncle let me borrow their super expensive camera for the job. I am extremely excited about using it and Loralee is very grateful too. I promised to be super careful and if anything breaks that I will happily replace it. Well, maybe not happily because I am sure that I will be really upset with myself if I were to break something. But nothing is going to break because like I said I will be extremely careful. I will post some pics once I get them retouched or whatever.

I'm a little worried about the cake. Well, not too worried but it is more intricate then the cake Loralee had originally thought she wanted. Loralee is going to create a stencil for me to give her cake a jacquard look to it that I will cut out of fondant. She wants cream on white. Will definitely be doing some practicing once she gets the stencil done. I think it's a cute idea though for her to do the stencil because then it will have a piece of her in it. I'm sure she has thought of this but then she could have the stencil reflect in her invites and whatever else she has printed to tie everything together.

Due to Loralee getting married and moving, I have been considering moving myself. Not far, hopefully still within my ward boundaries. I just don't know if I want to deal with a new strange roommate since I have lived with Tamara and Loralee for four years. It's still in the "maybe" zone of things to come. Options are that I know my friend Carrie is getting kicked out of her place soon, really soon and we've talked about how fun it would be to live together. Another is trying to convince Alyson to move down here with me when her lease is up in August and then she can take the lovely new train to school. I fear that this is a dream that will never be, though. Honestly, either of these girls would be great to live with. I feel really comfortable with Aly and hate when I have to leave her place after a nice weekend visit. My worry with Carrie and any roommate is to not live up to their expectations of a good roommate.

I've always felt that I'm the bad roommate. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are far worse roommates then me, but I'm not the most contributory especially when it comes to house-work. Though Loralee and Tamara have trained me somewhat in this area. Now I am willing, of course to clean up after myself, but I'm not a big user of other rooms in the house mostly so I don't feel the urge to clean them regularly. I kind of decided (without really talking to Loralee about it) that she could be the cleaner of the bathroom since she uses it 85% more than I do if I buy all the amenities such as toilet paper and soap. She only has to live with that arrangement for another month or so, so I think she's okay with it.

Went to Annie Get Your Gun last night with friends and it was really fun. I really want to rent the movie now. I had never seen it before. The Hale Theatre really does put on pretty good productions for what they do. I laughed a lot. All of us girls are in for Into the Woods this Fall. Let me know if anyone else wants to join.

Went home for Memorial Day weekend and it was really fun though not too relaxing even though I didn't do much. I didn't get to spend as much time with my mother as she and I would have liked. I just let myself be pulled away to do other things. I needed to pay a much asked for visit to my friend Kaysie who lives in Colorado (about two and half hours away from home) to see her new baby. Gorgeous, by the way. Then came back the same day and went straight to my grandmother's house where family had gathered for dinner and games. Julie and her mom had come up so I spent a lot of time talking to her.

The next morning I woke up late and my mom had left. On the counter was note saying "Donuts on the counter and chocolate milk in the fridge. I'll be home around noon." There were other things in there (I kind of wish I would have kept it) that I don't remember. It hit me right then how lucky I am to have such a sweet mother. I have these moments from time to time. She really is so good to me and my brother. I know that I take advantage of it and also take her for granted at times too. Like I didn't do anything for her on Mother's Day except call. She told me she didn't like mother's day anyway so it was fine. My aunt has said this too and I think it's because they think they haven't been the best mothers. Well, I for one think and I'm sure my aunt's children would agree that they are wonderful women and mothers. They did the best that they could have with the cards life dealt them.

I am always so proud of my mom for raising my brother and I alone and getting her degree and always being there for us. I never felt like my aunt begrudged me coming over after school sometimes to wait for my mom to pick me up instead of taking the school bus home. I always felt welcome there and sure it might have been to watch the wonderful cable that we didn't have at home and sure I stole a mystic mint or two, but it was still just fun to be there. And once in a while we were even invited to stay for dinner. I have lots of good memories in my aunt's house of after school visits.

Anyway, not to get off track but I hope my mom knows how much I love her and forgives me for not showing it all the time. And thanks for all the little things. I do notice them but I just might not say so all the time. Okay well, I'm sure this post is plenty long and I'm getting somewhat teary-eyed. Gotta go.

Construction of the Armoire part 3 in visual form

I figured the pictures could speak for themselves since nothing really interesting happened in this third part. Other than Jason jamming his knee into a corner of the armoire which put him out of commission for a good several minutes but he bit threw the pain to finish. Thanks Jason!! He really did most of the work and his meticulous measuring really made it turn out perfectly. I was going to show you pictures of all my decluttering but just take my word for it that my room is now (okay almost, just need one more piece of furniture from brother's house) perfectly organized. If you could see under my bed, just a storage bin, a few games and my ab roller. I had to remove all my VHS tapes from the corner and stored some of them out in the garage and then the other 120 will be sold at a garage sale some time in the future.
Compare the modifications to the Walmart Version.

Construction of the Armoire part 2

When Jason and I arrived at Home Depot, the place was abuzz with people. People picking out paint, getting lumber and all sorts of various things for their home improvement needs. It was a Saturday after all.

Though I would be fine in Home depot by myself (I have gotten my own lumber cut before by myself) I pretty much just followed him around and let him talk to the employees. First we headed to the hardware aisle to pick out the shelf rollers or whatever you call them. I hope you all know what I'm talking about when I call them that. Unfotunately, they didn't have much of a selection and none of the full extension ones. But I'm pretty laid back, I don't care if this thing is a masterpiece. So we got a tan colored set of normal rollers for two shelves. Then it was off to lumber. We wandered around lumber for quite a while. Jason just kept looking for something in the right size and we had a hard time finding it. We even checked out the cabinet area to see that they had. They had some shelves that worked that were laminated in white and we would have had to cut them down but too expensive. I said there's got to be something big enough in the lumber aisle. So we looked again and found some MDS that would work. We requested the exact measured cuts of the boards to an employee who first went into this small spiel about how they don't cut things smaller than twelve inches. We had requested 17 X 28. "It's a safety thing," he said, "but you guys are over that so we're good." I didn't think much of it then but now I'm wondering why he felt the need to explain that to us. Oh well.

After we got our shelves cut, it was off to the paint aisle. The MDS was brown, you know, like wood tends to be, but my armoire is black so figured it would look better with a touch of paint on it prepped first with primer. I sent Jason to go look for it. Man did he ever take a long time. When he came back he just had paint and no primer so then we had to go back and spend another ten minutes looking for primer. This is all spray paint mind you. It comes into play later in the story. Off to checkout.

As I was pulling out of the parking lot, Jason said he was hungry and I remembered that I hadn't eaten anything either so we hit the nearest Arby's. I knew I was paying for Jason's meal. A. because he doesn't have any money and 2. I wanted to treat him since he was helping me and all. (Did you notice the very subtle Mad About You reference in there? I've been watching it a lot lately.) When we pull up to the menu thing to order we hear this boy's voice come over the intercom to ask what we want.

Me: "You guys don't have chicken fingers anymore?"
Kid: "We sure don't." (very emphatically)
Me: "Alright hold on. (to Jason) What do you want?"
Jason: "Um, okay I'll have a number one."
Me: (to intercom) "Okay, we'll have a number one. (to Jason) What do you want to drink?"
Jason: "Oh, yeah, um well, um...."
Kid: "What did you want to drink with that."
Me: "Come on, Jason it's Pepsi products just pick something, we don't have all day."
(the kid on the intercom was saying something but I don't know what.) "Hold on."
Jason: "Sierra Mist. Oh and I want an chocolate turnover instead of fries."
Me: "Okay we want a Sierra Mist with that. And can I get a chocolate turnover instead of fries?"
Kid: "Sierra Mist? I thought you said Rootbeer."
Me: "Nope, sierra mist please. And the chocolate turnover."
Kid: "We don't have a chocolate turnover."
Me: "What kinds do you have?"
Kid: "Apple and some strawberry."
Jason: "Ooh Apple!"
Me: "So an apple turnover then instead of fries."
Kid: "Oh so you want that instead of the fries?"
Me: "Yes."
Kid: "Oh well, let's see if I can do that. (with an apparent kidding tone). Okay is that all?"
Me: "No, and a number 4 with a diet pepsi."
Kid: "Okay, that's gonna be 5 billion dollars or blah blah whichever you got handy."
(I couldn't really hear him because I started laughing.)
So we pulled through to the drive-up window.
Kid: "So it's gonna be $11.19 and your food is gonna take a while because hey it's Arby's."
Me: "Well, it wasn't my choice to come here."
Kid: "Yeah, it wouldn't be mine either. (seriously this kid was really funny.) Did you want any sauce?"
Jason: "Yeah horsey sauce."
Me: "Do you think you could get management to fix that big pot hole in the drive way?"
Kid: "They're not gonna fix that. They don't care."
(There were some other funny tidbits of conversation that I can't recall, but it was probably one of the most enjoyable experiences going through a drive-through.)

So once we got our food we headed back to my place for a little you know what? You know what I mean? Heh Heh. Yeah we ate our food. What were you thinking? Just trying to spice up the story for you. After some lunch and idle conversation we pulled out the lumber and paint and I got a lesson on the best way to spray paint. Long even strokes. We primed and then painted and then Jason had to go so I kept painting over the next two days to get a nice even black finish, which it didn't ever get to that but like I said doesn't need to be a masterpiece.

Stay tuned for the finale of our saga when Jason comes over tonight to help finish the whole thing. Who knows what could happen?

New Diet Program

Phone conversation with Loralee yesterday (might be somewhat paraphrased):
everything in parentheses is an aside to you

Loralee: "So I've been reading your blog today. Why have you been so depressed lately?"
Me: "Oh, well that's an old post, and forever ago. (doesn't it feel like that once you finally come out of a depression"
Loralee: "No, that was only like two weeks ago."
Me: "Well, you know just the usual stuff, and the snoring stuff from Moab kind of set off along with being discouraged about not losing weight after working out all that week and such."
Loralee: "Yeah, I could see how that could get you down. You know I've heard that if you lose weight then it could decrease your snoring."
Me: "Easier said than done."
Loralee: "Well, yes but it would be like killing two birds with one stone."
Me: "Well, I'm sure I'll try again, someday."

Later that day, Loralee, Melanie and I went for a walk around Sugar House Park. As we are walking Loralee voices her bright idea.

Loralee: "Cassie, I think what you need to do is to eat five small meals a day and then that will jump start your metabolism. I need motivation to get up early. So what if you and I cook breakfast together before you go to work and then that will jump start you for the day and we can chat and spend time together. What do you say?"
(Some hesitation)
Cassie: "Well, yeah that could be nice. There's just the problem that I don't like two of the three aspects of this plan."
Loralee: "What's that, waking up early and...?"
Cassie: "Well, to be perfectly honest, spending time with you. Just kidding. No, it's the getting up early and me not being much of a breakfast person."

So the conversation continued on with Loralee pretty much convincing, well not wholly convincing me of the plan, but I said I would give it a shot. I knew she was trying to help me and she knows that after four years of living with me that I have tried and failed numerous attempts at weight loss. I just have no self-discipline. I thought the whole thing very sweet that she wanted to do that with me.

I figured we would start on Monday, (I always start things on Monday) but this morning I woke up late and heard Loralee cooking breakfast which I figured was just for her since we had talked about having breakfast around 6:30 or so when we start. So I start to get ready with doing my hair and makeup and then Loralee knocks on my door and tells me that she made breakfast for us! I was really running late though so I finished up my makeup and got out my clothes but noticed the skirt I had decided on needed to be ironed. Normally, I would just choose a different skirt but I hadn't worn this skirt for a while so I decided to just quickly iron it. I came out of my room and saw that Loralee had made up a plate for me of scrambled eggs, toast, and sliced strawberries and pears. So nice. I set up the ironing board and while the iron heated I started to eat the toast. I tried to eat and iron at the same time because like I said I was running really late. Loralee then jumped up and said "You sit down and eat and I'll iron this." "No, Loralee, you need to eat too." "Well, my stuff can be warmed up and you can eat yours on the way." This whole conversation happened as I stepped away from the ironing board and finished eating my toast. I joked about how I'm not a big protester of people wanting to do things for me. I really hate it when I offer something and people protest and protest to death. I'm very willing to accept help and Loralee is all about getting in her service quota. (I kid, she doesn't really have a quota, not that I know about anyway) But I really appreciated the whole thing. I got a good breakfast and a very nicely ironed skirt, which I quickly threw on once I finished eating and brushed my teeth and then I was out the door. So we'll see how this new thing plays out. I'm not gonna start working out again until, you guessed it, Monday!!

Construction of the Armoire part 1

So I had another spendy weekend. A few days before, I had asked my friend Jason to help me build my armoire. He is always very generous with his help and time and very handy. So Saturday rolls around and I have to be able to sleep in a little while and wasn't really planning on starting the construction until later, but then my phone ring and roused me out of bed. I already knew it was going to be Jason so I just let it go to voice mail and laid in bed for a little while longer. Not too much later I decided I had better call Jason. I was probably taking for granted that he wouldn't have any other plans that day. So around 11:00 he came over and we took a look at the already completed armoire that belonged to Loralee. I bought the exact one but want to make modifications since it is mainly supposed to be used as a computer armoire and I want it for my t.v. and movies, etc.

I figured the construction would be pretty simple. Just buy a few pieces of extra wood with some shelf rollers and put it all together, piece of cake. I guess I was wrong because as I explained my modifications to Jason, he said "This is going to be a lot of work." Great. First things first we took down the measurements we needed for the new shelves, a couple of times to be accurate. Oh and for further notice, throughout most of the post I say "we" but really mean Jason. Jason likes to give his own input on things sometimes and once in a while it's appreciated and other times not so much. It was kind of a mixture on this event.

After going over everything we needed several times we headed off to Home Depot.... to be continued as this post seems really long already. Also it will make you think this story is more interesting then it really is.

Burning a Hole in My Pocket!

So, lately I have been in a total buying mode. I've been trying really hard to repress it but it's still there and I think I am soon to give in. In fact, I have given in a little hoping to satisfy this feeling. $120 in shoes and clothes (at great deals, mind you and the pictures disbursed throughout are of what I bought). But to no avail. It is still with me and I'm afraid it's going to take even more. Like buying all three of those top items on the left sidebar. I really want them so much and for some reason I feel okay about buying them but I wish I didn't. Does that make sense?


I can get the Ipod for a pretty good deal on Ebay and mine has pretty much quit with little breaths of life now and again but I'm tired of the frustration. The external hard drive is at a very good price for the amount of storage and it's compact size. I really need a new laptop. Mine is fine, it works and I've not really minded the lines on the screen until they started to multiply. I hate that it pretty much has no battery and must be plugged in at all times. I hate how slow it can get after using it for forty minutes.
The problem would be that if I do purchase these items, it won't stop there. Oh no. I'm gonna need accessories. FM transmitter + car charger for the Ipod, wireless mouse and perhaps a graphics tablet for the computer. That's not too bad is it?

I've put a lot of thought into each of these items and it seems that I may be past the point of talking myself out of it because part of me has been really busy talking myself into it. And then I was reminded of the lovely $600 that my government is going to send to me in the next couple of weeks. I had originally intended on putting that money in savings but maybe I should use it for what it is intended. To stimulate the economy.

Really the only that hold me back from buying all this stuff right now is the possibility of buying a car soon. I've been wanting to buy a car for a while now but I think I'll just wait until mine dies which could be in the next several months but maybe longer. But I would like to put a nice down payment on it to reduce my monthly payments. So my thought is put the computer on my credit card and pay it off little by little even though I have the actual cash. Decisions Decisions.