| Goals for the 26th year |
- Quit Smoking.
- Write to Someone I Admire (Can be anyone from friend to celebrity).
- Send 27 Post Cards (I miss connecting with people outside of the internet).
Leave the State for vacation.
- Pay off my credit cards.
- Give handmade gifts for special occasions. (Due to my schedule, I will give as many as I can)
- Publish writing.
- Sky dive or bungee jump.
- Start a work out routine.
- Debate with someone and try to see their side.
- Walk for a cause.
- Take a dance class.
- Read a book a month (at least).
- Give a gift to a stranger.
- Hang out with my brother more often.
- Seek Grammar/Writing Education Opportunities.
- Volunteer my time outside of school.
- Stop to reflect on the good things. (May decide to blog it, may decide to write it down in a journal).
- Maintain a sick time balance at work.
- Save up for a cushion/emergency fund.
- Slumber Party/Diva Evening. (I miss sleep-overs!)
- Learn to walk in heels!
- Bring lunch to work (at least 3x a week).
- Take a financial workshop.
- Learn to cook/cook more often.
- Go Camping!
- Stop spending all my money on coffee!
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| Alright..Here we go. |
| Saturday, August 25, 2007 |
I'll do a run down of the essential elements of the week.
Sunday: Paulie (Grim's Friend), Grim and myself go visit Grim's Sister in the hospital. Apparently she was admitted Saturday morning. She had a huge lump on her wrist and a couple weird marks on her legs. When she woke up Saturday morning she was having difficulty breathing. When we visited her they still didn't know what was wrong with her. They were really concerned considering she just got back from another country and when she stayed there she stayed in Squats and Hostels. She's not really a hotel sort of traveler. -=giggle=- She looked well when we visited her aside from the fact I think she was on a little bit of pain meds. The doctors seemed to think it was a big bite and an allergic reaction. She didn't agree since the big lump on her wrist happened after the ones on her legs showed up. I don't think they ever figured out what was wrong and they released her Monday morning.
Monday: I do my get ready for work thing. Get in my car and start it up. I notice it's doing a weird shuttering sort of thing and I look up to see the check engine light is on. Shit. So I bring it into the Chevy dealership and my boss picks me up for work. At around 4, I call them to check on it. They haven't even looked at it. So my boss drives me home.
Tuesday: Everything goes along smoothly. I call the dealership a couple of times and they still haven't gotten my car in. Around 2, the service clerk calls me. He tells me that I need two gaskets and my timing belt replaced. I ask him, how much is that going to cost me ? Ready for this ? 1,875 dollars.
This is me: 
I actually went outside and called Grim. Let the tears flow freely. My boss comes out to ask me about a report and I am still in tears. She talks to me for a while then calls her car shop that she has been going to since she was 17. They laugh at the estimate and tell me to bring it in for them to take a look at it. So we go and get my car. The clerk tells me that GM would probably cover a portion of it. That if I stayed, he could do that for me. I tell him, "Since it's not covered under warranty. I can take my car where I want to now. So no thanks." He says it again, I tell him.. No. I pay for my oil change and inspection and leave. The car place is out in the middle of nowhere but the shop is run by a father and son. The son was very very nice and told me that he would take care of it but it probably wouldn't be until Thursday or Friday. Not a problem. I borrow my mom's SUV for the next couple of days. Note: The car ran fine all the way there and the engine light was off.
Wednesday: Uneventful
Thursday: I come home and get a call from the shop. He tells me that he looked over my car and had his son look over it too. They can't find a single things wrong with it at all. They changed the air filter because it was really disgustingly dirty and they drove it around alot to make sure it didn't act up again. Total: 73.00 dollars. I asked them, what the hell Chevy was charging me for? They told me that they probably couldn't find anything wrong with it either but I hit the 54,000 miles limit. That means that I am in need up a tune up. So all these things they were saying that I needed was only preventive. I didn't need any of it. I was dancing the rest of the night!!
Friday: I go and pick up my car. The gentleman tells me that I am going to need to change my timing belt at about 60,000 miles. Other than that, if I have any problems, bring it back in and they'll take a look. He was such a sweet man. He assured me that he looked over every possible plug and valve to make sure everything was in order. He even ran through the program that Chevy uses to diagnose my car. He said they were definitely following the guidelines of a tune-up. When they plugged in to find the distress code (why the engine light was on). Turns out it was a General Manufacturer distress code. The car recognizes you've passes a certain millage and clicks over that you need to service your engine.
$1,875 - $73.00 = $1,802 worth of savings.
This is me now: 
-=giggle=-
So that's why I haven't been around. To much stress and not enough drive to actually type all this out and worry myself more.
On another note, Debbie was my shining star on Thursday. She sent me a package for helping her out with trying to find a pattern!!
I have already started the book. It's awesome so far. They just throw you right into the zombie mess. -=giggle=- In case you can't see the yarn is called Head Vampire. I am soooo loving it! -=giggle=- I am thinking about jumping on the site and ordering some more of it as a treat to myself for this stressful ass week.
Alright so in other news...
Knitting: I haven't worked on anything this week. I think I am going to start a pair of fingerless gloves sometime tonight though. I have been looking through patterns and things. I want to try making a shirt or something. Although I am really nervous about jumping into it. We'll see. First and foremost I want to finish the gloves and the Record bag. The socks are just hanging out in the bottom of my bag. I haven't been inspired to work on them lately.
Reading: I am almost finished with Rant. Can we say weird? -=giggle=- It's really good, really bizarre but a decent read/listen anyway. Thank You Erika for leading me head first into the world of rabies and party crashers. Thinking on it. I think I know why I like Chuck P. so much. It's because he always makes his own little sub-culture. I mean you have Fight Club which is self explanatory. Then you have Party Crashing. People dress up and dress their car up for an event(wedding, student driver, anniversary, etc.) then they all crash into eachother. -=giggle=- That was of course the condensed version.. If you want to know more, read the book. The next title on my listening agenda is Scanner Darkly. Good movie, I am hoping that the book will be good as well.
Media: Netflix has started us on Deadwood. After only watching 5 minutes of it. I think it looks damn interesting. -=giggle=- Supernatural is available September 11th! I can't wait. I love that show. I have also been watching a lot of X-Files lately.. Believe it or not, I have never seen that show. I also got the pleasure of seeing "The Producers". What a funny movie! -=giggle=-
Well I think that about sums it up. I"ll be back tomorrow. Tonight we're heading out to the fair with a bunch of friends. Tomorrow is family day.
Talk to you soon!
Labels: Car Trouble, Knitting, Life, Movies, Reading, Update, Week |
posted by Valerie @ 11:51 AM  |
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| Lining up the projects. |
| Thursday, July 19, 2007 |
So I have been flipping through magazines and books looking for new patterns I can try. The result is that I have found a bunch of things that I want to make soon. Here's the list that will probably only get bigger.
- Naughty Needles Bathing Suit
- Zeeby's Bag from Stitch'n'Bitch
- Boogie Time - A wristband watch pattern
- Still on the hunt for a simple knee-high sock pattern.
- An Enterlac Washcloth (I will make one dammit!)
I have also pulled out the poncho again as I believe I mentioned in my last post. I am still a little confused but I am going to work on it this weekend and see what happens. It's my first real wearable item so if it's botched -=shrugs=- I'll cry. -=giggle=- The library has a copy of "Fitted Knits" waiting for me so I am sure I'll find cute patterns in there as well. I have just been dying to try new things, broaden my horizons a bit.
Oh and by the way. Does anyone know how to successful make a ball out of a skein of yarn ?!?! I spent nearly 2 hours untangling the yarn Emily sent me. I know I did it wrong and knotted the hell out of it. Unfortunately that mean that 1 skein, turned into 4 balls because I couldn't get the damn thing to unravel correctly. Mishaps of a knitter, I suppose. In other news I have updated my reading blog again if you want to take a look.
I think that is about it really. Still waiting on the Ravelry invite (in the words of Hedwig) then again, aren't we all ?
Labels: News, Poncho Goodness, Projects, Reading, Thursday, Yarn |
| posted by Valerie @ 10:13 PM |
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| It's About Time! |
| Saturday, June 30, 2007 |
Life. I know, I know I have seriously been slacking lately. In my defense, I have been busy at work and with just about everything else. That's only the half truth though. While I have been working a lot, most of the time I am playing Eternal Darkness or knitting. Eternal Darkness will suck your brains out of your ear so that you will never move from the TV screen. I am getting in pretty deep, plot wise. At the moment, I am taking a break. I died, and screamed "F--- You" so loud that I gave myself a soar throat. Never a good sign when you get that into a video game.
Okay, new developments. I am going on vacation Wednesday, so I don't think I will be blogging too much until I get back. Where am I going ? To the best display of geek mentality in the world. Origins! -=does a dance=- I am going to come home with so many RPG books and dice that my car is going to drag on the ground. It's hopefully going to be a lot of fun. I know most of the area Origins is going to be in so it should be nice to revisit old spots. Grim and I renewed our lease for another year. We will not be moving after all. We took a look at another apartment under the same management. Let's just say, Ewww sums it up very nicely. She literally kept her house like a pig pen. When you saw passed that, the apartment was really little. Everything else we looked at or called about was way out of our price range. Even with the increase of rent this place is still more affordable than anything else. We'll probably be looking again next year, but at least then we'll be better prepared.
On another note, my condition for resigning the lease was to do something about storage. Anyone know of cute ways to provide more storage. I have one closet and a couple little places I can stick things. =)
Knitting. I have finished the 2nd Secret Pal gift which I will reveal to you after I send it. I think it's cute but I hope she likes it. I also just need to get a couple more things for both Swaps and I am done. -=does a dance=- The Sci-Fi swap, I completely winged. She didn't seem to amped to disclose any details, so if she doesn't like what I got her. -=shrugs=- Not to sound mean, but it's not my problem. I seriously did my investigative work for this one. I tried my best. I am CO for my bathing suit. That is going to be my car project. I am also thinking about finding another small project in case I get bored and I have been entertaining the idea of trying my hand at sock knitting. We'll see though. -=giggle=-
Spinning. What spinning ? I did try again and the roving broke and I don't know how to put it back on. So I started hunting for spinning places on the web. I found one! There is a yarn store that has a night where the "Spin Doctor" comes in and answers and questions. That individual will also teach you how to spin if you get there first. So after vacation, I am running over there and demanding some answers as nicely as I can. -=giggle=-
Reading. Check my reading blog. WARNING: Spoilers for Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix.
Games/Movies. Grim and I are still patiently waiting for the September release of Supernatural (Season 2). We have been entertaining ourself by playing the Wii and Aces & Eights shooting sessions. I just saw Tombstone for the first time. Good movie and I will admit I cried like a baby when Doc Holiday passed. Val Kilmer never ceases to amaze me. His range is so remarkable. Next movie on the list to see, 1408 and of course, Harry Potter.
Blogging.
Erika tagged me as a (Thank You!)
and I am tagging
Knituition
and Ramblings of a Crafter
Alright ladies and gents. I am off to do something productive. Well not really. We're going to a 4th of July party today but before we do... we're going to a YARN STORE. -=does a dance=- So I have to go bounce on the bed and get Grim up so we can leave in time. -=hugs for all=-
Write more tomorrow!!
Labels: Blogging, Knitting, Life, Movies, Reading, Spinning, Update, Vacation, Video Games |
| posted by Valerie @ 11:45 AM |
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| About Me |
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Name: Valerie
Home: Troy, New York, United States
About Me: I am 26 years old. I work, go to school, participate in roller derby and knit every chance I get. Oh, I also love hanging out with my boyfriend (Grim) and two cats (Kiya and Sigh).
See my complete profile
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