The secret's in the sauce...

It's about time, too. I'm sore all over and I have a hitch in my getalong. I've been working my full time job, and on top of that, my friend leased a restaurant and I've been helping her get it in shape during all of my off time. It's really hard work. Especially this one. It was shut down by health inspectors about a week before Christmas and it was a real mess. Not only that, but the guy who had the lease before left angry and cut through wires, pipes, tubes....the whole place was flooded. The kitchen was so dirty and greasy it looked like it had been completely burned up in a fire. I took a lot of "before" pictures, so when I finish the "after" pictures, I'll put a few up here for comparison. It's amazing what has been accomplished so far.
I think she's planning to open in about a week or so.
It's hard working more than one job. Especially when you have a kid to take care of, too.

Last night, Zephyr was talking in her sleep. I went in her room to see if I could understand anything she was saying, and she was talking about a guy that we saw yesterday at the Half Price Bookstore in Burleson. She was saying that his pants were low and she could see his butt. I saw this guy too, but didn't say anything. I didn't know if she noticed, but I guess she did.
Come on you guys, pull your pants up! You're scaring the children!

Zephyr will be 11 in a week. That's so weird. I've kept a person alive for 11 years.

And speaking of keeping things alive, it's almost Spring! It's time to garden, and for that I am grateful.

For Christmas, my boyfriend, Chris, made new shutters for my house. The old rickety plastic shutters were severely damaged in a hail storm. It looked really bad. I was going to buy new ones, but when I went to price them it turns out they're really expensive. It would have cost over $400, and that's not including installation. So Chris made some himself, painted them, and put them up. It made a world of difference, too. He also trimmed the hedges and weed-whacked a little. It looks so nice. I'm so happy with it.

Here are the before and after pictures. I tried to get him in the picture, but he wouldn't do it. He was all sweaty, haha.

BEFORE


AFTER

I've been away from my computer for so long, I cannot for the life of me remember how to post photos. I can't even remember any html. But anyway, here are a couple of pictures of Klaus.
If you click one, you will also see the other, so there is no need to come back and click the other.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52408820@N00/3083077999/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52408820@N00/3083078045/in/photostream/

Anyway, he is just the sweetest dog ever. Very licky, too. And huggy.

Wow, it's been almost a year and a half! Me and the Z have had a pretty rough time over the past two years. But things are getting much better. We are just coming out of a serious financial crisis. I don't ever want things to get that bad again.
I see LJ has changed a lot. It's cool. I wonder if I still have any of my old friends. If anyone is reading this, I hope you are doing well.

I don't really want to write about what a rough time we've had. Instead, I'll tell you about our dog, Klaus. We still have Jackie, the bunny died, and so did Busta Rhymes.
Last Feb., Zephyr and I were going to go to the park. As we were about to back out of the driveway, I caught a glimps of something in my rear-view mirror. I got out to check it out, and under my car was a tiny little baby min-pin blinking at me with big ol' eyes! I could tell he was a full breed, and was sure someone would be looking for him. He had a little spiked collar on. I kept telling Zephyr that there was no way we were keeping this dog. NO WAY. We went all over the neighborhood, to all the vets and groomers....we looked in the lost section of the paper and on CraigsList. Nothing.
Needless to say, it's almost a year later, and Klaus has made himself to home and has a very fasionable wardrobe in my closet. Haha!
I will be posting pictures soon.

In other news, Zephyr is in the 5th grade. She'll be eleven years old in a couple of months. It's unbelievable, really.

Anyway, I really miss talking to all of you on here. I hope you are all doing really well. I haven't had internet access here at home in a long time. But I do now, so I'll be on here a lot more often.

I woke up before my alarm today. Much better than waking up and realizing that I turned it off in my sleep. It's a good thing, too, because I work both jobs today, and I also need to go at least 45 minutes on the elliptical trainer. I haven't woke Zephyr up yet. She's going to be mad because I didn't do laundry again last night, and all that's left is skirts and dresses, which she refuses to wear because she's a little tomboy now. 
I'm very busy.

Here's a Haiku:

Sleepy third grader
with nothing to wear today
except for a dress

Well, here comes the day. I guess I better get this over with. 
Y'all have a good one.

I just love watching educational programs on TV. I was watching one the other day about when California became part of the United States. It was very interesting! All the residents gathered to vote on whether to be part of the U.S. or not. Then a bandito came and stole all of the ballots and ran off with them. If it hadn't been for a certain heroic historical figure named Zorro, who cut the bandito's pants off with his sword and took back the ballots, California would still be part of Mexico right now. All this time, I had no idea. But it's true. I saw it with my own eyes on the television box.

HOORAY FOR ZORRO!

It's midnight. I fell asleep early tonight and now I'm awake again.

I hope everyone is doing ok.

If anyone wants to read about what a craptastic year I've had, I'll be posting it later under a friendly post. Hopefully I'll still remember how to do an LJ cut.

Be well!

So since we've had the bunny, things have been very interesting around here. Busta and Jackie are so curious about her. I'm going to just call her a her, until I find out for sure. I'm getting tired of typing 'him/her'.
Anyway, Busta especially cannot stay away from the bunny. He has to know where she is and what she's doing at all times. Night before last, they laid in the bathroom for hours, just staring at each other. And it's a constant sniff-fest, all three of them, from room to room, just sniffing each other's butts.

We bought a very soft little bed for the bunny, and she seems to like it pretty well.


But, unfortunately, someone got a little jealous of all the attention the bunny gets. Thing is, if we bought Busta a bed, he wouldn't even look at it, much less curl up in it. And here he is, comfy cozy in the bunny bed. Check out the look he's giving her, hahaha! Silly cat.

Yeah, I've been very busy lately, so I haven't been on here in a while. I haven't had a day off from work since Thanksgiving. I get one this coming Sunday, though. I can't wait!

Also, we have a new pet! Our babysitter found her and was trying to find a home for her. She was obviously someone's pet before, because she poops in a box and is scared of the outside. She's really sweet, and so cute!

Here are pictures:





We've been trying to think of a name for her, but haven't decided on one yet.
Feel free to make suggestions!

Another great Thanksgiving, ate at my aunt's house. I love going over there, and so does Zephyr. We looked for spiders and such, but didn't find a single one. It was great, anyway. We saw most of the family, but our family is definitely dissipating, since the G died. We all saw it coming. Oh well.

Here is what I'm thankful for:

A Court TV marathon "All in the family, where murder is a family affair." Haha! It's several different shows where people have murdered their own family members.
How great is that?

I'm going to add a picture to this post in a little while, probably during the next commercial break. It's from today.

Hope everyone had a good day!

Edit: Here we go -->

This is Maggie, my aunt's dog. Every time someone came in, she jumped up on the back of the couch. It cracked me up. And there's Zephyr with her feet on the couch!


If anyone can guess how many peices of pie I ate today, you win a prize. Go ahead and guess! Cake and cookies do not count.

I've been working a lot the past two weeks. In fact, this is the first day off I've had in a while. Last night I was officially exhausted. I was going to sleep in this morning, but Zephyr would have none of that. We spent most of the day cleaning, then later went to the mall. I'm not a big fan of the mall, but I kinda needed to go today. They have this bookstore that has unused books really cheap. I bought Zephyr a book called Olivia Kidney, which is about this little girl who lives in a tall building in New York. I read the first page of it, and it sounds like it's going to be pretty cute. We're going to start reading it tonight.
Yeah, I don't really have much of anything to report at all. Hope everyone is doing well.

I just heard this OnStar commercial, where a lady was rear-ended, and she was 8 months pregnant. Luckily, she had OnStar. I'm sure that's a nice thing to have, especially if you don't own a cell phone.

That reminded me about when I was almost 8 months pregnant with Zephyr. I was rear-ended, too! I had just come from the doctor, I had to go every week and get a shot to keep me from going into labor, because she really wanted out of there.
Anyway, I was driving a tiny Nissan 280 SX, and this guy in a huge pickup truck ran right into the back of me. I was fine, but we pulled over and got out to exchange info. He could see that I was most definitely pregnant, and do you know what he did?
Go ahead and guess.....

He gave me FAKE insurance information! Can you believe that? If there were something wrong with the baby, he would be scott free of any responsiblity. It's a good thing I was taking those shots, because that very well could have prevented me from going into labor right there on the street.

Funny thing, that's not the only time that's happened to me. While in college, in Arlington, I was rear-ended while sitting at a red light. There was green stuff spilling out from underneath my car and it was all dented up in the back. He gave me fake insurance, too.

So let me give you some advice. Listen carefully. If you are ever in an accident, always write down the license plate number of all the cars involved. That way, if they give you fake insurance, it's like a hit-and-run, and they can be found.

Five more minutes, and I'll stop posting.

Edit: Oh no, you know what? I've already seen this one five or six times! But don't worry, I'm going to stop posting for tonight, anyway.

So I've been watching 'Body of Evidence: Case Files of Dayle Hinman', for quite a few years now. When I first started watching, she would drive up to a crime scene in a modest Ford Taurus or something similar. Now, she's rolling up in a brand new Cadillac. Looks like business is going well for her. I think it suits her.

And speaking of Court TV, 'I, Detective' is also a really good show. It gives multiple choice questioins, so that the viewer can try to guess what is the next step in the investigation. I'm almost always right. But 'Forensic Files' is still my favorite show.

It's so cool to see some prick who thinks he can get away with murder, then watch as he is completely busted by a cat hair or a strand of tri-lobal carpet. The carpet fibers are almost always red or orange, and mostly come from their dorky, outdated vans, too! What's up with all the murderers and their circa 1970's vans with orange shag carpet? I'd say, if you wanted to avoid being a victim of a violent crime, the first step would be to avoid these vans and the creepy guys who own them.

Hey, I'm just sayin'.

I just took Zephyr over to my mom's and Katy's for the weekend. The house is so quiet, it's almost annoying. Jackie always wanders around looking for her, and looking at me, like, "What'd you do with the girl?"

I work all weekend, though. I even picked up a shift on my day off. I'm really stressed out about money.
Some things, aside from my usual bills, that I need to take care of ASAP, are
1. Get my car inspected. It's way past due.
2. Get an oil change.
3. Get new glasses. I lost mine, somehow, but I'm due to get another exam anyway. It's harder to drive at night without them.
4. Get this gas leak fixed, so we can get our gas turned on. These showers are getting colder and colder! Brr!
5. Start putting money away for Christmas.

I'm really stressed out about all of these things, plus a few more. But before I can do anything about these, I have to make sure I can get all of my regularly scheduled bills paid, too. It's really a good thing that business is starting to pick up.

And speaking of business, rumor around work has it that my cute boss is coming back. Remember, the one I have a crush on? I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, yet....if it's even true. When he went to work at another restaurant, he wasn't exactly blowing up my phone to ask me out. At least this way, we can at least work together again. I hope it's true, because he cracks me up. Plus he's on my side and is a really effective manager. And he's cute. Or did I already say that?

Well, it looks like it's Court TV for me for the rest of the night, since I've got the TV all to myself! Wee!

Ok, so today, Zephyr and I went out for pizza. We went to this little Italian place that's not far from our house. We ordered the pizza that was $10.50, thinking that sounded like a two-person pizza. We waited....chatted...washed our hands...
Two girls finally came to our table with the biggest pizza that I've ever seen! It was friggin huge! One girl said, "You know you ordered our largest pizza, right?" and put it down on the table. We just stared at it in awe.
After they assured us that this is the one we ordered, for $10.50, we set in to do as much damage as we could, but we were defeated by this enormous pizza. There were twelve giant pieces, and together, we finished almost three.
Now there is a giant pizza, inside a giant box, inside our fridge.
We're going to be eating pizza for a week.

Here's a two-part Haiku about the pizza:

Giant cheese pizza
A huge monster in our fridge
Not bad for ten bucks

I hate to waste it
But damn, that's a lot to eat
Too much for us two

Maybe I'll take it to work tomorrow and share it. Then it wouldn't be wasted. Lord knows I eat my fair share of soup.

On another note, we also went to the Ft. Worth public library. Since Crowley now has an established library, we can get a free library card at the Ft. Worth library with our Crowley library card. We didn't do it tonight, but we're gonna. There are way more books there. Am I boring you? Fine, I'll stop. Forensic Files is on anyway, and that's way more exciting than this, so there.

Lately I've been eating oatmeal everyday. I even have my own stash at work. Usually, there's this girl that comes in after me, after I've eaten my oatmeal, and she brings something to eat and share. So I eat again. Then, the truck comes and all the managers go outside, and I make a 1/2 sandwich. This is all before 10:00 in the morning. Yes way. I eat all day. Later, I'll eat soup on the downlow when business slows down. Soup tastes so much better on the down low, I highly recommend it.
Anyway, I was talking with one of my guy work friends about how much I eat, and I said, "I could eat you under the table."
Haa! I didn't mean it like that. But hey, whatever makes those tips flow.
Wait! I didn't mean that like that either!

That's it, I quit.

Am I the only one who is haunted by this song? It's driving me crazy!
(If you don't know what I'm talking about, thank your lucky stars. I wish I was you.)
Anyway, at work, in the back of the kitchen, the radio is always on. We have to go back there to get bread all day, several times for every table. Usually, it sounds like a huge Tejano party back there, but here lately they've been listening to a local rap station. Now, I'll be the first to admit that it is funny to go back there to see six servers shakin' their thangs. I'll even admit to doing it myself.
BUT...every fifth song is that stupid My Hump song. I must hear it at least 12 times a day, and I really don't think I can make it through another play.
Every time I hear it, I have to get my bread really fast and get out of there. It just grates on my last nerve. But that doesn't help much, either, because the servers are singing it in the front, too. I just can't escape it! Zephyr and I were out and about tonight, and on our way home, we stopped at the gas station by our house. There it was again, inside the gas station. IT'S FOLLOWING ME AROUND!!

Dear God, make it stop!

By the way, did any of my Texas peeps vote today? I'm just curious if you did or not, not how you voted.

Dear Jana,

If you're not already aware, Halloween is over! Will you please take off that ridiculous black nail polish? It's starting to wear off on the edges anyway. You handle food, for God's sake. What must your customers think?
Do us all a favor, will you?

Thanks.

I finally broke down and bought a new card reader. AND, it was only $27, so I don't know why I waited so long. It's even easier to use than my old one.
So, you guys are probably going to soon be sick of all the pictures I'm going to post.

Hmm...I do need new icons.

Anyway, here's one of Zephyr from last night. Just to kick things off. I'll post more stuff tomorrow.

Zephyr in her fairy costume:

( I got my hair cut today! )