Be Smart and You Won't Get Screwed

... hopefully. Well, the hubs and I are on the prowl for a new place to live. We like our cozy one bedroom apartment but we're not so fond of the noisy apartment life. There's the screamer next door who yells profanities into his phone and through our bedroom wall all day, then late at night the moaner makes her appearance- I've never heard someone have such loud and loooong sex in my life- it's kinda weird, and definitely uncomfortable. And when the people on our other side got into a loud fight we heard every word of it- and so did our shelves when they slammed the door. When we take a nap mid-day there is always some group of people or children or cars making so much noise that we're woken up and then they continue to make noise right outside our apartment so it's nearly impossible to get back to sleep. I am a grummmpy person when I'm woken up from a nap- you don't wanna be the one to do it or you'll get your face eaten. Just a warning...


SO all that to say we'd love to find a townhome or condo or single family home for about the same price we're paying now- which isn't easy. But there are deals to be found and we thought we might have found one last week. Craigslist was where I found the amazing house my sister and I rented my senior year of college, so after little luck on the rental sites I returned to it. Saw a townhome that looked nice on the outside and asked the lister for more info and pics of the inside. He then sent a suspiciously long email 1/2 of which was about renting his place- the other half was some random info about the USAid he apparently worked for with his wife overseas. A few red flags went up but the place and price were ideal so I thought I'd continue to look into it. I spent the whole next day at work using all my connections to find out if this guy was the actual owner or just a scammer. After 5 hours of researching I found the house listed with a realtor so after work I called the company and asked them about. As I suspected the house is actually bank-owned and NOT for rent.


What did we learn? DO YOUR RESEARCH! Especially in this economy people are desperate and out for themselves, be careful who you buy from or rent from make sure they're the true owners and the property isn't under foreclosure, etc.


The next day the guy emailed me offering me the house and all this BS about how he trusts me to take care of it and suddenly his grammar/ spelling/ english was getting really bad. No real owner would EVER turn over their home to some random person who just emailed them some basic info about themselves- and I hadn't even seen the place or anything.... of course at this point I knew he was a scammer but I was then aware of how bad of a scammer he is. He said that he would send me the payment info so I could send the money and after verifying the payment he'd have his mother in law come give me the keys. What an idiot- yeah I'm gonna pay you with a money transfer MORE than you originally said without ever seeing the inside and just take it on good faith that your "mother in law" is gonna deliver the keys. Idiot. So I know I shouldn't have done this, but I emailed him back saying we're no longer interested and certainly not interested in being scammed because we know the home is bank owned. And that I reported him to the police, craigslist and the agent selling the home and wished him good luck dodging all that.  I did call the police but they weren't gonna do anything cuz it's so common but I figured I scare him anyway- scumbag deserves it. Be smart, dolls!

Tried and eh... Tried and True.

So I finally did make those red velvet butter cookies. I guess I was expecting something a bit sweeter- and they were a little lack-lustre. And made my hands and kitchen a huge mess. and the powdered sugar you roll them in before putting them in the oven .. got all melty and nasty looking so they did not come out looking as nice as they're supposed to. So forget that ish. 

But on a better note, I went to Napa last weekend (love) and got to visit my favorite winery, Larkmead. It's a gorgeous winery with absolutely delightful people! If you've never tried their wine it is an absolute MUST. Their Cabernet and Firebelle are fantastic- I haven't met a Larkmead wine that I haven't liked but those two are their most popular and for good reason.

So get out there, make better cookies than I did, but drink the wine I like because I have good taste :)

And So It Begins

I started my job yesterday. They told me it's gonna be pretty uneventful, but I don't think I realized they were serious... It is a VERY quiet job!! But oh so wonderful! So far it has been great- fairly easy to learn- the phones are complicated, and knowing what to do in each situation that arises is challenging because there isn't a lot of practice due to the low flow of phone calls and visitors, but apparently I'm ahead of the curve. So I'm pretty excited about that. As simple as the job is I still want to do my best and impress them- it may only be a part time receptionist position but you never know where it could go!


Anyway, the people are nice, the office is nice and I get the the reception area all to myself- with the exception of people constantly walking in and out haha... but we've got TVs, so it gives me something to watch and listen to. I was pleasantly surprised that I'm allowed to pretty much do whatever when I'm not on the phone or assisting visitors- which is 95% of my time- within reason- we don't want to be unprofessional or well, stupid... so I get plenty of time to keep on top of my oh-so-important social networking and emails, or catch up on my reading - I can even change the channel on the TV from news to something more interesting- although I doubt they'd approve of mtv, or nickelodeon or anything like that, but maybe some HGTV?? Who knows... it's only been 2 days, I've got plenty more time to figure it all out! Even the big VP told me I could change the channel if I wanted- although I think I'm gonna be nervous about doing that for a while, so I'll just catch up on world news for a month or two.


Its not all uneventful tho- I get some pretty entertaining phone calls and solicitors sometimes- gives me something to tell the hubs about when I get home :) For example, today some woman called looking for an adult high school and I told her that's not us, and she asked if I had the number for this adult high school- uhm, no... so she asks if we get calls for the adult high school a lot- no, we don't. Then she asks if I have any other number to reach the adult high school at... I'm beginning to understand why she needs this number so bad- I, as politely as I can at this point, say that we are not affiliated in any way with an adult high school and I have never heard of it. So she says, 'alright then I guess there's something wrong with my google.'.... no ma'am something is wrong with your comprehension level.


Welp that's all I've got for now, loving the new job... and now it's time to do something I absolutely do NOT love: working out- and even worse... its the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred. ouch.

The Time Has Come....

I know I promised to blog about my "sad, sad unemployment," but the time has finally come.... and I've gotten a job. But since it's only a part time receptionist job I suppose I can just blog about my adventures there and how sad it is that after spending 4 years at a university and getting a bachelors degree, I have to wait almost a year to get a part time job as a receptionist. Not that part time isn't ideal- I would prefer it so I can still focus on my own company while having a steady income from something else. But lest be honest- when interviewing for this position they told me without telling me that it's boring. hahahahaha. So it should be interesting- or not. I'll keep ya posted. but here's some more good news: I work from noon- 4pm! Hooray! I get to sleep in EVERY DAY! I couldn't be happier about that set up. I get to sleep in and still get home before the hubs!  And I've got 2 vacations planned next month- one I'd only miss 2 days, but the next I'll miss 7 days of work. I was terrified that they were gonna make me cancel my long trip- but thankfully they are fine with me being gone :) Whewf! East Coast here I come!!


Ok that's it for now, boos. peace!

Embroider-Me-Grandma

     I used to sew a lot... My mom taught me the basics, and then I learned more in home economics when I was in junior high. One of the best things I learned was how to embroider... so taking this knowledge and putting it to use I started making baby blankets for family and friends when they had babies. 

      Now I haven't made one in years- but a good friend and former boss is about to have a baby, so I thought I'd give it a go again. So I went to Joanne's and bought a ton of stuff- but still less than I was about to buy- I reigned myself in as I often fail to do at craft stores- I get so excited about what I can do that I buy soooo much! But this time I only bought the materials for this project and a few necessities to get me going. ANYWAY... It's been so long since I've sewed anything that I forgot about dealing with the complications that come along with it- stretchy fabrics, puckering... yada yada... I'm no seamstress- it came out with some issues, but I figured I can just say something like, "all the flaws are proof of too much love" or something like that... Home-made stuff is supposed to have imperfections, right???? Whatever. It's super cute, and although not perfect It still turned out really well and I'm sure they'll love it and so will baby Cayla Lynn LeBrecht :).

CrAzY Dreams...

I am known for having really weird dreams pretty much every night. I generally am very good at interpreting them, where they came from, and what they mean. But sometimes my subconscious just finds the WILDEST ways of telling me I'm stressed, or just throws crazy stuff into the mix that makes no sense. 


For example- last night I had 2 dreams that I can remember... the first I was on some leadership retreat of some sort with my university, and at some point me and my friends passed into this prehistoric world and we turned into dinosaurs- at first we were all playing the part of what came naturally to which dino we were, but then realized we weren't always dinosaurs and we can be friends- and even the T-rex could hang with us and the sheep and not eat us. So we end up just chillin, having fun and chatting, but then some humans arrive in a caravan and we know we can't let them see us all chummy like that- so we're all yelling, "Humans! Act natural!"and we all hop to our positions... kind of like in toy story when andy comes back into the room... and then at some point we come back into real life as humans, and I was telling my boss all about it and how funny it was to be all friendly and stuff and then when the humans come around we were having to act like actual dinosaurs... even the T-rex who was this really silly, sweet, wouldn't hurt a fly person in real life!............ Weird Dream.

The next dream made me so anxious and stressed- one of those dreams that comes up every now and then.. I've graduated college already, but I always have these dreams that I'm still in school! Last night I dreamt I had just gotten back from a leadership retreat and gotten my grades when I saw I was failing a science class- one that I didn't know where it was, had only been a few times, and was always late for and never did any work for. So I get there and the professor was being a total jerk knowing full and well I had no idea what was going on... and I ran out of the room crying back to my dorm to try and find my science book and homework and get caught up....... It took me a few minutes after I woke up to remember that I'm out of school forever.

And its crazy stuff like this that riddle my sleep every night! I don't really mind- but it's weird. If my dreams are this crazy as is- I cannot even imagine how they'll change when I'm pregnant...

Gift from the Heavens

I have exciting news! We got a new tv- 42" plasma and a blueray player... but thats not the best part... 


Did you ever see the episode of "Friends" where Joey and Chandler suddenly find free porn channels on their tv? Well we don't get porn but I still feel the same way about it being too good to be true!


When I was setting up the clock and inputs it had a step for cable/antenna and I thought, "what the hay... let's see if we can get some basic channels with our cable cord and the wall thinger." So we plug- or well screw in the cable thing and suddenly it's scanning for channels and finding a TON! Not only do we get the usual abc, ktla, nbc, etc... but we get discovery, history, mtv, hgtv, espn, espn2, many many more..... and we dont pay any cable bill.... so maybe it comes included in the rent or maybe we're just being blessed by the tv gods... who knows?? But I'm sure not gonna ask any questions! Now we can catch all the finals for world cup, basketball, my fav cw shows, survivor, and of course hgtv- which I could watch all day everyday!