Sparks Nevada!

I was late to work because I bought doughnuts.

I bought doughnuts to make up for being late.

I believe that is called a self fulfilled tautology! Hahha.

The doughnuts were enjoyed. And I accidentally left them at work so now they'll be a bit stale tomorrow. Oh well, ho hum.

Work was warm. I showed up in shorts. I'm calling Santa Cruz's weather bluff.

Listened to Thrilling Adventure Hour podcasts mostly, and some MaddAddam.

Home I snacked and watched telly. A pretty average Wednesday.

once a scout, always a scout

I've become totally addicted to downloading Podcasts! There are so many awesome ones to listen to, and I can't listen to them all at once. History ones, film ones, funny mock old time radio ones with guest stars. It's all so good and enjoyable!

Work had a stressful moment but it's all good. Caught some shirts, though due to waiting for client approval, there was some delay in printing. Got the bags done. Coated screens. Prepped a bunch of screens for discharge and taped them. A nice full day. Unfortunately it was also a HOT day and I was wearing pants, which sucked.

My Night Vale Community Radio mug arrived! I ordered it a few weeks ago, but it was backordered. Also with it: Eternal Scout buttons AND a big Eternal Scout patch!

It's so cool, and I'm happy it's a really big patch too. Very striking. Hopefully a nerd in the wild will approach me.

Once at home I told Justen and Jeff about Welcome to Night Vale and encouraged both of them to listen to it. So hopefully they do and we can geek out about it.

Worked on art, that was good. All in all, a pretty good day.

I'm going to bring doughnuts to work tomorrow. Because I like doughnuts and I like sharing.

thrilling tales! interviews! so many audio stories!

Boss wasn't in, due to the holiday and spending time with his kid, so it was just a "run this job and then do whatever" day. So we ran the job. Then I burned a ton of screens and reclaimed all that was ready to be reclaimed (19 screens). Listening to MaddAddam, which is pretty funny. Well funny in the scenes where Toby is dealing with the Crakers. Not funny in the overall speculative fiction dystopian setting that permeates the whole story.

Picked up some headphones before work. I like they way they fit in my ears better than the ones I was using, and the cord seems to be of better quality. See, I don't want to go too nice either because of the chances they'll be damaged at work/get ink on them. It's that balance.

Got home and took a nap. Grazed through dinner. Had a big thing of chamomile tea. Now I'm back to being tired.

I downloaded iTunes so now I can readily have access to Podcasts. I think I'll go on a Podcast binge for a while. A little burnt out on narratives.

cheap man pays twice

Saturday:

Slept in well past noon. My body needed it. I was so tired after this week, though it wasn't as strenuous as other weeks. I picked up Justen from the dock, which was only a short drive, and then we walked from the house to Trader Joe's. Housemate hanging out! Then I put stuff in the crock pot: chicken, tomatoes, basil, feta, garbanzo beans. Mmm. Let it cook. Spent a lot of time hanging out. Read a bit. Rested. Had a brewski. The chicken was pretty tasty. Maybe not the most dynamic, but good.

Sunday:

Set my alarm and got up before it was super late. Had leftovers, which were really good cold. Did some tidying. Took a bath and read. Dinner was made by Tara and Justen, as per house meeting rules and stuff. It was kale and chicken, and the squash fry up with rice. Mmmm. Good stuff. The house meeting went long, but there were lots of things to sort out. Chores and cleaning and all sorts of things. It was a good meeting though, I think. It's good to sort out this and that.

My earbuds went bust! Gah! I'm just going to buy the next up in terms of quality, because if I keep buying the cheap ones and they keep breaking, and the better ones don't break, then at a certain point I'd have just saved money by spending $30 instead of $10 over and over and over.

Now it's time for Sunday telly!

taxi driver

Got the backs printed! And oh it was tricky. The back design was about half an inch smaller in length than the surface area we were printing on. It was a squeeze but we did it! And by we I mean Jeff. I just clapped for Jeff.

I like the days where I'm really busy. Do this, then this! I don't like hovering around half way doing tasks, but when I might be needed, I can't go and do a lengthy task. Ended the day with coating screens and then, weekend! Yay!

At home I had some pasta, then I went over to movie night at CTV. We watched Dr. Horrible and Nightmare Before Christmas on the projector, then we watched funny Youtube videos. Some of the people in attendance attended UCSC and made me feel a bit old, but they were cool. They accidentally missed their bus, so I gave them a ride home. Not that much of a biggie, as the campus isn't that far out. And it's the nice thing to do. And heading back I was able to get right on 1, so it probably took the same amount of time to get back as it would have had I just come from downtown.

It's the weekend! Yay! Sleep in? Why yes I shall!

brrr are you serious, santa cruz?

October 10th: the first day I wear pants to work. Because it is cold.

And it stayed cold! I don't like the days where I wear a sweater all day, because the sleeves might get in the way/get messy.

Reclaimed screens at the end. Caught a job. There was a lot of job setting up, but there were tweaks and color changes that needed doing.

We got a goody box from a client because they are so pleased with our work! I snagged the women specific pills. 1 a day kind. For my health!

It's soooo cold!

I worked on freelance stuff at home and watched the last two episodes of The Bridge.

Pacific Northwest has nothing for the heat, and Santa Cruz has nothing for the cold.

middle of the week & road

Tuesday:

What can I say? Work. We had a 500 shirt order and we printed the backs. I caught them. It has gotten suddenly very cold in Santa Cruz. Like it just skipped being mild and went straight to cold. Not fun.

Talked to Carmen about Odd Owl stuff. Talked to Mom about mother/daughter stuff.

Cooked up some more rice to go with the remainder of my curry.

Wednesday:

There is something in the works but I can't talk about it yet!

We did the backs on the big shirt order and the front and backs on another one. I also burned and double coated some screens for tomorrow. Then I spent the last chunk of my shift cleaning screens, but not reclaiming just yet.

I finished Oryx and Crake. I'm halfway through Year of the Flood, and I have the start of MaddAddam on my player. Amazing how fast I can get through audiobooks that are not 42 hours long!

At home I relaxed and watched telly. Talked to Jan. Had some tea.

Tomorrow is Thursday. A designated GET STUFF DONE day.

the chill is coming

I killed that spider that has been lurking! Hurray!

Work was mostly catching. Caught the backs on one job. Fronts and backs on another. Broke the press down. Things were done at 5ish. Not a bad start to the week. It was very warm though, but I suspect it'll get cold soon...so I should get some new work pants. I've gained a biiiiit of weight and last seasons work pants don't fit. For now, I should buy some in the next size up and then think about exercise and that stuff.

At home I threw on some PJ's and initiated relaxation mode. Talked with Tara and Justen for a while about this and that.

I ended things with Steve. The distance was getting to be too much to navigate in the long term and whatnot. As it goes.

curry!

Went to bed with the mind to make some curry in my crock pot.

Had a light breakfast, then I walked to Trader Joe's where they had all the fixings I needed! Hurray! I went home and mixed the spices and chicken and coconut milk and yam and onions and set it on high. Couldn't wait for some tasty tasty. Then I went to Janet's garage sale and picked up some of her neater pieces of clothing. She was technically giving stuff away at that point, but I still gave her some money. Picked up a cool green windbreaker with Massachusetts parks patches on it. It'll be great for my Eternal Scout patch, when that arrives. I spent a good chunk of the day securing one of the patches on the new jacket (it was mostly off) and securing the patches on my patch vest.

I watched the Simon Pegg movie A Fantastic Fear of Everything. It was pretty neat. Very colorful and Pegg is awesome. It sort of turns in the last third, plot wise, but all in all I enjoyed it.

The curry turned out AWESOME! I ate two bowls. I offered it up to the housemates but I don't know if they had any. I should make crock pot cooking a more regular thing.

A pretty good Sunday, all things considered.

futon be gone

Friday:

Whoo! Day off! Slept in to the best of my ability, then had my oatmeal and tea and considered what I had to do for the day. I started by going to the DMV to see about changing my address...but the line was atrocious so I skipped that and went to the Post Office and changed my address there, so at least anything that comes to my old house will come here. I also changed my magazines over, so that is good. Then I went to Super Cuts and got a hair cut! They took off a bit more than I was expecting (though I did ask for several inches and forgot how much shorter my hair goes when it is dry, so that is all my fault). But I like it! It's a lot lighter, which is nice. Then I got a burrito from Chipotle and headed home. I took my laundry out of the dryer (oh, I did my laundry!) and folded it and ate my burrito. Not at the same time.

Then I figured out my evening plans and after a bit of relaxing, I headed up to San Francisco to see Steve. We went to see Gravity. He lives within walking distance of a big theater. I live within walking distance of a small theater. Gravity was super intense! It used all of its 90 minutes to the fullest. So awesome.

It was nice to get out of the city.

Saturday:

Steve and Kyle were going to this music festival, but I wasn't feeling up to it so I headed back to Santa Cruz. I posted the futon on Craigslist for free, and the first guy to arrange a meeting time had trouble with my "second story of Target parking garage" meet up instructions. I ended up waiting for 45 MINUTES! Then another person was all "I can be there in 5 minutes" and since I live 2 minutes from Target...I met her and gave her the futon and all was well! No more futon taking up space!

Took a nap. Ate more chili. Drew a bit.

work hard, rest soft

The futon is the black one, not the denim one. So I should just put it up on Craigslist, yeah?

Work was short, and due to boss camping, a three day weekend was gifted unto me! Yay! Time to rest, how awesome.

Coated the screens. Cleaned all the squeegees and floodbars because it was about time. Caught a bit of a job....oh yes I did bring those screens in. Had to think about it.

Finished Wise Man's Fear. Dang! Such a good book. So long, though some of the arcs were a little...self contained. Not like one big huge thing but more just the main character, Kvothe, going from place to place and little bits piecing together here and there. It's good but wow so long.

I ate more chili at home. Talked to the neighbors. High fived Jeff for doing well at his job. Relaxed and watched telly.

Should swing by the DMV tomorrow and change my address....yay for no job! I changed my magazine subscriptions, so that should be it for the more pressing things. Fun! Sleeping in time!

crockery

A lovely short day at work! Hurray! I cleaned the remaining screens and reclaimed them, so now there is a full racks worth to coat tomorrow! The exposure room will be full again! We are on top of things. WHooo.

And I coated the screens from yesterday. It's nice to have these catch up days. Listened to The Wise Man's Fear. I'm entering the final few chapters of the book. It is so long and yet I don't want it to end! I think I'll relisten to Oryx and Crake, and then Year of the Flood and then MadAddam or whatever the third book is in the Margaret Atwood trilogy thingy. Yeah.

I made a trip to get chili supplies because the cold is coming and chili is needed for the cold! Trader Joe's lacks molasses and Worcestershire sauce, but it had everything else. I made a "sweeter" chili. More brown sugar, less spicy ingredients. I put it in the big pan and let it simmer, but dangit I want a crock pot to make chili in, so I went to Target (which is just, like, 2 minutes drive down the road) and bought a crock pot! A nice 6 quart one, though not uber nice. I'm not MADE of money! But yeah, it's shiny and red and lovely and MINE. I'm super stoked on it. So I went home and put the chili into the crock pot and set it to warm, and it sat and sat and was delicious. I had two bowls. Jeff had a bowl. Tara had a bit over some lettuce. Justen will probably have some heated up tomorrow. Yay for hungry housemates.

Now I need to look up crock pot recipes! PB&J's have gotten well and truly dull to consume day after day.

Still have to figure out what to do with my damned futon! It's so bulky and cumbersome. Ma and Pa, you wanna come get it? Or should I Craigslist it? Hmmrrnn.

punk rock tuesday

We printed posters at work today! Which was awesome! I caught the first layer. Good old acrylic based ink and air drying.

I also weeded more damn hat transfers. So many. Uhg.

And I reclaimed screens! Finally! Reclaiming! And I cleaned some. Cut into the number of stuff to run. Also did squeegees and floodbars. It's been a lot of work. But that is good! Good to work. Good to earn money. All preparation for Hawaaaaaiii! Can't wait for this vacation.

Dinner was a grilled cheese sandwich. Washed my work shirts. Yay, laundry on site!

lets get this week started! lets make it a productive one!

Another full day! So much work to be done and not enough reasonable hours in the day to work it.

Weeded a ton of hat transfers. So many.

Caught a job. Cut some of those window film thingies. Cleaned some screens that we will be rerunning soon.

Need the time to clean screens. Basically someone else needs to catch/print while I just hang out in the back cleaning & reclaiming.

Made myself some noodles for dinner but they were SO BLAND! Uhhhg. Bleh.

Worked on freelance a bit. So behind in obligations. Bad. Bad bad.

hot days and hot tubs

Sorry for the lack of posts. I was tired and then I was busy having fun. So here we go!

Friday:

This busy work week ended on a pretty good note. Jeff ran a couple small jobs and then was done (he got in at 7, so his leaving earlier than I was just a sign of different schedules). Then I broke down the press, cleaned some stuff, boxed the jobs, and pressed hats for several hours. Got a good chunk of The Wise Man's Fear listened to, but even then fiveish hours out of a 42 hour audiobook doesn't do much. There is a whole lotta story in this book. I know that Cryptonomicon is a 42 hour one, and I've seen that book. It's a brick.

Chris is visiting. Chris the former housemate who now lives in Portland, not my boss Chris. It's all sorts of confusing. Anyway. He is visiting so we drank beer and chatted. Justen gave us and Tara and lift to Charlie Hong Kong and we got take out and then returned home and drank more beer with our take away and sat around a little fire outside. That was nice. Then we tried to get the TV working to watch Spice World, but it didn't. Booo! Then it was late and we all went to sleep.

Saturday:

In the reluctant morning, I returned to Bixby Street. Joey was so excited to see me. So happy and loving. It broke my heart.

I removed the shelves off the wall, though they were there when I arrived I felt it probably best to take them down. One less thing for Janet to do. Also took down the mirror from the bathroom and cleaned the bathroom and my room. So much dust and dirt. UHhggg. Something got in my eye too, which made it quite the state for a while. I gave Janet a proper goodbye hug, turned in my key, called the landlord and left a message about getting my deposit back, and that was it. Sad.

Swung by Target and got a new clear shower curtain and raided their dollar candy. I also got some cashback to payback Chris for the takeout.

At home I washed out my eye that was bugging me and finished off my leftovers.

Had a good long conversation with Chris about life, the universe, and everything and then I met Davina the across the street neighbor who Chris knows. And she invited us over for wine and snacks. So I also met Eric her husband. They have a hot tub and a pool! Tara and Justen and Anna (Justen's lady) joined us at the neighbors and by the end of the night we were enjoying the hot tub and pool and everything was awesome! Really great night.

And I had a good solid sleep, which brings us to...

Sunday:

Slept in. Made some oatmeal and tea.... I shall edit this post when I get to the evening.

11:39pm edit:

It was a lovely day. I walked to Trader Joe's and got my food for the week. Made a grilled cheese sandwich. Said hello to Jeff and bye to Chris.

Watched the Breaking Bad finale. It's all done. Such an awesome show and now it is done.

A pretty chill day, all in all.

thursdeeyyy

Wheeewww. Another long day. On my feet. Catching and counting and boxing. Then burning. Then coating. Backs and fronts. It was a lot of stuff and it was warm and my mind was feeling a bit fuzzy and discombobulated from it all. It took a lot out of me and I had to have a nap when I got home. Then I hung out with Justen and Tara and chatted about this and that. Nice to bond with housemates.

So I guess that was it for today? Exhausting work. Nap. Chatting. But there should be some fun tomorrow night and then it is the weekend! Though Saturday I'll work on getting all my everything out of my old house, and cleaning up and giving Janet and Joey a hug.

art! love art.

I bought an etching from Dominic and it arrived! I love my Spaceman print. I had a frame and matting that fit perfectly too, which is awesome. Hung it up next to another print I've bought, which fit nicely into this very suiting frame I got on sale from Target. Yay, art! Working on my collection.

Work was pretty good. Cleaned stuff. I burnts some screens, and managed to reclaim a small stack at the end of the day. Gotta have the time to get screens back in the exposure room! We can't just print and print and print. The design we are running right now is pretty neat.

I came home to another gift exchange box! The last one! It contained Breaking Bad candy and stickers. I love stickers!

I hung up some art and tried to get the TV to work, but the cables were a mess. Couldn't get the audio to come through. Tried lotsa different red and white connections but not a one of them worked.

Oh well.

Mom. I do have a window that looks outside, just outside into the back yard and there is a big tree that sort of blocks the light. In that previous photo, it is reflecting my closet doors.

I should change my address...

Ohhh a long day at work. Counted in sweatshirts and caught them. Then I relocated to chopping vinyl stickers and weeding even more vinyl. So much vinyl. And it had lots of little tricky bastard bits. UHhhhg. The worst lettering. Just lots of little lines and hard to peel properly. Annoying. But it gave me plenty of time to listen to The Wise Man's Fear, so that was great! Yay audiobooks!

Got home tired. 2/3's of my Breaking Bad gift exchange arrived! Did I mention I did the Breaking Bad gift exchange? I now have a mug and a poster. There is a third thing. Three separate package tracking items. Ohhh can't wait.

And my copy of Tobolowsky's The Dangerous Animals Club arrived. So many books....so much time on the Internet. Almost done with Gulp though. Very interesting book about digestion. I'm to the chapters about pooping, and thankfully my coworker is willing to talk about...the book with me. Couldn't deal with working with a normal person.

I moved some empty boxes into my trunk. Now my room seems pretty well set up. I'll work on it some more this weekend.

it's oh so quiet in Live Oak

First day commuting from the new house. It wasn't that bad! It was maybe a couple minutes longer with a few more turns, but less traffic and the roads are in better condition. I take a different route coming back because it is easier to get on the freeway back than it is going. Both ways were good, and it is a different scenery to get used to. But the end is the same. Winding road and work.

I arrived and the job was set up and ready to go so...Jeff and I spent the whole day running the job. 800+ shirts, but due to the flash time it went rather slow. Still. The shirts look great and it was all lovely and at the end the boss was complimentary towards my good work. Yay boss!

Started The Wise Man's Fear, which is 42 hours long! Any given Discworld audiobook is 6-8. It's a good story though, so I'm looking forward to it. Well the first book was very good (The Name of the Wind) so this should be also good. Mmm hmm.

I live within 10 minutes walking distance of Trader Joe's! Driving is a bit longer because walking I can take a shortcut. Yay! I did a TJ's trip. Jeff made some artichokes, which I had some of. I unpacked a bit further. I'm getting close! Some things are just going to end up stored in the trunk of my car. That damn futon.

doughnuts, mattresses, many trips, and a new home

Welp. I am writing to you from my new desk set up in my new room in my new house, which I share with Jeff (a different Jeff from my coworker), Tara, and Justen. Adjust your sets accordingly.

Set my alarm and got up early. Had some toast and Emergen-C and then packed up my car. Took the first load over. Did a Target run and got some cash back to pay Jeff for his impending help (covered gas and a tip). I just brought in the boxes. I didn't bother with unpacking, as I had those shelving units to bring in, and things would unpack into there. I want to get stuff unpacked, and then I can reorganize.

Called Jeff to tell him he could come on over and help me move the mattress. I stopped by Farrel's and bought a dozen doughnuts (only $8!). Odd to see Jeff not wearing work clothes. Granted he had on just slightly nicer short pants and sunglasses. But you get so used to seeing people a certain way. I guess I must have looked odd in my full jeans and not white tee? Anyway. Hauled in the mattress, put down a sheet, put my bike on top of that. The sheet got dirty but only with dirt, not grease. It was a quick trip. Just got the mattress and bike in and that was that. I could handle the rest on my own, so off he went.

It took two more trips after that. One for shelving and misc stuff. Another for my table and chair. It was dark when I got the last haul in. All my stuff has felt under it to protect the hard wood floors. I had a set of "sliders" and opted to put them on the stacked shelves, which was good because those were the heaviest and got scooted around a bit.

Jeff. Housemate Jeff. Made dinner and shared with me and Jan (Jan is Jeff's friend, not short for Janet, who I'll miss). Then I watched Breaking Bad.

I unpacked a bit more, but I don't feel like doing it all tonight. Plus it is Sunday and I don't want to thump too much. Have to get used to the new noise levels of this place. It seems pretty quiet, but I am sharing a wall now so it might also carry.

Here, have some photos: