Well on Thursday I’ll be the big 2-4. So, my parents had a party for me tonight. Nothing special. We spent the day watching Football (how on earth is my team losing all the time this year? What happened to my almost super-bowl champs?!) Sidney came over and we went home to drop off our groceries and our stuff and went back to the folks house. Two pairs of pants, new sneakers, a very pretty necklace. I got a good haul.

All I have to say is that I love Stuffed Cabbage, and I loved my Strawberry cake Shame that I couldn’t smell it cooking as can not breathe through my nose, but hey. I’ll feel better tomorrow and will be able to taste/smell it more. I also forgot that my Dad is a genius. I love cookbooks. I get so tired of making nearly the same thing(s) every week that I needed some more ideas. I’m going to buy a muffin pan this week and try to make homemade Banana Nut Muffins.

It’s been nice here at night, last night it was only in the 72-75 degree range. Today it was about 80 or 81, which makes me happy! Maybe this is our start of our big “cool down” for the “Autumn/Winter.” Yay! I hope that my Apartment will start to cool down, as it’s quite warm in here (still close to 90 inside). Next apartment, will be ground level. No more of this upstairs crap.

Taking Zinc and extra Vitamin C have done nothing to boost my immune system for this God awful cold Sidney has. It’s the kind of cold where you want to slink into a really dark, comfortable, chilly hole and just go to sleep. I started feeling it come on last night. I know it’ll be a bad one when it comes on suddenly. In the span of a half hour last night, there was a fever to be had, nose to get stuffed and runny at the same time (how on earth is this possible?), and the roof of my mouth down to my throat was itchy and sore. Ugh. Stupid germs. I have people hack on me, sneeze on me, cough on me, hand me their stuff with pink eye - and yet I’m immune to all of it. Oh but no. I have to get the worst cold of the century from Sidney who has now mostly recovered. He’s the type of person that believes in “sweating it off.” Which means, he’ll don his favorite sweatshirt, sweat pants, two pairs of socks and turn the air conditioning off (or in the “winter” turning the heat on high). No matter how hot he gets, he says this will kill the cold bug. I want to say “You can not kill the cold!” The flu yes, but not a cold. So, I’m going to do the best I can to not sneeze, cough or anything while he’s home or else I’ll suffer the same treatment. Sigh.

Tomorrow we’re doing my birthday dinner (yum, Stuffed Cabbage, just like always!). I had forgotten kinda because I had plans to start going through the things in our apartment. You know like, keep, donate, trash and actually doing it. We have just so much stuff that it’s ridiculous. The apartment has got to only be 650sqft and we have stuff from wall to wall in each room basically. It’s driving me nuts. But, again, I might just save that for Wednesday instead of tonight or after we come home tomorrow.

I heard someone asking someone else if that fiber supplement they were buying was to help them loose weight on their diet. So, I asked the Pharmacist if taking in extra fiber a day will help you stay fuller longer and would aide in weight loss. They said it might, so tonights paycheck will be spent on Multivitamins and Fiber. We’ve switched from white to wheat as well.

Brown rice (which is the same thing as white rice, just unbleached) - it tastes completely different. It has much more of an earthy flavor that I wasn’t expecting. Good, but different. If I wasn’t on a kick to lose weight, I would most likely go back to the white rice. It wasn’t good enough to make me want to eat it all the time. I’ve been eating Whole Grain English Muffins with a little bit of Colby Jack cheese on top. The fiber/protein combo of these is awesome. I think there’s like 4g of Fiber in the muffins and all together about 8g of Protein - which helps to keep you fuller longer. They have a sort of sweet taste to them and if you open up a box of dry instant oatmeal and smell it, that’s the smell these have. For these, there isn’t a big enough difference to make me go back to the regular kind. They taste basically the same, with a little added sweetness.

So, here was our dinner last night: two boneless, skinless chicken breasts, brown rice with peppers and onions, and fresh green beans (string beans). I took the chicken and seasoned it with garlic, a little pepper and a Terryaki glaze. I put them on my indoor grill and kept adding the glaze as it cooked off. The brown rice, I just made enough for 2 servings, added garlic, a pinch of sea salt, a little Smart Balance butter, and cooked it to box directions. I just tossed the green beens in a pot of water with a little sea salt, a little garlic (who’d of thunk) and just blanched them until they were softer. Sidney had his with a little EVOO drizzled on top, I ate mine plain.

We went out to get my needles of death yesterday (yay, no huge reaction!), we drove down to St. Petersburg to the Neurosurgeons office for him to drop off his MRI, then we went out to Don Pablo’s for lunch. I forgot, we also stopped at the Mall and I picked up some tarts from Yankee Candle (Spiced Pumpkin, Autumn something and Farmerhouse Apple, I believe). Our neighbor girl stopped by last night and I opened the door and was like “What?” she’s all walking toward me like she’s trying to get in. Me, basically fighting her by blocking the door. “If I give you a list, will you burn some CDs for me?” I was like “If you give us a list and a CD and a few bucks, sure, we’ll burn you a CD.” She smiled politely and said “When?” I said “Next week - Sidney’s doing his final for his class.” She turned on her heel and was like “Thanks anyway!”

I worked on my Afghan, and am angry. I somehow lost my 5.5mm hook in Sidney’s car and had to use my 6.5mm last night. I couldn’t see that big of a difference, so I might just use it.

I absolutely love getting little knick-knacks. Especially ones that are about my favorite seasons. Oh who is kidding? I love all knick-knacks. Our entire apartment is covered in them. From my first ever knick-knack, it’s a Musical Carousel Horse from the San Fransisco Music Box Company - all the way up to my little scarecrows with the dangly feet. I had been admiring my Mother’s little see-saw scarecrows for the last week. When I got home today and in her “goodie bag” she always sends me home with, in that bag was my own. I put it up on my t.v. where the other “festive” ones are. I did not realize that this was sandcast.

I have officially broken my first knick-knack. I ran out into the living room after I heard a thud. I was hoping it was a photo frame, or Keegan dropping her ball on the floor. Oh no, Kimber was batting the see-saw on the ground. I was furious and crying at the same time. No one ever buys me things like that anymore. The was part of the set, and was an early birthday present for me. I have two Cocker Spaniels that I bought for myself last May. But, I just can’t believe it. I have never broken one of my figurines before. I know it sounds like a stupid thing to be crying over (like spilt milk) but I’m never appreciated here at home. I work to take care of people all day every day, and I come home and still have to take care of the animals and of Sidney. And when I get little things like that, it makes me feel appreciated, or at least thought of.

But on a happier note, I bought some new yarn tonight. I’m going to try to make another afghan - I haven’t been able to get back up to Joannes to get any more fabric since I finished the bags I was working on. Wal-Mart has really crappy fabric for this time of year. I am going to use the crocheting pattern I have always done - I’m not going to get all fancy like one and a half or double stitches. Just my regular stitch. I like my blankets to be heavy - which is a completely different stitch than a single. And if I were using a smaller weighted yarn, it would be like a sweater kind of stitch I guess.

But, I am going to get off now. Am very tired, all cried out. Sigh.

I remember being 17 and falling in love with a deep purple Dodge Neon. Oh, I wanted that car but the guy wanted a ton of money for it. I wasn’t ready for it and I cried for days after that. Totally acted like I was 17. Wrote in my journal about how unfair life was. Well, Good Friday of that year, we happened to go to a huge car sale at the Fairgrounds. We wound up buying the dealers personal 1997 Dodge Neon. That car was much better and I was so happy with it. It was amazing to have that first car. Then as time went on, I realized that having a two door car with hand roll windows was not the best thing in Florida. Storms popped up quicker than you could shake a stick at and to pull off the side of the road to roll up your window was very frustrating. So, I traded it in and got my current car.

Today, we went to talk to the Mortgage lady. The interest rate was too high and created too high of a debt to income level for us and am about ready to cry. “Don’t worry, try this and in two years come back and we’ll see how things go.” Okay, life sucks. She basically said we were prequalified. We did what we were supposed to - and now she says we aren’t qualified at all? Life just sucks right about now. Well, I guess now we have to look at rentals because I don’t know how much longer we can stay in our apartment. I keep saying to myself this too shall pass.

I waited patiently for two days so others could do their two or three loads of laundry with the two washers/dryers downstairs. I took my two loads of laundry and dumped them in the washer. We went out for, no lie, 45 minutes to go house hunting. When I came back, my clothes were all piled into one washer. Someone had touched my undergarments, Sidney’s things. My pillow cases, my towels. I can not begin to tell you how disgusting that makes me feel. I am crawling with heebie jeebies inside. Okay, no one touches my pillows ‘cept me. Not even Sidney. I’m totally not kidding either, I’m really OCD about them. I can’t sleep if they are turned a different way, or if they are moved. I have a hard time sleeping after I wash the sheets because I might have put the pillow case on the opposite way that it was going the night before. I’ve been this way forever.

Same goes with my towels. My towel has to be folded after I get out of the shower and can’t touch his. I just am really creeped out about that. And to find that someone moved my things - my wet, clean clothes - just made me angry. I started screaming, I screamed at Sidney who told me to calm down. Then, my two loads of laundry had to go in ONE dryer because not only did this person move my clothes, but she had both washers taken and the good dryer taken too. I was so pissed off. I contemplated lifting the lid to the washer so that it would stop, and putting a crayon in their drying clothes, but I thought that’d be a little too cruel.

So, I wasted about 15 bucks doing laundry tonight. I have no more quarters left and remarkably? My clothes are still wet. And the little hoe that touched my clothes is sitting up comfortably in her own apartment. I contemplated banging on her door, or keying her car. But that’s just not me. I’m really fed up with people. She comes over every friggen night. “Can you burn me a CD?” “Can you open this can of peas for me?” “Can I borrow your Vacuum?” And she just did two loads of laundry yesterday. Let others have a turn, hoe. I am really mad. I wanted to take my benadryl to get a good nights sleep tonight, but now it’s late and I have to get up early tomorrow to get my shots of death.

And how is it that there is a nice cool breeze blowing outside, on this crystal clear night and it is 84 degrees in my apartment - it is no more than 75 outside. I am roasting. I want to turn on the air, but the mornings have been nice. And I know that if I just wait it out, it will get cool. Or maybe I’m just steamed from earlier.

On the plus side, we found two houses directly in the range of money we want to spend and we are going to go see them after appointment with our Mortgage broker tomorrow. That makes me happy.