Likeliness is that if you’re reading this, you probably follow me on Facebook and so you’ve already seen this, but I’m excited and so I post again:

This is my new bicycle. I don’t have it yet, but I put money down on it so that I will have it soon-ish. With any luck I will be able to buy it with my paycheck on July 7th, and then I will have a ride to Zuma with someone who can put it on there, and I will have my wetsuit so that I can go out and do the entire triathlon as training for the triathlon. I’m very excited for that and to be honest, if I make friends I hope to do the race several times over before I actually do the race.

My biggest thing is that I don’t want to have “DNF” next to my name when the rankings come out. I have worked too hard, told too many people, and collected too many donations for charity for this, to not finish it (not to mention the money I’ve put in myself), but then I start daydreaming and think “wouldn’t it be awesome if I somehow magically started to kick ass and came in within the top 5 to place?” yeah, I know it’s not likely but last year there were only like 25 people in the women’s fat girl division. If they had a super fat girl division like they do for the men’s, I think that I would place by default

Considering that I have a hundred pounds on the minimum weight to get into the “Athena” class, I would love super Athena. Start it at 200 or something, because no matter how much I lose, I won’t be down below 200 by September (that would be unhealthy)

Anyhow, I’m excited, I’m still training, I’m calling myself amazing, and that’s what I have going on in my life right now

All I do now is train, train train train for the triathlon.

Unfortunately, all this training means is that I’m overdoing it, I’ve managed to destroy my back. It surprised the hell out of me, I ran two miles, I swam my normal half mile and somehow at work my back just said “eek” and stopped being happy.

SO last night I … got to lie around a lot. Today I got to lie down some more. Finally realized that my most comfortable position is in my most generally uncomfortable chairs with a big chair on my lumbar.

BUT that means I got to finish my new vegetable bags! They’re made out of fat quarters and I’m loving them:

They’re dorky and they’re adorable and I love them! They aren’t meant for large shopping, they’re meant to replace the plastic vegetable bags that are overused and thrown away.

Side note, OH how I want Nachos.

To start my adventure in artichokes I will share the first thing I was told to do, cut off the tips of the leaves and the top of the plant. This was just about the easiest thing that I did in regards to this project, and seeing as I no longer seem to have kitchen sheers, that was still some doing.

 The plop! Into the pot. I covered it so that I would no longer look at it bouncing around and wonder what I should do to submerge it better. Please excuse the finger, I’m working on it.

 Prep time, the artichoke is boiling and it’s time to work the stuffing. After washing the mushrooms I trimmed their stems and yes, you see the cheese grater there for a reason. While artichoke’s may be new to me, I’m big on stuffing things and shredding the mushrooms was PERFECT! I also diced WAY too much garlic (if there is such a thing) and added a little EVOO to sauté it for a moment. When you don’t take the time to sauté your garlic it can leave you with this bitter tinge, even after you’ve put it into the oven for a while. Then toss the mushroom shavings, garlic, 1 roma tomato (diced) 1/4 C of breadcrumbs and 1/4 C garlic & herb feta into a bowl.

 Looks like our artichoke is done, the sites all told me to slide a knife in the stem and if it slides in easily then it’s good. Now we get tricky again, don’t listen to the instructions that tell you to take out the center (the purple part and the hairy part) as though it doesn’t suck because OMG was it rough. Luckily the way artichokes are built you can press them open to expand your work area and it just pops back into it’s shape!

 That’s all there is to it, though. the majority of your stuffing goes into the center of the artichoke but you can pull the leaves back to put stuffing behind each of those. As a huge cheese fan I put quite a bit of shredded cheese on top before sticking it in the oven (on 350°) for about 10-15 minutes.

There we have it, my beautiful and scrumptious, stuffed artichoke. Only problem is that once completed I realized, I have no idea how to properly eat an artichoke…here’s to experimenting!

Only I would discover this new sport.

I may or may not have gone on a really awesome date last night.

If I did, then I really like this guy and love that it’s the first time in my life I’ve actually been on a real date that ended without them trying to fuck me.

If I didn’t, then I really like this guy and love that I’ve made a new friend that I can talk to so freely.

I hope it’s the former, if for no other reason than I really like the idea of someone liking me. But at the same time, I like the latter as well because he’s awesome.

I’m going to read something into the way he ended with “Not to be pushy but, we should do this again…soon” Yeah, I’m being kind of a silly girl and I’m sure that he just sees me as another awesome friend cause well, I am an awesome friend. He’s probably just excited to have a geek who’s company he enjoys. I’m not diluting myself and am VERY aware that I’m not much to look at so it’s probably nothing. But it’s nice to give myself a day to imagine it.

Which is not NEARLY as exciting as these images that I found of different money being folded in half and shown against other people’s faces:

Now that’s just cool!

And it’s what I’m missing, not money faces but some kind of creative inspiration. Every day I wake up and the first thing I think of (after ow my shoulder hurts) is fuck, what am I going to do about $$$$.

WHY does it have to steal my soul! I was doing ok, I really was. But you put the levy crap from the IRS (who I was already paying) together with regular bills and necessary things and I’ve found myself packaging my meals ahead of time.

What’s so wrong with that? I’m looking at peanut butter and jelly for the next week, which wouldn’t probably be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that I still won’t get paid for another week after and I don’t know what I’m going to do for the second set of days.

I want to sew, but I’ve started tearing my apartment apart in preparation for the bug guy who comes every six months and will be here on the 6th…I think. So it takes a lot to clear out my kitchen and I’ve got it started early.

Ok, lets do some papercraft, ok I’m not good enough for some of the flowers adn now that I’ve mastered the lotus origami, I need to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with them before I make more.

Ok, Katie wants a corgi clay figurine…that got a couple hours but I’m SO failing at it.

So what do I have to show on my craft blog? Me playing video games because it’s the only thing that I can do while being stressed out without being too distracted. I’m wondering what to get my sister for her birthday, I’m worrying about hwy my shoulder isn’t healing and the cramp that and my foot pain are putting on my Triathlon training, I’m worrying where my next real meal is coming from and if I can stretch 4 chicken thighs for the whole week, I’m glad that I bought my cat food and litter befor emy bank was cleared out and I’m kicking myself for getting starbucks last week because even once, could have been two meals if I was at the grocery store.

/sigh

middle america, where the only hope we have left is a dream of winning the lottery.

I’m considering writing a book, about my charmed life. But while thinking about it, I’ve had great stories here and there but have I really had a life that’s worth writing about?

A childhood of awkwardness where I played alone.
Teenage years of too many drugs and people who hated me.
Here’s a shocker, I struggled with my sexuality and fucked WAY too many people to feel whole inside.
Yeah, I just don’t see myself as interesting, but I have such a lovely title so … why not?

When the title came to me and a friend I’m working with earlier today, I just wanted it to catch on as a phrase, thought maybe we’d make a Youtube video or something and see if it takes off. He said book and now, I think I just may run with the unfuckable rainbow.

I need something stable and I have to wonder if making myself blog every single day, might be some kind of structure. it’s not like anyone’s reading it to become offended.

Life is…

I made a friend or two and just need to setup time to see each other

I’m financially fucked still but WAY more stable than I used to be

If I could only get my body in check, I’d be well on my way to a good place!

That of course would hopefully also include a boy, but that seems to be more difficult than I was hoping for. I’m not one for online dating. I’m not someone you stop on the street to look at, I’m someone that you meet through a friend and you realize “wow, she’s fantastic”. I don’t want to die alone and have cats eat me!

Ok sorry, I divulge. I also went over my XRays with my Doctor. Well, the report on it. There’s nothing screwed up with the bone in my shoulder that’s causing me to hurt….every single day. But it seems that I have an unrelated genetic abnormality in my collarbone! lol

I’m actually going to run down to teh imaging center to get my XRays, I have an idea for an art project that could be awesome! I think, I hope, I have high hopes. If nothing else I’m going to frame my hsoulder for fun.

I’m picking up the workout schedule and because I get tired at the end of the day I’m going to start going to the gym every day on lunch. I’ll cycle through swimming, walk/jogging and weights on teh different days. That will also help keep me from eating crap for lunch around work because in order to make that work I have to eat something that I bring from home.
Side note, I’m almost done with my first run of headbands. I lost my model, she got canned, but I’m hunting for a new one and have high hopes that people will love these. The fabric’s cute. Although I’m not sure if they’re done because I’m thinking of making cute little buttons out of clay to stitch on them as well.

Wish me luck world!

Do you ever feel that your thoughts have started to drip through your head and italicized themselves. Only, you can’t figure out what all the emphasis is about. It’s not quite important enough to be bold or underlined, but it’s still trying to some sort of statement.

WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO FIGURE OUT THE STATEMENT!?!?!

Lately I’ve also discovered that many things I enjoy in life either don’t translate to the outside world or are at the expense of a boy who recently did wrong by me. That’s kind of a lonely place to be. If I tried dropping a tech joke outside of work, I would find myself giving two hours of back story in hopes that they’ll find amusement. Of course, the back story is still nothing without them having a general understanding of the men behind the story and that’s where we hit the wall *thwack*

Speaking of things that are hitting walls, my love life is non-existent. It’s ok, I don’t’ need any of these Southern California wankers.

For a while now I’ve been watching a lot of random things on televison, well, not television I’m usually streaming. One of the things I’ve watched is “Skins” and I really like the show. It’s had it’s ups and downs but overall, I enjoy the show.

So I’m looking through sidereel for stuff that I’ve missed and it says Skins. I think “ooh, the new season started?

NOPE! it’s the American version. But saying that it’s ‘based’ off of the show is an understatement. It’s the dialogue except it’s covering boobs, and not swearing and the people playing the characters don’t seem to fit as well. Of course, it could just seem that way because I like the old characters but even so, the dork is too dorky, the Tony character who’s supposed to be all bad ass and super conniving but he seems a bit daft. The girl who’s supposed to be Cassie is actually insane and like scary and really… Americans ruin everything!

I have taken my sister’s advice and picked up an exercise ball to be my new computer chair.
It’s lovely.
Just about the right height.
And it bounces.

Problem with this?

Why yes, I can’t stop bouncing.

I have things that I could be doing. I could be reading my book, I could be working on my multitude of headbands, I could be doing …I don’t know.

But instead, I’m sitting on my ball, bouncing and wondering if I need to find some ribbon to make these purple headbands really pop!

Thanks for listening, wish me well