The Day After Yesterday.

So, I've recently decided that all I could ever need in this world is the game "Catch Phrase." For those of you that have not been blessed with this game before, I can't begin to tell you how much fun it is in words. Essentially, you are on a team and it is your job to get your teammate(s) to guess a word by giving them clues. Sorta like the $10,000 Pyramid. After your teammate(s) guess the word, you push a button for a new clue and pass it to the other team. The catch is that you're timed, and the team holding the game-thing when the timer goes off is declared the loser of that round, and the other team gets the point. First one to however many points you decide beforehand wins. It puts the F U in fun :)

Well today, mom and I made a trip up to Carroll to hit up the new (to us) Wal-Mart Supercenter. We had to get some food stuffs for G'ma's on Sunday, and the grocery store in Panora isn't exactly "value priced." We were ADAMANT about not going to Wal-Mart in DSM, because, being that it was the day after Thanksgiving, we just could not handle that many people breathing our air. Anyhow, we get to the Mart, and lo and behold they don't have it. WTH?! WM is supposed to be a one-stop shop and BAM! They don't have the one item I need. F'ery. Luckily, the K-Mart in Carroll does have Catch Phrase, so I scoop it up and we're on our way home. Jerry calls right around the time we hit Bayard to make some dinner plans, so we get home and head out for some dinner. Lindsey's dear friend Brandi happened to be our server, and, needless to say, she recieved a large tip (100% of the bill to be exact). Thanks Bran!

We get home after dinner, and find that Lindsey will be abandoning the family (as she does only on days that end in "-day") so my night is officially shattered. You see, Catch Phrase requires two teams of at least two players each. Seeing as Cade can't read, I'm flying solo. F. New plan. Let's bake sugar cookies and decorate them! YES. If there's anything as good as my original Plan A, it's baked items. We get to gettin' and within only a half hour, we have a couple dozen cookies baked in assorted Christmas-y shapes. Cade and I spearhead the decorating team (duh) and Mom and Jerry join in soon after. We had a blast :)

cjk





So no rolling pin? No problem! A tube of frozen
93/7 works just fine :)











Our finished products! So they aren't all Christmas colors... so what?

My Best Friend :)

So, since it's 12:39a, my roommate/best friend has officially been 21 for 39 minutes! Her and by very good friend Angela are out on Welch Ave. at the bars having some fun. I, being a little over six months shy of the big 2-1 (thanks, mom...) am sitting at home blogging about it. Neat.

Anyway, I hope that she has an amazing time. We've been friends for about six years now (the time has flown) and even though we've had our share of disagreements and tiffs thrown in there, we're closer than ever. I'm so lucky to have someone as kind, compassionate, honest (sometimes it's good ;) ), and wonderful as she.

Love you roomie!!!!!

Banker's hours my ass...

So because the bank I work at is located inside of a grocery store, there is a certain level of convenience that is to be expected. As such, we do not operate on the tradtional 9-5 weekday and 9-12 Saturday that your average bank sees. Instead, we're open until 7 on weekdays, 5 on Saturdays, and even 10-3 Sundays. Needless to say, I am always at work. Anyhow, the weekends tend to drag on since people don't tend do their banking on Saturdays and Sundays, regardless of us being open or not. Today was no exception.

To start my day off on the right track, I overslept. Neat. Why you ask? Well, some lovely friends of mine decided that several drunk dials/texts were in order last night, therefore, I was awake about twice an hour. Again, neat. I wake up at 8:12, shout and swear quite loudly, and go into superfastmoveyourassandgetready mode. I toss a lump of clothes into the dryer to de-wrinkle, stick my head under the bathtub faucet to wash, dry my hair, brush my teeth, a quick swipe of deodorant and I'm done getting ready. I race past the dryer and pull out my fresh-smelling, warm lump of clothes and as I'm hopping down the hallway with one leg in my pants, I trip. Hard. Of course. I get up and race out the door at 8:29. I have 1 minute to get to work. Obviously not going to happen. So, at 8:38, I stroll into the bank and get everything ready for the day ahead. The day is back on track.

Fast forward about 8.5 hours, and I'm off! Yay! I walk outside toward my car and OH! What's this? Two inches of snow?! Terrific! I love snow as much as the next guy, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that my scraper was actually in my car! YES! I dust the ol' girl off and head for home. Deciding that cooking was not in the cards for me tonight, plus the roomie is gone, so a pizza it is! For those who don't live in Ames and have never experienced Jeff's Pizza Shop, I'm sorry. It's amazing.

Now, we're at a quarter till 8:00 and all is amazing. I'm parked on the couch, I have the fireplace on, and I'm thoroughly enjoying my chicken alfredo pizza with mushrooms and onions, and I can't think of a better way to spend the night.

cjk

Putting my best foot forward...

So, as many of you may be fully aware... I kind of have this habit of looking for a new job when things get unpleasant at my current one. For example: Before I started at MH, I was working for the Evil Empire in collections. Now, I know what you're thinking - Collections? In this economy? What's not to love? Well, it may surprise you, but apparently people are prioritizing making a house payment or buying groceries or even paying medical bills before they make even an attempt at a credit card payment. Fascinating! The things some people will do...

Anyhow, that job sucked it HARD. As if it wasn't bad enough driving my happy ass to and WDM five days a week and burning through more gas than the city of San Diego uses in a month, I got to sit on a computer in a desk that I shared with a woman that had some kind of sick obsession with frogs. I mean this bitch was weird - frog figurines, a frog calendar, and a small crucifix sitting right under the computer screen. I felt like everytime I called someone to try to get their money, Jesus was passing judgment on me. Great. Just what I needed on my conscience. Well, push finally came to shove and one night, after I had had 2 very successful interviews at MH, I went on my 15 minute break and never came back.

In recent weeks, things at MH had gotten a little dicey. I have had a few issues with... how did they put it... oh yes, "maintaining and accurately balanced teller drawer and adhering to official company policies and procedures," like it was something drastic. Well, I went back to an old habit and immediately started looking for something else. I mean come on! I don't think that a few small (and one not so small) mis-balances should be the only thing they focus on. Alas, there isn't a lot of hiring going on in Ames right now, the exceptions being of course seasonal positions. So, my thought was - OK, I can make this work for a little longer.

Well, now I'm about a month past that epiphany, and actually, really starting to enjoy my job again. I had an employee review recently and it went OK, but honestly, I really felt like they weren't noticing any of the good I had done, only the bad. We had a small meeting last week and the bank manager gave out some "self-evaluation" sheets to us. I decided to use it as an outlet to express how I felt. I gave myself what I believe to be fair marks, which I supported with great detail! I really want to make it work here - not only do I loathe starting a new job (you know, going in blind and not knowing anyone), but I have really grown accustomed to it, I love my co-workers, and frankly, it's not a tough job but it still pays pretty well. According to the bossman, I should be having my six-month (even though I've now been there for eight) review any day now. I'll let you know how it goes!

cjk

Getting a jump on things...

I talked to my mom earlier in the week and we decided that Saturday we would spend the day together. We hadn't had just a "two of us" day for quite some time, so we agreed that it was long overdue. The original plan was for mom and Grandma to head over to GC to the fitness center and for mom to be home by 11:30, with us leaving for DSM shortly after. Now, anyone that knows my family is fully aware that our plans are anything but set in stone until we start them. On that note, at about 1:00, Mom and I left the house on our way to get some of my Christmas shopping done. I decided that this year would be different from all of the others. I have made it a habit to wait until the last minute, and usually end up having to re-gift something to some unsuspecting family member to ensure that they have something to unwrap. Not this year!

After a F-A-B lunch of Bleu Ribbon Burgers, onion rings, and garlic parmesan fries at Red Robin (yummm), we decided to head over to Jordan Creek and scope out the sales. Mom knew that Whitehall Jewellers was having a huge liquidation sale and so we decided to check it out. We had been browsing for her sake for awhile when it hit me: gift idea!!!! Holly (hereafter referred to as roomie) turns 21 on the 25th of this month, so I figured that I would get her somethin' purdy. After much deliberation, I decided on a lovely amethyst necklace set in 10k white gold. Loves it! A little more browsing and Mom stumbles across a necklace she loves. After her debating it in her head (and me being the little devil guy hovering over her shoulder saying 'do it... do it...') we head to the register and both walk out of the store as happy campers with our purchases.

After walking around the mall (which, p.s., was filled with a sh*tload of people who were IN OUR WAY and nothing else) and each getting a Starbucks (loves it) we decided it was time to get the F out of dodge and head over to Wal-Mart. At this point, I only had Holly's birthday present bought and NOTHING for anyone for Christmas. Great.

When we get to the Mart, I figured that this would be as good a place as any to scoop up something for Cade. After some more browsing, I settled on a pair of Tom and Jerry DVDs for him, as the little man has apparently grown obsessed with them. Who would have thought... a classic like T&J taking his interest more than some cartoon on Nickelodeon. Go figure. Mom and I then go on the hunt for a nice pair of gubs (gloves, to those of you who aren't fluent in Cade) and end up finding her a cute gub/scarf matching set. Precious! Head to the checkout and we're out of the Mart by about 6:45. Not doing too shabby thus far - one bday and one Christmas present down, many to go. Next is a quick stop at Costco for some discount gas ($1.69!!) and we're on our way to Valley West, the redheaded stepchild of the Greater Des Moines mall system.

We park outside of Von Maur, which is quite possibly one of my favorite stores, especially at Christmas time. Mom decides she would really like to find a cute wallet to go with her recently acquired Fossil purse, so we head upstairs to take a look, but not before we stumble across the softest leather jacket you've ever felt... $630 worth of soft leather to be exact... F! Anyway, we get upstairs and I'm like a kid in a candy store, except replace kid with "label whore" and candy store with "men's accessories." I make a beeline for the most AMAZINGLY AMAZING cashmere Burberry scarf, and it's even in the wonderful sage color palette that I wanted. A quick look at the pricetag ($265) and my dream of fancy scarf ownership was beaten, molested, and left for dead. So after a peek in the clearance shoe room for mom (which was a hot mess), we're off to handbags. We're doing some browsing when Mom happens across a cute with a capital Q red Fossil bag, similar to the one she bought. She assures me it wasn't there when she bought her purse or she would have come home with it instead. After I talk her into it, we attempt to exchange her used, three-week old purse without tags or receipt for the new-found red one. The counter lady could not have been more helpful, and since the red purse was actually cheaper, I got a credit of $30 to my Von Maur card - even though I didn't actually buy the purse to begin with! Yay! New purse in hand, we head out of VM into the mall.

I knew exactly what I would get Lindsey when we got here (which will not be posted because then she'd know, silly) (oh, and Holly doesn't read this to answer your next question) and within 5 minutes I had gotten it. But then I was thinking, this (item) really is kinda small... lets get one or two more little things to top it off. After a quick stop at (store) I got her a couple more cute, practical items. All is well. Then a quick run upstairs to Vicki's and Holly's Christmas present is now also purchased! Next is a quick stop at another store and BAM! Jerry's present is done! I'm starting to get the hang of this... At this point, we're getting pretty shopped out, so we stop for a quick cheese rite each and share a jumbo Pepsi. We browse thru Younkers quick to scope out the wallet situation, and we're out the door.

Now it's about 8 and we're headed to SuperTarget for some needs. I get razor blades (which, incidentally, cost more than the GOD DAMN RAZOR!) and Ma grabs some stuff for herself too. We look at the wallets here too (which were all yuck) and call it a day.

All in all, I have to say, I had a pretty great time :) Mom and I don't get to spend as much one-on-one time as we would like, so on this rare occasion where we both ended up with a day off at the same time, I'm glad we got to hang out together :) Love ya mommy!!

Hope everyone else had a great Saturday!!!

cjk

The Big Opener

Hello :)

I decided to start this blog as my own personal way to vent and tell about my day... I'm excited to play around with this whole thing and ready to go! Wish me luck!

cjk