So, I’m getting ready to move this weekend. I still have a lot of packing to do… I hate packing. I’ve bribed some friends with pizza and beer to help me move my stuff. I’ve bribed another friend with more pizza to help me paint the walls back to the boring off-white color they were when I got there. I’ve secured a killer vacuum cleaner to rescue my rug that my grandma gave me, and will be renting a super steam cleaner to get the carpet back in passable condition so I don’t have to pay to have it replaced. My plan of attack is to finish packing this week, move the stuff on Saturday (and by “move my stuff” i mean “drive the truck and let the boys load/unload”) during the day, unpack the important stuff Saturday night, and paint the walls and clean the carpet Sunday.

I hate moving. I’m kind of excited though. Xoie will have a friend to play with, since my friend that we’re moving in with has a dog, too. I think having more places to go will help calm her down, as well as running and playing more. Pod is going to bring his computer over to my house so that we can get a little more spread of where we spend our time, cause I’m *always* at his house, and I would really like to spend more time at home, but still spend time with him. We haven’t been playing EQ a whole lot, cause we’ve been playing a lot of Left 4 Dead, which is totally awesome. If you’re on Steam, add me as your friend. lifelessmind. I’d link to my profile but I can’t find the URL while I’m at work cause anything fun is surfblocked.

I had to take back the super sweet 3.16 dual core processor I bought. Turns out my motherboard only supports 65nm processors. So I already bought a new power supply, and got a video card sent to me, and if I bought a new motherboard to go with my new processor I’d need new RAM cause mine is slow, and I’d need a case, and at that point I built a whole new computer and that just wasn’t in my budget I did pick up a 2.2 dual core, which is the best 65nm I can still find at this point.. which, yea, is still better than the 1.8 I had in there, but not NEARLY as exciting as the E8600. Cest la vie. I’m excited for my new video card My friend Shawn says the video card will do me more good than the processor anyway, so the combination of the two is pretty good I’d say.

I’ve also been doing a lot of designing/coding lately. I’ve started (and scrapped) a good 4 or 5 layouts for this site already. I’ve got the main page (mostly) coded for the one I think I’ll be keeping. Here’s a sneak peak of it. Don’t bother clicking any links; none of them work yet. If you have any feedback, let me know. I always like hearing other peoples ideas. I’m also starting a new project. Domain has been bought… but I’ve also scrapped 2 or 3 layouts for that one. I don’t want to get too much into specifics until the site is up, but it was inspired by this random freak-out I had over the weekend. While Kat Scratch Fever mostly is about the NOW of my life, this new project will give a little more insight about my past. I’ll let you know when it’s up and running.

Oh, and I got a new tattoo. I suppose technically it’s 2 tattoos (that technicality meant I had to fill out the paperwork twice! that, and I split it up into two sessions cause we ran out of time the first day). I just got the second one last night and it’s crazy swollen and red still. The left one hurt more than the right one. Probably because I’m right handed so the muscles in my right arm are stronger and more used to abuse. Anyway I don’t have pictures of both of them together yet, but they look the same, just mirror images. Pictures on my Flickr. Go look, leave comments!

That’s all for now.

I don’t even really like snow. I’ve just had a bad couple of days.

I had Friday off, which one would think would be a good day… not so much.

I started the day by having a dream that I was at my Grandma’s house and we were having the family Christmas party, and nobody showed up. My first thought upon waking up was “...well that sucks. My family is supposed to love me and want to see me damn it!” It only went downhill from there.

I went to Home Depot to pick up a light bulb for my light fixture (I have the Fuga light from IKEA) and the stupid things are $7 each. I bought two so I could replace the dead one and have a spare for next time one dies. After that I went back home to play with Xoie but she wasn’t interested in me and only wanted to chew on her bone. Whatever dog.

I worked a little bit on a project I’m doing, then decided that I needed some shots of Downtown.. so I took a shower, put my dog in her room, and walked to the MAX stop. It started raining 2 minutes after I left my house and was pouring by the time I got off the train in Portland. So I couldn’t pull my camera out.. walked down to Eat Pizza and had some food and killed some time because Pod wasn’t gonna be off work for a little bit. Hopped on the MAX and headed over there, then couldn’t remember what floor he worked on.

Tried calling but he didn’t answer so I started wandering around the building. It’s fairly small and has lots of locked doors, so I didn’t get lost per say… but I did manage to find the only door to the stairwell that opens on my first try, only to find that the doors from that side are locked. I started panicking and each door I tried that was locked made the stairwell feel smaller. It really, really sucked. Sent a text to Pod telling him I was gonna die in the staircase then finally located an unlocked exit. It was scary

So then when it was time for us to leave, we got on the MAX, and then there was an annoucement saying they were going to delay the train… and then security walked up to me and asked me to get off the train. My eyes got all big and round and Pod was like “uhhhmmm…” and the security guy was like, “are you with her?” “yeah” “okay why don’t you step off too…” and so we got rained on while they figured out that I was not whoever they were looking for, and they let us back on the train, and everybody was staring at us.

So then I was all cold and wet and cranky and my hot chocolate didn’t come with whipped cream. Bleah.

I guess yesterday was sort of mostly okay except I had to work and I got in a fight with Pod and then I had to work today.

But hey, it’s snowing. I threw a snowball at my friend Sam and haven’t fallen on my ass yet so I guess it’s okay.

I went to the Oregon coast this weekend with my Portland Adopted Family! It was a pretty spur of the moment trip, where we decided to go on Wednesday and left Friday. We were planning on camping, but all the campsites were full. We did manage to get a pretty sweet deal on a nice suite right on the beach though! This picture here was taken from my balcony. We went to Newport, and it was a beautiful weekend! There are some photos on my Flickr, but I haven’t gone through all of them yet. Expect more up in the next few days.

Anywho, we got there Friday night just in time to watch the sun set. Then we got all comfy and drank a bottle of wine and explored the area near our room. The puppies were running around like maniacs. There wasn’t really much to do at that point, since things were closed and it was dark and stuff.

Saturday we got an early start and took the puppies down to the ocean and walked along there. Xoie was not at all into the ocean this time but the sand didn’t seem to bother her. After that we ordered room service breakfast (just because we could!) and headed to the Historic Bayfront area and walked the dogs through there. We’d leave one or two people outside with the dogs whenever somebody wanted to go into a shop. Then we went to the Newport Aquarium which was pretty cool, but not as good as the Seattle Aquarium. After that we went and had lunch at the Rogue Brewery, which was the actual excuse for the trip to the coast. I wanted to go to the brewery for my birthday. So, I had some good beer and a decent meal (my pulled pork sandwich would have been amazing if it had 3x more meat and 5x more sauce) and a great dessert and it was nice. Then we headed back to the hotel for an afternoon siesta and trip to the swimming pool. THEN (... yeah we had a really long day hehe) we went back to the Bayfront and went to Mo’s for dinner. OMG. Can I just say… YUM!!!! Seriously. Yum. I don’t even really like clam chowder and this stuff was awesome! It’s world famous and stuff. Anyway, after dinner we walked the dogs around some more and went back to the hotel because we were pretty tuckered out.

Sunday morning saw more beach walking and some frisbee playing, as well as cereal and coffee. Then we got all packed up and drove along the coast stopping at the attractions like the Devil’s Punchbowl (which was not that full when we got there) and the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse (which is haunted, but I didn’t see the ghost). I have pictures from both of those that will be up eventually. Anyway then we went back to Mo’s for a light lunch and headed back to Beaverton.

We did stop at the Tanger Outlet Mall in Lincoln City though. I bought my mom’s birthday gift while I was there! I can’t say what it is because she reads my blog, but I am totally winning the Daughter of the Year award with this one

So yeah, it was a great weekend! I got home and did laundry and played with Xoie. She’s suddenly really clingy though, and I’m not sure why. She just sits on my feet and cries when she can’t see me.. it’s really sad. Hopefully she gets back out of this phase soon, cause she’s usually really independant.

That’s all for now!

Long weekends are the best invention ever, mmmmhmmm!

After I got off work on Thursday (at 6 fricken 30 I might add, grumble) I did a mad dash over to my D&D game. I’m a dwarf cleric in that game and pretty much rock, for the record We played that for a couple hours and had dinner and it was fun. Then… we busted out ROCK BAND! Wooooo! That game is ridiculously fun, OMG. I started off playing guitar, and we had to keep switching roles after a few songs cause everybody we had singing kept failing. So then they took my guitar and handed me the mic, and apparently I’m really good at being the singer, so now… I sing! We made a band called Whiteboard Hoppopotamus (default names FTW!) and rocked out until like, 3 in the morning when we got too tired to keep our eyes open.

Friday I hung out with Xoie for the morning then went to a BBQ thing and ate lots of yummy food and drank way more mojitos than I probably needed and as such, was unable to make it to my Friday night D&D game (I’m a tiefling rogue in that one, and I think I’m awesome but haven’t gotten much chance to find out just yet). But, I got to blow things up and that was fun, too.

Saturday I cleaned like crazy. My bedroom is about 96% organized! My closet it spotless! I still need to do the bathroom and bring the rest of my stuff up from the garage, but I think I’m almost done. Exciting! Wooo! Then I went to a half-birthday party which was also way fun.

I got a nasty charlie horse in my right calf in the middle of the night. It was terrible! Nothing quite like waking up with your leg muscle clenched, causing some major ouch-ness. Stretching it out HURT. My leg has been sore since then. Walking hurts and I practically fell over getting up out of bed this morning. I can’t wait for this to go away.

Sunday I played more D&D with my cleric-group, then we rigged the backyard so that it was puppy proof and I went and picked Xoie up.. we played with her for a bit then gave her reign of the backyard and played way more Rock Band. Love that game haha! Then we went out to dinner, and played even more Rock Band and goofed off until it was time to go home.

Cause you know, pesky work thing and all.

Xoie had her first exposure to the beach yesterday! It was adorable.

She was all excited about the sand first off and was leaping everywhere through it. Then she was trying to chase the ocean… that is, until she realized it was moving towards her, then her reaction was, “RETREAT!!!!!!!!” teehehehehehe. Aw man, then she was trying to eat seaweed, the weirdo.

Also, looking for Haystack Rock was hilarious. “I know it’s around here somewhere… it’s a giant fucking rock in the ocean!” “Oh look, there it is!”

I want to take her again during the day, and take some pictures.

That is all for now. Don’t forget, Pointless Drivel Live tonight at 4 pacific time! See you all there

Ok, thanks for the good vibes that were sent my grandma’s way! I got an update, her surgery took longer than they had anticipated because she had a bad reaction to the initial meds, then the procedure wound up being a little more difficult than they expected. But! She’s fine She was complaining about how difficult it is to eat a turkey sandwich when you’re not allowed to sit up haha. I love my grammy ♥

Also, anybody that was following my Twitter yesterday saw a bunch of tweets about Xoie. She’s much better today. The vet thinks she ate something that upset her stomach or that she’s got a little bug. They gave her lots of fluids because she was dehydrated from throwing up so much. She stopped doing that at about noon yesterday which is good. She’s on some meds and a special diet for the next few days then everything will go back to normal.

And me.. I’m pretty healthy thus far *knock on wood*

Have I mentioned lately that I hate moving? Well. I do. I’d probably be dead now if it wasn’t for my little legion of friends though. Thanks guys <3

Thursday a couple friends moved my desk for me.. that thing is massive and it was quite an endeavor. I supervised. And the desk just *barely* fit in the little nook that I wanted it in. It’s pretty impressive actually. Also moved a few small boxes. Then I went to another friends house to watch TV and wound up drinking way too much and then Friday sucked. Oops.

Friday we moved all the rest of my stuff (garbage bags FTW!!) and were planning on having a Packing Party (read: throw stuff in bags while drinking beer) but we left the beer at the wrong house. So after we were done moving we had 2 beers and played like, half an hour of video game, then passed out from sheer exhaustion. Yay.

Saturday I went back to the old apartment with Tom cause we had to clean the carpet and counters and stuff, and sign over the lease. Tom was rude to me on the phone but when I got there he looked really sheepish and apologized for being rude, so all was well. It was a little bittersweet to look at the empty apartment ... much as I am pretty close to over the whole thing it’s still a little sad to look at the utter finality of it. Signing the lease over made everything so official *sigh* Soooo I was a little down most of Saturday. I spent the whole day over at a friends house with Xoie playing with a few other puppies and sitting in front of a fire pit and trying not to dwell. The day was really unproductive but I think I really needed it. I felt a lot better.

So yesterday I went to IKEA and bought a mirror and a shelf and an armchair, and a new bed set, and a really cute little red dot rug. Oh and a light fixture, my buddy Marcus is supposed to come put it up for me sometime this week. I need to go get Xoie a doggy bed. She took over my armchair haha. Then I unpacked some stuff and went to sleep early.

Today I think I will go cash my check (it’s pretty much all accounted for, bleh) and make some dinner and get back to unpacking. I can’t wait for my room to be all done so that I just don’t have to think about moving any more.

Hmm. I seem to have not updated in a while. No good!!

So what have I been up to? Well, I’ve been kind of dragging my feet through the last couple weeks here at work. I’m just antsy to start my new job and haven’t been able to focus. I’ve also been trying to finish up this stupid filing project so the new girl isn’t stuck with it. I must be nuts… who files at a place they’re leaving?! Hah.

What else… meh. I’ve been mostly trying to stay busy and keep my mind of of stuff, like Tom. Sitting around at home mostly alone is just making me sad. I stick around for a bit so that Xoie can run around but yeah. I’ve been out with the few friends that I have, or out driving, and what not. I’ve watched a LOT of movies in the past week but none of them really stick out in my head. I’m alright, I’m just kind of stuck in a rut right now.

But, I did get to go out to dinner last week with an old friend, and Yoshi was here for a book-signing and we hung out and it was fun (you can read all about it in his blog post titled My day in Beaverton), and what else…. oh, on Friday I went out with a bunch of people that work where I will be working next week (one of my friends invited me out with them) so that was fun. We drank way too much and they probably won’t remember me next week LOL but it will be nice to at least vaguely recognize a few faces I almost lost my phone and that would have sucked, but I found it in my truck, whew! And I played Guitar Hero for the first time on Saturday and it was fun, and we made sundaes. I’ve been shopping a couple times and things like that… busy busy. I am rather exhausted though. This “being out a lot” thing is kind of new to me. I’m having fun, but still in my rut.

I am starting to feel better though. We’re getting along better. I’m moving in a month and a half or so which will definitely help, so that my brain doesn’t start going off and thinking things about where Tom is and what he might be doing, because that just doesn’t do me any good. I’m starting my new job next week which I am excited for… I’m going up to Seattle this weekend… yeah, things will look up. I just need some more time I think.

And then I can stop with the depressing posts haha

So, I took Xoie to the dog park over the weekend. Gotta start in on that puppy socialization and all. Xoie, like Vinz, is very much a people-puppy. However, to my delight, Xoie is not terrified of other dogs the same way Vinz was.

We started out at the little dog park, seeing as though she is only 5.5 pounds and about 4 inches off the ground. She was not very amused by the little dogs though. When we took her to meet Tom’s dad’s dogs, she was trying to jump on the big one’s head. So after a little while we went over to the all-size dog side. She was having a BLAST! ...that is, until the 3 big dogs that were wrestling FELL on her. There was easily 115+ pounds of dog on top of my poor little 5 pound baby. So she wasn’t feeling so playful after then. She ran over to me and made the “please pick me up” face and became flop-dog on my shoulder. Tried going back to the small dog park, but she just wasn’t having it.

So then the next day we went back and she was queen of the little dogs, until somebody taller than her slobbered on her. Dog drool and dirt… ugh. So then it was bath time when we got back home.

I wonder if maybe just bringing another small dog to my house for a few hours would be a better first step than the dog park. I wanted her to run around and wear herself out but she didn’t really do it.  Any suggestions?

So I went to see Finch on Friday, and it was awesome! We got there pretty early, and hung out at the Hawthorne Theater bar (I love that place) and got to talk to the guys in the band for a while before they left for soundcheck. Then we just hung out drinking haha. We hung out in the bar for most of the opening bands cause well, they were not that exciting. But Finch was rad! They did my favorite songs from What It Is To Burn and a few from the other album. I wasn’t really into the other album so I didn’t know those ones. Oh, and they did a new one too, it wasn’t bad. But yes, it was a ton of fun. I can’t really talk still though haha.

In other news I took puppy to vet on Saturday. She weighs just under 5 pounds now and behaved like an angel. She was a little weary of the metal table but she didn’t cry at all, not even when she got her shot. She even behaved while they cut her nails! What a little trooper. They found giardia in her poop though, so I have to go pick up some medicine for her tomorrow. She’s not showing any symptims right now but obviously I’d rather get rid of it than let it sit dormant. I don’t think she got it from water.. I’m wondering if the neighbor who doesn’t pick up their dogs poop and lets it run in my grass (I’m the only one in my actual building with a dog) is to blame for this. Rawr. Grumble.

It was an expensive weekend. But look at that little face!! ♥

I got a puppy! Her name is Xoie (like Zoe) and she is a longhair miniature dachshund. She’s adorable and hilarious to boot.

She was really clingy the first couple days and all she did was sit on the couch with me but now she is more independant and adventurous and likes to get herself stuck under the couch. She’s rad.

Here are a couple pictures:
click to make them bigger

And here is a video of her playing with her ball:

So, she’s keeping me pretty entertained and distracted. Taking her out 10 times a day in the freezing cold and wet kind of sucks though. No more winter puppies, ever.