Time Flies When....

i would say "when you're having fun," but i think it would describe it more accurately if i said "when you work 50 hours a week." Something off the lines of that.

Where do i even start?! seriously though, i am pretty sure i only have four modes: working, cleaning, eating, or sleeping. maybe five if you include driving to and from work. that extra 20 minutes every day really takes it's toll in the long run (meaning one way to work). i barely have time to run unless i want to get up extra early or go after work when it's still stupid hot and gross out.

i can complain and make excuses all day long, i suppose, but i really would love some down time for a couple days.

in other news, i finally got to make a coconut cream pie! i didn't get to take any fancy pictures of it, NOR did i share it with anyone or even finish it, but it was a thing, and it happened, and it was awesome! the recipe called for just regular coconut, i think next time i will toast it. i thought about it to begin with, but didn't bother to take the time. i have been so lazy outside of work lately. it is almost difficult to be lazy because i don't really even have things to binge watch on netflix or anything. i am out of steven universe and ponies until they come back from hiatus, which i have no idea when that will be.

work has been an adventure as always, the hours are long, i am always cleaning, the usual. i have been getting the feeling lately that since i don't seem to have time, i would love to have only one job so i don't have to split myself up, or at the very least have a few more hours to do stuff. however, this feels like it will always be a "someday." i think next on the list is get out of this effin cave called an apartment, which i have about 8 months to figure out, whether it be another apartment or a house.

look at this dumb face. i love it so much. they deserve to have more sunshine in their lives, and more time with mom. i have been bringing them around for either car rides or to work with me to be around them (aka: to get my bird fix), which has been entertaining in and of itself. nubs doesn't really seem to like it much, but i have only taken him in the car one time. he has lived with us only in the apartments, and we have just carried him from one to the next! in time, though. i will have to bring him out again.

cosmo, on the other hand, has come out with me a couple times recently, i made him a harness out of a playstation lanyard! he tolerates it until i stop moving, but he has handled it pretty well. he came to the mall with me for comic-con day on the 20th, we walked around, he was my i.t. assistance fixing the register at work, and on monday i dragged him around for my birthday! we went to the bank to see kristen, the vet to get kairi's supplies and see heather, and then to pep boys. we also stopped at carvel to get ice cream, but they threw us out because "some people don't like animals around." meh. whatever. lots of other places let us do what we want. satch also came outside for a bit to help me with my garden. he was not a fan of the neighbor's dog, but they went inside and he was okay.

on the birthday note, i had a pretty good time. i took sunday and monday off, so two days off was nice. went for a walk on sunday, i made some cake pops for work for our harry potter birthday celebration, then we went to cheesecake factory for national cheesecake day! the best time to have a birthday ☺

i have never been surrounded by so many people at once....well, meaning like friends and family, for a birthday. usually we end up with about 6-8 of us, but this year i had 13 people!! holy crap! AND i had gifts!! like, people went out of their way to do something for me. it was overwhelming but in a good way! i don't ever expect things from anyone, i am always happy to know i have good friends. it was pretty exciting though! if any of you read this, i will say again how much i truly appreciate everything!! i am still in awe of everything three days later! ♥♥♥

look at how awesome my snitches were! the weather ruined everything, though. it was like 80 degrees, and ron wanted to drive his new (old) station wagon...with no air conditioner....and they melted all over the place. :( not a single one made it to work complete, although there were 4 of 25 left on the sticks. at least i had made a chocolate cake on the side.

monday (actual birthday) i went for a run to work off the fat kid in me from saturday (even though i had leftovers that i ate), and we drove around with cosmo. that was pretty much it. i was glad to not do anything, until we realized we had to do laundry around 7. we watched the new rick and morty while doing laundry. uneventful, but what i need more of in my life.

i think that about sums everything up for lately. my mind is always stirring with ideas and things, but some are best kept secret until i am ready. thanks for stopping by! ☺

Welcome to Summer

hola!

once again, time has gotten the better of me and i missed the whole damned month of june! jeez. i was keeping up on this so good for a while there. no matter, that just means i have a crap ton of things to rant on about. if it matters, anyway. vacation was a thing! rons birthday was a thing! my container garden today was a thing!

THINGS.

instead of driving overnight, we left early in the morning, like around 6 am. it worked out pretty well, i thought. we made it in about 2 hours less than it has the last few drives. plus, we arrived at the perfect time (basically) for checking in.

we stayed in duck again this year in a house called jus' beachy. a little more expensive than i would have liked, but we had a few mishaps early on and lost a few people. despite the extra money, it was definitely worth it, it was an awesome house. we had a salt water pool and a tiki bar!

we definitely made it a point to spend some time by the pool. i took advantage of the tiki bar as well and made some strawberry daquiris one night, complete with pineapple straws. because dollar store finds.

we visited the corolla light house and hatteras light house. it definitely rained a few days, we rented a jeep again, and attempted to go out on the beach two days in a row....

...when we got it, it definitely had no doors. we requested a jeep that was covered and, you know, normal, with doors. they decided they were getting ready for summer and took the doors off. when it was like 20 degrees cooler than normal, and raining. we all bundled up in a bunch of layers, had the heat blasting....that we could only feel when we stopped completely. it was a very cold two days. good thing we had a fireplace at the house!

 we had a few other good days though, and definitely made it out to the beach for a couple of those days (and nights)! this is what i live for. the sound of the ocean, the rolling breeze....i wish i could bottle that up and keep it with me at all times.

on another note, i also ran my first real 5k while i was there!

june 7th was national running day (and also my cousin's birthday)! it was early in the morning, kind of cool and one of those rainy days i was talking about, but i came in 33rd out of almost one hundred, and finished in 25:04. needless to say, it went better than i thought it would! i am looking forward to the color vibe in september! (which is at home, of course).

we picked up a cake at a local bakery for my cousins birthday, and made dinner at the house. we did a lot of gift shopping through the week, as well, and just hanging around town. it was a pretty relaxed week, which was a plus. maybe first week of june was a little too early, but its not like i can predict the weather. i much prefer less rain and cold, and spending as much time at the beach possible. i seriously feel like i need two separate trips, though. i love going with people, but i also like to be able to do my own thing.

on our way home, we made our usual trip through virginia beach for lunch. aside from food, we also found another unusual stop....at a cat cafe!

for now, i am going to leave you with ron's birthday cake i made! vanilla cake with chocolate frosting and peanut butter drizzle! i have a weird ass bird bothering me, and i am ready for bed. also, this gives me an excuse to write more! thanks for reading! come back soon!

May Update- Countdown til Vacation

8 days left!

although i am in the middle of a 6-day vacation from work as it is. i had a couple extra days, so i am making an extended weekend out of them.

it's been a while!

been working a lot, for the most part, got an upgraded phone, which is part of the reason i haven't made it on here- had to re-set up my authenticator app- and just getting ready for vacation stuff. i am playing the waiting game at this point, and by waiting i mean making sure i have everything i can do done before we leave, since i have one more 5 day stretch before it's here.

got a little pre-beach feel when we went to new jersey to visit broad street dough co- aka we drove 5 hours for donuts. super awesome, by the way. they were only a couple miles from asbury park, so we hit up the boardwalk for lunch and such. it was pretty nice, and we lucked out with a 70-ish degree day (while it rained all day at home). there is about to be a tea lounge here, too, which will be another day trip- it is a CAT tea lounge! like those crazy japanese places you pet cats and drink tea? yep. so donuts and tea for another day. imma have to rent a damn bus to fit all of us next time though. we rented a car and 5 of us went down for the day.

i haven't really had much time for baking, which kind of sucks. i mean, immediately after we got back i had a cake to make, which was awesome on it's own, because FINAL FANTASY 7 AND CHOCOBO!!

i still can't get over my goddamn chocobo. i love them so much. but in my defense, i am a crazy bird lady so it's only natural. i wish i was able to spend just a little more time on him, but thats what i get for agreeing to stuff and then forgetting. i legitimately forgot until the day before we left for jersey, so i had to speed bake, i made chocobo in the car on the way down (sculpted him, baked him the next morning and painted him at work), and finished the cake at work. i am a mess.

on my first day off wednesday, i made some more zuppa toscana and some baked donuts, which were delicious, but not the prettiest things ever, so no pictures. i am going to try to do a cake either today or tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. it has been so rainy and cold. it is may, right?

 a couple weekends ago, i brought this idiot to work with me. dad was being mean to him the night before (aka sprayed him and covered him up super early), so i stuffed him in my coat and brought him to work for the day. i abducted him from his home immediately upon waking him, lol. he whistled and barked at the cars and rain, and then just sat on my shoulder pretty much all day. i was very surprised he did just that, seeing as lots of people usually makes him upset and he chomps my neck or whatever he can reach.

just this past sunday, i brought nubs with me to work. he was kind of the opposite, and preferred to be away from everyone and the excitement. he stayed in the back room for the most part, i hadn't thought about it until i left, but he hasn't really been for any car rides or out of the house, so this was completely new for him. i'll probably bring him out again somewhere else, but in the mean time, he is just being a poop. i haven't been home much lately, so this was kind of fun to bring them and have their company for the morning. not to mention being home the last few days, punk ass hasn't left my shoulder if he could help it. i fell asleep with him earlier and his little feeties imprinted into my arm! ☺♥ ohhh i love them.

in other news, i finally installed my short shifter i got for christmas! it didn't really take too long, i got to pull out half of my center console and use a dremel. it took me about 2 hours, but that is in part because i struggled with this little washer that the directions said you could remove with a screwdriver, my neighbor found me and i asked if he had a dremel, went to hardware store with car in disarray and bought the bits, and dremelled the shit out of the washer. yay!

i went to do my brakes on wednesday and THAT turned into another adventure, since a couple bolts were rusted on and i couldn't remove them. ended up having to wait for ron to get home to help, broke these little rubber boots for the pins that go into the caliper, and went to get more of them. i am nervous to do the rear brakes, because the way my luck has been, something is either gonna break, or my car is gonna fall on me. i mandolined my thumb on wednesday also making that soup....stupid thing is still cracking open and bleeding occasionally. wednesday was not a good day lol. i still have 3 more days to make up for things. rear brakes, oil change, and a couple other loose ends and i should be good.

anyway, since i don't have any treats today, i guess i will leave it at my adventures here, and see about getting stuff done with the rest of my free time. have a good weekend, all, thanks for reading!

April Showers Bring, Like, Treats and Stuff

 i didnt actually make too many things this month. i made another carrot cake cheesecake, and some strawberry oatmeal muffins (no pictures because they did not turn out the fanciest). i got mad at ron yesterday because he got halfmoons from holland farms (this awesome place in utica) cuz he was at his dads, so we went on a late night (well, like 9:30) adventure to wegmans to GET some halfmoons. they were satisfactory. wegmans is awesome, but specialty cookies....halfmoons specifically...what will i ever do when i leave the state? pretty much nowhere else believes in a proper halfmoon cookie OR tomato pie for that matter. its like a utica thing.

i will just have to make my own and cry about it, i guess.

easter has come and gone, as we speak, we are down to 41 days until our annual north carolina trek. i can't wait for that, either. duck donuts can't get here soon enough. or the beach. or anything down there, really. is it bad when you default to your favorite foods and stuff being a motivational factor to go someplace?

look at that. this beast is a thing of beauty. dat cheesecake layer, tho. the frosting kind of makes it, also, but what cake doesn't that apply to?

it is the same recipe that i used from my previous blog, from shugary sweets. super awesome, considering i got to try it this time! i am glad i spent the time to remake it!

uncle david and grandma giacona- dad's side of the family on easter ♥

in other news, ron and i got to hit up painting with a twist! one of those paint night things, for those unfamiliar. it was pretty fun. they did a star wars night, we loaned them our darth vader costume from work, and they gave us a couple tickets to come to the event! apparently my painting was so cool, they offered me a part time job over there ☺ considering it! i miss painting and doing art in general.

everyones costumes were super great, the whole night was really fun. ron even had "more fun than he thought he would." next time i may consider either a- bringing wine, or b- getting a slushie or beverage while there.

i mentioned it last time, but i finally went through and did it. i had a new friend help me remove the color from my hair, and brought back the rainbow. i really did miss it a lot. the red and orange is like my favorite part. purple is awesome too, but just something about the vibrancy of those warm colors. i will upkeep this for a while.

it is not often you see a rainbow.

work has been pretty uneventful itself as of lately, other than our dr who trivia we had on saturday. i guess there were two other conventions going on which drew away people. i am trying to get access to our store's facebook page so i can freely post more and interact with people, and with any luck, have more cool events.

the only other exciting thing was with starbucks, they had a unicorn frappucino for a limited time, which kristen and i went to three different starbucks to get said frappucino. it was quite magnificent. they also came out with a parrot cake pop, which, bird, i had to buy it.

magical unicorn hair needs a magical unicorn frappucino. and of the few people we had at our event, someone built a fully functioning k-9 unit from the show. he was pretty awesome.

lastly, i will probably be transplanting my garden into a slightly bigger home this week. they are getting quite tall and tangled in their starter pods. the second batch of tomatoes took off pretty well compared to the first, and my cilantro finally decided to grow! it only took like 4 weeks.  i hope transplanting them doesnt kill them, too. they've made it this far. it is so interesting and exciting to watch them every day. the basil is starting to smell like basil, too!

for now, i will call this a post. keep checking instagram, my social media home, as i post there quite often (must not be offended by cursing, because its what i do). i will leave this picture of punk ass here, in his new home, since he loves to steal what little body heat i have and try to burrow in my hair. have a good week! thanks for reading! ☺