Monday, February 29, 2016

Happy Leap Year, aka Extra Day in February Every Four Years

This past week was fairly boring.  Nothing of interest happened whatsoever.  Seriously, nothing...  Well, one thing did and you'll see that on the next installment of Wordless Wednesday.  I wasn't there to witness it myself which makes me sad.  My coworker was lovely enough to share a picture of it with me though.  Actually, she handed me her phone to show me what she'd just seen and I emailed it to myself without her knowledge.  I told her about it after and she didn't care.  As the weather gets warmer, I'm determined it'll happen again and this time I will be there to see it!

I also found a job that I want!  My current job does not cover my bills.  It covers the two biggest ones and that's it.  I thought it would stretch further and it just doesn't.  It's scary to be overdrawn and having to use my almost maxed out credit card once again because the tiny retirement fund that I closed out last year is already gone. This job seems too good to be true.  It's literally within walking distance from my house, it pays almost $4 an hour more than what I'm making at my current job, it's full time, AND it's a permanent job with benefits!  So I've contacted my secret weapon, Kristen, and she's agreed to help me create an awesome cover letter that the hiring manager can't refuse.  Please keep your fingers, toes, and paws crossed for me because I so desperately need this job!

The chi boys are good.  I noticed some slight swelling of Chico's lymph nodes, but he isn't acting like it's bothering him.  I'm going to keep an eye on him for the time being and if it gets worse, then we'll head off to the vet's office.  The swelling is very minimal, but every little thing with him worries me now.

Monday, February 22, 2016

Colorful Monday

I've been trying to color more because it's so relaxing.  It helps me zone out from the problems we all seem to have in our lives.  I finished this one last week.  The section of feathers in the middle that looks white is actually a light blue that the camera didn't pick up.

I worked on this one over the weekend and really like how it's turning out.  I found a picture of this colored in online and loved it so much that I thought I'd do mine the same way, but found myself doing my own thing.  I haven't finished this yet, but this is what I've done so far.

These are both from my Enchanted Forest coloring book.  I recently got another book called Animorphia that looks like it'll be a lot of fun to work on, but I haven't colored anything in it yet.
The chi boys are both doing well.  We took a walk along a nice trail this past Monday.  Chico asked to be held towards the end of it, which he never does.  He's getting older now and the cancer probably makes him more tired.  The next morning he kept one back leg up like it hurt to walk on.  I was on my way to work and didn't really have time to properly look at it, so I worried about him the entire day.  He was walking normally by the time I got home that evening which was a huge relief.  I wonder if maybe we overdid it on the walk and am thinking maybe next time we won't go as far.

Monday, February 15, 2016

Happy President's Day!

I love three day weekends!  They're the best.  Holidays almost weren't worth it in the banking industry because you work twice as hard the following Tuesday trying to catch up.  Where I'm at now, there's no worry about falling behind from a day off.  No one else has to pick up your slack.  You just do as much as you can do and that's that!

The weekend was the perfect amount of non-productiveness.  I napped.  A lot.  Especially on Sunday.  I did do stuff that needed to be done like laundry and dishes.  Shiver and Chico went to the groomer and got their nails clipped.  I didn't do anything that didn't need to be done around the house.  I did fun stuff though.  Sadly, I cannot share it with you because I left my cell phone charger at work and my phone is almost completely out of power.  So I'll show you my Wreck This Journal and Enchanted Forest stuff next week.

Here's a sneak peak at one of the pages I was working on in Enchanted Forest.  This was from last week.  I'm still learning about shading techniques.  Overall I'm pretty happy with it, although I do see a few areas that could have been done a little better.  I'm just a beginner though so I'm not going to be too hard on myself.  I shaded that tuft of feathers below the beak with a bit of gray that doesn't come through in the picture.  Who knew that coloring could be so addicting?
My boys really loved joining in the big Blogville Valentine's Day parade yesterday.  They kept themselves busy all last week painting the bus and getting it ready for the big day.  They said they got lots of compliments on it and that a few doggies even asked if they could have a ride in the official Chihuahua Mobile.  They're already planning out how to fix it up for next year's parade!  

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Happy Valentine's Day

Shiver and Chico are super duper excited to be pawticipating in the Blogville Valentine's Day Parade.   They always appreciate the opportunity to pawty.  Thank you to Sarge's mom for allowing us to join in at the last minute.  Here we are celebrating the big day with all of our furiends.  Don't we look grand with our bow ties?

Monday, February 8, 2016

Monday Madness

Well, I survived my first week of working on my own and they haven't fired me yet!  Friday is our first payday and I'm very much looking forward to it.  We're also having our very first food day this week so that'll be fun.

This past week I attended an event called the Fettuccine Forum.  They used to actually serve fettuccine there once upon a time, hence the name.  Sadly, there was no fettuccine to be seen there that night.  I was invited to attend by someone who has been really supportive of me even though we barely know one another.  She said that it would be a great networking opportunity and she was right!  I sat at the only empty table and a woman asked me a few minutes later if I would mind sharing the table with her.  I said no and we got to talking.  The event we attended was interesting but not probably something I'd choose to go to again in the future.  However, this woman told me of another networking opportunity this coming Thursday that is a panel discussion with women in the industry that I want to get into!  It's a free event so I can't pass it up.

The chi boys are doing well.  Chico woke me up the other night to cuddle.  He never does that!  I patted him a few times and fell back to sleep.  I felt bad for not cuddling more but it was the middle of the night, I was tired, and I had to get up early in the morning.  Hopefully he fell back to sleep quickly too and didn't notice.  Shiver was a little more clingy than usual this weekend, although not too bad.

I'm sorry I'm not able to come around and visit as often as I'd hoped.  It's not that I don't have the time like when I was in school.  I stare at a computer screen all day long now and my eyes hurt by the end of the day.  I've had other computer jobs in the past and I guess I must've done other things too that took me away from the computer where it was just enough to not bother me.  This job is done entirely on computer.

I colored a little this weekend.  If I can get it finished by then, I'll show you what I've been working on next week.  Who else has been coloring?

Monday, February 1, 2016

Just a bunch of randomness...

Work is going well.  I like it so far.  It's challenging because I have to stop and think about every single step and wonder if I'm doing it right. My coworkers are nice for the most part.  I saw a couple of them who were insensitive when talking about a different coworker who is going through a really difficult situation.  I don't think it was insensitivity actually, it seems more like they lacked empathy.  It was disappointing to see, but now I know not to confide in those two coworkers.  There were 13 of us hired, 12 women and 1 guy.  Almost none of the women actually need to work, most of them just want something to do.  Must be nice to not have to work!  Training ended Friday so we're on our own from this point forward.

I realized I haven't given a Chico update lately.  He's doing well.  He's put on weight from the steroids.  He was eating a lot for awhile there, which the vet said to expect.  He's slowed down now though which is good, he's not eating me out of house and home anymore.  The biggest change I've noticed in him is that he doesn't cuddle with me as much anymore.  He used to love to have me hold him close and he'd put his head on my shoulder while he napped and snored loudly.  He used to crawl under the covers at night and curl up next to me.  We do still cuddle, just not as much and for not as long.

Shiver is good too.  He's adjusted to my going back to work much quicker than I expected him to.  He's an anxious chi and any changes to his life upset him.  While he isn't happy that I have to leave him every morning, he doesn't cry or make me feel guilty about leaving him.

Yesterday Kathy G blogged about a website where you can create your very own virtual snowflake.  It sounded like something I needed to try, so off I went.  It's easy and only takes a few seconds.  Here's mine.  I actually made several different flakes, these one were my favorites.  It's fun to make them very detailed or even hardly detailed at all.
