randomly chaotic and frequently mundane

Is it wrong that I’m very excited about this?

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Trying to find a job that is.  I’ve been walking, calling, putting in applications.  I’ve got resumes on snagajob.com and monster.com.  I keep getting calls from stores at Cherry Creek.  I wonder how long it would take to get there and back by bus.  And how that would limit the hours available for working.

I’ve even been checking the classifieds for clerical jobs in the area that are part time.  So far there’s nothing.  It’s frustrating as hell.  I need a car.  That would expand my search range and depending on how far away I go, my available hours.

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Most people who own a home have engaged in a home improvement project in an effort to add beauty or function to their residence. Then there are the people who buy fixer uppers and hope to improve upon them and sell them for a tidy profit. A nice ambition, but most people don’t know how to do it themselves, so they pay a fortune on contractors to do the work. Yes, you could make a big mistake doing it yourself. I know I tried improving the seal on the windows of our last place and did a very mediocre job. I couldn’t get the caulk to come out in a smooth line so it looked all kinds of funny. It also used twice as much as it should have. I should have visited DoItYourself.com and checked out their forums and articles for more information before starting. It’s also a good site if you’re looking to sell your home after making some improvements. After all, the more you save on improvements the better the profit, no? If knowledge is power, this site is pure gold. It would definitely be a good place for anyone looking to do some fix and flips — a lot of good information. I have a few questions to look into myself, for making things a little nicer around here.

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People who know me know that The Exorcist is probably my favorite movie.  Weird, I know.  I mean, most people’s favorite movie is a happy fun movie that makes them laugh or at least smile.  Or it’s a tearjerker that touches them deeply and makes them weep every time they see it.  Nope, for me it’s a horror film.  I’m a weirdo.  I remember being scared shitless by the movie when I was a kid — of all the horror films I saw as a kid it was the only one that really terrified me.

I’ve just finished the book.  I don’t know why I never read the book before now.  I know that my mom read it many years ago, and was scared by it (apparently she was reading about the knocking in the attic when the attic cover in our home started shaking because of the air flow in the house).  What a great book!  And I have to say that the movie was a pretty good translation from book to film.  Some parts were almost literally transferred to film.  I’m so glad I finally read it.

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I sold a few things on eBay. Patterns, knick knacks… also, my french maid costume and Gage’s Tigger costume. The Tigger costume was nice. It didn’t sell, but the watcher sent me a message that she was out when the auction ended and asked if I’d relist it with a $7 buy it now (there was no BIN on the original auction, and it started at$2.50). I relisted it with a $5 BIN. I’m glad I did. When she sent the paypal payment, the note said that she showed the auction to her son who was very excited about the costume and was really excited by the idea of being Tigger for Halloween. It’s a great costume and Gage looked adorable in it, but he can’t fit it anymore… so it’s nice that it’ll go to another little boy who’s really excited about it. It’s really nice, you know?

In other cuteness news… Gage has begun to tickle. No seriously. He came up behind me yesterday and started tickling at my tummy and sides and saying “tickletickletickle” and giggling his butt off. It was so cute. And so much fun! So we spent an hour chasing and tickling and laughing until we couldn’t breathe and collapsed on the couch in exhaustion. THAT’s the good stuff.

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When Gage was about 2 years old, we went to a birthday party for a friends son.  At the party they had one of those big Inflatable Toys that kids climb into and jump around. All of the kids loved it, some of the adults did too, actually.

Gage had such a blast in the bounce house. I would love to get one for a future birthday party for Gage. Or maybe buy one someday to use whenever we want — that would be fun. I can see how renting out those Inflatable Toys would be a lucrative business. The couple hosting the party we went to paid $100 an hour for theirs, and the husband worked for the company, so he got a pretty good discount. If I remember right, the regular rate for the size bounce house that they got was $250 an hour. Even at half that price, 2 4-hour parties in one weekend would make $1000. Since people have parties at different times, you could feasibly do 2 a day, doubling your income — to say nothing of having multiple toys to rent and employees to enable you to cover more parties.

Jumpions.com has a great selection of bounce houses, slides and even water games.  I could definitely see getting into a business like this, especially if you like kids.  Just seeing the way their faces light up when they see that big bounce house inflate.  Then the delight as they climb in and bounce their way to exhaustion.  Which is great for the parents too — since these toys always seem to lead to a good nights sleep.

Personally, I’d love to be able to get one of the water toys/slides.  Just to have for summer fun.  Yeah, Gage would probably love it, but I’d love it more.  What can I say, I’m just a big kid at heart.

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Hockey season is almost here.  In the meantime, I’ve been listening to the Avs’ pre-season games and loving it.  4 games played so far, 3 wins (one in OT) and 1 shoot-out loss.  Not too bad at all.  Hejduk and Svatos are benched with groin pulls and Theodore had some minor knee surgery, so they haven’t been in.  Hopefully they’ll be in one of the remaining two games of the pre-season.  I can’t wait till the season starts.  I’m all kinds of excited.  I think the Avs are going to do pretty well this season.

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I’ve done numerous searches on eBay for a wide variety of things.  I remember someone telling me once that she bought really nice lingerie on eBay (Victoria Secret brand, no less) for about 1/3 the price of the pieces in the store.  It was brand new with tags and everything.  I couldn’t help but think “Why would someone buy something at Victoria Secret and then let it go for so little online?”  Seriously, why not just return it to the store?  Now that I’ve checked out ABC Closeout, I understand.  They didn’t buy it at the store.  They bought it wholesale from someone else.  They’ve got a pretty good deal on Victoria Secret, actually.  $4.50  a piece.  Pretty impressive considering what you pay for their stuff in the stores.  It’s definitely for resale, of course.  The minimum order is 500 pieces.  It’s definitely a site worth bookmarking if you’re considering opening an online store.  They have closeouts on clothing, jewelry, electronics, baby items, etc.

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The DVD player doesn’t want to read any discs anymore.  So it’s kaput.  And of course, not thinking about it I put in Resident Evil last night wanting to watch it.  The trackball on the other computer is dying.  I’m thinking it should be replaced with a regular mouse.  I think Gage uses one at school, and would be more interested in using the computer at home if there was a mouse he was familiar with.  And the adapter for the laptop is a little wonky.  Of course, I’m lucky there.  It’s “wonky” because Gage shoved the laptop off the table in a temper tantrum.  I’m lucky that the computer itself works fine.

I look around and wonder what the hell is going to go next.  I’d like it to be the blow dryer, since I never use it.  Or something like that.

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Talk about the ultimate in “perfect gift for Grandma.” Not to mention mom. A picture blanket from VisionBedding.com. It’s exactly what it sounds like — a blanket that has personal photos on it.  The site allows 1, 4, 9, 12 or 16 photos on a blanket up to 72×60, which costs $189.95.  I’d say that’s a pretty fair price considering the smile that it would bring to the faces of Gage’s grandparents to get something like that, I’d say it’s definitely worth the price.  Especially since we live so far from his grandparents and they don’t get to see him very often.  If they were missing him they could just wrap the blanket around themselves and get a polar fleece hug from Gage.  I imagine that would go over incredibly well.  I wouldn’t mind getting one for myself, either.  Not with pictures of Gage though.  Pictures of my family — mom, Joe, sisser and mimi, along with my nieces and nephew and my brother in law.  That would be really nice.  I take that back, I want two.  One with pictures of family and one with pictures of Gage.

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I have a deposit to make at the bank, so I can pay some bills that are due Monday and Tuesday.  I don’t have the money to take a cab to the bank and I have no idea when I’m going to be able to get a ride.  Fabulous, no?  I could mail it priority, I suppose.  If I put it in a blue mailbox on Sunday sometime they should have it Monday.  Of course the last deposit I mailed to the bank took 4 weeks just for it to show that it had been received, which sucked.

Gage is on his 3rd watching of A New Hope today.  He’s insistent.  As a matter of fact, he’ll take anything and everything away from me until I put it in.  He even took a raw chicken breast I was seasoning away from me.  It was fun chasing him, catching him, retrieving what will be my dinner and washing the hell out of his hands.  No really, all kinds of fun.  I’m just glad he didn’t take it outside and throw it.  Not only would that not be tasty, it would have been difficult to keep Tiger from eating it.

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I put several of the photos of roses that I took this summer on items at cafepress.com if anyone’s interested. The photos in this post are among the ones I used.  They’re on notecards, greeting cards (blank inside) a journal… it’s a shame they don’t have an address book.  I think most of these pictures would be very pretty on an address book.  So if you’re interested, check them out: http://www.cafepress.com/wiccania

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In addition to the job search, I’ve been looking into different programs for getting some kind of job training in a specified field, etc.  What I need is a grant or some kind of financial aid that helps with living expenses as well as tuition.  I haven’t really found any information on anything like that online.  I’d also have to find a school and pick a field of study, of course.  But I’d like to have some idea of the financial aid options before doing something like that.  I even looked into the student loans they keep advertising (like astrive), but I don’t think I qualify — I think you have to be a traditional student to get those.  At least that’s what I’ve gotten from the information I’ve found.  I’m gonna keep looking though.

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I have to admit that I’ve never been a huge fan of dogs in clothing. It always seemed a little bizarre to me, and the dogs so often looked more embarrassed than cute. But then, I’d never seen any of the designer dog clothing from TheGildedPaw.com before, either. Some of the stuff they have on the site is really quite cute. And after taking Tiger for a number of walks last winter and him shivering the whole way (but incredibly eager to keep going as long as he could), I considered the idea of a nice doggy coat for him. Nothing frilly or girly of course, Tiger’s a boy. It wouldn’t do to have him in pink ruffles. They’ve got some nice ones, including a camouflage polar fleece jacket that would be awfully cute. Alas, I think Tiger is too big for it. Of course, Lucky could use one. He’s also very cold in the winter time. They’re cute jackets, and functional. I’m still browsing, surely there’s a nice warm coat for my big dog to wear on winter walks.

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Apparently.  Gage has decided that instead of being on the shelves in his bedroom, his books should be on the floor.  He pushes them off the shelves onto the floor.  It makes a tremendous thud.  Maybe that’s why he does it.   I’m gonna have to find a new place to store them.  Especially the ones that are a little older/worn and might fall apart if they get thudded to the floor much more.

I cleaned his room this morning after he left for school.  And within 10 minutes of being home from school he’s dumped the books on the floor and upturned the toybox.  So much for cleaning, lol.

He just handed me a video… “A New Hope”  Or, for people who aren’t a little obsessed or addicted, Star Wars.  Have you ever noticed that so many people refer to A New Hope as ‘Star Wars?’   Of course these days I guess more people call it Episode IV.  He seems to like this one over Empire and Jedi, actually.  Not bad.  I’m rather enjoying the fact that he’s into Star Wars.  Doubt that I’ll be showing him Episodes I - III anytime soon.  They just aren’t nearly as good as far as I’m concerned.  And Episode I just doesn’t seem worth the time it takes to watch it.

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