I might just have to switch back

Alright the new background is awfully pretty but I just can't get the date stamp to work correctly. It's making me crazy. I just can't figure out how to change it without completely ruining the integrity of the template. So I might have to change it to something that I can control a little better.

See I can do some basic HTML stuff but I haven't really done a lot of it since high school and this is a lot more complex than anything I've ever done before. So depending on how fed up I get with it you might be seeing even more changes in the near future.

More changes

It's May long weekend and in honor of such I thought it was about time for a little spring cleaning. Also spring is supposed to be about flowers and such so I changed the blog background. I can't believe how much cool free stuff is out there. I borrowed this one from the Blogger Templates site.

I actually really like this one and might have to take a look at it the next time I feel up for a change.

Goal of the Week

It's been a while since I've done one of these but this week's goal is to finish reading Trial by Fire by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg. It's a pretty good book and I'm about 3/4 done so it shouldn't be hard but I guess it depends what else I do this weekend and the rest of the week.

It's time to get down to work

I've been talking about it for a while now and well I think it's finally time to get to work on writing that GRE. I've pretty much had it with work and now that I've got enough money for my trip I can start to focus on saving my money for grad school.

Last night I had a dream that I just blew up one day at work and quit. You know I'm not very far from it right now. I'm not actually feeling as bad as I have in the past when I get home from work but I am having some trouble containing my anger. I'm terrible for bottling up my emotions and then letting them bubble up and get the better of me.

And so it's time to go. I just don't know where. But this is the first step.

Book of the day club

Some of the women in my department at work have been doing a book trade for as long as I have been working here. Recently they've included me in their regular rotation. But it takes me forever to read the books I'm given.

It's not that I'm a slow reader it's just that I don't commit myself to a book. First of all I have to be in the mood to read. I go through stretches where I read a lot and then others where I just won't even think about picking up a book.

I'm also often busy doing other things that aren't exactly conducive to reading. Watching NHL playoffs for example. Although I've developed a system for this now. I mute it during TV time outs and intermission and read rather than listen to Don Cherry gripe about how soft Europeans are.

Countdown to travel time

I'm sure I've mentioned it a couple of times but I'm going to Scotland in 6 weeks. Well 38 days to be exact. It seems like I've been talking about it forever and now it's almost here. I guess it's about time to get excited.

I haven't had a real go away type vacation in about a year and a half. The last time was when I went to Quebec with my parents. I actually like traveling with my parents because they like to see a lot of the same things that I do. I really like history especially Canadian history so when we went to Quebec we did things like visit Old Quebec and the Citadel and the Chateau Frontenac.

A few years before that we went on a trip to Saskatchewan. It wasn't very exciting but we did get to see some cool stuff. We went to Batoche and then the Saskatchewan Western Development museum in Yorkton. Yup we're dorky like that.

I'm just hoping we can get some of the historical stuff in too while we're there. We are going to Loch Ness and I'm pretty sure there is a museum there. Even if it is dedicated to a fictional lake monster. I totally want to go.

I guess I'm just not a Cosmo Girl.

I have been known from time to time to buy random issues of Cosmo. It's never my intention when I walk into a store, but excellent product placement and a workforce of bored looking teenagers is sometimes enough to get me to buy.

Funny thing happened this time though. It was Saturday afternoon and I had spent most of my day catching up on the current season of Gossip Girl (hey don't judge me I was bored), so I thought I'd pick it up. But once I got home and started to read I realized that it just wasn't holding my attention. Even the Cosmo confessions seemed boring and uninteresting. Seriously the guy confessions were mostly about getting caught cheating. Super classy.

I think this experience was enough to convince me to avoid Cosmo from now on. Unless there is a really good celeb interview or something.

Cabin Fever

It seems to me that everytime I ask someone what they're doing this weekend the answer is "going to the cabin". So I started thinking about it a little bit on my way home.

I guess I don't really understand the allure of the cabin. Perhaps this is because until I was 18, I lived less than 10 minutes from a lake. Sure I thought I was pretty but I never had a desire to own a piece of it. Additionally I'm not the most outdoorsy person, so sure the cabin is better than say camping but still, no electricity, no running water. Nope not for me.

Then I thought about it some more and I realized just exactly how far I've come. You see the other people at work who are my age have family cabins, that is cabins that actually belong to their parents. I realize that not all cabins are created equally but I can't help but think that perhaps some of these people come from money and got where they are because mommy and daddy helped them. I had to earn it.

I can't help but think now about the cabin people who came in to my town in the summer and referred to us as "townies"meaning it entirely derogatory, as if somehow we weren't as good as them. But you know what? I think I've just proved that I AM better than them.

What I've been up to

I'm going to have to apologize for not writing more frequently. Things have just been a mess lately. I also don't really have anything interesting to say. I've been watching a lot of hockey lately, which isn't all that surprising given that it's playoff time. I've also been catching up on the new episodes of Greek, which is good times.

Oh and I found an ice cream place I really like.

Athlete Crush of the Day

Alright I think you all have realized by now that when it comes to athletes I'm pretty fickle. About a month ago I had a huge crush on Marc Kennedy. Last summer during Euro 2008 it was all about Fernando Torres. Who could forget my love of Jay Cutler? And as far as baseball goes I think everyone will agree that Joe Mauer is super hot.

So yeah my athlete crushes come and go. This week it's Chris Pontius of D.C. United. Again I know nothing about soccer but hell I might just have to learn. I stole this picture from Kickette which provides regular gossip on all things soccer related.

The Story of Cheap Chinese food

I don't even like Chinese food but I do sometimes feel compelled to eat it. I actually do like fried rice and chow mien but most of the meat is off limits. But today in the interest of being social and lazy I decided to partake in cheap, food court Chinese food with a friend. What a stupid idea.

First of all I only ate about half of it at lunch and saved the rest for later. Of course I had the brilliant idea to stick it in my purse. Lucky for me it didn't spill or anything but my purse does smell like cheap Chinese food.

I ate the rest of it at my desk later this afternoon. Which also seemed like a good idea at the time. But now my stomach is punishing me. So I'm probably off Chinese, even good Chinese for at least 6 months.

And once again I'm late to the party

So I watch a lot of television but sometimes I get so wrapped up in sports that I don't actually watch a lot of the good dramas and comedies that are out there. But then there are the down times when there isn't really much on TV and I don't really want to get out and experience the world so I lock myself down with my computer and just watch stuff.

Last year it was the first 3 seasons of Bones which came highly recommended. Then Greek which has just started airing new episodes again.

And now I've gotten into watching Kings. Which I have recently discovered as been all but cancelled. There are supposed to be new episodes starting up in June but who knows how long that'll last.

Anyway I had seen the trailers for the show and had wanted to watch it when it was on TV but I just kind of missed it and since they only showed 6 episodes it wasn't real easy to just pick up. But at the end of every episode I watch I actually end up saying "what a good show". I hope it does better this summer and that NBC picks it up for another season.

Thing I take for granted

I've never much thought about it before but I really need to thank my mom for all of the things I learned to do as a kid.

There are things that are just so second nature to me now that I don't even think about it. Recently SA posted on her blog about making her first grilled cheese sandwich. Although her second attempt looked pretty good. I don't know when I made my first grilled cheese sandwich but I'm going to guess I was probably about 11. One of the joys of growing up with boys is that you learn to cook.

Another of my friends told me that she didn't learn to do her laundry until she moved away from home for school in her early 20's. Again this is something I've been doing for so long that I don't remember when I started.

Just the other day I was complaining about having to clean the oven when I moved out of my old apartment to a woman in her late 20s who recently purchased a home but didn't know how to clean an oven.

I never really thought of myself as independent. My family is really close and we certainly help each other out a lot, but having to move away from home at 18 to go to school does lead to a certain amount of Independence I suppose. I even did my own taxes this year.

I know my Mom won't read this since she barely uses the Internet but thank you anyway Mom teaching me how to take care of myself and thank you for taking care of me even though I could do it myself.

Goal of the week

It's been a while since I've done one of these but I feel that it's about time that I got back into the swing of things and started to challenge myself again. So this week's goal of the week is to finish unpacking the stuff in the new apartment.

There really isn't too much left, 1 box of bathroom stuff, a couple of milk crates of personal stuff and then the sports stuff. That should do it. There is also still some stuff in the old apartment which we may go and retrieve this weekend. And there is also cleaning and stuff to do there but maybe that will be next week's goal. We'll see.

And yet another reason to be pissed off at Kevin Martin

Okay so I'm a little late in getting to this but I feel it still needs to be said. I had almost forgiven Kevin Martin for blowing the gold medal game at the 1998 Olympics. But now with the huge mistake on Sunday at the World Championships he's dead to me. The rest of his team however is not. Seriously if any of those guys need some comfort I've available.

I've already mentioned John Morris and Marc Kennedy a little bit and really Ben Hiebert probably isn't hot enough to make me cheer for him alone, like if he left and joined a different team I probably wouldn't cheer for that team just because he made the jump. But as long as the three of them all stay on Martin's team I will probably cheer for them.

We're getting there

Well we're moved. Mostly. We had to leave a little bit of stuff at the old place. There just wasn't room in the car/truck. We moved at least one car load of stuff everyday last week and then 2 carloads and 2 truck loads on Thursday night.

It was quite the ordeal. Then I went to my parents for the long weekend which meant that I unpacked pretty much nothing. Getting ready for work this morning was a bit of a challenge since everything is still in boxes or crates or bags.

The bus ride in this morning was a lot less painful than I thought it might be. Between my new home and work you're in one of the scarier ends of town so you never know who's going to get on that bus. I get the feeling that a book and my iPod may become my new best friends.

Moving is bad

So I'm moving. Only about half way across town but it's plenty far enough. We've taken 3 car loads and one truck and we still haven't moved any of the real furniture except for one bed. 

We're on the 3rd floor of the new place and while there is an elevator we're also at the very end of the hall so it made more sense at the time to just go up the stairs. But today I'm paying for it. Seriously I think that I've gotten more exercise in the last 2 days than I have in the entire 2 years I've been living here. 

Anyway we're pretty happy with the new place. So far our neighbours seem nice. One of them helped us haul a book case up the stairs. He also had an incredible Aussie accent. 

At least things can't get any better...

Oh what a week, and it's only Tuesday. It all started on Saturday when my laptop decided to go on the fritz. It would insist that it wasn't plugged in even when it was. If you wiggled the cord a little the light would come on and all would be well, until you bumped it again. So I decided to take it in to have it looked at.

The computer place informed me that the company that makes my laptop is no longer in business and that they didn't have the part and weren't sure if they could get it. I only bought my laptop about 8 months ago so it's still technically under warranty but if the company doesn't exist well who knows.

Then today I left home with my purse but apparently no wallet. Thankfully I played good Samaritan yesterday and lent a co-worker some money which he paid back today so at least I can eat.

Bracket Update

For those of you have been living under a rock for the last week it's NCAA tourney time. Which means I have put together some bracket-y goodness. This year I decided not to do a hotness bracket. And the later decided to do one. I also did a serious bracket, for bragging rights at work. So here's your Janalee bracket update as of this moment with 2 games left to come tonight:

Hotness bracket - The only reason I still have teams in the hotness bracket is because only half of the Sweet 16 games are played tonight. Teams left: Duke, North Carolina, Gonzaga, Oklahoma, Michigan State, Kansas and Louisville.

Actual Bracket - This one looks a little better. Mostly because I didn't have any crazy upsets picked in the first couple of rounds. Teams left: Louisville, Kansas, Michigan State, U Conn, Missouri, Memphis, UNC, Syracuse, Oklahoma, Gonzaga, Pitt, Villanova, Duke.

I'm currently 3rd and 6th on 8 in our office pool.

You know you have a problem when...

Alright for those of you who haven't been following all the off-season Jay Cutler drama (or who don't really get sports) let me boil it down into normal work terms.

Imagine that you are doing a job and then you find out that your company went to other companies in the industry to find someone who does the same thing as you do and tried to hire them without telling you. You'd be a little pissed right? But eventually you'd get over it and all would be well. Or you'd try to find somewhere else to work. OR you'd covertly try to screw your company and undermine your boss while continuing to collect a pay cheque and explore other options.

That's pretty much what's going on here. Except instead of handling the situation like a mature adult Cutler has decided to go the whiny child route. And instead of being disgusted by his lack of maturity I find it somewhat endearing. What does that say about me?