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Cough cough

Nov. 7th, 2008 | 09:08 pm

I think I'm coming down with something.
I feel a little better after a nap and some chicken soup, but my whole body just aches all over, and I have on-and-off headaches and sore throat.

Alex has been complaining of his dissatisfaction with our apartment (sad panda, because I adore it, despite its lack of yard, porch and bathtub - these are things I consider luxuries).
He would like a magic, cheap 2 bedroom with heat included that lets me have my puppy and kitty, and with the aforementioned amenities. 
So I've been making a list of things to improve on, items to purchase, and have basically been cleaning house. I know we're going to be here for at least 3 years (until Alex gets his associate's), maybe even the 5 or 6 until he finishes all his schooling here. I think its time for me to start making this place really feel like home.

Alex and Tyler played tennis, because of the unseasonable weather. Then they came to pick me up, and we went to have a late breakfast at Webb. Boys played retro video games, and I read my book. I love going out for breakfast.
Afterward, we checked out the hippie store, and talked about how we'd love to be hippies. I lack the discipline - I don't like being lukewarm about things, and I know its a lifestyle I couldn't commit to completely. We also went to a comic book store - boys checked out comics with cool drawings and well-written storylines, and I looked at Little LuLu comics.

I was supposed to have my second cake class tonight, but I showed up and no one was there. She must have switched the day like she said she might, which pisses me off, because she didn't call me like she said she would. Whatever, I'll just show up next month, and if that's a problem, I'll have to find a new place to take it.
I guess it'll work out. I have a lot of cupcakes to make this month - Iron Cupcake entry, Tyler and Ryan's birthday cupcakes (belated, of course), and maybe some Thanksgiving cupcakes to bring home.

Its been a nice couple of weeks. )

 
The boys downstairs are being noisy. I hope they shush up soon so sick Katie can get some sleep.

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Rut.

Oct. 22nd, 2008 | 09:27 pm

I feel like I've been in a real rut lately.
The house is messy, and I don't really care.
Dishes pile up, and I don't really care, unless I need something.
I'm slowly getting chubbier and chubbier.
I'm just so so lazy, and its because I feel so blah.
Maybe its the turn to fall. Even though I love fall, it might be lack of sunshine
My mom thinks my sister has SMD, maybe I have it to.
I don't want to talk to anyone, or do anything, really.
I look forward to going back to A-town tomorrow for 2 real reasons: a) to see my momma and b) to dress up like a sailor.
I mean, I like to see everyone, but I'd rather just sit home and watch TV.
I feel like even poor Annie Bananie feels neglected, because I just feel blahhh.

Blahhh.

Sat around today until about 3. Alex and I took the dog for a walk, watched the rest of "Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia", I cleaned the house a tad while he did some drawing. Then he went to work and it took a lot of power to get myself into the shower.
Went to the army surplus store to pick up a sailor hat for my Halloween costume. I love that a $4 hat is the most expensive item I had to buy. That deserves a huzzah. Huzzah for putting together a sailor costume that doesn't show off your ass! Army store still had those gray boots. If they're still there the next time I go, I might have to just give up and buy them.
Went to the grocery store for cupcake supplies. Bought cheese filled pretzel sticks on a whim for dinner. Oh, hello there tummy.
Made cupcakes - molten chocolate with a cinnamon cream glaze. The cupcake itself is rather tasty, and gooey delicious, but I think I cooked the glaze for too long. Its kind of chunky, and when I spoon it over the cupcake, it sort of just looks like I puked all over it. I'll have to ask Alex his opinion when he gets home. I could probably just leave them how they are, or maybe use some of that leftover fudge frosting I have from Monday. I was going to bring some to the guys downstairs in exchange for them watching for Alex's package while we're away, but they weren't home when I knocked. And now I'm glad, because if someone gave me what appeared to be vomit cakes, I would consider smashing their package.
Packed for tomorrow, so we can leave ASAP. Boo hiss Alex working until 3 and me having to work on Saturday. Oh well. My only real goal while we're home is to go out for chicken dinner at Mary's tomorrow night. I haven't really found a replacement here yet (nor have I really been actively looking).
Now I'm simply waiting for Alex to return, while catching up on 'House' and not doing my baking dishes.

I really waste my days off.
 

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It was late, and I was bored.

Oct. 17th, 2008 | 11:40 pm

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Family photos - Family tree picture

That was stupid.
Hey! You look like all these people when they're wearing glasses.
Yeah, okay.
But sure, I'll look like Penelope Cruz. She's pretty much drenched in sex.
I don't believe it one bit, but sure.

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Iron Cupcake:Cereal

Oct. 7th, 2008 | 05:29 pm



Crunch Berry Cupcake.
A strawberry cake with red raspberry filling and blueberry frosting.
4th place!
 

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Glamour Shots with Annie and Latest Cakes

Oct. 5th, 2008 | 10:41 am



Loves it.



I have to postpone my second class again. Friday nights are just so bad. Last month I would have missed three of the four, and this month I would have had to miss half of them. And now she's saying she might change it, which is half good, and half maybe bad because I already have it worked out with my work schedule to have off on Friday nights. Blah. I just want to go to class.

But these are the cakes I made for the last class, and one for Cyndee's birthday.


Terrifying clown cake.
White cake with buttercream, but the filling is lemonade frosting, leftover from when I made lemonade angel food cupcakes.


Final cake. Probably the best I've made so far.
Buttermilk devil's food cake with white chocolate frosting.


Cyndee's birthday cake. I had so many frosting issues with this one I almost threw it against the wall.
Its a snickerdoodle cake with cinnamon frosting filling, and regular buttercream decorations.
 

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(no subject)

Oct. 3rd, 2008 | 09:40 pm

Alex, Katie and Tyler went on a shopping excursion today.
After entirely altering his look by shaving his beard (sad panda face) and getting his hair cut real real short, Alex was on the prowl for some jeans that actually fit.

Urban Outfitters yielded such pants, and on sale too. I hate shopping there with boys, because they always find phenomenal things on sale, and I only find boots of my dreams, but in the wrong color or with a great big hussy heel attached.

Then we wandered downtown to the army surplus store, which was so packed full of stuff you could hardly move (but in the best way possible). Alex found a great sweater for 5 bucks, and I lusted over some gray cowboy boots that I didn't really need. Tyler also found boots of his dreams here, but they were not in his size. Now he knows the heartache I felt earlier.
Now I know where to find a great navy blue fisherman's hat, and cool navy patches, for when I find that perfect navy blue cardigan.
Navy navy navy.
I also think I'm going to go back and buy the army pajamas - onesies! I didn't check to see if they had a hatchback, but I'm crossing my fingers. I'll probably dye them bright yellow or red, and get a pair a bunny slippers. Slumber party time!

For lunch we went to Patty Burger, since I was craving a great big cheeseburger with lots of pickles.
While we were inside, the wonderfully crazy old man from the Oriental/Beans & Barley/the entire Eastside strolled past and waved to us.
I love him and his rant about sexy movies.

Alex headed off to work, I took Annie for a walk, and then I went to plasma, where Dr. Mario asked me if I was hiding a tommy gun in my trench. Plasma patients are pretty sketchy, but plasma staff is pretty rad.

Grocery shopping for dinner tomorrow (I'm going to attempt to recreate the tastiness of Noodle's & Co. pasta fresca) and for cupcakes for Monday's Iron Cupcake challenge (cereal!).

Since we don't have a wireless router yet, and I needed to do some work on my lappy, I walked to Fuel Cafe, where I consumed a tasty Apple Raspberry Odwalla and listened to the Juno soundtrack.

I trimmed Annie's nails for the first time, and hit the quick twice. The first time, I didn't realize it, and had actually cracked my own nail in the process, so I turned away to tend to that. When I turned back around, she was bleeding all over the couch. And since she's white, it looked like she was gushing blood everywhere (kind of like when you have a cut in your mouth and the blood mixes with saliva and makes it look worse than it really is...kind of). I'm a terrible mother.

Now its laundry time. Huzzah huzzah.
 


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Unhappy Camper

May. 27th, 2008 | 05:44 am




Despite my personal promise to myself to take care of my skin this summer (because I have decided that I actually enjoy being pale, instead of pinkish-tannish-white, depending on the mood of my skin and my varying levels of dedication to sunscreen), I am pink. Boo hiss. When we were camping on Rock Island, we decided to go for a hike through the woods, but we had to cut across this meadow for about 20 minutes there and 20 minutes back. That's what did me in.

Although, in actuality, what really did me in was Rock Island as a whole. As much as I like to be outdoors, I like having a house to come back to. Because of this, Alex says I am no longer invited on camping trips. And he says this wasn't even "roughing it"!
Oh my gosh.
There was no running water - only a pump with yellowish water that had things floating in it.
There was no electricity, and our flashlights sucked.
I peed in the woods!
This, to me, is roughing it.
My boyfriend is a crazy lumberjack grizzly bear.

I thought I was a pretty good sport, up until we got back from our hike around 2 on Saturday, when I got a migraine. Explaining a migraine to someone who has never had one is pretty much useless, because they assume you just have a bad headache, when really you just want to die. So, I was laid up for a few hours, and by the time I was good to go, Alex had had a few drinks and didn't want to hike a mile and a half to the lighthouse, which is sad because it was pretty much the only thing I wanted to go see.

But yes. Katie + Island + Cold + Lots of Bugs = Not Fun.
I know my calculus.
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Cupcake Future

May. 17th, 2008 | 12:50 pm

Having my own kitchen will hopefully give me the freedom to experiment more.
I've been looking on Etsy, seeing how other people sell and ship cupcakes.
Perhaps I could reuse the muffin containers from work...I wonder how well they'd rinse out/if they'd make all my cupcakes have a blueberry/lemony taste?

I know for sure I'm going to take the Wilton classes at a hobby shop.
That's one thing I know I need work on - my decorating, no matter how simple, is pretty shoddy.
I'm going to get some nicer tips too. I keep forgetting to check Wal-Mart. I know they were $8 for some so-so tips at Williams-Sonoma, but someone said they carried the Wilton brand at Wal-Mart.

Being able to stock my own kitchen with anything I want, plus being by Whole Foods makes me excited to step outside my "cake mix" box and maybe try some recipes from Cupcake Blog.

I looked online at MATC's baking program, but I didn't really see how much it costs.
That's the only thing that might hold me back.
College costs money.
Wilton classes cost money.
Having an Etsy shop costs money.
You gotta spend money to make money, I guess.

I just want to do something I love, you know?
And it would make me happy (in a terribly silly way) to know my rent was paid with cupcakes.
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Store rant

May. 16th, 2008 | 08:20 pm

Seriously.

We've had some great times, and there's some people I'm really going to miss, but geeeeeeeez.

I'm just sick of everyone undermining each other, disrespecting each other, gossiping, not being good role models, not putting their all into their job, not bothering to learn.
This has been by far the most frustrating store to be a shift in.
I only sit back and take everything, because from the moment I came in, I knew I was leaving eventually, either to go to Neenah, or to move to Milwaukee.
But  let me tell you, if this was a permanent place, I would not be such a doormat. I would not be a happy shifty and I would not make friends with anyone, because I would be a big meanface.

I tried, in the beginning, to do everything I did for Jenna and Oshkosh for the Mall and for Amanda. But every new thing I tried to implement was shot down, from the weekly duty roster, to my pastry case schematic and pull sheet, to my weekly tastings. And after I passed the interview and Kelly didn't, I was asked to take a step back to let the other shifts take a shot at being in charge, doing the order, etc. etc. And so I did. And then a few months later I get "talked to" because I'm not at the same level I was when we opened.

Its crap. Its all crap.

I've been done with my Coffee Master training for nearly a year, and I'm still not certified. I've offered to do seminars on the weekends, but I've never been scheduled to do it.

A good manager wants to see all her employees succeed, and I don't see that from my fellow shifts. I feel like they only do what they do so they look good, not because its helps anyone, or even the store. I don't feel like they care about their job the same way I do, and the baristas see that and think its OK. And its not. Its really really not.

Part of me wants to stay and verbally smack everyone in the face and say, you guys all need to grow up and knock it off.
I may not be good at driving sales in a store, but I'm fairly sure I'm good at keeping things running smoothly and keeping morale high, neither of which I think are happening in this store. There's a lot of things I know I can work on, but I recognize that, and I want to do better, and the higher-ups see that and that's why they chose me for ASM - if you can't see that, that's fine, but don't go around telling baristas and customers that I'm bad at my job and you can't see why I passed my interview. Because that's just petty bullshit, and you will never get anywhere in this company with an attitude like that. And you know what? Those same higher-ups that recognize my willingness and passion also recognize your petty bullshit, and they aren't impressed.

There's just a disgusting amount of disrespect and I just need to get out before I explode and burn my bridges.

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Anxiety post

May. 12th, 2008 | 02:36 pm

There's just so much crap to do and so little time to do it.
Its partially my fault, since I'm an extreme procrastinater.
But still.
I have two boxes packed.
I have a huge list of things I need to take care of, things to switch over from up here to down there.
I have a huge list of things we need to buy, because the stuff we use now doesn't belong to us.
We move in 3 weeks.
We have that damn camping trip the weekend before we move, so that's 4 days I could use to pack and stuff.

We have to pay rent here for next month.
We have to pay rent there for next month.
We still haven't paid the security deposit (and I'm hoping we can put that off until either stimulus check or security deposit from here comes back).
I'm not quite sure when I start new store for sure - hopefully the 5th, but who knows.
Traveling there is going to cost a bit, plus I'm still worried we need to get a U-Haul.
The week we leave I work 15 hours.
The week before we leave I work 20 hours.
Our first week there I probably won't work more than 30 hours, if that.

Vacation in July might have to be cut a bit short because I might not have enough vacation time.

I worry Alex is going to hate the city.
I worry about Alex hating his job and going back to school and the strain that will put on us.
I'm worried about getting that stupid giant couch and chair up those tiny tiny stairs.

Boo hiss moving.

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