Sooo, it's been a while since I've posted. Guess I should update. I've put in a bunch more applications since my last post. I've also had some rejections. I didn't get that bank job I was freaking out about a few posts ago, which is a relief, but it's still annoying that I've been without a job for nearly a month. I had a interview at the airport today! That seemed to go pretty well! The people were really nice, and the job sounds great. The lady interviewing showed me showed me around the office and chatted with me a bit. She said she could tell I was bashful but that I had a great smile, and she was all excited that I drove in in a mustang. She said her first car was a mustang and she'd always liked them, and she asked if she could have a look at mine, so we went outside and I introduced her to Jack. She fawned over him a bit, which I'm sure he enjoyed. Anyway they said I was clearly qualified and they seemed to like me, but they had 35 applicants for the position, so I guess I'll just see what happens. I hope I get it. I'd be making more than I was making at the bank. I most likely won't hear anything for a couple of weeks, though.

Rachel's wedding is this weekend, and I have most of the stuff I need to make the groom's cake. I'm more concerned about the wedding cake, though, which is Jess's responsibility. It's going to be a hell of a lot of work frosting and decorating that thing. I'll do my best to help. I need to go out tomorrow and get some red food coloring paste so I can make frosting roses for the wedding cake. I also have to finish buying and preparing things for the groom's cake. We'll have to get up stupid-early on Saturday to go get the cakes to the locations and get them all assembled. It's gonna' be nuts.

I finally got around to starting the cooking/kitchen journal I've been wanting to start for a few years now. Basically it's just going to be an instructional cooking blog with recipes (recipes that I've tried and enjoyed, or ones that I've created myself). And I'll be posting pictures of stuff I cook and all that. Weee~ It only has 2 posts in it so far. Hoping to add more this week.

Here's the link for anyone who wants to check it out:

Marz's Kitchen!

Crystal: *coming in through the back door* Hey, did you need this blender back in the house?
Me: Blender?
Jess: You mean the mixer that caught on fire?
Crystal: What!? It caught on fire!?
Me: Oh yeah... I broke the hand mixer. Mom put it on the back step.
Crystal: You were mixing SO HARD-CORE you caught the mixer on fire!?
Jess: You're my favorite. You're my new hero. *hugs*


My last day of work is tomorrow. I made cookies.

I had the day off today. Which usually means I stay up CRAZY-LATE chatting with Holly, 'cause I don't have to get up the next day. However, our internet was down from the time I got home from work. We called them and they said that there was an outage in our area, but they were working on it and it should be back up shortly. So I stayed up until around 2:30 am waiting for it before I got bored and tired and went to bed. It was on and off for most of the day today, too, bit for the moment it seems to be working. Effing Comcast. Rawr. DX

On the up side, I did manage to get a bit of writing done. I'm near the next scene-break in the chapter, and I'm contemplating cutting the chapter off there, since I've kept people waiting for the next chapter for a ridiculously long time. I had a couple more scenes planned for this chapter, but it's already longer than chapter 2 (yet shorter than chapters 1 and 3), so I feel like it's long enough, but I almost feel like I owe people a longer chapter, since it's taken me so bloody long. Guh. I'll try to finish up to the scene break and send it to Holly to be beta'd and see what she thinks.

My day off today wasn't so bad, though I didn't get done nearly half as much as I wanted to. I did make a frickin' TON of sushi, though. I'll probably be eating it for lunch and dinner for the next 3 days or so. Weeee~

OKAY! So we had our VACATION last week! I'm well overdue posting an update about it. I'll try to give a decent run-down, even though I'll probably forget a great deal of the details.

Sunday we got to California at around 7:30 and Holly and Ellen met us at the airport! 8D We had a hard time finding each other, though. We kept calling each other and Holly was like "What can you see? What does the sign above you say?" and I was like "The sign says 'Northwest!' The only thing I see is the underside of an overpass! There are '2's' everywhere!" But anyway, we eventually found one another, then we loaded up and wet to pick of Shannon, and headed to In 'n' Out burger for dinner. THEN! We went to this place that sold nom-tastic ice cream cookie sandwiches, and we saw Prime and Bumblebee! They were parked outside! I only had my phone with me, but I got some pics of them! XD Then we dropped off Shannon and met her awesome kitty, and then dropped off Ellen and met Skip and their awesome kitty, and got hooked up with FREE COMICS! XD Bizarre New World! Autographed and everything! X3 I haven't gotten a chance to read them yet. Haven't gotten a chance to read much of anything lately. x_x; But I very much look forward to it. It looks like it's made of WIN! X3 Then we headed back to Holly's place to settle in for the week, and Holly gave us our belated Christmas gifties! She got us each a pretty journal (Jess got a pretty blue one with handmade paper I think, and I got a nifty red one with a lock!) and 2 pairs of awesome earrings. Holly has excellent taste in earrings. X3 She also gave me some adorable li'l mini skateboards and tiny ceramic vases, and a li'l ceramic bathtub fulla' li'l soap and lotion and stuff. Wee!!! XD

Monday we got up pretty early, and Holly showed us around some. We hit two malls and two comic book stores. I got a couple of comics to fill gaps in my collection, and also the second volume of the DC Martian Manhunter Showcase. We also went to some other fun shopping destinations, like Frys and a spiffy little doll/dollhouse shop. ^_^ Then we met up with Ellen and went to Little Tokyo and had ramen and saw lots of nifty Japanese/import shops! XD I got some paper strips for making origami stars, and this set of hilariously obviously unlicensed Transformers stickers that go on a computer keyboard. X3 Now Yamamoto-san has colorful robot stickers on his keys. ^_^

Tuesday we got up around 9:30-ish and Ellen came over around 10:00-ish and we went to Arboretum! We hung out there for a while and had a lovely little bento picnic that Ellen made for us. Then Ellen took some graduation photos of Holly, and we took some pics of our TF boys. I took many pics of Magnus and Holly's Bumblebee. I was trying to take a pick of them on a precarious ledge, but accidentally dropped 'Bee in the sludge-water! D8 We gave him a bath later, though. X3 Then we went to the Arclight theater and saw Bumblebee, Sideswipe, Ironhide, and Optimus! They were all at the theater, and we took several pics of them. I will have to post them later. Then we left for a bit, and came back to catch the midnight showing of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen! Michael Bay was there, and that was exciting! The movie was okay. I really wanted some more substance. Like character development with the robots and stuff. But it was about what I expected. I may see it again.

Wednesday we hit the comic book store again! I picked up the new Star Trek: Mission's End comic, and Holly got the new All Hail Megatron comic! I read it and I was like "WHAAAT!? O_O" But then that seems to be how I've reacted to almost every issue of All Hail Megatron. I'm anxious for the Coda issues now. MORE NON-MOVIE-BASED TRANSFORMERS COMICS PLEASE! Anyway, after all that we went to Hollywood! We saw the walk of fame and all that, and went to the Chinese Theater! It was pretty freaking awesome. There were lots of interesting shops around there, too. There was one where you could get custom contacts! Totally gonna' hit that place up some time in the future. There was also a place with lots of costumes and wigs and things like that, but they were closed by the time we got there, unfortunately. I'll just have to check it out another time. After that we picked up Shannon and went out for Sushi! It was delicious. X3 My tummy started to hurt a bit, though, so I let Holly finish off my sushi. It was fun, though. We were all being stupid and hilarious. X3 I had a freaking blast.

Thursday we went to Kinkos and Jess and I faxed our resumes to this one place that advertised a job opening. I also made some copies of my resume and cover letter and all that with the intent of passing it out a few places. Jess and I are planning to move out there in a few months, and we figured it would be a good idea to try to get a job. Anyway, Ellen picked us up, and then we headed out to meet Batchix! On the way we stopped at a nifty Japanese market and I bought some snacks and Volume 13 of Trigun Maximum in Japanese. X3 Then we picked up Batchix and she brought her beautiful Sunstreaker and Sideswipe mechboy dolls! They were even more awesome in person than they are in pictures. X3 Once we picked her up we went to another Asian market and they had all kinds of nifty stuff, and even some cool miniatures! I wanted to get some, but I was worried about trying to pack them for the plane trip home. o_o; But I figure I'll have an opportunity to get them once I move out there. ^_^ Instead I settled for 5 pairs of sunglasses, because they were only $1.50 each! SCORE! After that we had dinner at this tasty BBQ restaurant, and then we went to Barns & Noble and looked at all of their nifty stuff. Much fun was had. X3 Then dropped off Batchix and headed back to Holly's place. It seemed like we'd never get back, though, 'cause they had pretty much every exit we would have taken closed. X_x; But eventually we made it back. Ellen dropped us off, and Holly and I had a li'l photo shoot where Ultra Magnus gave 'Bee a bath to clean him of after his fall into the sludge-water.

Friday was a busy dayyy~ We got up as early as we could manage and I made biscuits and gravy for breakfast. Then we went on an EPIC SHOPPING TRIP where we revisited several places we'd already been as well as some new ones and Jess and I got vacation-prizes for people back at home. Eric, Crystal and Mom all liked theirs. X3 Still gotta' meet up with Autumn, Dan, and Rachel to give them their gifties. Then we went to the 3rd Street Promenade and checked out all the nifty shops and stuff there, including this fun toyshop where I got a cute Bumblebee keychain and a Classics Ratchet, and some li'l gifties for Holly, Ellen, and Shannon as a thank-you for being so kind and hospitable. And also 'cause they deserve gifts just for being awesome. X3 After that we went to the pier, which was fun and pretty. ^_^ There were shops and rides and stuff, too, but a big chunk of it was shut down for a private party. 8P It was fun anyway, though. ^_^ We also saw several sites that were used in the filming of the first Transformers movie, which was awesome. X3

Saturday we got up stupid-early so we'd be able to load up all of our stuff and make it to the airport in time to catch out flight. There wasn't as long a line at security as was expected, though, so we got through pretty quickly and also our flight was delayed. XP So we sat around for a few hours before boarding the plane. By the time we got to Denver we had 15 minutes to make our layover flight. We managed it, though, and we got home with no trouble.

I had a great time in California, and I hope to go again soon. Jess and I have been planning, and we think we could move out there as soon as September. I just need to get out of Bloomington. I mean, I like it here. It's a nice town, but I don't want to live my entire life knowing nothing but life in Bloomington. I'll miss my family and everything, but it isn't as though I won't visit around holidays. I just need to try to save up money to move, then line up some living and working arrangements. It will be tricky, but not impossible. As far as I'm concerned, it's going to happen. Ganbatte!!

Sooooo, I got mom some miracle fruit tablets for Christmas. Today we tried them out! We each had half of a tablet, and then we were tasting like everything in the kitchen. It wasn't quite as crazy as I thought it might be, but it certainly was interesting! Celery and green peppers were pretty tasty. Also, we sipped a little bit of straight lemon juice and lime juice, and it was TASTYYY~! Also, we had some dry vermouth that we sipped on, and it tasted like a really sweet white wine. Very tasty. X3 Later on we went to the theater and saw The Spirit. I liked it quite a bit! I don't wanna' say too much 'cause I don't wanna' spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, but I highly recommend it! ^_^

I felt a little sick to my stomach when I got up on Thursday. It only got worse as the day went on, and it progressed from being a general ache in my abdomen to a sharp pain in my left side. The same symptoms as my mysterious and as-yet undiagnosed abdominal ailment, only this time it was on the left side instead of the right, so no one could possibly confuse it for appendicitis like they always have before. Since it obviously wasn’t appendicitis, I didn’t bother going to the doctor. However, I did get sent home early from work, and then I called in sick Friday because my condition hadn’t improved. Mom just gave me some ultram that was left over from the last onset of my mysterious illness and put me to work. I don’t blame her. Eric and Crystal were getting married Saturday and there was still a bunch of stuff to do, so I helped her finish and deliver Eric’s groom’s cake and various other little things that needed to be done. Also, I finished the miniature replicas of Eric’s guitars to go on the top of his cake.

The Cake!
Close-up Bass
Close-up Epiphone Acoustic
Close-up Banjo

I think they turned out okay...not perfect by any means, but I did the best I could. They’re made of sculpey, painted with tempura paints and nail polish, and then the strings are actual tiny wires. W00t. Eric liked them, so that’s all that really matters. ^_^

Whoogaow!! So today was my day off! That means that I got to stay up ‘til like 5:30 last night ‘cause I didn’t have to be anywhere ALL DAY today! W00t! It was SUPER FUN ‘cause Holly-sama caught me online and it was just like back in highschool again, except the main topic of discussion was frickin’ awesome robots instead of bitchin’-cool green aliens. X3

Also, it is, of course, WEDNESDAY!!! once again. I shall be going to the comic book store shortly. When ever Jess gets home from work (‘cause she’d be sad if I went without her.)

So I spent most of my day today making 4 dozen mini cheesecakes.
Mini Cheesecakes!
1, 2
Since tomorrow is my last grueling day of stocking lunch meats at the grocery, I wanted to make farewell treats for my co-workers since, over all, I like my boss and my co-workers very much. It’s just not having medical insurance and spending hours on end in the cold that really pisses me off. Anyway, I made four kinds. Blueberry, cherry, peanut butter with chocolate chips, and plain ol’ chocolate chip. I tried to make them all pretty, but I think they’re less pretty than my cherry chocolate chrysanthemum cupcakes. They taste freakin’ awesome, though. I ate four of the little buggars and now I’m totally gonna’ puke from all the sugar. XD

That’s it for now. Gotta’ wrap this up so I can go buy comics!

Whoops! It’s been a while since I’ve updated. ^_^;; Well, first things first. Autumn-sama tagged me, so I’ll get that out of the way:


TAGGED by mzanthropy!
- list five habits/quirks/facts about yourself.
- tag five people to do the same.

1. I’ve only ever had 1 boyfriend, and that was for like a year way back in my late-freshman early-sophomore days in highschool. I’ve had guys hit on (or stalk) me and stuff, but I’ve just been too busy with other crap to go pursuing a relationship or whatever.

2. I collect things. A LOT of things. (Ex: Comic books, key chains, action figures, t-shirts, plushies, sunglasses, etc...)

3. I’m kind-of obsessive-compulsive about organization. Particularly with my collections. Practically anything I have more than one of, I’ll try to organize it by color, size, shape, title, genre, creation/release date, publisher, author, series, or some combination of two or more of those.

4. Out of EVERYONE I know, I have the lamest, most pointless menial labor-type job.

5. My dream all through early grade school was to become a marine biologist and PROVE THE EXISTENCE OF THE LOCH NESS MONSTER! However, in highschool my dream evolved into becoming a voice actor and/or creating my own (web)comic or (flash) cartoon series.

As for tagging people...I don’t want to obligate anyone, but anyone on my friend who feels willing to post five habits/quirks/facts about themselves can consider themselves tagged. ^_^


Anyway, on to updates in my life. I’ve noticed that the yellow bug across the street has been joined by an entourage of other suspiciously distinctive models of car. Namely a khaki Jeep, a silver Pontiac Fireo, a red Dodge Rampage, some red SUV of which I’ve yet to identify the make and model, and something hidden under a tarp.
*Click for Pic*
I’ve been keeping an eye on them. How many people live there!? Do they really need that many cars!? I swear, if a Semi pulls up across the street, I’m going over there!

In other news, Autumn-sama asked me to design a medieval-style dress for her wedding. Here are the designs I came up with:
*Click for Pic*
There are colored versions, too, but the colors suck, so I’m not posting them. Autumn said she likes them, so I’m pleased with them. The real challenge, however, is to find someone to MAKE the dress before her wedding in April. Mom said she’d make it for her, but we’d have to find a pattern similar to the dress for her to modify. I guess we’ll see what we can do...

Jess’s birthday was on Wednesday (the 23rd). We were both off work, so we just hung out all day. We had lunch at a Thai restaurant that we like. The food there absolutely RULES, and it’s nice and spicy! Spicy food = yay! After that we went to the comic book store (since it was Wednesday, a.k.a. New Comic Book Day) and I got the new Blaster Spotlight comic. Blaster is awesome. X3 It was a fun day. I got a bunch of other comics the next day, too. Now the only Spotlight I’m missing is Soundwave, and I’m missing #5 of Escalation and #3 of Devastation. I’ll have to order those ones online, ‘cause I can’t find them anywhere in town. XP

Thursday we went to The Players Pub to hear The Swing Rays. It was great! I knew most of the songs, and I couldn’t help but sing along. There was this guy sitting right in front of me who looked EXACTLY like Santa Claus, and he kept looking back at me. I think he wanted me to shut up so he could hear the band better, but hey, nobody MADE him sit right in front of me, and there were plenty of other seats around so...meh. By the time he sat down, I’d already put away a couple beers so I was a little too tipsy to care. (I might mention that I’m a serious lightweight. Like 2 beers makes me tipsy. ^_^;; )

On Saturday we had a birthday party for Jess. I made her a cake. She likes conversation hearts, so I used those and cordial cherries to decorate it. I flipped them over and painted custom messages on them with food coloring.
*Pics of the cake: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10*
We had some friends over, had pizza and cake (and beer), and we watched Harry Potter with the rifftrax. It was hilarious. Makes me miss the good old days of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Good times. Anyway, that’s about it as far as what I’ve been up to. W00t.

SO! Christmas is coming up fast. I’ve got most of my shopping done. Just a few things left. I’ve been soooo busy! X_x;; I still have to make a bunch of cookies to take to work, and maybe to Tae Kwon Do club, and I have to CLEAN MY ROOM!!! I still haven’t unpacked from when we moved back in SEPTEMBER! I’ve been living out of boxes. Now my room is full of stacks of boxes, and piles of crap in the floor...it’s a horrible mess. Jess said she’d help me clean it, though. That means I either have to hide her gifts or wrap them, so she won’t see them. ^_^; Speaking of gifts, Jess and I just got back from mailing Holly’s box o’ Christmas stuffs at the post office a little while ago. X3 (Holly, if you’re reading this, we sent it to your SB address, since we figured you’d be over there for Christmas...and ‘cause I lost your LA address. ^_^;;; ) So yeah, that’s all exciting. XD


I’ve decided that, in every journal entry between now and Christmas, I’m going to try to post some happy Christmas memory. The one I’m about to post is really long. It’s a story mom wrote for us when I was in first grade. She used to tell us stories when we were really little about her car (a yellow and black Ford Pinto...and it could fly in the stories ^_^ ) taking us on adventures. Thinking back on it, these stories were pretty much setting me up to become a major Transformers geek. XD When I was in first grade, she surprised us by typing up a brand new Flying Ford Pinto story, and giving us each our own copy. So now I present for you, my mother’s story.

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( THE RETURN OF THE FLYING FORD PINTO )

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Hope that wasn’t too long. ^_^; We loved that story. The best part was that, the morning after Mom first read us that story, we all woke up with gold jingle bells tied to our toes with red ribbon. I still have mine, put away. X3 ~ <3