I am AMAZING

Last night we had a lot of lightning. I hate thunder and lightning so of course I was terrified especially when our power went out. It was only off for a little while but after it came back on it went out again. This time when it came back the power to the bedroom didn't. Not fun since it was so hot.

We checked the circuit breaker thing and nothing had tripped. I was exhausted because we had stayed up til 4am the night before watching Dexter so I just went to sleep. The plan was to call the office today to get them to come fix it but this afternoon after doing a bit of searching online I wanted to have another go at fixing it myself. I had to wait until my husband got home though because although I thought I was going to be okay I didn't really want to mess with electricity without someone else being here in case I blew myself up or something and ended up lying paralyzed on the floor. I am extremely paranoid about getting injured because I don't have any medical insurance at the minute.

Anyway, I fixed the problem. GO ME!!! I unplugged every thing in the room then pressed a reset button really hard and flicked the trip switch again. It worked! I am amazing!

God I was (am) so proud of myself. I love messing and fiddling around with broken things but it is very rare that it ever pays off so yes I am extremely impressed with myself today.

Alice In Chains

Alice In Chains have a new song out today called A Looking In View.
I hadn't realized but I was actually worried that I wasn't going to like the new stuff. I listened to the song this morning and when it finished I kind of breathed a sigh of relief. I had to listen to it a couple more times because the first time I was pretty much holding my breath. I like it. It's good and I think it will grow on me even more. It's familiar enough for me to be comfortable with but obviously it is the new AiC. I think it sounds a lot like a solo Jerry Cantrell song and I wonder if the rest of the album will sound like this or if this song was chosen because it will ease the general public gently into accepting a new singer.

I can't believe I have been listening to Alice in Chains for more than half my life. That is weird. I can still relate to the early songs but for different reasons now than I did back in the day.

Yesterday I was renaming my music to load it onto itunes. Somehow when I put it on the big computer here all the names got wiped. Anyway, I obviously have a lot of AiC and whenever I would play one I remember thinking that I haven't heard a new song in forever that makes me feel like those songs do. I think they are back in my No.1 band position.

Oh I am so glad I like this new song. I would have been gutted if I hadn't. It would have been awful listening to the song and thinking...this is pure crap.
Shared via AddThis

I hate birds...however...

...I love these pictures because the sky is so blue that it appears to be fake.







and I love this one below because it reminds me of the film The Birds and supports my theory that birds are evil and will try to wipe out humans one day.





These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago when we went to the beach. Seems like absolutely ages ago now.

Second job interview

Yesterday morning I had the second interview. It was with a different person from the first time and was only fifteen minutes long. It basically consisted of asking me a few questions. Again these questions were very basic. I had been expecting more of an interview along the lines of the ones I have conducted in the past whereby situational questions are asked.
I know that they had already requested my references before yesterday and if I was at home I would have taken that as a good sign as I would never ask for references until I had chosen someone. It isn't much of an indicator for me here though because I don't know if that is commonplace or not.
Oh well, I shall wait and see whether it is meant to be or if I am destined for other things.

Houston Astros baseball game

Surprisingly I had a really good time at the baseball game. The Astros played Kansas City Royals. Not much really happened in the first half of the game which was good for me because I was so busy looking around, taking everything in and trying to understand the rules. It was weird when we went into the stadium as it looked fake. A bit like in a movie. It has since been pointed out to me that the only time I have seen a baseball stadium is on television which is actually quite a valid point.
The second part of the game I was getting familiar with the rules and able to pick out which team was which and I actually got a bit excited as the game was neck and neck and went to extra innings. The Astros lost which was a shame but it was a fun experience for me and I think I would like to go to another game.

Some things that struck me as funny where when the cameras pan around the spectators and catch them doing funny dances and stuff. One of the times they did this it was a kiss camera and the people the camera stopped on were supposed to kiss. Highly awkward if it is someone you are with but don't really like or they have stinky breath. Anyway, one of the times it stopped on this couple who didn't notice and it just stayed on them for a while. They didn't twig on however and some random man ran up to her and kissed her. It was rather amusing but also surprising that in such a litigious country as America that someone would feel comfortable doing that without fear of the woman pressing charges for assault of some sort. It tickled me anyway.

It was dead hot last night and by the time we left I was sweating probably as much as the players were. I absolutely hate sweating so anyone that knows me would think I would have been in a strop because of this but I think because it was a new fun experience I didn't let it bug me as much as it normally would have.

So, all in all, baseball good. Would like to go again. Better tickets next time though. We had bargain tickets that cost $10 and got you a drink, bag of chips and a hot dog which is very cheap but I would like to see better now that I have more of a clue as to what I am looking at.

Looking forward to my first baseball game

Tonight I am going to my first ever baseball game. I am seeing the Houston Astros play. I can't remember who they are playing against but to be honest I probably won't be able to tell who is who anyway. This is going to be more of an outing to experience American culture rather than me having any love for the game. I don't even know the rules.

It is supposed to be 100 degrees here today so I hope I don't die of heat exhaustion or anything. That would suck.

Interview

I had my job interview yesterday. It wasn't like any interview I've had before although admittedly I haven't had that many. It felt more like a meeting to suss me out to see if they liked me as I wasn't asked much about my previous experience and it's relevance. They did have my experience listed on the application though so maybe that was enough. I must have been okay because they said they would be asking me to come in again. Maybe that's when they will put me in the hot seat.

I've never applied for a job where they did second interviews so I don't really know what to expect. I gather it is more common now and probably with the job market as it is people can afford to be much more selective about those they choose. Oh well, it will be a bit of interviewing experience for me at the least.

Shopping and movies

I went shopping yesterday for some new clothes. There are a lot of sales on at the moment and since I needed new clothes desperately in case I get a job it was the perfect time to shop.
I had a 25% off coupon for Old Navy and they were selling tank tops for $2 so we went there first. The only tank tops they had were white ones in size XXL so not any good for me. I do wonder whether they were the only ones they had or if they had other ones and they just sold out early. We got there about 10.30 so it wasn't particularly late or anything.
I did get quite a lot of tops and shirts I could wear for work though. My husband did really well getting jeans for around $11 after sale prices and our coupon. He got some really good prices on shirts as well. There still are some coupons on the Old Navy Weekly website. You have to hunt around for them. It is quite fun but the high value coupons go so quickly.
We then went to Macy's. They were having a sale too and I had a coupon for $10 off $25. Again my husband cleaned up getting a $60 shirt for $10 or something. I got some trousers (or pants as they are called in the US) and a nice summer top and two wrap around / cape type cardigans. I have wanted one of these for ages but the only ones I have seen have been so expensive so I was very happy to get these for less than $15.
We'd finished our shopping by about lunchtime which was great because it was nearly 100 degrees. I much prefer getting out in the morning to do things. It's normally way too hot in the afternoons here to be out and about.

In the evening we went to the drive in to watch Year One and Angels and Demons. Luckily there was a breeze and we sat out on chairs to watch them. Year One was funny but not quite as much as I was expecting it to be. Angels and Demons was good. Changed a bit from the book but I actually think that may have been for the best. I fell asleep a couple of times and once when I woke up my husband's face was right in mine and I nearly had a heart attack. The movies didn't finish until 1.30am which for me now is a really late night. I was absolutely exhausted but it was a very fun day.

I certainly enjoyed a nice lie in this morning and plan on having a relaxing day today. I'll have to prep for my interview which is tomorrow as it has been a while since I worked and to be honest I can't remember half the skills I actually have.

I have a job interview

As I posted previously I applied for a job on Sunday. Today I got a call to say that I have an interview on Monday. I haven't had a job interview in eight years so I might be a bit nervous. A plus though is that I have been an interviewer before. You would think that this would give an advantage but it's a lot different sitting on the other side of the table so we shall see.
Hopefully I will get the job because I need to get back into the workplace before I get too comfortable being a lady of leisure.

Great news is that this is forcing me to get a haircut. I need one but because it hasn't been a priority it has been left so even if I don't get the job I will have nice new hair :)

My busy Sunday

Saturday night my husband and I were playing a board game called Scene It. It was quite fun and then we got to the final stages of the game. The questions were going back and forth, back and forth, but we didn't know any answers so the game lasted until about 2am because we were so stuck. I thought for sure we would be lying in on Sunday morning but we got up pretty early so we decided to go out and get doughnuts for breakfast since I am in love with the maple glaze ones. We also popped into Walgreens so I could get my weekly bargains (see my other blog http://youarethough.blogspot.com/ for more details). We got back and were just relaxing and deciding whether or not to go and watch jazz bands at Discovery Green. I thought it was too hot to sit outside so we looked up the weather on the internet. It was something like 98 degrees in Houston. Of course add on the heat index and it would have felt over 100. Galveston was a bit cooler at 89 degrees and of course there is a sea breeze there so off to the seaside we went!
We put our swimmers on, packed some towels and sunscreen and loaded some drinks into the cooler and just upped and went. It was a nice drive down there because it only takes about an hour. When we got there we took a little drive around because I have never been to The Strand area. Lots of the buildings have been destroyed by Hurricane Ike and it is pretty sad because they were lovely buildings. One of the buildings we drove past has a painted line marking how high the water came up and next time we go I will get a picture because it puts into perspective just how much damage would have been caused.
We saw a big cruise ship waiting to take people away on holiday and whilst I have never been the type of person who fancied a cruise I think I would consider changing my mind now. It just looked exciting.
We got to the beach and it was really nice. It was hot but there were a really strong breeze so it didn't feel overwhelming or anything.
The scariest thing was the sea gulls. I hate birds so I was terrified of them especially when people were feeding them scraps and then they all swooped down in their hundreds.
One pooped on my husband which was awful but funny. I know this is horrible to say but I was so glad it was him and not me. I was a bit scared after that that they would get me so I made sure to keep my hat on because I didn't want a poo head. A while later another one got him on his arm. Oh it was disgusting and extremely unfortunate. Luckily I have my mini emergency kit that has anti bacterial hand sanitizer.
After that we went into the sea for a bit. I was a bit cautious as I have a problem with getting my head dunked. I may go into details about that little problem in another post one day but not today. My husband was going really far out but I was a bit of a scaredy cat and wanted to stay really near the beach. I did go out for a bit though but things kept hitting my legs. Sometimes it was seaweed but other times I didn't know what it was....crabs, jellyfish, who knows what.
I did see a fish jumping out of the water right near us which was cool. I would probably have had a heart attack if it had touched me though.

We left about 5.30 and drove home. After we ate I filled in an application for a job. I haven't been able to work since I've been in the US but I have my permit and social security number now so it is about time I started looking. It took ages because my old CV / Resume wasn't completely up to date. My husband helped me a lot because there are little differences between English and American styles so I am very grateful to him for spending so much time on it for me. He is awesome.

All in all...a very busy Sunday.

I love my new netbook

So I have had my new netbook for a couple of days now and I am in love. It is so so so cute. It is really light and just adorable. It is kind of weird at first just having a 10" screen but you quickly adjust to it. My favorite thing about it is that you can plug your SD card straight into it so you can transfer photos really easy. You don't have to faff around trying to remember where your camera cable thing is which is such a bonus in my book. I took pictures of it to send to my mum to show her it and put it next to the lap top so she could have a size comparison (please excuse the dog hair on the blue lap top). She emailed me back to say that she thought it was going to be smaller like a Nintendo DS. I asked her how on earth she would expect me to type on something like that and she said...with a stick. hahaha crazy lady.

My netbook is here. Sort of.

My new netbook has been delivered. It is at my husband's work as I type and he is adding all the things onto it that I want and removing the things I don't want. I'm so excited and I can't wait for him to get home. I won't be able to play with it straight away though as we are going out. Still....so excited!

Fingers crossed my next entry will be posted from it.

My weekend

I had a very nice weekend. On Saturday we went to see the Terracotta Warriors exhibit which was very interesting and I would recommend anyone to go see it. I still can't believe that so many articles survived. Because we went on a Saturday afternoon it was really busy and I prefer to walk around exhibits at my own pace. You were a bit restricted because you had to basically queue behind people in order to read each description. There were two really annoying know it alls behind me who knew everything about everything and they were really loud so I skipped a few things in order to get away from them. We had a quick walk around the permanent exhibits but will go back another time so we can take our time. You couldn't take pictures in the Terracotta Warriors exhibit but we did get a pic of the dinasaur.

In the evening we went to Discovery Green to watch a documentary, Man On Wire, in the park. This film won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and after watching it I can say that it was well deserved. It was extremely engaging. Surprisingly so. I just found a brief synopsis of the film which seems to sum it up quite well.
August 7, 1974. A young French man named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire suspended between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. He danced on this wire for an hour with no safety net before he was arrested for what has become to be known as the "artistic crime of the century." Here is a link to the film's website http://www.manonwire.com/ Thankfully the humidity hasn't been as horrific as usual here this past week and there was a nice breeze so it made for a very enjoyable evening. Above is a picture of where we were.

Yesterday we went back to Discovery Green in the afternoon. They were having live music in the park. They do this every weekend so we will probably go again. It was a really nice day. The weather wasn't disgustingly hot so it was nice to sit out although I do have a bit of a pink face today. There was a farmers market but we got there just as it was closing so I would definitely like to go back again for that. They have a lot of different things going on throughout the week and from what I can see it is all free which is great because you can bring a picnic and make a whole day of it and it won't cost you an arm or a leg.

My very naughty doggy

Doesn't this dog look like a little angel? Well most of the time he is. Not Friday morning though. No way.
I was in that nice half awake / half asleep sort of state and heard this funny noise. I started to panic because I thought the dog was peeing so I jumped up to see what was going on and the very very very naughty doggy had snagged a thread in the carpet and was pulling away at it causing it to pull out. He got a very big telling off and was in the metaphorical dog house for most of the day.
Naughty doggy.

Sweet Tomatoes

Yesterday was a really nice day. I had a very pleasant day and then in the evening went shopping. We went to The Galleria and I got free panties from Victoria's Secret (yay!). The Galleria is quite a nice shopping mall but most of the shops are way out of my price range. We walked though Neimen Marcus and even with their sale prices I wouldn't be able to buy anything.
We then went to Old Navy which is much more within my budget and I got a new dress.

For dinner we went to Sweet Tomatoes. Hahaha what an adventure it was getting there. My husband wrote down directions because we were going to a different one than we had been to before. It is apparently closer to us but considering my husband didn't look at the directions and just went with his gut we took a little bit longer than desired getting there. After I pulled out the directions we got there in oh I would say perhaps five minutes.
Sweet Tomatoes is a salad buffet and they have everythng you could possibly want. I was putting a little bit of this and a little bit of that on my plate and when I decided to look up and see how much was left there was an.....oh my goodness....moment when I realised my plate was going to be piled high. I never expected to be able to eat it all...but I did! And it was yummy!
They also have soups so of course I had chicken and vegetable (my favorite). They have all different types of breads and anyone that knows me knows that I am a bread fiend so I had a nice piece of rustic bread, two pieces of corn bread with real corn in it and some pepperoni bread.
They have baked potatoes as well but, as much as I wanted to, there is no way I could have eaten one. I believe they had some type of stir fry as well but it got to the point where I couldn't even look at anything else because I knew I would want it and wouldn't be able to manage it.
I did however manage a bit of dessert. My husband and I attempted to share a piece of lava cake but we only managed a couple of bites each. I did get a frozen yogurt though and had nuts and sprinkles on it mmmm mmmm.
It was funny watching other people. I saw this couple and they had like eight soup bowls on their table. Either they were making a soup bowl scuplture or they actually ate that much soup.

I was absolutely stuffed when we left. We had to pop into Walmart on the way back because the stupid shower pole thing fell down again so we had to get a new one. You get what you pay for I guess because the one we bought is not exactly classy looking but hopefully it will do the job.

My brush with death

I hate ironing. Really hate it. However, since I am attempting to be a good wife I told my husband I would iron all his jeans. He has about 50 pairs so this is not just a case of ironing one pair so he can go out. Anyway, after delaying the task for pretty much the whole day I decided I needed to go do it and quick smart before he came home from work. So off I went. I had my ipod with me so I had something to distract me from the tedium that is ironing. Well, I listened to an entire Eagles of Death Metal album and had just started it again when I discovered I was on the final pair. Hurrah I thought to myself. Just then disaster struck. It was as if the entire ceiling was falling in on me. Everything around me seemed to be falling. My heart was pounding so hard I thought it was going to explode out of my chest.

What was it that had caused this near tragedy? I thought. As I recovered myself and started to see clearly again I realised that I had been hanging all the ironed jeans on the shower railings and that, rather than being a handy hanging spot as I had thought, it was in fact a big mistake and it had collapsed bringing the shower curtain, jeans and all down with it.

So, rather than appearing to be a helpful wife when my husband walked through the door, he came home to find an extremely flustered woman doing battle with a curtain pole.

I might add though that all the ironing got done and shortly after the oven pinged to sound the arrival of dinner so I can't be all that bad really.

My Life In Ruins

Last night we were supposed to go and see a preview of the new film My Life In Ruins. I had dinner ready for when my husband came in from work and we ate and got ready and left. We got to the cinema in plenty of time and as we were about to go to the theater my husband looked at the email confirmation and suddenly realised he had driven us to the wrong place. It's kind of funny really but I was looking forward to it and had seen and advert for it earlier in the day and thought...ha I'm getting to see this before everyone else. Alas, it was not to be :(