I have kept up with my blog, but not so much with L J. I was recently nearly castigated by a friend *ahem* Cairech... for not reading and or doing anything on LJ. Lets just say it had become a source of hurt for a little while. But, life goes on and lo and behold gets happier all the time.. for example:

Work is still fantabulous.. I have nearly had several break downs from pressure, but I have thus far been brilliant. I have been truly blessed to have this job.. and hope to continue.

Baby is doing very well. She is going for her green belt tomorrow night in Hapkido. I have discussed it for a while with baby daddy.. and he feels that she is in fact ready. However, she might start falling behind b/c she is nearing the point of starting to spar in full contact. We have decided to hold off on that for now, she needs a bit more balance before she starts sparring. But we will talk to Master K and see what he has to say and get his opinion. Her dance classes are going wonderfully.. I have a short video I need to post. The baby has quite a bit of Elvis in her come to find out. She can now stand in front of me and put her arms around my neck without me bending over....and she still weighs about 40 lbs. Gods, the dog weighs more than her now. I was watching her in Hapkido class the other day, and had a really cool thing happen. I was looking at her lovely little face and she turned her head just a little and it was like looking in a mirror. I thought, my Gods.. is this how G sees me? Is this why he tells me I am beautiful? Wow. While I might not be able to see my own beauty directly, I can see it in my daughter and find it awesome. School is going strong, she just recently made high marks on her science test, which was all about rocks. She has loved rocks since she was a baby baby. Recently they went to a rock quarry for a field trip.. baby daddy told me that she was in heaven. I recently quizzed her on rocks, and to my surprise and pleasure, found that she knew as much if not more than I do about rocks. She is extremely out going and can carry on a pretty good conversation with anyone. We were recently at a hockey game (15 rows off the ice!!!), G and I were discussing something intently and lost track of exactly what she was doing for about 2 mins. I looked to my right and she was turned around backwards in her chair and was having an in depth conversation with the woman behind us about mathematics and retelling a story about a little boy she knew that was given a hockey stick by a hockey team that he watched for several games. The woman said she was a nanny to 2 girls and she loved talking to little girls. I told her good..because baby will talk your ear off. She amazes me at times with how tender hearted she can be and the level of empathy she feels towards other people. Her BFF Lizvonie and she LOVE to burn up our minutes at night.. it is so funny hearing them talk about absolutely nothing. Her 8th is coming up soon. We are not sure what we want to do, but I know I want to make sure this one is very special for her. My Gods.. I cant believe I have an 8 year old. WOW!! It is very cool.

G and I are coming up on our 7 month anniversary. It has been bliss. We have had our blow ups, but.. everything I have been thru in the past has taught me that a. I am blessed to have him in my life and b. how to work thru things. Gods, compared to some of my relationships in the past, this is a cake walk. We seem to compliment each other very well. He is awesome at starting things, I am good at finishing. I am detail oriented he is big picture and out come oriented. He loves my cooking and I love how he cleans a kitchen. He is a computer/technology junkie and uber geek, I am more of the bucolic, opera loving, art and theater lifestyle. So.. needless to say we have taught each other much. Before he had met me he had never ate anything outside of Chinese, Mexican and some Cajun. So.. of course I had to take him to Korean right off the bat. He loved it. After that was Vietnamese and Japanese. He now uses chopsticks with the best of them and might even smoke a hookah one day. My parents adore him and my family wants to adopt him. Unfortunately, his bit o' bastard car was totaled. But.. he is getting an even better bit o' bastard car, so it all works out well. We fell in love with a Tundra, but it is gone and he had already decided that he wanted the Saab instead. I like it more than the BMW, but.. I know in a couple of years I am going to be ready for that X7 he keeps trying to sell me on. Right now the Ranger is doing good for us, but.. it is tight with me, him, baby and doggie. Currently he is working on a huge compost bin for me and we have about 1/3 of the wood we need for the raised beds. I dug a HUGE Gladiola bed at his house and put in a Lily bed as well. We ripped out all the boring HUGE boxwood's at his house and now I am starting in on the flower beds. I have already planted one rose bush and have the second one in side forcing it to start budding. My ORCHIDS!! I have so many now, they are everywhere in the bathroom. I have them allll around the big bath at his house and one in the bedroom. I have learned so much about them.. I can now successfully force one to bloom and then help it recover after it is done blooming. I need to get a humidifier for the bathroom, currently I take LOTS of baths to keep it humid in there. But, the problem is the bathroom is so big, it is hard to keep the humidity high in there without turning it into a tropical rain forest. Tree San, my fig tree and jewel of my collection thus far, is doing so wonderfully. We have made the firm decision that he will not get planted until I have my greenhouse, and then he will be the middle of my greenhouse. He will never be able to survive the winters here unless he is kept indoors somehow, so.. he will be the center of the green house. Another cool addition is my blue berry bushes and my heavenly bamboo. My brother advised me to get two different types of blue berry's, I found one variety.. just need to get the other one. G is itching to have fresh corn on the grill this year, so... I got him two packs of corn seed and put them in his Valentine presents bag. He loved it. I think he teared up a bit. He was in a pretty bad relationship before me and, like me at times, is amazed at how nice it is to be happy, sane and really in love with someone who really cares for your needs.

The odd things as of late..

Baby Daddy and G will be working together for a bit. I have asked to be kept completely out of their working relationship.. BD and I have worked far too hard to have it jacked up by a their working relationship.
I have discovered that some people, no matter how old they are, are idiots. I use to think that if you were past the age of.. ohhh..i dont know .. 45 or so, you had your life together.. right? Wrong. The older I get the more I find that I am getting to know more and more people older than me. That my relationships are fewer, but they are much more intimate and close. I have walked away from more than a couple of groups of people more than once in my life, and I have found that I am happier this way. I have my love, then I have my close true deep friends, I have a few surface friends and then a lot of acquaintances. It is good this way. Lady Predator pointed that out to me.. as well as if you dont have your life together by the time you are 40 you are never going to have it together. That was pretty eye opening when she told me that.. but she is correct.
Our puppy dog is no longer a puppy. She keeps growing. We think she has stopped, but not really sure. She seems to be bulking up now. I am typing this while she is in G's spot of the bed beside me..with her head on his pillow of course. We still want to get a Doberman.. we have both had them in the past and want another one. But, we have to fence in his backyard first.. and dear Gods, that is going to be a pretty penny. I always wanted a house with lots of land, but.. man.. to fence it in sucks. Puppy has become quite the mole killer. Which, hopefully will take care of the problem come this spring time and the veggie garden is in.
The lighted bench G got me for X mas looks a little eerie at night.
I am now completely addicted to fresh roasted, fresh ground coffee.
I can now watch Big Love without constant cringing.
I have found that I actually have a use for all the Mongol stuff I have absorbed. Granted.. it is just conversational.. but .. still.


And so, that is my catch up and recording of time. Now I will wait for G to come home with the pizza and snuggle up and do things that make puppy turn her head and whimper.

I scored 106.5

Interactive Internet Resources

Homework type resource stuff..

Space Sounds

Cool website that has the sounds of the universe. Everything from planets to blackholes to sputnik.

Photoshop Archive

All kinds of tutorials.

Professional Etiquette Tips

Pretty good to read over if you are in a corporate type entertainment venue or smoozing with the clients.

Bargain Shoppers Guide

I plan to get the 2 gig flash for 8 bucks.



And this is cool..

We’ve talked about places do it, things to own, and friends to make before turning 30, and since Popular Mechanics has a new list out of skills every man should know, we thought this was the perfect time to talk about the 30 skills every woman should know before she turns 30. Check the list out, after the jump…

1. Hard boil an egg (Earlier this year, my sister asked me how, but I’ll cut her some slack; she was only 25)  Yes
2. Diplomatically tell Mom to butt-out  Yes
3. Ace a job interview  Yes
4. Ask a man out   Yes
5. Send a thoughtful thank you note  Yes
6. Listen to a friend in need  Yes
7. Ask for help    Kind of.. I am still learning this one.
8. Effectively end an unhealthy relationship (romantic or platonic in nature)  Well, I thought I knew how.. but I think I still need to figure this one out
9. Beautifully wrap a gift  Got this one down to an art form
10. Say “no” gracefully  Yes
11. Whip up a great dinner with the five items in her fridge  Most of the time, yes
12. Forget pleasing him, by 30 a woman should be able to tell her man exactly how to please her    No problems here
13. Sew a button  Yes
14. Mix a kick-ass cocktail  Yes
15. Take off her bra without removing her shirt   Been doing this one since I was 10
16. Apply lip gloss in the dark  Yes
17. Balance her checkbook   Yes
18. Create a budget   Yes
19. Find the best deal   Normally, yes
20. Negotiate a salary and/or pay raise   Yes
21. Read a map To some degree
22. Hail a cab  Never really had to do this
23. Say something in French just for the hell of it  Oui
24. Apologize when she’s wrong   Yes, although it has been told me to that I have a problem doing this. HAHAHAHHAHAHA. Oh..I am sorry.     :  >
25. Dress for her body type  Yes
26. Change a flat (or know whom to call to come change it)  I love triple A
27. Spot a fake (handbag, diamond, potential friend…) Yes
28. Feign interest  Probably too well at times
29. Know what to tip on a $25 dinner bill  Yes
30. Hold a baby (Hey, someone you know is bound to have one sooner or later) Got that one down when I was 28

Black Bean Pumpkin Polenta Chili

I cant wait to make this one! I am thinking spoon bread will be good with it. I need to dig out my recipe for spoon bread.. the weather is cooler and is the perfect time for spoon bread!!

Monkey Rocker

*grins* ....


A Map of Human Sexuality Lands

I want to have this printed off in large scale size.. have a dinner party.. and give everyone individual colored pins to mark where they have been. HAHAHHAHA.. I love this.


The Debunot Blog

A cool chick's blog. Normally I hate blogs.. rambling about shite I dont really care about.. or just tons of rambling. This is a nice chunked out snarky, sweet and real working Mom's blog. I like it.


Rowan Atkinson In Hell

I love this skit.

Love the Funny T Shirts

I love the Honky Moms for Obama and Slavery Gets Things Done!

RetardedMedia blog.

This site has sucked up half of my morning :)

Lets see..

I have a cold. Blah. Not the normal cold tho, I think this is some kind of allergy induced hell. I have given up smoking permanently, so maybe that is part of it. G struck a deal with me.. if I give up smoking, permanently, he will give up chocolate chip cookies... permanently. Which.. the trade off is even steven really. I agreed.. before I realized it really.. and since that day have not smoked. Wanted to.. really badly.. but havent. So, part of the cold might be my body getting all of the ick out of my lungs.

G is back in WV and PA right now. sigh and double sigh. We did get to spend a wonderful week together however. The highlights were him coming home and bringing me all the awesome goodies he got for me in his travels. A barrette that actually holds my hair .. all of it. It is so pretty.. made of 4 different types of wood. An awesome Mohair scarf.. the color goes wonderfully with my hair and it has some kind of a funky weave. I will have to show it to the SIL to see what she knows about the weave. Some delicious honey, two jams and two GORGEOUS mugs. One of which is coveted earthen ware. I ADORE it.. such an awesome glaze on it and a neat handle to boot. yay me! The next day we picked up baby from school.. she was happy to see him. Threw her book bag at me and ran down the hall at school and did one of her leap/head butts. I, of course, then became chopped liver for the rest of the evening : / We headed to the house and finished up a delicious pot roast and roasted veggies and ate our dinner on the patio under the moon. It was an awesome night. However, I woke the next morning feeling like dawn of the dead. G took baby with him to his kids games that day so I could sleep. So I had long rest in big tub with good book. I almost felt human afterwards. We headed out for a bit then came home and started getting ready for the Opera. Dropped baby off at the Cairechs house for a evening of sleep over goodness. G surprised me with dinner at The Yellow Porch, which is magnificent.. I highly recommend it. After that it was time for Don Giovanni!! Which.. he fell asleep 3 times hahahaha. I think he enjoyed it, he was very tired. I had a most excellent time.. until the 2nd act. And then The Allergy Furies descended on me with a powerful hatred. Thank the Gods I had on a long black shawl/veil that night. I sneezed about 20 times, my eyes watered so much I ended up rubbing off all my eye make up but.. I was in heaven. During the intermission we had glasses of champagne and we talked about the water feature at TPAC. It is very lovely.. we have decided to put a water feature in at the house.. not nearly as big, but one that I can sit and dangle my feet in on a hot summer day. Speaking of.. we are putting in 5 raised beds this winter!! I am so excited! But back to Don Giovanni. It was an awesome production, very avant garde .. funny at moments and chilling at others. The next Opera is the Student Prince. We are still discussing about if we want to go or not. He is more of the Symphony type.. I am the Opera type.. soo.. we shall see. However..Great Tuna is playing Oct the 24th in Spring Hill.. YAY! I am trying to get tickets for baby and I to go see it. She must see Dee Dee Snively!

Other than that.. we are looking at hard wood flooring for the house and paint for the walls as well as the outside of the house. Sigh. So much to do. But.. I look forward to it. He found an Indian Rose Wood counter top that I melted over. I am crossing my fingers on that one.

Baby is doing very well. She tests for her yellow belt on the 24th. I am excited!! School is going awesomely .. they are on Fall Break right now. Tonight Master Koh decided that for Fall Break they would have a fun day.. so they played dodge ball. I thought the kids were going to shriek the building down. Before the dodgeball explosion he had the kids stand in front of the class and each sing a song, but it was voluntary only. He explained afterwards that it took confidence to do it.. the kids seemed to get it then. I am very happy with our decision to put her in Hakido. She has really taken to it and has loved learning more about the Korean culture. A trip to Mana is now super duper.

So.. that is my catch up.

now to bed.. if I dont hack up a lung first :)

there were just two more days....yay!!

A good weekend spent at G's house. No computer.. dead phone most of the time and no way to charge it.. but very relaxing. I have rediscovered satellite tv.. and have decided it is evil. Really fun.. but evil.

Tonight baby and I harvested the sweet potatoes. Not a huge crop, but it was really fun to dig them out. Now I just have to cure them, which from what I have read.. shouldnt be too hard. I hope. Ha.

This weekend G is home.. I have Temple with L from work. She is doing her world religions class. I have taken her to Temple once, but not much was going on. So.. I figure I will take her there on a Saturday.. surely there will be lots more for her to see and learn from. I also want to try to get her to meet Sri Lisa. L is a really cool chick.. I have spent a few good hours discussing religion with her. I respect her mightily as a Christian.. she is on of the few that seems to truly walk her path. The Opera is later that night with G.. we are going to see Don Giovani. I am very excited. I borrowed a little black dress from a friend of mine.. hopefully I will look wonderful. Sunday I am not sure what I am doing. I have baby with me and G is going to spend some time with his chirren.. perhaps all of us together. We will see how that goes.

So tonight is a clear night in the 50's.. and I am going to go sit outside with a cup of hot cider...

A good weekend. Awesome tie dying, cool slumber party with Cairech and LadyPredator. I got to see S at the tie dye.. and I am looking forward to another dinner party with her and C. It was so funny, G and I went to their house for dinner.. I got more than a bit drunk. Such awesome food, great company. Some wonderful wines that night and then a interesting late night. hahahah..

but I digress..

So.. slumber party with Lady P and Cairech, J man, baby girl and Ms. L. The kids took over my bedroom and watched movies.. we did henna and Lady P read my cards. The *first* positive reading I have had in 3 years. It was shocking.. but very good. In a nut shell, I have made a decision, and now I am having to defend myself emotionally, I have a bright future and the marriage card in front of me...I have emotional fears.. but at the end of it, it is all good. Did I miss anything Lady Predator? Cairech and I sat outside after Lady P left and talked ... then to bed for odd henna dreams. Woke up about 8 or so.. got the babies ready..  then breakfast at Shoney's with the J man and baby girl. They had the biggest time.  Baby Daddy got there..good reunion with him and baby girl.. then K got there.. and so we all had breakfast together. I went over to K's house afterwards, she gave me some awesome seeds and we rinsed their tie dye. Mine, however.. is still sitting in the back of my truck.. blah. Home afterwards and much talking with G, web surfing and a good long nap. Odd dreams, but not sure what. Finished up the small details in the house and ready to get everything finished :D Talked to G, he told me about his dinner meetings, looked at Failed! pics together online, ate a bit of dinner and played with Gracie. A very relaxing weekend.


I miss G horribly.. I will be glad when he gets home. I think tomorrow night I will stay at his place.. the kitty needs to be fed, it is closer to work and his bed is bigger than mine : ) Smells like him as well. I miss my Friend.

I posted .. or at least started a post...got a phone call, baby got on the computer and my post was lost. It is always something :)


So.. toasty goodness for the weekend.. .with a nod to Manifestnow.

* Tie dye goodness in T minus 2 hours.
* Henna goodness in T minus 1.5 hours ....maybe.
* Having extra chirren in the house tonight and a slumber party
* Harvesting sweet potatoes this weekend.. yay!
* Clearing out the house tomorrow and reflection
* GORGEOUS pics of WV and surprise phone calls from G
* Hanging with the girls and hopefully digging the fire pit
* Long talk with K this morning.

what life can be like when you arent miserable all the time.

A lot of things have happened in the past couple of years. I am thankful for my friends that stood next to me, I am thankful for the other ones that proved to not be true friends to me and I am also thankful for the lessons that I learned that I will *never* repeat again in this or any other lifetime. I do feel I need to apologize to certain friends of mine that stood by me and kept propping me up when I kept letting the same situation drag me down. They say that you find out who your friends really are when the chips are down, and I have seen that it is true. So, to those of you who held me while I cried, talked to me when I was hysterical, slapped me around and pointed out the real deal to me and ALSO let me walk my own path.. thank you and I am sorry to have put you thru worrying. I have a few little details to tend to, and I will be able to let everything fade into oblivion.

I found that I am ok by myself.. in fact I enjoy it. That I dont need someone in my life to make me happy and that I will not settle for anything less than the real deal AND I know a bit more about how to spot the real deal. I learned the difference between love and lust, between needing and wanting, how to choose and love myself and that to love someone I dont have to sacrifice myself. I did some soul searching and mental cleansing. It was very much needed.. it wasnt fun, but it was needed. I am thankful for it and I am thankful for my family and friends who saw me thru all of it. Most of all, I am learning that even tho I have had a string of relationships..and have "failed" at all of them.. so what? They have taught me how to love who I am with now and have made me know *exactly* what I want.

So... ya know how they always say when you arent looking for a relationship.. you will find one? That is so true..

I have started seeing someone and I have to say, I have been the happiest and sanest I have been in ages. It was kinda funny the way we met, it was over a business lunch. A one hour business lunch turned into a 2 hour business lunch.. and then a quasi business relationship outing at a local vineyard. I had forgotten what it was to be in a normal setting with a normal "date". Thank the Gods that the bank was looking into scanning projects :) So, since then we have been seeing each other and having an awfully wonderful time. It has been hard, learning to trust again, but I have found that you have to put your trust in the right people.. and you have to accept that you might get hurt, but that deep down, in your core, you will be ok. I still struggle with that now and again, but when I need to pull back and have some mental health time he understands. Thus far things have been awesome.. Mumsie loves him, big brother likes him and approves, my sister in law has invited him to go flying with her father soon, my friends have approved of him, the Munkay didnt fling poo at him and The Mirror hasnt tried to stab him in the eyes with pencils and the Lady of Predators has not wanted to put a puck thru his forehead!! SUCESS!! Baby had a bit of a time adjusting, mainly b/c she hadnt realized that I had ever dated anyone (!!HAHAHA!!) Which, I am a little glad about to a degree. She was concerned that if I dated him, I wouldnt like her daddy.. sigh. So, baby daddy and I had a few talks and she and I had a few talks, and she understands where everyone and everything stands now. I am yet to meet his children.. a bit more issues there than my situation. He is an IT guy.. hahaha. I swear I think I am a geek magnet, BUT..... he is an UBER geek, which is tres cool. He is traveling on business right now :( But it is times like that that you really realize what you are to each other and can take a step back and take stock.

So... that is my little catch up of why I havent been updating as of late.

On a another note, baby is taking Hapkido. She is really excelling at it. She takes it very serious but not to the point of fixation. Her teacher is awesome.. he balks no shit from the kids, but he cares about them. Since she has started, she has improved her flexibility, her strength, self confidence and balance. She has been able to hold her own against several of the higher ranking belts.. and has sparred once with Master Ko. Of course he wiped the floor with her, but she learned a good bit. Once when she slammed a little boy to the floor I slowly turned and looked at Baby Daddy and smiled.. he never cracked a smile and said "I know we are wrong, but I derive such pleasure from this." hahahahah. On another note, school is going awesome. She had a moon viewing at Pinkerton Park recently, G brought his telescope as did a ton of dads and step dads. But alas and alak, no moon that night. Hopefully we will get to do that soon. We did take it with up to Mumsie's and sat it up on big brothers deck. We all got a good look at the full moon, saw the craters and seas and all.. we looked at a star also. Then we sat around after we put the kids to bed and talked for hours. It was really nice. Baby slept away from me that night.. a first I believe. She handled it pretty well. I still didnt get the rest of our names painted on Mumsie's rafters on the porch.. I need to do that before spring. BUT.. we did bring her the gorgeous wicker furniture that Munkay found on the Craigslist. She cried, b/c that is what she does.. G brought a few bottles of wine from Arrington and we all sat around after a fabu dinner (Poppa John grilled his famous ribs for us) and got tipsy. Mumsie was hilarious, a bit embarassing.. but funny. Baby had an awesome time as usual, but we didnt do mud pit :( I was hoping to get in one more mud pit before the end of the season.. but that isnt going to happen I think.

In other news.. the garden is about to be turned under. We have cleared out a HUGE portion. Big Brother gave us some uber poison and gave G the dilution ratio to keeeeel everything in the back yard but still be able to plant next spring. Oh... and he figured out an AWESOME idea for a fire pit for me!! I might have to take pics once that is completed. The deck is going to go in soon.. hopefully it will be before winter.. not sure tho. But.. we have the kitchen to paint and then start in on the bedroom.. sigh. The living room looks marvelous.. it is amazing what paint can do.

So.. I will hopefully be able to update more often .. as well as be able to pour thoughts into here, which I have held back doing for a couple of reasons. However, I have seen tonight that it doesnt really matter.. so.. fair game is fair game. :)

have a lovely night..

ps.. tie dye and henna tomorrow.. yay!

I think I shall go to bed and be deliriously happy now :)