Happy Friday the 13th :-\

It's been one of those days. I would say one that makes me look forward to the weekend, but I don't have a job right now so every day is like the weekend for me! I have all the free time in the world, but can't run because of a bum knee. How perfect.

Anyways, I woke up to an e-mail that absolutely blew my mind. A few months back I applied for what I thought was the PERFECT JOB for me. I worked at the Visitor Center as an undergrad at UC Santa Barbara as a tour guide and vice president of the association. I got to work closely with admissions counselors and many of my co-workers are still there.

Imagine my surprise when several positions opened up for admissions counselors!!! I knew the people hiring, I worked with them and I have experience working with prospective students at UC Santa Barbara! Fingers crossed, I waited. And waited, and waited until the July 17th closing date. After the 17th came and went, I assumed I wasn't being considered for an interview and chalked it up to yet another unsuccessful application. But this morning, I found an e-mail telling me I had been selected to move on and I had an interview to schedule IN Santa Barbara ON Tuesday. WHAT?!?!?!?! The WEEK I move is the week I move on to the next step?!?! With a heavy heart I e-mailed back my former co-worker and person responsible for hiring and told her they contacted me about a month too late, and that I had already moved out of the state.

Total bummer. It put a damper on my entire day. That was my ideal job -- within realistic reach that is -- and I passed on it. The next job that comes my way better make me feel at peace with that decision! Next on my plate, another e-mail saying I couldn't renew my contact order online because my prescription had expired!!! Seriously?!?! I don't have vision coverage so I have to pay out of pocket for an eye exam and get to pay a lot more for new contacts/glasses. Luckily I did a bit of reading online and found that the Costco here has an eye doctor. They're lower priced anyways, so they don't take insurance. But it's still a pretty high cost necessity for someone without a job. Maybe I'll go ahead and get Lasik soon......

All that before breakfast. So I felt like something low-maintenance and easy. Cereal is basically comfort food for me, so I indulged in some Quaker oat squares, Craisins and mango that I sucked at cutting.

And then I noticed creepy bug bites all over my right leg. Apparently something devoured me over night! For a second I freaked out because last night I FOUND AND KILLED A SCORPION INSIDE MY HOUSE. And shrieked and flipped for about 10 minutes. J.D. let me handle it alone and I still am creeped out by it. But, I guess killing it doesn't cause it to secrete out poisonous liquid and leave spider-like bites on your body several hours later. Or, so I'm hoping.

I believe I captured a baby one of these in my living room:

(Source)

*Shudders* Ugh. Anyways, I made myself keep busy in order to ignore the itching sensation of the bug bites. So I watered all the plants in the backyard. I did something as menial as cutting stray strings off my hand towels (hello OCD), filled in nail holes left by the previous tenants, painted the scuff marks previous tenants had left on our white walls and did a few loads of laundry. So far it's working out alright. I haven't felt the need to scratch.

Woodstock and I watched tv for a bit and then I had a strong desire to research some design elements to decorate our kitchen/living room area. I really want to go this route, wine and French vintage posters. We'll see what J.D. thinks about it :) I guess we should hit up Home Goods and Bed, Bath and Beyond first to see what's out there.

I loooove vintage French and travel posters. I decorated my dorm/room in college with these mini postcards. I think we need to stick with reds and yellows to match the tablecloth and kitchen accessories we already have.

Then lunchtime rolled around and I scrounged up some items from the fridge to make a mega veggie sandwich. I loaded veggies on a toasted whole wheat English muffin with spinach artichoke hummus spread in between the slices. It was awesome! I've never had carrots, olives and celery inside a sandwich before, but if they all go well with hummus, why not?!

And on the side I tapped into my inner child with a twist on apples and peanut butter. I sliced up my apple and swirled together dark chocolate almond spread and almond butter. YUMMY :) And washed it all down with a large glass of homemade chocolate skim milk. I mean, if I'm eating like a kid anyways....

Apparently my sweet tooth was still raging, so I downed a few of these:

After lunch, I got a call from our property manager that something else was wrong. We apparently live in such a stuck-up area that we aren't allowed to park on the street!!! I was also told, upon signing the lease, that if any oil spills/leaks are found in the garage/driveway, we will be charge for it upon move-out. My car is notorious for dripping oil and fluids so I thought I was on the safe side by parking it on the street with the garage still full of items to move. Guess not. TGIF I guess.

It didn't end there, surprise. My knee and ankle began to bother me, so I did some stretches and exercises with my resistance band for a while.

How do you like my rockin' kinesiotape?!? (hah, get it, Rock Tape??) And check out the toys around the floor. Someone doesn't know how to pick up after himself! Another struggle I've been dealing with today is trying to keep the puppy off our brand new couches! Eventually, I gave in for a little bit, so he wouldn't hurt himself jumping down. It's a good thing I let him, otherwise I never would have seen this little episode.

Enjoy the weekend, everyone! Hope Friday the 13th treated you better than it did me :) At least we're going to see Dinner for Schmucks tomorrow! Can't wait. I should have seen the original French version first, but in my extensive experience watching French films, I know they can be a bit weird. We'll see if that gets lost in translation or not...

Such a mess :)

If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time -- any of the three I've used since 2007 that is! -- you know how much of a mess I can be! So I'm going to preface this with a little bit of a throwback: Senior Mosts.

Remember in high school yearbooks how there was always that "Senior Mosts" section?? I wish I had a copy of mine to scan and post here for you all. But, I was voted Biggest Klutz/Spazz in high school. And you could have certainly guessed that yesterday.

Feeling extra motivated to get in some cross training since I hadn't ran in quite a while, I made sure to prepare/eat dinner extra early before Woodstock's puppy training class at PetSmart. Which by the way, he only has one more left before his final exam and graduation :) By the time class was over, I knew I'd have close to an hour of sunlight -- plenty of time to get in a good bike ride! I even set a bike date with a friend to ensure I wouldn't skip it.

Except, I haven't used my bike in almost a year now. And my front tire is completely out of air. Within the first five minutes of taking it out, I knew it sounded rubbery and squeaky and the tire was to blame. So instead, I figured I'd wing it and ride to the closest 7-11 to pump it full of air. Self-conscious of the hideous sound it made the entire way. But, when I arrived at 7-11, the AIR PUMP WAS OUT OF ORDER!!! So now here I am two miles from home with a bike that barely moves and not much sun remaining.

So guess what I did?

Yep, I took my bike for a run. I tried to jog my bike back home, holding the handlebars and running to the side. Which trust me, didn't last very long. It was more like interval training really ;) Or, like I'm practicing to make a bobsled team or something. I've gotten really good at the side push, if anyone's looking for a bobsled pusher.

Anyways, I reached my house 20 minutes later and felt completely destroyed. No more sun meant no more working out outside for me. And then it hit me: AT&T's On Demand section has workouts!

Luckily for me, this month they're previewing Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred. I've heard plenty of people brag about how awesome it is online, so I gave it a go. I tried one of her kickboxing-inspired videos On Demand before and loved how I felt after. However, I do find her pretty intense, intimidating and actually kinda creepy.

But the woman knows her stuff!! I was utterly exhausted after only 30 minutes of hardcore workouts. She constantly stresses no let up and by the end, I was grateful for the break.

The 30-Day Shred is definitely something I'm going to be looking into in the future!

I mean, look how sweaty and gross I was after??? I cheated in having a ton of water before this picture :)

After my super sweaty workout, this waited for me :)

Remember those Island Way fruit cup sorbets I talked about before?!?! Well J.D.'s parents were kind enough to pick up some more at Costco for us!!! YAY! I was surprised to find they've changed up some of the flavors. As usual there is a coconut shell filled with coconut sorbet and a mini half pineapple filled with pineapple sorbet. New to the mix this time around was a lemon shell filled with pomegranate sorbet (pictured above) and an orange shell filled with mango passion sorbet. Guys, passion fruit is one of my FAVORITE flavors!! It's sooooooo good and tropical feeling!

And now I'm going to backpedal a bit here. Back to last night's dinner! I set to work making all the fixings for a mini buffet bar thing.

Because I just cooked up a large container of carnitas!

And then put all the separate portions on my plate: spinach, sweet potato chunks, carnitas topped with a bit of cheese, olives and grilled peppers/onions, chips/salsa and brown rice.

But then, I didn't know what to do with this plate! So I mixed it all together and made a tasty fiesta salad :)

And the rest is history.

Oh yeah, I INHALED some more of that banana bread, slathered in cream cheese this morning along with an iced roobios vanilla latte. Home made coffee house meals are the best :)

Were you voted something crazy by your peers in your senior yearbook?? :)

I leave you, now, with something obvious.

Banana soft serve fail

I know. Everyone's raving about banana soft serve. With temperatures being in the 100s here, my bananas are turning brown and yucky in less than a day. What's the most obvious solution, then?

Freeze the bananas! Naturally, with frozen bananas, I figured it was finally time to give into banana soft serve.

I don't know about you guys, but I chopped this sucker up into small little pieces and then proceeded to blend it up in my Cuisine Art processor. Except, it didn't get all creamy and smooth. It was lumpy and warm and runny. In the time I tried to process the banana, it basically melted and took FOR-EVER to blend up. I figured I'd try to salvage it with some strawberries, but it didn't help a whole lot.

Look how runny and bubbly it is :( Because the consistency was so lackluster, I eventually left it in the freezer to firm up during dinner. Fail #2: I completely forgot about it until bedtime. By then I started whipping up some overnight oats and realized this blend was waaaay too hard for consumption. Fingers crossed, I put it back into the fridge along with my overnight oats, hoping it'd soften up by the morning.

Eventually it did, but the blend reverted back to its soupy texture by the time I was ready to eat. I half-heartedly mixed up my oats and readied a parfait glass for strawberry banana soft serve overnight oats. Topped with blueberries.

Apparently I'm 0-for-2.... I put a bit too much milk in the overnight oats ;) In all, it tasted fine. Just like fruity overnight oats. Nothing special, or life-changing. I was kind of hoping for something like that. Alas, I may have to try again. Any suggestions as to how I can make this a more enjoyable dining experience??

I went out with some co-workers for lunch, since I didn't have to feed Woodstock for lunch. He got his business taken care of at the vet today and as it starting hitting 98º -- yes like the boy band -- after 4 p.m., I had a craving for some kind of icy coffee beverage. Except, when I picked him up and took Woody home, I saw this unhappy little face.

He's so drugged out and groggy, he's done nothing but sleep all day. I'm supposed to keep a close eye on the pup to make sure he doesn't jump on anything or run around all crazy and fast. I knew I couldn't leave him home alone while I walked to Starbucks, so I got creative and made some iced coffee at home.

I put a splash of milk in a glass in the freezer to let it get all icy and chunky, then French pressed up some coffee. The coffee was waaay too strong for my liking in this application, so I added in a spoonful of home-made caramel, compliments of my sister Aimée!

The caramel iced coffee hit the spot! And it worked two-fold in that I got to stay home with the baby while he recovers :)

Dinner awaits me on the table, so I must go tend to it!! :)