A few weeks back I got some interesting mail for once. Aside from the plethora of magazine subscriptions that have found their way to my mailing address, the million and one averts for lawyers (Damn Texas and their policy of selling lists to lawyers), and [interestingly enough] even adverts forcheap life insurance, I also received information for a seminar that was interest to me and I could afford it to boot!

Normally tickets for the Get Motivated Business Seminar average around $100+ dollars (actually I think it was closer to $200) and so I’ve never even considered going before. It’s just never been in my price range. However, this year, they reduced the prices and the pre-registration prices were ridiculously low so I couldn’t let the opportunity pass.

The seminar is going to be held at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, TX tomorrow from 8am to 4:45pm, so it’s going to be a long day. I hope to learn a lot and have a good time as well. The guest speakers I’m most excited about are Rudy Giuliani, Laura Bush, Mike Price (UTEP Football coach), and Rick Belluzzo.

Video and audio recorders aren’t allowed, so sadly I won’t be uploading any interesting clips to the blog but I will be posting an over view of it and my thoughts tomorrow after I return. We can take cameras though so I will probably post a few pictures.

I’ve finished getting everything I need for tomorrow ready and will be going to bed soon so that I can get up early enough to drive up to El Paso, get a parking space, and get checked in at 6:45 when the doors open. I even packed my purse with some snacks and bottled water already! There will be a break for lunch and the concession stands will be open and offering sandwiches, salads, and the typical fare you can expect (popcorn, hot dogs, nachos, ect) but I’d rather not have to buy my meal from there. You just know concession stand prices are outrageous, not to mention, the lines will be long. I’m in the executive seating (floor seating by the stage) so I can just imagine what the lines would be like by the time I got to the top floors where the concession stands are. So not going to fool with that. Hopefully they don’t search bags and confiscate outside food and drink.

I was checking out the weekly best buy deals at Buy.com just to see if there were any thumb drives or [preferably] external hard drives that were within my price range when it dawned on me that I still hadn’t gotten around to reading the latest chapter of the Naruto manga.

So, fully expecting another disapointing chapter, I headed over to OneManga.com and read chapter 485 of Naruto. And while the chapter was disappointing (I mean come on, Naruto, get over Sasuke, stop whining, and just kill the psychopath!) I was highly amused by Sasuke’s former healer and fanatical-fangirl Karin. Yes, you read that right, former fangirl. :rofl:

Is that awesome or what? I knew there was a reason I thought Karin was funny and better (in some aspects) to a lot of the Konoha kunoichi. I mean shesh, Sasuke betrayed her once and she says “fuck you!”. And as fans may recall, Ino and Sakura are still all wishy-washy over Sasuke despite abandoning Konoha and vowing vengeance on Konoha. Looks to me like Karin has a better grasp of reality then some important characters do.

That’s actually sad though when you think about it.

And yeah, I’m not even going to touch the whole psycho!Sasuke vowing to kill everyone in order to exalt and revive his clan. Yeah, the falacies in that logic are just…wow. And to think, he’s supposed to be a genius!

In other news, at least the battle with Aizen is totally rocking. Bleach doesn’t disapoint there. And I got caught up on all of the episodes for Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood just in time for the new episode (#47 Yami no Shisha) that comes out tomorrow! Which is good because I can’t wait to see Pride in action against Lin and Ed. *bounces* So exciting!!

I joined Gevalia coffee a little while back and my first order arrived in the mail yesterday. To be honest I didn’t know what to expect from it. I mean, I’ve had different flavors of coffee from Boca Java and wasn’t very impressed. However, the introductory offer of 3 coffee or teas of your choice for just three dollars and free S&H was just too good to pass up so I gave it a try.

Oh gosh, I’m so glad I did!

There were so many delicious sounding flavors of tea to choose from, so I limited myself to Ceylon Cinnamon Orange and Blackberry Spice. I also chose one flavored coffee, Dark Chocolate Truffle. I’ve had four cups of the Dark Chocolate Truffle coffee already and I’m more than eager to go and brew another pot of it. It’s just that damn good. *drools*

I just can’t wait to give the flavored teas a try now after this! Now I can sit down and finishing sorting through my mail from yesterday, which I picked up on my way to ‘Cruces, hence why I haven’t read it yet. It’s actually kind of scary how you use your mailing address for one thing and suddenly you’re on everyone’s mailing lists. Case in point, this last time I got in a fender bender I order some parts for Pyro and they were delivered to this address. It was one time and from just one merchant, yet somehow I’ve got a couple of different catalogs for Mopar performance parts addressed to me. I don’t even know I got a subscription to Women’s Day magazine either, let alone Cosmopolitan, Curve, and Rolling Stone. I did sign up for free subscriptions to Spin and Marie Claire, but honestly I never get a chance to read those ones, let alone all the other ones that I’m getting free that I never even subscribed for. Makes you wonder just how I got on these lists.

Dang nabbit, I woke up this morning with a craving for some bacon. Specifically, I wanted to eat eggy in a basket and have a side of bacon to go with it while I finally go through the stack of mail that has been piling up. Most of it looks like junk mail given that there are a lot of adverts for car insurance companies in the pile, still there is some important stuff that needs to be sorted out and shredded before disposal. But in all honesty, I think I may just settle for the eggy in a basket. The bacon is a little scary to eat.

See, I picked up some bacon the other day when I went shopping. I picked up a lot items and somehow I didn’t catch on to the fact that the cashier bagged my bacon with the soda and since I had a lot of groceries (because I waited until everything was practically depleted) I honestly didn’t notice it was missing until the next day. I went shopping at Wal-Mart in the late evening, got back around 2am, put up the groceries, then went to bed. I didn’t notice the bacon was mixed in with the soda until the following day around noon. Meaning the bacon sat out for about ten hours until I noticed it when I decided to have a glass of soda around noon. Needless to say, after swearing up a storm I chucked it in the fridge real fast.

It gets very cold at night and the only [electric room] heater that stays on through the night is the one in the bedroom, so in theory the bacon should still be good. But yeah, I’m still leery of it. Damn cashiers don’t know how to bag right. I mean seriously, the woman put my tomatoes with can goods (thankfully those didn’t get mushed or bruised up), I should have thought to check everything more thoroughly after that discovery. But all the meat, dairy, and frozen stuff was grouped together for the most part that it didn’t even dawn on me that I was missing something.

Breakfast, the most important meal of the day. It’s also the meal I tend to skip the most. For as long as I can remember, I’ve had trouble remembering to eat breakfast. It’s not so much that I’m so busy, although in the past that was a major factor, but more like I can’t stomach anything early in the morning. I usually don’t feel like eating anything until 10 o’clock (if I got up early) or around noon if I got up at say 9 or 10 in the morning.

I have been trying to eat something, and when I noticed that the milk had gone bad I mourned the loss of cereal this morning. Sure I could have eaten some dried, but the only thing I had left was Life, and I’ve never been able to eat more than a handful dry. But hey, it gave me a damn good excuse to open up the package of snack mix I picked up to try and eat some before heading out!

Yeah, I know it’s been around for a while now, but I’d never tried it before, strangely enough. I gave it a try this morning and I gotta say, I love it. I could sit here and eat the whole bag in a setting! Thankfully, I got some control and only had a couple of handfuls.

Cheerios Snack Mix has pretzels, bagel chips, Chex, Cheerios, and those little bread sticks. In short, it’s pretty much your basic snack mix. It didn’t feel nearly as greasy as other snack mixes, which is good since it is supposed to be baked and not fried. However, for those counting the calories, it does deliver up 120 calories per serving (2/3 cup) which is 60 calories more then a regular bowl of Cheerios.

Thankfully, I ate this before my morning ride so I can safely say I burned it off.

Strangely enough, I’ve found that eating healthier (or at least not skipping meals like crazy) and exercise has done wonders for my oil skin and the acne that was starting to return. The best acne products, in my book, are the ones you don’t have to pay for, so that’s awesome. My morning walks and bike rides though do absolutely nothing for the dry skin, just makes it worse. Why can’t my face decide between the two? Why must certain sections be oily and other parts dry? Why?!

You may recall me talking about donating plasma in my last post, and how my blood started clotting, which made the ordeal very draining/tiring? To summarize, Because my blood started clotting and was collecting in the machine, but was not being returned to me, I was actually loosing blood and not getting it back. Imagine sitting down somewhere and having your blood drained for about an hour, that’s essentially what happened to me. And because my right arm was starting to bruise from the ordeal, they decided it would be best to switch to my other arm and just set the machine to return the blood to me without separating the plasma as I had begun to suffer the first stages of blood loss.

Well, a few hours after all was said and done my arms were sore and tender as fuck, excuse the language. To top it off, they were both swollen around the area where the needle was injected and bruising to boot!

That’s how they looked yesterday, now they’re looking even scarier. Lots of burst blood vessels near the surface of my skin, and look, funny bruises that aren’t even that close to the needle mark to boot!

Yeah, I wish I could say those yucky spots are actually dirt and I need to go wash up. Sadly, that’s the result of the not so successful plasma donation.

I’ve never bruised up that bad before, not after a plasma donation, or anything for that matter really. The swelling in my right arm (picture above and on the right) has gone down, but the swelling in the left arm has pretty much remained the same.

Perhaps I should consider not donating plasma anymore? I seem to always come out the worse for wear.

Today was a long, tedious, and exhausting day.

First I woke up early so I could get the girls (Isis and Denali) up to town today for their physical and interviews (a local agency is actually “hiring” cats for modeling in media). There actually weren’t that many people that responded to the ad apparently, and despite the fact that Isis and Denali were among the better behaved kitties there, they probably won’t be getting any “jobs” sadly. Isis and Denali are all up to date on their shots, are in wonderful health (some couldn’t believe Isis is actually 14 years!), and unlike most of the cats that were brought in, Isis and Denali obey commands like “up”, “down”, “stay”, and “follow”. In the instances where they hesitate, all I have to say is “kitchen”, which Denali and Isis translate as “FOOD!” and their hesitance is gone. Yet despite this, after every stage of their “audition” people felt the need to comment on how it was “such a shame they’re not pure breeds”.

I seriously hate it when people judge pets by their pedigree. Just because they’re of a mixed breed does not mean the animal in question is any less “desirable”.

In any case, I was given the distinct impression that the lack of a pedigree will keep Isis and Denali from getting a call back. Disheartening really as Isis seemed to be eating the attention up. Seriously, I just know that kitty knew exactly what was going on and loved every minute of it. I expected her to act as she does at the vet’s office, instead she was a little prima donna.

After that ordeal, I took the girls back home then went up to ‘Cruces to run a few errands before donating plasma. Ugh, I swear every time I go something goes wrong. Today my blood was clotting up badly so instead of donating plasma I donated more blood than anything else. You see, the machine draws your blood out, separates the plasma from the blood and sends the plasma to the container while sending your blood back into you. Well, since my blood was clotting so badly, my blood was drawn out, got clogged up in the machine and very little of the plasma actually went into the collection container. To top it off, my blood wasn’t returning to me either. Eventually, because of the “shock” of having so much blood drawn, the continuance of my blood clotting, and the way my veins were acting, it was decided that they would switch arms to re-stick me and then return my blood to me that way as the arm I was using was bruising already. Even then, immediately after sticking me on my other arm, the area around my vein swelled and started bruising.

And did I mention my arms are sore where they stuck me still?

After that I decided to grab something in town, which kinda put a dent in my healthy eating and will probably be reflected in the weigh in on PixieWire to boot. Ah! For those that don’t know, PixieWire.net is a blog I created in January to keep track of progress towards becoming a healthier and happier me. I hesitate to call it simply a diet blog, simply because it also focuses on my emotional/mental health as well. I’m afraid you won’t be finding anything like a Jenny Craig review on there, as I am not enrolled in any such programs or taking any special drugs, just good old fashioned exercise and eating right. Still, I’m sure it’ll be good for a laugh! You can always smirk and giggle at my attempts to drop from an unhealthy 246 lbs to a slimmer 160 lbs.

Well, in any case, after all of that, then coming home to clean and logging on to my blogs to find them out of date (new version of wordpress!) and several plugins needing to be updated, not to mention my backlogged emails, and re-installing some more stuff to the laptop after the re-install of Windows, I’m just exhausted and ready to hit the sack.

Major run-on sentence there, yes I know.

It turns out I was right, the program “Internet Security 2010″ from Kaspersky was what crashed my computer.

According to the guys at PC Fix, that program has actually been a bane to a number of people and resulted in the same thing that happened to me. A complete re-install of Windows. The software downloads itself, screws with Windows, and you can’t do anything on your computer or with it unless you choose to play by the software’s rules and pay to activate the software.

Be advised, the anti-virus programs like AVG, Norton, McAfee, and Avira have trouble blocking it and the software itself, if installed, can hamper and disable virus protection.

The way I got it was through a popup that loaded on a file sharing site (Rapidfire I believe). When the popup loaded it said it was scanning my computer for problems. I tried to close the popup and received an alert button that gave me the option to continue the scan and stay on the page by clicking “cancel” or purchasing the software by hitting “buy”. Obviously Neither of those were what I wanted to do so I ultimately had to alt +ctrl + delete it and close out Firefox entirely. The program still managed to download itself though and screwed up everything though.

PC Fix was able to recover some of my data for me, and now I’m stuck re-installing Windows updates (like the service packs) and the programs I just can’t live without (Photoshop!). My humongous music collection is gone though, I was more concerned that the files under my Documents and Pictures folders be recovered as that had my layouts, projects in progress, and business documentation, and other important things and this was a lot of data to recover as well.

And what did it cost? Including labor, tax, and data recovery (which included a backed up copy on a dvd) the total came out to…. $63 dollars. Not bad really, but when you don’t have money to spend it still hurts. Still though, PC Fix was awesome. Took it it Monday morning and it was ready for pick-up late Monday evening, and there were a lot of people ahead of me to boot. So you know they were slaving away to maintain their “ready in one business day” motto that they aim for. No need for anti wrinkle treatments with these guys, they take the stress away and keep you from fretting over a ridiculous sized bill to boot. Love ‘em!

And my music library, all 20gb is gone and I just can’t be bothered to re-install it all on the laptop either. I’ve installed some tunes, but not much. It’s not even 1gb! Mostly it’s just anime and movie soundtracks right now.

So yeah, beware of Internet Security 2010 software from Kaspersky. Whatever you do, avoid sites that support it and advertise it as there might be popups or other ads there that try to download it onto your computer.

I’ve been scouring the job searches and postings looking for employment for what seems like forever now. I’ve had horrid luck in that department too and I couldn’t fathom why I would possibly be turned down with comments like “you don’t possess the qualities we’re looking for” and similar given to me. Well, at long last, the answer was revealed. I mistakenly left a woman who has bad relations with my mother as a reference and she’s been happily bad mouthing me. Joy. I caught that though (finally!) and fixed my resume, I’ve been earning a little more money on side jobs and small design gigs too so I thought things were looking up for me.

Then, last night, while I was doing updates on the laptop and commenting on blogs my computer got attacked by multiple viruses all at once. Seriously, Avira was blocking attacks back to back, think there was like eight. I thought they got blocked but something clearly went through because, alas, the blue screen of death appeared a few minutes later and then the computer shut down. When I brought it back up it said that the RUN.dll wasn’t working. I did a restore to a previous backup point, and that fixed that problem, but then Windows itself said it wasn’t working. And then there was a new program installed on my computer that I never downloaded let alone installed.

The program that installed itself was called something like 2010 Internet Security, it downloaded and installed itself. It said I had 20+ viruses, worms, and trojans on my computer and wanted me to pay $49.99 to get the paid version and remove the threats. Poor Avira Antivirus was going crazy trying to block the fucker as it did it’s “scan” too. I tried to go to the control panel and uninstall the 2010 Internet Security thing from the programs list, well guess what, it wasn’t even there.

I suspect the thing downloaded and installed itself when a popup loaded earlier that day. I was on someone’s site, can’t remember who, and got bombarded with popups. One of which said something along the lines of “your computer may be infected, do a scan with…” and when I tried to close that window an alert message came up asking me if I was sure I wanted to close the window, but instead of having an “ok” and “cancel” button it just had the “cancel” button. In other words, you couldn’t close the popup. I ended up having to ctrl + alt + delete and close out Firefox entirely.

That event, coupled with the Weather Channel plugin that would never uninstall no matter how many times you “uninstalled” it, clued me in that something was going on somewhere. So I started checking to make sure Spybot, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Adaware, and Avira Antivirus were all up to date and was about to do scans, when BAM!, blue screen of death and the laptop shut down. Then of course, when I brought it back up, there was the RUN.dll error, then the restore, and then the “Windows has encountered an error and shut down” and from there nothing works. And in the mean time, that stupid program that downloaded itself was running in the background doing scans and telling me I have some worm that could potentially steal my information.

Uh, yeah, you’re the worm you sorry sack of monkey-spunk! And of course this all happens when I’ve got a ton of work to do too. I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night and now I’ve got dark circles under my eyes. I must look something awful since the cashier at Staples was looking at me like I might reach over the counter and attack her. Honestly, I was in a fair mood too sense I was able to catch an 8gb Sandisk flash drive on sale for $14.99. It was a sale that I couldn’t pass up, even with the impending computer repair expense.

My laptop crashed before and I took it to PC Fix and was really impressed with how fast they got it fixed, how cheap it was, and that they were able to do data recovery and it didn’t cost an arm and a leg for that as well. I’ll be taking my laptop to them this time too. Alas, they’re closed on the weekends so the earliest I can take it in to them is Monday, assuming they’re not closed in observance of President’s Day. They are a small locally owned business after all and they are in Las Cruces, the town that seems to shut down on every holiday. Hopefully they can get it up and running that same day like they did last time.

In the mean time, I’m gonna be MIA for a bit. As it is, I had to borrow the computer at my Mom’s office to make this post. So yeah, I’ll be slow answering emails and returning comments for the next few days as I get this straightened out and then play catch up.

For some reason I was really excited when I saw the commercials on AdultSwim announcing the premiere of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. So I stayed up just so I could watch it and it’s on right now. So far, it looks like Funimation did a good job on the dub. I don’t really care for Mustang’s voice though, or Armstrong’s. I think they should have just gotten all of the same voice actors from the previous anime to return and do the voices again. I mean, we the fans, already associate certain voices with characters. Edward’s English VA is the same, why not the others? Sure, a lot of the Japanese seiyuu for the new series are different too, but the voices are close. Where as in the English dub some of the voices are way off from the previous ones. So weird.

It was good seeing Maes alive again though. I’ve been following the episodes online in Japanese, the last episode I watched was forty-two, so yeah, definitely good to see old characters and re-watch it again from the beginning.

I love that this series is staying more true to the manga too. While the other storyline in the anime was good, the real storyline is so much better and includes some awesome characters that got ignored last time around.

Loved watching the scene were Armstrong starts ripping off his clothes to “inspire” Ed and Al. Good thing he left the breeches of his uniform on at least. Gotta love the sparkles. Armstrong is definitely one of my faves, but his older sister is the coolest member of the Armstrong family.

Now, after watching the English dub of episode one, I’m gonna go back and re-watch the series that has thus far been released online in Japanese.

February 12th has come and gone and now I am a year older, a little more tired and jaded, broker then I was last year at this time, but I am a little bit wiser. Fair trade off? I’ll get back to you on that.

Honestly though, as far as birthdays go, mine was pretty nice. It was mostly spent with family and friends. I met with some old friends for an early birthday breakfast, then later, my mom took me out for dinner to a restaurant of my choice, a tradition of hers that she insists upon maintaining. After much consideration I went with Famous Dave’s BBQ. I’ve eaten at Carrino’s and Si Senor many a time, Texas Roadhouse not so much. I’d never eaten at Famous Dave’s before though, although I have had some of their food a couple of times when they catered a few work related events. From what food I got in those instances it was delicious and I really wanted to sit down and give their food a try.

Oh boy was I glad I did! I had the Two-Meat BBQ Combo plate and chose brisket and barbecued chicken and my sides were potato salad and their fries; read: potato wedges. Absolutely delicious! I tried every single sauce they had on the table, and I have to say, the Texas Pit one was my favorite. I had two glasses of their Smokin’ Tea (their version of a Long Island Ice Tea) that came out in HUGE glasses that were the equivalent of two drinks in one, so I guess you could say I had four drinks. For desert I had their Kahlua brownie which was this huge brownie with walnuts in it, a scoop of ice cream, and drizzled with Kahlua and chocolate sauce and included whipped cream. Heaven I tell you, heaven.

Probably not the best place to have eaten, given that I’ve been trying to loose weight, but it was soooo worth it. *drools* My great aunt gifted me with a ton of Bath & Body Works products for my birthday, but after eating all that yummy food, maybe it would have been better if she’d gifted me with stretch marks creams instead. I feel so guilty for eating all that food, yet I don’t regret it and would love to go again soon.

I was glad that the weather was so nice today. It got a little breezy late in the afternoon, but for the most part there were clear skies and the temperature stayed in the high fifties (Fahrenheit) before dipping into the forties on the way home.

I got a lot of awesome gifts too: from items I’ve been wanting for my home office; gift cards to my favorite places and nice places to eat at; B&BW merchandise (can never go wrong there); even this cool little wooden chest that came filled with candles, incense, and oils. And of course, as always, I got a ton of flowers and candy too. Still haven’t figured out if it’s a good thing my birthday isn’t actually on Valentine’s day or not. My bedroom and the living room looks like a florist shop exploded in it right now. Boxes and boxes of Valentine’s candy, a plethora of vases filled with every Valentine’s day bouquet conceivable, and I’ve even broken out with jars and glasses and filled them with sugar water to hold the long-cut roses and carnations I’ve been gifted with too.

Strangely enough, while I got a ton of candy of flowers, per the norm, I didn’t get any Valentine’s Day plushes. Not that I’m complaining mind you, it was just something odd and out of the norm to note. I did however still get a plush this year, but I’m not complaining:

Yes! I got a Dallas Cowboys monkey plush. I’ve always wanted one of these and was so thrilled when I received it. Definitely one of my favorite birthday gifts this year.

Just got home a little while ago, and let me tell you, boy am I glad to be home. People are crazy on the roads, that’s a given, but it’s always worse when it’s raining. It’s like all common sense they might have possessed is washed away with the rain. Not to mention the scaredy-cat drivers who should just really stay off the road if they’re that afraid that a little water is going to make them wipe out.

I spent most of the day driving around town and applying at various places I’ve seen looking to hire new employees, including HFH. I’m still reeling over the fact that one of my references on my resume were apparently bath-mouthing me every chance they got. Why? Because they have a beef with my mother and apparently thought sabotaging my employment attempts was a nice means of revenge. I feel stupid for not realizing that, that’s what was happening before, hell I forgot I had That Woman as a reference to be honest. The last time I had to update my resume my mother and That Woman were still on good terms and she offered to be a reference for me since I used to work with her too.

All those months of “you don’t have the qualities we’re looking for” and other not so nicely put comments and it was all because of her. That really burns me up, I could have very well had a job by now!

After I finished submitting my resume and applications I drove on over to Hobby Lobby in search of something to better help organize my desk with. I was wanting a desk organizer sort of like this, but smaller, or some kind of corner shelf that could be placed on the desk. Everything I was finding though was way too big so Hobby Lobby became my last resort. If I couldn’t find anything I liked or could use I was going to pick up some plywood from there and build my own.

I lucked out and found a three-drawer storage bin over in the scrapbooking supplies section. It’s a small one (about 3″ in width and 4″ in height) but it fits on the desk better the the larger one did and leaves me with plenty of surface space to work with. The larger one would have fit just fine mind you, but it would have been awkward since I have a lamp that would have been in the way and any papers in front of it would always have to be moved in order to open the bottom drawer. So yeah, this one works better, even if it’s not exactly what I wanted. Still, it means I won’t have everything shoved in the one desk drawer that works (the center one is broken) or in an assortment of cups and jars on the desktop either. After I get the desk organized how I want it I’ll take pictures and post them!

When I got home today I found a box from Gevalia coffee waiting for me too. Considering how cold it is and the rain that’s still coming down, seeing that box was like glimpsing heaven. So I have some coffee brewing now, and the electric heaters are barely starting to warm the house up. I wish I had one of those Amish fireplaces. I bet that would warm the house up faster!

For the New Orleans Saints fans, Mardi Gras just got a nine day jump start because the Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts 31 to 17.

Ah man, I gotta say, at the beginning there during the first half I was screaming at the t.v. like a banshee. I was seriously thinking the Saints were throwing it away. Garrett Hartley, kicker for the Saints, kept them in there, but one man doesn’t make a team obviously. Seriously, it was looking like the Saints should get some quick life insurance quotes because they were dead meat out there. Then came the half time show – The Who – and they put on an awesome performance that got me up and dancing and raring to go for the next half.

And wouldn’t you know, the Saints got their game on and upset the Colts, who were the favorites to win, with a 14 point victory over the Colts. Truly spectacular. Awesome call on the challenge, and you gotta love that interception – savings grace for the Saints.

I was disappointed though that Brees was voted MVP and not Hartley. To me, Hartley was more deserving of it as he really kept them in it. But hey, Brees worked for it too.

Over all, definitely a better (and closer) game then I initially anticipated. Sure, my ‘Boys didn’t go. But hey, the Saints went and they won it, so I’m still happy regardless.

Who were you rooting for in Super Bowl XLIV? Were you surprised at the outcome or was it pretty much as expected?

Seriously, I love using the 24 laundromat on campus. It’s great because (obviously) it’s open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, even on holidays. No parent takes their kid to do laundry at night so you can be sure that if you go around 10pm or later there are no screaming kids running around under foot either. Plus, across the hall, there’s a convenience store and down the hall is a computer lab. Not to mention the laundromat has free wi-fi too. It’s just awesome!

Of course, there are always people that have to ruin things though.

Yeah, the door has been pulled off. Not the first time I’ve seen that sadly. People are also notorious for leaving their trash, kids’ toys, and other junk lying around. Oh, and they love going off and leaving laundry on the tables and in the machines too.

Messy looking isn’t it? And to think, this is a good night. I’ve also seen the glass on some of the doors smashed in, someone ripped off the change machine from the wall once and it’s never been re-installed, there’s been interesting things hanging off the ceiling like food and what seriously looked like blood. The toilets backed up with newspapers shoved in the toilet bowls and feces smeared on the walls. There’s times the floor looks like a garage floor because it’s covered in grease puddles and puddles of other questionable substances. Then of course there are times when you have to put up with some crazy people there too.

It’s been better though since they’ve had security guards checking in randomly at night. Still though, I wish people would take better care of the facility. When it’s not trashed the place is nice and cozy to sit in, there are two big screen tvs with satelite, the wi-fi is super fast, and the chairs comfy as hell. I love going there and using my laptop there while I do my laundry. According to some of the guards I spoke with though, if things keep going the way they are the laundromat will start closing around 12 o’clock at night. Now that would really suck. Bad apples always spoil it for everyone else.

A restaurant I used to like to eat at, called Tegmyers, closed down a while back and new placed call “Hot Rod Cafe” opened up in its place. I kept meaning to give it a try, yet someone how I never really got around to it. Today, after running around looking for a few office supplies, I decided to pay a visit to my mom’s office and invite her out to a late lunch (read: early dinner) and since the Hot Rod Cafe wasn’t far we decided to go and give it a shot.

As you probably guessed, the interior of the cafe is designed as a tribute the 1950’s. There are a ton of photos, posters, and adverts of famous actors and artists from this time period framed on the wall. There were also a lot of pictures of some cool “hot rods” too. The style of the tables, chairs, and booths look like they got yanked from Back to the Future, and there were even cutout figures of iconic comic and cartoon characters spread about. Like Little Lulu, Betty Boop, Archie, and more. And the menu, the names of the food items cracked me up. I had the “That Crazy Chick” which consisted of chicken tender strips, fries, and sauce.

Sadly though, Hot Rod Cafe wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. The wait staff seemed to prefer hanging out in the back and wiping down spotless counters rather then waiting on customers. I mean, my gosh, I had to ask for napkins and the waitress never gave me silverware either. Hello! Not all people eat chicken strips with their hands, some do cut it up. Not to mention the food is greasy, of course I’m going to want a napkin! Taku.

And there’s just something about being inside a cafe with a 1950’s decor and listening to a radio with non-stop commercials that mostly consisted of reminding Las Cruces residents that the “no talking on cell phone law” is now in effect, don’t drink and drive, and various insurance agencies telling listeners to call today for insurance quotes. Of course, when the music came back on it was Power 102 – the local Rap/Hip Hop station. Seriously? I’d think you’d be playing Ritchie Valenz, Beach Boys, Buddy Holly, Dion & the Belmonts, the Big Bopper, Elvis, ect. Not Soulja Boy.

Eventually though they did change the station and instead put it on 101 Gold, an oldies station playing music anywhere from the 50’s to 80’s. Better, but still a bit off there.

Besides the lack luster service, the big disappointment is the food and prices. The food is okay, certainly the sandwiches and burgers I saw were pretty decent sized (and big) but the chicken strip basket I got? Small serving for $7 bucks. So not worth it. If you go to the Hot Rod cafe I’d recommend getting a burger or sandwich from them, then it’ll be worth your money.

Yare, yare. The day has hardly begun and I’m exhausted and ready to crawl back into bed and catch a few winks. My grandfather, unfortunately, suffers from arthritis and it has a bad habit of acting up when he least expects it. So I got called over to help load the truck with the barrels of trash, old lumber, and fallen limbs that he’s hauling to the landfill today. Aye, yai, yai. My arms are killing me.

I’ve been looking around the web and reading sites that have information for people with rheumatoid arthritis to try and better understand the treatments/medicine that can be taken for it since I’m pretty sure neglecting to mention it to your doctor and popping Bayer when it gets too bad isn’t the way the go. Yeah, that’s my grandfather. Stubborn old man. Gotta love him.

Gonna finish eating my cup ramen (spicy beef!) then go take a shower and get dressed. I had planned on going shopping today for a few things I need for my office. I wanted to get a new corkboard to go over my desk as well as another desk organizer to sit on my desk. See, since my desk is a flat-top one (no shelves) I wanted to ask my grandfather to build me something to accommodate my reference books and various pen holders that wouldn’t take up much surface space. I was thinking of a desktop organizer kinda like this, but smaller. I have one, of a sort, on my desk already. But it’s narrow and designed more to hold paperback novel width books. So while novels and the like fit on the bottom shelf and pen holders and nick nacks fit on top, not much else can. It’s not the full-length of the desk either. So I wanted something to fit on the unoccupied corner that could do the job. Tall order right? Well, my grandfather is awesome with wood working and carpentry and is the one who built my bookcases, trunks, jewelery boxes, and even my chest of drawers. But with his arthritis acting up so bad I don’t dare ask him to do it. Not only would it likely depress him if he has to say no (realizing he can’t do it under current circumstances) but the thought of him going anywhere near a table saw right now is frightening.

So yeah, off to hunt through Staples, Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, and various thrift stores in hopes of finding what I need. Wish me luck!

For some reason quite a few of my friends have been turning to me for help with their taxes, most of whom have generated some sort of income through the internet. I find this kind of funny since I’m not an accountant (although my mother is and I have some experience as well) and I don’t trust myself to do my taxes myself and instead allow someone else to do them so any mistakes can be caught quickly. However, since the recurring question that I am asked is about possible business expenses, I thought I’d write a quick (but hopefully helpful) post to give others some help in getting their expenses for the 2009 year in order, and to make keeping track of expenses in the years to come easier as well.

When it comes down to business expenses, it’s important to remember that just because you could take it as an expense doesn’t necessarily mean that you should. I’ve seen some other posts around on blogs where folks recommend their readers take XYZ as an expense without explaining that said expense likely wouldn’t be applicable to them, or explaining the stipulations that go with that expense. I cringe when I see those posts and read comments from readers exclaiming how they’re going to take those expenses too. I can’t help but get visions of auditors cackling madly and rubbing their hands together. If you don’t have any need of project management software don’t go and buy it and then take it as expense because a fellow blogger said you could. I’ve sat in on auditors going through client’s books before, believe me, they will find the frivolous expenses and if you can’t prove that you use them, they will be removed. Don’t hand them [IRS] a ripe chance to slap you with penalties and fees on a silver platter folks, instead CYA.

That said, below is a list of common business expenses one could take if their business/source of income is generated through the internet and is blog/website related. Bloggers, Ad-users (ie: Adsense), writers, and graphic and/or web designers will likely find these most helpful:

WEB SERVICES – In order to keep your site up and running you have to have it hosted, and more like than not, you have a domain (or more) as well. Whether your site serves as your portfolio or hosts ads that you earn revenue from, it’s an integral part of how you earn that income and is an expense you need to be keeping track of.
Examples: Hosting, Domain Purchases/Renewals, File Storage, ect.

ADVERTISING – In order to generate or up your revenue you have to get yourself out there and get yourself known. Advertising is a trying but much needed expense for everyone.
Examples: Items purchased for giveaways/contests, ads, paid for graphics for advertising (say you pay a G.A. to make you some banners and headers), business cards, printing fliers.

SOFTWARE – It actually never ceases to amaze me how many people will shell out large amounts of cash to get the latest versions of their favorite software and then completely forget (or just don’t realize) that it can be taken as a business expense as well. If you purchase software that is going to be used for your site then it is a prime expense to take. Other software that can be taken as an expense are programs that help maintain your computer, because let’s face it, without your computer you’re sunk. Basically, if it’s a program that helps or enables you to make money it is an expense.
Examples: FTP programs, graphic programs like Adobe Photoshop, Dragon Naturally Speaking, website builders, Microsoft Office, virus protection, registry repairers, adware and malware protection, ect.

INTERNET & PHONE SERVICE – Let’s face it, if you didn’t have the internet you wouldn’t be able to get your work done. This is a very important expense. But it’s a tricky expense to take too. What I’ve seen a lot of bloggers fail to mention (and even some tax preparers too) is that unless the internet is solely for business purposes (and very occasionally personal) you should not be taking the entire bill as a business expense. The same goes for your phone bill as well. If you have a separate phone line or ISP for business purposes, then you can take those bills in full. If your phone and internet is split between personal and business then you can only take a percentage of the bill for business. Sit down and calculate how much of your bill is used for personal and how much is used for business, then take that percentage for the total cost of bill for the year and you have your expense. I recommend sitting down with a tax preparer and working this out together.
Examples: phone bills, internet bills, cable

ELECTRONICS/TECHNOLOGY – Because, let’s face it, without your computer and various pieces of tech, you’d be sunk. While people are quick to remember that desktops and laptops are expenses, they tend to forget there are smaller items that are integral to their business as well. From new mice, to printers, faxes, and even PDAs – these are items you use to get your work done and can cost a pretty penny to boot. Don’t forget these! Bloggers, it is important to note that content is key, if you use a digital camera to take pictures and use those in posts then the camera is a business expense, don’t let others tell you otherwise.
Examples: Printers, computers, CPUs, mice, speakers, digital cameras, microphones, laptops, laptop battery chargers, usb cords, thumb drives, laptop batteries, cooling pads, tablets

ELECTRICITY – Yes, it is important that you have electricity running in order to turn on your devices and get some work done. So of course this is an obvious expense to take. Here’s the thing people seem to forget to mention, like the telephone and internet, you need to prove that the electricity bill you’re deducting is a business expense. If you have your own little office somewhere and pay a separate electricity bill to power it, then you’re good to go. But if, like most, you’re working from home then there are a few more steps you need to do. First you need to establish an office space where you do the majority of your work from, then you need to take the dimensions of this space down. From there you can calculate the percentage of the electricity that is used to “power” your office. Different states also have different stipulations with regards to this, I strongly recommend you sit down with a tax preparer and work this out together.

REPAIRS & MAINTENANCE – Let’s say that despite having the latest in virus protection your computer still managed to get a trojan and it went balls up. Hey, it happens to everyone. Or maybe you just had an accident and the laptop took an unfortunate tumble. Getting your computer back up and running is no doubt a priority and no doubt it’s gonna cost you. Luckily, the money you shell out on getting it repaired (or just recovering files from an otherwise unsalvageable piece of…tech) can be deducted as a business expense too. Likewise, the same can be said for other electronic devices you might use in conjunction with your business, say cameras, PDA’s, phones, ect. At least there’s a bright side to that otherwise bad day.
Examples: computer repair, maintenance, data recovery, ect.

MILEAGE & GAS – If your business has you taking trips to pick up supplies, visit clients, or running other errands you should be keeping a mileage log and recording it all down. Even if only a small percentage of the mileage on your car is business related, every little bit helps! A good mileage log consists of the following for each entry: Date, Mileage Start, Mileage Stop, Destination/Purpose, and it should be noted whether the trip was business or personal. For personal entries it is not required that you mark down the destination and purpose. For business entries you had better fill out the entry in its entirety. You can also keep gas receipts and deduct that instead. The rule is one or the other, not both, however, and unless you do a hell of a lot of driving for your business I recommend going the mileage route. Otherwise you’re stuck calculating just how much of the gas you purchased really was used for business purposes, and even then, you need to keep the mileage log. Again, things can vary state to state so talk this over with your tax preparer!
Examples of business “trips”: buying supplies, dropping off electronic devices for repairs, meeting new clients, driving around to gather photos for blog posts (content!), utilizing hotspots to do work in lieu of home/office, driving to seminars (for those who attend conferences and seminars like BlogHer), ect.

STATIONARY – Probably the easiest expense to get and also the most over looked too. If you’re jotting things down with pens, using stick notes to remind you of important business-related events, keeping track of important dates and deadlines in a calender then you’re purchasing these things and should be deducting them as business expenses. Don’t just shrug your shoulders toss that receipt away, these expenses may be small in comparison to others, but they are expenses and they add up.
Examples: note pads, stickies, pens, markers, calenders, printing paper, white out, tape (tape dispensers) staples and staplers, ect.

OFFICE SUPPLIES – Like stationary, these items also get over looked and shrugged off unless they’re some of the bigger items (like desks). Lets face it folks, you need these supplies to get your work done and maintain your “office”. Don’t forget them!
Examples: desks, office chairs, air cans, screen wipes, desk polish, book cases and shelves, mouse pads, burnable CD and DVDs, USB and thumb drives, business card holders, pen holders, ect.

RESOURCES & EDUCATION – And here is yet another expense that get over looked a lot. Are you attending a seminar or convention in order to pick up some tips and tricks from others successful in your field? Maybe you’ve purchased some books and manuals to help better your own skills (Wordpress for Dummies anyone?), hell, maybe you’re taking a class on MYSQL and PHP to get a leg up. Well guess what, those are out of pocket expenses you should be deducting. Classes fall under “furthering education” as do manuals, books, seminars, and conventions that teach you anything that will help your business stay current and succeed.
Examples: books, manuals, convention/seminar fees, classes

FOOD & DINNING – If you’re meeting with clients over breakfast/lunch/dinner, sitting down to a meal out somewhere with an advisor, or taking a meal at a seminar, you better be keeping those receipts. You should also be keeping a meals and entertainment log too. For each entry you should mark down the date, who you ate with (if applicable), a quick notation as to why this meal was business-related (were you paying for your own meal at a Blog Her convention or eating out with a new client?), and the amount spent. You can only take 50% of meals (sadly) but something is better then nothing. Keep those receipts!
Examples: meals with clients, convention meals, ect.

OFFICE FOOD – This is a tricky one, and one I tend to avoid taking for the most part myself. If you have an actual office space that is separate (not attached to your home) and clients who can come in to speak with you, then you might have a candy dish sitting around, perhaps you even keep coffee and tea stocked just for your clients or for those nights you’re working late into the night. In those instances, items such as the aforementioned might be taken as an “office expense” and you may take the full amount. If you have an office in your home or a designated space, regardless of whether or not clients come in and the snacks are for them, you should be taking this expense under dinning and only taking 50% of the amount. Why? Because your “office” is part of your home and snacks are eaten in your home regularly. You cannot rightfully “prove” that those snacks were solely for business purposes and if you are audited you can bet you will not be allowed that expense in full. Even then, despite what other bloggers seem to be encouraging, this is a very iffy expense and I don’t recommend taking it. Remember, the burden of proof is on the tax payer.
Examples: candy (for candy dishes), coffee, tea, small snacks

Things to Keep In Mind!

Some other things that you should keep in mind, when it comes to expenses, is that having logs (whether they’re required or nor) are very helpful and will help you track (and justify) expenses should you ever be audited. Keep you receipts! If you’re claiming an expense you better have a receipt for it, whether it’s an invoice printed from the computer, bank/credit card statement, an email, or receipt form a register – keep it. While keeping the original receipts is all well and good, the fact is, receipts fade with time. Especially those printed on thermal paper. For this reason you should always make photo copies of your receipts. Thermal receipts can fade away to nothing in months, and if you’re audited a year or two down the road, chances are most of your receipts will be faded. In those instances, if you do not have proof of the expense you will not be able to take the expense which will obviously result in your tax return being rendered incorrect.

Auditors are people too, and they’ve got heavy workloads with defensive and argumentative people to deal with. If you ever get audited, do not make their jobs harder by handing them a large box filled with tax returns, receipts, and other odds and ends tossed together and expect them to solve it. Keep your information neat and together. Your tax return should retain all the relevant information for that year including W2’s and 1099’s and be stored in a file folder nice and neat with your expenses and logs in a separate but included file. Expenses should all be photocopied and stored in a folder that is for that tax year’s expenses only. Included should be any logs that you might have that explain the expenses, such as a Meals & Entertainment Log, Mileage Log, and so forth. It’s also helpful if you highlight the portions of an invoice or receipt that contain the items that were purchased as an expense or contain the total amount if the entire invoice was a business expense. Some invoices are confusing or hard to understand, help your auditor out and make things easier for them. Not only will things go smoother, but they’ll be in a better mood for it and will be more understanding and likely to assist you.

Honestly, I feel a bit like a moron right now. I went shopping at Wal-Mart early today in order to pick up a few groceries and some essentials and I completely spazzed on health care products. Well, not entirely, but for the most part I did.

I was right there in the aisle looking at face creams, because my face skin has been so gross lately, and was just disgusted with the selections. You see, here lately, while my forehead gets a little oily at night the skin on my cheeks, nose, and surrounding my nose, gets very dry. The end result is every morning my skin is flaking and just looks gross. I have baby lotion at home as well as various scented body lotions and cremes, but none of them seem to be working on my dry facial skin. So while I was shopping at Wal-Mart I browsed the beauty section looking for facial cremes that might do the trick. Nada, zip, zero, zilch, nanimo, nothing. There were a ton of different kinds of anti wrinkle eye cream, facial hair remover cremes, and even some sort of creme that is supposed to help with acne and blackheads. But just regular old facial cremes? I was out of luck there.

I was pretty frustrated that there absolutely nothing to help me and just hauled ass out of that section and finished up grocery shopping. Since I went to the Wal-Mart on Valley street, any other stores I could think of that would offer a decent selection of beauty supplies were on the other side of town, and I so was not wasting gas to buy facial creme.

The downside (and purpose of this post)? I completely forgot to pick up more body wash and shampoo.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I still have some here at the house, it’s just all scented or part of a perfume set. I meant to pick up some regular body wash, Dove soap, and daily clarifying shampoo from Suave. I like switching off with non-scented stuff and I prefer to use it when I plan on using certain body sprays, lotions, or perfumes, that are scented so that this way there aren’t a ton of different cloying scents all over me. But since I got all huffy over the lack of regular facial creme I didn’t pick the stuff up.

So now that I’m out of the shower I smell really….fruity. I guess that’s the right word anyway. Making do with what I had, I used Vanilla & Cinnamon scented shampoo, Peaches & Creme conditioner (because sadly that was the only conditioner I had left and my hair was in terrible need of conditioning), Black Raspberry & Vanilla scented body wash, and now I’ve topped it off with Vanilla scented lotion.

I’m sure I’d be setting off people’s allergies. But hey, I’m clean and smelling pretty regardless! And at least I kind of had a common theme – vanilla!

What’s this? What’s this? There’s color everywhere? What’s this? There’s white things in the air. What’s this? I can’t believe my eyes, I must be dreaming. Wake up Joana this isn’t fair. What’s this?

Why yes Joana, I do believe that is snow that is covering your front lawn right now. And yes, I just totally mutilated an awesome some from The Nightmare Before Christmas, but seriously, that’s what popped into my head when I glanced outside the kitchen window to see white things falling from the sky. As you probably guessed, I’m having trouble sleeping again. I was going to pop another over the counter sleeping pill for the third night in a row to knock myself out when I became aware of the abrupt change in weather. So much for this being the desert. Gah. First all the rain, now snow. Whatever happened to dry winters around here?

I really, really, really, hope that the electricity doesn’t go out again. It’s snowing (and it’s sticking too!) I don’t think I could stand the electricity going out on this night. Saturday was cold enough, imagine now?

Gonna go crank the heater up, burrow under a pile of blankets, and try to get some sleep now.

I normally don’t like making posts about the weather, unless maybe I took some awesome pics, because let’s face it, that’d be boring. But I just feel like venting right now and since I’m trying to blog more regularly again I thought it was the perfect topic.

It’s been windy all week long, with Wednesday and Thursday being the worst. It was so windy that visibility was down and it was a pain driving anywhere with all of the dust in the way. Not to mention you got a mouth full of dirt every time you went outside. When I donated plasma on Tuesday it was windy, but tolerable. I remember one of the girls there working on the donor floor complaining about how she had to apply eye cream for something (didn’t really listen to that part) but I did hear how she hated that the dirt got stuck to the cream she applied and how she wished it was raining instead.

I remember thinking she was a moron for wanting that. If it’s windy, dust kicking up everywhere, then it starts raining all you got is mud. That and windshields that are a total mess. Why would anyone want that? Yesterday that twit got her wish. It rained All. Day. Long. When it wasn’t raining it was sprinkling or misting, horrible, horrible. Especially since it was so cold yesterday. Wet + Cold = Pissy Joana. Seriously, there’s only one thing I hate worst then cold weather and that’s wet and cold weather. I was grateful though that, for once, on a bad weather day, the electricity never went out yesterday.

No instead some time this morning before I had gotten up the electricity went out and was out for at least a couple of hours. I woke up to a freezing cold house and my first clue that something was up was when I flicked the switch on one of the room heaters and nothing happened. That was around 9am and the electricity didn’t come on until around 12:30pm, give or take. According to Weather.com the temperature is 48° F (but they note it Feels Like: 40° F) with wind blowing 26mph and gusting to 34mph now that it’s 4pm so you can guess where the temperature was at around say 7 or 8am this morning. Brrrr. And I had no heat because of it.

I was ever so glad that my stove is a gas stove. I took everything out of the bottom oven and lit it full blast with the door open (for a while I swear I thought Isis was going to crawl in there in order to warm up, poor baby) and turned the burners on to boot. Even then, only the kitchen and hallway felt warm. The living room was chilly and uncomfortable and the bedroom was downright arctic. It’s disturbing being in once’s house and seeing your breath in the air in front of you. Needless to say, I’ve been gulping down cup after cup of hot tea (and hot chocolate!) and even made some cup ramen to keep warm. Not to mention, I pretty much camped out in the kitchen all day too. Set up the laptop and wiled the hours away in there. Luckily, a little after the laptop’s battery flatlined the electricity came back on.

Believe me, as soon as the electricity popped back on I ran through the house and turned all of the electric room heaters on full blast. I even lit some incense in the rooms, cookie dough scented incense to be exact, in the hopes of tricking my mind into thinking it’s not as cold as I think it is. See, if you’re smelling cookies baking you bring memories of a “warm kitchen” to the forefront of your mind. It works if you don’t think about it too much. Needless to say, this old adobe house is finally starting to warm up again hours later. I sincerely hope the electricity doesn’t go back out. I don’t think house would ever warm up then!