Last night I went out with Hilary after Tim and I dined on taco bell. Damn that's good once in a while.

We went to the Weary Traveller but there was a country band. Might have been cool if there had been anyplace to sit down. We left. Ended up at the Cardinal for techo night. I got a half price cover from Tara (my old roommates ex girlfriend). The special was pitchers of BPR for 3.00 bucks. Yes, three whole bucks. It was VERY cool. We stayed until almost bar time -- and got out. I hate getting caught at a bar when the lights go on. It feels like I am caught with my pants down.

This morning I slept in with a the brief interuption of a lonely darling who wanted to chat. *heart*

Woke up at 12:00 when the bird clock twittered. I took shower right away because my hair felt so greezy -- like it was slithering. Then I made a rye, cheese and hard salomi sandwhich (I have eaten this all week) and answered the phone. It was Heather (workout buddy) who wanted to drop of some CD's I lent her and some she burned me (new music!!!). I convinced her she needed some coffee and a break from packing. We had a nice two hour coffee break.

Came back and fed the dogs. Did the dishes. Wrote some important emails and did some website stuff. Now ... I need to go back and do some more cleaning.

oh and I fixed the vacuum the other day. It works better than ever now.

Sleeping on the bed was nice...everytime I woke up to shift positions I thought -- "How comfortable."

It took me several times of thinking this....when I realized 'every time I woke up.' Huh?

Well, I think I was referring to (in my thoughts) to the time before I went to sleep -- cos it takes me a while to drift off, and to when I should have been getting up this morning -- takes me a while to do that too. I can't tell you how much of a dream it is to get in and out of it...it's so high and grown up. It's SOOOOO cool. Of course, I realize now that we had a full? Twin? bed before -- so now I am left with only two sheets that fit.

Pluto is exhibiting strange behaviour. I came home and he wasn't there to greet me. I walked to the bedroom, thinking I would surprise him ... but he wasn't there. Only the Rain Dog. I let her out...she started to spaz...nothing--no Pluto. I thought maybe Tim left him outside...I looked in the office...nothing....and Rainy was still going nuts running back and forth as usual....and THEN I heard him. He was in the basement. He came skidding across the floor happy to see me. I went down in the basement to see if he pooped or peed or something. Nothing. He and Rainy came down with me to look around. I checked his teeth for cat litter poop and there wasn't a grain of litter to ge seen. So I let them outside and then found the cat poop scooper (so I could clean the boxes later) and got their food. Let them back in. They ate, Pluto finished all his food and came over for a pet while I was eating my hard salami/cheese on rye sandwich. When I quite petting him he left the room. I found him in the bedroom on a dog bed avoiding my eyes. I knelt down...talked to him and gave him some more pets....and then a few minutes later looked again, and he had gone to Rainy's kennel with his back to the world.

I guess he is having a "swim in lake Pluto day."

Dang it! The bed was just delivered and I forgot to tip them. It took them only like five minutes. Sigh. I am a bad americ....no wait, I am a typical american. :(

The bed is HUGE!

Also, my vacuum cleaner is completely taken apart and sitting in the living room. Now to try and put it back together and then admit that I am not a vacuum repairwoman.

I just added Tceku to the side link under Purpose -- remember to look at it often -- also if you are interested in becoming a part of Tceku (I am still taking members for a limited time only!), please email me at hadjare at wazika.net

You should also note Kathleen -- an urban planner on the brink of planning her own after school life.

"Computerized

Voice synthesized

Call me the Mech Man

In the world of machines - what can I do?

But to serve. "

Theatre of Tradegy - Machine

Alright. Many things are buzzing, so my favorite method of posting -- -train of thought.

Throwing an emergency bridal shower for Birke -- gardening theme. Recruited Sarah and Laima to come up with dazzeling ideas. Only two weeks away so mailed invitations are foregone.

Tceku stuff -- need to expand posts to 10 per page instead of five and wondering if I could do two lines of members on the top .... an issue I don't need to worry about now, but might in the future. Have to recruit Tim to do that.

Need to move wet laundry over to dryer. Puts load of laundry sprawled on the bed away.

Bought a new bed on Sunday at Steinhaffel's -- been alternatively plagued with guilt over the cost and the rash decision to buy it that night instead of going to tons of other places -- we went to American first and was unimpressed but did get to try out several beds. At S, we were able to try out even more beds and had an excellent sale's man who threw in the frame for free, they also had free delivery and take away (american charged for both), and a full 30-day money back gaurantee...of course the bed has a 10 year warrenty .... so of course the only reason I am paranoid is that I read ONE stupid eopinion that said indiviudual wrapped coils tend to sag, or something to that effect. The PRO was that the bed was extremely comfortable...which it was/is. It's completely stupid for me to worry about this...we liked the bed --- it was like when I found my stupid wedding dress and this house, I just knew it was it. I never felt wracked with worry about marrying Tim or moving into this house though. Janet, my coworker, said that I would feel better about the decision as soon as the bed was in the house and we slept on it for one night. I hope she is right. Don't get me wrong, I am excited for this bed...my first, brand new bed ever -- and we could have committed a worse sin and gotten a pillow top! *gasp* Oh, the bed is a Simmon's Beauty Rest....how about that?

I got my welded d-rings and webbing in the mail today...I am disappointed with the webbing. They sold it by the foot and not by the yard like I had hoped. It didn't say anywhere on the website what the format was, and I should have emailed but I am a complete idiot, in any case it was a TON cheaper than Dorn's and it's good quality, and the D-Rings were totally worth it.

I need to clean the house and especially the bedroom to make it look like we are casually pristine all the time.

I sort of helped Matt and Sigrid move this weekend, mostly I just ate pizza and reorganized stuff. I also entered a shadow box decoration competition with Birke and Sarah (I have a box for Hilary to do something with too).

I stopped at the grocery store on the way home (via bus) and bought too much food. It was SO heavy coming home that I almost solicitated a young boy and his bike to carry two bags for me in exchance for two bucks. Luckily, he stopped at house and went in before I had a chance to embarass myself. My shoulders are still a little stiff.

I just messaged a friend to ask if I could see him take his black belt test. Is that creepy? -- oh wait he just said they don't let people watch. Dang.

I am waiting with bated breath to see what my Mom thinks of my penpal hijinks. I hope she isn't mad and that she actually follows through if someone writes her.

I am waiting to get my bike back out of the shop.

I am going to schedule to take my blue belt test in May. I need some focus and something to work on aside from all the working out I have been doing. Have I mentioned that I have dropped two inches in my torso and an half inch on my arms? All of that and dropping 8 pounds on the scale tells you that it is muscle...PURE muscle.

I need to order and I Pass for our visit to Chicago next month.

Have to pay the rest of April bills tomorrow.

TCEKU.NET

Is up and running!

I haven't made a post yet --well other than getting the whole thing started. I know that one other person said she was interested -- but she hasn't emailed me back any information yet -- as soon as she does then I will add her. Yes, that you Michelle. :)

Also, I have busy being .... sneaky. My Mom's letter writing has exploded! Her letters have become so beautiful that I am going to keep them to pass on my grandchildren...that good. Letter Heirlooms.

I decided my Mom could use another penpal. So I made an ad for her yesterday on my favorite penpal site and as of today she got five responses! Two of them were from Ghana (deleted) so that left three. I had asked for US pals specifically, but one answered from the UK that seems so interesting that I decided I would sponsor my Mom ... and send her the international stamps. I responded to all of the ladies who responded, and asked if they would write the first letter (because my Mom was "Rusty") Really, I don't want my Mom to invest money in something that might not work out.... but she will reply to a letter if someone sends it to her...but she isn't that big of a risktaker.

I sent Mom the ad and responses, two international stamps, tons of stickers and flower seeds today. She should get them tomorrow. I don't think she will be upset with me. She can decide not to write them if she wants. That's pretty much par for the course in penpalville.

So Heather is coming over for the second workout this week (to make up for last week's missed session). I am not feeling the vibe today (Lady troubles if you know what I mean) ...maybe we could go for a long walk. I could do that.... and that would be good exercise.

IT's nippy today. Okay, on to creating a post for the new site...I have a few things I have been documenting...

I took in my bike for it's ... well tune up. Actually I said it need an "overhaul" to the bike man at William's Street -- and I was right. He said that the cartridges and chain needed to replaced, in addition to the tires and brakes. Maintenance sticker price? $150.00

Gah...but it's my baby. My first big expenditure in life, and my main mode of transport in the summer. Plus it's a great bike -- light weight, fast, perfect for me. Since I was unable to say yes right away (my frugality suppressed me). Tim answered for me, and then I was told it would be about 10 days before it was done. Whoa, ten days? Dangit...I guess I should have brought it in sooner -- I never thought it would take that long. SO, my bike is in the shop.

I felt like it should have had a name other than "my bike."

Getting in the car to leave I saw Sarah and Luke walking on the street with Amos (small white dog). They were heading to Quizno's. They happened to have a new drill in the car for us, and we were able to invite them for breakfast at the Original Pancake House for next weekend. We are both terrible at using the phone to arrange things. Oh and the drill was a xmas present from bil Ben that we forgot at the parent's house at Easter.

We also went to the MATC powwow -- and ate ... and then talked with Ron, and his wife Linda and saw their kids, and looked at vender's and looked around in general and right before grand entry was to start I decided I wanted to leave. Standing for all that is so boring -- and it's not like it's something I haven't seen before. SO we went home and played Zelda: Legend of Four Swords -- our latest coop play video game, drank a huge ... HUGE 42 0z, fountain drink (diet coke) ... oh gotta go.

I wish I knew shit about php. I hate having to wait for someone to MAYBE help me with something. I have decided if he doesn't help me, then I am just going through with it...and will work around it by putting bio pages as an individual like (kind of like lj)...instead of something cool like a photo. This shouldn't be hard. And it probably isn't to someone who has clue as to what to do with php.

Yeah.

The conference was good...but like all conferences -- I ate too much. :( I am such a chubby dag.

Laima came by with EGGS last night. Happy eggs....range free....organic kind of eggs. IT was good because we had them for dinner. I want to get my bike tuned up -- this weekend.

I just had chili for lunch I had made months ago and had frozen. It was even better than I expected. I made some decaf coffee too -- it's all I have.

Tim never did do the dishes. I have to do them. :(

I have to watch a movie too before Tim has a hernia that it is taking up a whole netflix spot.

I want to work on Rainy's new collar -- but it's hard to measure her because she goes all spastic when I touch it...she thinks we are going to for a walk. Sucker.

I feel like taking the whole day off after working for two days ...yeah, when I came home yesterday I immediately went out side and transplated some plant....with bulbs...to a different location. It felt good to dig around and get dirty with my gloves. Man there are alot of worms out there. I wish we knew something about gardening.

My Mom is overwhelming me with letters...I can barely keep up -- and in the mean time I am letting others slide a little bit. I should get to work on that.

I wish we had nice patio furniture.

The dogs have to wear muzzles when they go out in the yard now because Rainy has influenced Pluto .... and they are both rough and bitey. Pluto got a big gash in his hind flank because of that --- they are too fast for being bitey. Fuckers.

Rainy's chest is all shaved, she had an ultrasound yesterday to try and figure out what is wrong with her. Nothing came up on the ultrasound....what is the fate of the Rain Dog? One shouldn't keep a dog on antibiotics for life...right? Eventually they will become resistent.

I can't wait for the new bed -- hurry up tax money and get here.

Oh I went to Racy Delene's in Eau Claire while I was there...and it's still there. Yeah! I couldn't believe it...and of course Trucker's Union was still there too. Cool. Of course I didn't see anyone I know. I am too old for that now -- I have been away too long.

I expected a whole bunch of cool email when I returned...but only got four messages. :( Dangit. I used to be quite the email corresponder.

Today I am going on my first big business trip to just be extra admin help. It's a leadership conference in Eau Claire. I have been to several leadership conferences before -- but this is the first where I am on the other end. Of course I spent the morning getting ready by watching an old movie on TV, taking a long hot shower, putzing around on the internet...but I also did pack, and I think I have everything to go.

I burned my cheese sandwich for lunch today. That's what I get for forgetting I was cooking something -- good thing it was on low.

I won't be back until Thursday night...so... yeah.

I am gonna miss my darling. It's not often that I am the one away -- and he has to stick around the house dealing with surly animals. In fact, this is the first time since my grandmother passed away -- and when I came back from that I saw that all my plants had gone on to the other side too. Tim was just shuffling around the house looking lost.

Oh, I gotta pay some bills before I go though...

I hate it. I am battling acne again. I thought I was supposed to outgrow this bullshit.

Blah blah blah. I am having one of those days where I am fighting to stay motivated and not feel like I am getting anything done. I spent the morning working on the diagonal beading technique I was trying to do last fall. I set up the warp threads and needles -- and between rereading and examining the pictures and watching the movie on Billie Holidays life (with Diana Ross) I only managed to just finish that. Oh and I chose two size ten beads -- yellow and orange. I have no design yet...but I had to stop. Why? Because I started to feel like I was wasting the day on this project. I should be doing other things like:

1. Washing the dishes
2. Sweeping the floors
3. Vacuuming the carpet
4. Changing my doctor with the insurance
5. Pay bills
6. Study finances
7. Exercise
8. Clean off the kitchen table
9. Clean the bedroom
10. Clean the office
11. Wash the whites
12. Working on my new website
13. Getting dressed

Etc. etc. And trust me, I can subcatergorize those into things like....sort winter and summer clothes, organize all the paper work, sweeping the basement laundry room floor, changing cat boxes...and on and on and on.

But this is familiar..you see these are all the things I did before I had to do a paper or study for something back in college. I am procrasting. What I really want to do is just work on the beading technique and let everything else slide for the time being. But then that would make me a terrible housewife. A waster of time. Slothy. Yes, even if I did clean the and organize everything in the house -- while I would feel like the house is clean, and the hours have passed -- that I didn't really do anything significant. Just stupid cleaning.

I work best in creative bursts -- which is why I can't force the website stuff right now.

Damn it. I'll do dishes for now. Get dressed, wash my face and then go back to the beadwork. Besides, that isn't even including: TKD, dinner, care of animals and whatever else I do at night.

oh and last night I took the night off and ordered pizza. That was good. But I seeing a trend here.

So yeah, doing lots of reading and research for new site -- mostly relating to the software. I am not going to use *collective gasp* blogger...for a number of reasons, none of which I am going to get into right now.

Instead, I am going to tell you about the great walk I took the dogs on today with Hilary and her kids. We walked all the way to Olbrich and even took the long way back. Whoa. Then I came back and wrote my SECOND letter of the day (rock me Lauradameous -- hehe a nod to you James). I went and voted...I was number 548 and counted ten more people enter as I left.

Now as I am waiting for my workout buddy to arrive, I am going to give you the recipe for Apple Walnut Cake -- my favorite cake -- great for breakfast, doesn't need frosting, super moist and delicious and a great alternative to pie when you have all those apples you don't know what to do with.

Apple Walnut Cake

2 cups white sugar
1/2 pound butter
3 eggs
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts
3 cups sliced Macintosh apples

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter and flour one 10 inch tube pan.

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Set aside.

Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add to wet ingredients and mix well.
Stir in vanilla, walnuts and apples. Mix well and pour into prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Set aside to cool. Slide knife along outer edges to release bottom of tube pan. Slide knife along bottom of tube pan and inner tube to release cake.

* a Tube pan is a bundt cake pan. Really folks...this is my favorite cake recipe ever. You can't mess it up.

It almost broke me yesterday. Getting out of bed. It was so hard, like when I got my wisdom teeth pulled and as soon as I woke up they were shoving me out of the office. I felt that tired and out of it. I wasn't the only one though, Tim was equally bushed. I ended up being a half an hour late to work yesterday because of it.

Thank god I don't work on Tuesdays....I had a similar problem this morning too.

On the other hand....the new sunlight hours have totally motivated me. I did so much yesterday including a whole productive day at work. I went to TKD and had a great workout/class (I even led stretch) ... oh crap, Hilary is here and I haven't even started the coffee.

More later.

Okay, so yeah I am not in creative mode -- but as you can see the effort to always be creative is ... well limiting. I don't post as much and I know that ALL of you miss every single word.

I did find my phone. It was hiding behind a shelf in the kitchen by the other phone. Thank goodness. I even used it to call Callie and have a good two hour chat today. It was nice to catch up.

Today we went to the UW Madison pow-wow with our little, Ty'Quan. It was his first powwow and I was glad to see that this one was pretty well attended. Maybe it was because the ILSA (Indian laywers association or something) had their conference and instead of having their own powwow like they normally do they combined forces. We arrived in time for the feast -- prepared by the UW's catering people. They had a buffalo stew (good), wild rice with mushrooms (eh...tim said it was good -- I don't care for wild rice ...the texture bothers me. Tim says it's because it's like gristle ... maybe...), the sorriest fry bread I ever did see -- but at least they tried, and fish. We took our food and sat down. Ty'Quan looked at his food with some degree of dubiousness. I told him to try the stew.

"It's buffalo," I said as he brought it to his lips. He paused and put the meat back down on his plate. "No, I am kidding, it's just meat." He looks slightly relieved and then tastes after I took a bite of my own. He chews and and then I said "No, it really is buffalo." His face was stunned and I couldn't help but to laugh. To his credit he did finish the bite and swallow -- but didn't try any more after that. He also tasted the bad fry bread and wild rice -- but didn't finish anything. Tim and I were happy to finish it for him. After all, feasts need to be completely eaten. ;)

He actually seemed interested though! At the grand entry he stood and watched, and when we sat down I asked him if he wanted to leave or stay for one more song. He actually said he wanted to stay for one more song! Amazing! Ty'Quan had an opinion for the first time ever. Quick, notify the press!

When we were leaving I bought him a one dollar buffalo tooth as a souviner. He seemed to like it and I overheard their family asking to see it after we dropped him off at his home. I think it was a good day.

I saw some old friends -- Ron -- who by the way Zoey said that he had recently visited you. I told him that we hoped to visit you this summer, but that we say that every year. However, I haven't mentioned to you that we are actually getting money back this year from taxes so it very well might happen. I need a real vacation! Oh wait, he called you Twyla though. Man, I haven't thought of you as that for ages! He has a new two month old. She was really cute.

I also saw Shaun -- who I haven't seen in years. Apparently he moved back into town and is living on the west side. I gave him my email so we could catch up ... we'll see if he actually emails me. And I saw Becky -- who is is now a lawyer for the oneida tribe working with her husband and she had a eight month old. It was really cool to visit with old college indian alumni. I also saw Roberta, Gary and Jean but didn't get a chance to say hi. I even talked with Aaron who told me that I began a curse for the native coordinators to all suffer major physical injuries. OH my legacies aren't always that great. :/ In any case I had a great time and even bought some beads. Apparently a woman at Mounds today told Tim that she wanted to commission a collar for her german shepard. I have to finish the two for Wendy first though (she had greyhounds)....too bad they didn't have pink. Pink seed beads are always so hard to find. I also priced everything they were selling there (barrettes, keychains (anywhere from 10 - 40 bucks! With median price at about 25-30), earrings, etc) ...and I could make a KILLING if I ever got off my ass to sell things.

Speaking of which...Eric and I talked it over. He thinks I should just stick with wazika for the new team craft blog, but after a lot of thought I decided I wanted to start fresh. Besides, everyone involved will link to it, and it will actually have meta tags (something wazika does not use). Also I can grant Eric admin access to the new site so that he can do his fancy html work and make it the awesome sight I KNOW it will be (and really wazika is a mess inside -- I don't need other people to see my dirty html laundry). Of course I plan on helping as much as I can (setting up the team blog, getting information, etc), but I can say without feeling bad that my web skills aren't as advanced as his are right now. I also convinced Callie today that she should be a guest writer --- telling us stories and how it is actually running a small jewelry business and doing art fairs. So the name of the new site? I know you are all waiting with bated breath -- I came up with: tceku it is ho-chunk for: new, make (beginning). I think it is perfect what this adventure is about to embark on.

This is YOUR chance wazika fans. I invite any who reads this to be part of this new journey. The only requirements I have right now is that you must be interested in craft and posting as least once a month. By craft, my definition is loose -- I want anything that is hands on. The definition is ---- Craft: Skill in doing or making something, as in the arts; proficiency. An occupation or trade requiring manual dexterity or skilled artistry. The membership of such an occupation or trade; guild.

This can include anything that you make: yarn, needlework, sewing, art (only if you make it...so painting, stamping, sculpture, woodwork, etc...would work. Buying kits does not work and I don't qualify photography as craft), beadwork, leatherwork, stainglass, metal smithing, home improvement projects, weaving, basketry, clothes, jewelry, metal work, wirework, glass, tile, mosaic, refinishing old antiques ... restoration, paper craft, candlemaking, soap making, etc. I also plan on implementing a section where products (if you have them and want to) can be sold. I'd love to have you along, so if you are interested please email me here...right now while you are thinking about it.

Alot of people asked for the Asparagus Soup recipe after scrabble last week. This vegetarian dish I found on Allrecipe.com (my favorite recipe site hands down. I have learned how to make everything from taco seasoning to spaghetti sauce). I would write the recipe down, but I had scaled it to fit 12 people and it would probably be too much for everyone's purpose. Therefore, I will just give you link here (which as the normal version).

So yeah, I have given you tons to think about. I know it. You know it.

We stopped at Woodman's on the way home and bought a sampler pack of City Brewery beer from LaCrosse for only seven bucks! What freaking deal. I thought for sure the beer must suck, but my friends, it does not. Go out and get some for yourself. It's good. So good.

Also, I got an awesome package from Jen today that included CANDY! Can you beat that? No, especially if it is wafer candy.

hello -- I lost my phone today. :(