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more turtley love Written on March 10, 2010, by fuzzdecay.

Roosevelt has been doing really well. We bought him some plants to munch on a little while ago, and munch he did! Apparently it’s pretty rare for hatchling sliders to want to eat plants, they’re primarily carnivorous at first. He definitely has a taste for the greenery, which is something I certainly don’t have.

Speaking of eating, Roosevelt is ferocious when going after his pellets. It’s adorable!

I’m still working on his mario themed home, but it’s nearing completion. All of the pipes are painted and installed, so are the platforms. I just need to finish adhering the static clings and get some new plants. I’ve posted some in-progress pics on twitter, but i’m waiting to get good pictures before I post anything here. It’ll have to be quick, because he’s capable of demolishing plants quick like ninja.

february Written on March 10, 2010, by fuzzdecay.

February was rather uneventful, other than the second snow day of the year. We actually got snow the first week of March as well, but now it’s in the 70s. Good old Atlanta, and its effed up weather.

I went to work on the February snow day. It didn’t start snowing until lunch and we got off early. I also went to work during the March snow day because it didn’t start snowing until after I had already left my house.

In case you were wondering how one in atlanta clears snow from their tiny smart car, I give you:

The traffic was atrocious coming home in February because it was “OMGSNOW!1″ This gave me ample time for pictures, and a bit of video. Including my laptop flying out of my passenger seat.

Once I actually got on the interstate, things started really slowing down.

Roosevelt Written on January 25, 2010, by fuzzdecay.

The turtle I inherited from my mother is doing pretty great. I’m in the process of building him (I just default to calling things “him” if the sex is nonexistent or ambiguous) a really great, though painfully geeky, aquarium environment. We’ve decided to name him Roosevelt in an attempt to offset the very undignified way in which he will be living.

Although, I’m pretty sure anything would be better than his temporary setup of a beach towel on top of an old log-shaped aquarium ornament and one sad bubble stone. And that setup was likely better than his setup at my mom’s place because she didn’t realize he was aquatic at all. He was just living in sand.

He doesn’t seem to be growing at all, but he’s definitely getting a personality. He frantically claws at the front of the aquarium in the mornings when we feed him and will follow our hands or the food container around. He also tends to play in the bubbles and give himself bubble beards.

I love him, eventhough he’s a turtle and doesn’t know what love is.

On the subject of goals… Written on January 23, 2010, by fuzzdecay.

I’m not really one to make resolutions. I think that ultimately, they cause unneeded stress and disappointment. However, I have started setting yearly goals for myself. I’ve realized that I now have a lot of long term goals, and I make progress on them so slowly that it begins to get unmotivating. So, I’ve decided to break it down into smaller yearly chunks so I don’t get so flustered.

This year, I’m focusing on keeping lists of things. I have a LOT going on this year with the upcoming wedding, acting as creative director for huge freelance client, my day job, and trying to get business off the ground. Keeping lists not only reminds me of what is due, but it also shames me into doing things so I can cross them off. I currently have 3 different calendars on the go with various information on each.

I’m trying to ramp up on my outside work as a move toward either being a full time freelancer or being able to get an office of my own. I’ve been having housewife pangs for a while now. Not that I think I’m cut out to be a housewife, but I do want a gig where I’m not chained to a desk 9 hours a day and can be at home if I want to be. What I really want is to just get business at a point where Kelly and I can start working under the name. It’s something I’m ridiculously excited about and I’m tired of life getting in the way of this particular dream of mine.

I’m also back on the “I really need to lose these last 20lbs” train. It’s really disappointing to me that I did so well losing that 40 a few years back, but this last 20 isn’t budging. A portion of the massive amount of calendars I have on the go is dedicated to what I’ve been eating, my water intake, and gym visits. I also am probably going to try and convince my doctor to refer me to an endocrinologist. I really think that I might be hypothyridic, and pretty much everyone I know who is hypo agrees that it’s a strong possibility.

One of my biggest goals for this year is that I’m going to make a real effort to be a more positive person. I’m going to try to shake the ghost of my late grandmother and try to embrace the fact that I’m a talented, valuable person and worthy of being loved just the way that I am. I’m also trying really hard to appreciate how far I’ve gotten in life instead of focusing on how I feel as though I’m behind. I know the feeling of lagging behind is completely ridiculous, I’m ahead of the game as far as the life script is concerned. I’ve noticed I tend to get stressed and then fall into this ridiculous negative feedback loop where I’m worthless and I hate everything and it’s just not healthy. I think getting into a working environment where I feel appreciated will go a long way, I love working for huge freelance client because of how they go out of the way to make me feel awesome about the work I’m doing.

Lastly, I’m going to try to start drawing again. When I went to Pearl and noticed that they were closing, I picked up a pencil and an eraser. I’m just going to see how it goes. I was planning on forcing myself to draw a little everyday like I had to in highschool, but I simply don’t have the time.

Snow day in Atlanta Written on January 21, 2010, by fuzzdecay.

It snowed in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago. Snow in a huge deal here, because we’re in the south and it rarely snows here. When I first moved to Atlanta, I was all excited I’d get to see snow because it’s much farther north and into the mountains than where I’m from. I rapidly learned that it just gets bitterly cold here with nothing to show for it.

However, once a year we usually get an ice storm that everyone calls snow and the city shuts down for a few days because we have no infrastructure AT ALL to deal with snow and ice. This year was pretty spectacular. I saw snow on the ground from Thursday night until the next Wednesday morning (but only in my courtyard because it’s shaded from the sun).

I attempted to go to work on Friday, but the road behind my building was covered in almost a solid inch of ice and it’s downhill. Smart car made a valiant effort and made it about, oh, 10 ft before I lost traction and almost skidded into another car. I promptly turned back around and decided to wait it out, because if I was having a hard time driving, I knew it’d be terrible out. Watching the news confirmed my fears, there had already been two 20+ car pileups due to the snow that morning.

Since no one had made it into work that morning, we decided to take a walk around the block in the 14 degree weather. Eventhough I’ve now seen real snow, snow in Georgia is still a novelty for me.

Later on that day, we needed to run some errands. These included running up by Northpoint mall. When taking the Mansell exit, we spied this gigantic frozen fountain.

I got so excited when I found out the ice was thick enough to walk on, because all I wanted to do last time I was in Canada was stand on a frozen lake, but it wasn’t cold enough.

Xmas festivities Written on January 10, 2010, by fuzzdecay.

Christmas was a cold and wet one in Canada. I was really hoping for Christmas snow, and did not receive. However if I’d have stayed in Georgia, I would have also had a cold, wet Christmas. At least I didn’t miss anything?

I was expecting it to be colder than it ended up being, so I resurrected the kitty hat. I stopped wearing it when I was 20 and started letting my hair grow out because it looked stupid with long hair. Since my hair is about 3 inches long at the longest now, it doesn’t look nearly as stupid. You know, aside from the fact that I’m 25 years old and running around in a hat with kitty ears on it.

On top of the regular Christmas stuff, I actually got to see Toronto on this trip. It was a bit brief because it wasn’t planned at all. I had planned to meet up with a friend of mine that’s been begging me to meet him for ages, but he backed out at the last minute. Lemons -> lemonade.

We did finally get some snow the day after Boxing Day, which started in the evening. It wasn’t much, but I get retardedly giddy whenever I see snow. In Atlanta, the city closes down if we’re only expecting flurries (which is all we generally get).

The day after the snow fell is when we left to head back to Atlanta, because I had to work Wednesday and New Year’s Eve.

We stopped by Tim Hortons, of course. I really like their hot chocolate and pastries. I do not like their doughnuts at all. Their doughnuts are dry and cakey like Dunkin’. I much prefer light and airy like Krispy Kreme. I am told they have good coffee, but am reluctant to try it. I only like coffee from southeast Asia because it’s more earthy and smokey and isn’t as acrid as Latin American coffee. Tim Hortons doesn’t seem to offer coffee from different regions, which generally means that it’s Latin American.

Here’s some snow falling in the Tim Hortons parking lot.

I also noticed how much more pervasive Canadian patriotism is than American. They work the maple leaf into absolutely everything, including fast food logos.

After we got hot chocolate, we ran some errands. And by “ran some errands” I mean I was drug all over the city picking up Canadian-only snack foods. We finally started on our way, and drove through a blizzard on our way to the border.

As soon as we got into Michigan, all of the snow disappeared. The drive was pretty uneventful. We stopped in Newport, KY which is right across the Ohio river from Cincinnati. It’s about halfway on the drive.

I worked a day and a half and then immediately left to do Christmas with my family on New Year’s Eve. We exchanged presents pretty much as soon as we made it down. My littlest cousin received Toy Story Mania, which is pretty much exactly like the ride at Disney.

We also brought down Rockband, which made for infinite amusement at the expense of my family. Everyone wanted to play drums. My aunt had to fight my littlest cousin off the drums, which didn’t exactly work.

My littlest cousin could only play drums. We tried getting him to sing so that other people could play drums, but he sucked so hard it kept failing everyone out. We decided to unhook the mic and just tell him that he was singing.

He continued to sing this through 3-4 songs. Although annoying, it was better than the last time I was visiting my family when he sang “brush your eyeballs, brush your butt. Then you get TURD TOOTHPASTE! TURD TOOTHPASTE!” over and over while playing Mario.

Pre-xmas festivities Written on December 25, 2009, by fuzzdecay.

Well I’m sitting in an airport on xmas eve because it was decided that the office needed to be open half a day today, even though all of our clients and vendors were closed. We basically all just sat around and chatted until 1. I was concerned about getting to the airport in time, and I have no idea why because it’s not like there’d be traffic on xmas eve. The airport is packed.

This is my second xmas away from my family. My first was when I was briefly homeless in college. I was desperately trying to find an apartment and couldn’t go down there. This time, I’m going to Canada to spend it with the soon-to-be other half of my family. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a pang of guilt about not being with my family. It’s been a rough year for everyone, and having me have to rush away from thnxgiving and then not be there for xmas isn’t exactly optimal. I’ll be down there for new years, though.

I’m super excited to go down there and pick up my turtle. My mother found a little turtle in her front yard covered in ants back in October. She saved it and has been keeping it in a spare aquarium. I went down there for thnxgiving and saw that it was in an environment with a lot of sand, an ash tray full of water, and no heat or uv light.

It’s not like my mom doesn’t know how to take care of reptiles, either. She has adopted my iguana that I had to leave down there when I went off to college. She knows that they need heat and uv light, I guess she just wasn’t thinking. I also found out that it’s a yellow bellied slider, which is an aquatic turtle.

So while I was down there, I fashioned a little swimming pool for it. Since I left, it’s perked up due to the water and the heat lamp. Mom finds it swimming all the time now, which is great because it didn’t move much when we were down there. I keep calling it “it” because we won’t know what sex it is until it’s 4″ long. As of thnxgiving, it was about 1″ long, so we have quite of time of ambiguous sex.

I’m planning on setting it up in my old 30-long aquarium and decorating it like an underwater mario world. I feel kind of bad about it, because it’s really not very dignified for the turtle, but come on! I can’t resist that kind of geekery.

While down in alma, I set up my mother’s beast of a tree. We have a history, this tree and I. My mom bought this ridiculous artificial tree when I was in middle school, and as my grandmother aged and couldn’t set it up, I had to take on more and more of the decoration of it. She’d sit on the couch and tell me if there were any bare looking spots as I slaved away.

As an aside, I really think one of the main reasons people have children is to use them as indentured servants.

Since my grandmother basically trained me how to set up this tree, I’m the only person who knows how to do it like she did. That means every thnxgiving I’m forced into decorating this monstrosity, which can take up to 6 hours if you’re doing it alone. I actually had to ban my mother from buying any more xmas ornaments back in 2003, because she has a box I can curl up in stuffed full of them plus another sizable box and insists that they are all put on the tree. I really think she has some sort of ornament hoarding problem.

My mom bought all led xmas lights for the tree this year, which made the job slightly less sweaty and unbearable. However, it also makes the living room look like a rave at night.

We had our white elephant gift exchange at work on Tuesday. The owner gave us all flip video cameras, which was amazing! Last year we got blu-ray players, that there was an overwhelming lack of excitement over, but the flips went over ridiculously well.

The most notable gift from the white elephant exchange was a “Wendy Walker” doll that my work boyfriend brought. It’s this huge doll that’s supposed to walk with you, but in reality, just kind of drags behind you. In a stunning turn of events, his gift ended up going to the pervy coworker, who he abhors. Pervy coworker now has a ridiculously inappropriate relationship with this doll.

An example of her realistic dragging action:

An example of the burgeoning extremely inappropriate relationship

Wendy is now living in his office, staring out into the cubicle area and creeping everyone out.

ho^3 Written on December 25, 2009, by fuzzdecay.

pumpkin cheesecake Written on December 23, 2009, by fuzzdecay.

There was apparently a pie pumpkin shortage this year. The only place I could find pumpkins was whole foods, and they were all $8 monster pumpkins. This left me with a ridiculous amount of pumpkin after I made my pumpkin pie, so I decided to try my hand at a pumpkin cheesecake.

Pumpkin cheesecake will forever remind me of my best friend/quasi-boyfriend from high school. He was born in October and his mom made him pumpkin cheesecake for his birthday every year. I’d never heard of it, but was soon entranced by its silky, spicy wiles.

This recipe, courtesy of Joy of Baking is pretty tasty. I had a bit of a fail with the top of it cracking, but luckily it wasn’t something too bad for clone stamp to fix.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

yields one 8 inch cheesecake

Crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cups finely ground ginger cookies
(I didn’t have ginger cookies, so I just seasoned 1 1/2 cups of graham crackers with ginger and cinnamon)
1 tbs granulated white sugar
4 – 5 tbs unsalted butter, melted

Cheesecake:
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 pound (2 regular packages) cream cheese, softened
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree
(i’d recommend homemade if you have enough time to dismantle a pumpkin, there’s really no comparison)

Preheat to 350°, moving the rack to the center if you’re the type that moves oven racks around. The recipe recommends greasing the springform pan, but I didn’t bother.

Crust: Mix all the crust ingredients together aside from the butter. Add the butter and press the mixture into the bottom of the pan to form a crust.

Filling: Mix the spices and sugar together in a separate bowl. In your mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth, then add the sugar and spice mixture. Beat until combined, then add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly between them. Scrape down sides and add vanilla and pumpkin. Pour into the springform and pop into the oven for 30 mins. It’s recommended to place a pan with hot water into the oven to add humidity so the top doesn’t crack. After 30 mins, drop the temperature to 325° and bake for an additional 10-20, until the sides are puffy and the center jiggly.

On the joy of baking, they recommend making a sour cream topping. But honestly, who eats pumpkin confections with anything other than whipped cream? I make a special ginger whipped cream that is 2 cups whipped cream, 2 tbs sugar and 2tsp ginger. Beat until fluffy and serve on top! Ginger whipped cream is a weapon, even people who hate whipped cream love it, use it wisely.

Downtime Written on December 17, 2009, by fuzzdecay.

One of the great things about working in a design firm is that the work is pretty seasonal. It’s busy like hell at the beginning and end of the year, and there’s pretty much nothing going on in the spring/summer, unless you’re lucky like I am and have a catalog that’s released 4 times a year.

Here’s a pretty good example of what happens in our office when there’s nothing else going on:

That is my work boyfriend trying to break some powdered doughnut eating word record during lunch. The person filming it may or may not be the person who may or may not have helped in the “substandard” application of the batman decals to my smart car.

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