You take your car to work, I'll take my bike.

This is a picture of my beautiful new bike!!!!! Please note the white seat. This is my favorite part.

Once Greg told me he was going to get me a bike, I called David and had him research the bikes for sale and pick out the best one for me. I told him Greg was giving me $500, and I'd be willing to spend A LITTLE BIT. So, he picks this bike out and it's $750. I was a little sad about that, but of course as soon as I saw it in person I fell in love with it. I've been stressed (my car failed inspection and apparently it's going to be $750 to fix, and we're booking hotels and dog boarding for our England trip and I have no money EVER!) and depressed lately and I wanted to get the bike so I could stop thinking that Greg didn't get me anything for my birthday! I gave in a decided I would put $250 toward a new bike. I justified it by saying if I only spend the $500 that Greg gives me, I will get a bike no better than the one I have; I need an upgrade! Last night we went to the bike shop and I got to test ride the bike and it was orgasmic. I brought my old bike to trade in (before I went there I decided that the absolute lowest price I would accept for it was $75, if they'd even take it!). The guy at the shop is looking at my bike and he asks how much I paid for it and then he said "what do you want for it?" Just as I was about to say $100, he was like "I'll give you $200 for it." !!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe what it!! I went there thinking I was going to spend $250 on my new bike, but I only had to spend $50!!! I was so happy I almost cried.

Of course I rode it to work this morning and plan on riding nonstop until it starts snowing.

Cooked like a wild woman

This weekend was my "Cook Like A Wild Woman" weekend with Tara. It was a lot better than I had anticipated.

The drive there took about 3 hours. She's a talker, so she was able to keep the conversation going and we ended up having a pretty good heart to heart about life and relationships. She spoke a lot about her boyfriend and made it seem like they've discussed marriage and she's basically waiting on the proposal. So, I don't feel as threatened...for now. She actually asked if I did anything exciting for my birthday so that kind of opened a can of worms.
(For those who don't know, Greg didn't really do anything for my birthday. My dad was here and he kind of used that as an excuse. Rather than tell me ahead of time that we were going to celebrate my birthday another day, he just didn't do anything. So, that evening I was left thinking that he didn't get me a present, a card, didn't make me a cake or dinner. Nothing. I was really hurt. I talked about it with him and the next day he made me a cake and on Sunday he gave me a card, but I still haven't gotten a present yet. Apparently he had the plan to put $500 toward a new bike for me. Not that I don't believe him, it's just a slow-moving plan and I'm still really hurt by what happened. The fact that people are STILL asking me what I did for my birthday, or what Greg got for me doesn't help! I mean how does "he didn't do anything for me and hasn't gotten me a present yet" sound good in any way?!!)
I discussed that with Tara and she was a good listener. She was married a few years ago and she was telling me about that relationship and unfortunately a lot of her issues with her marriage seem to be issues I'm having with Greg now. The other day Greg and I had a talk about our relationship and I told him some things I'm unhappy with like how I feel taken for granted. So, we're kind of at an awkward stage in the relationship and we're trying to see if it will get better or worse.

ANYWAY!! I didn't not start typing this to talk about my relationship problems!! I wanted to tell you about my weekend!

Going in to the weekend, I thought we were going to be foraging for food and learning how to cook over a campfire. However, really wasn't anything like that. We did some foraging for edible plants, which turned out to be really good. But for the most part the weekend should have been called "Eat Like A Wild Woman," because all we did was eat. I did get the opportunity to eat a lot of things normal would not, so that was kind of neat. This is the list of what I ate:

Saturday:
Lunch-
Venison steak and cheese sub
Caribou stew
Black crappie nuggets-fish nuggets. Really nasty, don't know why I tried.

Appetizers-
Bear Sausage
Venison salami-really good!!
Goose Pate-tastes like tuna (so nasty!!)
Bear tips-really rough, like chewing gum
Bear meatballs
Hard cider

Dinner-
Moose pot roast
Steams greens (dandelion leaves)-GROSS!
Wild rice

Dessert-
Museum pudding-made with blueberries we picked! Really good!
Berry crumble-made with berries we picked. Kind of tart


Sunday:
Brunch-
Salad-made with greens we picked
Blueberry vinegrette-good!
Moose sloppy joes-really good!
Elderberry flower fritters-flowers fried in batter. Really good!
Terriyaki beaver-pretty nasty
Wild mushroom soup-I don't like mushrooms, but this was really good.
Blueberry liquor
Blackberry liquor

That's all I can remember for now, but I'm pretty sure that's everything. They also served woodchuck and quail, but by that time the thought of eating more, especially meat really grossed me out. And, I saw the quail when they were alive, so I wasn't okay with that. I also got to gut a trout, but I didn't eat it. I was actually pretty good at it, so I might have to fish for trout so I can cook them up! Overall, I think moose was my favorite. This was mainly due to the fact that it tasted like beef and wasn't chewy like the bear. So, it was a fun weekend. I was surprised to learn how many plants are edible. I do have pictures, but my computer is lame and I don't dare hook anything of mine to Greg's PC.

In other news, my computer is still being stupid. Apple said I need my start-up disk to fix the problem, but of course I can't find it. I called them yesterday and they're going to mail me on within two weeks for $32. If this doesn't fix the problem I'm just going to throw it out the window and call it a day.

I think that's all I have to say. I would appreciate if you guys updated your blogs for once in your lives, but that's neither here nor there.

Kernel Panic

Well, something horrible has happened to my computer and I'm forced to use Greg's lame-ass PC. Two days ago, I was on facebook, minding my own business. Then, out of nowhere, the screen got dark and this message pops up saying "You need to restart your computer!!" So, I turned it off and now, IF it turns back on, the same message pops up so I can't do anything! I looked it up and the message is called "Kernel Panic." From what I've read, it doesn't seem like my computer is dead forever, I just have to figure out how to get the message to go away. I think I might have to take a trip to the Apple store. Bummer.

Today I have an interview at "York's Wild Animal Kingdom." I've never been there, but I hear it's a zoo of sorts in York, Maine. Should they offer me a position, I don't think I will take it because it will only be until October 1, they pay $8.00/hour and I think it's about 1.5 hours away. The only reason I'm going on the interview is to 1. make sure I'm not missing out on my dream job, and 2. hopefully they will bring me on a tour to see some cute animals.

Yesterday I had a phone interview with a company called Mascoma, located in Lebanon, NH. First of all, let me just say that I have applied to about 50 million positions through Monster.com, and a lot of them have been located in Lebanon, NH. I've gotten a few emails from these jobs, asking me to look at their website and fill out their online applications, which I do. So anyway, a girl called me from Mascoma and asked if I had seen her website, and if I had a good understanding of what the company was about. I was pretty positive I had, so I went on about how they do a lot of protein research and cultivate yeast, blah blah blah. The girl was like "Um...kind of. We are a company that makes biofuel." So, I was pretty much completely wrong and felt like a total loser. This sucks because I would LOVE to work for a company that makes biofuel!! I think that would be so neat! But anyway, she said they won't be setting up interviews for another two weeks, so now I get to think about how I made a fool out of myself and will lose my dream job because of it. Interviews are pretty much the worst things ever.

That is where my life is at right now. My dad and Luke are coming up on the 15th and will be here for a week, I think. That should be some good times. I wish you fools would update your blogs for once in my life. I feel like I don't even know you anymore!! Good day!