Sick Puppy and Finals

This week has been a rather stressful week for us. Between me having finals, Teddy Beast having a new job, and Moose is sick. This week would have been better if it was only 2 out of the 3, but all 3? It's kind of been a disaster. Moose doesn't just have the "I don't feel good so I'm just going to sleep" sickness, it's the liquid shit every half hour kind of sick. It's not a huge deal with just work. With our different schedules she's alone for maybe 4 hours a day. Through finals in there though, and that means she'd have to be alone for over 5 hours. Not going to happen when the longest she's gone without having to go out is only 2 hours. >.<

I brought up the solution of a kennel or keeping Moose in the bathroom. Teddy Beast said absolutely not. I don't like kennels either, but sometimes other things in life are more important than not putting your dog in a kennel for a few hours. Apparently we really disagree on this. Oh well >.< It's not going to be that much of a deal next year, so it isn't worth fighting over.

Anyways, the finals went well, and my other 2 classes I get to play catch up in. It's my fault I get to play catch up, but I needed the extra time with my half semester classes instead. It's getting down to crunch time, with only a semester and a bit left in school. The light is at the end of the tunnel, and it's not an oncoming train.

Oh, and Teddy Beast got me something. It's shiny, it's pretty, and I love it!

1850's Funeral for a Wedding?

This story starts out with Teddy Beast deciding he wanted to marry me. I had no problems what so ever. Then he said he wanted to have a funeral for the wedding. I seriously thought he was crazy, but after doing a lot of digging and research, it is going to be a lot of fun.

We're not going to be doing just any funeral (wedding). We're doing one right out of the 1850's. It's going to be a challenge figuring it all out, mostly because everyone just stops and thinks for a minute, then says "that's a great idea". No one, even online, has any help or sources or anything. Maybe this is where all that money I gave to college comes in handy?

The Starting Point:

Teddy Beast showed me one of his favorite music videos that he wants to recreate. "Until Morale Improves" by Murder by Death. This is pretty much exactly what he wants.

Well, we're in Utah, and wilderness is super easy to come by. The ceremony is going to be out on the Salt Flats. (photo from a dog and a camera).

The rest of the details will come later, but this is pretty much the starting point for the aesthetics for the wedding.

Blueberry Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles sounded like an amazing idea, so off to google I went. Usually when I'm looking for a recipe, I just click onto the 4th or 5th page and start there. So glad I did this. I found this post by Bakegirl, and it sounded delicious.I made a few modifications to the recipe to suit what was in the cupboard, and they still turned out amazing. Moist and chewy, and a crunchy sugar cinnamon coating. Nomnomnom.

Blueberry Snickerdoodles

1/4 c  Butter, softened
1/4 c Coconut Oil (room temp or melted is fine)
1 c sugar
1 Egg
1 c Flour (plus 2-4 T seperate)
1/4 t Baking Soda
1/4 t Cream of Tarter
1/8 t Salt
1/2 c Blueberries
1/8 t Cinnamon
2 T Sugar
2 T Raw Sugar (the big crystals, or you can sub in regular sugar)

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Cream together butter, coconut oil, and 1 c sugar.
3. Mix in egg, salt, baking soda, and cream of tarter.
4. Stir in 1 c Flour, adding more if necessary to create a non-sticky dough.
5. Carefully fold in blueberries.
6. In a separate bowl, combine cinnamon, remaining sugar, and raw sugar.
7. Roll cookie dough into 1-1/2 inch balls, roll in cinnamon sugar, and place about 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheet.
8. Bake 11-13 minutes until edges are slightly browned, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Makes about 1 dozen cookies.

Grilled Salmon and Avocado Salad

This was just a last minute, walk through the grocery store, and pick up whatever looks good. I found avocados first, and have been seeing all sorts of stuff with grilled avocados on Pinterest. I figured it was about time to try it for myself. Not a fan of grilled avocado, but the salad was still really good.

Grilled Salmon and Avocado Salad
1/3 head Romaine lettuce
1 c Spinach, chopped roughly
4-6 oz Salmon fillet
1/4 Onion, chopped thinly
1/2 Avocado, leave in peel
1/4 c Bell Pepper, diced
1 t Seasoning salt (I use a saltless mix, recipe is coming soon)
1/8 t Chili Powder ( I use an Asian variety that is pretty much just ground dried peppers)
2 T Limeade (or 1 T lime juice + 1 T water)
2 T Vinaigrette (I use this Blush Wine Vinegrette)

Get a piece of foil, about a foot square. Lay out the onions in a layer about as big as your piece of salmon. This is so the fish won't stick to the foil. Sprinkle both sides of the salmon with the seasoning salt and chili powder. Lay the fish on top of the oil. Add the bell pepper on top of the fish. Start folding the fish up into a little envelope, before you close it completely, add the limeade. Finish closing up the foil.

Heat up the grill for about 5 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium. Over indirect heat, place the salmon foil  seam side up and the avocado cut side down. Close the lid and let cook for 5 minutes. Turn the avocado over, and rotate the salmon 90 degrees, keeping the seam up. Close the lid and let cook for 5 more minutes. Remove the avocado from the grill. Check the salmon, if not done, place foil pouch back on the grill for another 5 minutes. When fish easily flakes apart, remove fish from grill and turn off grill.

Mix together romaine and spinach and put into bowl. Cut the grilled avocado into a large dice, sprinkle over greens. Open the foil packet and using a fork gently flake the fish. Place contents of packet over salad. Drizle the vinaigrette over the salad.

Bridesmaid's Invites

So, even though the marriage is over a year away, I'm just getting all the little ends tied up early. And it's a distraction from midterms ;) Always a good thing.

 Here are all three of them. I want to say I changed the paper on purpose, but I ran out of the other paper. Oh well, it works for my junior bridesmaid just fine. Here's a close up on each.

 "Because to me you mean so much

I have one thing to say which I will phrase as such,

Nothing would give me more joy and pride,

Than to have you up there right by my side,

You've stood beside me through out thick and thin

And I want you to be there when I marry Him.

Many great memories I have shared with your smile,

So, I want you to meet me at the end of the aisle!

Will you be my Bridesmaid?"

And of course I had to make a special one for my awesome Maid of Honor. She doesn't know it yet, but hers is in the mail on its way. ;)

"I realize just how special you've always been with friendship,

love and guidance and a shoulder there to lend.

Not a mother or a sister but a blending of the two,

A good friend in my life always when I've needed you.

You can make me laugh on any given day.

You listen with your heart and know just what to say.

Soon I will be married and I still look forward to the friendship,

Love and guidance that has always come from you.

Will you be my Maid of Honor?"

Things I Hate About Working Customer Service Part 1

1. Customer's that blame you for their lack of research. I recently had several over privileged teenagers email in, I'm calling them teenagers because any actual adult would not act like they do. Here's a short ad-lib of how the conversation went:
CUST: you suck! I sold all of my previous models and all attachments that I thought would come with the new one, also you moved to an SD card and didn't tell. You owe me all the mounts and a new memory card.
ME: *facepalm* All of the information was available on our website prior to you ordering.
CUST: I didn't see it. You owe me x$ worth of stuff because I didn't see it.
ME: Let's go to the store, and select the product. Yeah, scroll down, all the way down. There's all the information that would have saved you a lot of trouble.*
CUST: your company owes me!

It just degrades from there, but you get the point. Before you spend a significant amount of money on something, do even just 5 min of research about what comes with it, any additional products you need to purchase, and the compatibility with your existing equipment. Really, 5 minutes saves you time, money and frustration.

*Not actually what I said, I just told him a generic "all of your "x" are still compatible with our new product".

2. Sending multiple emails within a short amount of time to the company. Really, we got the first one, we'll get to it when we get to it.

Our company sends out a generic email response after you email in letting you know that we usually answer emails within 1 to 2 days. Just because you didn't get a response in 5 minutes doesn't mean we are ignoring you. You may think I'm joking, but this happens.

Email 1: my camera no work! 12.25 pm
Email 2: ????? 12.27 pm
Email 3: hello??? 12.28 pm
Email 4: y u ignoring me?!?!?!!?!?!??!?! ANSWAR ME!!!!! 12.30 pm
Email 5: ......... ***** customer service. ANSWARME ALREADY CAMERA NO WORKING!! 12.35
Our response 1: We need some more information about your camera. Is it not turning on? Is it not taking videos? What is going on with your camera? 2.45 pm

The response is either helpful or a long rant about how horrible we are we took forever to answer the email, even though it was less than 3 hours >.< . Really, tell your kids they aren't that special and they get to sit in line sometimes. There is no magic way to get to the front of the line, and annoying us with excessive emails just means it's going to take longer to get back to you because we won't respond until the end of our shift, dragging the whole process out for several days longer than it needs to take.

Mideaval Shoes

So in recent digging around on the internets for the purpose of not wearing tennis shoes at uprising again, I ran across this:
http://tangibledaydreams.blogspot.com/2011/06/making-viking-leather-slipper.html
In short, a simple pattern for a pair of shoes, based on extant pieces.

Here's the first attempt out of pleather. The pattern needs to be wider at the toes, something about me having ginormous feet. They're actually super comfy, so these will probably come camping with me, because I'm too lazy to find sandals.