Sunday Confessions!

You know the drill! Grab the button (click on the button to go to Every Day is a New Adventure, who started this - she has the code super easy to copy/paste). Write up your confessions. Link up. Visit some new blogs!


1. I can never seem to do these on a Sunday. I really don't know why... I even woke up early yesterday and had several hours in the living room to myself, while the boyfriend was still asleep. I just wanted to read my book, not look at a computer.

2. I have to find my workout motivation! It's not even the end of January, it's too early to lose the whole "New Year, new resolutions!" oomph. I went to S Factor yesterday and realized it had been about a week and a half since I'd worked out. I didn't even wear my BodyBugg at all last week! Gotta get back to it... pretty much done with all of my workout Groupons, so now to get to a good routine with my usual places. Should go to Zumba tonight and tomorrow night. Those are my only two chances to go this week. I have trivia on Wednesday night, a concert on Thursday night, and a colorful run (yes, yet another one - it's my 3rd!) on Saturday morning.

3. I'M GOING TO SEE LADY GAGA THIS WEEK!! It'll be my second time seeing her in concert.

4. I had a psychic reading on Friday. I went to an entrepreneur showcase at S Factor with a friend (basically, all of their students who do direct sales things -- Scentsy, Premier Designs, Passion Parties, etc. set up tables and other people came in to check out the studio and the tables). One of their students was offering 10 minutes readings for $5 and I figured what the hell, why not. It was my first time ever doing something like this.
Some of the things she said were a little uncanny, too on point. One thing was silly. And one thing is just... staying with me, in the back of my mind. I actually talked to one of my friends and she's willing to go to some other psychic with me. Palm readings, tarot readings, I'm really not that picky. I want to try it out again, get a "second opinion", and just have fun with my friend. Now I need to do some research to find one that's not too gadawful expensive or in a sketchy neighborhood.
Too funny, I remember a scene in the book MWF Seeking BFF where she and a new friend went to get their palms read.

5. I turned down a cupcake on Saturday! My friend was going to Sprinkles, and asked me if I wanted one, and I said nah, thank you though. My reasoning was I was probably going to have frozen yogurt later that evening, so no double dessert for me! I didn't even end up having the froyo! And I wanted ice cream yesterday but never had it! (The bad thing is, the reason I didn't is because our complex's water was turned off yesterday so they could fix something. So I didn't want to get a bowl, the scoop, a spoon, dirty and then let them sit in the sink for who knows how long until the wtaer was back on and I could wash them. Little OCD....)

ZELDA!

So I think by this point everyone knows I have a weird obsessive love of all things Zelda?

So it must be said.

I am super duper excited about the informtion released by Nintendo yesterday!!

Nintendo teases new Zelda, Wind Waker remake for Wii U

I knew as soon as I heard about the Wii U that I wouldn't buy it until a Legend of Zelda game came out for it. So the new Zelda game, as far as I can tell with various articles (here's a good one from last October), is planned for 2014. But later this year a remake of Wind Waker will be released for the Wii U. So looks like I'll be getting a Wii U sooner than I thought.

So. Excited!

I've honestly been craving replaying Wind Waker too. 

Catch up - did you miss me?

Oh my gosh, busy January, how you thwart my blogging schedule!

Phew... it's been a busy month. Can't believe it's been more than two weeks since I last touched this thing. I kept meaning to blog but I spend so much time starting at a computer at work it's the last thing I want to look at on the weekends sometime and especially the week nights.

So time to play catch up. What have I been up to? Warning... I don't know why, but there are links all over the place with this post.

• W-2 Season. It kills me dead every year. There's just so much to do with the year end wrap up. I've kept my calendar relatively clear this month because I have to with my work demands. Not doing something every night though, I must admit, has been nice. Must continue to keep control over my schedule like I was forced to this month! I'm not going to bore you with the details of what I've been doing day to day at work. It's done, for the most part. I don't really want to think about it anymore.

• Won an award at work! Go me! It's basically an Employee of the Month program we have, except it's quarter based instead of monthly. Every quarter, they ask for employees to nominate their peers as the new One Team All Star -- basically the best of the best, an employee who always gives it their all and exemplifies the core values of the company. It's kind of a big deal.

My first trophy in forever!

• Have not been cooking a lot but I was able to try out a few restaurants I've been meaning to for awhile: BRC Gastropub on Shepherd -- so yummy! -- and Mother Teresa's in Lake Jackson. Authentic Italian food! So delicious. Chris and I went down to have dinner with some friends who live in LJ. Figured it was only fair, almost all the other times we've seen them, they've come up to Houston. 288 is a two way street!

• I've done some Zumba at Tropa Z Fitness. Not nearly as much as I should be doing, but things come up. I'll be better! And I have a year long membership that I'm going to be charged for each month. I MUST be better. I also used a Groupon deal with a friend that we both bought for Vault Houston - we tried out an intro class to Vault AIR-TONE. It was interesting... different. I'll try it again. And this Sunday, the same friend and I are going to enjoy another Groupon deal we bought for a class at S Factor. Pretty excited about that. I've tried out another pole dance workout class and enjoyed the class itself but not the location. 

• Successfully hosted a Slumber Parties party at my apartment this past weekend! Had to kick the boyfriend out for that. Slumber Parties is a direct sales, home party company for bedroom accessories. Let's just leave it at that? ;) My consultant is great - here's her website. My party is still open until the end of the month -- if you see something you want, contact her and let her know you were referred to her by me, Laura B. All of their products are great. I got $400 in product for $150, thanks to free or discounted merchandise hostess benefits! I had so many ladies in my apartment, oh my gosh, and it's really not that big, when you start talking about fitting 15 people in the living room. I actually  had to borrow folding chairs from E&A earlier in the week. I was looking at the RVSP list and the number of people who'd said yes, and looking at my living room, and the two recliners and one desk chair and four kitchen table chairs.... yea, that wasn't going to work. Thank goodness I was able to borrow chairs! Life savers!!

•  Finished reading The Hobbit! One book on the BBC Big Read List, down! And to stick with my 2013 reading challenge, 2 more to go! Or 12. But I still don't know if I'm that ambitious... We'll see. Next on the list... I think I'll try reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles.Got it for free on Amazon for my Kindle! 

• Ordered this -- The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia. It's a little embarrassing about how much I'm looking forward to getting this. But not really. If I wasn't a nerd, Chris and I wouldn't work as well as we do. 

• Loving on Pandora!!! Seriously, was I the last person in the world to discover how cool this thing is?

• Watched Spank! The 50 Shades Parody, a Fifty Shades of Grey parody. Pretty funny. It did inspire me to read more of 50 Shades, before I was only about one chapter in... Oh my god, it's so bad but oddly compelling. I don't understand it! I am so tired of reading about the main character's "inner goddess". Just call it what it is!

•  Got a new battery for my car. That was... thrilling. It could have been a lot worse though. I thought it was going to be much worse. Luckily I was off on Monday. So discovered my car wouldn't start, Chris tried to do a jump start, didn't work. Called my dad and told him the issues and he thought it might be something wrong with the relay. So Chris heads back to work and I call up Honda Care to set up a tow to a dealership. The tow truck comes by and takes a look and he is able to jump it! Yay! I guess the tow truck had a lot more juice than Chris' car, cos we did everything right. So then I headed over to AutoZone to get the battery tested and it was bad, so I bought a new one. The annoying this is now my car says Enter Code when I try to turn the radio on, since the battery was disconnected. Need to find my owners manual, I need the car-specific security code.

I think that's it...  Phew. And there's still a week left to this month. I need it to be February already!!

But then it'll be the month of All Star. Yikes.

5 for 5, recipe fail

Well the recipe yesterday... I had so many pictures of my cooking, step by step, to share. But I'm not even going to because the recipe turned out terrible. Okay not terrible as in completely inedible just... blah, why did I even bother making it? I used frozen spinach instead of fresh spinach, and it turned out mushy... should have drained it more. And I put so much seasoning on top of the chicken but it turned out bland and just boring. Which raises the question I obviously don't know the answer to... how much seasoning is too much? How much is just right? I guess it's better I under season than over season.

Sigh. One of these days I will learn how to properly season while cooking. Back to the drawing board! It sounded interesting, and I ran it by the boyfriend before making it, and he said it sounded good.

I would have been better off using the spinach and just making a spinach lasagna, like one I made in the summer for father's day when my parents came up to see the new apartment. Live and learn. I'll just need to make that again some time.

It's time to do my weekly 5 for five!

1. Laundry, laundry. Do your laundry -- and put it away!
2. Go to Zumba twice. Tuesday and Thursday, you are my days! I should try to go to the 15 minute ab workout they have before my 7pm Zumba class too. I did that last week (the one time I worked out, blah) and ow! My abs were sore for days! Good stuff!
3. Talk with the boyfriend more on plans for Valentine's Day weekend. Where are we going, how long are we going for? Talk to work about it being okay to be gone for All Star weekend.
4. Wall art. Put it up! At least one room. I don't really care which one at this point.
5. Try out the new food processor. With something, don't know what. Hummus seems easy enough. You like it, you have a good recipe for it.

Long term list!
1. Organize books and movies.
2. Put up wall art.
3. Go through clothes.
4. Go to Goodwill. Did this Saturday! Took away a bag of clothes and old towels and stuff, a lamp, and the old pots and pans. I will need to go again if I, excuse me, WHEN I go through my clothes, but it's on the list!
5. Revisit the shoe cubby idea.
6. Figure out how to make Thai tea.
7. Clean my car. Clean out the trunk, clear out the back seat, get it washed.
8. Reorganize the pantry. 

Sunday Confessions!

Oh Sunday, Sunday... Time for random confessions! Actually on Sunday too, woo woo. My boyfriend is off at some rp'ing event, playing with his new collection of D10 dice, so I have the apartment to myself! Which means really I have the computer to myself. I had it to myself technically this morning while he was asleep but I slept in as  well. For once! Probably partly due to the glass of red wine I drank the night before with some of my friends. Yum. Not often a red wine girl but it's so yum!



1. I love my job. I seriously really do. I've been there almost 3 years now... It's totally busy right now and W-2 time, year-end, quarter-end wrap tasks are consuming my life for the next month and making it damn near impossible for me to schedule anything during the week with friends (I work late often during this time, but never really know when I'll need to or want to, or where I'll be in the whole process to even yet warrant it).
But every time I tell people where I work and what I do, their response is almost almost, "Oh that's so cool." Usually followed by, "Do you get free tickets" or "what does ___ make?". And I have to smile and say yes, it is cool. Yes, I do get free tickets -- not court side though. Oh I wish. Oh court side ... such a dream of mine. And yes I know what ___ makes but I won't tell you. Go Google it yourself!
Every day is different. Every day is an adventure! I've learned so much... There's no way I would have ever been able to get my CPP while I was at my old job. I just didn't have the exposure to basic payroll concepts that I do now. I don't think the CPP really would have helped me much there anyway. But now? I use things I learned in the course every day.

2. I want ice cream. I know. It's weird. We're in the middle of winter -- as wintry as it ever really gets here in Houston, TX -- and it's 40 degrees outside (actually today it's sunny and clear and windy and 57 degrees and so friggin' beautiful I wanna cry. I played disc golf. I was terrible but it was so fun). But I want ice cream! I'm going to the grocery store later. Maybe I'll give in. I'll get one that's so rich and decadent a) the boyfriend who doesn't really like or crave sweets won't touch it and b) it's so rich I can only take 1-2 bites and I'm done for the day.

3. Does someone want to come over and put up my wall art for me? Seriously. I don't want to do it! I want to have it up, it'll look so nice... I have spots for most of it planned out... I just don't want to. I'm scared of putting holes in the wall and messing up the placement and having to move it up or down and then you have a hole. And the painting. Blaaah. I'm having a big girls day in two weeks... I should really aim to have at least 2 rooms done by then (bedroom, living room, bathroom, dining room).

4. Going to try a new recipe today! Spinach and tomato chicken. I'm amazed too -- something that's not from the crockpot? And on Crockpot Sunday at that?? Laura, you wild woman! I'll report back later with how this turns out.

Hm. What else. Oh. Sure why not.

5. This wine is really good. This is the wine I drank last night that made me sleep in. You should try it out. It's super tasty. It's basically super expensive French wine that due to the weird French wine laws, can't be bottled as super expensive French wine. Here's some information on it. If you like reds, check it out. It's $12. And tastes like a $70 bottle. At least that's what my win connoisseur friend, who introduced me to it, says.

Time to go play with my iPad. And think about putting up wall art...

Influenster Holiday VoxBox!

Last night I got my Holiday Vox Box from Influenster! Full of new products and goodies for me to try out and review and recommend, or not recommend, to my friends. Let's see the fun stuff I have to play with, shall we?

By the way, if you check out Influenster and are interested, let me know! I have 5 invite codes I can use -- I'll just need your email address. I'm still relatively new to the site and figuring it out, but so far I'm enjoying it. Free stuff!!

All the goodies in the box!

Opening up the box! Yes of course it was laid out like this for photographing when I opened it up.

SoleSociety.com coupon

First up! A coupon for $25 off my first pair of shoes from Sole Society! I honestly hadn't heard of Sole Society before this but I'll definitely check them out. I have been needing some new shoes. Some black heels for every day at work. Or maybe some cute slip on flats?
You too can check out Sole Society! The code is INFLUENSTER25 and expires January 31st. Enjoy! And show me pics of what shoes you buy!
Find Sole Society on Facebook: @Sole Society or Twitter: @SoleSociety

NYC Liquid Lipshine - Nude

New lipgloss by NYC! Will have to try this out soon and report back. I love love love lipgloss. And I've honestly been needing a nude one! Will be interested to see how it looks on my lips. Will it just be a sheen? I do like shiny lips.
Find NYC on Facebook:  @NYC New York Color or Twitter: @nycnewyorkcolor

EBoost energy powder

EBoost Natural Energy in pink lemonade! Honestly I typically don't really use these types of energy powders... Not a fan of energy drinks. Red Bull, Monster, no thank you. But I'll try anything once!
Find Eboost on Facebook: @EBOOST or Twitter: @EBOOST

Montagne Jeunesse face mask

It's like Influenster knows me. I love face masks! This one is by Montagne Jeunesse and I'm planning to try this one out this weekend.
Find MJ on Facebook: @Montagne Jeunesse or Twitter: @MontagneJeuness

Kiss Nail Dress

 So pretty! Where were these when I got all dressed up for New Years Eve? I need to break my bad habit of picking at my cuticles (to the extreme - it's embarrassing. I'm an adult. I know. I'm way too old to have this bad habit. 2013 will be my year to kick it!!) before I try these out.
Find Kiss on Facebook: @Kiss Nails or Twitter: @KissProducts

Quaker Real Medleys oatmeal

Yum oatmeal to go! I actually meant to grab this one and bring it to work for breakfast. I really need to eat breakfast every day. It has so many health benefits if you do (depending on what you eat of course).
Find Quaker on Facebook: @Quaker or Twitter: @Quaker

Goody Quikstyle brush

 And last but not least is a new hair brush by Goody, my favorite brand for brushes and hair ties! Cannot wait to try this one out. I've had a brush like it in the past but when it was time for a new one, I couldn't find one in the store I liked.
Find Goody on Facebook: @Goody or Twitter: @GoodyHair