At closing, Bob locked us in and we got to work making the place ready for the next day. Judging by the way Bob was finding difficulty in delegating tasks to me, I’d say he’s not used to sharing chores at the end of the day behind the closed sign with anyone… but I could be wrong. I got to refill the sugar shakers anyway, so that’s something, right? Then we looked up and noticed a young guy standing at the door and smiling. He looked to be about 17 or so. I was surprised when Bob let him in without hesitation. We made him a latte even though we’d just cleaned a lot of the equipment, and then he left. He was friendly though. And then Bob told me who he was. This guy’s family has apparently been friends with Bob’s family for a long time. Bob’s daughters used to go swimming in their pool as kids and hung out at this guy’s grandma’s place and stuff. … And then Bob casually mentioned that this guy who had just left was none other than Josh Hutcherson’s little brother. My mouth fell open, and I’m not going to lie, I fangirled a little bit… which was an odd feeling and sort of embarrassing since I really wouldn’t consider myself to be a huge fan of Josh Hutcherson’s. I guess I was just a little starstruck maybe. Wow. I just served Josh Hutcherson’s little brother a latte. Imagine that. … Poor guy, I don’t even remember his name.

Bob let me keep the tips of the day, so I took Daniel out for pizza to celebrate my very first little bit of money earned as a married woman! What a happy ending to an already great day! Oh, and one other great thing that happened today was I received my new purse I ordered from China! I wasn’t expecting it to arrive until June! … Yes, today was good.

Connor was his name. I feel bad that I had to look it up online by searching for “Josh Hutcherson’s brother.” Sheesh.

I had to handle a small rush all by myself. That was scary, but I got through without mishaps. Haha, sike! Three guys came in together and ordered on a single check. Two guys ordered drip coffee; that seemed easy enough. I pumped the last of the drip coffee for the first guy, so I had to get another pot brewing really quickly. I checked with the second guy who ordered drip to make sure he could wait. He said yeah, so I got to brewing. Another man approached me just then who wanted a refill. He also wanted drip coffee, and said he could wait for it as well. The third guy of this three-part  order ordered something that I wasn’t too familiar with making. Thankfully, Bob popped over just in time and got the parts of the drink put together that I was feeling unsure about. I dosed, tamped, steamed, and cupped it without any problems. But when I turned around to check the progress of the drip coffee, that’s when things started going awry. While it was finishing brewing, it had overflowed and coffee was pooling all over the counter. The three amigos I was currently serving saw it as well as the man who wanted a refill. I briefly entertained the thought of running out the door wailing and flailing, but I quickly decided that would have been a major overreaction on my part, and it would also have hurt my changes of ever getting a real job here. I put on my calm face, mopped up the mess with a cloth, and carried on with making drinks. Later when I asked Bob about what to do for the overflowing air pot, he explained that he’d saved about $60 in purchasing a slightly smaller air pot than the size actually required for that machine. The result of this is that we have to catch the overflow by placing a cup on the counter under the spout of the air pot while it’s filling. No big deal… unless you neglect to put the cup there as I had. Another thing that happened during this same rush was one of my hairs fell out of my head and landed in a cup of coffee. Luckily it was just a cup that I had used to catch the overflow from the air pot when I noticed it was overflowing. I felt the hair sliding down my arm as I was holding the cup and thought, “No, please no” and then *plop* there it was. I don’t think anybody else saw it but me. Well, maybe one that one man saw it (the refill man), but he would also have seen me put the whole cup, hair and all, into the sink promptly and wash my hands off too. After that I put my hair up, and for the rest of the day, it kept falling down into my face. Growing bangs + impromptu ponytail + no bobby pins = hair in the face. I bet I looked so frazzled by the end of it all! Hah!

A little bit later, Bob told me he wanted to run some errands. Thank goodness Dyson was there. Dyson, of couse is not his real name. Anybody I write about from work will be given a pseudonym for the sake of privacy, just fyi. Dyson is a fellow volunteer, and he just happened to be spending his Thursday afternoon there at the coffee shop. I just don’t know what I would have done without him. He was really kind to be willing to spend his personal time helping me. He and Bob must have a good relationship for him to be willing to step in and help just out of the blue like that. I made sure he knew how much I appreciated his help. I was super relieved that he stayed with me until Bob returned.

Another incident was that I got flustered and almost charged a girl $0.50 extra for skim milk. Oopsie. I gave her the extra back as soon as I realized my mistake. Plus this girl had to wait a pretty long time for her order; she was so kind and patient though. This is what happened: an older woman came in with a list of coffees she wanted to buy. She wanted 3 specific kinds and 1 was out of stock, so she and Bob stood there in front of the shelves of coffee figuring out which one would be most comparable. Meanwhile, a girl had walked in and was waiting to be served at the counter. I went over and took the girl’s order and indicated that Bob would probably be finished in a moment so he could come help me make her drink, explaining that I am currently training so I didn’t want to mess up her order. I had a general knowledge of how to make her drink, but I didn’t want to take any chances to reflect badly on the business by doing it not according to their methods. I proceeded to charge her extra for the skim milk. The the old woman tottled over to the counter, still talking with Bob about the beans, and still trying to figure out what she should buy in place of the one kind he was out of. I just realized that I had overcharged the girl by $0.50. Bob is friendly and takes really good care of customers, so he was supportive to help the old woman figure out what she should do. I stooped down to the the money drawer and removed $0.50. I walked over and handed it to the girl who was now exploring the merchandise shelves. I said, “We don’t charge extra for skim. I’m so sorry about that.” She thanked me and I went back behind the counter to wait for Bob. The woman finally decided to settle with just the 2 bags of coffee and added a blueberry muffin to her order. Bob swiped her card and she signed. Then, … Bob is such a considerate and kind businessman, … Bob asked the woman if she meant to include a such a generous tip. He explained that the tip button is just at the bottom of the screen and she may have touched it accidentally when she signed. Bob doesn’t have a cash register, you see. He uses an iPhone app to accept card payments. She said no, and then we all had to wait for the order to be voided and for her to pay cash instead of trying to swipe and sign again. *Sigh* Such a delay-fish (Finding Nemo reference haha). Bob finally got her all taken care of, so we then got to move on to the very patient girl’s order, which only took about 3 minutes to whip up. Such a patient girl. I thanked her profusely for her patience and she left smiling, cup in hand.

Other than the 3 outstanding incidents, it was a pretty quiet day. At 1 point though, I felt like hugging Bob. He had spent a majority of my “shift” running around the place and doing other things, so once when he came behind the counter and stayed  for more than just a few seconds, I felt so relieved and wanted to throw my arms around him and say “I’M SO GLAD YOU’RE BACK HERE NOW!”… but I decided that might be a little inappropriate and so I didn’t do that.

I’m a bit clingy as a newbie, and I’ll admit I require a lot of hand holding while I’m learning how to do something new in a potentially stressful environment. I won’t be this way as soon as I can get comfortable with how I’m performing tasks according to what is expected of me. I consulted my cheat sheet a lot today, so thanks go to Edna for that! Phew! Overall, today was a good experience for me because it was one shift  and a few mistakes closer to my settling in there. I had resolved to stay and help for 4 hours, and during my last hour things slowed way down. It gave Bob and me a chance to talk some and get to know each other better. That was nice. I assured him that I do enjoy working there, even though it might not look like it. I’ve got the newbie-jitters, and I cannot wait for them to wear off!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(The following Wednesday, May 1)
Today, I got to be behind the counter! Eee! The day started with my meeting a very loud co-trainee. I shall not name him. He did a lot of talking while we both waited for Edna to arrive. His type is one that could easily keep a whole group of people’s attention effortlessly for as long as he wanted. He’s a bonafide extravert. I enjoy just sitting back and watching people like him, but interacting with extraverts can tire me out quickly I’ve found. He was drawing from my precious supply of social energy. I am reminded of this illustration because it just sums it up so well:

I don’t know who to give credit to for this clever illustration . I think this is a pretty accurate picture of what goes on socially for me personally.

Okay, so Edna arrived and filled in my extroverted training buddy with the condensed version of all the things she’d shared with me last wednesday. He had to run off, so after that I got Edna all to myself. It was a pretty quiet day though, so I didn’t get to make many drinks… but I did get to know Edna a little bit better. I stayed for about 2 hours. We established my schedule somewhat, and I was to return the next day for training with… “Bob.” We’ll call him “Bob.” Bob is the boss, and to be honest, I actually tend to relax a little more around men, so maybe that’ll help with my nerves tomorrow. We’ll see!

The first place I applied to was Starbucks— the busiest one in our area. In hindsight, I think it would have been a mistake if I’d actually gotten a job there, because it probably would have stressed me out too much. I have a friend who worked there and referred me to his boss at the time, and he admitted it was a very fast paced place to work. Back then I had no experience to offer, and learning in that environment would have overwhelmed me.

The second place where I submitted an application was a little, privately owned shop. I did my best to develop a friendly relationship with the owners, but we didn’t quite click. There, I had been pushing for even just a volunteer position, but I didn’t get accepted. Instead, the owner kept me suspended but invited me to become more familiar with how things ran there by having me come by daily and sit at the counter for hours observing. Some baristas were a pleasure to watch and talk with, while others didn’t say much at all to me or even acknowledge my presence (unless you count “have a nice day” as I was leaving. hah!)

Among those 2 applications I was also calling and gathering information on other places as well. I looked into working at shops in the airport, the mall, the library, the grocery store, and also other independent establishments. Friends of mine were also very helpful in offering their suggestions to me. Coffee shops might be plentiful in the area, but jobs were (and still are) not. The way I have gone about my job search is that I’ve tended to focus on one place at a time so I could be thorough. It’s probably not the most efficient method, but it was all I could handle. Getting turned down became heavy, and I got really discouraged sometimes.

 …but…

I am currently speaking with the manager of a thriving, local coffee shop, and he seems to be inclined to the idea of accepting me! I have called and called and called. I presented myself differently to this manager than to all the others. I’ve denied my desire to just break down crying and to beg him for a job. I’ve been more intentional about being positive and upbeat. Probably no one has ever scored a job by whining to the manager, which is exactly what I’ve felt like doing.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEEEEEEEASE HIRE ME!! I REALLY WANT TO WORK FOR YOU!! I WANT A JOB! I NEEEEEEEEED A JOB!! PLEEEEASE JUST GIVE ME A JOB! BAW-HAW-HAW-WHAAAAAAAAAAAA!! *sputter* *gasp* snifle-slurrrp*

(Well, that would just be embarrassing, right?)

So, next week I’m looking at a very possible training day for me! Weeeee! I’ve told him that I’m willing to be a volunteer for the present, but at some point I want to become an employee. I’m so nervous, but excited!! I will keep you posted about how this develops!

And so ends our adventures in Las Vegas!

-Jenny the sick, but glad to be home again and in my own bed.

(Lucy puppy is glad to be back too!)

There are lots of people looking for free handouts on the streets here in Vegas. We saw a lot of people doing it in that cool tunnel place near the Plaza. There were a bunch of kids in saggy-butt jeans and flat brimmed ball caps attempting to get money by “dancing” on the street, there were those statue guys, random people holding cardboard signs here and there, and there’s been no short supply of skanky dancing girls. I guess it really doesn’t take much to be tossed money here in Vegas, or there probably wouldn’t be so many people out doing it.

That’s all for today. We packed and walked. That’s pretty much it.

Tomorrow is our travel day back home. Stay “tuned” for that story. : )

-Jenny

Today, dear readers, we podcasted from our hotel room. We did our full episode of Once Podcast. We had a great turnout in the chatroom, despite the short notice they were given via twitter. We have such cool fans/listeners/supporters/awesome-people supporting us with all kinds of warm-heart-fuzziness! Often, they’re the ones that make us laugh, think, and succeed! *Whispers*- that’s our motto, btw.

Click on the following links to listen to the 2 Once Podcast episodes we recorded while in Vegas: the first one was the initial reactions episode we recorded during CES, and the second was the full episode we recorded today.

Our groceries are dwindling, and that’s a good thing since we’ll be leaving Vegas soon and won’t be able to take stuff like that onto the plane easily.

Today was also the day I felt good enough to start exercising again since getting sick. Oh, it felt so good.

We tasted more gelato today and walked to Walgreens again. Exciting, right?

The scarf I’m knitting is getting long! Eeyay! I love this new hobby!

This is the striped scarf i’m working on. This picture was taken after we got home, hence the puppy in the picture.

-Jenny on the mend

Daniel got to go eat with the TPN team. They went to a restaurant somewhere just below me here in the Plaza. He brought me back a lobster bisque and tirimisu. Yumm! I’ll have to wait to enjoy the dessert, but I’m sure it will be amazing!

I’m so glad CES is over, but I sure would have loved getting to hang out with the team and help out some more.

Today while I was feeling so bad, I decided to wash some clothes in the tub. I had only brought 2 pairs of jeans. My favorite of these 2 was beginning to stink. I brought some of our laundry detergent from home just in case. I decided to wash Daniel’s socks too, because he’d run out of clean ones. I like to steal his socks because they’re so much warmer than mine hehe. WHY ARE FEMALE SOCKS SO INADEQUATE!!? Unfortunately, he doesn’t own enough pairs for both of us to use during a nearly 2 week period with no laundry day. We literally packed all of his socks haha!

I also called down and got a maintenance guy to come up and clean out the airconditioner vent. It was nasty. Dust and filth was visible between the slats. Yick! He was friendly and did the job well while I sat on the bed watching tv and trying not to be awkward. I was also trying very hard to keep my germs to myself. As he left, I called after him, “stay well!” I really hope he stayed well. Being sick is the pits.

Washing clothes in the bathtub.

Drying socks in the sun on this trendy desk chair

Sundried pants on a towel

Isn’t this carpet cool?

I wouldn’t mind having a rug with this design on it for my kitchen. …Hah! I’m wearing a pair of Daniel’s socks in this picture!

-Jenny, from the sick bed again. Ugh.

business cards

“2 minutes”

Jaime, Todd, Sherry, Andy, Michael, Jeffery, …

noodles

medicine

2 free products

Smart fridge

“booth babe”

trip to Walgreens

“statue” people

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ok. So I wrote the above post the day it happened, and things were so hectic and I was so pooped by the end of it all, that I only had the energy to do a sort of outline of the day. So let me connect a few dots for you. I will start by telling you that it was the Tech Podcast Network (TPN) booth we were working with during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

Business cards- When I got to CES it was early and the team arrived to set up the booth, which was quite a scrambling ordeal. There was cussing, and cord untangling, and audio issues, … but they got it all got straightened out, thank goodness. I walked into this completely unaware of what to expect, so I was a bit overwhelmed already. I was ready to work though! After a while of sitting there feeling unused and restless, I was finally put to work. My first mission was to go and find a water fountain. Check! It was up the escalator to the left. Done… in like 3 minutes. I was chomping at the bit for something else to do. After spending the entire previous day cooped up in our hotel room, I was ready to DO something. I got the job of handing the business cards from the lady who greeted interviewees, to the guy who was to enter their information for the footer on the screen when it was their turn in the hot seat. See, our booth was broadcasting live video. Each person got 5 minutes to introduce and talk about their product. These products were themed around what techie people might want. The water I found earlier was for a guy who invented way to waterproof electronic devices. He presented his product by putting several devices into a tub of water and showing that they still worked. He had a mouse floating in the water, a phone, a keyboard, … it looked so wrong. I literally gasped when I saw it. Another guy talked about his headphone keeper. It was a small, round, silicon wheel with slits on one side for holding the earbuds and plug, and a flap that folded up around the other side to keep the cord from slipping out. Very clever design. After his interview, he passed a few of them out to us. I got one. I love it! There was this other guy who invented a cool little handle thing to attach onto the back of any handheld device to make it easier to hold. It’s design was a small round disc with a retractible cord that you could slip through your fingers. It could be attached to the back of a device by a sticky, foam disc. Genius! … At least I thought so, but apparently that wasn’t the first one like it the other people working our booth had seen. I was all like, “Whoa, that’s so cool!” but they were like,
“Meh. We’ve seen lots of those here.”

2 minutes - The next job I was assigned to was to hold a sign up that said “2 minutes” for the interviewers. Daniel was interviewing at the time, and his partner was having trouble abiding by the 5-minutes-per-interview rule, and things were sliding off schedule. So I was right there behind the camera to give them a gentle reminder when necessary.

Jaime, Todd, Sherry, Andy, Michael, Jeffery –  These were the names of the people I got to work with in our booth. Jaime gave us a ride from our hotel to the event. What a guy. His job in the booth was to monitor the live chatroom and to enter the necessary information for each interview into the computer for Michael, who then put it in the live video. Michael was the audio and video tech. Todd was the organizer/manager of the team, Sherry is Todd’s mom who came along to help; this lady was awesome, let me tell you. Andy was Daniel’s interview partner for most of the day, and Jeffery was another interviewer on the team. There were a few other people on the team, but I didn’t get to work around them. They did stuff away from the booth all day.

Noodles - Things slowed way down at our booth in the afternoon, so I got to get away to find a spot to eat my lunch. I’d brought a bowl of dry soup, a couple of tea bags, and an apple with peanut butter. I took some hot water from a carafe at a Starbucks stand without being noticed. I brought my own cup so I wouldn’t have to bother anybody for one. I found a quiet spot on the floor near the food court where a few other people were sitting and I settled there. If you’ve ever eaten ramen, you know how long the noodles are and how awkward it can be to eat them in public. I splashed and chewed my way through it though. I know I looked funny, but it tasted so good. I texted Daniel and got to see him for a few seconds. He took a dose of medicine and I made him take an apple with him, otherwise he wouldn’t have eaten anything at all. He was so busy, and rarely got breaks.

Medicine - Daniel and I were sharing a bottle of liquid cold medicine, and I tried to keep us on a strict dosage schedule. We took about 3 doses each while we were there, and doses were 4 hours apart. At one time I had to get Daniel’s dose to him while he was interviewing people at the booth. I slid up beside him just off camera and he reached for the cup while the camera was focused off of him. We’re so slick. *wink* Mission accomplished. Since we shared the same little measuring cup that came with the bottle, I had to run to the bathroom and wash it each time.

2 Free products - While I was at the booth there were 2 people who passed out a handfull of their products to us! I got a headphone keeper and a tablet/iphone handle! Woot! … Speaking of Woot, somebody also gave us their Woot Monkey they’d gotten at the Woot booth. How fun. Yay for free stuff!

Smart fridge - Things were slow that evening too, so I got to go set out to find Daniel who was off walking around and getting interviews at the different booths. Each booth was a different company, showing off… er showcasing their product. I was put to work when I found him. Andy had me hold his script on a small notepad  just off camera so he could read it easily without having to look down or memorize it. While I was with Daniel and Andy, we found a booth that was showcasing a bunch of household appliances that could be operated by any of your smart electronic devices. There was a refrigerator, an air conditioner, a TV, and a radio. Your phone could literally be the remote for all of these. We focused on the frige. Andy got a nice, long interview about it while Daniel held the camera. It was such a high tech frige! It had a power save feature, and a small window built into the door so you could open it and reach in without leaking too much cool air, you could enter a shopping list on the touch screen that was built into the freezer door, you could leave little notes that way as well, you could set it to maintain a higher temperature while you’re away on trips to save energy. Such a smart frige! After his interview, Andy asked me if I’d want one of those. I of course said no. It was a cool idea though. haha get it? “Cool idea?” Hyuck hyuck!

“Booth babe” - “Booth babes”, as I learned, are attractive women people hire to make other people want to visit their booth, because the more people that visit your booth, the higher the chances are that they’ll buy something. Well, later that day, I received such a nice compliment! Andy took a picture of me and Daniel while we were roaming the booths, and shared it online. Jaime found it and said his first reaction was “hey somebody got a picture with a booth babe!” and then he realized who it was, laughed, and told us about it later. Hah! Thank you, Jaime, for the complement. That made my day.

Trip to Walgreens - When we got back to the hotel, we decided to walk to Walgreens together in order to pick up a few things. Walgreens was at the end of a very brightly lit tunnel. Most of the light was coming from a gigantic screen that stretched above from 1 end of the tunnel to the other. Random designs were constantly being projected up there. It was a cool place to walk. At one point all the shops turned off their outside lights and music, and a fun music video was played on the screen. People stopped and watched it. I wonder how often they do that. It was so neat! The human statues even got down from their pedestals to look up and enjoy. There were also zip lines way above the walk way and people zoomed overhead on them. Such a cool tunnel! Here’s a crappy photo of it. Sorry about the low quality. This place was right across the street from our hotel, the Plaza.

Statue people - These people creeped me out. There were a 2 or 3 scattered throughout this tunnel along the walkway. They were gold from head to toe, as were their pedestals that they were each standing on. They stood stone still. I was just waiting for one of them to attack us as soon as we looked away. One was an old cowboy with a trenchcoat, boots, mustache, and hat. This was the first one I saw. Another was some guy with goggles. That’s how I would have done it. Then you could secretly watch people gawk at you haha. The third… I can’t even remember. How they kept from laughing is beyond me. Once I was passing by one of these guys, eyes glued, just waiting for him to jump at me or something, when a pirate on the other side of the street, which I was not watching, suddenly yelled something at us. I almost jumped out of my skin! He and another pirate were out in front of a seafood restaurant trying to lure people in. They were in full costume and character. His sudden yelling scared me to death! I’ll bet he does that to people all the time.

It was an exciting tunnel, and a good end to a very hectic day.

-Jenny

Notice all the tissues on the floor. Ugh. Being sick is so lame.

Hello, readers. I am writing to you from our room today in the Plaza hotel. My body is getting weary of fighting off sickness. Daniel left at 7 this morning, and I slept in until 9:30. His voice is shot, his throat hurts, but he has to do what he came here to do. He’s such a trooper.

So here I am in this room. I’ve spoken to 3 strangers today. Only 1 was nice to me.

God, i thank you for that nice room service woman who came back to check on me after bringing me the water bottles i had asked for. Thanks for the way she smiled at me in the hallway while i was going to get ice. i don’t even know her name, Lord, but you do. Please send her a blessing today.

I get kind of emotional when I’m feeling sick, so the way that lady smiled at me made me miss my momma. My momma gives great hugs. I get a craving for her hugs especially when I’m sick. The room service woman who served me today was a hefty, black woman and a complete stranger to me, but I almost asked her for a hug. I bet she would have given me one too. She seemed so kind.

Mom? If you’re reading this, I miss you all the way from Vegas! Your hugs are like cozy blankets for my heart when I’m feeling sick. I could really use one right now. I love you!

I think I’ll turn on the Cartoon Network and chill today. I wish Daniel could do the same, because I know he’s not feeling the greatest either. He amazes me.

When Daniel returned late that evening, he did a heroic thing for me. He went to Walgreens. It was a long walk there, and it was cold, but my man pushed through. He came back carrying orange juice, a bottle of cold medicine for us to share, and 4 ramen bowls (chicken noodle flavor). Wow. What a man.

-Jenny the sick

This morning we both slept until about 8:15. Daniel got ready and headed down for a few morning sessions. I got busy getting ready and packing up our stuff. It was quite an ordeal with all the swag and groceries in addition to our normal luggage, but I got it done. We checked our bags into the hotel’s luggage holding room, and headed down to NMX for the last time. I sat in the hall and blogged. I was undisturbed, except for the sound of gurgling that was happening in my stomach. I had only a couple of handfulls of Kix cereal that morning, so I was pretty empty by lunch time. Thankfully, Daniel texted that food and beverages would be provided today as well. Thank you, God! We were both feeling hungry! So off we went to fill our bellies with more free yummies! I ate a soft pretzel with mustard, a delicious brownie dusted with a layer of powdered sugar, a fruit skewer, and a bag of trail mix. An acquaintance of Daniel’s came to interview him, and offered us drinks as well as a deck of his business cards. Meeting more of Daniel’s friends has been such a good experience! Since he works with social media, his friendships tend to happen in random and far away places, so getting to meet each and every one of them will probably be impossible. He has so many friends!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ZOOM ZOOM! We had to change hotels today, and our cab driver had a lead foot for the brake pedal, so we arrived at The Plaza feeling a bit car sick. We checked in and soon we were enjoying the view of a busy street below us from the window of our room on the 10th floor.

View from our window at the Plaza

What we lacked at the first hotel we now lacked that plus more, so Daniel and I had to get creative. We had groceries as previously mentioned, so in order to keep our perishables from spoiling without the convenience of a refrigerator, I requested a few large trash bags from housekeeping and we put ice in one, wound the top of the bag, and put it in a cloth satchel we had been given at NMX. We put our perishable items on top of the trash bag of ice inside the satchel. Hooray for our makeshift fridge!

Makeshift refrigerator.

Now figuring out how to get boiling water in our room was trickier since we had no coffee pot. After giving it some thought, I decided to call down to the housekeeping office once more and speak to Tanya again. This time I told her I needed a coffee pot. I very simply explained that I had coffee, sugar, and cups… but no coffee pot. Much to my delight, she was happy to oblige! She seemed a little confused, but without asking any questions she said she would send it right up. I thanked her and hung up the phone. *Happy dance!!* So now we had trash bags of ice for our perishables, and a way to heat water for coffee and tea. Aren’t we clever! I just hoped that they wouldn’t decide to charge us later for using their coffee pot since we only used it for heating water.

****UPDATE***** We left the Plaza with no additional charges. We also have not received any bills from the Plaza since returning home. We got to use that coffee pot for free! On the days we decided to leave the room open for housekeeping, I hid it in a cabinet so we wouldn’t receive anything extra like coffee, sugar, creamer, stirring sticks, etc., for which we definitely would have been charged. SUCCESS! We found a loop hole, and got what we needed for free! Weee!

Daniel was “playing charades” with me tonight because at this point he’d almost completely lost his voice. I told him to drink lots and refrain from talking. Thus the charades.

Life is full of interesting and surprising moments, and one can choose to react to these moments in either a negative way, or a positive way. Tonight I chose to be positive. We solved our room problems creatively, so that’s a win for us. Sitting and pouting would not have gotten us trash bags or a coffee pot. Praise God for the capable minds He’s given us!

Tomorrow we get to go see some fun new gadgets in action. CES, here we come!

-Jenny

Shaking hands with Leo Laporte, from TWIT, who presented the awards.

He later said he was so beside himself that he couldn’t even remember what he said moments after stepping off the stage after accepting his award.

Leo Laporte, everybody! And no, we did not win that car.

Afterwards, we partied in a semi-geek-like fashion, being that there were lots of geeks present with whom to talk to about geek-like things. Today I learned that geeks can be very good company! (Dear geeks, please don’t be offended. I like you.)

It was my first time in a social setting like this. There were lots of fun people who mingled with us, lots of free food and drinks to choose from, and lots of space to enjoy it all in. Wee! It was a fantastically fun evening! We were greeted by fellow podcasters, people who had become fans of our shows, others who just wanted offer congratulations, as well as business associates and friends Daniel has made over the years while doing what he loves. As the evening progressed, we were invited to a private party by a friend of Daniel’s, Cliff Ravenscraft. His suite, which was at the time full of people, overlooked the city. The view was magnificent. We only stayed there briefly, but we were thrilled to have received the invite.

After both parties, I got a shower and pretty much went straight to bed… er couch, but Daniel stayed up in order to process some of the audio from the initial reactions episode of Once Podcast that we’d recorded earlier in the day with Jeremy (who had Skyped in from our studio back at home). This was a fun experience too! We had a booth on the expo floor where people were walking around and looking at the different exhibits. I was worried about being nervous having an audience for the first time, but I really had nothing to be anxious about. I felt that the people added an energy that just doesn’t happen in a quiet studio. There was even one guy who stopped by to listen and held up his phone with text on the screen for us to read. It was a question that we got to include in our episode.

Podcasting live at New Media Expo! Such a rush!

Today was exciting! It was a really good day.

-Jenny

It wasn’t a bad couch to sleep on. Hubby, Daniel, was sick last night, but he recovered beautifully… er, handsomely… by this morning. I was worried about the possibility of his running a fever because I didn’t pack a thermometer. I didn’t anticipate needing it. Poor hubby coughed up so much stuff that he clogged our bathroom sink. Service is very friendly at the Rio, but it’s kinda slow. This is a huge hotel, so I’m wondering if it’s just the walk up to our room that’s taking forever. Haha! My feet are sore, I cannot even imagine how painful it must be for the dancing girls to walk/strut about in their high heels all day, and perhaps all night too. Owch!

I don’t have anything else to report. More sessions and blogging took place; that’s pretty much it.

Here. Look at these random pictures I took inside of our room since I have nothing more of interest to tell you:

Shower (yes, that’s a window into the room. Peek-a-boo!)

Minibar

“Good morning Trump building.” This is one of the things we saw every time we pushed back the curtains.

When I was hungry, I’d come up to the room, put together a yummy plate of food very similar to this one, and flip on the cartoon network. Isn’t that what everybody watches in Vegas?

-Jenny

Also, today I decided we needed our room cleaned and stuff restocked, especially since Daniel has been getting sick. The first 2 nights we got along just fine with what we were provided, towel and wash cloth-wise, so it was time to get that taken care of. Also we needed more cups for coffee and tea. We may not be able to use the coffee maker to make coffee (or tea), but we have been using it to heat our water. I don’t like Keurig. Everything’s pre-done for you, so you’re forced into drinking someone else’s idea of a good cup of coffee. I’d rather do it myself. So here are my pictures of me doing it myself with what I had:

This is the little pour over coffee maker I got from the grocery store. Cute, isn’t it?

This is what it looks like assembled.

I put the grounds in…

… add hot water…

… and sugar…

… and voila! Coffee a la Jenny! I get excited about making coffee, so pardon me if you’re totally bored right now. haha

A lady named Crystal cleaned our room today. I offered her some of my green tea pumpkin seeds before I left her alone to clean, and I left a chocolate for her on top of a note that said “Thanks for cleaning our room! What’s your name?” She was very friendly.

Not much else happened. Daniel attended sessions, and I blogged in the hallway of the conference center. The end.

-Jenny

Green Tea Pumpkin Seeds

Peanuts

Peanut butter

Strawberry Jam

Bread

Romaine lettuce

Cherry tomatoes

Cucumber

Green pea pod things for salad

French dressing

Folger’s ground coffee

Tiny manual coffee maker/filter(…that actually works pretty well!)

Sugar

Butterfly bread… stuff. I have no idea. It looks like deep fried tortilla. It tastes sweet and buttery.

Honey-fuji and regular fuji apples (we love apples)

Oranges

%2 Milk

Kix cereal

Chocolatey cookie snacks

We spent about $65 total. That’s probably as much as we would have spent per day in restaurants around here. Daniel’s so smart and thrifty. Grocery shopping was his call. What a smart hubby.

Green Tea Pumpkin Seeds: These things were seriously yummy!

Our hotel fridge at the Rio

Drawer full of FOOOOD!

All the things we stole. Heh-heh.

Our hotel room does not have a microwave, free internet, or free coffee. We do have a mini bar filled with all sorts of tempting things, but it’s all overpriced, because basically we’re paying for the convenience of having it at our fingertips. No small bag of Peanut M&M’s is worth that much!

That’s all we did… apart from stealing eating utensils from local fastfood restaurants in the area. We scored 2 paper plates, 2 plastic forks, 2 plastic knives, and a large styrofoam cup from Noble Roman; 2 small bowls from a gelato shop in Caesar’s Palace (after eating the gelato out of them that we bought, of course. Two words- Oh! Yum!); and 3 plastic spoons from McDonalds. We’re all set! Woo! Aren’t we crafty.  *wink*  We’re pretty frugal, if you haven’t already noticed.

-Jenny

Day 1: Travel day.

Travel garb

Before flying out, Daniel and I dropped our puppy, Lucy, off at the in-laws house and waited for our ride to get off of work. At the airport, we briefly said goodbye to my stern faced father-in-law who drove us,  and got through security with a fair amount of ease. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to take my knitting needles onto the plane, so we had made a plan just in case. The plan was that I would go through security first, then Daniel would check our shared suitcase before he joined me, so I could pass him the unauthorized carry-on item(s) without creating much of a disturbance in line. All went well, so we both got through and I got to take my knitting onto the plane! We grabbed a quick meal from Quiznos to split, and got to our gate with a few minutes to spare. Wee! First flight together as a married couple! At this point, I was pretty excited! We boarded…

Departure from Datyon, Ohio 6pm

… and off we went to my favorite airport in Atlanta, Georgia! It was an uneventful flight, and that was just fine.

Arrival to Atlanta, Georgia 7:45pm

We had approximately an hour and a half layover, so I brushed my teeth.

Departure from Atlanta, Georgia 10pm

Plane snack tip: Ask the stewardess for one of each of the snack choices on the plane if there’s more than one. It’s totally allowed! Who knew! They’re all teeny tiny packages, and I was really hungry. The stranger across the aisle from me gave me this idea by doing it first, so I can’t take credit for this cleverness. I can be shy about asking for stuff, so yay! Thank you random plane rider who napped and spoke in a different language! Because of you, I did not get off the plane hungry.

During the last 2 hours of our 5 hour flight, I started feeling sick. When it hit me, I was knitting a row of a gray stripe in my striped-scarf-to-be. I paused for a moment to see if it would pass. It did not. There was not a barf bag provided in the pocket in front of me, so I quickly, and I mean quickly, finished knitting my row and made my way to the toilet. I slid the lock into place and dropped to my knees in front of the bowl. The smell of minty, blue water, as well as the comfort of being in a space unpopulated by lots and lots of fellow passengers calmed me and allowed me to cope with my nausea a little better. I do not blame the abundance of delightful snacks I received, as previously mentioned. My head just started spinning and feeling really weird. I have never been on a plane for this long before, so I had no idea this would happen to me. I don’t normally get motion sick. While i was in the bathroom, there was a thump outside, followed by a mild amount of hushed commotion. A voice came across the intercom asking for any doctors present. I gathered, from the chatter just outside, that someone had collapsed. Apparently someone else besides me was having trouble. After returning to my seat, I was helpfully supplied with a cold, wet paper towel for my back, a can of ginger ale, and I was told, no joke, that putting my head between my knees would really help. Space, however, was extremely limited. There was no way I could physically bend forward enough to place my head between my knees, which were pressed snugly against the seat of the passenger in front of me. So I had to settle for laying my head on my tray table. I pulled my hood over my head and tried not to moan. Landing was such a relief to me.

Arrival to Las Vegas, Nevada 12am

Dear reader, we had crossed time zones, so It was not 12am to my internal clock. It was actually 3am. Y- A- W- N! We were so tired, but happy to be on the ground and at our final destination. Whew!

Insert long and boring bus ride here.

At the hotel, Rio, we were promptly assaulted by the sight of scantily clad women. And, oh, the slot machines! There was just no getting away from them! THEY WERE EVERYWHERE!! Jingling tunes to us as we walked by, inviting us to sit down for a while and feed a few coins through the slot. People lounged, expressionless, in front of them and dropped coins in as if they had nothing else better to do with their time.

Our room was really nice. We pretty much crashed the first night. We did walk around the casino for a little bit before we crashed, but it was a very brief walk.

Our huge window and view of the… roof! haha!

-Jenny

1. Apply face powder- my face is naturally oily, so this keeps my face looking clean and matte. I use L’oreal Hydra Perfecte loose powder. I like it because talc is nowhere on the label.

2. Define eyebrows- I do this with a brown eye shadow in the shade that matches my brows, and an angled brush. I pull my skin taught, and shade away. If it turns out looking too dark, I just go over it with some face powder and maybe brush them out a little with my eyebrow brush (I use a cheap, soft bristled toothbrush I bought specifically for this. It works just as well).

3. Curl eye lashes and apply mascara- curling the lashes before applying mascara really does make a difference. My favorite mascara is Lash Blast from Covergirl (orange tube). I use waterproof.

4. Keep lips moisturized- I always have my Chapstick with me. If I don’t, it’s gona be a horrible day. I just know it.

So while I feel yucky, I don’t have to look yucky too. So, psychologically, I feel a little better. Too bad it doesn’t improve my health, haha

I feel awful, but I don’t have to look it.

Tonight I fondly revisited my magic milk memories by making myself a cup. We have blue food coloring in abundance here, so I didn’t exactly get to choose my color. I like blue though. So cheers to you, reader! I hope we both have a sound sleep tonight and good dreams!

My Aunt’s Magic Milk recipe:

6 to 8 oz. of milk
1/8 tsp. peppermint flavoring
1/2 tsp. sugar
A few drops of liquid food coloring of your choice
Mix all together in a microwave safe mug, microwave for maybe 45 seconds in the microwave.

Suggested directions are to lather up with about 3 drops twice daily and rinse. I was unsure about how much I was getting from the bottle, because it was really hard to get JUST 3 drops out. So I washed out one of my husband’s empty contact solution bottles and put some of this soap in it in order to get just 3-4 drops at a time. That’s a really small amount and I wanted to see if using precisely that amount would give me results. AND IT DID!!

This article put me onto the idea of using Dr. Bronner’s Magic Pure Castile Liquid Soap as a face wash. The author claims that it removes her mascara just fine, but I haven’t tried it yet. I use petroleum jelly and a cotton ball to remove my mascara because I wear the waterproof kind.

I have a store brand lotion that is non-comedogenic and unscented to use with this product. I also use a trusty acne cream for spot treating, and an oil control cream for my oily areas. Witch Hazel applied at night as a toner is optional, but I’ve found it helps/feels good. Here’s my routine:

Morning-
1. Wash face with 4 drops Dr. Bronner’s. Scrub/wipe face with a damp wash cloth. Rinse and pat face dry.
2. Rub lotion on the dry areas of my face.
3. Treat acne with acne treatment gel.
4. Rub in some oil control cream on the oily areas only.

Night-
1. Loosen mascara and eye makeup with petroleum jelly then wipe it off with a cotton ball. (this is messy)
2. Wash face with 4 drops Dr. Bronner’s. Scrub/wipe face with a damp wash cloth. Rinse and pat face dry.
3. Apply a few drops of Witch Hazel all over my face and neck with a cotton ball. I also take this opportunity to treat any cuts, bruises, or irritation I might have on the rest of my body. Let dry.
4. Rub lotion into the dry areas of my face.
5. Treat acne.

There are so many uses for this soap; I’m only taking advantage of one! Click here to reach the official Dr. Bronner website if you’re interested in reading more about it. I don’t support the religious ideals associated with these products, but I will say that this soap works and I will be looking to buy another bottle when I run out …in a few years probably! I bought the 32 oz. bottle. Bottle sizes range from 2 oz. to 1 gal.

2 c. flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c. sugar
1 c. fruit (or other add-ins)

Blend all the dry ingredients with a spoon or fork and then add the fruit or add-ins. If you stir that into the batter while it is dry, the goodies stay suspended in the batter.

Add:
1/2 c. milk – soymilk or ricemilk. Ricemilk makes the outsides very tender and gives a nice little crisp to the tops.
1/2 c. applesauce
egg replacer for 2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Blend only until everything is good and moist. Don’t stir too much.

Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes til a toothpick comes out clean. Makes 1 dozen small muffins or 6 large ones. I use my silicone muffin cups for these.

I have used blueberries, apples, bananas, and carrots for these and had great results with all of them. I think you could also use strawberries, cranberries, chocolate chips, peaches, and maybe even mandarin oranges. They are always very moist and delicious.

Again, I am not a vegan, so I use all non-vegan ingredients such as milk and eggs. Click on this link to see the vegan blog where I got this delightful recipe.

Haha! I found this mug in the garage. I have no idea who Ed is, but he left his mug here. It was just sitting on the shelf inside a dusty sleeve of bubble wrap. For the love of mugs, I decided to bring it in, wash it, and use it. Maybe Ed will come back for it someday, but for now… “Ed” stands for “Education” … which is what i plan to get in the area of coffee. I wana be a barista! Thanks, Ed, for the motivation! P.S. I like your car!

Ed is kinda messy. That’s ok, Ed. I’ll clean it up for you.

So classy.

Ta-da!

As you can see it takes very little to excite me. Ha ha!

What did *you* have for breakfast?

Don’t cross that line

House training is in progress. We’re teaching Lucy boundaries right now. Usually we have the baby gate set up to block her from entering this hallway, which leads to bedrooms and bathrooms. But now she’s graduated to not crossing the white duct tape on the floor, and so far she’s doing fairly well with it! Go, Lucy!

I drank milk from one of these guys this morning. Perfect size!

I got these cups from a local wine store we went into recently. They were just going to throw them away. Each have their own lid too! How cool, right? I will find a use for these little guys. I think they’re handy. Too bad the labels won’t come off.

Hello, Ladies! Since I can’t afford one of these BraBaby things, but I don’t want to wear wadded up bras, I decided to do a little searching around my house for something I could use to help my bras keep their shape while air drying. Here’s what I found! Ta-da!

It’s a bucket of balls!

Are you impressed? I wear cotton bras mostly, so a lot of creasing and wadding can happen. When I put a wadded cotton bra on, it makes my boobs look all dimpled and disfigured. Not attractive. So I tried hanging up a fresh-from-the-washing-machine bra with a couple of balls in the cups, and voila! Here. Look at the subtle differences-

Left: air dried with no balls. Right: air dried with balls

So, there ya go. A little bit of bra advice from me to you! Whatever you may decide to start using to help your bras maintain their shape while they are hanging up to dry, I hope it works out for you! I’ll leave you with a couple more photos. May the bras be *ever* in your favor!

See the dent? It’s subtle, but under a shirt, it looks bad.

Looks funny, doesn’t it?

My coffee/tea corner, newly organized. Please disregard the small, side cabinet on the left side. It’s irrelevant.

Organized for convenience while cooking.

It’ll be funny to have our friends over, who regularly come by, and to see them try to find stuff in cabinets now that they’re all rearranged! Do you have a coffee and tea corner in your kitchen?

So here’s me hoping you and I will have an awesome day today, free of guilt and distress over times passed.
—Jenny

"Don't fret over the past. Dwell only on the things you can change."

One day during this past winter, I was surfing the net and I stumbled upon a really helpful fitness channel on YouTube. I started working out, doing a very basic routine that I found on Pinterest. My body started to change rather quickly… but for the worse, so I thought. I developed a sort of thickness right around my middle (I will explain this so keep reading), not to mention the extreme soreness that lasted maybe a week. This extra bulk irritated me so I slacked off the routine. After a few weeks of sporadic exercising and feeling lazy,  I decided to get back with it. For a couple of weeks I failed to perform my routine every night, but during the next 2 weeks I got better. Now I exercise every night and can’t bear to go to bed before doing so.

That is my fitness story in a nutshell. Now, I’m going to share some things that are in between the lines. First of all, I do not like exercising. It’s tolerable now that I’ve been doing it enough to be consistent, but it’s only tolerable because of the results I’ve gotten. When I started, I HATED it. I HATED it! So I needed to be motivated, and I found that here:

BodyRock.TV on YouTube

I will warn you that there’s a lot of skin showing on this channel and the female fitness trainer recently got a boob job so the camera guy (who is also her boyfriend) may linger on them, but if neither of these bother you, then please enjoy! I’ve stopped watching it so much because of her boob job. Before, she was so real and relatable. Here’s one of her earlier routines that has been my favorite:

Legs And Butt workout

I just love her personality! Sorry about the foul language. It doesn’t usually tend to be this excessive. Here’s one of the first bodyrocker videos ever I saw that helped inspire and motivate me:

“Look Better Naked workout”

Sorry about the title. Are you blushing now? I’ve also liked their Facebook page where they post videos, pictures, and articles daily. I spend some time on Facebook every day so it helps remind and motivate me to exercise because I’m seeing their stuff on my home page. It really helps.

The pooch:
Now I wana discuss the pooch- that extra thickness around my middle I got when I started exercising. Before, I avoided exercising because of this. I thought, “I feel thinner if I don’t exercise,” but that pooch is only temporary. I didn’t know this. I’d always gotten scared off of exercising by the pooch that happens during the first… I dunno… week, month, or less? I guess it was longer for me because I slacked off a bit. Well this time I finally stuck with it and now the pooch is gone!! I think it was probably just that the muscle was beginning to grow and it was pushing my belly fat out of its way, so… that didn’t feel nice. It passed. Now I have a nice flat belly again. It’s more toned than before. And I feel stronger. Back then it was just flat but mushy I guess haha!

Also, speaking of  ”the pooch” reminds me of the increase in appetite I got because of exercising. I kinda flailed my way through it, gaining a little bit of weight, but as soon as I found my balance, that additional weight went away too. Looking back on it now, I’d say that the key is to DRINK LOTS OF WATER! THAT’S WHAT IT WANTS!!

About weight… here’s the part where I tell you mine. Before I exercised, my weight hovered around 125 lbs, some days flaring up to 135. Those days were not pleasant. Since exercising I’ve stayed around 115 pretty consistently. My lowest weight has been 111. Wow. Just wow. I was floored when I saw that number! I’m almost 26, by the way, and about 5′ 6 1/2″. I’ve struggled off and on with my weight throughout my 20′s, but right now I feel like I’ve got a decent handle on it.

If your reading this and thinking I must do some elaborate exercise routine multiple times a day, then I am extra delighted to tell you that my routine takes around 5 minutes and I do it once a day. That’s all! I hardly ever sweat too. I don’t lead a very active lifestyle. I’m just a housewife, so the most exerting movements in a day for me could be carrying laundry up and down the stairs. My exercise routine doesn’t have to be complicated. Just enough to help me to not feel like mush. So, coupled with a moderately good diet and more water, that’s all I’ve been doing!

My Diet:
This part is here to explain what I do. You don’t have to follow my example. I will warn you, I do love chocolate and I eat it like a mad woman sometimes.
I eat vegetables:
I happen to love vegetables. I eat them all the time, but especially when I get to feeling like I’m gaining a little bit of weight. I once heard a little girl ask her mom,
“Mom, do you have a baby in there?” She was pointing to her mom’s belly.
“No. That’s my belly. Mommy just needs to eat more vegetables.”
This little conversation has made such an impact upon me and how I handle my weight.
I really do love vegetables though, so that’s convenient. I love to buy frozen peas and frozen corn. I’ll fill up a bowl with peas, nuke them in the microwave until they’re just hot enough and they sort of pop when you bite them, and I’ll make that my meal! Yumm. I love peas. I love adding them to stuff. I like putting them into a bowl of mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese. I’ll put frozen corn in a bowl with mashed up tortilla chips and salsa and then I’ll nuke them all together! Now that I think about it, I eat most of my meals from a bowl. That’s just how I roll. Maybe I’m a weirdie, but before you call me that, you should know I’ve got quite a sweet tooth as well.
Sweets:
Sometimes I just can’t get enough of something sweet. I looooove dark chocolate, so when it’s in the house, I’m all over it! Moderation is best, but sometimes I just can’t help myself! … Well, yes I can, but sometimes I don’t. Also, I drink my coffee with sugar every morning. I have a friend who tells me I put way too much sugar in it. Well, YOU CAN SHOVE IT, CAUSE I LIKE IT LIKE THAT!
Making good choices. This is why I can eat chocolate like a mad woman sometimes:
In the morning I like to drink my cup of coffee (with sugar) first, and then I’ll wait to eat something until I’m actually hungry. That is, unless I’ve gotta bolt out the door to go someplace where I won’t be around my kitchen, where I can conveniently eat something before lunch when my body finally gets around to feeling hungry. In this case, I’ll just have something small that I know will carry me through the morning.
Between meals I like to keep the snacking light, or I try drinking water if I think I may not actually need food. I see my body as a crying baby when I feel the need to eat something. When a baby cries, you can usually do 1 of 2 things: panic and recklessly pacify, or stay cool and think before you react. Sometimes It’s not that I’m actually hungry; I might just need to drink some water to satisfy that feeling. It’s all in the thinking about it before I just go and act on it, and being more conscious about what I’m putting in myself.
I sometimes struggle with food when it gets later in the day. At night I try not to eat past a certain time. I usually shoot for 7pm as the cut-off point. Sometimes I have to tell myself that the kitchen is now closed for the day.
Also, if I’m feeling like I’m getting too attached to eating something I know is not the best for me, I take a break from it and let it get eaten by someone else for a little while. That takes self control. Gluttony, in my mind, is just as irresponsible as drinking too much alcohol. I’ve had to learn when to stop and sort of take inventory of the food I’ve already put into my body throughout the day. I’ve upped my intake of water as well. Neither of these things happened over night, but it didn’t take forever either. I just needed to start. That was the hardest part.

Ok, so there. This was a long post. I’m almost done typing now. I hope some of this helped you, maybe. I just thought I’d share.

Here's the routine I found on Pinterest. I printed it, cut out the lady, and slapped it onto black notebook paper just so it would look cool. That was a while back. My hair is a few inches past my collar bones now.

My current routine:

20 tricep dips
10 pull-ups (No equipment, so I do it lying on by back under our dining room table)
15 girly pushups (on knees) 
25 inner thigh leg lifts (each leg. For these, I’m laying on the floor on my side lifting the lower leg off the floor while the uppermost leg is bent forward and resting the floor)
25 scissor kicks (on each side)
25 butt/back of leg lifts (each leg. I do this on my hands and knees. 1 Leg extended behind me. See Legs And Butt workout video above)
25 backward leg pumps (each leg. I do this on my hands and knees. 1 Leg lifted back and bent upward. See Legs And Butt workout video above)
20 seated ab twists
20 high-knee marches (each leg)
25 calf raises 

Sorry if you feel the descriptions are unnecessary, but I don’t know the official names of a few of these so I thought I’d try to describe them briefly for you.

Update***** Just to further prove to you that this 5 minute routine does make a difference, my last year’s bathing suit bottom, that was getting a tad too snug, now fits too loosely! I have to pin it in order to get it to stay on me. What a wonderful feeling!!

Anyway, good luck with the exercise routine should you choose to do it!! I would love to know how it’s working for you! Comments are amazing, so don’t hesitate to write me one!

Today is a day that I can tolerate her. She’s a decent lap dog. I can appreciate that. Here are some photos I took of her this morning:

Lap dog

Just rolled out of bed

Tail wagger

We are currently training her to stay off the furniture. It was a compromise Daniel and I made when I completely lost all patience with her after yet another accident on the couch. An accident on the floor is bad enough, but the couch? Oooh! That’s a huge mistake. That was the last straw for me, so we had a big, loud argument about getting rid of her vs. keeping her. The deal we made was that she be primarily Daniel’s responsibility and that she stay off the furniture unless she’s invited to get up onto it in order to sit with someone. This is a good arrangement for both of us, and luckily, Lucy seems to have picked it up pretty quickly too. Dog-training is not a skill that I care to develop really. I would rather have a pet chicken. They live outside in their own space, they don’t constantly try to lick you… or touch you with a wet nose, and they provide you with eggs! Now there’s an animal who gives back!

One more thing I’ll say is this: I happen to really enjoy wearing the color black. White dog + black clothing = WHERE THE HECK IS MY LINT BRUSH?! I didn’t even consider this when we picked her. She has made me very aware of just how many black things I have in my closet. She also stares at me a lot. I don’t like that. It’s creepy… and kind of annoying. And her breath smells bad.

Dog-lover I am not.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Caramel-Oatmeal-Pudding-Cookies/Detail.aspx

Because of just 1 expired ingredient, these cookies have the power to give the consumer a headache within 5 minutes of eating just one. I know… because I timed it. Too bad I don’t have enemies upon whom I can bestow these delicious little pain inducing morsels. It was the can of evaporated milk. It’s sell by date was August 10, 2010. Oh the pain. They were beautiful cookies and they taste good too. I am so sad. I’ve been putting off throwing them out because they turned out so nice. Here’s a picture. They’re even individually wrapped in aluminum foil. They would’ve been perfect for sharing.

Sad isn’t it?

Today I have another headache. This time it was because of the coffee I just drank. Daniel is the master of finding freebies so we both signed up to get a free sample of Gevalia Kaffe sent to us in the mail. Each package is 0.84 oz and is pre-ground for 4 cups of auto drip coffee.  A friend just happened to lend me his auto drip coffee maker yesterday, so I was all excited to try it this morning. Why? Well, just you click the link below and I’ll show you:

“A cup of Johan”

If that doesn’t make you want to try this coffee, I don’t know what will! Anyway, so I went ahead and brewed the entire package and drank it all. I know. That was dumb. I don’t tend to drink coffee black, but I do try it whenever I can. This coffee was *almost* good enough to leave out the sugar. Now my head hurts. Too much “Johan” for me I guess. Tomorrow I may try dividing up the servings and making just a single cup like I should’ve done today. I’m sitting here with a bowl in my lap feeling as if I may puke. Yeah my headache’s that bad. I will leave you with a picture of the loverly and extremely cute, borrowed, 4 cup, auto drip coffee maker and my 2nd free package of “Johan.”

—Jenny

Apartment Therapy’s blog entry about cleaning floorboards with fabric softener sheets

Here’s a picture of my progress that I’ll leave you with. Happy cleaning! —Jenny

Can you see the difference?

The fish frame gadget for the grill

We found mouse turds recently in our kitchen and pantry. Some clever mouse was crawling up a tall, handled gadget for grilling fish that we keep in the pantry, and getting onto the lowest shelf where we keep crackers and Ramen Noodles. There was a very definite path that this mouse was taking in the kitchen, because every night it would leave a trail of turds. Mice poop a lot!! _-_-_-_-_- (entering rabbit trail) And so do birds! I once had a lovebird named Loui and he’d poop SO often! Like once every 10 minutes! I can’t imagine pooping that often! I bet if we did, we’d all have those potty walker/chair things. Office buildings might have bathroom cubicles here and there. Movie theaters would have to allow for frequent intermissions. Porta-potties would be as common as phone booths in big cities. Sounds like a hassle to me. Well I’m glad we don’t poop as

Mouse path. That void at the end is the space between the fridge and the wall

often as mice or birds. (exiting rabbit trail)-_-_-_-_-_- … Anyway, so this mouse *did* poop a lot. That is, until we caught him. So I left the fish grill thing like it was and cleared the shelf of things that a mouse could chew on. Daniel left him some peanut butter on a mousetrap. Around 10:00 at

Mouse turds in the bottom of the pantry

night while i was just a few yards away, the trap went off and we caught mouse number one! That mouse was a pro at stealth mode. He didn’t even wait until we had gone to bed! Lights were on, TV was going. Crazy mouse. So Daniel disposed of  the dead mouse and reset the trap, just to be thorough. The next morning we caught a second mouse. I never heard the pop, so it must’ve happened while we were sleeping. Yesterday, I cleaned the “mouse path” and put the food back into the pantry. I moved the fish grill thing (just in case) and thought we had conquered the mice. Not so. Today there are turds back on the “mouse path” in the kitchen. I don’t know how many mice we have living in our house, but I’m rooting for team Humans to prevail. We have dominion! Too bad mice don’t read blog posts. Is it weird that I had the thought to cook up that first mouse because i was curious how mouse meat might taste?

They must've found something red to chew on

Mouse traps and peanut butter, —your Jenny

Citrus peelers and electric juicers, —Your Jenny

Daniel and i arrived at my parents’ house the night before Thanksgiving. Erin (sister) came over the earliest on Thanksgiving. She’d been anticipating our Skype video call, as was initially the only thing we had arranged. When she arrived, Daniel, puppy, and i went and hid in the guest bedroom (which was her room and then mine prior to both of our marriages). Mom and Dad hurried Erin into the front door and over to the computer telling her they had me on Skype early. We chatted for a moment– “Hi. How are you. Happy Thanksgiving” and such– but then i stood up saying “Hang on, i think someone’s at the door.” Well, when i stood, she almost immediately recognized the room behind me (she noticed the star border on the wall that she *herself* had painted years ago) and shouted, “Wait a minute! … WAIT A MINUTE!!”  She pushed past Mom and Dad, and we met halfway. She was jumping, screaming, crying, and hugging me all at the same time haha!! : D Best surprise reaction ever!!

: ) It was a good holiday! I hope yours went well too!

Star borders, happy dancing, and hugs, —your Jenny

Click here to see me and puppy dancing:

Lucy jumps into the dance

Happy kitchen dancing and jumping puppies, —Jenny

Subway giftcards and gazebos- Jenny

hubby Daniel’s home graphic design business is taking off nicely (God provides), and I’ve recently learned how to make fried chicken. Also, this month we celebrated our first anniversary! We had lots of cake and wine. Yumm. We dressed up and had a formal afternoon, just the two of us. Winter is coming and I’m not looking forward to it. Last year it snowed a lot in Northern KY. The house was kinda chilly, and I’m just really going to miss pool season. I do love a good fire though! … and s’mores. 

Coffee, s’mores, and warm fuzzy socks —Jenny

the Kin One phone from Verizon

Well, I recently got Verizon’s Kin One phone. Here’s a few things I have to say about it:

Negative comments about the Kin One:

1. I cannot forward messages. It’s simply not even an option. I get those awesome little texts from Chik-Fil-A announcing a free spicy-chicken sandwich event that’s going on (or whatever else that may be going), and right there in the text it tells you to forward the message to all of your friends. Thanks to the Kin, I am stuck being unable to share the love!!! ARGH!

2. The send buttons are badly placed. While editing my text, I have to be very aware of the 2 send buttons: the one at the bottom of the screen, and the one on the keyboard. The one on the screen is waay too easy to accidentally touch while navigating the cursor through the text while editing. The one on the keyboard is just below the delete button- I am reminded of this:

YouTube Video: Monsters Vs. Aliens movie clip

Why have 2 send buttons anyway? It’s been getting easier not to hit the send button on accident as I’ve gained more experience with this phone… so yay!

3. My butt likes to take pictures. The camera button on top gets pressed a lot by accident. If you’re someone who keeps your phone in your back pocket, as I occasionally do, then your butt may end up taking a lot of pictures with this phone.

4. This one’s a little hard to explain so I’ll just tell you how it happens: I’m happily texting my friend Joe. I mash send and wait for a reply. My screen locks and goes to sleep after a few moments. I receive a new text message from a different friend, Judy. The screen lights up and a speech bubble appears with Judy’s text in it. When I peel back/unlock my screen, my text conversation with Joe is still there, and if I’m not paying much attention, I can send my reply, intended for Judy, to Joe… instead of Judy. Awkward! …Especially if Judy and I are talking about Joe’s surprise birthday party that we’re planning. Eeek! Once again, I have become more used to this feature as I continue to use the phone, however this has been my most difficult adjustment.

5. I am not really used to a touch screen phone, so one time while I was answering a call, I activated speakerphone with my ear and couldn’t figure out why my friend’s voice was so loud. …Yes, go ahead and shake your head at me. This is my first phone with a touchscreen. (I am actually shaking my head at myself right now.) This has only happened once, so don’t  be shaking your head too hard.

6. The hands free headset doesn’t work as well as I thought it would. My sister always complains that she can’t hear me that well when I’m using it.

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Positive comments about the Kin One:

1. As silly as this sounds to be included in the positive review for a phone, I have to give Verizon a thumbs up for their awesome packaging. It came to me in a really cool capsule! I am using both the capsule and the green elastic band that came with it for something else now! …for real. I really am.

2. This was an unexpected surprise- a hands free headset was included! So I can talk on the phone while I’m doing something, and not have to hold the phone between my shoulder and my cheek! My aching neck thanks you, Verizon.

3. It is a nice size and shape. I’m a big fan of little phones. The smaller the phone, the less space it takes up in my pocket or purse. Thumbs up!

4. I like the way it displays entire conversations that I can scroll through while texting. My last 2 phones(the Alltel Snap and Verizon’s Motorola Rival) did not have this.

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I hope you’re feeling a little more enlightened about this phone. I’m always delighted to hear from people like you, so don’t forget to share, comment on, or like this post!!

—Just another day in the life of Jenny.

I haven’t always cut my shirts. In fact, the thought had never even occurred to me until I found these two and other similar do it yourself tutorials on YouTube:

Kandee Johnson’s YouTube shirt cutting tutorial- asymmetrical neckline

Kandee Johnson’s YouTube shirt cutting tutorial- 80′s style

-Jenny

Since saying “I do,” I’ve had to put several miles/a few states between my parents and our mutual friend, Mr. Coffee; so I’ve had to come up with a few creative ways of making coffee for myself using different things as they became available to me.

First there was the measuring bowl and cheesecloth. I felt like Sherlock Holmes, who makes his afternoon tea in a beaker on top of a bunsen burner.

all stuff we had around the house.

Then I graduated to the teapot + cheesecloth combination. This would’ve worked well, but the little basket filter thingy inside the pot was made for tea leaves, not ground coffee. Thus the continued use of my friend, the cheesecloth.

This pot was a gift from my Grandma. I think she had gotten it at a yard sale.

After that came the dripper set that included a package of paper filters and a travel thermos. I haven’t used that thermos once. Anybody need a thermos?

This was given to me by my father-in-law

Finally, I purchased a French press and ceramic manual grinder. Before the grinder, I’d been drinking a store bought, pre-ground coffee.

coffee grinder

I bought this for $6 at a yard sale! Woo hoo!

I’ve really enjoyed the process of grinding beans. It really adds to the experience and flavor! Someday I even hope to learn how to roast the beans myself. That’ll be fun!

Also, I’ve tried a few sweeteners, but my favorite (for health reasons) has been local honey.

honey dipper stick

That’s why I bought this sweet little honey dipper from a website where everything, big or small, has free shipping. Here’s the link if you’re curious:

http://www.buyincoins.com/

It really adds to my morning routine. No more sticky honey messes!

Seriously, I will send you a thermos. —Jenny