And On the First Day, I Felt Like a Dunce!

Salutations all!
 

If you've been following along, then you know that I've been talking about taking some classes. Well, I just started this week and the classes I'm taking are to learn how to code or in other words, learn how to built web applications or websites. Yay! I've been looking forward to it for a while now, so I was excited to get started.

I've had a little experience with HTML coding, because waaaay long along when MySpace and BlackPlanet was still popular I used to play around with adding different pictures to my profile, making words glow or show in bold... That kinda thing. I enjoyed it then, so I figured I would enjoy it now too, plus I could hook myself up with some new digs for this blog.

I consider myself a pretty smart person and I pick up things pretty quickly so I thought class would be okay. Let me tell you something...

I felt like a complete D.U.N.C.E.

This class is hard.. Info was being thrown at us so fast I didn't know what to do! For me it was kinda like listening to someone talk in another language. You feel like you're supposed to know what they're talking about, but you don't. The words come hurdling at you like a fastball, but at the last minute they miss your head, swiftly moving to the side and there is nothing but white noise going on in your mind. Picture how the TV would look when television used to go off! Haha.. 

While I'm in class, I feel overwhelmed, but when I get home and I can take my time and things start to make more sense to me. In my mind this is similar to taking a math class. (You even deal with numbers sometimes) 

I'm only in class two days a week and the teacher is pretty heavy-handed when it comes to homework. That means for the next two months, I'll be studying my ass off and staying in on the weekends. Don't let movies fool you. Getting your life together is no walk in the park! The way I figure it is, this is a means to an end. So far, I'm really liking what I'm doing and I look forward to being proficient soon. After these classes are over, I plan on learning even more programs and then it's off to offer my services for monies. I mean.... who doesn't like getting paid for their skills and knowledge, right?

I feel like this is my season for change. It's that time where I actually get up off the couch and accomplish the things I said I've  wanted to do!  Are you in a season of change too? Do you know anything about coding?

Until the next time..

Ciao!

Weekly Wishes #16

Salutations All!

Its that time again for weekly wishes! Did you set any goals for last week? If so, how did they go? Are you just joining me? Let me explain what happens for Weekly Wishes..

The Happenings: You share your weekly, monthly, or yearly goals/wishes/achievements and you get to be a part of this big group of people that are doing the same thing. Yay! Wanna join in? Check out The Nectar Collective and add a link to your blog!

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Happy Monday all! My weekend was Pretty lax. I did a lot of studying for my class this evening (eek) and went to go see the movie 'Lucy'. The movie was pretty awesome and I highly recommend seeing it. As for the studying, I will more than likely see coding in my sleep. Take right now for instance.. I can't help but wonder if I'm coding something correctly (although I'm just talking to you) when I'm using " ", ==, ( ), and +. So how did your weekend go? Did you do anything exciting and fun? Let's talk about last Weeks Wishes.

Last Weeks Wishes

* Acclimate to the Mac - I've been getting better and better at stuff as I go. I've finally figured out how to hide the doc at the bottom, set a new wallpaper, figured out how to change between all of my open windows, put it to sleep, and the shortcut commands for copy and paste! By no means am I a pro yet, but I'm on my way. It's really weird trying to do certain things, because I'm used to doing things on a PC, but it's all good. Oh, and Thank Gawd for Google, because I find anything I have a question about how to do from there, which most of the time leads me to YouTube. #success

* Eat Healthier Food Options - Welllllllllll, this didn't happen as much as I would've liked, but I did try. That's all that's important, right? Right? I did cook a healthy stir-fry last night. That's something. :) We'll talk about that in another post though.

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This Weeks Wishes

* Use the Singing Bowl - I forgot to mention that I did a little shopping over the weekend! I went into this metaphysical store called Synchronicity that I hadn't been in for a long time. It was actually the first metaphysical store I had ever been in, because one of my former co-workers introduced me to it. Anyway, I saw some Tibetan singing bowls (used in meditation) in there and one of the ladies who worked in there showed me how they work. Then I got a free demonstration from a guy that uses them for healing and massage. It was So.Freaking.Awesome. I've always been curious about them and so I'm glad that I had the opportunity to finally buy one.

* Eat.Sleep.Drink.Coding - Maybe by the time you read this I will be in class meeting new people and learning all kinds of stuff. I really want to learn a lot and do as well I can, so that means setting aside time everyday to study. I need to be about my business so that I can move onwards and upwards! Wish me luck and of course I'll tell you all about my adventures. :)

Alright peeps, it's gonna be another short-ish week of wishes for me. Although, these two wishes/goals will involve a lot of time and effort. What your goals for this week?

Ciao!

Get Out of My Spot!

Salutations All!

I hope everyone is having a great Thursday so far! In honor of it being Throwback Thursday, here are a couple oldies, but goodies from my past. :)

 

This 1st picture is from my high school marching band days! Many a day was spend outside in the hot sun doing push-ups, running yard lines, and marching with my clarinet!

 

This one is from high school too. Me and my besties were chilling outside of my house on a Fall afternoon after school. We were having fun times with Courtney's new camera. Can't you just feel the teenage attitude oozing off of the picture! :op

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Just as a warning this is totally just a random post about what I was just thinking about today.... I don't know what type of housing you live in, but I'm in a condo where parking is first come, first serve and it's the same way at my job. I have to know.....

Am I the only one that gets irritated when someone takes your parking spot?

I mean... NO, my name isn't on the spot, but dude.... you see me park there every.single.day. Obviously, I've claimed the spot and now you just decide that you're going to start parking there?? {#comeonson} I know I probably just came off as really hostile about it, but I'm not. It just irks me that I can't park in my favorite spot right now.  :o) Isn't it odd how people do park in the same spot all of the time. Maybe it's a comfort thing? I know at work, I chose a certain spot, because there is a lovely tree there that provides shade. It's great when the temps get super hot, like in the 90 degrees and up kinda hot. That and not that many people can park next to me and dent and/or scratch up my baby!

Do you have a favorite parking spot? What's so great about it? 

Ciao!

Crochet Sweatshop

Salutations peeps!

I thought would tell you show off some of the things I’ve been working on lately. It feels really good being back in the saddle of working with yarn. I didn’t realize how relaxing it was until I had stopped working on stuff. More than likely, since I’m about to start classes I’ll need crochet to fill up the time I’m not studying, so that I don’t pull my hair out!

The most recent thing I’ve done was last night. I asked my co-worker to be a guinea pig for me and test out this coaster and cup hat set. I’ve been contemplating for a while adding this to my EtsyShop, but just haven’t done it. Of course I’ve made one for myself and I use it every day while I’m at work. I created it out of necessity really..

My drinks would sweat all over the desk and little gnats would be flying around landing everywhere, including INSIDE my cup. I knew I had to do something to stop the madness, so a coaster and cup hat set were born! {Insert Evil Laugh Here}

To my surprise, not only did it prevent those nasty little guys from committing suicide in my drink, it also kept my drink warm for a lot longer than normal! [#Bonus] My co-worker is an Atlanta Falcons fan, so that’s why the colors are red, black, & white. The first generation of hats didn't look as snazzy as this one does, but I think I've gotten it down pat now.

In other news.... I was requested to make two pairs baby booties, a hat and a headband for a sweet little girl. I also decided to make a blanket as a gift.

It took a lot of trial an error and fighting with patterns to get the booties right. I ended up meshing two patterns together to get things to work! The blanket however was a piece of cake. I was going to do a scalloped border, but it just didn't look right. So I decided to do five rows of double crochet to make a nice wide border. I think everything came out quite lovely. :)

So now you know what I've been working on. What have you been up to?

Ciao!

Weekly Wishes #15

Salutations All!

Its that time again for weekly wishes! Did you set any goals for last week? If so, how did they go? Are you just joining me? Let me explain what happens for Weekly Wishes..

The Happenings: You share your weekly, monthly, or yearly goals/wishes/achievements and you get to be a part of this big group of people that are doing the same thing. Yay! Wanna join in? Check out The Nectar Collective and add a link to your blog!

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By the time you read this it will be Tuesday, but Happy Monday anyway!! I've just come back from a glorious vacation and got to see all of my family at our annual reunion. I hope you had a great weekend like I did! It's been a couple weeks since we last talked about Weekly Wishes, because well I just needed a break. Plus, I needed to use all of my free time to finish up some crochet projects and to finalize some things I've been setting up. We'll talk about that a little later on though!

Last Weeks Wishes

* Set Up Tours - Done & Done! I've actually visited two campuses, one being The Art Institute & the other being Herzing University. I love, love, loved the Art Institute! However I didn't love the price... Herzing, was on some BS. They advertised that they had Web Development at the Atlanta campus, but when I got there and spoke to someone they advised me that they only offer it online. If I wanted to do an online school, I certainly wouldn't have been looking at them! All in all, looking to go to school was a bust. (Yes, I looked at other schools as well.)

* Meditate - I did meditate a couple of times, but not as much as I wanted to. Luckily enough there is another Deepak & Oprah 21 day meditation coming up! Yay!! Why don't we do it together? Click Here! There is always a theme and this time it's titled "Expanding Your Happiness". It starts on 8.11.14, so you still have time to sign up! :)

* Continue Reading EatQ - I will say that I picked up the book and read a couple lines... But that was about it! Ha Ha.. I guess I was busy doing other things or just wasn't in the place to hear what was being said at the time. I'll pick it back up at some point though.

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This Weeks Wishes

* Acclimate to the Mac - Although trying to go back to school was a bust, I'm proud to say that I have been accepted and given a partial scholarship to a web development boot-camp!! It's a two month long intense training on getting the fundamentals of coding..... And I needed a Mac. I'm a total PC girl. The only experience I've had with Mac's was a brief stint in college. So I'm typing to you from said MacBook in an effort to get used to a few things.  Wish me luck because I'm gonna need it!! Any tips or tricks would be appreciated.. :)

* Eat Healthier Food Options - I just came home yesterday from my family reunion and there are no words to describe the plethora of foods that were made available. I lovingly call it 'Foodlandia', because I know that when I go, it will be a feast of magnificent proportions!! It's all just so good you can't say no. Now I feel the need to have a major detox or fasting session.. lol. Must make better choices this week!

Okay peeps, this is all for now! I'm glad to be back in the saddle of writing again and back to making weekly goals. Somehow I think it keeps my sane. What are your goals this week?

Ciao!

Food Experiment: Fried Green Tomatoes

Salutations!

If you read my last post, then, you know I went home a couple weeks ago. Often times The Mom and I like to cook stuff when we're together and this time was no exception. Instead of the normal eats, we decided to branch out and tackle Fried Green Tomatoes! I must tell you that whenever I think of the food, I immediately think of the movie! It's one of those things you watch when you're alone at home with a lot of time on your hands.

I've had them one other time than this and I thought they were rather tasty, so I gave the thumbs up to the challenge! I will admit now that I really didn't have too much hands on action with this. I was too busy snapping the pictures and being excited. :)

We pulled out all of the ingredients first to get them ready:

*Flour ~ Cornmeal ~ Baking Powder ~ Salt ~ Cayenne ~ Milk ~ Eggs ~ Tomatoes ~ Butter *

Then it was time to get elbow deep in some Southern cookin! The tomatoes were expertly cut by my mother into nice thick slices and then given a frothy milk and egg bath. Next it's a dunk in the cornmeal and seasonings and finally a rest on the pan to before being thrown in the cast iron skillet..

They fry up quick as a flash and are crunchy on the outside and firm and hot on the inside!  Some got a little darker than expected, but even they still had a good flavor. 

I would totally make these on my own. It reminds me of frying up some pork chops except it takes a lot less time. Have you made fried green tomatoes before? How did it go? 

Until the next time.. 

Ciao! 

Mother Nature Tried to Kill Me!

 Salutations all!

And yes you read the title right... I said Mother.Nature.Tried.To.Kill.Me. and here's the story of what happened..

So The Boo & I headed on up to Nashville at the last minute for Independence Day to see some fireworks and hang with the parents. Even though I had lived there for years, I never really bothered to go downtown and to do the tourist thing. Nashville is the Country Music capital and since country music isn't my cup o'tea, I never saw a need to go down on Broadway and look at cowboy boots, country music record stores (Yes! record stores), and country music tourist trap places. However, Nashville is growing by leaps an bounds so I was excited to see what was going on. That and well The Boo hadn't experienced the essence of the city yet and it was the perfect time to do some exploring. On our way back from sightseeing and shopping we decided to ride with the windows down and let the wind blow in our hair..



Fun was had by all, but let me just say that riding with the windows down was a grave GRAVE mistake!

My eyes started watering while the air was whipping all around us. This really wasn't all that unusual, because it has happened before and I just figured something was in my eyes. Except this time my eyes were watering violently! I'm talking about if you had been in the car beside us, it would've looked like I was crying while driving. (which by the way is no easy feat) So we roll up the windows and all is well. No more tears. A little later on, I started to notice that I was getting a stuffy nose. No problem though.. Again, this was nothing unusual, but then instead of going away like it normally did, it turned into supreme stuffiness!!

What is supreme stuffiness, you ask? Well I'm sure you've experienced it at one time or another.. It's where your nose and face are so full of mucus that you feel like your head and face are going to burst wide open if you don't get some relief like, right.now. So I was thinking, 'Oh Crap!! I have a summer cold!'. I'm sure you know as well as I do that regular colds are bad, but summer colds are The Worst...

When I have a cold, I like to stock up on medicines, throat thingys to make the scratchiness/soreness go away, vitamin C pills, and let's not forget the stockpile of Kleenex that you can never have enough of. I also cocoon myself on the couch and prop myself up on pillows so that I can sleep sitting up. This is so as not to suffocate in the middle of the night from drainage & lack of air getting through my very blocked nasal passages. I'd hate for my obituary to read that I died from strangulation by mucus.

So I'm medicating like normal, but instead of getting better I'm just getting worse and I feel like I'm gonna die! My nose at this point feels like someone's whole fist is there and it refuses to move. Let's not even talk about how the one working nostril is burning when I breathe in from being overloaded with smells.

 Although I didn't want to, I went to my local Urgent Care and saw the medical person and was informed that I don't have a cold, nor was I dying, but was simply suffering from allergies. Apparently whatever has been blooming this Spring/Summer season is being really aggressive on people. I was relived and surprised at the same time that it was allergies, since I hadn't suffered from them since I was a child. So they sent me on my way with a prescription for nasal spray and that combined with allergy meds got me back to 100% after about three days. 

I'm very glad to be back in the land of the living. :)

Do you have allergies you have to deal with too? I'll be very leery of riding with the windows down next season. As for now, I will be staying doped up in an effort not to feel like death warmed over ever again!

Ciao!