Holly, Jolly, & Itchy

Christmas is two weeks away – just in case you weren’t aware. I just realized that I have a fair amount of shopping to do in the next couple of weeks. On Sunday, I need to bake a few dozen cookies for a cookie swap at work. I haven’t been studying for my next section of the CPA exam at all, but it still seems like I’m too busy to notice how quickly the holiday season is slipping by. I’ve had a lot of things on my mind over the past few weeks. Did you know I’m approaching my one-year anniversary already at work? Completely crazy. I’m trying to figure out what I’ve actually done over the past 12 months. I bought a house. And my husband is finishing his master’s degree later this month. But work? No idea where the time went.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to do after my rotational program is finished at work. I have another 12 months in the program, so there’s no particular hurry. Still, I’m just so unsure of what I want to do at work. I’ve spent the past 12 months soaking in as much as I can, and learning about different career paths other folks have followed. I just don’t know yet where I will really fit in for the long haul. Considering how quickly the past 12 months have flown by, I know I should at least be thinking about all of this now. Ugh, though – all this thinking is really clouding up my normally-bright holiday season.

We went out to cut down our Christmas tree last weekend. We ended up choosing a Colorado spruce. But ouch! – the needles are so sharp. I’m definitely missing the fir we picked out last year. I at least hoped the sharp needles would keep the cats away, but no such luck with that.

Removing a bit from the trunk. I always laugh how a tied-up tree goes from this...

...to this! Fluffy!

So we spent some time getting things situated, and I began stringing some lights later that day. Did I mention yet how sharp the needles were? Not pleasant. I had to make some adjustments just to get through stringing the lights.

Those are, indeed, work gloves and eye glasses (which Justin needed for an internship earlier this year). Sexy... no?

Even with the gloves, long sleeves, and eye protection, both Justin and I made a startling discovery later in the evening. Turns out we’re allergic (or at least super sensitive) to either the tree, or something that may have been sprayed on the tree. We both broke out in a rash on our hands and arms, and Justin’s hand swelled up like crazy. At that point, I only had about half the lights on the tree, and I was dreading the process of stringing the rest of them. Justin’s hand was much worse, but here’s a snapped picture of my arm – hopefully you can see the pink spots.

Ow. Itchy.

Took me a few more days, but I finally got the remaining lights on the tree. On Friday, we put on some Christmas music, got a fire going in the fireplace, and put the ornaments on. The itchy-ness was worth it in the end, but I don’t think we’ll be returning to that tree farm again next year. Or getting a spruce. You know, just to be safe.

Thinking we may need a few more ornaments, though… Especially of the non-breakable kind. Notice the bare branches at the bottom? And the plastic blue/green/silver right above that? Well, our cats remember all the fun they had with last year’s Christmas tree, and they’ve already turned a couple of ornaments into kitty-sized soccer balls. You can insert a huge sigh and eye-roll here. They should thank their lucky stars that they’re so cute.

I need a little excitement…

…because studying for the CPA sure isn’t doing it for me right now.  Shocker.  I don’t feel like studying at the moment, even though my next exam is in 5 days.  So y’all get a post.  And I have no idea why I just broke out a “y’all.”  My mom’s southern roots, maybe?  Moving on.

We finally had our honeymoon (just a year or so after getting married, haha), and we traveled down to the Cayman Islands for a week.  We stayed on the east end of Grand Cayman, and it was a lovely trip.  Beautiful weather, beautiful beaches, good food – it was just awesome to be out of the U.S. again.  I was a little surprised by just how much I missed traveling.  The excitement of whipping out my passport, and visiting 2 airports I had never seen before.  Trying new things, like snorkeling (completely awesome), and a big conch steak (extremely chewy).  We had a great time, and I kissed a stingray.  Yep, I did!  Pics (or it didn’t happen) below!

Our resort – Morritt’s Tortuga Club.  No complaints, it was pretty nice, and very quiet the week we were there.

The beach at our resort.  SO gorgeous.

One of the restaurants we visited.  I tried a conch steak.  Basically a huge shellfish.  And just as chewy as a big shellfish.

Lovely drive around the island.

Just ’cause I’m feeling mean.

And again.

We tried snorkeling for the first time, and I might have found a new favorite hobby.

I made friends with lots of fish.  Who probably didn’t want to be befriended by a human.  I promise, I only looked – and possibly startled – but did not touch.  And I might have broken into a few rounds of “Under the Sea,” much to Justin’s embarrassment.  What can I say?  My inner five-year-old won.

I am wearing a bathing suit bottom here.  Really.  Grand Cayman isn’t THAT kind of island.

Trip to Stingray City – big stingrays.  The females grow to be around 4-5 feet long, I believe.  And yes, they still have their stingers… But you have to really get jabbed by one to do any damage.  I got brushed by one while we were in the water.  No biggie!

I told you so.  It did happen.  I kissed a stingray.  And it was A-MA-ZING.  Her name was Orion, but it was just a one-time thing.  I’ll probably never see her again.

Boo.  I miss Grand Cayman.  I miss traveling.  We’re starting to think about where we’d like to go next.  I have no idea how I’ll top kissing a stingray, though.  Pretty tall order, to be sure.  I’ve really been craving some dim sum lately, though.  Perhaps a trip back to Hong Kong and China is in order?

We shall see.  I’ll keep you posted.

This exam is controlling my life.

No joke.

I’m just popping in with a quick update on my CPA progress. A couple weeks ago I found out that I passed my first exam section – Audit – with a 96! So exciting. As exciting as a CPA exam section can be, I suppose. One down, three to go.

My next section is Regulation, which is mostly tax code and business law. I’m definitely a little nervous about passing this one, since taxes and I didn’t get along so well in college. This time around it seems to be “clicking” a little better, which is encouraging. That exam section is scheduled for the week of the 10th, and I’ve been in complete cram mode for the past week or so. I actually tallied it up today: on top of working full-time, I’ve done 23 hours of real, watch-lectures, read, take-notes studying since Wednesday evening. 16 of those hours happened this weekend. I’m a tad mortified to admit that publicly.

Anyway, I love when you guys stop by my blog to read, and I’m sorry for being completely MIA lately. It’s ridiculous how draining this exam is, and I’m looking forward to finishing as quickly as I can so I’m able to enjoy life a bit more again! If all goes well (i.e. I pass the next three sections on the first attempt), I will have my life back mid-February. And a brief respite in December. No sense in even trying to study when there are Christmas cookies to bake, a tree to decorate, and gifts to wrap. =)

February. Just four more months. And I will gleefully kick some CPA butt to the curb.

Patience Is a Virtue…

…but trust me, I’m the last person who should be saying that, lol.

House pictures are coming! We moved in a couple of weekends ago, and while we’re still living out of boxes for the most part, we are settling in and feeling very happy with this house so far!

Things have been nuts the past couple of weeks – obviously we closed on the house, but I also switched to a new job this week, which has added another layer (or 4) of stress in my life right now. I’m hoping and planning to get a post done this weekend, with lots of photos. I will apologize in advance for the paint swatches and spackle you will already see on the walls, lol. And the boxes everywhere. We did get the kitchen set up last week. Small victory, I guess. =)

So Close!

Just a brief update: we signed 99% of our closing documents yesterday! We’re waiting until our last walkthrough of the house this evening, before signing the final removal of contingency. If all goes according to plan, we should have keys in our hot, shaky hands on Thursday.

Moving day is quickly approaching. We’ve been packing like mad over the past few days, our apartment is completely torn up, and already I can’t wait to have our place back together again. Want to see the damage? After all, this blog is all about sharing, right?

Gaaaaah. So much mess.

But there is progress!

…sort of.

Safe to say we’re all ready to get out of here and to have normal lives again.

Garage Sale(ing)

On Wednesday, after work, Justin and I drove out to the west side to browse through a multi-family development sale – a neighborhood with multiple garage sales on the same night. We’re still set to close on our house on the 30th, so we’re on the hunt for furniture now. We would love to rent a U-haul and buy 52 new pieces from Ikea. Unfortunately, I’m a recent college grad, which has several implications:

1) I don’t have a lot of cash to throw on brand-spanking-new furniture.
2) I probably have not spent more than $20-30 on a single piece of furniture I’ve purchased throughout the past 5 years. Except my futon. $100 from Walmart.
2a) And I suffer from sticker shock every time I set foot in a “real” furniture store – i.e. not Target or Walmart – or even Ikea.
3) I have no idea what my “style” is. I’ve lived with $10 tables, $20 floor lamps, and many, many $0 but generous, very-much-appreciated, and well-used-and-abused hand-me-downs since freshman year.
4, and most importantly) I am resourceful. Hello – college student…?

So, in an effort to fill our house as cheaply resourcefully as possible, I’m on the hunt for thrift-stored, garage-saled, and Craigslisted furniture I can repurpose. Added bonus: it fits with much of the “living green” stuff I am admittedly buying into these days.

One of my favorite blogs that I discovered a few months ago is www.younghouselove.com. The young couple that writes it focuses on DIY home improvement and decor, and it is so fun to read through their posts and get ideas for our own house now. They’ve done some A-mazing stuff in their home, but one of their simple projects was a re-vamp of an old bench they found at a thrift store. Here’s the “before” shot:

And after:

Just a quick fabric change and a new coat of paint, and the bench looks right at home. Very cool, I think. The full post is here is you’re interested.

So anyways, we’re looking for furniture, and we decided to check out this neighborhood sale. Unfortunately, we arrived a bit later in the evening than I had planned, and we may have missed out on some things. We walked around for an hour, but we ended up leaving with empty hands and sad faces. Well, I left with a sad face. Justin managed to find one item he couldn’t leave without. And for a mere $0.25.

Did I marry a beer geek, or what? =)

Unlucky 13

June 13th. I knew it was coming. I mean, of course I knew it was coming. It’s a day, in June. Which means it was coming after all the days in May. And the first 12 days of June. But you know what I REALLY mean. I knew it was coming, because I circled it in red pen and marked it up like crazy in my planner, back in April. And I marked a little note in almost every. Single. Day. After. Except Fridays. And a few extra days here and there. Left those empty too. Mostly the few days after each exam.

Any idea what I’m talking about yet?

Yep. My life is now over, for the next, oh, 6 months or so. I guess I should say my life is on hold for 6 months – not really over. Because I’ve launched myself into the land of misery, and self-pity, and self-loathing, that is studying for the CPA. Oh, to be fair, I should really say I’ve launched myself AGAIN.

This is now my 3rd attempt – yea, I said THIRD – to study for the REG section of the exam. The first two attempts were back in January. And then March. Maybe I need to start with another section. ‘Cause you know what keeps popping into my mind? The definition of insanity or stupidity – doing the same d*** thing and expecting a different result.

ANYhoo, June 13th is Day 1 of my new-and-dear-Lord-please-be-improved study plan. I decided to throw all caution to the wind this time and blast this effing exam out in 6 months, the way this study program (Becker, in case any of you are actually curious) is built to be used. Some folks will stretch the program out to a year, completing about 1 lecture per week and 1 exam (of 4) every 3 months or so. I originally tried doing that, because, hey, I don’t have to be all, “OMG I have to do this like NOW because my next exam is like NOW and then the next exam is like NOW…” I could relax a bit. Kick my feet up. Just a couple hours a night. For a year. Just 12 months. It’ll all be over in a year.

Well, we can all see how well that turned out, eh? And here I am. Starting again. The 3rd time, in case I didn’t mention that yet. Trying something a bit different this time around. (So I guess it’s not exactly the same d*** thing…) 3-4 hours a day. 2 lectures each week. Here’s a typical schedule:

Mon: R1 lecture
Tue: R1 homework
Wed: R2 lecture
Thu: R2 homework
Fri: FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!
Sat: R1 & R2 simulations
Sun: R1 & R2 supplemental questions
Mon: “This is the song that never eeeeeends……”

To be fair, I did read for an hour at work today, over lunch. Made it through page 31 (of 69) of the 1st chapter/lecture. And I’ve already read and watched the lectures for chapters 1 and 2 (twice…), so I’m just skimming this week, and completing all the homework problems again. This week is easy-peasy, compared to next week and the start of R3, which is new material for me. So I did do SOMETHING today…

My REG exam is scheduled for July 19th. That’s sitting there on my calendar, too, just staring at me. Unblinking. A staring contest I can’t win. My 4th exam (hoping I pass everything the first time around) will then be scheduled for November 23rd. According to my grand plan, I will be done by Thanksgiving. And boy, you better believe I’ll be stuffing myself silly and sleeping ALL. DAY. FRIDAY.

Oh yea, and we’re moving into our new house in early July. And we’ll need to clean and paint at least a tiny bit. And maybe make a run to Ikea sometime. In the middle of my REG study cycle. I’ll let you know how THAT one goes.

All right, im dragging my cranky butt off the computer.

I have 38 more pages to read before bed.

Woot.

Brief Update

Well, it’s been more than 2 months… Oops! Unlike my last, incredibly-annoying post, however, I have a GREAT reason this time around for not writing until now:

We bought a house!

Seriously. We did.

As much as I am DYING to share some photos, I’m not very comfortable posting the pictures I have until the house is officially ours. Not sure how the current owners would feel about their home getting posted all over my blog… The contracts have been signed, inspections completed, applications are being processed, and as long as my bank gives the O-K, it will be ours at the end of June. And I will post a ton of pictures as soon as that happens – I’ve already written the blog post. It’s just waiting for me to click “Publish!”

Anyway, that’s been the last couple of months in a nutshell. House-hunting. I will be moving to my next rotation in 5 or 6 weeks at work, which is exciting. This first rotation was a good experience, and I have learned a lot about what kind of work I like (and don’t like) to do. Live and learn, I suppose. I’m looking forward to trying something new.

Earlier this week, we went downtown for an Indians game on Tuesday night. I can get discounted tickets through work, which is pretty nice, but only on Tuesdays. We went to the Winking Lizard on Prospect before the game for a couple of drinks and dinner. It was wing night, which was very tasty. Honey Mustard and Spicy Sesame sauces for me – quite delicious. We decided we might have to do wings and a baseball game a couple more times this summer, haha.

We managed to get to the field just before the first pitch, and as the top half of the inning went by, the stadium actually filled up more than I thought it would, for a mid-week game. Not bad for a Tuesday night, huh?

The Indians were playing the Red Sox that night. Sadly, they lost, but it was a fun night. Hopefully the next game we attend will have a better ending!

Today we went to the zoo, which was our first visit for the season. We last visited sometime during the winter. Always fun, but very cold, lol. Anyway, I was anxious to see the new Elephant Crossing exhibit that the zoo completed earlier in May. We ended up parking near the Northern Trek entrance, so we saw most of the other exhibits before making it over to the elephants.

Just wanted to share a photo of one of my favorite animals – the red panda. Sorry if it’s a little blurry, but isn’t he cute? Here’s a link to the Wiki page.

Now back to the elephants… I will admit, elephants have never been my favorite animals. And I was very skeptical when the Cleveland zoo first announced how much money they were planning to spend on a brand new exhibit for them (link here). I honestly thought that money could be better used elsewhere. However, I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed the exhibit. I will admit, a lot of the materials (such as fence posts, benches, etc.) looked very cartoon-ish and probably belonged in an amusement park somewhere. But it was pretty cool to get as close to the animals as we did. Here are a couple photos.

The zoo has five elephants now – 4 females and 1 male. These photos were all taken from the perimeter of the exhibit. There is also an interior portion, from which you can enter the indoor enclosure. The indoor enclosure had a bit more information posted about the elephants, which was neat to read. The zoo apparently is hoping to breed the elephants down the road. That would be fun, to see a baby elephant soon! Anyhoo, to get to the interior, you have to pass through a walkway that splits the two sides of the outdoor enclosure (which is huge, btw). A couple of times each day, the walkway gates are shut, and the elephants cross from one side of the enclosure to the other. I don’t think they have much of a choice in the matter, which is a little sad, of course. Anyway, we milled around with lots of other people as 2:00 rolled around, when the next “crossing” was scheduled to take place. It was a slow process. A painfully-slow process. A mind-numbingly-slow process that involved clooooosing the walkway gates. And then the elephant keepers came out. And then the keepers opened the big “wood” gates (doubt it’s wood – probably a composite of some sort). And then they had to open the electronic gates. And then they had to convince all of the elephants to move. One at a time. Once the elephants got moving, they moved fairly quickly. But then they had to wait and make sure all of the elephants were clear of the gates. Safety first, of course, and I won’t complain about that. And then they closed the electronic gates. And then they closed the “wood” gates. And then, finally, they opened the walkway gates.

One piece of advice? If you’re planning on heading to the new elephant exhibit:

For the love of all that is holy, don’t get stuck inside the exhibit for the crossing. GET OUTSIDE. Because we were stuck in there for a good 10-15 minutes, if not longer. And I know that doesn’t seem like a long time, but when there are dozens of other folks standing around with you, and little kids screaming in boredom and frustration, and horrible parents yelling awful things to those screaming kids, it feels like an hour. The crossing was not the best part of the exhibit. Stand outside, and don’t feel guilty for moving on if you get bored.

Anyway, the new exhibit is pretty cool, I will admit. I’m excited to see what else the zoo has planned for the coming years. I also had a lot of fun searching for all the baby animals that have been born lately. There seemed to be a lot! Here’s a link to the birth announcements, too, if you’re curious. And yes, the black-footed kittens were adorable =)

And one last photo to share: our cats have been loving the nicer weather we’ve had lately. We’ve been able to open the windows, and they’ve discovered that stuff actually happens outside. Cars! People on the sidewalk! BIRDS and SQUIRRELS in the trees! Lounging on the windowsills is their new favorite pastime. Anyway, I opened the window in the bathroom today after getting out of the shower, which we don’t usually open all that often. Weizen (our orange cat) was sitting on the bathroom floor, and as soon as we heard some birds chirping outside, he went a little nuts and was completely determined to get up to that windowsill somehow. He made it eventually, and of course Porter was curious about all the commotion. Here’s what I had to stare at (and bump my elbow on) while I washed up and did my hair:

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone =)

Um… Oops?

It’s been a ridiculous amount of time since my last post… Back in January! Holy crap! I wish I had a REALLY cool excuse – something like, I was knitting like crazy, making little hats to donate for preemies at the local hospitals. Or, that I’m writing again (…not blog posts, obviously…), which I haven’t seriously done since middle school. Or, that I’ve been totally inspired by the warm(ish) weather we’ve had in the past few weeks, and I’ve been cleaning and sorting and organizing the apartment in preparation for spring. Or, I’ve been cramming CPA stuff into my head for hours and hours every night. Or, I’ve picked up running again, and I’m training for my first half-marathon.

Heh.

I really do wish I could say one of those things. Heck, they’re all things I would love to be doing right now. But, as ashamed as I am to say this – I have NO idea what I’ve been doing for the past couple of months. Seriously. I blinked, and it was March. I feel like I haven’t done enough at work, given the fact that I’ve been there for 2 months already. I’ve only finished one knitting project recently (…though I’ve started and ripped out a lot more). And the apartment? You know what? Let’s just skip that one… CPA studying. We’ll do that one… And no, I haven’t done nearly enough of that recently, either. Nooooo CPA stuff going on here. No late-night study sessions. No crazy-eyed outbursts of, “No, I can’t go to bed yet! I have to read through page 57 tonight! It says so in my [self-written] study plan! 57! FIFTY-SEVEN!!” Nope. Nothin’ in my noggin.

Really, I’ve been sitting on my butt. However, over the past couple of weeks, during which I kept thinking about my poor, neglected blog, with the huge number of readers (sarcasm? me?), I have come to these conclusions:

1.) I don’t post enough pictures. I should get on that.

2.) CPA studying sucks. And I have no one to hold me accountable for studying. And that’s really bad for me, if you take a glance at #3 below…

3.) I’m lazy. Yea, I said it. Laaaaaaaaa-zy.

4.) I really should cook more.

5.) My apartment is a mess, and I’m pretty tired of looking at it.

6.) I don’t feel well. I’m tired all the time, I don’t have a lot of energy, and it all makes it very easy to get pretty cranky. I’m cranky a lot. Just ask my poor husband!

I’m not sure how those things (which I can remember… I’m pretty sure there were more!) might affect this poor blog post. What I do know is, I’m tired (…#6?), and I should go to bed. I guess this turned into a “vent” post. Hopefully the next one will be a little happier. And hopefully, it won’t take 2 more months for me to write it =)

Uh… What’s my line again?

Sorry, I really don’t know where that title came from. Well, I know where it came from. It’s from the gag reel at the end of Disney/Pixar’s “A Bug’s Life.” Probably a lot funnier if you’ve actually seen the movie.

What was I talking about?

Oh, BUT I don’t know why that line jumped out. I had every intention of sitting down and writing a post about the wonders of menu planning and cooking more at home. But now I’m feeling very random, and there are a thousand and two movie lines running through my head. Many of them are from Disney or Pixar movies, though – not that that’s a shock. Geez, I’m tired. Listen to me ramble.

ANYHOO, I’m finishing up my third week at work. I finally got a hold of the bigger project I’ll be working on for the next few months, and it’s been wonderful to actually feel like I’m contributing something to the company. The past few weeks have been interesting, to say the least. I’m still struggling to go to bed as early as I need to, so I’m not sleeping enough, and consequently not functioning 100% at work. But it’s getting there. Slowly. I’ll re-evaluate in a few more weeks.

Two weekends ago I launched into the land of menu planning. Totally thrilling, of course. I sat down and made a list of recipes I wanted to make the following week, made a huge grocery list, “shopped” in my kitchen for stuff, bought the rest at the store, and ended up paying way less for food that week than usual. That part was great. And I actually didn’t mind cooking almost every day last week. So this past weekend I did the same thing again, from start to finish… Minus the actual cooking part. It is now Thursday, and I think we’ve made two meals off our list of seven. Head::desk. Thank goodness for frozen pierogies and dried pasta.

I’ve totally stalled out on that beautiful purple shawl I was working on. It’s lovely, and SO CLOSE to being done, I’m on the bind-off row, a mere 83 stitches left… and I RAN OUT OF YARN. But just look how pretty it is…

CRAP.

If anybody has a few extra yards of Malabrigo Silky Merino in the Blackberry colorway lying around, please take pity on me and send it my way. I can’t stand the thought of buying an entire new skein just to finish the stupid bind off. So. Pissed. OFF.

So, in the meantime, I’ve got two other projects on the needles right now – a hat and a neckwarmer/cowl/scarf thingy. Not enough progress on either to share pics, but maybe in the next post.

OH! OH OH OH! I almost forgot. In much happier news, besides boring work and no cooking and irritating WIPs, we’re hoping/planning to spend a week in the Caribbean later this year – the Cayman Islands, specifically. We’re very excited – it’ll basically be our honeymoon, finally, since we didn’t have the time to travel right after the wedding a few months ago. Here’s a photo of the resort we’re planning to stay at:

Morritt’s Tortuga Club, I believe. I’m pretty freaking excited, needless to say. Very much looking forward to enjoying a daiquiri while lounging on the beach =) And I’m also excited to go snorkeling for the first time, and maybe kayaking. And there are STINGRAYS. Lots and lots of STINGRAYS. They’re safe to swim with, and I have every intention of snorkeling with stingrays. So excited.

(P.S. For those of you who never made it to Touch! at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo last time it was in town, you must go the next time it’s here – whenever that will be. Seriously, you get to feed and pet stingrays. They suck shrimp pieces out of your fingers like a vacuum. It rocks. You must go. Take it from the girl who had shark books scattered all over her bedroom floor at the age of 8.)

And just because I’m feeling mean, here are more photos of the Caymans:

Stingrays!

Here's hoping for very few cruise ships that week

Iguana!

STINGRAY!

Sorry. I’m excited =)