dear bulk mailer

thanks KG. this is awesome.

soooo glad! hit 'em where it hurts

check this out. way to deal with that junk mail. kind of mean and yet totally awesome. by the way, i burned my finger tonight. it hurts. boo....

however. i found a HUGE place where the pests may be getting in. there is a huge panel on the side of my desk, i had completely never noticed. until there were two on the wall. i could not figure out where they were coming from, the window was closed. the panel connects to the bathroom wall. i was too chicken to look behind it. i dropped some boric acid in. and taped the whole thing up. i am so glad i bought all that packing tape on sale at target.

black bean brownies

sounds weird right? they are sooo good and so much better for you.

as i was perusing my new favorite cooking blog 101 cookbooks I came across this recipe. black bean brownies I read the comments to see what people thought and found a much easier version to make. Take a box of brownie mix, puree a can of black beans, mix together and viola! Brownies!

I decided with the help of my local target to make two batches for the nurses at the hospital where we had clinical. I got to work. Turns out my new oven has a crazy thermostat and I almost burnt them. (When the heat wave goes away, I'll work on that.) But for now... here is what they looked like.

I didn't take them to the hospital on account of not wanting to deal with the oven temperature, for a second batch, but I took them to my CNSA meeting and they were a hit. They aren't as sweet, which is nice, and from what i heard, the do cause gas. :)





oh and last but not least. last night as i walked through my apartment (i turned the lights on, as i'm still trying to deal with the aforementioned problem.) i found one, killed it, wiped up the raid, and the proceeded to slip in the raid and bit it. i fell hard. right on my knee. it hurt so much. that bone jarring hurt. thankfully, it's not too bad. i immediately grabbed an ice pad, elevated it, and took a few motrin. it's a bit bruised, but i think i'll survive.

i've also installed a door sweep on my front door. one of the neighbors swears by 409, i'm going buy some tonight. i also bought a vat of boric acid, and i've been caulking every nook and cranny.

it's all just gross... well, except the brownies. which were made before i had special visitors.

this better work

this is the hole causing all the problems.... I hope...

So I've been killing the cockroaches all week. Not a billion, but enough that it really freaks me out. I've become quite nervous at home with them about. The exterminator came yesterday and I almost took his picture. I didn't though. I did ask him to marry me. He put gel all over the place in the kitchen and the bathroom and sprayed down the hole pictured above. He said "that should do the trick." Um, it didn't.

Sure enough I found a cockroach on my toothbrush early this morning and as I lay in my bed at 5 am, I saw one scuttle on the wall above my bed. It was then and there, I was just pissed. I couldn't get to the raid and back before I found it again. I hope it's dead. I hope it ate gel and now it's just dead.

Anyway... I escaped the heat of the day, went to Starbucks to study a bit, and worked on a plan. What else could I do? How could I block that huge hole? I decided to try a screen. I had seen it somewhere else on some other pipe or hole (now I know it was probably to keep varmits out.) So I went to Home Depot.

I asked in the plumbing section if they had anything special to use. No such luck, but the guy did tell me that cockroaches don't like steal wool. He suggested I fill the hole with steel wool before I do anything. Awesome.

So I went and bought mesh screen and caulk. I then had to babysit.... and I got home at 1220am. Decided to set to work...won't let those creatures of the night mess with me anymore.

1. I sprayed the hole with Raid.
2. I waited a bit, drank a bit of Lillet and then stuffed the hole with brillo pads. (BTW, when you break brillo pads apart...blue soap sprinkles everywhere....)

3. Gather the rest of my supplies.

4. Cut hole for pipe...2 inches wide.


5. Seal it up with caulk. The caulk will dry clear and hopefully it will work. The wall is VERY textured and I had a hard time working with it... but hopefully. The whole steal wool, plus screen will keep those grody little monsters out.



take that.

the organ man

i moved to the ghetto. i got cheaper rent. and... wait for it...wait for it... i got...

cockroaches. i am so grossed out right now. so i came home from a great evening with ahmi & mike to find a little cockroach scurrying on my counter. gross. i grabbed the raid and killed that mofo. (the raid was saved from the colby house...it's actually ant spray for our once yearly infestation.) so i'm calling the organ man. When i was a nanny in DC, one of the kids always followed the Orkin man around and called him the organ man. I still find it funny.



went and washed my face. came back and saw another little mofo running on my clean dishes. dude crossed the line. on my clean dishes? seriously? i sprayed them and him with raid. then proceeded to wash all the dishes.

got the computer out and started looking up bugs, because these don't look like cockroaches, well a litle, but not the big ones i'm used to in hawaii. sure enough it appears that they are called German cockroaches (bugs from the motherland, awesome. i wish it was beer from the motherland.)

The only place I can figure out that they might have gotten in is the screens in the kitchen. My apt is blessed to have no ventilation, therefore if anything smokes or needs some air, you have to open the windows. The windows do not have perfect screen. i.e. welcome my lovely countrymen, come in and scurry all over my kitchen. ewww...

walked back in the kitchen to wipe down the counters again. sweep one more time and make sure that everything that needed to be in plastic was.

saw another little mofo on the wall. unbelievable. i sent an email to the landlord letting them know this situation needs to be resolved immediately. i will not deal with these bugs.

i did some more research, resolved that i can't do anything more this evening. and this is what i found.

*cockroaches can be found anywhere. doesn't matter if you are dirty or clean, they just want a home they can cuddle up in. they like clutter. (um. i'm clean and clutter free, so go away.)
*it's important to control the manifestation early. (oh i'm controlling it. stupid bugs won't mess with me anymore.)
*they can live behind the labels of canned goods and eat their paste.
*they die quickly without water
*they can eat through plastic ziplocs... you need better containers.
find out more here: http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.quote.gif
insert blockquotedie you motfo's die

i'm over it. they better get the f out. stupid bugs. :)

seattle

I love seattle. I love it with every essence of my being. I went home a few years ago and fell in love with a photo John Wiley was selling at Pike Place. I finally drove back to the market on my way to the airport and purchased the photo. Since then, it has remained in it's matting and I have never framed it. I had to go to the frame store other day and finally bought a frame and put the whole thing together. Now I just have to put the little teeth, hangie thing and hang it up, but I've made progress.

And below is is my new coconut aloha tea... I'm about to make a cup as I work on this paper for pharmacology.

oh and as I was looking for new photos to add to my seattle collection, I came across this blog. which can give me a bit of eye candy for my beloved city everyday! yeah!!!Seattle Daily Photos!

coconut aloha

i am in love with tea. or coffee. or water.... i like them all. but i have an obsession with teavana. teavana is a chain tea emporium. you can go in and buy 2 oz. of tea for said price. i had a moment to go to teavana yesterday, i needed to get a new strainer, because i had just been using emily's. i was compelled to get some coconut aloha tea, black tea with large bits of hawaiian coconut mixed in.

The picture above is of my favorite, blooming tiger. It's crazy, it comes shaped in a little bud and it turns into this big, huge flower once you "water" it. It's an amazing white tea. I also spotted this super cool tumbler for their special blooming teas, but it wasn't in the financial cards. For now I will just think of it longing.

btw.. i should be studying patho, but i'm reading a great book called "The Year of Fog." I picked it up at Target yesterday and thought I rarely purchase books, because I read them too quickly, I'm happy I did. I have needed this quite morning in bed, with my tea, and a cozy novel.

sweltering heat

my apartment is currently 89 degrees. it's 915pm. this does not bode well for sleeping soundly this evening... oh well, at least i get to live by myself!

i'm waiting a few more minutes and then i'm headed to the hospital to collect my preplanning information for Tuesday morning. hopefully i'll find an interesting case or two, choosing patients this early is risky, because a lot of people get discharged on monday, but i'm too tired to do it another way right now.

nursing school is really good. it's exhausting, but it's good. so far i am incredibly happy with what i have learned and as read books and more books, its neat to have an idea of what is actually going on with the human body.

i'm struggling in one of my classes, but at this point i will be happy if i pass it. never felt that way before, but nursing school is all about being open to new experiences!

i got to scrub in for a surgery last week, that was amazing. amazing to see the inside of living body and watch it be manipulated and cut and blood rushing everywhere. just incredible.

this is what i would rather be doing right now.



i just learned how to crochet granny squares. i am attempting to accomplish the babette blanket.

it will be neat to see how it turns out.
okay, off to the hospital.