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By kilax, February 23, 2016 6:07 am

In a rare moment of openness, Data has asked me to share the blemish I’ve been using Photoship to hide on him for the past year. So. brave.

Are you ready for it?

Here we go…

Here’s the edited photo of Data modeling the beginning of the fail hat:

Looks, normal, right?

But here’s the original unedited photo:

Gasp! See that weird spot where there’s a whisker missing?

Poor guy. I have no idea what happened there. We noticed it last year, and unfortunately, it’s a spot where the fur doesn’t grow back. So Data looks ridiculous, and he’s embarrassed.

Another photo I edited it off of.

But he wanted to come clean about it. He felt bad about lying. Even though I do it all the time:

I made sure to edit that zit off my face (on the left) before texting* that photo to my mom and snister, ha. And if I have a zit, I always edit it off my face before posting it here. I’m not worried about those dark under eye circles and smeared make-up. Nope, just blemishes.

Don’t feel bad, Data. We all do it!

*I was so happy when xaarlin shared an app with me that allows you to cover zits – I always had to use my computer before. Now I can do it on the fly. Ha! I’m not a fan of overly edited photos that don’t even look real anymore, though. I cover zits, hide things in the background, change lighting and vibrancy… and that’s about it. 

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By kilax, February 20, 2016 7:00 am

I had to throw out my beloved leopard slippers, because they got too dirty and gross (okay, and schmelly). Sadness.

Wait. I say beloved, yet, I actually found these under our bed when we moved out of our townhome in the beginning of December. So they are only recently beloved.

But I used the hell out of them for two months at the rental house, then the first two weeks at the new house (aww, it’s been two weeks!). And now, I can’t imagine being slipper-less! And especially goofy slipper-less.

Luckily, I found a perfect (but not purrfect, ha ha) replacement! And for only $5! If they would have had more in my size, I would have stocked up!

Now, I just have to stay out of the garage and other… less clean rooms with them, so they don’t get trashed like the other ones did.

(Ha, but it was totally my feet schmelling them up, too.)

In other news, I can’t believe I am actually looking forward to (attempting to) meet the neighbors today. At our townhome, we avoided our neighbors as much as possible. It’s such a nice change to feel so different! I hope they like pumpkin muffins!

Our neighbor to the west called me yesterday to tell me she put her guest passes to the local HUGE gym in our name to try it out. How nice is that?

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By kilax, February 18, 2016 7:23 am

• We’ve arrived to the part of winter where I see it’s going to be 20°F and think “Oh, it’s gonna be warm today!” Ha! We have an actual warm spell coming Friday, accompanied by 30 mph winds with 60 mph gusts. Okay, then. I hope that isn’t a sign of how our spring will be – you all know I get a little stabby with the high winds.
• I spoke too soon on Monday when I mentioned we hadn’t seen Denali in awhile – he/she came around that morning. I realized Denali was visiting when I saw legs from the basement window. Creepy! Ha! Then Denali and Data had words and I heard Data make some noises I’d NEVER heard from him before. Eek.

I feel bad for Denali. I wish his/her owner would give him some love.

• Would you live in a house without a bathtub? Our new house is 1.5 baths, and there’s no bathtub! Only a shower! I LOVE taking baths, so we worked it in to the FHA 203k work to renovate the first floor bathroom to be a full bath. And we just ordered a deep soaker bathtub for it. SO. EXCITED!!!!!
• Now I know why I have a hard time remembering English words from time to time (pdf here) – it’s because my brain knows too many Spanish ones! There ya go! It’s not cause I’m crazy. Nope, nope, nope. Ha, seriously though, xaarlin shared this article and it makes so much sense to me – when you know (or are learning) two languages, your brain has to make a choice each time about which language to use, and sometimes it messes up and you can’t remember a word you know and used all your life, even if you are speaking in your native tongue. But it’s actually a good exercise for your brain to choose between the two languages! I forget words all the time, so let’s say it’s this, okay? (I know it totally isn’t.)
• I had mentioned I was hoping I’d still be able to see the sunrise and sunset from our new home, and I can! And it’s just a short run to get more of the vista. Now I just need to work on my timing!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 86

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By kilax, February 11, 2016 6:26 am

• I’ve reached my eating out threshold – I can’t do it anymore. I need a home cooked meal. Ha! This was actually one of my biggest worries about moving – how much we’d be eating out due to not having appliances with which to store food and cook. The appliances were installed Tuesday, but we had our well chlorinated on Tuesday and couldn’t use any water until Wednesday so the house hasn’t been conducive to cooking. Today, hopefully!
• But, yay, new appliances!!!

The thing to the left of the dishwasher is a trash can holder – we have to find the right size square trash can to put in it.

We plan to have a backsplash put up, then we’ll put the hood in above the stove.

The delivery guys asked if we got red because we’re Blackhawks fans! Ha! Nah, getting red was just a special treat for us. 

• In other house news, Denali didn’t stop by yesterday or Tuesday! I hope he/she is somewhere warm! (And stays there.)
• Ha, that model I wrote about? The only one I’ve kept? Data knocked it off a shelf this weekend. No more models! Thanks for deciding for me, Data!
• Speaking of things breaking, only a few things did during the move – a cheapo lamp we don’t care about, a clear cylindrical vase that probably came with some flowers, a piece of art I was able to fix, and something else I threw right in the trash because I didn’t care about it anyway. Ha! Our movers were wonderful and did a great job! I am so happy we hired them – it made things SO MUCH EASIER for us. I highly recommend Lake County Movers if you’re local!

• The movers were not able to completely clear out our storage space on Saturday, so there are a few things remaining there – garage stuff, all our books, games, the Wii stuff, a few kitchen boxes, Christmas decorations, old clothes that don’t fit – all stuff I haven’t seen in months and am not too worried about. Ha. We’ll get to it when we can (or have the movers do it – Steven and I weren’t expecting them to be able to get it all on Saturday, anyway) – all the important stuff is at the house!
• An enthusiastic “yes!” to the timing of this Just Little Things post! Gah, with the move I thought I lost my favorite hat and panicked until I located it in my purse. I don’t lose things. Or misplace them. That’s not in my nature. I’m organized when it comes to keeping track of my stuff. So for me to be forgetting where things are… must mean I am a bit stressed. It was hard for me to not know where things were after the move (because the movers put some things in larger unlabeled boxes). I couldn’t stop thinking about whatever it was until I found it!

Found it! Phew!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 85

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By kilax, February 10, 2016 7:08 am

It’s amazing how something as simple as writing down my random thoughts and ideas in ONE notebook has made me more organized and prepared. And, surprisingly… creative!

Rachel gave me this notebook for Christmas!

There’s emphasis on the word ONE above because when I would write these ideas down before, they were scattered on SEVERAL post-it notes. Which made, me, well… scattered! And really, half of them were hand written on post-its, and the other half were digital in email and blog post drafts. Which just sat and became forgotten (and irrelevant!).

Keeping all my ideas in one notebook makes them more organized. I know, what an amazing discovery. But sometimes, the obvious isn’t so obvious at first. (Um… even though I have been using one notebook at work for ages…)

The tangible experience of writing on paper and flipping back and forth between pages is definitely more mentally engaging than typing on a screen. And it allows me to be more creative – an idea I jotted down on one page joins one from another and there you have it – a strength workout, or blog post, or playlist, or whatever, has come together!

Ha. I think I am just excited now that I have one area of my life that feels somewhat organized when most everything else is a mess because we are transitioning in to the new house!

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By kilax, February 4, 2016 6:04 am

• We actually have a close date – tomorrow! FINALLY! We have movers set up for Saturday! THIS SHIZ IS GETTING REAL, YO!

Why yes, this creepy room is in our basement!

• Work has been nuts for a few months, but it’s reassuring to know that I can always let my boss know when I’m overwhelmed – and that she’ll get it and help me out. She’s been so understanding about the house and health stuff. I hope she’s my boss for as long as possible (people move around a lot at my office).
• I haven’t run with anyone yet this year! But I have cycled six times with Steven and twice with Tina (and once with class). I think the run stat will change soon – my parents are visiting this weekend to help with the move, and it should be warm enough for my dad to cycle with me while I run. Yay! (Other than that though… I really enjoy my solo runs.)
• Since I know you guys are super interested in my first no chip manicure (ha), I have to report it is no more. By Sunday five of the nails had peeled off, so I picked the rest off (which you are NOT supposed to do!!!). So it lasted two weeks and a few days. Even though it didn’t last a long time, I would think about getting it again, because it was nice not to have to worry about my nails chipping (just peeling off).
• Do any other iPhone users have issues receiving texts from Android phones? Every few days I won’t receive an Android text, and I’ll know because a group convo won’t make sense, and because the messages show up a day later. Restarting my phone helps, so I need to remember to do that each day. But… wtf. It’s annoying.
• Did you guys hear about that college that requires all the students to wear a Fitbit (article here, pdf here)? The students that go there have always been required to track their exercise via a point system each week, and now the mandatory Fitbit makes it easier to track. Interesting!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 84

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By kilax, February 1, 2016 6:23 am

1. Moving (at some point)!
2. Taking a few days off work to settle in at the new house (and finally showing it to you guys!!!). The long Presidents’ Day weekend.
3. Seeing my parents… when they come to help with the move… I hope?! Ha!
4. Seeing Star Wars: The Force Awakens again (haven’t seen it since December 31st!!!).
5. Spending time with friends.
6. Watching the Olympic Marathon Trials on February 13th.
7. Valentine’s Day boxing class! I’ve been working on a fun playlist. (And really, I am excited for all my classes.)
8. Setting up our home gym at the new house!
9. An already scheduled pre-race massage, and
10. My first race of the year!
11. Documenting house projects/doing projects with Steven! I’ll explain more after we close, but we got a special type of loan that includes money for home improvements that will begin shortly after we move in! And there are MANY projects that Steven and I will do together (now, and over the years!).
12. And… seeing what the month brings!

What are you excited about in February?

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By kilax, January 30, 2016 9:50 am

Our old townhome had some amazing sunrises:

The rental has some amazing sunsets:

I wonder what we’ll be able to see from the new home? It’s heavily surrounded by trees (yay) and that doesn’t make for much of a vista! I know I’ll find one to run to!

Comments (27)

By kilax, January 28, 2016 6:23 am

• Steven freaked me the eff out on Monday! He called me and let me know he couldn’t find Data. And that there had been people working on the rental house. And he hadn’t seen Data since they left. Gah. Steven was looking for Data outside when he called me. Then he went back in the house and thankfully found Data under our bed – a CO detector was being tested while the workers were there and scared Data so much he hid under the bed for a long time. Gah. I was freaking out until Steven found him!

A photo Steven had sent me of Data from that morning

• Yesterday wasn’t a great day for Data at the rental, either, with the new owners and their kid visiting. I can’t wait until we’re settled in at the forever home and Data doesn’t have to deal with that stuff. Unfortunately though, there will be construction at the forever home for awhile… I hope it doesn’t bug Data too much. He’s done well with construction at the townhome – he just hates it when the smoke detectors go off.
• I am not the best version of myself right meow and I don’t like it. I am the highly stressed version of myself. Work is completely nuts, the house stuff is all effed up, I have some health thing to check out, and yeah… GET IT TOGETHER, Kim. Thanks to my friends/family for letting me vent to them so you guys don’t have to hear the details! (this bullet is actually replacing three that were listing the house details, ha! basically, we definitely aren’t closing tomorrow and still don’t know when we are – maybe next week?!)
• I’m certain I have complained about this before, but what is with people who don’t have their work phone number listed on the signature on their work email (or don’t have a signature at all)? You don’t want to be called? Me either, but a lot of times, you gotta call someone, and that would be such an easy place to find your phone number. Ugh.
• Another (no chip) nail came off Sunday night, but the other eight are going mostly strong, ha! I’ve been painting the missing nails with my own polish (seen on the right below). I can’t stand to have one nail not painted or chipped so I am happy these haven’t peeled off when I’ve been away from home and can’t fix it!

Thank gawd I take pictures of EVERYTHING to share with my snis so I have this sort of thing documented to share. Ha ha. 

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 83

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By kilax, January 27, 2016 8:25 am

Cooking’s not for me. I don’t get any enjoyment out of it, and when I do cook, I feel frustrated that I scarf down the thing I made in a fraction of the time it took to make it (I’m such a fast eater – I need to work harder on slowing down). I clean up messes as I cook, but feel agitated when I sit down to eat because there are still multiple pots and pans that will have to be cleaned after eating. Ha ha. Then there’s the fact that I munch on food as I cook, and am not as hungry as I should be when I do eat. Sigh. Issues.

Luckily, Steven enjoys cooking, and I’m a good sous chef (and mediocre dish washer). So there ya go.

But the kitchen is not entirely lost on me! I do enjoy baking. I get much more enjoyment out of baking for someone else, than cooking for them. What’s up with that? Is it that I have a sweet tooth, and most of the things I bake are sweets (okay, ALL of them)? Or is it that when I bake for someone, it’s a treat, and I look forward to that person enjoying it as so, rather than some random meal (not that meals can’t be a treat, too). Eh, who knows.

I made cookies for my brother-in-law (for his birthday) last night and it was a much needed stress relief! Then I made dinner. Blah. Ha ha ha.