one hundred.

actually one hundred four.
[there's no "and" in that number either... i remember learning that in math when i was little, and it stuck with me as a pet peeve.]
i can't believe i got them all done. i was going to stop after the first deck of cards, but some part of me had to get all the way to one hundred. and really, what was i going to do with four odd cards leftover?
i used two entire rolls of adhesive, plus a little extra from a third, half a roll of glue dots, over 20 yards of ribbon, 104 buttons, and i made a small dent in my bottle of tacky glue.
i ran out of the skinny red polka dot ribbon for the last eight or so cards. luckily, i had some skinny black polka dot ribbon that was a suitable substitute. i really didn't want to drive up to my work at midnight. :]

i think it's going to be a while before i'm in the mood for a large swap again.
who am i kidding... i don't think i'll ever be in the mood for a large swap again. ha.

it's 4:30am, and i need to be in virginia city before 9:00am.
that means i have time for a two hour nap. but i'm not tired at all. i'm getting super excited to the point where i can't fall asleep.
typical amy. :]

nothing to say?

i feel like i don't have anything to blog about, but i can't fall asleep and kind of want to blog.

hmm.

i booked my flights for denver and vegas today.
i'm going to fly directly from denver to vegas. i'll save some money that way. :]
originally, i was going to fly home on saturday night so that i could work on sunday before flying to vegas, but you may have noticed by now that i don't like my job. so i'm not stressing about asking for the day off. the store will probably be closed, and i'll feel a little guilty about that for the sake of the customers, but i'm just getting to the point where i am so frustrated with that job that i'm over it.

it's definitely time to fix up my resume and drop by some labs.
grant money is not good right now around campus, so most labs aren't really looking to hire anyone.
here's hoping that i get lucky and something works out. :]

i ended up talking to my sister for an hour tonight.
i needed to ask her about the flights and stuff, then we just ended up talking about all kinds of stuff. it was nice. we rarely talk for that long.
we might try to go to a scrapbooking class during my visit. both of us could use something like that to get us going again. i've looked a bit online and haven't found anything so far, but we'll see. if not, i'm sure we can make do with a good shopping trip.
i'd like to visit the museum of nature and science again, but i might save that for the christmas trip.
oh. and she bought herself the christmas present i was planning to get her. ack! she was the one person whose gift i had in mind. back to the drawing board now.

tomorrow i have a lot of running around to do.
plus i need to do some serious laundry.
i will not buy new clothes instead. i will not buy new clothes instead. i will not buy new clothes instead. maybe if i repeat this to myself during my errands, it will work. ha.
and in the midst of everything, i'm going to meet james for lunch at pick up stix.
i've been in the mood for asian food big time this week... we've already had p.f. changs, palais de jade (a favorite local spot), and genghis grill. and i still want more. :] luckily, james is pretty easy going... he'll eat nearly anything. i'd imagine most boys are like that, right?

i'm feeling ready to crawl in bed and watch some satc now.
goodnight.

sigh.

what an emotional roller coaster today has been.
seriously.
i have a lot to say, but i'm just not going to say it.

done.

well. i'm back home now.
it took about two hours of driving to spend 5 minutes voting. :]
i had one person in front of me in line to check in, then i waited about 30 seconds for a machine open up.
i triple checked my vote for president before submitting my ballot.

i think i'm going to have to get out of the house tonight.
i want to go to free scoop night at ben & jerry's. deepa said she would go with me, but she decided to go to a big obama thing at one of the casinos here instead. i'm hoping to find someone else to go get my scoop with now.
we weren't going to have tuesday night movie night in order to watch election coverage, but i think i'm going to flip out if i stay here watching it. we'll see when james gets out of class.

that's all for now.
are you watching the election coverage or avoiding it tonight?

time to vote.

i'm getting ready to leave for my hour-long drive to go vote.

i'm pretty much certain that i'll be singing this the whole way:


i said we can vote however we liiiike.
yeah. obama on the left. mccain on the right.
we can talk politics all night, and you can vote however you liiiike.
i said you can vote however you liiiike.
yeah. democratic left. republican right.
november fourth you decide, and you can vote however you liiiike.
i said you can vote however you liiiike.

if you actually listen to the song, the kids did their research! it's pretty impressive.

oh and why the heck didn't i change my address!?
ah well.
i guess it will be good to get out of the house for a few hours since i'll probably be glued to the news tonight in anticipation.

first place.

yep. james won the pumpkin carving contest.
which makes it even more sad that jack got smashed.
ah well. it's not like jack would have lasted forever anyway, right?

i just participated in my first ATC swap.
the girls at studio calico organized one, so i decided to give it a try. i made daily cards for my countdown to graduation [which i realize i've never posted. ack.] as a way to make use of my ATC spinner. i really liked making those little cards, so i thought it would be fun to join in on this swap. :]
i only signed up to swap with two people, but i decided to make four cards. afterall, four is my favorite number.
i was going to use the line in my blog header for the ATCs, but i decided to go with this line instead. i don't remember if i've mentioned it, but sharon from my old lab said it to me when i was sad about my dad one day right after he was hospitalized again. it's become something i find myself repeating over and over in my mind whenever i get sad about something. so when i got the news about my grandpa, i decided to use the line on my ATCs since it was on my mind so much. i think i might give one of the cards to sharon. she's one of those kinds of people who appreciate handmade gifts.

i've been hoarding that cloud paper from october afternoon. they gave me a little pack with four pieces of their new paper during CHA, and i've just been taking it out to look at it, then safely putting it back into the plastic sleeve. seriously. so silly. but i think most paper lovers tend to do that occasionally with the perfect paper, right? ha. anyway, i decided it was time to finally use some of it... and it think it was really the perfect paper. as the final touch, i decided to sew on each butterfly with the sewing machine, except that i just turned the knob on the side instead of using the pedal. it was a very slow process, but worked perfectly.

anyway, i'm pretty excited about my little cards. i would like to say that i can't wait to make more, but the problem is that i have to make more. like right away. and not just four this time. we are doing an ATC swap at the regional fiskateer crop coming up this saturday, so i have to make 100 ATCs. i have a plan in mind, but i'm not sure it's going to work on that scale. i think 100 calls for a simple design and the design i have in mind is not very simple. hopefully tonight i'll come up with a suitable revision of my plan.

otherwise, i've been making travel plans like crazy lately...
1. i'm finalizing plans for thanksgiving. getting pretty excited it. i'm still trying to convince james to come along, but i don't think he will. i might give it one last try though. :]
2. right after i get home or directly from denver, we are going to vegas to spend my dad's points at the bellagio. basically, you earn points for the amount of time you spend playing, then you get to purchase items with them in the "gift shop". they have iPods, exercise equipment, jewelry, and all kinds of random stuff. last year, i think my parents got an exercise bike and the year before they got a treadmill. almost makes up for the money lost. ha.
then my sister is coming here for some big work conference. she'll be pretty busy with that, but we get to spend a weekend with her. that doesn't count as travel for me, but i'm excited.
3. after that, mom and i are going to s.f. with her golf ladies group. they have all sorts of things planned for the quick trip. and i'm hoping that maybe i'll get a chance to catch up with andrew at some point.
4. shortly after that, it will be time to head off to denver for christmas. i'm excited that i'll get to be there for both thanksgiving and christmas this year.

well. i guess it's time to figure out something for dinner.
happy monday! :]

someone smashed our pumpkin.

but aside from that, it was one of the best halloween nights ever. :]


i'm so glad that i decided to find a costume yesterday and dress up with james.
i had a lot of fun going around to various parties with him and his friends. i hadn't seen some of the boys in a long time, so it was nice to see them again. [not to mention, drive a few of them home. ha. i really don't mind though. i like knowing that people get home safely. and they probably like knowing that the person driving them home is sober.]

when we arrived home around 5am [yikes] and saw that the pumpkin was smashed in the street, it was definitely a sad moment. i was honestly hoping that the kids who tend to do that sort of thing would take a look at our pumpkin and notice how cool it was and decide to leave it alone. guess not.

james went to carson today with some friends for the nevada day parade.
i had to work, so i missed out. i wish i could have gone though. i missed it last year as well. i'm sure you can guess that i've noted that on my list of reasons to find a different job. ha.

well. i've had three hours of sleep for the past three nights, so i'm seriously looking forward to the extra hour tonight. :]

p.s. can you believe it's november, which is almost december, which means the year is nearly over!?

happy halloween.

i cannot take credit for the pumpkin carving... james did that at work yesterday for the lab pumpkin carving contest.
he will find out on monday if he won. :]
sometimes i wonder why i didn't want to work there too...

in my opinion, a jack-o-lantern of jack skellington is rather perfect.
perhaps it should become a tradition.
i also think that james will be the pumpkin carver from here on out. seriously. it takes me forever to carve one pumpkin and they never turn out as well as i'd like.

it's also nevada day today.
i met up with tracy and michele for breakfast this morning. it's always nice to have breakfast with friends. i used to do it at least twice a week when i was in school, but it's become a rare thing these days.

james has the day off work in honor of nevada day too.
we're going to do a little shopping and errand running.
i'm exhausted today [still not feeling 100% recovered from being sick] so perhaps i need a little hot apple cider for a little boost. :]

be safe & enjoy the night!