New Job and NUMB3RS?

Ever since I was a kid I picked wild-flowers and weeds and put together flower arrangements for my family.

Despite being a huge tomboy I liked the outdoors and the flower arrangements I made always made people smile. I've enjoyed doing my photography but I have been really excited about getting a job working for someone other then myself. I want to have some sort of a structure in my life and I feel my new job working floral will give me just that! I will also have access to nice food and quality ingredients so I can make new meals and with the extra activity I am sure I will at least loose some weight which would make me feel much better.

I will be working at Safeway.in the floral department. I have really enjoyed my time in training so far and it was no where near as scary or as hard to grasp as I first thought.

  

Getting hired was kind of like a movie.

My friend came over and just as we got settled into out typical chill out mode I got a phone call.

It was the "VONS" branch of a Safeway store asking me if I could come in for an interview in two hours. (I had only just applied the night before I got the call.) So I left my friend at the house and went off to the interview I had applied for another job there but I mentioned I did have some handle on floral and she said... "See you here tomorrow at 9am." By the time I got out of the interview I had less then 2 hours to go and pick up uniforms. Thankfully I managed to get two full uniforms and ended up having to take my friend whom I had planned to hang out with home! The next day I went to the customer service orientation and it was so much fun. At lunch we were told we could go get food but that we had to practice the customer service tools we had learned in the class. 


You have likely already seen the show or heard of it but I am a big fan of NUMB3ERS. I love the way math is explained in the show to people like me who have very sharp minds but math is just something that is very hard to totally grasp. I love the inherently brilliant minds of people like "Charlie and Dr. Reid" From the TVshows NUMB3RS and Criminal Minds. I enjoy all the people in the show NUMB3RS and it reminds me very much of my own family. Most of all my uncle George. But it really just seems like a very dramatic meeting at foxes on a weekend morning. 
If you have not checked it out you should.
It's about an FBI team and how the brother of one of it's members who happens to be a mathematical genius. It's alot of fun to watch and I really do learn from it even if it is a drama.
LoL

Sorry for the epic mistakes I am certain I made. 

I'm kind sleepy. :D

<3 More rat and other fuzzy baby photos soon! <3

Long time no post! Sorry about that... o_o'

I haven't made a post in a while... Stuff got real here and I'm franticly looking for a job currently.

I've been buzzing around the net. My wow account is down at the moment so I've been putzing around Gaiaonline again. I've been a member of Gaiaonline since it started back when I was about 16. A lot has changed since then. 

If you follow my DeviantArt page you know I wrote a story a long time ago I figured I would show some of the people from the story. If you don't follow my DA and you would like to know more and see how they look please visit my journal entry about it Here. 

I've been hunting around on the net for some cool ideas on things to cook.

I found some cool ideas from some other blogs. 

This EPIC take on a Cinnamon Roll.

White Chocolate and Strawberry Crepes

We ran out of stuff to cook with here and it's been raining so going to the store to get more hasn't exactly sounded like the best of ideas to my mom who does the driving. So there has not been to much in the way of creative cooking going on. However I will share an old stand by of mine. 

Garlic Butter Pasta!

When I don't know what to have to eat this tends to be what I make.

What you will need is your favorite pasta. (whatever kind you like is fine)

Butter

Garlic salt. 

Honestly that's all you need.

You want to fancy it up a bit?

Cut up some cherry tomatoes and throw in a small handful of mozzarella cheese.

All you have to do to make it is cook the pasta, drain it and put it into a bowl with some garlic salt and butter stir it up and eat it. It's simple. It's yummy. It's pasta. It's cheese. Make it. 

I will be doing some makeup looks using URBAN DECAY Naked Palette. 

I'm trying to find some simple looks for interviews and so I end up messing around with it all the time. I also hope to get some new photographs out to you all very soon. Sorry for the long pause without an update!

-Ginn

Photos And FAQ + Recipe

Hello again! <3
I got a few FAQ's to answer from my DA page.


1.What server do you play on? (WoW)
Sentinels (RP)


2. What class do you play? (WoW) And what is the name?
A better question would be what class don't you play but here goes.
Kathalea (Pally)
Naemilla (Priest)
Vaelana (Rogue)
Marcyl (Hunter)
Shamala (Druid)
Emasha (Shammy)
Nicolina (Mage)
Volka (Death Knight)
I have a second pally and Priest as well but one is a bank and the other I may delete and make into something else...




3. What kind of Lashes do you use?

I don't use False lashes... I never have in fact they scare the crap out of me. My eyelashes are just very long and thick to begin with.  The photo above is just my plain lashes not curled with BadGalLash. They are naturally blonde and without a dark mascara you can't see them.
So... Yeah.


4. Are you a professional chef?
No. I'm a home cook and I love cooking but I do not make a living off of it. But I don't think I would say no if an offer came around.


5. What camera do you use?
I have a Canon Digital. I started with a auto zoom film camera.
Honestly it's more the eye you have then the camera.








I made Mac n' Cheese the other day and people went a bit nuts over the photos so I figured I'd post them with the recipe.

Here is what you will need to make this:

1 Box of your favorite Mac n' Cheese ( I used Kraft ) 

2 Slices of Provolone Cheese.

Cheddar about 1/4 cup.

Mozzarella about half a cup. 

1-2 small pads of butter.

How to make it:

Cut all the cheese into little pieces. Then cook the pasta as it says on the box. 

Pour in the cheese sauce mix from the box (you can skip this if you want) Then add the cheese bits and mix until gooey. If you find it's becoming to sticky and not saucy enough add a bit of room temp cream and keep mixing. The heat from the fresh pasta should melt up the cheese nicely.

Now EAT BEFORE IT GETS COLD!

Bubble Brigade

I have an orange tabby here in LA. Her name is bubbles. She has many different nic-names we have come up with over the years and some have stories to go with them. Orange rocket came from when she was a baby tearing around the house in Maryland and all you would see of her was an orange streak. Psycho Mow from her random playful attacks on everyone.  Bubs, Bubble Butt, Fluff Butt, Fuzz Muffin, Bubble and so on. She's a lovely cat who is VERY photogenic however doesn't always love the camera.

(We all have our moments) 

I got her when she was not even ready to be separated from her mother out of a box of kittens someone down the street found under their storage shed. They didn't want the mother raising them in their yard so they boxed up the litter and were sending them to a shelter. This made me super angry. It was a hard time for me. I was 13 goth and rebellious a major pain in the butt. My mother was in hospital for a broken back. And I was stuck at my grandfathers house in Maryland. I decided I was going to take one of the kittens home. There were 3 kittens in the box that I really loved. 1 Male orange tabby who was almost exactly the same as bubbles only with different eyes. 1 grey kitten I have always wanted a grey cat but I was thinking about my mom and decided since I knew her dream was an orange female tabby to take that one. 

I grabbed my hoodie and held the squiggling ball in my huge middle pocket all the way up the elevator in the hospital and placed the tiny kitten on my moms belly. "Oh no" she said as she petted the little kitten who looked up at her and meowed. She was in love and everyone was hooked. The little kitten grew quickly to become the largest cat I have ever owned. 

A few years later my grandfather died and it was time to move things out of the house. This included Bubbles. We packed her into a cage and started the car. She RIPPED the door off the cage and curled up next to me and for the next 3000 miles gave us lots of laughs and stories to tell. We were pulled over somewhere in the middle of the country for speeding. The cop walked up and started laughing. He said he was going to ask dad if he knew how fast he was going but bubbles had sprawled out on the shelf under the display. So the cop petted bubbles who was happy with being fussed over and let us go

When we got her home she and our other cats Cherry and Chessie did not really like the idea to much. But Chessie was very old and dying and soon passed away leaving Cherry and Bubbles to work things out. They did and now they have places they hang out and there are no more cat wars in the middle of the night. Cherry is very old now... Almost 20 so she has no time to deal with a kittens shenanigans. More about her another time. Here are some recent photographs of Bubbles for you all.

With love from the Orange Rocket...

Back in LA

I've been back in the USA for some time now.

I haven't felt motivated to do a whole lot the last few days. I really miss my little family back in New Zealand. Malcolm and my baby rats are all alone now and have no one to spoil them. I feel bad having to be on the other side of the world from the 2 little balls of fuzzy love I had become so attached to. My little star runs for my voice desperately when she hears me on skype... It's enough to break my heart seeing my baby trying so hard to reach me and knowing I can't hold her anymore. 

It is true that I do have my fair share of babies here in LA. We have a large dog, two cats and a bunny. I also have an extended family of fuzz-balls that belong to my friends. Luna and Puck my friends little Dachshund puppies and her larger dog Ahanu. And a giant real life Garfield belonging to one of my childhood friends. All of whom I love like they were mine.  It's 7 am here at the moment and I have no clue what on earth I'm doing still awake.

The day after I got home the above mentioned friends had a welcome home party for me and we had mac and cheese and a huge cake which I will admit did help with the sadness quite a bit. When I got home however my 72 year old mother was laying on the floor in front of the front door having fallen. I have no clue what I would have done without my friend there. My dad and I could have never gotten her up safely without him. She smacked her head on the fridge and came down pretty hard on her tail-bone. She's in a lot of pain (well more so then usual) and is having a bit of trouble walking now.  

It's funny now that I look back on just how many times this same friend has come to save the day in an emergency. He drove me to the ER about 3 times? He came to visit me when I was stuck in a bed with a morphine drip after my surgery 4 years ago now.  O_O omg it's been 4 years WTH?!... Uh anyway... I just have no clue how I could have managed without his help the last few years.

My Dad came from Maryland to pet-sit and visit me when I got home which was also nice as I don't see him much these days.

Hopefully I will get to updating this more with photos of things I cook here. I would like to start cooking more often but that means we need to get food for me to cook with. ASAP I will start cooking and updating way more often perhaps with new photos of random stuff here and there.:D

For now I leave you with this:

End worlds longest blog post...

Thanks for reading...

Ginn

Again it's like 7:00am I'm sure I made spelling mistakes and typos but I'm to sleepy to be able to tell.

Back in Takapuna.

I really had fun on our trip here last time the ocean was magical and everything was just right.

This time it's changed a bit... There was a storm here and so you can't see the ocean floor anymore and there so so much decaying shellfish and seaweed on the beach that it smells really bad. It's lovely to look at from the footpath. The water was very warm today it was so hot I decided that I HAD to do something. If I can figure out how perhaps we will go down into Auckland and catch a whale watching trip or something of the sort today. 

Snapshots:

Takapuna Beach Trip

Malcolm and I went to Takapuna and it was lovely. We went to several different shops and nice places to eat. I will to my best to cover everything. We stayed at Takapuna Beach Holiday Park. This place was nice, you can pick anything from a tent site to a motel unit and it's right on the beach. The place is dog heaven! The owners have two dogs Otto and George. They are super loving and greet pretty much everyone with a smile and lovies. BEWARE: Otto loves to get wet in the ocean and then greet you so you may end up with a wet dog. :D They were so cute. The views of the ocean from the park were really fantastic and the smells and the fresh air were also nice. There was pretty much no noise at night very calm and peaceful. 

Right next door to the holiday park is the Takapuna Beach Cafe. I had breakfast here all 3 days of my stay. The people here are very friendly and the dress code ranges from people in suit and tie to people in bikinis. The thing I ordered most was the flounder.  (photo on right) 
This flounder was flaky and oh so yummy served with their home made sour dough, garlic butter, butter, greens, and a lemon. It's not cheap but is really very nice and so worth it. They also have lemon tea which will be sure to warm you up on a cool morning. Along with that they have a full range of coffee speciality drinks and pastry for you to choose from. They also have Gelato voted one of the best in New Zealand they sold out 100% on every flavour the first day we were there. The servings are huge, a double was far to much for me to finish I had trouble with even one scoop to be honest. Malcolm seemed happy to help me with mine after he finished his.

His favourite flavour is Chocolate Hazlenut. I didn't get to try it cause they were sold out every single time but I think my favourite would have been double chocolate.

They also have a store next to the restaurant part that sells drinks, sandwiches, the gelato and some little goodies.

Love this place!

Second was the beach itself. Right along side the park is Takapuna Reef. Tons of tide pools visible daily.

In the background there is a mountain. It was such a pristine lovely place. Watch your feet! As you can see the rock is sharp and volcanic. Even if you have feet with a lot of padding like mine this hurts after a few minutes. Loads of shells to pick up and cool snails, clams, crabs, plants, and birds to play with. I stood for hours just watching the children play in the water here.  

In the middle of the reef and the sandy beach is a boat ramp where if you rent or own a boat you can slip into the water and have a nice day on the waves. Right inland from the boat ramp is a small park with BBQ grills so you can cook up the fresh fish you caught out at sea! (Or the cafe if you didn't manage to catch anything)

(Photo by Malcolm Wolf)  

On the other side (about 1 minute walk) is the sandy beach. Here is what you picture when you hear the word "Beach". There are little kids and dogs playing everywhere, families out and little kids in training to become lifeguards when they grow up. The water was shockingly warm and very nice to swim around in. I found a huge shell and decided to take it home with me.

Next comes the city! 

Right up the street from the cafe is the main road. At that intersection there are about 7 places to eat.

Daikoku is a teppan yaki restaurant. I think my experience here would have been much nicer if it wasn't for the asthma attack I was suffering when I walked in the door. I happened to have a drink on me and I took it out to take a sip and they told me I had to order a drink BUT DIDN'T TAKE MY ORDER FOR ONE. Please keep in mind I was dizzy and could not really breathe. It was VISIBLE that I was unwell. It's not like I had plans not to order a drink just that no one asked me what I would like for about 20 miutes. The steak was a cheap cut and was impossible to eat. The prawns were good and the fish that the other people got looked amazing. I think if I do decide to give this place another shot I will get the fish.

Second is an Italian place. There is a reason I have not posted a review of the Italian places I have eaten at thus far. They were underwhelming... The food was bland and the noodles were not cooked properly. I took the food home and added seasoning to it just to make it edible. I'm happy to say the next place changed all that!

Al Forno is authentic and delish! 

I went here because the reviews of the wood fire pizza were really good. However when we got there I saw this on the menu. 

Tortellini di Pollo – pan fired chicken pieces topped with amaretto white sauce.

$23.90

And had to have it. It's a darn good thing I did too. This is one of the BEST pasta dishes I have ever had in my entire life. I've been into pasta and Italian food since I was about three years old. But this place is REALLY GOOD. This pasta is one of those things that you're totally shocked by and will never forget. We also ordered the Calzone, which was swimming in cheese and toppings. (or fillings in the case) They do it the real way. You even get to watch the guy flip the dough into your nice pizza.

Just amazing if you are ever in New Zealand I would say this place is a MUST.