Thursday, May 29

lia sophia

I've been meaning to write a post about my lia sophia business for a while now.  I guess now is a perfect time to mention it because, a) I haven't posted anything in a few days, and b) they just sent out their Discontinued List for the Spring/Summer 2008 catalog.  I can't believe its that time again!  This mean a new catalog will be available in August! It seems like just yesterday when I got my new Spring/Summer catalogs and drooled over the new stuff.  

So, before I go any further I guess I should say this:  

Hey, guess what?  I sell lia sophia jewelry at in-home parties!  

I'm sure 94.67% of you who are reading this already know this fact.  But hey, I may have a few readers that don't know me.  And if my past-self were to read this, I wouldn't believe it.  I don't think I have the sell-stuff kind of personality.  But hey, it seems to be working for the most part, and I enjoy it which is most important.

So to explain the opening statement, lia sophia has two catalogs ever year.  The Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter.  A few months before the new catalog comes out they send out a flier with the items that are going to be discontinued.  Every time they do this, I can't help but get sad over the jewelry that is no longer going to be available, and the jewelry of mine that I can no longer use in my show displays.  But this only lasts until I get a sneak peak at the NEW! catalog.  

So here is my lia sophia shpiel: 

If you are interested, come check out my personal lia sophia website:


On there you can check out the "My Business" section and check out the monthly specials.  Or go over to the "Our Jewelry" section to look at the current Spring/Summer 2008 catalog.  

If you would like to place an order, feel free to contact me, or enter my name for the hostess name on the "How To Purchase" screen.

And if you are dying to see the Soon To Be Discontinued List to see if there are any items that you just can't  live without, just let me know and I could probably email you a copy.  

New catalog comes out in August!  So come back to check it out!

*Edit - Sorry guys, I just noticed that quite a few of my readers have tried to view my personal lia sophia website.  Unfortunately I don't currently have it up.  I am still an advisor, but a slump in my parties has forced me to cutback and not keep my website going.  Hopefully it will be back up soon!  If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and I will answer! TSS ~ 08-29-08

Wednesday, May 28

Overheard in the Office

Me: Man, I hate when I miss a period.
pause
Me: Errrr...ummm...yeah...

P.S.  I should point out that this was said after getting a job from a proofreader who had pointed out that I forgot a period after the sentence "Printed in the United States of America"  Don't worry folks, this single sister is still not married or pregnant.

Wednesday, May 21

The Small World of Online Dating

I have a date for Friday afternoon.  No, don't worry its not with the "I'm Not Ready" guy.  He's back with his ex-fiance.  Turns out it wasn't a matter of not being ready, but a matter of not being over his ex.  But what can a single girl do, move onto the next one?  

And the next one found me on okcupid.com last week.  After the last dating attempt I decided I wasn't going to blog about any dates until at least a week had gone by.  But I had to blog about this and the small world that is online dating.

What are the chances of a guy in Blue Earth finding and emailing someone in Minneapolis in March and then finding and emailing her good friend in Owatonna 2 months later?  

I was talking to Sarah last night and telling her about my upcoming date on Friday.  

E: Yeah, he lives in Blue Earth so we are meeting halfway in Albert Lea.
S: A guy from Blue Earth messaged me on okcupid once, I bet its the same guy.  But I ended up ignoring him.
E: Thats hilarious.  Yeah, I'm sure it is the same guy.  Did he have a beard?
S: Yep
E: Did he have a son?
S: Yep
E: Wow, what are the chances?

At this point I'm really curious as to how many single-bearded-son-having-Blue Earth guys are out there on okcupid so I called him up.  He did in fact message Sarah back in March and never got a reply back to his second email.  Now he's heart broken and vowed to never search for love in Minneapolis ever again.  Ok, so that last part never happened, but small world isn't it?  

Of course I'll let you know how this date goes.  As far as I know he doesn't have any recent ex's that he wants to get back together with, his career path seems pretty stable, and he doesn't live with his parents.  

As usual, my fingers are crossed.  

Sunday, May 18

I really want it to be Tuesday so I can name this post Ruby Tuesday

So, on Ruby's second day home (or was it third?) she warmed up to me a bit more.  I took her igloo away so she couldn't hide and I was able to take some video of her.  So now you guys can have a good look at her.  

This is Ruby in her habitat.  I'm hoping to switch to fabric liners and get rid of the messy aspen shavings.  We'll see if she likes that.  But really, would I be able to tell if she didn't like them?  

After I posed this and watched it I realized there is a funny noise at the beginning.  This was taken on my cell phone so the sound must have gotten messed up....that noise isn't from Ruby (or me).


If you notice when I go to touch her how she kind of jumps at me and tries to poke me with her spikes?  Thats the start of her huffy state.  Since I backed off (actually I usually jump when she does this, it still startles me) she relaxes.  My hedgehog specialist, Tony, saw this and was surprised that she was approaching me at all.  So I'm hopeful that she's getting to know me.  Its really hard to tell.  

I now know why PetSmart is a dangerous place for pet owners.  I walked out of there today with a few items that I'm sure Ruby doesn't need.

After I got home from my trip to the cities I discovered what the worst thing about taking care of a hedgehog is going to be...cleaning out her wheel.  Apparently hedgehogs poop when they run on their wheels.  I don't know about you guys, but when i run I don't have the urge to poop and run through it.  But I guess thats just one more thing that separates us from animals.  I can tell the washing of the wheel will be an every other day occurrence, at least.  I'm sure this is probably TMI but if my sister can post pictures of her toenails falling off, I can write about this.

I think I'll leave it at that.  With that mental image of poopy wheels and toenails falling off.  

Aren't you glad you stopped in to see me today?   

Thursday, May 15

Meet Ruby!

Surprise!  New addition to The Single Sister and her name is Ruby!

So I was meaning to write this post before I got a hedgehog.  But my impatience got to me when I realized it was going to be easier than I thought to obtain one of these cute guys for myself.  So I drove with my new friend Jamie over to Mankato today and adopted Ruby!  

A little bit of a back story:

So I'm sure most have you noticed the survey I had up a while back about this single girl getting a hedgehog.  The results were very across the board....pretty even between yes get one, worst idea ever, and I don't care.  And really, my mind was already set.  I just was curious how the world felt about hedgehogs.  I knew that for me it would be a great choice for a pet.  

I've been wanting an animal for a while but my obvious choices were limited.  

1. I'm allergic to cats.
2. I'm not home enough to have a dog, and I've never trained a dog before.  Dogs a huge responsibility.  Its like owning a house, not sure I want to do it all on my own.  And to be honest, they are kind of expensive...shots and vet visits every year?  And to top it off, I'm probably allergic to them too.
3. Fish.  Tried that.  3 times.  They died.
4. Mice, Rats, Gerbils, Guinea Pigs, Ferrets.  They all tend to have a certain oder to them.  And a certain creepyness.  Well except for the Ferrets, they just have extra oder.
5. Reptiles. Not cute.

So a while ago I stumbled across the cutest video of a hedgehog chewing on a carrot.  It. Was. The. Cutest. Thing. Ever.  I looked into hedgehogs as pets and discovered they are pretty low maintenance animals.  They don't need visits to the vet, don't need to be exercised, you just have to refresh their bedding every week.  They like to live on their own, but are very personable and like to come out and play.  And they eat cat food!  How easy is that? Perfect for this single girl!

One snag. I looked up breeders and their were only 2 in Minnesota.  I kind of put the idea on the back burner after I saw that.  But then I met my friend Tony who had a hedgehog and I actually got to play with one and see what they were like in person and I fell in love.  I contacted the breeders and they were both going to have babies ready to go home by the end of the summer.  Ok, I can wait.  Can't I?

Turns out, I didn't search hard enough.  Pet Expo in Mankato has hedgehogs for sale.  I found this out last night (Wednesday) and Jamie and I were on the search for a hedgehog right after work today (Thursday).  They had plenty to choose from.  And I picked out a female thats about a year old.

She's rather "huffy" toward me at the moment.  Check out the link to see a video of a hedgehog in their "huffy" state.  Its what they do right before they roll up in a ball.  This is normal after moving them to a new surrounding.  I'm supposed to give her time to adjust to everything (a day or so).  So I apologize for the lack of good pictures of Ruby.  This is the best I could get.  She's pretty camera shy.  But thinking of it, if you look at the "huffy" video, Ruby looks a lot like that hedgehog.  

(Her head is facing away from the camera)

And this is Ruby's home.
Complete with a green running wheel.
(apparently they can run a couple of miles every night)
And a purple igloo to hide in.
That picture makes the cage look rather small.  But its actually quite large.  I'm hoping to find a table to put the cage up on so she's not on the floor.  

So, in case you couldn't tell, I'm super excited about this.  

And yes, don't worry I have a hog-sitter lined up if I have to go away for a few days.  He lives right down the road, and he used to own his own hedgehogs.  So I've got all my bases covered. He's already answered a few strange questions.  Like, 'why does she keep biting the water bottle when she drinks?"  Turns out she was used to drinking out of a dish and not the bottle.  

But I realize that now I'm just rambling.  I'll stop the craziness here.  :o)

Wednesday, May 14

Want.

I found these purses featured on MightyGoods.  


I am refraining with all my might.  Only because they are $68 and not because this bag lady doesn't need anymore purses.  A bag lady can never have too many purses.   

But aren't they adorable?  

Especially in Orange?


And my favorite shade of Green?


And something about faux ostrich makes me giddy.  

Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens

Thank god for that.  That was seriously troubling my mind.  Right up there with gas prices, paying off credit cards, earthquakes in China, cyclones in Myanmar, and whether or not aliens could exist.  But my mind can rest easy knowing that the Vatican tells me its ok to believe in aliens.  

I guess this is a perfect example of why I've always been weary about religion.  I like to form my own opinion.  I don't want anyone telling me what I should and shouldn't believe in.  

Tuesday, May 13

Didn't realize my dating life could be summed up in 40 pounds.

I know things have been quiet at The Single Sister.  No, don't worry, I haven't been sitting in the corner eating a 4 pound cheesecake.  I really have no excuse.  And I just realized thats the second time I referenced cheesecake and some of you haven't heard the story behind that one.  I'm not sure which failed relationship sparked the 4 pound cheesecake phenomenon.  Was it one of mine?  Or Sarah's?  Anyone remember? 

Anywho, its kind of become a custom in my close group of friends that when one of us finds ourselves in a doomed relationship, we eat cheesecake.  Specifically a Sam's Club 4 Pound Cheesecake.  Nothing spells heartbreak relief like 4 pounds of cheesecake.  Now, if I ate a 4 pounds of cheesecake after every failed relationship that I've had in the last few years.....yikes.  Well thats a sight we wouldn't want to see.  That would be at least 40 pounds of cheesecake on these hips.  *shudder*  We save the 4 pounder for the major breakups and heartbreaks.  

So lets move on shall we?  So I cleaned out my camera and sorted through a months worth of pictures stored up on my memory card.  I'll end this post with a few of my favorites, and some added ones that Samantha took for me. Hopefully they will distract you from any cheesecake cravings this post may have caused.

Reagan and Rylee cruising in CJ's Mustang.
(I honestly couldn't tell you who is who)
Every time I look at this photo I flash forward to when 
they turn 16...and to Jason's anxiety level raising.

These pictures of the May Day Parade in Minneapolis are
courtesy of Samantha.  It was a beautiful Sunday to watch a parade.

Since I'm always the photographer in my family I hardly
get pictures taken of me.  Most of the time thats fine by me.
But it is nice to know that I do exist in picture form.
Me and the May Day Parade.

Samantha's Boyfriend Chris and I at the May Day Parade.

And this one of the little guy is from almost a month ago now.
But I just love his facial expression.  
He's lookin' at something thinking,
"I was born into one crazy family, can't wait to get bigger and join in."

Monday, May 5

At least I didn't come up with a nickname for him yet...

My friends boyfriends even know the signals.  With just a simple "Ohh, I'm sorry." Sam's boyfriend was yelling "Cheesecake?" from the kitchen.

The first date went well, second date went even better.  Only to get a call today saying that he's not ready to be dating anyone just yet.  Its only been two months since things ended with his ex-fiance.  I was kind of expecting this, but of course I was hoping for the best.  Two months isn't long enough to get over an ex-fiance.  

On one hand I'm glad there had only been two dates and he didn't wait to come to this conclusion further down the road.  

On the other hand this still sucks.  Just add this one to the list of good guys that I've dated that just weren't "ready". 

I hope a pattern isn't developing.  

Thursday, May 1

The Single Sister Dates

Thats right, this single girl is dating again.  

I haven't decided how I'm going to handle blogging about my dating life.  One thing I have decided is that I'm not going to get into any past relationships and to protect the innocent (or not so innocent) I'll probably take a page frosarahnielson.com and use nicknames for anyone that I do mention.  :o)

I generally have I a rule for myself not to meet anyone from myspace.  I've done it a few times in the past, against better judgement, and it never ends well.  But this particular guy messaged me on Monday and seemed genuine.  I think it was the "Dear Emily" at the start of his messages and not the usual "hey baby" that some guys like to start out with that caught my attention.  Maybe chivalry isn't dead.

So to get to the point, I met him at his Softball game on Tuesday (at which he hit a home run after he noticed
that I was there watching) and got a bite to eat afterwards (at which they had to ask us to leave because they
were closing and we were still busy talking).

Guess what?
He actually lives in town.
He works a normal day job.
He has his own place (i.e. he doesn't live with his parents).

So just from that list I think you could get a good idea of what went wrong in past dating experiences.

We are going out again Friday night and I'm looking forward to learning more about him. And hopefully I'll
come up with a nickname for him by that time. :o)