Doggy visitors - July 29

Doggy visitors - July 29
Originally uploaded by wemdoe.

Today was the first day of a week long dogsitting mission. We are dogsitting Caesar and Rama for my friend Jayme from Milwaukee. It was totally insane how nervous I was meeting her, but I guess, now that I think about it, it was the first "internet friend" I've ever had come over and actually spend real time here, as opposed to internet acquaintances saying hello at events or coming over for 20 minutes to run their dogs. Caesar and Rama will be here for a week, so this should be interesting!!

Addicted to PaperbackSwap.com - July 27

Addicted to PaperbackSwap.com - July 27
Originally uploaded by wemdoe.

I am totally addicted to Paperbackswap.com Basically, you list books you want to get rid of and then when someone requests your book, you mail it to them, covering the cost of shipping. For every book you mail, you get a credit for a free book, so you can request someone else's books. So it's clearing off shelf space and allowing me to get all sorts of books to keep for less than $2 each!

So it's feeding my book addiction and helping me not create any new debt. Heck, I've mailed out more books than I've requested so I'm doing great cleaning off my shelves! Yay PBS!

Valleyfair - July 25

Valleyfair - July 25
Originally uploaded by wemdoe.

Today me and the girls from work went to Valleyfair. The day started out disastrous as my neck and back were out of wack and I had an 8:00 chiropractor appt and we were planning on leaving at 8. I was late to the appointment, got done at 8:30, and then found out that my ride had understood we were leaving at 7!!

Anyway, the weather was great and we had fun, except one of the girls totally wussed out after we had been there for only a few hours. So, we basically drove four hours to spend less than four hours there. Totally pissed me off. Didn't do any water slides and didn't even do all the rides. BOOO. At least we got in free!

Deer - July 22nd

Deer - July 22nd
Originally uploaded by wemdoe.

I may hate the weather 8 months out of the year, but the one thing I do actually like about living in Wisconsin is the chance to see some wildlife every now and then. Such as this deer.

Backstage, Baby! - July 21

Backstage, Baby! - July 21
Originally uploaded by wemdoe.

This weekend, I partied hardy (okay, not really) at Country Jam, compliments of my employer and Country Jam. They paid us to be there to count cash, only there wasn't enough cash to make it worth our being there, so they basically paid us to frolick around backstage and act like tourists and then they gave us money to buy food and drinks. So of course, I bought a $20 drink and fancy light up mug because what else do you do with free money (okay, the money was in the form of tickets, so it wasn't actually money, because that, I probably would have just kept and applied to debt. Instead, I ate a $9 burger guilt free and bought a $20 mug of very tasty but very weak alcohol!) Anyway, a good time was had by all, except for my poor sunburned back.

A Relaxing Weekend - July 14

A Relaxing Weekend - July 14
Originally uploaded by wemdoe.

In order to save money this weekend, I stayed home and played with my kitties. Took some pictures, sat in the yard and read, and just took it easy. Sometimes, the free entertainment is the best kind!

Flowers - July 11

Flowers - July 11
Originally uploaded by wemdoe.

Ever since my foreign coworker found out that I have a new-found like for flowers, she's been bringing me either plants themselves or seeds for them. Like several times a week. It's a bit odd. I now have so many envelopes filled with random seeds that I have no clue what I could possibly do with all of them. I don't want to offend her because I know she means well, but huh?

Pool Party! - July 6

Pool Party! - July 6
Originally uploaded by wemdoe.

Joe had a doggy friend stop by on the way through to use our back yard to wear off some energy and use our pool! They had fun playing together and both dogs enjoyed cooling off in the hound pool!

After - July 1 #2

New Haircut - July 1 #2
Originally uploaded by wemdoe.

And this is the after picture. Goony, just like I expected!

Time for a Hair Cut - July 1

Time for a Hair Cut - July 1
Originally uploaded by wemdoe.

I've reached that stage where I can't stop obsessing about how much better my hair will look if I get it cut. Even though I know as soon as I get it cut, I'll be just as disgruntled with it. Oh well, this is the BEFORE picture, taken before I left the house to go get it cut.

Dogsitting - June 24

Dogsitting -June 24
Originally uploaded by wemdoe.

We are dogsitting two of these three dogs for the weekend. They belong to the people who usually watch our dogs. They'll be spending the weekend here and apparently, they fit right in!

I am my own Freak Parade - June 17

I am my own Freak Parade - June 17
Originally uploaded by wemdoe.

Yes, I truly am a dork. I walked in a parade today wearing this. I made it myself, if you couldn't tell. I was supposed to be there representing my employer, our "float" was based on all the way my workplace contributes to the community through their employees, but I only agreed to go since I saw a little bitch of a chance to pimp greyhound adoption. When I left for the parade, it looked like it was going to rain. Of course, as soon as i got there, the sun came out and the temps shot up to the 90s. And we walked the several miles, in the sun, wearing cardboard stars. Fun!

New Job - May 24

New Job - May 24
Originally uploaded by wemdoe.

I picked up a second job at the local bookstore. This works out perfectly because a: I've always wanted to work in a bookstore b: my boss is a friend of mine and c: the hours should actually work out with my crazy bank schedule d: who wouldn't love being surrounded by books?! Anyway, it's definitely a part of my debt paying off plan, help my snowball all the ways I possibly can! (And of course it doesn't help that my crappy day job cut our hours - what used to be guaranteed 37+ hours a week is now 30 hours if you're lucky. OUCH)

Time to Pay Off Debt! - April 24

Time to Pay Off Debt! April 24
Originally uploaded by wemdoe.

Two days ago, I discovered Dave Ramsey. And I've decided it's time to get SERIOUS about paying off my debt. Between my car, my medical bills, and my two credit cards, I have way more debt than I'm comfortable with. Having all these payments that tie me down and stress me out makes me feel like I'm missing so many opportunities in life and can't do some things I would really like to do. Or do them responsibly anyway - of course, I could always take on more debt until I'm totally drowning in it, but that's definitely not what I want to do. So I'm going to get 100% gazelle about knocking out my debt so then I can really have the freedom of doing what I want in my future....