Katrina's Weblog Site • NuTang.com

Prepare yourself...

Although my blogs are normally long, this is going to be a very long one. Have you prepared yourself? "Ok! Let's GO! YEAH!" XD (Tries to do a Shinobu impression from Ninin ga Shinobu den, but fails.)

So on Friday a co-worker on mine called me up to tell me about this jewelry store going out of business. Maybe they had some stones I could use so I went over to take a look. Since it was Memorial Day weekend we got off work an hour early. I have a feeling it would have been sooner, but since I was handling someone else's job, plus mine it took me much longer. :/ I found a bracelet in yellow gold with 8-10 natural Emeralds. The Emeralds were the right size, but the gems weren't as brilliant as I knew a "test tub" Alexandrite would be and no way on God's green planet could I afford a real Alexandrite to fit the natural Emeralds better. I decided to ask the opinion of my jeweler though and had them place it on hold. They also had a beautiful silver or white gold antique bracelet. /sigh I do not have that kind of money to "blow" if I want a house so I walked out without trying it on. While some people can try on things without buying them I have a VERY hard time doing that. I become VERY weak against that sort of thing and I normally end up buying the item. "Oh that looks so good on you." "It does, doesn't it...ok I'll buy it!" Sometimes the first part is said by a sales person and sometimes my evil shopaholic inner self whispers it to me as I look in the mirror. It's really a constant battle. /sigh

Any who, I go to my jeweler and after seeing the "test tub" Alexandrite those Emeralds just wouldn't look right. He then showed me how my ring would look. After thinking about it I decided to make it 1 mm wider for a total of 6 mm. Now I'm having second thoughts all together. What they were going to do to make the white gold black...I don't know. I think, if he doesn't kill me for changing my mind after we get it all settled, is to have my band all white gold and to go back to a smaller band. Man I hope he doesn't get upset. I like how everything looks, but I don't know. Also he told me how much the Emeralds are each so if the ring isn't very expensive I might have him buy enough for Emeralds to go all the way around the band for an "eternity" look.

I also got some very good news when I got home. I guess I should start at the beginning. A couple or so weeks back the IT dept. hired a new guy to replace someone who left. My fiance was pretty bummed since 1) the guy who left was really cool and 2) the guy who replaced him knew less then he did. He was also "nerd x 3". Meaning the guy had no social skills what so ever and was so deep into nerdiness it's doubtful he'd ever find his way out. I guess no one liked him either, even after a couple of weeks.

Now on Thursday my boyfr...fiance *cough* came home BREALLY late from work. Like an hour and a half late. Lately he's been coming home late from hanging around the IT dept where he works and chatting with them, but nothing like this. Well he had been talking to the IT dept head and others about just a lot of things. He is planning on going back to Healds in the fall to finish his degree since although he is no longer a class and a project shy of getting his degree he is a lot closer then if he transferred his classes to a reg. college. He also talked about the normal nerd computer tech stuff that's just over my head and I tend to shut out. Well from that one convo the head of the IT dept. decided to fire the new guy and hire my fiance! Well ok, not all the way since he'll still be doing some things for his current boss, but he'll be mainly IT. It hasn't been completely all worked out yet, but we're just thrilled! He doesn't have very much confidence since he doesn't have an actual degree, but this has definitely boosted it for him! This whole weekend, off and on, he'd been going over how to run Lynix since that's what they use where he works. It turns out you can't learn Lynix in a day. He gave me the "You're kidding right?" look when I asked him yesterday if he knew Lynix yet. He's also going over some editing program, I think that's what he called it, since they use that as well. Why he'd need an editing program is beyond me. Then again when you say that I think of a Photoshop type of program since what I'm into editing means cleaning up manga pages. XD

On Saturday I went to see a few houses with my realtor. She's really a great person; very nice, funny and sweet. The first house we went to was a dump. When I looked at the pictures it showed so much potencial. It still does, but it's way too much work for my fiance and I to handle or care to do. They paved most of the yard for parking spaces, which oddly enough was one of the things I liked about it, but there was a store room that needed to be torn down and in all honesty it all did. The rooms were too small, the ceiling was far too low and whoever did the carpet wasn't very good. The yard was nice enough though. I learned the house had been up for sale for the past year and there's a darn good reason why. No one in their right mind would want to live there and the cost is far too high for just a piece of land.

The second house was a bit better, but there are things that are just very wrong. The plumbing doesn't work for the dishwasher, but they put in an expensive and excessive light fixture in plus new granite counter tops. They also put in a spa bathtub and ok honestly that's what made me look at the place, but they could have done smaller changes and fix the important stuff since the house is being sold as is. There was also some black smokey film on the ceiling which I couldn't figure out why they wouldn't have painted over it. They converted their garage into some sort of den, which I find slightly insane since who wants to park their cas out in the elements when it can be safe inside a house? Any ways, they claim to have carpeted it, but what I saw was a bunch of carpet pieces on the ground to make it seem that way. I didn't feel any padding below it either.

The final house was great! It's close to where my work is moving to. Would become a great renting house since it's close to Fresno State. The front and back yard were nothing to be amazed about since most of it was dead, dying or trees, but what do I care? It just means I could plant what I'd want...meaning a couple of cherry trees in the backyard and one in the front, some grass and ta ~ da! Ok so I'm simple and just want a cherry tree to look at. There was only carpet in what they considered the formal dining room, but it looks like maybe it was used more of a den since it was carpeted and there's plenty of space in the kitchen area for a large table. There was tile in the kitchen and baths, but hardwood everywhere else. I'm not too fond of hardwood floor. Maybe it's because of the waxing my mom would have to do. Sure when I was a kid it was fun and an adventure to see our furniture being pushed to into our dining room and kitchen and playing around, but once I got older all I saw was the work involved. The bathrooms were nice. Nothing to ooo and ahhh about, but everything was nice. The kitchen is what I really liked. There was plenty of space, lots of counter space and the appliances didn't look like they were that old. Of course the stove is electric and not gas, but "eh". I really dislike electric stoves though. They take too long to heat the pots and pans up and take too long to cool down.

I need to shop around for a good and yet cheap loan place to go through. I also need to know if our income is low and yet high enough to qualify for a first time buyer loan. It may or may not require us to take a course and who knows we may not even qualify if our income is too high. :/ I'm also going to call a credit union I can go through to see their rates and stuff. Bleh so much stuff to do. Thank God I have Sayumi to take care of the site while I'm away doing all of this!

I also found out some sad news. Mochi~Mochi, a scanlation group, closed in March! I've been waiting for a new chapter of Bukiyou na Silence (Awkward Slience) and decided to hit their site to see if they had put up any news. They weren't the fastest group, but the series they worked on and the quality of the work always made it work it. Well because their other two series they were working on was licensed they closed!! /cry I'm so sad. Mochi~Mochi is the group who got me into Toko Kawai, a yaoi mangaka who's artwork is simple, yet tasteful and stories are always very good. They've also done other great works such as Hybrid Child, Rin!, Junjou Romantica, Cut and Soshite Koi ga Hajimaru! Ok so everything they worked on is really great, maybe that's why they ran out of titles since they keep getting picked up? It's always sad when a group closes, for me it is anyways, but I just feel it more with this group. At least their site is still up and has http downloads for those of you who are interested in yaoi/djs/etc.

Also on Friday I bought everything. During lunch I bought Embracing Love. I wish I had bought it last year when I saw not only the series, but the anime on sale for 24 bucks! Oh well. I have to wait until August for it to arrive since I pre-ordered Volume 6, which I believe is the end. I was soooo tempted to also buy Kiss of Fire, the artbook for Embracing Love, but decided against it. With how much it would cost me to buy it I could buy so much more. That and it would just rot after looking at it a couple of times since it's already been scanned. I just love Nitta-sensei's work! While it's always graphic, the feelings always feel real and the artwork is just really great!

When I got home I ordered everything else. I bought the four volumes for Suke and Fangli's birthday and then I bought Volume 5 of Our Kingdom, Volume 8-12 of Kimi wa Petto and the novel of 12 Kingdoms. The anime was amazing (even if it was left unfinished) and I can't wait to read the book that it was based on. That's right Katrina DOES read novels if they interest her. I actually do a lot of my reading online since it's free and I can no longer afford my novel buying habit without my mom paying for it anymore. :/ Such is the life of being a so call adult. I am surprised that I was able to buy so much and still stay within my birthday money budget. Which is probably why I became so greedy and bought all of those volumes of Kimi wa Petto! XD

Well that's it for me. I seriously need to start proofing chapter 6 of Flower Shop Boys again, no it's not a yaoi. :p The translations are pretty bad, ok they are bad and I'm just having a hard time even wanting to work on the series. This series is one of my favorites that the group I'm in works on. It's cute, funny and just very relaxing. I love working on it, but man it's hard to get motivated when you know there's a bunch of work ahead of you! I think I'll put it off and read more yaoi...yeah I think that's what I'll do! XD tee hee hee