Don’t worry though! All those who have yet to visit Seattle still have a free place to stay with a lovely hostess and cook, just 30 miles outside the city limits. She’ll even take you down into the BIG city and show ya ’round!

As of 9:49 this lovely, cool Sunday morning, all I have left in my little one-bedroom apartment is the following:

• Couch
• Queen-size Bed
• 1 Set of Sheets
• 2 Pillows
• TV / Stereo
• DVD Player
• 2 Speakers
• 2 Book Shelves (tall, tall, tall ones)
• Desk
• 6 Cooking books
• 2 Filing cabinets (1 metal, 1 wood)
• 3 Jackets / Coats
• Backpack
• 2 Chairs
• 4 Decorative Items
• 8 Candles
• Candle holder
• 4 Glass Food Containers
• 2 Plastic Food Containers
• Waffle Maker
• Coffee Bean Grinder
• 2 Cast Iron Skillets
• Tea Pot
• Plastic Tower of Drawers (all things bathroom)
• Suitcase packed of travel clothes

With one fell swoop, urr, one large U-HAUL, I’ll load dat ish up and be on me way!

Circa 2005, a friend of mine told me about a new feminine product: the Diva Cup. I was curious, did a bunch of research but decided, I was chicken. Three weeks ago, Sister told me about this same feminine product. For quite some time I’ve thought about how much I hate tampons and their leaky tendencies, and don’t even get me started on those think nasties called pads. I know tampons are not the greatest with the expense, all the bleach, risk of TSS, and if you’re a tree huger, all that damned paper. It just so happened, within a couple days of Sister telling me about the product, I came across it at REI. I decided to give it a try.

FYI: shit’s getting real.

The first few days were…interesting. Well, let’s be honest: the first day was crazy. First, I had trouble getting it in. SHIT. Am I that small? I’m SCREWED. I mean…not like screwed because it’s obvi I haven’t been if I am too effing SMALL. However, I managed to get it in. The whole process took me back to the scrawny 14 year old girl who tried to use a tampon for the first time. *Right before the 1 mile run in Jr. High gym class.* Genius. The damn thing stuck out half way. I’m sure I ran like a duck and, immediately after “running,” waddled back to the locker room and swore up and down that was the last time I’d use tampons. I didn’t try them again until college. Feminine FAIL. All those soccer games. All those practices. FML.

Okay, so back to last week. After I figured out how to use the damn thing, I got nervous—like real nervous. When you shove a new gadget up your hoo-ha, you don’t just insert and forget. You panic. Big, silent thoughts of, “OMG. It’s stuck! OMG. I can’t get it out. OMG. OMG.” Sweat and tears. I was deeply concerned it scooched up too far, nuzzling it’s way into the realm of Emergency Room removal. Also, it would have behooved me to read more than the “in” and “out” directions. I didn’t realize I could leave it in for up to 12 hours! Lord, was that annoying. Every three hours I took it out, cleaned it, then struggled to get it back in. Diva Cup claims to be cleaner and not as messy as ANY of the other products out there. Well, not when you’re taking it out every three hours.

Once I realized I really could insert, forget and get it out no matter, I relaxed. SWEET BLISS. Just think, wake up and put it in. Run, jump, do the splits all day long. Then, take it out and clean it before bed. Repeat.

Conclusion?

The Diva Cup is only ~$40 with tax (recommended replacing it once a year). A box of 84 Pearl Tampax (because nobody likes hard cardboard down there) runs about $18. Let’s say you’re super regular and on a 7 day cycle. Give or take a few, that’s roughly 4 tampons per day, for 7 days per month, equaling 336 per year. That’s about $72 / year, not including tax or all those boxes of tampons you buy because you forgot one when you were out, or needed some for a road trip or didn’t have any at all and succumbed to the conveniently high priced 7-11 down the street. Basically, you’re saving a good amount of cash money. Prolly $40-$50 bucks per year, plus gas to the store, blah blah blah, save the trees.

SO, if, twice a day, you can handle shoving your phalanges up your hoo-ha and aren’t afraid of a little mess during that time, I totally recommend it. WAY less odor. You don’t feel it. No pieces of it breaking off and causing major health issues. No diaper. Leave it in for TWELVE HOURS. That’s like, soo long. AND there is absolutely no leakage.

BLAM.

Some of you may know, I am gearing up to move (yes, again). To the best of my ability, I intend to make this my last move before any major life changes [enter husband]. No, I do not want to move again because moving sucks balls. However, while I enjoy the convenience of crawling back from the bars, I do not enjoy the thousands of people who live in each of these city blocks. Blah blah blah. You’ve all heard it. I’ve ranted and raved about the city and how much I dislike it. So, I’m moving on. Quite literally.

I gave notice to my landlord two days ago. My grand scheme is as follows:

• Move out July 20th.
• Stay with my parents for 2 weeks before Sister gets hitched (July 31st).
• Leave for Montana August 3rd or 4th.
• Live with RUUUTH (must be pronounce with emphasis).
• Work.
• Hang with Arthur.
• Work.
• Visit family friends.
• Work.
• Fall in love.
• Work.
• Actually SEE glacier.
• Work.
• Leave MT August 27th.
• Find a sweet 2 bedroom place to live in Snohomish area by September 1st.

Inside? It looks like this:

OOOOHMYEFFINGGOSHHHHHH8*#@)!@(#7531129*(&*(&^!@#(*LQJKJH(*@Q*&@!^#&%R!@*E(W*D!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve been preppin’ the platter: tanning, waxing and soon, a hair cut! There is nothing like a tan ass and a smooth punket! What?! What?!

My last few weeks have been a lil crazy. I’ve been working hard wrapping up my current projects so that I could spend the next two weeks worry free. From this Tuesday to the next I will be on the shores of Meheeco drinking margaritas. Once I am back, I will be working on my business: redesigning my website, coming up with a marketing strategy, figuring out how I will hire an employee, etc. I don’t really know what I am doing but am exciting to give it a whirl!

So, today marks vacay, day 1.

Brian Chartrand

The Sweet Remains (a Brian Chartrand band)

And Loni Rose. Wrong Way Back is a good one

This year I pledge to become a competition shooter.

My new friend does competition shooting, owns a gunsmithing business and is also an shooting instructor. He and I went shooting the other day. He gave me one pointer on how to site your target and the rest of the time I shot, I did better than I ever have! I even showed him up with a .357 mag! What now bitches?!

So, for competition shooting, there are two different types: IDPA and IPSC.

IDPA stands for International Defensive Pistol Association. For these competitions, shooters are put in “real life” situations. The course may involve hiding behind objects, drawing your pistol from a concealed holster, taking cover between targets, etc. These competitions have less shots fired but are good training for defense—hence the name.

IPSC stands for International Practice Shooting Confederation. The style and focus of these competitions is on just that, competition. A course usually lasts longer than an IDPA course and is more of an obstacle course. There is less focus on defense techniques and more focus on speed and accuracy in relation to the other shooters.

I will try both. My buddy likes doing the IPSC because he likes the adrenaline rush and longer stints. He said the IDPA competitions are great though for learning defense technical and being able to do them with speed and accuracy.

It has gone by WAY too fast. Damn. I love it SO much. How it’s possible, I do not know!

The process goes as follows:

1. Layer high carbon steel & steel with 2% nickel, alternating each and stacking 15 high.
2. Weld ends of stack together.
3. Put stack into forge and get red hot
4. Pound out stack to be flat and put back in forge.
5. Fold layers.
6. Repeat until you’ve folded many, many times.
   These first six steps are actually forging your own metal. For learning purposes, we skipped these steps because it is a difficult thing to master and takes a long time. We started, rather, with a method called stock removal.
7. Trace blade design onto stock / forged metal.
   
8. Cut out design using a band saw & grind edges to smooth and round.
   
9. Using the grinder, taper the blade (both length and width) & drill holes in the tang for the handle.
   
10. Heat treat.
    1. Get forge hot and place blade in fire.
    2. When the blade turns hot yellow, take it out and place it in oil to cool to 400°.
    3. Place in oven at 425° for two hours.

    And that’s as far as I’ve gotten! Next week we’ll finish the knife, putting the wood on for the handle and grinding it down to fit the contours, then buff and sharpen. w00t!

Today I drove down south about an hour and met up with one of the best knife makers on the west coast, if not, in the United States. He and I will trade services—in January we will work for two days together on making a knife. His understanding of and philosophy around knife making exceeds most in the neighborhood. He is extremely skilled and very savvy for what appears to be a down home country boy. I did not expect his acuteness with business and technologically. Fantastic. So in January we will talk about his website and what he needs. There is also a show he is putting on that will continue to grow and we may work together on that site as well.

In the meantime, while I am not a world renown knife maker, I am going to continue to do web stuff as long as it pays the bills. My guess is it will take me longer than a few months to get really good at knife making since I have limited access to a shop and proper tools. Regardless, I am very excited about learning more and become a very skilled knife maker!