Elsja Down Under

My Rebtel Update June 30, 2006

So last week I posted about Rebtel. I figured I would love it, but I wasn’t quite sure. I just needed to try it out. So, I did.

Well as it turns out, I do love it! It is WONDERFUL!! Andrew and I have talked every day this week and it’s only cost us $1.00 YAY! We used to only be able to talk once a week, if that- and it would still cost us over $50.00 a month. Seriously… all you people in relationships – imagine talking to your luvvva only once a week on the phone. Geeeeez!

Now, it’s just one eeny meeny teeny tiny lovely dollar per week. And the best part is this cute little heart icon that it puts on my account page next to Andrew’s phone number.

See…

SO CUTE! A little heart with an Australian flag. And on his page there’s the same little heart next to my name with a US flag.

Awww international love and cute icons to match! Don’t you wish you each had your cute international heart icon??

Hooray for Rebtel!!

Help Save Some Boobies… And Some Lives!! June 29, 2006

I’m posting this for Shannon. This is her deal and I’m proud of her for doing it! Read the message below written by her and help out if you can. I know I will be

Hello ya’ll!
For those who don’t know already I’m doing the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. I started a team called Walkin’ Chi Chi’s and we need to raise some dinero. Each person needs to raise $1,800! OMG! So if any of you peeps out there can spare some change, I would love you forever and give you a big juicy kiss! All you gotta do is go to my page! Click on the link that says My Avon Walk. There you will be able to make donations! Here are some pictures of me after my 5.2 mile walk today. Do you like my shirt? Go to SavetheTatas.com .

Holy Crap

I am a busy busy bee updating all the nutritional info for Islands Restaurant’s Website and I want to share a few things with you. I know you can find all this info out by logging on to their super cool website (now selling Island’s merchandise), but how many of you really will? Probably none of you! So to make it easy, I will share with you some of the fun facts that I am discovering.

Big Wave Burger
Hamburger patty, bun, tomato, mustard, onion, pickles, lettuce (note: no cheese OR sauce OR bacon or any of that fatty stuff)

57g fat
19g sat fat
990 calories

China Coast Salad (this is for all you people who say, “Elsja, just order a salad if you go out, salads are healthy”)
Salad mix, chicken breast, sesame dressing, fried noodles, carrots, mandarin oranges, water chestnuts, snow peas, scallions, sesame seeds

73g fat
11g sat fat
1130 calories

Moa Kai (Tuna) Sandwich
Tuna mix, bun, cheese, mayo, pickles

101g fat
21g sat fat
1310 calories

And my personal fave: (for those of you who like to watch your carbs!)

High Protein Combination
Hamburger patties, lettuce, american cheese, bleu cheese dressing, avocado, swiss cheese, tomato, bacon

200g fat
72g sat fat
2390 calories

But heaven forbid you eat a piece of bread… because that has carbs!!! oh no!

Do you suck? Why yes, you do!

This message of love and endearment goes out to my good friends at Ford Credit. Specifially Noreen, Carmella and “Maria” (even though I’ve verified that that is not your real name). Over the last few weeks, you have shown me what true customer service shouldn’t be. You have proven to me that there are people on earth who really shouldn’t be born. And for that, I would like to say:

I Missed My Calling June 28, 2006

I should have been an architect. If it weren’t for all the math involved, I think I’d be pretty good! To prove it, I have beautiful shots of the home I designed today. It’s got two separate bedrooms with private entrances and a shared living room space complete with an attached closet and curtain door. The skylight and windows add a bright warm feel to the home and the peep holes at the front doors have been added for extra security. A convenient mailbox was added at the request of the homeowners. I have yet to install the bathroom… this may be a bit difficult; however, I will look into it when I have acquire more building supplies. I Should get those within the next week. I do need to give some credit to Trevor who started the construction on the private bedrooms earlier this week. He even installed the lighting fixtures! I had a little help with the exterior paint job, and the interior still has the bare walls, but that should be finished soon as well.

View from front of house:

View from rear of house:

View of interior: (taken from window of 1st bedroom)

Random Afternoon Thoughts

Dear annoying people that keep calling me,

Why does your Dr. office or pharmacy or crackhouse keep calling me EVERY freaking day asking for some random person. I keep telling you nicely that you have the WRONG number and you need to change it in your crappy ass system… but NOOO… you just keep calling, and calling, and calling, and calling… URGH!!! Don’t you get it?? I’m not Bubba or Bambi or whomever you are trying to reach. I don’t need to pick up my lab results, STD meds, crack pipes or whatever else you have waiting for me. I just want to block you numbnuts so you stop calling me!

** Does anyone with Sprint know how to block numbers on your cell phone? **

On a more uplifting side note:

It’s amazing what some exercise and a little Juice Plus can do. Ok Ok, I guess I did start eating a LITTLE better too… but I am happy to say that my cholesterol went down! I know, I know- it is exciting, dont hurt yourself when you are jumping for joy at your office desk! It went from 224 to 212 a few years ago and now it is down to 192. I’m actually healthy again! Who would’ve thunk it??? I can’t believe it went down 32 points! I guess a healthier lifestyle can actually pay off.

Women Vocab as Defined by Men June 27, 2006

I’ve seen this before… but I saw it again today and I think it is pretty funny, mostly because it is pretty accurate

FINE

This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

FIVE MINUTES

If she is getting dressed, this is half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given 5 more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

NOTHING

This is the calm before the storm. This means “something,” and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with ‘Nothing’ usually end in “Fine”

GO AHEAD

This is a dare, not permission. Don’t do it.

LOUD SIGH

This is not actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A “Loud Sigh” means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you over “Nothing”

THAT’S OKAY

This is one of the most dangerous statements that a woman can make to a man. “That’s Okay” means that she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

THANKS

A woman is thanking you. Do not question it or faint. Just say you’re welcome.

WHATEVER

…it’s a woman’s way of saying *!..@ YOU!

Where did all my hobbies go? June 26, 2006

Not that I ever had many hobbies to begin with, but last year, I had a moment of hobby hope. A brief moment where I thought I may add something interesting to my life. It felt good, I felt positive and I felt like I was doing something productive with my time. But that moment was short lived.

I was going through old photos today and I found these…

This is a picture of James

This is my painting of the picture of James

Whatever happened to me painting? That was my first painting EVER really and I just kinda gave up after that. I think it’s pretty good for my first attempt, and who knows- I could get better with practice right? But, I guess I’ll never know because I NEVER do it!! I got really into it for like a week… then I lost motivation. I have all this free time lately with my internship winding down, and what do I do? I sit online blogging. Geez I’ve become the biggest internet geek. I really should get back to some more interesting hobbies.

I love my boyfriend June 25, 2006

Because he plays games like “The Secret Girl Dress Up Game” with me on MSN messenger.

SEE…

He’s the best boyfriend ever! My girl is on the left. He dressed up the one on the right.

Fun times fun times!!

Road Trip

Well, kinda.

Today Nicole and I went on a tiny road trip, a little journey, a mini quest.

We were just trying to get to Shannon’s bridal shower/party thingy. We left at 12, stopped by the store. We had PLENNNNTY of time to make it to Torrance by 1:00. Most people who left at 12:00 got there at 12:30. We would be fine.

Well, we WOULD be fine if it weren’t for shitty ass Mapquest.

Follow the purple line. This is our intended route. Not too far. Pretty simple. Well, due to Mapquest’s shitty directions, we ended up at the BIG yellow star.

Thanks to Pete for helping us find our way back.

We ended up getting to the party at 1:45 or so!

AIM?? I just don’t get it! June 24, 2006

Last night (during our regular MSN chatting), Andrew and I typed back and forth as we had the webcam going and an exciting game of checkers (I lost… but not by much!). All of this took place in one instant message. My favorite discovery of the night (even though I’ve used MSN messenger for YEARS) was the file sharing. While we chatted and played checkers, I dropped the new Muse CD in our file sharing folder (still all in one instant message screen) and he just picked up those files a few minutes later and put them straight into his itunes.

Later in the night we decided to plug in our earphones and we had a free “phone call” for about 1.5 hours (yeah, I know, why didn’t we do this months ago???) I guess my excitment about Rebtel (see 2 posts below) is not quite AS strong now!

I just don’t understand why people still primarily use AIM. It’s so boring and mediocre compared to handy dandy MSN messenger.

Oh My Dear Friends, it’s Been so Long June 23, 2006

Dear Chris Wolstenholme, Matthew Bellamy and Domic Howard,

Oh my dear friends, it has been far too long. Almost a year and a half to be exact. How could you leave me for so long? Did you forget all the wonderful shows we had together in 2004?? Well, I guess I must forgive you because I know you were just away temporarily creating your fabulous new MUSE CD that I FINALLY got from Nicole

You sound great. It is so nice to hear your voice again Matthew. I look forward to seeing you soon, July 19th and July 21st to be exact. I’ve missed you lots! Of course not AS much as I miss my wonderful Andrew, but… close.

Blogaholic June 22, 2006

Dear Rebtel,

I love you.

Ok so yes, I blog excessively, but I just have so many things to say. And I guess people don’t actually HAVE to read this stuff, so I will just keep blogging all day to my hearts content.

I just HAVE to write about the new greatest thing on earth! Andrew’s friend Bez found this cool new thing called Rebtel and I want to share it with the world!! It’s a program that lets you call from your cell to anyone in the world for $1 a week!

This is the second great thing to be discovered in the last week. My first was the wonderful Keep the Change program from Bank of America.

Now I realize that I still haven’t REALLY seen the actual benefits of these 2 services…YET… but i just KNOW I will love them both so much. One day.

Aussie Socceroos

Well, it’s official. The US soccer team sucks and they are going home from the World Cup. Too bad we lost to Ghana.

Ghana?? REALLY????

Oh well, at least Australia is moving on to the next round. Actually I don’t even really care about soccer, but since I actually watched part of the game, I figured I might as well blog about it. WOO!

English Por Favor

Every time I go to the quiznos by my sister’s house (which is usually once a week when I work out here)… I get the SAME thing. Smoked turkey with cheese and mustard, COLD. Now, I realize quiznos is known for it’s warm toasty subs. Well, good for them! But, I’ll still take mine cold please!!

So anyways, every week, I order from the same guy and he takes my order and the same girl puts the turkey and cheese on. I still don’t really understand their assembly line process of making a sandwich- but whatever. So this is always our conversation:

Me: “can you keep it cold please?”
Quiznos Guy: “cold?”
Me: “yes, cold”

EVERY WEEK! Same conversation. EVERY WEEK, the assembly line girl next to him starts to put it in the toaster. NOOOOOO! STOP with your toasty madness!!!!

So then the conversation continues:

Me: “NO! not toasted!!! Cold please!”
Assembly line girl: BLANK STARE OF CONFUSION
Quiznos guy: “Spanish translation blah blah”
Girl: Removes my sandwich from toaster

So, today, I actually think I hear the guy translate immediately, BEFORE assembly girl makes the horrible mistake. Soooo, I walk down to pay. Well, obviously she STILL didnt understand because my sandwich came out warm and gooey. Sick.

Now, ok fine if there are Spanish speaking workers here. OK. no problem. But, if you are taking my order… you should at least understand WHAT I am ordering!! Right?

Does anyone know how to say NOT TOASTED in Spanish?