Starting a Business, Finally

Yay!  Yesterday my first piece of paperwork arrived from the distant and inscrutable bowels of the government offices concerned.  I have officially registered for five years the trade name "Statements of Faith" for the low price of $25 filing fee and two months of suspense.

I still await my tax ID number, my approval from the county and the board of planning and zoning, and my tax license.  Not done yet, but hooray for progress!

In the meantime, I've had my first official commissions from outside the family.  Very exciting.

Eye Bombing

I found these on a Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Pinterest board and immediately thought of my sister.  She went through a googly-eyes phase a few years ago.  Too funny.  :D

Sunday Splurge: The Cookie Cake

As part of our new resolution to eat healthy and be fit, we've decided to stop settling for cheap calories during the week in favor of a nice dessert on Sundays.  This week's selection was the Pepperidge Farm Cookie Cake.

Quite frankly, I would rather have had the cookies.  It was damp, spongey, cold, and surprisingly bland under the excessive sugar and cheap icing.  It was basically a wet chocolate chip cookie pumped full of air.  You end up with an insulin rush without the satisfaction of feeling like you've had something worth the trouble.

So, if you're thinking about trying it, don't.  You deserve better.  There was a Milano variety, but I think we'll give that one a miss as well.

Better luck next week, I guess.

Work and the Blahs

Work has really been running me into the ground lately.  I never wanted to worry or stress about work. Work was supposed to be what I did at home; the job was supposed to be something I did for a few hours in the morning to make some pocket money and get out of the house.  I was quite happy with 20 hours/week.  This week I have 40, which include showing up at 4:00 AM, two hours earlier than my scheduled availability.  The only reason I agree to do it is because our manager is really nice and deserves all the cooperation she can get.

The odd thing is that we're supposed to be extremely short on hours this month, mostly because the reserve was burned weeks ago bringing me and several of my fellow morning-shifters in for extra duty in an attempt to make the store presentable.  Whenever we hear of a payroll crunch on the horizon, the morning crew and I are worked even harder.  I assume we should be flattered to be considered some of the most reliable employees in the store, but I really have things I need to do at home.  We're two months into stocking season, and I'm already hopelessly behind.  I never feel like going to Krav Maga in the evenings ($160/month), I don't have time to cook properly, and I generally spend my afternoons nursing a headache.  Never mind that the store itself has basically become an understaffed, overworked, inefficient, unorganized Pit of Despair, with the district manager breathing down our collective neck.

Suddenly I'm very conflicted about Obamacare.  I still oppose it on principle, but I can't deny that I'm REALLY looking forward to that 28-hour cap on my schedule.

Best Pin Yet

So far, this is the most practical thing I've learned from Pinterest.  It totally works.

I kept promising Dave I'd have hard-boiled eggs on hand for healthy snacks, but I never could seem to drum up the enthusiasm to take time out of my day for the finicky cook time and all those weird tips for getting the shells to come off easier.  This is SO MUCH BETTER.  I've done it three times within a week already.

Use older eggs; they give up the shell with less of a fight.  Just put them in a muffin tin (without water).  Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes for perfectly "boiled" eggs with yellow yolks.  If you prefer your yolks gray and powdery, leave them in for 30 minutes.  Give them a quick ice water bath afterward, and you're done.