Friday, June 25, 2010

Jimmy Carter Cake

Don't know where the name comes from, always assumed it was because of the peanut butter... but the peanut butter is the smaller equation compared to the pudding and whip cream.  Chocolate Peanut Butter Dessert or Reese's Dessert seems more fitting... but this is what I've always known it as.  You call it what you like.

Jimmy Carter Cake

First Layer:  Mix
1 cup flour
½ cup melted margarine/1 stick of butter (your choice)

Pat into 9x13x2 glass dish. Bake 20 minutes @ 325°.  Cool.
This is a fairly thin crust so just push and pat with your fingers until bottom of pan is covered.

Second Layer:  Mix
1 cup Cool Whip
1 brick (8 oz.) Cream Cheese, softened
1/3 cup Peanut Butter

Spread onto cooled crust layer.


Third Layer:  Beat
(2 pkgs) 3.4 oz. instant Vanilla Pudding
(1 pkg) 3.4 oz. instant Chocolate Pudding
2 ½ cups milk

Pour over second layer.

Top with remaining Cool Whip and garnish with chopped nuts or chocolate shavings (or both).  Refrigerate.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Another Tiring Day and More Job News

Another tiring day... or evening.  My sister is selling her house and is in the process of moving.  Still too hot to be doing all this moving and cleaning.  Sweating buckets... constantly wet and uncomfortable.  Such is life.  Hopefully we'll get finished up tomorrow.

Still have another load or two... DO NOT know where she's gonna put it!  New house is crammed full.  It's gonna take her six months to go through and unpack and organize everything.

Before I left to go help my sister, I received a call from the job I'm hoping to get.  Wanted to know if I was still interested... they hadn't received my application packet yet.  This freakin' town sucks when it comes to mail and shipping.  I dropped my packet in a FedEx box on Friday and they still hadn't received it... I'm pretty sure the label they sent me was an overnight label.  I let her know I had sent it out and I appreciated her calling.  She said if it doesn't come in tomorrow then she'll send me the application through email.  She did want to set me up for an interview though... so I have one on Thursday morning at 10 am.

I could kick myself... I usually make copies of everything.  I wanted to make a copy of my application and the FedEx tracking number, but I was in such a hurry to get it out ASAP that I didn't.  I could of just scanned it in and emailed it to her today.  The one time I don't do something turns out to be the one time I needed it!!  Isn't that just the way.

I'm very glad that they are interested enough in me that she called... she could have just tossed my resume aside thinking, "She must not be interested."  That gives me alot of hope that I may get this job!!!

Thank you Lord for watching out for me.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Today Was A Good Day

My Air Conditioning Crisis:

The AC guy came about 9:30 am and it took roughly 2 hours for him to do what he needed to do to replace that part.  (The doo-hickey part is a TXV Valve)  He said he was certain this would fix the problem.  I wanted to believe... but was afraid to trust.  I had struggled so much the last four weeks that I couldn't believe it was finally going to be over.

I left the house about 2 pm.  The temperature had dropped from 86 to 80 degrees.  The humidity had dropped from 55% to 52%.  I set the thermostat to 76 degrees.  When I returned home at 8:30 pm... it was 76 degrees and there was no ice buildup.  WOOHOO!!!

After suffering in upper 80 and 90 degrees temps in here... 76 feels pretty darn cold!


On The Job Front:

I received a call on Tuesday from an employer I sent my resume to.  We had an initial interview over the phone.  She said she received approximately 500 resumes, out of those she decided which ones would get initial phone interviews.  I was one of the chosen ones... out of 500! If I make the cut from the phone interview, then I would be FedEx'd a packet with information and an application.  From those it would be decided who will get, I believe she said, video conference.  Then, from those, individuals would be chosen for a face to face interview.  I was so excited and nervous that I can't remember exactly. The home office is in Massachussetts, she would fly down for those interviews.

Well guess what came today?!!  I GOT A FEDEX PACKET!!!  Yea me!

I'm going to get it filled out and sent back immediately.  So say a prayer and keep your fingers crossed.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Welcome To My World... I'm In Hell!

I came home tonight... it was about 9 pm.  I opened the door to an oven. It was like walking into Hades.  The thermostat needle was buried, I couldn't even see it.  I checked the thermometer in my bedroom/office and it said 96 degrees.

This is now week 4 since I started having problems with my central air conditioning.  Still haven't figured out what the problem is... although we think we may have found the answer, hopefully.  It's a part he had to special order, he expedited the order and is supposed to be in around 10 am tomorrow.  I need prayers... lots and lots of prayers... that this is it.  It's supposed to stay in the 90's all the way through Sunday!

It doesn't blow very cold, it freezes up, I turn it off to thaw, after it runs so long it only blows 'just barely cool' air so it isn't sufficient in cooling the house down very much.  So I've developed a strategy.  Although Missy and I SUFFER through the day, I wait until about 7 or 8 pm when the outside temp starts coming down, then I open the windows and put the box fans in.  This brings the temp inside down to the low 80's, it takes a few hours.  Then after midnight when the temp is more manageable, I close up the windows and put the air on.  That way it has a better chance of cooling it off a little bit to the upper 70's.

Here's some pics of the unit frozen up.


Slightly Frozen
(see that piece in the middle... that's the doo-hickey)






Major Freezing... look how thick the ice is!














These are the filters.




At first he thought it was a piece in the outside unit that was recalled or something because it wasn't working right... the part would be replaced free, but the work to get to it and make the new piece fit wouldn't be.  It was expected to run about $500.00.  So before he went to that extreme he wanted to try a few things first... which meant dragging this hell out further than anticipated.  I don't know all the technical stuff, but this part he changed out first was what allows the freon to run through to where it's supposed to.  Mine looked pretty rough and he wasn't getting good pressure readings, so it looked like it could be the culprit.  NOT!

Then he was going to try replacing the motherboard, then a doo-hickey on the inside unit that regulates the freon in there.  That was last week.  By Friday I was trying to get hold of him to tell him to do both, I can't take dragging this out any longer.  I had a feeling it was the inside doo-hickey and wanted that replaced first.  Well when he showed up this morning he tells me that he thinks it's that doo-hickey thing too and he talked to his dad (whom he took over the business from) and his dad feels pretty sure it's the doo-hickey thing too.  That's the part he just expedited... it's a $100 part.

So I'm saying a prayer and keeping my fingers crossed!  Besides, I'm tired of eating cereal all the time 'cause it's too hot in here to cook.

Here's Missy trying to stay as cool as possible.  I've been worried about her in this heat.  She's got all that fur.  I've got the ceiling fans on high and I've pointed a box fan towards her sleeping spot on the desk.

Her sprawl cracks me up.  There's a ceiling fan right above her.









Here's a pic of some weeds I picked... they were cute weeds.  Looked like tiny mini-daisies.



Here's Missy on the file cabinet.




And here I have the fan over her sleeping spot on the desk.




Here's the flower arrangement I did to replace the pretty weeds.