Monday, July 14, 2008

So I am having a pretty bad week. My last boyfriend is getting married and I am feeling really hurt. I don't want to talk about it though. I am trying really hard everytime I start to cry to just breathe through my nose and empty my head and not think about everything. And I called Kaiser to make a counseling appointment. With everything going on in my life right now, with this on top of it, is way too much. I can't handle it anymore and I want some help.

I also have this gigantic cyst on the back of my hand which is starting to look freaky and is causing me pain so I need to make an appointment and have it drained or removed or something too. Haven't done that.

Just a brief update. I am going camping this weekend with my family, and I am trying to study today.

Oh, and since I haven't eaten much the last few days I dropped some more pounds, so I am over the 50 pound loss mark, which should be exciting, I just can't get excited. Also, I am now just "overweight" on the BMI scale, instead of "obese." Another big milestone.

Friday, July 04, 2008

EMILY IS POSTING A RECIPE.... EVERYONE, LET'S JOIN IN A ROUND OF APPLAUSE!



Ok, I love to bake and cook, I just never do it because I am lazy and hate to clean and my house is always a mess and I hate that I have to clean everything first before I feel like I can start cooking.



So I have been spending a fair amount of time watching the Food Network and reading Whitney's Lovin' from the Oven because I am obsessed with blogs and there are around 50 now that I check regularly- either because the person writes well and I like to read, or it's a cooking blog and I am hungry and want to look at food, (LOL) or most validly, photography blogs for research for work so can stay on top of my game and continue to grow and develop and all that stuff.



I was watching the Joy Luck Club and there is this scene in there where one of the women makes a "Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie" for her husband because he loves it and they show the pie and it looks so good. So I went hunting and I found a recipe!



So anyway, here is my recipe to share, complete with pictures!



CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER PIE



Filling:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened (I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese)

1 c. sugar (I mixed sugar and splenda)

1 c. creamy peanut butter (I used reduced fat chunky)

2 T. melted butter (I used 50 calorie per tab light butter)

1 c. whipping cream

1 T. vanilla

I also added 6 tablespoons of Wheat Germ to the batter, makes it nuttier and adds protein.



Topping:

4 oz. semisweet chocolate

2 T. butter

2 T. salad oil (This is just vegetable oil)

1/4 c. chopped peanuts



Some kind of crust or pan to dump it in!



Whip cream until firm. Whip in vanilla and set aside. Whip creamcheese until fluffy, then slowly add sugar, peanut butter and butter.Blend 1/3 of the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture. Foldpeanut butter mixture into remaining whipped cream. Fill pie crust,smoothing top. Carefully wrap with plastic and chill overnight. (I only waited a couple hours and it was fine)



Topping: combine chocolate, butter and oil in top of a double boilerover medium heat until mixture melts. Remove from heat and cool slightly.Spread chocolate on cooled pie, starting from center and working out.Sprinkle top with peanuts while chocolate is still soft.

Here I am whippin' the cream.


Here is the batter before adding the whipped cream.

After folding in the whipped cream.

Ready to go in the fridge!
I used the mini-pans so that I could control serving-size. I was going to use one big red0ced fat crust, but when I read the labels, I realized there was only a 10 calorie difference between the minis and the reduced fat so I thought- what's the point? So here's the finished product! The chocolate was easier to spread when it was a little cooler, by the way.





Ta-da! They are still setting, so I haven't tasted them yet but I can tell you right now that the batter tasted VERY GOOD!
:D
UPDATE! I just checked them and they are all set so I cut one in half, and it popped right out of the pie tin, which I was not expecting but was Soooo happy about, I took a bite...
OH MY GOODNESS. This is the best thing I have ever put in my mouth! WAY better than a real Reese's! AHHHH! I highly reccomend the grahmn cracker crust! I took small measures to make the recipe healthier and you so can't tell so I reccomend the same to you!
SO GOOD! OH MY GOODNESS! I have to give them away or I am going to eat all of these!!!!

Thursday, July 03, 2008

IT'S A MYSTERY

Ok, here is the drama that is currently going on in Emilyland.

I have been trying to renew my lease for like 2.5 months. I can't get ahold of the leasing agent because we recently changed management companies and instead of managing just one property, she's now managing 140.

So on July 1st, I dropped my rent check off in the office mail box and then I called the property management to see if I could get my lease signed, she didn't asnwer, I left a message.

I left my house for the gym around 5pm, and got home around 8pm, where I found a notice taped to my door:

"There has been a change in property management company begining July 1st and all rent payments must be made payable to GOLAND SERVICES, and mailed to..."

and then they give the address. Then it goes on to say that if our checks aren't received by the 5th, we'll be charged a late fee.

The paper is not on company letterhead. It has the wrong address for our complex, and isn't signed by any specific person. At the bottom it just says, "Property Management" and someone initialed the page.

WHAT???????????????????????????

They didn't even leave the papers until after 5pm on the first. I had already paid my rent by then!

I was very suspicious that the notices were bogus, and that this was a scam. So I looked up the company name on the California Secretary of State's website and I can't find a business license for this company. There are a few corporations in California with "Goland" in the name, but none are current- all of the licenses are suspended or disolved. There is one corporation in Sacramento with Goland in the name, but it's not "Goland Sevices" and services isn't even in the title.

I called the number on the flyer, no answer.

So I called the property management we had before, and talked to our manager, and he told me that Goland doesn't own us and we should not pay rent to them! He said that Goland hasn't paid/purchased our property yet and until then, that Advanced Property owns us. He told me my rent was fine, don't worry, etc.

That was yesterday, July 2nd.

Today, July 3rd, at 10pm two non-english speaking guys were walking around taping new notices to everyone's door, threatening us if we didn't pay, we'd be charged a late fee. It still has the wrong address on it too! AND it was dated for July 2nd even though it was not delievered until July 3rd at 10pm- which as we all know is a holiday weekend and everything is closed. MEANING there is no way to contact ANYONE to verify ANYTHING and EVERYONE will theorhetically be charged a late fee because we don't know where to pay the thing and nobody wants to pay when they don't know who to pay... and some of us have already paid!

AHHH!

I am really angry, because I feel like it's a scam still, but I don't know .And I DEFINETLY feel that I don't want these people managing our propertybecause they are so shady and sketchy to begin with anyway!

So I left a nice message with our old managers, Advanced Property, telling them what happened and asking for an update and a long, nasty, abrasive message on Goland's answering machine demanding their business license number and proof of ownership.

How could they expect anyone to pay rent to some unknown company without notice?? And they threaten us? Are you kidding?

I feel very worried and very tense. Especially because I am not under a lease and I am afraid they are going to jack up the rent so I can't afford to live here.

No one will be back in the office until Monday. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Sunday, June 29, 2008

I haven't had much going on the last couple of weeks so I haven't had anything to post! I keep checking Shirlene & Kristin's blog and they haven't posted much either- Kristin you need to space those posts out! Don't do them all at once! I need something to read everyday! lol

I have been working alot, editing alot, I did a maternity session this week, and a wedding on Lake Tahoe on Friday, I did some nice sky shots, the sun looks very sparkly.

On the way back from the wedding I saw this shack out of the corner of my eye so I turned around and drove back, pulled over, and walked out into this meadow. Surrounded by aspens and birch trees was this fabulous old settler's homesteader's shack and an outhouse! Totally loved it. I think it was gorgeous.

I will post them here so you have something to look at. If you want to see wedding pictures or baby pictures you have to look at my other blog, http://www.eheizerphotography.blogspot.com/

Ok, here's the pictures of my new favorite spot!

Queen Anne's Lace, which always reminds me of the Anne of Green Gables series, I love it!












Thursday, June 19, 2008

I FINALLY HAVE A GOOD DEAL TO SHARE!

Whewhoo! I went shopping with my friend Carmen for lack of a better thing to do on Tuesday afternoon, and we went to the Nordstrom Rack and I randomly tried on this pretty emerald dress and Carmen said it looked so awesome on me I'd "be a fool not to buy it!!!" So I did! The dress is some designer I have never heard of and the regular price was $150.00, and I got it on clearance for $34.95. How about that? It is silky soft and very comfortable and goes right over my head I dont even have to un zip it, but I have no idea where I would wear it. But it was such a deal and it looked so much nicer than the other dresses I have- even the dress I wore to my Law School prom (aka Barrister's Ball) that I had to get it!

It is mer-maid style and has a little train, and you can just barely see my shoes if I wear high heels so the length is perfect too. What do you think?






Here are some pictures.





Tuesday, June 17, 2008

My last grade came in, it was for my Ethics class...

I got a B-.

So that's nice. But that's basically all it is, because it won't pull my gpa high enough because it's only a 2 unit class and my other classes were 6 units- and I got C's in those.

So I am pleased but I am not. A B- is not high enough for me to clearly and confidantly say that " I did a great job and I am totally meant to be a lawyer." But a B- is not low enough for me to say, "Wow, I am an idiot. I need to do something ele with my life."





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HELP!





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So, I guess a B- is nice. I got an 85 and an 80 on my essays and a 60 on the multiple choice (there were 14 questions, and they were in essay form. I didn't think I did that bad, but oh, well.)

Um........

So, on Saturday I shot a wedding in Mendocino and my friend Cecilia came to help me because it was 4 hours driving each way and we decided we want to go back and take pictures on the road out there because it was so pretty!

Here is Cecilia:





Here is the bride getting even with her groom:







We didn't get back until 1230am, and then I had to get up at 6am on Sunday to go with my sister's family to Bullard's Bar for Father's Day wakeboarding fun, but I went against my will. My sister told me I would ruin their day if I didn't go and hold the flag on the boat, because otherwise my sister and her husband wouldn't be able to ski because one person has to drive and one person over 12 ( My nephew is 11) has to hold the flag. SIGH! So I went. I did wakeboard. It was fun, and it was better than it usually is because I did not get a migraine from being in the sun, I did not get burned, and I did not throw up from being carsick on the way there OR on the way back, and there was overall less bickering in general... we are big on the bickering.


So here I am wakeboarding. My sister didn't take any pictures of me jumping the wake so I am sad. I think my thighs look extraordinarily huge. Don't you agree? Ick. But much better than last year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PHEW!




I have been bad with my food the last week. How can I get motivated and under control again? I think I need a schedule and things to do away from the house during the day to stop eating but those things cost money and staying home and working earns money so I am staying home currently, which is bad for my diet.



I also made bi-racial cookies today.


I am calling them bi-racial cookies because I made them with dark chocolate chip and white chocolate chips. ( I am kidding, but I think I am oh-so-funny)

They are Bi-Racial SPLENDA cookies with light butter (50 cals/tab) They turned out great, which was exciting. They have brown sugar splenda now, and that is exciting all the stuff you can do with it, but it costs a flippin' fortune. It is like $7 a bag and regular sugar is like $1 but the money is worth it to me when I am trying to eat bad things and not gain weight- so we have the sugar free cookie, which tastes the same, but it stays a pale creamy color instead of turning brownish like normal fatty cookies. I just followed the recipe like normal but used white sugar splenda (no calories) and brown sugar splenda (10 calories and you use 50% less than regular brown sugar because it's concentrated) and light butter, which has less calories than margarine- 50 instead of 70 (Imperial) or 100 (real butter).

Cool huh? Way better for you, but still bad.

So that's my weekend.

TA DA.

Make sure you are checking my photography blog regularly because I update at least once a week (usually sundays after I finish editing from the wedding on Saturday) and I just changed everything on my website AND on my blog and they look GREAT! You can leave comments over there too because I think they are great.

Oh, and I forgot, I send in pictures from TWO weddings into The Knot Wedding Magazine to possibly be published in their "Real Weddings" section. I don't even know if I did it right, but we will see. Cross your fingers for me. I don't get anything, but being published would be AMAZING and I would love to be published my last year of wedding photography before I "retire"... way to go out with a bang! The two weddings I sent in were "Josh & Krista" and "Matthew & Jennifer"

Website with the new home page and layout: www.eheizerphotography.com
Blog with the new top pictures: www.eheizerphotography.blogspot.com