I'd choose to never meet them and think they are perfect. I don't want my tarnished image of them to ruin my favorite movies or tv shows. Is that lame? I'm specifically thinking of Alexander Skarsgård in this example because I'd hate to hate Eric Northman ;) He's just too hot.

And let me just start by saying that not much is actually happening! It's been almost 4 months since I quit my job from hell and I do NOT regret quitting at all. But I am starting to go stir-crazy. It's usually around this time that it starts to kick in. I am not a stranger to being unemployed. I have probably spent as much or more time being unemployed than employed over the last 2 years. I have come to both love and hate it.

Currently I'm not even looking for a job because I would need to request a week off in March anyway since I'm finally going to pursue getting my mammography license and NO ONE is going to tell me not to again (*ahem* last job). Getting my mammo license has been something I've been wanting to do for a while now, especially since working graves in a nightmare of an ER, that experience really pushed me to do what I need to do to ensure I don't ever have to do that again. Definitely not for me! But boobs on the other hand, I think I can. And to be honest, I'm pursuing mammo because of the hours I'd most likely be working: weekdays.

Brian has been slowly coming closer and closer to landing a transfer of his current job to a position in Pennsylvania and I am really hoping this is our chance to move. I know I have my hopes up pretty high that this will be the job, but I can't help it. Every time he calls I answer the phone as if he has huge news to tell me. I'm just waiting for that moment. As soon as he says the word, I'll be ready to start packing. I miss my family and the town in PA we're looking at is only 2 hours away from them. To be that close and able to drive home on any weekend is a luxury I haven't had in over 12 years. Though I'm not so sure how I'm going to survive a snowy winter without freezing my California-softened ass off!

I feel like I'm at the end of my rope with apartment living. I have it set in my head that any property we look at in PA or wherever we end up, will have at least a few acres between my house and any neighbors. If not, I don't even want to look at it. I'm dead serious. Car alarms, kids crying, stomping up and down the stairs, loud cheering at the tv, nosy people, people staring at you, smells of people's cooking, people scared of my dogs, the non-stop drone of traffic, light pollution at night, solicitors. It's suffocating! I feel like I can't breathe and I can't be myself without having some person always looking at me. 

--Begin solicitor vent--

And I feel kind of shitty with myself for nearly shoving a solicitor off my invisible apartment stoop. I seriously get so enraged that I start to raise my voice and ask them if they saw the 'no soliciting' sign near the entrance of the complex, complete with slamming the door in their face. I usually don't answer the door, but for some reason last week I did which was a mistake I regretted as soon as I turned the lock. We must have had two solicitors in the last week. Doesn't sound like a lot, but when it's dinner time and my dogs start freaking out because of some harsh knocking on the door it makes my stomach clench and I loose all self control. If I wanted to buy some stupid magazine or whatever, I will go to the store for it. So not only do they invade my privacy, but I'm left feeling like a dick when they leave because of the way I acted. 

--Solicitor vent over. Sorry! --

Anyway, I feel like I have no privacy. It's time to move already. I'm sure having a house will bring on a whole new slew of problems, but I am so ready for the ones I have now to disappear. I'm going to be 30 in a few weeks and it's time to finally start this next chapter in our lives.

So there you have it! That was a lot of rambling but it's basically what's going on in my head. I'm just really looking forward to moving on with our lives and being closer to family, having a steady job that I actually like, and start to put down our roots (cheesy, but it's the truth). I enjoyed living in California up until this point, and still do don't get me wrong. I will especially miss the amazingly mild weather the most (it's February and in the 70s for God's sake). It was a great learning experience to be on our own so far away for so long. But this chapter is coming to a close and I'm looking forward to ending the feeling of limbo I've been stuck in.

In the summer of 1909, Solomon Mayfield awoke to find his mother and sister had disappeared. Left with his alcoholic and abusive father, Sol lived his life believing the story he'd been told, the story all the people of Varner Creek believed about what happened that summer. But in a plot of twists and family secrets that will leave the reader reaching for their jaw upon the floor, Sol is taken back to his childhood by the spirits he knew in life when he passes away so many years later . . . it is only then he learns what secrets The Ghosts of Varner Creek have been keeping so many years.

Let me say right off the bat that this is not a scary ghost story! The "ghosts" in this book refers more to the ghosts-of-the-past kind of ghost. I will admit that the title is what caught my attention (I like scary books and I liked the price - $0.99 cents!) but it was a really good read.

This is a pretty straight forward story about a man learning the truth about his past, which has many deep, dark, unhappy secrets. The story starts out with Sol, age 87, sitting in his room at the nursing home where he lives. He's thinking back on his life when he sees a faceless ghost sitting next to him (not meant to be scary, but fear is subjective so it might freak you out, but I didn't see it that way) but the ghost doesn't say anything. He's used to seeing ghosts since he was a child. The story continues on by going back in time to when Sol's parents were children. Most of the first half of the book gives a very deep and descriptive background history of the characters. If you like books that pick up right away, this book isn't for you. It picks up towards the middle. But it is definitely worth reading because this deep history is what makes everything come into perspective at the end. Once I got through the first half, I couldn't put it down.

I think having a program to create a slideshow for photos is a great thing to have on your computer and learn how to use. For instance, you can make a slideshow of your Etsy shop items or even your dogs (like this crazy dog lady, right here!) to post on YouTube or on your blog. So when I was asked to review Wondershare DVD Slideshow Builder for Windows (Mac users click here). I had to jump on it because I know lots of you have shown interest in creating your own slideshows. And at the end of this post, you will have a chance to win your own copy of this software, so please stick around to read more about this program!

With Wondershare DVD Slideshow Builder (available for Windows and Mac), you can easily put together a slideshow with your photos, background music, and some pretty cool transition effects. This program also allows you to add video clips to your slideshow too! It seriously only took me 10 minutes to put together a photo slideshow of Monty & Mabel.

Please note, that this program is not solely a video editor where you can split and trim your videos together (like my Day in the Life video) but rather you can add your video clips to the slideshow and organize them amongst your photos. The end result is a video that will contain your video clips and/or photos that you can save to your computer or burn onto a DVD.

If you save your slideshow to your computer, here's a list of the files you can save them as:

MPEG-4 Video (mp4, mpeg4)

AVI Video (avi)

Windows Media Video (wmv)

MPEG Video (mpg, mpeg)

Windows Media Video (asf)

QuickTime Movie (mov)

Mobile Video (3gpp, 3gp, 3g2)

Matroska Format (mkv)

Flash Player Video (flv)

DVD Video (vob)

Ogg Format (ogm)

What I like most about this program is the ease of putting together a slideshow rather quickly. You are able to manually drag and drop each photo in the order you want them in. You can choose the transition effect for each photo individually. You can add an MP3 file for background music. You can add an intro slide to give your slideshow a title and you are able to use any font that you already have installed on your computer to add subtitles.

It doesn't take too long to find your way around the program. What I would recommend doing is downloading the free 30 day trial to see if this program is something that could work for you (Mac users click here).

Please note that any slideshow you create and save while using the free trial will have a big watermark smack dab in the middle of your photos so you won't be able to actually use your slideshow anywhere. But if you purchase the full copy of the software there won't be a watermark of course, and you are given free technical support service and free life-time updates.

The people at Wondershare were happy to offer a free copy of their software to one of my readers! 

How to enter ...

Mandatory:

-Please be a follower of The Curious Pug (via Google Friend Connect, RSS, or Bloglovin) and leave a comment below telling me what you'd like to make a slideshow of.

Additional entries:

Please leave a separate comment for each one you do for more chances to win.

-Follow TCP on twitter

-Tweet this giveaway
Example:
Giveaway alert! @thecuriouspug is hosting a giveaway to win a free copy of slideshow making software. Enter here! http://bit.ly/AscY8k

Please be sure there is a way for me to contact you in the event you win.

The winner will be chosen randomly and announced on March 3rd. 

The winner will have 48 hours to get back to me before a new winner is chosen. 

Good luck!

*****

Disclaimer: I was compensated for this review, but all opinions are honest and of my own.

Label graphics made by Pugly Pixel.

My little sister, Alanna, (who is still 6 years old to me in my mind) turned 24 today! I hope that this will be one of the last birthdays I miss from living across the country. We are 6 years apart, but from now until March 9th (my birthday), we are only 5 years apart. Feel free to pay her a visit and leave her some birthday love!

Happy Birthday, Lanna!

It was one year ago today that we lost our first dog and baby, Cyrus. Not a day goes by that I don't think of him. It was so sad and so sudden and I will never forget it, but with time, the pain has lessened. Oh, it's still there - I can't say I made this post without tears. But the worst of it has passed. I finally felt brave enough to watch a video of him the other week and I completely forgot just how big and muscular he was. I suppose compared to our current pups, he was quite a big boy - 23 pounds!

For those of you new here over the last year, Cyrus was the inspiration behind my blog's name (and Etsy shop). We had to put him to sleep 1 year ago today due to an unrepairable collapsed trachea, a condition that pugs are prone to. He was only 6. I just wanted to take a moment to remember him and share some of my favorite posts with Cy in them...

-One of the last happy posts with him - Project 52 Pug Love

-The cutest amigurumi pug I've ever seen

-Halloween 2010

-Cyrus featured on Freckled Nest

-Video clip: Telling Cy it's dinner time

-Bark in the Park

-My all time favorite photo of Cyrus

-Little craft helper

Having lived in an apartment for most of my adult life and having a love for plants, Life on the Balcony quickly became one of my favorite blogs on patio gardening. It's no secret that I'm a huge lover of succulents and cacti (mostly because it's really hard to kill them!) and Fern's blog has lots of leafy eye candy and great tips for container gardening. Isn't that so cool, her name is Fern? I love it.

She posts about how to grow food in your patio garden, how to create a sense of privacy with plants on your balcony, and tips on how to stay frugal while doing it all. Even if you don't live in an apartment with limited outdoor space, I think you'll enjoy her tips and DIYs!

Even thought I haven't written in an actual journal for ages, I will always love looking at how pretty they are.

Here's some book-related items I've added to my favorites recently...

As much as I love my husband and would love to be in his mind to hear his constant thoughts on how much he loves me and how he thinks I'm such a goddess (joke) I would have to jump on the opportunity to be in a psychopath's mind. I always find myself wondering what the hell people are thinking when they do stupid things so this would be perfect. Are they actually aware of what they are doing? Do they think about the consequences? How do they try to act normal? Do they even have normal thoughts? What are their hobbies? Do they believe their own lies? What are they thinking when they are being psychotic? Maybe this would help me understand most of the population (joke) and not be as angry at stupid humans (not a joke).

Lately, every Monday since the beginning of the new year, I've managed to get a Books-I've-Been-Reading post set up. And as much as I'd like to be one, I'm not a reading machine so I don't have any books to report this week. So I thought instead I'd write this post about a single secret behavior. I know you have one too!

I was tagged by Izabelle to do this little post about weird behaviors we are forced to hide when we are involved with a significant other. And it's been a damn long time (12 years) since I was single to even remember what was something that I used to do and want to hide, but I suppose I hid my near obsession with the blog world and even this blog. I didn't want my husband to think of me as some sort of antisocial computer nerd who pours her heart out on her blog or make fun of me for taking a super close up picture of some felt or something. Not like he would really mean it if he did, but I don't even want to risk it. My husband knows about my blog, but I don't think he really knows knows, you know? Like how involved I am and how it's an actual part of my life (a huge part ever since becoming unemployed). I almost feel like the word "blog" is a word that will instantly elicit a bunch of chuckles out of those who don't really get it.

I don't like to tell people I know in real life about this blog because I don't want to feel restricted in what I write in anticipation of having them ask me about it later on in person. Weird! It's easier to spill your guts to strangers, even though I am happy to say that I do not consider many of you strangers at all, but I still haven't met any of you. If someone I did know in real life (besides my sister and husband who already know) did find it, it's not like I have super deep dark secrets that they would find out about causing me a great amount of embarrassment, because I don't post things like that here, but I would hate to feel that safety of anonymity disappear.

Woah, so this wasn't supposed to be so long. Way to go off on a tangent, Leesh. So yeah, the answer to the question "something I hid when I became involved with my significant other" would be blogging.

I tag anyone else who is a closet blogger ;)

Mabel is starting to loose her baby teeth! Or at least, I finally noticed that she was. I went to get something she wasn't supposed to be eating out of her mouth and I saw a teeny tiny little hole where one of her teeth used to be. Her teeth are so ridiculously small but sharp as heck. She also has gone to the dog park about 3 times so far and does much better there than at the puppy social. I think it has to do with not being inside some cold building with cement floors. Plus, Monty is there with her and they play so hard. Monty runs around the park with Mabel barking at him and trying to catch up. It's the cutest thing. I know I need to do more training with her but it's my fault for being so lazy. 

She's also starting to realize that playing fetch is fun. She won't always give the ball back but when she wants to she will drop it next to me or Brian and look at us like, throw it! She's so pretty and I tell her that all the time. She's probably going to develop a complex.