why I love copper: a prelude to a new "dreaming in copper" series

I think it's safe to say that I love copper. you might even say that I'm borderline obsessed with it. I try to hide it, but it's hard when chris is also a copper nut. I guess that's what happens when you both work at a copper mine.

I love the metallic, antique look of copper. I love how malleable it is and how you can shape it into virtually anything. I love how it changes different colors when different chemicals are applied. I love how it oxidizes to a green color. I love how it is a deep blue when concentrated in acidic solution. I love how light it typically is. I love how you can practically use it for anything - from electrical to fashion. I love the way it sounds for a dog's name (like in the fox and the hound!). I love the process in which it is extracted and made. It is truly an amazing metal.

the final product of a copper mine
(aka a bundle of copper cathodes)

native copper

native copper

where I work, I see the final product of the copper mine every day. I see it go from being a mineral in a rock, to a solution, to a big slab of copper (which is what we make in my department). (in technical terms, that's from the leaching, to solvent extraction, or SX, to electrowinning, or EW - I specifically work in the EW.) for chris and I, 2 of our 3 summer internships in college were at copper mines so we have a personal attachment to the metal. our first internship was one that we got lucky in getting (well, chris got lucky & used his charming talking skills to get me in). we spent most of the summer going around the mine collecting native copper in the berms (berms are what they call big piles of dirt that line the road to stop/slow you from going off the side of a bench/cliff). we definitely took that internship for granted because (1) we soon realized that interns are not normally allowed to drive around a mine without supervision or proper training and (2) native copper is not normally found anywhere. now we have so much native copper lying around our house and our parents' houses (because we had so much we started giving them away, which now we don't since it's so rare). 

every time we see something made of copper or copper plated or made to look copperish at the store, chris and I get waaaay overly excited. we have to fight the urge to buy anything and everything copper. it's something we both can connect on, as sad as that sounds, because we both love copper so much. our family and friends are aware of our copper obsession admiration and point out copper stuff they find. I've always wanted a beagle that I can name copper. for a while I wanted my wedding color to be copper (until I found how difficult it is to find copper colored bridesmaid dresses). chris named our internet server CopperHouse. even the downstairs of our house has a copper theme.

this lady that lives in colorado does these amazing art pieces for the corporate offices of company we work for and we just had to get one. she applies different chemicals to a sheet of copper and swirls it around to make different designs. depending on the temperature also depends on what color some of the chemicals make the copper. we have this hanging in our dining area and it looks so amazing.

chris's mom got this for us. it's some old copper tub of some sorts that we have in our living room next to our tv. we use it to store the dogs' toys.

chris mom also got us these and we placed them on our tv table on either sides of the tv.










other copper or copper looking things I/we own:

they give these copper coffee mugs to new employees in my department so I was pretty stoked when I became a new employee. I use it for hot tea though.

I got the key chain from a career fair the year after we interned at asarco. it's the shape of a copper anode which are made at the smelter. (we make copper cathodes where I work.) for the longest time it was the only key chain I had with my keys (I don't like a lot of crap on my keys) - that is until I got my suns sixth man key chain. :)

we saw this wall hanging thing at a little store in a little town in pennsylvania when we were visiting chris's grandma in new york over the summer. the lid flips open to revel little hooks. we didn't know what it was used for but chris thought it would be a good idea to store our keys in it because no one would be able to know what it is. we later found a tag on it that called it a "key holder" - he was pretty heartbroken he didn't come up with the brilliant idea.

best buy = broke chris & alicia

my time at best buy should definitely be limited and monitored by a competent adult (which does not include chris). I can't seem to go through there without buying something. as a kid, I went to best buy to stock up on cd's - back when they had tons of cd's for $9.99 and $7.99 (including popular and new releases). and now that I'm older, I get to go to spend a lot of money for the big kahuna of electronics.

last night our internet finally started working (it was installed on sunday) so we decided to go to the good ol' double b to get a wireless router. simple enough. chris wanted to be home in 40 minutes.  seemed doable. we went and quickly found a router and unfortunately had to walk past the tvs on the way out. we joked: let's take a quick look at tvs and see if we can make another poor financial decision.

back up now a bit to the history of our bad financial decision making. we're truly every salesperson's dream because we're complete suckers for anything and everything. case in point:

1. took a "free" trip to vegas - only had to listen to some timeshare presentation - left with a marriot timeshare in vegas
2. went to look at a small kia at a used dealership in tucson - left with a more expensive car
3. went out on day one with our realtor - saw maybe 4-5 houses - left with a contract to buy a house
4. when we bought our la-z-boy furniture, they provided a complimentary interior design service - ended up buying everything they suggested (minus one metal artwork piece), 2 rugs, 2 table lamps, 1 floor lamp, decorative pillows, end tables, coffee table, entertainment center

there's probably many more but those are the most recent. we're so bad that chris's dad put a $5,000 cap on us - anything over $5,000 had to go through him.

too bad everything we bought yesterday was under $5,000. we were looking at some pretty awesome LCD HD 60 inch tvs when the very nice salesperson came and asked if we needed anythihng. chris had a quick question about the difference between LED and LCD which turned into which is the best tv here in your opinion which escalated to a $4,500 payment. I'm a major sucker for a good sale and boy were they having one. we ended up getting the following:

• 55" samsung 3D LCD HD tv
• 4 3D glasses
• blu-ray 3D player
• receiver
• 5 surround sound speakers
• direct tv
• wireless router

the 3D tv, 3D glasses, & blu-ray player were the package deal that was less than the regular price of the 3D tv itself. the 3D glasses sell for $150 a piece! and the 3D blu-ray player is about $350. since chris was approved for a good amount best buy credit card, he wanted to get as much as he could then because it was 3 years 0% interest - that's why we got the speakers and receiver. since we bought a tv, we got a rebate for a $350 gift card for direct tv which is why we signed up for that. that and because I get NBATV and ESPN 3D! the picture - both 3D and 2D - are amazing and I liked the fact that I could still watch everything in 2D but had that bonus option of watching a movie or soccer game in 3D. needless to say, we probably won't be spending much else for a while. at least I hope.

so my lesson: don't go to best buy. ever. buy cd's on amazon and other electronics elsewhere. best buy = trouble.

annoyance of the day: chris-less mornings

chris is out of the town for half of the week at some conference in phoenix. sure phoenix is only a 45-60 minute drive from our house so theoretically he should be able to drive home every night, but I'm not sure if his car would be able to handle the driving back and forth. so I'm stuck at home. with a dog and a new puppy. I feel like a single mother of two. this is what my morning consists of:

• try not to trip over ginger (who has to beat you down the stairs) as I rush to get pepper outside as soon as she wakes up so she can do her "thang"
• pour myself a cup of coffee
• wash face, get dressed, apply makeup
• let pepper back in
• sip some coffee
• "no pepper, don't chew on the table/couch/rug/cord/etc"
• give pepper something to chew on while I try to enjoy my coffee and "breakfast" (which just consists of a couple handfuls of cereal) and read some of my book
• rip the bottom of my pant leg out of pepper's mouth
• pry the throw blanket out of pepper's mouth
• make sure each dog has their own food (adult healthy balance diet for ginger and puppy healthy growth for pepper)
• make my lunch
• make sure ginger has plenty of water
• see why pepper is whining
• make sure towel is clean/dry in pepper's crate (which is upstairs in my room)
• give ginger a bone
• take ginger's bone away for being mean to pepper
• refill pepper's water bowl & food bowl in her crate
• get stuff together for work
• "ginger get out of there"
• try to put shoes on while pepper chews on them
• find and put toys or something for pepper to chew on in her crate
• give ginger attention so she doesn't feel left out
• take pepper outside again
• wait for her to do her business
• find treats to give to pepper for doing her business outside
• give ginger a treat for always doing her business outside
• turn off coffee pot
• go back upstairs to brush coffee teeth
• stop ginger from drinking out of toilet
• make sure all doors are locked (back door, bedroom balcony doors, garage doors)
• put pepper in her crate
• find cd's to take for the drive
• rush back upstairs to stop pepper from whining by remembering to put a sheet over the crate
• leave for work

all this while constantly keeping an eye on pepper to make sure she stays out of trouble and having to rush up and down the stairs is exhausting. it's so much easier when chris is there with me to help out in some way or another. and I always feel so rushed. I wake up an hour before I have to leave for work and I'm convinced that some my minutes go missing. sure I could get up earlier, but it's hard to get yourself out of bed at 3 in the morning. especially when you were just awake at 1 am to let pepper out.

I already feel exhausted this week and it's only tuesday.

a place to call home

things finally turned out, well, for the most part. we got the house. (yay!!) but paid more than it's "worth." however, to us, it's worth a lot more. it's worth the fact that we're four miles from my parent's and have the ability to go by for dinner, take ginger swimming, enjoy suns games, etc within 5-10 minutes. we have a place that chris and I can grow as a couple and start our lives together. we have the option to start a family (if I can get over the idea of giving birth). it's worth being able to raise a family, if we choose to. and if we don't, it's worth raising our soon-to-be new puppy and ginger. it's worth being able to come home from a long day of work (and a long drive) and sit in comfortable furniture, put our feet up, and watch a good game or movie. we now have a place to hold parties and get-togethers. we can take days off and relax. it's definitely worth having a place to put our cloud supreme. we can do so much now, the possibilities are endless. this is our home. being able to say that in itself is worth it.

sure we could have probably found another, comparable home. but I didn't want to. we've already fallen in love with this home. for five months this has been our home. for five months we have been designing this home. it was custom built for us. no one else. it is our home.

it sure was a headache though. after arguing with cathy, we ended up setting up a meeting for the four of us: chris, me, cathy, and the builder. I was tired of relying on chris to pass all the information to me. and I was tired of feeling like I didn't know what was going on or feeling like I wasn't in control. I was frustrated with everything. the meeting didn't start well - cathy and dan (the builder) almost immediately began arguing and pointing fingers, blaming the other, and trying to make the other look like a liar. I couldn't believe it. we're all adults. they're professionals. why did I feel like I was on a non-cursing version of the maury show? I got so fed up I started crying and left. the idea of not having the house broke my heart. cathy and chris followed me outside and we talked about our options. and chris and I decided that the house was worth paying more to us. my tears also must've made dan feel bad because he came out and took $1,000 off (sure, it's not much, but hey). we ended up caving in and agreed to $157,000. $9,000 more than the appraisal, but $6,000 less than we originally agreed upon in the contract. and if you think about it (like I am) we'll still be able to get the $8,000 tax credit so we'll only really be paying $1,000 extra out of our pockets. not too bad.

but in the end, everyone's happy. and we're moving in next week. life is good again.






thank god.

hopes and dreams

I think I have a major problem. well, I have a lot of problems, but that's a different story. I think my major problem is that I get my hopes up too easily. it's always caused me issues. and now is no different.

I wrote yesterday that we were going to another broker to get another appraisal - turns out that's illegal. whoops. our realtor, who has been beyond amazing thus far, wanted us to be proactive and wanted to show us another house that may interest us. we got there and she informed us that she decided enough was enough and called and informed the builder that we were walking away.

wait, what? when did we say that? oh, that's right, we didn't. we were completely blind sighted. I didn't know what to think or feel. one minute I thought we were waiting for another appraisal and the next we're not getting the house at all - by our choosing. I didn't understand. I still don't understand. and I definitely didn't appreciate that cathy (our realtor) didn't talk to us about this decision first.

we went home. I cried and freaked out. I mean I thought this second appraisal was going to work. wrong. chris and I talked. he wants to offer more money. I don't think we should pay more than it's worth. but we both don't want to give up on the house. walking around the other house with cathy, I couldn't imagine myself falling in love with another house. I couldn't feel the flow of the house and my openness feeling we had with ours was gone. I hated it. I was mad. I know there's still other houses and we just looked at one, but when you spend five months falling in love with a house and making it your own, it's going to be hard to do it all over again. I didn't want to wait for another rebuild. but at the same time, the spec homes were subpar. they had shitty upgrades. no granite countertops? really? straight and not diagonal tile? we went through so much trouble to turn the tile 90 degrees. I felt like it's going to be inevitable that I was going to be extremely picky.

the other broker guy, tim, called chris and they talked for quite some time. he told him he was going to send the appraisal to a board for them to review and decide if it should be amended. then the builder himself called chris and they talked forever. he wants it to work and wants us to still do our final walk through today. he also told us that a house that's two houses down from ours appraised for $170 - and it's not even as nice as ours (trust me, I snooped through it many times). no one knows why our house appraised for so little. but I definitely do agree that it's worth more than $148. chris thinks we should still pay more. maybe we should? the appraisers may not think it's worth more, but to us it is. to us, it's already been our home for the past 5 months. to us, it's an absolutely beautiful home in the perfect location. to us, it's priceless.

we're doing our final walk through this afternoon and possibly meeting with the builder afterwards to negotiate. so here I am again, thinking that this will work. thinking, well, if we agree on a price today, we could still move in this week. dreaming about having ginger home and sleeping in our cloud supreme. hoping it's still ours. I've already got my hopes up again which means if things fall apart again, I'm going to be devastated, again. how much heartache and stress can I take? I'm so anxious to be done with work so I can see what's going to happen - so I can know what's going to happen.

got my fingers crossed. because that's really all I can do right now.

karma

an old friend of mine posted on her facebook the other day "I don't believe in karma, bad things happen to good people and good things happened to bad people all the time." I've been thinking about it ever since. I did a little research into the topic. karma is simply the "law of moral causation" of buddhism (source). it's the cause and effect idea of life - just like from english class - the effect comes from the cause. from this website:


"We ourselves are responsible for our own happiness and misery. We create our own Heaven. We create our own Hell. We are the architects of our own fate."


we all inherit certain genes and characteristics from our parents and ancestors, but our own actions - past & present - are what determines our lives - whether we're successful or not, whether we're rich or poor, happy or miserable, healthy or sick, etc. we are not compelled to a certain destiny - we have the ability to react in order to divert our fate.

but what about when things are out of our control? how do we react when there's simply nothing we can do? how do we avoid bad things from happening to us when certain situations are in the hands of another? I know the saying, "you get what you deserve," but sometimes a lot of times I feel like that's just not true. I have been a decent human being. I was a good student all through school - never did drugs, never betrayed anyone, never misbehaved. I try my best to do good deeds everyday, take other people's feelings into consideration, help those in need when I can, not be a bitch. I don't consider myself arrogant, selfish, egotistical, or snobby. I feel like I'm a good person who does good things. so why am I going through this head/heartache with the house? what did I do to deserve the stress of possibly not getting this house we've fallen in love with over 5 months ago? why am I not able to move into my first home this week? I have been looking forward to this week for months and now things aren't happening.

I understand that things don't always go as planned, but if the idea of karma is true, why can't I move into this house? I've done everything right - got a realtor, signed a contract, submitted paperwork, been to the house every day to catch mistakes early - why am I still waiting? the waiting and the fact of not knowing the outcome is putting so much stress on me it's making it difficult to stay healthy. and I know my problem is insignificant compared to other people's issues, but it makes me wonder if karma is really an idea I should be believing. bad things do happen to good people and good things do happen to bad people all the time.

the last appraisal from our broker came in friday still significantly lower than the price they're asking. and the builder refused to negotiate. he wants to do another appraisal through the in-house broker to see if it will come in higher. so we have to wait again, 3-9 days, for another appraisal to come in. we're not moving in this week. but the new broker guy is so confident that this new appraisal will come in closer to be negotiable, that he paid for the fees (plus the rushing fee) himself. so we'll see. I just want it to come in sooner than later so we can just move in already! we stopped by yesterday and the house is like a day from being complete - I think when we stop by this afternoon it will be done. fixes have been made, our balconies have been finished, carpet's installed, railing has been stained, and appliances have been placed. they just need to do our front yard landscaping and then it's done. it sucks to know it's going to be done this week and we won't be able to move in.

everything was coming together - I just don't know why it seems to be all falling apart.




p/s: go suns.

things I'm itching for right now

any of these puppies

I think after all the puppies that I've looked at for the past month or so, the ones that make my heart melt are the blue & white pits. I love the blue color & they're just soo precious! especially the one in the top right. or the bottom left. dang they're all cute!

I always get a pizza craving during my period (sorry if TMI) and this week is no exception. mmm. a nice, saucy, crispy pizza would be AH-MAZING.

it's bad enough that we still haven't heard anything about an adjusted appraisal for our house & whether or not we still get to buy it, but knowing how close it is to being done is driving me crazy. yesterday we saw that our carpet is in, which looks beautiful. we also checked it out at night to see how it looks with the lights which was pretty awesome also. basically all they have left is the front yard landscaping, installing our appliances, & touch-ups (from what I could tell). I just want to move in & put all our furniture in it & decorate it already! I feel so close, yet sooo far.

we wanted to buy a bigger bed so that ginger had more room and didn't have to push me off in the middle of the night. and because I need ultimate comfort when I sleep (ok, maybe not need, but desire) we got a tempurpedic bed. we got the cloud supreme (the new model in their commercials if you've seen it) because it had the perfect amount of what I call "plopability." what is plopability you ask? it's the ability to plop onto a bed after a long day of work. it's when you fall down onto a bed that you sink yet bounce slightly. I always told chris that the perfect bed, to me, is one where you feel like you're in a cloud - when the you sink into the bed & it envelopes you and surrounds you with a heavenly feeling. that's exactly what I found in the this bed (& how could I say no when it's called "cloud?") and I'm so anxious to get it so that I can sleep in it and get an amazing night's sleep. lately, being sick and crammed, I've been sleeping shitty so I just can't wait to see if this bed is the answer to all my problems.

oh lawrd please let the suns take out the lakers starting with a win in la on monday. oh please please please?

I just need a nap right now. I can barely keep my eyes open.

anxious

we still haven't heard anything about the house. cathy told chris they're hoping to find out what's going on in a few days. a few days?! a few days would be like the end of this week. our closing of escrow date is set for the 19th - next wednesday. our furniture - couches, entertainment center, beds, dressers - are all scheduled to be delivered on the 20th.  I'm really hoping to hear back from them sooner than later so that we can be ready to move. or not move. I'm so anxious about moving - I just want to be in my own home, sleeping in my wonderful cloud supreme. but right now I'm not even sure if it'll be our home. we already have everything ready. the delivery schedules. I took that thursday and friday off - my mom is supposed to take the friday off too to go shopping with me. but it's all going to be pointless if we can't even move in. frustrating. very frustrating.

I'm also becoming more and more anxious to get a new puppy. another reason I want to be moved into our house, because the sooner we get settled in there, the sooner I get my doggie. Here's my pick for the puppy(ies) of the day:

pit pups

I think both of these are adorable (out of the 8 available). I'm not sure if I can choose one. I just can't wait to have a little doggie running around the house and getting to play in our (relatively) huge backyard with ginger - hearing ginger go through the dog door followed by a little one - having two doggies to cuddle with in bed - watching them play tug-o-war and such. it'll be sooo cute! I think I'm going to go insane if we don't hear anything from them by the end of the day.

awesome: ritz crackers.

lame: nyquil - pill or liquid form.

house? or no house?

with only about a week and a half left before we can close and move in, our house was appraised last week. and it was appraised for significantly less. I'm not a realtor or a broker nor do I really understand everything when it comes to buying a house. what I understand is you want a house, you get a loan based on how much you make, you make a down payment for the house, you move into the house. so when I'm told that the house that we've been waiting for 5 months has been appraised for much less than what we're about to pay for it, I'm not really sure what that means. cathy, our realtor, says she's never seen something like this where the house is appraised for significantly less than the asking price. which isn't comforting.

so I'm not really sure what's going on right now. I guess they (our realtors and broker) got some "comps" or proof that what they're asking for isn't unreasonable. I guess the development is closing on a house more than ours is. don't ask me what that means. but I guess they sent that stuff to the appraisers and hopefully the appraisal will go up closer to what the builder is asking for? if it doesn't, I'm not sure if that means we have to negotiate or what.

I do know that cathy told us to be "proactive" and find some other houses that we like. which means we may or may not get the house we've been falling in love with for 5 months now - the house that we spent time at every day to watch it progress - the house that we put our heart and soul into designing (what we could at least) and picking furniture - the house that we added custom touches (speaker wire throughout, ginger's door, etc) to make it ours - that house. we are not sure if we are getting our house. when I found this out on saturday, I was heartbroken. I couldn't believe it. a week and a half before we're supposed to move in, we're not sure if we'll get it. and now I have to look at other houses and find one that's comparable? and on top of that, if we opt out of the contract we have now, we'll lose our $8,000 home buyers tax credit.

like I said, I'm not completely sure what's going on. all I know is we're supposed to hopefully hear back from the appraisers today to see what the adjusted appraisal for our house is. and then I don't know where we go from there. I just hope it's all sorted out in the next week the latest. the sooner the better though, because all this stress is killing me. like seriously, by body cannot handle this stress (combined with stress from work) and if I don't become stress-free soon, I'm never gonna get rid of this bug.


as an update for operation: get new, young, well-trained dog, I thought that idea was crushed too when chris was being a turd last week. my parents and I were looking at puppies at shelters near our area (don't as me why) and I'd ask chris what he thought about a couple and he would be short and rude. then he got mad saying that he already told me that we can't have a dog right now and then I got mad since I told him I wasn't looking for it right now but within a couple of months of us moving in to our house. but since then he seems he's wanting a new dog soon since I caught him looking at puppies the other day. he told me he wanted to get one within a couple of weeks of moving. *squeeeaaaal* now I'm just hoping we'll have a house to move into.

awesome: kings of leon "closer"

lame: being sick for over a week

moving on up

we got a letter in the mail over the weekend from the housing development chris & I are getting our house built. it's what I've been waiting for since january. our closing of escrow (or whatever they call it) is set for may 19th! this is the day we'll get the keys to our house! I just can't wait for it to be done because it sure has been a hassle. so in 22 more days (not counting today) chris & I will be sleeping in our own home. on our amazing bed. it's got the perfect name - cloud supreme. how can you not like a bed that's call the cloud supreme? anyways, super stoked to be getting out of my parent's house - not that I don't love my family and all, just 6 adults under a small roof is just too hectic. and I seem to be the one causing most of the issues. 

other than that, I don't really have anything interesting to say today.

here's the puppy I've fallen in love with for the day. 

8-9 wk old female pit - her name would be calcium or "calie"

awesome: found this while researching some stuff for work. it's an illustration of how the copper in the solution (the little thing with eyebrows) is attracted to the organic (the blobby thing) during one of the processes. love it's honesty.

lame: msha is on site today & will be inspecting the tankhouse (where I work) any minute now. I'm all about mine safety & enforcing regulations and policies, but I think msha inspectors have a tendency to take it too far (labeling all empty containers "empty" - really?). they also just bring stress around the workplace and prevent employees from getting the important shit done since they have to spend days running around checking EVERYTHING possible to make sure it will "comply."