Weird and sorted trials of my life

Two times the craziness

2010-03-13T21:29:00.000-08:00

I recently switched jobs. I am in the same company and in the same department, but I have moved up into a job that will require more of me. The problem that I have right now is the fact that my old job has not been filled just yet so I am still working that job as well. Yes, I have two jobs right now. This last week was tough and when I got home on Friday night it was really hard for me to relax. I actually sent myself two emails to work regarding things I did not want to forget by Monday.
I am hoping that I can soon get into the swing of things at my new job and finally transition so that I do not have to worry about my old job which I had for five years so it is hard to forget.
Right now it is hard for me not to wonder if this was the right choice for me career wise. Are we ever sure?
Working and living in Southern California is in its own class. It seems that even if you make a decent salary you cannot buy a home or keep up with the Jones'. It is scary to think about possibly starting a family when you overhear conversations where people with 6 figure salaries say that they cannot afford to have children. What world are we living in? I really hope that things start to calm down. Well, enough of this down talk. I guess it is pretty nice to live by the beach and I have a coupon to purchase a new book at Borders so there is definitely things to be happy about. I have also booked my tax appointment on St. Patty's Day so I am hoping that our tax lady finds a pot of gold for us!

Scrambled

2010-02-22T20:57:00.000-08:00

This last weekend we had some friends in town and luckily the forecast which was all rain for the weekend earlier turned out to be sunny and pretty nice. We biked down by the beach and saw Jay Leno at the Comedy and Magic Club.
This past month we have also been trying to check out all the new local restaurants. One is the fabulous restaurant Gonpachi which is located in the Miyako Hotel in Torrance. For lunch they offer a miso soup & salad bar and for dinner they have "chef's choice specials" which feeling adventurous is what I ordered. It turned out to be something that I was not adverse to eating. The dinner ended with the first photo a dish of green tea mousse with red beans (Aduki beans?).
The main dish was Salmon in what tasted like a pesto sauce over risotto. This dish also came with sushi and a ceasar salad with whole anchovies placed over the top. I am not much of an anchovy person, but the whole dinner was Delicious! :) I will definitely be back there.

I can't wait for March to get here as we are planning a Hawaii vacation! I have never been there before, so I am looking forward to it! I also happen to be a fan of pineapples, coffee, macadamia nuts and shave ice so what could be better than actually going to the home of all of those items. We are trying to plan a lot in the five days that we will be there so I have a feeling we will have to make several trips in the future!

I begin a new job on March 1st which is very exciting. It is with the same company in the same department, but I am moving from Events to Grant Writing for the non-profit foundation. Since I have been at my location for the last five years I know my job in and out right now and I am excited and nervous to go to a new job where I will need to use new skills. The job I am leaving will still need my assistance to finish up for an event, so I will still be helping out at this current job until the end of May...yeah a long time. It feels like I have two jobs at once right now....wish I was getting two salaries!! :)
So, in a nutshell, my mind is scrambled. I wanted to try and update more often, but until I can get it all balanced at work I may find myself coming home and crashing into a pool of jello...not literally crashing into a pool of jello, but more like becoming one.
Hope everyone is well and enjoying the Olympics!! I have been keeping up with them, but it is a little hard being on the west coast when they start at 8pm and go until midnight. I just can't stay up that late. Speaking of which, I am going to go watch some skiing right now.

The donut AGAIN!

2010-01-16T13:46:00.000-08:00

So, we noticed that one of my tires was losing air so I took it into Americas Tire for what I thought would be an easy and free patch and then I would be on my way. 45 minutes later I am cursing the streets in LA County and asking if my tires are made of tissue paper.

This is the third tire I have had to replace on a car that only has 11,000 miles on it. THIRD tire. The first was a flat that I believe I was the main cause of. The second was an idiot road crew member who left a sharp metal blade on the roadway and it pierced my side wall. This third one seems to be a staple of some kind that left two holes close together that cannot be patched.

These are not cheap tires...in fact they are bloody expensive. Oh, and I also think my car needs a break job. Well, so much for saving money this year. ARGH.

Had to get my anger out, so thank you for listening.

My car now has a donut on it until the tire place can order a new tire for me as they do not have any of the brand I use in stock. I don't like donuts. Not one single bit. In fact I hate donuts.

A little behind

2010-01-13T21:38:00.000-08:00

When I began this post a while back I thought I would be updating it everyday or at least a couple of times a week. I was doing pretty well as it was easy for me to update during my lunch hour or a quick break from work, but then the site was blocked and it seemed that when I got home after being on the computer all day the last thing I wanted to do was get back onto it.

This year I hope to be better about updating at least for me...cause the more you think about it, a blog is like a diary that you can look back on.

The start of this year has been slow. I thought about making resolutions, but then never did. I thought...yeah, I will try and drink green tea instead of coffee every morning, but then the first day at the office came and I just had to go to the cafeteria for some caffeine (the elixir of life as we like to call it in the office).

Right now I am making small changes like trying to

be better with my overall health and also trying new recipes and foods. One was brought on by a coworker who brought a nice little powder into work that you can sprinkle on fruit. She said that growing up in Hawaii they use it on everything. She brought back a packet from Hawaii for me and now I cannot get enough. It is called "Li Hing Powder" and is basically a plum powder. DELICIOUS and I found out that some of the stores here stock it.

It is best on Apples:

This week we have also tried to catch up on Netflix and here is a sampling of what we saw:

Valkrye - didn't care for it, depression set in after the film

500 Days of Summer - Good soundtrack, like the actors, depression set in after the film

Unmistaken Child - Great documentary, would recommend

Movies we have coming soon:

Inglorious Basterds

Whip It

We shall see if the depression after films stops with some of these new films on the way. Hope everyone is seeing dramatic improvements in whatever they would like improved for the New Year! - Ok, after sentences like that I should call it a night. :)

New Year - Better Posting

2009-12-20T20:34:00.000-08:00

Oh my gosh!!! I will soon be updating this a lot more often. Got a Xmas gift that will make it most easy to post. :)

Hope everyone is having a fabulous Holiday and Cheers to a fantastic New Year!

I think I might be so busy over the holidays, the next time I post will be 2010.

Watch the wonders of our cat

2009-07-20T21:15:00.000-07:00

People often think this is not possible, but our cat actually likes to have his claws clipped!! Watch as Woody has his spa day:

In other news, this weekend we went on a behind the scenes tour of the MOCA museum. They really showed us everything including the permanent storage and the non-public library. Pretty cool. We also enjoyed lunch at Clifton's Cafeteria which was a strange place that has been open for lunch in downtown LA since the 30s.

Long Time been gone

2009-07-08T20:12:00.000-07:00

Argh I know I have not been keeping up with updates lately...hence the reason I never joined facebook....I would never update.
Things have been pretty dull around the ole homestead. My parents came for a fast visit which was great and I miss them already. We are gearing up for a visit from Jon's brother tomorrow night.
I have been doing little homey things like baking bread and tonight I spent about an hour putting teak oil on one chair...yeah...one chair. Many small sections on that one chair.
I am not sure if it was the busy factor being away from the gym, or the fact that the hammock had been dried out in the sun for the last three years, but I heard a tiny rip rip ripping and found myself on the ground. :(Fourth of July was spent at the beach and then watching the fireworks from our friend's rooftop. We ended the evening with some sparklers.I think I will cap the evening with a lime fruit flo jo and call it a night. Hope all is well with everyone.

Anyone have apricot recipes?

2009-05-29T17:21:00.000-07:00

Our first harvest from our apricot tree in our backyard. When we first moved in our landlord said that the tree might just be ornamental, but we tried one last week and they are really good. Now I am thinking either jam or crumble with these. I think I would need a few more for jam so it may have to be crumble. :)
This might entice me to set up some vegetables in the backyard as well. At the moment it is all landscaped, but if I decided to move one of the plants and maybe start some beans or something else, I do not think they would say no.
I also need to remember to start a friendship bread bag. A person at work requested one and I have not started it just yet. Maybe this evening would be a good time to do that. I have decided that most of the friendship bread should be completely given away so as not to temp me.

At this precise moment, I am trying to figure out if the neighbors out back (we share this lot with a garage that has living upstairs) are going away this weekend or if they are staying in town.....the reason being is that they have a granddaughter who likes to have parties while they are gone and she brings all sorts of unsavory characters around. Personally I think they are all pretty good kids, from good families, but who knows what kind of shenanigans they can get into. I think I am starting to sound like that old lady neighbor on Bewitched who always used to look through the curtains. Next thing you know I am going to start setting up neighborhood watches and take in all the stray cats in the area.

This weekend does not hold any huge events, which is pretty nice. Tonight I am thinking a low key dinner and movie.

Update on neighbor watch 09: the truck has moved, but the grandlady is still in the nest, repeat, still in the nest. Looks like it might be a full weekend at the ranch.

Oh, shout out to my sister....she just turned another year younger yesterday. :)

New Home

2009-05-13T20:35:00.000-07:00

So, we have finally settled into our new place. Here are some pics:
It looks a tad bit gloomy on the day we took the photos, but it is a cute little place and we have tons of parking off the street which is nice. The backyard has an apricot tree in it and it used to have a pepper tree as well, but the landlord took it out while putting in a new fence, which did not make our neighbors out back too happy. Our most favorite piece in the house right now is this addition. We have had to use quarters for way way too long. :) In other news, I am trying to piece together the last preparations for our golf tournament which is this next Monday. I will be so happy when it is over. We have two flights at one golf course which means I have to be at the golf course at 5 am and we will probably not finish until 10:30 pm or so. I will be one cranky person at the end of that evening. I am also pretty tired of dealing with all the golfers. Boy are they particular on all the little aspects of the game...hello people this is a "charity event".
After the tournament it is time to reevaluate what I want to do. I think it might be time for me to step out of special events.

Bizarre Month

2009-05-05T22:12:00.000-07:00

The Open Road:The month of April was a complete blur. We moved into a new rental on April 1st. It was a fast move and I feel that we are now pretty much settled here. We also took a road trip across country to retrieve some family heirlooms that we were meaning to bring out.
Our itinerary was to fly into Chicago, see my family in Illinois, visit Jon's sister and brother and pick up the furniture pieces we wanted. Drive to Kansas City where we would visit friends and then pick up another important piece of furniture and then head home with some fun stops in between. We did pack a lot of visits into that short trip, but I wish I had had time to see some of my other friends that are back in the midwest and I hope to be back soon to visit them.
Trip Highlights: Friends that we did see, Family that we saw and caught up with, the steaks at our friends place in KC, the Vapor Caves in Colorado, and the Hoover Dam. I think Jon might also like to add the Comfort Inn's free waffle breakfast to that as well.
We were able to see a friend before he went off to the Peace Corp in Africa which was nice considering it was literally right before he left and I am sure everyone was vying for his time. We spent some quality time with my parents and had a nice lunch with Jon's Aunt who drove up from Iowa.
We then drove to Jon's sister's place where we picked out the pieces of furniture that we wanted. Once the car was all packed up, we headed to KC where our friends grilled the best steaks ever and let us crash in their comfy guest room. They also had a cat that was so similar to Woody, we could almost mistake them. Mr. Grimace (Woody's twin):The next morning we met Jon's cousin who handed over an antique table (early 1800s) that was brought from Haiti by Jon's great great grandmother. We had lunch and then hauled it across the state of Nebraska. That was the longest drive day...a total of 11 hours. We made it all the way through to Glenwood Springs where we went to the Yampah Caves and relaxed in the sulfury heat. Absolutely lovely. We then headed out to Nevada where we stayed at the Comfort Inn and went on the Dam Tour at the Hoover Dam.
We finally made it back to the West coast with no big issues, just a ton of dead bugs on the windshield. We came home to Mr. Woodrow who greeted us warmly and said he did not have too many parties while we were away.I promise to soon write about our new nest and fill you in on the copious amounts of laundry which we are doing in our fantastic "doesn't require quarters" washer and dryer. Hope everyone is doing well.

Busy Bees

2009-03-24T20:05:00.001-07:00

Well, after seven years of living at the Beach, Jon and I are moving inland.
A ghastly 4 miles inland to be precise.

Oh the tragedy of moving so far away. It will now be a 10 minute drive to get to the beautiful sands of Redondo.

Actually, I am still getting used to the fact that we are leaving this neighborhood. So many things I will miss. The pier, the quiet neighborhood, the wild parrots, the drugstore right up the street, and the amazing beach sunsets that we got so used to that we started taking them for granted.

The new neighborhood is a cute tree lined street with little bungalow houses, one which we will be renting - yes, we are still renting....prices are still insanely ridiculous out here for homes. There is a small downtown area nearby with a Fosters Freeze, a small town bakery, and some nice non-chain restaurants. Jon will be able to walk to work as he will be so close to the office. The one thing that I believe is the icing on the cake is the fact that we will have a washer and dryer....one that I will NOT have to feed quarters. YEAH!!!!!!
I wonder if I will still collect quarters like a squirrel collects nuts. There have been times at the store where I will hold up a line just to count out the change in smaller denominations to save the quarters in my coin purse....No more...I will hand over that quarter with glee, unless I find out it is a rare quarter from some special year that is worth more. And I will still hold up the line with coupons.

The place we are renting is a small three bedroom with a fireplace, a little backyard and a HUGE garage. The bedrooms are very small, but I am hoping to fit all the furniture into them.

Well, that is also why I have been so lax on updating the site.
We are in the midst of packing:
Right now I am shoving things into boxes a little haphazard. I dumped all the drawers from the kitchen and living room and labeled it combined junk drawers. Hopefully the movers we hired will know exactly where to put that valuable box.

Trying to purchase new items:
We must find a washer & dryer to buy before April 1st when our sales tax in this state reaches an all time high...what was it again, 90%? I also want to buy an area rug, curtains, and a huge bottle of Excedrin.

Writing a list of places I need to make sure get my change of address:
Whew...so many, I cannot believe we have been in our place for 7 years....too much has accumulated.

Setting things aside for Yard sale:
Well, a couple of days ago a few very expensive items that we could have probably sold to a collector were taken to the goodwill. I tried not to get too upset as I should have said something before, but blast it, they was worth monies.

Stay tuned for pics and for things I will NOT miss! :)

The Odds

2009-03-08T21:06:00.000-07:00

I started out on Sunday with some shopping and then as I returned home and parked the car I bumped the curb with my right front tire. Thought nothing of it until later that evening and realized I had popped the tire and it was as flat as a pancake.
Well, no worries on that one. Not a big deal. Swapped it out for the spare and then the next day we took it to America's Tire. Yeah, New tire, rotation. Swell!
Then on Friday, we went out to dinner with some friends and we drove through a construction zone. We hit what we thought was a little gravel and I kept hearing a sound come from the rear right tire. Jon figured it had to be a rock stuck in the tread, but all I could think was...not again....so when we arrived at our friend's place I got out to look and sure enough I heard the distinct hissing sound of a punctured tire. It seems that one of the construction workers left a utility blade out on the street and that is what lodged in the tire. Kinda looks like a ninja blade. Yeah, we were hit by ninjas in our beach community.So, once again the spare was brought out from the trunk. BUT SERIOUSLY....Two flat tires in one week!!! What are the odds?
I have found this week has been full of eating a lot of food. Note to self: STOP immediately before having to purchase elastic waist pants.
I have gone out for lunch a couple of times this week, ate Portillo's sandwiches (makes me miss Chicago) with friends who went out to Buena Park to pick it up and a vast variety of other lovely items. There is a show on the BBC called "You are what you eat" and in the show the host has the person who needs to lose weight write down everything they eat in one week and then they display the entire contents of that one week on a table for the person to see and be horrified by all the food that they have eaten. Well, this week I kept thinking about that table. At least I did get to the gym a little bit.
Hoping I have more time this next week even though I do feel cheated a little cause we just had to "Spring Forward" an hour.

Cruizin through a busy week

2009-02-27T19:52:00.000-08:00

This last week has been a whirlwind. Jon and I decided to get away and take a 3 day cruise to Mexico this last weekend. We left on Friday night and headed down to Ensenada.The boat was so big that we could not fit it in one pic frame. :) We got a room with a view...well, more of a small porthole view. The trip became more of a recovery cruise as I was under the weather with a shot site infection (diabetic stuff) and Jon had sprained both his thumbs skiing on Thursday. I had warned him that if he went on a ski trip right before the cruise something was going to happen...cause that is Murphy's law...and yup, he was hit by a punk snowboarder and bent both of his thumbs in directions they were not supposed to go...as you see in the photo he is wearing a brace in order to heal one of his hands.
We docked in Ensenada on Saturday morning and Jon and I signed up for the wine country tour. Normally you do not think wine when you think Mexico, but we were pleasantly surprised. We ended up bringing back a couple of bottles along with some olives and some olive oil that they had at one winery. Here we are at the wineries. Jon pressing some grapes at the first winery and the both of us in front of the bull ring at the L.A. Cetto winery.On Sunday, the ship was at sea so we hung out on the deck for a while and I sufficiently burned my legs. After crisping my legs in the sun, we took a long nap as the ship seems to lull you into a deep sleep..rocking back and forth. We also caught the musical reviews they had in the evenings and the two comedians which were pretty good. Everyone at our dinner table was really cool, except for an elderly foreign couple who decided on the first day to change tables....I believe it was because they could not keep up with us. The one thing that we both felt about the cruise was how wonderful, nice and hospitable the staff was. Even when the activities on the ship were a little cheesy, their enthusiam never waved. They made the trip!!!
We returned on Monday and both of us ended up having vertigo once we were off the ship! How strange to be perfectly fine on the ship and then be at home and feel like you have to grab the counter for balance.
We ended this week with a Lakers game on Thursday night. They were playing the Phoenix Suns which was fun because Shaq was there. It was fun to see how the crowd reacted to the old Laker. :) The one thing that made the game even more fun was the HOT burrito that Jon ordered from the stand. It was soo temperature hot, I saw one employee almost quit when she tried to place it on our tray. She yelled, "Oh hell no, I am not dealin' with this" (delivered with ghetto attitude) and a second employee had to come over with a pot holder to transfer the burrito to our tray. I wish she would have given us the pot holder because I tried to move it to make room for our drinks and felt the lava like hotness radiating from the wrapper. It was so hot, Jon was worried that he would be libel for a hole in the ozone. One hot burrito:This weekend we plan on taking it easy and maybe trying to clean the pit we live in. We hope.

Ski Freakout & Downtown Art

2009-02-16T19:42:00.000-08:00

I do hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day. We do not do too much for the holiday, but we did get out a bit. The new Dan Graham exhibit opened at the MOCA so we went to the special preview during the day. I really wanted to go in the evening when they were having their opening ceremony with DJs and cocktails and finger foods, but I was excited just to go see it during the day.
Dan Graham: Beyond was interesting and kept us there for quite a while. He experimented with architecture as well as video and performance art. He had one certain room with two cameras, two monitors and mirrors so that you could see yourself walking away as you walked toward yourself...if that makes any sense, but it was really cool and we spent a lot of time trying to turn around really fast and see what it looked like....which we could because one camera was on delay. That room was worth the entire trip there. so cool.
Right before visiting the gallery, we had lunch at a place that I will DEFINITELY go to again. It was a little French Dip sandwich place called Cole's French Dip. Clink on the link and check it out. I normally don't enjoy spicy foods, but I even loved their atomic pickles that they served with their French Dip sandwiches. The atmosphere was the best and they played a ton of good music. They are the oldest running restaurant and saloon in LA.We made it an early night and did not stay out too late as the next morning we woke up at the crack of dawn to hit the road and go skiing. The conditions were perfect and I was getting along really well at the easy green slopes and I even met the chairlift operator Mike who said I was his favorite lone passenger. I was actually having a darn good time even though my face was being exfoliated by the fierce winds, when Jon said, "Oh, let's try this other run. It is not that bad and I think you will be able to make it....only the end is really steep. I thought, no problem, I am getting good at this and haven't even fallen once.
Well....Let's just say the entire run from beginning to end was steep. I uttered more curse words than a sailor after a case of rum and had the ultimate freak out moment when I was able to stop myself mid...sheer cliff face and start crying because I had this image that I would never make it down to the lodge. Jon in all his smugness was skiing backwards saying, "Oh just take it slow, just lift up on this leg or that leg." Things you cannot tell a person who is fearing death on a 90 degree angle.
Thankfully, I survived and what should normally take a seasoned skiier 15 minutes to get down took me about an hour. I now have various bruises on my...well, let's just say everywhere and my legs have given up on me and are advertising for a new body.
Today was full on hard core rain and all I wanted to do was stay at home and watch movies and drink Celestial Seasonings Peach tea - which has become my favorite right now.

I grew up

2009-01-26T19:50:00.000-08:00

So, this last weekend was spent enjoying my new ride....yes, I finally have a grown up car. I have not gotten used to driving this car as in the past I have always had the used older vehicle that still smelled like whoever owned it before and had little kinks that gave it character, infused by the past owner...be it a nun or someone who may have drove the car on it's rims in a chase (the nun is fact, the chase has not been proven, but could have happened due to sustained damage on volvo).

I promise I will get better pictures so you can see what it looks like. Fitzy took this artsy photo before we hoped in the car and headed up to Mountain High to go skiing on Sunday morning. There was not a whole lot of snow and I have to admit that I gave Jon a hard time on the fact that I am a crappy skier and not good and was not sure if I even liked the sport...but I ended up doing pretty darn good and only fell once and I believe that was because I was dodging a snowboarder on the hillside. Those snowboarders can be obstacles that you need to be really good to steer around and I am getting pretty good at avoiding them. :) Hopefully next time I will be even better.
Saturday we went downtown to check out the latest exhibit at the MOCA. It was Louise Bourgeois. It was an interesting exhibit. She had various sculptures, drawings and prints. She also put together these pieces she called Cells which I thought were the best part about the exhibit. They were more interesting in the fact that they were large pieces set up as rooms that you could look into. Although the main thought that we had coming out of that exhibit....is that that woman needed a therapist pronto....she had issues man! She had a marble sculpture of a huge French country mansion that she had grown up in and she had it framed by a guillotine.
We came up with some of our own thoughts on an exhibit that we could put together. I may have to have my own little art show. I believe I could create something quite unique that could rival some of the items I have seen at the museum.

We then visited some friends who just had a little baby girl back in December. It was good to visit with them and see their new addition. I also received a call from dear friend on the good news of the arrival of their new daughter! I wish them well and hope everyone is doing good.

Thanks! Momentous Week!

2009-01-19T21:03:00.000-08:00

So, Thank you to my friends who commented on the last posting. :) It is nice to know that you guys are out there....Ohh, and I need to link to one friend's site as well.

This weekend was just like summer. I brought out the sandals and wore short sleeve in the heat. I also chopped all my hair off on Saturday. I was waiting in the hot sun in the window at the barber and decided...why not. It looked really good on Saturday and that night...but as always, I cannot seem to get it to look like the stylist did at Floyd's. I am working on it and will try to get you a pick once I can tame it a little.....it is jutting out all over the place right now.

Saturday night I went out with a wive's club to the Comedy & Magic Club. We went to see the author of "He's just not into you" and they had a few opening comedians who were funny including Ray Romano who made a guest appearance to try out his jokes for the inauguration. I guess the Obama's are fans of his show and he was invited to entertain at one of the inauguration functions. Good luck to him...we are also hoping that he did a bit more work on some of the jokes he tried that night.

Per my last post I have been good about cutting out the coffee at work in the mornings and doing tea instead...but this morning I really really felt like this:

I may break down and have to have a cup soon.
Woody also says hello to everyone!!! He is doing superbly:

Kinda New Year

2009-01-12T17:38:00.000-08:00

The New Year....I need to be better about updating the blog in the New Year. Although sometimes I think I may be the only one who reads it. :)
I thought that I would just ditch resolutions, but it seems that I am doing pretty well on a couple.
I ditched coffee in the morning and now do tea, which is much better for me as I used to use a LOT of cream in the coffee.
I have been trying to stay on top of things at work...which I have, as there is not a whole heck of a lot going on there at the moment.
I go to the gym....sometimes.
I am trying to manage the D-life a little better (diabetic life). I got a new doctor, am trying to stay focused on what I eat and trying to lose those extra pounds that seem to have attached themselves everywhere.
The temperature out here on the West Coast has been in the 80s!!! For January that is amazing and it is pretty sweet to be in short sleeve and shorts. Although I have to admit that when summer does arrive it is not something that is that special because it has been pretty fantastic all year.
I do miss the white winter from home and drying my sweaters on the radiator. I have this recent pic on my computer at work to remind me....and at work it could really be anywhere as I have no windows to the outside world.

Cat Herding

2008-12-31T14:58:00.000-08:00

So, I am so sorry that I have been neglecting this site so long. This is the last day of 2008 and I am hoping that I can be better about updating next year. The video that I just posted was a commercial from about two years ago and I cannot for the life of me remember it, but it is hysterical and reminds me of the stuff that we go through for our cat.
Over the holidays we had a pet sitter who told us that we should be feeding our cat a raw diet. Dude....seriously.....I am not so sure about spending more on our cats food than our own.
Hope everyone has had a fabulous year and cheers to an even more wonderful New Year.

End of Summer.....

2008-09-26T10:55:00.000-07:00

So, these last few weeks have been crazy for me. I have not been able to blog, or even come close to sending out emails, getting those last minute letters done or do any cleaning....our place is a mess. Work has overtaken my life and I think I spend more time in my windowless cell here at work than I do anywhere else.

I hope to see the light of day soon. Last weekend we got a bit in when we celebrated a birthday and hung out with friends. We all met up at the Fishshack for drinks and good company and then traversed over to La Playita for a mexican feast...with sangria.

I wanted to also blog about some fun things that we did this summer, and hopefully I can backlog some photos about it! We went to the Hollywood Bowl for their Fireworks finale with Brian Wilson. It was pretty good...he played a lot of the old Beach Boys favorites.

We have also been trying to make an effort to get downtown more often and check out the sites. The Disney Concert Hall is always on the top of our list and we are members at the MOCA so we will have to check it out more often....only after the Marlene Dumas exhibit is over....I do not care for her artwork at all...way too creepy. Her subjects for watercolor are death, nudity and faces.

Well, I will try to check in more often. Hope all is well in your world.

Cars & Camping

2008-08-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we went up North to check out the Monterey Historics at Laguna Seca Raceway. Jon was excited as it combined two of his favorite things....camping and race cars. I liked the fact that they were not your normal race cars...they had historics from as early at 1908. Beautiful cars that were well kept and could still handle the run around the track.

We set up our campsite late on Friday and woke up in the morning to find out that we were within viewing distance of the famed S curve.

Saturday started with strawberry pancakes and sausage, followed by tons and tons of racing, a couple of naps, and a nice sunburn.

We checked out all the cars in the paddock and Jon wanted his pic taken next to Ricky Bobby's car. We also saw Patrick Dempsey, who is a huge race fan as well. I think they had him get in a car for pictures, but I was never sure if he actually went out on the track with a car.

Saturday evening we had dinner in Monterey at the Monterey Fish House with some friends. I had the crab cake with scallops and it was fantastic!!! Thank goodness we went out for dinner as all we had left at the camp site for dinner was pork & beans.

On Sunday we checked out more in the infield and then started packing up camp. On the way back, we drove along route 46 and stopped to see the James Dean Memorial.

Overall, a pretty good weekend. It was not the normal camping that I usually like, but the best part of that was the track had shower trailers.....I am all about the showers! Whoo Hoo! Cleanliness. :) The weather was beautiful during the day and even the fog that rolls in around 7pm and stays until 12 noon did not bother us that much. Hope we can get back up to Monterey to check out other sites.

Getaway Part II

2008-08-01T16:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has taken so long to update and let you know how things went in Cancun!
We had a blast:

We spent a ton of time eating and just hanging out at the resort. I think the most fun we had was snorkeling off the reefs! Jon also got the hang of some other watersports:
Our excursions off the resort included a bike ride into a sad little town Puerto Morales one day and then taking a trip out to Chichen Itza, it was humid in the jungle and the place was amazing. To see all of these structures that were built so long ago. A very interesting and mysterious culture that I believe they are still uncovering secrets about.

We went swimming in a Cenote after touring the city of Chichen Itza. A cenote is a sink hole that uncovers part of a huge system of underground tunnels of water that are under Mexico. The water is sooo cool and refreshing I could have spent the whole week there:Back at home we celebrated Fitzy's B-day with a chocolate cake and I have been harvesting tomatoes off of my Aerogarden which are fantastic!!! :)

Whirlwind of a June

2008-07-11T12:58:00.000-07:00

June has flown by. All the plans, all the little details and the event I feel went off pretty well. Actually to me it was perfect! We have some early early pics that were sent by friends. I can't wait to get the pics from my friend Mo. She is pretty awesome with the lens. :)

The day was a blur and went by so fast that we may have to do it again...just kidding. :) The weather held out, we had a good turnout and the rice krispies and the root beer floats were perfect!
It was so good to see all the friends and family that came. I wish we had had a chance to chat with everyone a bit longer because it always feels like the time gets away from you and you do not get enough time for individual visits with everyone. I hope we can get around and see everyone soon.

We went off to Cancun after the wedding....more to follow.

I also never posted too much about my girl's weekend before the wedding. I got this photo from a friend as well. Yes, I wore the sash pretty much the whole night along with the princess crown. :)

Edison Downtown, Birthdays, Cabaret

2008-06-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

So, my dear friend Norah is in town for a conference that she is working on and it was her birthday on Wednesday, the 11th. Of course we had to celebrate!

We headed downtown to pick up Norah at the Standard and met her and her coworker David there (her other coworker, Shannon met us at the bar). We then headed over the the Edison Bar. The Edison was located only a few blocks away and as soon as you enter you feel like it has been night the whole time. The bar is visually stunning. Great architecture...old factory feel. We were seating in the Generator Room in close proximity to the bar area:

Drinks and food were half off before 8pm for their happy hour...not sure how many we got half price as the bill was a tad bit high, but hey it was fun.

At around 9pm they had a show that started in the bar. It was a company called Lucid Docier and they were very cabaret, spontaneous and interesting. They had a stilt walker, a absinthe fairy, wood nymphs...which is what I called the arial artists, and other interesting painted and dressed up people. It was a little hard to tell them apart from the normal LA crowd.

Overall an interesting and different evening. I hope Norah had a fabulous birthday. It was great to get to see her and hang out with her for a while when she is in town. :) I am hoping that I can meet up with her again before she leaves to go back to the midwest.

Weekend! Whoo Hoo

2008-06-09T13:55:00.000-07:00

So, this past weekend was a girl's weekend. Went out of town to MiraMonte resort and had a fabulous time...except for the four hours spent in Urgent Care and two pharmacies. :(

The weekend officially started on Friday when we went to see the Cubbies play the Dodgers:

It was not that great of a game....the Dodgers totally creamed the cubbies....but after watching all the games this weekend...the Cubs are still awesome and came back on Sunday for a win. The Dodger's pitcher was on fire that night and had some pitches at 90 mph and above!

Saturday was when we drove out to Mira Monte for the weekend and there will be more on that later, but I got the best facial at their spa there and would totally go back just for that. :)

Everything else is on schedule except that I am going a bit crazy with events at work and events soon to come :) We leave in less than three weeks!!!!! AHHHHHH!

Shower, Spa, Artwork, Sunsets, and a short visit

2008-06-05T09:45:00.000-07:00

Well I seem to be slacking off on the ole blog lately....shame shame. I have however been really busy and am trying to keep my head above water while planning events and such.

This last weekend my Mom, Sister, and friend Nicole came to visit. The time went by so fast when they were here. Work hosted an incredible shower for Jon and I that completely overwhelmed the both of us.....we are still a little shell shocked. We received so much stuff and now I actually have a "grown-up" kitchen....which means I should probably start cooking more things.

Saturday was spa day which was wonderful even though I completely burnt my calves the day before on the beach. We are talking at least a 2nd degree burn.....and it is so noticeable how straight the line from my capris are on the back of my legs. Note to self: Stay away from the sun altogether. We ended the evening by going out to eat at Petros in Manhattan Beach: a really nice Greek restaurant where I feel I could actually start a more Mediterranean diet. We ended the evening by having drinks at Shade Hotel...where you can watch the crazy mating habitat of the overly moosed and the overly perfumed.

Sunday, I dropped Shannon and Nicole off at the beach to bake a little longer and Mom, Jon and I went to check out the Watts Towers. Amazing sculpture artwork that was done over 20 years by a small Italian man. They showed a film about the towers in which you can see him climbing up on his structure with a small pail of cement and bits of broken pottery to decorate with. It was pretty cool even though we could not walk into the structure since it was under construction. We walked around the outside and piered in through the fence.

On Sunday, we capped off the night with Fusion Sushi and then drove up to the Whale watch on the peninsula and watched the sunset before we took Shannon, Mom and Nicole to the airport for their redeye back to the midwest. I hope they enjoyed their time out here even though it was sooo short. :(

Museum Birthday Fun and relaxation

2008-05-05T09:27:00.000-07:00

So, Friday was my b-day and I decided that I wanted to go to the First Fridays that they offer at the Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles.

On the first Friday of every month they open the museum later into the evening, feature a concert and DJs spinning in a couple of the animal display rooms and they have a bar and a little bistro serving food. It was awesome! One of their new exhibits is a "how do they do it" display on how they clean, catalog and put together a dinosaur display. The dino is named Thomas and their exhibit on the second floor had people working into the night on Thomas's femur bone while people could walk by and check it out. They also had someone dressed up as a Thomas the T-Tex who cruised the concert and bar area....with guides because the person inside the suit could not really see anything. Maybe they were correct in having the dino be a little blind....how could such a large beast see with such little beady eyes. In the second picture, Thomas did smack me with his tail....ouch

Jon and I had dinner at the little bistro and were pretty impressed with the food. We had curry chicken breast over a cous cous salad....it also came with a brownie (that filled in as my b-day cake). In the room where they served the food they had the DJ spinning records. I kept laughing at the fact that the DJ was right in front of the buffalo display and he kind of blended in:

The Akron Family and the Dodos were the bands that played at the museum that night in the opposite room from the DJ. They also displayed the band stage on projectors out in the main lobby. Kind of cool to see the band right beside the large dino display.
We left around 9:30 which was perfect because we left the downtown area early and had no problem with traffic. On Saturday, we chilled out in the morning and then drove down to Long Beach to check out the American Diabetes Assoc. Conference. We arrived kind of late to catch any of the discussions, but walked around the trade show floor and checked out the latest in technologies there. I was a little surprised at some of the booths....they had a rice booth. White rice is really high in carbs and not really a good choice for most diabetics. I could not get close to that booth to see if they were talking about low carb rice or something because they were giving away samples of rice and it was insanely crazy...cause people LOVE samples. That evening, Jon went off to have a manly day with some of his friends and I got together with my friend Michelle and we went to Color Me Mine (she took me there for my birthday) and then had dinner at Fushion Sushi...yum.

Sunday, we tried to get some chores around the house done. The key word being TRIED. This is what the dynamic duo looked like most of the day:

Brrrrr...desert trip and lots of hot tea

2008-04-11T12:47:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we treked out to the desert for another camping trip. Jon had some friends who wanted to check out the Mojave Trail, so we all packed up and headed out late on Friday to the desert...stayed at a creepy casino hotel and then hit the trail on Saturday morning.
The weather during the day: Fantabulous! The weather during the evening: Horrendous! Below is Hiromi and I with the convoy of trucks. This was at the trail head, which we took out of Laughlin, NV. Hiromi had to read the map that we had...which was not really a map, more like a book that stated in novel form where you should go.Following the directions we knew we were on the right track as we passed cairns of rocks stacked next to the trail and the highlights that we were looking for popped out of nowhere. Here Les and Jon are contributing to the penny tree. You have to place a donation of one penny in the beverage can tied to the joshua tree with a coat hanger when you pass...and if the can is full...add another can. :)The area is so desolate that when you do see a structure it really stands out. This interesting building was part of a cluster of buildings that I have a feeling were created for a group to come out and have a good time. There was a "saloon" and a beat up old partical board house next to this tiny chapel.One of the first places that we stopped was an old Fort (Fort Piute) that was set in between two hillsides to overlook and protect the passage through the desert. There was an old foundation where the lookouts slept side by side with their horses....gotta keep the horses inside so no one steals them....they had that happen a few times out here I believe. These petroglyphs were found near the fort in an area that was covered in these rocks...they even had a small structure that used some of the rocks with petroglyphs to build the corners. We took pics of the rocks, tried to stay away from the weird red/black bugs that were all over and then stayed for lunch before we headed out once again.
One of the highlights of the trip and later we found out a "rare treat" was to spot this little guy. Hiromi saw him in the distance and thought it was a toy at first until he started moving. These desert tortoises are rare and hard to find out here. We got up really close and I did the unthinkable and touched him, which I later found out is not good...as they are a protected species...but I figure I am ok with this pic since I did not know until later that you are supposed to stay at least 10 ft away from them.It is hard to believe that anything could survive out in this desolate place. It is hot during the day and freezing at night. The wonderful thing about this season is that there are tons of flowers that bloom before the horrible HOT HOT HOT months. The desert floor was covered in these brillant pick flowers along with tiny white, yellow and purple looking daisies and other paintbrush type plants which made driving along the mojave trail a lot more interesting.Late in the afternoon we set up camp near the rockhouse which is shown below. It was on top of a hill which I am not sure was the best location for us. Let's just say...the desert can create some serious winds....serious nasty winds...which made me declare several times that I no longer EVER want to camp in the desert. I do not think anyone slept that night. It was freezing and the howling winds kept the tents nice and noisy. Jon and I had our mummy sleeping bags which really helped keep us warm...but I guess not warm enough because I woke up on Sunday with NO voice. nada nothing....total hand signals the rest of the day from me along with a hacking cough and fever. It is Friday today and I am still stuffed up a bit, but I am definitely making it to the gym tonight....must forge on....must get rid of extra weight I am carrying around.

Message to all who go to the desert: Pack for cold weather as well...it can happen and it can be brutal!

I hate cars and found a new food love

2008-04-02T08:18:00.000-07:00

So, yesterday I had some ups and downs. In California you must get your car checked for smog every two years. I took my trusty Volvo to the smog place yesterday and it did not pass. I was utterly bummed and pretty frustrated since I had just put some money in it to fix the check engine light in the hopes that I would pass the smog test.
Now I have to put more money in it, take time off of work to wait at the auto mechanic while they fix it, and then go and get it retested. Right now I hate the California government. Many people that I have talked to have gotten very loud about what they think of this whole smog test thing...it really doesn't help our emissions all that much around here....we are still a VERY poluted area.
This time I am on my own about it as well. Jon has left me to my own defenses on this one. I think he has been a little testy lately and when I ask him for favors he often turns me down now....is that what happens once you get engaged?? I guess so.
In better news, last night I think I had one of the best dinners that I have ever had. Our friend Craig took us out to dinner to a place in Torrance called Kappo Seafood. They have Kobe Beef on the menu. We are not talking about the "americanized" kobe beef, we are talking about "Kobe-niku" the cows who get daily massages and beer or sake in Japan.
I now know what all the fuss is about. It was unbelievable. It melts in your mouth like butter and has the most wonderful taste. It is not cheap, at $14.00 an ounce, but well worth it and I hope not to become too addicted. I may spend all my money on kobe beef and have to join an addicts club. Hello, my name is Erin and I am addicted to Kobe beef.
We also had an amazing little bowl full of custard that had seafood in it....I know, doesn't sound so appetizing, but it was delicious and the tiny little stone pottery bowl it came in is now on my wish list. As we were eating it we were wondering how many of these little bowls end up in purses leaving the restaurant. No...I left mine on the table-thank you!
Well, today at the office I hope not to be bogged down with too much. I am still working on golf and things are going along ok...I guess. I think as a non-profit we are a little worried on losing donations due to our sad economy....and the price of kobe beef.

In 'N Out

2008-03-26T15:13:00.000-07:00

So, today at the office we were treated to In 'N Out Burger. They brought over the cookout trailer and served all the employees. I have been waiting for this day. :)

The trailer did not look this sweet. It was parked in the parking lot outside the hospital and had a long line of tired looking employees surrounding it. I would have liked the grass better than the parking lot, but hey Free Burgers...who can complain. I ate a delicious Double DoubleYUM!

In 'N Out is a West Coast establishment with a pretty simple menu (it also has a special menu that people know about and can order specialty orders from). I only indulge every so often, but it is sooo good. Jon and I know some people who boycott this establishment because the company is christian and they have bible verses on alot of their paper products. I believe these people are just a little too crazy. They are just jealous and drouling. They are missing out bigtime. I bet they also boycott another favorite of mine which is Chick-fil-a, another fast food meca that is closed on Sundays because the owners are baptists.

The only problem with all of this fast food is that I felt like this after lunch today:

For Easter this year, got together with friends to have a ham dinner and played a lot of yahtzee. Good times. Hope everyone had a good Easter. I will try and send warm weather your way...we got lots of it.

Two size 2s and two size 0s make it a size 4.

2008-03-20T09:36:00.001-07:00

You know when you find something fabulous and you think....mmm I really must have that. Well, I found a dress that I thought would be perfect for a future occasion and so I went online to order it since the store only had two size 2s and two size 0s. Like most of the stores here in California.

Unfortunately they were completely out online. Nada, nothing. I am not sure why they keep it active on their website as it is really just a tease that no one can have it. :(
But isn't it just dreamy?

So, over the past few weeks the activities have been: Anaheim Hockey Game, Spring Fashion Show for Charity, and cursing stores in the area for only having sizes for people under the age of 10.

I have been working on quite a bit in the office...we have a golf tournament coming up and I am trying to raise money for it. Anyone want to come to Southern California to play golf?

Message from Sir Woodrow

2008-03-06T10:15:00.001-08:00

My job has been very hard lately. As head kitty (and only kitty) of the household I have been on constant alert for any noises, movements or food that appear in this residence. I don't think the humans realize that I have a 24/7 career protecting them from the evils that could ensue.

I do have some free time to enjoy the things that I like best. My favorites happen to be sleeping on my back, tearing the plastic off the newspapers, securing my dominance over the red cube, eating popcorn, tomato soup and cheese...cannot get enough of that tomato soup.

I have been working on my weight. With my knightly "sir" title it is hard to keep up with the demands of staying strong and handsome. My regime is to chase the laser pointer and use the stairs as my gym. I do have a before photo that I will release as soon as I work a little on toning up the belly. In the meantime I believe I will ask the humans for a good brushing....eliminating the puffiness that occurs with my luxurious coat. Very demanding work, I believe I am due a nice nap today for it all.

Yum....cake

2008-03-05T14:02:00.000-08:00

So, not much happened in my world this weekend...the usual..laundry, cleaning, watching movies. Saw a little indie film entitled, "Things to Do". It started out slow and I thought I would not be able to make it through because the acting was a little stiff, but I am glad I held out because it turned out to be a pretty funny little film.

Because I did not have time or energy to take pictures of things at home, I will link to some things that I think are pretty divine. So, dessert...who can really say no. I love these cake designs and I have a feeling that I would not be able to eat them because they are works for art: This cake is by: http://www.sarahmagid.com/index.html

This next one is off of a contest where you can vote on your favorite cake: http://www.brides.com/brides/cakes
Ohhh, and if you vote for your favorite cake you may win it....so go and vote for a cake you like and then maybe we can all have it at my wedding. :)
Right now I have a fabulous plan for the dessert part of the reception, but hey...we can always add a free cake. :)

Lazy Days and shame on me for not posting

2008-02-25T10:33:00.000-08:00

Aloha! Whew, I have not posted in a little while here, but that is probably because the last few weeks have been lazy and not that thrilling. I am sure you all want to hear about how I have been working out and my swimsuit has changed to a completely different color due to the over abundance of chlorine in the gym pool and how I have been laying around on the couch getting only about a quarter of the things that I have on my to-do list done.

Over the past two weekends we have been hanging out with friends, enjoying the lovely clean smell of backyard grown lemons in our kitchen and taking much needed naps on the couch with Mr. Woodrow. Here are some pics:
Probably one of the last times we will be at the Poop Deck as it is in the process of being sold and then probably demolished for some trendy hot spot in Hermosa: mmmm... lemony: I love throwing these down the disposal in the sink cause the scent permeates everything. Woody would hate me saying this, but he snores....loudly...it is like a purr snore. Please please no photos!

Palma Springs

2008-02-11T08:56:00.000-08:00

So, this weekend we got away. We headed out to the desert for some 80 degree temps and off-roading. We took the geology tour road through Joshua Tree.
I took tons of photos of rock formations and the vast expanse full of Joshua trees. They are so strange. The weather was perfect...not too hot and not too chilly. We spent most of the day off-road navigating the rocks. The trucks got a bit dirty as well:
After being on the road all day we stayed in Palm Springs. We got in after sunset and came to the Doral Resort (located in Cathedral City) which is where we had our reservation. The resort had overbooked themselves so they sent us over to the Holiday Inn in Palm Springs and paid for our stay. It was nice since the hotel was newly renovated and their pool was awesome and just the thing I needed in the morning.....pool and two HOT TUBS. :) So, I got to swim and gaze out at the snow topped mountains.
Overall a fabulous weekend, even though the truck now needs some welding work done on the front shocks. Somewhere off-road the front left shock just tore off it's bolt. We were able to drive back with it dangling with no problem. We stopped at the Outlet stores in Cabazon which I now notice are not really a good deal at all...in fact most of their prices were retail.

Very Rainy

2008-01-28T08:34:00.000-08:00

I so wish that weekends and workdays could be switched around...so that we had two days of work and five days of relaxation. As you can probably guess by now...I do not like being in the office.
The weekend was fantastic even though it rained off and on. During the days it was mostly sunny and warm and looked so clear out....but then you would get the grey cover and pouring rain.
Saturday night we got the chance to go and check out the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA. I was hoping to get some outside pics of it, but it was pouring when we arrived. This was our vantage point in the hall:They were performing a "War Requiem" that was composed in dedication to a church that was bombed in WWII by the Germans and then rebuilt after the war. The Philharmonic played with the LA Children's Choir and the LA Choir. It was quite heavy being a war requiem and the lyrics were not really my fave. I felt for the singers because if I was singing this I would think...What the....... It was a lot of "blood on my chariot wheels", death and dying.
Just what one wants to listen to on a Saturday evening.
The background singing was done in latin I believe and the main soloists sang in English. The building by far was my favorite part of the whole evening. The place is unbelievable and the amount of beautiful wood grains in the building is massive. The centerpiece is this large organ that takes up one whole wall of the hall. The choir was coming in to fill those seats while we took this photo.
The entire score was one hour and 25 minutes and I am so glad I did not need a bathroom break because you are not allowed back in the hall due to the acoustics. So, once you are out- you are out. No intermissions in this one. After the event, Acura (the car company) hosted a reception with coffee and pastries. Yummy! I do hope that I can go back again and see another piece. It is such a beautiful place and there are no bad seats.
The rest of the weekend was spent cleaning and working out at the gym. Love the aqua class on Sunday's and it was pouring yesterday morning while in the class and so I decided not to change and walk to my car in my swimsuit and towel.....I mean might as well since I forgot my umbrella.
Now I am back in the office with absolutely no motivation to do anything. I must push myself to complete something.....I want to get at least one thing on my to-do list done.
P.S. We also watched two movies this weekend, Transformers and Stardust. I was soooo confused in Transformers....half the time I could not figure out what was going on or which monster truck was either good or bad. Stardust...such a cute movie...a definite chick flick, fairy tale story.

Guests, Water, Craziness

2008-01-25T15:34:00.000-08:00

Aloha, I have not updated as much as I wanted to in Jan, but here I am. I just had some guests come and visit. Norah, Jill and Joe came up the coast after their conference in San Diego to hang beachside for a few days. It was unfortunately kind of chilly and overcast, but I am hoping they had a good few days here. I know it was a lot warmer here than in Chi town.
I was hoping to take more photos while there were here, but alas, I did not charge up my camera and kept seeing the sad little flashy yellow battery sign in the frame.
The day they left the sky opened up and we got the downpour we have been waiting for. Last night's was the worst. It rained so hard I thought the skylight in the bathroom would break.
In other news, I have been enjoying salads made from the greens that grew in my Aerogarden...yum yum and I have been trying to keep my head above water at the office. I seem to have inherited several other smaller special events that I have to plan and it is taking up all my time to stay on top of them all.
I have dodged the bullet on jury duty this month which was a pleasant surprise. Last week I was sure I would be on a case for a full month. I was in the box and did not know either the plaintiff or the defendant. Luckily, I knew one of the witnesses.....I work close to the courthouse and one of the witnesses was on the foundation board where I work. They asked me if I spoke to him regularly and I figured I call him almost once a month to see if he will be attending board meetings so I think that is pretty regular. Thank Goodness, cause the case sounded super boring and it would have lasted three weeks to a month!
Well, hopefully my camera will be back in full swing...it is charging as I type this and I will supply you with tons of pics.
Tomorrow night I am heading downtown with some friends to check out the Walt Disney Concert Hall. I am very excited to check it out because it has been on my to-do list for a looooong time.
Hope everyone is staying warm and doing well.

Green Thumb part II

2008-01-09T13:43:00.000-08:00

Forgot about this little plant which has also been growing fabulously:

Green Thumb

2008-01-08T17:19:00.000-08:00

So, maybe I am actually getting a bit of a green thumb, or maybe it is because this device keeps a constant supply of water and light at the ready for these plants, but I am growing my own lettuce in the kitchen in the Aero Garden that Jon got me for Santa Day.

I am growing green and red leaf as well as romaine. The rain that we have had has also allowed my succulent to grow to amazing proportions:

So, I am not sure what other people's New Year's resolutions were, but I have already seriously failed in mine and it has not even been a month. The one resolution that I have stuck to is the exercise...except that I kind of over did it with the kickboxing on Saturday, Boot Camp on Sunday and then a training session on Monday. Right now I am taking the elevator in the office and I am only on the second floor.
Well, I hope the rest of you are staying on top of your new year's resolutions. :)

New Year!

2008-01-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

Ahhh a new year! Hoping 2008 will be spectacular for everyone. :)
The holiday getaway was much needed and it was nice to have a white Christmas! Here are a few pictures of the winter loveliness:

Spending time with the family was nice because we feel so so far away out here on the coast.

We played tons of games and made use out of the pool table. I don't think I was ever on the winning team, but with practice I can be pretty darn good.

The travel back to the airport was treacherous. This is a shot of driving through Tapley Woods in the snow: We sat on the tarmack for about an hour or so and then we went back to the gate without getting off the plane for another hour or so before we took off. Needless to say it was a loooong trip.

It was nice to get settled in back at home, but I wish I could have stayed in the midwest longer.

Happy Holidays

2007-12-18T21:59:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays and Cheers to a fabulous New Year!

Drowning in double bookings

2007-12-17T08:37:00.001-08:00

Argh, why do I do this during the holidays? The next two days, this being one of them, are going to be complete chaos. I have seemed to triple and double book myself. Tonight I have to make an appearance at an open house for the nuns at work...yes you heard it right...I am going to an open house hosted by nuns. They are making bourbon balls for it. Then I need to skedadle and get myself to the gym to see my trainer about an hour after the nun open house starts...hoping I can seemlessly do this.
Then I also have to get to the store to buy food for the potluck work party tomorrow that I seem to be not only attending, but planning as well.....it does not make it a fun party for me when I have to worry about the fact that I need to go buy beverages and I must arrive early to set up and stuff like that. I think the office owes me a spa getaway after that, cause their ways are turning me into a ripe old scrooge.
I wanted to post some pictures today, but my camera was taken from my purse for a different project so I will have to update you later with all the photos that were taken over the last week.
Yesterday, I did crafts with my friend Sue and turned the house into a disaster zone. I am not sure the house will ever ever be clean after this...but it does smell an awful lot like peppermint right now so that is pretty sweet...it is like the apartment brushed it's teeth.
So, at this particular moment my head is inching toward my desk...I do believe I must leave you now in search of coffee.
Too keep you light hearted and happy, my suggestion is to go to YouTube and search for MXC Saddle Sores to see one of the funniest game shows I have ever experienced.

Why must the weekend be sooo short :(

2007-12-10T10:05:00.000-08:00

It was an unbelievably beautiful weekend we just had....I wish it had not ended. The weather was perfect...I was in a t-shirt during most of the day and then had a nice isle sweater to wear when it got a bit crisp. Friday was spent couch surfing in the evening as I did not want to go out anywhere. The weather was windy and the sky kept spitting every so often that evening. We had some friends that went on the 12 bars of Christmas which was held that night and so we are still waiting to hear how it went. I think for the evening it would have turned out to be the one or two bars of Christmas because I would have wanted to stay inside once I got to one....but I never like the first bar they start at so I would NOT have stayed there...music is way too loud and the bartenders always look like they forgot to put on clothes....ridiculous looking short shorts. On Saturday, we cleaned up the haus and tried to write a list out of the rest of the things we needed to get done for the holidays. We then joined up with friends to have a little Xmas party and we played Wii and watched the fight between Mayweather (who I keep referring to as Merriweather) and Hatton. I would MUCH rather have seen Hatton win because Merriweather needs to be knocked off his pimp pedestal.
Our neighborhood also decorated for Xmas...this was the Santa Stop at the corner of our block:
On Sunday we strolled around the neighborhood and took in the holiday foliage such as this interesting plant that looks like it is Aloe, but seems to bloom these wonderful peaks at the end of the year.
We then went down to the Catalina coffee house to
play some supersize chess and sip some coffee. Jon won fair and square, but I think I gave him a hard time on the playing field.

The apricot bar that we shared while there was definitely tasty although we thought it was peach at first...they need to label their baked goods.

The best thing about this time of the year here in the south bay is how clear the air is because of the wind...the water was not very choppy on Sunday when we took this shot, but the news has been saying that the waves have been insane lately and that if we have a chance when the winds start to pick up we should head down and view their power.

The Holidays and Blatant Kitty Cuteness

2007-12-03T09:47:00.000-08:00

So, this weekend I decorated the house (took all of 15 minutes) and centered myself into the Christmas spirit. My friend Sue and I did crafts and she taught me how to make little snowman. Sue's are really intricate with top hats and little bits of holly. One of hers even has cheeks that blush....very cute. Here was my try at creating a snowman...he has a gnome/elf hat on.

Jon purchased a santa hat for Woody and instead of wearing it on his head he liked to stick his head inside the hat.Stay away from my hat.We also realized that we needed to get a stocking for Woody as we have one for each of us and it would just not be fair to not include him. I promise not to blog too much about our fat cat, but right now he is the newbie in this place and it feels as if the apartment revolves around him at the moment. When you try and cook in the kitchen he is begging at your feet. While watching TV he asks you to tune into the Animal Planet channel or the Classical Music Station. When you have to leave the apartment he tries to either look really sad that you will not let him out or he will hide and try to dart out of the door. He has gotten out a few times, but everytime he gets out the door he stops to sniff the first succulent plant that is outside our door and I just scoop him up....then I carry him around so he can smell the jade plants and the pine tree and see the street a while.

So, the office today will be quiet because the grand opening of our new clinic in Hawthorne is happening today. It is a great thing that this place is opening because it will help to relieve some of the excess amount of people that come into the ER to get treated.

Busy holiday busy

2007-11-29T13:41:00.001-08:00

So, I should have posted sooner, but I have been working, working out, and trying to stay ahead of the holidays. Took another spin class last night and thought I was about to go into the white light during the class, but luckily slowed down and got through it.

I have not done decorating at home just yet and I am still trying to pin down all of my holiday shopping, but I am keeping up with cleaning on the place. I feel like I have to clean a lot more now that we have Sir Woody, so we vaccuum often and I am now addicted to the cleaning supplies from Mrs. Meyers. I especially love the Lemon Verbena and I believe I am mopping the kitchen floor more often because of it. http://www.mrsmeyers.com/
Thanksgiving was fun as we ended up spending it with some friends and cooking a full thanksgiving meal with plenty of potatoes, turkey and stuffing. I had a full four days off from the office which was magical except that I always feel like I have missed quite a bit when I return. The plants in our office were looking pretty sad, but that was about it. During those four days I pretty much did nothing. I was a human slug. The best kind. I slept, ate, watched TV, and mopped the floor.
Monday was my friend Tiffany's birthday so we went out for dinner. We ate outside and it turned out to be so nice with just a jacket and sweater. That same evening I had my training session with the trainer and he worked my muscles out so much that when I got home to get ready to go out for dinner I thought I was not going to make it...and I certainly felt like I was not going to eat anything, but of course as soon as we got to the restaurant, I was ready for some food and felt fine.
So, today in the office is pretty calm and not too much is getting done in my department....I suppose I should do something while I am here.

Hotel Hoppin'

2007-11-20T16:31:00.000-08:00

So, this last weekend Jon hopped over to the Fairmont Hotel for work and I decided to drive up and join him there on Saturday night since I had an event on Sunday at said hotel that I was attending.
The Fairmont was much more luxurious than the other place downtown and everything was monogrammed with little Fs. Jon thought this was fantastic and thought that the hotel should give him these items for free since his last name obviously starts with an F...therefore these items MUST be meant for him. I dined on a CPK salad for dinner and went shopping along the 3rd St. Promenade and then retired early. The next morning the line started up for the Sassy City Girl Sample Sale which is what I had registered to attend a while ago. The line was out the gates of the hotel and down the street...I had no idea how popular this was. The sale was held in several rooms in the lower section of the hotel (basement) and so it was mighty crowded down there trying to see what each of the designers brought. I did some holiday shopping...hence I will not say what was purchased at said event, and then my friend Sue and I left at a reasonable time before our heads exploded from the crush of mad shopping ladies.
After the sale we went to Barney's Beanery for some chow and then did some necessity shopping at the Target in the evening. I found out that night that if I spend a full day shopping, my brain as well as all of my muscles turn into a type of jiggly pudding. Monday at the office was hard to get used to, but I got through the day and today has been a little better and I do wonder if it is not due to the fact that this is a short week due to the holiday of massive mashed potatoes.
On Monday night I went and met with my fitness trainer who worked out my arms until I could not move them anymore...somehow I was able to drive home that evening, but this morning I could not grab the cereal box off the top of the refrigerator and needed assistance. Tomorrow night I plan to punish myself somemore and go to the spinning class again. It is my punishment for eating two pieces of chocolate out of the Sees Candy Box that someone brought into the bloody office. I hope everyone has a fabulous massive mashed potatoes day! Cheers, e

Weird bikes and my Midweek Moroccan Getaway

2007-11-16T10:29:00.001-08:00

Ok, so this last weekend & week went by too fast and I am once again at work on a Friday. Everyone knows that a lot of work does not get done on a Friday so I decided I had better update everyone on the events here in LA.

Over the weekend it was balmy and gorgeous outside so we went and visited Charles and saw his new fun vehicle purchase. He purchased this new bike from Honda...that is most bizarre and must get him a ton of stares on the road. It looks kind of like a snowmobile and somewhat like a motorcycle and somewhat like something I have never seen before. My first impression was that I would nickname it the bee...the bumble bee. Here I am trying out the cushiness of the seat and seeing just how one sits on this oddity:

This week was then started on a good note with not a whole lot to do at the office this week, but prepare for the upcoming events that will happen in the spring and to print my new 2008 event calendar brochure that goes out to all of our donors and friends. Jon was attending the LA Auto Show in downtown Los Angeles, so I decided to get out of the South Bay and stay with him downtown at the funky hotel that they were put up at. They were staying at the Figueroa Hotel which was once a YWCA. The hotel has since been redesigned into a funky getaway. They did not have the money to update the bathrooms or the actual ammenities, but the hotel itself has so much character that it redeems itself. The floors are concrete that has been painted in warm colors and added to with colorful tiles and artwork.

The room was small and cozy and it was pretty hot downtown that evening so I opened up the windows in the room and read the book I had brought with me. Then when I got a little hungry I went to the famous Pantry diner to eat at the counter.

I had a delicious grilled cheese (ohhhh bad on my diet) and listened to the students who kept coming in to get to go items. I guess their spaghetti and meatballs dinner was the popular choice, but their breakfast all day also enticed me.

On the way back to my room, I noticed a fire escape door open and took this shot of the pool and the downtown skyline before heading off to bed.

oooh my bum

2007-11-08T10:20:00.001-08:00

So, last night my friend Michelle and I took a spinning class....it was pure torture. My legs really do not hurt that much today, but my bum is aching and my shoulders would like to detach themselves from my body.
Michelle exclaimed "Never never never again" after class and I just remember cursing the instructor as she kept yelling "peddle faster...raise that resistance." I did cheat a little bit and I do not think the resistance on my bike was up to what it was really supposed to be.
On the other hand I did get introduced to the Hermosa Beach 24 hour fitness which is much much nicer than the Torrance one...although it is a bit more of a meat market than the Torrance one is. On Saturday I will be trying out the kickboxing class which is Michelle's favorite. I am excited about that one. I have decided to also use the spinning class as my reminder that I should not have that piece of cake.....such as, if I have that piece of chocolate cake I will have to take another spinning class. I believe I will totally eat a piece of celery instead and skip the spinning.
Woody returned to our house after one night out! He apologized and finally let us know that he is pretty much a wuss in the outside world, where they do not have treats, or laser pointers or a good wire brushing which are some of his favorite things. He now does not spend all of his time in the pots and pans cabinet, but has taken to sleeping on the stairs or under the dining table.
This last weekend was nice and easy going. On Saturday we found ourselves at a baby shower for some friends who are expecting a little boy, and then I went shopping on Sunday which of course is so dangerous these days as I have found myself to be quite a little shopping maniac....I would never believe that I could become one of those, but it has happened.
From now on, I promise only to purchase xmas gifts. Ohhhh I am so behind on that.

Message from Captain Woodruff III

2007-11-01T09:19:00.001-07:00

I dare say my good friend, I do not weigh 30 pounds, but am a rather light 15 pound kitty. I finally let that human Erin lift me onto the scale to show her that I am not as chuncky as they all think. My time here has been good and not all that horrifying. I was given a nice welcome gift of a katnip mouse that I have licked to death and they seem to feed me the same as my old friend Larry the Harley guy. I do miss Larry and hope that he did not let me go due to my asking him everyday for a Harley of my own. He insists that they do not make a helmet in my size...yeah right...I have heard that one before.
Last night was Halloween and I decided I would make my escape. The humans had visitors and were chatting downstairs while I was planning my getaway. I hid under the guest bed and listened while they visited with the little human named Elise. The couple that came over was Sean and Suzie Hansen. I caught them taking this photo of Erin with the small human dressed as a pumpkin.
I planned my escape around the pumpkin that they carved for the trick or treaters. It was very small and so I thought that my plan would not work, but those humans are not always as smart as they think. All week I have been letting them know my plans, but due to the different dialect that I speak they had no idea what I was talking about. The Erin Human had gone to bed and so I knew that she would not be a problem. The Jon one is a bit easier to trick and so I waited until he went to go and make sure that the pumpkin's candle was out for the evening and I made the mad dash between his legs and out into the wild. He tried to coax me back into his domicile, but I was not falling for that one. I may come back if I cannot find a place that suits me or maybe I will never come back...who knows. They had already given me the nickname The Fridge and I was highly offended that I would be called that...as I do not like anything they have in their fridge, but I may miss them and show up one day once again. Stay tuned for further details.

Just one more coal for the fire sir...

2007-10-29T11:04:00.001-07:00

So, I am freezing in our meatlocker of an office. The building that I work in would benefit from a complete demolition....it is old, nasty, has no windows and was built during a period of ugly architecture. Very ugly architecture.

I keep thinking that I will turn around and see Scrooge holding a bag of coal in the corner saying, "One piece for the whole day...that is all you get."

This weekend the sky finally cleared up. The onshore winds finally kicked in and blew the ash and smoke away and there was blue sky! On Sunday, went for a bike ride and ended up in Riviera Village where we went and had lunch at the Petit Casino...a little french restaurant that has pretty good crossiant sandwiches. I went next door after that to look at Xmas cards at a little boutique called Card de a. They have the best cards for the holidays. I cannot believe I am already shopping for the holidays. I do not have any of my gift shopping done at all and I am afraid it might once again get down to the wire and I will get all freaked out that I have not gotten the right gifts...it happens every year.

This weekend we also had a trial run with a kitty in our house. I am not sure that I would call Woody a kitty as he is more like a 30 pound dat or cog....he is enormous and what is weird is that I do not believe all of it is due to weight...it is more like he is a muscle builder cat. Anyway, my new nick name for him is my "fat fraidy cat" because he is so scared of everything. He searched out the living room and then opened the bottom pot and pan cabinet in our kitchen and hid out in there most of Sunday afternoon.

He finally came out while I was sitting on the couch reading and he sat at my feet. He gets along fine with me, but I wish he was more of a lap sitter....maybe he just feels self conscious about his weight and that is why he would not join me on the couch.

So, I am hoping that he is ok at the house today, I just found out from someone that it is hot outside so I have an odd feeling that Mr. Fat Fraidy Cat is once again in the pot and pan cabinet. He seems to like it in there, so as long as he is happy I am good with it. He is our cupboard kitty.

The Sky is falling

2007-10-23T09:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, in fact the sky is falling in flakes of ash...everywhere. So, Southern California is surrounded by fire and even though I live far away from the fires, they are causing chaos everywhere. The sensors that let meterologists know that it is raining keep letting them know that we are in a rain storm....only it is not rain, it is ash. This morning when I got to my car it was covered and now I can actually see little white flakes in the air. They are saying we should try to stay inside and breath only filtered air. Hopefully for the people that are near the fires we will be able to get them under control soon. They leave fantastic sunsets, but the damage that it has already left with over a hundred homes destroyed is just unbelievable.

It may be hard to see, but the photo above is the table on the patio...covered in ash...if you look up at the top of the table near the lime tree (that has actual limes on it-yeah!) you can see the one spot where there was a candle sitting.

In other news this week, I am trying to eat healthier and make more veggies. I made my first spaghetti squash last week and it was a hit...we will do that again soon.Unfortunately, I also decided that this week would be a good time to clean out the cabinets and start using some of the food that was stashed in there. I found a spice cake mix, so of course I decided...why not...let's make an October cake. I made it last night and as you can see enjoyed two pieces before it went off to the fridge.

My last weekend was one of relaxation and doing absolutely nothing in terms of cleaning up or any work type stuff. I rode my bike to the library and checked out some books and then picked up some buffalo mozzarella and heirloom tomatoes from Whole Foods (whole paycheck) and watched some movies....The Queen (made me want some Corgis) and Cold Comfort Farm (most bizarre and I think they cut out some needed scenes).

Jon on the other had was in the middle of no where in a desert sand storm on his manly camping trip:

Poor truck got stuck: On his way back on Sunday, he almost did not make it due to some of the fires. Here is a view of what he had to drive through on the way back.

Lazy Pink Weekend

2007-10-15T20:40:00.000-07:00

So, I have been hard at work trying to get ready for this conference that we finally had on Friday of this last week. Everything was done in pink and brown for the Women's Wellness Conference and the theme was Power of Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness. We had over 500 women attend on Friday and our keynote speaker was Ann Jillian. I was not so sure how she would do, but she gave a fantastic speech and kept tying in our hospital and Breast Center so that was good.
Our office has been inundated with pink and I think I am finally ready to get rid of it all...here are a few of the items we had at our conference.Norah flew in on Saturday to stay with us before work on Monday. We spent the afternoon relaxing around the South Bay and hanging out at the pier where Norah tried the largest pinball machine...unfortunately Hercules was not working that well and needs some TLC from the Fun Factory Folks.The next day we took the long road (Mulholland Dr.) toward downtown to drop Norah off at the Westin Bonaventure and stayed to have a drink in the revolving lounge on the 35th Flr.
Work on Monday was back to normal. Wrapping up after the conference and figuring out all the money. I went grocery shopping after work and due to the pomegranate conversations I had with Norah, I had to get this local large pom at the grocery.There was also an interesting package from Mom...and it was a good thing I saw the return label on the package, otherwise it would have been so strange to have gotten this squeezy brain scull. Jon just love's it.

Camping

2007-09-20T19:46:00.000-07:00

Camping last weekend in Ojai was a blast. We drove up on Friday and first went to the original camp site that we booked called Wheeler Gorge. It was gorgeous and had a creek running right through the camp site. Unfortunately due to the large Ojai fire that they recently had, they had restricted campers to only use a propane stove to heat anything. So, plan B, we drove back into Ojai to see if we could find a different campsite. Luckily we met up with a county park ranger and he let us in on a little secret...regarding a camp site that had just been reopened and since it was county you could have fires.
We set up the tent and opened the krispie treat...the largest krispie treat we could find, don't worry I ended up sharing...a little.We were so close to downtown Ojai that we drove down for a fancy coffee in the morning and drove around to see the sights...like Edith's Walnut Factory and tons of horse ranches. I have decided that I would like to have a Lipizzaner pony...they are born usually brown or black and then turn white.

Our friends came up on the Saturday morning to join us. Then the four of us hung out with Terry (our camping pet turkey). Terry was so bold. He would walk right up to you and hung out at our campsite the entire time we were there.

One thing Terry did do that got him into a bit of trouble with us, was after drinking some beer from a plate, Terry jumped up onto our friends car and left a huge scratch with his talons. Bad Terry.....Bad.

Argh....Talons.

We were so glad we did not pack Turkey bacon...we would have probably have felt too guilty to eat it.
Saturday afternoon we toured around the Ojai area and tried to find a place to go swimming. We found a fresh spring by the side of the road and also stopped at this place that said it had hot springs, but also stated that it was private property. When we asked, Jon was greeted by a suspicious man in white pants...you know what that means....drug dealer. They were probably growing pot and opium plants near the springs...that is my theory.
So, back to the camp site to have dinner and hang out by the camp fire, where I finally split my camping pants. This is right before I threw my camping pants in the trash:Thank goodness I had extra jeans. That night I slept like a log and the next morning we made a huge breakfast with pancakes, TONS of bacon, and eggs with peppers and potatoes.
Oh, and before I forget...I did not style it too much for the photo, but here is my new haircut with all the layers that I like.

More from two weekends ago

2007-09-08T18:46:00.000-07:00

So, not much has happened this weekend just yet. I went and got a haircut at Floyds today and then bought some tape to cover an old tennis racket handle. Last weekend we got together with friends down at the pier for some Najas time. We got down there right after sunset as you can see from this pic of Sue taking a beach shot. Najas is always the same, although I wish that the band would not play so much because they are so loud that you have to shout over them.Other than that night it was a pretty calm weekend. Went to a movie that was funny, but had enough bad language for a lifetime...Superbad. Then on Sunday we had friends over for a BBQ and tried to stay cool in the heat. I did get a chance to show off some of the stuff I bought while Shannon and Nicole were in town. I now have a huge hobo purse, and a fancy new perfume called the Angels of Florence. It was pricey, but I have been wanting to purchase a scent from the famed Santa Maria Novella. It is a perfumary that was created by Monks in Italy. The scent that I bought was created to raise money to restore some of the famous artwork in Florence that I unfortunately will probably never see because I spent so much money on this perfume. :(
I also received TONS of compliments on the gorgeous earrings that Nicole gave me as a gift for her visiting. It was so nice of her and she has the best taste. I should actually hire both Shannon and Nicole to be my personal stylists...they would rock and highly approve of the new haircut that I got which I promise to post a picture of soon...gotta wait to get the camera recharged again. In the book world I finally finished the new Harry Potter while hanging out on the hammock and I am hoping to check out the library on Monday afternoon to replenish. Tomorrow I have volleyball and Manhattan Beach plans. Take is easy and enjoy this warm weather at the end of summer while you can.

Crazy Summer

2007-08-26T18:56:00.000-07:00

It has been one heck of a crazy summer. I guess not really crazy but busy. We have had three sets of visitors, busy work schedules and we have not had a chance to go camping which is sad. :( It was nice to have family come and visit though. My mother, sister and Jon's brother and nephews all stayed with us this summer.

Yes in this second picture I am blinking. I seem to have a knack for messing up photos. Now that the stores have the back to school sales I know that summer is over and the nights will start to get darker sooner...although to me, since college, I have felt that summer blends in to the rest of the year as I work year round in an office with no windows. So, this last weekend with my sister and Nicole in town I had to try and get the best of it. We shopped A LOT!, we bowled at Lucky Strike, laid out at the beach and ate a lot.
Right before my sister visited, Jon and I traveled to his cousins wedding in Minnesota. It was nice to see so much green and feel the humidity of the midwest. It felt like a real summer to me. It was only missing the lightening bugs. It was great to catch up with Mom and Dad while we were there.
Thought I would leave you with once last image of summer...a HUGE kite on the beach in Venice...this was so large you could have driven a car through it.

Shake & Bake

2007-04-13T08:30:00.000-07:00

So, my friend Sue gave me an Amish Friendship Bread starter kit and so yesterday I baked two loaves and made four more starters to give away to friends. This bread is amazingly good...as it should be since it is packed with cinnamon, sugar and even has a whole box of vanilla pudding mix in it. A starter kit for friends:
A sugar encrusted loaf that I made:

This bread rocks...those Amish know what they are doing. Would I give up TV and electricity for it....ummmm probably not.

In other news...something I should have blogged about a while ago. I got a fantastic package in the mail from my aunt. :) She sent me a lavendar sachet that I hung on my bedside lamp...the lamp kind of heats it and gives off a lovely scent. A small book entitled "She" which reminds me of an Irish silkie story for some reason and a cool catalog from a show that she went to. Absolutely fastinating. You should see some of this stuff from the art show...painstakingly small detailed work. Hopefully the artist gets her eyes checked regularly.

I hope I can make a nice enough package to send back. I have been taking my time on collecting things...I should speed up and get it in the mail.

I'm Back!

2007-04-08T20:41:00.000-07:00

I am not feeling all that wordy...so I thought I would post a bunch of pics from my recent trip:We traveled up to Cambria, CA for the weekend. We went to Hearst Castle and hung out with the elephant seals at the beachLazy lazy elephant seals...they kind of look like driftwood on the beach.
This statue is worth millions and therefore, gets it's own fan for cooling comfort. We then drove by Nit Wit Ridge: a house made out of shells, bottles, etc. You can get tours, but must call the owners in advance...so, we just got a pic by the side of the road.
Then on the way home, stopped in Solvang to get a little of the Danish culture.

August vacation

2006-08-28T11:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have not posted in so long, I guess you could say that I have taken this month off as a blog vacation. I went home to Illinios for a six day getaway which was great, but argh I forgot my camera....I hate when you remember right before you board the plane.
I hope to upload some photos that other people took and to update everyone on all that is happening out here. It has been hectic and stressful lately as I am planning an event at work that is coming up in November and we still have not gotten the invitations out because they are at the printer. I hope that all my stress will soon be in the past and then I will be back online. In the meantime, I hope everyone is having a great summer and enjoying some vacation time! :)

El Migraino

2006-08-08T21:11:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, Jon and I took the surfliner down to see my parents who were in San Diego. It was a gorgeous day and the train runs right along the ocean which was great.

We met up with my mom and then the three of us took the bus up to Balboa Park to spend the day hanging in the park, checking out the international festivities, and taking in some art.
We then headed back to the gaslamp district to meet up with Dad and that is when it started...a slow dull ache.
It slowly progressed until I had a full blown, can't handle light or sound or movement migraine headache. Why it had to happen on the one day we are hanging out with my parents.
We had to cancel dinner reservations so that I could lay down in there hotel room and recover. I recovered within an hour, thank you excedrin, but unfortunately we did not have enough time to go out for dinner after that, so we walked the neighborhood and then Jon and I grabbed the surfliner home.
There were a lot of tourists that take the train and the mass transit in and around San Diego and there will always be the one who takes fashion just a bit too far...where did you get these and why did they let you buy them. It also accompanied a bright red shirt and USA hat.I hope my parents had a good dinner after we left. They are in beautiful San Diego for a little while longer and then they head back to the midwest where I will be in a few days...can't wait!!! :)

Weekend guests :)

2006-07-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

Shame on me for not posting in so long. It has been hotter than Hades out here in California and I have been trying to lay low and not melt.
My mom and sister were out for the weekend and it was fantastic to see them. Unfortunately it was also very humid and not at all like the beach coolness that we are used to out here. We even had one night of real lightening. Although, hearing people talk about it you would have thought it was the apocolypse. People just did not know what to think of it...there were even several familys flying kits at the beach that did not stop....um, have they ever heard of Ben Franklin?I took my mom and sister to Venice Beach on Saturday for some fun shopping which also happened to be the hottest day of the weekend and then we chilled at the concert on the beach on Sunday evening. It was great to have them out here, I wish they could have stayed longer...especially because it finally feels like it is cooling down around here. I have also decided that my sister should be a personal shopper. I definitely need her help.
This weekend I have no plans, except for that huge pile of laundry I have sitting in the other room. I think I might go down for a walk on the beach...although the clouds outside are looking rather ominous.

B.C. Vacation Part II

2006-07-08T12:02:00.000-07:00

The next morning the three of us woke up early and got in the van to drive down to the ferry to visit Vancouver Island. I had heard from a lot of people that I had to go visit the Island and that it was the most magnificent place.
Our reservation on the ferry got us a premier spot on the boat...we were the first to get on and the first to drive off. The only thing that bit about the ferry ride was the wait. Jon and Kim crashed in the van for a while before we could get on the boat.
It was cold & windy on the crossing so I was glad that we all brought jackets. As soon as the ferry landed we drove down to Victoria. The main attraction in Victoria seems to be the Empress Hotel. You cannot enter unless you have reservations it seems so we did not bother with that...we just glanced at it from the sidewalk and said, "How beautiful, but I hope the ivy is not ruining their stonework."
There was a gay pride parade that was going on in Victoria so the city was full of color. We decided to tour the miniature museum that was in the basement of the Empress. It had over 80 displays all laid out in miniture form. We all kept wondering how long it took someone to make these. Here I am in front of the fantasyland miniature display.
They really ought to put me in their brochures...look how happy I am to be in miniature world...plus their brochures have people in 70s garb. After touring miniature world we decided to see what the fuss was about with the supposed castle tour. We drove up into a residential neighborhood to view the castle and when we arrived I could not find this so called castle....all I saw was a manor house. There are houses in my home town that are twice the size of this and not called a castle. It was very beautiful, but we decided not to pay the entry fee to see the manor house. Here is a pic as we are driving away.
We then headed out of Victoria back toward the ferry dock with one detour to the Butchart Gardens. The fee was a bit steep, but the gardens were beautiful.
After the gardens we headed back to the ferry and we are glad we did at that point because we had to wait for an hour and 45 minutes for the next ferry...it was a holiday weekend afterall. We said Goodbye to Kim after the ferry ride as she had a long haul down to Seattle. I hope that I can visit Seattle sometime soon to visit her there.
The next morning, we got up early to drive out to Whistler for the last day. Whistler is beautiful and I recommend it as a place to visit. The air is so clean and the views are spectacular. We checked into our hotel room early and got upgraded twice! Once because they did not have our initial room ready and the second because of the bathroom not working. Our room was enormous and had a great view.Our reservation for the Zip Trek tour was at 2:00 so we had to hustle to get to the check in and get ready. We then met up with our whole group of about ten people and our two guides and then headed up into the wilderness to get to the start of the tour.

Here we are all harnessed up and away we go:

It was great to fly over Fitzsimmons creek.
After the zip trek, we relaxed in the hotel pool. Then we headed out of town to Narin Falls for our dinner picnic. It was very romantic even though I suffered many mosquito bites...they love me. Here are the falls where we ended up and had the perfect end to a romantic evening! :)

British Columbia Vacation Part 1

2006-07-08T11:09:00.000-07:00

I have a lot to fit in so I am going to do this in several posts. :) My first full day in Vancouver, we decided to check out the Capilano Suspension Bridge. The bridge did not look all that crazy up close, but when you get a lot of people crossing it at one time....it swings like crazy!!! The original bridge was built a long time ago to help the land owner bring lumber across for his business. I cannot imagine coming across a swinging bridge like that with a ton of lumber. They do say the bridge is strong enough to hold a loaded 747. We also cruised through Stanley Park which is right in Vancouver and I decided to join the totems in the park.

The next day, we explored our surroundings and celebrated Canada Day!!! Whooo Hooo Canada Day! :) We enjoyed free cake that was handed out everywhere, and got maple leaf tattoos ( rub ons). I think it is mandatory to have the tattoos on Canada Day.
In the afternoon, my friend Kim arrived from Seattle to join us and visit. I have not seen Kim in forever and a day and it was great to catch up.We all rode the gondola up to Grouse Mountain to take in the views of the city. They also had a couple of resident bears up at the top of the mountain along with a lumberjack show that was pretty funny.We ended that evening by exploring the gaslamp district and having dinner there. Everywhere we went I ended up ordering the largest beer possible that was on the menu.....not really by choice. I guess their beers are just served in buckets. Here is the gaslamp clock that was originally powered by steam...it is not anymore, but they do still have the steam coming out for historic purposes. :)

Part II to follow.

Returned!

2006-07-05T22:05:00.000-07:00

Well, we just got back yesterday from a fantastic trip in British Columbia! I am exhausted and have so much to tell everyone, but I had a full day of work today and it has been stressful. I know that there is one thing that everyone has been wanting to see, so here it is:

It's Official! :) More to follow on the trip!!! Sorry to those who I have not gotten a chance to talk to before you see this....it has been hectic since we have been back.

Relax

2006-06-25T20:17:00.000-07:00

It is all about relaxing this weekend. This last week at work was a mix of not a whole lot to do and yet a lot of hectic time. I volunteered for a charity event at the comedy club on Wednesday and although I did not really get a chance to see the comedians and magicians that did the show, it felt good to help out. That night when I returned home, I got stuck in my car for a good time because of these friends:
Sorry the second shot is a little hard to see, but we did not want to get too close! J was trying to scare them away by using the flash on the camera...but they did not seem to mind and were happy to trap me in my car for some time.
I am not sure what it is about the beach, but the skunks LOVE this neighborhood.
Saturday, I went all over town to find a baby shower gift for a party I am attending this week. I finally found what I needed and got home in time to grab my swim suit and meet friends at their home to watch some baseball and relax in the jacuzzi.
Today, I went and redeemed my gift certificate for a massage at Burke Williams. I am not a regular at the spas and have no idea about spa etiquette. It is clothing optional, but I brought my swimsuit and lounged in the hot tub and the various steam rooms. I went through a TON of towels and ended up taking a shower three times today. I feel bad tonight though because I am unsure of whether I tipped enough for the massage. I do not think that I left 20%, but I think I definitely left at least 15%...but I really liked the person who gave me the massage and we chatted the whole time. I wish I had tipped more. I think it is better to overtip and feel better about it later. Hopefully it will be a long time before I go again and I will not have to worry about her remembering me.

Awesome Packages

2006-06-18T21:10:00.000-07:00

I received this awesome package in the mail from my Aunt in Milwaukee this week. How cool is all this stuff!!!! My Aunt is brillant beyond belief! :) The Brillance of the Moon book is on loan as I have been reading the series, but the libraries here do not have great copies of the series, so it will be nice to have a book that I do not have to worry about missing pages with.
I just started reading the other book I received, called "The Tattooed Map" - by Barbara Hodgson. The book itself is a piece of artwork.
The apron that you see in the back gave me the urge to bake a cake this weekend so that is exactly what I did. I baked a Madagascar Vanilla Bourbon cake with homemade vanilla frosting that came out more as a glaze than an actual frosting....the result was delicious, even if the cake was not all that visually pleasing.
Last night we had dinner with friends at Frito Misto in Hermosa Beach. I had Thai ravioli which was good, but spicy hot, which made me drink more wine. We took a cab back and stopped at the Redondo Pier to meet up with friends who were out for an evening stroll at the beach, we chatted with them for a little while and then saw some friends at Najas so we stopped in there for a beer before heading home for the evening.
Today, I purchased a new HUGE dresser, which can actually hold all of my clothes as the last dresser was being held together by tape on the bottom of drawers and was not cutting it. The whole afternoon was spent putting it together and moving furniture around the bedroom. I think I like the set up and it is nice to have a change. :)
I am ready to crash tonight. I am just sitting in front of the screen listening to KCRW our fabulous public radio station. I have a full week ahead so hope everyone is doing well and had a great Father's Day.

I need a weekend to recover from this weekend

2006-06-12T21:18:00.000-07:00

My weekend was a full one! On Friday after work, took the bus down to Hermosa Beach where they were hosting the AVP volleyball tour. Friday evening was the start of the festivities with a free concert by Ozomatli. They are such an energetic band...it was great!

After the concert I met up with friends at the Comedy & Magic Club...I think I am becoming a regular, and then went over to end the night at Hennessey's Tavern. They had a free drawing that evening and I ended up winning two passes to the Cuervo suite at the AVP tour for the next day.
Unfortunately, no one was available to go with me on Saturday and I knew I did not want to be out partying too late on Saturday, because I had planned a hiking trip on Sunday. So, my second plan was to try and get someone to take the tickets for themselves, but I could not find anyone who wanted them...so unfortunatley they went to waste. I had a day of panic on Saturday as I tried to go out and do some grocery shopping and my car would not turn over. I was so sad because I thought my car was on it's last legs. I was so close to also canceling the hike with friends the next day, but my hiking friend was kind enough to come all the way over and pick me up in the morning so I made the hike.
We headed up North to Altadena to hike the Dawn Mine Trail. The morning was misty and wet and seemed almost like rain. We hiked up the canyon from the parking lot and signed in at the beginning of the trail.

We did not have much of a view
There were a lot of plants that were in full bloom along the trail including a TON of poison oak that we are all hoping we did not brush up against.

Here is pic of our crew that a couple of nice hikers took before they split from our pack and took a different fork in the trail

Our stop before we descended into the canyon was once a trolley stop for resort guests in the area. Now the train tracks have been paved over for a fire road, but they still had the covered bench stop.
As we descending into the canyon, the trail got a little more hairy...as in side of the cliff hairy.

Once we reached the mine, we stopped for lunch on the creek rocks and rested before we made our trek back through the creek bed. The area was still misty and rainy and the camera lens finally fogged over to the point where I could not take any good photos. :(
But, as we made our way down the creek trail, we finally came into the light.
Here we are traversing the rocks and doing a LOT of creek crossing.

At the end of the trail on the way back to our original starting point we finally go to see the view that we missed in the morning, we were SO happy that it was sunny on the way down instead of on the way up the canyon. :)

Seven miles round trip, it was a great hike! I did not even wake up with sore muscles...only one sore knee from climbing down all those creek bed rocks. Today, I went into work and then carpooled up to the valley to volunteer in a golf tournament as a witness on the green. It was four hours of sitting and watching people tee off. I wish I had remembered to bring a book or a card game or something to keep me occupied, because it was the longest four hours EVER. At least the sun was out and I was happy because my car started and seemed to be doing fine today....we will be taking it in to the mechanic anyway, but at least now I do not have to worry about towing it from the house.

Humidity

2006-06-05T17:47:00.000-07:00

So, this past weekend was a slow one. On Friday, we went to the Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa with some friends that had won tickets...and thank goodness they won tickets because we spent what seemed like a month's rent on food and drink (they have a 2 drink minimum).

Saturday, I woke up to something I could not explain. The sun was so bright and there was no marine layer in the morning to cool off the beach area. We went around and did some errands and I looked down at my arm and saw something sparkling....what is this? what what....AHHHH sweat...we have humidity down here. It felt like the kind of humidity you get in the midwest where everything is sticky. We immediately opened all the windows in the apt so we would not bake ourselves and put the fans in full motion. Of course, we lost all ability to do anything besides sit around and hope that a friend would drop by with popsicles. I ended up spending the afternoon reading "Marley & Me" by John Grogan.
Very cute book!
That evening we watched Good Night & Good Luck, which was ok, but I am not sure I was in the mood for a movie that you had to give all your attention to. I was very antsy at that point because it was now cool outside and I had spent all day escaping the heat in the apt. On Sunday, it was more of driving around and not seeming to get anything done at all. I am in the process of finally trying to find a real dresser instead of the Ikea piece that I have that is made of MDF and I have strong opinions regarding MDF. No new dresser this weekend.

On Sunday night we went to a friend's house for BBQ and had a nice dinner on their balcony while the sun went down.
Today, I walked home from work and had my trusty ipod to keep me company. I need to get some new playlists for walking home though because I am starting to fast forward through most of the songs as I hear them over and over again. Right now this is my playlist:

Band - Song Title
Sigur Ros - Saeglopur
Editors - Munich
Phoenix - Long Distance Call
Black Eyed Peas - Don't Lie
Buena Vista Social Club - Hey Caramba
Bob Mould - See a little light
David Bowie - Queen Bitch
Guster - Amsterdam
The Police - Canary in a Coalmine
Replacements - Alex Chilton
They Might be Giants - Ana Ng
Wilco - I'm Always in Love
Fountains of Wayne - It Must Be Summer
Iggy & the Stooges - Search & Destroy
The La's - There She Goes
Sinead O'Connor - Mandinka

If anyone has any ideas on what songs I could add to my list for a good upbeat mix, please let me know!!! :)

What a weekend - Summer is here!

2006-05-29T21:44:00.000-07:00

I could not ask for a nicer weekend! On Saturday, we headed out early to get some shopping done and my mother would be so proud because I got quite a few nice pieces for work. I stopped by the banana republic and picked up some sweet silk shirts (one in white, one in black) and a sweater. Also picked up some classy shoes and had enough time to get home and get ready to grab the bikes and head for some fun at the beach!

We hopped on the bikes and rode down to Hermosa Beach, where Festival Hermosa was already in full swing. We met friends at the beer garden after taking a long time to find a place to lock the bikes up...we ended up finding an old phone booth that no longer had it's phone and locked the bikes there. If we had brought the car down...there was no way we would have found a spot. It is best to leave the car at home on a vacation weekend like this one when you live near the beach. Here is a pic of the madness in the beer garden.

We did not spend too long in the beer garden, it was crowded with some rowdy people and the band that was playing was called "The Silly little Twits" ...they were a cover band that played a lot of 70s. I have no idea why they came up with that name. They seemed to be in the spirit of the beer garden though as they would play one or two songs at a time and then take a break for a beverage.
We moved onto the main pier area in Hermosa after the garden and we were lucky enough to get a table on the roof at Hennessey's!!!
That right there is major!!! You usually have to wait forEVER for a roof top table, as they are in high demand on such a beautiful weekend. It pays to be nice to the bouncer!!! :) We could see out all over the beach from our spot.
We also had a nice view of the pier street in Hermosa where they had a David Bowie cover. I like Bowie, but this guy went a little too far with a white mullet wig and stretch pants. You can sing the songs, but you do not need to dress up like that and make a joke of it all. Here are the people below at the concert level as well as the festival Hermosa.

We stayed and hung out until it was starting to get chilly and breezy and then we headed back to our friends place for a BBQ and to hang out on their balcony with some ice cream sandwiches....which is exactly what we did.
Something that I did not write about before was that on the pier in Hermosa, one of the most popular spots for the cool young kids to hang out, Sharkeez, burned down. It has left a big hole in the pier avenue area. Luckily the fire wall between the two buildings on either side was enough to keep it from spreading to the whole street. They were really lucky that no one was inside at the time...it was 4am when it happened, because that bar was always so crowded it was a HUGE fire hazzard to begin with.
They are going to rebuild soon, which is good because then it will keep the crowds out of the other bars.
Sunday, we watched the Indy 500 and then part of the Coca Cola 600. It was a huge race day. :) More BBQ at our friend's place and then we crashed in the afternoon. I made sure to call my sister before we left for the race watching as it was her B-day. :)
Today, we went down to the beach in the morning and stayed ALL day long playing beach volleyball. I think I did a pretty good job on keeping on enough sunscreen to not get burned, but I am definitely exhausted after a long day in the sun. I am glad to finally relax at home even though I wish the weekend was not over.
P.S. Here are the shoes I bought on Saturday. :)

Surprises and burns

2006-05-22T20:15:00.000-07:00

This weekend was pretty low key. Tried to run some errands on Saturday, but the city was having an Armed Forces parade which kept traffic at the ridiculous level. It took 3 hours to accomplish two tasks on my list, so I gave that up and took a nap in the afternoon before we headed up to the surprise birthday party for a friend at a restaurant on Larchmont in LA called Cafe Du Village.

We walked through the kitchen to eat out on the back patio and to surprise our friend for her 30th birthday. One of the tasks in the morning was to get her an awesome gift, but unfortunately that did not happen as traversing around the parade route was ridiculous, we ended up getting her a small gift and hopefully we can take them out to dinner sometime soon. That is not me with the headband on in the pic, it is actually a friend named Leslie.
We ate and talked and like any good French restaurant, we stayed for a good four hours.
After dinner we took a ride out to see our friend's new condo that they purchased in the Highland Park area and to see their vacation photos from Ecuador and the Galapagos. It looked like an amazing trip, but it was late and we left after we looked through the photos.
I slept in on Sunday, met with friends at the Wildflower cafe and then played beach volleyball. The sky was completely overcast, no need for sunglasses...yet I ended up getting pink arms anyway. I must remember to always wear the high powered sunscreen or hire someone to follow me around with an umbrella. My friend Karen and I are indestructible at Volleyball. We were unbeaten yesterday! :)

Swamped

2006-05-19T17:31:00.000-07:00

So, we had our HUGE work event (golf tournament) on Monday of this week, so I worked last weekend before the event and worked this week to wrap things up. The one day I took off to relax was Sunday, so we spent some time down by the beach. We took the bikes down, because the crowds were crazy. This pic is a little bit of the flowering plants that were along the path...they are taking over!
Due to the event, the house has become a disaster. Laundry everywhere, dishes to do, newspapers piling up and basically the place becoming a pit.
So, that will be on the plan for this weekend.
I also need to remember to get thank you cards for some at the office as well. They thanked me for my hard work with gift certificates for a massage and dinner and my supervisor even got me a bottle of chambord...because I told her how much I like a little bit of it in Fresca...yum.
I wish I could think of something to get them because they are so generous.
I am hoping this weekend is as nice as the last because I will be free free free from thinking of golf. :)
Hope to catch up with everyone soon...

Finally found the time

2006-05-09T21:26:00.000-07:00

I have not updated in a while. This past week and weekend was busy. On Saturday, we took flat Stan (school project) to the Hollywood sign and Mann's Chinese. We ate at Johnny Rockets and the rest of the afternoon I felt like I had grown an extra stomach. We then gathered enough strength to go meet up with friends at Hennessey's Tavern for some catching up.

On Sunday, I went on a hike with the Sierra club in the morning. The hike was in the Santa Monica mountains and was an easy hike up to the Nike missle tower that they have now made into a little park with tables and bathrooms and a great view. This was the first time that I had hiked with the club and there were quite a few people who were new. Everyone was really cool and I got to try out my new Merrell hiking shoes which are ULTRA comfortable.

The weekend was nice break from the business in the office. The entire last week during the day I was confined to this one area, my prison cube:Well, that was when I was not fighting with my nemesis:

The cool thing about last week is that I got a chance to wear the necklace that my sister got me for my birthday. I really love it:

Birthday Week Celebration :)

2006-05-03T20:22:00.000-07:00

So, since our weekend volleyball outing at the beach we have been celebrating my birthday, which was officially yesterday. My co-workers treated me to lunch and got me a delicious and beautiful bundt cake for lunch. YUM!
For dinner we went to Kincaid's on the pier so that I could get my favorite meal there...the filet mignon. I definitely crave their filet every so often and the prices mean it has to be a special occasion. The restaurant had about five other tables with birthdays as we could see by the balloons and candles on desserts. My candled dessert was the creme brulee:The waiter told us that there was one evening where every table he waited on was a birthday table. I never thought about Kincaid's being the chucky cheese of adult birthdays, but maybe it is closer than we would like to think.
The unfortunate part of the evening was that the Fun Factory was not open for me to play the skee ball....NOOOOO, why are you closed on Tuesdays....noooooo!I took a ton of photos because one of my gifts from Jon was a tiny digital camera that I will be able to carry around with me everywhere. :) More pictures for you to see! The other was a membership to the public radio station KCRW.
Plus, they sent an awesome CD along with the membership. Very cool!
Today, I came into work to find that I received some more flowers as a late birthday gift from a co-worker and the mail in the evening yielded gifts from my family! :) What a great week!
More pictures to follow soon!

Too much water

2006-05-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

Well, this weekend was exhausting...in a good way.
I went out Saturday morning and picked myself up some new hiking shoes for the summer, I splurged and got myself some Merrells. :) They are unbelievable comfortable and I cannot wait to take them out on the trails.
The rest of the day was spent at the beach playing volleyball with friends. If you see me and I look like I have Popeye arms, that would be because I have bruised and battered my forearms at volleyball. I put on 55 sunscreen, but even that did not protect me for long, and I ended up a little crisp. After volleyball we hung out at the house and munched on those fabulous lemongrass chix stix and tater tots. Who does not LOVE tater tots?
Sunday, I woke up early to go volunteer at a work event called For Our Children. It is a food and wine festival and this year Honda was generous enough to host it on their campus. Here are some sad shots of the tent and the preferred area from my post in the volunteer tent. As you can see I was in the back tent by the empty boxes and propane tanks, and we enclosed our preferred guests behind a white picket fence in order to keep them corralled as we asked them for money. :)
We raised a ton for our hospital's pediatric mobile van that goes to low income communities and gives kids free check-ups and the food was fabulous!!!! I definitely had my fair share, plus I made a list of restaurants that I now want to go to in the area.
Today, I realized that I am really horrible, worse than I thought, with plants. Remember that beautiful hydrangea??? I think I watered it too much. Someone at work told me they required lots of water and I took that advice way too seriously...and this is what I have only a week after receiving it.

Work Garden

2006-04-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

Today at work I came in the office to find these gorgeous hydrangeas!
It was for administrative persons week, since I type and do a lot of paper related work. We once knew it as secretary's week, before that it was servant week.
But, these sure made my day and I am hoping that they will transfer nicely to my empty
flower beds.

Upgraded

2006-04-23T17:58:00.000-07:00

This weekend went by way too fast, but then again most weekends do. Friday, we checked out a Thai restaurant down the street that is in part of a motel. It was delicious, and we will definitely be going there again. I got my favorite: Chicken Pad Thai and we had wonton appetizers that I could eat all the time. Saturday, we took a trip down to Long Beach to visit a book store because I had a huge bag of books to trade in. The store was a warehouse of dusty shelves and precarious shelves of books, which was fun to go through, although the prices on the used books did not impress me. I traded in quite a lot of books and they only gave me a credit of 20 bucks. Lucky for them I was just not in the mood to barter and took their meek credit and got two books. The next book place I want to try out is Bookaneer in the valley which I heard is pretty good. In the evening we hung out down at Old Tony's on the pier and watched the sunset...three pic at top is in Old Tony's. I like going there when you can grab a table looking right out over the end of the pier and the ocean, and you can feel the entire pier move with the waves if you sit still for a while.

Today, we hung out with the neighbors cat and took pictures at the ocean for a school project called "Flat Stan" that a relative sent for us to do. We took a pic of him surfing. Then, I finally got a new cell phone. I had been hanging onto a phone that I got back in 1999. Yikes is all I can say about that....time to turn in the grey brick and get something a little more updated, so I got myself a pink razor. :)

Hope you had a Happy Bunny Day!

2006-04-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

Finally got out this weekend! Saturday, spent the day at the Museum of Natural History located in the heart of downtown LA. They had a special exhibit called Sonic Scenery-music for collections where you could rent headphones and stroll through the museum and each different exhibit had a soundtrack to go along with it. It had music by Autolux, Nels Cline, Ozomatli, Matmos and more.
So, of course we signed up! It was very cool! I think my favorite music was Ozomatli in the Cenozoic Fossils room although I think one of the coolest exhibits was the Gem & Mineral room. The special collection on display was the Bog People and featured mummies and artifacts that were found in the bogs of Northern Europe. Creepiest aspect was that most of the people found in the bog were violently killed.
In the morning before the museum, we caught up with some friends that we had not seen in a long time. They are both high profile people in the entertainment industry and they had us meet them at IHOP......at IHOP of all places...but this IHOP does have valet parking, so I guess that does say something.
Today, being easter we went out to breakfast with a friend and hung out outside taking a walk down by the ocean, here are some plant pics:
We then headed up north to celebrate easter with family in the valley. Rita's is the place to be on a holiday. We had ham and grilled filet mignon and things got out of control with all the kids and the different languages that are spoken at our get togethers. Half the family is from Columbia and most of the kids are bilingual, but they often will only listen to one language and ignore you if you speak the other. Believe me, they are crafty, but very cute. The food was fantastic and it is always great to see the relatives....we are all so busy that we really only see each other on the holidays. :(

Working 9 to forever

2006-04-13T18:40:00.000-07:00

I have not been able to update lately because I have been glued to my computer at work for the past week. My eyes are close to bugging out right now. Ack.
It happened last week. I was working on graphics and advertisements in a catalog that I am putting together for an event at work. I had 82 pages and was working really well on it when all of a sudden the file crashes and states that it is corrupted.....
I calmly call IT and ask if I can get the back-up from the day before....unfortunately I discover that our IT department has not been backing up our departments server since 2004.
So, this last weekend and most of this week I ended up working on creating a brand new catalog. Tonight I came home and sat on the balcony with a book to decompress. I am really looking forward to this weekend and some relaxation. :) I definitely need to try and find the digital camera that has gone MIA...I have no idea where we put it. I hope to find it soon so I can inundate this site with photos.

My evening with a Nobel Laureate

2006-04-03T22:18:00.000-07:00

This afternoon one of my co-workers offered her tickets to the distinguished speakers presentation this evening. These tickets are hard to come by and members must buy the entire season to have these tickets. Tonight's presenter happened to be Mikhail Gorbachev.
Before the presentation, audience members could fill out a small index card with any questions that they would like Gorbachev to answer during the Q&A. They only pick ten questions out of the entire audience so I thought there was little chance that I would be chosen.
The start of his speech was a little unnerving as there was a translator that spoke right over his words. It took me quite a while to be comfortable with that, but it was such an interesting speech. I am now very interested in Gorbachev's environmental organization, Green Cross International.
It was also really refreshing to hear someone's take on US and International Politics that is not swayed by the media.
At Q&A time, out of the many questions that were submitted...MINE was one of them. I had the only non-political question and I could definitely tell that Gorbachev was refreshed to have a different question. I asked, "Growing up, what was your greatest aspiration?", to which he replied that all he wanted to do while growing up was learn, because his parents were peasants with no education and he grew up in an environment that was poor and not encouraging to in-depth study. After this evenings interesting speech, I believe that I would like to have tea with Gorbachev (and his translator). He handled the questions very well, especially when he was asked to compare the present Bush and the former Bush...the audience moaned at this question...Gorbachev calmly said, "I will leave that to the American public to compare, but I do know they have one relation...they are father and son. Oh, that Mikhail, he sure is funny.

2006-04-03T09:50:00.000-07:00

Another fabulous weekend. We kept hearing of rain, but received none. Saturday, we walked down to the pier during the day and had fun at the "Fun Factory" playing one of my favorites...skeeball.
Saturday evening took us up into LA for a birthday party at "Mandarette" for Chinese and then over to a friend's house a couple of blocks away for a nightcap. Sunday, I woke up late thanks to daylight savings, grabbed the backpack chair and a book and went down to sit on the beach. I just started "Toyko Cancelled" by Rana Dasgupta (I totally remembered that name). So far the book is fantastic, great beach read because it contains a lot of little stories that are easy to start and stop.
The view was really nice and we have visitor in our bay area...a naval battleship is sitting pretty right off the shoreline for a little visit and supposedly a show for the school kids in the area.
Back in the office today and I am going strong on trying to get a mass mailing out today....hopefully it will not take us too long.

Music

2006-03-31T09:30:00.000-08:00

So, last Wednesday evening we went up to see a concert that was hosted by the Honda Civic Tour. Oue dear friend Charles works in advertising and had in his possession some free tickets that we decided needed to be used and so we drove a civic hybrid up to Hollywood to go see BEP...Black Eyed Peas. I was a little hesitant on going because I did not think that I would really like the concert, but boy was I wrong.
It was unbelievably energetic. The music was really good and the band was fantastic. It was such a mix of different cultures and hip hop, funk etc. They had a segment that reminded me of stomp where they used tables and drumsticks for percussion. They had a trio of breakdancers that must have necks of steel in order to spin on their heads like they did. The pic is small, but as you can see...a lot of light and a lot of energy. The one thing that I appreciated was that the lead female vocalist wore an orange track suit.....so now I know someone else appreciates the orange sweat pant look.

The concert tour is giving away a free Civic that has been designed by the the band. I am not so sure about the design, but it would be cool to have a new civic. I would have to get the hood repainted because they have an evil monkey logo on the hood of the car and I do not think I could face that every day. Sign up to win the car here.

In other news, work has been crazy and my computer decided that it does not want to open a certain graphic document that I have been working on for three weeks. So, right now I am on hold until I have more memory installed on my computer and the IT department restores a back-up copy of the document. Until then I am working on tiny projects that unfortunately do not hold much interest for me. This last pic is of our friend Taras and I in front of the Gibson Ampitheater before the concert...but as you can see it was pretty dark in that area.

Artwork

2006-03-25T14:24:00.000-08:00

Getting projects done around the house! Today I fixed the frame and hung up our new piece of artwork next to the dining table.

The piece is a diner called Cozy Cafe that is only a few blocks from our place and serves a fantastic breakfast. I know that if I showed the owner George this artwork he would want it for his place so I need to be careful. :)
If you would like to comission the artist, I know him personally-so let me know. He is VERY exclusive.

Sorry about the camera reflection in the glass, but here is a close-up.

A day at the Villa

2006-03-24T20:26:00.000-08:00

Today I left work early to take a trip to the newly opened Getty Villa in Malibu. This place is booked through the summer so I was really excited when a co-worker and friend invited me to come along with her to see it today. Nestled in a small valley in Malibu is this gorgeous villa that was created to replicate a Roman country house, the Villa dei Papiri. The museum and art collection was housed in the main villa house, but on the property there were two other large buildings which were for restoration & conservation which were off limits to guests, which makes them all the more intriguing. They have students from a UCLA masters course that come to the villa as resident students to work in the conservation and restoration department....ooooh what I would give to be one of those students.
We ate lunch, went on a tour with a docent named Bill, who got a little winded on the stairs and kept breathing heavily into his microphone and then checked out the exhibits: Antiquity&Photography and Glassmaking in Antiquity.
The grounds and the building were just as fastinating and breathtaking. The large fountain at the top of this post would have been used not only for swimming, but as a place to raise fish for food and to keep the beloved family pets....eels were the pet of choice. The one item that I cannot seem to understand is the fountain where it appears the statue is riding a turkey. Cannot figure this one out....either a pillow or a turkey or as someone suggested an upside down pig. I did like the fact that the artist made sure that the statue is wearing flip flops. This statue was spotted in the herb garden where right before we left we helped to unburden one tree of one of it's heavy lemons. I think this was a good start to a great weekend. :)

Temptation Savior

2006-03-20T17:40:00.000-08:00

This is what keeps me from going out and buying chocolate, chips or cheetos right after work.Orange sweat pants & blue crocs...yeah, I'm not going anywhere. These orange pants scream to be stared at.

Lazy Days

2006-03-19T17:20:00.000-08:00

The weekend was mellow and has gone by fast. Sunday, I baked a loaf of Irish bread in the breadmachine and slowly cleaned up around the apt.
Friday evening was spent with friends at Hennessey's Bar and then a nightcap at Pat's II. We celebrated the green, but not as much as my sister...as seen here in her lovely shamrock glasses.

Monday, back in the office and I am trying to take it easy for a while this morning. I had a busy day here on Friday and am hoping that this week goes more smoothly. I also got a new pet. You can click HERE to see. I do not have to clean up after it and it will never shed on my couch, although it would be nice to have a pet at home. You can move the mouse around...the kitty is interactive.

Grocery Picks of the month

2006-03-14T08:50:00.000-08:00

Dear Trader Joes,

Absolutely amazing is all I can say after having your delicious Lemongrass Chicken Stix. Who came up with this idea and where can I find their recipe book. I also adore your General Tsao spicy sauce to dip them in. Yum.

On a separate note, your freeze dried strawberries are becoming a favorite of mine to sprinkle over cereal in the morning and I am not sure how I will survive until I can purchase the next tub of them....work on bringing the price down for me...I work in non-profit you see.
Sincerely, the E factor

This morning I woke up with one of my ever occuring ear aches. I have brought the drops into work and have my head balanced over a mug of hot water....hoping that the pain goes away soon...

2006-03-13T08:08:00.000-08:00

Kinda tired this morning, which is weird because I did absolutely nothing yesterday except go grocery shopping in the middle of the afternoon and watch the movie Junebug (very good). It was a veg day.
Saturday, we drove up to LA proper to visit an art gallery that had a show we had read about in the paper. It was an interactive art piece in which you had to move various pieces around the gallery room in order to open the second room in the gallery. It was a very small show with only two rooms which was a bit disappointing as we would liked to have seen more, but interesting.

The pic is a little small, but that is myself standing in the background and our friend Alec moving one of the pieces across the room in order to open the second door. They were strange pieces made out of wicker (I believe). The building was also attached to several other art galleries that we strolled through and then we headed up to the LACMA to wind our way through their collections. For dinner we stopped at Nyala, an ethiopian restaurant on Fairfax.

We ordered the "new customer" special that had several chicken, meat, and veggie items. The food was served on a huge platter and we all used this strange spongy crepe like thing to scoop and eat. Clean-up is easier for them with no silverware. The food was good, a little spicy. Most of it was unidentifiable, so if we had to reach across the tray we would say, I am going for that brown pile or I am going for that orangy pile. I know...doesn't sound all that delicious, but it was and we all left very full. Plus, the prices were fabulously affordable.

Weekend phat

2006-03-06T08:34:00.000-08:00

Went to the ashes and snow exhibit on Saturday and I am not really sure what to say about the actual exhibit. I think my favorite part of the entire exhibit was the structure that it was housed in which is called the Nomadic Museum. It is a huge structure created out of steel cargo containers, as well as different recyclable items such as paper tubing and paper tea bags. The exhibit itself was very small and the photos were amazing, I especially like the photos with the lynx, but I did not care for the films that were presented. They were too slow moving and artsy for my taste. I think the exhibit was a 8 -10 dollar exhibit, not a 15 dollar exhibit. The one thing that was worth it, we ate at Jack Spratt's Grill on Pico right before coming to the exhibit and it was delicious. We have wanted to go to this restaurant for a while, but never have and we finally decided on it while driving up to the westside. We are glad we did, because the mediterranian salad that I had was fabulous and the burgers were enormous and well worth the order. Jack Spratt may have not had fat, but he certainly had large portions.
Sunday, we were on a quest to find a shamrock shake. We decided to walk down to the McDonalds which was in our neighborhood. We reminisced about the fact that last year during shamrock season we could not find a McDonalds that could give us a shamrock shake because they were either out of the mix or the machine was broken. We strolled up to the counter and asked for the shake and guess what....denied AGAIN. The excuse: The machine was broken. the horror!! So instead of buying anything else at the McD, we left and went to Subway across the street, so we could eat a little bit healthier. I am not sure if we will ever reach the elusive Shamrock shake.

Dafodils

2006-03-03T15:55:00.000-08:00

Fridays are usually really slow and quiet in this office, a lot of people try to duck out on a Friday. The one thing that is nice in this office is a co-worker brought in a TON of dafodils for everyone and so there are around 15 to 20 vases with these flowers all over the office.

I just read the recent Smithsonian and now I wish that I could go to this Pompeii exhibit in Chicago at the Field Museum. I wish it could make a visit out to the west coast.

This weekend is all about relaxing and not doing a thing, but then again I have wanted to visit a couple of events that are happening here in town like the Snow & Ashes photography exhibit and we have a ton of laundry that we are going to have to haul to the laundromat. :(

Amazing

2006-02-28T14:28:00.000-08:00

This past weekend my dad and his friends Mike and Gregg participated in a cross-country skiing race. I think it is absolutely amazing. I have tried the cross country skiing and it is hard stuff. I still remember sitting face down at the bottom of a small incline that my friend Anna and I tried to conquer on our slim cross country skis and we both ended up face down in the snow believing we may have to send out for a rescue team of huskies to pull us back to the lodge. This is a photo of my amazing father at the race where temperatures were a warm 5 degrees. Brrrrr. Absolutely amazing is all I can say. If I had to enter the TV show Amazing Race, I would pick my dad to be my race partner - cause he could so win that.
In other news, all the newcasters can talk about is the weather out here. We get a little rain and this place turns chaotic. Last nights weather news went something like this:
Newscaster: "We now go to Brian live out in the valley"
Brian: "Everywhere I look there is water. It is coming down all over."
Camera pans to a wider shot to show the reporter standing in an inch of water with golashes on.
Brian: "I do not suggest going out unless you can where some tall boots to keep your soaks dry, because it is quite something out here, back to you in the studio."
Newscaster: "Thank you Brian, more on STORM WATCH 2006 after this short segment on how celebrities are coping with the fact that they may have to walk the red carpet in the rain."

Downtown, Coast, and Clouds

2006-02-26T20:51:00.000-08:00

Great weekend. My friend Norah was in town after she had been visiting San Diego for work. She took the train up from S.D. and I picked her up at Union Station downtown. Love that building! Friday was spent walking and getting lost downtown, but after my wrong directions we finally found lunch at Phillipes. We stopped by Olvera St., where they were filming a WB movie (Nancy Drew) and then went by Chinatown to drop coins in the wishing grotto. We rounded off that evening by hanging out at Najas, then checked out the new place in town called PointBreak...fun place, but may not be in such a great location for business..we will see how they do.

Saturday was for culture and we headed up the 405 to the Getty Center and then had dinner down in Hermosa at Cafe Bugaloo, a blues & mardi gras place that Norah suggested because she met the owner's father on the east coast...small world. Turned out great, which unfortunately is not how I could describe the quick visit to the Poop Deck...the place felt like a bad frat house.

Norah left this morning so today we walked to the Amgen California Bike tour that was finally finishing in our town. The riders have been riding in the coastal towns up north and came down for the last leg of their journey in Redondo. The streets were blocked off and everyone was out to cheer for the riders...wish my dad could have been here, he would have liked it. I think they are going to try and do this every year now..they want to make it into something like the tour de france.

2006-02-20T08:08:00.000-08:00

This weekend went by way too fast and now I am back in an empty office on a holiday. Most employees are taking the day off and having a leisurely long weekend, but those few of us who have to punch in hourly are here to waste the day away in a building with no windows.
Saturday we went down to the LBC to celebrate at an engagement party. I had 1 drink when I first arrived and then spent the rest of the evening downing diet cokes as I was the designated driver.

It was a really nice party.

Sunday was spent reorganizing and cleaning the apt. The weather outside was beautiful. Right after it rains in California is the best because it is so clear and the views are fantastic without any smog.

2006-02-15T08:40:00.000-08:00

Saw this online and now I want it. They call it the eggling. It is a ceramic egg that you can crack open and water and voila...a plant. How cool is that!

The dolls are still in the office at work, but I am beginning to block them out and don't really notice them until someone stops by the office and starts making jokes like "valley of the dolls" and "I think I saw that one move on it's own".

Books read lately: I am starting "Thank you for smoking" and took some time to read through some of the magazines I had at home. I did not care for "Serving Curry with Crazy" or is it crazy with curry...well either way, I returned the book before I finished it. It seemed to take the author too long to describe an emotion or anything for that matter. The book could have been edited down to 50 pages.
I have been slowing down on the netflix movie scene. I need to start watching the ones at home and soon before I begin wasting money on the netflix.
Hope everyone's Valentine's was super fabulous. Nothing to crazy to report here...I went to yoga last night.

Sunscreen and flip flops

2006-02-13T15:20:00.000-08:00

It was a beautiful weekend with a high of 83 degrees at the beach, so we took the bikes out and rode down to Hermosa to hang out with friends.

It felt completely like summer.

Unfortunately did not get any of the projects at home done. I have organizational issues with closets and the place is a bit of a pit.

Friday we went to the comedy and magic club in Hermosa and had dinner and laughed so hard that my cheeks hurt. Food there was pretty good as well.

Saturday, took us up to the Silverlake area to celebrate with friends who are moving into their new condo. The party was at their old place and they had for sale signs on all the furniture and artwork in their place. Good idea at a party because I think there were a couple of takers. Back at work today and not all that thrilled due to the fact that the weather outside is FABULOUS!!! Sorry to all those on the east coast, but it was definitely a sweet summer weekend here.

Their beady little eyes

2006-02-08T09:05:00.000-08:00

These must leave the office as soon as possible. I work at a non-profit and these were donated...but I cannot help feel like they may walk over and attack me at my desk.

The second one from the right has a wig. Even scarier is that these all stand 3-4 feet tall. AAAAH!

I also found the apendage in the filing cabinet.

2006-02-07T17:23:00.000-08:00

Woke up this morning to find ash all over my car. We live far north of the actual fire, but are seeing a lot of ash as well as spooky ominous smoke clouds that are moving out to the ocean. The sun even looks more firey.

We need some rain.

I am in a scramble to try and get a lot done this week, but I keep running out of time. Last night I went to the ghetto grocery store for their produce section...Great produce and you cannot beat the prices. I bought a TON of food and spent less than 10 bucks. A lot of it is organic and I am not even paying the chic prices.

My office looks a bit like Children of the Corn part whatever part they still need to make. I will try and upload a picture for all to see tomorrow. :)

Reading "Kitchen" by Banana Yoshimoto and in the middle of "A Year in the Merde" by Stephen Clarke...I am not sure what I think of Clarke. I am taking a break because I feel like I am reading him as a major jerk. Will report more later on that.

Weekend Madness

2006-01-24T11:03:00.000-08:00

So, the parental units were in town this past weekend for one night. They were basically doing a fly-by visit. We went out to dinner in Santa Monica and stopped into a small hole in the wall place to have dinner. We did not have reservations and knew we would have a long wait anywhere we went so we put our name in and saddled up to the bar...the very very crowded bar.
After waiting about 30 minutes and making conversation with a few strangers, I look over at the door and see a semi-celebrity from SNL fame. He often plays a monkey and looks like one too. He and his friends stroll up to the host and act as if they own the place. All I could think was...Crap there goes our table. We waited another ten minutes and watched as the monkey and his friends were seated at a table before us, but at a very undesirable table. It was the first table inside the doorway and was surrounded by people standing at the bar and squeezing past on the other side to leave the restaurant. My parents and I were seated within a couple of minutes after them and we were taken through the kitchen, past the ice machine and back into a small room that held three tables.
It was called the Rat Pack room because a long while back the Rat Pack used to enter through a back door and use this room as their private dining room. We shared the room with a bunch of guys celebrating a bachelor party and another table of four women who flirted with the bachelor party. It was a strange evening to share with the parents but all in all it was a lot of fun. The host explained to us later that he had no idea who the monkey was and that the bartender made sure he sat them so there was not a scene. We were just happy that we got a better table with more room and toward the end of the dinner we were the only ones left in the Rat Pack room.
Wish the parental units could have stayed longer, but they flew out the next morning after a great breakfast at the local cozy cafe.
Just finished "Plain Truth" by Jodi Picoult. Are all of her books court room related?? Fast read and good, but I know that I could not read her books back to back because the characters are all written very similar.
Got a new library card in a neighboring town and rented the second Tales of the Otori book that I could not find at my regular library as well as a book called "Serving Crazy with Curry" by Amulya Malladi.

Oh, so old

2006-01-09T19:49:00.000-08:00

Ok, a tiny rant if I may. For christmas I received some really nice sunglasses (Spy brand) and the style that I was given were a bit too small for my large cranium so I went back to the surf, skate shop where they were purchased. The kid behind the counter gave me such attitude that if I weren't the chill person that I am, I would have gotten a bit violent. Now, whenever I put my sunglasses on (the ones that fit because he finally called the owner, who is a friend of a friend, who told the punk ass kid to make the trade) I think of the interaction that I had at the store. When I put them on today I kept thinking have I crossed that age where I am too old to be wearing these sunglasses. The funny thing about them is, the reason I like them is due to the fact that the lenses are fabulous...everything looks more crystal clear, if I were younger and more like the punk-ass in the store I would have only bought them as a fashion statement and probably scratched up the lenses with in a matter of days. I am hoping I can soon put on these sunglasses and not think of that little punk in the store.
Finished "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey over the weekend. Powerful book, good read.
Quick second rant: wallpaper in bathrooms...more on that later.

Holidays

2005-12-29T21:30:00.000-08:00

Can you pick a more crazy time to try and see everyone in the limited days that you get time off from your job. Ack the holidays.
In a span of five days I averaged one city a day. I call it the midwest tour to see relatives and friends and then get back on the plane to leave. I got in at 2am last night and then got myself off to work by 8am and for some odd reason have a burst of energy this evening in which I have unpacked, reorganized, and started several projects.
My cookie baking extravaganza is over. I made sandies, sugar cookies, brownies, choc chip, and shortbread. I wanted to also make some gingerbread, but bought enough of that at the store that I thought I might end up turning my eyes into frosting.
Books that I received over the holidays and hope to enjoy:
Time Travelers Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Tokyo Cancelled - Rana Dasgupta
The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
A Year in the Merde - Stephen Clarke
Five Quarters of an Orange - Joanne Harris
Plain Truth - Jodi Picoult
Thank you for Smoking - Christopher Buckley
The Little Friend - Donna Tartt
I will let you know what they are like. :)
I need a vacation right after this vacation.

2005-11-22T14:35:00.000-08:00

Oh blast. I just wrote a huge email detailing a ton of the books I have read this month and then I lost it. Argh.
So, I am going to post a shorter version.
I have been spending a lot of my free time absorbing books. My library card is starting to bend from excessive use. I am not much of a review writer, but I can let people know which book is worth a read or can stay on the shelf.
Right now I am reading "Tales of the Otori - Across the Nightingale Floor" by Lian Hearn (book one in a three book series) : Really well-written and an easy read. I started this morning and am already halfway through the book. I am going to rent out the second and third immediately. Not sure if my liking is partly due to my interest in Japan or that the characters seem so real in this book.
Other books that I have read in the last month include:
"My Sister's Keeper" - Jodi Picoult: A slight downer, but good read with fantastic characters. I am still split on whether or not I liked the ending.
A Treasury of Scandals - Michael Farquhar: More fact fact fact and less storyline that involves, but packed with great secrets about the royalty. I am glad I checked this one out from the library as I probably would not want to have paid for it, but it was interesting.
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith : Great, fast and funny! Loved the characters.
Drowning Ruth - Christina Schwarz: It is with great trepidation that I rent out a book from the Oprah book list as she usually picks out books that are depressing, heartwrenching, and syrupy. This book would fall under the category of depressing. I did not really like any characters except the dead one, but I kept reading to find out what really happened at the drowning.

2005-11-17T09:15:00.000-08:00

The word Monday just sucks unless in the following instance:

Ugh, I hate Mondays...I wish this day would go faster.

Uh, it is Wednesday, not Monday.

No way, really. No way. I thought it was Monday (self-employed)

Cool.

Conversation I had yesterday with a freelance designer who I met in the office.

I need to get a new digital camera soon. Comparing models right now.

New beginning

2005-11-14T14:36:00.000-08:00

Being glued to this computer on a daily basis has finally alloted me the time to start this!
I think it will be a good for me to write and remember and keep a journal unlike the hundreds of paper journals I have started and not gotten past page 10.
Now...I wonder if I should let those I know in person know about this site...must get that clear now.
I just recently ended some online correspondence with a friend so I need to have someplace to come and type away all this fun stuff.
Ok, let me get this thing started.