anything but ordinary

me in high heels!!!

okay, this is a big thing for me. (and I know i'm a dork, so whatever...)

I headed over to Macy*s on my lunch break, still needing to find some halfway decent (sexy but comfy) shoes for Vegas nights.

I found these and, out of desperation (and a bit of curiousity) thought I'd try them on... and they fit like a dream! made my boat feet and ugly toes look sexy as hell... and even though they are skinny heels (gasp) I had absolutely NO wobble issues. They are totally stable (though we'll see how i fare after a few drinkie-poos...)

And to top it all off, they were on SALE!!! (I LOVE that word.) They were originally about $89, marked down to $50-something, and with a coupon I had, it brought it down to $45. woo-hoo!!!

Here are the shoes... they're Anne Klein.

I can't WAIT for vegas!!!

I got my new camera!!!

but it wasn't quite so simple to get it...

i guess my brother (Shaun - who works with me) had received the delivery earlier, but didn't tell me. i knew he was up to something when i came by his desk and he covered a bunch of things he was writing...

he came by my desk later with a green post it. on it was written the following:

Scavenger Clue Hunt

1.  I am filled with documents that need filed, though only when my master is bored.

I asked him if he was serious...was he hiding my camera???!!!  at first i was upset, but then it was fun...i LOVE scavenger hunts. it was silly.

Following the clue, i went to a filing box we use, and found another post it.

2. I am full of wheat and food coloring and dissolve rather quickly in milk, much to my consumer's dismay.

I found his bag of cereal he keeps here, in th ekitchen. Attached was another post it.

3. Dopplegangers are my specialy, though I have seen my fair share of body parts.

This one stumped me. I didn't get it and had to ask for clarification. I was thinking dopplegangers in the person sense...he was meaning simply "copies" (the copier machine) and the body parts is cuz we're always sticking our arms inside trying to fix the blasted thing! Went there, and found another post it.

4. Full of caffiene and goodness, I am the most popular in my domain. People cry when there is nothing left of me.

I headed to the coffee maker...finally found the next post it on one of the boxes of the most popular coffees used around here.

5. This "circular file" is used for all the office junk mail, and sits below the most awesome person ever.

So I went to Shaun's desk and checked the recycle bin...the last post-it said : YOU WIN! but there was nothing there, and i wasn't about to dig thru the trash...

but he reached under the desk and pulled out my shipped package from Dell...

woo-hoo!

that was fun. and now i have my camera...   : )

new camera!!!

I just bought myself a new camera. Necessary? not really. Love it? ABSOLUTELY!

Here's the scoop... my brother needed a new digital camera and asked my opinion on one he was considering buying. I gave him the thumbs up. He bought it online 2 days ago and had it shipped to our office. He received it today! (Pretty darn quick...) So, I got to scope it out for myself...testing things out a bit. This camera is fantastic! I fell in love with it, myself...

Let me introduce you to the Canon Power Shot SD1000 Digital ELPH. It's a beautiful thing... this is a 7.1 MP camera, and was on sale through Dell for $150. GREAT deal.

My last camera was a Canon; actually this very same camera...but a few models ago, which was bought about 4 years ago. I think it was a 4 or 5 mp camera. good for the time, but quickly became obsolete. I used it ALL the time (carried it in my purse), and it finally just stopped working for some reason. Don't know if I burnt out an internal motor or what the exact situation was, but rather than just have it looked at, I went out and bought a new and different camera instead...and I don't like it very much.

The camera I am currently carrying is a 10.1 MP Olympus Stylus 1000. It has all the "bells and whistles" which is what drew me to it in the first place. more MP, more shooting modes... i thought "more" meant "better." WRONG. A few things I don't like about the Olympus: i'ts complicated to use. I've been a camera fiend for YEARS, so the menus are nothing new. But this one is aggravating. This camera operates on the fact that you don't KNOW what you need...everything is an automatic mode, and you just have to tell it what type of picture you would like to take in order for the camera to "adjust itself" accordingly. This can be aggravating when you are not a simpleton and are trying to correct the "technical" stuff yourself. There is NO manual mode on the Olympus, which means that you have to tweak the automatic modes in order to fit your need. And when you DO choose to use one of the many automatic modes it offers, you have to "okay" it EVERY time you turn on the camera...so instead of being ready to shoot in 3 seconds, it can take 5, 6, or even up to 10 or 15 if you forget to hit the OK button first. Doesn't sound like a long time, but when you are dealing with pictures of children, it can mean the difference between a picture of their beautiful face or a blur of "something" going by.  There are other complaints, too. but I want to get back to the good stuff...

So, I wanted a new camera. And I have been drooling over a digital  SLR camera (the Canon XTi). But at $600, there is just NO way I will be getting that for myself anytime soon...especially with a wedding, honeymoon, moving, etc. that needs a chunk of that change.

But, due to the above-mentioned important events, I also don't want to get stuck with crappy pictures from my current crappy camera (Olympus). I am a photo-freak and take photos on (almost) a daily basis... it's important to me that the photos are good. So...after playing with my brother's camera extensively today, I really really wanted it.

This Canon seemed to be everything I had loved about my old one, but with all the old "problems" fixed. For instance, on my old Canon, I didn't like the lag time for the camera to be READY to take a photo once you turned it ON. This new one is ready in less than 3 seconds. On the old one, I got the motion blur quite a bit...I wanted something to remedy that. This new one DOESN'T have the "image stability" button that some other cameras do, but they try to accomodate it in their own way by speeding up the ISO (shutter speed), and have a "child and animal" (read: fast-moving objects) mode, as well as an "indoor" mode for the same reason. And, according to some of the reviews I checked out online, people couldn't  tell the difference between Canon's remedy and other "image stability" uses. To be honest, that was one of the features I really wanted when looking for a new camera last time...I found it in the Olympus and thought my problems were solved. Nope. I didn't notice that big of a difference, actually.

This new Canon HAS MANUAL MODE!!! (I can hear the hallelujah chorus already...) Seriously, I used to use this ALL the time in my old camera, but it's not even available on my Olympus (boooo...). And this new Canon has a really cool picture viewing orientation-thing that it does...hard to explain, though (but I'll try). If you hold the camera in the normal way and take a picture, then turn the camera vertically to take a picture, the photos would normally be stored where some are horizontal and some are vertical, right? nope. Not only does this camera orient them the right way when they are imported to your computer (the Olympus did NOT do this and it drove me NUTS having to FIX each photo before storing), but on this Canon, if you turn the camera in "photo-viewing mode", the photo will orient itself correctly on the screen so you are able to view it larger. Totally cool...trust me.

Another good thing about this Canon...when you are focusing on faces, it has a face tracking mode, where it automatically "knows" to focus there instead of the random picture on the wall behind your subject. This is a wonderful invention.

Since I had my Olympus with me today, I took pictures of the same subject with both the Olympus and the Canon, to compare the actual quality of the images of the 2. WOW. what a difference... even though the Olympus has more megapixels, the Canon was MUCH more clear of an image. very crisp and bright. And I know that this is influenced by the size you shoot the image at, as well as the white balance, etc. But I am telling you, the Canon is a clear winner here.

So, while this was not really a NECESSARY purchase for me to make (and I went back and forth a lot on this decision because of this...), I decided to go ahead and buy it! woo-hoo!!!

Streamlined Linkings

My "online community" started to grow too much to fit into my sidebar without looking messy. So, in an effort to streamline my blog just a bit, I have gathered all my links onto a separate "page" (see my sidebar) where they are divided into categories.  These are the blogs and websites I try to visit on a regular basis.  If you have one you think I might enjoy, shoot me a message and I might add it to the others...

define this.

In the process of trying to promote my blog a bit more, I have come across several blog directories that I will be joining. But there is a question asked in the "new profile" section of each one...a question that I have not figured out yet just how to answer. The question is phrased differently on different sites, but is essentially the same: tell us about your blog; tell us about you; what is your blog about; etc...

In other words: define yourself and what you share with the world.

I have always struggled against this.  I don't know how to sum myself up in a few mere words. Even to describe my blog. Now, I would like to start changing my blog a bit...adding less "me" and a little more of my "creations"...artwork I sell on etsy, scrapbooking pages I make, etc. But that's just it. I'm always changing... what kind of definition do I give that encompasses it all, but still leaves room to grow?

Hmmm... this one will take some more thought.

i feel like myself again...

I cut my hair!!! I had ben growing it out since October of 2006. I had always wanted to see if I could grow my hair out long again (once upon a time it was down to the middle of my back), and this seemed like a great time, so I could have long hair in time for my wedding this May.

Well, it seemed like the longer my hair would get, the more I would "disappear." Seriously...I think my "mojo" was in my short hair. I was unhappy with the way I looked on a dy-to-day basis. Everyone told me how beautiful long hair was, but it just wasn't "ME."

Anf yes, I could just have a short hairsyle on my wedding day...except for the fact that I am wearing a voluminous gown, and my head is kinda small. Short hair + big dress = tiny looking head. not cool. I thought I might be able to use hair extensions, but kept getting quotes of them being kinda pricey.

But then I realized that not only was I gonna be seen on my "big day," but there was the Vegas trip, couple's shower, and engagement photo session to look forward to... hmmm... I needed a "fix."

So, I went and saw my hairstylist Sefe, who I've been going to for about 5 years now. She's awesome and she fixed me right up! We chatted for awhile, and she made me feel SOOOO much better about everything, even taking the time to explain different ways to style my new 'do.  We talked wedding for a while, too, and she is giving me a GREAT deal on clip-in hair extensions, so that gives me one less thing to worry about. Seriously, she is amazing. I should have just done this a LONG time ago.

I feel SOOOOOO much better. 

update, update, update...

It's been awhile since I've updated here...sorry. (Bad little blogger!)

So, here's a quick "catch-up" of my life lately...

On the wedding front, my matron of honor (and Tony's sis) has outdone herself, yet again... she's doing a LOT (most of the handmade stuff, actually). She (and her mother) are sewing 120 slipcovers for the chairs for the ceremony and are almost done with that. She has finished ironing the chair covers for the reception. She is starting to create the design on the aisle runner this week. She put together a few samples of silver ladybugs for me to use in my bridal bouquet. And here are a few more items:

these are the baskets for the flowergirls; they were painted silver and then satin material was added to the bottom of each basket to soften the look a bit. I LOVE that the baskets have SWIRLS in them to match the rest of what turned out to be our "motif."

These are the finished flower arrangements to be used for decoration on the gazebo that Tony and I will be married in front of.

This is one of our tablecloth overlays,  also made by Maria. These are all done.

I went with Maria to Macy's...to get some ideas of registry items to select before Tony and I actually registered for real. I totally fell in LOVE with these dishes, and Tony gave his approval...he wanted to get something simple and white, where I wanted some kind of design. So these were a perfect compromise...white with a platinum ring, and cooridnating dessert plates with a pattern. Well...it figures...the set turned out to be a "seasonal" item and it looks like Macy's no longer carries the dishes. Bummer. Back to square one... we're going to start our in-store registry TOMORROW, actually...so we'll see if we find something we both like (that doesn't cost an arm and a leg...)

IN OTHER NEWS... (moving right along from wedding stuff...)

I started teaching myself how to play guitar. It's something I'd always TALKED about doing "someday" but never got around to doing it. It always seemed like such a daunting task. Well, inspiration struck... listening to my brother and Tony play the guitar together, and then playing the video game "Rock Band" where I played the guitar...got me thinking. And I've been listening to more and more poetic, raw music (where the vocals aren't processed, and the main instruments are piano, guitar, bass, simple drum, etc...). That kind of music gives me a DRIVE to do this stuff myself, you know? And it helps that I've found a few cds of musicians that are CHICKS...so the songs are in my range and stuff I can easily sing (Ingrid Michaelson and Anna Nalick are my new sources of inspiration). SO, I came home one night and looked up the guitar chords to the song "The Way I Am" by Ingrid Michaelson... only 4 basic chords used in the song; a good starting point. SO, for now, I have this one song I am learning...trying to toughen up my fingers to push hard enough on the strings for a pure tone; practicing moving my fingers from chord to chord quickly enough. It's more difficult than it looks...but it's worth it. And I am DOING it.

SUPER TUESDAY...

I actually voted. No, really, this is a BIG thing. It's only recently that I've taken such an interest in politics and made the decision to make my little voice heard. It was a bit intimidating, and I think that the people in charge of the actual polling places need to do some work. The automated voting booths they have in place now are NOT the simplest things to operate. I consider myself to be somewhat computer savvy, but found the number of knobs and various instructions posted all over the place to be a bit much. But I cast my vote successfully, double and triple-checking that it was done correctly. I was proud to get that little sticker that says "I voted."

And one more AWESOME thing that happened recently:

I WON an XBox360!!! I had entered an online contest in December, sponsored by channel 5 news and the movie "The Golden Compass." The grand prize winner won a cruise, and there were 5 XBox360s given away as other prizes...and I GOT one of them!!! I received an email a few weeks ago notifying me that I was the winner. I thought it was fake, but nope! After confirming that it was real, I waited (impatiently at times) for the gaming sytem to arrive. It came via FedEx on Thursday night. It came with an "arcade" game (which has 5 games in it, including PacMan...yup...brand new system and we were still sitting there playing PACMAN!!!). Also came with The Golden Compass. And my brother's roommate let us borrow several other games... FUN FUN FUN!!!

Tony and I also talked about Valentine's Day coming up...we're staying home for a nice romantic dinner together instead of eating out like (most of) the rest of the world.  And we decided that we didn't want the other to spend a lot of $$ on a gift for us...and after more discussion, we decided to take whatever $$ we would have spent for a present and put it towards a new XBox game. woo-hoo! We went to a store earlier and found a few games we liked, and since they were used (which means less expensive...) we ended up buying them both...Pirates of the Carribbean and a new Tomb Raider game. Happy Valentine's Day!!!    

Public Service Announcement: Common Courtesies

This is a public service announcement for those of you who should know better regarding certain behaviors in publicly shared areas... but seem to ignore the common courtesies that you were supposed to have learned somewhere along the way...

1. MOVIE THEATERS:

Please do not TALK during a movie. Seriously...I would like to actually hear the dialogue on the screen without having to discern the words through YOUR mumblings...if you'd like to carry on a conversation, please spare yourself the $10 a ticket and wait for the movie to come out on dvd so you can watch it and pause it at your liesure in the comfort of your own home. And if, for some reason, you really feel the need to talk (to clarify a plot point, perhaps), please do so in a whisper, and make it brief. If your words are simply the regurgitation of the simple workings of your mind (and I quote from my experience while recently viewing the movie Cloverfield: "wow, it's bright outside," "that's a funny street name," etc...) please keep your inner dialogue to yourself. It is not relevent. And, if you feel the need to discuss the movie in detail, please please PLEASE wait until the movie is OVER and the credits are rolling. Then you can dissect to your heart's content.

2.  THEATRES: (Note: all of the following really happened just the other night while watching Wicked at the Pantages Theatre.)

Please do not talk. This is similar to the item above, with a few expansions. Since the theatre is so large and the music/words are LIVE, they are sometimes even more difficult to discern. Please do NOT talk and realize that even a whisper carries. If you don't understand something in the plot that requires a lengthy explanation, please please PLEASE wait until intermission to ask the questions/carry on the conversation...you will have a full 15 minutes to catch up. And if you are spending this much $$ on a ticket to the show, please have SOME kind of idea of the storyline BEFORE you come to the show...I do not need, nor do I appreciate, a running translation of what I am attempting to watch on the stage before me. Please be aware of when you might be disturbing others. When someone turns around to look at you, that means that you need to be aware that you are drawing attention to yourself and becoming a distraction from the show. And when it finally becomes necessary for someone to ask you (as nicely as possible) to be quiet, please do not act as if you are the affronted party, or become defensive or accusatory. (Sigh.)

No food. Another thing to note: I think it is a particularly sad point we have reached in our society as a whole when there actually has to be not only a printed notification in the playbill but also a verbal reminder given before the performance starts for people to please unwrap any candies before the show begins. Seriously? And yet, a woman behind me (the worst of the "talkers" and the one I had to directly ask to be quiet) proceeded to unwrap her candy midway through the first act. Slowly. Gauging by how long the "crinkling" noise went on, this thing must have been triple-wrapped...really.

3. GYMS:

Please do not talk long distance. (Sense a theme here?) C'mon, really... if you and a friend are working out in the gym together, that's great. And if you are close to one another and are chatting...whatever. I'm talking about the long distance, I-must-be-invisible kind of talking. During the workweek, I take advantage of my office building's gym downstairs. It's a smaller gym, yes, but still large enough that there are usually 4 or 5 of us working out at once. Well, there are 2 people that use machines in OPPOSITE CORNERS of that gym...and proceed to have a conversation. I have been next to one of them before, and it is quite loud. Because, not only are they talking much louder than normal to cover the distance between them, but they also need to raise their voices above the mechanical noises of the elliptical machines and treadmills. So that even when I turn my ipod up as high as I possibly can (without causing hearing loss), it is still not enough to drown them out, and is that much more difficult to get into the "workout zone." And the other day, I actually watched as they carried on their coversation OVE R someone who was trying to work out on a machine in the middle of them. This is not cool, people...

Please USE the machines you are sitting on. I have a problem with people who just sit on the machines and do nothing else. I'm not talking about those who are taking a brief rest between "sets"...I'm talking about those who bring a magazine and just sit there. And it happens all too often. I am a member of a Bally Fitness, where this happened to me last week: there are only 2 "thigh" machines, one to work the inner thighs and one for the outer thighs. So we all have to be patient and take turns on the machine, and sometimes substitute other exercises if the machine is too busy. Well, I was just about to start on one of the machines. A woman sat down next to me at the other one. She jotted something down in a book (maybe keeping track of the weight lifted, etc...). She then picked up her magazine and just sat there, reading. She eventually reached over to adjust the weights, but then didn't LIFT them and just sat there again, reading. seriously. In this whole time, I was able to completely finish exercising on my own machine (3 sets of 10 reps, including brief periods of rest between). So I stood up and stood near her machine, to see if she might make it available. She still just sat there reading. So I politely asked if I might use that machine for a moment. She was startled and said that she was "just about to begin," but guess that she could move to the other one. So I sat down to begin my exercise. She told me "I really wasn't just sitting there reading." Uh-huh...sure.

4. RESTAURANTS:

NOT a playground. If you are visiting a reastaurant with children, please realize that the rest of us are not at the resturant to play "babysitter" and don't particularly enjoy having to dodge your children as they run up and down the aisles. If you think it is perfectly okay for your children to be running around, please visit a resturant with a designated "play area." And for those people who might be thinking "oooh...she must not have children," no, I do not. But I don't see how that makes this behavior acceptable. And when I dine out with my nieces and nephew, I am an active participant in the entertaining/disciplining/meal-time process that occur when you have children, so I know what is involved. If you were wanting to have a nice meal out and not bother with paying any attention to your children, please leave them at home with a babysitter so that the rest of the patrons in the restaurant do not get stuck with that chore.

THANK YOU! 

on the backburner...

Well, it's official and has been for a while now. After much discussion, Tony and I have decided to put our fledgling business (Thunkitup Creations) on hold for the moment.  We are really REALLY looking forward to launching our business, but feel it best to wait until we can give it our full attention and start off as strong as possible. So, there will be no CHA Winter for us this year. Hopefully, we will be debuting our scrapbooking products at the  expo in 2009. 

There are just way too many life events happening in 2008, that we needed to alleviate the stress where we could. Between planning a wedding, moving (and maybe even buying a house), and Tony possibly switching jobs, we felt like starting up our business was just a weee bit too much to take on at this time.

But don't worry. We will be launching the business as soon as we can. We have lots of designs finalized that we will be opening with.

And in the meantime, I am still creating my own smaller products that are for sale...I have to do this kind of thing to keep me sane. I NEED to create. Check out my personal stores:

www.chelbug.etsy.com
www.cafepress.com/chelbug

officially open for business!!!

I have opened a cafepress shop of my own, which you can visit by clicking on www.cafepress.com/chelbug. Although I only have one design created so far, it is available on several items. And I will be updating this shop over the next few days, to add a few more products and designs. Come show your support!!!

daily journal.

I have decided to take on (what I hope will turn out to be ) an amazing ongoing project for myself this year...

Coinciding with my "NOW" mantra for 2008 (see previous post), I want to keep a daily journal/diary, recording everything from daily thoughts to my to-do lists. Now, I have always kept a calendar of sorts, but I wanted it to be more personal this year. Taking a cue from Ali Edwards, I am trying to record my "mundane..." I thought it would be kinda neat to see my "to-do" lists right along side of in-depth journaling of my feelings or just little quotes or memories for the day.

I found the perfect journal to fit my needs. Quite pretty and very useful. From We R Memory Keepers, as part of the "Memory Dock" series, this is what they call their "Creative Planner." The design is sooo my style. You purchase the inserts to fill your needs; I purchased the calendar section which has a monthly and daily calendar. I also purchased a few other insert packs so that I now have insert which has tabs and papers for journaling, creative sketches, photo planners, shopping lists (scrapbook supplies and grocery store), inspiration, journal cards, and the typical address/phone book section.

My idea is to journal on each calendar page about my day. Whether just a few words or more in-depth, I want to capture my moods. When each month is over, I will transfer those daily pages to a separate notebook for safe keeping. I will be adding in those longer journal pages where they fit in the timeline. And then I can fill in around each day with scrapbook layouts, photo pages, and anything else I see fit to add (epherma such as ticket stubs, brochures, etc.) so that I can work on this album over the course of the entire year. And at the end of 2007 the album will be 100% complete, and in-depth documentation of my year.

word of the year

remember last year, i mentioned how ali edwards said she was picking a word to concentrate on and use as her mantra for the year? mine was "responsible" and tony's was "balance."   

well, it's time for a new word for 2008. i hadn't thought about it too much...was thinking about the word "procrastination" but didn't know how to word it as a GOOD verb, other than "don't procrastinate" which is 2 words, but also has more negative connotations cuz i'm saying i'm NOT going to do something, rather than what i WILL do.

then it came to me:

NOW.

that's gonna be my word. for a few different reasons. i could probably expand on it later, but here are the first things that come to mind:

1. to fight procrastination. i am tired of my "i'll do it later" attitude...whether it be the lottery that i missed out on, scrapbooking publishing deadlines i miss, holding off posting a blog, or even laundry or dishes. if i THINK of it and if it's feasible at the time, i just wanna DO it. i've been trying to do so in the past week or so. (failed with the dishes and the laundry, but did well with my creative stuff...)

2. to live in the moment more. i have been trying to PLAN less and less, and trying to listen to my moods more. not used to it, and sometimes it makes me uncomfortable to NOT have a plan in place. but i have been trying. and i will continue to do so. i know i plan a lot for the future, and talk about it a lot. but i really want to try to just BE. in the here and now. you know?

so...how bout you?

work in progress...

For those of you who visit my blog...you'll notice things look a bit "off"...all my pictures appear to have been replaced with those danged red x's. but, no worries. this is to be expected.

new year, new blog... my address had been my name. but since my name will be changing later this year, i wanted to change my blog to reflect that. so i went with something different... a nickname that has been with me since childhood. SO, here is the new chelbug.typepad.com.

The people at typepad have been very accomodating in helping me make this change. so, now i just need to go back and reconstruct parts of this blog. however, given the fact that this dates back over a year, i will not be fixing each post. instead, i will be hitting the important places (main pic, galleries, etc...) but the old posts will probably remain as-is. i will just be starting fresh and clean with the new year instead.

happy readings!

prime rib and black outs...

Monday night was just a bit interesting... Tony and I headed to our favorite hole-in-the-wall bar (Pierce St. Annex), where the VIPs were being treated to (or being guinea pigs for) a $5 prime rib dinner.  (They're thinking of holding a dinner ever monday night for $15 a plate, but needed people to test it out on...) In any case it was absolutely delicious.

We were home by 8:30 that night. It was pitch black. Seriously. All the lights in the apartment complex were out, and by the looks of things, had been for quite some time. People didnt' know what to do with themselves and were wandering around, wearing blankets and holding flashlights. Good thing we had picked up those 2 flashlights a while ago, when the fires were near. The definitely came in handy this night. I made my way to our apartment while Tony was parking his car. I'm standing in the doorway, trying to figure out the easiest path to the bathroom (where I knew one of the flashlights to be)...around the Xmas tree, over the piles, etc... cuz I can't see a BLASTED thing...when my phone rang. It was Tony. Woo-hoo...I used the light of my cell phone to see my way through our apartment, and it turns out Tony had called me for the very same reason...using the cell phone to guide him along his path home.

We found a few candles and lit them. Quite pretty, the way it cast the soft glow across our Christmas tree...so, of course, I had to grab the camera and take a few photos.

We weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves. Tony grabbed his guitar and started to play, so I joined in with some singing. That lasted a while, till Tony's fingers got a bit raw.

Then we decided to don our jackets and head out to the alleyway, where there was a clear view of the sky for a change. We gazed up the stars for a few minutes, trying to recall some basic constellations.

Back inside, where it was just about 10:30. And we were bored. No wonder people used to go to sleep so early in the past!

no penguin love?

So, I'm a bargain shopper at heart. And I LOVE Target. And Christmas (and everything that goes along with it). Combine all these things with the fact that there is rumor that we are getting a KING SIZED BED for Christmas (woo-hoo!), and I was in heaven when I saw this sheet set (any size) on sale for only $12.97.

The problem? While in Target last night, I excitedly showed them to Tony, who immediately got a dumbstruck look on his face. I think he was trying to figure out if I was serious about purchasing them or not. I was. Tony tried his best, but busted up laughing...

He kept saying...I KNOW you want these. And I WANT to say yes, but HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

Try as he might, he couldn't picture himself going to sleep and waking up on these cute little penguins. You think I might be upset. Nope. His reaction was so freakin funny, that I, too, was laughing so hard that I almost started crying. Poor little penguins...you get no respect.

Perhaps I'll go back to see if they are re-stocked with the snowflake sheet set instead...

oc fire update...

today the winds shifted, which was wonderful for us, but horrible for others in the silverado canyon and modjesca areas. i'm sure you have seen that story all over the news.

early this morning, around 7:30 or so, tony and i drove around the same areas we looked at last night, trying to survey the damage and see where the fire had moved to.

here is a picture from the same place we stood last night to watch the fire on the hill.  as you can see, no more fire. just smoldering ash at this point.  (the orange area is the morning sun shining through the smoke.)

there were a few spot fires on the hill, but didn't look like anything serious. this was a spot seen up on lake forest.

still, to be on the safe side, i decided to stay home in case the fickle wind decided to change directions yet again. this picture shows what i was concerned about...this is the field that is right next to our apartment complex. well, the day was boring; no new news in my area, which i guess is a good thing.

however, i went outside around 5:45 this evening to move my car and saw that you could see new pockets of fire from our apartment!!!

here is what the view from our apartment looked like this morning at 7:30...this picture is taken with me standing right next to our apartment building.

and here is another photo taken of the same area...this one was taken at 5:45 this evening! luckily, this looks closer than it actually is...it is still on that same hill area as before. this was the first time we were able to see flames from this distance, so we were worried at first. but tony called helen to verify the location of the fire since she is much closer to the spot. she said that the fire was actually moving away from us...this fire we were seeing was on a crest further away from them than the one last night. tony and i drove back to that spot we had been at before, to make sure for ourselves. yup, the fire was definitely further away. looks can be deceiving...turns out that this vantage point from our apartment complex was the ONLY place we were able to see the actual flames from...the crest just happened to face us directly. from everywhere else, you could only see the smoke from the fire.

so, this is it for the update...for now. i'll take one last drive around in the morning, to make sure things are still calm before i head into work. and tony will be calling helen tomorrow throughout the day, for further detailed updates.

fire update

it's just about 11 pm on monday, october 22, 2007 as i start this update. the fires rage on...including the one in foothill ranch. luckily (at least for us, for now), the wind has changed course yet again, blowing north...moving the fire away from us. at this point, we are about 1 mile (and no more than 2 miles) away from the flames. so, we are hoping our luck holds. of course, we are inland a bit, and the fire would have to cover a lot of residential ground before it reached our humble little apartment. but we are still wary of embers that might catch fire to the empty field beside us or the hills surrounding our complex.

tony and i both left work around noon to head home, just in case we needed to get out in a hurry...we had packed our important belongings last night, so we could grab and go. a few roads were already closed near my home at noon, including one of the major roads i usually travel to get to my apartment (Bake).

we had a few power surges and weren't prepared for the coming darkness, so we headed back out to get flashlights. here is what the area looked like at that time...lots of smoke in the area:

and this next picture is NOT a photo of the sunset...the sun is being filtered through the smoke:

even with all of this going on, some people are still just plain jackasses. i couldn't believe my eyes as we drove around, surrounded by smoke from the fire...and the person in the car in front of us THREW HIS CIGARETTE OUT THE WINDOW!!! seriously, how idiotic to you have to be?!!

later in the evening, we were going a bit stir-crazy...we decided to head out and grab dinner, and just see for ourselves what things were like. well, we didn't have to go far. the news coverage on the tv is good, but it hadn't indicated how far the fire had been traveling. as we headed up lake forest drive (which is the major street we live off of), we only had to look right in front of us to see the fire up in the hills. and just a bit later, the fire had spread another major street over, to el toro road. i haven't been outside now for over an hour, but i suspect it may be further still.

tony has a friend, helen, who lives up near the (earlier) evacuated area of foothill ranch. tony hadn't heard from her in a few hours, so we drove by her house to see if she needed help evacuating. she and her husband had packed a bunch of their belongings, but were staying put for the moment. the flames were VERY near their home...in the hills, just one crest over. here are a few photos i took, while standing right next to her home (the red spot is one section of flames, though there were several around there...and no firefighters to be seen):

this is another one taken next to helen's house.

later, as we headed home, i captured another shot of the fire. this one is taken from inside our car, as we are driving on el toro road, about to turn onto the sidestreets that bring us to our apartment. as you can see in the very center of the photo, the fire isn't that far away...right in front of us:

i couldn't find any late coverage of the fires, either on tv or on the internet. and i wanted to know the status before we went to bed for the night...so tony and i took one more drive at about 12:30 in the morning. we were scared at first, because with the sky still orange, it looked as if the fire had jumped much closer to us. but looks are deceiving. although it was a bit closer, it wasn't anything to worry about for now. we tracked the fire to one of the hills it was still located on, up in foothill ranch. there was a group gathered, all taking pictures. and no firefighters around. so we joined the group for a few minutes. this photo here is from that spot.

this is a close up of that same fire.

the winds are still constantly changing...they changed directions at least 3 times while we were standing in that spot for a few minutes. here is the exact same fire from the photos above, when the winds changed directions again, so the smoke started blowing back towards where we stood. i couldn't get any good pictures of them, but there were a bunch of smaller fires on the hillside in front of us, which looked to have been caused by floating embers. several of these smaller fires flared up while we watched.

on the way home, we noticed that we could see another finger of flame on the hill. this photo was taken about 1/4 mile from our apartment. you can see the fire up on the hill (orange area in center-left area of the picture)

one last photo for now... this one is not only indicative of the trees that are broken from the wind and are all over the area, but in this picture you can see how the embers are swirling through the air. hopefully none are glowing...like i said, this is right around the corner from our apartment, and near that open field.

i'll keep you updated...it's now almost 2 am and i need to get some sleep. i think we're pretty safe.

say a prayer...

so, i sit here a bundle of nerves, watching the local news for updates. There are fires all over southern california, and the one in Irvine is only about 5 miles away from my home.

tony and i have packed up a bunch of things we deem to be important, and now we sit and wait to see if we need to evacuate. the more time i have, the more i pack. my pile is growing...we have several people on standby with their cars and vans, in case we need to evacuate our apartment.

so far the winds are heading southwest, and we are south of the fire...which means that the winds are barely missing us. i am afraid of the direction of the wind changing. our apartment is surrounded by open brush and hills, which means that if any embers make it to those places, our apartment isn't going to fare well.

the fire is only 30% contained at this point. there are a bunch of road closures around us. i left work at noon today because i was getting nervous. tony did the same.

they are doing water drops over the fire, which is helping immensely. but i just heard that they must stop with those at sundown, because then it will be too dangerous. so all we can do it wait and hope and pray.

oh...and there aren't that many firefighters available because of all of the other (15+) fires in so. cal. what makes this worse is that this particular fire was the work of arsonists!!! can you believe that?

so much to do, so little $$$

december: buy xmas gifts

january: hopefully our biz will be up and running efficiently by this time. hopefully we will also be exhibiting at CHA. i say "hopefully" cuz the outlook is bleak at this time. might be put off for another few months to a year. not what we WANT to do, but we need to balance our lives...(and our checkbooks).

february: we will be registering for wedding gifts by this month, since our wedding shower will be held in february. woo-hoo! fun activity, and won't cost us anything for the moment...we get to play and dream about the stuff to make our apartment (?) into a home...

march: heading to vegas for the bachelor/bachelorette party. again, most of our costs will be covered, but we still have to eat (and DRINK)!

april: last minute spending for the wedding (which isn't just contained in this month, but will probably skyrocket). and, according to my wedding "budget" (which i thought was pretty generous of my pocketbook and savings account already), i will be going at LEAST $5,000 OVER that planned budget. okay. that means that i will be putting more on my credit card, which means it will be paid off in 3 years, not under 2, as i had hoped.

may: wedding. (yay!) and honeymoon. thankfully, our honeymoon is a gift from my in-laws...airfare and hotel stay in a walt disney world resort. but we still need to bring plenty of our own spending cash for food, drinks, playing, etc...

june: our apartment lease is up in the middle of june, so we will be MOVING again. we are looking into breaking our lease early so we don't have to deal with it right after the wedding. we are looking into buying a home (townhouse?). sigh. more money, more calculations, more panic attacks.

july: relax...???

whelmed.

you can be OVERwhelmed. you can be UNDERwhelmed. but can you ever just be "whelmed?" hmmm...