Ring Out Wild Bells

You know those days where all you can think about when you wake up to go to work is that you will be able to sleep all the next night and sleep in the next morning? Well today was one of those days, except now I can't fall asleep. I decided to spread some Christmas Cheer. I just a little obsessed with holiday music, and I have been coming across some great music this year. I have a couple of playlists that I have been listening to regularly, and I wanted to share at least one of them. This one has some great old songs done by some new people. I love that it gives a different sound to Christmas.


Click here to visit the playlist on iTunes.

Santa or China?

If I have already posted this, please forgive me, but I wanted to document a great question from my 7-year-old nephew to my sister on the way home from school one day:

"Mom, who makes better toys - Santa or China?"

Some Laughs...

For my birthday on Saturday, Nicole took me to go see Jim Gaffigan at The Wiltern. So hilarious! We laughed so hard - my stomach started hurting and I started to get a pressure headache. Needless to say, the drive back home was also hilarious because everything just seemed so funny! He didn't do this bit at our show, but I wanted to include a little clip for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Just Watch

Alarm Saga

So, the long awaited Alarm Story. I worry that I will have built this story up so much that now anyone who reads it will be seriously disappointed. Well, here goes.

So, Heart Walk. Yeah. Once upon a time, there was a girl with a job. Not just any job, but a job in which she had to plan an event for approximately 6000 people, including permits (of which there were many), production companies, audio/visual, coordinating with media sponsors, web site updating, money entry, email campaigns, matching gifts forms, banners, volunteers, donation, radios, parking, balloons, food ...and the list goes on ...in 4.5 months instead of 12 months (the normal amount of time).

Anyway, I just wanted to give you the picture. Also, imagine more than a couple of weeks of 8 hours at work and then coming home to more hours of work, averaging 4-5 hours of sleep a night. Then, on Friday, we were at the office working on stuff until about 10pm. I went home, worked some more, and then got to bed in time to wake up at 5am to get some more work done before heading to the parking lot at 8am where set-up would begin for the event on Sunday.

There I am, Saturday morning, working on the computer at about 7am figuring I have about 15 more minutes before I need to get ready and head out to meet the company delivering the porta potties at 8am to the parking lot. I get a call on my cell with the delivery person telling me he will be arriving at the location in 15 minutes. Talk crazy rush! I ran, changed, pulled my stuff together, and arrived at the parking lot just 5 minutes after the delivery man. That pretty much set the tone for the day. I was in that parking lot, standing, from 7:30am until about 8:30pm when I went home and worked until 1:30am before getting up at 3am and heading back to the event site.

All of that is just to give you an idea of my exhaustion and state of mind. At about 4pm on Saturday, one of the 4 staff people assigned to the Heart Walk hurt her knee and had to be taken by one of the other staff members to the hospital. Down to 2. At this point we were very frantic thinking of all of the things the two of us had to get done before the next day. One of the things to get done was to put together signs for about 175 teams. As we went to the box of supplies to grab the staple gun, we realized that...there were no staple guns. They were left in the office about 20 minutes away.

I talked to my supervisor who informed me that the office would be locked but that the alarm would not be armed, and I jumped in my car to go get the staple guns. You can probably already see where this is heading.

I arrived at the office, ran from the car with just my phone and my keys, opened the office door, and stepped inside. At that moment, I looked at the alarm and realized that it was on and I had exactly 12 seconds to enter a code to disarm it before it went off. Mind you, I don't know my alarm code. It was sitting safely in my wallet in the car outside. I grabbed my cell and immediately called my supervisor, D, so that she could tell me her code. Almost immediately, I hear the phones in the office start to ring and I know that it is the alarm company checking (they always do a check-up call to see if it really is an emergency). Holding my cell in one hand, I sprint to D's office as it is closer than mine and grab the phone, still holding my cell up to my other ear waiting for D to answer. The thing was, there was nobody on the line when I picked up the office phone! This really freaked me out as I had visions of the alarm company calling and not being able to connect on the phone so they send out the fire trucks and police (believe me, it has happened before, though not to me).

I then run back to the alarm pad by the door and reach to grab the door to run out to the car. As I did that, the alarm pad started freaking out. I closed the door again and again tried to call D. on my cell. Again, the office phones started ringing. At this point, I am definitely freaking out. I run to grab the phone and, once again, I can't hear anything! I run back to the alarm pad with my cell at my ear and there is no sound - no ringing and no D's voicemail. WHAT is going on? I try to call again, standing there looking at the alarm pad. Once again, the general office phone starts to ring. I run to grab it. At this moment, I realize that as I am trying to speak into the office phone with no one answering me, my cell has picked up. I pick it up and say, "D?"

At this point I, so humorlessly, realize that I have actually been calling D's office number. Wow.

I know, I know, but I was flustered! I don't dwell on the fact that I had been running back and forth to answer my own phone calls, and immediately call D's work cell. Just as she answers, the office phones ring again. I pick it up and hold it on my left ear with my cell on my right so D can hear me as I tell them that I am her and then they ask me for my code. Unfortunately, it is really hard to hear the difference between a 9 and a 1 on the phone. As I gave the wrong code, there was only silence on the line. D, meanwhile is screaming in my other ear ,"ONE, not 9! ONE! O-N-E!" I quickly correct myself and give a flustered little laugh and excuse myself saying that I am just so flustered that I forgot my code.

Whew!

Fortunately, with a couple of other little snafoos, everything else went pretty well. I had visions in my head of the firemen coming from across the street and the police taking me to the station because I can't explain who I am and why I don't know my code. Then I would have to stay all night at the police department and the Heart Walk would be a failure. Needless to say, I immediately wrote the code on the back of my hand in a black sharpie.

Even funnier is the fact that I had various people come up to me on Monday to hand me my office keys and bluetooth that had both gotten lost in the craziness as I dropped them in my craziness running from the phone to the door and back again.

Ah, one of those moments where I almost wish the office had security cameras so I could watch me call myself three times. Good times with the Heart Walk...

Shop Therapy

I don't know how this happened, particularly with former roomates that are so thrifty, but I am definitely all about the shop therapy lately. A couple of weeks before Heart Walk, after a particularly stressful week, I bought myself a pair of shoes. Not so bad, you think? Well, I won't even post how much these shoes cost as I don't want those thrifty friends to find out (j/k!), but they were more than I have EVER spend on a pair of shoes. My favorite moment was as I was trying to justify them to my brother in the car. As you have probably guessed, most of his responses were basically, "Cool." "Oh." "Grunt." Not a very productive conversation.

Well, this week (beginning on Saturday with Shop for a Cause at Macy's - shout out to the AHA's Go Red for Women program!), I have been on a rampage. I have a new bag for work coming in the mail today. I definitely have some new make-up and jewelry items as well. The problem? I have a new philosophy to save up and then buy quality to start to replace all of the I'm-in-college-so-who-cares-how-long-this-lasts-because-it's-cheap that clutter up my life.

As a disclaimer, I would also like to insert here that all of these items were on sale when I purchased them - which is why I can't find any more good pics of them - darn it! Lol.

It's Genius!

Just a little shout-out to Sarah and Tricia who have both commented to me or on their blog about the new Genius feature on itunes! It's like Pandora but with your own music - and suggestions for new music! Loving it - although still addicted to Pandora. Tricia recommended The Weepies station and I am definitely digging that. Thanks, ladies!

Oh, Pandora, How Do I Love Thee...

Okay, so I know that I still need to write about the alarm story - which you should all be waiting for, let me tell you! The thing is, I am working on pulling an Awards Reception for 250 with a sit-down dinner on a little-to-no-budget in the next couple of weeks, so by the time I get home I have serious adult ADD and don't want to devote the time to write out the whole story. I will work on it, though, I promise! In the meantime, I just wanted to mention something that I am recently loving.





I know Pandora is not new news for anyone, but I am only recently playing with it and loving it. Unfortunately, I can't listen at work due to no speakers on my computer as well as the fact that we have the world's worst server and if anyone streams anything, the internet slows down to negative 25 miles an hour for everyone else trying to work.

Anyway, I have been listening at home while I'm working on the computer. My favorite station right now? Mirah. Pretty much loving it...it might take me a while to experiment with any new ones for a while since I enjoy this so much!

Oh, wow.

Wow. The Heart Walk is over. Well, not really. People always ask me if I can now take time off, but there is still an awards ceremony to plan, money to enter, purchase orders to fill, thank-yous to send out, follow-up meetings to set, reports to run, files to organize, items to return...you get the idea.

My whole body aches and I feel like I haven't slept in weeks, which, really, I haven't. The event went really well. I wanted to include some links to some of the pre-event stories that have run in the newspapers and on news stations for you to look at if you would like:

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/heart-stroke-catalano-2156901-years-underwent

http://cbs2.com/video/?id=76984@kcbs.dayport.com

I haven't seen the post-event stories yet, but there were a lot of photographers and video cameras from the various news stations, so we will see...

We have between 5000 and 6000 people attend, and (from what they could tell), it went really well! I was stuck to my head mike the whole time putting out fires, but I have heard a lot of really good feedback. We are continuing to raise money toward our $1.3 million goal, and so far have raised more money than any previous year (this is the 28th year). Money is still coming in and if you are curious, you can check out our rolling total at www.ocheartwalk.org.

So, there was a definite lack of sleep last week. Usually about 4 hours a night, and then on Saturday I got to bed at 1:30am and had to get up at 3am to go finish setting up for everything to start at 7am.

Involved in all this lack of sleep are some pretty funny stories. I think my mental capacity was severely threatened because of the extended lack of sleep and the many details that I had to keep in my head for the event.

One morning, I was freaking out and getting ready for work at about 5am (some early mornings!) and I couldn't find my bra. I looked for it for about 10 minutes before I realized that I was actually wearing it.

That's not all...

We had an employee in the office who had her birthday coming up. I pretty much talked to her about it every day. When the office card came to me to sign, I filled up almost half of one side of the card with a really funny and personal message. The problem? I wrote my Happy Birthday message to the person in charge of getting the card, NOT the person who would be receiving it. Yes, we did need to buy a new card.

There is another great story about me on Saturday and the office alarm system, but I will save that for another day when I have caught up on more sleep. Definitely some seriously good times!

It is good to be coming back into the land of the living. I will definitely post pictures of the walk as soon as I get some.

Shake Shake Shake!

I'm actually on my lunch break right now, but we had a little excitement today in the form of an earthquake! It wasn't really that big for the area (5.4) and it was about 30 miles away, but we could definitely feel it here in Irvine! I was weird to feel an earthquake since I haven't really felt one for over 5 years because I've been away from home for so long. I used to be deathly afraid of them, but I have to say that I found this one to be kind of fun! You can check out the details here, if you are curious.

Domino highlights

So, I got my Domino magazine in the mail yesterday (always a highlight). I usually save it to read at lunch at work if I don't go out. I only got through a couple of pages today before some coworkers came in and I got distracted, but here are a few items of interest already:

I really like this mirror. You can find it here.



And for something that caught my attention in a strange kind of way:





Hmmmm... and selling for $250. I just can't help thinking that besides the fact that it is not really to my taste, you could never have this and children at the same time. You can find it here.

And hallelujah! Domino online now has a search option. Do you know how much time I have wasted on that website trying to find something in particular? I usually give up in frustration, but now I can search to my heart's content!

Keeping up

So, after work today I stopped by the Spectrum to do some shopping (outdoor mall in Irvine). I was walking by the Apple store and I saw a huge line. What was that line for, you say? It was for this:



Yup, that's right, the new iphone. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not so out of it that I didn't know that the iphone just came out, but wasn't that last week? Why is there STILL a line? If I was one of those people, I think I would just give it up. Really. I mean, it is VERY nice, but I have a problem with that touch screen anyway...

Soundbyte

So, just on a sidenote, I found out today that Will Ferrell grew up right here in Irvine and attended University High School. Don't you just feel like you should know these things when they happen so close to you? I don't know, maybe it's just me.

Yummy

So, now that I'm home Nicole, Jody, Amber and I try to get together once a month at least to hang out and catch up. Although it has been more like every other month lately, we did get together last week at Color Me Mine and made some beautiful ceramics! Nicole is going to pick them up tomorrow and we have decided to get together in August to see each others' project, hang out, and eat! Out of the two food options, I am letting Jody bring the wine and I said that I would do dessert. I am thinking that this idea for Sour Cream Pound Cake with Lemon Curd, Whipped Cream and Berries from Stephmodo sounds amazing! Plus, since we have one vegetarian and one who is lactose-intolerant in the group, I think that it can be adjusted to fit all tastes (obviously it's vegetarian and then Amber can just forego the whipped cream). It just seems like a great summer dessert that is a little special for the girls.

Oh, the shame

Although there have been, and still are, moments where I have really enjoyed those slapstick stupid comedy movies, it really hasn't happened of late. I generally lose patience and get annoyed with the stupid humor. In that vein, I am a little ashamed to say that the previews for Step Brothers have been making me laugh out loud. I'm pretty sure I couldn't stand to see the whole movie, though.

Oh, Zimbabwe

Tragic, really.

Pretentious Parents

This clip has been on a couple of blogs lately and I just had to pass it along. Hilarious! I saw it first here.

Finally

Finally. It's not perfect, but at least we're moving in the right direction.

Cheap Emotion

I have to admit something - I totally become easily emotional over movies, TV shows, commercials, etc. Really. It's kind of embarrassing. I think it's because I hate to be openly emotional in front of people in real life, so I just let it all out in the movie theater. Well, I hate to admit it, but lately this commercial gets me almost tearing up every time.



I don't know what it is. I mean, for goodness' sake, it's a Visa commercial! I don't know, maybe it's Morgan Freeman's voice? Really, I can't explain it.

Vegan Yumminess

Yesterday Nicole, Megan and I went here on our lunch break. It's an amazing vegan restaurant in Irvine right near the office. Wow! The sweetheart fries are absolutely amazingly wonderful! Sweet potato fries are my new favorite!

Favorite Things

This is my new SIGG bottle. They aren't taking any orders currently on their website, so I bought it from REI. It definitely beats taking my old Dasani bottles to work every day and refilling them until they get gross or die!

I am in love with this body wash. I found it at Target and have fallen in love. The almond oil and cherry blossom scent is wonderful. I only wish they had a lotion as well...

Okay, so I know they are being marketed toward kids, but these are really good, especially the strawberry ones! It was like a sweet party in my mouth that woke me up (I usually eat one in the car on the way to work as I am not a big breakfast eater). Plus, they are a whole serving of fruit! I found them at Whole Foods.

True Passion

So, I had a funny day at work yestereday where my ultimate passion was exposed. I was able to go on my first "exploratory meeting" with a company that might be considering a sponsorship. I was kind of the silent observer as the Senior Business Director spoke with the President of this company. My silence was broken, thought, when he mentioned that he has been interested in donating to the One Laptop per Child program. My SBD had never heard of the program, but I definitely perked up and we started talking about it. He said he had gotten one of the laptops through the program where you could buy one for a child in a lesser developed country and then get one for yourself. I was extremely jealous. Needless to say, my SBD got the discussion back on track, but I spent most of the rest of the meeting trying to figure out if there was some tactful way to get a look at that laptop...to no avail. Ah, well...

Dedication

So, I have a good friend who's going through a pretty rough time right now. She sometimes checks this blog, so I wanted to send a little message for when she next logs on. This is for you:

Something to make you chuckle - at least you don't live in a place where cars like this are a common sight!
I think, as shown in this picture, MacGregor (or Jigga) knows how you feel and would love (as I would) to be there with you.
And if I did happen to be there with you, we'd find something really comfortable (like a binkie) and we'd hang out all day doing nothing but relaxing and letting it all hang out! I love you and you know that I'm here whenever you want to talk or anything!

13???

Okay, so I have an amusing story to share. About a year ago, my Dad decided that he really wanted those stick-figure stickers on the back of his car to represent his family. By family, he meant his children, children-in-laws, grandchildren, and dogs. Trust me, we spent many hours trying to convince him that only soccer moms had those on their cars - not grandparents, and certainly not grandfathers. Not only that, I personally tried to convince him that those soccer moms were just providing fodder for extreme mockery. All to no avail. My mom bought them for him for his birthday in August, and by September they were applied to the back window of the car. The problem? six children, five grandchildren, 2 sons-in-law, and 2 (now 1 - sad) dogs. There was much discussion over the logistics of getting all of those on the car and somehow trying to display the families within the families. The result?


What I like to call the "polygamy car." I mean, really? Probably my favorite moment was when I was in bed late one Saturday night (my window was at the front of the house) and heard a car pull up and stop at about 1am. Then I heard this girl's voice yell out, "Two, four, six eight...what the %*##$%? 13 %&*&# kids??? I just started cracking up as all of my arguments became fully justified. He's just so proud of it though! I wish they would just disappear. Anyone want to come by late one night and peel them off? I'll pay you...

Twilight Trailer

Okay you Twilight fans - what do you think of the trailer? Good? Horrible? Right now I have mixed feelings and I think that I will withhold judgment.

Yum

I get to eat here tonight, which I always enjoy. My favorite: the terriyaki bowl with brown rice and chicken. Although I am tempted to try the tofu. I've wanted to try it and I heard that they prepare it really well. We'll see...

Enter the Crazy

So, our weather has been totally out of control lately. Just to give you an idea, here are the expected highs for the next few days:

Today: 99
Monday: 88
Tuesday: 74
Wednesday: 67

Is anybody else confused?

Target Surprise

So, I was at Target today with my mom and while looking the through the stationary, I came across this really cool collection of letterpressed wedding invitations and thank you cards that are sold in a box of 50. They were beautiful! I am totally in love with the letterpress style for wedding invites, but they can be extremely expensive. Not only that, though, but the thank you cards come in a box of 50 and are generic enough (though beautiful) that they don't have to be just for weddings! I was very tempted, maybe if they are still there after the first paycheck comes, I'll snatch 'em up. The problem is that I can't find pictures online. So, really, you must go to the wedding section of your local Target and get those babies! I mean, 50 thank you cards for like $13 - not bad!

And although I couldn't find those online, I came across these:


Say what? Am I the last person to know that Target has a line of wedding dresses designed by Isaac Mizrahi? For $129 each? I mean, not to say that I would buy my wedding dress at Target, but those prices are pretty stinkin' amazing!!! You can see all of the dresses here.

I Want You, I Need You

Have you ever wanted something so much, but felt so guilty about wanting it because of it's price that you never tell anyone so they don't think you are so shallow? I really want one of these. Maybe after a year of paychecks? (sigh)

Best Sign Ever

We went to Arizona last weekend to visit family. On the drive back to California, I was finally able to get a picture of my favorite roadsign ever. I look for it every time we drive back toward Riverside (as opposed to the San Diego route).

Mission Accomplished

Yay - I finally got a job! I was just recently hired for the position of Event Coordinator for the Heart Walk with the Orange County Division of the American Heart Association. I start on Monday...wish me luck!

Free Free Free

So, in reading Erin's blog, I was inspired to look around and see what was going for free on Craigslist for Orange County. Here are a few of the more humorous/interesting finds.

FREE TALL FAN PALMS!!! - apparently you can go to this person's house in Westminster and remove (somehow - maybe with your handy dandy crane?) the three 30 foot palm trees in front and take them to your location of choice. I think my favorite part is that the picture is sideways.

FREE DIRT!!! - (what's with all the exclamation marks?) these people apparently want to give you their dirt - for free! Where can you find a better deal? Except, maybe, your own backyard, or front yard, the park down the street...need I go on?

FREE place to dump your CLEAN FILL DIRT - maybe these last two guys should get together!

Or my favorite...

TOTO TOILET - and you thought people weren't giving away good stuff! We are unaccountably generous here in Orange County!

Olympic Mania

Have you been reading about all of the Olympic torch mayhem? I have to tell you that I am really loving it. I get incredible satisfaction when I see people go to great lengths to display their opinion. I think it is totally outrageous (in a good way) that protestors in France actually tried to grab the torch and it had to be re-lit 3 times before finally being put on a bus for the last leg. I also think it is awesome that college students shimmied up the Golden Gate Bridge to display huge banners (as San Francisco is the only US stop on the tour). Three of them stayed up there for hours because they knew they would be arrested when they came back down. I just think that it is a good reminder that even though we appear to be accepting China more and more on a global level (not that that is a bad thing as long as we can use that as leverage for good), China has in no way stopped its horrible history of human rights abuses. Anyway, I better stop before I go on a tirade, but I just wanted to make you aware in case you aren't already following the story. I love things like this because they make people think! What's your opinion about China being accepted on the world stage? Do you have one? Do you care?

For Sale

You really need to check out this link:

THINGS FOR SALE THAT I WILL MAIL YOU

Take the time to check out the whole list. What an amazing idea - I wish I had thought of it first!

{via Oh Happy Day}

Previously On...

Check out this hilarious article from The Onion News about a man with high aspirations...

Labokoff

I love these combination photography + painting prints from Labokoff's etsy shop. I really want the Paris one. I could put it on my wall and sit on my bed staring at it for hours (or at least a long time) remembering rainy days running through Cemetaire Pere LaChaise and climbing up to greet the gorgoyles at the top of Notre Dame. Ah...

{via Bluelines}

Increase Your Knowledge

So, being from California, I have come across people who have many false assumptions about the state. I decided to inform all those who didn't already know about a few things. Here goes.

Things you should know about California:

1. We have mountains. And snow. BIG mountains. Ever heard of the Sierra Nevadas? Donner Pass (where it was so cold and snowy and conditions were so bad that they had to eat the dead bodies)? Mammoth? Yosemite? You know how we have earthquakes? Yeah. Those usually happen on fault lines. Know what else happens on fault lines? Yup, mountains.

2. California is a BIG state. If you want to drive from the bottom of CA to the top, it would take you probably close to 20 hours. Seriously. So when somebody says they are from San Francisco area or Southern California, realize that they are talking about a 6 hour drive or so (for perspective, it takes probably 8-9 hours to get from Southern CA to Provo).

3. San Francisco is not really in Northern California. Okay, maybe it is slightly in Northern California, but mostly it is in Central California - remember that it's a big state?

4. People from California don't usually call it Cali (granted there are a very few exceptions - usually people who haven't lived here for a while). Oh, and while I'm on it, note that people never call Orange County the OC. That's the name of a TV show. Period.

5. We have farms. Lots of farms. Lots of cows. In fact, the central part of California is pretty much all agriculture. When people say they are from Fresno, that's more of what you should be picturing rather than palm trees and beaches. If someone says they are from California and they have never seen a cow they're either lying or totally in their own world.

6. Misconception: there are no open areas in California (especially Southern California). It depends what you are talking about. It is true that there are generally a lot of people along the coast (not always, but most of the time), but we actually have a lot of open area. We have a really big empty desert (the Mojave). We also have tons of national parks (think Yosemite, Lassen, Sequoia, etc.). Not only that, but we must have open spaces because how do you think all of the wildfires start? Not in someone's kitchen, that's for sure.

7. No, we do not have earthquakes every day. You can't even feel most earthquakes because they are too small. I can distinctly remember 2 destructive earthquakes in Southern California during my lifetime and the last one was the Northridge earthquake in 1994.

8. Contrary to popular opinion, though California usually has pretty good weather, it is NOT a tropical climate. Translation - the ocean is cold. In about August and sometimes July it warms up and you can definitely go swimming, but it is not warm. Sorry to burst your bubble, but palm trees are not native to Southern California either, they just grow well here. And it really only rains in the winter months. Rarely does it rain after April and before November (by the way, that's called a Mediterranean Climate - guess where else is the only place on earth with the same climate?).

9. June Gloom - Southern California is not always sunny and pretty during the summer (actually, my favorite months in California are not the summer months, but that's just me). We get this thing called June Gloom. It has to do with a cloud cover that comes in from the ocean. I'm just saying, if you are looking for sunny skies, they are hit and miss in June (although it is still warm).

10. Californians can't really be generalized. Because it is such a large state, you must be careful in thinking that you can make generalizations about the state. I'm not talking about little differences that you find in every state, but the culture is actually pretty distinctive. Think of the differences you can imagine between Los Angeles and San Francisco. They actually are extremely different cities. Thus, Northern and Southern California are pretty distinctive culturally. You should really visit each to find out - wouldn't that be so much fun?

Anyway, if you stuck with it and read the whole list, hopefully you are a more educated person regarding California. Just something that's been on my mind. I think the key is just to remember that California is really BIG, which means that it's really hard to make assumptions about the whole state...

More Musicness - She & Him

I'm pretty much in love with the new album Volume One by She & Him. It's a collaboration between M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel. Remember the movie Elf? Remember the girl who sings Baby It's Cold Outside in the shower and blew you away? Yup, that's Zooey Deschanel. You should definitely check it out.

Music Break

Have you heard of these women? I have been listening to these British female singers for the last couple of months and I'm still not sick of them. My favorite is probaby Kate Nash. I listen to this song over and over in the car.

And then there's Adele. Amazing husky quality to her voice. Kind of jazzy but not an Amy Winehouse wanna be (she's better). Even if you don't like the song, you should watch the video just to catch the dance sequences on the sidewalk. So cool!

And then there's Duffy. This is probably her most well-known song. Enjoy it!

Hope you enjoyed your little music break.

Juicer Mania

So, lately I have been juicing a whole lot of lemons for various (mostly cake) recipes. More about that later. My mom, though, does not have a good juicer. I'm just talking about a simple hand juicer. She has the top, but the bottom container has been long lost. Due to this, juicing lemons is quite the production. Because the actual juicer doesn't fit on a container, I have to improvise by holding the juicer on the edge of a container so that it doesn't slide off while trying to juice lemons at the same time. Needless to say, there was one accident where I lost almost one cup of hard-earned lemon juice all over the kitchen counter.

This one from Anthropologie (which also comes in 2 other designs). I love the design, as well as the fact that it is designed to pour straight from the container. Sorry the picture is so small, but I always have a hard time with Anthropologie's website.

I also love this vintage juicer that I found in the June22 etsy shop for only $12. I really like the handles on the sides as well as the 70s flower motif on the sides. If you can't tell, I am really liking the ceramic juicers.

I also like this vintage cobalt blue glass juicer that I found on ebay (for only $8.90).

And then I found this awesome clown juicer on ebay. Who couldn't use this bad boy in their kitchen? You can snap it up for only $45! (ah!)

The Best of the Best

The YouTube 2007 Awards are out. Above is one of my favorites: Human Tetris. You can check out the rest of the categories here.

Anticipation

So, this Thursday, March 27th at 1pm is the big day. I hope everything goes well because I really, really need this! (If you don't know what I'm talking about, ask me after that day because I don't want to jinx anything - just pray everything goes well!)

...

Sudan rejects Darfur rape charges

Sigh.

New Resolution...

Can you add resolutions in March? Oh well, I will anyway.

New Resolution - Comment as much as I can on peoples' blogs because it is so great to get comments and I figure that it's an easy way to make someone happy!

Catch 'em on a good day

Just some cute pics that my sister sent of my niece, Avery, and nephew, Carter. Apparently, Carter is practicing to be a future Intel engineer like his Dad...

To Read: In the Country of Men

So, as some of you know, I am kind of an NPR addict. The first step is admission, right? I download the podcasts for Books, Fresh Air, All Things Considered, Story of the Day (I think there's one more) and listen to them as I walk in the morning or paint (which I have been doing a lot lately - not cool artistic painting, but boring and tedious primer to top coat on the wall kind of painting). Anyway, on the NPR Books podcast (from earlier this month) there was an announcement that the Bryant Park Project from NPR News was going to start it's own book club. After the announcement, they introduced the first book (that will be discussed on March 28 - they will discuss one book a month). The book? In the Country of Men, by Hisham Matar. This book, which chronicles the life of a family in Libya in the 1960s and 1970s sounds absolutely enthralling and amazing. You can read a little bit about it here on Amazon, or here on the NPR site. Now, this may not be quite as appealing to others as it was to me with my political science background and Africa fascination in general, but I think I must add it to the LONG list of books that I plan on reading. I think it would be so interesting to read about this September revolution of General Qhadafi (there are sooooo many different spellings of his name), full of mock trials, executions, persecutions, particularly as we now view him and his administration as our allies in northern Africa. Anyway, I just wanted to bring this book to your attention. If you get to it before me, let me know how it is!

Magical Places #4 - Musee National du Moyen Age

Musee National du Moyen Age (Cluny) - Unicorn Tapestries

One of my favorite experiences while I was in Paris was a visit to the Musee National du Moyen Age (National Museum of the Middle Ages). Anna (sorry there's no link, she's gone private) and I rushed to get here on a rainy day toward the end of our week in Paris. It would be impossible for me to articulate the impact that these tapestries had on me and my views of artistic expression in the Middle Ages (which Anna will definitely appreciate). The Unicorn Tapestries are a six tapestries representing the 5 senses, and a 6th mystery tapestry. The viewing room (show in the bad picture above) makes the whole experience very intimate. There was also a sense of isolation added to the experience as the whole museum had scarcely any visitors that day. If you are in Paris, I would definitely say that this is a museum you should make time to visit. It's hard to see the magnificence of the colors and textures of these tapestries through pictures. Suffice it to say that I was immensely touched and impressed after 2-3 months of viewing countless tapestries across Britain in various museums and on sundry estates. Below is a picture of the 6th tapestry (the meaning of which is still unknown).
Although the Unicorn Tapestries were the most amazing part of that experience for me, and I walked through much of the rest of the museum in a daze, there were still so many other pieces of art that caught my attention. Here are two pictures of some other artifacts from the museum:

You can visit the museum's website here where you can browse through more of the collections or read in more detail about the tapestries themselves. Oh, and if I failed to mention it before, I hope you picked up that they are called the Unicorn Tapestries because there is a unicorn in each of them!

Wowzer

So, I just wanted to let you all know that gas today is $3.64. Sigh. I guess some things are better in Utah...maybe. ;)

(oh, and apparently no one knows where to get Meyer lemons in Orange County. Oh well.)

Lemon Frenzy

Does anyone know where to find Meyer lemons? Hopefully somewhere in Orange County? Due to my New Year's Resolution to try new recipes, I have a couple that I would love to try but I need the elusive Meyer lemon. Am I looking at the wrong place? I did find a couple of "sweet lemons" at the local Stater Bros (after doing a grocery store search in the area). They didn't look so hot, though. I might just give in and go get them so I can try some recipes. For all that I am generally really happy to be back in CA due to immensely larger and more diverse produce sections (sorry, UT), I am wondering if I am just blind. Any suggestions short of growing them myself? (You can read more about Meyer lemons here if you are in the dark as I was).

In the Year 1943

My grandma was the ultimate correspondant. And she kept a running journal - I really mean that. You could probably look through her numerous journals and find the cost of bread for every year of her life. Unfortunately, my grandma passed away while I was on my mission in Brazil (having lived 20 minutes away my whole life, we were pretty close). A little while ago, my grandpa gave my dad some of my grandma's earliest journals. Each of the grandaughters (my sisters and me) got to choose one journal to keep. I chose her journal from 1943.

This journal covers her student teaching and graduation year in Ogden, Utah (where she grew up). It also covers the first time (yes, there was more than one) that she got engaged to my grandpa while he was stationed in Florida. And, as you may have suspected, it has a lot of details about her life during the war.

Although her actual entries are fairly brief (and always have the weather report), there are tons of cards, dance cards, letters, notes, and newspaper clippings. The majority of those clippings are notifications of deaths or missing in action reports of the young men. It is really hard to see how prevalent those are. I have also noticed that people in Ogden in 1943 were constantly going to get malts and shakes.

This year I have decided that I will read my grandma's entry for the day before I go to bed. It has been really interesting. Here are a few of my favorite entries:

Monday, January 18, 1943: (clear, but terribly cold) "I received my airmail registered letter from George today. It's supremely beautiful. I'm going to accept him. I believe that I love him. Marilynn and I ate lunch today. I saw M.M. she treated me to a sundae. I stayed home all evening. I received this poem from Vi. The letter contained the most beautiful proposal of marriage from George. I'm engaged now."

Monday, March 1, 1943: (cloudy most of day, cold) "The school hours have been changed, so I get through at noon. I ate lunch with M.M. (a good girlfriend) Harvey Turpin is in love now. Gosh, it seems to be contagious. M.M. came for me. We walked downtown. I never saw so many friendly soldiers in my life. It would have been easy to be picked up. We ate a sundae at Keeley's. We walked home."

She also includes the items that have been recently rationed. Anyway, it has truly been fascinating to read about her life day by day as she is in her early 20s.

Stuff White People Like

If you haven't heard about the blog Stuff White People Like, you should definitely check it out. I was listening to an interview with one of the authors and I find the whole idea hilarious and enlightening. The idea came about because of all of the stereotypes that people have about various marginalized groups of our society. The purpose is to aim a little self-effacing humor at the "default" group - the white person. Really, you should read it. The first post was about coffee, Obama was mentioned in #8, Oscar parties are in there as well as bicycles. Really, you just need to check it out...

Scottish Fold

Ok, so I am DEFINITELY a dog person. Cats? Not my thing - at all. A couple of weeks ago, though, my sister came home from work (at an animal hospital) and said that she saw a Scottish Fold cat (their ears fold forward). We looked it up on the internet, and I have to agree that if any cat would make me switch to the other side, it would definitely be this: