Foreigners, Books, Obedience and More

Where does the time go?? Even though my life has felt a bit quieter than usual lately, I still never have enough time in the day to do everything that I want to. Maybe it's because I always want to get a million things done, but that's besides the point (Chris). :) At any rate, lots of stuff going on, I think it's just because when I get home it's only me and the puppy that it feels quiet.

Photo Favorites

Some of my current favorites from Flickr:
Credits:
1. Heart of Satan - What it looks like when fireworks explode inside of a storm cloud over a river, 2. Girly staff, 3. Sleepy afternoon....., 4. Little Island, 5. more scenery, 6. 20070704_Norway_Day2_2209_Bergen, 7. 20070704_Norway_Day2_2027_NorwayinaNutshell, 8. no parking, 9. Day 180, 10. Anyone got any chips, 11. Happiness, 12. IMG_7338, 13. Hus på Gjendebu, 14. Dan as Art, 15. Pool Pals, 16. Nice Tongues, 17. 00099, 18. night at the Gent's channels/ Noche enlos canales de Gante, 19. Untitled, 20. Quick call the bambulance I'm havin a cute attack, 21. Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770 - 1844), 22. dunstanburgh castle, 23. Fira, 24. Separation Anxiety, 25. storm today

I love seeing what other people are doing, and being inspired by it. And sometimes it's just good for a laugh or a smile - like when I saw the one of the puppy biting the hand that holds him. :)

Visitors From A Foreign Land

Last Saturday my parent's old friends Terje (pronounced Terry) and Liv (pronounced Leev) flew in from Norway. My dad met Terje way back when he was working for Mobil in Norway, and they've kept in touch ever since. Here's a photo of them (on the right side of the table) with us when we were in Norway last summer. They came down from outside Bergen to hang out with us in Stavanger. :)(I just love that you can see the fjord in the background of that photo!) They're such a cool couple, we always love seeing them. And I love milking them for information, since they travel all over constantly and are multi-lingual. :) Plus, it doesn't hurt that they always come fully stocked with all the Norwegian goodies that they know we love and miss. Liv also brought me some super-cute leather bracelets from Spain that are hand painted, so pretty! And yes, Nikki, they brought more Stratos. Saturday night we just had a casual dinner and let them go to bed early to try and beat the jet lag, and Sunday we took them down to Huntington Beach's Main Street to get some California sun, and then back home for a really yummy BBQ. Monday night I met up with them after work to watch Lars' summer league soccer game (since he finally had a night game that I could make it to!), and then we headed to the Whole Enchilada for dinner. Mmm...so I'm pretty sure I gained about 5 pounds this past weekend. :)

New Scrap Pages

I did this one mainly for my mom, as she wanted a cute page to share with everyone at the family reunion that she's (along with my dad and youngest brother) going to next month. Luckily between her camera and my camera we had taken a crapload of photos the last time we went! You can see credits for the layout here.

I also did this one last week, and I based it off of a layout that Jessica Sprague did for one of her Photoshop Friday tutorials (which I read religiously). You can view the original here.


This damn kitten is just so photogenic...too bad he and Jacopo can't help but play rough with each other whenever we go to my parents' house! As always, you can click the image to view larger, and go here for credits.

Obedience, Please!

Last night Jacopo and I went to our first obedience training class together, and he did so well! He's not the A+ student yet, but he's definitely not the delinquent of the group either. We'll definitely be practicing this week, even if the first class was just about training them to walk at heel, sit on command, and generally obey. :) He's a pretty obedient dog to begin with, but sometimes only when I have a treat in hand. And definitely not when there's distractions, so we'll be working on that too. I totally had a "proud mama" episode when class was over. And he was so tuckered out by the time we got home, he was ready for bed even if I wasn't! Too cute. :)

Feeding the Addiction

Last night Nikki and I headed out to see the new Harry Potter movie. Wooo! Just have to say don't believe the stupid critics, it's most definitely the best film version by far! I think they did a much better job of pacing this time, and fitting in as much as they could of an 800-page novel. Plus the filming is just gorgeous. But I'll leave it at that and try not to give too much away! Now my book #7 needs to hurry up and get here! :)

There's A (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble

That would be the title of the most recent book I finished, by Laurie Notaro. Such a great read! I'm definitely going to have to start collecting her other novels. It was a bit over-saturated with metaphors, but I was constantly laughing out loud. The woman has mastered the hysterically funny metaphor, I have to admit. Take this paragraph, for example:

A couple of decades later, Maye sat in Cynthia's living room calling up her "Mikado" memories as three of her neighbors - who were too old to be simply grandmothers without a multitude of "great"s being placed before that title, let alone schoolgirls - pranced and flounced with what marginal dexterity their Edwardian period limbs could permit without simply snapping off like dead twigs and fluttering to the ground.

Hysterical, que no? I really had a good belly-laugh the first time I read that! Next book that I've already gotten about 100 pages into is The Electric Michelangelo, by Sarah Hall. It's turning out to be a good choice, too, and I can see why it was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize! And the author hasn't even hit 30 years old yet! And for those of you that I know like reading historical fiction too, this one is extremely well researched. It's not about historical events, but she does a great job of accurately crafting the world around the main character.

Anyhoo, that should about do it! Time to finally go sit and relax.

~T

Quote of the moment: "The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own." ~Benjamin Disraeli