Good Reads, Top 10, and More

The summer is just flying by - I can't believe it's almost August already! But that's good, because I'm much more of a spring and fall girl, anyways. Although I did finally buy a pair of shorts from Old Navy, Nancy would be proud of me. :)

10 Things

So Jessica Sprague did this on her blog again, and I think it's time that I did another list of 10 things that are good/amusing/happening in my life right now!

1. GoodReads.com ~ Actually found out about this site through Jessica too, and since I am such a bookworm I just had to join! There are several of you that I know read at least as much as me (:cough:NikkiMindyMomNancy:cough:), so join up and add me as a friend! I always like to hear reviews from "real" people. Here's the link to my profile: click here.

2. (Nearly) 4 weeks down, 5 more to go ~ Chris has been gone for just under four weeks now, and it's really starting to get old - for both of us! I wish he was back already. Right now he's in the middle of a 12-shows-in-12-days stretch, and exhausted already. If it's even possible, I think he's going to come back skinnier. For those of you that know him, that would mean a walking skeleton. ;-)

3. My new Back to Basics conditioner ~ I got the Vanilla Plum Fortifying type (at Costco, of all places, meaning I nearly break my toe every morning because half the time the ginormous Costco-sized bottle slips out of my hand) and it makes my hair sooo nice and smooth and smells like cotton candy - muy delicioso!! And I've actually noticed that fewer hairs get pulled out when I comb through after showering. :)

4. My parents ~ Because they're just freaking awesome, period. And I'm feeling extra grateful that I live so close because they can puppysit for me, like they did last Thursday night to Friday night, since I had my work's "Day at the Races" event on Friday and wouldn't be getting home until late. Plus, they still let me do laundry whenever (like the loser and cheap bastard that I am), and have been putting up with me and the puppy quite often since Chris has been gone, as it's a comfy place I can hang out where they feed me for free and Jacopo can run around 'til he can't stand up anymore. :D So cheers to them!

5. My new cordless keyboard and mouse that are currently in transit to me ~ Hurry up, goshdarnit! Don't get me wrong, I'm seriously in love with my Mac, but even the Mighty Mouse can be found to be seriously lacking. It's one of the few areas that PCs have way more options and choices than Macs do, and I miss having a mouse that forms well to my hand and has easy forward and back buttons right where the thumb rests (and they're not just for web browsing either! Those buttons help when you're trying to find where you saved a file). The difference is especially drastic when I use a nice set all day at work and then come home to do scrapbooking or something. With all the time that I spend on my home computer, the mouse and keyboard had better work well and against the encroaching carpal tunnel I feel!
**Update: I got the set today, and I LOVE it!! I don't know why I bothered with anything else. Especially since when I was a PC girl I always changed to some kind of Logitech product from the stock keyboard & mouse, so why not with a Mac? Anyhoo, they're all installed and working perfectly, and I especially like having a "cleaner" desk with fewer cords running around. :)

6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ~ I'm not even going to bother linking to it, because you shouldd already have a copy. And if you don't, run to Barnes & Noble now. Don't walk. I pretty much got nothing done this weekend (besides hang out with the girls Saturday night) because I had to finish it.

7. This new photo of me and Jacopo~I love it so much, I'm almost hesitant to try and scrap it, because I want the page to be perfect! I'm sure inspiration will come to me soon...I hope!

8. Jacopo finally healing ~ We've been dealing with skin issues he has pretty much since we got him, and I finally got fed up with the vet that we were going to originally (not seeing the same person twice, not really addressing our concerns, overcharging, etc.) that two weeks ago I decided to start taking him to the vet my family has gone for many years in Placentia. They had always treated my parents' menagerie well, and they were nice and small, and I felt I would get a fair deal there. I couldn't have made a better choice! Not only did she (yup, the vet is this woman that probably should have been a model) truly address my concerns about various skin problems he was having, but they charged me just over half of what the same thing cost at the other place and the new pill and ointment she prescribed actually worked. And right away too! Its so amazing, I had been using this other ointment from the old place for weeks and didn't see anywhere near that kind of result. So, long story short, that weight is off my mind and I'm sooo happy. And you can tell he's happy too! :)

9. My best friend Nikki ~ We hung out last Wednesday (like we've been doing pretty much every week since Chris left, and now I don't think I can make it through the week without at least one night of hanging with her!) after work, and I just have to give her huge props for being willing to go with me to the pet store to get more of Jacopo's food, and then suggesting we go to the Lazy Dog cafe (small local chain of restaurants that welcome dogs - on their patios, of course) instead of our fave sushi place, which really worked out since we already had Jacopo in the car with us. It just made my day that she totally understood how much guilt I felt leaving him alone even more than he had already had been that day, even though I was perfectly willing to leave him for an hour or so for dinner. And the restaurant turned out to be pretty good, and the service was great, although they didn't have any signs up as to how you were supposed to get seated if you had a dog and couldn't go inside. Might be helpful in the future. ;-)

10. Dreyer's Slow Churned Light Ice Cream Bars ~ Need I say more? And they were on special at Albertson's....it was fate! :)

Randomness

Other than that, just hanging out and getting through the week. Nancy came over the Friday before last to catch up and have her first official lesson in digital scrapbooking - another convert! Hopefully I helped her some...I can get so indecisive (which is really not like me) when I'm putting together a layout, mostly because I have so many options! Between all the different layouts I've seen, and tricks I've learned, and products I have, if I don't know exactly what I want to do it can be a tedious process sometimes. But we persevered, and together made this page:Cute, huh? I really liked how it turned out. For credits and more info you can go here.

Friday I'll be hanging out at my family's house, hopefully my uncle and his girlfriend will come over as well as our old family friends, the Brinkmans, since they're all going to the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna the night before. They're all so much fun! :)


~Trude

Quote of the moment: "If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal." ~ John Lennon