Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Anniversaries & Memorial days...

I'm happy to report that I had a pleasant holiday weekend, although I am still very tired from it all. And this week at work has just been totally insane, so I'm really ready for the weekend already, even though it's a short week! :)

Yesterday was our 2-year anniversary. Can't believe it hasn't been more than that! Honestly, we both feel like we've been together for much longer. Maybe because at this point we act like an old married couple (just substitute the dog for the child!). But I gotta love a man who knows how to deal with my every mood. Plus, he cooks like a pro - have to keep that around! :)

So I put this together to celebrate, somewhat (just click to see the full-sized version):


Have to give props to my girl Anna Aspnes, since I used her awesome gradient brushes to make that! I'm so addicted to them now - they make it so easy to use multiple photos in a layout without making it feel overcrowded! And thought I'd show this scrap page off too, even though I did it back in January:
You can view credits for it here.

We went to the always amazing Five Crowns last night for dinner, and yet again it did not disappoint. Seriously, if you live in Orange County and have not been there yet, GO! It's worth every penny. Chris and I splurged and ordered a full three course meal, plus martinis, and pretty much had to hobble out there, we were so full. I got the lobster tails, and he got the surf 'n turf. Soooo good. And it was perfect service, as per usual, and not too loud. Plus we didn't have to wait at all for our table - which I'm even more thankful for, since it seems that fewer and fewer restaurants understand the concept of "reservation". But anyways, two hours later we finally headed home to top off the night with some champagne and cuddle time (with the puppy included, of course).

And as for the long weekend, it was great. I think I pretty much squeezed the most out of it that I could! Saturday went and got a haircut, and after some errands came home to clean for a small dinner party we had planned. I think Chris outdid himself this time - he made steaks with his yummy cream and red wine sauce, golden carrot coins (SO yummy - gotta love Alton Brown's recipes!), roasted red potatoes and asparagus. Mmmmm!!! Plus we threw in salad and bread rolls. We just had a few people over, but they hadn't met each other before so it made for some great conversation. Chris and I had also bought a long fold-up table with just such an event in mind, so we could eat out on the patio and also fit everybody at one table, since our vintage dinette doesn't exactly provide for large groups. :) It was a great night though, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

On Sunday I had to drag my butt out of bed and get ready to go down to my uncle's house in San Diego. My parents and I had made plans to go down for the night and hang out with everyone - my uncle had his girlfriend and some friends over, and my cousin Sarah came over as well. His girlfriend's daughter also wound up coming by later that night with her boyfriend. I wound up taking a ton of photos, since my dad brought his new toy - a Nikon D40. Gotta love digital SLRs! I so want one...maybe if I get a raise. Someday.

But it turned out to be a really fun two days! I brought the puppy with me, in the hopes that he would make friends with Sarah's dog, Taj.
Isn't he a cutie? He's mostly Doberman, mixed with something that I can't remember at the moment. Turns out my guess that they would get along famously was right! They're both scaredy-cats (crazy for a Doberman, I know, but he is) and mama's boys, and built for running. A perfect match. :)

Here's a shot of the requisite sniffing:
They wound up providing loads of entertainment and laughs for us! I think it was Karl that likened Jacopo to a little kid following around Taj, who was like the cool high schooler, and having to do everything that Taj did. The best part was Jacopo got a great workout and slept like a rock once he finally settled down that night and Monday night too. :)


We had a perfect summer barbeque in the backyard with big hamburgers and stuff for dinner, and enjoyed the view:













That's my uncle and his girlfriend, Donna, along with Mike and Leslie, who were joking about how they could see their house from there (with a little help from the binoculars).

While we were there, Jacopo discovered that he loved stairs (we don't have any at home), and you could hear him enjoying them many times over in the 2 days we were there!

I don't know how that little pup manages to sound like an elephant when he runs, but he does. And then when he and Taj played on them together....you could hear it from all over the house. At least we could keep tabs on them! :) I think he was also a big fan of the landing because he could see all that was going on.

That night we pretty much just hung out, ate, drank and talked. I have to share this photo of Sarah, 'cuz she's perty and her hair is sooo long right now!

I'm pretty sure she was telling a wicked story when this was taken. ;-)

So I wound up sleeping on the couch instead of in one of the guestrooms with Sarah, since Jacopo continued to try and bait Taj into playing with him even after we turned out the lights and had settled down. I guess he's just not used to having a playmate around for that long! But I couldn't believe that he still had the energy. Although he did settle down as soon as we curled up on the couch together.

Monday was another casual hangout day, and we all decided to go on a walk with the puppies. Especially since it was such gorgeous weather you really just had to be outside. Thank Thor for national holidays! :) So dad took some great photos along the way...














Then when we got back Karl and Donna raced back and put up this sign on the door before we got there:
What a punk! While Karl and Donna went to work barbequing dinner, the rest of us mainly hung out. I'll spare you the gratuitous puppy photos, but I can't help but share this one:

Yup, that's Jacopo sleeping with his nose tucked in between Sarah's feet. What a goofball! It's like a security blanket for him, he loves to have his nose tucked away when he sleeps.

As one last photospam, there's this one:

Gotta love the way Sarah hugs Taj! I imagine with such a huge dog there can only be a few ways! :)

That's all for now - this weekend I'm heading up to Pasadena to tour Castle Green, which I'm sure I'll have a ton of photos from! Hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday weekend!

~T

Quote of the moment: "Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence." ~Robert Frost

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Gotta Love

Overheard in the Office. At my old job, I relied on it on a near-daily basis to help keep me laughing. And I also had a few submissions published, thanks to my lovely coworkers. I decided to check in this morning since it's been pretty quiet compared to the rest of this week, and found this gem:

5PM At Least I Can Stop Eating

Salesman: I'm just trying to help you! Every time I see you you're eating.
Purchasing manager, mouth full of cookies: Every time I see you you're ugly.

8900 Kelso Drive
Baltimore, Maryland

Overheard by: Anonymous Temp


via Overheard in the Office, May 18, 2007

As well as this one, which is just a perfect example of the lack of geography classes in American schools:

11AM Right Near Where They Have the Running of the Frogs?

New art director: This product line is called Madrid, right?
Creative director: Yes.
New art director: So why do you want me to look for images of the south of France?
Creative director: Isn't Madrid on the coast of France?

325 Model Farm Road
High Point, North Carolina

Overheard by: I could find that on a map


via Overheard in the Office, May 18, 2007
Pure genius. And now they have two new sites - Overheard Everywhere, and Celebrity Wit. More funnies for your everyday lunacy! :)

~T

Quote of the Moment: "If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything to laugh at when you're old." ~Edgar Watson Howe

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Phew.

What a weekend! And that counts Monday, too! Lets see...last Friday was actually a fairly busy day at work, and I was supposed to go and see Shrek 3 with the girls, but when they were finally going to the movie around 10:30 I was just too sleepy! But its cool, Chris and I got a chance to hang out and relax without worrying about having to get up in the morning.

Next morning we took Jacopo to the Irvine dog park (appropriately named "Central Bark") for the first time, and once he finally relaxed a bit I think he had a great time! He kept playing chase with a couple of the Boston terriers that were there. And since it can be rather boring there for the owners - it's basically a big, fenced flat area - we took him to a local park in Tustin so Chris and I could get some exercise too. It was such a gorgeous day, of course I couldn't help but take some photos:














After that it was home to really clean the apartment, and use my parents' steam cleaner that I borrowed. That thing is a miracle worker! The carpet looks sooo much better...makes me happy. :) Then Chris whipped up some tacos, and after dinner we finally went to go see Hot Fuzz. Freaking hysterical. Unlike other movies I've seen, they really did satire perfectly - as in, in all seriousness, except that its so obviously satire you can't help but laugh. And some great action scenes as well!

Then Sunday I went with my parents to the Planes of Fame air show in Chino, which was absolutely amazing. We didn't get there first thing like we wanted to, but we saw plenty of amazing demonstrations. If you didn't already know, I come from a family of flight enthusiasts on my mom's side - my grandfather worked on planes for the Navy in WWII and then went on to work for Pratt & Whitney (famous jet engine company, you've most likely had their engines or some part in your plane the last time you flew) his entire career. Then both my aunt and uncle became engineers for Pratt, my uncle bought a plane several years ago and flies it regularly, my mom has always loved planes and now my cousin has had his pilot's license since before he had his driver's license. So yeah, been around aviation just a bit. :) Anyhoo, if you like aviation as well, check out the air show's website, they did a fab job on it! And if you can, I highly recommend going next year. It's totally worth it. My dad took some great photos:








(I have no idea why some of those are showing up so much smaller!) So yeah, the air show was totally worth going, despite the heat and sunburns and roughly 50 people stopping me to talk about Jacopo. I'm pretty patient about it, since it seems to be a trend no matter where we go, but after a point all you want to do is get the food you were going for in the first place! Poor puppy was so tired that by the time we left he couldn't hardly make the walk out to the car. Luckily he's only 12 pounds, or I might have had to drag him! Needless to say he slept hard that night.

Yesterday work was insane, but at least tonight Nikki is coming over so we can continue the trend and beat the Shrek the Third game that I bought (for PS2). Woot!

~T

PS Check out my Flickr (you can get there from the slideshow on the right) - posted several more new photos besides the ones I included here!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Happy Syttende Mai!

Or, for all you non-Norwegians out there, Happy Constitution Day! Syttende mai translates to simply












"seventeenth of May", which is the day in 1814 when Norway's constitution was signed into law. Its basically our equivalent of the 4th of July. :) Literally everybody gets out (and for many, dressed up in the national costume) and attends the local parade and/or events to celebrate. I don't think there's a kid alive that grew up in Norway and didn't have to hold a kid-sized flag every syttende mai! Unlike in the States, however, its not simply a day to shoot off fireworks and drink. ;-) Norwegians tend to be pretty damn proud of our independence - we changed hands many times over the millenia, whether it was Sweden or Denmark or whoever that had control, we didn't really have true independence until after the damn Americans did!

Anyway, if you're interested in a bit of history, Wikipedia has a pretty good article about it here. Or, even cooler, the newspaper in my family's hometown of Stavanger has a gorgeous photo reel of today's events here, where you can bear witness to the fact that not all Norwegians are white! :) But the day really does hold some fond memories for me - when we were much younger our parents would take us to the local celebration where there'd be all kinds of games and stuff for us to do, and people my dad could speak Norwegian with. :) You'd be surprised how many there are in the area! We tend to gravitate towards each other...I'll have to look through my parents' albums and see if I can find the old photos of us dressed up for that.

Funny of the week for me has to be a tie between my boss and Jacopo:

My boss, for making every conceivable joke he could today about a business contact who goes by his initials, which happen to be "K.Y." I won't cite every one, but I think my favorite had to be "Watch out, he's a slippery fellow." We were rolling. I know, high school humor, but still freaking funny.

And Jacopo, because as Chris and I were trying to get to sleep last night I kinda shoved the puppy over with my butt (as he was against my back) and made a crack about him being so kind as to share the bed, to which he promptly responded with a huge puppy sigh and quickly repositioning so that his head was now draped over the back of my neck, and his little heater of a body was even closer to me. I swear, dogs really do speak human! Chris and I laughed until we cried, it was so ridiculously apropo.


Tonight I'm attending a fashion show/fundraiser with my mom for IIDA (International Interior Design Association), which should be fun. The fashion show is actually part of a fundraising challenge to design firm teams to make clothes out of whatever traditional interior design products they're given. Plus they do a mixer and silent auction and that kind of thing. I went with her before, either last year or the year before, and had a ball - especially so since we sat just in front of these fabulous gay men who were full of wickedly funny comments. Keep your fingers crossed that happens again this year! :)

Other than that, a fairly quiet week. Spent the weekend and Monday fighting a wicked cold. Unfortunately I had to return to work Tuesday, and I'm much better but still have congestion and a slight cough. But I've been loading up on the vitamins, so hopefully I won't have to deal with this much longer. And at least I didn't completely lose my voice like I did last December! That would have put a severe damper on my value at work.

Hope everyone else is having a good week!

~Trude

Friday, May 11, 2007

New Page

Finally had a chance to do a new scrap page now that Chris is back and I'm not contantly distracted by the pup. And I actually went outside my "safety zone" this time and chose some really bright bright colors.


You can view credits and details here.

In other news, I took Jacopo to work with me again today since the guys are all gone most of the day and Chris is at work anyways. He's been very happy running up and down the length of the office. :) Thank Thor its Friday. Hopefully Chris and I will actually go out and see a movie tonight!


~T

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Ding, dong...

...the Chris is back. Which old Chris? The wicked Chris! Ding, dong, the wicked Chris is baaaaaack!

Finally. Chris got back Tuesday night from the devil's oven, aka Indio. It was so hot out there, a stack of pallets of water lit themselves on fire. Seriously! They were even in the shade, but somehow the heat of the sun was magnified through the water and the packaging caught on fire. And when they went to go put that out (luckily somebody noticed), another one would start. Only out in the desert would you ever see people running around yelling "Save the water! Save the water!" Cracks me up just thinking about it.

Unfortunately no cool backstage pictures, although I do have a great story about a confrontation with Lindsay Lohan and her bodyguard that Chris had during Coachella. Apparently, she doesn't understand that no means no. And I'm so proud of my boy for standing up to a spoiled Hollywood brat like that. :) Its just sad that security was cowed enough that Chris had to step in and do their job for them.

But in other news, Jacopo is overjoyed at having his daddy back - and someone to play with while I'm at work. I was so jealous when I left them sleeping together this morning!

I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but my parents have decided to keep the kitten, and it has officially been given the name "Puss". I wish you could hear me say it, as its the Norwegian word for cat and has an accent to it. But oh well. I think you get the idea...and yes, that was my dad's decision. Thus far, still no word on the actual gender of the thing. But I'll leave you with these hysterical pictures my mom sent me this week:
















Apparently, Ella is finally getting used to the kitten and not trying to kill it at every turn. And the kitten is actually taking after her, because he/she attacks feet too. :)
















Its almost Friday!!

~T

Monday, May 7, 2007

Dreaming

The night before last I dreamt that I was in the middle of a war (again), except this time it was clearly WWII and all the soldiers were all the classmates and friends I've ever had. How terrible is THAT? I'm still thinking about it...

Friday, May 4, 2007

Peace

Ahhh...the sounds of silence...all is quiet at work right now, and I'm in a very good mood today thanks to the kindness of my boss letting me bring Jacopo into the office for the day! It was actually his suggestion. It all started with the pup finally showing signs of anger and depression at being home alone during the day for over a week (even though I've been going home for lunch every day), and I was telling my boss about my woes of cleaning up after him, and he suggested I just bring him in. Apparently he's a huge dog lover, which he definitely demonstrated today. :) Too cute! So that relief, added to the fact that I finally got time to really clean the apartment last night (I find it theraputic), and its Friday, AND tomorrow is National Scrapbooking Day so everyone is having huge sales....I'm feeling pretty good right now.

This is what has goten me through the week to today. Everyone loves a Tootsie Roll! Lucky for me I'm the one that buys all the office supplies and I make sure we've always got some kind of sweet thing around - usually the big 5 pound mixed bag of Tootsie Roll products since they're fat free and won't melt. And I'm not the only one who eats them either! The two mice in the back help me go through a bag pretty quick-like. ;)

Just had to share these photos I just took of the pup chillin on our couch here at work. Its right by my desk in the entry, so I can keep an eye on him:


















He's such a goof...I love how he's practically rolling his eyes like "Geez, mama, not another photo??"

Well that'll do it, just a quick post to share. Can't wait for the weekend...just a few more days until Chris finally comes home!!

~T