Photos, Parks and Surveys

So been taking more photos lately, now that things have calmed down a bit at home...

Love how this one turned out of Jacopo sleeping (thanks to my nifty-fifty lens); he never sleeps sitting up! He was just really tired that day and passed out next to Chris. :)
And this one of Puss (my parent's adopted kitten). I was trying to give a sense of scale as to just how huge he really is - that's a normal cable TV remote! And he's not quite a year old yet! But I think I'm just going to have to get a shot of me holding him or something, because it continually baffles me as to how huge he's become, especially when I think back on how small he used to be.
Then Saturday after taking Jacopo for a shot, we took him down to Irvine Park, which was gorgeous and sunny until the clouds started rolling in around 1ish. But we were totally lucky to go there in between rainstorms!
Gasp! A survey!

Because I was tagged by the talented Ms. BritGirl (well, sort of, because I secretly stalk her blog for digiscrap inspiration!). :)

You have to use 3 words to answer each question. No more, no less. It’s harder than you think.

1. Where is your cell phone? In my purse

2. Your girlfriend/boyfriend/hubby? Is at work

3. Your hair? In a pony.

4. Where is your father? At work too.

6. Your favorite thing to do? Too many now

7. Your dream last night? Back in school

8. Your favorite drink? 7up & vodka (ha)

9. Your dream car? Lexus RX hybrid

10. The room you’re in? Lots of light

12. Your fears? Not fulfilling dreams

14. Who did you hang out with last night? Pup, BF, me

15. What aren’t you good at? Math, science, patience

16. Muffins? Make me hungry

17. One of your wish list items? Calvin Klein purse

19. The last thing you did? Use the copier

20. What are you wearing? Cute work clothes

22. Your pet? My curly-tailed shadow

23. Your computer? Mac needing upgrade

24. Your life? Always getting better

25. Your mood? Up on coffeeeeee

26. Missing? Being at home

27. What are you thinking about right now? Eating Honda Ya

28. Your car? Needs a wash

29. Your work? Um...ah...uh...

30. Your summer? Is coming soon!

31. Your relationship status? Almost three years

32. Your favorite color(s)? Black, green, red

33. When is the last time you laughed? Few minutes ago

34. Last time you cried? Last weekend, man

35. School? Going back soon!

This weekend should be nice and quiet, and I can't wait to see some of you next weekend at our house warming/Chris' birthday party! :)

~T

Happiness Bearers

Lots of things making me happy right now, so it's time for another round!

1. Our new place. Seriously, its just a gazillion times better. Not perfect, but much better. And I'm of the opinion that for the location, area and quality, you couldn't find a better place to rent (damn, that's my old real estate advertising job kicking in). And one of the biggest differences? The pup is most definitely happier - eating more, jumping over the back of the futon sofa with ears flapping (which he wasn't able to do the way we had it before), hanging out in the sun on the patio (when we're home during the day we just leave the sliding door open so he can go in and out to potty, and now I catch him just sunning himself. Will have to invest in a doggie door) and, as of last night, FINALLY sleeping in his crate...just because. I think going to puppy day care at Petsmart all day had something to do with it, though. And this photo is also good proof of the better lighting we have! :)
2. I love lamp. I apologize for the murky photo, it's straight-out-of-the-camera. And it's solid red, but because of the reflection looks like it has white on it. Anyways...I got it at Pier 1. Mostly because we clearly needed something to fill the space between bookshelves, and I'm totally in love with it! Also got these awesome storage bins to go in the third bookshelf (not pictured) that are made out of recycled magazines. How cool is that? I would link you to them but Pier 1's website kinda sucks and clearly doesn't have all of their merchandise.
3. Geeking out because Cathy Zielske mentioned yours truly on her blog! Just go check it out while I try and hold off a panic attack. I love her approach and books so much, I'm thrilled she even responded to my question.
   
4. iLife '08. It's about time we upgraded! For those of you I share my photos with, the cool part about this upgrade is I can publish my photos to a web gallery that lets you download them at full resolution. Way easier than clogging up email accounts!
5. Seeing comedians live. Just went and saw John Pinette, an old favorite, again Sunday night at the Brea Improv along with the entire Glowin gang. So much fun! His opener was really good too, so it was a solid 2 hours of laughing. Our cheeks hurt afterwards. Hurt so good. And I'm also planning on seeing Wanda Sykes when she's there the weekend after next with the family. Woo!
   
6. Petsmart's Doggie Day Camp. They make it oh-so-easy! Jacopo was there yesterday and today since Chris is down in San Diego (not on my list of happiness-bearers) most of the week and I'm at work all day. We figure it's only fair that he get to go and play instead of get locked up for 8 hours for at least part of the week (never fear, SPCA, I do go home on my lunch hour to let him run around and eat lunch). Plus today while he was there he got a bath and nail trimming. Oh, the luxury. :) But after our experiences last summer, now any time Chris is away during the week he makes sure the gig pays enough that we can afford to do day camp at least a couple days.
7. Cool siblings. Five years ago I probably wouldn't have believed it, but my brother (the one that is only two years younger) and I can now say we hang out regularly - as friends. Crazy, I know! Admittedly it has a lot to do with the fact that his awesome girlfriend Roseann and I are total buds now, but they're just fun to hang out with! Last night they came over to just chill with me while Chris out of town, and the good company was mucho apreciado.

What's floating your boat right now? I'd love to hear!

~Trude

Vikings, Readers and Wall Decor Phobia

Okay so still no photos of the new place, but you can forgive me right? I'm hoping to get some night daylight photos this weekend, even if we still have things all over the floor.

Our first weekend settled in was jam packed: a relaxing night in Friday night and early to bed, since we both had to be up early the next morning. Chris for work, and me to go to the Nordic Symposium up at California Lutheran with my parents. It was really very cool and totally worth the $40 (or whatever it was for the day), but excepting the college students I was the youngest person there! Which was kind of depressing, because it meant people weren't able to get their kids/grandkids interested in their heritage. Being a first-generation I'm much more inclined to be interested, but still it made me wish more people were clued in on their heritage! The speakers were really great, especially this woman who is the director of an archaeological project at Avaldsnes, which was the seat of the Viking kings of Norway for about 500 years. The best part is that it's not far from where my family is from (and where we always stay when we go home), so we're definitely going to spend a day exploring up there during our trip this summer. :)

Sunday was spent hanging out with Nikki and indulging in Chipotle, some scrapbook shopping, manis & pedis, and finally finishing Heavenly Sword. A super awesome day, indeed.

Some other things going on right now:

• Crazy-ass weather. It's been pretty chilly, then it started warming up this weekend and was near 80 on Sunday, then yesterday it started getting cloudy and chilly again, and drizzled overnight. And now today it's back up in the 70s. What the blank??
• Boo Time Warner Cable. I was *this* close to getting DirectTV. It's been almost 2 weeks (without internet or TV at home!!!), and they're finally getting their act together. Every time we called it was one excuse or another, and then when the guys (subcontractors, no less) finally showed up it turned out that the connection had been cut somewhere in the neighborhood. So then they had to send out their construction guys to run our cable line to the main box or whatever it is, and they finally came today. Thank Thor!! All I have to say is this: Quit acting like the monopoly you are, and behave like a regular business and hire more employees to meet the growing demand. As my old boss would say, "it's that simple!"
• Google Reader=making life easier. I've really gotten into reading people's blogs in the last year (it all started with digital scrapbooking ones where they would give away freebies, but you really can learn a lot from what people share these days!), and now I have quite the list going. So rather than go to each one every couple of days, I now use Google Reader, a free program that tells me which ones have been updated since I last checked. Super cool timesaver!
• The last week of Jessica Sprague's awesome "Now We're Rockin' With Photoshop" online class. I've seriously learned many cool tips and tricks - not so much how to do a certain thing, but more how to do it quicker and better! Plus I just love seeing her at work. :) I've created some really lovely pages, but more importantly learned how to be faster and better at this craft.
• Ali Edwards' super cool idea for a punch collage. Well, when doesn't she have a super cool and gorgeous project idea? But I was really drawn to this one, will have to start collecting the materials for it.
• Wall decor phobia. I have all this gorgeous framed stuff that I know I want to hang, and we're at the point to do that in our new space, but now I'm terrified I'm going to start hanging things and hate where I put them/how they look. Or that *gasp* I won't have enough wall space for everything! It's such a bother to get them up on the wall in the first place that I would hate to have to re-hang stuff (especially since that means more holes to fill when we move out). I know we'll get there - thanks in large part to Chris' eternal patience with me - because I hate the sight of bare walls, but am I the only one on the planet that worries about something like this?

That about does it for me...I'll have to share a cute hybrid project I've been working on as soon as it's finished (since I now have internet at home, thankyouverymuch).

~Trude
Quote of the moment: "All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

RIP Hershey

My family's beloved first dog, Hershey (a chocolate lab), passed away today at the ripe old age of nearly 14. My mom would call her "my fourth child", and she was a wonderful companion and mother hen to us kids.
She was in great pain at the end and could hardly walk, so at least she's at peace now.
She will be greatly missed.

Mission: Completed

So we FINALLY finished moving Saturday night. My arms and legs and back still hurt, and I know Chris' do too! I think we'll be going for a couples' massage in the near future - we earned it! It took us two full days to do everything, in part because for half of it we were by ourselves, and also because we didn't bother packing everything in boxes because it was "just across the street". Well that meant many many trips carrying handfuls...you get the idea.

Major props go out to my ogre of a brother, Eirik, for helping us with the big heavy stuff on Friday (especially since Chris' friend that was supposed to help got really sick) and also to the rest of my immediate family for helping us out Saturday night with all the little things. We couldn't have done it without you guys, seriously! Well, we could, but that would have entailed calling some movers and paying big bucks.

Our new place still looks like a bomb went off, of course, but I'm loving it already. It's a million times better than the old place! (Which they already started gutting, interestingly enough.) Not only for the better floorplan and new amenities, but the fact that I can do laundry right then and there! :D Can't wait to get everything finalized and have some people over to christen it!

Speaking of which, Chris and I met up at Ikea after work last night for a hot date of furniture shopping. Definitely had to get him this dresser (like the one I already have, except they discontinued my finish, those bastards!):
And because of the serious downgrade in closet space (I can hardly fit all my stuff in the bedroom closet, and that's after pruning it with no mercy for Goodwill!), we also got this little cheapy wardrobe, which I'm planning on sprucing up with some paint:
And I wanted to get this desk chair, but we didn't think we'd have enough room in our respective trunks for everything, although in the end it turned out we did. :( (I'll be back, Ikea!) But we definitely need something smaller-scale; the chair I brought home from work is just too ginormous for the space, and not comfortable for me at all - whereas the Ikea one is surprisingly so (especially when you consider the price!). Plus it doesn't hurt that it's totally cute and not your run-of-the-mill desk/office chair. ;)

And as if we weren't already exhausted from this weekend, the poor puppy was totally traumatized by the whole event. Any time we left him alone in the new place - even just for a few minutes - he would start crying so loudly you could hear him from the bottom of the stairs! He'll settle in eventually (at least he's okay when we're there and isn't cowering by the door or something), but I just feel terrible that I can't explain things to him!

Hoping to finally get some art on the walls tonight! Oh and that reminds me - you guys have to check out this company that does wall decals. They'll even do custom words (like poems or company names)! SO pretty! Been eyeing them for the better part of a year, and I think it's time to finally get some. :)

~T