My Parents

I'm 31 now and over last probably 5 years, I've come to realize something about my parents. Now, they don't read this blog and I probably won't admit as much to them outright, but I'll post it for the world (aka my 3 readers) to see: they were pretty much always right.

--They've always recycled. Take it as their inner hippie or what have you, my parents have recycled for as long as I can remember, even when it was more inconvenient. I learned good habits from them and recycling is definitely one of them. Green before their time.

--They refuse to buy bottled water. Bottled water is a waste of plastic. I try not to use bottled water as much as I can, but I'm not nearly as good at this as my parents. In light of yet another article about bottled water being not that great/safe/regulated, I'm going to try much harder to use less plastic and more beautiful red metal water holder thing. They also refuse to buy paper towels...something I haven't yet committed to but plan to this year. Yet again, green before their time.

--Always on time. I like this characteristic they share - and I learned it from them. I don't like to make people wait, especially now that we're all older and all much, much busier than we used to be. Every moment is precious (not to be cheesy but it's true!) and I don't want to waste my time or someone else's. 

--Try it, you'll like it. Now this doesn't always work, but most of the time, I have tried it and I usually do like it: red bell peppers, salmon, red onions, mixed greens (but how good is iceberg...mmmm...oh who do I hear? mom? iceberg is just water? yeah yeah, I know.) Over the years I've tried things I thought I didn't like just to see if I now like them. Seafood I still haven't taken a liking to. I'll try lobster again in like 3 years.

--They used to build things better. Time and time again this has proven to be true. In some things. I love new gadgets...like I've mentioned, I'm a geek. Some old things are just better though...cars. Old cars rock. For my birthday my parents gave me a KitchenAid mixer that still has Hobart on it. Yeah, from back then. It's awesome. Now if I could just learn how to cook...

--When you're not in the room, shut the light off (and the runner up, know what you want before you open the refrigerator.) Now that I pay my own PG&E bills, I know they were right. Period.

--Don't run up credit cards. Yeaaaaah. Should have listened to that one.

--A boy should always come to the door when he picks you up. ABSOLUTELY. I cannot believe I ever stood for a guy honking in his car. I know I can be old fashioned about dating and relationships, but this is common courtesy. I wouldn't ever do that to a friend either.

--In it for the long haul. My parents have been together for 33 years. Thirty-three years. That's inspiring in and of itself! I can only hope for the same.

If I can think of more, and I know I will, I'll add them. Got any good ones?

Busy

Countdown to Santa Barbara...T minus 1 day! I am so looking forward to celebrating SDub's birthday with her in such an awesome place. On the way down, we'll be hitting up Hearst Castle (never been!) then do some wine tasting in Paso and SB, and then head to our cute vacation rental about 5 min from the beach and downtown Santa Barbara. 

Roadtrips = awesome. The beach = awesome. Wine tasting = awesome. Birthdays = always awesome. Summer = awesome.

I. can't. wait.

Cheers to mini-vacations!

PS - 47 minutes until Wipeout.

Monday

K just came to town to do some Baby Belly Photos and we had such a blast! I am so excited to meet Baby K - and I'm writing it here - I'm still hoping for a girl. Of course, I'll be happy for a boy too, but I am crossing my fingers (and toes) for a girl. 

Cheers to Baby Belly Photos, a Rutherford Grill smorgasbord, and seeing K!

Love This

Urban Word of the Day: FACEBRAG 

To use Facebook as a platform to brag. Normally about a job, internship, trip, purchase or anything else that nobody really needs to know but you'd like to tell everyone because you're awesome.

I LOVE THIS URBAN WORD OF THE DAY.

It's one things to share excitement and tell your friends and "friends" good news and it's another to brag about having things or that your life is awesome. all. the. time. What happened to good old humbleness?

This Guy Is My Hero

Curly is my hero. Not the Curly from the Three Stooges, but this guy. He's 107, born in 1902 (yes, obviously.) One hundred and seven. I thought I'd write that out since the number is so awesome. He's seen things I can't even begin to imagine and he's happy. Undeniably, consistently, fantastically happy. He's all about eating right and exercising, which he attributes to his striking physique and tip top mind. I am too, I just have a more difficult time with the actual execution of it.


Curly, you've inspired me. If you can lift weights everyday, so can I. If you can ride your bike around until you're 102, I can at least TRY at 31. You rock and I hope everything works out for you. Cheers!

In Response to My Food Idea...

So I know I said I was going to try to become a Flexitarian, but now I'm not so sure. Check it, yo: an article on how being a vegetarian makes your bones weak. Yeah, I already have the female thing working against me with bone density and though I'm an avid milk drinker, I worry about osteoporosis. Ok, maybe not as much as how I worry about diabetes or if the Richmond bridge is going to fall into the Bay, but I do think about it.

Granted, I don't believe everything I read because in a few days, there will be an article from some other source that being a vegetarian is better for your bones and prevents psoriasis or something. I take all this stuff with a grain of salt. But just a grain, I'm watching my blood pressure.

Cheers to the news - you never know what you're gonna get.

Nerd Alert Nerd Alert

With the help of this smart dude (chick?), I have gotten my Samsung phone to talk to my computer via Bluetooth and move all of my contacts off of my phone and onto my computer. Now, hopefully, when I get home, I can take the zip file of contacts, unzip them on my Mac, upload them into my address book, push to MobileMe, and on Friday, when I get the iPhone, it'll all sync up and I shouldn't have lost a thing.

Cross your fingers for me - I'm in way over my geeky head.

Cheers to people helping people!

PS - I warned you with the title of this post. It is SUPER NERDY.

UPDATE: I just imported my vcards from my super duper cool Bluetool transfer to Address Book on the Mac...Took about .654 seconds and BAM....they're all there!!! Now, by Friday, I'll know if my mad computer skills paid off....the true test. iPhone day.

UPDATE 2: I forgot to update this...got the iPhone on Friday and connected my Mac address book to my iPhizzle and BAM (again)....contacts loaded. AWESOME.

Happy Hump Day

It's Wednesday - the tipping point between last weekend and this weekend. I try not to live for weekends, but sometimes I can't help it. Especially when the coming weekend is a FOUR DAY weekend! WOOWOO! Thank you for becoming independent, USofA, I appreciate the day off.

Friday is iPhone day...I'm still not super excited but I think that's mostly because of AT&T. They suck and though I swore I'd never return to that fateful company, here I am, handing over a boatload of cash. Oh well, what's two years of my life? Ultimately, I think the iPhone will be great for me...great for organizational purposes and my business. I'm defintiely looking forward to downloading the most random apps I can find...an app(lication) about app(etizer)s would be AWESOME. I'll have to see if that exists. If not, I'll make one and become the richest person on the planet. Muuuwaaahhaaahaahaaaaaaa.


Saturday, we're celebrating the 4th in Sonoma Square - my old stomping grounds! I'm looking forward to being outside and they have killer fireworks.

I have finally convinced K to do maternity shots on Sunday... can't wait to capture this exciting time in her life!! We'll have so much fun!

Sunday and Monday are clean-my-house-work-on-projects days. It's been SO long since I've tended to anything at my house....at this point I'd rather live in Motel 6. Oh, excuse' moi, Chateau Seis. At least they leave the light on for you.


Cheers to long weekends!

Sayings Cont.

By the way, a saying that I HEART that I never say anymore is:

I love you like a fat kid loves cake. 

So descriptive, isn't it? Just creates that image of how much I love you! I googled it just to see what I'd get and I found an awesome blog...I particularly like that it was posted in 2007 and also the fact that it has photos and lets you know that even though you may not have been searching for this blog, there's a reason to stay and hang out for a while. Well done.

My New Favorite Saying

I'm always down for new and funny sayings. People can be so creative. I will say, that my new and funny saying has come my way thanks to The Lonely Island: Punch You in the Jeans. I love it and will use it regularly. It will replace my "I want to punch her in the face." or the ever-perfect "I want to kick him in the shins."

Thank you, The Lonely Island, for providing me first with I'm on a Boat (utterly classic and incessantly funny) and now my new phrase - punch you in the jeans. I'm forever grateful.



Cheers to The Lonely Island!

PS - I've got my swim trunks and my flippy floppies. Let's roll.

Social Media

I think Social Media is awesome. Is that super duper uber ultra geeky of me or what?

Cheers 2.0!

PS - Ya know what else is geeky? I just joined Technorati. Awesome.

aerfd5stnc

Weeds & Other News

I've started up with Weeds again after a short hiatus (just started season 2 last night - thank you, Z, for my Watch Instantly Netflix access!!) and I'll tell ya...MLP annoys me. She always looks like a deer in headlights. The premise is funny I guess, though slightly sad and pathetic, and maybe that's why she acts so lame most of the time. She's trying to come off naive and green to the business (ha - yes, pun intended) but most of the time she's coming off as stupid. And she doesn't even partake in the merchandise...all in all, my review of Weeds is that it's ok. Addicting, but just ok. Hopefully it'll get better even though I hear it gets worse...

In other news, Tahoe was insanely awesome this weekend - the weather was hot and clear, the company was great, craps was awesome, and the dancing rocked!
{Me, Q, C - happy to have a weekend away!}


{Q and Arthur the awesome lounge DJ!}


{This HAS to be during DON'T STOP BELIEVIN'!!!! HOLD ON TO THAT FEEELLLLIIINNN'!! STREET LIGHTS! PEOPLE! OOOHHHHHHOOOOOOOOHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!}

Lakeside Inn is my absolute favorite casino in South Lake for gambling - cheaper tables, friendly staff, and $2 drinks. Bummer they took out their roulette table a few years back but roulette is a money sucker anyway. I do like it, but I have found that my favorite game right now is craps! Why don't I play that lovely game of chance EVERY TIME I gamble? It's so much more fun! We played $2 hands and were able to learn the ropes even more in the middle of a Sunday afternoon. Nope, didn't walk away with my mortgage payment, but had a blast for an hour and $20. That's worth it. Ya know what else was worth it? Q's banter back and forth with the dealers. I will say that at a table full of true craps players, 3 chicks with $20 have a great time.

Cheers to Tahoe! (as always.)

Last Weekend

Last weekend was pretty nutty - K's baby shower BBQ, A's b-day, photo shoot, The Hangover, rehashing The Hangover, then sleep glorious sleep on Sunday night.

Let's begin from the end, with seeing The Hangover Sunday afternoon. I loved this movie. Loved it. Loved it so much I saw it again on Monday night and it was even better! This movie is really all about the one-liners and there are SO many of them that I just can't stop repeating...it's not illegal, it's frowned upon. One of my favorite parts is how Alan copies Phil...in the desert, in the car on the way home, at the wedding ("does my hair look like Phil's?" "yes, Alan, classic Phil.") Alan is so pathetically funny and he's trying to copy the cool guy, Phil, so much. It's awesome. His lines are GREAT. Funny how movies sometime mimic real life! They did such a great job in this movie casting the characters...they're soooo different and sooooo funny together. Did you just eat sofa pizza?

That morning, I had gone to Sonoma to do a photoshoot for W...it was fun and friendly and crazy with people but it was a house filled with smiles and good-natured smack talk. Reminded me of home...


Working backwards...A's b-day. We had an awesome time in Petaluma - hit up Dempsey's for dinner (best onion rings I've ever had...more like a pile of shaved, fried onion heaven) and, of course, mad conversation. After dinner, we headed downtown, deciding to try the vodka bar at Graziano's. Yes, a vodka bar. As in a room with blue lights, a wall of vodkas, and 28 degrees. So cold that they give you a faux fur coat...as seen here:


After the pricey vodka shots and frozen extremities, we headed to the Hideaway to dance a little and closedown the place in honor of A's 21st birthday :)

During the day on Saturday, it was my honor and pleasure to attend the K&JK Baby Bash BBQ! M and I left her house early that afternoon and headed out to Spring Lake in Santa Rosa for an afternoon in the sun with friends and family. They made it so fun! There was baby present bingo, betting on date/time/gender of the baby, and an awesome idea - a large white mat with pink & blue pens to sign with...sign your name in your chosen baby-type (boy blue/girl pink), and guess the baby's arrival date and weight/length. This is a lot like guessing how many jellybeans are in a jar or people in a room and I am horrible at those games. Here's a little taste of the party...(I'll edit some of these this weekend and post to my Facebook business page...)



Friday I stayed at my parents' house - it was nice to just hang out, work on photos, and watch Wall-E.

Another Thought on The Best Show Ever.

As I've written 3289381 times here, Wipeout is the second best show on the planet, only to The Office. Granted, they are different kinds of humor, so maybe they tie for first place in my best-shows-on-the-planet race.

How can you not love the Big Red Balls? The Motivator? The Dizzy Dummy? People falling? People falling in mud? People falling in cold water? People falling in suds? People falling off Banana Hammocks? The awesome, hilarious commentary?

My perfect world would be living on the beach, a warm beach, with TVs all around my little beach cottage playing Wipeout all the time. You know they have enough footage!

If you've never watched Wipeout, please do. You'll thank me for it.

Match.com Article

I saw this article yesterday and just had to comment, considering I have mucho experience with online dating (and I'm obviously not ashamed to admit it.)

So there's a guy who signs up for Match. He peruses the goods and notices after a while that women aren't replying to him or sending any "winks" or emails. He now decides to sue Match.com for misrepresenting themselves. He says that profiles are outdated, that they leave people's profiles up there to make it look like there's more of a pool than there really is.

Sure, there are profiles that are old - either they have accounts that auto-renew (grrrr) and the people never bother to notice that they're being pilfered out of $30/month or they still show up because they never set their status to "non-searchable." In any event, just sort by "Newest First" and you'll never have this issue. If people aren't communicating with you, there may be a few issues...

1. Your profile sucks. If you come right out and tell people that you're looking for a friend "to do fun stuff with," chicks who are looking to date will skip over you. If you say that you just want to have fun and aren't looking for anything serious, chicks read "player" and move on. If you have misspellings/typos it makes it look like you don't care. If you write the mandatory 1200 characters or whatever, again, it makes you look like you don't care. If you come across as a mama's boy, chicks will move on. If your photos are too far away or terrible, chicks will move on. A chick is as much of a visual being as you are, so make it count. As much as people say that you can't judge someone based on their profile - yes. you. can. That's ALL someone sees before they make contact with you! It's their first impression of you - just like in "real" life. Every time you do something with someone new, you're making a first impression. Make sure it's a good one.

2. You come off as a stalker. If you contact someone and they don't write back, you're allowed ONE more point of contact and that's all. For whatever reason, they didn't write back to you and you need to respect that. They could be on vacation, off Match, dating someone else, don't like your profile for one of the many reasons listed above, slammed at work, busy in their social lives, or any other reason. Most importantly, it's most likely not about you. Move along.

3. You think you're entitled to matches. No one deserves matches just because they paid $30. They deserve matches when they WORK at getting them. Match.com, eHarmony, Yahoo Personals - they all take a TON of work. Check emails. Wink at people. Arrange dates. Follow up. It's a. lot. of work. Again, like "real" life, dating takes work. It shouldn't be overly difficult to meet up with strangers, but it does take some effort. It takes effort to be selective and look for people who truly match you. If you don't like someone for whatever reason, other people may not like you for their reasons. It goes both ways. And the entitlement issue, don't even get me started.

All in all, my experience in online dating was....um...interesting...and not all bad. Obviously, I haven't found the love of my life that way and I don't think I will. Online dating gave me confidence that bad boyfriends had whittled away, and gave me a plethora of hilarious stories.

My last thought...it's dating. Don't take it (or yourself) so seriously.

Dessert in the Morning...

...I wish.

I'm craving a Rosen's cheesecake. Yes, it's 7:48am.

Happy Thursday-the-Almost-Friday.

Cheating.

In the midst of all of the Jon & Kate Plus 8 brouhaha, it saddens me to think about how often people cheat on one another. (Be aware...I'm going to use "you" in my rant on cheating, but it's just a general "you" and not aimed at anyone in particular, hence the word "rant.")

My philosophy is simple: If you don't want to be with your significant other, LEAVE. Don't cheat emotionally, don't cheat mentally, and don't cheat physically, just leave. If you don't leave and you decide to cheat, you're basically taking away all of the decision making from your significant other which is almost as bad as the cheating itself. They've now been put in a position of having to be defensive, feeling like it was their fault, and dealing with the aftermath of someone who cheated. There is no more trust and obviously there was never any respect. If you respect your partner enough to tell them you love them, spend all of your free time with them, make life decisions with them, or marry them, they deserve the respect of your telling them you aren't into it anymore. This gives them the chance to choose to work on things with you or come to a mutual decision to separate. At least give them that chance.

Of course, leaving is easier said than done. I know it would be especially difficult if there were kids involved, but don't you think that kids would know what was happening? They're in tune with their parents' relationship and they know when something's amiss. It would be better to breakup than force your kids and each other to "live happily ever after" when you're all far from it.

Now on the idea of "once a cheater, always a cheater." If things weren't working in your relationship and you decided to find sex, love, and rock and roll with someone else, why wouldn't you do the same in their next relationship? How can you ever trust someone who has cheated on you or on someone else? They lack respect for the person they claim to love and are so self-centered that they feel they can do whatever they want to whomever they want for whatever reason they've justified in their own head..."oh well, they didn't pay me enough attention" or "I was meant to be with this new person - we're so much more compatible." Any way you slice and dice it, you cheated because YOU made the decision to cheat, and it has nothing to do with anyone else, how you've been "wronged" or how the new person makes you feel. You chose to be selfish and fulfill some need you had. Who's to say you won't do that again to your next "love"?

I may get flack for this posting, but nothing anyone says will make cheating ok to me. Karma will come back to bite you in the booty and you deserve it. Cheating is the lowest thing one person can do to another and it shows how little respect you have for anyone but yourself.

Just a Quick Note...

I HEART WIPEOUT.

Yep, Another Random Thought.

I have been thinking that maybe I should try to become a vegan for 2 weeks. I feel like I should challenege myself to do something that will probably make me feel better. I say that, then I overindulge in a delicious dinner that includes ribs. I heart ribs. I don't like the sauce all over my hands and under my fingernails, but I heart ribs nonetheless. I was lucky enough to have ribs last night. They weren't Rutherford Grill ribs but YUM they were good.

See? I can't even think about becoming a vegan because then I start thinking about all the meat I'll miss out on. Bounce back to the other side of the fence...it's only two weeks. And the other side...mmmm, ribs. And back over...two. weeks. seriously. And once again on the other side...mmmmm, ribs.

I read an article yesterday about Flexitarianism - basically defined as a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat. Maybe that's what I should try. The article was saying to incorporate this slowly...start reducing the size of the meat in your dishes then leaving it out completely more regularly. I wonder if maybe this is the route I should take. Less extreme and honestly, it's sorta made for me. Nice and middle-of-the-road, non-committal. I think I'll try this instead of being a vegan for two weeks. Besides, it has a better name.

Random Thought

I think the word "besties" is stupid.

Thank you and good night.