January 2006

Birthing Property All Around the Valley

If your business's name was Preferred Real Estate Group would you go by the acronym: PREG? No? Me either.

Home Bound

This furnace replacement process has cost a lot more than the money we've had to shell out. I've had to arrange time to be stuck at home a total number of seven times now with each red-tape stage of the process. Today I found out that I'll now need to have at least two more appointments. Grrrrr.

Heave

Life's a roller coaster
and I've had too much cotton candy.

Legacy

JFK Memorial Grave, Arlington National Cemetery, Washington D.C.

Sing a Song

9am-4pm. On a Saturday. Working intensely. Yes, I did in fact have a choir rehearsal that lasted all day on the weekend. My voice isn't too happy at the moment and the rest of me is downright grumpy.

Look Both Ways

Washington D.C.

So Many Friends

On our cruise a daily schedule of the following day's events was delivered to our cabin each evening. It included things like casino events, exercise classes, movies, bingo tournaments, that night's entertainment program and the like. Daily there was a Friends of Bill W meeting. And twice in the course of the cruise there was a Friends of Dorothy meeting. While I had a good guess at what the latter group was about, I finally went to the front office to inquire about both groups. The amusing thing about the Friends of Bill W is that they met daily in the Piano Bar.

Dependent on the Bottle

Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C.

Whistle While You Waft

The whistler who sits next to me? Yeah. He doesn't bathe.

Laudation

National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

I So Want to Work With These People

From a job notice for a graphic designer:

"If you can create a website, you may have a job here. But you will be required to prove your skills. If you are pretending - using monster templates and passing them off as your own - you will be embarrased. We will chase you into the parking lot and give you a wedgie and post the photos on BoFunk. Double Viking style."

Lia 6.0: Haunted Dreams

On our cruise we were haunted by the demon of endless torment wrapped in the disguise of a girl child, Lia. This seemingly adorable six year old greeted us and everyone on her stateroom floor with chicken scratched love notes when we arrived on the ship. Her deceptive charms soon vanished. We rather quickly came to the conclusion that the entire Lia clan were on the ship with the express directive to torment us and keep us from the sleep we so desperately needed. The gleeful jungle gym in the hallway at all hours and crossing paths with them an innordinate number of times on the ship was just the beginning. Soon we were running into Lia's family on land as well.

On the day we drove to catch our volcano tour - a considerable distance from the port - we had to wait for our volcano tour. As we sat waitng to get on our tour van, Lia's father climbed out of a taxi followed by his little 'angels.' I have no idea the cost of a cab from Taraunga to Rotorua, but evidently no price tag is too great for their commitment to our perpetual torment.

In Napier we were enjoying Marineland before my big dolphin swim experience when directly behind us we heard some man yell "Lia!" Before we even turned around we knew that they had found us once again.

The final evidence of the twisted plot against us was when we were flipping through tv channels in our cabin and santa invited a little girl into his lap who announced herself as Lia. Our lovely shipmate had found her way into our stateroom as well.

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to discover that Lia's family had followed us back to California, bought up the house next door, and got a job at the newspaper where I work with the primary duty of scratching her fingernails on a chalkboard all day.

Tasty

I made Curt pose with this street-side manequin in Napier, New Zealand. We bought his sunglasses in Rotorua with a savy salesperson who told him they made him look like a "sexy sugar daddy." Who wouldn't pay good money for that kind of label? She was drooling all over him as she helped him find just the right pair. But I'm the one who got to go home with the "sexy sugar daddy."

Jet Setting

We're back from the trip to DC. I had a good time exploring the city. I walked most of my ventures so my legs, feet and ass are killing me, but I'm sure it was good for me. The weather was amazing. In the 50s and sunny most of the time. While the normal touristy things in DC didn't really suit my interests, I loved the architecture. The downtown stuff was all oversized giving even the largest of guys a small man complex. I mean, are 30 foot tall walkways really necessary? Obviously they built to intimidate and believe me, it works. Fortunately it made for some interesting photos and an awe-inspiring experience. Thursday night we had dinner with some of Curt's coworkers who are also friends. They were a lot of fun. Friday night we had dinner with Jay and his friend Sage at a cramped little Thai restaurant. The food was good and then we hit a few of the bars where I tried some new drinks (trying to find something sweet and fruity enough for me to enjoy is quite a challenge). Saturday was pretty low-key and we decided to head home early on Sunday rather than late. All in all it was a nice trip, although I'm looking forward to being home for a bit before my next jet setting adventure.

Traveling Wantonly

Curt and I are off to Washington DC for a few days. He has to work in his office there and then we're staying the weekend. It'll be my first venture into DC (or even that part of the country). While neither of us are quite ready for another trip, I think I'll have a good time exploring. PLUS... I get to meet a few online friends while I'm there (hello online friend Jay). It should be fun.

Photographers Dream

I finally have all my vacation photos online and ready for consumption.

Btw, you can view the photos without signing up with Kodak Gallery. Just click View Photos without signing in below the sign in fields.

What Fairy Magic Abides in These Woods?

Jamison Valley near Katoomba, Australia

On a Bright Note

This morning I decided to try another coffee shop on the block by my work. Know what I found? Huh? Do ya?

Jet

Tea

Smoothies

Yep. That's right. After months of searching I've finally found a place in Tracy that serves my drink of choice in Alaska. I was giddy as a school girl on crack while I sipped on my peach jet tea this morning.

Paying the Bills

3 reporters were fired yesterday, a full-time graphics employee was cut back to half-time and I'm not allowed to go over my 20 hours. And to think I came to work this morning with the plan to offer to work close to full-time. I'm leaving wondering if I should start looking for other jobs....

King of the Mountain

Curt at Wenworth Falls, Blue Mountains, Australia.

Shop-a-holic

I tried out another church yesterday and was pleasantly surprised. The church is closer than the one I've been going to, it's a bit larger and the music style and worship focus was much more what I'm looking for. If I can survive the minister using her 'outside' voice all the time, I may have found myself a church home.

Match Made in Heaven

Wentworth Falls (in the Blue Mountains), Australia

What a Combination

A store sign in Wellington, New Zealand: "Lingerie and surgical specialist."

Walk the Plank

Fernside, New Zealand

Invitation

Mt. Victoria near Wellington, New Zealand.

Wayward Jackets

New Zealand Trip - Day 6
Our tuxedo jackets have been on a tour of the ship the last 2 days. We're hoping they find their way back to the ship to join us for our first formal dinner.

All My Bags Are Packed

Three ad reps were fired yesterday. Bah-bye.

Whistle While You Work

You know some people like to hum and others like to whistle? Some people seem to find comfort in whistling while they work. Some people seem to find comfort is whistling out of tune while they work. Some people who sit two feet away from my computer seem to like to whistle all freakin' day long as a constant pecking at my brain drawing that ever so small flow of patience right out of me.

Travel Rug

As we were preparing to land in Auckland the flight crew instructed the passengers to put away our pillows and "travel rugs." I looked around expecting to see numerous gleaming headed males as they swapped out their toupees reserved especially for flying and donned their 'daily wear rugs.'

Take the High Road

My supervisor went to turn in two weeks notice yesterday to work for a competitor. She wasn't allowed two weeks or even to finish out her day. She was told to leave immediately. Then the boss called the graphics department into his office and proceeded to trash the supervisor as well as the business to which she was going. Besides losing a supervisor we all enjoyed we had a big 'ol dose of the lack of character that runs this newspaper. He's got a history of behaving this way and reacting especially childishly when when it comes to his competitors. Gotta say that my experience thus far is not leaving me feeling all that positive toward the newspaper industry.

Sydney Aquarium

A sign in the Sydney Aquarium above the crocodile tank: "If they fall doesn't kill you the crocodile will."

This aquarium was by far the best one I've visited. It is so well landscaped for viewing and well designed for smooth traffic flow. We walked through tunnels under sharks, stingrays, seals and more. We saw amazing water creatures from all around the world. The Great Barrier Reef Oceanarium was breathtaking with nearly 1.6 million liters of tank space which you could walk around seeing pockets of all sorts of sealife.

One of the things that really made the whole aquarium a great experience was the finishing details of signage, paint colors and a mood setting soundtrack perfectly suited to each area. This stop was well worth it on the last day of our trip.

Human Experimentation

New Zealand Trip - Day 5
I'm in the midst of a 3 week experiment to discover how sleep deprivation affects my 'no violence' resolve. Side note: the family with the 'no discipline' resolve seem to think the hall outside my room is a jungle gym... which opens at 6am.

Mammalian Wetness

Whose your blogging daddy? If swimming with dolphins doesn't give me 'daddy' status I don't know what does - beyond, of course, being older, having money and calling you my bitch. But I digress...

I swam with two Common Dolphins in Napier, New Zealand. Swam right in their mucky pool as they did circles around me, swam alongside me and impressed me with their ultimate coolness. I'm so selling all my earthly possessions and moving in with them.

Jiggity Jig

Curt and I got home yesterday about 2pm after far too much flying and not nearly enough sleeping. Our 7 hour nap served us well and we were up 2 hours before heading back to bed for the night (not sleeping really well the 2nd time, but wanting to get into a normal schedule). Curt had to return to the chaos of his day job this morning and is heading to a rehearsal tonight. Jumping right back to the grindstone for him. I have the good fortune of having today off my newspaper job so will catch up on e-mails & phone calls, retrieve and sort 3 weeks of mail from the post office, follow up on some business and home projects and take down the Christmas tree/decorations. Maybe I'll even start to prep some photos from my trip to share with you, my adoring fans. I will certainly post a few more entries from our vacation, though most of the posts about the amazing things we did will come through the photos over the next several weeks. Cheers and Happy New Years.