Posts

Showing posts from June, 2006

Yankee Doodle Dandy!

We just were informed that we get Monday off as a PAID HOLIDAY (my favorite kind). YAY!!! And because I didn't know, because this was last minute - I have NO PLANS which means, I can do WHATEVER I WANT TO!!!!! Can you sense my excitement? I plan on: reading, editing, playing online, being outside, hiking, eating, sleeping, sewing, knitting, doodling, eating some more, drinking a margarita, starting to address wedding invites, cleaning, putzing in the garden, persuading Steve to get ice cream with me, day dreaming, and NOT BEING AT WORK! Okay - I'm not sure I'll get to all of those things but I love the potential of it all..... Other weekend plans: (now LONG weekend!) Pick up BRIDESMAID DRESSES in St. Paul! Wheeee, they're in! Go to a Twins game at the Metrodome in Minneapolis with 20 or more other crazy members of my family (no it's not a reunion we just like to hang out together). BBQ with my folks, my sister & bro-in-law and my honey at my sister's house.

Finally Getting Around to the Whole Engagement Pictures Thing...

Image

500 for Nuthin'

Image
HAPPY 500TH POST TO ME! Yippe! There'll be cake later...let's say around 2pm at my desk. Marble. With whipped cream frosting. Yum. Not much going on today - I was SUPER motivated and had list upon list of things that I was going to get done yesterday but then didn't. I ended up spending over an hour on the phone with the Apple support people as I have a wee bit of a problemo with Mac's battery. I get the evil "x" in the battery icon as opposed to the Super-Sweet-Lightening symbol. Anyway - after eating up almost all of our remaining cell phone minutes there was still no answer. I did a few more things that they told me to after we got off the phone and no avail. Mac still works when he's plugged in but the battery never gets fully charged, or at least doesn't let me know if it's fully charged. The red light never turns green. *sigh* So....the product specialist just called me back and a new battery is ON THE WAY! I love Apple. I really do. Very ve

Resolution Check Up

A while a go Kelli revisited her 2006 resolutions to see how she was doing. I decided that checking up on mine might be a good idea. I'm equally surprised and disappointed in myself. I do believe that my goals weren't too lofty and most of them I will be able to accomplish to one degree or another by the end of '06. Some things got askewed when Steve's Dad had his stroke and there are definitely parts of our lives that have changed. Here is my orignal list with updates (in italics): Health/Body 1. Exercise 3-4 times a week. Mostly 2. Ski/Hike a couple times a week, or at least go for a walk outside. Mostly 3. Sit ups/arm weights Um…not as much as I should. 4. Stop eating so much. Definitely! Calorie Counter online is helping. 5. Less diet coke, more water!! Yes, but I still have 1 DC a day. 6. No smoking. CHECK. 7. Less Beer. Definitely 8. More salads, less chips. Well, more baked chips & more veggies. Travel/Adventure 1. Lots of camping! Not once yet this year. 2

Rejected Again

Well, we received yet another rejection from another film festival. Not that it is at all surprising to me since the festival is in a couple weeks and we hadn't heard YET...(although their "notify date" on without-a-box was next week - weird). It would've been a fun one - outdoors, bring your own chair, kind of mellow but alas it is not meant to be. There are others I'm still waiting to hear from and more to submit too. Maybe now with our fancy schmancy packaging we'll get a 2nd look. Who knows. In other lame-ass news, the "article" I wrote for a local mag was printed! Whooo! Sadly even though they told me to re-write it a certain way, they went back to the original way that I wrote it (no big deal, just extra work) and I didn't get my name in print. :-( I also didn't get paid as this was my "sample" writing. Hmph. I doubt I would've gotten paid much (it was really short) but it's sort of a bummer nonetheless. Maybe next tim

Thank you. NO, thank you....

Am I the only one who still believes in the simplicity and necessity of thank-you notes? I know there are "rules" and such for big events (like weddings) but what about other occassions? Since I'm a geek and am fairly comfortable playing withint the rules (well, it depends, really) I have always written thank you notes. I don't even think I was really prompted by my Mother it was just a natural thing to do. You get something, you thank someone. It has changed later in life as previously if I saw you, you gave me something and I thanked you in person, you probably didn't get a thank you note. NOW I find that I like sending notes after Christmas or birthdays just because...well, it's really nice to be appreciated and I like to appreciate people so it works! In this digital age, I sometimes succumb to sending an email or and e-card instead of an ACTUAL card but hey - at least it's something! And that's only what I do if I don't have cute thank-yous on

How I Spent My Summer Solstice (or Fire Flies Rock!)

Image
Ah the beginning of summer. A day to be savored, appreciated and enjoyed. Unfortunately I spent most of it inside but I did get to enjoy the evening. It was lovely. Steve & I decided that we would go for a hike and take along a picnic. We decided to hike on the Superior Hiking Trail – a section that starts at the foot of the Spirit Mountain ski hill and goes upward through old(er) growth forests comprised of birch, aspen, oak, maple, thimbleberry, large-leaf Astor and probably a million other things I’m missing. This is a relatively new section of the trail (couple years old?) and it is fairly un-traveled and gorgeous. There are creeks & streams, wild flowers, deer, birds, butterflies, porcupines (okay, I saw one last summer and it was HUGE) – I’m sure the unmentionables are there too (aka: snakes) and many others. We packed a picnic supper and found a spot on the way up to come back to on our descent. The trail is rugged, which is why I like it, and cut expertly into the hill

Book Report - January through June 2006

I suck at writing reviews. Well, mostly because I have no confidence in my opinions! ha! I mean, I know what I like but I come off sounding sort of stupid and uninformed but I decided to give the books I'm reading this year a bit of a blurb or two. My "goal" this year was to read one book a month - or 12 books this year. That is lame. I know. I used to read closer to 20...which isn't an amazing amount but good for me. I'm not a FAST reader nor am I a SLOW reader...I love to read and have to find time to do so every day...but I also like hiking, cooking, knitting, editing, blogging, gardening, skiing, you get the idea. If my only reading time ends up being right before bed, forget about it. I am only good for a paragraph or two. That being said I am ahead of schedule this year.... Here's what I've read: I Am Charlotte Simmons – Tom Wolfe While I found his earlier work Man in Full to be completely engaging, Charlotte seemed to be a bit lacking. She did grow

Happy Summer!

Ah......summertime.... It has arrived in the Northland and it is a great thing. Like the DJ's on the radio this morning were saying, I think the first day of summer SHOULD be a holiday and we should all get the day off to sit in our yards and drink margaritas or go to the beach or go for a paddle or just lounge about soaking up every last drop of sunlight. *sigh* Last year Steve & I celebrated the solstice here and this year we will most likely be on the Superior Hiking Trail or paddling on the big lake. Haven't decided yet (have to check the wave conditions on L. Superior before deciding on putting the canoe in or not!) but I hope that the evening includes a picnic supper with wine and lots of time to soak in the light in the sky (til about 11pm) before going home. It will be good to have a 'date night' as we haven't had much time lately to do something fun with each other and I'm starting to get sad about that.

Loss

I lost a friend. On Friday. 3:20pm in the afternoon. Pacific Standard Time. I didn’t know. I was already at home from work for the day and on to the next thing. I wasn’t aware. I didn’t know. On Saturday night I logged on to my work email just….I don’t know why. I never have anything of importance but I did this time. It was after 10pm, 3-margaritas into the night and there I sat, sobbing at my computer. The last update had come in. The last breath had been breathed. She was gone. My friend S used to be my boss. She was only a few years older than me (4, to be precise) and she was fantastic. She was English and I can still hear her accent and the sound of her laugh and the way we said daaaaaahlin in pure affected-ness. She was super stylish and beautiful and sweet and easy-going. She was a pleasure to work with. She was also my friend…she & her husband kindly let us shoot our first film in their house; they even donned costumes when asked to be apart of things. They were there for

Surprise!

You may or may not remember this incident last fall which was.....well, disgusting. We had a big storm, the storm sewers in Duluth suck, there was a big construction project a block up hill from us and we got sewer water in the basement. Wheeeeee! We called the city, they came out and inspected and we qualified for a grant to put a sump pump in the basement. Good good good. They're trying to put lots of sump pumps in as our city has a terrible sewer system and we are on the biggest fresh water lake in the world...so, storm sewers are rather important. Anyway - today is the big day! The sump pump is being installed. Last night we moved boxes and pallets and cleared out an area for them to work. We removed a blue toilet from the "bathroom" (such a loose usage of the term there) in the basement so they can remove the housetrap (whatever that is)and we're good to go. I remember saying to Steve last night that I hope they don't find any "surprises." But I kn
Image
Of course being the HUGE dork that I am....all excited about the new feature on the MacBook entitled "photo booth." I can "go in there" and take incredibly dorky pictures of myself ALL THE TIME! Then apply funky and silly filters and upload them here so that you, dear internet, can look at them and fully confirm my levels of dorkitude. heh...

Freedom!

Guess where I'm blogging from. Guess!!! Guess. Okay, It's not that great. My living room! But you see, UNTIL TODAY, I was limited to desktop access on the DELL which is UPSTAIRS. NOW I'm surfin' wireless on the new MacBook. Life is good. But apparently Picasa is not Mac compatible? So, what can I upload pics with? I am a bit clueless as to this stuff.......doh!

Happy Anniversaries!

Happy Anniversary to FP & FPGal who celebrate 1 year of marital bliss today - yay! And Happy Anniversary to my parents who celebrated 40 years yesterday!!!! I can't wait to join the ranks.

Weekend Recap

Well, another weekend come and go. How on earth does that happen so damn fast? Friday night we went to the play Noises Off! at the Duluth Playhouse. It was fantastic. They did a great job (although they're "accents" were a bit weak IMHO). My friend J was playing the director role and true to the review, he did a great job. Everyone did. All the hilarity, the silliness the utter chaos was just what I needed. I was laughing my fool head off. I did that show in '93 myself but have never seen a live production of it (only the movie) and it was SO MUCH FUN to sit in the audience. I highly recommend it if it's every playing near you. Saturday - got up, putzed around and then headed down to 'the cities.' I stayed at my friend Sarah's house that night and in the afternoon we sat around chatting and distributing Newton's DVDs to whomever came by. Sadly only about 5 people came by but we did manage to get rid of (that sounds nice, huh?) 14 dvd's or so.

Shipping notification

eeeeek! It's on it's way - yipeee!

router

I now have the router.... still awaiting the computer.... anxiously.... (I'm so impatient) A real post later...maybe....

antsy

Okay, now I'm antsy. I want my new toy. Now. Hmph!

Biting the Bullet

Well, I did it. I bought a NEW COMPUTER today! I already "own" 2 macs and 1/2 of a Dell....but really I needed MY OWN machine... You see, in '97 I bought an iMac with my then SO, later in '01 we jointly (though already separate) bought a G4 733 tower (on which I learned to edit video & completed 2 films and numerous weddings)....but you see, that's not practical. He has both at his place. The iMac while cute is no longer usable for my needs; the G4 is too bulky to "share" lugging back and forth and I want portability! I want wireless internet! I want MY OWN COMPUTER....so Oh the Dell, It's okay, I like it enough to use for composing our wedding invites, updating my blog, chatting, emailing, playing weboggle & sudoku but really? I'm a Mac girl at heart. I have all the software I need to be EDITING and I can't do it on the Dell. And I'm hopefully going to start freelancing as soon as the new Mac arrives to start paying it off. My go
Image
My new baby!!

spazz monkey

No, that's not the name of my new band (but it has a nice ring doesn't it?) That's how I feel sometimes when I have a million things going on. I can't calm down, sit down, relax, etc....and yet I can feel sooooo incredibly slacktastic (like today at work) at the same time. How is that possible? Current projects: Figure out wedding invite template & print all the pieces, then assemble, address, stamp, mail (well, in July). Set meeting with the minister Schedule dress fitting Dye shoes Make favor tags Assemble welcome packets (area info, maps, etc) Keep garden tended Finish scraping front door & porch windows Prime & paint said porch Finish knitting project Register for wedding gifts Buy cards for various June events (graduations, weddings, anniversaries, baptisms, etc) Distribute DVD of NEWTON'S Update website Enter more film festivals to be rejected from Exercise Work on Guest List Compile music

Visiting

My friend Sarah was in town last night visiting. It was great. We took engagement pics (well, she took them, we posed), we ate veggies & bacon-bacon dip, we drank wine & beer and we chatted our fool heads off. I miss her. She's already gone today and back to LA tomorrow.