Creepy Lurker

Dear Friends,

As I was checking out and taking photos of the progress of our home addition in the backyard tonight, I saw this creepy lurker’s hand pulling down a palm frond from our tree outside of our side yard as if he was using it to leverage himself to peek over our fence:

Like an idiot, I shouted, “HELLO?!” and scared him away instead of waiting for my money shot of him popping over my fence since I had my camera pointed right in his direction.  I shouted to Christian and had him look over the fence as the guy ran away and hopped in his car.  I threw my arm with camera in hand over the fence that I couldn’t see over and shot the picture in hope of capturing his ugly mug.  Well, the above was all I got and it was dark.  Thank goodness for  the magic of  Lightroom, but it still isn’t a clear shot of what this creeper looks like.

I don’t know what he was doing for sure or what his motive was for even being by our side yard fence, but whatever it was, it was not for any good purpose because the dude scurried away because he knew he was doing something shady.

See a creepy guy driving an old, white CRV? Slash his tires and get that money shot for me, would ya? Thanks.

Sleeplessly  Yours,

sleepyeve

Work Dreams

I’ve been off of work for less than a day and have already kick-started my vacation with a work dream! WTH! This wasn’t even a dream about me simply being at work. No, this was a dream about me sitting with someone at their desk helping them to troubleshoot manually building a 954×60 ad because our systems wouldn’t let the ad built the right way be scheduled. I dreamed HTML! Talk about uber-nerd.

Unsatisfying Start to 2009

Christian and I decided to get some shopping done today and boy was it not what we imagined or wanted… at all.  We went to Michael’s with my 50% off coupon but I wasn’t able to find a great big-ticket item to use it on.  I ended up using it to save a whopping $2.50 on treat bags.  We then went to Borders to use up a $10 gift card I received from participating in a focus group at work.  We were on the hunt for calendars since we didn’t get all of the calendars we wanted for Christmas.  No good wall calendars at Borders (at least not at the one in Milpitas).  I picked up two desk calendars (Scrapbook stickers and “How to Cook Everything”) but no calendars for Christian.  We went to pay for my stuff and the cashier scans my card and tells me it isn’t valid.  Apparently, whoever scanned it to put money on it didn’t punch in the number correctly, so my gift card was useless.

Moving on to the Great Mall:

Since there were no good wall calendars at Borders, we decided to try the calendar store in the Great Mall.  After unsuccessfully scouring the Great Mall parking lot for 15 minutes for a spot, Christian dropped me off to shop on my own while he continued on his hunt for a space.  It only took him a total of 25 minutes of roaming the lot before he found a spot.  I met up with him at the calendar store where there were no good calendars left.  We then decided to go to Old Navy since I had a gift card and it was right across the way.  The place was packed and things were a mess.  I found a couple of things but really wanted a knitted sweater that I saw hanging by a 50% off sign so I had the cashier price check it for me before ringing me up.  Of course, it was not 50% off… even though all of the sweaters were hanging in that same 50% off section!  Idiots.

We headed to the Skechers store because we are both on the hunt for new shoes so we can chuck our worn out ones.  I found a pair that I liked – no wait – I found a single shoe in my size that I liked (its partner was the display shoe with scuff marks all over it).  Christian found a pair that he liked but not in his size.  He asked an employee if he could check for a size 14 and the guy automatically shot him down and told us that they didn’t carry 14s in the store.  Total lie.  We’d purchased multiple size 14 shoes from that store in the past.  Granted, this time there really was no size 14 for that particular shoe (we insisted that he check the back for us anyway) but to not even put the effort in before shooting us down just pissed me off a little.  Whatever.  After that disappointing venture, we decided to leave the mall.

Next up – Target:

I found most of the items on my shopping list there, so that wasn’t terrible.  The annoying part of this trip was the clearance suitcase that we found for Lily that we weren’t allowed to buy!  I wanted to pick up a little suitcase for Lily to hold all of her food, treats, and toys when we drop her off at my parents’ house or take her on trips.  It was annoying to pack three little bags for her, so having one suitcase would have been nice and organized.  We came across a cute pink camo rolling suitcase that was clearanced for $17.50 with just enough room for all of her stuff.  When the cashier scanned the item, the computer gave her an error and then bold red text appeared on the screen that said, “DO NOT SELL THIS ITEM.”  Apparently, the suitcase was recalled and they were not allowed to sell it.  We just wanted it for our Dog!  Lame.  Stupid.  Pissed me off.

The only fully successful shopping destination we hit was Walgreens.  We were in and out in 5 minutes – no fuss.  Of all places.  *Sigh*

Bad, Bad Girl

Lily is in a destructive mood today and I don’t have the time or energy to deal.

Dislikes

I very much strongly dislike walking my dog. I will be dislocating my wrist or shoulder one day, thanks to her.

RIP Pillow

Lily ripped my handmade pillow (1 of 2) that I made for our couch almost 3 years ago to shreds. She pulled the blanket that was on the couch because it was sitting a little too close to her crate and the pillow must have moved right up against the crate bars. I’m a little sad and a little mad. Cuteness will not win this owner over this week. Nope.

*yawn*

I’m so tired of being tired… can’t focus and I feel more grumpy.

Lily Houdini

I wish I took a picture of this today, but when Christian and I got home, we were greeted at the door by none other than Lily.  This was a huge shock to us because we crate her during the day while we’re at work.  I rushed in the house to figure out what had happened and found all of the toys that were in the crate strewn about the living room (3 toys).  The PS3 controller that Christian left on the couch *ahem* was upside down on the floor.  On my way to the bedroom, I found her blanket that was in the crate pulled halfway out the doorway.  When I got to the crate, I discovered the crate liner about half a foot away from the actual crate itself, the crate door wide open, and the top handle lock (there are two on each door) somewhat chewed up.  I don’t know how she did it, but she managed to escape.  No accidents in the house.  Nothing chewed up except for the crate handle lock.  No garbage to tissue paper torn to bits or anything.  Aside from the condition of the crate, the toys, and the PS3 controller on the floor, nothing was messed up.  Amazing.  We’re still going to crate her.  I vote to mount a Doggy Cam though.

Summertime Blues

Summer’s got a real knack for making a girl feel like a beached whale. Your body expands in heat and I have just been feeling so fat and yucky this past weekend (and today… and probably the rest of the week). I can’t imagine how my mom must have felt when she was pregnant with me in the summer heat. Kudos to her for sticking it out though. I guess I should really be the one to celebrate her sacrifices on my birthday (in a little over a week) instead of getting others to celebrate my getting older and fatter (but hopefully a little wiser).

Summertime means getting out of those jackets and winter coats that have been hiding that muffin top. Yuck.

I’ll blog more positively tomorrow. Today, I just want to express my disgust with my summer body.

Testing my Patience

My 50mm lens busted for the first time last month. We sent it in for repair immediately and when it came back, it had a tiny black artifact in between the inside of the glass. I decided to try the lens out anyway at our friend’s engagement party JUST to see if that black spot would be noticeable in the pictures. I took about 3 pictures before the front of the lens zipped itself right off while auto-focusing. We sent it back in a second time. Today, I got the lens back for a second time. I took the lens out of the secure double wrapping, took the lens cap off to look at the glass, held it up to the light so I could make sure the black artifact was gone, and BAM. The front of the lens came right off and smacked me in the mouth.

So we’ll be sending this lens back in for a THIRD time.

I haven’t been feeling well the past few days and it’s made me a little cranky. I was really looking forward to this lens finally getting fixed. Getting assaulted by my lens has not helped my mood.

The Canon repair team is really testing my patience.

My Fifty Ain’t So Nifty

This is what’s become of my 50mm prime lens for my camera:

WAAAAAAH!!!!!!

I pulled my camera out of my bag and noticed half my lens missing. It decided to stay in my bag!

And now, I’m sad. The lens has been sent away for repair, and I just have to sit by and wait…

*tear*

Fast Food Sickness

It’s been a manic week thus far. And it’s only half over.

I left town Sunday morning for Indian Wells, CA for the Yahoo! Sales Conference (I’ll post pictures at some point) and got home on Monday night at midnight (technically Tuesday, I guess). Then last night, our friends Tom & Angie, Christian, and I all went to see Cabaret at AMT in downtown San Jose. It was a very good show. I think I prefer the revival version of this musical but I thought the production was still great.

And then there’s tonight. Tonight was the first night that I’ve had fast food in a very long time (I don’t really count the sandwich places i.e. Togo’s, Subway, etc). Christian and I try to avoid fast food whenever possible because it’s just so unhealthy. Well, we were on a super-tight schedule tonight and decided to go for some Taco Bell. I ordered meal #4: 1 mexican pizza and 2 crispy tacos. It was so tasty. And now my body hates me so much for subjecting it to such delicious garbage. My stomach has done this before after partaking in fast food in the past, but it happens so seldom that I forget how horrible it actually feels.

Ugh.

And it doesn’t help that my body is so tired from the stressful week. Traveling for work is never as much fun as traveling for play. And people, I only have two hands, one mouse, and one keyboard. Please never forget that.

Time to watch the girls compete for their music careers on Idol. Toodle-loo!

What Did You Do, DirecTV?!!?

Um. My DirecTV DV-R recorded blank nothingness in place of my American Idol results show for tonight. UGH! After a crappy day, this was not what I was looking forward to…

And P.S. I hate garbage day.

There’s Always 2010

I spent an hour tonight trying to take pictures of the awesome lunar eclipse and all I can say is that I have nothing to show for it.

I don’t have a fantastic telephoto lens for my camera so I borrowed Christian’s camera while he was at rehearsal tonight. The eclipse started at 7 and ended at 8. I wanted to climb up onto my roof to set up and take pictures, but I had to work later than I thought I did and didn’t have a whole lot of time to get ready before it started. I quickly grabbed the ladder and leaned it against the side of the house to do a trial climb first before I decided to hoist the camera and tripod up with me. It was a good thing I made that climb because when I made it up to the roof, I panicked and didn’t know how I was going to get down without tipping the ladder over. I fearfully clung on to the roof for a few minutes like a kitten stuck in a tree and then slowly inched my way over to and down the ladder. I nixed that idea.

I jetted back inside, grabbed the camera and tripod and headed outside to set up in my driveway instead. By this time, the eclipse had started so I was rushing to mount the camera and struggled trying to attach the stupid remote control. Once I finally figured it all out, I started tinkering with the settings and the focus and took a few shots. I spent a good couple of minutes fumbling with the camera trying to figure out how to review the pictures (because I was stupid and didn’t bring a flashlight so I could see the camera controls) and then tinkered with a few more settings. I tried to figure out how to zoom in on my preview pictures just to make sure they were in focus, but because I wasn’t able to see any labels on the camera, I never figured that one out. So I took a gamble. I wasn’t about to leave the camera outside unattended while I ran back into the house to hunt down a flashlight. Nor did I want to break down the camera set up and take it all back inside because I was already late. So I stood outside for an hour taking pictures that I thought were in focus. I was so wrong. And now I’m so mad.

Hopefully, by 2010 when the next lunar eclipse comes around, I will have purchased myself a nice telephoto zoom lens and can avoid using Christian’s camera – nothing against it – it just hates me.

And now I’m going to go eat my cold dinner that I prepared while I was trying to get everything set up (in case you need a point of reference, that was after I was done working and before I got stuck on the roof).

The Worst Housewife Ever

I would make the worst housewife ever and this is why:

It’s all CLEAN and I laid out the wrinkleables so they wouldn’t wrinkle, but this has now become a 3-week old pile of clothes screaming to be folded. And guess what – I ain’t gonna do it today. Why? Would YOU want to deal with this? Well, me neither.

Sabotage

I’ve been playing Rockband with Christian for several days now and have discovered that it’s a lot of fun! I refuse to do anything but sing (I tried Guitar on Guitar Hero and it just made me mad, and drums – why do I want to torture myself?) A good number of songs are pretty cool but there are a couple that are a bit out of my range… and then there’s Sabotage… If there was a song I’d ever declare as a song I hated… Sabotage by the Beastie Boys would be it. Now, keep in mind that I have never heard this song before so trying to “sing” it for Rockband is impossible for me! It sounds like garbage when I have to do it and I can’t hear what the right rhythm for the song is because I’m too focused on trying to get at least some points muttering through it. UGH. Anyway, that was it. I’m not man enough for Sabotage. Happy Super Bowl Sunday y’all.