28
Conflicted
I’ve been a lot flakier as of late with my blogging. Hard to keep up with it when I get busy and tired so often.
Christian and I took Wednesday-Friday off last week and went on a couple of outings. First off, coming back to work after taking a few days off was REALLY hard. I already can’t wait until the weekend ’cause man do I miss it!
Anyway, on our Wednesday off, we hit Santa Cruz (this was the day before the Summit fire started and no, we didn’t cause the fire).
I took this picture while we were walking along the beach.
While it was kind of funny to see a bird trying to squeeze the last drops of Coors out of this can, I was also pretty disappointed that the can was there on the beach in the first place. I mean, Santa Cruz did a really good job of placing bright red trash cans all over the beach and STILL this can was out there in the middle of the sand. I’m no tree hugger or anything (though I have nothing against most tree huggers) but REALLY PEOPLE?!
Anyway, that was my little rant for the day.
10
A Domestic Weekend
I have a busy and domestic weekend ahead of me (I’m sure some of you have it much worse, but it’s my blog, so I get to complain 
). This may look familiar to some of you:
For those who don’t know the suffering of the vertically-challenged, this is what I have to deal with everytime I buy pants.
I also have the following few tasks to look forward to in the next few days:
-Organize our mess in the living room
-Find hiding places for the random junk on our kitchen table and floor
-Vacuum the house
-Re-caulk the bathroom
-Re-buff the bathroom counter
And probably laundry. When isn’t there laundry?
You’re reading the blog of a girl who knows how to have a good time during her weekends off 
7
My Ring
When Christian and I had my engagement ring custom made (I got to design it), it ended up being a huge fiasco involving less-than-adequate service from a Vietnamese jewelry store and my well-meaning but meddling mom. A job that was supposed to take about a month ended up being a 3-month process. When we finally brought the ring home, I took the ring out of the box to show our friend Kevin. We accidentally dropped the ring on my parents’ living room floor and when we picked it up, one of the small cluster diamonds on one end of the ring went missing. We were all on our hands and knees searching for the tiny little diamond on my parents’ silver/blue/gray granite floor. When we finally found it, we promptly and frustratingly took it back to the jeweler to get it fixed.
2 1/2 years later, we still joke about the little side diamond going missing. Christian sometimes takes my hand and inspects the ring, half-jokingly. This Saturday, while we were out shopping, I casually looked at my ring and what did I see? It was what I didn’t see that angered me. I DIDN’T see one of the little cluster diamonds in my ring anymore! Turns out that the platinum setting cracked on the side that was holding the little guy in its place. I was PISSED. I sent the ring with my mom and she took it elsewhere to get it repaired. She brought it back today and it looks like new.
I’m glad that’s done and over with. *whew*
5
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*
29
I’ve Been Up for 21 Hours
And I’m exhausted. Today was sheer (as my friend and cube neighbor Coco would say) BRUTALITY. I have no idea why I’m sitting here blogging about how tired I am instead of going to bed.
Remember the days when all-nighters were easy peasy to handle? Well, I guess they were never easy per se, but my body didn’t hate me as much. Although, I bet that if I stayed awake all last night instead of sleeping for those few hours, I’d feel a tad different. I remember the last time I pulled an all-nighter, the world around me started going surreal on me once late afternoon hit. It was the most bizzaro feeling.
Anyway, I’m rambling. I need a shower. And a bed. And a nice warm blanket.
12
Kooza
If you get a chance to, I HIGHLY recommend that you make your way out to the Big Top and see Cirque du Soleil’s newest show, Kooza.
It’s one of my new favorite (if not my actual favorite) Cirque shows. Everything was so much fun and incredibly awesome. The acts were great, the music was really good, and the costumes – I LOVED the costumes!
Here’s part of the stage during intermission: (shhh, I know – no cameras)
And here’s the tightrope act being taken down during intermission:
The show may be coming to a city near you so check it out if you get the chance!
Get out and be entertained! Night, All.
7
First Birthday
I wish I could remember my first birthday. Little Sydney celebrated the big ONE at her very first birthday party this past Saturday and she looked like she had a blast! Sharon baked a funfetti cake just for Sydney to destroy and devour (she did more destroying than devouring). I’ve been to several first birthdays where the birthday boys and girls got their own cake to play with as they pleased, but I can’t seem to remember this tradition as a child. Is this a widely known practice? It definitely looks fun and I’m sure I’ll do the same someday for my future kid (no, there is no kid coming anytime soon so don’t ask); I’d just never heard of this tradition until Miss Molly had her first birthday (which I had to enjoy via pictures ’cause I was stuck working).
Anyway, here’s a brief photographic recap for y’all:
She found her very own tissue paper. Who could ask for anything more?
And the cake mayhem begins!
Little Sydney all cleaned up and diving into presents!
T’was good times 
5
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!
25
Su’s
We went to to Su’s Mongolian BBQ tonight for dinner. The guys we usually go with at work can’t seem to get it together to go without my planning for whatever reason, and with the holidays late last year, then Christian’s show kicking off this year, tonight was the first night since maybe… October that we’ve had a chance to go.
Now, I mention the holidays because that’s typically the time of year you end up gorging on food and gaining 5 pounds. Well, eating out at Su’s is the equivalent of a holiday feast, so I schedule the Su’s outings sparingly.
This place is no-frills good eats. Although, it never fails that I come home feeling like Jaba the Hut. Thank goodness we only go once every few months.
I wish I took some pictures of Su’s – maybe next time. Check it out on local here.
Eat light during the day if you decide to go for dinner in order to prep yourself for the feast to come. And don’t forget to save room for soft serve!
21
Tree Makeover
Our two big trees got some much needed grooming earlier this week. Trees, like hair, can grow wildly out of control if not managed. After 3 years of uninterrupted growth, our trees looked like this:
Once we called the Bay Area Tree Specialists in and had them work their magic… voila!
They now look slimmer, trimmer, and healthier. And when fall comes around – WAAAAAAAAY less leaves to rake! Woohoo!
Stuff like tree trimming reminds me of how expensive it is to be a homeowner, but in the end, I still think it’s well worth it.
20
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).
17
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.
15
Yay for 3-Day!
I can’t even begin to tell you how thankful I am to have a three-day weekend after the nightmarish day I had at work. My only problem will be to filter work thoughts out of my head. I really suck at that. I resolve work issues in my dreams sometimes and I don’t wake up rested at all. Insane in the brain, I tell you.
About 6 or 7 hours into my work day today, the people who were sending me all the work started leaving. That felt great. It’s happened to all of us. And it’s no one’s fault… sort of… It’s Friday. Who wants to be stuck in the office late on a Friday? For the past few weeks, I managed to find a nice break in the late afternoon to head home and finish the rest of my Friday work in the comfort of my warm fuzzy robe. Today was not one of those days and man, it was brutal.
Despite the painful workday, I’m still very thankful to be employed. We’re about to fork over a lump sum to get our trees trimmed – Gotta pay for it somehow!
Well, I’m spent. Have a great weekend, y’all!
12
sleepless eve
Today was so much worse than I could have ever imagined. The nerves and stress started to build yesterday when I was asked to move my meeting for today at work to another conference room and realized that the rooms all over campus were reserved all day for what they called a “Special Project.”
I cried in bed last night from fear and uncertainty for Christian and myself. I cried for those people who would ultimately get hit, some of whom I was sure to know one way or another. I cried this morning in front of the computer as people were being called away. I spent the entire day with my stomach in knots, even after knowing that we were safe this time around because I couldn’t stop thinking about those who had headed home.
I still feel sick inside. I wonder how long it takes for the feeling to go away.
And no, I never folded the laundry.
11
What Lies Ahead
The distress of thinking about what fate may befall on us at work this week pales in comparison to the distress I feel over having to conquer this:
That is a mound of clean clothes that has been building up for almost 2 weeks. If there’s anything I dislike more than having to do dirty laundry, it’s having to fold clean laundry. This, ladies and gentleman, is what happens when I procrastinate.
And just imagine: before I worked at Yahoo!, I was a costume manager at Great America where I managed a team that did loads of laundry for 50+ kids everynight during the summer. Talk about good times.
10
Cake!
I just had to show you all this adorable progression of little Ethan blowing out the birthday candles on his cake:
LOL! Poor kid! Good thing he has a smart mommy who believes in dressing him in layers!
Happy Birthday Ethan!
