a day in the life of sleepyeve

I’m a little behind but I finally sifted through photos from my 30th birthday day of fun.  Some highlights:

Sock cake made by the fabulous Rosie

Awesome cupcake bouquet sent by my wonderful Christian

Chillin’ on the lawn chomping on some tasty kebabs

Smiles with Jayden & Kat

Baby Lily sporting the coolest cupcake hoodie ever

Just Dancing in the garage to Womanizer

Here’s the rest of the photos for your viewing fun.  Thanks for reading!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sleepyeve/sets/72157624350200743/

(Slideshow) http://www.flickr.com/photos/sleepyeve/sets/72157624350200743/show/

On this, my 30th birthday, I’ve finally decided to take a moment to update my blog.  I must say this about every other entry but an update is looooong overdue.  I’m trying to write this up while watching Mad Men (the last thing on my birthday to-do list for the evening), so please bear with me through any grammatical atrocities.

Before I get into the awesomeness that has been my 30th birthday today, I want to share the story of my past 6 months.

30 pounds for my 30th.

At the beginning of this year, Christian and I decided  to get our act together and make some lifestyle changes.  I think we had both hit a point over the holidays when we realized how unhappy we were with how we were feeling and looking.  I was probably at my heaviest  that I’d ever been in my life over the Christmas holiday… and we all know how feasting over holiday meals go…  In mid January, I decided that enough was enough.  I started teaching myself some simple things about calories, nutrition, well-balanced diets, and Christian and I started our lifestyle change.  I decided to join Christian and some of our friends each weekend to ease my way into the world of running.  I’d run some, walk some, run some, walk some more.  We started to eat better meals – homemade, properly portioned,well-rounded meals (home-cooked meals now take about a half hour to an hour longer to prepare because I measure and calculate everything out).  We watched our balance of calories, making sure to keep ourselves accountable for everything we consumed and balanced our days with physical activity.  Some of you are probably thinking, “oh,  so they went on a diet” but no, that’s not really the case.  As I mentioned a few lines earlier, we decided to make a lifestyle change, so this isn’t a temporary fad we put in place to drop pounds; this is a permanent transformation in our way of thinking and behaving to make ourselves healthier, happier people.

Six months later, I’m now officially thirty pounds lighter and ten thousand times happier.  When I lost ten pounds, a good friend of mine suggested that the next  time I go to the grocery store, I pick up two sacks of potatoes to see how that extra ten pounds of weight really felt.  Well, I never remembered to do that, so the next time I remember when I go into a store, I need to pick up 6 sacks of potatoes to account for the thirty pounds.  Ooooh boy.  I’m  happier, I feel loads more confident about myself, and I don’t mind seeing myself in a mirror or in pictures these days.  I don’t really deprive myself of anything I enjoy; I just enjoy it in moderation and/or balance it appropriately with working out.   It’s all about discipline and balance.  And teamwork.  If Christian and I were not in on this together as a team, I’m sure neither of us would have been as successful as we have been.

This lifestyle alteration also has me doing more physical activity than I’ve ever done before in my life.  When I first started running, I’d run two sides of a block before I had to stop for a walk break.  Eventually, the walk breaks shortened and now, I can run for 7 continuous miles on a good day.  No, not training for a marathon or half marathon.  And no, not enjoying running itself either.  I just enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes after I’m done.  The increased caloric capacity to shove more food into my belly is also a plus   To think, when I was a chubby junior high schoool pre-teen, I struggled through a 14 minute mile a week because I had to do it for a grade.  Now, I’m choosing to do a 10:30 to 11:00 mile for way more than just a mile.  I’m nuts.  At least I’m happily nuts.

One last thought on this life change: eating better and working out allowed for me to drop 4 pant sizes since January.  I’ve spent so much money shopping in the past several months because I kept outgrowing (or whatever the opposite of outgrowing is…) my clothes.  Totally worth it though because shopping and trying on clothes is actually a fun thing for me to do these days

All right, enough of that.  On to something else.

What I Did for My 30th Birthday.

I’ll keep this portion as brief as I can because frankly, I’m sleepy and I wanted to get this blog posted on my birthday but it looks like I’ll be missing that by several minutes… OH WELL.

Christian and I woke up around 7ish and went out for a 7 and an half mile run.  7.6 to be exact.  That’s the most I’ve ever clocked in continuous running miles *pats self on back*

After we got back home and took our respective refreshing and very necessary showers, we picnicked in our backyard under our nice ginormous backyard tree.  I love picnics and so rarely go on them, so this was fun

After lunch, we headed over to the movie theaters and treated ourselves to Toy Story 3.  Lots of kids, but it actually wasn’t as annoying to be in the audience with them as I thought.  Great movie – very emotional, actually.

Once the movie was over, we dashed over to the Tech Museum of Innovation and enjoyed a very educational and interesting exhibit on Genghis Khan.  We walked around some of the other Tech exhibit halls after that was done, but didn’t end up staying for too long because we were both starving.

Dinner consisted of feasting on some yummalicious baby back ribs at Henry’s Hi-Life by the Shark Tank.  MMMMMmmmm… ribs, baked potato with a scoop of butter crack and sour cream, and super-delish garlic bread.  Oh, there was a salad of some sort somewhere in there too, but that was totally forgettable.

Since we were  sort of in the neighborhood, we decided to check out one of our favorite Target stores – the one off of Coleman is pretty nicely kept.  Didn’t buy anything exciting, but I just enjoy walking around that store and looking at stuff.

We got home and had a small Mad Men marathon to close out the evening.  I tuckered poor Christian out with my very long list of birthday activities but he’s a total trooper.  I’m the luckiest girl in the world to  have someone like him love me so much that he’s willing to go through all of the craziness and never-ending list of activities with zero complaint just to make me happy.  Thank you for making me feel so special.

All in all, it’s been a really fabulous 2010 so far and a really fabulous start to my 30′s

Thanks for reading.

Sleepily Yours,

Evelyn

I made a marginally healthier version of Indian Butter Chicken for dinner tonight and it was really tasty!  I got the original recipe from Allrecipes.com (my savior) and made a bunch of changes here there based on the reviews and what I thought I’d like.  Here’s my version:

Evelyn’s Healthier(ish) Indian Butter Chicken

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 45 Minutes
Ready In: 1 Hour

Servings: 6
Calories per Serving:~250

INGREDIENTS:
15 chopped, steamed carrots sticks (it’s what I had in the fridge & I microwave-steamed them)
1 onion, minced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
4 Tablespoons margarine
1 can fat-free evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (omit or use less if you don’t like heat)
1 teaspoon garam masala
1  ( 15 ounce )  can tomato sauce        
1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized chunks
1 tablespoon Curry Powder

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F  ( 190 degrees C ) .
2. Melt 2 tablespoons of margarine in large skillet (I used my giganto wok ’cause I’m asian like that) over medium heat.  Stir in carrots, onion & garlic, & cook slowly until the onion caramelizes, about 15 minutes.
3. Add the remaining margarine to the skillet over medium-high heat along with the tomato sauce, evaporated milk, salt, cayenne pepper, & garam masala. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low; cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. While the sauce is simmering, toss cubed chicken with curry powder until coated, then spread out onto a foil-lined baking sheet (no mess!).
5. Bake chicken in preheated oven until no longer pink in the center, about 10 minutes.  Once done, add the chicken to the sauce and simmer for 5 minutes before serving.

I served it over 1 1/4 cups of steamed white rice.

It had loads of kick and flavor.  AWESOMENESS (in my personal opinion…)  Happy cooking!

I know, I know.  It’s been too long.  Just wanted to throw out a quick post to say “yay!” for this photo that I took of our friends’ son Jacob and our Lily dog – I think it just won me a new point-and-shoot camera from the Y! Photo Challenge – Round 2.  What’s funny is Christian was one of the 1st round winners… 

Adorable.

This game comes out this spring.  Can you spot my voice?  I’m in the trailer twice, so you have 2 chances

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/25612

My grandmother passed away on December 16th, 2009 – This was also our third year wedding anniversary.  The last time I remember seeing her was at our wedding in 2006.  It’s hard to lose anyone during this time of year, but it’s even harder for me to think of our wedding anniversary AND Christmas without thinking about her.

I didn’t know my grandmother very well.  She lived with my family for about a year before moving to Canada to live with my Aunt and her family.  Her language of choice was Cantonese and mine was English, so it made communication a challenge.  I learned a great deal about her after she passed though.  Not sure how I feel about that.

Our original holiday plans this year was supposed to start with Christian, his sister Stefania, our dog Lily, and I hopping into the CR-V on Sunday morning the week before Christmas to spend Sunday-Saturday with their parents in Santa Barbara.  With my grandmother’s passing, we couldn’t move forward with that plan since I needed to head to Canada with the rest of my family to pay our respects.  Christian and Stefania ended up staying home a few extra days to wait until I returned before heading down to Santa Barbara.  Bless their hearts for doing that (and their parents’ hearts for being so understanding) because a single one-way flight down there to meet them would have cost me about $250.  EEEK. 

I flew from San Jose to Seattle, Washington at 6:30 AM Monday morning with Mom, Dad, Uncle Bao, his wife, his daughter Annie, my Aunt Linh, her husband, and her kids Cathleen and Colin.  They had booked my flight separately so I ended up in first class on my own.  That was my first experience in first class and let me tell you, it was niiiice.  The seats were so roomy that my feet couldn’t touch the floor when I sat all the way back.  My tea came in a glass mug; I had maybe 3 or 4 refills during the 2-hour flight.  I was even offered a Bearclaw for breakfast (I turned it down in an effort to make healthy choices during this trip).  If you ever have a long flight, first class is the way to go.

Once we landed in Seattle, we had a few hours to wait before our flight to Bellingham, WA.  The family wanted breakfast so we stopped at a Wolfgang Puck Express and ordered a bunch of breakfast pizzas (bacon & ham).  They looked DELICIOUS, but I went for a yogurt instead.    We saw Santa fly by on a golf cart during the meal so I took the kids (and my mom) to see him and take some photos. 

Breakfast Pizzas

Cousins

Mom w/Santa & the Elf

The flight to Bellingham was a short mayyybe 45-minute flight.  I sat next to an audio engineer who works on major awards shows (she was wearing a 73rd Annual Academy Awards jacket, so I had to ask), so I chatted it up with her for a while.  She was a super-nice lady who is building a house to settle into in Bellingham. 

Once we arrived in Bellingham, my Uncle Sen (who lives in Abbotsford near or in Vancouver – Grandma had been living with my Aunt, Uncle, and cousin there since the late ‘90s) picked us up from the airport and we all loaded in to head up to his place.  We made a quick stop at the cemetery where my Grandmother was going to be buried in Lynden, Washington – not far from the Canada/US Border.  They were digging the grave when we got there.  Next to the grave they were digging was my Uncle Huy Quyen’s grave.  It was all very strange.  I didn’t think about seeing his grave when we went up there, so it caught me off guard.  He died in a tragic lumber mill accident in 1996 – very sad because he went way before his time.
 

Uncle Huy Quyen’s Grave

Once Uncle Sen was done talking business with the grave digger dude (I don’t know what you call those guys), we made our way up past the border and to his mansion of a house in Abbotsford.  That place is BEAUTIFUL.  9 rooms.  A bajillion bathrooms. Huge.

My Aunt Anh was prepping a feast of a dinner when we arrived.  Turkey with veggies, asian-style. 

Turkey Dinner – Asian Style

After we ate, we all headed to the funeral home for a viewing/memorial at the funeral home.  When we got there, my Aunt Linh had already arrived separately and she was standing before her mother’s open casket bawling her eyes out.  She was so torn and emotionally wrecked, she couldn’t even stand.  It was heartbreaking to watch.  I spent most of the evening staring at my Grandmother from the front row of seats in the hall.  I think it was the first time I’d ever seen a dead person, so it was a very surreal, very trippy experience.  As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t really know her very well, but to see all of the people that came to her memorial and wept for her passing, it gave me a whole new insight into who she had become to this community.  She was very active in her church and her senior community group.  Everyone there was very touched and affected by her and they were all very devastated that she was gone.  I remember one older gentleman who walked in – someone I didn’t know – walked up to her casket, took off his hat, and just about had a meltdown.  Loud sobbing, tears streaming down his face – it was really sad to watch. 

The funeral the next morning wasn’t any easier to bear, but that’s where I learned the most about the person she was to these people.  She was baptized and became an active member of her church.  She made homemade mooncakes for everyone every year during the moon festival.  She became a happy person.  That wasn’t the person I remembered, but I was so glad to hear that it was the person she transformed into.  I mourned the loss of opportunity to know this happy person that my grandmother became and through everyone who was at the funeral, including my family who flew up with me from the states, I mourned the loss of her.  I shed my first tear during this event after our family had to line up as part of the receiving line at the end of the funeral and we paid our respects one last time before they closed the casket.  My Aunt Linh went ballistic – she fell to the ground and had what was probably the biggest cry of her life.  My mom lost it.  She had to sit herself down to try and catch her breath.  My Uncle Bao started crying.  Even my dad, who was completely stoic during this entire trip, shed his tears for her.  So THAT’s when I teared up.  All of her children and grandchildren were gathered around her crying one last cry for her passing.  It was heavy.

After the funeral, we drove past the border behind the Hearse to the Lynden Cemetery in Washington.  We paid our last respects and watched the casket get lowered and grave get filled.  It was all surreal, I tell you. 

Once the burial was done, we made a pit stop at McDonald’s and then headed for the airport.  It was a LOT of work for me to be the only fluent English speaker on this trip… my goodness.  I was so happy to be home once my aunt dropped me off.  It was such a tiring experience and the first leg of my traveling was finally over.

Christian, Stefania, Lily and I all went down the Santa Barbara the next day and spent Christmas with their family.  Christian, Lily, and I made our way back home again on Sunday and then I got really, really sick and had to log on to work the next day.

I’m currently nursing my Christmas cold (Thanks, Santa.  Really, you shouldn’t have) and am longing for my next day off (Thursday).  Here’s hoping 2010 brings better and happier memories.

Thanks to those who made it allllllllll the way down to this point in my blog.  Hope you all enjoy a safe and wonderful New Year’s. 

Okay, so it is REALLY post Thanksgiving… by about 2 weeks post… I’ve been busy. Don’t judge.

We found Dottie a home the day before we left for Santa Barbara. She has gone to the home of a fellow Yahoo and we’re confident that she’s happy.

I ate too much unhealthy food during the Thanksgiving holiday and now feel a bit blimpy. I went for a run with Christian over the weekend to get back into the workout routine and was ready to die.  I’m still sore.  Back to Thanksgiving though, I made this little guy for Christian’s mom:

Isn’t he cute?  He sat next to the real turkey on the Thanksgiving buffet piano (yes, you read piano).

We took Lily to the beach on Thanksgiving Day and she went nuts. She LOVED it – even got into a little bit of trouble:

Loving the beach

Getting into trouble


Christian trying to get her out of trouble

That was exciting.

We took some family pictures of our friends, the Gibson Family, the day after we got back from Santa Barbara.  Here are a few fun ones that I took:

Lily Gibson is such a cutie patootie.   I love it!

Once we got back to work, I worked feverishly to organize last minute details for a surprise baby shower for a co-worker (Geneva).  Never let me throw a surprise party again.

Geneva surprised – we actually got her!

Here’s the diaper cake I made for the party:

As for the rest of December, we have a department function tomorrow night, a play on Thursday, a canned food drive contest at work in which we’re both competing, some parties sprinkled here and there, and back to Santa Barbara we go.

Tired.

My mom found a cute little Terrier mix laying on her front porch on Saturday afternoon and called me in a panic. She didn’t know what to do with the dog and wanted me to come over and work it out. Christian and I decided to take her in and clean her up while we are on hunt for her owners or find her a new home (no, we can’t keep her… my allergies and sanity can’t take it). She’s not potty trained and I don’t think had ever been on a proper walk, so we are working on that with her everyday (she needs to learn the rules if she’s going to stay in our house). She’s a fun, cute little girl who needs a loving home by Thanksgiving… Otherwise, we will have to take her to a no-kill shelter. I’d rather have her find a good home with someone we know or at least kind of know (friends of friends count) but since we’re heading out of town the day before Thanksgiving (we will be taking Lily with us – not both dogs), we need to figure out what to do.

Here’s a video Christian made of the dog (we call her Dottie for now) and Lily:

Lily and Dottie from Christian Pizzirani on Vimeo.

Here are our online postings:
http://www.fidofinder.com/dog.php?id=185476
http://hssv.convio.net/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7667&news_iv_ctrl=1345

Help us spread the word and let us know if anyone would like to care for this cutie!  Otherwise, we’ll be dropping her off at the humane society on Tuesday.

Soooo… we took Lily in to see the vet on Monday (the day after the seizure drama). Her checkup was good – perfectly healthy pup based on the initial exam. The vet took some of her blood to run some tests. He told us that the blood test could possibly reveal issues with the liver or kidney. It could also come back with nothing, which could possibly mean doggy epilepsy… whatever it was, we wouldn’t find anything out until end of day Monday or Tuesday morning. Ugh. Worry worry worry.

The vet tech called me this morning with the blood test results. “Perfectly healthy” was the verdict based on the results that returned. There is absolutely nothing wrong with her organs, nothing wrong with anything in her blood, nada, zip. She said that it could have been an epileptic episode, but I also asked if it was a possibility that she maybe swallowed something toxic because she was walks around our lawn and tends to lick paws clean (yes, like a cat… but she’s not a cat – I swear!) AND Christian had put some snail bait out two weeks ago. She confirmed that it was a real possibility that she could have stepped in some runoff that was tainted with bait and ingested that when she licked her paws.

So this means either no more lawn play time for a while or a really thorough wipe-down after each trip out there.

Oh, one more thing that the vet tech mentioned… A seizure once a year is nothing to be alarmed about (not like it’s okay, but it’s not an indication of anything serious). Anything more frequent than that and we might have to treat her with medication for the rest of her life. Praying that she stays seizure-free forever…

Today was a crazy, whacked-out kind of a day.  I went walking with my good friend Kat this morning and when I came home, our dog Lily was acting strange.  She was crouched over and ran around the kitchen that way for a bit, ran into the blinds for the sliding glass door to the backyard, then scurried under the kitchen table.  I thought that she maybe needed to do her business, so I opened the back door and let her out.  She darted out and headed for the grass.  I could see that as she was heading out there, she was trying really hard hold her stuff in until she hit the grass.  After she did what she needed to, she came back to me at the back door but was still doing the weird crouch walk.  Figuring that maybe she wasn’t quite done yet, I coaxed her back out to the grass.  Once she got back out there, she started walking around really strangely, then lost her balance, toppled over on her side, and kept trying to get up.  It was as if the back half of her body was no longer in her control.  She was shaking, kept trying to get up, but then just kept toppling over.  She did this a few times until she managed to limp her way onto the concrete part of our patio and puked her guts out.  Once she finished, she walked around a little more and headed back to the grass.  I had no idea what was going on and was in a panic.  Not knowing what to do, I yelled for Christian to come out so I didn’t have to watch this alone.  I asked him to try and contact the vet as I watched her collapse in the grass.  Her legs were bent funny, her body was shaking, and she starting whining.  I could tell she was as freaked out as I was.  I remembered that I had the vet’s number in my phone which happened to be in my pocket, so I called.  I got a vet tech on the phone and told her everything that had happened and she said that Lily might have had a seizure or stroke.  !!!  The office was closed today, but she suggested that I take Lily’s temperature and if the episode persisted or if her temperature was over 102.5, that I take her to the emergency room (which she mentioned would be pretty expensive).  While I was on the phone with her, I was able to get Lily to come off the grass and lay down on the concrete where I sat.  She was shivering and weak.  She laid her head on my lap and was drooling excessively.  Her back half was still shaking and seemed a bit out of her control.  I started crying on the phone because I didn’t know why this was happening and how I could make it stop, but the tech really helped talk me through everything and helped to map out my next steps.  After I was done talking to her, I let Lily rest there for a few minutes and just rubbed her belly.  There was nothing else I could do but wait it out!

After a little while, I was able to get her to stand up and walk back into the house.  The episode was over and now she was just really weak.  She went straight for bed and laid down.  She still had some drooling issues, so I grabbed a towel and wiped her down.  I sat with her for about an hour while she just laid there.  It was so sad to think about all that had happened and watch her lay her, so weak.  I couldn’t help but check her breathing every few minutes – I know, I’m crazy.  At this point, she seemed tired but okay.  I brushed her teeth and left her alone and she recovered some of her energy as the day went on.


Poor Lily had a hard day

Our friends Jason & Sharon stopped by so Jason could get a quick tutorial on some DVD functionality from Christian – nerd-type stuff.  Our friends Justin, Natalie, and their son Jacob came by not to long after to drop off some things and catch up.  It was a full house and I wasn’t sure how Lily would do with the troubled day she had.  Little Jacob is 14 months old and is the cutest little boy!  He has so much personality and such a charming little face. 

Jacob being cute

He took to Lily right away and she let him chase after her until he tired himself (and her) out.


Jacob & Lily

This is me after running today.  I was so disgustingly sweaty, I thought I’d share with everyone.  Have a good weekend!

Halloween 2009 was pretty awesome this year.  I was Ursula from The Little Mermaid (Broadway-inspired, not cartoon).  Made my costume in a week – STRESS.

Here I am posing with my girls.

My skirt just sits like a large skirt when I don’t flare it up and out like in the photo (I got questions about how I fit into doorways and my cubicle several times).

Here are some fun Ghosting photos. 

As you can see, I decorated Serina’s cube a la Disney Halloween.  Not good enough to win anything, but it was still fun.  Loads of thanks to Rosie & Christian for their help & support!

I don’t usually find shopping to ever be a “rockin” good time, but tonight was an exception

I had a free $10 to spend at Old Navy before it expired this upcoming weekend, so Christian agreed to hit the Great Mall with me tonight. I also had a coupon for a free aromatherapy product from Bath & Body Works and since the stores are right across from one another, I figured two birds, one stone.

We hit Old Navy around 830 or so and I picked up two camis, a cute, furry hoodie (all for me ’cause I’m greedy), and a dog collar for Lily. I had my $10 off reward which was set to expire this weekend, but I also had a $20 off that wouldn’t expire until 2010. Typically, stores won’t let you combine coupons in a single transaction and I knew this when I got to the register. I decided to take the risk anyway and asked the cashier if she’d be willing to combine them for me… And she said yes! I guess under any other circumstances, it would have been a no, but since she was the manager or supervisor and was one of the last few employees in the store (it was 9 by the time I picked out what I wanted and they were closing shop), she was more than happy to override for me! In addition to getting my $30 off, everything I picked out was on sale!

After we checked out, I thought I’d give Bath & Body Works a shot, despite it already being past closing time. I looked across the way and saw that the gate was still wide open, so I made a mad dash for the entrance. I grabbed my free aromatherapy bottle, picked up some lip balms that were buy 2, get 1 free, and hit the register. The supervisor scanned my items and told me that because I was spending $15 (yes, lip balms were $7.50 each – well worth it I tell ya!) I was entitled to any item in the store valued up to $13 for free because of one of the new coupons they had available. I had no idea about the coupon and she didn’t NEED to tell me this, but it was super-awesome of her to be on the lookout for me! I grabbed a body wash called “Optimism” and dashed back to the register. The supervisor had to tend to a phone call, so another associate rung up the rest of my stuff. After she scanned my coupon for the free aromatherapy bottle and printed the receipt, she handed everything over to me, including the coupon. I told her that I didn’t need it anymore since she just scanned it and she whispered to me, “keep it – you can use it again.” I walked away with a very free bottle of aromatherapy lotion, 2 coupon books, and the original coupon for a free aromatherapy product.

Total spent for the evening: $36
Total savings for the evening: $80

Color me elated over saving loads of money AND having a fabulous customer experience! Good customer service really pays off because I WILL be coming back soon

Thanks for reading!

September and October have been maddening! Not horrible, just really uber-busy. Birthdays, projects, Disneyland, costumes, work – all good stuff – just a lot of it. Pictures to come, but for now, I need rest. Watching TV from bed rocks.

We arrived not too long ago at the Jolly Roger hotel. It’s not the nicest place ever, but it works. We’re about a 10 minute walk from Disneyland, so we’re walking to Downtown Disney tonight for dinner and to see if we want to make the walk again tomorrow or spring for $14 parking. Everyone’s tired from the drive down, but I’m ready to get out there and take some pictures, eat some yummy food (’cause you know how I can eat), and get some shopping done. It’s going to be an awesome weekend!

I just wanted to post a quick little something before Christian and I head off to Disneyland for the rest of the week with our friends Tom & Serina. We drive down tomorrow – woohoo! Christian and I haven’t been there in about two years, and the last several times we’ve been down, it’s always been Christmas-themed. This week – Halloween themed – oooooh! Can’t wait!

On a separate note, Christian hit a huge milestone this past weekend – he completed his first half marathon!

Check out the rest of the pictures here: http://tinyurl.com/ye4txvy and also make sure to stop by Christian’s blog and leave a nice comment! Christian’s blog

Have a great rest of the week!

I’ve done a ton this past month.  It’s been way busy but loads of fun.  Check out all of the photos:

Labor Day @ Tom’s


Bark in the Park 2009

Oohay! Birthday Bake-Off

MDC West Team Offsite


Christian’s MST3K 33rd Birthday Mania

Next up on the to-do list is to make tons of royal icing for my friend Rosie, finish contructing little Batul’s Cinderella gown, and figure out what to be this halloween.  ACK!  It’s a good kind of busy

And here is “The Zach Who Saved Christmas.”  Enjoy!

Photos (click to go to Flickr Set)

Video:

There’s been another long span of blankness on my blog that I must profusely apologize for.  SORRY SORRY SORRY!  Lots has happened between July and today (mid-August), but let’s focus on the 48 Hour Film Project since the screening for our movie is Thursday night…  Yes, this will be a plug.  Come see the movie and score a homemade sugar cookie!

How it works (from the 48hourfilm.com website):
The 48 Hour Film Project is a wild and sleepless weekend in which you and a team make a movie—write, shoot, edit and score it—in just 48 hours.  On Friday night, you get a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre, all to include in your movie. 48 hours later, the movie must be complete. Then it will show at a local theater, usually in the next week.

So that’s what we did this past weekend.  Christian and Jason pulled holiday film as their required genre, so they went for Christmas.  I’m resident costumer for these guys in this particular project and just about every year, I pull a Friday all-nighter to get all of the costumes and props together.  Jason’s wife Sharon and I drove around town this past Friday night to pick up fabric, craft pieces, and various props and I hit the sewing machine once we made our purchases.  I didn’t have enough time to make everything that I originally planned to, but everything that I did finish was sufficient enough for the project.

Had to hand-make patches for our exterminator.

They wanted an exaggerated piece from a board game…

I was awake for a little over 39 hours this past weekend (Friday morning-Saturday night) – probably the longest that I’ve ever stayed awake EVER.  It was rough.  Well, the day after was the roughest.  The day of was just a little surreal and busy…

Anywho, the film was submitted on time and the only major incident was losing our original location.  We got really lucky and scored another place to shoot, thanks to Shady Shakespeare…

The movie screening will be tomorrow night.  It will be shown with a number of other films that were submitted for the project.  After all films are shown, the audience gets to vote for a favorite.  I’m shooting for us to win the audience award for this film.  I think the guys did a great job and it’s probably the best 48 hour film they have made to date.  They’ve won 3 audience awards in years past, so it’d be awesome if this film, “The Zach Who Saved Christmas” could help them reclaim the audience favorite title.

Side note – I baked Christmas sugar cookies for the boys to pass out and market themselves with.  They took forever to make, so those cookies better go like hotcakes.

Here are the rest of the photos from the shoot: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sleepyeve/sets/72157621966220437/

Oh, the details of tomorrow’s event would be nice, huh?

Hope you guys are able to come out and support our hard work and enjoy our cookies (and our film, of course!)

Gosh, a lot has happened today!

#1: I entered an art contest at work about a month ago by submitting 5 photos that I had taken. Two of them were just selected to be displayed and I was notified today!

This one is called “Black & White”:

And this one is “Serenity”:

They’re going to display them along with other winning entrants’ pieces in building C – the training/meeting/cafeteria building mezzanine for about 3 months. After 3 months, they will be moved to different locations in Sunnyvale or Santa Clara campuses.

Now I am desperately trying to get these printed and mounted in time to submit before the gallery opening. Yes, there’s a gallery opening! Here’s the info:

The official Gallery Purple opening will be on August 6th from 3:00 pm. – 7:00 p.m. in the Mezzanine area of Building C. Friends and family are invited to attend the event. Live music, food and beverages will be included.

#2: A show called “Forbidden Broadway” is playing at the San Jose Repertory Theatre through Sunday. Christian & I were able to get tickets from our friend Emily and went tonight. I had known about this show for a long time, having owned several volumes of “Forbidden Broadway” for years now. It was pretty awesome to see it live. It’s musical theatre parody at its best and I recommend to anyone who enjoys musicals; It’s a great laugh!

After the show, Christian and I went for froyo at Penguin Froyo in downtown San Jose. The froyo was great, the service was great, and the seating was great. Overall, I would also recommend hitting this up.

Thanks for reading about my awesome Friday Have a great weekend, Everyone!