Your Mileage May Vary

Light up my room

Background Noise: Viva la Vida

Last Visited: Macy's, the brick and mortar one. Note to Macy's: stores should match the price of items on your website. I love the dress, but seriously, that's obnoxious. 

Random Thought: bored? go learn something 

Mood: another demo down...

Things have been nuts this week and last and i haven't had a moment to mention who the band was at the WWDC beer bash this year! (How could i have forgotten?) I was so thrilled to discover that after years (and years) of predicting Barenaked Ladies... they finally showed up!

So out when the plans for reservations at some quite restaurant with excellent food and even better drinks, and in came the game plan of me grinning like an idiot while singing and dancing along during their (brief) set. Andrew M. even rescued a guitar pick for me near the end; and i have to admit, suddenly, that very very very long day didn't seem bad at all. 

I have to say many many thank you's to Andy for letting me pretend to be him for the day so i could sit on some quite interesting sessions and make it to the bash at the end of the day. 

... on a closing note, do you think the new Elle Woods (gulp, oh my ears, my ears) would find these heeliarious heels, up to her, um, style standards? 

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I want my html-only editor back

Background Noise: fox; i'm not too proud to admit it 

Last Visited: Did humans colonize the world by boat? I think the more interesting question is why would everyone put that option out of the realm of possibility? 

Random Thought: holy crap, crystal skulls aren't just a figment of Lucas's imagination 

Mood: thesaurus says: enervated 

I'm going to start by saying this isn't an apology, exactly. See, i've kinda fallen in to a bit of a black hole lately, pretty much being consumed by (a) work, (b) working out, (c) things that are on my calendar, (d) sleep, and when i feel the need to run away (e) in my car with my camera. Everything else in the realm of reality? Um, not in mine right now. 

This, honestly, makes me feel like an ass; i'm not returning emails as quickly as i should, i'm blowing off phone calls, i'm not responding to facebook notifications unless i have an extra 15 seconds... you get the point. Also, this makes me feel fairly boring; i haven't kept up on all of my news or gossip, and honestly, half the time i'm in a situation where i'm supposed to be conversant, i'm not focused and more over really just too tired to be charming. 

... But that isn't exactly an apology; it's more of a back handed explanation. I can't entirely be sorry because i need to be off the map for a bit right now. It happens. So, um, there. (I actually am kinda sorry though.) 

OT, Moment of Truth got renewed? Seriously? Please let me know that that particular fact isn't going to make it into the annals of history; i can just see some future Indiana Jones trying to decipher what that show indicates about our culture; it might rank somewhere around the gladiators in the colosseum. (And not in the fun, "boy isn't Maximus the man" kind of way, but the "oh, we're going to kill 10,000 people just because we're bored and it's funny" kind of way; though, by killing so many people i suppose the Caesars were just doing their part to stave off global warming...*). 

Oh, right, i was actually posting to say that i tried a new wide angle lens with my camera tonight, the results have been added to my Party, Horses gallery, and i'm trying to decide what i actually think of them. 

... now i need sleep. 

* please see The Black Plague may have caused the Little Ice Age

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Sunscreen wants to me my friend, but i keep blowing it off

Background Noise: the ping ping of iChat
Last Visited: Honey, please don't stick your tongue out...
Random Thought: Dude, that's freaking hilarious
Mood: overcooked

I moved offices today, ghetto style: just a cart and me; no movers necissary, thanks. It's... done enough. Really the only important thing left to move is my graphics card so my new machine realizes that displaying at 1024x800 on a 30 inch monitor is dumb.

I took a minor break to visit some Horses yesterday morning, thank you Ken for the excuse, hopefully one of these will work as a good match to the cow. (Well, perhaps not one of the three here, but there's an entire gallery mostly devoted to them.)

And now, if you'll excuse me, i've been meaning to visit Rite Aid for a week, they close in an hour, and well, i'm bribing myself with some warm milk from 'bucks to finally get me over there. Oh yeah, speaking of which, they make fun of me when i order steamed milk (or a "Steamer" for those of you who used to frequent Espresso Royale.) Why? What's so funny? (a) it's yummy, (b) i can't drink coffee at night, (c) it's full of wonderful protein for my muscles and (d) it goes really well with their mini brownie bites.

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Sneaky Red

Background Noise: Love Song
Last Visited: reddit, etc
Random Thought: hail to the victors!
Mood: goooood morning

Holy Cow, Batman, Anne didn't post again last week! No way!

... You're all shocked, i can tell.

Well, um, not to over use my "holy crap last week became insanely busy" but, well, it's true. It became busy in the best of possible ways, and i'm thrilled, but that doesn't exactly mitigate the fact i now really don't actually have time to write this post here. But i had to say something; after all, i promised.

Also, i need to say: Happy Birthday (last week) to Heather and Mike, and Congrats to my totally awesome Brother for graduating from U of M! Here's to the parents being done paying U of M after a full decade! (lord, i should send the parents flowers or something.)

Oh, and, of course: Red Wings for the win! Go continue to destroy the Avalanche, boys, they deserve a beating.

... and one last thing: congrats to the big man Jake Long for going #1 in the draft this weekend. Go Blue!

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Apparently i (still) have a super-sonic sneeze

Background Noise: Waltz for Debby, Bill Evans
Last Visited: Speak like a Michigander
Random Thought: so, um, if you link to your myspace page from your facebook page, i'm going to see it. just for the record.
Mood: procrastinating.

Have i mentioned Behr.com lately? Great place to play with paint colors. And we all know how much i love painting (apartments).

In other news... there's no poker tonight. Again. Which is totally lame because i can't go next week. Which will mean nearly a month with no poker. Now, the thing is, while i love playing poker, the poker isn't what i miss: it's the guys i get to hang out with. So if everyone is bored with poker, might i suggest sushi night? Or movie night? Or heaven forbid, (yet another) video games night? Whatever you prefer, i'm there. Even if i (gulp) have to organize it myself. And here i thought i had gotten out of being the cruise director. Guess not.

Speaking of directing, apparently i have a photoshoot to direct saturday morning; my first. Heaven help me, this might be a bumpy ride. I'll have pictures on the flip side though - stay tuned.

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Upgrade, or, All Grown Up

Background Noise: Midnight Coward
Last Visited: trawling for a decent evite invitation template
Random Thought: i can see what's coming, but i'm not saying it
Mood: happy spring!

I finally have a new badge picture! Yeay!

Ok, so, sure, it's a bit more serious, and it might possibly look like my back has been dislocated, and if you look a bit too closely you can tell i'm thinking "omg, just take the picture already" but, seriously, so much better.

... i'll remember to bring a prop next time, but really, once i had it in my head that i needed to get a new picture just about anything different would do; and along with all the "gah, no one will take you seriously now!" comments i've also gotten "saucy" and "you look great!" so for the moment, i stick my tongue out in the general direction of anyone who dislikes my "After" picture.

So there.

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I'm sorry, have we met?

Background Noise: La Traviata - scratch that, traviata is depressing and i don't need help in that department - let's go with New Found Glory; so much livelier
Last Visited: baker beach, berkeley, skyline, moss beach
Random Thought: wherefore art thou, jabber?
Mood: thursday can't come fast enough

Last week was quite odd and highly random, and honestly, coming out of it, my head is still spinning. But! I do have pictures of a fair chunk of it; in time order, may i present Wednesday afternoon, Saturday morning, and Sunday evening:

	A Random Afternoon in Berkeley Cole Coffee, Meadows Flower shop, Wood Tavern, and a random stop at a warehouse in San Francisco.
	A Saturday Adventure Baker Beach, San Francisco; Barney's in Berkeley; Ray and May's in the Berkeley Hills - the monsters belong to them, and are quite adorable. Also my first real attempt at a still life study - the light was just right and the flowers were amazing - it's good thing Ray and May's neighbor left them!
	Sunset at Moss Beach A place much more beautiful than my pictures indicate; the adorable little girls reminded me of Ellen and I when we were little - we had the same haircuts and i swear the same purple outfits.

What do these pictures miss? A lot: the office went to see Kooza thursday afternoon (my first Cirque show, and i was completely and utterly enchanted), soft serve on friday, hanging with Mike and Nic saturday night, and, well, there's more, but i don't really feel like going into it.

I adore my camera. I'm so very very glad Dave twisted my arm to get it; i find myself longing to have it with me at all times, and i get quite annoyed when the picture i thought i took did not turn out as planned. I have a lot to learn - well, maybe Heather can give me a few tips thursday afternoon at lunch :)

In other news, i need to get a new badge picture. Really.

It was cute and funny when i was an intern, but seriously? a) I don't look like that anymore and you'd be hard pressed to recognize me from it and b) it's hard to get someone to take your emails seriously when that picture is attached to them - no amount of tone can really fix that particular problem.

Besides, apparently i'm unrecognizable as it is: at the very least 4 people i have met before on multiple occasions reintroduced themselves to me this week. Then after i had assured them we had in fact met before they didn't believe me, then proceeded to say how they would never had recognized me on the street (obviously, since they just didn't, but whatever). It's... and odd thing, really, not being recognized; not quite a compliment, yet not quite an insult. They didn't really know how to react, and i have to admit, I still don't.

Anyways, hopefully step one will be a new badge picture. I'll keep you updated.

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In View

Background Noise: Walcott, Vampire Weekend
Last Visited: my gallery, again
Random Thought: my awesome little brother is my new source of music
Mood: today will not be normal

There's a lot going on right now, coming from all directions. Not that this isn't necessarily normal (at least historically looking through my archives), but i beg you to believe me that right now? Right now is different. If not only because, well, most of the "stuff" has very little to do with work (amazing, right?) (well, actually, quite a lot has to do with work, as always, but there's actually stuff outside of work too) - of course, i don't actually think i can talk any more about this stuff than i can about the work stuff.

Of course.

One might wonder why i bother to blog at all sometimes.

One might wonder what the point of writing "stuff that i can tell you about it happening, but boy is it pulling me in 8 million different directions!" is.

One might have a point.

But i'd rather post something here than not; i apologize if it's ridiculously annoying.

Switching topics, I'm going home next week! I'm beyond thrilled. I booked the flight last week clutching any and all excuses i could find, and i'm going to make the most of my layover in Minn to see Heather, then home to see the fam and Al and Cathy. It will be wonderful, and hopefully a source for more pictures. Because i have to admit, i've kindof become addicted to taking pictures. Very soothing. Now if i could only find the time to actually put up my picture shelves on the wall of my apartment so i could print some and put them up....

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Me, A Badass?

Background Noise: Almost
Last Visited: funky properties of frozen water may have made life possible.
Random Thought: no wonder i have senioritis, i just passed my 4 year anniversary at apple!
Mood: tired, again; still

So i've had this post open as a draft... for a week. I meant to use it to tell you about last weekend, about the Superbowl Shuffle that didn't happen because of rain, but of the 4.5 miles i ran at the gym anyways, and about missing the Superbowl because i was shooting a gun for the first time (well, technically, two guns: a glock and a beretta).

But really, i've just come back from Tahoe, i have tons of new pictures uploading now and stories to tell, and well, last weekend feels like... um... last weekend. Old news; cool though it was.

So, i'm going to publish this post anyways and move on; besides, i'm so not actually listening to "Almost" anymore.

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Walk 'till we crawl

Background Noise: I-94, Control
Last Visited: Frames, Again
Random Thought: thinking about escaping to Treebones produces a NSFW response
Mood: exhausted

So, ProApps took a little breather to the Monterey Bay Aquarium yesterday, and Dave, JR and I decided to extend the breather a bit by driving early, staying late, and adding a detour to Carmel, 17-Mile Drive, The Inn at Spanish Bay, and Pacific Grove.

It was, in a word, awesome.

I have a ton of pictures, but i'm tired and wanting to leave work, and as i added a few to my Frames book before i ordered it(!!) this morning, i'm just going to leave you with that as a teaser for now. I'm sure i'll torture you with more stories soon, especially the one about David Geffen's car.

But one day i will stay at the Inn at Spanish Bay. Perhaps Treebones first, though; it's more in my budget zone.

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