You're Welcome

The title is my preemptive response to how appreciative you're going to be that I'm introducing you to this site. It's a pure time waster, and I think I'm in love with it.

Enter at your own risk: http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

Flight 888

Flight Triple 8 from Burbank to Oakland is apparently my new commuter flight. As this is becoming part of my monthly, or semi monthly routine, I thought I should share my thoughts on it:

• It leaves at 7:10, which means I get to wake up at 4:30 to catch it.


• Flying still freaks me out, and I'm usually so nervous before a flight I have trouble sleeping.


• Last night was not an exception.


• I'm exhausted.


• The flight attendents on commuter flights appear to be wackier than those on longer hauls.


• One of them sang "It had to be you" to us over the intercom.


• I'm tired.


• The length of the flight is exactly the amount of time it takes to consumer a tall latte.


• Despite the latte, I'm exhausted.

How was that for uplifting?

Spiffy Feature

Just wanted to point out a new feature... I subscribed to FeedBurner, so now you can opt into to an email that will alert you of a new post.*

And then you can come and read the post.

And then you don't have to check the blog when I'm being lazy and neglecting it.

It's a beautiful thing.

To get email alerts, please enter your email address into the box on the left-hand navigation bar under the question "What to get emailed?."

*Disclaimer: I did not create the FeedBurner email feature and have no clue how well it actually works. Should it behave funkily (yes that's a word) you should let me know so I can try to fix it.

Home Lands

On Sunday I took a break from school work to "sharpen my saw" and went to the Autry Museum of Western Heritage for an exhibit called "Home Lands" about the role women played in shaping the American West.

The exhibit was full of a lot of women artifacts... like this pressure cooker that appears more like a torture device than an item off of a wedding registry.

As well as statistics that showed the stark reality of being female in years past. This portion of the exhibit is a reminder that less than a century ago, 4% of women died in childbirth or immediately thereafter. How lucky we are to live in the times that we do.

So after all that stark reality I had to have myself a little bit of fun... so I decided to pretend I was in jail...
Check out some cowboy art - yee haw!

And listen to live music courtesy of local musicians. I wish I could put in a clip of the song this guy's music on here, but I couldn't find it...

I hadn't been to the Autry since my fifth grade class visited. It was too fun to rediscover it this weekend.

Misty Water Colored Memories

So for whatever reason today I couldn't stop thinking about this picture.

This was taken at the end of the canal in the Versailles gardens on my honeymoon. All of the sights, smells, feelings of that trip can be wrapped up in this photo. For ten days we roamed, and like these cruisers, we had no need for a different gear, or a faster pace. We ate amazing sandwiches on crusty baguette in parks, strolled through the most amazing galleries in the world, and enjoyed having no agenda or schedule.

One of the things I made sure to do every day of the honeymoon was to write an email about the day and send it to our wonderful parents, who gave us the best wedding and honeymoon two people could ever have wanted. Below is my email from the day I took this picture:

Today was a wonderful day! Our first order of business was to find the nearest train station and buy a ticket to Versailles. We quickly learned that you have to be quick on your feet in the public transport systems, as we were standing on the platform in front of the train, and were completely unable to board the train because of all of the people, and had to wait 20 minutes for the next (that's how QUICKLY the train stopped and then left!!) During our train ride a saxaphonist and accordion player played classic French tunes for a few minutes, it was very thematic and fun. When we left the train station we walked a few blocks to Versailles, which is enormous and grand. I had incredibly high hopes for the chateau. I love antique furniture, and in my mind, I could see myself getting to stroll through rooms as they were when Louis XIV lived there. Alas, it was basically a museum for art... the rooms themselves were gorgeous, but really, there are only so many empty rooms you can walk through before you say, "oh, another empty room!!" Also, they had work from a modern artist, Jeff Koonz throught the chateau, so you'd be trying to admire the painted ceiling, and there's a glass case in the middle of the room with a statue of Michael Jackson and his monkey Bubbles. Super strange!

When we left the chateau for the gardens we were more than happy however - they are immense. Truly crazy immense. I mean BIG. (Larger than life seems to be the theme for today, FYI.) And what's more, is that we had an expectation of manicured formal gardens, and instead, the gardens were really passage ways sourrounded by trees or water features. Very wild and fun (you could tell some of them were built for hunting more than gazing at flowers.) We picked up a couple of sandwhiches, and then rented bicycles. We rode for about 20 minutes, and finally reached the end of the Grand Canal, where we set up our picnic. To give you an idea of HOW large the gardens are, at the end of the canal, you could no longer even SEE any people at the chateau! We looked and noshed, and then Rick started wondering whether or not there were fish in the lake - haha. We rode back to the house along a side path, and spend a good ten minutes without seeing another person (and sang silly songs from musicals at the top of our lungs along the way - "The sun will come out... tomorrow!!") We decided if we come back to Paris Versailles is a MUST, but we'll skip the house and go straight to the garden.

One of the train stops on the way back was at the Effiel Tower, so we decided we may as well stop there. (Now it's time for that theme again.) The Effiel Tower is HUGE! massive! ENORMOUS! And no matter how much people tell you that, when you get there, it's still true. I was very proud of how not freaked out I was by the heights, even though it did kind of sway in the wind! After viewing the city from the second level of Tour Effiel, we decided to hang out in the park below it for a while, before heading over to Rue Cler, a really fun street with a bunch of shopping and markets. It has all the boulangeries, and fromangers, and patisseries that you think of when you think of Paris! After stopping in a few stores, we took Rick Steve's guidbook up on a suggestion for a brasserie for dinner. That's two strikes now against Rick Steve's it was cheap, but it wasn't worth the Euros, or the calories! So from now on we'll stick to our cheapskate sandwiches mixed with decent dinners!

Well, a couple of metro transfers later we're back at the hotel. Still officially jet lagged, we've decided a good 8 hours of sleep is in order before hitting the Louvre tomorrow.

Au revoir!

beep beep

Snapshots of a Messy Modern Life

Today is a typical Saturday for me, and for something so typical to me, at a couple of points today it strook me that my day is not exactly normal. (Strook me... striked me... is that right? Anyway.)

My huband and I apparently don't think working Monday through Friday is quite good enough, so we try to see how much we can manage on the weekends as well. (While simultaneously completely neglecting our home, and social lives.) But I digress.

In an effort to still be "together," when we both have work to do we trek downtown so we can work in the quiet of his office. While we're not actually spending time together, the physical nearness is a good facsimile, and at least tricks us mentally into thinking we are.

On Saturday's like this, I'll often go with him to his gym. But this is totally not a normal gym, it's an Irish gym. (http://www.educogym.com/) You know, since the Irish are so known for their physical prowess, this makes sense. It's on the 57th floor of the US Bank tower downtown, and they're known for a 25 minute workout.

The concept of the 25 minute workout is still very strange to me. Essentially, I spend more time showering and getting ready afterward than I did for the entire workout. But that's where my first "snapshot" comes in.

Check out the view from the women's locker room! (Okay, it's kind of hard to see.) But there's a view of all of East LA while you're doing your makeup and hair.

After we finish at the gym we walk over to my hubby's building, where are able to make and enjoy free sandwiches courtesy of his law firm. (It's Saturday, I'm allowed to have bread people!) And then I set up shop in the office next door to his that is conveniently empty.

About five minutes before posting this I looked up from my book and realized that I have three computer monitors within three feet of me.

Behold, work laptop, school laptop, company desktop.

You gotta admit, it's kind of ridiculous!

Poor. Neglected. Blog.

In the past couple of weeks I haven't blogged... but I have...

Seen my niece Ava!
Had my kitty cat shaved for the summer.
Made a froggie cake...
Had dinner with all my brothas...
It's been a busy couple of weeks! I need to blog more! There's been too much going on!