Today it's hard to resist the urge to...

...drive faster through big puddles. I just love the splash it makes!

Growing Up - Toilet Paper

There are many things I've felt very prepared for when branching out on my own. Grocery shopping is one of them. Mom taught me how to check expiration dates and price per unit to ensure that I am in fact getting the best bang for my buck.

Here's the thing, I really never know how to by toilet paper...how do you compare? There's not really a price per unit notation like there is for cheese. And how do you compare brands? Its not like you can feel inside the package....My dad always buys whatever's on sale, but with some things sale doesn't always mean good deal. Or quality for that matter. Sometimes I go for marketing- I quilt, the ladies quilted the quilted toilet paper, I should support other quilters...I guess I avoid the ones with the bears on it because my...well, you know...isn't nearly as bad as any I've seen from bears while backpacking. But no one wants the tissue paper status toilet paper, and well TP that shreds, it just isn't fun. Grandma G has also recently alerted the public to the fact that the TP companies have begun to take advantage of the uneducated public and is slowly cutting back on the length of the toilet paper rolls. They're cheating us people!! We need to demand that our standards be met!

But wait what are the standards and really how do I know if the TP will live up to its promise if I can't access it inside the plastic? Any tips?

On Another Note

My Christmas present from Luke was George Winston concert tickets! I never really made the concious decision to be a George Winston fan it just sort of happened. My parents have enjoyed his music, and he strongly influences my father's (also named George) piano playing style. My dad used to play the most during bedtime when I was in Jr. High and Elementary School. The music would relax and sooth all my crazy ball of wire thoughts that wait to jump on you til bed time. As I got older I found the George Winston CD's in the cabinet, loaded them on my iPod and they are the BEST travel music. I put in my head phones, relax and sleep the trip away. I introduced Luke to George Winston when I was on exchange in Idaho, and either he REALLY appreciates the mellowing/never fail/soothing effect it has on me or he enjoys the music too! When I mentioned George was coming to Fresno, and that it happened to be just inside the window of time Luke had off from school...well the deal was sealed! We went two nights before he left. The music was fabulous and Mr. Winston even played the guitar and harmonica. Talented!

The most impressive part...he played in stocking feet! How cool is that. I like playing piano AND sewing barefoot so its nice to identify with the man.

We saw Tracy and Tim there too. I asked Tracy if there was going to be a strong Winston sound in the next day's worsip service, and she told me she was playing piano so maybe! Then if that dont beat all, neither of us had turned our cellphones on after the concert so we didn't get woken by our alarms (and when I DID wake up I couldnt wake Luke because he was at Live A Colorful Life's house with his phone off.) Lame.

Chocolate

Luke and I got a bag of those yummy Dove chocolates to enjoy. Fun part is, they have little sayings inside the foil wrapper. One I particularly thought was particularly appropriate said:

Engaged,
embrace,
enjoy.

(Okay really it said engage, not engaged...but once in similar regards to my conversation with Grandma G, minor technicality right?)

Putting the Seal on a Great Day

On Thursday Luke and I snuck away for a day on the coast. We decided that a Hearst Castle adventure would be a good break from the Fresno Fog. It was a beautiful day! We could see the beach from the hilltop estate. The cool thing about Mr. Hearsts' place is that Europe is tied in all throughout the property, and architecture. This balcony was inspired by the Doge's Palace in Venice.

This is the Neptune pool. Can't you just imagine yourself basking in the pool?

She seems to have found herself to be quite at home.

I thought it was funny to see men in State Park Uniforms cleaning the pool!

This fun dress was in one of the guest bathrooms. It made me think of you Neola! Orange and Cheery!

Can you imagine cleaning gold leafed grout? No Comet on those guys!

We were there in time to hear the bells in the tower chime!

Talk about a dinner party! You could have the whole neighborhood over with this table!

For Mark, I spotted this catchup. If W.R. Hearst can have catchup on his table, so can you!

In the pool under the tennis courts I realise just how many potential quilts are in the tile! (And yes, more gold leaf!)

Pinwheels!

Luke was especially fond of this pool. Check out the diving platform behind him!

After the the castle we went to the beach where we spotted LOTS of elephant seals sunbathing! You could see the steam rising off of them! These guys are HUGE! Well except for the babies. Below you can see one of the babies (bottom middle)by his Mom and Dad's heads.

Luke and I met a Marine Biologist and her husband who were observing the different beaches with binoculars. They gave us a LOT of really interesting information. We think this elephant seal is the one they saw being born Wednesday before we got there.
For Grandma G, I think maybe your cows should come vacation with Mr. Hearsts cows. (I know its a small cluster but the big groups of cows were located in inconvenient places to stop and take pictures.)

Check out their view!

On our way home we stopped on one of the touristy streets to grab some fish and chips to eat! They were yummy! AND I saw this beauty walking back to the car. Isn't it DARLING!

Time

"Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils." -Louis Hector Belioz

I'm having that issue right now, as Luke is here and I want to spend ALL the time with him that I can before he has to go back to Idaho. At the same time, it's sort of still my break and what amazing time to work on projects this could be... my quilt? My knitting? Oh yah, wedding stuff?
And remember that fence? That's a big o time vacuum. It's taking for-ev-er! Even Luke who said he'd help me with it while he was here, has been surprised by how looooong it's taking. We just want to be done!

One In Every Color- Party!

Just before New Years, my sister's boyfriend Matt (I like to tack a little i onto the end and obnoxiously call him Matt-eeeee) came into town. He played lots of golf in high school and some golf now (he's getting ready for grad school) which makes him a good companion for Luke (Opinionated Spectator.) The three of us went to the driving range on New Years Eve day. I even hit some balls (I'm proud because I did better than Luke thought I would! Woot!) Mostly I made sure to get some pictures. I didn't find the pose about to be quite so appealing. Luke golfs left handed and Matti golfs right handed so initially they were facing away from each other. Good I guess for the self conscious golfer because when I took Luke's spot for a bit (I too am a lefty) I never knew if anyone was watching. Soooo anyway, I asked em to switch spots so I could get a couple pictures.

Much better.

Then we went to the party store to get some silly string for Live A Colorful Life. I saw this aisle and it stopped me dead in my tracks! (Play heaven music here.)

I think I'll just leave it at that. It's too beautiful for words.

One In Every Color- Fabric

Yah yah, I KNOW fabric comes in every color but Quilters Corner (HERE) in Grand Junction, Colorado had it displayed so wonderfully. I think THATS why it's unique and as a result, loved by me.

They also had some fun girl scout fabric. Is it cookie time yet?

Compact- adj. kom-pakt

1.
joined or packed together; closely and firmly united; dense; solid: compact soil.
2.
arranged within a relatively small space: a compact shopping center; a compact kitchen.
3.
designed to be small in size and economical in operation.

Basically NOT a hummer (H1 H2 or H3). This jerkface hardly left me room to open my door. Is it because he's from Oregon? Is it because the big o non compact car is to protect what little brain he has left that doesn't have the capacity to decipher the meaning of compact? Maybe it itsnt even a he. Maybe its a she and she's just...well...rude. Maybe the he is just rude. Hmph. Dear big cars, Compact means little. Like my bug. Sincerely, Compact Car Driver

Hard Hats

Okay...maybe not literally. But DEFINATELY stretched my knitting skills.
This blue one makes me think of the Aliance logo (World of Warcraft reference) It is called The Inga Hat and the pattern was created by Sheila Macdonald. Modifications by HelloYarn found HERE. I made it for Luke's brother Jay.This is Jared Flood's Koolhaas Hat. I made it for Mark. Beautiful pattern. Fantastic, truly. Kind of a pain to figure out and knit. Most others haven't had the trouble with it that I have...but I don't know. This one put a stall in my knitting because I wasn't quite so anxious to get to work. Maybe it scarred me.
I'm sharing these ones a little late, because I had to hold off til Christmas!

When Bugs Get Smashed...

Their eyes pop out...
The Friday school was scheduled to get out I got called in for a sub job. (Woooh subbing on class party, candy, sugar day.)I hoped in my car and headed to rescue the administrator who was filling in until I could get there. I was on my way through a medical office complex and Mr. Smarty pulled out in front of me. I honked I braked...there was nothing I could do. Some of his first words to me were: "I have to go catch a plane" and "Can I run in and go to the bathroom? I really have to go." Hmmm. Think he was in a hurry? While it doesn't look too bad, the internal damage was...substantial. Whew. I was very glad his insurance called to accept fault. My sister and her boyfriend very kindly drove me to school, and picked me up, and took me to Sal's after for some yummy comfort food.

Then, on Wednesday:

Mom had her own little adventure. (More details here.)

Ugh. Let's just the week before Christmas 'twas rough.

One upside was I got to spend some of the time hanging out with my buddy Cady! She was catching up on her AR reading. During breaks we made wrapping paper for her Grandma's present...and went to get a Christmas Tree for her doll Zoey. Here are Zoey and Cady in the back of the rental car with the completely decorated tree!

Bump in the Road

Mom has been having a lot of hip/leg/back pain lately. It had been gettting worse. She figured theyed get it sorted out on her appointment in San Francisco, but didn't think it'd be anything big. Ijust got a text message from her saying that the "pain may be caused by lesion in sacrum. Admit to csuf med today. Not emergency, but timely. Pray that we figure it out. Please." Soooo that was quite the news. I'll be posting updates as I get them on her blog. www.myohmymm.blogspot.com

On Umbrellas...Sort Of.

Soooo it's raining cats and dogs here. Sure it's not Forks, WA but you get the point. Anyway. As a person who works at schools I would like to know WHERE parents get the bright idea to arm their children and send them to school with umbrellas? And WHY do so many of the parents get this bright idea? Children's spacial awareness is already limited, but give them another appendage with sharp points to bump into things (or other people?) When kids go out with umbrellas, they really are armed and dangerous. THEN as soon as kids get to where they're going, the promptly get the water they "protected themselves from" all over themselves anyway trying to get the stinkin things closed. Then they leave it dripping and wet by their desks, and one of the little geniuses decides to open his/hers in the classroom, consequentially setting off a chain reaction as each of his or her friends open their umbrellas too. Then someones umbrella breaks. On the way home, one child accidentally takes another child's umbrella leaving us to deal with the tears of the child whose umbrella is missing, because the only umbrella left has a name on it.

So Puuuhlease people, just buy your children a nice waterproof coat with a hood.

Ps. Today in the post office, this darling little girl walked up to the door with a penguin umbrella. Her mom closed her own umbrella, the little girl did not. The little girl then proceeded to take up valuable space in the crowded post office with her wet umbrella. Then the mother realised the situation and took he girls umbrella saying, "I'm going to close this for you...."
but she ended her statement with the horrible questioning "ok?"
This is a big no no in the interacting with children world...ending with a question mark instead of a "." tells the child this is up for discussion, tears and disagreement will get you the umbrella back. Which the little girl seemed to know. She disagreed and cried and to pacify the girl the mom gave the umbrella back. To be honest I would have preferred standing in a line with a mom I knew stood by her word and was teaching her daughter courtesy even if it meant her daughter cried (Plus, then i wouldn't have gotten so wet.)

Okay, I'm climbing off my soap box. Next time I'll take on rolling back packs.

Girl Goes to Hardware Store

On an early morning trip to the hardware store I had some thoughts. I'm sharing them with you. That is all.

1.) I think the word is out that Lowe's is getting the women's choice award. 99.9% of the shoppers I saw there were women. And all the help stations were "manned" haha get it? The nice thing is I still recognized most of the people at the help stations from when I was working there in 2005. I think they know how to retain employees.

2.) A girl wandering in the hardware store in moccasin slippers, jeans, and a hoodie lined with fuzzyness must scream USELESS! When I asked WHERE the brackets were for the fence I'm building the guy didn't just show me WHERE they were he, found what I needed and then proceeded to count them out for me too. (I offered to count, but he didn't seem to trust my skills.) He also told me to tell the guys building the fence to put the bracket on the posts first...I didn't waste my breath telling him that in fact I was building the fence.

3.) I like going to the hardware store with Luke. When we go together I get the luxury of maintaining high lumber standards (I get to reject the ones I don't like) without having to do all the lifting and moving and lugging. Luke just makes it look effortless, which is why I was quick to reject the 4th guy who thought I looked useless and was offering to help me pick wood. I kicked my self later as I was super awkward. I did manage to get the better wood though.

New Moon-My Very Own Wolf

I am quite the lucky girl in that I was at least able to con Luke into reading the Twilight series. (Well he listened to the audio books, but same difference right?) Because I am so lucky to have him interested, I did not want to discourage from enjoying the saga by going to see the movie before him. (He was driving with his brother Mark down to Grand Junction for Thanksgiving.) Part of my extreme excitement for this movie stems from the fact that I think Luke could fit in rather well with the Wolf Pack. That or the Wolf Pack was channeling him for their characters? While I don't have any pictures of Luke like that, I have this comparison:

It was hard to find a picture of Luke where he WASN'T smiling!He's soooo attractive! Yep, that's right, I get to marry my very own wolf! He's always warm, runs around in shorts when it's freezing out, has the reputation of going shirtless(my old roommates didn't hang out on his floor freshman year for nothing!) Swoon.

Oh yah, the movie was good too. The acting was REALLY cheesy at times...er...most of the time. But I think that's really why I like the book. Its sooo not real, but fun to pretend? The girls behind us who giggled every time Jacob showed up were mildly annoying, but can I blame em? I had my own sitting right next to me.

The movie made me want Stephenie Meyer to write more about what happens with the Volturi.

This movie made me like the guy who plays Edward less...but then I found out that he's Cedric Diggory...so then I was a little more patient and hope he gets better in the next two movies. The next movie is supposed to come out this summer! Cant wait! Luke and I will be married by then so we'll be able to go see it together! Woot!