Utah makes me smile

Brandon has passed out

Sushi food coma.

Brandon says hi chara

Skiing is done

Time to relax

Wow

So nice out.

Best day to ski ever

Brandon and I are skiing at deer valley. Its beatiful out today.

Best ski food ever.

muy excited

through the miracle of clinicals and nursing school i don't start my wednesday class till next week..
so.. to celebrate that, and to celebrate our last, first day of nursing school - some of my friends are coming over for a get together..
tonight i am looking forward to enjoying this:

 

this is a bottle of plum wine made with love and sent to us by our friend keith mccoy up in WA -
so tonight - i open and enjoy, and we celebrate..

thanks for the wine keith.. i'm sure it will be fabulous..

back to life, back to reality..

today as of 0700 i went back to school..
part of me was so sad to be going back today -
but then another part of me was so happy to realize that exactly four months from today i will be graduating from nursing school - the count down begins..

johnny utah

There are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents ... and only one for birthday presents, you know.
- Lewis Carroll

happy birthday my dear ben..

two thumbs up..

cloverfield did not disappoint.. it was a great movie - totally genius..
- of course if you watch the movie you have to be prepared for classic jj abrams, meaning don't expect everything to be answered..the man has a serious problem with commitment and refuses to actually commit to a real definite ending of anything..
despite the obscure nature of the movie, i was impressed and glad i saw it on the big screen..

however - going to the movie theater on a friday night - and being forced to hang out with a bunch of jr. highers whose parents apparently did not teach them movie theater etiquette - made me realize that we here in the oside are in desperate need of an archlight theater.. the thought of enjoying a glass of wine while watching a movie in a quite theater is almost too good to be true..

movie night..

normally i am not the biggest fan of movies -
but tonight is the premier of 'cloverfield' - which i'm pretty excited about..
cloverfield was produced by jj abrams - who is also in charge of lost - this is what gives me my doubts.. truly i think jj abrams is a genius - but three seasons into lost and we still have more questions than answers - and we have yet to see a real monster..
so i am very excited about tonight - but i fear that when we actually see the monster - it will be a disappointment similar to the time i saw the lame ass giant spider at the end of IT.. please don't disappoint me mr abrams.. i'm counting on you..

a little bit addicted

so as you saw in the previous post i have a new project. (thank you Chara for calling it junk)

anyway, i've been scouring craigslist and ebay for parts and tools and such for the project and i might be a little bit addicted. but i'm getting really good deals so its all good for now. i can stop whenever i want.

t-minus one week

a week from today i start school again..
i am not ready.. break went by too fast..
i'm just not ready..
this week i will be drinking wine every night, and sleeping in till noon - just because i can.. i will be taking full advantage of the very last bit of my free time..

obsession

as ben blogged about a month ago - he bought an old car to restore.. i thought this was a good thing, that was going to keep him busy, and away from me while i'm studying..
here's what i didn't know - it was going to cost money.. lots and lots o' money.. he has one - junky old car sitting in my garage taking up space, and today he tells me he's going to buy another car - this one for parts...
he explains to me that - in the long run this will save me money - the old 'you've got to spend money to make money' argument - but i'm not having it.. i feel the need to remind my husband that he is not jay leno - and is not going to start collecting cars.. stay tuned to see who wins this argument..
as it is - the project seems to be underway and out of my hands..

ben putting together his new toy
 

all finished - and ready to help restore cars..
 

back from Vegas

Vegas is exhausting. CES is the culprit.

that show is insane. I'm hoping to skip it next year. I was sick going to Vegas and that did not help things. It kicked my ass.

anyway, we are home and i am tired and happy to be home.

Chara came out to join me there for our 9 year anniversary. how crazy is that? 9 years. its hard to fathom. we saw Spamalot. it was fun.

Our friends in WA

ok finally here are some pictures of our friends in WA. We had a lot of good times with them on our trip up there.

but seriously folks

usually being on the side of most conspiracy theorists i found this article interesting

the article is about pseudoephedrine vs. phenylephrine -

it's a very interesting read for those of you who have been disappointed in all the over the counter nonsense cold medicine companies have been offering.
i now go straight to the pharmacy counter and ask for the good stuff - good old pseudoephedrine.. i do this despite the fact that every time i have to show my ID, and every time i have to sign a piece of paper swearing that i will not make meth with my nyquil.

this is all very frustrating knowing that meth is still being made at a steady rate - which makes me think that 1) banning pseudoephedrine was a stupid idea and isn't working or 2) having people sign a piece of paper swearing they will not make meth is an even stupider idea and also (big surprise) is not working (right - like there's a code of conduct among meth makers which prohibits them from making an illegal product once they've signed a contract that they wouldn't)

this article explores the notion that this anti-pseudoephedrine law might have been less about americans safety, and more about profit for Boehringer-Ingelheim which is the worlds largest manufacturer of phenylephrine (the useless drug that took the place of pseudoephedrine)... i know - i know - total conspiracy - blame in on my lack of faith in congress and the pharmaceutical companies

homeward bound

as of yesterday we are home.. we had a fantastic trip up to WA - but - arriving at home, and not even being able to leave the airplane before the sunshine forced us to put some sunglasses on.. it was amazing.. the sunshine instantly brightened my mood..

in washington we have amazing family, awesome friends - but our hearts are here in california..

i promise to post some pictures later - we really did have a great time..

...but tonight i drink wine and relax..

pictures coming soon..

best surprise birthday ever

one reason its a big surprise is that my birthday isn't until next month. But since i won't be up in WA in January, my wonderful wife, got all my friends together for the best birthday party ever.



Go Karts!!!!



and not just one race, but 4. and we are still hurting from it days later, but it was the most fun ever.

We went really really fast. (will have a video to come soon)


Oh yeah, i won 3 out of 4 races. good stuff.

help

..i've been kidnapped and forced to watch the disney channel all day..
someone send some wine - stat

rock on

today ben, jeanne, and i got on the train super early - and headed up to seattle for some christmas shopping.. we walked around downtown, shopped, ate, and had a great time..
in order to spend so much time away from the girls (the nieces) we had to promise that tonight we'd have '80's dance party'.. originally i didn't take this too seriously - until today when we came home - the girls had posters made for our party and their hair crimped in side ponytails.. i realized that i had to 'bring it' - and so i did..
while the girls went out - i got my 80's on - body glitter, gym shorts and all..
we danced all night, i drank some wine, and eventually we had a dance off.. the competition was tough - but by the judges unanimous decision - i was victorious..
we had a great time - but i've got to go take a shower, wash off my very pink eye shadow - and try to convince my hair to forgive me for all the crimping.. so damaging - but absolutely necessary..


let's get physical with princess sophie
 

zanadoo and army spice
 

girls just wanna have fun..
 

Off to WA (and the Long Beach airport rocks)

the Charo and i are in the Long Beach airport which is just about as small and cute as it could be. but its not crowded and i have free wi-fi so i'm very happy.

we are off to WA for Christmas to visit the family and friends.

Have a good Christmas everyone!

Ben...


oh and that last post has a wonderful hint of irony to it now. What a difference a day makes.

working like a dog

i'm not always sure that when my husband goes to work he ever actually does any real work.. he has complained that his work is harder than my school.. but i don't think so..
this is where ben works
 
doesn't look that hard to me..

celebrate good times

i feel like we have been going non stop since thursday..
thursday was my last final for the semester.. i now have 5 semesters done, one more to go.. so to celebrate the girls came over thursday, and we danced until about 3am..
friday we celebrated the holidays with ben's company, stage six.
we started saturday afternoon by celebrating my pal melody's bday with a pub crawl down in pb,
quickly followed by another holiday celebration with ben's company divx..
we had tickets that were going to expire so sunday ben and i went to sea world..
quite the weekend.. good times, and lots of fun

cheers to melody
 

chara and the charlie brown christams tree
 

ben - please buy me a puppy for christmas..
 

Ben's new project

Not sure if you saw the new link off to the left there. No not the Ron Paul one. Vote Ron Paul 2008! Seriously people check out that link as well. He's got some good stuff to say.

the other new link is for my new project. I am restoring a 1960 Austin Healey Bugeye Sprite.

Check out the new project blog for my new project car. i'll be updating it regularly with photos of the progress. of course with the holidays and work i won't be starting it until early Feb, but check back and hopefully a new car will appear where the old one once was.

straw that broke the camels back

i took a horrible final today - and it finally broke me..

after answering multiple questions during the test the teacher finally admitted that in trying to trick us she wrote a bad test..

does that mean she'll curve the test? throw out all bad questions? no one knows..

... all i know is that i am broken.. and as of thursday at 4pm i am done for the semester.. i need a break..

Some good music for a rainy Friday

If your looking for some good music to get you through this blustery day check out this farewell for now concert from Nickel Creek.

its so good. I'm sad they are not together anymore

Hopefully they will get together for the Telluride Bluegrass festival. I'm looking to go out there in June. Anyone want to come along and make it a big fun friends camping trip with some good music?

Break the rules

I am Legend

So i got into work this morning a little after nine and i'm the only one here.

its weird.

i've called several people and no one is answering their phones

its weird.

i'm not sure if there has been an outbreak of some zombie virus that killed everyone else or if there is some holiday i'm not aware of

i guess i'll just get some work done in the peace and quiet

the stress has finally gotten to Chara

all the stress of school and finals has finally gotten to Chara.

She has snapped and she thinks she is getting a puppy for Christmas.

and the best part is she wants to name it John Patrick Francis Mulcahy

she is a cute one that Chara

mark your calandars..

just found out today that -

i am graduating thursday may 22nd 2008.. i can't wait..

what did i eat last night..

i had a strange dream last night..
i was at someone's house - and there was a get together - and we were talking about nana's memorial - which apparently is the upcoming monday (it's really not - we already had it, but in my dream it was on monday) - any how - someone thought they were doing a favor for me and was going to let me take their kid up to WA with me - so that the kid (who is like 3 years old) could play some song on the piano - and i was like - 'oh no thanks, look - i'm going to be stressed out enough - i don't really think it's a good idea to take a kid with me ' - and they (slightly offended that i didn't think it was the best idea ever) were like, 'fine, dustin will do it' - and sure enough dustin hoffman was sitting in the group - and i was like - 'no - dustin is not going to my nanas funeral - he never met her - and it's in washington - and that just doesn't make sense' - (no so much surprised dustin hoffman was hanging with us - more surprised that he'd want to fly to WA) - and then dustin was like, 'sure - of course i'll go - it's the right thing to do' - then i realized that i was busy all sunday with some test prep for some random test - and i had to get to wa for nana's memorial on monday - and then had my final on tuesday - that's when i started freaking out - cuz - when was i going to study?
oh yes - the nightmares before finals week have begun..

things that go beep in the night

around 2am the power went out last night -
which in our house is really noisy..

ben has 3 different back up power supplies meant to protect his computers and such in the event of a power failure..

all this means to me is that when the power goes out - three diffrent things beep loudly, and consistently in order to warn me that the power is out.. these three things beep until they eventually run out of power..

ben of course doesn't wake to hear any of this until i (accidentally of course) knock him in the head looking for a flash light..

all this said to say - that i didn't get much sleep last night.. i might be a little grumpy.

Holy Cow Craiglist works... a little too well

i had some stuff to get rid of

a dresser and a bunch of computer crap

i posted two posts online

within 30 seconds i had 3 calls, and this continued every 5 minutes for the next two hours

i pulled both ads down and all the stuff is gone now

the last guy was a nut! he just spent 40 minutes sitting in my garage talking about computers and the cool things he modified on his truck

good times

be warned. the crazies come out of the woodwork for stuff on Craiglist, especially free stuff, especially free computer stuff. geesh

Chara was not so happy as she was going to take a nap when our house turned into telethon with the phone ringing off the hook

Beautiful Sunset

I looked out the front door the other day and noticed this...

I grabbed the camera and took a few pictures. It was beautiful.

 

 

 

looking for a meth lab

so they don't make over the counter drugs with pseudoephedrine in them anymore because everyone was buying them and making meth. So now i'm stuck here miserable because i can't get any good drugs to clear up my head. So if anyone knows of a good meth lab around, let me know. I don't want the meth, i just want the pseudoephedrine that i can't get at the stupid drug store!

sinus infections suck

Ben...

the Black Friday adventures

we don't buy a lot of junk normally

but its fun sometimes to get up at the crack of dawn with a bunch of other lunatics and hunt down the bargains.

Anyway, we headed out this morning for the Black Friday sales. We only hit Fry's and then came home and napped. The line was INSANE, but i got almost everything i wanted on my list.

Here is the video of the line right before the store opened.




Yes the line wrapped around the store and then down the street and around the corner

cool picture

Our Nana

Our Nana is gone to heaven

visiting nana in WA

Chara and I made a last minute trip up to visit our Nana.

she is sick and not doing so well, so we are up here helping my sister take care of her.

we are now just all hanging out in her room. She is sleeping in her chair and Chara is on her laptop and my mom is playing Chara's DS playing Brain Age. good times

we were planning to come back on Tuesday, but we may extend our stay to continue taking care of our Nana

Ben..

Officially getting old

I just did something I've never done before and something i accredit to old people.

I gave money to a presidential candidate. Who does that? old people. I'm old. Or at least getting there.

I'm not a political person and am usually very disenfranchised with the whole process, so this was part of that. I felt it was important to put some money behind someone i believed in. I have great cynicism toward the system and i've seen that play out in spades in the media and how it views the current roster of political hopefuls.

I gave my money to Ron Paul, because i believe he is truly different than any of the other parties running and would actually bring a change instead more of the same from a new name. I believe in many of the things he is promoting and i have great hopes that we can make some good changes with him in office. Check him out if you haven't heard him. Listen to his ideas. they are truly refreshing.

His supporters were having a fund raising push today and he has raised almost 6.9 million today alone. That is a lot of people putting their money where their mouths are so to speak.

good clean fun

the weekend started with a trip to sissy's place in la - a stop over for us ladies to rest up before the big day..
we hung out, went to the grove, and played with the kiddos.. much fun..

deborah showing melody her reading skill
 

isaiah aka the ladies man telling lizard a about his plans for his birthday party
 


we headed off sunday AM to san dimas to get our race on..
this race is a 6-7 mile race, where you and a partner alternate biking and running - at the end of the race there is a giant mud pit that you and your buddy crawl though.. good times..
now.. i have been training for this race for months - and have done mini muddy buddies in the gym - meaning i would run a mile and bike a mile six different times... i felt i had prepared.. not so much..
turns out there was nothing i could have done to prepare me for this.. the whole entire race was either straight up hill, or straight down hill - mixed with a little more uphill action.. there a total of one flat area.. the hills were so steep that most racers didn't even attempt to ride their bikes... the runners passed the bikers every time.. it was insane.. needless to say i was most unhappy that my 'buddy' (yeah.. that's you jo jessica) had 'tricked' me into even attempting this event..
but.. at the end of the six miles.. there was this pit.. a giant pit filled with mud that we all as a group got to crawl through.. crawling through mud with my girls made the whole thing mostly worth it..

pre-race.. all clean - and happily unaware of what's up ahead..
 

the charo bringing it home.. last stretch of the race.. i think it's the only time i actually rode the bike..
 

oh my god we're done..
 

the two crazies int the white helmets are the charo and jo jessica, melobeast and lizard are to the left, lizard in the blue, beast in the red
 

my team kicks ass..
 

and the post race photo..
 

everyone just tossed their shoes away..
 

melody about to be baptized with a hose..
 

getting clean was just as fun as getting dirty
 

the race is on..

the girls and i ran/biked the muddy buddy this weekend..

i promise more pictures to come.. but for now i need to take a shower..

 

working for the weekend..

today was my last psych clinical..

that means for the rest of the semester i have fridays off - no more alarms going at at 4am waking my sleepy self up - no more driving to san diego to be at class at 645..

for the rest of the semester i have four day weekends.. today was a good day..