365 Snaps

Growing up

2006-07-07T11:18:00.000-07:00

Today Shannon went in to take the test for her Learner's Permit. A milestone in anyone's life. Maybe not as much as getting the driver's license, but still very exciting for her. Unfortunately the first time was a bit of a roadblock (hey, not knowing the sign for 'steep gradient ahead' here in the flatlands is hardly her fault :) but next time is the charm.

Anyway, here's a few photos of the Big Day :)

Heading inside:

Filling out paperwork:

Taking the test:

Mmm Flummery

2006-05-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

Shannon wanted to make Flummery for her French class and club. The problem with Flummery is that if you make it, you usually make A LOT of it.

WTF is Flummery? It's the bestest dessert EVER, especially when it's hot out. Most people I introduce Flummery to flip out over it. The minor drawback is that it's very rich and sweet. Ok so that's 2 drawbacks. The two drawbacks to Flummery are that it's very rich and sweet. And addictive. ok THREE drawbacks... I'll come in again.

WTF is Flummery? It's the bestest dessert EVER, especially when it's hot out. Most people I introduce Flummery to flip out over it.The three minor drawbacks are that it's rich, sweet and addictive.

:)

Anyway, here's us trying to haul three containers filled with Flummery goodness to school and I'll have you know we managed it and only knocked over one cup.

Where did I go?

2006-05-17T20:07:00.000-07:00

There comes a point when you've forgotten/procrastinated on something for so long that you start feeling guilty about it. Then you think to yourself, "WTF? It's my thing. I set my own rules on it. Now I'm creating my own guilt over it. That's just crazy."

So I'm crazy.

I carry my camera everywhere. I have a camera in my phone. But when your life consists of getting up, going to work. Occasionally going to the store. Coming home. Doing chores. Watching telly. Going to bed. Pretty soon you run out of things to take pictures of. How many times can I cheat with a screencap or take another photo of my videos? Answer: not that many.

So I've decided that I'll keep this place going, but I'm only going to post a pic if it's worth it. What constitutes "worthy" is up to me of course so if Spooky does something cute again, I'll post it. Hehe.

So I don't think I'm going to make it to a year's worth and who knows, I might get back in the habit. And I'm really only posting this to justify it to myself. Because like I said, I'm crazy.

Election Night

2006-05-09T21:51:00.000-07:00

Apparently when you work election night, you get hella pizza.

Wandering around

2006-05-08T17:08:00.000-07:00

The kid and I had a good wander around downtown Lincoln while Gary and Swi went off to do their "boy" thing (which was basically getting onto the field at Memorial Stadium and running up and down fending off imaginary football players :) I'll post a pic of that in a mo.)

I decided to take a photo of a building I found semi-interesting, architecturally speaking:

It's what I like to do. Yes I know I'm a little... odd. Anyway, while I was snapping the pic, this asshole, surrounded by his hags:

remarked snidely, "First time in a big city?" as they passed us, and then they tittered like twits. So I figured I'd take their pic and make it available on teh Internets so they could be properly mocked and ridiculed. I know it's hard to see them but by the time I got over my indignation enough to remember to snap their pic they'd gotten farther down the block. I should have stalked them.

Apart from that, the following pic is one I stumbled on off of some alley downtown. It made me chuckle anyway. It's right outside Valentino's I think. So this is my actual pic for today:

And finally (man I have such a dry spell of pics and then suddenly I've got an abundance. Life is weird) here's Gary quarterbacking for the Huskers :)

That's one for the Dire Predictions Club, eh Gary?

Run Swi Run!

2006-05-07T13:50:00.000-07:00

Well my dad fell ill and wasn't able to run the Lincoln marathon this year but his best friend Swi did.

Gary and I had an enjoyable time trying to spot Swi amongst the thousands of runners. Basically we ended up shooting him from the car along the route when he was in the home stretch. Fun fun :)

Evening in a cafe

2006-05-06T20:32:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went to the Crescent Moon coffeehouse to listen to my cousin Gunter play gee-tar and mandolin with friends in the courtyard. It was lovely. Bit chilly but cool I wish GI had a place like this.

W00t!

2006-05-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

Tonga holding our department's first-ever 1st place AP award for the website :)

New Neighbour

2006-05-03T20:09:00.000-07:00

Meet my new neighbour:

He's kind of cute in a twitchy, A.D.D. kind of way :) He lives outside my bathroom window which makes showering an interesting experience.

My New Toy

2006-05-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

So I finally decided to get a DVR. After a glitch with one box, a replacement box a mere six hours after they installed the first one, I have now joined the world of digital recording.

I flippin' love it.

Debate and Rebuttal

2006-04-30T19:43:00.000-07:00

I worked my first Gubernatorial (Hehe. Guber.) debate tonight. I've never been to one really. It was interesting though a shame it was with three republicans. I won't be voting for any of them because none of them impressed me (and well I'm registered as a Damn Liberal Dem.)

But all in all it was interesting to watch. My job was originally going to be to take recorded audio and convert the files to MP3s and upload them to our server where the copy desk would then download them and begin transcribing them We had an ambitious goal of offering a full transcript of the debate in the next day's paper which means the audio had to be completely transcribed 2 and a half hours after the debate was over.

Well of course my computer wouldn't connect to the server from the debate site because of all of a bunch of security stuff the company made me put on my laptop so I was completely hindered while trying to do my job. I'd been agitated about the whole audio pressure thing all weekend - to the point of having a dream in which the city editor, a mild-mannered and very nice man, yelled at me and told me I'd let the paper down. He said he'd planned his entire news package around me being able to bring off this audio thing and I screwed it all up. Thank goodness it was just a dream and he had a good chuckle about it when I told him about it. But I think that's the first time pressure from real life manifested itself in my dreams. Weird.

Anyway we had a backup plan which was to have three recorders and we just recorded the debate in thirds. One person recorded the first half an hour and then took the recorder back to the paper so the copy desk could start transcribing. Then the next person did the next half an hour, then I finished up the final half an hour. It worked well enough and in hindsight was probably the best way to do it. Doing it with the MP3s and downloading etc would have needed more planning/training time with the copy desk.

So yeah, the debate was good and the transcript was in this morning's paper and is getting good feedback methinks.

Cleaning Fit

2006-04-29T15:32:00.000-07:00

A mild cleaning fit Saturday afternoon led to a semi-reorganization of some of my vids. It still looks cluttered I know, but trust me, it looks a hell of a lot better than it did. Someday I'll organize by genre or alpha or something but right now I'm not that ambitious :) I know where everything is so that's enough for me :)

Sort of a week from hell.

2006-04-28T10:05:00.000-07:00

I'm going to cheat a bit. Sorry it must be done. This week has been alternately great and it has sucked balls and to be honest 365snaps has been the furthest from my mind. I have a few images to post that I've taken but just haven't had time to pull off the camera so I'm just gonna do it all in this post, but I'm missing a day here and there and I'll try to get back on track starting tomorrow.

The sucky? Indyknow was hacked several times and I've had to fight with it all week to get it back to some kind of working order. It's still wonky but hopefully with help from tech support I'll have it back to normal.

The great? My 24 blog, 24addict.com somehow got noticed by FOX TV :) I got an email from them asking if I'd want to post a teaser to an interview with one of the show's creators. When I asked if it was true FOX reads my blog they replied, "Of course we do ;)" and I could not be more stoked. So now I'm going to get weekly info from them with clips and teasers I can post. Squee! :)

Anyway, on with the photos:

April 22nd:
Shannon had an Orchestra competition in Kearney that we had to get up at stupid o'clock for and she had to be in full formal dress as well. This is her getting ready to go in:

April 23rd:
IndyKnow was hacked. Hacked hacked hacked. Screwed up and mucked around. Data lost. Stupid f'ing hacker script kiddies motherf'ing moronic loser idiot from hell. I would like to chain them to the bumper of my car and drag them around a few miles of gravel roads and then drop them in a vat of lemon juice.

April 25th:
I steal peanuts from Texas T-bone. They have the best peanuts.

April 26th:
Shannon worked her first fundraiser at Wendy's. A poorly organized fundraiser that illicited more puzzled looks then fundgiving from the patrons but ah well. At least she got to clean some tables.

Cramming

2006-04-20T09:18:00.000-07:00

I had intended to spend more time getting my TV column fine-tuned this week, but with things as crazy as they are I didn't have the time. So I had to sort of cram it in before it could be placed. It's not bad, but it could have been better.

Next time I'll make time.

Ahh the colours

2006-04-19T11:32:00.000-07:00

For a brief bit of time in the spring the trees are virtually exploding in vivid colours of pinks and greens. This is at my usual park and the cam phone just doesn't do it justice.

Bye Judy...

2006-04-18T17:36:00.000-07:00

After work I met my grandpa up at my aunt's house where we picked up several boxes of stuff I had stored there after mom died. I hadn't seen this stuff in five years and couldn't remember what it all was but I had a good time poking through some of it. I'll go through it in-depth this weekend but for now we needed to get it out of my uncle's house because he's moving.

Yep he sold the house. After my Aunt Judy died we often wondered if he'd rattle around in the place on his own and after a few years I guess he decided it was too much for him.

I'm gonna miss this place. We spent a lot of happy times here, especially at Christmas which Judy always made sure was spectacular for the kids. She had a good time decorating the place as well. It was hard to go back in it after all this time but also sort of a good thing too. Time to move on.

Shiny

2006-04-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

I got a new pen.

Normally this would not be very exciting. But this isn't a normal pen. It's a sweeeet pen. Very shiny. Built-in laser pointer and bright-ass flashlight in the top. I've never had a laser pointer before. My cat enjoys it immensely. This may be the first impulse item I've every bought in a checkout line that has been so thoroughly fun and useful :)

A pretty for the pretties

2006-04-16T10:23:00.000-07:00

I gave the kid a lovely cherry wood jewelry box for Easter. She needed something to hold her growing collection of jewelry - a better place to put this stuff instead of by the side of the bathroom sink anyway :)

I think I might take it and get it engraved too.

[I will have a pic forthcoming. She disappeared with the box in her room and I'm scared to go in there.]

Weird skies

2006-04-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

Did a little Easter shopping at the Devil tonight. When I came out the clouds looked really cool, an impending storm that turned out to be fairly weak and disappointing. Ah well.

Video hunt

2006-04-14T11:40:00.000-07:00

Been wanting to check out a couple movies of a particular actor I like so I went on the hunt at Movie gallery since it's close to work. Couldn't find the one I really wanted, which was "Urban Legend" (Had never seen it, would probably have never tried to see it were it not for this particular actor.) MG didn't have it of course (their selection is for shit) but I did find "Poolhall Junkies" which turned out to be a real gem.

No pic today.

2006-04-13T15:54:00.000-07:00

Yeah. Today was a bad day. Would rather forget it so no pic today.

Daily trip to Walgreens.

2006-04-12T11:37:00.000-07:00

Went to Walgreens this am to pick up some brekkie food. Walked the same path from the entrance to the muffins. Stopped took this pic for no other reason than this aisle was empty and I wouldn't feel like a tool for snapping a photo inside Walgreens.

Dull day today in other words :)

Ugh. Gas prices.

2006-04-11T15:23:00.000-07:00

I feel like I'm entitled to moan about gas prices because I drive an economical-ish car rather than some monstrous SUV I don't really need to own. Prices are expected to pass $3.00 again this summer just when I was hoping to make a roadtrip up to see my dad. It's going to hurt. A lot.

Vote Lex!

2006-04-10T21:05:00.000-07:00

Yeah it's Jack bauer Monday. But I'm so sucked into Smallville that I watched the DVDs until 24 time. Something about Lex on this show is what makes this the current obsession. I make no apologies for being a thirty-something watching a WB show. Bite me :) Lex is hawt.

Spring is in the air

2006-04-09T15:49:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to notice little buds of green on the trees. I like the renewal and it will be nice to look outside while I'm in the shower and see pretty trees rather than their bones and the pervy neighbour behind me. I still prefer Fall though.

It's that time.

2006-04-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

Gotta maintain that shiny red hair.

Me. In Art.

2006-04-07T12:37:00.000-07:00

Tonya sent me a link to this fun little program that transforms your picture into a bunch of different things. It's my IVL post for today and a good little timewaster.

So here's a pic of me as seen through the eyes of JAVA and a Czech artist named Mucha:

I sort of morphed the original pic and the rendering together there. Anyway here's the full rendering thingie:

Fun huh?

Spring Storm

2006-04-06T21:30:00.000-07:00

The big news today was a massive front moving through our area that promised some excellent storm watching. It hit us around 4-ish and it's still thundering as I'm getting ready for bed.

It was magnificent. Storms just do it for me you know?

Anyway this shot is looking towards the Yancee building as I left work for the day.

Concept of Time

2006-04-05T12:53:00.000-07:00

I love teenagers. They have no concept of time :)

Today I get a call from my lovely teenage daughter from her cell phone letting me know they had early dismissal today but could she please hang around the school for another half hour so a friend could give her a little cello lesson. "No Problem." I say.

So I wait half an hour and drive up to get her. And I wait. And I wait. I listen to a tune or two ('Bloodletting' by Concrete Blonde and 'Save Me' by Remy Zero), I decide to take my pic for today of the interesting building that is her high school, and then I start to get irritated.

So I drive around the block thinking I was at the wrong entrance. By the time I get all the way around the huge campus, I find her walking down the road looking for me.

Her excuse? "I was in a room that didn't have a clock." Priceless :) This from the child who just called me from her cell which of course, has the time right on it.

Kids these days :)

Love you Shannon :D Don't be late again. Hehehe.

Beautiful Scenery

2006-04-04T14:40:00.000-07:00

And we all know that's why I love Brokeback Mountain :)

I was surprised to find that Walmart is carrying it. I didn't go get it there because I figured they wouldn't be selling it until I read about the ridiculous AFA and their protest against Walmart for selling it and pushing the "gay agenda."

Dunno about you but I don't know any gay person who has an agenda. Silly AFA.

Temp message

2006-04-03T06:35:00.000-07:00

I'm having a hell of a time getting stupid Blogger to upload pix. That's why I'm behind. I'll keep trying though.

Snow? What snow?

2006-04-02T13:32:00.000-07:00

Almost two weeks ago now we had a hell of a snow storm. Nearly 2 feet of snow was dumped on us and most of the city was shut down. I took this pic the day after as we slogged our way to work and school:

Now here's the same shot today:

All that snow is pretty much gone now. Amazing.

Addictive

2006-04-01T18:23:00.000-08:00

I spent quite a bit of today hitting the old F5 button, refreshing the Movie Madness results. Surprising what people vote for really. My own bracket is already busted.

Finally, it's here!

2006-03-31T10:33:00.000-08:00

Today's the big day! Movie Madness finally launched and it's exceeding expectations so far.

It's just past 12:30pm and we've hit 157 votes (to put that in perspective, our normal weekly poll only gets about 20-25 votes per week) and people are talking. Mike went on KSYZ and promoted it, we got a couple of prime real estate columns on A-1 as well as the IndyKnow section itself and page 2 - house ads, web promos, flyers in pizza boxes - it's huge!

So check it out - getindyknow.com - and this beast runs all through April so go back often and cast your vote :)

Stormy Weather

2006-03-30T11:23:00.000-08:00

I spent my lunch hour parked near a park watching the onset of a good old-fashioned thunderstorm rommling this way.

It was heaven.

So I took a few shots of the clouds because for some reason I like to do that. This was the best of the lot.

Thank you drive through.

2006-03-29T15:30:00.000-08:00

Didn't feel like cooking tonight.

Shhhhh...

2006-03-28T11:08:00.000-08:00

I went to the Devil today. Don't tell anyone.

It's funny that telling people you shopped at Wally World has become something of a Don't Ask, Don't Tell thing.

Bauer Power Hour

2006-03-27T20:11:00.000-08:00

It's the jack Bauer Power Hour again. Hurrah. I accidentally took a nighttime cold capsule and could barely keep my eyes open much less do my recap after. Hate colds.

More Smallville

2006-03-26T16:57:00.000-08:00

Yeah I know, lots of Smallville pics. This is not because I am obsessed with the show. This is because I don't have any good pics from the day and we got started on Season three today :)

Exciting weekend

2006-03-25T21:22:00.000-08:00

Copping out a little. I didn't do much this weekend because I think I'm coming down with something. I feel icky. It better not become pneumonia again is all i have to say.

I did make a vat of stew this weekend and I think it was my best batch yet. It's goooood. Mmmm stew.

Anyway I ordered season two and three of Smallville so we pretty much devoured season two today.

Brackets are my life.

2006-03-24T20:12:00.000-08:00

Today I built 64 web pages. Granted it was a mainly a lot of cutting and pasting but my mouse clicky finger is a little sore right now :)

Movie Madness launches next Friday and I'm so looking forward to it. It's amazing how one nugget of an idea cooked up by two guys in the newsroom has become this huge beast involving 3 advertising sponsors, possible showings at The Grand, 2 columnists going head to head over the picks recorded for posterity, 64 movie breakdowns, and 64 little web pages.

It's going to be so much fun.

I love this book

2006-03-23T20:06:00.000-08:00

I've always loved Stephen King books. I'm more of a fan of his earlier stuff - he kind of lost me after Tommyknockers. But he's such a wonderful storyteller, especially when he strays from the horror genre. Don't get me wrong, The Stand is one of my personal faves, but I really like it when he writes something like Shawshank Redemption or Stand By Me.

Eyes of the Dragon is one that's always stuck with me and the kid reminded me that we actually have it amongst all our books (I almost bought it the other day.) It's a cool little fantasy story and I'm hoping I can get Shan to read it when I'm done with it :)

Snow angel

2006-03-22T16:19:00.000-08:00

Well if anyone at the paper is wondering where the full body imprint came from outside the employee entrance,

That's where it came from.

Cozy?

2006-03-21T18:58:00.000-08:00

What should have been a cozy day cooped in the house due to massive snow drifts and buried cars turned into a restless day full of boredom. I hate feeling like this. Nothing is appealing - not movies, not TV, not the Internet, not my book. It was mainly a day of waiting for 9:00pm when I could crawl in bed and not feel too elderly for going to bed early. I hate this feeling. Can't wait to get back to work tomorrow. How often does one say that?

I did take some more pix of the snow. Here's one of Spooky trying to get away from the kid who wanted to chuck her into the 2 foot pile of fluffy snow on our balcony :)

Snow day

2006-03-20T06:17:00.000-08:00

But not for me. The downside to living in town not far from work is you pretty much have to come in when the weather's bad :) Hopefully the people who plow our parking area will scoop my parking space instead of dump all the snow from the lot into my space like they did last time and I'll have a place to park tonight.

Weather's supposed to dump another 9 inches or so on us this afternoon. Should be an exciting day!

Holy Snow Man!

2006-03-19T19:20:00.000-08:00

Crikey we got dumped on today.

The school actually called tonight to let us know it's a snow day tomorrow because apparently there's more coming.

Hope I can dig my little car out :(

Somebody Save Me

2006-03-18T19:12:00.000-08:00

Ok. I've become hooked on Smallville. The show's in its 5th season and I'm just now getting around to checking it out. Ah well such is the way with me. My best friend is totally hooked on it and has been wanting me to watch it. So I threw it in my NF queue and the first 2 discs arrived ummm, Wednesday I think.

Well today I had to go out and buy the first season because I'll be damned if I have the patience to wait for the next two :) Netflix is hawesome (TM Wil Wheaton) but there are some instances of immediacy where I have to hit Blockbuster to rent or buy a movie I love.

Anyway Smallville is a lot of fun and I'm totally digging on Lex Luthor.

Of course, Clark's not too bad either. I just wanna... lick that S off.

:)

Hapy Oirish Day

2006-03-17T15:59:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd put up a pic from my travels over in Norn Iron :) This is just a signpost giving directions to various destinations near Belfast. I took pics like this a lot when I was there because even now I still can't believe I got to go.

I really miss it.

I spent most of my time there in and around Belfast with my ex-boyfriend, Andy. That was one of the best times I've ever had :) I've got most of my journal online and you can read it here.

The Happy Ass Program

2006-03-16T13:41:00.000-08:00

The office supply store just brought in a plethora of spanky new chairs for a bunch of people in the newsroom. My coworker Tonya was one of the ones who got one much to her surprise :)

But she had her old chair for the past six years. Saying goodbye wasn't easy:

But I think she got over it ;)

It's official

2006-03-15T19:04:00.000-08:00

My daughter is a nerd. And that's a good thing :)

Shannon takes long baths. Long, long baths. She disappears into the bathroom with a book and sometimes a cup of tea and I don't see her until I have to pound on the door because we are, after all, a one bathroom family.

However, tonight she took the fastest bath of her life - and this is including the times when she was a baby and didn't really like the whole "get clean" thing. Why did she hurry through her ablutions?

Because it was 6:30pm and Star Trek TNG was coming on at 7.

Oh she's seen the show before and might have joined me on occasion to listen to Data wax poetic about Spot. But her vacation last week and the lack of anything else to watch made a full nerd out of her. She has to watch it every night.

I'm so proud :)

Brackets brackets everywhere

2006-03-14T17:52:00.000-08:00

Man oh man I'm drowning in brackets! :)

But these movie brackets are fun. Okay okay basketball brackets are fun too especially since I plunked my 3 bucks down on the NCAA tournament. I asked Corey to help me on it though because I end up picking my teams based on things like, "Ooo George Mason was on 24. I'll go with that team."

But we're doing movie brackets for Indyknow in a couple of weeks and everyone's having a blast with them. Good idea Mike :) I'd thank Jack too but he doesn't read this :)

Cleaning house

2006-03-13T21:39:00.000-08:00

I think 24 is cleaning house. Another major character on the show bit the dust tonight which either means they're gearing up to finally off Jack or their clearing house to make room for a new batch of costars for him. Sad though. I'll miss Tony. his death was a good one.

I post a cap of my 24 blog because after the show I write a sort of recap column. I'm pleasantly surprised to find people on the interwebs actually read it. Tonight though I am still up trying to get the bloody thing to post properly. I'm going to be so tired tomorrow.

Moonlight Mile

2006-03-12T13:45:00.000-08:00

I watched this today. Hadn't see it and I wanted to see what else Jake Gyllenhal had been in. Ended up enjoying it in as much as you can enjoy a movie about dealing with grief. Not something I'd watch again but it was also not something I regret seeing.

Crushed

2006-03-11T21:04:00.000-08:00

Basketball's over now. I'm not sports fan. I don't know a press from a 1-3-1 but I decided to watch the championship game today that our columnist was covering - mainly to see if I could spot him or our photog but I ended up absorbing the game.

The team we were covering lost in an upset and I was actually a little teary-eyed myself as I watched these boys accept their runner-up medals and hugs from their coach as they cried. It was very moving.

This pic was taken by Lane Hickenbottom after the game. Doesn't it make you feel awful for them?

New shoes

2006-03-10T19:49:00.000-08:00

I have lovely lovely new shoes :)

I know. So exciting. Well it is for me :)

According to the kid though I got strange looks from the clerk for whipping out my phone and snapping this shot quickly. I wasn't paying attention to the clerk really so I wouldn't know.

Mmm Root Beer

2006-03-09T19:17:00.000-08:00

I took my daughter out to a lovely lunch today. Lovely to take her out. Chicken Coop more because it's close to the office than for its fine dining but they do have wonderful root beer. They should, my cousin makes it :) So if you're ever at the Coop and have the root beer enjoy it because he maes excellent stuff.

Anyway it was very nice. It's funny when Shan and I go out these days. The waitress almost always asks if it's separate checks - because they assume we're friends going out for lunch. When I tell them she's my daughter they freak out. It's a hoot.

I'm currently awaiting scores from the 9pm games. If the AP is as slow as it's been this evening I should get to bed around 1am. *sigh* Me sleepy.

Podcasting time again

2006-03-08T18:28:00.000-08:00

I'm getting quicker at building Indyknow podcasts. Last time it took me a couple of days or so. This time just and afternoon and part of the evening. They're fun to do but I wish I had better recording equipment.

Goblet of Fire

2006-03-07T15:23:00.000-08:00

Yay GoF is out today :)

I needed such a break away from the computer today. It was just not a good today. In fact, today sucked like a two dollar hooker.

But Having Harry and hanging out with the kid helped :)

RIP Edgar

2006-03-06T21:24:00.000-08:00

Last night Edgar bought it on "24." The second coolest disfunctional geek on telly and he died while THE coolest disfunctional geek, Chloe, looked on in horror from a sealed room as he sank to the floor overcome by deadly nerve gas. It was sad. And "24" is the best thing on TV. "Lost" is a close second, but "24" is consistently on its game this year.

So farewell dear geek.

Catinabox

2006-03-05T16:53:00.000-08:00

I know I said I'd ease up on the Spooky pix (or maybe I didn't. Oh well :) but we have been giggling at the silly thing all day because of all of the places Spooky has chosen to nap, this one has to be the most uncomfortable looking.

It may be hard to tell from the photo, but this box is the one my replacement cell phone came in. So that may be an indicator of the small size of the box. My cat weighs about 14 pounds. She's a lot of kitty. (I could have gone for the vulgar joke there, but I didn't think I could pull it off :)

She's been folded into this box all afternoon. I imagine it's like contorting yourself into some sort of origami figurine and shoving your body into a shoebox.

Weirdo.

More Basketball

2006-03-04T15:36:00.000-08:00

I'm still mostly looking after b-ball again and I really haven't had time (or even thought about) taking photos :) So here's a trippy picture. Focus on the plus sign and see if you see a green splotch circling around. Then look at the pink splotches. The green one disappears. Spiff. You'll have to open the bigger image tho for it to work.

Oh and I've had a hell of a time with my net connex today. After a temper tantrum and a few fits, I got it working again. No idea what I did but oh well. Better get back to the games.

Go team go

2006-03-03T21:03:00.000-08:00

B-ball again today. I think I've finally hit a stride with all the updates.

Alt-tab whore

2006-03-02T18:39:00.000-08:00

What a crazy delicious day. State basketball for girls began today and I had to handle the online coverage for George as you know (and if you don't then just scroll down a bit.)

This required both my monitors, 3 FTP's open for photos, podcasts and score updates, monitoring the live chat, uploading You've Been Spotted pix, watching the AP wire for scores from the games we *weren't* covering all while dealing with the day to day stuff like users with registration issues, photo reprints and forum stuff.

And it's 8:45pm-ish and I'm awaiting the next round as George logs on to the chat for 9:00 game.

And then it all starts again tomorrow :) Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee *thunk*

Big project

2006-03-01T15:25:00.000-08:00

So this has been my life the past few days:

It's State Basketball time in Nebbyland and this is my first year helping out George with online coverage. It's been a good time considering I'm not sports fan :)

Wash your hands!

2006-02-28T17:29:00.000-08:00

I got to be in a small, mock press conference today for a writing class at the college that Mike's teaching :)

I played the part of an Infection Control nurse there to field questions from reporters (students) about a patient who was found to have been exposed to anthrax.

It was fun :) Mike gave me a FAQ sheet from the CDC website to go off during the conference and me being me and I suck at bullshitting I studied it for a couple of days so I could sound like a nurse. Silly? Why yes, yes it is, but I don't care. I think I sounded pretty good once I got the hang of it. I've never been to a live press conference before even tho I worked in Marketing at the hospital.

Anyway, it was fun :) Now... it's time... for Johnny Cash.

Slave to the Keyboard

2006-02-27T17:11:00.000-08:00

What a wacky day today. Crazy busy. Lots of work to do. Day flew by.

Sliding Doors

2006-02-26T15:19:00.000-08:00

I love this movie. Yeah it's a total chick flick I know. I don't care :) I had it on video ages ago and loaned it out to someone and never got it back. So I was chuffed to find it cheap on DVD :) Watched it today. I love love love the haircut Gwyneth gets in this movie.

Off to see the Monkey

2006-02-25T19:53:00.000-08:00

King Kong played at the cheap seats today so we decided to go see it. I always meant to go when it was here on its first run but I just didn't get around to it. Wish I had. Leave it to PJ to make me cry for a monkey.

Here's a crappy photo from inside the cinema.

My batteries are dead in the real camera which is why there have been so many phone pix.

Anyway, "Kong" was great and sad and funny and gross. Lots of gross. The natives of Skull Island will be giving me nightmares for awhile *shudder.* But the humanity of Kong was so well done and poignant that I did get a little teary in a couple of scenes. The big lug.

Phwoar

2006-02-25T19:50:00.000-08:00

I think I'm going to have to buy the 6th season of Sex and the City. Just for Baryshnikov. The man... does things to me.

:D

Misha. Delicious.

2006-02-23T19:55:00.000-08:00

An interesting angle on a boring building. The kid was at the Gs and I didn't feel like cooking so I whipped through Amigo's for dinner.

Spent the day waiting for Tech support to work on a laptop I needed fixed by tonight. Did they ever call back? No. Man it's like waiting for the cable guy to show up and you can't really do anything til he's done. Annoying.

Anyway, time for Sex and the City with Baryshnikov. Yum.

Totally Jack Burger

2006-02-22T20:12:00.000-08:00

Dinner at the Coop tonight. I usually get the Totally Jack burger because it amuses my "24" sensibilities. I love to say, "I'll have Jack." when I order.

I don't really because the waitress would look at me funny, the way people do when they don't get the joke.

But all of that is moot because I just had the mushroom burger.

I have also just realized I had the phone set on the smallest resolution. So the pic is teeny. Ah well.

Jury Duty. Again.

2006-02-21T10:06:00.000-08:00

And once again I didn't even get picked to be questioned by the lawyers. Two people were even excused for cause and the lottery was played again to pick two more jurors out of the pool and I still didn't get picked.

I dunno whether to be thankful or disappointed. Part of me sort of wants to sit through at least one trial, just to look at the process from the inside so to speak. The other part of me is relieved I'm not stuck in those 70s chairs in the hot courtroom all day.

I took a snap of the judge with the phone and the angle is looking at him from behind the defense table. I think it's sufficiently blurry enough not to be a problem so I'll post it. Otherwise it would be a very bad shot of the dome inside the courthouse.

And I'm safe for another month.

I got nothin'

2006-02-20T17:00:00.000-08:00

I had a case of the Mondays today so I have no pic of anything cool. So here's probably the one and only pic of me this blog will see that I took while playing with the new phone.

I look like a hippie. But as I was pondering my hippiness I thought, "Gee this pic reminds me of a sketch my mom did of me when I was 5 or 6." So I put them side by side for the hell of it :) Spiffy :) The weird thing is, when I was little my eyes were bright blue. Like cornflower, sky blue. And now they're green. I don't even know when they went green. They just did. Weird.

Breakfast out

2006-02-19T12:30:00.000-08:00

We've gotten in a habit of going out for breakfast at the weekend. Not both days or anything, but it's just kind of nice to sit in a restaurant with the kid and chat etc. Today it was Grandma Max for brekkie.

Yeesh.

2006-02-18T13:49:00.000-08:00

Ok so I accidentally dropped my beloved new cellphone in the toilet and ruined it. Let's just get that embarassing story out of the way. It's gone and I'm kicking myself for my stupidity.

So I call Virgin because I know they offer replacement phones for a lesser charge. I guess you get a refurbished one or something. Anyway, my phone was the top model and was the one splurge I allowed myself with my tax refund. When I arrvied at Fedex this morning to get my replacement phone -

I was prepared to give it a good snog because I've missed it. Until I opened the box anyway. They sent me the wrong model :( After an irate call to Virgin I find out I can't get a replacement phone for the model I paid for because they don't have any that are refurbished. I could either send this wrong one back and have my account credited for the cost, then go buy my phone again (essentially paying double what the phone is worth) or I could live with the model they gave me.

I decided to live with the one they gave me but I'm not happy about it :( it has all the bells and whistles I wanted but damnit, it's just not the phone I bought :(

Ah well. I can either grump about it or take it as a lesson in NEVER leaving your cell phone in a loose pocket.

My baby

2006-02-17T16:44:00.000-08:00

This bad boy has been my baby this week. These are the new photo galleries for the paper. I didn't build them or code much on them - that headache (heehee) belonged to a former coworker. But it was time to launch it and it needed some final things done to it so that was how I spent the majority of the past week.

They're really freaking spiffy though.

Snowfall #2

2006-02-16T16:19:00.000-08:00

So today it snowed for the second time this winter. Hope it doesn't last but at least it feels like winter for the moment :)

Otherwise it's been a typical day.

...

Man even I'm bored by this post.

Farewell

2006-02-15T14:22:00.000-08:00

To a wonderful boss.

It won't be the same around here without you.

*sniffle*

Happy VD

2006-02-14T12:47:00.000-08:00

Yes, congratulations on your STD :) Hehe. Nope it's Valentine's Day. Wooo.

I did get this spiffy e-card from Tonga:

Valentine Eve

2006-02-13T20:38:00.000-08:00

It's like a little Christmas :) My family's always done little Valentine pressies for each other - nothing fancy mind you, just fun stuff. Shan's been wanting this green belt thing for weeks now so what better time to give it to her than Valentine's Day tomorrow?

Made for some interesting clothes shopping on Saturday though. She kept pestering me for the belt :)

Not Donna!

2006-02-12T17:56:00.000-08:00

So I'm watching the 5th season of West Wing yesterday (someday I'll be caught up with the rest of the free world) and I get to the episode called "Gaza" where Donna is sent to the Gaza Strip on a fact-finding mission for Josh.

And then her SUV explodes.

And then I involuntarily started crying. It took me by surprise. It didn't really last but when I think about it, Donna's my favourite character on the show but more than that she really reminds me of my sister and maybe I was projecting that during the scene.

I dunno. It was weird. The only other thing on West Wing that's made me cry was when John Spencer had a scene where he breaks down crying. It tugged at the old heart strings.

Anyway I hope Donna will be okay (don't spoil it for me, I have to wait for Season 6 to come out on DVD)

Girlie day

2006-02-11T14:12:00.000-08:00

We spent the day looking for some new clothes for the kid. Today's pic is some of the crap above our table at Applebee's. It was bloody cold out so we wanted to stop in for their yummy french onion soup.

Locutus of Borg

2006-02-10T17:12:00.000-08:00

Yay my favourite TNG episodes are on G4!!

I love the Borg.

Lunchtime

2006-02-09T12:05:00.000-08:00

I'm so disappointed in Big Apple Bagel. They used to make DIVINE vegetarian bagel sandwiches. The bagel was soft and chewy with avo spread, red onions, cukes, lettuce, tomatoes, and provolone cheese. It was a treat to have one. I was craving it so I went at lunch to get one.

What a freakin' disappointment. The bagel was tiny and hard, they put green peppers in it (I like these things, but not raw and on my sandwich. I prefer them cooked) and I had to ask for the avo spread and even though I asked for the cheese they left it off. Oh and they used sun-dried tomatoes which I hate.

Now, this is the second time they fubared my favourite sandwich but I was hoping the last time was just a fluke. Not so. Seems they've changed the recipe or something. I won't be going back.

A break in the day

2006-02-08T13:16:00.000-08:00

We were called to a last minute meeting out of the building today. Was weird to sit at a round table in the basement of a bank with: My boss, my boss's boss, his boss, and his boss's boss. Lotsa bosses. And various other upper management who seemed like pretty cool suits considering they were the suits :) I liked them. But I felt very peon-like at first listening to them discuss the future strategies of my department for the coming year. It's going to be pretty exciting though, I hope everything we're going to be doing goes over well.

Anyway here's a shot of me driving away from the meeting and about to be stuck at a train, followed by RR crossing bars that wouldn't lift for ages after the train had passed.

You talkin' to me?

2006-02-07T17:10:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow I get this movie from Netflix:

I can't wait :) I've never seen it because yet again it falls into the "I've been meaning to see it but well, I just haven't" category.

To Wong Foo

2006-02-06T16:38:00.000-08:00

I found this in ye olde DVD bargain bin at Wally World. I can't believe I didn't have it already but well, I didn't :)

Haircut 100

2006-02-05T19:46:00.000-08:00

Remember that band?

Me neither. But I got my hair chopped today. A little. Not much. About an inch and a half. It's not really noticeable unless you study my hair on a daily basis and frankly, if you do that, then you're weird.

I really just needed to suss out my ends. They were icky. Now my hair's shiny and soft and I can't stop petting my head :)

The Winter Ball

2006-02-04T18:38:00.000-08:00

*sniffle*

I took her to the salon so she could have a decent updo for her dress. It turned out lovely and curly :)

And I'll throw in the back of her cute 'do just because it turned out so adorable :)

The Snapper

2006-02-03T14:00:00.000-08:00

I bought a new mobile today. It's spiffy :) I took this pic while driving to pick up Shannon from school (Yes yes I know I could have killed someone but I was watching the road the whole time I promise. I didn't fiddle with the pic until I was stopped.)

The tribe has spoken

2006-02-02T18:47:00.000-08:00

Hurray Survivor's back tonight :) I don't care what anyone says, I love this show. Mostly because I think Probst is hawt. And a bit of a bastard at calling out tribe members :)

Georgie-boy

2006-02-01T07:54:00.000-08:00

It's sad to say that this is probably the most interesting thing that will happen today so I figured I might as well get a shot of it.

It's one of those 'Where's George?' dollar bills where you can track the progress of your dollar and see where it's been and if you're a statistical geel like me you'll find it interesting. If you're not well then feel free to call me a geek to your heart's content.

Cats are weird

2006-01-31T16:31:00.000-08:00

My cat has taken to drinking out of the bathroom sink. I'm not quite sure why. It's kind of amusing because just before she jumps up on the counter she'll look at me like I'm about to admonish her. I'll say, "Spooky..." and she'll meow at me. Then we'll proceed to do this a few more times. Then out of sheer cheek, she'll jump up anyway and start licking the sink.

I'm baffled but bemused.

Delightful

2006-01-30T19:51:00.000-08:00

Another day of more of the same. It's Monday. I did enjoy seeing Mike in a monkey suit but other than that and 24 tonight, the only interesting thing I did was watch "Garden State." Yes I know it's been out a long time and is known as a good flick, but well, it's one of those movies you think, "I should rent that." and you never do.

So I threw it in my Netflix queue and watched it tonight. And it was a good flick :) Enjoyed it very much. This scene made me laugh out loud:

Mmmm fog

2006-01-29T07:45:00.000-08:00

Today was spent having a lovely breakfast with the kid and just generally hanging out. It was really nice. Yesterday was gorgeous out so I took a few snaps of the deep fog. I'm posting it today because I don't really have a shot from today. It was yicky and sunny out :)

I miss days like this so much. I dig the gloomy, foggy, rainy days. I'd probably be right at home in Seattle. There's something sort of delicious about being swallowed up in a cool fog, and the sounds outside are amplified slightly. It's ethereal and beautiful to me. Maybe it's because I associate the fog with Monterey and being able to watch the daily fog bank roll in over Pacific Grove and listen to the waves crash on the beach without being able to see them. It's comforting.

I'm so goth eh? Hehe. Not true really, I love bright, sunny days too as long as it's not a thousand degrees out but the weather affects my mood. I'm lucky in that I don't get depressed and moody when the clouds roll in. I welcome it for the reasons I just said. And I welcome the beautiful weather too but there's something sort of raw and cleansing about rain and fog. I just love it.

It can be like this...

2006-01-28T17:42:00.000-08:00

...just like this, always...

Guess what I did this evening :) Now I can finally quit whinging about not being able to see it. I'll have some kind of review of it over at Ridiculous Thoughts. I need some time to let it soak in.

Time to go home

2006-01-27T17:19:00.000-08:00

It's a good thing she's a reader, otherwise she'd be so bored waiting for me to finish up at work.

Death Star

2006-01-26T16:16:00.000-08:00

I have to cop out again for today's pic. I really lead quite a boring life and I can only take so many pictures of my office or my cat before even I get bored with those. But I had to update my other blog for work today and I ran across a guy who epitomizes nerdiness but in a good way. He designed his dream home thetaer to look like the bridge of the starship Enterprise.

Pretty cool I thought but as I perused his site a bit more I found links to other people who were just as nerdycool. My favourite was a guy who made his home theater resembling a scene on Vader's Death Star. I loved it. Anyway here's a small pic of it:

Lunch and a movie

2006-01-25T12:56:00.000-08:00

Last night I worked out how to get movies onto the iPod so I did "Shaun of the Dead" for Shan because she loves it. She's not allowed to have it at school so I get to play with it during the day :)

It was lovely to sit outside at the park and enjoy my lunch and watch a bunch of zombies get their heads bashed in with a cricket bat.

Hard to see I know but trust me, it's Shaun trying to convince Liz they'll be safe at the Winchester :)

6 hour meetings - yikes.

2006-01-24T20:25:00.000-08:00

I spent the majority of today inside this building at a meeting I didn't really need to be in. Not bitching mind you, I learned quite a bit of stuff I never knew so that's good, but my department was invited by the publisher since Online is going to be important to the news department's future goals etc.

The problem is the meeting focused more on journalistic issues and was probably (hopefully) productive for them. For me it was mainly a chance to learn more about that department which isn't a bad thing. I took notes! (This is me ensuring I say no bad things about my job on the Internets :)

I'm trying to see the good in everything because frankly after 6 hours in a plastic chair in a hot room, my peppy levels were low. But hey, free lunch!