Tag Archives: life

2015 photo dump

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HELLO! It’s been so long since I’ve updated this blog!

Life over the past year has been consistently busy and honestly I’ve gone back to scrapbooking as my primary form of memory keeping these days (I love it as a creative outlet – what’s not to love about playing with pretty paper and stickers?!). But every once in awhile, friends will ask when I’m going to update my blog and I realized I missed having an online journal of sorts. So here I am!

For my first post back, it’s going to be an epic photo dump to catch you all up with 2015.

JUNE
When I last left off, I was working on a trip report for the Northern Europe cruise we took in May/June. In short, it was AMAZING. St. Petersburg was a dream come true (more details here). From there, we visited Helsinki and Stockholm — definitely need to go back to spend more time in these incredible cities.



As we left Stockholm, we sailed through the archipelago. Such a lovely view!



The sun doesn’t set until VERY late in this part of Europe. Loved having so much daylight. This was around 11pm! Gorgeous.



From the Baltics, we sailed to Norway. First stop was Stavanger where we took a boat excursion to see Lysefjord and Pulpit Rock. Afterwards we spent time walking around Gamle Stavanger, the Old Town.



In Alesund, we took an excursion to visit Trollstigen, the path of the trolls. Here’s just a portion of the hairpin turns. Driving down this craziness in a huge motorcoach bus made me nervous!



Geiranger was my favorite port in Norway. The sail in and sail out through the fjord (the inspiration for the movie Frozen!) was incredible and this view from Flydalsjuvet took my breath away.

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the weekend

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I like doing weekend photo recaps so even though I was sick and didn’t do anything exciting this past weekend, I took photos anyway.



There’s grass in our little yard now and it’s getting loooong. So Rob was on a quest to buy a lawnmower. YES, these are the things that we do over the weekend. We’re old and boring now. 😀



While we were at Home Depot, I couldn’t help checking out the faux Christmas tree display.



Rob decided he wanted the new iPhone 4 (and was going to buy me one too!) so we headed to the Apple store. Crowded as usual but we got our phones in record time. So far I LOVE it. It’s so much faster than my old 3G and the screen looks impeccable too.



Aside from those errands, I stayed home most of the weekend nursing a cold (still am, which suuuucks). Lucikily, I had all my October/November magazines…



… and Diesel to keep me company.

🙂

1 drink

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I went out with some friends tonight and had 1 drink (ONE DRINK!) and I have the absolute worst headache right now.

Having low tolerance to alcohol SUCKS. Waaahhhh.

thanksgiving and other stuff

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I’m so, so sad the loooong weekend is winding down. It was a good one! And I hope everyone who celebrates had a great Thanksgiving as well.

So… what have I been up to?

Last Tuesday, I flew back to southern CA to stay with my best friends for the night. I got to catch up and hang out with them (something I don’t do often cause you know, the distance and cause I’m a bad friend) and also see their apartment (that they’ve been living in for almost a year now but I haven’t seen cause of the whole bad friend thing). It was a really short visit but I had fun! Thanks guys! I hope I’ll get the chance to visit again soon.

😀

I spent the rest of the week at my dad’s house and had Thanksgiving with the usual suspects — my aunt, cousins, their significant others. My cousin hosted the dinner at his condo and he even cooked! Which is something he never used to do. His girlfriend seems to be domesticating him, hee. He made/bought a TON of food (not really your “typical” Thanksgiving fare but yummy all the same) — salad, corn chowder, 2(!) whole chickens, roast beef, garlic mashed potatoes , grilled salmon, baked macaroni, fruit salad, and apple pie. OMG. YUM. I ate so much. The whole dinner made me rethink the whole “I don’t like to cook” thing that I have. I even went so far as to pick up an issue of Everyday Food, which was recommended to me by the lovely Keenai. The worst thing about cooking to me is that it can take so long. I hate coming home from work and having to spend another few hours in the kitchen but a lot of the recipes in the magazine seem to require minimal prep time. So yeah, my very first New Year’s resolution (I realize it’s early but what the heck) is to learn how to cook and do it more often. We’ll see how long it lasts.

I also braved the crazy crowds on Black Friday to do a little shopping. Didn’t buy anything though. Well, my dad bought me a new suitcase but that doesn’t count cause I didn’t pay for it. I flew back home on Friday night (I just needed some time for myself plus the fare was a lot less expensive) and when I got home, I was browsing the Target website and saw that BtVS s7 and Dawson’s Creek s4 were on sale for $17.77. !!! I called the boyfriend (who was still in LA) and managed to get him to hunt them down. He went to 3 different stores but finally managed to snag a few copies. I already have DC s4 but I’m sure I can find someone to give it to for Christmas! Or maybe I can sell it on eBay. Hee.

Anyway, thanks everybody for the great comments in my entry below. I guess I had some momentary lapse of insanity when I said I would close my blog down. This is my home and I won’t be moving over to LJ. So, yay and all that.

Extending this entry a bit more by doing the Fannish Friday 5…

What are your five favorite relationships in your fandom(s)?
1. Pacey and Joey, Dawson’s Creek. Like you all didn’t know that one! They’re just *it* for me. I lurve them.
2. Ephram and Amy, Everwood. They weren’t the ‘ship that I was originally drawn to on this show (that would be Colin and Amy) but in the past 2 seasons, I’ve really enjoyed watching them fumble through their friendship first and now their relationship. They just make me go “Aww.”
3. Harry and Hermione, Harry Potter. They work. They just do.
4. Anne and Gilbert, Anne of Green Gables. Probably my first ship ever.
5. Ryan and Seth, The OC. Disregarding the sexual tension these two seem to have in their scenes, I just feel like they have a really good friendship. Plus, they’re OMGSOCUTE!

I am so depressed at the thought of going back to work tomorrow.

halloween

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So it’s back to life as usual.

Riz (my cousin) and Josh (her boyfriend) left on Friday night and although I didn’t get to spend as much time with them as I would have liked, it was fun to finally meet “the boyfriend.” He was nice and funny and really sweet to her… and yes, Riz, I approve. 😉

I also finally figured out my Halloween costume. I ended up going as Hermione (Harry Potter), like I originally wanted. I found a Gryffindor robe and scarf from the boys section of the Halloween store which I wore with a gray plaid skirt, white turtleneck, black knee highs, and black mary janes. I didn’t wear a wig or make my hair all bushy the way Hermione’s is supposed to be so I guess technically, I was just Kelly the Gryffindor. Heh.

My friend Shirley works at Industrial Light and Magic so she got Rob and I tickets to go to their Halloween party. It was fun to see all the creative and elaborate costumes — it was clear that people put real thought into their costumes. (Unlike me and my store-bought costume — hee!) We saw people dressed up as… a gumball machine, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, a house, the Governator, Michael Jackson, Shrek, Legos… pretty much anything and everything you can think of. Seriously. I think my 2 favorites were 1) the giant T-Rex from Jurassic Park (this was amazing — it won the costume contest) and 2) Jango Fett-ish (BWAH!!! This was hilarious — basically a Chippendale’s outfit with the Jango helmet). Oh! and we even saw George Lucas, which was really cool.

Anyway, some pictures…

Click the pictures to see the bigger versions.


This is part of the T-Rex that won the costume prize.

Mr. Star Wars Himself — George Lucas

Shirley as Gogo Yubari and Rob as the Mystical Wizard

Shirley and Me


Rob and Me

🙂

Good times.

pity party

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I feel like screaming and throwing things right now. Last week was a bust (all that damn work crap) and I don’t know that this week will get any better.

UGH. What’s wrong with me? I can’t seem to find the bright side in anything right now. < /dramatic>

this week sucks

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This week is crummy.

So my office is moving (out of gorgeous downtown San Francisco! *sob*) this week so I’ve had to pack my desk/computer/files while at the same time, trying to keep up with regular work. NOT. FUN. Especially today when I realized that I needed a file that I had already packed. And there was no way that I was going to wade through 25 boxes of files just to find it.

Then I find out from my boss that I’m going to be taking over another job after the move because my company is too cheap to hire a replacement. (She didn’t say that but I know that’s the reason). So essentially they want me to do 2 jobs. I don’t even think there’s enough time in the day… my current workload keeps me busy as it is so to add even more responsibilities? UGH. If I’m going to be expected to work late, there better be some kind of increase to my salary.

AND it turns out that we’re going to have new “dress guidelines” for work. I used to be able to wear whatever I wanted — jeans, tees, sneakers. But now they want us to wear business attire every day. !!! So now I need to buy a few more black pants and some button-up shirts. Fantastic. I don’t even like shopping for work clothes. They’re so boring. Blah.

Work sucks. I wish I could somehow get paid for staying at home and watching TV. That would be an awesome job. Heh.

birthday wrap-up

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Many, many thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! It was so nice to get phone calls, emails, comments and shout-outs from you all. I still have a huge smile on my face thinking of all the sweet greetings.

I had a fantastic day and weekend, for that matter. My best friend Robyn was in town and I had a blast hanging out with her. I don’t see her that often cause she lives in Southern California so it’s always a good time when we get together, hehe. She arrived on Thursday night and we caught up on some TV — The Apprentice (we couldn’t believe Pamela was fired; it should have been Stacy), Joey (Joey performing the Shakespeare monologue followed by the cowboy dancing was hilarious), and Smallville (poor, poor Chloe but I have to say that Clark and Lois were really cute in the final scene).

We woke up early on Friday morning (pretty much unheard of for me) because Rob cooked us breakfast! Yum, I love the perks of having a guest. We then proceeded to spend the next 2 days eating (go to Swan Oyster Depot if you like fresh seafood), shopping (we hit the Haight Street and Chestnut Street shopping neighborhoods in the city), and running around trying all the exhibits at the Exploratorium (*so* fun). Phew. We woke up really early each day and stayed up late so on Sunday after Robyn left (*sniff*), I spent a good part of the day sleeping. Ahhh, it felt so good.

So today on my actual birthday I didn’t really do anything special… Rob’s car had a flat tire so we took it to the shop and while we waited for it to get fixed, we walked around at Cal. I know I spent 4 years there but I can never quite get over how gorgeous and inspiring the campus is. We took along the camera so we snapped a bunch of shots that I hope I’ll be able upload — just so that you can all see what I’m talking about. We didn’t do much else — went shopping so I could continue the search for a pair of boots (I ended up really wanting a pair of Uggs — I used to hate the trendiness of them but now I think they’re kinda cute, heh) and also so I could admire an audio system that I want for my iPod (I think Rob’s going to get it for me — squee, I’m so spoiled!). Tnen we went to dinner, had the most amazing chocolate raspberry truffle cake (I don’t even want to think about how many calories I consumed this past weekend), and even made it home to catch Everwood.

All in all, I’m so happy. I had a great few days… though I’m still in denial about turning 25. Eek.

😉

dvds and 4-day weekend

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Squee! I have a 4-day weekend ahead of me.

My best friend is visiting so I managed to score two days off. We’re going to catch up, hang out, do some shopping, go out to dinner… it’s going to be a great weekend!

I also got my Dawson’s Creek season 4 and Roswell season 2 DVDs today. Amazon rocks. They shipped yesterday and I got them today! And I even chose the free shipping! They must love me. Or you know, the warehouse is nearby.

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

😀

october already

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Another month gone by. Time is flying… I love October, though because it means my BIRTHDAY is coming soon. And Sarah’s too, I do believe. Hehe, yay.

This past week has been pretty sucky.

I’ve had this permanent headache all week long and nothing I do (taking aspirin, trying to get more sleep) will make it go away. UGH.

Add to that the fact that it has been absolutely insane at work this entire week because the Vice President of my company has been in town. It’s like my workload has tripled with him around.

AND I just found out today that my office has to move to our corporate office in Oakland by the end of October. Just thinking about that makes my head feel worse. I currently work in a small satellite office in San Francisco — it’s gorgeous and right in the heart of the financial district next to great food and fantastic shopping. And I love it so much! And I don’t want to give it up! I’ve known that we would have to move for some time now but my boss thought that our company would give us until the end of the year. It makes me depressed. I love working in the city. *sigh* The only positive is that it makes my commute much, much shorter. About 15-20 minutes instead of the hour that it is now. I can sleep later, which will be a good thing.

Anyway. My weekend is looking bright because I got my West Wing season 1 DVDs today! Very, very happy because the tapes I made from the Bravo reruns are getting worn out. I’m going to have myself a little marathon.

Happy Friday everyone! 🙂