{Yay Toast! (and all things good)}

My New Love

2008-12-19T16:43:00.001-08:00

Jasper the wonder rescue dog:

Holy Frick!

2008-07-15T15:36:00.000-07:00

I think I just bought a house!!!

He's back!!!!

2008-06-27T10:01:00.000-07:00

Matt the international dancing dude is back! So love this guy. And his dancing sequel is equally awesome to the first. Check it out here:

Where the Hell is Matt?

(It may take a while to load, so be patient. It's worth it.)

Euro Cup fun

2008-06-26T12:53:00.000-07:00

I am so loving the Euro Cup these days. I'm pretty sad it's ending on Sunday.

I didn't really have a favorite going in since England didn't make the cut, so it's been enjoyable just to watch such great soccer (ahem, I mean football) and pick new favorite (ahem, I also mean HOT) players. :)

Last night I watched Germany vs. Turkey. Turkey was the total underdog and yet scored first, and then very nearly won. Despite some lame technical difficulties by ESPN (we had to watch a goal made by each team via replay, because a thunderbolt cut out the picture during live play), the game was FANTASTIC.

I also watched Germany polish off Portugal the night before (the wonder of DVRs), which was equally exciting. Two words: Cristiano Ronaldo. He is SOOOO whiny, but his skills are pretty freakin' amazing. And he is like a stallion out there. I'm not sure how else to describe him.

One of my favorite players to watch lately is this dude from Germany:

Check out his stats profile here. Bastian is only 23 and is insanely fast on offense, crazy clever on defense. And it's incredibly entertaining to say his last name (as an American doing a pathetic German accent): Schwaaaaaayyyyynnnnnstiiiiiiiieger. I have to clear my throat every time I say it!

Tonight is Russia vs. Spain, and then Germany plays the winner of that game on Sunday for the finals. 180 minutes more of soccer. Can't wait!!!!!

Mr. Married in Town for a Visit

2008-06-11T13:13:00.000-07:00

My good friend, Craig, stopped by Sactown on his way to a houseboating bachelor party last weekend. We met up for drinks to catch up. He recently got married so I had to take a photo of him with his new "bling."

Pic taken by my Blackberry so excuse the red eye!

Would you like some cheese with that WHINE?

2008-06-03T22:55:00.000-07:00

I am having a "woe is me" kind of day and I thought I'd share with the blogosphere. Maybe then I can sleep instead of letting the day's events roll around in my head and keep me up and anxious. Sure, I know everyone has these days and all you can do is look forward and hope the next day is better. But man, did today SUCK.

Without going into too much detail, I have learned, somewhat directly but yet anonymously, that on occasion my non-verbal and facial "cues" do not exactly convey that I am a leader who is open to new ideas or people who work at a slower pace than me.

Now, I have long known that my face is a mirror of my current emotions. And that sometimes I look steely or "ice cold" and unapproachable when in fact I am really feeling incredibly awkward or self-conscious or nervous. I am also aware that I am not the most patient person in the world. But to learn that some coworkers feel I disrespect them really caught me off-guard and sent my mind reeling for a good long while. It infuriates me, it disheartens me, it made me double-guess every interaction I had this afternoon and every interaction I will have at work for a good long while.

And maybe that's a good thing. Or the point. I just wish I didn't have to feel so beat down personally in the process.

Later in the day, I got a call from my real estate agent, who proceeded to tell me that I basically need to lower my expectations in regards to the amount of house I can afford. Never mind that he was much more optimistic 48 hours ago, and I feel like I've been led down the merry molly path of roses during the past four months of house-hunting with him. So I've spent the last few hours thinking a tent-in-a-field-as-housing option is starting to look more realistic than ever.

So basically boo hoo, whine whine. Some people at work think my attitude sucks and my agent still hasn't found me a house. It could be a lot worse, I know. For example, I'm guessing Hillary 's day sucked worse than mine.

But she does have a house (or five) to go home to tonight.

Doggy Dash 2008

2008-06-01T15:46:00.001-07:00

This weekend I attended the SPCA's annual 5k Doggy Dash. It seemed like most of Sacramento and their canine best buds were in attendance. I don't own a dog (not that it's necessary to participate in the Dash), so in keeping with tradition, I "borrowed" one for the day from Homeward Bound Golden Retriever Rescue, a wonderful organization in Elverta. I get to pretend to be a dog owner for the day, Homeward Bound gets a little PR and the selected pooch gets much-needed exercise and a chance to do a little socializing. That's a triple win in my books.

This year I was given "Mabel," a very sweet, very cute two-year old golden with a very strong pull. My arms and shoulders are aching today! But isn't she worth it? Totally.

A Question for the Moms out there

2008-05-14T17:30:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I was at Safeway, shopping after work. I was in the process of paying the cashier while my items were being bagged. While I waited to pay, I watched two little girls who were goofing around just past the cashier aisles (their mother was paying in the aisle next to mine).

One girl was probably around 8 or 9, and her sister, maybe 5 or 6? The younger one was dressed up in a little blue dress with a bow in her hair, which is maybe why I noticed her at all (she seemed overdressed compared to her sister). Or maybe it was because she was in plain view and acting kind of bratty.

Each sister had a small plastic bag of candy -- the kind you get in the self-scoop section. My cashier apparently knew the family and made small talk with the girls' mother, who noted they were getting their "weekly treat." I pondered over whether giving kids a bag of sugar each week was a good thing, but I digress...

...The little girl was swinging her bag around and using it to hit her older sister (not in a violent way, but in a mischievous, trying-to-get-a-reaction-out-of-her kind of way). Her sister told her to stop nicely a couple of times, that the candy would break, but she laughed and kept going.

I'm leading up to a real shocker here, but yes, the bag did break open and all of the candy flew all over the floor. I wanted to laugh because it was exactly what her sister predicted would happen, and it was one of those "told you so" moments that you knew she would probably remember the next time. And then the little girl looked at her mom, bottom lip quivering, and ran over to her and started crying-- I'm guessing mostly out of embarrassment because a lot of customers were looking at her. The mother hugged her daughter and didn't say anything.

I kept expecting the mother to say something, ANYTHING to her daughter, besides consoling her. Maybe use the candy "accident" as an opportunity to teach her daughter a small lesson about respect for things and other people? I'm not saying smack the kid or punish her (with the exception of not buying her another bag of candy), or even speak to her harshly. But at least let her know her behavior was not acceptable in some fashion and work with her to rectify it a little. The kid was old enough to know hitting her sister was not cool (and old enough to learn that making messes for other people to clean up is not cool either).

The mother continued to console her little girl and by that point, I had paid for my groceries and had no valid reason to stick around and see what happened next, so I left. And I admit it, I was kind of irritated that the mom was seemingly giving her kid a pass and not helping her learn responsibility for her actions.

Now maybe the mom had a talk with her on the way home, or even right after I walked out. So this could all be moot. But my initial instinct as I stepped over broken bits of sweet tarts on my way to the exit? Had I been the mother (and yes, I know it's easy to be judgmental from across the cashier aisle), I would have told my daughter that I was really sorry that she didn't have any more candy, and I knew she felt bad about it. But also that she shouldn't have used the bag to hit her sister, and that she needed to apologize to the cashier (and/or) offer to help clean up the mess.

So moms, (and hey, why not include dads, too?) am I crazy here? Overreacting? Unkind? Unsympathetic? Expecting too much from this kid or her mother? Or is it a case of "you're not a mother so you won't understand until you have kids"?

Turtle mania

2008-05-12T17:43:00.000-07:00

I had a great time with my family in Oahu. One of the best experiences was seeing a bunch of sea turtles, otherwise known as "Hono" in Hawaiian, up close, three days in a row!

First sighting: We went to Sea Life Park at Makapuu Beach last Tuesday. My mom planned for us to take part in their dolphin swim adventure, something I've been wanting to do for a long time. Before that adventure (pic to come and more on that later), we checked out other areas of the park, which included a sea turtle pool:

Children were throwing lettuce and other "turtle food" into the pool. It was pretty entertaining to watch the unfolding scene because the turtles stirred up about as much frenzy in the water as one would imagine for turtles. (not a whole lot)

The next day we drove up to the accurately named "Turtle Beach" on the North Shore. We happened to arrive a few minutes before the noontime "regular" made his way to the shore for a little sunbathing:

Two "hono" volunteers kept the cooing fans from touching the turtle and told us that he is 36 years old. Apparently he is the leader of his turtle pack and always the first to arrive on the shore.

My brother, his girlfriend and I took a shot with the "star" of the beach.

Shifting to the third day of our turtle mania, my mom and I spotted a turtle while we were snorkeling in one of the coves near the Ko Olina resort. He was scraping up a meal on the bottom of the ocean floor and couldn't give two turtle shells about us hovering above him in awe. Unfortunately I did not have an underwater camera with me at the time. Believe me when I say it was pretty amazing.

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T18:37:00.001-07:00

We had a lovely Mother's Day celebration at Scott's Seafood on the river. The meal was unremarkable, but the company was right on.

I know I've been pretty lame about posting these last few months. I'll attempt to remedy that by posting a pic-a-day this week highlighting my trip to Oahu.....starting Monday...

Going for the Trifecta

2008-02-25T18:30:00.000-08:00

We rocked the Sunday indoor soccer league this season! The latest, courtesy of our captain:

We won the trifecta last season: Most points, Most goals scored, Fewest goals allowed. We've won two championships in a row, so we're going for the rare three-peat this session.

Unfortunately, winning doesn't really get you much except for a dingy gray championship t-shirt and promises of photo glory on the winner wall, but I guess there's always good 'old R-E-S-P-E-C-T. I'll take it!

Writing Well is the Best Revenge

2008-02-22T18:10:00.000-08:00

I have long coveted the t-shirts over at Fussy, particularly the one that reads "Writing Well is the Best Revenge". And boy, I would have worn it with pride today. Particularly with this gesture combination:

Without pulling a dooce, let's just say (very very hypothetically speaking, of course), that someone who could have been a coworker could have breezed into my office this afternoon to let me know their opinion on of my projects. This person could have told me how a publication that I had worked on for quite some time, alongside a very talented designer, was basically a piece of crap and would offend people and send the wrong image and blah blah blah. This person could have no writing or publication experience whatsoever, and could have clearly missed the entire point of said publication. And definitely could have forgotten that our targeted audience was NOT a group of Social Security-collecting, Talbot-wearing women (not that there's anything wrong with that), but rather a group of high school seniors.

I'm pretty confident that the manner in which this person could have spoken to me could have made me feel like I was pretty worthless at my job. That I clearly not only had no understanding of what was tasteful or attractive, but that I also seemingly intended this publication to be ridiculous and offensive. And that our image as an organization would be tarnished further than it somehow already was.

And then, as I could have been caught quite off guard, I could have feebly attempted to defend/present why the publication had been designed/written a particular way. I could have mentioned that the designer and I had done this time-tested thing called RESEARCH, because who best to tell us what they like than the actual audience we were trying to reach?

So hypothetically, we could have presented our target audience with three options, and then hypothetically, we could have asked which would best catch their eye and make them want to read the rest of the publication and take our preferred action. Then we could have reasonably went with the option they chose. They being the target audience. Who would get the publication.

The could-have-been-snarky response that pretty much explained why I am now considering seeking anger management classes?

"Since when do we listen to 20-year olds?" And then a "Whatever" upon walking out the door.

So as you might imagine, I could have become VERY VERY UPSET. To the point of hiding in the women's restroom until my shame and blind rage passed? Possibly. And yeah, of course I realize that I could have taken this hypothetical verbal assault a bit too personally. And I realize that due to the nature of the field in which I proudly find myself employed, my work is very visible and "out there" for all to see. There are many opportunities for people to criticize, constructively or otherwise. And yeah, hypothetically, the publication could have been more aggressive and risky than things we traditionally do.

But since when does that give a person the right to take their opinion and make someone else, who is ostensibly being paid for their expertise, feel like what they did was wrong, stupid and oblivious?

So instead of invoking all of the other things that flashed through my clever, pointy little head, I decided that writing is the best revenge. And now I can let go of that hypothetical wretched conversation and my reaction to it, and look forward to the weekend and happy, positive people.

Hypothetically (of course).

Book Lists: 2007, 2008

2008-01-21T16:13:00.000-08:00

Before I get to the books, I wanted to follow up on my last post and say my favorite film of 2008 so far is Juno (LOVE LOVE LOVE). I was a little worried that the movie couldn't possibly meet my very high expectations given all the good buzz surrounding the film, but I needn't have worried a bit. It was AWESOME. I think I laughed and smiled like a big dork 9/10ths of the movie, spending the remainder trying not to sob uncontrollably. Ellen Paige, the lead, rocked the house, and the ensemble was fantastic, too.

If it's possible for a movie to leave you feeling just a little bit better and more hopeful about the world when you leave the theatre, then this was that movie for me. And it's pretty tough to make a subject like teen pregnancy seem cool, but they pulled it off. Maybe Jaime Lynn Spears will be ok after all.

Side note: A great rental that I watched last week and recommend is Half Nelson, starring Ryan Gosling. Can't get enough of that guy. Despite the gloomy tone, my parents also liked the movie and thought the acting was phenomenal.

Moving on, I compiled my list of books read in 2007 to share:

The Fourth Bear, Jasper Fforde
Morality for Beautiful Girls #3*
The Kalahari Typing School for Girls #4*
The Full Cupboard of Life #5*
In the Company of Beautiful Ladies #6*
Blue Shoes and Happiness #7*

*#1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Alexander McCall Smith

Can you tell I was a little obsessed with the McCall Smith books? I loved Africa as a supporting character to the protagonist, Precious Ramotswe. I've never been a big reader of the detective genre (aside from the Thursday Next series, which fantastically tackles "literary crimes"). The #1 Ladies' Detective Agency series is less of a traditional who-dun-it and more about solving problems with common sense. And I find it fascinating that the books were written by a man because he seems so in tune with the female mind.

Now looking at that list, I feel like I should have read more in 2007. I assumed I was going to read the final Harry Potter when it was released last July, but I just haven't had the heart to start it. I'm still in a little bit of denial over the whole HP experience ending. So it's on my list for 2008, along with these nominees:

Thursday Next: First Among Sequels, Jasper Fforde (in progress and very funny)
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive #8*
Atonement, Ian McEwan (I'm hoping it fills in the holes from the movie)
Little Children, Tom Perrota
a Nick Hornby novel, TBD
Jemima J, Jane Green
To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis

And maybe, just maybe, this will FINALLY be the year that I finish Pride and Prejudice!!! Here's hoping. What are you reading this year? Anything in particular rocking your literary socks?

As You Wish: Movie Review of 2007

2007-12-27T20:30:00.000-08:00

I visited my friend Jenny the other week, and she showed me some of the cute holiday cards and photos that she and her husband had received. One of the cards included a list of 2007 movies that the family had watched, organized and ranked from favorite to will-never-see-again-unless-tortured, using clever category titles. Unfortunately they were so clever that I can't remember them two weeks later, so there you go.

I really liked the movie rating idea, so I'm recreating my own version* here, inspired by one of my favorite movies of all time, The Princess Bride. So without further ado, here we go:

True Love:
Lars & the Real Girl
The Queen
Waitress
The Painted Veil
Open Water

As good as a MLT sandwich (Mutton, Lettuce and Tomato):
Becoming Jane
Ratatouille
Knocked Up
Atonement
The Holiday
Disturbia
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Forget the plot, let's have some fun and storm the castle!:
Transformers
Live Free, Die Hard
Spiderman 3
Superbad
Wild Hogs
Stomp the Yard

Okay, but I'd rather have the farm boy fetch me a pitcher of water:
Stardust
The Golden Compass
Music & Lyrics
Gracie
Because I Said So
Bridge to Terabithia

Mostly Dead/Inconceivable!:
Pirates of the Caribbean II & III
Fred Claus
Oceans 13
Volver

What do you think? What were your favorite movies of 2007?

*This list includes movies I saw at the theatre, rented on DVD or caught on TBS in 2007 (that I can remember), so not every movie came out in 2007.

A Spicy Review: Spice Girls Reunion

2007-12-06T16:33:00.000-08:00

My good friend, "Home Spice," offers his take on the reunited Spice Girls concert in San Jose earlier this week. Long but well-worth the time.

XOXO, Yay Toast

Ohmigod. Oh...my...god. OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!!!

I just had one of those defining moments in my life that every teenage girl who was alive in 1998 always dreamed about: I saw The Spice Girls live in concert!!!

Yes, The Spice Girls reunited for a world tour which started in Vancouver on December 2. M and I were fortunate enough to get slammin' tickets to their second show in San Jose on December 4, at the HP Pavilion. Thanks go out to T, my dear sister, for being on-call and ready to pounce on the ticketing website as soon as the tickets went on sale! I wasn't going to miss this for the world.

Why the fascination with The Spice Girls? I owe it (mostly) to my fabulous friend F, who was studying abroad in Scotland in the late 90s, during the peak of SPICE-mania in the UK. F came home and shared her Spice Girls music with us, and in turn, The Spice Girls gained two new fans. M and I have all three albums (Spice, 1996; Spiceworld, 1997; and Forever, 2000), as well as their 1998 single release of Goodbye, which has some holiday extras. We also went on to purchase their 1998 major motion picture, Spiceworld: The Spice Girls Movie, which we proudly own on VHS. In addition, we own their first video anthology entitled One Hour of Girl Power: SPICE - The Official Video, Volume 1, which was released in 1997 and includes their first six music videos with accompanying behind-the-scenes footage. If that wasn't enough, we even rented Spice Girls: Unauthorized, which shows footage of individual auditions for the group, childhood photos of all 5 Spices, and gave an overview of the forming of the group. If The Spice Girls released it, we bought it. We just couldn't get enough.

But my crowning achievement as a Spice Girls fan I share with no one but myself. In 1998, I collected all 24 Spice Girls stickers from the PetCo bubble gum vending machine in Davis! You don't even want to know how many laundry quarters I wasted as an undergrad while on this mission to complete my sticker collection. And many thanks go out to the PetCo Store in Davis for keeping their Spice Girls bubble gum machine fully stocked until I collected all 24 stickers!

For those of you who haven't fallen victim to SPICE-mania yet, The Spice Girls are:

Emma Bunton (a.k.a. Baby Spice)
Geri Halliwell (a.k.a. Ginger Spice)
Melanie Brown (a.k.a. Scary Spice)
Melanie Chisholm (a.k.a. Sporty Spice) and
Victoria Beckham (a.k.a. Posh Spice)

Victoria Beckham is my favorite Spice Girl. But not because of her post-SPICE fame as being a bitchy diva and wife of the most gorgeous man alive. Just like Joseph and his dreams, I was a little ahead of my time in terms of being a Posh Spice fan. I identified her as the talent-less one from the get go. Her flat, weak voice and her uninspired poses left me craving for more. The woman is a like a traffic accident...you just can't help but watch. She's just a pretty face who made it big. The only problem is that she can't sing her way out of a paper bag. Good thing she chose a career as a professional singer.

Before I give my review of the concert, let me first indulge in some discourse about The Spice Girls as artists. To truly appreciate this pop-sensation, one must evaluate their growth as they evolved and morphed along their musical journey. After engaging in a critical analysis of their vast (3-album) discography, it is difficult not to make comparisons to the careers of other musical greats, like 'NSYNC and Beethoven.

Both Beethoven and 'NSYNC had three distinct periods in their musical lifespans. For Beethoven, it was his early years in Classicism; then his Heroic period; and finally his venture into Romanticism, a period he almost single-handedly created on his own. For 'NSYNC, it was their early years in unadulterated "teen-pop"; then their more commercialized years which I call "glam-pop"; and finally an all-out assault with Dirty Pop. (Sorry 'NSYNC fans, I just had to...)

The Spice Girls are no different. I consider their three musical periods to be "world domination" as they espoused their mantra of Girl Power; "soulful exploration" as they experienced the joys and the perils that came with fame and money; and "utter disintegration," because all good things have to come to an end.

The comparisons don't end there. All three artists entered into their final musical periods lacking something substantial that ultimately led to their demise. For Beethoven, it was his sense of hearing. For 'NSYNC, it was Chris Kirkpatrick's youth. And for The Spice Girls, it was the notorious departure of Geri Halliwell -- when 5 became 4.

Beethoven, 'NSYNC and The Spice Girls: a triumvirate of musical passion for the ages.

And now, on to the concert...

Oh my god! We actually saw The Spice Girls last night!!! I am so so so so thrilled that all five of them reunited for a world tour. When Ginger Spice left the group in 1998, I thought my chances of ever seeing all of them together again were over. Yet there they were, standing in front of us...Posh Spice's stupid poses, Sporty Spice's karate kicks, Baby Spice's adorable smile, Ginger Spice's rockin' abs, and Scary Spice's humongous rack! I screamed like a little girl.

There was a good mix of people at the concert. Teenie boppers who were in diapers when Wannabe first hit the sound waves, people my age who remember them from their heyday a decade ago, and parents who were no doubt dragged out by their teenie-bopper kids, but who I'm sure had some morbid curiosity and really wanted to go see them anyway. The HP Pavilion was practically sold out, and the crowd was fantastic -- totally into it and having a grand old time.

The Spice Girls sang a mix of songs from all three albums, although they only sang three songs from Forever, because Geri had left the group by then. Fittingly, she left the stage for those songs, except for Goodbye, which was their finale. In addition, each Spice Girl (except for Posh Spice) sang a song from their respective solo albums. I was really bummed that Posh didn't sing a solo, because her solo stuff is actually quite good. (Yes, Matt and I followed their solo careers as well...)

The choreography was an interesting mix of really really good, and really really bad. The cadre of male dancers were fantastic, showing the latest and greatest hip-hop moves on the dance floor. They lit up the stage whenever they appeared. The Spice Girls, on the other hand, had very boring, remedial choreography that was reminiscent of dance numbers from my elementary school talent show. But I know it's hard...they had to remember all of those words!

Speaking of words, we speculated that they were going to lip sync the concert, but they didn't! The actually sang live! This was especially evident when Scary Spice missed her entrance to her solo rap in Wannabe ("So here's the story from A to Z; You wanna get with me you gotta listen carefully..."). Luckily, she came in on the next line and covered up pretty well.

Below is their concert set, along with some brief commentary.

Act 1 - The Power of 5
Spice Up Your Life (Sooooo good! M and I are beaming. We're so happy!)
Stop (Yes, we did the choreography, and we also taught it to the people with us!)
Say You'll Be There (By now I've died and gone to Spice Heaven!)
Headlines (This is their new song...it's kinda blah. 1/4 of audience takes a potty break.)

Act 2 - Seduce Me
Lady Is A Vamp (Classic, nice set design for this one.)
Too Much (They changed the tempo to swing; kinda cool.)
2 Become 1 (God I love them.)

Act 3
Who Do You Think You Are (Same choreography from the video; brilliant!)
Are You Gonna Go My Way (Sporty Spice solo; she ties some cute guy up and pretends to whip him on stage!)
Maybe (Baby Spice solo. Dull, kinda boring.)
Viva Forever (Strong vocals from Sporty Spice, as usual.)
Holler (Ginger exits. OMG, they totally bit off of Madonna's Confessions concert opening with the S&M theme!
It's Raining Men (Ginger Spice solo. M is dancing so hard he's dripping with sweat.)
I Turn to You (Sporty Spice solo. Crowd goes wild. Especially the lesbians.)

Act 4
Let Love Lead The Way (No Ginger again. Sung very well by the other 4)
Mama (All 5 again. Almost brought a tear to my eye. Photos of Spices with their mums.)
Celebration Medley (Getting ready to close, singing classic songs everyone knows.)
Goodbye (Ginger stays for this one, they descend, as if the show is over...)

Encore!
If You Can't Dance (Male dancers are going crazy! This one is their curtain call.)
Wannabe (Yes!!!! Even I am dancing now! Fuck yeah! Woohoo!)
Spice Up Your Life - Reprise (Still dancing. Music ends, we're all temporarily deaf.)

My ears are still ringing, and it's 11:45pm the next day. I hope there's no permanent damage. The music was insanely loud, and the microphones were so heavily distorted that Baby Spice sounded like Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks. The sound engineer for this show needs to be fired.

But all in all, the concert was WAY better than either M or I expected it to be. They sang live, they danced as well as they could, and they put on a damn entertaining show.

We saw The Spice Girls! Ohmigod.

Thanks for reading (if you made it this far...),

- S (a.k.a. Home Spice)

She's crafty: Check it out

2007-11-30T12:10:00.000-08:00

K, so I feel so very rusty at this blogger thing, and slightly embarrassed that it's taken me so long to return with a new post.

Anyway, this post is NOT about me, but rather my great friend, Mrs. H, over at Under Construction. She is going to be selling some of her fine handcrafted wares at a craft show this Saturday, so I invite any Yay Toast readers in the area to come check it out!!

See you there!

I'd also like to give a shout out and cheer to LW, who is competing in the CIM in Sacramento this Sunday. Good luck and kick some runner booty!!

More layout madness

2007-08-29T23:09:00.000-07:00

Finished this layout last Saturday while scrapping with Mrs. H:

"Knocked Up"

I ran out of letters to spell "baby," and I enjoyed the movie "Knocked Up" this summer, so I thought it was an appropriate title to capture my friend's baby shower. Hopefully all will take the title in the silly way it's intended...her baby was planned!

Got inspired (or anxious) by all of the paper goodies I have sitting..waiting.. on my desk in the wake of my recent digital scrapbooking class. So I threw this together last night...I think it's the LAST of my Kauai pics from May. Hooray!

"Relax...enjoy life"

Gotta love Dad falling into the hammock and laughing at himself. Classic!

Okay, tomorrow I'm seeing "Becoming Jane" on the big screen, starring Ms. Princess Diaries herself, Anne Hathaway. Review to be posted soon!

Scrap Happy

2007-08-28T17:40:00.000-07:00

I am on the second week of my Photoshop scrapbooking class at jessicasprague.com.

So far I've been really enjoying it and I'm learning a bunch. It's always strange to throw yourself into something new and work through the frustration of the learning curve. You go through school for a gazillion years, you get out and a dozen years later you are supposed to remember how to do all of that learning stuff again?

Anyway, the class has been great work for my brain, and it doesn't hurt that I really enjoy the topic. And I get results right away. I might have to try this learn-new-things gig more often!

This layout uses photos of the lovely Miss Biscuit, daughter and frequent clothing model of Mrs. H. over at Under Construction.

I can see why moms are so into this scrapbooking thing. It's much more fun to do layouts of a cute kid than to do yet ANOTHER holiday or wedding layout (not there there is anything wrong with either event).

I have recruited a few more parents to send me photos of their children so I have new inspiraton and new images to work with. So no worries, in case you're wondering who all these kids belong to in my upcoming layouts!

Windshields and Weekend Layouts: More than Meets the Eye?

2007-08-25T17:23:00.000-07:00

As promised, a photo of my damaged windshield and the replacement.

I have to admit, it was rather tramautizing watching these guys pull out the frame of my window and roof to get the glass out. But it all looked just dandy when they were finished. I'd had to keep my moonroof open a bit so the inside of my car doesn't pressurize and pop the new windshield out. I also have to keep this really pretty blue tape on the new windshield until tomorrow.

I think I heard some wind getting in somewhere on the right side of the car, but I don't want to think about it too much. At least not until I take the tape off and can do a proper drive without any windows open.

A picture frame that I decorated with cool self-adhesive scrapbook "fabric" paper and embellishments:

A layout of the family dog, "Palmer":

Mrs. H is coming over tonight for some more scrappin. Should be fun!

Oh yeah, and about "Transformers." I was pleasantly surprised that the movie was so intense and kept me pretty engaged for most of it. Of course there were silly mucho-macho moments, a few super-holey plot points and the standard dorky high school kid who manages to land the hottest babe in school by the end, even though he looks 13 and she looks 28. But despite all that, the special effects were, dare I say, neat-o? (especially in slow-mo) Those were definitely best seen on the big screen.

So if you've got $9.75 to spare and want some easy summer entertainment that reminds you of your favorite childhood after-school moments, then by all means, head over to the theatre and see Transformers. Otherwise wait for the rental but know you'll lose something in the special effects when you watch it on anything less than a 60-inch screen.

Happy weekend!!

7 years of bad driving luck and digital dandies

2007-08-23T00:06:00.000-07:00

Dude, so I really shouldn't have gone on about finally being lucky in my last post. I apparently pissed off someone up in the heavens. I left work on Monday night and got to my car, only to discover a HUGGGEEEE crack across the windshield. Apparently it had a small chip that I never saw, which responded to this week's heat by splitting into two lovely cracks, both up and across the windshield.

So maybe not such a lucky kid after all.

A glass repair company is coming out to replace the windshield tomorrow. Expect some fun pics shortly.

In the meantime, enjoy these two lovely digital layouts. I signed up for a four-week digital scrapbooking class online, and these are my first two completed assignments:

"Fantastic Fandangos"

"A New Friend"

I'd try to appear less of a scrapbook nerd by saying I will gain some legit Photoshop skillz as a result of these classes. But really, I just wanted to learn how to make my digital photos look purrrrty.

Next post: My review of the summer blockbuster "Transformers," and me, Simpsonized!

Yay for Contest Winners!

2007-08-16T17:49:00.001-07:00

As a scrapbooking gal, I read a fair amount of scrappy blogs. One of those blogs is Simple Scrapbook's "Simple Studio."

Last week they threw down a 2-page layout challenge. Participants were automatically entered into a drawing to win a recently released scrapper book, retail value of $19.95, written for "real life scrapbookers."

I decided to throw my Kauai layout into the ring, so to speak. I figured why the heck not?

They drew two winners and I just learned I am one of them. Yippee! This is my second drawing win this year, and let me tell you, I never win nada. The luck in the family skipped me and went straight to my stinky brother.

I might have to start playing the race tracks at the State Fair if this keeps up.

Apparently after reading this book, I will "learn to appreciate my own extra-ordinary life." If only I had known I could find such wisdom from scrapbooking, I would have started much earlier in life!

Happy Birthday to Me, to Me!

2007-08-09T21:46:00.001-07:00

I am now officially one step closer to Becks. Hooray!

My brothers got me the Beckham L.A. Galaxy away jersey for my birthday.

Now I'm gonna have to get them something really good for their birthdays!

And then, b/c my mom loves me too, she got me the Becks home jersey (white)! I was trying to wear both at the same time, but the look wasn't so good. So one at a time from now on: Monday, Wednesday, Friday will be the home jersey, and Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday will be the away!

P.S. The spaghetti was excellent. Looking forward to the french toast tomorrow a.m.!

On the eve of 33

2007-08-08T19:50:00.001-07:00

Am I showing my single cat lady colors by putting together a sewing project on my birthday eve?

I'll ponder that as I look for my crochet needles. Ha! The angel dress form kit was a monthly add-on kit from Poppy Ink. Fun stuff!

I thought it would be fun to do something like this in honor of turning a year...ahem...wiser, but of course I can't complete 32 items tonight. Instead, I'll mull it over and post a "33 Things for Age 34" so I have almost a year to procrastinate. Um, I mean motivate! Share your own list if you decide to tackle the challenge.

Planned birthday celebrations: family dinner with the best spaghetti ever (made by my mum), breakfast with the family with the best french toast ever (not made by my mum), a lazy afternoon of shopping, movies, or whatever we want to do, and then we get to go see the musical "Annie." I can't wait to sing along.

Back in the day, my 1st grade buddy, Stephanie, had an underground copy of the Annie soundtrack and a portable boom box, so we would reenact the entire movie in my backyard, cartwheels and dancing included. I desperately wanted to be an orphan because of that movie. Is that strange?

Gotta go watch "Damages" on the DVR. Love that show, Glenn Close rules!!!

Barely....treading, soccer, HP and game-set-match

2007-07-30T23:30:00.000-07:00

The last week has flown by and yet there have been many, many brain-sucking moments at work when all I could do was let my inner voice scream out the lyrics to "I will survive" in order to dull the pain.

The life of a project manager/marketing manager/editor. Oy.

Our big annual publication is almost finished. I imagine it's what giving birth is like without any meds. And with multiple parents and only 2 months of baking.

I cannot fathom how many times I've read the 32 pages of text (we are on our 9th rev), and yet I still found a number of small, but still there errors during my 2 1/2 hour review tonight.

I know. Boo hoo hoo. Suck it up already.

So enough of that. It will get the printer tomorrow, so help me God. And I will try remember what I was doing at work before this project started in June.

On the other end of the spectrum, I have been a soccer-aholic this past week. I played five games over the weekend: my two regularly scheduled indoor games, and then three games in a tournament up in Truckee on Saturday. The final results: 1-3-1, + 1 goal for yours truly. Not too shabby considering the three losses were at the tournament, and our team has yet to win a game in at least three years of participation.

I also partook in the recent Monterrey vs. some English team international "friendly" soccer match at Raley Field last week with some of my teammates, which was fun. I haven't watched a live game in a really long time, so it was great to see the moves in person; the players' ball control was amazing.

Outside of soccer and work, I managed to get in the latest Harry Potter movie (Order of the Phoenix) with my parents (awww, family fun for everyone!). I liked it, which is saying more than it sounds like because I didn't really enjoy that book. I left the movie theater feeling more amped to get started on the final book.

To top off the weekend, I hung out with my new tennis instructor.

Ha ha, how hoity, toity did that sound? My. Tennis. Instructor.

My very thoughtful friends, M&S (what up, boys!), gave me an early birthday present of two tennis lessons at their tennis club. It looks like I'll be getting my first lesson later this week. Will keep you posted on the outcome. At the very least, I'll get to wear a cute tennis outfit and learn how to properly tie a cardigan over my shoulders, right?

P.S. If you live behind the tennis club, I apologize now for any balls that may land in your backyard.

Latest Layout and HP Countdown

2007-07-21T13:27:00.000-07:00

While I wait for the UPS guy to deliver my beloved, final installment of Harry Potter, I thought I'd post my latest layout. It's not incredibly exciting but I am thrilled that I was able to use the remainder of the photos from my May Kauai trip. The layout is actually a two-page spread, but those kind of HTML skillz are beyond my current set. So humor me and pretend the pages are side-by-side, k? Thanks!

Happy weekend!

The Long and the Short of It

2007-07-18T19:35:00.001-07:00

This post is dedicated to my friend Krin

My friend Krin used to get irritated by me every now and then. Or more specifically, irritated at my hair, because it grows pretty fast. For whatever reason (good genes? the slug bait I ate as I child?), it doesn't take long for my hair to get long.

Krin, on the other hand, lamented that her hair never grew. To make the point, she used to measure her hair in comparison to mine. But not in inches, like normal people do. She measured it in fists.

Yep, you read that correctly.

The trick is to pull your hair into a low ponytail, make a tight fist around the base of the ponytail, and then make a fist with your remaining hand around the next section of hair. You continue with this process down the length of your ponytail, fist-to-fist, counting as you go along, until you reach the end.

Much like you would walk heel to toe, one foot in front of the other, until you reached the end of the painted yellow line, if requested at a DUI checkpoint.

Not that I would know.

However many "fists" you can count by the time you reach the end of the pony equaled the length of your hair. Today, before my stylist cut off a lotta my hair, I counted 5 1/2 fists.

photos courtesy of MH

And afterward? 1 1/2 fists.
Photo courtesy of salon receptionist

As you might imagine, despite requesting my stylist to chop my hair off, actually having it chopped off was fairly traumatic. Not in a 6th-grade-12-year-old-girl-with-long-hair-turning-into-a-12-year-old-girl-with-short-hair-who-now-looked-like-a-12-year-old-boy kind of way. But it has been at least a few years since I have had a hairstyle shorter than shoulder length. It's an acclimation process.

But I was also quite pleased to have it gone. I imagine kind of like Britney Spears must have felt before she took it to the next level and grabbed hold of an electric razor.

First Digi

2007-07-15T22:22:00.001-07:00

This weekend was fairly non-descript. My Friday evening and Sunday morning indoor soccer teams won; my Sunday evening team (subbing) tied. I did some cleaning up around the house, made a run to Costco with my mom.

Are you so totally yawning yet?

I also watched "The Painted Veil," which I recommend. The film was fairly slow but I never felt bored. And Ed Norton and Naomi Watts were great. The cinematography (rural China) and Naomi's costumes (20's dresses) were fabulous.

Probably my greatest accomplishment this weekend (since I didn't get any laundry done) was creating my first digital "digi" layout. I attempted to go it my own, and I didn't fare so well. So I started with a pre-designed template, used another photo that seemed to work better, and added some little bits, with the end result:

I'm hoping my next foray into the digital thing will go a little better, but at least I now have one under my belt!

Off to bed.

Bikini Babe

2007-07-11T00:14:00.001-07:00

I entered a layout challenge tonight called "Flashback Friday." We were supposed to pick a pic from at least five years ago and scrap it, for a chance to win a new book on scrapbook organization.

I don't really care about the contest so much, I just had fun getting this pic out of the box in my mom's closet and putting it to some paper. Since it is about 30 years old, it definitely qualifies as a flashback. Oy!

Yep....it's me. Probably the last time I was so smiley in a bikini...and in a PLAID one at that!

Short and Sweet Recap

2007-07-08T22:22:00.002-07:00

The weekend was good.

The end.

Just kidding. The recap is slightly longer than that. Yay Toast and her alter ego are not exactly known for, ahem, brevity.

Anyhoo, I scored two goals in my Friday night soccer game and we won, so I was quite happy all around. My Sunday morning team won as well. I returned to the movie theatre this weekend, this time with my mom, dad and brother. We checked out a total summer movie, "Live Free or Die Hard." Big explosions, holey plots, ass-kicking, Harrier jets, lots of testosterone: check, check, check, check, check. All there.

If you can take the movie for what it is (or rather, ignore what it isn't), LFODH is very fun and entertaining. Bruce Willis looks just as good as he did in the earlier Die Hard flicks, and his co-star, probably best known as the hip kid in the Apple commercials, is very likable.

I missed the vengeful European "bad guy" that typically runs the show in the Die Hard series, but fear not. Timothy Oliphant does a good turn as an American evil-doer who is really just misunderstood. And for some reason that is never explained, he has a few French henchmen under his employment, so there is still some Euro-mystique goin' on. Do we get a few random subtitles here and there? Oui, oui!

The rest of the weekend involved lots of apartment cleaning (bah), a Chevy's run, a nap, a McGyver-like lamp shade and light bulb project where my Dad took no prisoners, cat-sitting the ever-lovely cat sisters Lana and Lilia, and finally this:

From the spring March of Dimes walk in downtown Sacramento. We walked in honor and in memory of Charlotte Foster Wigglesworth, who sadly suffered developmental defects in the womb and was born too early to survive. Her parents organized the walk and we all wore matching pink t-shirts, with "Team Wiggles" on the back. We had a great time and it was for a great cause.

Happy 4th and all that independency jazz

2007-07-05T23:02:00.000-07:00

I hope all y'all had a great 4th of July and were successful in beating the heat if you live on the West Coast or elsewhere scorching. It was great to have a day off in the middle of the week, but it kept feeling like a Sunday....I felt like I spent most of the day trying not to melt while trying to get stuff "done" before work started back up. Oyyoyy.

I did manage to finish a layout and learn a new scanning technique that removes those ugly stitch seams, so I was quite pleased with the "productive" part of my day. I also bought a fan for my bathroom at Target, which was SUCH a score. I no longer dread getting ready in the morning when the temp hits 90...95...105 degrees. Leaving for work and feeling like you need to take another shower is literally and figuratively NOT cool.

My mom and I celebrated the 4th by returning to our tradition of seeming a "kiddie" movie on a holiday. We checked out "Ratatouille." Almost as fun to spell as it was to watch. Very cute, very entertaining, great animation.

I had a couple of rats as pets in middle school, so I have always viewed them as sweet, kind little critters. But even the animated visual of hundreds of rats swarming in a restaurant's kitchen definitely gives you pause, regardless of your warm and fuzzy predispositions. On the other hand....if they can cook? Well, I'd probably be willing to host a few rats in my kitchen if it meant dinner would be ready by the time I came home!

Here is the layout I finished yesterday, along with a layout I finished a while ago, but forgot to scan and post:

Kauai '07

K&K

The really great thing about having a holiday midweek is that tomorrow is Friday. I can live with that!

Mustang Sally

2007-06-27T21:33:00.000-07:00

The text reads: I bought my first new car, a red 1997 Ford Mustang, when I was 23. I had been working almost a year and I probably had just received my first raise. My dad wanted me to get a Honda Civic, but I knew I was only going to be 23 once! I remember it being incredibly hot the day I bought the car, and then after what seemed like a forever of paperwork and signing my life away, being terrified while driving it home. I was so worried someone would hit me on the freeway or look at the car the wrong way and somehow scratch it. I wanted it to stay beautiful forever.

Driving the same car for 10 years and 136,000 miles gives you a history together. My Mustang was one of the few constants during my life and adventures in the Bay Area after college all the way back to Sacramento six years later, when I returned home to find my passion in life. I loved that car. It was fun to drive, sporty, and contrary to my Dad’s initial beliefs, reliable. So selling it was really hard, but knowing it was going to a 17-year old kid who really wanted a Mustang made it a little bit easier. He seemed to realize how much the car meant to me (was it my clinging to the fender while crying that gave it away?). He promised to take good care of her, and I knew he would take her on lots of new great adventures.

I can die and go to heaven...

2007-06-27T00:24:00.000-07:00

....now that Zach Braff has accepted my "friends" invitation on myspace (unless you have an account, you won't be able to see his profile on my page, but trust me, it's there). I won't consider the fact that he has 230,000 other friends to mean that his invite response option is set to a default "duh, yeah, for the sake of good PR." Call him a cad all you want, I still love the dude.

I am really on a roll with this whole scrapping thing. I went over to my friend Jen's house tonight after work and nearly finished a new layout. I should have it ready to post tomorrow night, but here's a clue about the topic in the meantime:

No, it's not about picking up underage boys in my hot rod. Though at my age, I think I am starting to qualify for cougar status.

Is it a coincidence that there were only three copies left in stock as of this posting? I think not.

Wonderful Baby Everything!

2007-06-25T22:16:00.001-07:00

This was the weekend of Baby, capital "B." First off, my friend Kim had her baby earllly Saturday morning. 8 lbs, 10 oz, he's a whopper!

Kim's oldest son, holding his new baby brother

It doesn't seem that long ago that big brother was the baby. Geez, time flies. Kim and her husband are halfway to a kick-ass basketball team -- this is her third boy (three outta three!). That, and they're going to need to start shopping at Costco for basic items like milk, eggs and toilet paper.

Next there was the baby shower for my friend, Laura. I thought it was Saturday afternoon and got halfway there before I got a weird feeling and checked the invite to realize the shower was actually on Sunday. Oops. Well, it was twice as much fun on the actual correct date. Tea and scones and conversation with a bunch of really nice women. And we're all really excited to meet Laura's little Mr. (first child, first boy for Laura....will she find the same odds as Kim? Stay tuned...).

Pics of the baby shower pending. In the meantime, here's the bag/tag I made for my shower gift:

Do You Fondue?

2007-06-22T01:03:00.000-07:00

Sent in my first layout for a contest at How Much is Too Much this evening. It was quite an ordeal b/c the challenge involved putting down 50 eyelets somewhere on the page. But on the upside I finished a page in an evening, and I'm finally submitting layouts again, just for kicks.

The pics were taken from the last dinner group outing that I attended, in Feburary, I think? It was my turn to host dinner, and the dinner portion (chicken enchilada casserole) went over fine and dandy. But the "dessert" couple didn't show up, so we were left without munchies at the end of the meal. Someone brilliantly came up with the idea of dropping in at the Melting Pot for some chocolate fondue.

It was the Best. Idea. Ever. YUM!!!!

She's Crafty

2007-06-20T22:20:00.001-07:00

I love the Beastie Boys song "She's Crafty," although they couldn't be further removed from rapping about a woman who's into crafts and scrapbooking. At least I don't think they were talking about shopping at JoAnn's when they said "She's crafty, she gets around..."

Ahem.

Anyhoo, I put together three cards last week and over the weekend, and thought I'd share. I have been awful about scrapbooking in a while, but I'm meeting up with a friend next week to do some scrappin', so I'm hoping I will actually get some photos put to paper. In the meantime, this is what I got:

For a coworker's goodbye party:

For Father's Day: (I love the photo of him on the inside, so cute!)

And for Manoa Missy's birthday last week (I haven't gotten around to mailing this to her just yet, oops. So Manoa Missy, if you're reading this, RETREAT, RETREAT!!):

Ella Bella Follow up

2007-06-18T21:26:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling kind of anti-Blogger lately. Probably mostly because I have procrastinated to the point where I feel guilty and then I try to rebel against that guilt by not blogging. Bad cycle. Bad Yay Toast.

The other reason is because I've been trying to think of the right way to share the news about Ella, and to get to the point where I don't feel completely disarmed, helpless, hopeless, heartbroken.

Not quite there yet.

Here is an excerpt from my journal, dated May 30:

Tomorrow is Ella Bella's' memorial service. She passed away, as a result of a rare form of pediatric brain cancer, last Saturday, about 3 1/2 months after her initial diagnosis. I am stunned and distraught and frustrated. Helpless for her parents. Trying to grasp the reality of it.

I don't want to go tomorrow. Not that maybe it won't be real if I don't go. I'm just not ready to give up or stop fighting...she had just started to fight! So I can't believe we're celebrating her life tomorrow. All 2+ years of it. It is cruel cruel cruel. And I am heartbroken for Tom.

I don't think it really hit me until I was at the store buying a stupid sympathy card from the office. It seemed so silly, so idiotic to find one flippin' sympathy card that didn't have some patronizing gobbledly gook message or religious undertone. There was nothing specific to a child or devoid of dried flower images or long grasses. I laughed as I bent over the cards, at the ridiculousness of it all...how could we be HERE? Need to buy this type of card? I was still working on a get well soon card from our office and now I had to get a sympathy card? What happened while I was on vacation?

I just wish it weren't true and I wish Tom and Shannon would see Ella in her room, safe and asleep and it was all just one really big nightmare. I know she's in a better place and at peace instead of being left on tubes and respirators in a hospital. But damnit if I didn't think Ella would survive this....albeit a challenging survival, but one nonetheless.

P.S. I am SO glad I went to the service. It was difficult and sad but it was also beautiful and peaceful. It was somehow easier to share my grief with the "Ella" community and to know that Tom and Shannon have so many people to support and comfort them, and to help them remember all the brightest parts of Ella and them as parents.

We will all miss her.

Winner!

2007-05-24T22:45:00.001-07:00

I already felt like a winner this week, having just spent the past five days in Kauai with my family for a very needed vacation. A little pool and beach time, snorkeling, great meals and even golf(!) = a very happy Yay Toast. My favorite bloggy friend, Manoa Missy, dropped in for the weekend, making the trip extra special.

And then I returned home and checked my e-mail. And lo and behold, I was picked as one of three winners (out of 300 entries) to receive a sampling of new scrapbooking supplies from my favorite happy doodling exclamation-using scrap queen, Elsie Flannigan. She's like the Drew Barrymore of scrapbooking (without the teen rehab or flasher David Letterman moment).

I have never been lucky when it comes to drawings, contests, gambling, lottery tickets. So I'm pretty thrilled to win anything. Winning fun scrapbook supplies from Elsie puts me over the moon!!

Hope to have a few pics from the tropical vacation over the weekend. Until then, aloha!!!

My Mom is Super: Here's Why

2007-05-14T21:56:00.001-07:00

Everyone says their mom is the best, but what kind of metrics are really being used to calculate such "bestness?" What benchmarks are in place to evaluate and validate the data, to ensure the mom who helps tie her son's shoe is held in the same light as the mom who braids her daughter's hair into pigtails every morning before school?

I would never want to judge whose mom is "best." But I can say without a doubt, my mom is super. The bomb. The big J of moms.
Apparently my fellow family members and my mom's friends agree. I asked them to tell me what makes her super, and they graciously replied with humor and heart.

So I prepared a little accordian scrapbook to honor my mom in all of her various capacities, featuring super quotes and a few photos. It was a lot of fun, and I think she got a kick out of it, so a success all the way around!

Thank you to all who participated!

And Happy Mother's Day to all moms out there!!

It hits home

2007-04-18T15:17:00.000-07:00

On Monday, as I was getting ready for work, I heard the TV in the background. Something about a shooting at a college campus, one student reported dead. I continued putting on my makeup and fixing my hair. I guess that says something about how numb I've become to violence, or at least to news stations' coverage of violent acts.

I remember thinking something along the lines of "It was only one death -- it could have been a lot worse." I figured it was probably a domestic incident (jealous ex-boyfriend) or revenge against a single person who had bullied the shooter.

When I got to work and checked my daily RSS feeds (CNN, NY Times, etc) later that morning, I was shocked to learn that 31 more students and a few faculty members had been shot and killed.

Working at a university, it wasn't too much of a stretch to imagine this kind of tragedy happening at my campus. And as part of my job requires communicating with recently admitted students and their families, it wasn't a stretch to imagine they were thinking the same thing. "Will I be safe here?" "What are YOU doing to make sure my daugher/son will be safe?"

I brushed up on what we are doing to keep our community safe, so I could response to any potential questions, or ease any anxiety. There are measures, protocols, and response and prevention programs in place. I'd like to think our campus police and news service department would have done a much better job of communicating the danger to the students, staff and faculty.

I'd like to think that most of those deaths at Virginia Tech would have been prevented here.

But no one can guarantee that.

So I have continued to mill along through this week, reading all of the latest VT developments, trying, as I guess most of the world is, to understand why. It didn't really hit home for me until today, when I saw the victims' pictures and read their profiles online.

Comments from family, friends and teachers filled in who these students and professors were, and ironically, made them "real" for me, alive somehow, even in the aftermath of their death. Before they were just "the VT victims." Now they are faces, names, loved ones.

I looked outside the window of my office, and realized those faces could be any one of the hundreds of students I see walking to and from class every day. And the senselessness of it all broke my heart for the Virginia Tech campus, its students, the victims and their families and everyone affected by it.

I'm not sure what the answer is to prevent this from happening again. I sure as hell hope someone is figuring that out right now.

Howz it?

2007-03-18T22:44:00.000-07:00

I was watching "Dog: The Bounty Hunter" earlier today (LOVE IT!!) and I noticed the Dog and his wife say "Howz it?" as an abbreviated salutation for "How's it going?" I find it humorous that the locals in Hawaii (where most of of the show is filmed) shorten a lot of sayings (e.g. "bra" for "brother"), when the lifestyle and culture are known for being pretty laidback. Don't they, of everyone in the world, have the time to throw out a full sentence or two?

Of course, I do have to concede that the Dog is always chasing after all those crazy bail jumpers, armed only with a can of whoop-ass and a come-to-Jesus speech. It's a dangerous, moment-to-moment life that he leads. The Dog doesn't have a lot of time for chit-chat.

{insert clever transition here when feeling more clever}

So it has been way too long since I've checked in. Everything is A-OK. Some new things going on, which I'll have to post about later. Right now, a quick recap on last weekend's outing to a new scrapbook store in town.

I met up with Mrs. H and my friend Shandra and we dedicated an afternoon to scrapping at the new store. I completed nearly three layouts, which is tres mas than any other four-hour sitting I've spent staring at my craft supplies. So I considered the day a mission accomplished on catching up with friends, and on creative productivity. Here are the two completed (third to be posted in the near future):

Sweet Friend

When on Holiday

The schedule this week includes work, soccer and three appointments: lower braces wire replacement/tightening, hair cut/color and annual eye exam. Guess which one I am most excited about? Hopefully I'll have a pic later this week to, ahem, highlight the answer. Highlight, get it?

Oh, it is SO time for me to go to bed. TTFN.

The Cat's Got Spunk!

2007-03-01T20:23:00.000-08:00

I blogged about my mom's cat, Jonesy, a little more than a year ago. Back then he was this darling little feral kitten who had an occasional dark side. Not much has changed, except Jonesy is now the size of a small horse.

I've had pics of his cute little butt for a while, but didn't really know what to do with them. Then I got sucked into the wonders of scrapbooking site poppyink.com. The site recently had a fun little paint project for its customers. And when I thought about the pics I should use, it became clear I had found a home for the Jonesy photos!

I am almost as thrilled with the fact that I figured out how to scan and stitch a 12x12 layout on my new scanner as I am that I completed two layouts in a week. It's the little things in life.

P.S. As a follow up to my last post about Ella Bella, I wanted to let the Yay Toast readers know that she went home from the hospital last Friday, and is recovering nicely from brain surgery. Ella is eating a bunch, sleeping, and regaining her strength and energy enough to start walking again. She even spoke a new word (chewing). Her parents are narrowing down their choices for her chemo treatment and she should be starting it in the next week or so. Keep thinking happy thoughts!

For Ella Bella

2007-02-25T11:10:00.000-08:00

My former supervisor, fellow lunchtime bowler and all around good compadre TH, recently learned that his daughter had a brain tumor. Awful, awful stuff. They quickly operated, and while the doctors successfully removed the tumor, they learned that cancerous cells from the tumor had spread along the top of her brain, and into her spine.

Ella just turned two.

And while TH's family is devastated, as are his friends and coworkers, they have taken a brave, strong-armed approach to help Ella fight this. They have quickly organized into committees: information gatherers about this specific type of cancer, researchers for hospitals that offer the best treatment, healers who are quilting talisman blankets, crafters who are building an affirmation book to transfer all of our strength, love and courage to Ella for her fight.

It is a wondrous, magical gathering of people who appeared out of the woodwork as quickly as Ella's first diagnosis, willing to join her fight and help however they can. Ella's advocates, I call them. A very cool thing to see and watch. I imagine it would be easy to feel helpless and defeated in this kind of situation, and yet this family and their network have made it impossible to feel anything but hopeful and determined.

I am proud to be able to contribute in my small little ways. Here is my submission for the affirmation book, "I am loved":

Please think happy thoughts for Ella Bella. Thank you.

photo courtesy of Jen Hatch
UHU kindly gave me samples of its glue roller and color glue stic, and I used both to complete this project.

What not to do with a brand new bottle of nail polish

2007-02-25T10:53:00.000-08:00

Pearls of wisdom for the weekend:

Don't try carry two bottles of nail polish with some other stuff in your hands in an attempt to multi-task unless you are really paying attention.

Because if you aren't paying attention, and if one of the bottles accidentally falls out of your hands and lands on the kitchen floor (which is tile), it will shatter all over the floor and spray nail polish everywhere, including on your brand new pajamas that you've only worn once. And on the tip of your dad's white leather sneaker.

And if you are really lucky, like I was Friday night, the bottle you drop will be the darkest shade you have ever owned. And the polish, like the the pj's, will be the one that you have only worn once.

Your dad will try tell you it could have been a lot worse. But removing 3/4ths of a bottle of dark purply-black nail polish off a white tile floor seems pretty bad.

Then he reminds you that you could have spilled the bottle of polish on the carpet.

And you remember that parents are (damn-it anyway) always right.

Tip: Acetone nail polish remover and cotton balls or an abrasive sponge, plus powder bleach (on the grout), will remove nail polish from tile. But it'll take a while. And your kitchen will stink for 24 hours.

What I did on Superbowl Sunday

2007-02-18T11:31:00.000-08:00

When life is rough
And gives you the blues,

Shop for

Shop for

Shop for shoes!

Well, it was either that, or:

One, Two
Three, Four
Someone I know
is a shoe whore!

I thought the first option was a little more ladylike.

BRACEFACE!!

2007-02-03T23:47:00.000-08:00

Well, to be technically accurate, I guess you could say "half-a-BRACEFACE."

I got braces on my bottom teeth last Thursday. Yeah, I wasn't so good with that whole retainer thing after the first time I wore braces when I was in high school. And it turns out that if you don't wear your retainer, your teeth really can shift back to their formerly snaggletooth state. Who knew?!

So it's been this weird deja vu feeling to be in an orthodontist's chair again, sitting next to 13 year olds. Although this time around I am old enough to be the other patients' mother.

Oy.

The technology is definitely more advanced since the last time I visited an orthodontist. My X-rays were shown to me on a computer instead of on film; I had the option of clear ceramic brackets in addition to the standard metal.

And all the cleaning gadgets required to keep my braces from looking like a science experiment gone astray in my mouth! The bottle-brush the size of my pinky for use between the brackets, the special threading floss, the bubble-gum flavor flouride rinse. My orthodontist gave me a pencil kit full of samples and mini-sized products. And a Jamba Juice card, since he knew I wouldn't be eating solid food for a few days. I think the orthodontist I had as a teen just slapped me on the back and wished me good luck until my next appointment.

There are also whole Web sites, blogs, and online message boards dedicated to adults who have braces. I can find my very own support group at ArchWired.com. There's also a "Braces in the Bedroom" section at the site, which requires that you be 18 to enter. Frankly, just knowing my new "appliance" can be used in a bedroom setting is disturbing enough.

Unfortunately there hasn't been a lot of progress is the area of brace pain management over the past two decades. Two days after getting my braces and my teeth still feel like they've been at the receiving end of a really good hockey puck shot. Ouch. Anbesol and wax have become my two new best friends.

On the upside, I only had to get the braces on my lower teeth, so they aren't noticeable to anyone but me.

And I chose the clear ceramic brackets, so in those cases when I'm baring my lower teeth, all you can really see is the metal wire.

The other good news? I won't have to put up with the braces for two years, like I did when I was 14. Nine months seems to be the magic number now, so I am counting down until November. It is humorous to me that some women will have babies at the end of those nine months, while I'll have straight teeth. I'm sure I'm having much less fun up front than the pregnant women, but a whole lot less pain at the end.

And this time around, when I get my braces off, I will wear my retainer. I promise.

The Great Hunt

2007-01-28T18:12:00.000-08:00

Ten years ago I bought my first car on my own. I had been driving an '83 Honda Accord hatchback that my parents had bought for me while I was in high school, and its retirement was quickly approaching. So without the benefits of Internet research back in '97, I blindly went searching for a replacement with my dad. We really didn't do a whole lot of searching because my price range was extremely limited, and I knew I wanted something young and sporty. Which pretty much left me a choice of a Ford Mustang, a Saturn or a Honda Civic. As a 23 year-old, which one do you think I ended up with?

Yep, Mustang Sally. The most beautiful red color (which, surprisingly, has held up even after nearly 10 years of driving). Stick shift. A spoiler. The interior was all bare bones: no power ANYTHING (except steering), and no cd-player. No trunk release?!But I didn't care. I loved the car, and I could afford the payments. That was all that mattered. So on a 105 degree day in August 1997, I rolled out of the auto mall thrilled yet terrified that someone would hit my brand new car.

If only I knew that eventually it would be hit a handful of times over the next several years (including a garage pole incident caused by your truly), I wouldn't have been nearly so nervous driving the car back home. The steering wheel wouldn't have been so sweaty and hard to grasp.

But anyhoo. Flash forward to 2007, 134,000 miles later. The Mustang is still running. My dad frequently shakes his head because he can't believe the car still has its original brakes and several other key parts that I guess are generally replaced at least once on cars of similar age. I've been really lucky, I guess.

And I still love the car. But I'm not 23 anymore. So it's time to move on past the flirty fun sporty 2-door car and get something a little more.....mature. Not that I need a walker or anything, but it'd be nice to have a car that had a little more room. A LOT more features. A look that said a little less just outta college and little more professional and reasonably accomplished.

So here we are. My dad and I have been doing research online, we've read Consumer Reports, Car and Driver, the Auto section of the newspaper. I've talked to friends who have cars I am interested in (thanks JC and LS). And my dad and I have hit the automalls since Christmastime, test driving six cars and doing the schmoozy-schooze with at least six salespeeps.

2006 Honda CRV. 2006 Infiniti G35 sedan. 2003 BMW 330i. 2006 Acura TSX. 2007 Honda CRV. 2005 BMW 325.

Oy.

And still no car for this kid. And it's getting frustrating. I keep waiting for a sign, a "this is the one!" to pop in my head while I'm testing driving, and so far that hasn't happened. I've certainly liked all of the cars I've driven, and according to that aforementioned research, I would be fine choosing any one of them. But I can't decide. I've pretty much narrowed my choices but they are really such different cars that I can't compare them side-by-side. You can't compare a mid-size SUV to a entry-level luxury sedan. I like the practicality of one, the features of the other. One carries a certain prestige factor but also a significantly higher maintenance bill if something were to go wrong (not to mention it only takes premium fuel). Another one has a higher start price. but is $2500 more over five years of payments really that much more?

So the hemming and hawing continues. The great hunt continues. And thankfully, my Mustang keeps chugging right along. As does my dad's patience (thanks, dad).

Cantaloupe and U2

2006-12-31T16:22:00.001-08:00

Addy loves cantaloupe!,
originally uploaded by sactownkid.

This past month has been a whirlwind of activity, both at work and at home. Hence the delay in posting. It always seems when I have something somewhat interesting to share, I am too swamped to actually share it. Oy.

Anyway, in addition to confirming that my cat really does love cantaloupe, I crossed off a fun little item from my do-it-before-I-die checklist: I saw U2 live. It didn't hurt that Pearl Jam opened for them. Or that the concert was in Honolulu.

So before I dodge all the spit and cursing likely headed in my direction due to my unseemingly wonderful luck, I must give mucho credit to the ever-lovely Manoa Missy, who invited me to visit and join her for the U2 concert.

Seeing U2 perform was really was one of the best outings of my life. It's always a little scary to see musicians live, because their voices don't always live up to the ultra-clean studio-mastered renditions we get on the radio. But Bono was freakin' amazing. And how unreal was it to see The Edge, Larry and Adam and hear them play LIVE?! I get all misty-eyed thinking about it. I'd seen Pearl Jam years earlier, but it was great to see Eddie sober this time around. And they played "Better Man," so M.Missy and I were pleased-as-punch.

All in all, wonderful-fruit-everything was had by this kid. Speaking of kids, we saw Kid Rock in the VIP section, and allegedly members of the "Lost" cast were also in attendance, along with Heather Locklear and some other celebs. You can read a review of the concert here.

The rest of my trip was also great. M.Missy introduced me to a new fruity dessert (yum!), bedazzled pedicures, an awesome Coach outlet store and the pure joy that can only be experienced by getting sucked into the Firefly series on DVD. She also did what I thought was impossible: she tracked down a saimin joint in Honolulu of comparable quality to the legendary Hamura's in Kauai (though Hamura's divey atmosphere will never be challenged).

For that, and for all the raspberry ice tea a girl could drink, I am forever grateful.

Love,

When people take bowling too seriously

2006-11-28T17:21:00.000-08:00

I am in a bowling league at work. Which probably requires a whole post in and of itself, just to defend myself.

In an effort to keep things short and sweet, I'll skip the explanation this time around. All you need to know right now:

My bowling team, "The Publication Pinheads," comprises myself and two coworkers

We bowl at the campus bowling alley every Wednesday during the lunch hour

The alley is located in a game area that includes video machines, pool, air hockey and basketball machines

Our team pretty much stinks, but what we lack in skill we make up for in pride and commitment to the game. Of course, sometimes you have to ask commitment for a raincheck, as was the case for two of us last Wednesday, due to various reasons (me: vacation, LW: dentist appointment). Below is the reaction from the third teammate, upon learning that LW and I would be skipping out:

> WHERE IS THE COMMITMENT? WHAT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAT BOWLING? GODDAMN IT,
> DENTAL CARE IS NOT AN EXCUSE, LW. AND K, LEAVING WORK ON A BOWLING
> DAY? DO YOU KNOW HOW THIS COUNTRY BECAME GREAT? IT'S NOT FROM BLOWING OFF
> BOWLING. THAT'S HOW ROME FELL, ACTUALLY. THE BARBARIANS CAME IN AND BOWLED A
> CRAPPY GAME, BUT BECAUSE THE ROMANS DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO SHOW UP, THEY
> FORFEITED THE CONTEST, AND THEREFORE THE CITY. IT'S RIGHT THERE IN THE
> HISTORY BOOKS. LOOK IT UP. I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS.
>
> Actually, I'm most sad that I'll miss my weekly date with the basketball
> machine, and that I won't be able to wear those shoes that always make me
> feel so fashionable and hip.
>
> Have a happy Thanksgiving.
>
> Tom

Think someone has been watching a little too much "Kingpin"?

F is for Freedom

2006-11-07T18:54:00.000-08:00

During our trip to Philadelphia a few weeks ago, my mom took a few pics of me in front of the Liberty Bell. She took a really long time to get the first shot set up, and I was impatient because everyone was staring and I don't like being stared at. Unless I'm looking really hot. And I wasn't. So we ended up with this lovely memory:

Doesn't it have a subtle "F this whole freedom thing" aura about it? Gotta love it.

I was reminded of this photo after I voted tonight. I now know why Americans are so freaking apathetic and unwilling to vote.

As George Dubya once said (at least the Saturday Night Live George Dubya did), "It's haaaarrrrrd workkkk."

For a civilization that can claim such bountiful technological gems as Internet porn, Doom video games and Tickle Me Elmo TX 2006, please, please, please tell me why I'm still voting using a black pen to circle oval bubbles in a scantron card? Is it too much to ask Bill Gates or one of the other katrillionaire tech whizzes to come up with a secure, safe way to vote ONLINE? I don't get it.

And to those of you who say, "Um, excuse me Ms. Toast, it's called absentee ballot voting. Look into it," I can honestly say I tried. Really haaarrrrd.

When I moved last month, I re-registered using my DMV change-of-address form. I received the voting information at my old address. I received the voting information at my newaddress. Yet I didn't receive my absentee ballot.

At either address.

So I called my county's voting hotline and after what seemed like an eternity for them to find my name in their registry, I was informed it was "probably a mailing error." Right.

I was told I would need to go to my local polling place, which turned out to be only a couple of blocks from my apartment, so I was okay with that. I arrive at the location and find myself inside a retirement care facility. Doesn't feel quite right so I ask the front station nurse, who tells me I am at the wrong address, that the polling station is another block down. I thank her, head out the door and recheck the address I was given: yep, I'm at the place I was told to go. But I don't let this stop me. I persevere in the name of freedom and the American way!! And women's right to vote and all that important stuff.

I head down the block and finally find the correct place (the huge sign reading "VOTE" was kinda a giveaway). So I stride in, happy and relieved. Now I can do my business, get my "I voted!" sticker and get the h-to-the-e-double-l over to my parents' pad for dinner and to watch Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars with my moms. Right?

Wrong.

After checking three precinct registry lists, the polling volunteer informs me I am not on any of them.

Oy.

I am asked to re-register to vote, which entails filing out two separate registration cards. Done. Then I am given two ballots to complete (apparently each page counts as one ballot. Why they can't refer to the SET as ONE ballot is beyond me. And apparently them). I complete both ballots using the ancient scantron method described above. Done. And then I am given the task of folding them in thirds to fit into an envelope the size of my pinky. Done..., right?

Wrong again.

I really thought I did a bang-up job of folding my ballots to fit the envelope. Sure, math isn't really my thing, but even I could handle folding two piece of paper evenly. Apparently not. A polling member humorously tsk-tsked me because a sixteenth of an inch of the ballots wouldn't clear the gummy seal of the envelope. So the envelope was passed to another volunteer who pulled out my ballot, refolded it, re-emphasized how tight the envelope was, and then FINALLY FINALLY (dear God, finally!) put the envelope into the big red LOCK-BOX.

So don't tell me I'm not a flippin' decent American. I went to bat today in the name of freedom and America's choice, and all I got was a big kick in the pants.

And this dumb sticker.

Slutty Slutty Slutty

2006-10-31T00:33:00.000-08:00

Fashion Flapper,
originally uploaded by sactownkid.

So I was invited to a Halloween party last Saturday, and of course I had no costume ideas. I LOVE Halloween, but I was just not feeling the spooky spirit this year, ya know? So I begrudgingly decided to default to something fairly easy (at least in my mind): Rogue from X-men.

Rogue's costume basically consists of a hooded cloak, white gloves and white streaks in her hair. That's it. So I was feeling fairly confident that I could accomplish these minor costuming challenges.

I headed to the local Halloween shop, and as you might imagine, there were 18 bazillion people there, all doing the same lame thing as me: finding a costume at the last possible minute. But I digress.

So I walk down the aisle of "women's" costumes and quickly learned that there were not a lot of options that didn't start with the word "Sexy." There was the "Sexy Barmaid," the "Sexy Jailmate," the "Sexy Witch," "Sexy Alice in Wonderland," etc. etc. The "sexy" collection was endless.

And mind you, by "sexy," I mean SLUTTY. Each "sexy" costume basically amounted to the same small piece of fabric, torn in strategic places to best emphasize a whole lotta T&A.

Surprisingly, no option for "Sexy X-men Character," so I wandered around until I found a hooded cloak. Check. Then I located the glove selection, and here's where I got hung up. I needed white elbow-length gloves, and the choices were limited to black elbow-length or white lace elbow-length. The black was just wrong, and the lace was screaming 80's Madonna-Rogue. So I decided no one would probably get the Rogue costume even if it was accurate (which it wasn't going to be at this point) and found myself back at the Slutty/Sexy section.

There were two non-slutty options: Clown or Fashion Flapper. Guess which one I chose?

Happy Halloween!

2006-10-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

The, Ahem, Scrapbooking Room

2006-10-26T23:55:00.000-07:00

Now that I have an apartment with two bedrooms, my extra room is being used as a SCRAPBOOKING ROOM. I really can't tell you how giddy I am about having a room dedicated to scrapping (and crafty projects in general). At first I was kind of embarrassed to admit it, so I told the movers it was my "office." One of the movers coughed while whispering "ahemscrapbookingroomahem."

Damn, forgot that I had been very efficient and marked my scrapbooking boxes for the move.

So now the truth is out there. I have a scrapbooking room!! And so, in honor of my new room, I present my first layout created in the new pad:

Sorry, I still don't have a scanner so I had to take a photo in pretty poor lighting. The title is "I was almost america's next top model." The layout is a spoof on my "modeling" shot for university logowear in the latest alumni magazine. More than anything, I was just happy to get some stuff glued down to a piece of paper and call it a night.

Yay for scrapbooking rooms!!

Philly!

2006-10-26T20:47:00.000-07:00

Another reason for my delay in blogging is that I went to Philadelphia (it's in Pennsylvania. at least that's what my mom says). My supervisor suggested I attend a marketing conference there, and who am I to argue when presented with the opportunity for a week away from work, even if it is to learn about what I should be doing at work?

My mom tagged along, as she had never been to P-town and she really wanted to see the liberty bell. Despite the fact that I was stuck inside a conference room for 90% of the trip, we did manage to have a really nice time. Philly is a really cool city, and I loved just walking around the city and exploring the downtown area during my conference breaks.

Independence Hall

Sadly, my mom and I did not try the infamous Philly cheesesteak sandwich. We did, however, notice that there is a Dunkin Doughnuts and a Rite Aid or CVS pharmacy on every other corner in the downtown area. So I guess in addition to clogging their arteries, Philadelphians have the jones for sugar and OTC meds.

We did get to see the liberty bell, which let me say, has more security than I've ever seen at any airport or school. Don't worry about terrorists ringing that damn bell because it.will.not.happen. The national forestry service or whoever manages the bell center will make sure of that.

We also saw the original "Love" art that inspired the postage stamp. I didn't know it was based on a real structure. So if you're ever in Philly, be sure to stop by Love Park!

We also spent some time at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It's no NY MOMA, but they did have a good collection of renaissance artists. Not nearly enough post-modern or pop work for my liking, though. But what the Philly museum lacked in pop art was almost made up for by a bronzed statue of "Rocky" at its entrance. The NY MOMA can't lay claim to that priceless piece of American history.

Apparently the training scenes from Sly Stallone's masterpiece were filmed on the steps of the museum. So you know my mom and I had to jog up the stairs to the entrance while humming "eye of the tiger." It just wouldn't have been respectful otherwise!

Look Who's Talking

2006-10-26T20:04:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay. So I know I have totally been a bad blogger. Give me 50 lashes and allow me to repent for leaving Yay Toast in the lurch for a month.

A MONTH!!! What the hell have I been doing the past 30+ days that seemed so much more important to dialing in to Blogger and keeping all my peeps up-to-date?

Actually, this has been a really crazy, busy, stressed and yet somehow bountiful, lucky month. So I'm going to attempt to catch up in the next few entries by mixing excerpts from a few journal entries (old school), with some e-mail messages along with my pathetic memory and some photographic evidence.

First of all, I moved on October 1. If there is any feasible excuse for falling down the blogging hole, let me say that I just got my Internet connection up and running at my new place last night. Three weeks without Internet service = a barely functioning me. So feel free to blame it all on Comcast. I know I do.

So you might be wondering the reason for the move. Well, I could deal with the rat, the possum, the cockroaches and the fleas. I could deal with the a/c being broken each summer when the temps hit 110 degrees. I could even put up with the freaky-deaky upstairs neighbor and her boyfriend's domestic disturbances/love connections AND their separation-anxiety-challenged barking dog.

Raw sewage is where I draw the line.

Yep, I had raw sewage backing out of my toilet and bathtub, from both upstairs and from the City of Sacramento, not once, not twice, but THREE times in one week. It seemed to me that one of the basic tenets of the renter-rentee relationship is that the renter can count on having working facilities.

Call me high maintenance or whatever, but that was literally some nasty shit.

I had been looking for a new place half-heartedly since May, so I was really anxious about finding something right away that would meet all of my many requirements (safe location, decent space, dishwasher and washer/dryer, accepts pets, etc). Lucky for me, I found a perfect place on craigslist the very day I planned to go around town and do some drive-bys. Everything just fell into place and on October 1, I started living a life free of pests AND sewage.

Of course, moving is never fun, but I do have to say, if you're going to move, get your soccer team to help you. I had four terrific guys and one of their daughters help me move and we were finished in 1.5 hours flat. And for a one-bedroom apartment, I had a lot of crap to move:

I really wish I had taken a pic of the moving crew. I totally blew it on that one. In any case, I am really, really thankful to those guys (and the daughter!). They did it for free, they did it with smiles on their faces, and they did it quickly, without breaking a damn thing. Expect a plug for their personal moving service once they get their business going!

I also recommend just hiring a cleaning service post-move. For $100, you save yourself the time and agony of cleaning the old place after you are already wiped from moving. When I met the landlord at the old place to exchange the keys for my deposit, he said it looked as if no one had ever lived in my apartment -- it was THAT clean. I got my entire deposit back AND the landlord waived the extra days of rent that I should have paid for October -- about $200-worth. So as you might imagine, I was thrilled.

And the new apartment adventures began!

One Fine Day

2006-09-19T17:55:00.000-07:00

Two of my close friends from college, Costa Rica Chica and Mingle, visited last Saturday. Alas, I didn't get any photographic evidence. Nevertheless, it was fun to see them and catch up. It had been too long. Thanks, ladies (and Mingle's husband), for dropping in!

During their visit, we went to another college friend's birthday party for her husband (also a college friend). We saw lots of familiar faces that we haven't seen for most of the TEN YEARS since we graduated. Oy. Everyone looked great, and the only real difference with any of them is that some had husbands/wives and children.

I mentioned to one friend how it seemed like it wasn't that long ago that we were all sitting around a dining room table, drinking beer and playing drinking games. So I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised when the birthday boy busted out his birthday beer bong hat and corralled a few people into trying it out, himself included.

I watched from a safe distance, and laughed at how some things never change.

Overall, one fine day for the record books.

Surfacing...

2006-09-13T23:42:00.000-07:00

I apologize, dear Yay Toast readers, for my rather pathetic blogging track record of late. Surprisingly, a new job means new work...who knew?! And in my case, it means old work, too. So I have been in full fire-fighting mode for the past few weeks, and expect it to continue at least until my staff gets on board so I can start divvying and delegating.

My staff. That still gets me.

Right now I'm finding self-management pretty difficult. Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I am still alive and (mostly) well. A quick recap:

Scrapbooked the start of a baby memories tin for my friend, JC

Signed the lease on my apartment

Scored a goal

Wiped blood off my friend and teammate's face and hands after she collided with a guy from the other team during a header

Got kissed by a boy

Met and held JC's baby

Received a bottle of wine as a gift

Enjoyed mom's spaghetti at family dinner night

Simultaneously prepared and freaked out for a work presentation about admission marketing messages

And that was just on Sunday!

Stay tuned, faithful readers. I'll be back soon. In the meantime, I'm signing off with a photo from a recent baby shower that I attended in SF for one of my college roommates.

"The Interview" in Five Acts

2006-08-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

Prologue: Young-ish professional woman seeking praise and new shoes finally receives reclassification and promise of raise earlier this summer.

Because she is slightly off her rocker and still awaiting her raise, YPW decides to apply for her former supervisor's "marketing and communications manager" position, vacant since April.

YPW, in her typical style, procrastinates on the application and cover letter until the last possible minute, but makes the deadline. She hears nothing for several weeks and then is somewhat surprised she has been scheduled for an interview. The following is an e-mail re-enactment between YPW and her family.

Act I: Pre-interview
Brother:
What time's the big presentation tomorrow?

YPW:
2 pm

Brother:
Best of Luck with that. Either you'll come out smelling like a rose or you'll go down in flames. I hoping for the former!

YPW: Gee, thanks for the words of....encouragement.

Act II: The Interview
YPW, in her typical style, procrastinates on preparing for the interview until the last possible minute, but does a fair amount of research and has lots of ideas to throw out at a moment's notice. Interview goes okay in YPW's opinion, but lots of ideas left on the cutting-room floor of her brain. Dammit. Bonus: Did remember to bring up "Snakes on a Plane" viral marketing idea. Maybe some cool points awarded?

YPW is the last candidate to interview, and is told a decision will be made by the end of the following week. Follow-up/second-round interviews won't be necessary. Uh oh.

Act III: Post-interview, a weekend and two days later
YPW:
Well, they are checking my references, so that's a good sign, right? Or at least [supervisor] mentioned she was trying to get a hold of one of mine...

Brother:
I think that means that you got it! Dinner on Kristin!!!! Yeah!!!

YPW:
You know what they say about chickens. And counting. And hatching. And stuff like that. Mmm...scrambled eggs. Hey, what was I talking about?

Brother:
Don't be a negative nellie. YOU GOT IT!!!! You have "life" experience managing tough issues (what to eat for breakfast, where to get gas, etc. etc.).

Mom:
No kidding . . you seem well-suited for the job . .I'm trying not to get egg-cited.

Act IV: Post-interview, two weekends and a one day later
YPW:
K, so....sit down.....I got the job!! Or more accurately, I was offered the job. I was asked not to say anything to the internal staff until I formally accept and they formally announce. But no one said I couldn't tell family! :)

Brother:
Ms. Future Manager,

Congratulations!!!! Sounds like a no brainer.

Mom:
Omagaw . . [and a bunch of ooey-gooey motherly stuff about how proud she is]

Dad:
WHOOPIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You go girl!

Love
Dad

Act V: Post-interview, two weekends and two days later
I formally accepted the position today, yikes!! Department-wide announcement to follow. In addition to title and salary boost, I will get to move to the big show (read: office with a view). Yippee!

The End

How to Celebrate a Birthday

2006-08-14T22:42:00.000-07:00

As a follow up to my last post, my softball team won this week. The Plexiglas mitt and I made an great outfield catch, good enough that the opposing team razzed the guy who had hit it with "your ball was caught by a GIRRRLL." I've never been so proud.

Speaking of softball, a few games into the season and suddenly it's time for the California State Fair. Which inevitably means it's also time to add another candle to this kid's birthday cake.

This year seemed to bring multiple festivities, almost like a Hanukkah of birthday celebration. Eight days and nights of celebrating moi? Like Adam Sandler said: not too shabby.

I think it's fair to say I made out like a bandit on the gifts. Oddly enough, I am probably most excited about my new blender. It can crush ice at any speed, and really, what more could a girl want beyond unlimited ice-crushing power, aside from a cute new pair of shoes once in a while?

Beyond the blender, I was quite excited to attend the Fair over the weekend. True, I didn't get to see Tony Hawk like I did last year, and I missed the Kenny Loggins performance on opening day, but the birthday entourage managed to find some fun nonetheless. The food was almost as much of a highlight as the people watching: corn dogs, kettle korn, funnel cake, undercooked garlic fries....and I wonder why I have digestive issues. Oy.

And that little green rollercoaster that looked so lame from the midway ground? Only THE BEST RIDE EVER. Short and sweet, yet deceptively death-defying. So much fun, voted a hands-down fair favorite by all in attendance.

Here are some pics from the pre-Fair festivities:

And finally, in close of the birthday fun, my friends hosted a Texas hold-em tournament tonight complete with lasagna dinner (a Big J/'lil k joint production) and homemade cheesecake for dessert (grazie, Matt and Steve). Yumm. I'm just glad we got to the cheesecake before their cat did. Oops.

So the birthday all in all was a great one. And I got a very big belated birthday surprise today, which I'm not quite free to announce yet, but will in a few days.....

The sweet smell of DEET? It must be time for SOFTBALL!!

2006-08-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. The weather gets unbearably warm, the grass smells particularly sweet (or maybe that's the DEET spray I'm using to protect against West Nile), there's a spike in David's sunflower seed purchases nationwide. Perhaps most significantly, the big lights are flipped on at the city rec league ballpark.

Yep. That's right, people: SOFTBALL SEASON.

This is my third year in the Wednesday night Capitol co-ed softball league and it never gets dull. After a rough 0-2 start, we finally returned to our season 2 roots (WIN WIN WIN) and won last week's game. Our captain, witty (read: drunk) as ever, compiled a lovely game and player review, which is excerpted below for your reading pleasure.

Subject: AGS WIN! AGS WIN! AGS WIN!
Retooled, and frankly brilliant managed, the UC Davis Alumni Softball team took to the diamond Wednesday to put a hurtin' on Team GSI. Let not another game be lost this season, my Dearest Aggies (and guest Wildcats, Hornets and Wolfpack), for we are a softball force to be reckoned with diving stops, laser precision throws, towering hits, ace pitches, relentless hustle and unparalleled sportsmanship. It was the type of team effort that showcases the pinnacle of human performance and champions the spirit of man.

Moving hyperbole aside, here's the round-up of this week's play.

Kristin "Who's your hitting coach?" Burns: arrived on team two years ago with relic of a mitt that had a Plexiglas window in place of webbing, not to mention her parents in the stands. Now rivals long-time pro Jen for pop in bat, but the parents don't come out to see it. The clinic continues, but the question lingers... will she elevate softball above scrapbooking in list of hobbies on her blog? Bored people with internet connections the world over await the outcome...

As usual, I'm still trying to decide if I should be pleased or pissed by my manager's assessment of my play and personal life. I have been hitting pretty well, though. In defense of the scrapbooking trade, perhaps all those hours of scrapping..the cutting..the pasting...have transformed these here formerly rubber arms into trunks of BRING IT ON, MEAT muscle? Stay tuned for the manager's ruling.

Photo of my most beloved mitt to come...

Admit it.

2006-08-02T22:02:00.000-07:00

You know you are so jealous:

I am an official card-carrying soccer player. I am now considered legit by my fellow players, refs, fans. Fo shiz my niz: I got mad skillz.

Or I paid $10 and got my photo taken because the indoor soccer arena told me I had to.

Whatever.

Anyway, I survived the big Truckee tournament last weekend. I haven't played outdoor for FOURTEEN flippin' years, so it was a little strange to be back on real grass and play with off-sides and throw-ins (none of which exist in indoor play). I got off to a slow start, which I'll conveniently blame on the altitude, but it didn't really matter. It was a gorgeous day and I was getting to play soccer. I was just happy to be there.

My mom came out to support me so it was just like old times. Props to the moms, she rocks.

We played three games, and then, because I am a crazy person (and because a cute teammate asked me), I played in a fourth game for another team who needed subs. We lost all four games, but lucky for me, my team was incredibly cool and fun to play with, and no one was fazed by the losses. I will definitely sign up for next year!

A few of my favorite things

2006-07-27T22:28:00.000-07:00

I forgot to follow up on my first entry for the June Rock the Runway scrapbook contest....not surprisingly, I wasn't chosen as a finalist. No bigwig, I got a chance to stretch my brain and expend some creative energy. All of the entries were posted at the Runway site and someone was kind enough to leave a comment that she liked the frames on my layout, which was cool.

I checked out most of the entries and lemme tell you: there are some pretty crafty people out there. And a lot of them have a lot of free time and professional photographers on retainer. The winning entry featured photos of darling little girls in the foreground of a sand dune vista. Seriously.

So round two, tip #1: I need to borrow some cute kids or get closer to a beach.

July's theme is "favorite things," and there really wasn't enough room to fit ALL of my favorites, so what came to mind first made the cut. Like last time, all of the contest participants were given the same paper, ribbon, embellishments, etc. and asked to put together a two-page layout. This time my layout features pics from various events, chosen mostly because they fit the page and my slightly planned design scheme:

I like the second page best, mostly because I didn't have to do much picture-wise, and because I got to play with my metallic pens and acrylic paint.

The entry closes tomorrow and I think the finalists will be posted next week. In the meantime, I am off to Truckee for a co-ed soccer tournament. My first outdoor game since I was 17, so wish me luck (and a speedy recovery)!

Hot Not Fun in the Summertime

2006-07-27T10:17:00.000-07:00

I feel like I've woken up from an 11-day fever, and it's FINALLY broken. Eleven straight days of scorching heat, ranging from 105 to 111.

Last night was the first night I didn't have to run the a/c or the fan. I didn't wake up with stomach aches or back cramps. I didn't have a sinus pressure headache. I didn't walk from my apartment to my car this morning and feel the need to turn around and take another shower because I was already soaked in sweat.

And so I feel like I should give the weather dude a big slap on the back when he chipperly announces, "It's only going to be 100 degrees today!"

A big, hard slap.

I grew up in this hell heat, and loved it as a kid. I am now trying to channel that feeling, the kind where I'd wake up pumped to get on my bike and head over to the local rec pool. We were in the water so much that we were practically growing scales, except when the lifeguard would shoo all us kids out for 15 minute-adult swim at quarter to every hour. During the timeout we'd head over to the snack shack, throw down our dimes and get Otter Pops to eat in the shade.

We'd ride back home at the end of the day exhausted but content, bright beach towels flying around our necks like capes, wet bathing suits squeaking on our bike seats, bugs catching in our chlorine-tangled hair. Good times.

Unfortunately with that whole job thing I can't head over to the rec pool all day every day, so I am wondering how I am going to survive another week if the temps continue to hit above 100. It's enough to make a girl start looking at rental ads in Portland, Seattle, or pretty much anywhere that is not Northern CA. I'm already dreading next summer!

What do YOU do to stay cool?

Two Noodles are Better than One

2006-07-23T20:39:00.000-07:00

I learned a few things this weekend:

1. When it's 110 degrees OUTSIDE, a 90 degree pool is still better than no pool at all

2. There is no point iwasting time changing out of your stinky indoor soccer uniform and dirtying up a perfectly clean bathing suit when you need to cool off NOWWWWWWW

...and 3. Two pool noodles are indeed better than one!

Overheard in Sactown over the weekend

2006-07-17T15:09:00.000-07:00

"It's Hot Out Here for a Pimp..."

—My mom, playing off the Oscar-award winning song, "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," comments on gardening in the 100+ degree weather while showing she knows how to keep it real in the 916

Reasons I love working at a university

2006-07-12T10:54:00.000-07:00

This week, I love working on a college campus because of our summer camps. Every summer we get a bazillion kids, ranging from age teeny-tator-tot to Taco-Bell-for-lunch-is-COOL-teen. Craft camps, sports camps, science camps, any kind of camp you can imagine, as long as it centers around learning and fun.

Yesterday on my way to lunch (Taco Bell is still cool to me), I witnessed a wobbly bicycle caravan of 20-25 first graders, replete with little plastic helmets, oversized backpacks and high-pitched chatter. High school monitors wearing orange and white safety vests were sprinkled through the gaggle of kids to keep them on course.

A little girl, attempting to negotiate a fairly tight curve in the road, slid out and fell off her bike. Immediately I heard a chorus of "STOPPING!!" "STOPPING!!" "STOPPING!!" as each kid in front of her slowed down to wait, and each kid behind her hit the brakes to avoid running the girl over. A monitor rolled up to the girl, made sure she was okay and then everyone continued on their merry little way.

I found the whole scene to be quite charming. Little pieces of campus life like these definitely help shape my experience as a university employee and remind me to appreciate what I've got!

Yay Italia!

2006-07-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

Thrilled to see Italy hang in there and win the World Cup. Admittedly, France probably played better overall, but man, nothing could get past that Azzurri defense. Not the most fun game to watch, but very satisfying in the end!

Despite my previous post, I risked it and watched the game on the DVR. My brother was smart and recorded the segment after the World Cup's programming, and wouldn't you know, the game went into double overtime and then a shootout? Good to see we've finally figured out the system now that the tournament is over. Well, we'll be ready for 2010.

Before I sign off, let me give a hey hey to the latest addition in my blog roll. He is best known to me as Noblivious, but you can call him Carpe Jugulem. Welcome aboard the Blogger train!!

DVR= Dumb Video Recorder

2006-07-06T13:22:00.000-07:00

Before I dive into 10 reasons why Comcast blows big chunks of digital doo-doo, let me first give a quick welcome to the latest Yay Toast blog roller, Wadda Fookoo. It's about time, Mr. WF. Glad you could join us!

So yeah, big debacle with Comcast over the weekend. It was a glorious Saturday, one full of World Cup coverage, starting with England vs. Portugal at 8 a.m. PST, followed by Brazil vs. France. I am so not willing to get up at 8 a.m. on a weekend, even if it is to watch David Beckham. So I did what any respectable 30-something single gal who does not own a digital video recorder (DVR) would do: I called my mommy and asked her to record the two games. Then I rolled on over to the parents' house around 11 a.m. to get my soccer on.

When I arrived, my mom looked slightly peevish and started off with "There may have been a slight problem with the DVR recording the game...."

Not a good sign.

My parents had watched the game while I was in sleepland, and without giving away the ending, told me it had a fantastic finish. But the game had run very long, due to overtime periods, and while they were watching the post-game analysis, my mom noticed that the "little red recording button wasn't on anymore." She wasn't sure when the DVR had stopped recording.

I checked the recording length and it looked like it covered 150 minutes. I figured that was plenty of time to get the game plus the analysis.

I was wrong.

I had watched 95 minutes (the ENTIRE GAME and five minutes of the first overtime period) when Comcast's on-screen delete feature kicked in. Apparently Comcast hasn't figured out how to extend the recording blocks if a program goes beyond its anticipated end time, so 95 minutes of actual game time was all it managed to record.

Torture, I tell you. To get through that far into a game and NOT get to see how it turns out, not see that "fantastic finish"? I begged my parents not to tell me, and after some quick brainstorming with my mom, figured out that soccer-crazed Telemundo (!Goooooollllll!) was re-airing the game at 7:30 THAT NIGHT. So we set the DVR to record for several blocks.

JUST. IN. CASE.

I got set to watch the Brazil vs. France game, and then I realized the announcers would talk about who had won the England vs. Portugal game, so I suddenly had a World Cup-free afternoon.

More torture. Made especially so because my mom also realized I had several hours or free time and asked when I was planning to finish painting the sidetable I had left half-done at their house since last summer?

I would say something here about how moms can always find something to nag their kids about, even when they're 30-something, but I don't want to get my laundry privileges revoked.

So I broke down and headed out to the garage to paint what had to be the 10th coat on this flippin' sidetable. And my mom, like all moms who do pretty much anything for their kids (and to assuage their husbands that the garage will once again become sidetable-free), sat down and painted right alongside me. Rock on, moms!

The game on Telemundo finally came around, and I FINALLY got to see the alleged fantastic finish. Shoot-outs are always exciting, but unfortunately it was much more exciting for Portugal, who completely dominated England's goalie and won the match.

The combination of the Comcast snafu and England coming completely unglued in the shoot-out took a lot of the shine off the game for me. And then Brazil somehow took a back seat in its game against France, so both of my picks were sent packing in the same day.

But I guess that's sometimes just how it goes. I've put my final World Cup hopes on the Azzurri. They had an AWESOME finish and win against Germany on Tuesday, so let's hope they fight to the finish in the final against France on Sunday.

And let's hope Comcast gets a clue. Until they do, I'll be watching the finale the good, old-fashioned way.

LIVE.

Yay Raises!

2006-06-28T11:54:00.000-07:00

Just a very short post to announce that I FINALLY got my job reclassification! Let me break down what this means in layman terms:

Reclass = raise.

Raise = possibility of living somewhere where the vermin are few and the air conditioning is aplenty.

Yay!

I also get a title change with the reclassification. Which do you think sounds better, "Maven of Marketing" or "Communications Connoisseur"?

If you've got suggestions for what I should put on my new business cards, send them my way at sactownkid@gmail.com. I'd like to offer a prize, but really, isn't giving you the opportunity to be creative and clever prize enough?

I'm older and I've got more insurance!

2006-06-26T17:01:00.000-07:00

No car accidents this weekend, but I did experience a moment reminiscent of the parking lot scene in "Fried Green Tomatoes."

You know, the one where Kathy Bates' character is waiting graciously for someone to pull out of a parking spot at a grocery store? The minute the spot is empty, two women in a convertible VW bug swoop in and steal it. They laugh as they get out of the car, telling her, "Face it lady, we're younger and faster." KB's character responds by slamming into the car multiple times, saying, "Face it ladies, I'm older and I've got more insurance."

I always thought that was great.

When I arrived at the soccer arena yesterday, my teammate told me we should rename our team the "Dinosaurs." She pointed out that the team we were playing were MUCH MUCH MUCH younger. I took a gander at them, and concurred that yes, most of their players probably needed a parent to drive them to the game. They were standing in a circle, kicking the ball back and forth to each other, looking pumped and chipper and READY. TO. PLAY. Some players even ran up and down the length of the field, warming up. And did I mention that there were, like, 20 of them?

Compare this to our team: a bunch of late 20-to-30 somethings who roll in two minutes before the game. We're lucky if we get out a half-intelligible "good morning" and lace up our shoes before game time. We're doubly lucky if we have a sub or two. Ha!

So yeah, the other team was definitely younger and faster. No question there. I was a little nervous at the start that we would get massacred. But I had forgotten to take into consideration that our team is older (MUCH MUCH MUCH), and therefore, experience and wisdom were (mostly) on our side.

The other team's inexperience showed right away. They had a bunch of individually skilled players who could juke and move, but they couldn't figure out how to put all of that individual talent together to score. They were issued several penalty calls for moves that aren't legal in indoor (such as slide tackling).

One kid, clearly not used to the demands of indoor running, got so worked up that he puked all over the field in the second half. Never seen that before on an indoor field. Yuck.

In the end, we "dinosaurs" managed to keep up with the lil' whippersnappers and the game ended in a tie. I would have loved to beat them, but they were such an amiable, fresh-faced group that I had to be satisfied with the tie.

I also had to hold back from asking if any of them needed a ride home.

Rock the Runway!

2006-06-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

Finally finished my freakin' entry for the Rock the Runway scrapbook contest. I call it "HI." HI For Hawaii, get it? A friend of mine has a "HI" t-shirt, and the first time I saw it, I thought he was just trying to get across that he's a really friendly guy.

Duh.

Anyway, all of the contest participants were given the same paper, ribbon, embellishments, etc. and asked to put together a two-page layout. Mine uses pictures from my visit to Manoa Missy last September:

I wish you could see the HAND-stitching I tortured myself with on the second page. Without getting too Martha Stewarty, let me just tell you that hand-stitching when one is not talented with needle nor thread is NOT a good thing. Not. At. All.

Some words of wisdom: If you don't own a scanner and you need to scan 12x12 pages, don't go to Kinko's unless you want three customer service reps to surround you, ponder the question and then tell you it's not possible to do it in the self-service area. However, if you want THEM to do it, that's not a problem, it's just a cool $30 convenience fee, + $10 to e-mail the files to your destination of choice.

Um, yeah right. So I thanked them (for nothing), went home, busted out my digital camera and took pictures of the layout on my ottoman. So the images aren't as sharp as I would like, but my bank account thanks me. For once.

I think the five finalists are announced next week. If nothing else, I have a completed layout.

Off to soccer!!

Put a fork in the US, we're done

2006-06-22T14:37:00.000-07:00

Boo hoo.

Guess I'll have to find another team to root for in the final two weeks. Maybe Australia? How can you not cheer on a team whose fans call themselves the Socceroos? Too funny. They'll go up against Italy first, so it's a win-win for me.

Two words: Luca Toni.

On the non-soccer front (yes, I continue a daily life outside of soccer, though my recent posts may say otherwise), I am desperately trying to finish up my submission for the Rock the Runway Scrapbook contest. Hopefully I'll figure out how to scan my layout so I can make the deadline and then I'll post it here.

On the personal advancement front, I am desperately trying to start the process of updating my resume and cover letter so I can apply for my former manager's old position. It's such a charged subject for me that it took me a couple of months just to get to the point where I felt comfortable applying. I have spent the past three weeks procrastinating. How do I know I'm ready to move forward? I've finally reached the point where doing the actual work will be less painful than spending one more minute obsessing over how much work it will be. PATHETIC.

And on the dating front (always a fun topic), my potential assessments are still on target. Of the four, the "e-mail pen pal" (EPP) and the "coworker" (CW) are the most promising. EPP will be in town over the Fourth of July weekend, so we might have a chance to hang out then. CW is on vacation until July with plans to call me when he gets back. Good stuff!

A goal here, a goal there, a goal everywhere

2006-06-20T00:15:00.000-07:00

It's been a good week for goals. I scored three, one for each team. At first I thought there might be a correlation between a) my scoring and b) our teams losing, because I scored on my Friday and Sunday teams, and both lost. But I am happy to report that no direct causal relationship exists between the two. I scored tonight and my team won. Or is that the exception to the rule?

In any case, I am quite distraught because my Monday night soccer team is disbanding after two seasons together. Most of the guys have decided to take the summer off to rest and recuperate (read: drink tequila and pick up chicks off the field), and none of the girls wanted to pick up the team and try fill the holes until everyone returns in the fall. So boo hoo for me. What is a girl to do with only two days of soccer a week?!

I am hoping I won't have to answer that question...just yet, anyway. Most teams are in desperate need of women players, and desperate times call for desperate measures. I'll be signing up as a free agent tomorrow. Think happy little soccer thoughts for me and maybe I'll end up on a decent team! I don't really care, as long as there aren't 17 women on the roster. This kid wants to play!!

I had a good chat with one of the guys after tonight's game. He told me there are open play/pick up outdoor games on my very own college campus during the week, so if the Monday night replacement team thing doesn't work out, I'm all over that.

Just to provide further proof that I am a "soccer dork," as my mom so eloquently puts it, I dreamt about playing last night. I was taking a shot on goal, and woke myself up because I was literally kicking at the sheets. And I guess getting tangled up in the sheets translated in my dream to having a pretty pathetic shot because I missed!

Dude, I so need a life. Maybe after the World Cup is over I'll look into getting one.

Maybe. :)

How do you celebrate Father's Day when the Father isn't present and accounted for?

2006-06-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

I find it humorous that on this Father's Day, my dad chose to get the hell out of dodge, away from family.

Don't worry, I'm not taking it personally. After all, it is his day, and he should get to spend it as he wishes. And we could hardly blame him for deciding to opt out of family brunch for once in his 40+ years as a dad. He had received an invite from his buddies for four days of golf near Lake Tahoe. A men-only road trip [insert Tim Allen-esque grunts and bad birdie jokes here]. So we wished him well and indirectly honored him in our own special ways.

For me, that meant playing soccer, watching soccer, taking a nap, and in general, avoiding any and all chores. My brother chose to mow his lawn AND edge it. My mom cleaned and ridded the garage of all pesticides with expiration dates dating back to 1972.

I am of coursed biased, but I think my method of celebrating Father's Day was the most effective, at least in terms of sweat and toil endured (read: none, except maybe on the soccer field).

In addition to yesterday being a big day for dads everywhere, it was also a milestone in my life: TEN years to the day that I graduated from college. Oy.

It has to give one pause, right? If I had known then where I would be now—10 years later—how would I feel?

In some ways it's funny, because my office is literally less than a mile from where I physically graduated. Beyond physical proximity, I feel like I have grown leaps and bounds in figuring out who I am and who I want to be and be with. But on the flip side I feel like I am no closer to figuring out what I want to do with my life than when I first walked onto the campus.

I didn't spend too much time philosophizing because I didn't want to drive myself crazy. Besides, I had more important things to focus on, like watching Brazil vs. Australia, and season 2, episode 4 of "The Gilmore Girls" on DVD with my mom.

As I was watching Lorelai and Rory banter on, it suddenly occurred to me that I spent the day after my college graduation with my roommate, Mingle, in front of the boob tube. Unsure and anxious about our futures post-bachelor's-degree, we retreated to the safety of our family room and spent the ENTIRE DAY watching movies and eating junk food, denying and delaying the inevitable job search. It's good to see my TV-watching habits are still consistent after 10 years.

Happy Father's Day, Dad.

Potentially some potential there

2006-06-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

Last week was definitely a dating anomaly for Yay Toast.

I went out with FOUR guys in the span of six days.

It's kind of like UC Davis beating Stanford this year in football, basketball, wrestling, baseball AND soccer. It just doesn't happen, and when it does, what the frick does it MEAN?!

As all dating gals know, upping the number of dates you have does increase the chances of meeting Mr. Right. But sadly, quantity doth not always equal quality. Before you meet Mr. Right, you're going to have to pay penance with a mix of Mr. Right Nows, Mr. Wrongs, and a few Mr. REALLY, REALLY Wrongs.

My first outing of the week was with Suitor #2. Yep, this guy is still in the picture. Sorta. Kinda. After a day of shopping at Costco, poolside lounging, Entourage-watching, sushi and sake-bombing, and cue-ball shooting, it became clear that Suitor #2 enjoys my company. But despite all the fun I have when I'm hanging with him, I can only count on him to consistently call when he needs my Costco card to buy Hypnotiq and bacon-wrapped beef filets.

Potential potential: 0. He calls only when he feels like it, he is a sales guy in-and-out of work, and for heaven's sake, he's a LAKERS fan. Next!!

Moving on to....

.....my e-mail "pen pal." My co-worker thought her son and I might hit it off, and suggested we connect. Only glitch: he lives in So Cal. So she introduced us via this new-fangled technology, electronic mail. And hence, we have become weekly e-mail pen pals. We grew up in the same area and he was in town last weekend for a golf tournament with his high school buddies, so we met up for an afternoon drink (me: water—still recovering from the sake-bombs from the previous night—and him: Monster energy drink). Very nice guy, laid back, cute. He is a Yankees fan, though, and that is a serious dating infraction.

Potential potential: 5. I'd give a higher potential rating if he lived closer and liked ANY other team but those freakin' Yanks. Allegedly he's moving to the Bay Area so I might have to re-rate in a few months. I'll keep you posted.

So that brings us to outing #3. Soccer guy. After some back and forth phone calls, we went to a baseball game with my brother and a friend of mine. Very cute, snappy dresser, clearly smart. Not quite sure about the maturity thing, though. He's a bit younger, and sometimes it shows. Can't help but picture him with someone younger, shorter and bubblier. I am so not bubbly.

Potential potential: 2+bonus2-2=2. Bonus points because he's got an AWESOME shot on goal. But points retracted because he's an admitted ball hog.

And that leaves me with my final outing of the week. I met this guy at work, and I've been acquaintances with him for maybe a year now. I only recently realized what a great smile he has. So I bit the bullet and finally asked him to lunch (over e-mail, because I'm a big chicken), he said yes, we went, and we had fun.

Potential potential: 8. You would think I would have learned from my last coworker dating debacle. Oy. This guy is very nice, effusive about children (or at least his nephew), got his degree in English and actually READS. I wanted to drag him to an altar that afternoon, but I managed to keep my cool.

So what does it all mean? Potentially there is some potential there. Somewhere. And as all dating gals know, potential is a good thing. Potentially.

The Church of the Almighty Soccer Ball

2006-06-13T10:42:00.000-07:00

I play on three indoor soccer teams. Some weeks, especially after a particularly bruising game, I wish I only played once a week. But most weeks I wish I played five days a week, simply because I cannot get enough of that freakin' black and white ball.

Last week was one of those week where I couldn't get enough. Out of three and a half games, I scored four goals. One of my teams made a miraculous second-half comeback after a tough first half, behind by four goals (1-5). Final score: 6-5. Think "Remember the Titans" and "Glory Road" rolled into one, just without the football or basketball parts. Sweet!

I'm not the only one who has the soccer jones. There is a guy in all three of my leagues who always seems to be there when I arrive at the stadium, and when I leave. He plays keeper, and his day-glo orange, long-sleeved jersey is as much a stadium beacon as the nets on the goal posts. You can't help but notice him. I wouldn't be surprised if he hides in the stadium bathroom at night until everyone leaves, just so he can walk out onto the field in solitude and breathe that lovely mixture of sweat, indoor turf and soccer glory for a few more minutes a week.

One Sunday morning I saw the keeper at the stadium in a suit. As in pants, jacket and tie. Odd attire for a soccer match so I asked him about it. He told me he had left church to come to the soccer game and now that he was done playing, he was on his way back to church (on his behalf, he did shower prior to changing into the suit). I'm not sure if he needed to pray because his team lost, but I did find it humorous that his God approved a temporary leave of absence so he could play soccer. I'd join THAT congregation. Whoever brought David Beckham into the world surely deserves an aaaa-men.

I'm sure when I arrive to Friday's game, I'll see the keeper milling around. I'm hoping he's already headed to church this week, but if he hasn't, I might just ask him to help me pray for the USA World Cup team. After yesterday's embarrassing debut vs. the Czech Republic, they could use some divine intervention.

Happy Birthday, Manoa Missy!

2006-06-13T10:38:00.000-07:00

Morning Wake Up Call

2006-05-19T10:34:00.000-07:00

I guess higher powers knew that my alarm clock wouldnÂt wake me up in time for my 8:15 meeting this morning. So, in keeping with the pestilence theme, I awoke to this outside my bedroom window:

That would be a possum hanging on the screen of my bedroom window. The size of a small dog.

My cat had been making strange noises behind the window blinds and I ignored her, trying to get in a few more minutes of precious sleep. I figured she was just trying to scare a neighborly cat away. Then I heard these freaky scratching noises...like something was trying to get IN. I got up, pulled back the blinds and surprise! Helllooo, Possum!

The possum appeared completed nonplussed by the cat, who was terrified, hissing and crying at the other side of the window. I found myself a bit frightened initially, before I reassured myself that he COULDN'T GET IN, even with those very sharp claws. I think he was trying to make his way up to a tree, and mistakenly believed he could achieve his mission via my window. He got to the top of the screen and attempted to continue his climb on the unscreened portion of the glass. He lost traction, fell off the window and landed back on the air conditioning unit before plodding along the side of the house, looking for another way up.

Needless to say, I was wide awake after that little National Geographic moment. I made it to my 8:15 a.m. meeting!

And I won't be letting my cat into the side yard unsupervised anymore.

Happy 1st Birthday, Yay Toast!

2006-05-11T16:57:00.000-07:00

Some things just go by way too SLOWWWWW.

For example, 5 p.m. today -- couldn't come around fast enough.

Other things just fly by. I made my first post on Yay Toast one year ago on May 11, 2005. I can hardly believe it.

Of course, a lot has changed in my life and a lot hasn't. In any case, I'm glad I have a record of my adventures, and that my sanity and sense of humor have survived yet another year. Mostly.

So, happy 1st birthday, Yay Toast! And a celebratory shout out to YT's faithful readers (your slices of bloggy birthday cake are on the way, unless your mail carriers ate them).

Aggie Auction & Weekend Wrap Up

2006-05-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

I attended the 10th anniversary "Aggie Auction" this weekend, a fancy-schmancy fundraiser for the university's student-athlete program. Appropriately enough, held in the campus gym.

The event included a silent auction with hundreds of items, a live auction at dinner, a grand-prize raffle and lots of wine-tasting. Fun to be had in every corner. I bid on a couple of items in the silent auction, but didn't win anything. The live auction was a skosh out of my price range, with many of the prizes going for several thousands of dollars. Trip to Tahiti, anyone?

I think the entire event raised a half a million dollars, so a success for the athletic department! A few pics:

Me and my date for the evening, Brian

Me and suitor #2 (who happened to also be there)

Me and my friend, Katy

After the Auction, Brian and I attempted to relive our college glory days, roving the various downtown bars. We managed to hit three places and finally called it a night around 12:45 a.m. It felt much more like 3 a.m. to me. I guess I just can't hang like all the 22-year-olds!

I managed to get up for soccer on Sunday morning and we FINALLY WON. 7-0. And no gum spitting! :) Win-win! I came home, pulled some weeds in the garden, ate lunch and then took a nap. I got up, determined to get cleaned up and do some housekeeping damage control. I took a shower and then sat down on my bed...hmm, comfy...and took another nap. Then I went over to friends for a bbq, before closing the day with Grey's Anatomy.

A happy weekend for me!

Black Widows and the Gum Incident of 2006

2006-05-03T17:30:00.000-07:00

After dealing with the ongoing onslaught of pests at my apartment (cockroaches, fleas, and one ROUS), I guess it was only a matter of time before a black widow set up shop outside my door frame. I am pretty sure it's the final sign that Addycat and I need to move to a new neighborhood.

In addition to the spider encounter, I've had two not-so-good male (human) encounters over the weekend. If possible, leaving each one in an enclosed space with my new eight-legged roommate seems like a pretty reasonable plan.

The first encounter (or lack thereof, to be accurate), involved Suitor #2. (Sorry, Ping, no pics yet). We've gone out a handful of times, and for the past two weeks, we've been playing phone tag. I think it's fair to say we are not destined to be together, but it's also fair to say we like each other. So the phone tag continues.

We had tentative plans to see each other last weekend. By Sunday afternoon, I had received not one, but TWO separate apologies for the various reasons and events which had prevented Suitor #2 from seeing me. Some excuses I considered somewhat legit, the others were pretty lame.

I called him on his "He's Just Not That Into You" flakiness and was told multiple times during the course of the conversation, "Don't read into it." I'm not sure if the HJNTIY authors covered that response, but rest assured I won't reserve another Saturday night for Suitor #2 unless he leaves me some collateral in advance.

The second encounter of bad boy behavior involved an indoor soccer teammate (let's call him "Joe"). Specifically, Joe's behavior on the field, akin to that you might see from an overindulged five-year-old who didn't get his way (ouch! but really, it's true).

Our team was in the process of receiving a sound beating at Sunday's game, 6-0. We haven't won one game all season, and the frustration of knowing we would lose yet again was evident on everyone's face.

With roughly eight minutes to go, Joe got tangled up with an opponent going after the ball. The other guy fell to the ground, calling foul. Joe let out an incredulous snicker in response. The ref immediately blew his whistle and called him for tripping.

I was watching the play and didn't see anything illegal about it, but let's face it, refs are not immune to making bad calls. They happen. Most players choose to let the call go, move on and try regain possession of the ball. Some might also choose to give the ref a little razzing if they are feeling particularly pissed off.

Joe chose to take it a few steps further.

The opponent was given a penalty kick, which deflected off someone and headed in the air toward Joe. The play was near our goal, so I was expecting Joe to do whatever he needed to do to clear the ball toward the other end of the field. Instead, he chose to swat the ball down with his hand in obvious resentment at being called for that tripping foul.

The ref was quick to pull a blue card, which meant an automatic two minutes off the field for Joe. Joe willingly stomped off the field, but not before spitting out his gum on the turf.

The other team refused to play again until the gum was removed, and the ref yelled at Joe to come back. He was already out of earshot, though in his enraged state I doubt he would have come back anyway. The ref declared the scene to be one of the "most disgusting displays I've ever witnessed," and then both teams stared at the spat gum while the clock ticked down.

Tick. Tock.

I, for one, wanted to finish playing. There were still four minutes left and it seemed ludicrous to let Joe's flagrant behavior prevent us from playing out the game. So I did what no one else was willing to do. I picked up that damn gum, ran to the sideline, threw it in the garbage (while throwing out a couple of f-bombs of my own) and then asked the ref, "Can we play NOW?!"

We did finish playing, and somehow we even managed to score a goal in the remaining minutes, so it was not a complete close-out.

Joe, for some reason, decided to stick around for the rest of the game, watching from the sidelines. When we walked back to the bench after the game, he did not offer one word of apology to the team for his behavior, or to me personally for having to pick up his gum.

In fact, Joe seemed to think the incident was solely between him and the ref and shouldn't be of concern to the rest of us. That the 11 OTHER players on the field were not somehow subjected to his behavior. That his actions didn't reflect poorly on our entire team or cause any team morale we had left to plummet.

So now that you've heard these tales of male-induced woe, tell me what you think. Re: Suitor #2, is he just a lame ass? At what point do you deep-six the excuses? Re: Joe, was it just an isolated incident? Typical overaggressive male behavior? Should it be condoned? Or should Joe be voted off the soccer island? Scheduled for indoor intervention?

I guess until I move out of my apartment, I should start appreciating the presence of the black widow (as long as it stays OUTSIDE). After all, it's instinctual behavior to rip-the-head-off-the-male when he stops being useful is starting to make a whole lotta sense.

Ouch. But really, it's true!

Picnic Day

2006-04-26T13:57:00.000-07:00

Before I launch into Picnic Day, let me welcome the newest blog to appear on my bloglist, Vegan Lunch Box .

To all my meat-lover friends out there (Krin): don't worry. I am still very much a meat-a-saurus. Until there is an adequate substitute for the meat in my mom's spaghetti, I plan to remain so. But I can't help but visit Vegan Lunch Box every day, if nothing else, to get the answers to the following questions:

"What camera-ready, vegan-rific lunch will Jennifer's little shmoo take to school next?

How many stars will the meal rate?

Where can I get that kick-ass bento-style lunchbox?

What the heck is tuno?"

I'm doubly amazed that anyone would spend that much thought putting together their kid's lunch, and that a school lunch could look THAT GOOD. AND be meat-free. Whatever happened to good old sack lunches: sandwich, apple, bag of chips? And how does this kid negotiate lunch trades with his friends?

Shmoo: "Want a chicken-free nugget and a bite of my kiwi pita for a bite of your corn dog and one Oreo?"

Friend: "Um, yeah, dude. RIIIIIGHT."

In any case, the ante of good mothering clearly has been raised. Oy.

I guess I should have taken a poll on the status of kid lunches at Picnic Day (how's that for a transition!), which was packed to the gills with families. Strollers unite! While I didn't get a chance to check out the sheepdog trials (seriously), I did get to see friends I haven't seen in a LONG time, including my sorority "big sister":

I joined up with other sorority sisters and we visited the frat house where I was a "little sister" (who knew there were so many opportunities to be a sibling in college?). We caught up with some guys I have not seen since I was 20, including the guy on the right, Jesse:

If it's possible, he looks EXACTLY the same as he did when we were in school. I mistakenly called him "Micah" when I first saw him. Oops. Jesse was very nice about it and informed me that Micah (who was in his pledge class) was also present. I was happy that I correctly identified a name of someone I knew 12 years ago but haven't seen since, even if I didn't exactly match it with the face. Jesse, I'll be heading to Rite Aid for the Ginko Biloba soon, promise.

On our way over, my friend Karen wondered aloud if the frat house would still smell like stale beer and musty wood. We had to laugh when we got inside, because she was right on target. There was something comforting about that. And that there was nothing in the fridge that would remotely qualify as vegan.

A Great Day

2006-04-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

I had the day off yesterday. It was a great day for many reasons, including:

I slept in until 10 a.m.

My mom and I brought home ollalieberry scones from the Fox and Goose Pub

I did two loads of laundry while we watched two episodes of Gilmore Girls, Season 2

I played soccer. We lost, but I scored a goal

My dad and brother and I went to In-and-Out Burger after the game, and I had a chocolate milkshake!

Simple things, simple pleasures. It's hard for me to get through a day without an executable plan, but sometimes being planless works. The day was also great because it did not involve:

My friend hitting my car as he backed out of his garage, leaving a long gash alongside my driver's side door and rear panel

Smooshing fresh-cut strawberries that had fallen off my cheesecake plate into my friends' brand-new ecru microfiber sofa, courtesy of my backside

These incidents happened over the weekend. Bad ju-ju being bandied about in my inner circle, what's up with that? I'm confident the car can be repaired, I'm 99% sure the soap-and-water trick worked on the sofa....now I'm just hoping M&S can break the cycle...

Everything I love about Tower

2006-04-17T14:46:00.000-07:00

In light (or spite) of the fact that "Scary Movie: 4" just raked in $41 million over the weekend, I thought I'd share why I love the Tower Theatre and independent movies.

My friend, Jenny, and I have become regulars at the Tower Theatre, and I can't tell you how happy I am about this. There are not many things that make me happier these days than heading over to the neighboring Tower Cafe after work, ordering the Asian noodle salad, engaging in some girl talk, and then heading over to the theater for some independent film goodness.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm all for big blockbusters. I will go see "MI:3," "X-Men III" (otherwise known as "Bring Jean Grey Back for the Guys in the Audience"), and probably the Superman remake this summer. I will continue, in some small measure, to help Jerry Bruckheimer bankroll his latest cinematic explosion, and Peter Jackson finance his visual and special effects. These movies are escapism at its best: escapism from the Sacramento heat (if it ever comes this year), from work and from life in general.

But there's a time and a place for the blockbuster.

I'm sad that more people don't support the Tower Theatre and independent movies. True, their facilities are outdated and the cost of popcorn is horrendous. You aren't guaranteed stadium seating or the latest hi-def screens. But what the indie theaters lack in modern convenience, they certainly make up for in charm, history and most of all, film experience. No doubt, when I'm looking for a really good story, an original plot and amazing acting, I'm heading over to Tower.

Part of what I love best about Tower is that you're not always sure what you're going to get. Public opinion is even more subjective with independent films. And yet I'm almost always really, really glad that I went. "Capote" was one of those films. Probably my favorite movie of 2005.

"Tsotsi" (academy-award winner for best foreign film) is another movie I probably would have passed on if Jenny hadn't suggested it. Street thug in South Africa township steals BMW, finds baby in backseat, and reassesses his life? In subtitles? Um, no thanks. But Jenny had read a profile of the film and wanted to see it, so off we went. The film was beautiful, frightening, haunting, compelling. Human spirit shown at its worst and best. When you find yourself rooting for the "bad" guy, you know you're witnessing some terrific acting (working from a likewise terrific script). Run, run, run to the theater for this one.

I just saw "Thank You For Smoking" last week and it ranked right up there with "Tsotsi," but for completely different reasons. "Thank You.." is a comedy that pokes fun at the cigarette industry and people's willingness to believe what corporate America is shilling, especially if it's done by someone nice and easy on the eyes. I thought this film was hilarious, and fascinating from a work-use perspective, since my department is always trying to figure out innovative ways to market to prospective students. Very clever. Great cameo by Rob Lowe.

Next Tower film in the queue: "Friends with Money." It stars Jennifer Aniston, so that should be a draw for a wider audience. Personally, I'm in it for Catherine Keener, Francis McDormand and Joan Cusack. I'll post a review in a few weeks!

iPod meme

2006-04-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

I ran across this iPod meme idea at the VHI Best Week Ever blog today, go figure. They gots all kinds of wacky stuff over there. Anyway, you shuffle the songs in your iPod and use the resulting songs to answer the following questions, in the order in which they appeared. Sounds fun, so here goes:

How does the world see you?
"Just Friends," Gavin DeGraw

Will I have a happy life?
"Aint No Good," Cake

What do my friends really think of me?
"Loser's Weepers, Part One" Etta James

Do people secretly lust after me?
"End Title," Danny Elfman

How can I make myself happy?
"Home Life," John Mayer

What should I do with my life?
"Saturday Night Fish Fry," Louis Jordan

Will I ever have children?
"If You Were Mine," Billie Holiday

What is some good advice for me?
"All I Want For Christmas is You," Olivia Olson

How will I be remembered?
"Grassland Chant," Lion King

What is my signature dancing song?
"Take Me As I Am," Wyclef Jean

What do I think my current theme song is?
"Christmas Eve Montage," Danny Elfman

What does everyone else think my current theme song is?
"Diamonds From Sierra Leone," Kanye West

What song will play at my funeral?
"Ratiki Mourns," Lion King

What type of men do you like?
"The Blue Danube," Strictly Ballroom

What is my day going to be like?
"Circle of Life," Lion King

Hmmm, funny, depressing and insightful. And completely redoable if I don't like it. We might have a winner here. Try it and let me know what you think!

Weekend update

2006-04-02T16:02:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to my fellow blogger Pong, who requested more photos in my blog postings to help ease all that darn reading he had to do. I'm no DJ but I'm down with taking requests, so Pong, this one's for you!

My Weekend Update

The highs:

Scored a goal in my Friday night indoor league and we won!

Got Friday off in observance of Cesar Chavez.

Took said holiday to scrap and lunch with Under Construction Daily and hold her darling baby.

Also went shoe shopping with Momma J and bought FOUR pairs of sandals...so where is the sun already??

Had date #2 with suitor #2. Hey, even I can be proven wrong on occasion.

Finished a series of scrapbooking pages:

"I Spy"

"Blading Buddies"

The lows:

Got to hear my upstairs neighbor and her dumb boyfriend argue loudly from 1-2 a.m. on Saturday. I so need a house. Reader poll: Should I have called the police? Knocked on the door and told them to let it go for the night? Set off their car alarms? I chose the chicken option: earplugs.

Scraped my front bumper in the Safeway parking lot. Oops.

Lost in the Sunday morning indoor league.

I think the weekend will come to a close with spaghetti dinner at my brother's place and then settling in for Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. I am thrilled to kick off my work week tomorrow with an all-day HTML 2.0 class. If nothing else, hopefully it will make me a more efficient blogger!

Don't worry about me, I've just been OOO!

2006-03-27T16:45:00.000-08:00

In a former life, I worked at a high tech PR agency with fellow blogger, Krin. Our agency, not unlike the dozens of others entrenched and immersed in the world of high technology, had a painful, public addiction...to acronym use. We're talking junkie-level addiction, people. I am ashamed to admit that I chipper-ly promoted ERP software for SAP and VOIP for B2B networking at one point. Oy.

We probably convinced ourselves that our obsession with all things acronym was really just a sign that we were incredibly efficient, forward-moving, cutting-edge and uber-hip. Did I mention we also had a thing for jargon?

The pinnacle of our acronym use: the daily e-mail sent out by the agency receptionist to let the staff know who would be absent from work that day. I guess it would have been too double-entrende-y for her to use "Absent" as the subject of those daily e-mails. Too obvious to say "Not here on 3/26/00." Too boring to say "Away from the Office Today."

So taking a quick hit off the 'ole acronym pipe, she would enter the subject: "OOO."

Out of Office.

Krin and I would have a great time twisting the meaning of OOO to suit our own level of humor (read: very clever and funny) and the personalities of some of our coworkers (read: not so clever or funny). We used to tell one too-cool-for-school coworker (the one who wore his sunglasses IN the office, along with an assortment of pastel polo shirts with the collars up, matching striped D-ring belts and topsiders—no socks) that his humor was OOO when he was being particularly insufferable. And that would make us laugh for days.

We also used OOO to describe our minds after a particularly rough work week ("I can't remember a thing, my brain is OOO today").

And so it took me a VERY long time to round the bend and get to the POINT of this whole entry, but it is finally here! OOO, my friends, is where I have been these past three weeks. The brain, the body, the humor, the whole whippin' package. I have been consumed by the big admissions deadline, my life sucked away. Kind of like Wesley in The Princess Bride! Like him, I felt mostly dead. In fact, immediately after the deadline, I told a coworker that I was decomposing. The irony strikes me now as I type this. I had meant decompressing, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't too far off with the initial assessment.

The good news is that I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel (no, not that one). I am back at the wonderful world of Yay Toast and I hope to return to my regular posting frequency soon. I missed you guys!

Add it up

2006-03-07T22:51:00.000-08:00

I feel pressure (self-wrought) to write something utterly fantastic and mind-blowing for post #50. Instead of staying up all night breaking my brain to be clever, I thought I'd throw out some numbers, and see where they land.

Soccer

The number of goals my three respective indoor soccer teams have scored this week: 26

The number of goals scored against my three respective indoor soccer teams this week: 4

The number of goals I scored this week: 2

The number of holes in my right soccer sock that I refused to darn and now have accepted as good luck: 2

Work

The number of days until we release admission notifications and shatter dreams or make them come true: 7

The number of Web pages and communications I have to update by then: too many to count

The number of times I played my SpongeBob SquarePants cell ring tone for my manager today so I could distract a deadline panic attack: 1

The number of times I shed tears of laughter after hearing that ring tone: 1 10-minute session

Overheard at the Round Table

The number of male college students gossiping about girls and playing Connect Four while I waited for my to-go order: 2

The number of male college students gossiping about a girl in my sorority ("Chi O equals "Hi, No") without knowing they were sitting right next to an amused alumna: 2

The number of male college students gossiping about how one of them has turned more than one girl (Chi O girl included) to the lesbian lifestyle: 2

The number of male college students who are not getting laid tonight, or in the foreseeable future, IMHO: 2

The number of dollars for a SMALL pepperoni and olive pizza: 18 (holy frick!)

Relationships

The number of weeks since I've been back on the single market: 7, give or take a few days

The number of times a friend has suggested I move out of town or convert to Mormonism to meet new men: 2

The number of dates I'd had this week without having to move out of town or convert to Mormonism: 2

The number of #2 dates I foresee having with either suitor: 0

The Cat

The number of times I've talked to my cat tonight: does the conversation about tomorrow's drier weather pattern count?

And Finally, the Blog

Number of blog posts to date: 50. It all comes full circle. Yay Toast!

On the eve of the big 5-0...

2006-03-05T14:04:00.000-08:00

This is my 49th post to Yay Toast. This means only one more to go and I will hit a personal bloggy milestone: 50.

I'm quickly approaching the first birthday of my blog (a milestone in and of itself), so after some quick "Kristin" math, I learned that I'm averaging about 7 posts a month. I can honestly say I have never James Frey-ified any entries, but I do sometimes wonder where I came up with this stuff.

I also wonder (on occasion) why I thought it would be a great idea to share my life (or at least snippets of it) publicly on the Internet.

And then there are the friends I've dragged into it with me. In some way or another, Yay Toast has been a catalyst for six of my friends to start their own blogs.

Some I had to arm-wrestle into doing it, some I have to beg to keep doing it. One ran with the idea and got her husband dialed in to start his own blog, like some kind of wacky blogging pyramid scheme. Two friends chose to use their blogs as opportunities to record specific events (major home repair, and moving to Switzerland, respectively).

In the end, like me, they all eventually came around to the giant tractor-beam that is known as BLOGGER. And I love it.

Reading their blogs, seeing their photos, reading their responses, it's like I am right there with them. Kind of like that dorky kid in the NeverEnding Story!

So as I look back on my 48 previous posts and gear up for the 5-0, I have to say that the whole bloggy blog-blog experience has been a turning point for me, both personally and professionally as a writer.

Call it cathartic, call it memorable. Call it funny or silly or even vain. But I can't help myself.

iheartblogs.

She Shoots, She Scores!

2006-02-27T12:37:00.000-08:00

I scored a goal yesterday! My first goal in my three leagues of indoor soccer since last August, and on a larger scale, probably the first goal I've scored since my youth soccer career ended with the almighty Ladybugs, almost 16 flippin' years ago.

I also had two assists yesterday, one that was just perfect, perfect, perfect. The other assist went to my brother, which was more of a ricocheted, rebound pass, but he scored regardless, and how cool is it to assist to your own brother?! We trounced the other team, 4-1.

Back in the Ladybugs days, I played left halfback. Scoring was really not my gig. I liked to defend, take the ball away from the other team and then get it up to the forwards, who would do their job (score).

The middle part of the field was my domain. I was confident there (and comfortable) setting up plays, assisting the scorers. I was good at it. I never ventured very far into forward territory, because then it became more feasible that I might actually have to try to do something with the ball besides passing it, like, um, shoot.

The Ladybugs middle halfback pretty much took the same approach as me when it came to playing offense. She was also a passer, a play maker. Her parents, recognizing the simplicity and beauty of incentive, bought her McDonald's french fries one day after she had scored a rare goal. From then on, she continued to play primarily as a passer, but she definitely took more opportunities to shoot on goal. When she did score, that salty french fry glory was all hers.

I didn't get any french fries after yesterday's game. But I didn't need them. I was thrilled, glowing even, without the help of McDonald's hydrogenated beef fat.

Just finally making a goal, and realizing hey, I can make goals too(!), was incentive enough to keep trying for more, to take more chances, to fill up my confidence bucket before I head back out on the field.

I have a game tonight so hopefully all of this good-goal-vibe will stay with me. I'll try not to let my big head get in the way (unless the opponent is shooting)!

Good Looks and Woodchucks Can Only Get You So Far

2006-02-23T17:17:00.000-08:00

Communication equals transportation, people.

I learned that from a guy in high school who really knew nothing about anything. This was the kind of guy who had education as his back-up plan. After all, he was at the top of his game in high school! He was hot, he had an overload of charisma, and he played lots of varsity sports. In the words of Napoleon Dynamite, he had skills.

Last I heard, the guy was on house alert with a Martha Stewart ankle bracelet after a few too many DUIs. Guess he had a little too much communication with the police after a little too much transportation with an open bottle in the front seat.

Oops.

Regardless of his current jail- and education status, this kid knew what he was talking about with the whole communication equals transportation thing. The saying stuck with me. And today, after a particular e-mail conversation at work, I am fondly reminded of it:

Manager to group: Is there existing wording on an existing page for a change of plan page from last year?

My reply: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Manager reply: About as much upchuck a woodchuck would upchuck if a woodchuck drank wood grain alcohol.

If there was any question, my dept. didn't move very far today.

Valentine's Day Confessions

2006-02-14T11:08:00.000-08:00

In sixth grade, I assisted in breaking up a fellow classmate and his girlfriend so that I could be his girlfriend and get the Valentine's Day gift he had brought for her. Wicked. Shameless. Oh the drama of being 11 years old again.

In 12th grade, I gave Michael Bolton concert tickets to my boyfriend for Valentine's Day. And I went with him. WILLINGLY.

In my freshman year of college, I was given a gold bracelet and a "I love you" card from my boyfriend of about a month. He proceeded to break up with me a few weeks later and impregnate one of my childhood friends.

So understandably, Valentine's Day has not held a lot of love in this kid's heart. This year, I decided to avoid all the traditional cutesy traditions and go hipster instead:

True, the e-card doesn't come with heart candy or chocolate, and you probably won't get any free bronzer or Greek shipping heirs out of it. But it also won't force you to see Michael Bolton live, knock up your friend or convince you that Mardi and Mark really didn't belong together anyway.

Happy V Day all.

On my Hands and Knees

2006-02-08T16:23:00.000-08:00

I just bit it a little while ago. Fell down the last couple of stairs in the main lobby of my office building.

I didn't even have time to think about the fact that I was GOING DOWN. One minute I was zoning out, the next I was on my knees and hands, body askew between the leatherette round with the fake planters and the Admissions front counter. I mumbled "oh...ouch" as I realized I had just tripped through the air and hit the floor kind of hard.

I quickly assessed my injuries and concluded that at worst, I'd have a couple of pretty bruises on my kneecaps. I could still play indoor soccer this week! (gotta have my priorities straight, ya know).

My relief was replaced almost instantly with that slowly creeping flame of humiliation -- you know the red one that spreads across your face when you've done something completely stupid and a million people have witnessed it?

So in a lobby that gets tons of daily traffic from staff, faculty, alumni, students and the frickin' general public, how many people saw me bail?

As I pulled myself off the floor and looked around, it appeared that only TWO people had been lucky enough to catch one of my more brilliant personal moments. They worked at the Admissions counter and leaned in unison with a concerned "are you okayyyy?"

I'm sure they see all kinds of crazy klutzy stuff from their counter perch every day, but that didn't bring me much comfort. I still felt like a jackass. I muttered a quick "yep" and made a hasty retreat to my cubicle where I could safely hide under my desk until my face returned to its normal color, all the while cursing the staircase (and the world in general) in the Elizabethan manner appropriate for this exact situation.

Thou whoreson empty-hearted hugger-mugger!
Thou distempered rump-fed bum-bailey!
Thou grizzled pox-marked nut-hook!

Ah. Much better.

And the Month of Suck continues!

Four Things

2006-02-03T16:50:00.000-08:00

I was inspired by Dooce to complete my own four things list:

Four jobs I've had:

1. Video store clerk and porn re-shelver, especially the morning after "rent two, get the third for free" Tuesdays
2. Counter help and caffeine dispenser at neighborhood alternative to Starbucks
3. PR f/lack(ey) to Silicon Valley start-ups
4. Editor for university undergraduate admissions

Four movies I can watch over and over:

This is impossible. Please note the John Hughes movies, particularly "Sixteen Candles" are default. "Better Off Dead" is a runner up. And I have a hard time saying no when "Aliens" and "Commando" appear on TNT, too.

1. Princess Bride
2. Strictly Ballroom
3. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
4. Goonies

Four places I have lived:

1. Sacramento, California, Driftwood St. (0 months-18 yo)
2. Davis, California, Gilmore 3 "girls-only" dorm floor
3. Foster City, California, my favorite of the five cities I lived in during my five years in the Bay Area
4. Sacramento, California, full circle!

Four TV shows I love:

1. Lost
2. Scrubs
3. Grey's Anatomy
4. Related (my new favorite)

Four places I've vacationed:

1. Portland, OR (Powell's!)
2. Kauai, HI
3. Trinity Lake, CA (houseboat!)
4. Omaha, NE (seriously)

Four of my favorite dishes:

1. Seafood -- honey prawns at PF Changs; scallops at Benihana's; lobster tail at Duke's in Kauai
2. My mom's spaghetti
3. Cereal (latest is Maple and Nuts from Trader Joe's, though I am always partial to Cinnamon Life)
4. Mac and cheese (KRAFT!)

Four sites I visit daily:

1. Dooce + all my bloggy friends' sites
2. CNN
3. VH1 Best Ever Blog
4. E!online (Fashion Police)

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. On a beach in Mexico with Katie
2. Watching Gilmore Girls Season 2 with my mom
3. Metro City Soccer
4. Anywhere with J

Four people I am tagging:

1. Katie
2. Krin
3. The Kid
4. Tim

Daffodil this

2006-01-31T13:32:00.000-08:00

So the Month of Suck (MOS) is about to start. Work-wise. For the next 28 days I will be scrambling to get accomplished what even my superiors say is "probably more than one person can physically do." Right-o.

And on the eve of MOS, I find I am topped off with higher levels of overwhelming fear, doubt and resistance than normal. I mean, seriously. How in the hell am I going to get all of this work done AND still find time to read Dooce every day? It just doesn't seem possible.

But on the bright side, I love challenges. And I've got three little tidbits of knowledge to help me attack the MOS head on:

The most depressing day of the year occurred last Monday, so it's only up from here, baby!

The image of me emerging triumphant in March like a hopeful little daffodil from the muck of winter is incredibly inspiring. Even if I look like crap in yellow.

February is the shortest month of the year, so I only have to survive 28 days of SUCK instead of the standard 30!

Add to this list the fact that BOTH of my indoor soccer teams won this week, 4-2 and 4-2, respectively. Two W's and on top of that, two W's with the same score?! My karma has definitely got it going on.

Here's hoping I can keep it rolling until Feb. 28.

You can't be emotionally low when you're high on life!

2006-01-24T17:48:00.000-08:00

Did you know that yesterday was deemed the most depressing day of the year? Apparently a Welsh physician (likely on anti-depressant meds), came up with a statistical model for determining the day in the year when people reach their lowest emotional point. I'd do the math and break it down for you, but let's face it, the probability of that happening is ZERO. Just ask the Stats 13 professor who failed me in college. But I digress.

Since this world-altering news bomb didn't get released until the actual "day of depression," I found it very easy to look back at what had already happened in my day and declare it depressing indeed.

Case in point: it was a Monday, which meant work, which by default is a depressing thing. Then there were the recent indoor soccer losses, make-shift shinguard and cleat graves the only visible remains of my Sunday and Monday teams (4-8, 0-3, respectively). Not to be outdone, the relationship league had recently revoked my dating pass until further notice. And the office coffeepot was drip-dry.

Just kidding on that last one.

So all in all, I think it is fair for you to infer that I was in a definite funk. The, ahem, clinically proven study only served to legitimize my glumminess. Heck, it even gave me justification to wallow.

It also gave me pause in regards to my recent sidelines suck posting. Did I still believe it was better to participate, to be a part of the game of life, even when I'm getting my ass kicked up and down its playing field?

I think I'll hold on my answer for now. In the meantime, would someone please bust out the stats calculator and let me know when to expect the most cheerful day of the year?

No Good Deed...

2006-01-23T18:28:00.000-08:00

I worked through lunch today, so I was able to leave the office at 5 p.m. This in itself is pretty blogworthy, because those who know me (and now those who didn't previously), know I am never capable of leaving anywhere EARLY. Or getting anywhere early either, but that's a whole other story.

As I walked toward the parking lot, I imagined all the fantastical things I would do with this extra hour... all this free time that was now MINE and not THE MAN'S. I didn't get very far when I noticed a set of keys hanging from the trunk lock of a red convertible Toyota Celica. Working at a university known for its research, I naturally did a double-take, looked around and wondered if this was some sort of experiment by the psych department: Given the opportunity, would someone steal the car? Go on a joy ride ala "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"? Take the keys and drop them off at a safe place? Or would someone just keep walking?

I stopped for a minute, racking my brain for a building on campus that was still open after 5 p.m. where I could leave the keys in the care of an actual human being. Frankly, I was also trying to think of somewhere open nearby so I could still take advantage of my extra hour off work. Nothing came to mind in either case.

I decided to keep walking toward the parking lot while simultaneously convincing myself that one or all of the following was true: a) I'd think of a solution before I got to my car and come back to help, b) someone else would take care of it, c) the owner of the keys would be back any second, d) the psych student would report back, "Subject A: Failed."

Luckily for my conscience (and the owner of the keys), I ran into a colleague just past the car and told her of my moral dilemma. Did she know of anywhere I could take these keys? She suggested the campus transportation services office, which she thought might be open late. I agreed, since their parking citations seem to festoon cars at all hours, day and night. So after much wrangling with the campus phone directory (arrgh), we finally tracked down the right number and I called. We learned that the transportation services office is indeed open after 5 p.m. The dispatch officer agreed to send someone over to pick up the keys and leave a note. We only waited a few minutes before help arrived and mission accomplished.

Of course, by the time this was all said and done, it was 5:50 p.m. So much for that extra hour of free time. I guess it's true that no good deed goes unpunished. But I'm glad I did it (thanks, LW, for the emotional support and cell assistance!). Our little act of kindness turned out to be really quite self-validating, who knew?

I just hope the owner of the Celica didn't have any unpaid campus parking tickets...

Welcome to the Fight Club

2006-01-14T15:50:00.000-08:00

My mom recently adopted a feral kitten. It's a long twisted story that really isn't all that interesting so I'll spare you. All you need to know is that this kitten is darling, he has his own bachelor room in my parents' house, and he occasionally invites the family dog over to play Fight Club.

Jonesy

Palmer

What happens in Fight Club.....

stays in Fight Club.....

Lest you think Jonesy and Palmer don't like each other, they are actually good friends and always make up in the end.

Follow up on Brokeback Mountain

2006-01-11T09:37:00.000-08:00

I saw Brokeback Mountain last night and recommend it. Beautiful story, fantastic acting, heck, the cinematography alone is enough to see the film--it almost made me want to move out to Wyoming for the blue open sky and rolling grassy fields.

Almost. Except for that whole Wyoming part.

A friend recently pointed out that Heath had been a regular on my "fantasy celebrity island," a Survivor spin-off game we used to play on vacation several years ago during houseboat trips. He wanted to know if Heath still made the cut.

If he had asked me before I saw this movie, I would have said that Heath was fed to the sharks sometime shortly after "A Knight's Tale."

Now I have to say "the gay.marlboro.man.is.smoking.hot." He's back on my island, but more importantly to the masses, he's back as an actor, people. Easily his best work to date. Not sure if it's enough to beat Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of Truman Capote in "Capote" (run, run, run to the theater if you haven't seen it), but Heath is definitely deserving of any awards he receives.

For anyone who cares, there are only a couple of sex scenes between Heath and Jake Gyllenhaal's characters. They are intense, but brief and mostly obscured by darkness and shadows. The scenes are practically beside the point, at least for me. I left the theater thinking not about the gay sex, but about the intimacy the men shared--the kind that exists when fully clothed--and how their love really wasn't any different than the love shared between a man and a woman.

The Bareback Mountain Brigade

2006-01-09T11:15:00.000-08:00

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Brokeback Mountain has generated so much buzz lately. It's not the Oscar buzz that has me in a twist, though. It's the buzz going down at the water-cooler, at the dinner table with family and friends. Buzz at the local level, where it hits home more personally.

Maybe I've grown comfortably naive and it was time for a wake-up call anyway. I've always thought (proudly) that the members of my community, region and state are progressive compared to the rest of the country, advocates of tolerance. More open-minded, more accepting of one another's choices, lifestyles and values, even if they don't jive with our own.

So while I can understand that the subject matter of Brokeback Mountain--two men falling in love--has ruffled some feathers of Conservative America, I was surprised, irked and frustrated that some people close to me have reacted in the way that they have.

I call them the "Bareback Mountain Brigade." Bring the movie up and they make lame jokes, laugh awkwardly or shudder, as if they'll be subjected to 2 1/2 hours of gay porn. I guess in their minds it's one thing to be accepting of gay relationships, but it's another to intentionally pay $9.50 to see a portrayal of one and be (gasp!) entertained, or (heaven forbid) moved.

So to the Brigade: I'm not asking you to rave about it. You don't even have to see it. I understand that not all movies are appealing to everyone. And I'm sure this film will be uncomfortable--on a lot of levels, for a lot of people, me included. But it is supposed to be excellent, one of the best of the year. Ang Lee directed. Awards have been distributed, nominations have piled up. There is validity there. There is weight.

Just keep an open mind.

Okay, I'm safely off the soapbox for a while. I'm seeing the film tomorrow. If you want more, check out Blurbomat. Jon's review and societal assessment resonated with me.

The Sidelines Suck

2006-01-04T17:19:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine confessed that she recently experienced a moment of utter despair over her singleton status. She hadn't really given her dating status much thought either way. But suddenly, kinda like an migraine attack or when your dad asks a waiter who's in the middle of serving a coconut shrimp platter if he'd like to go out with you sometime, she was blindsided by the fact that she had reached 30 and was still single, with no decent prospects in sight.

She wondered how this had happened, how her friends and family members had increasingly been sucked into the vacuum otherwise known as married life.

My first response: "You just started freaking out about this NOW?" I personally started getting nervous about the whole single-female-with-a-cat-thing a few years ago.

I talked to a male friend about the pressures and fears felt by single women over 30 world-round. His response: "Oh yeah? Well think how happy she'll feel when most of those friends and family members are starting to divorce in, say, five years."

Not that he is a bitter divorcee or anything.

But his comment did get me thinking about that time-honored question: Is it better to have love and lost, or to have never loved at all? Or, translated in sports terms from the singleton perspective: How come it seems like everyone else out there is playing on the field when I can't even get a ticket to the freakin' game?

I play on an indoor co-ed soccer team that has SEVEN, count them 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 women on the roster. We only field six players total (three being men). This means I average only about 4 minutes per half, maybe an extra minute at the very end of the game if I am really lucky. I am constantly stuck on the sidelines. It sucks.

It wouldn't matter if we were getting crushed by the other team, I would still want to be out there, even for those measly 8 minutes, participating. Experiencing the game -- win or lose-- for myself. Not on the sidelines imagining what the game is like.

That's really all we single gals want to do. Participate. Be a part of it, love lost or won.