Finding Happiness

These points seem like common sense, but reading it was a good reminder.

Pretty Tags

One of the blogs I enjoy (she's Swiss!) featured Popptags yesterday. Living in wine country, I tend to give wine as a gift a lot and these tags are a great idea! I am not a fan of the wine bag and usually dress up my gifts with twine/ribbon and a simple gift tag. I might try a lower-budget version (obviously not expensive letterpress) to create a more personal message to the gift receiver.

MTV Flashback

I am exhausted. Two early mornings of cow work has left me tired and sore. The good news is I left work early today to pick Ben up at the airport! He is tired too but happy to be home after being out-of-town for 3 weeks. On the flight, he had a quasi-celebrity run-in (I question if celebrity is the correct word) with Mike "The Miz" Mizanin of MTV Real World fame. Yeah I remember him in those shows. I think I watched too much MTV back in the day.

Speaking of air travel...the disappointing news is American Airlines is ending service to San Luis Obispo November 1st.

SLO FYI: Fresh Fruit Sale

For those in the area...

Cal Poly Fruit Science is having a sale on peaches, apricots, lemons, and avocados. Visit the Crops Unit off Highland Drive on Wednesday, June 25th from 2-5pm.

Photo by Matt Armendariz via Fish Food

Miserable

The current outside temperature is 107 F, with a real feel of 110 F.

You say: "Good thing you have air conditioning at work."
I say: "Hahaha - that broke yesterday morning."
You say: "At least you can open the window."
I say: "Nope, for quality control reasons nothing opens."

The thermometer has our inside temperature at 95 F with no air circulation. I am hot, miserable, and getting crabby!

Black Gold

Curious to see what working on an oil rig is like? The cable channel TruTV is starting a new series called Black Gold, in a similar format to Deadliest Catch. The first episode premiers tonight at 10pm. I'm going to TiVo it for Ben.

Old America

The rig broke down. Bad thunderstorms meant he couldn't golf. So yesterday, Ben drove around the Pennsylvania countryside taking pictures. He might post them all, but here is one of my favorites.

Changing a Night Owl

Most people know that I am a 100% night owl. Always have been (in high school I could never get to school on time, in college I took afternoon classes). Hmmm...maybe now the title of "Night Owl" isn't totally true since I usually go to bed around 11pm and wake up around 8am. Honestly, I think I have changed and just like sleep (9 hours to be exact) and have gotten lazy due to my flexible job. Ben (my night-owl-partner-in-crime) sent me this article and I think we are going to give it a try. I doubt I will become a 5am person, but if I can regularly get to work at 8:30am I will be happy.

My (Darker) Natural Color

This weekend also had me finally taking a much needed trip to get my hair done. A cut and color was waaaay overdue. I really have no excuse for the tardiness, I'm just lazy. The cut is still the same but I think the color is a little darker - I like it! Here's a pic for you Ben!

Pretty Boxes

On Saturday I sent 3 gift packages to family and friends for various celebrations (new baby, birthday, Father‘s Day). I usually don't do any special wrapping to make it easier to ship, just a simple ribbon around the gift. I came across this website today and just love the look (the patterns, colors, simple ribbons) even though it is a little pricey. I am excited that there is a shop in SLO as I have been searching for brown satin ribbon!

Dad's Day

You're the best, I love you. Happy Father's Day!

It's Rachel's Birthday!

In celebration of her day, here are a few shots of Rachel!


Happy 24th Birthday Rachel!

Pro-Reform/Education/Savings

Lately I find myself reading a lot of articles about debt and consumption in American society, which are currently prevalent on the internet due to the status of the economy. The latest article I read was a brief NY Times Op-Ed piece that I agree with and decided to share.

Viva la Vida

Love the song. Love the ad. Made the purchase. Yeah I'm a marketing sucker (in my defense, Apple is pretty good at the whole marketing thing). Long live life!

A Dirty Job

Ben is currently running a test on a job in Pennsylvania, and here is proof that occasionally he moves out from behind his computer and gets his hands dirty!

Movie Review: SATC

So I finally got around to seeing the Sex and the City movie, and with everyone's busy schedules the showing last night at 9:15pm worked the best for our little group (which included 2 guys). I watched the series on HBO, own the DVDs, but wouldn't consider myself a "die-hard" fan. I liked the TV series for it's openness and clever writing, and surprisingly I liked the movie. I laughed a lot and liked the story (but do have issues with the ending). I did find the excessive brand-name dropping to be completely obnoxious though. A guy who went did classify it as a major "chick flick" with too much girly stuff (hair, make-up, fashion) and not enough story line to hold his interest. He also felt it was too long (it is 2.5 hours). Overall I recommend seeing the movie, but it doesn't have to be on the big screen.

Patience Pays

Twice as fast. Half the price.

But will I get one on July 11th...?

Magic 8-Ball says...very doubtful, you are too cheap frugal.

All About the Bling

Last weekend, Ben and I made a quick trip up to SF to find a wedding band for me. (Yep 3 months after the big day, we are total slackers!) I just didn't like the wedding band used in the ceremony. It was purchased rather quickly with no time to change it, so I went with it for the ceremony knowing I could fix it later.

I was having a hard time finding something to work with my engagement ring, but I saw some celebration rings on the Tiffany website that looked interesting so our first stop was there. The sales associate was absolutely awful - rude and not helpful! I understand how tough it is at the SF store since they have to deal with tourists just "window shopping", but you are still involved in sales and should always be polite. I think for the future I'll stick to shopping at the Walnut Creek and Palo Alto stores where I have always had wonderful service.

Anyways, nothing worked at Tiffany so we were off to Cartier. Again no luck, so we moved on to Bvlgari (which we both thought wouldn't have anything judging from the website). The service was amazing! I was really hoping to get personal assistance and recommendations on bands to complement my engagement ring, and the first ring John suggested was perfect. Ben and I wanted to think about it (we didn't want to rush into another mistake again) so we went to a few more jewelry stores in Union Square. Nothing was right like the Bvlgari ring, so we went back before the store closed and made the purchase! We both love the ring, the rings together, and the experience. We are so happy and can't stop admiring my left hand!

iMovie but not myMovie

Blogging video for the first time with Emily and Scott's latest little class project...

I Heart Cats & Cupcakes

If you are going to have a little one after September 30th, I am warning you now that you will not get my usual staple of Sandra Boynton books but my newest book obsession for children. When it combines two of my absolute favorite things, I know it has to be the best children's book ever!


A quick side note - Judging by the amount of blogs and bakeries devoted solely to them, I totally don't think cupcakes have jumped the shark!

Vote!

It’s not a big election (my ballot contained 1 supervisor and 2 propositions), but don’t forget to vote today! I promise it took me less than 5 minutes and the polls are open until 8pm.

Movie Review: Baby Mama

Ben and I saw Baby Mama one month after the release date with only 8 people in the theater! The movie was entertaining, funny, and very predictable. The actors/actresses did a good job and the movie didn't drag on. Ben and I definitely were laughing, but nothing really sticks out in my mind. I walked out enjoying my time with Ben, feeling entertained, but not loving the movie. If you haven't seen it yet, wait for the DVD.

In case you have been under a rock (which is me most of the time), Rotten Tomatoes is a good source for determining if you should spend $10 to see the movie in a theater, rent it, or wait for it to appear on the USA network.