Pink

Call me crazy but I think everything is more fun when it is PINK! I have an ever growing collection of pink things including but not limited to the power screw driver I mentioned yesterday (which worked superbly and made the process of hanging shelves extremely quick and easy) the AMAZING pink Kitchen Aid mixer that my friends gifted to me for my last birthday (I never tire of seeing it in the kitchen) and I shall conclude this somewhat random list with my newest addition. Dumbbells!

Ha, take a look at these guys, aren’t they cute?


Carlos and Heidi presented me with these on Monday. I think they are just grand. However they are only one pound – that may have been a subtle hint from Carlos for me to get back in the gym – I have not quite figured out what to do with them. I mean I know I am not extremely strong but one pound is hardly a work out, even for me.

Here is my list of possible uses so far:
Use to punch people with -like brass knuckles (so obviously Carlos’s idea)
Teach small children basic weight lifting
Strengthen my pinky finger
Paper Weights
Book Ends

Scattered Thoughts

Wow my spelling has really got out of hand these days. It is very clear that the create your own survey sight did not offer spell check. Glad you were all able to decipher the meanings. If you could not gather Angela and I have been having some difficulties rearranging all of our new furniture in our small apartment. We have yet to master the new floor plan. If you find that you are an excellent arranger or a grand visionary when it comes to floor plans PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me know – we could desperately use your help.

On more fun note – I took advantage of Angela being out of town over the weekend to get some painting done. I am greatly enjoying being able to expand and have more space and of course to decorate a wee bit more. I coated a somewhat dilapidated bookshelf in a delightful shade of teal – I am very pleased with the way it came out. It adds a good burst of color to our otherwise white room – and it was a much needed upgrade size wise from my last bookshelf which was bursting at the seams, threatening to collapse under all the weight I insisted it hold. I also painted a shelf which I intend to mount on the wall tonight. I am extremely excited about this because I get to use my pink power tool for the first time. I got this AMAZING pink power screw driver for Christmas and I have yet to have a chance to use it. Woot Woot!!!! I shall break it in tonight.

Finally, I am officially counting down the days (3) until VACATION!!!!! Friday Angela and I head out to Colorado for Rachel’s wedding. This will be my first time in CO. Needless to say I have been making plans galore – even though we are going for a wedding we have one day of sightseeing and boy oh boy do we have grand things planned. Really there are only two things that I want to do – and they are both FREE!!!! Which in my book makes them even better. Angela has always LOVED taking tours and after 6 years of friendship it is safe to say that it has rubbed off on me. We are planning to make a stop in Boulder to take a tour of the Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory – and then we will move onto Denver where we will tour the US Treasury Mint. MONEY MONEY MONEY!!!! (we are of course open to exploring other places and sights while in the area – let me know if you have any suggestions or MUST SEE things while in Loveland/Denver)

Furniture Crisis

Online Surveys & Market Research

Home Alone!

Take out Kevin McCallister and replace him with me and you have my night last night. Pretty exciting huh? Well maybe my night was not THAT extreme – but there were some major similarities.

1. I was for the first time living in the Penthouse, Home Alone.
2. I was left alone by a roommate who was attending a family vacation.
3. I ate a rather large bowl of ice cream along with other junk food while watching a movie.
4. And I thought that someone (most likely a pair of robbers) had entered my home. My first inclination was to search for some match box cars, jax, Christmas ornaments, and an iron to create some booby traps and frighten away the thieves.
5. Finally, I naturally I took advantage of being alone and went sledding down our front stairs. The best part of the evening!


For all of you concerned readers, the Penthouse was not in fact broken into last night. Those fears where simply the result of having neighbors and an over active imagination.

MATRIX = AWESOME

Just in case you all forgot I got a new car last August (almost our one year anniversary) and I LOVE it. I like to every now again alert the world as to how AMAZING my car is and how much better than my old midget car it is. Needless to the say the AWESOMENESS of the Matrix has struck again.

Last night Angela and I decided to somewhat spontaneously purchase a lounge chair off of craigslist. We arrived at the sellers apartment, viewed the chair, had a sit and naturally decided it was a must have for the Penthouse. Upon our decision to become guardians of the chair we came to the realization that it was larger than we had initially thought and the seller did not think it would fit in the Matrix.

After a quick size up I decided that it would in fact fit. Angela and I being the ripped women that we are trudged the chair down the stairs and across the parking lot. I do believe I heard the Hallelujah chorus playing in the back ground as we slid the chair into the back of the Matrix and it glided right in. It fit perfectly, even had a little room to spare. Woot Woot!!!! The seller was quite shocked that it fit – but thankful none the less as it appeared he wanted rid of it and did not look excited to hold it for us.

This post brings up a couple of important points here:
1. My AWESOME car still is nameless. I have yet come up with anything genius enough to be worthy of the Matrix –therefore his interim name is Kabu. Let me know if you have suggestions.
2. We went from a small apartment full of mini furniture to a small apartment full of GIGANTIC furniture. Upon Rachel’s departure of the Penthouse we have gone on a rearranging/upgrading spree that has some how ended up with way way too much sizable furniture in our humble abode. YIKES! We currently have 8 chairs sitting around our apartment. Ha there are only two of us – utterly and completely necessary, right?

FINE!

So I REALLY like to read. I read a lot, probably too much really. Due to my 'need to read' I greatly enjoy library's. Unfortunately I do not have a library card in La Habra, I really should get one but there are a few things I would have to do first to enable myself to retain one (like get a CA drivers license - I am certain I should already have one but I don't want to retake the test). Anyways when I was in college, every time I went home for a break (Christmas, spring break, summer) I would hit up the Spokane County Library and load up on the books.

Now I have been out of college for two years - so it has been at least that long since I have used the Spokane County Library. About two months ago I started getting threatening emails from them. Yes that's right threats from the librarian. Evidently I have some fines from overdue books. The books of course were turned in (they are not still sitting at my parents house) they were just turned in a day late or so. Therefore the accumulated a 35 cent charge per book per day. The threatening email informed me that they had been unsuccessfully trying to contact me (this was the first I had heard from them - I had no idea I had fines) and if I did not come in and pay my fees they would send it to a bill collector to collect from me and it would appear on my credit history.

1. I do not live in Spokane I can not "come in" and pay my fines.
2. Would you really get a bill collector to collect my $11.85 library fines? I don't believe them.
3. How did they get my email address? It is new as of five months ago. It certainly is not listed on my library card application from elementary school.

So naturally I did nothing.

A month later I get the same email again. I decided to be proactive about it this time, just in case. So I emailed them back and informed them that I have not lived in Spokane for six years and I could not "come in" and pay. A few days later I was given and address and mailed them a check for the whopping fee of $11.85. WHEW! All taken care of.

Then Saturday in the mail i received a receipt for my payment. It was the largest receipt I have ever gotten in my life, because they felt the need to list off every book that I owed 35 cents on. Check it out:
They had to fold it five times for it to fit in the envelope.

Chelsey's Wedding

Polka Dots

I like polka dots. I think they are cute, especially pink ones. They look great on a ribbon or a skirt perhaps, but on my skin, well that’s another story. Then they are just plain UGLY!

No I am not suffering from chicken pox (had those as a youngin) however I practically look like I am. Saturday I was sneakily attacked by a swarming army of vicious mosquitoes. Now I know what you are thinking “Mandy if you don’t scratch them then they won’t turn into large spots and they will just go away.” Well yes that is true, if you are blessed with ‘normal’ skin, that does normal things. I however and not so lucky.

At first I thought I may have contracted a case of West Nile, however upon my google search I found I had not. I just had a plain old allergic reaction to the annoying pests who decided to make dinner out of me. I have not scratched the bites, not even once, yet they still grew to a formidable size and they have now turned into pink and purple bruises. I can not even begin to describe to you how attractive they really are. My arms, hands and right leg have never look quite to GREAT!

I thought about putting a picture up for yall to see, but I decided that I still wanted you to like me, so I would not allow you to see such ugliness.

On a more positive note I am taking a half day today. YAY!!!!! You can all join in the celebration and jump up and down with me right now. A group of us are heading down to Temecula for Chelsey’s wedding. That means I have only one hour and fifteen minutes left here, WOOT WOOT!!

MEGAN!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN!!!!!!!!

I hope you are having an incredibly fabulous birthday,

I wish I could be there to help you celebrate your 24 amazing years of life.

P.S. I think you are loads and loads of FUN!!!

I shall leave you with these final words:

Peace, Love and Birthday Wishes

MANDY

My fifth grade teacher introduced me to Barry Manilow. I am sure I had heard the song "Mandy" before this point in my life - but I did not have clear memories of it. Well Mr. Rae (my teacher) LOVED singing Barry Manilow to me. Quite a treat if you ask me. Did any of your teachers sing to you? yeah that's what I thought.

Well now obviously I am no longer in 5th grade. Just a few years beyond that. I no longer have a teacher to sing to me. However I do have Rico, the messenger man. Rico is hysterical - most often the few minutes I see him each day are my highlights. Today he waltzed into the office doing his best Barry Manilow impression - singing none other than "Mandy."

It defiantly put a smile on my face - so to pass it on here is a little video for you all. I hope you enjoy this song as much as I do.



Unfortunately Rico does not have the AMAZING glitter vest that Barry does.

Yes Man!

Have you seen the movie Yes Man? If not you should - really, as in right now, drop everything you are doing at watch it. DO IT! It is quite funny and very enjoyable. I find myself referring to things that happen in the movie quite often. Most likely because my life parallels Carl's so much. Or not - I would NEVER say yes to a Harry Potter Movie Party.




Sunday Angela and I recreated some of our favorite moments from the film. Now we are not professional reenacts mind you. You will not be seeing us out in WWII uniforms any time soon. We simply chose to do some jogging photography. Unfortunately when I did a little google search I was unable to find a great class for us to join - but let me just say we are not the first people to put our jogging photography skills to the test.

Since this was a spontaneous little jaunt I did not have my camera battery fully charged - therefore not allowing us to have the full experience. Here are some of the the photos captured none the less.

This was the crash that followed the Red Bull high.

I am sure this is an activity that we will partake in again - you can look forward to more blurry photos.

Target To The Rescue!

Wow have I been slacking as of late. Four days and not posts. YIKES!!! You would think that meant I had been extremely busy and unable to get me fingers on a computer, but no. Nothing like that - I am just lazy.

Thursday night I had the pleasure of a delightful dinner with Pops. Quite fun. So enjoyable in fact that I returned to to the apartment, fired up and ready to get things done. I decided to prepare the coffee for the following morning (aaaaahhh the wonders of a coffee maker with a timer). Unfortunately I was so excited to make the coffee that I in all my glorious strength whacked the coffee pot on the paper towel holder and cracked a nice hole in it.
Initially I was laughing - I mean really how in the world did that happen. I did not even see the paper towel holder sitting there. I picked up the pot herd a CRACK! and saw pieces of glass fall to the counter. After the initial humorous shock wore off I realized what a horrendous situation this truly was. How were we to have coffee in the morning? As you can see in the picture the hole was not near the top of the pot where we could be completely white trash and try to still use the pot. The bottom was cracked - nothing would stay in it. MAJOR PROBLEM!
We jetted across the street to Target in a desperate attempt to right the situation before morning. I was not hopeful - Believe it or not this was not the first time Angela and I have broken a coffee pot. Last time we did it we discovered that it was a better deal to buy a whole new coffee maker than a replacement pot. Bummer! Upon our arrival to the coffee aisle we were pleasantly surprised to find that not only did they have the correct pot but it was on sale! WONDERFUL!!!!!!
Thank You Target!

My Next Job Will Be........

As of late I have found myself contemplating my life - particularly my job and a future career change. Basically I have no idea what I want to do/be when I grow up. College did not really help me figure that one out. So where does one go when they need answers to life's great questions? The Internet of course. Last week Angela proctored me (no cheating going down here) in a career personality test/quiz online. After what felt like hours of tedious and random questions I was given the following results:

Of course I liked the first option. Tis a goal of mine to one day pen a novel. But please can we by pas number on and two which I could maybe enjoy as well lets skip down to number three. VET?! Seriously - This is quite possibly the farthest from most realistic career for me EVER. I can not even put into words how much I dislike the idea of becoming a vet - I don't even really enjoy animals, please, like I want to spend my day saving them. From there the list just continues to head downhill - Marine Biologist, Medical Technician. I think not.

How can the results vary so greatly? I do not think that your average novelist would generally fall into the same category as your local vet. Very Interesting.

I guess this quiz did not really help me figure out my next career. Bummer! I will have to keep on searching.

I LOVE Zack Morris

That's right, I am a HUGE Saved by the Bell fan. I was a dedicated fan all throughout my childhood, all the way through the college years. And now I have the DVD's so I can head over to Bayside and the MAX anytime I feel like it. So as I am sure you can tell already I had a MAJOR crush on Zack Morris - but then again who didn't.

I have even managed to keep tabs on good ol Mark-Paul through some of the years. I will admit to you that I took up watching NYPD Blue when he joined the cast for a few seasons. Yes I was THAT smitten.

Now what does this have to do with anything? Right ok back on track here, I just got a little distracted strolling down memory lane there. Last night Mark Paul Gosselaar was on Jimmy Fallon. Did yall watch it? My guess is probably not, but that's ok that's why I'm here for you. Jimmy Fallon is like me a HUGE Saved By The Bell Fan - he has been trying to work out a cast reunion for a while now. Therefore last nights interview was AMAZING!!!!! It totally made my day/week when I saw it.

I can not decided which I enjoyed more his giant cell phone or the poster of Kelly dropping from the ceiling.

GETTY BABY!

Back in college Angela and I took a history class together. For this class we were supposed to visit The Getty. I some how managed to convince Angela to not go, telling her I would go with her another time. Well here I am only 4.5 years later following through on that commitment. Sometimes I am a little slow.

I am not huge on museums, although I do not believe I have a whole lot of experience visiting them, but I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed this little jaunt a lot more than I expected.

It was such a beautiful day (Saturday) there were storm clouds littered across the sky but somehow The Getty remained undaunted in a small area of amazingly blue sky. We toured the gardens, had a delightful lunch on the terrace and joined an architectural tour. Fun Fact that I learned there are over 300,000 square tiles of travertine stone at the Getty which was imported from a quarry 10 miles east of Rome.

News from Lamar

Today is another guest blogger of sorts. I just like to extend the blogging love to the family. You guys got a great story about good ol Valleyford from Cam a while back and now you get a grand display from Pops (aka dad). You see Pops does a fair amount of traveling for his job. Unfortunately he does not get to visit too many thriving metropolis's he spends more time in quaint little towns - places with windmills. Thanks to his new technological advancements he sends funny emails from his blackberry. Here is the most recent:

Five things to look for to know if you have a quality hotel room.

1. Look for the round plastic door stopper pasted to the wall.

(More of a patch to cover the hole in the wall from the door knob, even it was cracked)

2. Look for the beer bottle opener on the bathroom counter.

3. Look for the liquid soap dispenser stuck to the wall of the shower.
4. Look for the shower head extension to get it high enough to get you shoulders under it.

5. The real classic is the Dixie cup dispenser for your cups.

The best part is that the hotel was called "The Cow Palace." I think it may be time to check Pop's sanity - I don't know what in the world would motivate him to stay in a hotel with such a name - Colorado or not.

Oh Brother!!!

Cameroony had his senior pictures taken recently and I must say that good looks just run in my family. Here is one of my favorites.

(Sorry the photos are so small - I dont' know what happened - but I think it has to do with the fact that I stole them off of the web -Woops!)

So I don't really know why Jake is in some of Cam's photos but they are absolutely HILLARIOUS! I had no idea my brothers were such cuddlers. I pretty much lost control when I saw these - my coworkers came in from the other room to see what was so funny.

Really though aren't they funny?

They are way too close.

One Of Those Days

Today was just one of those days. One of those days where absolutely nothing goes your way, or rather my way. There has been tremendous amounts of road construction on my way to work this week. Road construction is not my friend, it makes me late to work. Today I planned a new route to take to avoid the construction and left a few minutes earlier to allow for traffic. Ha! I was late yet again. It took me 55 minutes to travel 8.6 miles. Sick Sick Sick!

Obviously my plan was foiled. It all started when I tried to pull out of the apartment parking lot. Usually I just zip right out cross all the lanes of traffic and am good to go. Of course that would not happen today. I had to wait 3 whole minutes (yes when I get impatient I watch the clock it really was 3 minutes) for the traffic to clear. Naturally I then hit every light red. I tried to count so I could give you an accurate depiction of my trauma but I lost count at 26 – I did not manage to hit one single light green the whole way. That takes talent.

Ok so back to the commute – I take the new path traveled a few blocks down and discover it too is under construction. Seriously?! I was then forced to wait 17 minutes without moving one single inch. Why must every road be under construction at the same time? I think the construction crews enjoy laughing at all of us sitting in our cars helpless. (I actually did enjoy it a little bit – there can be some good people watching, I saw one guy shaving, three women putting on makeup and another brushing her teeth – funny but weird too, I am all for getting ready at home, before you leave) But really it’s like June first hit and the world was like “oh it’s June we must start tearing up all roads between La Habra and Artesia just to make sure Mandy can NEVER arrive to work on time again!” I understand the need to do road construction in the summer in WA were I grew up – it is the only weather permissible time to do such things. But here in southern CA where it is sunny like 360 days of the year it is completely unnecessary to wait for summer.

Share the love – do road construction throughout the year not just in JUNE!

Got Gas?

Is today National Run Out Of Gas Day?

Call me crazy but I think it is. Today on my drive to work I passed not one, not two but three people walking away from gas stations carrying little 5 gallon canisters. I can not even remember the last time I have seen one person run out of gas let alone 3 in a 10 mile radius all before 8:30am.

Must have been a rough weekend.
Either that or there is a new gas drinking monster lurking in the shadow of La Habra just waiting for people leave there cars out all night. Then he shirks out of the shadows and drinks all of the gasoline out of people cars. Yeah I am sure that is the logical explanation in this situation.

Happy Monday!

Make sure you check your gas gauge – you don’t want to be running out anytime soon.