Celebrity Sighting

Today I had a brush with Super stardom. Yes that's right I encountered a real live celebrity. I was doing nothing out of the ordinary. I was just sitting at my desk looking at my computer when in he walks with a group of about 8 people. They enter the conference room of our office and sit down. After a mere 3 minutes the madness set in. People started pouring in our front door. Every other office in our building had emptied and people were running in off the street - all rushing into our office to see him.

The lobby was full of people jumping at the chance to take there picture with him. I unfortunately did not get my camera out in time - but some of my co-workers snapped a few photos, I will try to get my hands of one of them just in case you don't believe me. Now I am sure you are all just dying to know who it was, who is the celebrity I saw, that I have been withholding the name of. It was none other than...............Sonu Nigam.

Did you forget that I work in little India?

But for reals he is a big time singer in India, or so I am told.

On A Whim

So just today I finished reading a book called "On A Whim." In which the main character often did things spontaneously. Evidently it rubbed off on me during my reading. Saturday Angela and I were roaming Target (a great thing to do I might add if it is way too hot outside and your apartment does not have amazing air conditioning.) when I up and decided to purchase new dishes.

We were not really in need of dishes, as we have two sets of hand me downs. But, I have had my eye on this set for quite some time now - whenever I roam the housewares I stop in and pay them a little visit. And in so doing we discovered that they were on clearance. Woot! What could be better than that? After filling the cart with the four boxes of plates we realized that they had no bowls. We were not deterred. Off we went to a second Target and wha-la we now have a complete set.

Can you tell how excited I am about these baby's?

They are pretty AMAZING! I have thoroughly enjoyed using them for the last two days. Every time I open the cupboard I get a little excited to see the sitting there.

BDAY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY POPS, YOUR THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fill In The Blank

Complete the following sentences by matching them

with the correct word in the word bank.

1. Deep down Mandy is a little bit _________.

2. Yesterday Mandy purchased her ticket to ___________.

3. In the excitement of #2 Mandy also purchased a _________.

4. Therefore making Mandy slightly __________.

5. But only because she is so __________.

Word Bank:

A. Obsessed

B. Nerdy

C. New York

D. Excited

E. Travel Guide of NYC

The Last First

Today is a day worthy of celebration.

What you may ask is so special about August 24, 2009?

Is it someones birthday? No

Is is someones anniversary? No

Did someone buy a new car? No

Did I get to meet Chuck? unfortunately no

Is your curiosity piqued yet?

Are you just dying to know what is so special about today?

Alright here it is:

Today is Angela's last first day of school! WOOT!!

That's right folks, she is growing up so fast, entering into her last semester of grad school. In the blink of an eye she is going to be a MASTER. Pretty Exciting stuff if you ask me.

In honor of Angela I have a little movie quote challenge for you, Back to school edition. I do believe Ang is quite fond of this quote - do you know what it is? Be the first to comment with the correct response and I shall give you a small prize.

"Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. On the other hand, this not knowing has its charms."

Weekend Recap

Yesterday I returned back from Oceanside, a little tired and extremely sun burned. Minus my bright red, itchy, hot skin the weekend was a blast. We spent som quality time at the beach, in which I spent 90 percent of the time under a large umbrella, that Billy so kindly brought out for the soul purpose of me not getting sunburned. Ha, evidentally my left arm and my right leg were not completely covered - since they are now magenta.

Here is some of the crew enjoying the sun.
We also had lots of time playing card games, reading on the balcony, eating AMAZING feasts of food, chatting it up and watching movies.


And of course we can't forget about the delightful walk around t

he harbor to admire the sail boats.

OCEANSIDE

It's finally Friday! This week has felt longer than most for me. It is becuase of that and many other reasons I am qutie excited to be headed here for the weekend.

Unfortunately I will not be sailing in one of these boats, but the little harbor is right next to our weekend abode so I will get to enjoy viewing them. Which for now will have to satisfy my great desire to sail. I am SO ready to enjoy a relaxing weekend beach side with friends that I am already on weekend mode. Too bad I still have 7 hours of work to go.

George

When I was just a wee young thing I had a pretty large obsession with Nancy Drew. Basically, I was addicted to the books – and therefore really wanted my name to be George. This was not just a week long phase, or even a month long, we are talking years here people. Well, now they day has finally come – from now on you can refer to me as George, of the Jungle that is.

Tomorrow my office is having an Open House for all of our clients to come admire our new digs. Well as is evidently a custom that I did not know about, people have been sending plants (were talking large trees here, not little flower arrangements) to us, to decorate our new office. Now I understand the great gesture that this is, an office warming gift if you will. But really things have gotten out of hand. In the last two days five, yes FIVE trees have been delivered. They are all currently residing the lobby aka my office. I feel completely over run with vegetation. I need a machete to carve a path down the hallway due to the over hanging limbs of one of the giants.

Oh yeah did I forget to mention that three of the five are adorned with GIGANTIC pink ribbons which shout the name of the sender at you. Yeah they do. It’s REALLY classy, green glitter paint and all.

Finished!

The next project for the PENTHOUSE walls is now done. Are you excited to see it?

It all began with this amazing frame that I purchased at Ikea:

Which via many layers of spray paint and chalk board paint became this:

I was so excited to finish this project today that I forgot to buy chalk. Woops - what good is a chalk board without chalk?

And now the moment of truth. I put the chalk board in the frame and hung it on the wall just to take this picture. They were both dry to the touch, but I knew they were not completely 100 percent dry - but of course me being the impatient person that I am I put it together anyways. After taking the photo I had the genious idea to take it apart again so it could finish drying. In so doing I broke the chalk board. AAAHHHH!!!!! I am not even kidding it broke in half. Shucks!!! 

Super glue to the rescue I glued it back together and decided to paint a few more layers of chalk board paint over the top to help hold it together. So far so good. It is in one piece again, but you can see a hint of a line where it was broken.

Major Bummer........this will teach me to be more patient...........maybe.

Hollywood Bowl!

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Hollywood Bowl with all of my coworkers and their family's. I had been dreading this event for the last week. Not because of the actual event, I was quite excited to be going to the Hollywood Bowl for the first time, but I was not looking forward to driving their alone - I can at times be quite directionally challenged and have the keen ability to get lost practically anywhere. And I was not looking forward to the fact that I was the only one attending alone, as in with no spouse or family.

The evening ended up being a lot more enjoyable than I anticipated - but in true form to myself I had some awkward moments. I was able to navigate myself to the Bowl with no problem, or so I thought until I exited the freeway and could not find the entrance to the parking lot. After driving back and fourth on the same two mile stretch of Hollywood Blvd about five times I finally pulled into lot D. When I parked I knew I was across the street from the Bowl and the picnic area in which I was meeting my coworkers, however I did not anticipate how difficult it would be to cross the street. For the life of my I could not find the cross walk. I was completely befuddled. I knew there had to be a way to cross the street - thousands of people do it every night, why could I not find it?

I walked back and fourth along a two block stretch just to become more confused. Finally after a few minutes of wandering I spotted some fellow picnic goers and scooted over to ask them for directions. They very kindly directed me to the underground tunnel (which I managed to walk right up to and not see - BUT in my defense there was no sign) and then they even walked me over to the picnic area where I was meeting my coworkers. I think I looked extremely lost (which I was) they were very concerned for me to be there alone, and waited until I sat down at a table with people to leave.

Once I arrived the evening shaped up to be quite enjoyable. Minus the few minutes were everyone took family photos (mine was a solo photo - yeah the definitely made me take a photo) I had fun. The concert was great - it was Tchaikovsky Spectacular with the LA Philharmonic and fireworks. I even got my first taste of Opera..................which I have decided I do not greatly enjoy, unless it is the Phantom of course.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENI!

How does it feel to be half way to fifty?

Mirror Mirror On the Wall!!!

Many moons ago Angela and I purchased a not super attractive mirror off of craigslist for the PENTHOUSE. We had every intention of beautifying it and hanging it up..........but being the procrastinator that I am we kinda never got around to it.

About three weeks ago we began the renovation by painting it, as can be see below:

Check out that concentration as Angela carefully covers all of the glass. FYI nail polish remover works wonderfully to remove any stray paint that somehow manages to adhere itself to the mirror.

Painting can be a difficult thing when living in an apartment. Thankfully at this point we had no neighbors so we took over the small landing right outside our doorstep.

Now, after the mirror has been sitting on our kitchen table for two weeks we finally got around to hanging it up. Please pay special attention to the PINK tool used (although I was forced to plug it in due to the lack of battery power - but it is still cute)

TA-DA!!!!

I think all in all it was well worth the wait. The dining area of the PENTHOUSE has never looked better. You can look forward to many more updates happening within these walls in the weeks to come. 

Stupid Alarm

Does anyone know how to disengage a car alarm?

I have decided that mine is completely useless - and I no longer want it. Really, are the low beets of the alarm really going to scare away a burglar? And don't even try to tell me that the alarm would alert concerned bystanders - who would then run after/chase down the alleged car bugler, because that is so not true. I set off my car alarm all the time and no one even bother to look up. People are just so used to hearing them go off that they ignore them. Therefore, causing them to be completely devoid of all function. It is like the little boy who cried wolf.

They are purely in existence to drive me crazy. Case in point yesterday I set my car alarm off not once but twice. The first time I had just pulled into my parking spot at my apartment. I turned off the engine, and put my keys securely in my purse. As I reached across my seat to grab my lunch box the alarm blared to life. Effectively causing me to panic, and flush with embarrassment. In a frenzied manor I dug through my purse trying to find my keys to turn off the alarm. After dumping the entire contents of my purse onto the front seat I found my keys and turned off the alarm.

I later relayed this whole story to Angela and explained to here how I think that car alarms are dumb. And further how I think the placement of the PANIC button is horrible. It is placed in such a spot that I hit it all the time on accident, but if placed in an actual "I'm panicking and I could really use my car alarm to help me" situation (if such things do in fact exist) I would never be able to locate it. Hours later upon our arrival home from the movies as if just to further prove my point I set off the alarm yet again. Just getting out of my car - really it is a simple as holding my keys, pick them up and the alarm goes off.

Usually I only set my car alarm off once a week, but right now I am on world record pace here. We are going on three times this week.

The Visitor

Sunday evening Angela spent some time cleaning and rearranging some of our kitchen cabinets. Towards the end of her cleaning she innocently asked me if I had put flour in the cupboard above the stove. Such a easy question, one that required little or no thought, little did I know that the five minutes that followed would strike immense fear in my life. Enough so that I would not sleep that night.

Upon answering her question she showed the bag of flour - I was disgusted to see that it had be nibbled though. Yes NIBBLED! As in there had at one time been a mouse in the cupboard eating away at our flour. GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*backtrack 8 years - in high school my bedroom at my parents house became infested with mice more than once. Multiple times I awoke in the middle of the night to the sounds of little mouse squeaks, or scampers. As if that did not freak me out enough - one night when I woke up there was one crawling across my bed. AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Needless to say I rarely enter my room when I visit my parents home. Between the Kamikaze bird and the mice it holds some pretty terrifying memories for me.

Alright back to Sunday. After learning there had at one point been a mouse in that cupboard (which is directly above the oven - containing the vent/fan which has a large pipe out to the roof which would be our guess as to how the visitor entered) me and my over active imagination decided that it MUST still be in there. Dead of course, but in the fan. I had convinced myself that it had fallen into the fan and died. Angela of course did not believe my irrational idea as there had not been the rancid smell of dead rodent. But smell or no smell my thoughts were not deterred. I knew the evil creature was still lurking in the cupboard just to torture me.

Naturally I got very little sleep Sunday night. Thoughts of the beastly rodent taking over our apartment kept me awake into the wee hours of morning. Now I was truly upset - not only had he taken over our kitchen, but now he had taken over my mind. I could think of nothing else.

After expressing my irrational rodent fear, which causes me to lose sleep, to Angela and Danielle on Monday they were kind enough to reassess the situation. After careful examination of the fan/ventilation system it was concluded that the mouse was in fact no longer in our apartment. And I should never see the movie Ratatouille.

Whew!

I slept much better last night.

Step One

Friday I got my passport picture taken.

I am getting that much closer.

Really I have completed step two as well. All of my paperwork is filled out.

I just have to go to the library - get the appropriate signatures and pay.

Anyone want to leave the country with me?

Is Big Bird Scary?

Today I was exploring Entertainment Weekly online as I do everyday when I decided to read the review for Julie & Julia. Angela and I plan to see this so I was naturally curious to see what the critics thought of it. Now before I get into the real grit of this post I must preface it by saying Julia Child really intrigues me. There are two main reasons as to why. 1) She was a CIA spy. Yes that is true I did not make it up - and back in the day that I was addicted to Alias I thought it would be desperately cool to be a spy. 2) She is 6'2''. How amazing is that? I don't meet many people who are as tall as me (not that I have met Julia Child but still).

Naturally I thought it was a bit funny that Meryl Streep would be portraying Julia Child, seeing as Meryl is a whopping 5'6''. But from the pictures it looks like she pulls it off somehow. Alrighty now to the point - I was reading the EW review of the movie and became a little bit offended. The reviewer used such kind words to describe Child and Streeps portrayal of her, here are a few such examples:

"she was scarily tall (6'2'').

"she looks as tall and gawky as Big Bird"

Sad day.

Does this mean that I am scary and or that I resemble Big Bird?

This review did nothing for my self confidence as a 6'2'' female myself.

Well Traveled

No I do not consider myself to be well traveled. In fact I think pretty much the opposite, although I see great potential in my future as I am currently working on obtaining a passport. In the case of this post the well traveled on is my brand spankin new Ipod. My computer arrived safe and sound last Friday, the printer Tuesday but the Ipod? Well that was something else. It evidently decide to take a tour of the US before it gracing me with it's presence. Not that I can really blame it. Why shouldn't it visit multiple states before arriving at the one it will possibly spend the rest of it's life in?

According to the FedEx tracker it was scheduled to arrive on my doorstep sometime Monday. As of Monday it was "lost" in Connecticut. Oh man, how does FedEx lose things? Tuesday it was thankfully found, and it traveled from CN to Alaska. Yes Alaska! Understandable right? Cuz Alaska is SO on the way to California. Then Wednesday it was routed to Memphis. How in the world does that make sense? Then I got a friendly email alerting me of unexpected flooding in Memphis which could detain the delivery.

But alas Thursday morning she finally arrived, and looking quite lovely if I do say so myself.

Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?

Basically I love anything that involves:

Zooey Deschanel
(500) Days of Summer
Joseph Gordon-Levitt - definitely been a fan ever since Brick
She and Him (see first item on the list)

Therefore I greatly enjoyed this video, hopefully you will too.

The Paparazzi Strike Again

Check out this photo from the church website:

You have to look really hard to see me, as Carlos decided to be my body guard and make sure no one could see me - But if you look really hard you can see my eyes.

It's Official!

This year I will be spending Thanksgiving here:

I am so incredibly excited that I am speechless, or typeless.

Only 113 Days to go.

Lost

Have you ever had one of those moments where you feel like the whole word has ganged up against you? I totally did yesterday. I was all set to go to a friends wedding reception. I had RSVPed months ago. Purchased a gift, written in the card, changed into appropriate wedding dress, map quested directions, and mentally prepared myself for my first time attending a wedding function alone. Basically I was as prepped as could be. And even though I was worried about not really knowing anyone there I was really excited to see the Bride and Groom and celebrate with them.

I left my apartment in ample time to get to the wedding location. As I approached the park in which the reception was being held I saw a gigantic sign for the wedding. Everything was going smoothly, I follwed the arrows. Angela called and pumped me up for the reception by singing me Eye of the Tiger. I followed the next two signs into a secluded area of the park. The arrows led me to a narrow road that wound around a two mile loop of the park. Every little ways there would be small parking lots capable of holding around 6 cars. There were many giddy park goers out and about, walking, playing and picnicking. But as far as I could tell there were no wedding goers. I kept driving further around the loop thinking I would soon see another sign for the reception, or people I recognized (people dressed for a wedding at least) but I saw none. I exited the loop thinking I miss read the sign and drove the perimeter of the park. Still no signs and no people. I wound back around the original sign and up on closer examination decided that it could only be pointing to the inner loop I had previously circled so in I went again.

Three times I drove around this loop and not once did I see a single person that looked like they maybe could possibly be going to a wedding reception. Seriously there were not even cars driving around, no lots overflowing with cars, no signs. After driving around the park for 30 minutes I gave up. I returned home defeated.

I have never felt so lame before. I know that I am directionally challenged and often get lost, but this time that was not to blame. I was at the right park - I just could not find the cabin in which the reception was taking place. How is it that every other person attending the reception was able to find it just fine, except me?

Happy Birthday Hannah!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH!!!!!