my grandparents' clock.

my grandparents have an antique clock in their house, which is distinctly present in my memories of visiting them as a child. i remember hearing it's grand sound when i would stay with them... it's one of the triggers that makes me think of my grandparents. :] even now when i go visit them, sometimes i'll have them run the clock so i can hear it chime.

anyway, my uncle took the clock to the antique road show when it went through denver. here's a link to the episode. the clock is featured within the first 10 minutes. i'm thankful that there are so many shows available online now, so that i could see this episode. it was fun to find out some of the history of the clock. previously, i'd only known a little bit of information that my dad passed along to me.

i'll be back soon with an update. for now, i'm cleaning and studying for my practical. :]

eek.

i got invited to a pharmacy school interview at touro university in vallejo.

i'm having some serious mixed emotions about it...

but i'm going to go and do my best. and if nothing else, i'll have an idea of what the interview process is like for next time around.

in the meantime... i'm trying to avoid thinking too much about all of the "what if" scenarios.

oldies.

a few days ago i was moving some things in my studio and i realized that there are some older layouts that i meant to post, but forgot. i only had time to photograph two of them before the sunlight was too poor... so i'll try to remember to post some more soon.

i posted a peek of this one quite a while ago. i made it at a crop back in november. it's a simple layout, and it came together rather easily thanks to that journaling spot that mandee gave me. :]

it still ranks up there with my favorite layouts.

aside from the journaling spot, i used the yearbook kit from studio calico. i'm really not a fan of gold, so i didn't anticipate using those gold sequin things from prima... turns out i kind of sort of fell in love with them. haha. go figure.
i did some stitching around the perimeter of the patterned paper when i got home, which doesn't show too well in the photo, but i like it in person.

this one was made back in january with the marketplace kit and bazaar add-on. i guess that means it counts towards my layout goal for this year. :]

the photo is from our family trip to disneyland. my sister said she didn't have very many photos of her and victoria together, so i was trying to take some for her.
i really just had fun layering and stitching papers. and also messing with which of those fabric brads should go where. haha.
i remember that i had a certain title in mind, but for some reason i couldn't make it work. it was probably too long. i know i was running out of certain letters at this point, which is kind of a good feeling. i'm beginning to like using up entire packages of scrappy items. :]

in other news, i mentioned that james got hurt during his football game over the weekend. he couldn't walk on sunday and could barely even sit up. he said it was the worst pain he's ever felt. yesterday he was doing slightly better. he was able to get up and walk for brief periods of time, and sit at the table to eat. today he somehow managed to go to work, and he is walking around a bit more... but he looks like an 80 year old man. i try not to laugh at him too much.

it was his team's first softball game tonight, so we went to watch and cheer them on from the sidelines. they won, so it was much more fun to watch. i know he was sad that he wasn't able to play, but i asked him if his football injury was worth missing softball, and he said it was. so i learned something new, which is rare by this point in our relationship. i seriously thought he liked softball better. haha.

i also had an anatomy exam today. i got a 90%, which is ok. could have been a little better, but the exam was hard. i prepared for it as well as i could, but there were still a few tricky questions. i hate tricky questions. and i really dislike professors who include such questions on their exams. hopefully the next [and last!] exam will be a little nicer to me so i can maintain an A.

i guess that's all for now. hopefully i'll have some new layouts to share soon, but it's semi-doubtful since i have a huge pile of lab reports to grade again. sigh.

aces outing.

james made plans for us to go to an aces game on friday. as we were approaching the stadium james told tiffany and mike that it was my first aces game. then i told him it was actually the first baseball game i'd ever been to in my life. haha. the stadium is actually pretty impressive. it's not huge, but it's very nice. i guess that comes along with being new, but i was impressed. i decided to get an aces shirt to wear to the game, but it was so cold that i ended up borrowing a jacket from tiffany, which i wore the entire night. maybe i'll go to another game when it's warmer in order to wear my shirt. ha.
i've generally told people that i don't like baseball because it involves too much standing around and too little action. i still think this is true, but at least at the stadium you can wander into the store or to the concession stands. i guess the overall baseball game experience isn't so bad.
we had pretty good seats, and i think the tickets cost something like $9. i thought it would cost more than that, but then i paid $3 for a hot chocolate that was just over halfway full and i realized that they probably make a majority of their profits on the concessions. just like the movie theaters.
it got really cold as the sun went down, so we left during the fifth inning. at that point, the score was 5-0 in favor of the aces. i'm not sure who ended up with the win, but i would imagine the aces did. they were playing the fresno grizzlies, who are somehow affiliated with the giants.

all in all, i'm happy that i finally had my first baseball game experience. baseball is actually quite simple to follow. with football, i generally find myself a little confused and not aware of what's happening because i don't know the rules. but with baseball, it's pretty straightforward and easy to understand. i'll probably go to another game as long as it's warmer. :]

i hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. james got hurt at his football game today, so i've been doing my best to take care of him. something is wrong with his lower back to the point where he can't walk or even sit up straight. poor guy. i hope nothing serious is wrong.

for now, i'm off to study for my anatomy exam on tuesday. hopefully it's not as hard as the last one! i'm soooo over this class.

easter + softball.

i decided to join james and go out to his parents' house for easter this year. his mom had just returned from korea a few days earlier, and i think james was anxious to see her and hear about her trip. she said that the weather was similar to what we've been experiencing around here... dreary and cold. so she wasn't able do very many activities, but i'm sure that she enjoyed just spending time with her family. she also said about 800 people came to james' grandpa's funeral.

shortly after we arrived, his mom made some korean ribs for us. i've seen james eat them before, but it was my first time trying them. they were really yummy.
for dinner, we had korean bbq. it was delicious.
notice the dish of chopped peppers? usually they are mixed in with all the other meat and veggies cooking, but his mom left them out so that i would be able to eat. haha. she's seriously so sweet... always trying to accommodate me and very low tolerance for spicy food. once they knew i was full, they tossed them all in to cook. you might also notice how chopsticks were substituted by a fork for me. i have yet to master my chopstick technique. :]

james' brother and girlfriend [who he still won't admit is his girlfriend. ha!] were also there. after dinner, we all attempted to go to a nearby softball field for a test run of my skills. james and his friends want to play in a co-ed tournament at the end of the month, and they need more girls for the team. i told james that before they add me to the roster, we should make sure that i can at least hit the ball. it was so windy and cold when we got to the field that we didn't last very long, but i did learn that i don't completely suck at softball.

on monday i decided to take the plunge and buy a glove and bat. it was pretty difficult to find a good glove for my tiny hands. i wanted to get a kids one, but james said it would be too small to catch a softball. eventually, we found one that is pretty much perfect for me. then last night, i went out again with james and his roommates for a practice. i did pretty well with my new bat. as for the glove... i caught a ball in the outfield that cameron hit and immediately threw off my glove and jumped around in pain. the boys all said they didn't think i was actually going to catch it. silly them. i knew from the time i saw it coming in my direction that i was going to catch it. i just should have had a lesson on where in the glove to catch the ball first. maybe then i would have caught it in the outer part of the glove instead of right in my palm. this morning my hand was noticeably swollen. the rest of my body is pretty sore too. i guess i should have tried this whole softball thing a little earlier... it seems to be a good workout. :]

oh and one more little bit about easter festivities:
i decided to get helix an easter bunny. he needed a new toy, and this bunny seemed perfect. so far, he seems to like it. :]

i hope you all had a wonderful easter celebration!

april fools.

i don't think i've ever come up with a fabulous april fools prank. it seems like too much work to come up with something that won't cause more harm than good. this year james and i happened to have a nice little dinner date on april fools day. it was much better than playing tricks on each other.
james got a melting pot gift card for his birthday from sarah, which was the perfect gift since we like to eat. haha.
we ate there back when it opened for our first anniversary, and really weren't too impressed. definitely not impressed enough to go back on our own accord. we both sort of wrote it off as being overrated and overpriced. and while i still think it might be slightly overrated and unquestionably overpriced, both of us were more impressed this time around. :]

i'll likely stick to the chocolate bar for my chocolate fondue dessert cravings, but the melting pot has probably earned itself a spot back on our list of special occasion restaurants.