where did june go?

seriously.
i can't believe that the fourth of july is on friday. how did that happen?
to be honest, i didn't really even realize it until a friend sent me a message on facebook asking for a hotel recommendation in san francisco because he wants to go for the fourth. i looked to see if my usual hotel is available and low and behold... the fourth is this friday!?

anyway.
june was a good month. i think that's why it seems to have flown by. i started it with a trip to the city, and you really can't go wrong starting a month off like that. :]
maybe that means that i should go to the city for the fourth too... you know... to start the month off right? ha.
unfortunately, it's too late to plan that... so i think james and i will hit up the macy's sale and *pretend* that we are in the city.

as a little way of saying goodbye to june, i wore shorts today. real shorts... i'm talking 3" chinos... not my normal knee length "shorts". i traditionally don't wear shorts, but i decided to give it a try today.
and boy was i happy because the air conditioning quit working. yes. i repeat. the air conditioning quit working.
ack.
at least it's not mid-july or august yet. it got pretty warm in here today, but not unbearable with the shorts. :]
& & james and i picked up some frozen berries at trader joe's tonight, so there might be a nice cool smoothie in my future.

ok. i'm going to attempt to clean off my desk, and maybe, just maybe i'll get to work on a project tonight. we'll see.

satc: round 3.

after a yummy breakfast at peg's this morning, nicole, radhika, eliza, and i met up with erin for satc.

i have to say... this time i got a bit more emotional during some scenes than i remember getting the last two times i saw the movie. so the third time was really nice. also it was really cool to see nicole and eliza react to some parts since they hadn't seen it yet.

one of the highlights was watching the people in front of me...

two elderly ladies came in after we had been sitting for a bit. erin and i commented to each other that we wondered what they would think of the movie. and i have to say... it was the cutest thing watching them laugh at some of the parts... like when samantha misspoke to her neighbor when she was trying to get her dog. they laughed so hard at that part!

then there was a guy there seeing it with his wife/girlfriend, and he started laughing so incredibly hard at the "wax much?" scene that i started crying harder than i can ever remember crying from laughter. literally i had tears streaming down my face. we all missed like the next 5 minutes of the movie... but in this case it was worth it. :]

so yeah. it was a fun day. and i didn't manage to get any good photos. ack.

tonight, i went to the crop at the store. i had a good time talking to my friend jeanne about family and korean food [among other things of course]. she said she will teach me how to cook some korean food. so maybe i can impress james. ha. she makes some of the coolest layouts... lots of doodling and really fun handwritten titles. she's running two saturday crops a month at the store, so i think i will try to join her more often on those nights. tonight i got to show her some tricks on how to run the register and ring people up, and we had a fun little freak out trying to set the alarm when we were leaving. alarm systems always make me nervous, and i've accidentally set off the alarm at the store before. but tonight we managed to get it under control before the siren went off. :]

i also talked to angela a little bit about her trip to madison for training as a lead fiskateer. it sounds like it was a good trip. both of us volunteered a little while back to make some tags that will be given out in chicago at cha. i never heard back when i volunteered to do it, so i just figured they had enough people already signed up. then i got a surprise package on thursday with supplies to make 36 tags that need to be mailed out on tuesday. eek! angela and i both planned to work on our tags during the crop, but i wanted to work on a layout too... so i started on the layout until angela told me i was crazy and needed to start on the tags. i'm happy to report that i had all 36 tags finished up just after 11pm. i'd guess i worked on them for about 4 hours maybe a bit longer, which really isn't bad. and i think they turned out pretty cute, if i do say so myself. ha.

speaking of cha... have i mentioned that i am going this summer? i was planning to go with my store, and it turns out that i'll also be able to work in the fiskars booth doing make and takes for cloud 9. i booked my room and flight a while ago, but now that it's getting closer i am starting to get so nervous and also really excited of course. i've never been to chicago before, so i'm excited to be able to explore the city a little bit. and i've never been to cha before, so i'm excited to see all the stuff and meet some people. i'm also basically going by myself, which explains the nervous part. i think my bosses will be there, but i'm not 100% sure how much i will see them while i am there. i'll be a tiny bit of a mess during the flights, but only internally. i don't tend to show it, but i always get super nervous on flights... especially when i am flying alone.

anyway. tomorrow we are having a big anniversary sale at the store, so it's probably going to be crazy busy, and i'm pretty sure that i'm working all by myself. nice. i guess i better try to get some sleep. :]

silly dog.

i was doing my hair in the bathroom and calling helix to come in there with me.
usually he is not allowed in my hallway because there is too much stuff around.
and usually he is really snoopy when i let him go where he's not allowed.
but he won't even come by the doorway of my bathroom.
pretty sure it's because we give him baths in there, and he hates getting a bath so much.
he probably thinks i'm trying to trick him into coming in so i can stick him in the tub.
ha.

ok.
home alone tonight... so maybe i'll go print some photos and see what happens.

oh. i ordered the london add on kit from studio calico tonight. pretty excited for that one... it looks like fun. :]

other recent news.

- i was completely sore today from wii. yes. it was the bowling that did it. [it's my favorite too, alyssa.]

- the hiroba sushi grand opening was last night. as we know, i don't eat sushi. but whenever someone wants to eat sushi with me, i am now going to require that we go there because they have the most amazing bulgogi [korean style beef]. james said it's right up to par with his mom's, and you know... it's always hard to beat your mom's cooking. it was my first time trying it out, and it's safe to say that i have a new favorite. i wish i would have given in to james a long time ago and tried it much sooner.

- i had some ridiculously amazing finds at j. crew yesterday. the sale stuff was and extra 25% off. love that.

- work today was boooooooring. unfortunately, i had taken my book out of my bag, so i was left with nothing to do for 7.5 hours. yuck.

- saturday is going to be satc round three. eliza and nicole haven't seen it yet. i need to fix that.

- saturday night i am going to scrapbook at the store. one of my favorite customers from the store is running some of the saturday night crops now, so i'm going to see if i can be a tiny bit productive. if not... i'll just talk with her, and that will make me happy. i invited angela to come this saturday... so i may or may not do more scrapbooking than talking.

- last night i looked at some of my old pages, and i just got sad because i haven't been making very many pages recently. every time i try to scrapbook it's a struggle, and it's just been getting more and more frustrating. i don't really know how to put it in to words... but last night i just basically got the feeling like "amy. you USED to be so creative. what happened to you." i don't really know what the deal is, but hopefully soon i'll get inspired like i used to get. [way back in the day.]

- i'm so late on making my sister's birthday present. i'm putting that on top of the to-do list for tomorrow. i'm giving up on my cutting mat ever flattening out and going back to normal, so i'm just going to buy a new one. grr.

- at dinner tonight james was telling me more about his job. overall, i think he likes it. so far his days have been mostly filled with sitting in his cubicle reading sops and glps [standard operating procedures and good laboratory practices]. poor guy. he said to me, "don't they realize that i have a degree in biochem, and i know how to pipet and run a uv spec by now!" but it sounds like he gets to start working in the lab next week. plus. i think he's actually a little tiny bit excited to have his own little cubicle. he said he can put photos and stuff up in there. umm. hello! i asked him if i can make him a thing or two to put in there and he hesitantly told me that i can. :] and then he said that today he put in an order for a stapler and a hole punch. haha. but he basically has everything else... then he was like "wait. i don't have any scissors." umm. hello! i told him i can probably help him with that too.

- sometime last week, james opened my computer up and my blog page was up. umm. he didn't really know about the blog. i've mentioned "my blog" before in conversation... but he's not super into the whole online world so i don't think he really caught on. anyway. after a quick look around, he just had one complaint... his birthday is not on the sidebar. oops. sorry james! [edited to add... wait a second! i just looked. i do believe that it says "mar. 18th. happy birthday j." on the sidebar. i guess i'm going to have to make him look again. ha.]

- time for bed now. good night. :]

in chronological order.

here are some of the photos from the trip. i was going to organize them by category, but i'll just try to kind of tell the story this way.
[probably without too many words because i'm tired.]



it seems that my first stop when we got to the hotel was the crepe place, where i took a couple photos.

i've thought about having a tiffany wedding cake before... so when i saw this cake i knew i had to get a photo.

and vegas is probably one of the few places where you can find a lady made out of chocolate wearing a dress made out of chocolate. she was pretty amazing. and even more amazing was the fact that she wasn't melting. i'm not quite sure how the pulled that off.


that night we met up for dinner at sweet tomatoes.
but before we left for dinner, my dad decided that victoria wanted to sit in the big rocking chair all by herself. :]


on friday, we decided to babysit victoria so that she didn't have to go to daycare.
apparently the view from the suite wasn't enough to calm her cries.


so dad [err... grandpa] tried to calm her with a tour of the suite while her bottle was being warmed by mom [grandma].


but she didn't really like the tour very much, so dad decided to put her in the big huge bed, which was pretty adorable. and i found her pacie while the bottle finished warming.


mom and i made a run to the outlet mall while dad took a break from work [yes. he had his computer all set up and was reading films on friday. silly guy.] to watch victoria.



this is a welcomed sight on a summer day in vegas. [especially for a vitamin water addict.]

when paul and amanda were off work, they came over and we had dinner at the bellagio buffet. victoria was careful not to overindulge.

melanie came and met me at the hotel for a short visit after dinner. it was so nice to see her and catch up on all the latest news. i can't believe that she's getting married in september! so excited for her and vic. :]
we met up in vegas last summer too, and i failed to get a photo with her then. so this time i kept telling myself that i *had* to remember.
and.
i.
totally.
forgot.


that night, i may or may not have eaten another crepe. ha. they swapped out the chocolate lady wearing a chocolate dress for this patriotic eagle, which fit nicely with the theme of the botanical garden.


the botanical garden had a nice mini bellagio with actual fountains. [this is the second time they've had a mini bellagio in there that i've seen, but it's so cute! and this one is made out of seeds and had a real tiny tv in the bellagio sign where they have a big huge screen in real life. eeek!]


speaking of tvs...
there was one in each bathroom of the suite. a tiny bit ridiculous.

the next day we all had lunch at lucille's. i still haven't found the proper words to describe how good the food is, but the fact that i eat there every time i'm in vegas should be a little hint.


when we left, victoria decided to wear the hat that my mom and i decided she had to have last time we visited her. we also decided she had to have the matching outfit when we got her the hat. and this time, we decided she had to have the swimming suit that matches because it was on clearance for $5. can't pass that up. :]


and that night... our flight back home. the view after dark is definitely a plus to having a delayed flight.

goodbye blog. hello wii.

i had the best intentions of posting my trip photos last night after i got home from dinner.
but.
we made a quick run to costco on the way to dinner and as we walked in the big huge door, something magical caught my eye.
i couldn't say anything except "we. we. we. we. we. we. we. we."
seriously. it was almost like i was hyperventilating.
and i'm sure people thought something was terribly wrong with me.
and by people, i mostly mean my mom and james. :]

eventually my mom and james figured out what was going on with me.
i was actually saying "wii. wii. wii. wii. wii. wii. wii. wii."

yes.
i had spotted a wii.
sitting there on top of a bunch of tvs.
with it's price sign thing.
all by itself.
one little wii.

so they came over and we all started debating if we should get it or not.
i said, "well. since it's the *only* one, we should probably just put it in the cart while we think about it."

of course i didn't let that wii back out of the cart until it was getting put into the back of the car. :]

i called amanda while we were still in costco to share the good news.
she said she was a little shocked that it just happened so easily.
i mean, there really wasn't any hunting involved. i hadn't called a single store. let alone visited a single store in hopes of finding one.

i'm afraid my luck with finding a wii fit will not be quite as good. i'm sure there will be some hunting going on. and since i'm sure that the new wii is waiting anxiously for it's wii fit friend... the hunting will probably begin soon. :]

i promise that i'll try to take a wii break from time to time to update my blog. :]
but it's just so fun.
i'm a little ashamed that james beat me at tennis last night. so i have to improve my skills.

and yes alyssa... wii fit is amazing! it's ridiculously fun, and i was actually sore the day after i played it.
since my i don't seem to follow through on my gym goals... ever... as pathetic as it might seem, i think the wii fit is my answer.
& & i know that some people have been criticizing the idea of working out with a video game, but i don't think those people have tried it. it's like tae bo, but better. [remember tae bo!? oh man.]

i'm off to run errands if i can handle going outside in the smoke long enough to make it to my car.
there are something like 80 fires burning in california, and we're being bombarded with the smoke here. it's really really not good outside. as a result, we're limiting helix's time outside, which he's not thrilled about. he's used to getting to be outside everyday, all day. poor guy.

home.

our flight was delayed, so we got home about an hour after expected. not too bad i suppose.
i'll probably post some trip photos tomorrow after i upload them.

briefly, it was a nice trip.
lots of baby time + some good shopping finds + chocolate covered strawberries [among other good food] + a short visit with melanie hutchings.

oh!
paul + amanda got a wii fit today, and i'm officially addicted.
they are nearly impossible to find, but i'm going to join in on the hunt. :]


and because i'm a little bored and i haven't filled one of these babies out in a looong time, here goes:

[1] how old will you be in 3 birthdays?
25. [eek!]


[2] will you be married by then?
it's possible.


[3] who was the last person(s) you hugged?
amanda + victoria.


[4] what were you doing at midnight last night?
watching the last bellagio fountain show of the night.


[5] what states have you been to?
let's see... nevada, california, arizona, utah, colorado, wyoming, nebraska, florida, ohio, new york, pennsylvania, new jersey, hawaii, & texas. i think that covers it.


[6] if you could be anywhere, where would it be?
i'll go with san francisco.


[7] what was the last thing you drank?
hot tea or vitamin water. i had both on the plane, but i don't remember which was more recent.


[8] what's your favorite ice cream?
hmm. kinda a tough one. i'll go with chocolate mochi.
i also like peanut butter cup perfection from cold stone or a custom blend of sweet cream + banana + peanut butter + fudge.
& & i also like sorbet from tcby.


[9] do you sleep on a certain side of the bed?
yep. right side. sometimes left, but usually right.


[10] do you know how to play poker?
yes, but i don't partake. i do sort of really love watching it on tv. especially the celebrity poker one.


[11] ever stolen a street sign?
nope. i'm not sure what the appeal is?


[12] do you know how to drive a stick?
sure don't. i know how to shift thanks to garrett who used to make me. ha. :] but i can't do the clutch thing.


[13] do you wear any jewelry 24/7?
nope. i hate falling asleep with a necklace on.


[14] do you know how to pogo stick?
no. i've never had the opportunity. ha.


[15] what's bothering you right now?
i can't get my glasses clean. there is some type of film on the lenses. :[
time for a new pair i guess. :]


[16] what are you mad about right now?
nothing.


[17] what did you dress up as for halloween?
at the last minute i was a cat. hopefully next year i'll think of something good.


[18] do you enjoy traveling in airplanes?
generally. it's better than driving in most cases. but i get nervous every single time. only to myself though... not outwardly.


[19] what is your favorite salad dressing?
i enjoy balsamic vinaigrette.
huge huge huge dislike for ranch. i don't even want to see it on the table.


[20] what's the last thing you said aloud?
"babe. it's $249 plus $89."
"seriously."
[in regards to my hunt for wii + wii fit.]


[21] are your parents still together?
yep. :]


[22] do you know what you are going to wear tomorrow?
nope. ha.


[23] have you ever dyed your hair?
yep.


[24] is your current hair color your natural hair color?
yep. thinking about changing it up a bit though.


[25] have you ever dated anyone more than once?
technically garrett and i separated for a few days one time... but we decided not to count it. ha.
i just think it's generally a bad idea.


[26] did you date someone last summer?
yes.


[27] song playing right now?
the ting tings. i know. it is a little bit funny. but oh so catchy.


[28] does anyone like you?
silly question. i'm pretty sure.


[29] what is your middle name?
christine.


[30] what were you doing an hour ago?
looking up places to hunt down a wii + wii fit.


[31] what does your last text message in your inbox say? who from?
"sounds good." from carol.
[her boyfriend is opening a restaurant, and i told her i would be at the grand opening wednesday. anyone who happens to read this far and lives in the reno area should probably check it out. i'll likely post more about after i give it a try wednesday night.]


[32] do you secretly love someone?
it's not a secret. :]


[33] where were you saturday night?
hanging out in the suite with melanie. after she left, i had crepes with my parents. yum.


[34] do you wear the seatbelt in the car?
of course.


[35] has anyone ever mistaken you for someone else?
i think that probably happens to everyone. usually it happens to me on the phone.


[36] do you have any piercings?
i think my ears are basically closed up. that's it for me.


[37] what's something you really want right now, be honest.
to make a plan/timeline of goals type of thing. you know... for grad school and stuff like that. i've been thinking about it a lot lately.


[38] do you like to text or call more?
definitely rather talk on the phone than text. i don't mind aim, but i don't like texting.


[39] are you tired right now?
not so much.


[40] what is the weather like today?
in vegas it was around 110. yuck.


[41] where will you be in an hour?
here at home.


[42] who's the last person you called?
james.


[43] do you ever turn your cell phone off?
basically only for flights. sometimes it goes dead though because i've been lazy about charging it.


[44] what do you want in your life right now?
a little bit more organization and a daily routine would be good.


[45] what's your favorite gatorade flavor?
vitamin water for me.


[46] are you wearing anything you borrowed from someone?
nope. i really only "borrow" shirts from james to wear to bed sometimes. they are just so soft and comfy. :]


[47] do you live near your boyfriend/girlfriend?
near is an understatement. :]


[48] can you sleep in jeans?
noooooo.


[49] where were you on July 4th, 2007?
i don't think i did anything?


[50] who was the last person you were in a car with besides family?
james.


[51] do you trust people easily?
pretty much.


[52] do you enjoy school?
sigh. yes.


[53] what do you look forward to in the next 3 months?
hmm... finding a wii + wii fit? ha.

pack.

i don't want to pack tonight.

partially because i'm full on sick today and feeling lazy, and partially because i don't like my clothes anymore.
seriously.
aside from 4 pairs of jeans that i'm loving, i just don't like my clothes.

and when i try to look for new things that i love, i just don't find anything.
i did find one cute top the other day, but i couldn't bring myself to pay over $150 for one top.
i need a better job in order to do that.
so i left empty handed as i have on the last several shopping trips.

hopefully i can change things this weekend.
a little wardrobe update... sounds nice.
but just in case i can't find anything... i guess i better actually pack a few things.

maybe i'll sneak away for some scrapbooking first.
you know... to get me in the mood to pack. :]