Me:


• Amberlina
  
  
• Sign My Guestbook!
  
  
• 100 Things About Me
  
  
• My City

• Obsessively listening to The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony
  
  
• ? and the Mysterians - 96 Tears
  
  
• Streaming Radio from Indie 103.1
  
  
• Stream the entire new Bouncing Souls Album, Anchors Aweigh. I know I should get rid of this link but then I can't stream the tunesDo it here!
  
  

• Sylvia
  
  
• Le Divorce
  
  
• Lost in Translation
  
  
  

• Raspberry Purse
  
  
• PF Flyers
  
  
• Pink Scurvy by Nirve
  
  
• I Pod
  
  
• ibook
  
  
• Mah Jong Bracelet
  
  
• Gola Harrier
  
  
• Hand Painted Clogs
  
  
• Comfy shirts by C&C California
  
  
• My Amazon Wish List
  
  

• March-April 2003
  
  
• May-July 2003
  
  
• August-September 2003
  
  
• September-October 2003
  
  
• November-December 2003
  

Monday, March 1, 2004 07:59 a.m.

I'm convinced the doggies want me off the bed! Everynight the wedge in between T and I and I end up on the edge of my bed with no blankets! I'm freezing and I cannot move. I know I could just move them but when you're asleep the last thing you want to do is wake up to move two small mutts and in the middle of the night during prime REM sleep those little doggies feel like 150 pounds. Normally I whine and wake T up and make him deal with them. We've tried making them stay on the ground but they are so spoiled and will not have any of that! If they were trained to sleep under the covers only that wouldn't be a problem its when the decide to sleep outside of the covers that the situation is horrible...for me anyway. Damn spoiled mutts!

I can't believe I watched the entire Academy Awards. I don't think I have ever done that before and I don't think I will ever do it again. It was so damn BORING! Does the general public really care who wins for Best Score, Best Editing, Best Costuming...I don't think so. I think the general public wants to know who was the Best Actor/Actress and Best Movie that said the ceremony did not have to be 3.5-hours long but more like 30-minutes or one hour tops! Half way through the awards show I whipped out my knitting stuff and furiously knitted away on my scarf. I may attain my goal completeing the scarf today. If so I'm wearing it to work on Tuesday!

This upcoming week will be heavenly. I'm back in the audit cycle...again. But this time my cohorts and I will be in the West Annex building away from every distraction we fall prey to which holds us up from completing our work in a timely fashion.

Remember a few days back, I decided to share my "panty rash?" Okay it wasn't really a rash from my underwear I just thought that name sounded fitting. Anyway it wasn't a rash at all but more of an itch and I think the cause being the skin on my belly is beginning to stretch. I am now rubbing this awesome coconut oil body butter on my tummy everyday. I love the way it smells but I hate the way it feels. I feel completely sticky with it on my body.

The Supermarket strike is finally over. Personally, I thought this strike was ridiculous and felt no remorse hitting the market for my food. Don't want to waste my time on this subject.

Sunday, February 29, 2004 03:36 p.m.

Jesse James + Sandra Bullock = ?

Sunday, February 29, 2004 03:00 p.m.

I woke up sith a big spurt of enrgy this morning. Jumped outta bed, tooka shower, folded some laundry, sorted through my dressing tossing out anything I haven't worn or can't wear now, did a load of laundry, washed dishes, cleaned the living room and cooked breakfast. By the time T woke up he was a little afraid of me. If was funny but my enrgy got him motivated for the morning.

We finally used our Borders gift card. It's been burning a hole in my wallet since Thanksgiving. We picked up some good books. Not so much about pregnancy but about infant rearing and T picked up a book for himself written by a stay-at-home dad. I'm anxious to dig right into my new books.

I started in on knitting myself a scarf yesterday. I'm about a thrid way through. I want to finish it before Tuesday so I can wear it to work. Once that's done I'll have to get started on T's scarf.

Normally I never watch the Oscars. I find it to be to long and with my self-diagnosed ADD I find it hard to watch. I tell you, it is no MTV movie awards. We were invited to T's cousins house to watch the awards ceremony and for dinner. We haven't been over to their house in a while but it'll be nice. T's cousin and his wife are about my parents age. The wife is sweet but she is so serious not at all like my mom, normally I get kind of uncomfortable talking to her because all she ever asks about is work or work related things which I don't like to talk about. T's cousin has two sons, I think 14 and 12 years old or 15 and 13, whatever the case they're fun to hang out with. Especially the younger one, he is such a character! T's cousin lives about 30-minutes away in Bell Canyon. It's kinda fancy schmancy but such a great drive up the mountain to his house.

I was hoping to squeeze in a nap but to no avail since we have to head outta here in about 45-minutes and I still need to work on my hair. I think I may have to forgo the hair since it's still a little damp. Guess I'll be sproting some braids for dinner. Oh Well.

Friday, February 27, 2004 04:45 p.m.

Okay Amber, I couldn't help myself and took the personality quiz linked on your site.

You are... A Cocktail Umbrella!!!

Every night is a party when you are part of the equation!
Your fun-loving nature makes any situation better, and people
appreciate that quality in you above all others. Your amazing
ability to open up and shoe your true colors often makes people smile.
That said, you have an annoying ability to hang around
and get in someones way at the least desirable moment.
In fact, you have been the cause of an occasional hospital visit due toa poked-out eye.
PS - Girlie drinks are for sissies.

Take the Personality Quiz, brought to you by Mr. Poon.

Friday, February 27, 2004 03:43 p.m.

This one left me a little speechless, check it out. Don't forget to call customer service when you finished with the site.

Yesterday I rushed home, watched Charmed and fell asleep at 4:15pm. I took a 4-hour nap which was so wonderful. I am so not a nap person that when I actually fall asleep during the day time hours I surprise myself! I woke up at about 8:30pm, watched Will and Grace then CSI and fell asleep at 10pm. I really need to take naps more often, but normally I when I attempt to I start thinking about all the other things I could be doing and should be doing. Then I can't sleep.

I'm debating wether or not I want to go to E's birthday partay part deux tonight. It's at McCormick and Schmicks in Pasadena. They have a pretty good happy hour menu. As drinks are of no interest to me nowadays, their happy hour food menu will serve me well. You can get a big, juicy cheeseburger and fries for a mere .95. Of course their are other cheap items like quesadilla's, calamari etc...but I love the cheeseburgers! Since the partay is later tonight, if i'm awake i'll go if not I won't and no big loss to me.

If we decide not to go tonight I think I would like to go to Home Depot. Once you become a homeowner Home Depot becomes your best friend. My first few months in this house we were store regulars. Although we did intermix Lowes. What I gather between the two home improvement emporiums is that Home Depot are for those who are very down and dirty and want to be very hands on with everything. Lowes on the other hand is more "clean." I don't get that rough and tumble vibe I get from the HD. I like them both and go to them for very different reasons. When I want plants or easy to assemble shelving I head to Lowes. When I want hardware, paint, tools I head to the HD. I love them both, and to pick favorites would be cruel. Wow....did I digress. What I wanted to say was that if we don't go to the partay I want to head to the HD to check out paint samples. We need to paint the spare room (i.e. babies room) and I want to look at colors. I have an idea of what I would like to paint the room but I don't think T can visualize the exact color I want. I think he is still slightly stuck on some mutated variation of blue but I do not want a blue room. That is so contrived and unoriginal. Why must baby rooms be either pink, blue, yellow or pale green. There are other colors out there. A lot of colors. I do know we both want a very sleek, 60s modern kinda room. Very design savvy. I can imagine it in my head now its a matter of finding the goods.

What luck! I flipped to Bravo and its Inside the Actors Studio with Ben Stiller. I love this show! I think I may have seen this episode once before but I would rather watch this in reruns instead of Seinfeld reruns.

My kitchen timer just went off. My vegan corn dogs must be ready. I'll be back. I'm going to put them on a plate with a big side of mustard. Corn dogs are one of those foods that I would not openly admit to loving. I don't know why I find the need to keep this quiet but I do. It's my big secret. When I lived in Olympia there was an A&W in the mall that served corn dog nuggets. Yes, I know that sounds horrendous but it was like chicken nuggets but with corn dogs. It was so good. I would always by the little pack of maybe 6 mini corn dogs but really I could probably eat a 20 pack. In recent years, I don't know if i've eaten a true corn dog but rather these vegan or soy varieties which are just as good. The dog is good, the crunch is nice and you cannot go wrong with a side of yellow mustard.

This may be a little to personal but I think I have gotten a mild rash from the waistband of my underwear. I've cristened this "panty rash." I honestly hate the word "panty" or "panties." Ok how the hell came up with this word. I'll probably be crawled by the google spider now for X searches containing the word(s) panty or panties. Anyway "panty rash" seems like a fitting word to describe this yucky itch of uncomfortableness. Studio.

Thursday, February 26, 2004 07:11 a.m.

I've been out of work the last few days. As much as I love being out of work I do tend to get bored at home. I legitmately had some time off last week Friday and Saturday while my relatives were visiting. But then on Monday my legs started aching for no reason. I could barely walk. They were tense and knotted and very uncomfortable! I decided to stay at home on Tuesday and Wednesday to relax and get myself back into shape. But now i'm at the office ready to face the music!

The last week has been hectic, in summary:
Friday: Picked up mom and aunt S at 5:45am at LAX. We spent a portion of the morning hanging around my house until everyone was rested from their overnight flight. We spent the first day of their trip shopping. I figured it was better to get it over with ASAP. I was shocked when I realized we spent almost the entire day at the damn galleria. We then went to dinner at El Compadre. Yummy!

Saturday: Cabazon and Casino Morongo. My aunt desperatly wanted to go to a casino so we choose this one, a mere block from the outlet mall. It was weird. I mean it felt like a Vegas casino but no hotel. It was so smokey and crowded I could barely handle it. Personally I don't like being around smoke so I was constantly running in and out for fresh air. We weren't there for very long, probably for just a few hours and that was enough. My aunt didn't want to leave, when my mom finally said ok let's go, she yelped "no!" To bad so sad, that was long enough!

Sunday: Brunch at the Four Seasons. Yummy! Yummy! Yummy! I didn't overeat this time but I did eat a lot. I even hit the kiddie table for homemade mac and cheese and french fries. We say Larry Flynt at the hotel. He rolled up in his black Bentley with personalized Hustler license plates. His driver proceeded to get his wheelchair which was gold with red velvet cushions. Swanky! After brunch we swung by T's new office to show mom the space. Aunt S didn't know what T did for a living so it was pretty damn funny to see her reaction. She kept saying how disappointed she was with him but then proceeded to ask for free t-shirts, a movie and posters. Yeah, real disappointed!

Monday: Breakfast at Milies and then Chinatown. I must admit Los Angeles' Chinatown is pretty fun. We picked up a lot of stuff while we were there.

Overall I had a nice visit and was thrilled that this was NOT a shopping extravaganza as it usually is. The next visit will be just mom which will be nice and I don't want to shop at all on that visit. My guess is getting the spare room together for the baby.

More later and I promise it will be less boring.

Thursday, February 19, 2004 07:18 a.m.

I have finally weened T off of his addiction to Raisin Bran but in doing so I have gotten him hooked on Honey Nut Cheerios. So much so that he its bowls of it for dinner. It's actually funny because he gets so excited to eat it for dinner that he consumes it in mass and within an hour the poor boy has an aching cereal tummy ache! I laugh at him and sometimes point too.

Update on the maternity clothes denial: I have embraced the maternity pants! They are c-o-m-f-y! I never in my life thought I would enjoy the semi-elastic waistband. Sure the waistband may be inches away from my boobs but damn they are comfy! And as of tomorrow i'll have a new maternity wardrobe, my cousin D is sending up all her maternity gear to me. So for the next few months i'll probably be wearing clothes I wouldn't normally be wearing but hey my choices are limited and I don't want to be paying for these things.

Mom and Aunt S will be here at 5:30am tomorrow. I'll be driving solo to LAX. I'm such a fraidy cat when it comes to driving by myself. I've been a passenger on this ride so many times that I'll be fine. Plus, I know I won't be tierd since I'm normally wide awake at this hour. Our skeleton plan is:

Fri: WB tour, Shopping, Eating (not in this order)
Sat: Cabazon Outlet, Palm Springs
Sun: Brunch, Site Seeing, Shopping
Mon: TBD

I'm confident that plans will change slightly as they always do. But as long as we have some sort of direction it will be helpful.

Okay, so radio sucks in general and I am jumping on the Indie 103.1 bandwagon. All those from LA who are listening to this station will soon realize it is much better then KROQ. Indie plays a better variety of music especially a lot of old punk rock. I've been streaming it live at work and listening to it. At this point, I'm burnt on my MP3's and I don't want to be dragging CDs to work with me so Indie is the perfect option.

More later, work is getting crazy.

Monday, February 16, 2004 07:19 a.m.

Here I am at work on Presidents Day. Last Friday I though this was a good idea. Work for four hours at double time rate. But at 5am this morning I layed in bed wondering exactly what the hell was I thinking when I said I would do this. 2.5-hours to go. The nice thing is I did manage to get Friday and Saturday off to spend with my mom and aunt.

Back to the semi-grind.

Sunday, February 15, 2004 02:39 p.m.

Last night we went to dinner at All India Cafe. It was so good. We ordered the palak paneer (indian cheese and spinach), chicken makani, basamati rice and some naan. It was yummy in my tummy! I used to be horrified by Indian food. T would keep dragging me to Indian restaurants and I would never find anything I liked. Then a couple of years ago we went to an Indian buffet and I found what I liked. Although I'm not to adventurous with this genre of food I do enjoy my limited selection.

Yesterday at work my friend gave me a crash course in knitting. So I have begun to knit T a scarf. It's kind of ugly but who knows I've only got about 2 inches in length so far. And I can't for the life of me remember the purl but its just like the knit but backwards. I'll show L what I've accomplished this weekend and hopefully she can remind me on how to do the purl.

The gardners showed up at 8.30am. The were here on a mission. We had this giant kampher (sp?) tree in our backyard that was ugly and dying. It made cleaning the backyard pure hell because the leaves were so tiny. The tree is now gone except for the last of the stump. The backyard is so much brighter now. We'll definetly have to get the backyard into gear now and bring it back to life. The grass is dead but all the plants are alive but they are kindy ugly and unruly, I think if it was pruned it would be a lot nicer. What I would like to do is add one of these.

I woke up today with a load of motivation and energy to clean my house. I cleaned my kitchen and just need to mop. I do need T to clean out the fridge. There's a lot of leftover food in there. I have a problem with cleaning out old stinky food. I even went so far as to polish my stove. I think I'll mop before I go to bed. I also dusted half of the living room and then lost all motivation and have been watching Season 1 of The Osbournes.

Friday, February 13, 2004 08:33 p.m.

One last thing

Friday, February 13, 2004 07:43 p.m.

While flipping through the channels on commercial breaks I paused on Depeche Mode's "Shake the Disease" video. I don't think there has ever been a point in my life that stopped liking Depeche Mode. They are such a great band, however, like most bands there was a period of blah but old Depeche Mode rocks!

They play some great videos on Vh1's We Are The 80s. Does anyone remember Charlie Sexton? They are actually playing a Charlie Sexton video, its not very good. His career must've fizzled quickly. I recognize the name and severly cut cheekbones and that's about it. To bad, so sad.

So the Tylenol I took this morning completely cured my nasty headache. I was completely surprised, as tylenol normally fails me. **sidenote**They're playing the Dead Milkmen's Punk Rock Girl...woo hoo...I wish they played Bitchin' Camero if the video exists.** I remember when I saw the Dead Milkmen live, I was 14 and a freshman in highschool and I went to the show with two sophmore friends. They played at the Aloha Tower. Aloha Tower is now all pretty and is a shopping/restaurant haven but back then there was nothing but a big hall. There were lots of shows there back then. Agent Orange, Red Hot Chili Peppers (pre-Mothers Milk), Social Distortion, tons of local Hawaii punk rock bands, and lots more. Awwww....somtimes I miss those days.

I used to be completely obsessed with Friendster. Then it got really, really, really slow and I moved to My Space. Now I'm just over it. I mean, I haven't even bothered uploading any photos to my profile or attempted to add more "friends" to my little list. Every so often when I remember, i'll go to the site and login. A few of mycoworkers are on there but I haven't told them I'm there and know they are to. I know for sure on person would be a little embaressed that I read their profile, it reads like an alter ego. I do like scrolling through profiles and looking at photos, it staisfies the little voyer inside of me. Friendster and My Space reminds me of the days when everyone had AOL (because of the free hours) and would chat online with perfect strangers. I don't have time for that stuff lately. Maybe when I'm on leave i'll obsesses over it then.

Mom is flying in again next week. I was able to get both Friday and Saturday off. This means I'll get to spend her entire trip with her. I'm excited because she told me to make brunch reservations at the Four Seasons. My favorite brunch spot! The food is so yummy! And you get to dress up in the daytime to eat. It's very posh but not in a snobby kind of way but what I imagine it would be like if we went to the Kentucky Derby and I got to wear a white dress, big white had and getting sloshed on mint juleps!

I have finally weaned my doggies off the parmasean cheese. I'm so glad, it makes feeding them so much easier. When they were on the cheese it was time consuming you would have to sprinkle the cheese on, then stir the food and if the food was not evenly coated with cheese you would have to add a little more and stir it again...what a pain. Now I just scoop there Iams into their bowl and tada....they are ready to eat. I simply love it.

What exactly is Valentine's Day? I've never "celebrated" this holiday. Since it's so close to my birthday it seems silly to expect my husband to do anything for me. He know I don't ever expect anything. If I got a card I would be surprised. If he got me flowers I would be shocked. Normally a little kiss with a "happy V day" follow up is enough for me. People at work insist on baking cookies with hearts and handing out grade school V day cards. Its cute but unnecasarry.

"I'm not offended by dumb blonde jokes because I know that I'm not dumb. I also know I'm not blonde." - Dolly Parton

Friday, February 13, 2004 08:12 a.m.

I woke up with a headache - again. I ate breakfast in hopes it would go away - no dice. I'm giving myself until noon and if it still persists, I'm heading home!

I heard the most devastating news yesterday. Splitsville for Barbie and Ken. How tragic! Ha! I cant' believe this made it on to CNN and on the nightly news yesterday. What's even worse is I'm wasting space writing about it.

My headache is bothering me i gotta stop.

Monday, February 9, 2004 10:45 a.m.

Yet another doctors appointment under my belt. This one only lasted a mere 10-minutes. I think the worst part about my visits are having to get on that scale every month. I have been trying to mentally keep track of my weight gain but I can hardly remember what I started out at. But, who really cares, right? As I digress, doc said everything is looking wonderful, there is absolutely nothing to be even remotely worried about. Although I do get a bit panicked when the doctor and nurses tell me the baby is "very" active. Is this a good thing? Will I have an ADD child? How will my adult ADD and self-diagnosed OCD mesh with a childs ADD? Why am I overreacting? My OCD? Can I receive Ritalin via IV now to calm the fetal movement happening in my belly? This is where a nice stiff drink would be nice to calm be back down and rid me of my seld-induced hysteria! Someone slap me.

Speaking of fetal movement. I just started feeling them about a week ago and I didn't know what was happening. At first I thought it was gas, but I hadn't eaten or drank anything that would cause gas. Then as the movement started swirling around in my belly I figured out what it was and it reminded me of a sea sick feeling. Wavy, sloshy and strange. T is dying to feel it too. I think he feels left out. I told him he cold leave his hand on my belly but I didn't think he would feel anything because it was more of an internal feeling for me. He seemed sad when nothing happened. I'm sure he'll have his fill of feeling the baby soon enough.

I have been debating if I should do some work from home today or not. I want to since it will give me a jump start on the week but I am so lazy and don't want to deal with work at all. Work has become a thorn in my side once again. I'm trying to shake it off. I think one of the reasons I dread work sometimes is because I feel guilty. Meaning, I could be sick and I go to work thinking I'll stick it out as long as I can. Mid-day, I'm sick as a dog but feel way to guilty to tell my boss I want to go home. I feel like I have to much work to complete to even consider leaving for the day. I end up getting mad at myself, at my company (even though I have nothing to blame them for). Really I need to get over it and just go home when I need to. Everyone is understanding but its my damn mental block that doesn't allow me to leave.

Maybe its that damn catholic guilt, again.

Sunday, February 8, 2004 06:58 p.m.

Today was the most productive day I've had in a really long time. Amazingly I slept in until 8am. I did some reading before waking T up for the day. I'm currently reading The Nanny Diaries and it is very addictive. It is rare from me to start a book and within the same day get half way through. I'm finding the book very funny.

T and I went to the Rose Bowl Flea Market in hopes of finding some cool vintage (repro) prints for the baby's room. Our mission was accomplished and we walked away with some very cool French advertising prints. We did a lot of walking around and checking out all the variousl booths. The Rose Bowl market is such a phenomenom, it is unlike any flea market you can imagine. It is huge! Beyond huge, even. Unless you know what you want you could really be there all day. I love it and wish I could go more often.

We where so tierd by the time we got home that we popped in a DVD and took a nap. I had also made plans to hang with V tonight and I told her I needed to nap to figureout what she wants to do and give me a ring late afternoon. So we spent the evening bowling. I sucked! I played one game and that was it for me, not because I was sucking but because I didn't want to strain anything I shouldn't. We were kinda bumbed because we were hoping we would get to All Star Lanes in time for the last few frames of the Blind Bowling League. I don't know why I find this so intriguing. But I do and I am determined to find out when their next league night is so I can go and be a spectator. V and I were completely facinated when we called the bowling alley and they told us about the blind league. Hopefully I'll be able to report on this at some point.

Tonight is a new Charmed, I'm glad I made it home in time to get the PJ's on, make a big bowl of Green Tea ice cream and dork out to my faveorite withcy sisters.

The tip of my nose has been sore all day. I feel like I have been hit in my face and have a giant bruise on my nose. I know there is no bruise but it really does feel like one. Just lightly brushing the tip of my nose is painful. Im afraid to wash my face because it hurts so much. My fear is i'll wake up tomorrow with a giant zit on my nose. I would die. That's the worse spot to get a grody zit, the tip of the nose. I would call in sick to work until it went away.

How Well Do You Know Me? It's easy!

Saturday, February 7, 2004 09:30 a.m.

So there was another doctors appointment this past Thrusday. The tell me they are 99% sure that its going to be a BOY. Needless to say, we thrilled! We were getting so antsy and wanted this appointment so badly! Now T has to paint the guestroom! When we moved into our house I had the pleasure of decorating the guestroom anyway I wanted to so I painted it cotton candy pink, with red toile and gingham bedding. It is sickly sweet! Not for long. I just do not want a blue room, that is to contrived for me and T. I think we're going to paint it something ultra-neutral like gray or a light khaki, which sounds boring but not with everything else we have up our sleeves.

I've neglected my poor pita for awhile and I feel guilty. Damn, Catholic guilt! (Okay, I wanted to insert a link to somewort of funny article surrounding Catholic guilt, but when I did a search I found maybe two lame articles and a shitload of religious porn.)

I turned 30 on Wednesday. I didn't tell any of my co-workers it was my birthday except for A. I didn't feel anyneed to spread the word. Personally I was more excited about my doctors appointment the following day then my acutal birthday. That was my birthday present to myself. T and I went to a really nice dinner and he bought me a beautiful bouquet of lillies! He asked me what I wanted but right now I can't even think I told him that I would like to cash in for my birthday gift sometime in August, after the little tyke is born. I normally want jewelry or clothes and T bought me jewelry for Christmas so he doesn't want to buy me jewelry for my birthday.

My mom and Aunt S will be visting in two weeks. It'll just be a quick weekend trip. Luckily I got the Saturday off so I'll be able to spend a full three days with them. I don't know what we're going to do while they're here. I was thinking of going to Santa Barbara for a day. My mom suggested the San Diego Zoo for an afternoon. I suggested we hit the outlets in Cabazon. Normally when my mom comes, no matter how much planning we do we live everyday on the fly. I did suggest a matinee of La Boheme but she said no opera.

T has slowly begun to move into his new office/warehouse. It will be nice to have my garage back for storage. Because T's work stuff took over all the space, I have had no access to sweaters, books, luggage (not that i've needed it), and I couldn't store any of my christmas stuff in their rightful spaces! He also moved his desk, file cabitnets and someother things out of the den. Once that room is empty it will be mine!!!! I want to turn it into a relaxing, TV free zone with french doors shutting it off to the rest of the house.

Ok I better get back to work.

Saturday, January 31, 2004 11:34 a.m.

I got home early yesteray and decided to assist T with fulfilling some orders. By the time we were finished T was craving a steak. We got dressed and headed over to Damons. Damons is so good! It's primarily a steakhouse but the decor is fantastic. It's like a 1960s tiki hut, it is fabulously tacky! This has got to be one of my favorite restaurants. Halfway into my steak I though I was going to fall asleep. Depressed that I didn't finish my steak I walked out in shame with my doggy bag. Because we started in on our evening so early it was strange to be home from dinner at 7pm!

Thus far, the day has been very lesiruely. Working on some audits, chatting online and now eating a wonderful salad. Okay, normally I don't eat any type of raw veggies! But this salad is almost a no veggie salad. It has fresh spinach, strawberries, carmalized pecans, bacon bits and a "secret dressing." It is yummy! Although it is a huge salad and I don't think i'm going to finish it. For dessert I got some frozen yogurt. I think its called "Chubby Elephant on Parade." I couldn't pass up a dessert with a name like that. It's a banana flavored frozen yogurt with peanut butter chips and graham crackers ground in. I hope it tastes as good as it sounds.

This evening is the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship. The show is being broadcast on both Animal Planet and on the Discovery Channel. I love watching the dog shows, I find them strangely entertaining and I love making fun of the jaunty way handlers run around with their pooches. I wonder what it takes to become a handler? I think I am biased to dogs and would like to only work with smoosh-faced doggies or small doggies. My littlest pooch is pretty well trained but we could not train her to lay down. T became determined to teach her to lay down and he did it in a very unconventional manner but to my surprise little Daisy now lays down on command! Yeah, T!

Since I am at work, I should probably get cracking on my audits.

Friday, January 30, 2004 02:43 p.m.

Work has been insane. Once again we had a major launch last weekend which of course put us in such a backlog that it may take another week just to recover! I hate when this happens. You would think that working for such a big company that they would be able to ensure that when there is a launch that everything will remain stable. I mean, what kind of environment are they doing there pre-launch testing? Okay, enough work stuff!

Last night was another early night for me. I think I was passed out at 6pm. What a long sleep, it was wonderful! I could actually use a nap when I get home this afternoon. My energy is slowly returning back to normal but outside of that I'm just tierd. I think I may be working to hard or am getting to stressed at work. I've decided to mention this to my doctor on my next visit. I'm sure to much stres is not a good thing.

More Later.

Tuesday, January 27, 2004 05:15 p.m.

Today K and I went to the Warner Brothers Studio tour it was a lot of fun and way more interesting then Universal Studios. The first time I went to Universal I was 10 the second time I was 27 and in 17-years there was hardly any change to their studio tour. How sad is that? I was very disappointed. That's why when I came across the Warner Brothers tour I was excited! The tour was an amazing 2-hours long. We got to visit some sitcom sets and since Friends is now over our guide wanted to make sure we could see what's left of the set before it was totally striked. We also got to visit the costume wearhouse. This place was insane! A massive labyrinth of clothing and accessories. On one of the walls along our path was shelves of floor to ceiling shoes. This was only one section of shoes, keep in mind the building has the height of maybe a 3-4 story building, I was looking at some of the shoes and sitting next to trashy-ass fredrick of hollywood stilettos were Manolo Blahniks and Feregammos. I wanted to get lost in the costume wearhouse, try things on and pretend I was five and playing dress up in mom's closet!

After the tour we munched on some cheeseburgers at In-N-Out. It was so yummy and may possible be one of my last cheeseburgers for a long time. While consuming lunch I was shocked at the amount of patrons ordering their burgers "protein" style, essentially this is bun-less but wrapped in lettuce. The lo-carb phenomenom has hit In-N-Out. After lunch we headed to K-Mart and to my surprise I bought the most kick ass pair of maternity pants. They are olive cargo capris and so comfy. In fact I'm wearing them now and ideally would like to wear them for the rest of the week! Post K-mart we headed home and chilled until K had to leave.

Monday...Breakfast at 101 Coffee Shop then we headed down to 3rd Street to do some window shopping and then to the Beverly Center to satisfy my urge to buy some decent maternity clothes (no luck!). We went to the Farmers Market for lunch and then headed home.

I was so happy to see K, as I hadn't seen her since my wedding in 2001. I love that I still have friends that go back to my highschool days. They under who I was and my sometimes reckless past and are still my friends regardless of what I have done or who I am now ! I think the doggies miss her already! They loved the attention she gave them. Those doggies are such little sluts!

I was just listening to some of my Cock Sparrer Mp3's, man...I forgot just how good they are.

Sunday, January 25, 2004 08:56 a.m.

It was inevitable that I would get sick this season. It started with a slight sting in my throat one day to a full on sore throat the nest. It has now moved on to a cold. I hate being congested but I do love my more raspy voice. Who doesn't love a good raspy voice? When I sing in the car I imagine my singing is more in key with the song and the deeper, raspier sound is much more pleasant then my normal voice. Keep in mind this is me hearing myself, god only knows what the singing actually sounds like. I've seen those American Idol audition shows I have an idea of what I may really sound like.

I'm thinking of making a reservation either for tomorrow or Tuesdaye for the Warner Brothers tour. Sounds like a lot of fun. It cost a little more then the other studio tours but it sounds like a lot of fun.

Everyone is still asleep. But I've been awake for about an hour and a half now. I've already done the dishes, dried some laundry, fed the dogs and made a pot of coffee. I've also looked up some things to do while K is visiting. I want everyone to wake up so we can go get some breakfast, I'm starving! I was thinking that today we could either hit the Sanata Monica Antique Flea Market or drive down to Costa Mesa for the OC Flea Market. I know I previously mentioned Verakai but upon further research matinee tickets were not discounted and good seats were approx. per ticket. A little to rich for my blood. I think tonight we may head down to Olvera Street for some yummy mexican food. I love mexican food! Mmmmm...Tacos Mole!!!!!

Of course we'll do some toursity things like take photos of the Hollywood sign, checking out the Ennis Brown House which when looking at it from the downslope looks like it is just falling apart (how sad), and maybe even checkout some celebrity graves and Forest Lawn Memorial, appareantly visiting celebrity graves is quite the tourist attraction so much so that at Hollywood Forever cemetary they show old movies in the cemetary and you can pack a picnic and bring a blanket and cozy up to your beau. Very strange!

Friday, January 23, 2004 03:40 p.m.

I want a chili dog from Pinks. I love Pinks, but T doesn't think I should eat any at all. I think hotdogs are one of my favorite foods. I don't know what comprises a hotdog and I really don't want to know. I'm afraid if I knew I may never eat it again. I know I added a link but I didn't read it.

I'm trying to convince T that we need another dog. I think one more would be magic. I don't think we would need anymore then three dogs but three would be the perfect number. I wouldn't want to get one until after the baby and the doggies are totally used to the baby as well. T is okay with the idea but definetly wants to wait until the baby is born. T and I are thinking of getting a little French Bulldog. We want a small thick dog and we are anti-snout people, meaning we do not want a doggie with a snout. Like our Boston Terriers they are smoosh faced with big ol ears and a stocky little body. We know we want a tan one. At first we wanted a black and white one because the black and white pattern is the reverse of the bostons so we thought that we be cute but the tan ones are definetly the cutest of all the colors. I believe the breed only gets as big if not a tad bit smaller then Oscar which is perfect!

Last night I fell asleep at 5:30pm and slept straight through to 5:15am. I totally overslept because I was nothing but tierd throughout the day. I think my pizza is ready, i'm going to go and eat.

Thursday, January 22, 2004 05:54 a.m.

This week has been so extremely busy! I feel I get to work and what feels like minutes I'm at lunch then I'm finished for the day. Normally this would be a good thing but I'm back to feeling like that this is a bad thing. The days just slip by with absolutely nothing to show for it. I mean, seriously, how did we get to 2004 so quickly let alone the first month of the year practically over? I just have to remind myself, "it's just a job, it's just a job, it's just a job." I need to refocus my life so this isn't such a dominanat factor.

I finally returned my horrific maternity jeans. I couldn't bring myself to actually ever wear them. I also returned this tent like shirt which reminded me of all those middle America moms. I decided to hold out for some maternity jeans from Old Navy or something and when I really need them. I tried to convince myself that I didn't really need jeans and I could wear just comfy loose work pants. However, In my stack of jeans I did locate a pair that I can wear now and so far they are ultra comy. You see I bought these maybe two years ago and must have been under some kind of stupid spell because they are so, so, so very low! I think I wore them once and realized just how low they really were and that my ass practically sat on the waistband of the pants. The poor jeans remained buried at the bottom of my jean stack. Alas they have been resurrected! They may be low, but they are comfy! The waist band is thick and stretchy and sit completely under my belly. They don't "cut" in to the tummy because of the stretchy waistband. But yes, they are low but all the shirts I have to wear nowadays are long so it all balances itself out. Yeah for comfy jeans!

While K is visiting we're thinking of going to see Verakai in Costa Mesa on Sunday. And in typical fashion, instead of seeing Verakai in Los Angeles we wait until it's almost an hour away and then drive to see it. But every Cirque du Soleil I've seen has been awesome and well worth it. We were also thinking of taking her down to Olvera Street for an early evening and dinner. Sad think is, I already know where I want to eat and what I want to eat.

Speaking of which, I have this really bad habit of associating restaurants with a certain food. For example, if I go to a Mexican restaurant and I order a really good chicken mole that's the only think i'll ever order from the restaurant. And its really hard for me to go there and order something different. T get's so upset that I do that. However, since my pallette has recently changed I've been forced to try different things from the menu. I'm hoping that this will open my eyes and break me of my awful habit.

As much as I want to ramble this morning, I'm unexpectedly peppy at 6am, I must get started on my work. I'm faced with a long list of things to accomplish by 3pm.

Monday, January 19, 2004 12:36 p.m.

These headaches are getting ridiculous! I woke up today with this headache, borderline migraine, and I still have it. I had to go to the doctors this morning and was afraid I would get really sick since I had the headache and I needed to get blood drawn. Surprisngly it went over without a hitch. When I got home I took a long hot shower, using the strongest setting on the shower head I attempted to "massage" the strained muscle in my neck which I suspect is the culprit of these renegade headaches. I am trying to stay Tylenol free because i've taken so much in the last few weeks. However, I feel I may have no choice and will need to take the Tylenol.

I may have previously mentioned that I'm a chronic fainter when it comes to drawing blood. There was a breakthrough today. Today was the first time I didn't faint! I was completely thrilled. I was so happy I wanted to grab some breakfast before heading home, little did I know I wasn't nearly out of the woods. I ate a yummy breakfast but on the car ride home I felt myself getting sick to my stomach. Side affect number two of drawing blood....puking! I told T when we get home jump outta the car and open the door. He lept out and I was right behind him. I sprinted for the bathroom and there went my breakfast. That sucked! Once that ordeal was over I laid down for 30 minutes or so and slowly began to recover. I just wish the headache went away as well.

After a month or so I have finally cleaned the guest room. The room officially became my "dressing closet" and clothes were tossed everywhere. I have a guest coming in this Saturday so I needed to make sure everything was put away and the sheets were washed. The room looks spotless. I'll probably need to get some light dusting done in there on Friday but other then that it's perfect! Whenever the guest room is clean I want to move in. I love that room, its so cozy and warm!

I'm starting to get hungry for lunch. I'm lazy and don't want to make anything to complicated. I think I'm going to have a soy-based bologna sandwich, my current favorite. Yesterday I cooked us a yummy breakfast, I made butter and sugar crepes topped with warm mixed berries, eggs and sausage. It was really good, although T and I decided we are over eating sausage as our bodies were not agreeing with the oily pork product at all! T wanted to splurge and go out for Cuban last night. It was so good. Everything was so flavorful and the size of one entree was certainly enough for two people. We had some empanadas as an appetizer and it was the best empanadas I ever had.

Very Cherry Jelly Belly is back to being number one. Poor Juicy Pear, my fave, I don't think she'll ever be number one.

Friday, January 16, 2004 07:00 a.m.

When The It Factor was on Bravo it was one of my favorite shows. In a nutshell it followed the lives of 6 or 7 Hollywood hopefuls as the are passed through the Hollywood meet grinder. It was sometimes sad to see them audition and fail, but that's part of the process. A few of the hopefuls were cast in Pilots but none of them were picked up. The only success out of the show was Jeremy Renner who landed a role in SWAT. It was so exciting to see him succeed. The day he found out of his hiring for SWAT he had no water or money in the bank and within hours of that call had a nice six figure check in his bank account, not bad! At the end of the season he had bought himself a home in the hills.

The It Factor is no longer on Bravo.

A&E's Biography Channel has a new show called 90 Days In Hollywood which is exactly like The It Factor with not as good casting. I've watched one show and it was okay. I want to like the show but I can't make up my mind. I think I will need to watch a few more episodes before I can make a decision.

A friend of mine is coming out for a few days next week Saturday. I'm excited as I haven't seen her since my wedding! She's been living in Asia for the last few years so it will be great to catch up, here about her travels these last few months and just hang out. I want to do some planning to maximize her visit. I'll be on Citysearch this weekend trying to find some fun things to do.

I think my night sickness has finally passed *knock on wood* as the last three nights have been rather pleasant and I have been able to eat dinner. My stomach has been very uncomfortable in pants so I've been working through all my dresses. I forgot how comfortable dresses can be. Today is very cold and I wish I wore pants but the trade of of comfort for warmth is well worth it.

I need to buy some moisturizer after work today. I'm glad there's a Sacks across the street from my work so I don't need to drive anywhere. I'm so picky about moisturizers that I only by this. I'll probably pick T up more lip balm since he loves the stuff. I think he's addicted to lip balm as much as I am. Sometimes I find myself totally zoning out at my desk with my pot of Rosebud Salve in one hand, lid off of course, and my other hand obsessively rubbing the goo on my lips. A majority of the time the salve is actually on my lips and my lips only, but I do have those moments that is it actually rubbed into the skin surrounding my lips. Another great lib balm, although I'm not sure if the reap the same benefits as Rosebud or Kielhs is Dr. Pepper Lip Smackers. Yummy!!

I'm getting hungry I want to toast my bagel and have my breakfast now.

Wednesday, January 14, 2004 02:45 p.m.

I woke up feeling a 110% better today. Not one bit of sickness or fatigue, *knock on wood.* I was in a good mood and almost disgustingly happy. I even ate most of the peas that T packed in my lunch today. Could I be turning over a new leaf in this cycle of life? I hope!

Regardless of the weather I was determined to be comfortable today! I wore a cute, knee length black halter dress to work with a mid-length gray sweater coat. Man it felt good not to have anything cutting into or under my belly. But damn, my tummy was totally noticeable and the sweater made me look bulkier then I really am. But I don't care. My tummy isn't even that big and two co-workers actually stuck there hand on my it. I couldn't believe it! I don't like people touching me unless I'm prepared for it.

I made some french onion dip last night and it was so yummy! I can't wait to go home and have some with tortilla chips. I love chips and dip, this is not something I eat very often, maybe once every few months (this excludes tortilla chips and guacamole)so when I have it around it is truly an indulgence. Counting the minutes until I leave.

Tuesday, January 13, 2004 10:35 a.m.

All is calm in the A****** household. The Satellite has been restored! It turned out the T wrote the check, sealed and stamped the envelope and forgot to send. Thank God for online payments. Paid the damn bill and the cable was restored immediately! Thank you DirecTV.

By the time T woke up this morning I was starving and craving bad breakfast food. We jumped into the SAV and headed over to IHOP (two acronyms in one sentence). It was yummy and comforting but within minutes of getting home we both ended up with stomach aches. Eeewwww.

Bye!

Tuesday, January 13, 2004 07:00 a.m.

After one of the most wretched nights of my life I decided to stay home from work today. However, my body runs on its own internal clock and here I am at 7am logging an entry in my Pita. The thing is I've already been awake for about an hour. To my disappointment my satellite is out right now so the last hour was spent laying on my couch deciding what color to paint the den and what kind of light fixture should I buy to replace the ugly white ceiling fan that came with the house.

I need to call Direct TV! The only channels with reception are CSPAN, the all jewelry shopping channel, and a handful of Christian stations. I'm sure I could go an entire day without TV but I clearly remember the days without cable (it wasn't that long ago) and in all honesty it sucked. I want my cable, who am I kidding, I NEED my cable!

My two dogs each have personalities so different from each other. First there is Daisy. At three years old and weighing approximately 11 pounds she is a primadonna. She loves to wear clothes and jewelry. She has a wide assortment of sweaters and tees and besides her spiked collar, has a trucking girl necklace, a one and a half inch thick rhinestone chocker and a red beaded necklace, she loves getting her nails painted and loves to be groomed. She is very independent and will purposefully ignore you if you dare interrupt her napping, sun bathing or just staring at a wall. She likes attention, but on her terms only! She is such a character and is totally lovable. I don't think I could have ended up with a more perfect pet for me. Okay, the other dog is Oscar who is 2 years old and weighs 30 pounds. Because of their size difference it's hard to believe the dogs share the same dad. Oscar is not the Alpha dog, that's Daisy's job. He is very submissive and is such the big baby. He loves to snuggle and takes every opportunity to get under a blanket or sheet. Oscar will whine and throw a temper tantrum if you ignore him for an excessive amount of time. When he's lonely he'll sit in front of you and stare at you until you become uncomfortable and you have to pet him. He also thinks he is Daisy's size and constantly throws his weight around as though he were a smaller dog. Unlike his sis, he loves the water and has jumped into the seweage smelling LA river, that was disgusting and he stunk for days! Even though the doggies are so different they get along so well. It's funny to see Daisy beat up on a dog three times her size yet funnier to see Oscar follow her around like a "puppy dog."

I opted not to straighten my hair last night and today I am dealing with the repercussions. Not only is my hair wavy it is extremely knotted. I will defiently have to wash it again and deal with it immediately so I don't have to deal with this mess. My mom was right, when she said I should expect my hair to change slightly in texture. My hair is feeling a little course. Normally its nice and smooth but over the last month or so I noticed that the smoothness has been going away and this nasty almost coarse texture has been taking over. My mom's friend gave some hair products that should come to my aid but the bottles are small so I've been waiting until I really needed them. *Note to self: send thank you note for hair products!*

Sometimes I become nostalgic about old friends. We have some friends that moved out here about 9 months after we did. They to moved from Chicago. We were great friends with them. Especially T and G. Anyway, they moved out here and they asked if they could stay with us for a couple weeks, we said sure. Anyway a couple weeks turned into a few months. Now we lived in a small two bedroom one bath home and we had Daisy. Our pals moved in with their big chocolate lab, and two persian cats. There were four cars and five scooters laying about. Needless to say things became "to close for comfort" very quickly. Our friends were having no luck with housing because of their dog. The situation was become extrememly tense very fast. They found a place and moved out quicker then you could blink. We saw them a few times after moving and that's it. Its been over two years since we last saw each other and the sad thing is we live in the same town not even 10 minutes away from each other. I think the wounds have healed and we should call them. Actually I think T should call G and rebuild his friendship before involving me and G's girlfriend.

However, their are onther friendships that should just stay dead and buried! Their are a lot of people I knew in Washington that I would be fine if I never saw again. From what we hear from Lance, who still keeps in touch with some of those people they either turned into big fat trashy losers or are in jail. No loss their.

Saturday, January 10, 2004 08:19 a.m.

I still love cartoons, but now i'm a lot more selective. My current absolute favorites are X-Men Evolution and Justice League (the modern day SuperFriends) The differences between Superfriends and Justice Leage are: