cutie pie

update: the great 28

three months into the goals ...

1. visit 3 places i've never been before. mel & dan's new house. jennie rae's restuarant.

2. lose 40 pounds. i was down 14 punds at my last weigh in. i should weigh in tomorrow morning, but i don't expect it to be good. the past week hasn't been healthy. i've been going into work early & staying a little later than usual. stress levels are high & i eat when i get stressed. plus it's making it so i can't go out walking in the mornings. so that's disappointing & i eat when i get disappointed. it's really not that hard to see how i ended up overweight to begin with. :) but next week should be better. it will simply have to be. i'm setting my mind to it right now. besides, if i keep this up for the next 9 months, i'll be down 56 pounds for the year. do you know how stinkin' happy that would make me?

3. havbe a booth at a local craft fair. we're sending in our application for the popcorn festival tomorrow. we have to or we'll have to pay an extra $35.

4. take 2000 photos. i'm at 1146. that's 57% to goal! my weekend in louisville helped. :)

5. eat a gallon of mustard in one week. i haven't scheduled this yet.

6. enter 3 items in the county fair. i need to decide what to enter. i'm thinking a piece of jewelry. a quilt. and maybe a cookie? or a cake?

7. finish 3 quilts. i need to get into gear on quilt number 2.

8. take an art class. nothing scheduled, yet.

9. be able to play Christmas Rhapsody on the piano by Christmas. yeah, i should sit down & start working on this.

10. be able to play a song on my accordian. again, i should start working on this.

11. bake something new once a month. february - triple-chocolate peanut butter cookies & jalapeno lime coconut sugar cookies. march - nothing. april - lemon coconut oatmeal cookies.

12. update my portfolio. haven't touched it, but i have been good about brining pieces home to add to it.

13. make my halloween costume. i have some ideas. but you'll have to wait & see.

14. cook dinner once a month. in january i made green pork burritos with cilantro rice & black beans. february was baked macaroni & cheese (patti labelle's recipe). march was pretzel chicken & homemade potato chips for girls night. april hasn't happened yet. this weekend, hopefully.

15. redesign my online portfolio. again, haven't touched it.

16. hang out with old friends. bunco's been good. hopefully dave & i will get something scheduled soon. marlana & i have plans with marisa for june. andi hung out with dan & malissa again recently ... malissa's old, she's gonna be 30 this year. :)

17. learn to use my screen printing supplies. i may set aside a weekend to do this.

18. catch up my thumbnails. i need more paper.

19. read 3 new books. 1 - bob greene's total body makeover.

20. eat breakfast at lynn's paradise cafe. twice!

21. finish bob greene's total body make over. i'm not following it anymore. i made it through week 9 or 10 with the cardio. and then it just felt like a lot. i mean, i don't want to be working out an hour a day 6 days a week. so now i'm focused on 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.

22. take a trip by myself. nothing planned.

23. finish the plastic purse. no work done. but thanks for the brown bags, julie!

24. files my taxes early. DONE!

25. work on a scrapbook. nothing started.

26. send Christmas cards. no pressure for them to be handmade, but i want to send out cards.

27. homemade Christmas presents. this is just a space filler, really. i know i'll make the Christmas presents. i even have a little bit of an idea of what they'll all be. but there's nothing wrong with setting a goal i KNOW i'll achieve, right? :)

28. secret. this one is fabulously exciting, but i can't tell you about it. yet.

day o' vacation

monday was my day o'vacation. i stayed at mel & dan's sunday night and headed home monday morning.

my day o'vacation started with crunchcakes from lynn's paradise cafe. mmmm. lynn's is, of course, not as busy on a monday morning as they are on a sunday after church. but they were busier than i expected. several good-sized corporate groups were dining that morning. i'd enjoy meetings more if they took me to lynn's for them.

eating at lynn's (and the traffic into the city) slowed me down enough to put me at the edinburgh outlets just as the stores were opening. i bought myself a couple of clothing items - finally replacing my denim jacket, yay! bethany, i waved to the coach store for you. :)

as i went north from edinburgh i decided i was going to finish filling up my memory cards for my camera. i only had room left for 26 pictures. yes, i have almost 2gig worth of memory cards - and i'd taken enough photos to practically fill them. so i figured i just finish off the job.


this one's taken through my sun roof. i realized i'd never done that before. next time i may actually open it before taking the pictures.


driving through indianapolis.


not too far out of downtown indy there was a sign saying that all northbound lanes were closed at mile 137. not the best news. but i figured, if it was true that i'd have to stop 10 miles up the road i was going to use the opportunity to swap out memory cards. (i had 11 pictures available one card and 15 on another.) i'm fine with taking photos as i drive, but i'm not sure swapping out cards would be entirely safe. so i started taking a photo at every mile marker.

turns out the northbound lanes were not closed at mile 137. so i didn't get to swap out cards. but i still took a lot of photos. and when i got home i had enough room for a couple of cute shots of my niece. yay.

puppies!

meet james & damien. james is a black lab. damien is not. :) they are quite the best of friends.


of the two, james is more likely to run after a toy when it's thrown. damien is more likely to watch james run after it, and then pounce on james as he returns with said toy.


of the two, james is also more likely to entertain himself for a moment or two with a toy. damien is too rambunctious for that.


damien's the ornery one. but they're both so stinkin' cute. and friendly. and excitable. and cute. :)

thunder - part 2

you can't have the biggest fireworks display in the country without it being pretty stinkin' cool. they shoot off fireworks from two general areas on the river - one on each side of the bridge - as well as from the bridge itself. i want to say it's the second street bridge, but i don't really know. i just know they do very good work with pyrotechnics in louisville. very good work, indeed. see the fireworks along the bottom of the bridge in the last photo? they make a fireworks waterfall off the bridge. streaming "water" of fireworks. fantastic.

i shot something like 340 photos of the fireworks. most of them, of course, look like poorly taken fireworks photos. but i enjoy the possibility of getting a couple of good ones out of the masses. so i just kept shooting. i'm a big fan of the photos that show the colors streaming like fingers of energy. but, then again, i'm just a big fan of photos period.

thunder - part 1

the drive to louisville went well. i was a little late getting started. but it seems when i'm out late not playing bunco at a bunco party that i have a hard time getting up the next morning. :) and then there was a little congestion just before crossing the river, but not as bad as i was expecting. actually, i wasn't expecting it at all until we starting slowing down. and then it occured to me there might be some congestion, and i started expecting it. and then it was over & i was able to make good time.


we had lunch at the cheesecake factory. my first time there - i had their sante fe chicken salad, which comes dressed with a spicy peanut vinagrette. yumm-o. i also tried their white chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake. also very good. and the godiva brownie sundae, which is not a cheesecake. the service was kinda crummy - first he was really anxious to take the order, then we had to flag him down for refills, then he brought our checks before bringing the desserts (what if we wanted coffee, too? he'd have to re-do the checks.), and then the dessert was wrong - that led to a fiasco. anyhow ... good food, good company, good times.







so we got downtown and met up with george & jodie for a few minutes. there were in town meeting up with some street-evangelism folks, so we were able to them back to their car & chat for a bit. then we headed down to the river to try & get a good spot.


i think i was told there were 800,000 people at thunder last year. given the fact that this year's weather was GORGEOUS, i'm guessing they had at least that many people there again this year. and the majority of these people get the river front early in the day to stake out their little piece of property for viewing the fireworks. so we didn't head to the river until after 6 p.m. - that's late if you want a really good spot. but, as you can see from the photo, we got a fabulous spot. the bridge to the left is where they shoot off a lot of the fireworks ... and we had like a dozen people to our left and probably two dozen in front of us. it was great.



so we had a good chunk of time to people watch. there was an airshow going on, but it turns out i'm not a big fan of airshows. or at least, not military airshows. so i people watched. of note: the child standing on his father's hand & trying to get balanced enough to let go and the mullet-headed fellow who looks like he could totally be related to someone i know.


sunset. not only does that mean the sun's going down (i'm not a big fan of being in the sun, especially getting burnt by the sun), but it also mean it's closer to the start of the fireworks. and that's the whole reason we were there.

the wednesday five

1. i think i'm going to make my lemon coconut oatmeal cookies again doing two things. (a) i'm going to use granulated sugar instead of brown sugar. (b) i'm going to use less butter. i may try these changes separately so i know what effect each change has.

2. i'm thinking about making a t-shirt sporting a photo of me from about year ago with "before" written underneath it.

3. next week is tv turn-off week. you should participate & turn your tv off for one week. if you'll die without your favorite tv shows - record them & watch them next week. but consider not watching them at all. i mean, they're not real people. they won't miss you. and you just might spend the time doing something fun, exciting, new, creative, relaxing, active and surprising.

4. i had moe's for lunch today.

5. jonathan & laure will be in town next month! yay!

vote for sandi!

alright, here's your task for the day.

1. visit this web site & wait for all the images to load.

2. scroll to the right until you find the "little stinker" design shown above. drag the "little stinker" design into one of the spots labeled "drag your favorite design here".

3. continue scrolling & choose two other designs you like, drag them down as well.

4. click "vote".

5. feel good for voting for my friend sandi's "little stinker" button. if she's in the top 4 she'll get free buttons made with her design.

6. check out sandi's etsy shop & buy something cute. you deserve it after your kind deed!

you can only vote once from each computer - but feel free to run around your office & vote from every computer you can find. :)

'becca needs ...

go to google (or your search engine of choice) and search for your name & the word "needs".

when i search "becca needs", i get ...
1. becca needs a boyfriend.
2. becca: stealing things again. (it doesn't involve needs, but i find it funny.)
3. becca needs an all-around stallion to do her best.
4. becca needs friends, especially as she doesn't go to school.
5. becca needs a prom date.
6. becca needs more cowbell.
7. becca needs to make a couple of quick attacks.
8. becca needs you!

now how about "rebecca needs" ...
1. rebeccca needs enlightenment.
2. rebecca needs your help today.
3. rebecca needs some love and prayers.
4. rebecca needs to vent.
5. rebecca needs to choose a database.
6. rebecca needs to go back to the drawing board.
7. rebecca needs to stop taking too-close pictures of herself.

and "becky needs" ...
1. becky needs a psychiatrist.
2. becky needs a sub for oct. 3.
3. becky needs massive amounts of more money.
4. becky needs a friend.
5. becky needs to contact you.
6. becky needs to get to work.
7. becky needs to finish shopping for the baby.
8. becky needs to grow up a little.

roadtrip, anyone?

consider this your official invitation to spend this saturday & sunday in louisville. not only would you get the pleasure of 8 hours in a car with me (round trip. 4 hours each way), you'd get quality time with dan & malissa beamer, good food (maybe lynn's paradise cafe ... maybe buca di beppo ...), and a great view of the biggest fireworks display in the country. we'll leave early saturday morning & be back sunday evening. that's 36 hours of fun, excitement, good friends and pyrotechnics. AND PUPPIES! did i not mention that mel & dan just got two puppies last month? c'mon ... fireworks & puppies. this will be good. they've got two spare bedrooms & a couple of sofas ... i can fit 3 extra people comfortably in my car, 4 if you don't mind being close in the back. who's in?

photos from thunder over louisville 2004:

i have ...

X the ones you've done ...

( ) Smoked a cigarette
( ) Drank so much i threw up
(X) Crashed a friend's car - sorry, dave. :)
( ) Stolen a car
( ) Hitchhiked
(X) Been in love
(X) Been dumped
( ) Dumped someone
( ) Been laid off/fired
(X) Quit my job
( ) Been in a fist fight
(X) Had feelings for someone who didn't reciprocate
( ) Been arrested
(?) Gone on a blind date - apparently i went on a "let's go out as friends & try to fix them up" date, only i didn't know it until much later
(X) Lied to a friend
(X) Skipped school
( ) Seen someone die
(X) Been to Canada
( ) Been to Mexico
( ) Been to Hawaii
(X) Been on a plane
(X) Been on a train
(X) Been lost
(X) Been on the opposite side of the country - i'm not sure which side is opposite the midwest, but i think i've been there.
(X) Gone to Washington, DC
( ) Swam in the ocean
(X) Felt like dying
(X) Cried myself to sleep
(?) Played cops and robbers - not that i remember, but i'm thinking i probably have.
(X) Recently colored with crayons/markers - on jeremy's take home box at ihop.
( ) Sang Karaoke
( ) Paid for a meal with only coins
(X) Done something i told myself i wouldn't do
(X) Laughed until beverage came out of my nose
( ) Laughed till i peed my pants
(X) Caught a snowflake on my tongue
(X) Danced in the rain
( ) Written a letter to Santa Claus
( ) Been kissed under the mistletoe
(X) Watched the sun rise with someone i love
(X) Blown bubbles
( ) Made a bonfire on the beach
( ) Had a party crashed by the cops
( ) Crashed a party
(X) Gone roller-skating
(X) Gone Ice-skating

11. bake something new once a month

we used lemon zest in something a few weeks ago, but had an extra lemon left over. so i told myself i HAD to use it before it went bad. usually when we have left over lemons or limes they sit in the fridge until they mold. we like lemons & limes ... we just forget about them. so today i made lemon coconut oatmeal cookies. it was a recipes i mostly found online - i swapped the granulated sugar from brown sugar and added toasted coconut. they are quite tasty. the lemon is subtle, but taste-able. they spread a lot in the oven, which was a little disappointing. i mean, they taste great. but i was hoping for a thicker, more substantial cookie. i wonder if using cold butter would have helped. i generally always use cold butter, regardless of what the recipe calls for (mrs. fields says that's her secret to great cookies), but this time i let it get to room temp as suggessted. that may have helped them spread. but they are yummy. nice & chewy. mmmm.

i'm cleaning unused files off my ftp server. so if you come across a broken link or missing photo, let me know. and give me an opinion - should i keep this basic layout (which doesn't look the same if you're using a pc & ie) or change it? i want to come up with a layout that i just keep forever. this one seems okay since i can swap out the banner on top easily when i get bored without changing the entire page. and i like the links on the right ... but some people might see those on the bottom, and i don't like that. it's just a blogger template i modified, but yeah. what do you think?

friday

1. jennie rae's has fabulous food. fabulous. i highly recommend the southwest chicken chili, the lake perch dinner and the s'mores pie. give me a couple of days & i'll be recommending the cherry jam as well. we will be returning. i will be inviting you to go with me.

2. i'm eating breakfast at ihop tomorrow. as full as i am, i'm looking forward to pancakes.

3. i think this photo is pretty. it reminds me that april isn't always so cold.


4. i lost five pounds this week. i think that had a lot to do with timing, but still it felt really good.

5. laure was deeply impressed (her words, not mine) with my jalapeno coconut lime cookies. yay!

6. i created the cutest direct mail piece ever today. you may be seeing it in your mailbox soon. if you're local. and not a subscriber.

7. i found a place online that will sell me gildan ultracotton heavyweight t-shirts for less than $3 a piece. i may make t-shirts for the popcorn fest.

8. target has a 15 cent variance in price on their orbit gum. all the packages are the same size, but various flavors are various prices.

9. i can't decide if i should go walking in the morning or in the afternoon. i'm leaning towards afternoon. because i'm tired now, so i'm guessing i'll be tired in the morning, too.

10. i will redesign the pirate shirt - because i need one quickly for a certain turning-30-years-old birthday. malissa, i'll be sending you the proposed design to see if it's good enough for your guys to wear, too. :)

11. did you see the pictures of dave's nephew? how stinkin' cute. i'm glad people have babies so i can say things like "how stinkin' cute" without having to have a baby of my own.

12. i will expect at least one of you to say "how stinkin' cute" when i get my puppy.

13. for being friday the thirteenth, today went very smoothly. i can say that because it's now past midnight & no longer friday the thirteenth.

14. when i lose another six pounds, i'm buying myself a stack of new t-shirts. along with the ones from threadless.com, i'll be buying the rhesus shirt from mental_floss.

15. wow. some people actually suffer from paraskavedekatriaphobia. interesting.

16. i had a conversation with a lady about squirrels. we were at a little pull off on highway 101. pescardero state park, i think. doesn't really matter ... it was the california coast and it was gorgeous. regardless, there were these little squirrels there & she said they didn't have chipmunks in england. that may be true, but i felt it was irrelevent since we were looking at a squirrel. however convinced she & her son may have been that it was a chipmunk ... it was a squirrel.

17. number 16 started as a lead in to this set of photos ofsquirrels as photographers.

18. i think i'll leave my machine on tonight & have it work on backing up everyone on my ftp server to my desktop. then i can trash things i'm not using. spring cleaning is good.

making it up

i had no real intention of posting here tonight. i'm tired & it's past my bedtime. yes, i'm old & i try to be in bed by 10p.m. i blame it on my exercise schedule, so it's a double-dose of oldness. i go to bed early AND i realize i need to take care of my body. insanity, i know. but then i had to send laure my recipe for flourless chocolate cake. i mean, i HAD to. my reputation as a semi-well-intentioned sister-in-law depended on it. so then as long as i was here, i figured i'd check some folks' blogs. so then i posted a half a dozen comments on fred's blog (most of them on one post). and i posted comments on a couple of other places. and so i figure i might as well do something here, too. i mean ... i'm only 28. i don't need sleep yet.

so here, in a very random fashion, are the thoughts of the day:

1. this is a photo i took one year ago. my niece is not this small anymore. she's a little lady now.


2. i may very well be in love with threadless.com, thank you very much, dave. the next t-shirts i buy will probably come from this site. i'm thinking can't see the forest ... and the death of imagination.

3. i suppose greg is probably right about not taking money from my 401k. when you boil it down to mathematics it does make good sense to leave the money there. darn mathematics.

4. the previous thought does not negate my current plan to change the amount of money i'm putting into my 401k. i'm not against planning for the future, but there are things that should be done now, too. after all, what good will that money be if i don't live to retirement? then i'll feel real bad for putting it all in an account instead of using it to save the world. well, i'll be dead so i won't feel real bad ... but you will. or something.

5. if you haven't heard about doug's participation in the endurance ride, you should ask him about it & give him money. not just because he's cool, but because it's for a good cause.

6. not everyone knows what ayce stands for. this does not cease to surprise me.

7. bunco is a dice game played at tables consisting of two teams of two people each. players take turns rolling three dice, scoring points for each die that lands on the target number. the target in round one is 1s, round two is 2s, and so on. having all three dice land on the target number is a bunco, which scores a large sum of points. throw in table hopping, ringing a bell, and putting a pink fuzzy dice down your shirt & you've got a good time.

8. i listened to anberlin very little today, yet i had their lyrics in my head nonstop.

9. nonstop? non-stop? non stop?

10. i loaded more photos on my ipod over the weekend. they include photos of sanibel island. because frankly, i enjoyed myself on that trip and today i feel like i wouldn't care who knew about it.

11. i have 9 vacation days, 2 personal days, my birthday holiday and one comp day that i need to use before the end of september. that sounds reasonable, except i can't take any time this month because we're short-handed. and i can't take any time next month because we'll be training the new people. and i can't take any time the following month because someone else has vacation planned. so that leaves july, august and september. except september's a really hard month to take time off because of all the festivals, events, etc. so if anyone wants to hang out in july or august, i could probably take a day off.

12. what if i bought a house between now & july/august? then i could spend those (quick math) 13 days painting & moving boxes. rock!

13. i just re-read my post so far & fixed two spelling mistakes.

14. i also realized that no one but marlana would understand number 10. but i'm leaving it there anyway.

15. i don't think sayings printed on t-shirts can be copyrighted. so while i would feel bad about replicating someone else's t-shirt design, i would not feel bad about taking their verbage and creating my own design with it. besides, it's not my fault if the pirate shirt isn't available in the sizes i'd need.

16. copyrighted? copywritten?

17. according to lexus, the plural of lexus is lexus. much like moose and deer.

18. i need to find a local store that sells diamond glaze so i can try it for my bottle cap jewelry.

19. i used to be much better at making lists than i am now. i should practice more.

cleaning the in-box

i hate to bump my 5k post for these tidbits, but i'm cleaning out my e-mail & thought i'd share. :)

i know i've mentioned my love of mental_floss before. it's just a great magazine that makes you feel smart. everyone needs that sometimes. well, they also have some fabulous blog entries. i don't read them on a regular basis (that should have been a goal for the year), but i do check out the ones they e-mail me. for example, this entry talks all about good uses for peeps. re-enacting scenes from history, jewelry, office jokes. it's just good stuff.

not a peeps fan? how about gummi bears? check out this entry all about gummi artwork, clothing & home decor. yay for the gummi bear!

food as art

insects creating art

not bad. a few links to entertain you. i replied to a few e-mails & my inbox is now half the size. yay.

doing a 5k

this morning i participated in my first ever organized 5k race. i walked most of it, though becca & i did run at the very end to get around some snotty kids who had passed us. plus, it's just more fun to run across the finish line. :)

today i also began my formal solicitation of support for the Y-ME Race to Empower 5k on mother's day.

Y-ME is here today for those who can't wait for tomorrow's cure, and we know the need for emotional support and information doesn't stop when the workday ends. that's why Y-ME has the country's only free-of-charge, 24-hour hotline staffed by trained peer counselors who are breast cancer survivors, with interpreters in 150 languages. your donation to the walk fuels the hotline and Y-ME's other vital programs.

this year, 180,000 americans are estimated to be diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States. through the support of financial contributions from donors like you and me, Y-ME can continue offering its services free-of charge programs and services to breast cancer patients, caregivers and loved ones.

won't you help us ensure that no one faces breast cancer alone?

i've created a web site where you can make a donation in support of my Race to Empower participation. support me online using this link and help me reach my goal. of course, we always welcome company and would love for you to join us! our team is 7 people strong right now, and we'd love to see that number grow. we're not all running fanatics - if you know me, you know that - we're looking to help a good organization by challenging ourselves to do something physical.

no, i don't expect everyone to be able to give financial support. but i do want everyone to have the chance to join us for a fun morning of exercise, team spirit, warm fuzzy feelings and maybe a leg cramp or two. :)

donate here. feel good about it.

girly quetions

Answer them truthfully:

What color is your bra? white.

Hair, up or down? down.

Do you straighten your hair? with the blow dryer. otherwise it gets curly in some areas.

Do you worry about the size of your boobs? no.

Whats your favorite girly magazine? mental floss.

What your Favorite mascara? none.

Small or large purse? medium, i guess. i don't want the tiny purse that won't fit anything extra, but i don't need a carpet bag either.

In your purse, what are your must haves? wallet, keys, cell phone.

Jeans or skirts? jeans.

Do you wear clothes/shoes/jewelry that's uncomfortable? not often, but it's been known to happen.

Did you ever spend all day/night getting pretty for a guy? nope. maybe i should ...

What is your favorite color? green.

Do you consider yourself girly? i'm with erin - i'm more girly now than i have been in the past.

Heels or Flats? flats.

Did you ever cry during a romantic movie? yeah. i cry at a lot of sappy movies.

Would you leave the house without makeup on? yes. even though that apparently makes me white trash.

Wal-mart or Target? target.

Do you consider making out "unladylike"? in public places it is a bit unladylike, yes.

On the scale of 1-10 how fun is shopping? 9, but it depends who i'm with & what we're shopping for.

Are you spoiled? i don't think so, but feel free to tell me otherwise.

Do you think lipgloss is the best?: no.

Do you freak out if you miss your favorite show? no.

How long does it take you to get ready in the morning? depends on what "get ready" means. if i'm just getting up & leaving - 45 minutes. a normal day when it includes working out & breakfast - i'm usually up a good 2 hours before i leave for work.

Accessories make the outfit: true or false: true.

do you like skater boys? usually.

Do you often wish there was something you could change? yes.

Do you dress up too much for holidays? no. but i do agree it would be fun to go to some fancy schmancy holiday party. just once.

Do you like to wear dresses? not on a regular basis. but fancy schmancy ones are fun.

Do you write a lot of mushy love poems? no.

On a scale of 1-10 how much do guys confuse you? 8 seems fair. it's probably more like a 10, but i really don't care enough to give 'em the other two points.

In the past 24 hours have you hung out with a guy? i hang out with guys all day long at work.

70 questions

70 Questions I Guarantee You've Never Answered (i agree with bethany - whoever wrote this doesn't know i'm addicted to these surveys. so there's a good chance i have answered some of these before)

1.Would you chew gum after someone else already? no, but i probably would have in high school for the shock value. and maybe if someone was giving me a dollar & i knew the first person who chewed it.

2. What song describes your relationship status? hello alone (by anberlin) :)

3. How much does your dog weigh? a lot less than he did when he was alive, i'm guessing.

4. Are you a heart breaker, or the broken heart? broken heart, usually.

5. Ever been skinny dipping? every morning when i shower.

6. Earrings or necklace? necklace. i haven't pushed earrings through my ears since my senior prom.

7. Who have you talked to most today? my mom. it's not quite 8 a.m.

8. If you HAD to eat a deep-fried candy bar, which one would you choose? a milky way, i think. or maybe a snickers. yeah, probably a snickers.

9. Friend of the opposite sex that lives closest to you? does phin the beta fish count? he lives at april's desk.

10. Color of your shirt? brown.

11. How many years have you taken a language? i took 5 years of french.

12. Who's on speed dial 2? i don't use speed dial.

13. What color is your background on your computer mainscreen? blue. kinda sad i've had this machine for about 18 months & i haven't changed the background yet.

14. Do you wish on 11:11? no.

15. Good advice if you ever go camping? don't take a group of whiney jr. high kids with you.

16. Are you a bad influence? depends what you classify as "bad". i've been known to convince folks to skip class with me to go shopping instead. and i may have thought about talking someone into a prank once or twice. you know, in my young & reckless days.

17. What color are your eyes? blue.

18. Would you rather have your name or your siblings name? mine.

19. Would you do anything for someone? i don't suppose so.

20. Have you ever been called a female dog? not by someone actually using the words "female dog", no.

21. Favorite color? green.

22. Do you use smiley faces on the computer? oh yes.

23. What song is on? spinning washer (by the washing machine above me)

24. Are your grades good? they were when people were grading me.

25. If you could re-do one thing that took place this month, what would it be? it is pretty early in the month. but ... i'd re-do my afternoon with marlana. not because i'd want to change it, but because it was a really good time.

26. Would you date anyone on your top friends? i'm sorry, does "top friends" mean something specifically?

27. Does your best friend have a myspace? no.

28. Who's page did you last visit? bethany's.

29. Last time you went out to lunch? yesterday. buying lunch is cheaper than buying therapy.

30. Do you watch the Gilmore Girls? no.

31. Have you ever enjoyed listening to Jack Johnson? no.

32. Have you ever seen or enjoyed watching the O.C.? no. but i do enjoy the o.c. supertones.

33. Do you have one or more Britney Spears C.D.s? no.

34. Which radio stations are your favorites? chicago public radio.

35. Are you a Lost fanatic? no.

36. Still have pictures of your ex? probably.

37. Do you have a song by Ozzie Osbourne in your library? no.

38. Alanis Morsette? no.

39. Do you watch Family Guy Regularly? not regularly, but i do enjoy it.

40. King of the Hill? no.

41. Do you read trashy romance novels often? no.

43. Do you sing obnoxiously in the car? i don't think it can be obnoxious if no one else is in the car to hear me.

44. Do you sing obnoxiously in the shower when no one's home? no.

45. Have you ever watched a little kid's show? yes.

46. Have you ever pretended your crush was with you when they weren't? not recently.

47. Did you draw pictures for your first crush back in elementary school? i don't think so.

48. Have you ever liked a girl/boy but didn't ask her/him out because you were afraid? yes.

49. Have you ever written a poem or story about your life? yes, a lot of them.

50. Have you ever spent over an hour thinking about nothing but a certain person? i'm a girl - i think we've all done that.

51. Have you ever liked someone solely because of thier appearance? of course.

52. Do you eat all the servings in the food groups on a daily basis? probably not. but i am trying to get more fruits & veggies.

53. Are you ever a freak about cleanliness or organization? about once every three months.

54. Have you ever been to South America or Africa? no.

55. Do you know how to knit? no.

56. Do you have a cell phone or iPod with a patterned cover? no.

57. Have you ever written love song lyrics yourself and put them in a song? no.

58. Do you keep a diary or journal online? yes. you're reading it.

59. When you open your closet, what is the dominant color? hmmm ... lemme check. is 'brown paneling' a color? i really need to do laundry tonight. :)

60. Baskin Robbins or Coldstone? coldstone! (bethany - when we craft at your house, we'll also visit a coldstone. yumm-o!)

61. Physics or chemistry? chemistry.

62. Earphones or headphones? ear, i suppose.

63. pink or teal? teal.

64. Earrings or a ring? ring.

65. Commitment or casual dating? meh.

66. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, or Star Wars? harry potter.

67. Fly or road trip? road trip!

68. Starbucks or Jamba Juice? jambe juice!

69. What is your fav. disney movie? was disney's name on "finding nemo" & "monsters, inc"? if so ... ummm... one of those, i guess.

70. What's a quote you live by? never pet a flaming dog.

hey that wasn't bad - i can still make it to work on time. go me.

bead night

i've decided to cut myself some slack about not taking good jewelry photos. i mean, i'm using glass beads - and a flash. how can i expect it to not be a little crappy? for example, the front right piece of jewelry is made of these white & orange swirled beads that i LOVE, but they just look shiny in the photo. you'll have to trust me that it's cute.

i'm trying round two of the bottle cap necklaces tonight. the first set is doing well - but the resin isn't completely set up yet. so this time i actually measured the two parts & i'll see if it sets up faster. funny how things can come out differently when you follow directions. :) i also learned, thanks to measuring, that i can get 7 bottlecaps filled with each ounce of resin. there's 16 ounces of resin in the bottle - so 112 caps per bottle. at $14/bottle - that's about 13 cents per cap. not bad at all. here's hoping it sets up properly. then i'm off to buy bulk bottle caps. and maybe some ball chain. you know that chain dog tags are usually on? the same stuff used for pull cords on basement lights? that's what i've seen these necklaces strung on. i'm not a huge fan of ball chains ... but it does seem to work well. so unless i find something i like better, that's probably what i'll use. although i really want to make some chokers that are just rings of caps - and bracelets, too. maybe some ball chain in the back to make them adjustable. yeah ... that could be good. or i could have the bottle caps individually - and let people choose which ones they wanted for a choker or bracelet. they're string together pretty easily. charge per cap. and then use a basic necklace extender on the end for the clasp. it'd be more work to customize them as people bought them ... but it might be a nice feature. hmmm.

i love thinking crafty.

catch up ...

from the drive out of the city a week ago saturday. it was plenty foggy that day.



the pirate i got at paper source. the bag claimed he was made from one continuous piece of string. i highly doubt that. but i love him anyway.



tonight's crafty endeavor. i'm filling the bottle cap with clear casting resin. never used it? it stinks. i'm not real good at following warning labels ... but i think they knew what they were talking about when they said to use in a well-ventilated area. yuck. of course, it might help if i put the lid back on the resin, too ... but i'm concerned about it sealing itself shut. so i have the plug back in the bottle, but the cap isn't on yet. i'm waiting for the messy resin around the threads to dry.

the past week has been ... full. work is busy. i don't like blogging about work, but it's been stressful & challenging. as in challenging my will to stay there. and challenging my desire to not be crabby all the time. but i've resolved to not let things bother me this week. i didn't make the decisions that put us in the situation we're in ... so why should i be the one who stresses out about it? i'm trying to breathe more & grumble less. i'm trying to laugh at the craziness of it all instead of growling everytime something new is added to the list of things to do. i'm trying to survive the work day & still enjoy my life outside of the office. i cannot allow my job to ruin the rest of my day. i will not allow it to do so.

i accomplished 4 projects at bead night yesterday. i will shoot a photo & post it soon. i may keep a couple of the pieces, we'll see. we've decided against doing the booth in july - we'll just do the popcorn fest in september. turns out 3 of the 4 of us aren't available the day in july ... so that was easy enough to rule out. that gives us more time to create. less need to stress. we're getting together in may for a crafternoon. the very word crafternoon makes me happy. a relaxing afternoon spent crafting with friends ... i don't care if it makes me a nerd, i love it. and hopefully it'll be nice enough i can open some windows if i work with this resin. :)

my weekend was good. game night friday night. a few good games of guesstures, followed by a lively game of spoons. as of friday night i am the reigning spoons champion. i have to say that having a game night at my place is one of the things i look forward to the most about getting my own place. game night at 'becca's. ladies night at 'becca's. bunco at 'becca's.

about bunco ... a little concerned only marlana, bethany & i have confirmed the 20th as bunco night. speak up, ladies. if we're not doing it, i'm leaving town after work.

saturday was mostly the garage sale. a saw a couple of you there - yay! it wasn't a bad time for working on a saturday. the hordes of people made the time go quickly. it's nice to wander around in a shirt labeled "staff" when the vast majority of people are pleased with the event. it also helps when you designed the shirt & the entire promotional campaign in acid green. :) and i do plan to quote parts of the newspaper article in my next performance review. things like it being the biggest event we've ever had. how could they not give me a good review when i say i was in charge of the promotional campaign for the biggest event we've ever had? go me!

i spent sunday with marlana. i love that girl. and i have to say it was fun to realize there's someone else who has to tell herself to put down the camera & just enjoy the moment. it's good to know i'm not alone in that. plus she's been so encouraging about me buying my own place. if i haven't used the words here, yet - i find marlana to be inspiringly independent. if you haven't realized that about her yet - i suggest you spend more time with her.

so there you go. a longer post that i usually give you. some photos. some actual words about my life. and now i'm going to cap off the stinky resin & see if i can sleep without passing out from the fumes.

bunco?

we're still bunco-ing on the 20th, right? friday night?

i'm going out of town for saturday/sunday & want to fix up my plans for leaving. :)