Round Three

The hilarity never ends – my coworker’s raccoon came back again.  Since I last wrote about this fish-stealing super-stealth animal, my coworker has added in motion sensor lights and wolf urine to scare him away from her pond.  But fear not, the triumphant raccoon prevailed, carting away another $7,000 koi fish.  Since he’s completely ignoring the salmon she sets out in the raccoon traps, my guess is that the raccoon is killing fish for sport.  Sure beats raiding the neighborhood trash cans.  My coworker is now considering giving the remaining three fish away – better to let the fish live and not to have to admit defeat to a raccoon.

In other news, Ian’s photography contest ends on the 31st, so be sure to check it out.  You get a super purty photo if you win.

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley

I just got through reading North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley which I love, love, loved. The story follows Terra, artist and daughter of a once famous cartographer, as she charts her course through life, love, and family issues. Marked by a port-wine stain on her face, Terra can find beauty in everything except herself. When she meets Jacob, her perceptions about herself and her world are changed completely.

I love when books go beyond the surface events and take a deeper look at the details of life. Seen through Terra’s eyes, the pain is deeper and the beauty much more sweet. I would definitely give this a read.

Sugarplum, cash guzzler at large

I dearly, dearly love Sugarplum, my Toyota Camry, but lately the old beast has been giving me some trouble.  My car has been dying a spectacular and expensive death, filled with stalling during rush-hour traffic, and congested death rattles.  I’m hoping the past few days at the auto mechanic should patch her up for the time being, but it’s gotten to the point where I need to think long term about my car situation.  Much as I’d prefer it to be otherwise, cars are a necessity in Los Angeles, especially when I need to be at work well before the buses start running.  I’m wondering whether I should invest in a brand new car (which I’m not thrilled about), or buy a used car and inherit someone else’s problems.  Any advice?

Wedding album!

Ian posted up some screen shots of our wedding album on his blog, so I wanted to share them with you.  Earthquake be damned, we finished it!

Earthquake!

This Friday Ian and I were happily putting together our wedding album (six months after the fact) when all of the sudden the ground shook.  Luckily all we felt was two strong jolts, but it freaked me out.  Though I’ve been in LA for three and a half years now, this was the first real earthquake I felt.  The earthquake was around a 3, but it was located just a town away in Marina del Rey so it felt pretty strong.  This of course, sent me running to check on my earthquake preparedness kit.

It was a good thing.  Our kit is located on top of the refrigerator, which I keep telling Ian is a bad place because we can’t easily reach it.  When we opened the cabinet doors, we found an empty three gallon water jug.  Knowing that we put the jug in full of water, we couldn’t figure out  what happened.  Then we discovered the hairline crack at the bottom of the container that had released all the water into the wooden cabinet.  The cabinet was wet, warped, and let’s not forget covered in mold.

YUCK.  We spent a good hour fighting the mold attack, which was a good time to evaluate our kit.  Since water exploded everywhere, all our canned goods were covered in rust.  The surviving items that we pulled out of the kit included Ian’s marble collection, cleverly hidden in a Bandaids tin.  Because in emergencies marbles are way more important than first aid.  After all, the marbles can be used with the slingshot in our kit to fight off rats and zombies.  The remaining marbles can be used in a post-zombie/earthquake-apocalyptic world for bartering.   Also good for bartering and infusing cheer – a Christmas wreath we hadn’t seen in three years.

So yeah.  All in all, our earthquake kit needed a major overhaul.  We bought new supplies yesterday so we’re in good shape.  Let’s just hope the landlord doesn’t notice what happened to the cabinet…

Big Loser or Big Gainer?

The other day my coworkers were having a conversation about a weight loss challenge that one of our vendors was having. Coworker A was very excited that this company was competing to shed pounds. One of her contacts had lost 40 pounds, she exclaimed. Then she said that she needed to lose weight. “But I can’t lose weight without a workout partner,” she muttered.

Coworker B shook her head at the irony. “You gained the weight yourself, but you need a partner to lose it.”

I laughed heartily.  Touche.

Not again…

My husband has the unfortunate luck of trying out new products when they go on sale, falling in love with them, and then finding out the product is being discontinued.  He’s had fiascoes with deodorant, face wash, and now the latest is his shaving cream.  He just discovered a great brand a few months ago, and today the cashier at the grocery store told him the product is being discontinued.  Ian voiced his strenuous objection, then went back to the shaving cream aisle and bought the rest of the store’s stock.  So now we have six cans of shaving cream.  They are stored quite neatly next to Ian’s thirteen discontinued deodorants.  My house is become a stockpile for outdated toiletries.

Hot off the press

To me the Griddler sounds like a cross between a McDonald’s character and a villain in a Batman movie, but no.  In real life, the Griddler is the most awesome cooking contraption ever built.  It is a grill/griddle/panini maker and Ian and I got one for Christmas.  We have used it a couple of times to make paninis, and I just wanted to give it a shout out.  I am a big dork, I know.  I really shouldn’t even be eating the bread in paninis, but how can anyone pass up a freshly made hot-off-the-press panini?  If you too are a fan of anything that can be made on this contraption (think of the possibilities!) I would check it out.  It’s great for the small kitchen because it’s such a multi-tasker.

Now I have to go hide in shame for the genuine but unintended product placement.

A New Precedent, a New President

Today marks a very important day in our history – not just because a black man was elected to the Presidency, but because today he actually is the new President.  I think change is coming at a good time, and I’m excited for the future.  Good luck to Barack Obama!

Change is in the air…

One of the great things about joining the SCBWI is the fantastic opportunity to meet new people.  I always look forward to making connections, but as of late my only way of giving out my contact information is to scrawl it on a scrap of paper.  This of course depends on my actually having a piece of paper and writing instrument handy.  Not the most reliable method.  The solution: business cards.

I have known for a long time that I should get business cards, but I haven’t had time to sit down and plan things out.  Luckily, this weekend my good-with-a-computer husband sat down with me to design some cards.  This mean a little rebranding on my part, but it’s always good to freshen things up. This new motif will hopefully carry on to my website, so keep your eye open for some future changes.