Ah-Choo!!!

Wow. My allergies are really bad today. Anyone else having an allergy issue today, or this week? I'm going through a lot of tissues.

While we're on the subject: I didn't have allergies at all until after I turned 30. What's that all about? :)

Noe's Birthday!

Today is the day that we celebrate Noe's Birthday. We're not positive about the exact date because we found her in our backyard when she was 4-5 days old.

Noe turns 4 today!

Amazing. Seems like yesterday that we found her, and bottle fed her for the first few weeks. She was so tiny then! who knew she'd grow up to be a healthy little cat!

here are some of Noe's baby pictures! my, how she has grown!

Happy Birthday to our "kitten"!

New Guestbook!

Dick has spent the last few weeks learning asp.net, xml, xsl, & css. He's been building a new guestbook program in order to help him practice his new skills. I've been learning css.

Yesterday we uploaded the new program to my site, and got it up and running.
we spent a better part of the day and tweaking the program, and working on the design.

The result: the New & Improved "Trina's Raggedy Ann Collection Guest-book"! :)

Please check it out. You'll have to go to my Trina's Raggedy Ann Collection Site first, then click on "Share a Story". If you're so inclined, please leave your mark and sign the guestbook!

We're both very pleased with how this project turned out. It was a great exercise for both of us. We may make some more slight modifications, but on the whole, I think it's done!

Noe's World

Dick just found this. I'm pretty sure that this is the kind of conversations that Noe & Marcel have.

Back at the Gallery

I started working at The Gallery again yesterday. I'll only be there once a week, on Wednesdays. I'll also be working from home inbetween my other work.

Cynde & Jim asked if I was interested in reviving the Animation Department, and put me in charge! :) Great fun! I love animation art, and I'm excited to be acting as an animation art consultant again.

I even sold a piece of art yesterday! (thanks, George, and a belated Happy Birthday to you)
it was nice to be back in the swing of things.

So, anyone out there looking for some cool vintage animation art? Disney, Warner Bros., Simpsons, etc.,
let me know.
I'm your girl!

In the meantime, I started to list a few pieces up for auction on ebay today. check them out!

Happy Bloggiversary!

Hey! I just noticed that yesterday was the first anniversary of my Blog!
one year of blogging. you'd think I'd find something more productive to do with my time ;)

it's all over there ---> in the archives.

MINI Run!

...and you thought I was the only one who was this obsessed about MINIs....

OMG. We had such a great time!

The MINI run was so much fun, and a very long day. we met at Noon in Los Altos (near San Jose) (some people drove up from Southern Cal that morning). We drove up Skyline Blvd (great fun! I haven't had a chance to drive like that before!), then through San Francisco, across the GG Bridge, through the Marin Headlands, back across the bridge, down Lombard Street, across and up to COIT tower, through the City some more (I Played tour guide) then we went to Cupertino to a British Pub. I was with these people from Noon, 'til 11:00pm. got home just after midnight!

The people were terrific - most of us have been on our forum thread together for more than 6 months, and had gotten to know each other pretty well. It was so nice to finally have a chance to meet them in person!

here are some of my favorite pictures:

Is it a Plum? Is it an Apricot?

I noticed that Willo blogged about this recently, and it reminded me that I've been wanting to mention this, too.

Have you had the pleasure of eating a Pluot??

A Pluot is a fruit that is a cross between a plum and an apricot.

They're very yummy - and hard to describe. Although really, they do taste like the combination of a plum and an apricot.

If you try one, make sure that it's very ripe, and a little soft. I've had ones that weren't entirely ripe, and they simply weren't full of pluot goodness.

Okay - here's the best part:

In our house, we don't call them "Pluots".

No.

Here, (thanks to Dick's amazing talent for renaming cross-bred fruits) we call them.....

Plapricots.

It's a much better name, don't you think?

Weekly wrap-up

Okay, so it's been more than a week.... (shhhh...)

let's see - what's been going on?

My friend Mykail was in town for a visit last weekend. We had a great time, as always. We went to the DCI Tour of Champions at San Jose State's Spartan Stadium last Saturday night. That was really fun. I hadn't been to a drum corps show in ages. It was such a great way to see everyone - the corps came directly from DCI. Those of us out here on the West Coast never have a chance to see the corps with completed shows unless we go to DCI, so this was a huge treat. Another plus - 6 corps total - it was just the right amount.

I always forget how much longer Drum Corps shows are over Winter Guard shows. They're pretty much double the length. I'm always ready for them to be done about 3/4 of the way in. No offense to anyone, of course, it's just that my attention-span must be dwindling. ;)

I will say that there's nothing like hearing a few hundred brass instruments played at the same time, by hundreds of great musicians. I really enjoyed the finale. i think it may have given me chills!

Kudos, as always, goes to Michael Gaines and the amazing work he did with the drill for the Cavailiers. I was only sitting about 10 rows up, but even from that angle, I was able to appreciate the complexity of the drill design.

On a side note: I started to learn CSS this week! I know, for a web designer, I'm a little behind the times. Dick has been trying to get me to use CSS for years now, and I'm finally caving in. What can I say? I think I'm a creature of habit, and I know how to do good design using basic HTML. Plus, I clients who have clients on old web browsers, and I didn't want to use CSS if it wasn't compatible on most versions/browsers. Anyhow, I'm past that now, and decided that the time has come for this girl to learn some new tricks! ;)

I'm reading through Eric Meyer on CSS. So far, so good. There are several things that I've learned so far that I'm very excited about. My plan is to redesign my own site using CSS - that'll be a good project to get me started!

The big news for this week is that I'm going on a "MINI RUN" with some friends from my MINI2.com Forum. It's actually a group within the group - there's a bunch of us who started the "New Owners Thread" (a.k.a. "NOT") earlier this year. There are about 8 of us who are active participants, and other people come and go. Anyhow, a bunch of the group from Southern Cal are driving up tomorrow (Saturday) to Northern Cal so we can meet, eat, and go out for a drive together.

The guys from Southern Cal had 2 requests: they wanted to drive across The Golden Gate Bridge, and down the crooked part of Lombard Street. Since I am the resident San Franciscian, I stepped up to play the role of "Julie McCoy, Cruise Director". I've mapped out a whole driving route, complete with lunch, picture opportunities, SF trivia, and monuments! We'll also be having dinner together at a British Pub down in Cupertino. There were originally 7 cars, but I think we've dwindled down to 5. oh well, it should still be a great time.

We also have a fun day planned for Sunday! We're going down to Rob & Sharon's house for a pool party!!! :) Whoo-Hoo!

My next MINI?

Yesterday, my MINI and I played "Super Shuttle". I drove Dick to SFO at 7:30am, then headed down to the South Bay to my parent's house. My parents had an early afternoon flight from SFO. They had 5 (count it, FIVE) pieces of luggage. We managed to fit all five pieces of luggage, plus the 3 of us into my MINI. It was a tight fit, but we managed, and we were all quite impressed with my MINI.

Just found this this morning.
This is what I need for the next trip to the airport!

this is real - not a photoshop job. (although it looks like one)
Click here for more pictures of the interior/exterior

Weighing in on scales

Scales are one of life's unnecessary evils.

it's true. they are.

I've made it a rule not to step on scales to check my weight. I mean really, what possible good can come of it?

This all goes back to my color guard days. One of the guards I was in used to weigh us weekly.
I know: years of therapy.

I tend to weigh a lot more than people would guess. I'd like to chalk it up to dense bones, and muscle weight. I haven't actually put these theories to test, but that's what I think, and I'm sticking to it.

I like to judge my weight by how I feel, and I how look.

I think I look decent. I still fit into size 4/5 clothing.
I feel good. I exercise regularly.

We bought a home scale a few weeks ago to help us monitor's Marcel's weight (our big cat is on a diet). We weighed him last night. The last time I was weighed was about 4 weeks ago at a doctor's appointment. I figured I already knew what I weighed from that appointment, so I wasn't too worried about stepping on this new scale.

Well....

according to this scale, I weigh 6 lbs more than I did 4 weeks ago! 6 pounds! that's a lot for someone who's under 5'3".

I realize that the scale is probably inaccurate, and that I should go off of the scale at the hospital.

but, it just goes to show that I was right to stay away from scales in the first place.

evil, evil, evil.

Scootin' around the City

Okay, first things first:

Having a scooter in the city ROCKS!

we scooted all over the place yesterday:

we had an early start, and left the house at 10:30am. (yes, that's early for us on a weekend). First, we went over to Golden Gate Park, and just drove around. We went to Stow Lake and rented pedal boats for an hour. It was terrific! it was a gorgeous, warm, sunny day, and we pedaled our boat around the lake for an hour. There was a small wedding happening in the Chinese Bagota - we were able to watch from a distance. It was so nice - they had a small string quartet playing. We cruised around, watching the ducks and the turtles. Very nice.

Next, we scooted the the other side of town, and had lunch at The House of Nanking" was just outstanding. We parked the scooter right outside the restaurant (which if you've been to The House of Nanking, you know how amazing it is to park nearby). We had a great lunch consisting of House of Nanking Chicken, and Chinese Greens of Snow Pea Shoots. (highly recommend this dish - it's not on the menu). YUM!

After lunch, we scooted up to Coit Tower. It was such a gorgeous day, and the view from the top of the hill was perfect. We also bypassed the line of cars, and parked the scooter in the vacant motorcycle spts, which was also perfect.

We decided to go somewhere where we could walk around a bit, so we headed down to Union Street. We strolled for a bit, then headed into Jamba Juice drink. While we were there, Lora Shahine surprised us! She and Omar were next door, having lunch at Prego. They spotted us a we were walking down the street. We sat with them, and had a nice visit, then invited them over for dinner with my parents.

We scooted over to The Ferry Building and parked right across the street! (LOVE the scooter!) We got a few steaks from the butcher, and also some yummy heirloom tomatoes.

We came home at 4:00, just in time to meet my parents. Omar and Lora swung by at 5:30, and we had a delicious BBQ! :)

What a fun and busy day - courtesy of the Vespa! :)

HUMMMMM BABY!

I just got back from Pac Bell Park! (which is actually now SBC Park I guess)

Giants vs. Cubs! Very cool. My sister was able to get us some comp seats.

It was a good game - saw a home run, and lots of action. We had good seats, too - right next to Left Field.

I love going to watch baseball games. There's something about walking into a stadium that makes me an instant fan. Tonight was free Giants Towel night - we all got these little orange towels to swing around. It was a lot of fun.

I left early (7th inning) so that Dick could pick me up (on the scooter) easily, without having to worry about traffic.

it looks like I didn't miss out on anything, except perhaps traffic!

sidenote
I realize that the whole "Hummm-Baby" thing is really old. It was from the late 80s. It's the ony tagline that I can think of when it comes to The Giants, though. I was really into The Giants in 1989 - that was the year they wen to the world series against The Oakland "A's". It was the infamous "Battle of the Bay".

I lived in Ohio at the time. Can you believe that? I had just moved to Dayton in early September of that year. My sister and I were watching Game 3 of the World Series, when all of a sudden, it went off the air.

Yep. It was The Loma Prieta Earthquake. 6.9 on the Richter Scale.

That was so weird. I lived in California my entire life (I was 19 at the time), moved to Ohio (temporarily) and 6 weeks later, the 2nd largest earthquake in The United State's history strikes. When the television signal came back up, the announcers said they had an earthquake. My sister and I figured it must have been pretty huge to affect the TV signal. We called our Mom immediately, and managed to get through right away. I think we were lucky because we knew about the earthquake and its severity just before the phone lines jammed. My Mom & Dad's power was out, so we relayed any information that we were getting off the news to my Mom. So surreal.

DCI

Hey - DCI is this weekend. I'm so out of it, I almost forgot.

It probably won't be televised on PBS for several months...

We'll be going to the post season Tour of Champions next Saturday at Spartan Stadium, San Jose. I'm really excited about it. Haven't seen a live drum corps show in several years. It'll be the perfect way to see a show - everyone will be fresh from the end of the season! It'll also be good to see a lot of friends.

Short & Sassy

Well, the long hair was fun while it lasted. It was certainly the longest it's been in more than 10 years.

but all good things must come to an end...

Yesterday I decided (kind of out-of-the-blue) that it was time to cut it off.
That's the way to do it - you can't think about it too much, or you'll get paranoid.

I probably cut off 6-8 inches! (oh my!)

Litter Robot - first week review

For those of you with kitties, here's my review of the Litter Robot after using it for one week.

So far, so good! it works as advertised, and does a good job. (Yay!) It's more sanitary than the LitterMaid that we used to use. The Littermaid's rake would often get stuck and full of wet litter (yuck). The LR's unit stays pretty clean, although I still have to sweep off the step and floor a bit for loose litter.

I bought a cheap roll of garbage bags to use with the Litter Robot yesterday. It got 120 bags for $2.99. Can't beat that. I really like that it doesn't require any special recepticles to buy. The clean-up (ie: opening the drawer, and tossing the bag) is very easy!

Both cats took to it pretty easily. We actually went cold turkey, and took away their old litterbox as soon as we installed the Litter Robot. I put a small plastic box underneath the Litter Robot's step to create an additional step for Marcel - he's a big kitty, and I thought it would make entering/exiting easier for him.

The only problem we've had so far is that the depth of the Litter Robot is smaller than our old Litter Box. (See the web site for dimensions.) I think our kitties are used to having a little more space. Noe has occassionally tossed out litter after using the box (natural cat instinct). I don't think she intends to toss the litter outisde. This has only happened a few times, and usually not bad, but twice I found large piles of litter on the floor outside the box. (this also confused Marcel, who must have thought that we were now using the floor as a new litter pan) This hasn't happened for the last few days, so I'm hoping that she has adjusted to the size.

The Litter Robot is just as loud as the LitterMaid, which was a little disappointing, but not a big deal. The cats don't mind it at all - they must be used to having an automated litterbox.

So overall, we're really pleased with our Litter Robot so far. I'd recommend it. I'm much happier with it than we were with the LitterMaid. Plus, with two cats in the house, it really beats having to clean it out manually all of the time!

I'll keep you posted if we have any other problems with it.

update
November 22, 2004

I've just posted a second review of the Litter Robot after having had it for almost 4 months.

A Karate Kid Moment...

... and another reason why it's good to have a small car.

Today, I waxed my car for the first time! :)

"Wax On."

"Wax Off."

I haven't waxed a car in years - I forgot that it's kind of a work out!
The only car I've ever waxed before was my Acura Integra. It was a compact car, and reasonable to wax.

But it was SO MUCH EASIER to wax my MINI! It's so small, and so curvaceous, that it was actually pretty fun to wax. (did I just say that?!) Didn't take too long - maybe about and hour & 15 minutes to wash, dry and wax. I was especially happy having the panoramic sunroof - it made waxing the roof a breeze. There was only a five inch parameter around the sunroof to wax!

She's so pretty & sparkly right now!
(that'll last about 2 hours, since the poor thing is parked outside on the street)

testing...

Can you guys let me know if you are reading this? I'm in the process of switching over to a new web host. It's supposed to take 48-72 hours to propagate the DNS change. My email was up and running by Noon today (about 24 hours after making the change) so I expect everything else will follow soon. (It's already working on Dick's work machine, and Pete's computer, but not yet on our home computers) Anyway, it'll take a couple of days for everyone to be able to access the new server, and I'm just kind of curious to watch it move around. Thanks!

Some things in life should not be mixed...

I think that there is such a thing as "Too much of a good thing".

I LOVE my MINI.

I love playing our Xbox.

I have no desire to combine the two - literally...

check this out

I think I'll stick to "driving a MINI" while playing Project Gotham from the comfort of my own home.