jeditravel

Hello again

I thought I should at least make an effort to post once this month. My life has not been very exciting lately, this working 40+ hours a week on my feet all day makes me tired and uninspired to post. Since I actually have a day off today, I thought I'd let you know what's going on. NOTHING.

So, since nothing's really going on, I'll post some fun things I've discovered over the past month:

• I am old. I listen to NPR almost exclusively now. I cannot stand to listen to music stations because they all play the same thing. Since I only listen to NPR, I've discovered a couple of great groups. The first one is The Bad Plus. They are a jazz trio and in their latest album they did a remake of my favorite song of all time, Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. I'm not sure how to post a clip of their song, so I'll just post a link to their website: The Bad Plus.  The next group I've discovered via NPR (okay, it's actually via Fresh Air with Terry Gross but whatever) is called The Bird and the Bee. It's just 2 people, a piano & a drum machine. The lead singer has such a clean, fresh voice, and the songs are pretty fun too. Here's their website: The Bird and the Bee.  
• I can't lose weight by just eating healthy. I have stopped drinking wine for now. This makes me sad.
• I also can't lose weight without exercise, so I've sucked it up and paid for a personal trainer for 10 sessions. Did I mention this is at 7:30 a.m.? Those of you who know me well know that there is usually only one 7:30 in my day, and it's in the evening. I've been going for 2 weeks now and although I'm pretty tired by the end of the day, I'm going and haven't missed a session yet. The added incentive of wasting my money probably has something to do with me dragging my butt out of bed in the morning.
• Although my office job was mentally hard, I was still able to get a lot of things done at home after work. My new retail management job is physically hard. Being on my feet for 10 hours a day makes me very tired and the dirty house & no dinner shows this.

Jamie was robbed

I finally watched Top Chef from last night. That Leah should have gone home weeks ago. I am so not happy right now.

Hello new year (well, a few days late)

Sometimes I do really good updating the blog, other times, not so much. I guess most of the time I don't update  very good at all.

Anyway, I just had a quick couple of updates.

1. I'm going to me manager at Scrapbook Island starting in February. I decided that I didn't really want to work a high stress job after I got laid off from Discovery last March, so after the 6 months of sweet freedom (a.k.a. severance pay), I decided to get a part-time job at the scrapbook store sort of in my area. I love the job, the ladies I work with are fun & so nice, with hardly any drama (I mean come on, where there are women, there will be drama) and when the former manager quit to spend more time with her grandkids, I expressed an interest in being manager and the owner said yes.
2. Here's the really important update: I AM GOING TO CHA. Yes, CHA. For those not in the scrapping world, it's like the holy grail of scrapbooking shows. It's a trade show for craft & hobby stores & companies. For those in the scrapping world, I'll bring you back a present. I might even do a giveaway when we get back. It's Jan 24-28 in Anaheim, so I'm secretly (now, not so secretly since I just posted this) hoping we can maybe swing over to Disneyland for a minute or two. I'm going with the owner of the store & I'm not sure if she's a fan of amusement parks or not.
3. I cleaned my scraproom! Okay, so I cleaned it for my friend who stayed over on New Year's Eve, but it's still clean.
4. We're going to Iowa at the end of the month, the day after I get back from CHA, so I'll be on a plane more this month than I think I ever have.

I think that's it. I'm working on going through Jessica Sprague's online class on digital scrapping (called Up & Running with Photoshop) and it's pretty good so far. I think I might get another monitor though to have her website up & video running while I'm working in Photoshop on the other monitor. Thank goodness Santa was good to me & gave me some Christmas money.

I also plan on getting some NYE pics along with more Italy pics posted for your viewing pleasure (or displeasure, NYE was a bit nuts).

Updates & such

I really stink at doing the photo-a-day thing, so I think I'll just do the "photo whenever I get around to posting" thing. That seems to work best. 

Lots going on right now, between working the next 3 days, then Christmas, then getting ready for our New Year's Eve party, then working some more, I don't know how frequently I'll be posting. 

Dec 6 was another successful Christmas tea at Robins. 

Dec 7 found Craig de-seeding pomegranates so we could infuse some vodka (it's really yummy, by the way). And the store I work for had it's Christmas party, scrapping & getting our gifts (Cuttlebugs or gift certificates if you already had a cuttlebug).

Dec 9 I had my computer forensics final & handed in my paper. I passed the class (even though I don't remember signing up for pass/fail, whatever). 

Dec 13 we went to our friends Doreen & Brian's for a very good schnitzel & spatzel & wine & Wii party. I had a Wii accident (flung my hand into one of their chairs) and I think I'm almost 100%, although my knuckle still isn't quite right). 

And we got the tree set up (it went from 5 ft to 4 ft due to a burl at the bottom that needed to go - it didn't fit in the stand) and decorated, along with some random decorations around the house.

Sunday evenings we've been practicing for our someday real band (not Rock Band on the playstation, real instruments & everything!) I've been trying to get our band name to be WMD's (short for Weapons of Mass Destruction) or maybe Call Me Yoko, hopefully one of my names will get picked. :)

Once I get off my duff & upload the photos from my memory cards, I will post some photos of the festivities that have been happening. 

If I don't post before Christmas, I hope you all have a very merry one! 

This one explains it all

It explains why I haven't posted any pictures the past couple of days:

 

Needless to say I've been reinstalling my operating system along with all my programs the past few days. Good times indeed.

Maybe I should have said. . .

a photo every other day? I worked a 10-hour shift at the store yesterday & was tuckered out by the time I got home, so I forgot about my little photo project. Oops!

At any rate, here's today's photo along with another Italy photo for yesterday.

Salt & pepper shakers. I only have these 2, but I'm hoping to grow my collection someday. That doesn't mean run out and buy me some, I'm trying to find the perfect  set to go with the funky chickens & Paul Bunyan & Babe. Someday I will find them.

  This is a sculpture from the island of Murano near Venice. This island is known for it's glasswork. The day was so rainy & miserable, but great for photos. I did boost this one a bit because, well, I can do whatever I want!

Dec 1 & 2 Photos

Since I didn't take a photo yesterday, I thought I'd share one from Italy.

 This was taken in Bellagio on Lake Como.

Here's my photo from today:

It's a pomegranate from our tree. We had great plans to make pomegranate-infused vodka, but that hasn't happened yet. I have a feeling the birds will get the rest of these.

How did this happen?

Can someone please explain to me how it's December already? And that Christmas is 3 weeks away?

I had grand plans for December, I was going to do a photo a day, but so far, I've failed. Since it's only the 2nd, I think I can make up for it by posting 2 photos for today. Please check back later!

I know you want pictures

But all I have right now are excuses. . .

1. I had to work.
2. I had a test today in the class I'm taking.
3. I had to try and figure out why I cannot sign into Catan Online (games.msn.com) & spent many hours trying to fix it (it's still not fixed).
4. I looked at the pictures & was overwhelmed with the sheer enormity of processing them all.
5. America's Next Top Model, Ghost Hunters (those fakers! I'll explain some other time) & the new season of Top Chef were on last night.
6. I'm getting ready for a crop on Saturday & I have to work Friday night.

Or, the most accurate explanation as to why you haven't seen any more pictures . . . I'm just lazy when it comes to processing photos. I need to start shooting JPG again so I can just upload the SOOC shots. And, I've been watching the trailer for the Twilight movie over & over again. I hope it's half as good as I've built it up in my mind to be.

Here's a small sample of a couple of Italy pictures I took on my point & shoot (no processing involved):

St. Mark's Basilica, Venice (Totally Rad Actions technicolor dream world)

  Ubiquitous gondola shot near St. Mark's Basilica (TRA, technicolo dream world)

Mosaic on St. Mark's (TRA, Oh Snap!)

Another mosaic on St. Mark's (TRA, Oh Snap!)

(in case you are wondering what "totally rad actions" & "oh snap!" & "technicolor dream world" are, these are actions I ran on the photos in Photoshop to make them look better than they did SOOC - straight out of the camera)

Hopefully this will tide you over until I get over my laziness & jet lag. How long can I milk the jet lag?

We're back (final trip update soon)

We got back on Saturday evening & I had to work yesterday, so no trip updates yet. I hopefully will start working on it today, but with the pile of laundry that needs to be done & many chapters for my class that need to be read, I don't know if it will get done. Plus I have to pick the lovely pomegranates we have on our tree. They are bursting right now, so they should be really sweet.