...or "Reason #1042 why Ben will hate me when he gets older"

Kinda busy today, working and doing dis n dat...

It was a great wedding, even though we could only attend the reception. More later once I process the pictures...gotta work and watch Da Bears!

Surprisingly, the first time I took Ben to a playground was last weekend. We go to the zoo, Chuck-e-Cheese and aquariums all the time, but I had never taken him to just a regular playground. He goes with his grandfather all the time, but I was still surprised when I saw him walk right up to one of the play structures, climb up the stairs, and go down the big slide (I had to catch him, since he's too short to reach the ground at the end of the slide). He was by far the littlest kid on the playground, but he held his own and most of the kids were patient and waited for him to climb up the stairs or gently made their way around him (except for that one punk that stepped on Ben's fingers). Anyway, here's some pics:

He looks so big here! He's so brave!

I admit, I was so busy taking this picture I forgot to catch him and he fell. Like 6 inches onto the soft ground. Someone call DCFS!

Playing with sand

For some reason he loves to clean the playground. He found a twig and handed it to me. On the stairs for the slide, he made sure to hand me any wood chips that were on the steps. Weirdo.

What a cutie pie!

I miss my little daredevil! I'm going home tomorrow!

I'm running on about 6 hours of sleep over the last 2 days. That usually wouldn't be THAT big of a problem except that I've been really sick lately, with a painful cough and I have no voice. Sometimes I sound like a secy Demi Moore, most times I sound like a scary trucker.

Dave and I got sick at around the same time (from Benjamin, the source of all our colds) and he's been OK since labor day. I'm sure its a combination of a number of things that are affecting my road to wellville.

*sigh*

*cough*

Had a great time at the comicon, I'll have a full report soon!

Last Saturday we headed out to our second Cubs game of the year, Ben's third. It was pretty uneventful, and the Cubs, unfortunately, lost. There were these guys behind us that were totally enchanted with Benjamin, and wanted badly to teach him how to open and eat a peanut. Ben, however, had other plans, and proceeded to turn around the peanut in his hands and chew on the shell. After he got bored of that, his new game was "jam the peanut in Mommy's mouth" which he found really hilarious.

I don't think I made up a post of our first Cubs game of the year, which was a lot more eventful than this one, so I'll turn back the clock and talk about that one.

Those of you who had watched the All Star game a couple weeks back may have remembered the announcers mentioning it and showing a replay - it was the fight in which the normally good natured Derreck Lee got into a fight with the Padres pitcher Chris Young.

It was Ben's second Cubs game, and we were a little nervous bringing him, considering that the last time we brought him he had cried for the first 5 innings. Then again, he was only 6 months old then.

I put him in his Cubs gear and his brand new Cubs hat (his old one was lost at the mall) and we headed out to the ballpark. Our seats were in the shade, so we didn't have to worry about too much sun exposure. Dave wasn't with us since he was cramming for his exam, so it was me, Dave's dad, his brother and his brother's girlfriend.

Ben was much more well behaved this time around, amazed by the people who were going to the seats in the upper level, passing by on a walkway several sections away from us. He also watched the game a bit, but he had no idea what was going on. He was happy enough watching people go by and munching on french fries.

I was only paying half-attention to the game, but I heard the crowd go "Ohhh!" and I looked at the batter, Derrek Lee, on the ground. I figured he got hit by a pitch, and he got up slowly to take his base. He started walking towards the base and by that time, a lot of people in the crowd had already anticipated what was going to happen next, since they were already standing. Then everyone started shouting and hooting and it took me a second to comprehend why Derrek was halfway to the pitcher's mound. Turns out that words were said by the pitcher, Chris Young, to Derrek as he was about to take base, and Derrek didn't like the attitude, since he was the one hit by a pitch. Then all of the sudden, the benches of both teams are on the field, everyone's cheering, cameraphones are up in the air and the whole crowd is standing up. Poor little Ben was wondering what the hell was going on. Only then did I realize that I had my camera, too, but by then, the mini-brawl was already over.

What was interesting about the fight was that Derrek Lee and Chris Young are two of the tallest guys in baseball, with Young at 6'10" and Lee at 6'5". Two big guys going after each other, both being restrained by their team. If you had watched the replay on TV, it was pretty funny, because pitcher Carlos Zambrano was just getting out of the locker room to find the fight on field, and he was running onto the field while still putting on his belt. To someone who didn't know, it just looked like he whipped of his belt to spank someone.

The rest of the game was pretty awesome, with Zambrano having a no hitter until late in the 8th. We lost, though, which was a bummer.

Anyway, here's our pictures for the game....enjoy!

We sat Benjamin in the seat in front of us, and he made a new friend

Ben eats nachos on his godfather Justin's lap

Z almost had a no hitter that day!

Fight! Fight!

Ben watches the action behind us

Busy busy, once again, but not as busy as before. Anyway, here's some pictures to wish you a good Sunday...

Kudos to whoever knows where the title comes from...

Pretty busy this weekend and today...then again, life's been busy for a while now!

In Atlanta...been here since Monday. It's hot, rainy and humid here. Forgot laptop adapter at the client site, running out of juice, so just a quick post for today.

Took this picture at the zoo the other day. This little baby giraffe was having a fun time running around his pen. I love how you can see his reflection on the water. Ben had a good time watching!

It's only been one day since I've seen my little Beeny, and I'm already missing him. It's going to be a tough 3 weeks!

I love taking pictures of Ben and Dave together. Unfortunately, since I'm the photographer in the family, I don't have many pictures with Benjamin. I'll have to remember to take a couple of the two of us, just so he has some baby pictures with his beloved Mommy to post when he gets a blog of his own.

Here's a favorite of mine, taken at a party a couple weeks ago...

Last Sunday, we went to Ben's cousin's birthday party. She had a big shindig, with balloon artists, face painters, cotton candy machines, the works! There were even pony rides. So of course, I've gotta get a picture of my son on a pony, even if he didn't really care for the pony (although he did like it after a bit, and even petted his pony's mane). Just wanted to share the picture with y'all!

It's incredible how big Benjamin has gotten. Not big like a regular 13 month old - he's still pretty small for his age, but big in that he's got such a personality and it seems like he's a little boy already. I love spending time with him because he's so much fun. He climbs, rolls, laughs, giggles and hides. It's hard to imagine that a year ago he was this little blob that only pooped, peed, cried and ate.

Last Saturday, we went to Sammy's 2nd birthday party. It was the first time that we all have gotten together with our little tykes in a very long time. In the last two months, Ben has gotten two more new friends, both little boys. So right now, we've got all boys in our group of friends, and no girls. In a couple years, there's going to be a ton of little boys running around, and no little girls. It's weird how out of a group of friends, all six babies are little boys. If I extend it to my family and other friends, then I can throw in nine more babies. The only person I know of who has had a baby girl (and has another girl on the way) is Dave's cousin. So of the seventeen babies that have been born in the last two years, only two have them have been girls. Crazy, right?

Anyway, here's the pics from the birthday...

It's been a while since I've done a Ben collage. Then again, it's been pretty hard to keep him on one place to take the pictures. Before, I'd just throw him on the bed and make noises so I could get all the different faces. Now, it's a little harder to make him go through so many faces in one sitting. It's funny how his face hasn't changed much. If you look at the three month collage, he still looks the same. But this time, he's got his crazy bangs and 6 teeth...

Click for the mega-view.

Guess whose butt this is. No fair saying who it is if you already know.

When you figure it out, you'll want to gauge your eyes out, then giggle with girlish glee.

It's been snowing here for the past couple days. I was thinking that we weren't going to get anymore snow since it had been such a dry winter for us, but I was definitely wrong!

Yesterday traffic was moving slowly on the way to the train - yes, I'm working in the city this week. The perfect time for the snow to come down. I'm doing a training class and all of my clients are from somewhere in the South, so they're not used to this weather. On Monday it wasn't too bad - no snow and a warm (compared to last weeks below zero temps) 20 degrees. But yesterday was an adventure! We went to lunch at Rock Bottom and when we got out, the wind was blowing the snow everywhere. It would blow it into our faces and it felt like little pinpricks. Some of them screamed. I laughed. Not the side of Chicago that visitors want to see!

Once I got back to the train station to where my car was parked, it was like a field of snow covered cars. Some smart neighborhood kids, snowbrushes in hand, were offering to clean snow off cars for $2. I was pretty tempted to take them up on their offer!

After 10 minutes of cleaning and heating my car (which didn't really matter since the wind was blowing the snow back on my car anyway) I headed home. Since the snow was being carried by the wind, most of the work that the snowplows did was gone after 10 minutes. Cars on the road were left to guess where the lanes were. People were sliding here and there and I even passed a pretty bad accident on my 5 minute drive home.

But I'm safe and sound, ready to brave the winter weather again. Wish me luck!

For a while I was wondering if Ben would ever get teeth. He was 8 months old and still hadn't had any teeth come in, but had been drooling and gnawing on things for months. Finally, he had two little teeth come in on the bottom. Two weeks later, he had three teeth come in the top, and a week after that another tooth at the top.

It was so cute to see his teeth come in, especially the little gap in his middle front teeth. It looks like he's going to have big beaver teeth like me.

It was totally adorable.

Until he bit me.

HARD.

I was carrying him in my arms and he was burrowing into my shoulders, and all of the sudden a sharp pain on my shoulder. I screamed and tried to pull him off and after a second he came off. Then the little bugger started laughing because he thought it was a game.

Well, at least I'm not the only one he bites - he bit my father in law, too.

Fortunately, that seemed to be a one time incident. I've caught him biting on my shirt numerous times, but no more painful bites.

Oh well, I've got to forgive him...especially when he's looking this cute!

This blog needs a dose of Ben to bring my out of my post-Superbowl-loss funk!

Playing with the swing he no longer uses

I got him some knee pads because he loves to crawl on the hardwood. He looks like a little volleyball player.

He loves remote controls, but only the ones that are functional. He knows if we give him the ones we don't normally use (like the VCR) that have the batteries removed. In this picture he looks a lot like Dave.

He loves his cheese! This pic was taken right before his top 4 teeth came in...

I was in Rochester a couple weeks ago for training, and pretty much every night we had some sort of activity with the group. One night we were on our own for dinner, so me and a coworker decided to find a nice seafood place to eat. We had a GPS in the car (you know, like those TomToms) and it had a directory of restaurants in there. The closest seafood place to our hotel was called "The Lobster Trap." Mmm...lobster!

We headed out to the Trap, letting our GPS give us directions. Finally, it said, "You have arrived at the destination." We saw a shopping center with a grocery store, but no sign of the Lobster Trap. We circled around again in the parking lot, but couldn't find it. We decided to call the place:

Us: Hi, we used our GPS to find your restarant, but we can't seem to find it.
Him: Where are you?
Us: We're at the Ford dealership down the street from the Tim Horton's.
Him: We're right across the street from Tim Horton's.
Us: Oh. Are you across the street from the Wegman's supermarket, too?
Him: No, we're in the same shopping center.
Us: Oh really? We just went through there and couldn't find it.
Him: We're at the Citgo.
Us: The Citgo?
Him: Yeah. Right there.

We looked at each other, confused..."AT the Citgo?" Meaning, inside?

So we drove back to the shopping center, and lo and behold, there was a Citgo right in the middle, right by the street. We drove past, and there it was, a little shack connected to the gas station - the Lobster Trap, looking like the scariest place to eat that I have ever seen in my life.

We stopped, I took a picture, and eventually found an excellent bistro in this cute little part of town where I had the best scallops ever.

Sorry, Lobster Trap, I like my Lobster with butter, not unleaded.

We went to Bob Chinn's on Friday for our company holiday party - all 12 of us who are left from X-Systems (who are all now part of X-Inc), plus the new guy that was hired to do our programming. It was so nice to spend time with my coworkers, who I never get to see anymore since we all work from home now. You never realize how much you crave conversation with coworkers until you have no one to talk to during your work day. It was fun to talk about the good old days, and laugh about how eerily "The Office" episodes mirrored what happened at X-Systems.

I downed some Mai Tais but had to stop myself because I didn't want to puke all over my food. It's nice to be able to drink and not have to worry about nursing, but my tolerance has gotten so low! I had to watch myself to make sure I wasn't talking too loud or giggling too much.

Here's my meal, the Ex-Crab-aganza. It contains three different kinds of crab, though I don't remember what kinds. Maybe stone crab, kona crab and something else. I didn't really care, I just wanted a lot of crab, and as you can see, this was definitely a LOT of crab! It was as delicious and filling as it looks!

Here's my annual "Year of Pictures" thread. I tried not to put in TOO many pictures of Ben, but it was hard to choose my favorites!

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas everyone! We had a long, fun night, and I have many pictures to post later. For now, here's my serious kid and Santa Clause!

Melanie has a cute set of pictures she took last weekend when we were at Trully's watching the Bear's game. As I've said, Ben is pretty chill and serious when we're out in public so it's hard to get him to smile or show any emotion. But after a little bit of coaxing, she got some cute smiles on her camera.

You can also see his spiffy new haircut!

Since I miss my little man, I'll make another post about him...

We went to a party at Chuck E. Cheese several weeks ago and Ben had a ball on the rides. He's still pretty serious when we're out of the house, but I could tell he liked it because he was so intent on grabbing the steering wheel and moving it around. He's still a little too small for the rides, but fortunately most of them have safety belts. For some of the rides he couldn't even reach the steering wheel, making him a little frustrated. So we stuck with the rides he could fit in and he didn't mind riding them over and over.

He's growing so fast! *cries*

Today is World AIDS Day, a day to bring awareness to the ongoing battle against AIDS. Here are some sad facts about AIDS:

Every year 3 million people die from AIDS. Of the 40 million people infected by HIV/AIDS, Africa (which has just over 10% of the world’s population) is home to 60% (25 million). The disease is the leading cause of death in Africa.

Women comprise the fastest growing population group living with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa and the result of their illness on children is compelling. Every time a man or woman is started on anti-retroviral drugs, the survival of children becomes less precarious.

An estimated 13 million children in Africa have been orphaned because of HIV/AIDS already and this number is growing. Almost 2000 children, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa, are infected with HIV each day.

The saddest thing is that AIDS is a preventable, treatable disease, but many of those who have it, especially in developing countries, do not have the access to treatment.

Bono, who is one of the people trying hard to bring awareness to this epidemic, has started a campaign called the (Red) Campaign. He's teamed up with The Gap, American Express, myspace, Converse and many other companies to create products where part of the proceeds go to The Global Fund, an organization made up of companies, countries and individuals brought together to finance the war on AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in developing areas.

You may have seen the Gap ads on billboards, on bus stops or at your local Gap store.

I decided to do my part and get some awareness out there and make my own Gap ad. Some of you may remember Apolo Anton Ohno, short track Olympic gold medal winner at the Olympics...and some of you may recognize the handsome guy on the right...

I still sleep with Benjamin in our bed because he's my little teddybear. However, by the time morning comes, this is pretty much what happens. I'm pushed off the side of the bed, having less than a foot of room on the bed. He's a bed hog!

Just a preview of the Thanksgiving pictures that I'm going to eventually post. I've also got pictures from the Minneapolis Science museum, and yummy sushi pictures. I just haven't had the time because my regular sitter (Dave's dad) is out of town and I've had to drive Ben around town to whoever can babysit him. I've also had several things due for work so that's been sucking any of the free time I have.

I miss my blog!

We've had Ben-eater on solids for the last several months. For some reason he likes to eat with his foot outside of the highchair. Weirdo.

To end my week of Halloween, I present to you Spiderboy. I went to the Halloween store the day after the holiday and got some great deals, like this cute Spiderman costume. Sure, Ben will be too big to wear it next year, but it was too cute to pass up. We laughed so hard when we put it on him - he HATED the mask. For the longest time he kept his eyes shut when the mask was on him. Unfortunately, he figure out how to take it off so every time we put the mask on him he immediately grabs it and pulls it down. One funny thing is everytime he had the mask on, he would hold his arms out to his sides as if trying to catch his balance - it was so cute!

Enjoy the pics!

Halloween isn't over yet here on YWIM! I've been so busy/tired/sleepy this week I haven't had a chance to post as often as I've wanted, so there's a lot of backlogged posts I want to make.

Anyway, here's one more Benjamin photoshop Halloween picture!

FrankenBen

Last weekend I met up with the "cousins with kids" at the Brookfield Zoo. Every year they have Halloween festivities there and I've always been curious as to what happens there. Turns out there are TONS of people who go, but it was a lot of fun seeing all the different costumes that all the little kiddies had. Looks like this year was very popular for fairies, princesses and superheroes. It seemed like everywhere I turned there was a Spiderman lurking about!

My Godson Kenzo Gets a Leaf Shower

I brought Benjamin and dressed him up in his beaver costume. He was pretty unimpressed by the whole deal. I'm sure he was a little bummed that he wasn't able to run around with Jillian and Kenzo in their costumes...but at least his buddy Jacob was in the same boat - he can't walk either!

Benjamin Poses on the Lawn

I need to start teaching Benjamin how to identify animals so he can point at them with glee when he sees them at the zoo. "Look Mommy! A lion!" "Look Papa! An okapi!" "See that tapir swimming?!?" Right now, it's just these moving things to him. He was just watching everything go by - little kids, the animals, the sky, leaves blowing about...he just soaks it all in.

This Was His Expression For Most of the Day

The funnest (is funnest a word? well, it is now!) part of the day was when we were playing in the leaves. Kenzo had a ball throwing the leaves up in the air, and the kids went crazy running around. I even took Ben out of his stroller and set him on the ground. He was immediately intrigued by the leaves, picking them up and trying to eat them. I got them out of his hands before he had a chance to put them in his mouth. However, after I put him in his stroller, wiped his hands and got my stuff together, I found that he had a leaf in his hands and he was sticking it in his mouth! I had no idea where he got it, since his hands were empty only seconds before. He's a tricky little guy!

The Kids Play Around in the Leaves

It was a good time...not sure if I'd do it again, there were just so many people there! I probably will, since I'm a zoo member and I get in free anyway. I can't wait til next year when Ben's able to run around with the other kids and really enjoy himself with his cousins!

Click here for more pics!

Still a bit busy with work and taking care of Ben...maybe I'll have more time tomorrow night as I'm waiting for trick or treaters...

Ben the Shark

This isn't his costume for this Halloween, it's still pretty big on him. He'll probably wear it next year or just 'whenever' during the year. Because there's lots of occasions where you can dress up as a shark!

Had a long and incredibly busy weekend. I'm currently running on about 3 hours of sleep, but it's my own fault for pushing some things to the last minute.

Anyway, I have a TON of awesome pictures that I think I took this weekend (not sure if they turned out nice since I haven't uploaded them to my computer yet) but I'll post those later.

So for now, another "just so I have something to post on my blog" post...another photoshopped Ben halloween picture:

Benny Potter

I'm training all week and I have several other deadlines, so you don't get a quality post from me today...

But to make up for it, here's some more photoshop fun:

Benbo the Clown

Cute, funny, and a little creepy!

I miss 'em.

Today is my godson's first birthday party, and the theme of the party is Curious George. Since I wanted to make something that went along with the theme, I saw a couple designs for monkey cupcakes and created my own twist.

I made some banana cupcakes, used some milk chocolate frosting (it's lighter than regular frosting), 3/4 of a regular Nilla Wafer, 2 halves of a Mini Nilla Wafer, and some black and red gel icing for the eyes, nostrils and mouth. They turned out a lot better than I anticipated, though it took a couple tries before I figured what the best design for the eyes. I'm pretty proud of them!

Oh my, I'm turning into a homeroom mom!!!

Oh no! It's been almost a week since I've posted a picture of BeeBo!

As I said earlier, Benjamin's 4 months old today. He's extremely chatty, can sleep for 7 hours without waking (when I'm lucky), loves to chew on his hands, and is starting to enjoy tummy time. It's really amazing to see him learn something new, or do some new action I've never seen before. I could literally sit there for hours watching him. He's my little snugglebunny!

For this month's collage, I decided to try something new. Since Ben Pao's can lift his head from a tummy position, we wanted to have our collage using that pose.

...but I'll probably get bored of this blog or moved on to a new one by the time he's old enough to care, so it doesn't matter anyway...

Ben Booty

Ben is now able to lift up his head from the tummy position. He's not as fussy anymore when he has tummy time, though after about 10 minutes he starts complaining. Dave's dad was taking care of Ben and I heard him laughing at Bebop up in the nursery. I came up to see Benjamin naked on a blanket. He looked so adorable that I ran to get my camera and take a couple shots...this one is my favorite!

I'm in class this week so I don't have much time to update...I'm too pooped when I get home to do anything constructive.

Anyway, here's my favorite pic of Ben taken last weekend, from Claud and Redpac:

It makes me laugh.

You all know that I love taking pictures. I adore my little Olympus Camedia - he's always been a good little bugger with his awesome 10x zoom.

But I admit that as of late, I've been longing for another camera. I'm a member of flickr, and I'm always amazed at the beautiful pictures that the other members have. The lighting is just right, there's no motion blur, they have this soft, focused quality that I like. What do most of these photographers have in common? A digital SLR camera.

What's SLR? Well, it stands for "Single Lens Reflex", and essentially, it's a higher grade, more professional camera that allows for more manual control. You can use different lenses and there isn't that lag time after taking a picture that many regular digital cameras have.

Sometimes it feels like everyone has one! (but I know that that's not true)

Maui let me play around with his Canon 10D during our 4th bbq. I was like a kid in a candy store, snapping pictures non-stop. He showed me the different lenses and how to focus. Some people go to amusement parks for fun - just put a good camera in my hands in a backyard full of little kids and I'm having a ball!

Melanie posted up some of my better ones (some of them were taken by other people ) on her photosite, so you can check them out.

Here's a couple of my favorites:

Little Jacob

My godson Kenzo - capturing this on my current camera may have had some motion blur

This pic of my cutie patootie was taken in a room with little light. I was able to adjust the ISO and shutter speed to give it a little more light - also, there was minimal noise in the original picture - something that my camera creates a lot of at an ISO higher than 100.

I just threw this in here because Kenzo's so cute!

As I said before, I love my camera, it takes great pictures. But I can't help wanting something that I can use to get better quality pictures. I've always struggled with getting enough light to get a good picture and noise at a higher ISO level. From the tests that I did with Maui's camera, those issues aren't as bad as a regular point and shoot.

Sadly, an SLR isn't in my near future. We just don't have the cash flow for one - even the ones that I've found on ebay. We just got a new desktop computer, had several weddings to attend this year, and there was that whole baby thing...New SLR cameras start at about $800. *sigh*

One day...oh yes, one day I will get my SLR...and the pictures will be GLORIOUS!

:-P

...thanks to Kat and Texas Kristine's camera, I've got a picture of my failed attempt at being an awesome cake decorator...

Sure, the lettering is crap and the top border has melted down to the bottom, but damn, it tasted GREAT!

Click on the photo for my pictures from Claudine and Dan's wedding:

Melanie has a TON of pictures on her site that she gathered from her own camera, Maui, and the Texas ladies:

I was thinking that maybe we could all have one place to post our favorite pictures from the wedding, so I started a flickr group that everyone can join. I know that a ton of you had cameras and took pictures and several of you who don't have your own websites do have flickr accounts (it's free to join!). So if you want, join the flickr group and add your pics (yes, I'm talking to YOU, Marilyn!)! That way Claudine and Dan have somewhere they can go to look at the pictures from their wedding.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/claudine_and_dan/

Dave was on call yesterday at the hospital, so we decided to celebrate Father's Day today.

It's Dave's first father's day, and he's really excited to spend it with Benjamin. It's amazing how easily Dave has transformed into a father - from changing diapers to entertaining the baby with a whole assortment of noises, games, and baby talk. Ten years ago if you would have asked me what kind of father Dave would be, I would never have imagined him to be the father he is today. He's a completely different person! It really warms my heart to see him interact with his son.

So I hope he has a great day today. We want to do a lot of activities, but I bet we're just going to take a long nap to rest after such a busy weekend. But that's a treat, too, since it's our favorite past time!

So to end my post, I wanted to share my favorite photo of Benjamin so far, just because it was such a candid moment that I caught...Dave had just gotten home from working 24 hours with no sleep and he was exhausted. I needed to take a shower so I asked him to watch the baby and he groggily agreed. I put the baby down in his arms and Dave was talking to him.

When I got back into the room, Dave was fast asleep but I could see Benjamin's arms flailing around next to him. I approached the bed to get a closer look and saw that Benjamin was lying in his father's arms, just laughing and entertaining himself. It was so adorable! Luckily, I got a terrific picture to capture the moment!

It seems that since little Ben was born, most of his pictures are either of him or him and his papa and/or other people, but there are not too many pics of him and his mother. Why? Because someone has to be behind the camera!

So, to make sure that there are SOME pictures of me and my baby out there, I decided to take a pic of just the two of us.

Isn't he adorable?

Ben's growing more every day, and his face is constantly changing. He's lost a little of his baby fat so his face is a little slimmer now. These little photo shoots are pretty fun to do, I love trying to catch his different expressions!

Anyone who's seen the movie "Garden State" will know what scene I'm referring to. Benjamin got a lot of presents, one of them was a onesie/blanket combo that had the same pattern. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to take this picture!

It's Benjamin's one month birthday today! It's amazing that one month has passed already - it just seems like yesterday that I gave birth to him. Then again, it feels like I've had him forever.

Every day he grows bigger and bigger. He was such a tiny thing when he was born - now he's got chubby little legs and arms. Everyone we've talked to tells us to cherish this first year - the baby will grow quickly. I've seen the kids of my friends and though it feels like they were born yesterday, they're so big now!

Here's his first picture:

...and here's a picture we took today:

Happy birthday, my little chimichanga!

This warning was on the packaging of my new laptop, as well as my new desktop. They're different brands, so I'm assuming that this is now the universal symbol for "If You Have No Nose and Slanty Eyes, Don't Put This Bag Over Your Head".

It creeps me out.

One of my favorite things to do is take a nap with little Benny. I'm a little paranoid that I'll roll over on him and squoosh him, so I sleep very lightly, but it's such a great feeling to sense him so close, to hear his quick inhales and exhales.

My camera now lives in the baby's room, always having fresh batteries so it's always ready to catch any precious moment that may arise. I love to take little candid pictures of Dave and the baby, and Dave has become quite the photographer and I'll often find pics I haven't taken on my memory card.

So here's a couple of us doing our favorite thing, sleeping with our little BenBurrito.

I'm using what internet time I have today to clean out a massive amount of spam I got yesterday. Spammers should be naked, covered with honey, tied to a tree with a hive of angry bees thrown at them. But this blog has been so empty lately I decided to throw up a picture of little BenBen. I think I'll throw up a couple more tonight when I get on my desktop.

He totally doesn't look like this anymore, but here's a cute pic that was taken a couple weeks ago when he was a little more than a week old...

Winky

[flickr's having problems with pics right now...]

I'm going to start getting the birth announcements together, but I want to take a good picture for it. So last week baby and I had a little photo shoot. I had him wear one of the Cubs jerseys he got (he has about 8 Cubs outfits, thanks to all who gave them to us!) and his baseball blanket in the background.

It's kinda hard to take pictures of him since he has NO attention span right now, and it's not like he can pose or anything. I basically have to wait for moments and make sure I capture them on film.

Anyway, here's some of the outtakes. I still haven't chosen a picture so one of these may be the winner. Then again, I just may have another photo shoot since he doesn't even look like this anymore!

I have to admit, my baby is adorable! I can stare at him for days!

The sad thing, though, is that he doesn't smile on cue yet. He only smiles when he's pooping or falling asleep, and those times are so hard to catch! I'm waiting for when he actually starts smiling on his own. But for now, I decided to give him some help...

I've finally got the pictures up from Benjamin's first days of life, and all the people who came to visit in those first couple days...click on the first picture to go to the flickr photo album:

Happy Easter from Dave, Me and our little Duckling!

I went "home" the other day - "home" being the house I grew up in where my dad and sisters still live. They've got this massive project where they're cleaning out the attic, which we've been using for storage. Looks like we've got too much stored up there and it's starting to cause some cracks in the wall so they're throwing a lot of the crap we've stored up there over the 25 years we've lived there out.

I'm a horrible packrat, keeping memorabilia in shoe boxes and folders in crates, thinking that one day I'll go through them and get misty at all the memories I've had, only to be put away again back in the attic. I went over the house to check out my share of accumulated crap and to throw away the things I really don't need and just keep the essentials.

Damn, I had a LOT of crap. I was there for 4 hours and I'd only gotten through 1/3 of my stuff.

But what stuff it was! It was a wonderful trip down memory lane, bringing back memories that my poor little brain has chosen to keep buried deep inside. I knew a lot of this stuff wouldn't fit in our new house (and Dave is the OPPOSITE of a pack rat...he rarely keeps anything!) so I knew that I had to throw a lot of it away. It was sad to part with a lot of the things I found - old candles from formals in highschool, pages and pages of letters from highschool and from friends, old movie tickets, dried flowers, etc.

I did keep a lot of things, like all my old pictures that I had hanging up in hand-decorated picture frames, postcards, my old art supplies, and other stuff that wouldn't take up too much room in my new place.

It's a bit sad to let go of a lot of these memories, my memory is so horribly spotty that I need these things to reawaken old feelings and remind me of good days gone by. But I'm entering a new stage in my life, so I feel a bit better about putting these things to rest.

I did, however, take a couple pictures of some of the things that I was going to throw away before they got launched into that big black hole of a hefty garbage bag...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles button (featuring my favorite turtle, Donatello), Belle figurine, my first pager (that I really don't remember ever using), book of matches from PSA formal '97, Cozumel fish key chain, Christmas ornamants that we passed around during a party to have decorated...

My ex-boyfriends old bumblebee fuzzy slippers...if you're out there, Henry, they're going to a better place...

Little Mermaid button collection, duck-bill straw, Psych Grad School stuff (I was thinking of going, then decided I never want to go back to school again), my prom date's bow tie...

Potpourri pillows created during our girls' crafting night, a gift wrapped, empty box with a poem on the front, and my ever present Pochaco photo wallet...

Glass from PSA formal '95, glass from AAA formal '97, glass from PSA formal '97, glass rose from Sweethearts Dance '90....

I think there was a ton more crap that I threw away without taking a pic of them, but these are the ones that i felt I needed to have a visual to remember them...

[updated below for the flickr-handicapped]

I've got my Chicago Home and Garden pics up, there aren't too many that turned out well, but some of them are pretty nice...click on the picture to get to the gallery!

Thanks to Noelle's request, I've created a little map on how to scroll through the pics without having to return to the main thumbnail page - there is a box on the right where you can click on the next picture or click on "more" to scroll through the thumbs until you find a thumbnail you want to click on...

When I was a little kid, I hung out at the library a lot. Across from the library was a Metra station. The Metra is the train system that connects the suburbs to the city. I'd always check out the train, wondering what kind of people rode on there. I'd ridden the "L", the Chicago subway system often as a kid with my parents. I was used to messy trains, shady characters, and keeping my valuables close to me. People who rode the "L" were inner city people, middle to low class, sometimes we'd have the occasional yuppies on there, but there really wasn't a "yuppy" area when I was a kid.

So I'd check out this Metra. These trains that stopped at a special station. What I found so fascinating with these trains was that they were double deckers. There were two levels of people who could ride on the train, and I would try to peer through the tinted green class to see how they did it. The train would stop, well dressed businessmen and women would climb out and go to their cars, their briefcases in tow. I imagined a whole bunch of rich people, drinking champagne and living the good life on the Metra. To me, anyone who lived in the suburbs was rich, they had a better life, the kids got everything they wanted and didn't have to share anything. "One day, I'll ride that Metra!" I thought to myself.

The Metra

So now I ride it all the time to get to work, since I moved to the suburbs. I totally had the wrong impression of the suburbs! Not all suburbs are rich, and the Metra isn't this amazing, wonderful first class train. It looks pretty ordinary inside. However, it IS a lot cleaner and safer than the subway. I can work on my laptop without worrying about someone punching me to steal it. But it wasn't as magical as I thought it would be...

The inside of the Metra

Also, in a weird way, I miss that musky, dank, basement-like smell of the subway stations, as well as the entertaining street performers!

It's been so hectic for me lately, at work and at home, that I just needed a break. So I went on a solo field trip yesterday to the Chicago Home and Garden Show to check out the flowers and use my camera, which hasn't been getting much use lately. It wasn't as cool as the Philly Garden Show I went to a couple years back, but there were a couple cool exhibits...I'll post more later and hopefully get my pictures up by this weekend, because I know you all love to look at pictures of flowers!

Anyway, here's a couple of my faves that I uploaded yesterday night...(click for a larger view)

Of course, to go to the show yesterday after work sacrificed a lot of my rest time, so today I'm exhausted!

As I think I might have mentioned before (maybe I didn't mention it here, I don't remember) I really LOVED the Canadian hats during the Olympics. They were just so cute, and I realized that they were a lot cuter on the girls than the guys. I checked online to see if there was any way that I could order them, but when I went on the official site I didn't see the hats there....there was other Canadian Olympic gear, but no cute hats. Of course, when I went there today they were there but I swear they weren't there several weeks ago!

Anyway, thanks to a wonderful, awesome, super-cool reader that lives out in Canada, I got a Canadian hat in the mail! I was so excited to wear it out. I've already worn it all over the house (and Dave has, too, but he just looks weird in it), but I'm almost hoping that spring waits just a couple more weeks so I could use my hat outside. Thank you so much, Canadian reader!

Also, Dave really had his eye on the Roots USA Olympic hat, though it was $30 at Target during the games. We went there last weekend and everything was 50% off, so he bought the hat for $15. So now we've got a little collection of Olympic hats, which includes the beret that I got in '02.

So here's my little hat fashion show, which also includes me eating a chocolate that was sent over to me from a ultra-awesome individual who went to Torino (sorry, I forgot to wear the pin, too!). The chocolates are delicious, but I'm limiting myself to one a day which is driving me crazy...I want to take a bunch of pics much like my "self dorktrait" from a couple years ago...

Too busy today (and yesterday) to make a post with any substance to it...

So I shall leave you with a photo that I took on the airplane on the way to Aruba...

That looks so tempting right now!

Male Bonding - February 2006

As I mentioned before, Dave doesn't really play with Ewok or know how to treat him. Usually, when I'm with Ewok on the couch, he'll be snuggled up next to me or I'll be napping and he'll hop up next to me so I can hug him like a teddy bear.

With Dave, he likes to jump up on the couch and hang out in the crook of Dave's knees as he's lying down.

But in this case, Ewok was on the couch first, but Dave didn't want to bother and move him, so he just put his legs over Ewok, who then oozed out from underneath Dave's legs and then put his chin on the footrest. The two of them settled like that, in some sort of weird man/dog harmony. I just had to take a picture!

Anyway, Ewok's gone now, and the house is a little emptier. I was so used to getting up and taking him out, or napping on the couch and having him at my feet. It was so nice to have him around! I liked the extra company!

27 weeks, 4 days and 27lbs

Just an update picture that I took at work last week, after my gorgefest in Vegas. I gained about 5lbs during that trip even through I was trying to be good. However, food is definitely my weakness so I didn't try too hard.

Fortunately, I haven't gained much weight since then, so I shouldn't get into TOO much trouble with the doc tomorrow!

Yesterday I was sitting at home with Dave, watching TV as he surfed the net. I was sipping on my homemade concoction of bananas, pineapples, strawberry ice cream and vanilla soy milk (which actually was quite tasty) and he was sipping on a bottled Mocha Frappucino.

I love Frappucinos.

However, in my current condition I was advised to stay away from caffeine. Not that it was forbidden...my doctor had actually said that one or two cups was ok. But just for the baby's sake, I've been avoiding it completely.

It's hard to avoid it when it's right in front of your face.

So in a fit of madness, I grabbed Dave's drink and chugged a bit of it down. My ears were deaf to Dave's screams of "Christine!!! The baby!!! Think of the baby!" My only thoughts were of savoring those precious gulps of coffee goodness.

Of course, in my haste, I spilled a bunch of it on myself. To which Dave said, "Ha! That's what you get!"

Later on that night, we were having pizza for dinner, which for some reason I've been LOVING lately. I was happily munching on my slice and I happened to look down on my shirt.

For some reason, it looked like a tomato exploded on my shirt. I must have dropped a sausage on myself and it probably bounced off my big belly and went all over the place.

Dave caught me looking at myself and then saw my shirt and bust out laughing. Hard. I gave him my sad face and said pitifully, "I'm a fat pregnant slob!" Dave, in between bouts of laughter, agreed, "My wife is a big slob!"

It was hilarious and sad at the same time, there I sat at the dinner table with my shirt all stained with coffee and pizza sauce, it looked like I'd never eaten before. We had a good laugh over it and then he made me go upstairs to change my shirt because he couldn't look at me without laughing.

I don't know what it is, half my food ends up on my shirt now. It could be that I'm so excited to eat that I miss my mouth, or just that my hand eye coordination has been sucking lately. But for some reason, a good percentage of my food ends up on my shirt, rather than in my mouth!

In the middle, Frappucino stains, at the bottom, pizza stains...

....unless it's picture of me dancing on a stripper pole in a party bus...

The story behind this is quite innocent. Last week we were staying at the Aladdin, but because of scheduling conflicts, had to move the second half of our meetings to a new hotel. So after the main group finished up, the little sub-group that I'm part of packed up their stuff and got ready to go to the other hotel. Since there were about 14 of us going, we needed to rent a bus to get there. The cheapest bus that they could find was one of those party buses that they use for bachelor parties and strippers (guys, don't tell me you DON'T know what that is...). What was funny was that most of the people in my group were older people who had no idea what kind of bus this was. So there was no party on the party bus.

But I decided before we left the bus to have some fun with the stripper pole, because anyone who was at my bachelorette party knows of my skillz. Of course, I didn't do too well because of my big belly, but it was still fun.

So I'm considering taking up stripping to raise money for my unborn child.

Eh, maybe not...

I've been in meetings and training for the past couple days. During one training session, the trainer gave us some pipe cleaner to keep us active and awake, which is a great idea. So of course, I spent more time concentrating on my pipe cleaner creations than the class. However, I did learn a lot. I'm great at multi tasking.

It wouldn't be the new year if I didn't post an annual cousins picture! There's a couple missing, but a majority of us were there for our first picture of the year...

23 Weeks

It's been about a month since my last picture update.

I've gotten significantly more huge since my last picture - not only my belly, but my ass as well!

I can't imagine growing any bigger - I still have four months to go! I'm huge! Call me Shamu!

However, this picture is a bit deceiving. My medium sized pregnancy pants were feeling a big snug, so I wore the large ones that Chariya had given to me when going to work (where this picture is taken). Bad idea! I was in such a hurry to leave, I didn't realize that the pants were REALLY big on me. I was pulling them up all day! So this picture isn't really representative of how big my ass is right now. Well, just a little.

Happy New Year Everyone!

I've been planning on posting this picture of my Christmas tree, but I've been too lazy to download it off my camera.

It's fun to get a real tree, all my life we'd had the same plastic tree. But Dave had always loved real trees (his family would sometimes get them). But it's so hard picking "the tree", finding a tree that's big enough, that has enough coverage, that looks even.

Last year, we had a nice tree, but when the time came to throw it away it was so prickly! Dave and I almost cried because the needles hurt so much. This year, we made sure to ask for a non-prickly tree, and we got a balsam fir. So much softer!

We've got about 3 years of ornaments that we've accumulated, most from Target and K-Mart (I never knew that nice ornaments could be so expensive!) and leftovers from his parents.

I love lights, so I went a little crazy stringing the lights on. There's a lot. We also managed to put on every single ornament we own on that tree. So the tree looks a bit busy and overcrowded. But hey, it looks good! We may try a different tactic next year, though.

Oh, and we named this tree "Christmas Ballsy". I have no idea why.

Here's a pic I stole from Melanie, it's a little out of focus, but I thought it was cute...

Anytime there's a storm and I see the sun come out, I look for a rainbow. I check out where the sun is and look the opposite way, knowing that the sunshine would cast a rainbow against the stormclouds.

I always love seeing rainbows. There's just something magical about them.

On rare occasions, you can sometimes see a double rainbow - an outside arc over the rainbow that has the colors reversed. It's normally pretty faint, but there are sometimes that it can be seen without straining. The cool thing about a double rainbow is that it has the colors reversed, it's a mirror image of the main rainbow.

So the next time you're marveling at a rainbow, check out the outer edges of it to see if there's an extra surprise!

Felt like posting a picture today...

Polar Bears - San Diego Zoo : November 2003

I love that Coke commercial, where the baby polar bear slides down the hill and finds himself among a school of penguins. Is it a school when you're talking about penguins? For some reason, it doesn't seem right. Anyway, I'm always waiting for the penguins to scream and run about in terror as the mama and papa bear come down to pick up the little one. Then again, the penguins wouldn't know to be scared of the polar bear, since they live in the south pole and polar bears are in the north pole. Which leads to the question - How did they all end up together? Are they part of some sort of weird coca cola experiment?

These are the things that go through my hormone confused mind in the middle of the night.

Thank you.

Just a quick post to show you a pic I took when I got into my hotel. My belly's getting pretty big, and based on this picture, it looks like my ass is getting pretty lumpy, too!

18 Weeks, 4 Days

Sculpture at Wizard World Chicago

I haven't posted a random picture in a while. When I was at the comic book convention a couple months ago, I saw a whole bunch of little statues that were pretty cool, this is one of them. The lighting was just perfect and I just love the pose!

Happy Halloween everyone!!!

While Dave was in Vegas last weekend doing some bible readings, knitting sweaters, scrapbooking and watching Michael Jackson impersonators for his friend's bachelor party (who am I kidding? It was a weekend full of boobies galore!) I was at my cousin Trully's house carving pumpkins with the cousins.

It is now our annual pumpkin carving night, and we had pizza, calamari, and pumpkin pie to fill our bellies while we carved out our pumpkins. For anyone that's never done it before, it's quite a workout! I don't know how anyone can expect a little kid to do it, it takes a lot of arm strength.

Our new little baby, Kenzo, dressed up in his lion costume that he wore earlier in the day at the zoo halloween fest they attended. You could tell that he wasn't happy at all to be in the stuffy costume, but he was so adorable!

Here's a couple pics from the night:

Kenzo is grouchy in his costume!

Fatima's spooky castle

Maui's Werewolf

Marlon's "Wicked" pumpkin

Melanie and Jerome's gaggle of ghouls

Trully, Claudine and Melanie's lone ghost

The howling wolf that Claudine and I made

Pumpkin guts! Eew...

When I think of where I get my quirky sense of humor, I assume it comes from my dad, who's humor is a little off the wall and he's quite a prankster. But then I see pictures like this, I realize my goofy gene comes from both sides:

I found this picture a while ago, and scanned it in because I had forgotten that she had taken it. Her humor was a little more silly than off the wall, and she loved to laugh. I wish I had that laugh on tape! Maybe I do have it somewhere on video, but it would be too painful to look for it. Give me another year, maybe I'll have the strength to.

I wish I wrote more about my mother before she passed away, or had a journal while growing up. Sometimes I sit here and realize my memories are fading - which is the reason I started this blog in the first place. It saddens me, to forget bits and pieces of my time with my mother.

It's funny when you're a teenager, and you think to yourself, "I NEVER want to be like my parents when I grow up." Looking back, I can't even remember why I thought that - maybe because I thought they were too strict, maybe because they were too stubborn or sheltered me too much. But now I realize that it made me the person that I am today, a person that I think turned out pretty ok. My parents raised three very different girls, and they all ended up being good people. I can only hope to be that lucky.

So now, I don't mind when people tell me I'm like my mom, that I look like her, or that I act like her. It makes me proud, and gives me hope that yeah, maybe I'll grow up to be amazing person she was.

Haven't posted a picture on here in a while, so...

This is a picture of Dr. Doom, me and Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds at the Chicago Comic Convention this past summer. Galactus is this all knowing, all powerful being who goes around the universe looking for worlds to consume to satisfy his hunger.

Sounds pretty intimidating, huh?

Well, intimidating until you see his cute fluffy booties:

Sure, he may eat worlds and destroy civilizations in one bite, but a guy who wear big fuschia booties like that doesn't scare me!

One of the most interesting things when you're walking down the street at Venice Beach are these signs practicing free speech, part of "The Worlds Largest Free Speech Display". You can read about a lot of them here. I didn't take much time to read them, but some of the titles were just damn funny.

Back from Aruba! I'm tired, which is strange considering I've been napping and doing nothing for the whole week in paradise...

I'm as dark as chocolate (except for my legs, which actually seem to reflect the sunlight and are still pretty pale) and I've got a ton of pictures!

More tomorrow!

Haven't done one of these in a while...

Photo Friday : Violet

Sea Anemone - Long Beach, CA : November 2003

As promised, my New York pictures. Didn't take much because I was too busy looking at everything...

Since I had figured out how to use my macro setting on my camera, I decided to go into my garden yesterday to see what I could find to take a picture of. Unfortunately, most of the flowers there are dead (is it my fault? I don't know. I think the plants are supposed to be dead around this time. Right? Please tell me they're supposed to be dead, because they are.) Well, not all the flowers are dead. There's a bush with some pretty purple flowers on it that I was going to take some close-ups of.

I found this big fat bumblebee looking for pollen, and took a couple pictures of him, though I really had to control the urge to flail around and run for cover every time it started flying around. Soon, I realized there were a bunch of bees in the bush, reveling in all the pollen that this plant produced.

After running around the backyard as I was chased by a deadly dragongly, I returned to the bush to find a monarch butterfly checking out the pollen count. It was hard to take a picture of him because he just wouldn't stay still. I would have loved to take a close-up of him, but that didn't happen.

I noticed that the flowers right next to the house were in bloom (seems like every time I come home there are new plants in bloom. The people who owned this house before us were master gardeners, I feel bad that we have no idea what we're doing) I took a couple pics of those, then came back to the big purple bush. I saw this fat bug flying around from flower to flower, then realized it wasn't a fat bug, it was a hummingbird. This little guy was a little more sensitive to my presence with the camera, so everytime I came in for a close shot, he'd move away. Next time, I should remember to camouflage myself with leaves or something. But I managed to get a good shot of him, after about 20 pictures.

[edit: After a short debate (I wasn't too sure anyway) Sam has convinced me that it wasn't a hummingbird. It was, in fact, a very fat moth. Hmph. FUCK YOU, AQUAMAN.]

[edit #2: because I cannot stand being wrong, I did some research, and found out that this thing is indeed a hummingbird - a hummingbird moth! Yeah. I'm half right.

So here are my pictures of my photoadventure. The first picture has the butterfly, bumblebee and fat moth all in one shot - can you see them? Click on the picture to see where they're hidden....

I've fallen in love with photography again, thanks to my new obsession to my Flickr account that Walter gave me. I'm not even a quarter way of posting up all the picture I have, but that dream of finally having galleries for my photos is coming true. It's easier to post up my higher quality photos up here than what I've been doing.

So the other day, bored in my hotel, I finally figured out how to use the supermacro lens on my camera. I absolutely love this picture that I took, of my favorite shade of lipstick. Click on the picture for more detail...

Since I've been really bored here in my trashy hotel in Jackson, I decided to have a photoshoot with myself to show of my new hairdo. Ten minutes and about 50 pictures later, I've found three that I don't look completely dorky in. Not that I don't look dorky in these...

I am lovin' this new cut. It's got a lot more layers, but these are healthy layers, compared to the hacked off layers I had done when I was in California. If I put it up in a bun when it's wet and take it down around midday I get a nice amount of body and waves. These pics were taken at the end of the day, and it's still bouncy and happy.

Jack Hayes at Studio 8, you are my hero.

To counteract the pretty depressing post from this morning...

Prairie Dog : Los Angeles, CA - May 2005

Isn't this little prairiedog adorable?

Thursday Challenge : Flight

Seagull Over Millenium Park - Chicago, IL : June 2005

In honor of the Discovery Channel's shark week, I decided to post this picture of a sand shark from my adventures at the Long Beach Aquarium.

When I was little, I was terrified of Jaws. The recurring dream I have the most is of me, as a little girl (I had it since I was a kid), just about to take a bath. I open up the shower curtains and look into the tub, only to see a school of sharks swimming inside. I knew that I had to go into the water, so I would get in, with the water up to my knees. I would stand there terrified as the sharks swam around me, ready to attack, then I would wake up. I'm pretty sure that's why I never really learned how to swim. When I snorkel, I sometimes start to relive the dream and start to panic, so it's a big effort to regulate my breathing and get the images out of my mind.

Funny thing is, seeing these things in person really does nothing to me.

Of course, they're in the tank and I'm on land, but still. :-P

On Saturday we headed out to Wrigley Field for a Cubs game. This time around we brought along my cousin David who's been in town from Florida, and Dave's uncle from the Philippines. [Marilyn, I totally OWE you, girly!] We were trying to figure out the best way to get there without paying for parking (which can run up to $30). Our plan was to drop of our dads and guests at the park, drive over to my cousin's place, leave the car, then take the train in. The dad's told us to drop them off 'a couple blocks' from the park, navigating Dave to the streets where they wanted to be dropped off - so we could avoid the traffic around the park. Imagine how fortunate we felt when we saw an open parking spot (free) by the drop off point. So we parked there and walked the rest of the way.

Little did we know that 'a few blocks' actually means about a mile and a half. It took us a little more than half an hour to walk to the park, and we would have gotten there in faster time if we just stuck to our original plan. We missed the free hat giveaway and watching the Cubs warm up. Fortunately, though, we got there early enough to get a good seat - the bleacher seats at Wrigley Field fill up rather quickly - about an hour before the game.

The day was HOT HOT HOT. I didn't put on any sunscreen so I could get some color, but I realized that the sun was just too strong. Lucky for us - they were handing out free packets of sunscreen. I still got burned and I'm going to itch and peel for a couple days. I don't think I've been that hot in a long time - they had people out there spraying us with water.

The game was fun, as they always are. The bleachers are definitely the best seats in the park - everyone just has a good time and its like a big party. We didn't win, which was a bummer, but hey, it happens. My record for Cubs games this year is 1-1, we'll see what happens for the next game we go to!

Too lazy to make a post of any substance today, so here's a pretty picture:

Central Park Bench - New York City : April 2003

All along Central Park there are benches, and on many of the benches are little plaques like this. I didn't get to see them all since I was on my lunch break, but I thought this one was really sweet.

Photo Friday : Candid

Flower Girl - October 2003 : Chicago, IL

Thursday Challenge : Fragile

This stained glass window was made by David Maitland and his daughter Helen Armstrong in the late 1800's. It's in the Faith Chapel on Jekyll Island, right off the coast of Georgia, and has a pretty interesting story:

The image depicts the Adoration of the Christ Child with an unusual twist: it prophesies the Christ Child’s future. The second wise man is dressed as a Roman soldier. The third wise man bends to the ground, more in mourning than adoration, and along with the jar of myrrh, he lays out a crown of thorns.

Haven't done this in a while...

Thursday Challenge : Close

Flower Bud - Long Beach, CA : January 2005

I love this picture, because my body looks like the neck and head of a dragon. Anyone want to guess who the other shadow in the picture is?

Too tired and lazy to make thumbnails, so you dial up peeps will just have to deal!

'The Gil Graduation', because who needs a last name? Everyone knows who it's for!

Lately these are the only kinds of pictures that I take with Dave

...and pretty much anyone else, as you can see here with Manny.

The Boys

Rachel, Cathy and Me

Another picture of the boys, because you know, when you get them together that's all they want to do - take pictures with each other.

Haven't posted a picture in a while.

Here's a picture of a lily that I have in my garden. I've been too busy to take it out of the pot and actually plant it out there. Who knows. It may actually be dead right now.

But here's a picture of it in all it's glory, the younger days, when it was fresh from the garden store, before I touched it with my black thumb from hell....

The North Side Dukes It Out With the South

Every year, the biggest game for the Chicago Cubs is when they play their Chicago rivals, the Chicago White Sox. Traditionally, the people who live on the North side of town root for the Cubs, the people on the South side cheer for the Sox. When the Cross Town Classic happens, it makes for an interesting game, and tickets are always in demand for it.

Luckily, thanks to Redpac, we were able to get tickets for the game, making this the first Cross Town Classic for any of us. We knew it was definitely going to be interesting watching it, since Dan was brought up on the South side as a Sox fan, and Dave had grown up about 2 blocks away from Wrigley field as a Cubs fan. Claudine and I made sure to sit in between them during the game. My family was a family divided, with Dan wearing his Sox gear, as well as Fatima. Dave, my dad and I were wearing a Cubs gear, and Claudine stayed in the middle by wearing a Sox shirt and a Cubs visor. Turns out we weren't the only family with identity issues - the family in front of us had the kids split between teams as well.

If you ever have a chance to go watch the Cubs/Sox game, do it. It's so much fun! There will be people cheering for everything. There a strike - people cheer. There's a ball, people cheer. The Cubs hit a homerun, people cheer. The Sox hit a homerun, people cheer. I loved to hear the trashtalking, too. Here's a convo that I heard:

Cub fan: (turning to the Sox fans behind him) Hey, just wanted you to know that this is what it's like.
Sox fan: What are you talking about?
Cub Fan: This is what it's like to have a full stadium. I know you guys don't really have that.
Sox fan: Whatever. Our park is better than yours.
Cub fan: Sure, it may be newer, but who cares if the park is newer if no one goes there?
Sox fan: OK man, whatever you say. You just remember who's winning. We're #1 right now.
Cub fan: Yeah, it's nice, isn't it?
Sox fan: Hell yeah it is.
Cub fan: Enjoy it while it lasts. We were #1, too. I know what it's like. Don't get cocky when you're #1 for the first part of the season.
Sox fan: Where the hell is Bartman when you need him. BARTMAN!!! BARTMAN!!!

...and so on. It was funny to listen to. Of course, it was all good natured ribbing.

The Cubs hit a homer early in the game, which caused Dave to start this gutteral man scream and look at Dan as he did it. I didn't see the look, but Fatima compared it to those psycho male fans who paint their bodies and scream their heads off. When the Sox hit a homer later on to take the lead, it was Dan's turn to rub it in. The back and forth of the game was awesome. There were times when the Cubs fans were standing, there were times when the Sox fans were standing. THe Cubs kept Mark Prior in for the whole game, and by the top of the 9th inning, EVERYONE was standing up cheering.

It was definitely a good time.

Here are more pics - Our seats were a bit back so they're not as close as I wanted, but the day was beautiful and the sun was shining so I have nothing to complain about!

Photo Friday : Green

Detroit Airport Tunnel - Detroit, MI : October 2003

Thursday Challenge : Play

Young at Heart - Huntington Beach, CA : August 2003

I was out at lunch with Redpac and Aquaman when I got a call from my friend from Long Beach, Lanie. Turns out she was passing through town on a little hula tour she was doing with people from her group. They had made plans to meet up with some other people, and I had no idea where they were oing to be, so we just chatted for a little bit. My reception was a bit crappy, so we didn't talk for long.

She had called back and told me they were downtown, and I told her that I worked downtown. Since the place that they were going to go to was closed, the came and met up with us at our new hangout, Rock Bottom.

It was great to see Lanie again. I hadn't seen her since the crazy party at her place before we had left Long Beach. All those Long Beach people were great to us while we were out there. It's nice knowing that we have friends out there. She was only passing through the city on her way to Michigan to do some hula classes for little kids.

Me, Lanie, Redpac and Aquaman

Of course, I looked like crap when she came in. I had actually realized earlier that day that I had forgotten to put on makeup, and my hair looked pretty crappy. I never go out of the house without makeup, but I was in a hurry that morning.

I don't know what it is, but putting on makeup in the morning is like a security blanket to me. I feel safe and comfortable when I go out with it. It's not like I'm wearing full-on makeup. Normally just powder, eyeliner and lipstick or lipgloss. The funny thing is, I know that the makeup rubs off by about 11am anyway, but I still need it on. Yet I had a little freak out when I realized I had forgotten to wear some. I felt naked!

Of course, I have no idea if the makeup helps at all. But I like to believe it does!

------------

So thanks to Lanie for coming by. It was great to see you again. And to Lanie's friends, it was nice to meet you all. Sorry for not saying good bye when we left. I was ashamed of my un-madeup heinousness. If that's even a word.

Photo Friday : Space

Full Moon Over Haleakala - Maui, HI : March 2004

This photo was taken on top of the Haleakala volcano in Maui. It took me a couple tries to get this photo, since it was at night and I really had to minimize the movement of my camera (I didn't have a tripod). The moon was actually quite small, so I'm zoomed in all the way. An hour after this, we saw the most beautiful sunrise on top of the mountain!

Thursday Challenge : Flowers

Bleeding Hearts

These are the flowers that are currently blooming in my garden. I'd like to take credit for these wonderful bursts of color in my backyard, but just like the Japanese Maple, they were here when we moved in. The work of the green thumb that lived in the house before us. It's a nice treat to go in the backyard and see these pretty flowers in bloom. Hopefully, I can get some of my own in there. I've got several boxes of bulbs and a couple of packets that I need to start planting.

We'll see in a couple months if I've got that green thumb. But chances are, it will be the black pinkie of death and desctruction.

Photo Friday : Action

Relay - Marquette, MI : October 2003

Haven't used this picture in a while, but it's definitely one of my favorite action shots, with the focus on Rusty in the middle of the crowd of the men's relay.

Thursday Challenge : Sky

Oakbrook Sunset - Oakbrook, IL : July 2004

I don't know if I've posted this one before. We saw this awesome sunset after meeting with the mortgage guy as we were preparing to buy our house (that mortgage guy being the ever wonderful Ced). It was awesome, and the clouds were lit up by the setting sun, and they formed this spaceship bowl looking-like thing. The only modifications I did to this were to even the lighting levels - didn't do any color at all. Here's a closeup:

Since I'm not going to be in Mississippi this month like I thought I would be, here are some pictures from my first trip out there.

Outside of the Mississippi Capitol

When I was out in Mississippi, a couple of my coworkers wanted to check out the capitol building. I didn't mind at all, since I was planning on going there to snap some pictures.

We climbed up the steps to the capitol and found a side entrance. When we got in, there was a security station, complete with metal detector that you had to walk through. However, there was no one manning it. No security at all. We looked around, saw no one. So we just walked in. The funny thing is, like obedient little citizens we took off our metal, walked through the metal detector (because we could have easily just walked around it) and put back our watches and stuff after walking through. No one stopped us. No one was there.

We walked around, still seeing no one, and it almost felt as if some sort of alien attack happened and sucked all the people out. Shouldn't the capitol building of Mississippi have security walking around? Or even state workers? A janitor maybe?

We walked up the stairs and wandered around, and found the house of representative chambers. This time there was a guy sitting there, doing some paper work. We smiled and said hello, and he nodded. Was asked if it was all right to go into the house room, and he said to go ahead. Not much resistance there!

As we came out, we ran into another woman in the hallway, who quickly said hello and went on her way, as if the second it took for her to say her greeting had already made her late for wherever she was going. She didn't ask who we were at all, didn't ask us if we were enjoying our self guided tour.

We took the elevator down, which is one of those old elevators that is run by a man who pushes buttons for you. He wasn't much into conversation, either. When we got back to the entrance, there were security guards there. They didn't even looked surprised to see us, just bored. As we left, they told us to have a nice day, then continued whatever conversation it was that we interrupted.

All in all, it was a bizarre experience, almost felt like a dream. We thought there would be tons of people milling around the capitol building, but it was a ghost town!

Photo Friday : Fancy

Hallway at the Venetian - Las Vegas, NV : March 2003

Thursday Challenge : Building

Wrigley Building in Fog - April 2002

Sometimes working on the higher floors of a sky scraper is an amazing experience. When the fog rolls in, it's like you're working in the sky, in a land surrounded by clouds.

I did something today that I've been putting off for the long time, which I shall put in the Yano history books as 'The Longest Procrastination'.

One year and 8 months later, I've finally submitted my wedding album format to my photographer.

That's not bad, is it?

We've had the proofs to look at all this time, so we really haven't needed to look at a pretty album.

But I thought it was about time, since we're going to be buying the negatives from her anyway. Wouldn't want to waste the money we spent on the wedding package (which included an album) by not setting up my album. So after hours of debate, we've chosen the top pictures, which I'll post later. Here's a couple to wet your whistle:

Kissing by the dugout

A candid moment at Wrigley

The wedding party

I love these crazy guys!

It may be one year and wight months later, but I still can't get enough of these pictures! I love them!

(Photos are still owned by my AWESOME photographer, EIB Photography. They're so awesome that Claudine is going to use them for her wedding!)

Thursday Challenge : Shape

Bonzai Tree - Philadelphia, PA : March 2005

Years, even decades of trimming, care and patience are needed to create a beautiful bonzai tree. Here's my little collection of pictures of trees from the Philadelphia Flower Show a couple months ago.

On Friday, Dan, Sam and I went over to the opening of the newly renovated downtown McDonald's. They tore the old Rock n' Roll Mcdonald's and came up with a super cool new one, just in time for the 50th anniversary of the company.

The new restaurant has a second floor that's a lounge, complete with swanky couches, mini-cafe, time museum in the back, and WiFi connection. It's pretty nice, except the prices are a bit inflated.

So here's several of my pictures. There was a line of people that stretched to the other side of the building, but it moved quickly as security let people in as people went out. It was like club Micky D's in there.

As an added bonus, I have a picture of my hairy mountain men. This is about a week's worth of growth on these guys. I've asked Sam to just shave the beard part, and leave the 'stache, but he's a chicken and won't. Unfortunately, I didn't get a full body shot here. Dan is actually hugging Sam and has his leg up on him, but Sam, afraid of a little simple man-love, moved away.

...because I make them wear silly hats, and take pictures of it to post on the internet.

Silly Hats - Orlando, FL : June 2001

Photo Friday : Rest

Resting Hippo - Los Angeles Zoo : May 2004

Doh! I never learned how to read....anyway, here's the REAL Thursday Challenge submission:

Thursday Challenge : Shiny

Bridal Shower Bows - Skokie, IL : June 2003

Photo Friday : Plastic

Obi-Wan Figurine - Rosemont, IL : August 2004

Photo Friday : Hot

Fire Dancer - Maui, HI : March 2004

Thursday Challenge : Food

Croquetas de Pollo - Chicago, IL : October 2004

My apologies if you don't get the song reference in the subject line of this post.

Anyway, I think I promised you all (about a million months ago) pictures of my new place. I think there have been glimpses of it in various posts, but here are some pictures that I had taken last October after we had gotten the furniture in. I've got a backlog of pics to post (Alaska, Philly, Wrigley Field), so I'm starting off with these!

The upstairs living room. All the couches recline and it's made of a fabric that is resistant to the constant licking and digging of my dad's dog. Ten points if you figure out what show is on the TV in this picture.

My kitchen. Stainless steel stove, fridge and microwave. I was thinking that this place would never be used but I'm in it quite often. Who'd have thought? I have become a domestic goddess! Wait, does hamburger helper count towards being a culinary master?

The guest room, which is also called 'the blue room' or 'the hippo room', where I house my collection of hippos. Currently the windows have paper blinds on them. We may just keep it that way, because we're cheap like that.

The office. Even though there's a computer in there, it's about 5 years old and on its last legs, so I never use it, except to store my digital pictures on it. Dave spends his non-Sports Center time here studying medical mumbo jumbo.

This is where the magic happens, people! This sturdy king sized bed fits four people comfortably (as we tested during our Christmas sleepover) and the people who moved out left us the curtains.

What I don't have pictured is the basement living room (which just has an old futon and stereo speakers right now), the wet bar (we've emptied the keg and need to get a new one), the fish tank (but you've already seen the fishies, right?) and the pool table. But I think there's pics of that somewhere - probably Halloween. There are exterior shots of the house there, too.

Posted by Yano at 03:01 AM | Comments (16)

Photo Friday : Tiny

Mini Cars - Huntington Beach, CA : April 2004

I don't know if I've ever posted this picture before, but people I've shown it to seem to like it:

I took this picture in the Disney store inside the Aladdin casino in Las Vegas. Me and a couple friends were just fooling around and I saw this costume and knew I had to try it on, inside the store. I swear, this outfit works magic. As soon as I had it in I felt all warm and fuzzy. Then all the little kids saw me and started hugging me and crying 'Pooh! Mommy look, it's Winnie the Pooh!' I was going around, playing with kids, giving high fives, running all over the store. I was the most popular bear in Vegas, baby!

Try it sometime. It's fun!

Sunday Shoot : Flowers

Flower Arrangement - Philadelphia, PA : March 2005

Photo Friday : Glow

Sea Anemone - Long Beach, CA : November 2003

Photo Friday : Faces

Before the Big Day - Chicago, IL : August 2003

Before the most memorable day of my life, I spent a quiet, wonderful night with some of my favorite ladies, including the girl cousins, who you can see here. I love these gals to death, they are so awesome and I don't know what I would do without them.

Yesterday I went to the annual Philadelphia Flower Show, which I've learned is the biggest flower show in the nation. I went with my client, who is a big gardening buff who didn't have anyone else to go with. I used the chance as a photographic field trip, as well as to plan out the garden that I might have this year.

That's a BIG might. My mother and father gardened quite a bit at home, but the most I helped out with was the plucking of weeds or the watering. I have no green thumb at all. But I'd like to at least try, especially after getting inspired by all of the beautiful flowers that I saw at the show.

The show itself was really cool. Although I was about 20-30 years younger than the average age, there was still a lot more diversity in the crowd than I thought there would be. The presentations were awesome - horticulturalists from all over the area competed for 'Best in Show' awards, and they went all out creating these amazing gardens, all held within the convention hall. I don't have many pictures of them here, but maybe once I get the gallery up I will.

Of course, I took a ton of pictures. I'm still trying to figure out the macro mode on my camera, and the lighting in the convention center wasn't optimal, but I managed to get a few good shots in. Flowers are my favorite subjects to take pictures of, because they're so vibrant with color, and they don't move!

So here's a sampling of my pics to enjoy!

Since it was mentioned in his comment, I wanted to share with you 'the original' Sam's ultra cool tattoo.

....and yes, it *IS* silly to go out and get your girlfriend's name tattooed on your back.

Volleyball, Newport Beach, CA : April 2004

I love to take pictures. I may not have the greatest camera out there or the patience to get 'the perfect shot' but photographs are a way for me to remember events. I'm on a quest to become better, and I am, little by little...

But I wanted to share with you my gallery of sports pictures. I know it's saturated with a bunch of short track and surfing pictures, but you'll also find a good amount of others in there.

This is the first of what I hope will be many galleries of photos that I want to share with you all!

Visit my sports gallery

Theme Thursday : Road

Michigan Avenue Holiday Lights - Chicago, IL : December, 2005

Self Made Panoramic View of Ketchikan Airport - Ketchikan, AK

So here I am, in my room in Ketchikan, the fourth largest city in Alaska. It's located in the southeast corner of the state, only several hundred miles from Seattle, WA. The weather here is more Seattle than Alaska, with rain for most of the year and a lot of mountains and forests.

Haven't found much to do here yet, though the Walmart was a hoppin' place. There are ZERO radio stations here so I had stopped by to get a couple CD's.

I have no phone reception (other than roaming, but I hate paying the extra charges - even if I CAN get them reimbursed, it's a bitch to do), but fortunately, I have wireless access in my hotel room.

This isn't a big town at all, and it feels very much like 'Northern Exposure' here. Lots of logging and fishing going on around these parts!

But it's a beautiful place, and I'll do some exploring tonight in the downtown area on the hill.

Bye!

Photo Friday : Ghostly

Two submmissions for today, because I love these two pics:

Christ Church Burial Ground - Philadelphia, PA : February 2005

The Wrigley Building - Chicago, IL : April 2002

Theme Thursday : Motion

Fire Dancer - Maui, HI : March, 2004

Jellyfish - Long Beach, CA : November 2003

I love taking pictures of jellyfish. They move so effortlessly through the water, and they're just so beautiful to gaze at. I could watch them all day. When I lived in Long Beach, I would go to the aquarium just to go and watch them.

I've been posting a lot of pictures lately - I've been wanting to create galleries for my photography, so this is a way for me to get my butt in gear and start processing my pictures.

Sorry if it slows down the loading time of the site!

Sunday Shoot - Trees

Autumn - Morton Arboretum, IL : October, IL

Pigeon Watching - Newport Beach, CA : April 2004

On days like today, when it's freezing and windy outside, I like to pretend like I'm back in California, where the only time you talk about 'freezing' its when you're making ice cubes. I'm sure warm weather will be coming here soon, and then you'll hear me complaining about it, but when you're cold, it's nice to have daydreams of warmer days.

Photo Friday : Luscious

My Rabbit, Luscious

An appropriate subject for this week's theme!

Winner! - Long Beach, CA : June 2004

This was a lucky picture. If I had pressed the button at this exact moment, I would have won a gazillion tickets or something. But alas, all I have is the picture.

Photo Friday : Distorted

The Bean - Chicago, IL : August 2004

Hood Ornament - January, 2005 : Wisconsin Dells, WI

If Dan is ever a bad husband to my sister, this is what's going to happen to him. This time it was just a warning.

This was taken at the conclusion of our Devil's Head vacation. More news on that later, but I have to run to the in-laws for dinner.

The weekend was a lot of fun, and we survived with only minor injuries (sorry Melanie!), some really bad karaoke, a city-wide search for a Perkins, and only one of us was hungover today. I forgot my 'regular' camera when I was on the slopes, so I don't have any action shots, but I do have some pictures from when the boys were frolicking in the pool, so I'll post those and my trip report later tonight!

Photo Friday : Youth

Frolicking - Bolsa Chica, CA : June 2004

In tribute to Will Eisner, I'll post up my Comic Convention recap, that I've been too lazy to post up. Sure, it was in August, and sure, Will wasn't there, but I've gotta post this baby up sometime - it might as well be today.

Truthfully, this wasn't the best con I've been to. Not because it was a bad convention, it was just because there was so much going on around the time of the convention that I couldn't fully enjoy all my time there. This was the first time in a long time that I hadn't gone to the Friday of the convention. I spent the rest of the weekend trying to play catch up, which isn't easy, since I was so used to just taking my time, talking to people, getting sketches, going to panels and such. I didn't even really get a chance to check out all of the shops in the back. Nonetheless, I still had fun. I got some great sketches, and saw some familiar friendly faces and some new friends.

Without further adieu, here's my highlights:

- Amber Benson, who played Tara in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was one of the guests of the 'con. She's much prettier in person, and seemed friendly and easy going with the fans that lined up to meet her. Didn't have the patience to wait in line. However, I was in the bathroom at the same time with her, while the infamous Wizard security guy waited for her outside. Had a little eye contact and we smiled. That's about it. Oh, and she washed her hands. That is something important to know. Because if she didn't, well, eew.

- I got to meet Greg Horn, whose art I adore. I was a little bit intimidated when I met him - I don't know what I expected, but he was just a regular guy. When I went up to talk to him, there was a woman who worked at the booth with him. She whispered something to him as I was talking with him, and he said, "Didn't you work at the Aspen booth last year?" I was a little bit stunned. I didn't really think that anyone would recognize me with the glasses, haircut and blonde highlights. I said that it was me, and he said I had looked familiar to him, and the woman was the one who had recognized me from last year. I didn't even KNOW Greg was at the 'con last year. I would definitely have gone to meet him! Anyway, it was pretty cool (yet pretty weird) that he remembered me.

- I owe Sean Chen $10. A lot of the artists were charging for sketches, so as much as I could, I tried to stick to those artists that were free. However, Sean Chen was the very first artist that I asked to do a sketch for me, back when he was doing Wolverine for Marvel. At the time, it was a free sketch. Since he was on his own in Artists Alley, he was charging for sketches. It was $15 for a head sketch and $30 for full body. I asked him to do a head sketch of Psylocke for me, and he was pretty busy and asked that I come back on Sunday morning. I came back Sunday morning, and he already had a couple names in his list. But he assured me that since I came the day before that he would do a sketch for me, so I left him with my book, and he said to come back in an hour. So I wandered around for a bit, after the hour was done, I came back and he had already began my sketch. It was turning out really awesome and I was really impressed. We chatted a bit (tried not to disturb him too much while he was sketching) and he was really cool. He put a lot of work into it, and I appreciated that he took the time - even though I was paying for it. Anyway, he finished up the sketch and showed me the finished product and I praised it and thanked him. Since I loved it so much, I decided to give him $20 instead of the $15 for the head shot. Gotta help the guy make a living. I handed him the money, and he gave me a smile, then a weird quizzical look. I walked away beaming and happy with my new sketch. Later on, after REALLY looking at my sketch I realized that Psylocke had legs. Which I noticed before, but I didn't realize my error. Sean did a body sketch for me, and I only paid him $20. And the idiot that I am was beaming and proud of myself for giving him a little extra - which actually wasn't! So yeah. Somehow I'll get him the money I own him...it's only fair!

- I DID see Jason Mewes again, but I was stuck in a huge crowd of people and he looked especially shaggy and slightly bearded, and it just was too weird. That, and I didn't have anything for him to sign. I was stuck in a mob of people at the View Askew booth who were trying to get him and Kevin Smith to sign things, each of them going up to fans and taking pics, signing autographs, etc. I did, however, get to meet Kevin, and since I didn't have anything for him to sign, I did the dorkiest thing ever. I looked him in the eye and said to him, "I don't have anything to sign, but I just wanted to shake your hand and say that I really love your stuff!" Am I a loser or what? He looked me in the eyes, took my hand in both of his hands and shook hands with me, and said slowly and sincerely, "Thanks." Which was really cool, unless he was speaking really slowly because I thought I was mentally challenged for coming up with a stupid line like that.

- There were a couple people that weren't there that I really missed, who I've seen at cons before and have always been cool and friendly. Mike Wellman, also known as "The Chief", who headed Mac Afro and Gone South, who is one of the first creators that I got to know and hang out with. Mark Brooks (who is finding this entry on google as we speak) who did an awesome Psylocke for me last year and who has one of coolest cats I've met at a 'con. Ale Garza, who calls Psylocke 'that hot Asian chick' (then again, who doesn't?). And Talent Caldwell, who loves comics so much he can talk forever about them - I hope he gets to do his dream comic someday - the X-Men, and who has done one of my favorite Psylocke sketches (and didn't need to look at the other sketches for reference). He's a sweetheart and I hope I see him at a 'con again! I'll even bribe him with potstickers if I have to!

- One of the people I was sad that I wasn't going to see in Chicago was Tone Rodriguez. He gives the best hugs. He likes to call us his little Asian threesome (or twosome, when Mel isn't around). We saw him at the LA 'con and he said he was tired of traveling, so he wasn't going to any more cons. So me and Fatima were surprised when we were walking around the 'con and heard on the loudspeakers, "Tone Rodriguez, artist for Alien vs. Predator is doing free sketches at the booth - ticket holders only!" As soon as we heard that, we wandered around looking for the booth he was sketching at. We finally found it, and saw a huge line wrapping around, waiting for a sketch. Of course, we didn't have tickets. So we stood on the side, just watching, hoping that maybe he'd see us. When he did, he invited us over to hang for a bit while he sketched, gave us a big hug and asked why we didn't stop by sooner, to which we said he wasn't even in the program, so we had no idea he was there.

- Since we were in a hurry most of the time, I didn't get a chance to hang out at the Aspen booth as much as other times, and only got a chance to stop by the booth for the first time late Saturday afternoon, and was reprimanded by Peter for waiting so long. Said hello to the rest of the gang, and saw that one of our buddies from last year was working the booth again. We stopped by again later that day (we had to run to a panel so we didn't get to stay) and learned from Liz that she was leaving the company and moving to Italy. We were so sad to find this out, and we all got a little emotional with Liz. She's such an awesome person, kind of like our den mother, making sure we're okay, taking care of us, and just being really cool. It'll be sad to see her go! But she said that she'd be around at some of the cons, so I hope that we get to see her again sometime soon! On Sunday we went to the Aspen panel, and Peter was the MC. I had a little cold going on that weekend, so I was coughing a bit, and Peter announced, "Hey you, Feliciano, keep it down! Or if you're going to cough, make sure it's a hearty cough! If not, get some water in the back!" I wanted to shrink. But more than that, I was surprised that Peter knew my last name...even if it IS my maiden name now. He poked fun at me a couple other times. And then later, some people I had met on message boards came up to me because they figured out who I was. Which was pretty cool, because I would have had no idea who was who! Later on that day, we hung out at the booth a bit more and took pics.

- Got another Psylocke sketch from Sean Galloway, which makes my total 3 sketches now. He's a cool cat, super friendly and very chatty. Just the kinda guy that keeps fans coming back again and again. Like me!

- I got my first ever caricature done, and I felt like a moron sitting there as people were walking by, while the artist drew my picture as Psylocke. The sketch looks cute, yet nothing like me, but Fatima said the artist was HOT. I wouldn't know. I didn't have my glasses on at the time.

- At the Marvel panel, a bunch of the fans from Brian Michael Bendis' message board planned a surprise birthday cake presentation. Joe Quesada (i still say his name with some distaste, but not as much because of this) went along with the plan, and Bendis was pleasantly surprised when they brought out the cake and candles, and got the whole panel to sing Happy Birthday. I just missed out on getting some cake. That's what I get for being so shy. Another great thing about the panel - one of the writers, when asked if Psylocke was ever coming back (she was killed off. Twice.) returned the question to the audience, "Do you guys want her back?" I whooped and cheered like a moron. If I had a foghorn I would have used that, too. So then he said maybe, maybe they'll try and fit her in. Yay!

- After years of seeing Kabuki artist David Mack at the convention, I finally introduced myself to him. He remembered my secret name from a messageboard (Yano, yeah, big secret name, I know) and he was SO nice. I don't know why I was scared to talk to him before. He was so cool that he hooked me, Fatima and Melanie with a bunch of his books and gave us a great deal on his art. He is genuinely a great guy, so if you ever see him at a 'con, say hello to him. Maybe he'll even dance for you. He didn't for us, but I heard that he took part in a dance off in the lobby later that night. Crazy comic book artists.

- You should read Michael Goodman's CIderview Project. Not only is he a great guy (who is single and good looking) but he also makes good cookies. So I've been told. Because he didn't save any for me.

- Not only did I buy a couple comics and comic-related stuff there, I also stocked up on Pocky - those delicious Asian chocolate dipped sticks. Mmm...tasty! Can you believe that someone was selling them there? Yum!

Yeah...so that's about as much as I remember from my convention experience. Next year I'm definitely going to go all three days and take part in the after-con things, since I'm always hearing stories about the *interesting* stuff that happens at night.

So for now, here's my pictures!

Wizard World Chicago Pictures

This week's Moody Monday : New

The Stroke of Midnight - New Year!

Once again, I do my annual photo wrap-up. There's a couple more pictures here than last year, but then again, I took a wider range of pictures this year. There were a lot more that I wanted to add here, but I haven't had time to go through my raw picture files - most of these you've seen already. But I've thrown in a couple that haven't seen the light of the world wide web yet. Enjoy!

Still recovering from the Christmas party. The full blow-by-blow details will be given to you tomorrow!

Until then, here's a picture of the Feliciano/Estacio/soon-to-be-Spayer family Christmas picture. Boy, I look incredibly tired!

I've been saying it all month, but I LOVE Christmastime in Chicago. The whole city gets dressed up and there's something wonderful about the hustle and bustle of holiday shoppers on Michigan Ave.

Every year, the big department store in Chicago, Marshall Fields, dresses up their store windows with a theme. Last year, it was Willy Wonka. This year, it's Snow White. Some of my favorite winter childhood memories are of going downtown to see the windows.

Anyway, I wanted to share some of my city pictures with you. I'm building up some galleries to put up eventually, so this is a nice way to start...

Moody Monday : Crush

Bear Hug - August 2004 : Chicago, IL

Peter Steigerwald, colorist for Aspen Comics (Fathom, Soulfire) gives me and Fatima a huge bear hug, as he wears Christina Strain's bear hat. One of my best experiences in comics is meeting these guys, who are just way cool and I always enjoy seeing them every year.

Sunday Shoot : Beauty

In the Hands of the Makeup Artist : Saginaw, MI - May, 2004

Thursday Challenge : Light

O'Hare Airport : Chicago, IL - July, 2004

My second home, I cannot tell you how many times I've gone on the pedway under these lights. At least O'Hare makes the journey a little interesting with its glowing lights and musical tinklings.

Photo Friday : Reflections

Millenium Park Bean : Chicago, IL - August 2004

Thursday Challenge : Animal

You know, I realized just now that I never posted up my pictures from the San Diego Animal Park. I'll have to do that sometime before the year is over! Anyway, here's two of my favorites - feeding time for the giraffes.

For you short track fans out there, here's a couple of my pics from Madison. I was only there for a day, so I didn't have much time to play around with the adjustments on my camera, so I got more crappy pics than usual. But I did manage to get a couple good ones!

Hyo Jung Kim, the newest US superstar at the tender age of 16

Matthieu Turcotte - Second place for the weekend, he's got his share of adoring fans

Allison Baver and Hyo Jung Kim follow Japan's Yuka Kamino in the 3000m race.

More later. And maybe a story or two, if you're good.

Photo Friday : Prosperity

Field Museum Opal - Chicago, IL : September 2004

One day, this will be mine!

Photo Friday : Patterns

Portland Airport - Portland, OR : March 2003

Thursday Challenge : Everyday Things

Cup o' Pens - Chicago, IL : July, 2003

This is my cup of multicolored pens and pencils. Glitter pens, ball point ink pens, silver markers, pens that light up in the dark, I got all of 'em!

Sunday Shoot : Adorable

Little Princess - Chicago, IL : June 2003

This is my flowergirl, Nina, when she was trying on dresses for my wedding. We told her she looked like a princess and she loved it - she didn't want to take any of the dresses off.

Photo Friday: Family

Holiday Sisters - Chicago, IL : December 2003

This is a picture that me and my sisters took last Christmas. We're big dorks, and we fight all the time, but we're sisters, so um, yeah. I can't rid of them. They're related to me.

And I guess I love them, too.

This week's Thursday Challenge - Window

Tiffany Window "David Set Singers Before the Lord" - Jekyll Island, GA : June 2003

This window is in the Faith Chapel on Jekyll Island was designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany. This picture can't relay how truly gorgeous the window was and how it caught the afternoon light.

Picture This: Fold

State Street Bridge Unfolds - Chicago, IL: June 2003

The bridges in Chicago always fascinate me. I must have a million and one pics of them in different stages of, um, up and down. Whatever you call it. But it's so cool to look down the Chicago river and see all the bridges folded up. Unfortunately, this is the only one I have uploaded. Once I get my Chicago gallery up, you'll see what I'm talking about. Look for it soon, like early 2008 or something. *evil grin*

Halloween is my favorite holiday, so what better time to test out my hostess skills? So me and Dave decided to have a small get together to start off with, and I called it our Halloween Haunted House Warming Party. We invited a few people, and said that costumes were opintional.

I was stressing so much over getting food and desserts ready. I worked pretty hard on getting the menu together:

- orange and black bruschetta on halloween french rounds
- halloweenies - mini sausages wrapped in croissant dough
- oreo crust pumpkin pies with vanilla cool whip
- haunted cupcakes
- spicy bat wings (and a little undercooked, too)
- worms and dirt
- shrimp and dill deviled eggs

...um...I don't remember what else. It was all a blur!

But it was a pretty successful party. Mel brough some Filipino spaghetti (with hotdogs and everything!) and other people brought some other tasty treats and drinks. The girls came over early to help prepare and give me a hand with the cooking. It was really odd that I was cooking all this food and all Claudine brought was meatballs.

It was nice to have everyone over, and we had a lot of fun watching each other switch to different costumes. Marilyn was an 80's girl, Cleopatra, a whore, a lounge singer, and god knows what else. Manny was the only outside guest to dress up, as an Illini basketball player. Don't ask me who. I don't know.

We had more food than we could eat, and tons of desserts! After eating and watching some movies, we started watching the Bear's game, and we won! The guys were yelling and cheering and Jillian was upstairs screaming everytime she'd hear Maui cheering. She's so cute!

It was a bit hard to be a domestic hostess, but it was so great to have everyone over, just chilling out and having fun.

Next up, the REAL housewarming party! Don't know when, but it'll be in the next couple months!

Here's some pics from the night:

Don't have much time to process all my halloween pics, but here's a little something from last weekend!

Can ya guess who I am?

Photo Friday: Still Life

Flowerbud - Long Beach, CA: June 2004

I could use pictures from the flowers outside my Long Beach apartment for the rest of the year! Such a photigenic flower!

This week's Picture This: Music -

Chamber Orchestra at Nordstrom's - Chicago, IL: June 2003

I went to the Morton Arboretum last weekend to relax and take some pictures. The trees there are so beautiful and vibrant, it's the perfect place to enjoy the last weeks of fall, before all the trees lose their beautiful leaves. Here's a couple of my favorites:

Photo Friday: Statement

Tell Us Who The REAL Enemy Is! - Chicago, IL: July 2004

During the summers in Chicago you can always find this guy around Michigan Avenue with his many body billboards, telling us how the internet is evil or that Gore was brought to earth by aliens...

Thursday Challenge: Colorful

Lorikeet - Long Beach, CA: June 2004

I love these little guys, they're so cute!

This week's PhotoFriday: Unexpected

Who'd have known that you could get free spam when walking on Venice Beach?

The Spam Mobile at Venice Beach - June 2004

And of course, I had to get a free sample. Or two. Or three.

Free Spam! - Venice Beach, CA: June 2004

Haven't done this photo meme yet.

Here's the Thursday Challenge, Gate:

Entrance to Memories - January, 2004

This is the doorknob to our apartment in Long Beach. There were a lot of memories there and I miss the area and people in LA so much. It was a great place to live, and even though it was only for a year, it really became a home for us, and we look back fondly.

We'll be back, Long Beach!

No, I haven't been on vacation in a LONG time.

But I have finally gotten my "Vacations" photo gallery all prettied up, finally. So go ahead and check it out. Still to come in that gallery - more Disney pics (when I get my scanner hooked up) and pics from the cruise last May.

And yes...someday I'll get my photography gallery up!

Haven't done a Photo Friday in a while! This week's topic is one that I have many pictures of, so it was hard to choose one...but I did.

Photo Friday: Blossom

Ribbon Flower - Vancouver, BC: May 2002

I have no idea what this flower is really called, but it looks like a ribbon, right?

I don't know what days I'll be going to the comicon this year, but I hope I get to go to at least one.

And when I go, I'll be a picture taking fiend!

Here's one of my favorites from last year...

Me and the huggable Predator

PhotoFriday: Sunset

Sunset at Corona Del Mar - August 2003, Corona Del Mar, CA

Just looking at this makes me miss living in Long Beach. Can't get a sunset like this in Chicago!!!

So we walked on over to the park where the fest was being held, with our Dave's lawnchair backpack (he loves the thing, feels like the coolest guy in town because his backpack converts into a lawn chair!) and blankets. There were herds and herds of people heading out there, and in the field in front of where they were showing the fireworks was packed with people. Not as nervewracking packed as the Taste but there were a lot of people.

Finally, they turned off the lights at the park and the show began. We could softly hear the music accompanying the fireworks playing on the soundstage, your average fair of patriotic songs - "Born in the USA", "Proud to be an American" etc.

I admit, the show was really great. For a little suburb, they really went all out with their fireworks and were able to get a lot of "Ooh!"s and "Ahh!"s from the crowd. There were purple and blue fireworks, fireworks that burst in the sky, then burst again as they fell down, fireworks that rained down the sky like a shower of golden light, fireworks broke off and spun around in the sky (I called them "Spermies", and fireworks that danced around the whole night sky in little points of light (Dave called them "Fireflies"). Wow, fireworks have really come a long way since I was a kid!

So here's a couple pics, because I haven't posted normal pics in a while...

PhotoFriday: Ocean

Surfer: Huntington Beach, CA - June 2004

Yet another picture from my thousands of pictures of surfers at Huntington Beach. Waiting for a good pic of the surfers was pretty tough since they waiting a LONG time to catch just the perfect wave. There'd be a ton of onlookers watching them, and when a surfer lost control and the ocean took over, everyone would give a collective, 'Ohh!'

Phototime Tuesday: Empty

First One on the Plane: Los Angeles, March 2004

Don't know if I used this one before. It's great being the first one on the plane - you get your pick of the overhead space!

Photo Friday: Cool

Detroit Airport Tunnel - October 2003

Been waiting to use this picture of the lights in the underground tunnel at the Detroit airport. I love the shade of blue and how the light turns everything in the tunnel blue. It's definitely a cool color!

Photo Friday: Father

A Kiss for Daddy: Saginaw, MI - May 2004

I don't have access to my desktop right now, so I can only post pics that I've already got uploaded. I don't have any good pics of my dad uploaded. Anyway, this is one of my favorite pictures from Manny and Rachel's wedding. Rachel's father just has the kindest eyes. He was a lot of fun. We were putting shimmery glitter on ourselves on the side during this picture, and after taking it he was like, 'Can I have some shimmer too?'

Phototime Tuesday: Pathways

Into the Woods - Chicago, August 2004

Photo Friday: Clouds

This was a tough one. I love taking pictures of clouds, especially from airplanes. I couldn't choose one, so I chose 3. Enjoy!

Sunrise Over Haleakala Crater - Maui, Hawaii, March 2004

Clouds Above Haleakala Crater - Maui, Hawaii, March 2004

Clouds from an Airplane - August, 2003

Here's a pretty cool pic that I took in Utah yesterday...

Photo Friday: Fashion

Venice Beach, CA: June 2004

Don't you hate it when you buy an outfit and find it at another store for less the next day? Just kidding. I could never wear this!

Theme Thursday: Bend

3000m Race - February 2003, Salt Lake City, UT

Apolo Anton Ohno leads the pack during the 3000m race as they come around the bend. Just wanted to take a different interpretation than everyone else. ;)

Since the gals came into town, I've been super busy, and haven't really been able to make a post of any real substance (as you can tell by the Olsen Twins post from yesterday)

The visit is going great, but I'm so tired! But we're having a ball.

Here's a picture from yesterday of me and Fatima trying on hats in Long Beach. These hats were super warm, and with the flaps down we could hardly hear a thing!

I took a good amount of pictures from their stay here, and will take many more, so I'll get 'em up as soon as I can!

Phototime Tuesday: Skewed

Gaylord Palms - Orlando, FL: April, 2002

A skewed picture of the man-made swampland in the Gaylord Palms resort.

Photo Friday: Landscape

The Sierra Nevada, California - January 2004

Took this picture on our way home from Mammoth Mountain. Being from the midwest, seeing mountains this huge is pretty jaw-dropping. I was taking pictures left and right!

Theme Thursday: Indispensible

The El - Chicago, IL - Jan 2003

The El (elevated train) is the only way to get around Chicago. You can't come to the city and not experience it!

Phototime Tuesday: Wrong

LAPD and Me - Hollywood, August 2002

Talking to an officer from the LAPD is just wrong. Especially when you're drunk and he can smell the liquor on your breath. Luckily, I'm a charmer. But still, it's wrong....so wrong!

Phototime Tuesday

Slam Dunk, Glendale CA - May 2004

Went over to Vinnie and Dean's house the other day, and had a great time watching the guys play water basketball. Got this great shot in, and I think it goes well with this week's theme.

This is pretty long...watch out!

Finally getting to posting up my Maui review. By now my 'Memento' memory has erased most of my memories (which is why I started this blog in the first place - so I remember things) but lucky for me, I jotted down some notes in the airplane. But I have to write this soon because Manny and Rachel are planning on going, and I promised Manny I'd tell him where to go...

So here's little snippets of what I remember, things that you should do and shouldn't do, etc.

Before we start, click here if you want to see the galleries. I just wanted to say that now in case you didn't make it to the end of my Hawaiian novel.

- When we first got there, it was raining. The locals said it was rare that it rained that hard for that length of time. We had planned on doing our snorkeling on the first day, but we were told that it's hard to do when it's raining and that we need wait a couple days for the water to clear up. So we had to rearrange our schedule.

- It's a plus to be Filipino. We got our parking for free after the old Filipino attendant asked us if we were Filipino. When I took out my money to pay, he just shook his head and pointed us to the door. Most of the locals we met there thought we were local, too.

- We went to a luau, I forgot which one, but since it was raining, it was indoors, so it felt more like a Hawaiian wedding than a luau. If you want to go to the most popular luau on Maui, the Old Lahaina luau, you'll need to make reservations before traveling there because spaces take taken up quickly. If I was going to go back to Maui, I think I'd rather check out the Feast at Lele, which is a more intimate luau, with food that represents the different islands of Polynesia. It's also a sit down dinner, rather than a buffet, like most luaus. But we had a great time at our luau, and the food was awesome, even though at the time I had given up beef and Dave was raving about how good it was. Oh, I remember now, it was at the Hyatt. I love me some kalua pork!

- Our breakfast of choice - the spam, egg and rice breakfast from McDonalds. Only in Hawaii can you get spam at Micky D's!

- Lahaina was a great place to shop and just check out the scene. We stopped by Whaler's Village, and ate at the Rusty Harpoon - their seared ahi wrap was delicious. Don't bother going to the museum, it's kinda boring. Though we did get a good laugh when we watched the whale movie, and the lady said that looking at a whale was like 'looking at the eyes of God'. Um, it's cool, but not THAT cool!

- Everyone told us to do the Road to Hana, and since it was raining, we thought we might as well do the trek, since we'd be going through the rain forest anyway. It was really beautiful, but I guess from the hype everyone was giving us we expected more. Due to the rains from the previous days, the waterfalls were in full effect, and the rainforest was lush and green. We did one of those mini-bus tours, and we had a fun bunch of people. Our tourguide, Wes, was awesome. He was this 40 something old surfer guy who had grown up on the north side of the island, and he had the best stories. He gave us a crash course in Hawaiian history, local legends, his own memories in different spots, and partying with celebs like Willie Armstrong and Steven Tyler. He was ultra cool. In any other environment I would have been intimidated by his coolness. He took us to his favorite spots along the way, and my favorite was this area right along the coast with hardened lava all over the place and a blowhole that let the water through. It was pretty and all you could hear was the waves crashing against the shore.

- We also stopped by the Seven Sacred Pools, which were beautiful. Since we were on a tour, we were crunched for time, so rather than explore the whole trail around the pools, me and Dave went to the bottom pool to swim for a bit. The bottom was uneven, and I don't know how to swim, so I never made it to the waterfall side. But it was a beautiful view. I only wish I got shots from the bridge that people jump from!

- Bring water socks, sometimes the beaches have rocks, and they could hurt your feet. You may also want to invest in some of your own snorkel gear, because there's some great snorkeling spots along the beach.

- Make sure to catch a sunset. There's a lot of places you can turn off the highway that have some spectacular views.

- We got up at 2:30 am to drive up to Haleakala crater, which took about 2 hours, which wasn't as long as we thought it would take. It was an windy way up the mountain in the dark, but lucky for us there was a full moon to guide our way. We wore long sleeves and brought our jackets, because we were forewarned that it would be chilly at the top of the crater. When we got there, there were about 4 or 5 other cars at the summit already. We got out of the car and IT WAS FREEZING! It was cold and the wind was howling. I was almost afraid to go to the observation area because I didn't want to blow off the mountain. We stood around for a bit and finally went back in the car to warm up and nap a little. By the time we decided to get out of the car, the parking lot was packed and there were tons of people there. Dave went into the observation room and I decided to brave the biting cold and wind outside so I could get better pictures. At around 5:30am, the sun started to rise. It was the most incredible thing. Being so high up on the mountain, we were above the clouds, so when the sun came up, it slowly painted the sea of clouds below it. When it finally broke through, the world around us was covered in this golden glow. It was really amazing to see. I must have taken a million pictures. We really were on top of the word. After that, we took a nap in the car and didn't end up waking up til 9. We toured around the crater after that, and it's pretty amazing. You feel like you're on another planet looking out into the red earth and the craters left by the extinct volcano. Not something you expect from Hawaii!

- Later that day, we went to Kamaole Beach I, II, and III. Not very imaginative names, but very good beaches!

- The next day, we checked out Big Beach and Wailea Beach. Dave wanted to find Little Beach, which was the topless beach, but unfortunately couldn't find it. I'd have to say my favorite was Wailea beach, because it wasn't too huge, but not too small.

- During our honeymoon, we did the most romantic thing possible - watched 'The Passion of Christ'. OK, I'm just kidding. But it was a bit weird, but we didn't have anything to do one night and saw a late showing of it at the theater. Great movie. Though I wouldn't suggest seeing it on your honeymoon.

- We went on a dolphin excursion, but unfortunately, it started to rain again and the prime snorkeling spot was pretty rocky, so we never did see our dolphins. (One day, dammit! One day I'll see one of you pesky little sea mammals!) We did get to do some snorkeling at Molokini crater, where the water was pretty clear, outside of some debris from the storm. Our captain told us there were many whales in the area. There was a little snorkeling fish class, where we swam (I had my little tube floaty and looked REALLY cool) with a marine biologist and she pointed fish out to us. That was neat, because most of the time you see the fish, but you have no idea what they are, or what they do. She told us that if we stick our heads underwater, we could hear the whales sing from far away. I went off on my own and put my head underwater, and I could hear them singing, very softly. That rocked.

- After that, we went snorkeling in Turtle Town, and I never thought the turtles would be so huge! One swam right by me. They are just the cutest things, and their swimming is just so effortless. One day I'll get my underwater camera developed.

- So there's this law that says that boats cannot sail to within 300 yards of a whale. If it happens that a whale should swim within that 300 yards (they stay underwater and sometimes pop up), then the boats must stop their motors and wait for a whale to pass. On our way back to the dock, we saw many whales in the distance, their dorsal fins in the water or breeching (launching their bodies out of the water and slapping back in). Our boat had a captain, co-captain and several marine biologists. We were sailing along then we saw this mother whale and her baby within that 300 yards. The captain turned off the motors, and we sat there and waited for them to pass by. The suddenly the crew started getting really excited. The mother and baby were going to pass right underneath the ship! Everyone was running around, pulling out their cameras, and the captain was ringing the bell. I never thought a whale could be so huge, but she was almost as big as our boat. So the two of them passed, and after, the little baby launched herself out of the water, learning how to breech. Soon after, mama whale showed baby how it was done and breeched out of the water as well. The whole crew was laughing and smiling and said that had never happened before. To me, it totally made up for not seeing the dolphins!

- My last day in town, I got a cold. I was all sniffles and sore throat. But all we had left was the whale watch. We already had whales the day before, and had debated on going since nothing could top our experience. But we paid for it, so went on the ship. So we got to the boat and headed out of the harbor, and we saw some whales on one side. We watched them and ohh'd and ahh'd. Then the captain exclaimed, 'There's one right on the side!'. We then had to stop the boat, since the whale had come in range. We were excited to see her come closer, and had our camera's ready to take pictures as she passed us. But she didn't. She came right up to our boat and stayed there. The guide theorized that the whale like the sound of the motor, or maybe was using our boat as a shield to get away from any whale suitors. Nonetheless, we were ecstatic. She stayed next to our boat and surfaced every now and then, blowing air out of her blowhole and wetting us, coming above water to take a peep at us, and just chillin on the side of the boat. It was so awesome I can't even put it into words. And the coolest thing is, we couldn't get away because she was by us. We had to wait it out until she got bored of us and went away. I guess this is called a 'whale mugging', where people on a boat are stuck with a whale until it goes away. But hey, we weren't complaining having our own personal whale to hang out with! She was gigantic, and I swear, she winked at me. Finally, an abandoned boat that was moored to the dock passed by us, and Whalea got confused and went and followed that boat. We started to sail away, but then she found us again. We stopped the motors. By this time I think she was tired of us, so she went away. But it was the BEST experience!

- Try the seared ahi tuna at The Lahaina Fish company. You don't even need a meal, just order two plates of those and you're to go!

Photo Friday: Macro

Blue Flowers: Long Beach, CA - May 2004

This is the first time I really played around with the zoom options on my camera, and I think it turned out OK. I really need to read my camera manual sometime. There's so much that I can do with it that I have no idea about!

Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA - January 2004

It was halfway through my visit at the Getty Center before I realized that you could take pictures. I have no idea who this guy is, but I just liked the picture.

I actually filled up my memory card taking pictures at Jen and Mike's wedding, though I can't really recall what I took pictures of. But here's a couple of my favorites from that night...it was a fun night, and it made you love watching people in love...

Because I know you bitches love pictures...

Here's one from Melanie's camera:

She's got a couple more on her site from my stay here in Chicago. I've been too lazy to take pictures...here's another one from Bar Celona:

Fatima, Me, Marian and Melanie

Theme Thursday: Ring

WWJD With Handcuffs? - Chicago, July 2003

I was walking down the street one day and saw this car. I had to take a picture because it was so funny and ironic. WWJD = What Would Jesus Do. A pretty devout Christian with a pair of handcuffs. Gotta love it!

Photo Friday: Play

What Are All These Buttons For? - Chicago, April 2002

Nina always wanted to be like her big brother. As soon as he was done playing, she grabbed the controller to see what the fuss was all about.

Theme Thursday: Twisted

Twisted Trees - Jekyll Island, GA: May 2003

Dave was on call yesterday, so I had some alone time.

At first, when Dave would be on call, I would get a little depressed, trying to think of ways to keep myself busy. I didn't like being alone, especially in an unfamiliar city where I didn't know a lot of people. But I realized that as time went on, that I really enjoyed these times that I had all to myself. I love taking my little adventures around town, going to places that I would enjoy, but which Dave may not feel like going to or doesn't have time to do. After being married for this long, having moments to myself, where I'm doing something independent of my husband are a nice change of pace.

So today I went to the Los Angeles Zoo. I think after going to the zoo in San Diego, I've been ruined for all other zoos. The LA zoo wasn't as great an experience for me. It didn't have the same wide selection of animals, and the layout of the animals wasn't easy to follow. I found myself backtracking a couple times to see animals I missed. It could also be because it was H-O-T today! I was burning up and I wasn't even at the entrance of the park yet. I took a good amount of pictures, but I have enough pics of sleeping animals for a whole gallery. I wasn't the only one that was lethargic because of the weather! All the animals seemed to have this, 'You know what? It's too hot. Leave me alone' look on their faces.

But it was still a good time. I'll post up my sleepy animal pics...then the rest will be in my upcoming galleries. When will those be up, you ask? Um. I dunno. In time...

Photo Friday: Natural

Haleakala Crater - Maui, HI: March 2004

The Haleakala Crater in Maui creates a very un-Hawaiian landscape with red soil, jagged peaks and lava formations. Almost like being on Mars!

Theme Thursday: Purple

Purple Cottonball Flowers - Vancouver, Canada: May, 2002

In keeping along my spring flower theme, another pic from my Vancouver trip.

PhotoTime Tuesday: It's a Spring Thing!

Irises: Vancouver, Canada - May 2002

Photo Friday: Junk

Knick Knack Drawer: Long Beach, CA - April 2004

I actually had to take this picture, because I have no pics of junk anywhere. This is our 'I don't know what else to do with this stuff' drawer. I'm sure everyone has one!

Phototime Tuesday: Curves

The Metro: Washington DC, December 2002

Here's the pics I took at Disneyland a couple weeks ago...they're all pretty cheesey, but well, Disney is cheesey. Didn't take a lot because we had a pretty busy day planned...maybe next time!

I was going to post my Disney pics today, but I think I forgot to save the file where I put all the captions, so you'll have to wait til tomorrow...anyway, here's a pic of me when I was a wee little baby. I had a lot of hair and my mom liked to put my hair in curlers. As you can see, I was very enthusiastic about the idea.

Photo Friday: Self Portrait

Webcam Archives: 2002-2004

I don't know why, but Photo Friday and Phototime Tuesday always seem to have similar subjects. Rather than posting the 'Self Dorktrait' that got the rave reviews and laughs, I decided to go a step further, and give a sprinkling of pics from my webcam. I'm a Gemini, and I think these pics show my dual nature - smiling and posing pretty for the camera, and being a complete dork.

Theme Thursday: Noise

Overhead View of the Chicago Chamber Orchestra: June 2003 - Chicago, IL

This Phototime Tuesday's theme is Self Portrait. For a while, I was trying to think of the prettiest picture I could find of myself to show you, to put my best face forward. But then I stumbled across these little gems, taken during one REALLY boring day at home, and I realized, this is me. How I love my webcam! I revel in my dorkiness!!!

Self Dorktrait - January 2004: Long Beach, CA

Photo Friday: Discovery

Flowergirl Finds Her Dress - May 2003

Theme Thursday: Heavy Metal

This is all I could find on my server for this...

The Bronze Medalist Wave - June, 2002: Chicago, IL

After one too many, it didn't take a lot to persuade me to throw on that bronze medal and do my beauty queen wave to all the patrons of Bubba Gumps. That dark Filipino man on the right is trying to steal my bling from right under my nose. Sneaky!

This week for Phototime Tuesday is something representing your hometown. I picked this picture because after living in Long Beach for the duration of the winter, I really miss the lights of the theater district in downtown Chicago.

Snow in the Theater District: Chicago, January 2003

Disneyland was a lot of fun, through I like Disneyworld more. I'll say more later, but I just wanted to share this picture with you. I took it during the afternoon parade. It's a dancing mushroom from Fantasia. After seeing this, I just felt dirty, and, uh, slightly aroused. I turned back to look at Dave, and he eyes just had this 'WTF?!?!?' look. We made eye contact and just bust out laughing. Janet Jackson gets shit for flashing her boob, and Disney has THIS dancing in the afternoon parade? What's going on with the world?

Dirty Dancing Mushroom: Disneyland, April 2004

The commute from Thousand Oaks to Long Beach can be a pretty long haul, sometimes taking more than 3 hours if the traffic is bad enough. And although I love the view of the mountains, sometimes the ride home gets a little boring.

So thanks to these guys for their attempt to liven up their ride home. I didn't give them a show, but they got a hearty thumbs up wink from me.

Fun on the 101 - April, 2004: California

This week's Photo Friday: Atmosphere

Sunset Over Buffalo: February 2004, Buffalo, NY

Ask, Maricel, and you shall receive:

Wacky Shoes: August 2003

This is for last week's Theme Thursday, and I took this pic just for the theme:

Artist Michael Turner Sketches for a Fan - March 2004: Santa Monica, CA

Photo Friday:Neglect

Dirty Car Windshield: Thousand Oaks, CA - September 2003

Got about 40 pics to post up...plus the ones Mel will be sending me...

But here's a good one:

Me and Wolvie: March, 2004 - Long Beach, CA

The review will come later tonight, as well as more pictures!

I'll just keep on pimping out my Maui pics for these photo memes. Once again this is Haleakala crater, this time a but after sunrise and in black and white.

Photo Friday: Morning

Haleakala Crater: March 2004, Maui

Theme Thursday: Sport

Well, I've posted enough short track pics for these things, so we'll move on to something else. Body surfing! Dave brought his bodyboard to Hawaii with us, and it was always in the trunk, ready to come out when needed. He caught some really great waves!

Bodysurfing: March, 2004 - Maui

Phototime Tuesday: Golden

Couldn't choose between two pictures!

Sunset in Maui: Maui, HI - March 2004

Sun Rises over Haleakala: Maui, HI - March 2004

I'm totally swamped with work (I thought I was going to be there only one day, but I'm here all week) so I haven't had much free time to do anything...but here's some Maui pics to tide you over until I finish them up...

Sunset on Our First Day

A Thai Statue at the Hyatt

Luau Dancers

Photo Friday: Clean

Even Bunnies Need to Shower - Navy Pier, Chicago: April 2003

Wow...this page looks pretty empty without me posting in the last week!

Got some pictures here for you to tide you over while I work and write my trip memoirs...

A solitary hula dancer at the luau

A man painted with Maori tattoos

Sunrise above Haleakala Crater

A picture at the bottom of the Seven Sacred Pools

The sun sets over the ocean

Our new friend 'Whalea' comes to check our boat

Theme Thursday: Unfinished

A Few More Snips Left - Seattle, WA: May 2003

FotoFeelings: Busy

Mace Windu Gets Busy: Chicago Comic Convention, August 2003

I know it's a day late, but here's this week's

Phototime Tuesday: Green

South Michigan Ave in Green: Chicago, IL - March 2003

Theme Thursday: Orange

Lift-off Sunset - Buffalo, NY: Feb 2003

Phototime Tuesday: What's Up?

Big Fat Leaf, February 2004

Photo Friday: Abstract

Windmill, Portland Airport: Portland, OR - March 2003

Theme Thursday: Fences

No Nachos for You! - San Diego, CA, November 2003

Phototime Tuesday: Patriotic Colors

I decided to do something a little different...represent the Filipino side of me...

The Philippine Flag on Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL - June 2003

Photo Friday: Glamour

Inside My Makeup Bag - Feb 2004

This week's Theme Thursday: Connected

The Capilano Suspension Bridge, Vancouver BC - May 2002

Here's this week's Phototime Tuesday: Patterns.

Monkey Puzzle Tree, Vancouver B.C. - May, 2002

Photo Friday: Emptiness

Before the Reception - August 2003

Theme Thursday: Repeating Patterns

Stitches!

Posted by Yano at 11:16 AM | Comments (1)

Careful, this is a long one!!!

Last weekend, me, Dave, Cathy, Vinnie, Dean and Brooks drove out to Mammoth Mountain, which is a little less than 5 hours away from LA. I had gone snowboarding the week before to learn at Mountain High, so I didn't waste any time at Mammoth learning. Of course, snowboarding looks a LOT easier than it actually is, unless you've skateboarded before. And unfortunately for me, 1000 hours playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater doesn't count.

We packed up two cars, one with groceries and luggage, and my little CRV with the guy's snowboards. Of the six of us, Cathy and Brooks were the only ones who haven't snowboarded before, I had one day of experience and Dave had two. We left early in the morning, and as we got closer to Mammoth Lakes, the view got more and more breathtaking. It's incredible to see the beautiful snow covered mountains so close to LA.

We got to our destination at about 4pm, and we settled into our little condo. Our place was only about 2 blocks away from the mountain lifts, so we had a great location. Our place was on the second floor, but was actually up two flights of stairs, and let me tell you, climbing up the flight of stairs at 9,000 feet above sea level just about killed me. I was winded when I got to the top and I had to take a break. It didn't bode well for the rest of the trip. How was I going to snowboard if I couldn't even make it up the stairs?

After putting our stuff in our mini-cabin, we headed out to rent skis/snowboards. Dave wanted to maximize his time at Mammoth, so he planned on snowboarding the second day (the guys brought an extra snowboard for him) and ski the first day, so he could explore the mountain. Dave's been skiing since he was in 6th grade, so he's pretty good at it. He didn't want to spend the whole weekend putzing around on the lower slopes on a snowboard when he could explore the whole mountain the first day on skis, then putz around the second day.

We went to the rental shop that had the cheapest deal on rentals and got our gear. The rental board boots STANKED to high heaven. (If stanked is even a word.) Brooks had to actually turn away a pair because it smelled so foul. Me and Cathy both got clicker boards, where the board clicks to your boots, rather than what is popular now - the strap-in boot. Clickers are just easier for me to put on. I know that eventually I'll have to give in and get the strap-ins, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. We got our stuff together, piled it into the car and went back to our place.

Since our condo wasn't furnished with a rice cooker, we had to figure out how to do it the old fashioned way, at a higher altitude. It seems like Cathy has about the same level of cooking expertise as I do, so we were a little apprehensive. We found some small pots and pans and tried cooking some rice, but at the altitude we were at the water boiled away quickly and our rice ended up soft on the outside, kinda crunchy in the middle. But food is food, and no one complained. But a note to all of you high altitude people out there who plan on cooking rice - you need more water!!!

The next day we headed out to the mountain, which was HUGE. I've been skiing before, and this mountain was easily four times as big as any mountain I've skied on. During the whole weekend there, I only went about a tenth of the mountain. Since Dave was skiing the first day, he traveled off on his own, which was fine with me because when we ski/snowboard together we just hold each other back. We actually have more fun going off on our own, then meeting later and sharing our experiences.

The rest of us spent the first day on the bunny hill, which was actually much bigger than any bunny hill I've seen. It's about 5 times longer than the bunny hill I learned to ski on in Wisconsin. Rather than a tow rope to go up, you have to take an actual lift, and the lift takes about 5 minutes to get to the top. We got up there, and then the more experienced boarders took a newbie to help down the hill. Vinnie got Brooks, their cousin Mikkel got Cathy and I had Dean. The first time the mountain, I fell about 50 times. Three quarters of that was me just trying to get up from my board. Dean was trying to teach me the right way to get up, and I was trying to do everything he was doing, but after a few dozen falls, he said, 'Just grab the top of your board for balance' and when I told him I couldn't, we both realized that old, creaky me isn't limber enough to get up the normal way. So I figured out my own way to get up and after that, things ended up being a lot easier.

After lunch at Mikkel's house that he was staying at, we went back for a couple more runs. I was definitely getting better - able to control my speed, brake when necessary and maneuver around fallen boarders. But I wasn't doing the proper weaving motion - sking down, then doing a heel turn, facing down and doing a toe turn. I was basically on my heels the whole time. My body refused to turn facing the mountain.

That night we were so exhausted, we just popped in a movie, played some Texas Hold'em and ate some hot wings.

The next day we woke up sore. I checked out my bruise from the week before and it was worse, since I fell on it a couple times the day before. Fortunately, I had no new injuries. The second day of boarding was similar to the first, though I did venture out to the harder slopes. But I was a bit intimidated by the fact that I saw so few people falling on their asses. People on the blue slopes knew what they were doing. So I decided to head back to the easy slope to perfect my technique. I did run into a problem when I discovered that I had a blister on my ankle from my cheap snowboard boots. It made it really painful to walk. But once I put a bandaid on it, I was good to go. I tried to spend the rest of the day trying to turn on my toes, and near the end of the day and after many falls on my right ass cheek (which some call a 'splitter', different from the 'shitter', thank you Jamie) I finally figured out the balance needed to turn on my front edge without falling over. However, I was unable to turn back on my heel. I would end up turning on my toe, then doing a complete 360 back to the beginning. Not the proper technique, but it looked pretty cool.

Dave was supposed to meet me at the lift, but he wasn't there, and me and Cathy waited for a bit and then started heading back towards the lodge. I looked up the hill and noticed a figure walking down, holding his board. It turns out that during his last run, Dave noticed that he was unable to turn his board, and looked down and noticed that his bindings were loose. So he just walked down the rest of the mountain, poor thing. Then as we were walking towards the lodge, his bindings just completely fell off. Luckily they fell off when he wasn't on the mountain!

After our last day of boarding, Mikkel invited us over to his house for dinner. We stopped by the grocery store to pick up some pie, and the cashier asked Dean if he was Wilmer Valderama from 'That 70's Show'. When he said no, I don't think she believed him. Since his hair has grown out, he REALLY looks like him, and I guess people ask him all the time. When we got to the house and got out of the car, it was unbelievable how clear the night was, and how bright the stars were. They looked so close and so bright we felt like we could reach out and touch them. It was definitely breathtaking. I could have stared at the stars all night if it wasn't so cold! Mikkel's whole family was staying at the house, and they had a lot of food. We ate really well there - pork chops, shrimp, sinigang, salmon - it was like going to a Filipino party. Afterwards, we went into the outdoor hot tub. That was challenging in itself because it was about 10 degrees outside and it was about 15 feet from the door to to hot tub. But once we were in it was SO nice! We hung out there for a while talking and joking around, and no one wanted to be the first one out. It was so cold that if we dipped our hair in the water, it would freeze on our heads since we had our heads above water. Finally, we decided we had to get out, and Mikkel was the first to jump out, run inside, dry off, throw on a winter jacket and come out, ready to hand each one of us our towels as we jumped out of the tub and sprinted inside. It was so cold during that 15 feet of space between the tub and the house that when we got in we were almost hypervenilating from the shock of the cold. I'm sure if someone was watching us it would have been a sight to see, people running around soaking wet in bathing suits in 10 degree weather.

Once we got back, me and Dave pretty much passed out. Once we got up in the morning, we packed up our stuff, took some pictures and checked out. We drove around to the scenic places around Mammoth, but couldn't take a gondola to the top of the mountain because it was $17 a person. But we did get some nice shots on our way home.

All in all, it was an awesome trip. We had a great time, great laughs, great snowboarding. I'm not an expert yet, but I can get down the mountain without falling. Cathy picked it up pretty quickly, and we're at about the same level right now. Brooks did alright, but since he was so tall, he was having problems with his board a lot. He was just happy that he saw another black family at the mountain. There weren't too many people of color out there! I managed to get through the weekend without breaking anything, though my wrists are really sore from falling on them, and my right butt cheek has a bruise. Unfortunately, you're not going to see it. But you CAN see some of my pictures here. Here's a sampling of my favorites:

This week's Theme Thursday: Monkeying Around

No, That's His Tail He's Playing With!
San Diego Zoo, November 2003

Photo Friday: Motion

Rusty Smith: Marquette, MI, October 2003

This weeks PhotoTime -

Black and White

Bridesmaids: August, 2003

Yeah, I just can't get enough of this picture!

This weeks Theme Thursday: Eat

Filipino Eggrolls : July 2003

This week's Photo Friday (i know, it's late!):

Office View - July 2003

Well, I'd already posted my best pics from 2003 below, so I wanted to give you all a picture that I hadn't posted yet. It was really hard to decide my favorite picture from 2003, there are so many. But I think I like this one the most, just because it was one of those pictures where the timing was just right. I was in our glass conference room for a meeting, and I could see my reflection in the glass, yet still see the skyscape. At the moment when I took the picture of my reflection, my coworker Bryan was standing at the window down the hallway. So in this picture you can see three things - the view from the conference room, me, and Bryan, whose reflection you can see as he stands at a window down the hallway.

Yesterday I was going to clean and do some important errands, like go to the comic book store.

But a little bit after I woke up, I got a call from Rod asking me if I wanted to go with him and a couple people to the Getty Center. Since I can clean any day of the week, and Dave was on call, and I have been wanting to check out the Getty since I pass it every time I go to Thousand Oaks, I said yes.

I quickly got ready, since he called a mere one hour before they were all meeting up, and I didn't have time to clean my contacts, which I had worn while sleeping since I had passed out asleep after skiing. I drove to meet Rod, Rocena, Stan and Jem to head out to the Getty Center. I started to have contact problems, and throughout the day, my right eye was bloodshot and stinging like a mofo. I tried rinsing off my contact, but taking out my contact actually made the searing pain in my eye worse, so I just sucked it up and looked like the crying girl all day. I think people just thought that the paintings were making me emotional as I dabbed my bum eye all day with a tissue.

Anyway, the Getty was GORGEOUS. There were a ton of people there, it took about half an hour to get into the parking lot after getting off the 405. But it's $5 for parking, and the admission to the museum is free, which is the best damn bargain I've seen here in California so far, because I would pay a lot more than that to see the beautiful things that I saw there.

There was so much beautiful art at the museum - paintings, sketches, sculptures, illuminated manuscripts, ancient art, photographs, as well as a beautiful garden. There was no way someone could get the whole museum done in one day. We tried to get to as much as we could and managed to touch on all of the buildings. We were also able to catch a spectacular sunset and since yesterday was a crystal clear day, we could see all the way to Catalina Island. Everyone I was with was so amazed that they could clearly see LA from the Getty. I guess usually it's overcast or smoggy, but we were lucky.

I love to see art. It's just so incredible how artists can portray emotion with a look captured on canvas, or with colors, or with a specific brushstroke. I could have stayed there for days just looking at art. Some of the big names had art there, like Renoir, van Gogh and Rembrandt. Some of my personal favorites had some pieces there as well, like Lawrence Alma-Tadema, William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Edgar Degas.

So here's some of the stuff that my camera captured...If you're in California, definitely take a day and check this place out!

Afterwards, we stopped by the airport to say goodbye to Rod's cousins from Australia and have dinner. I love listening to that Australian accent, mate! But it was weird saying goodbye to people who I only knew for an hour. By the time we got to the airport, my eye had settled a bit. Though it was fun to joke around that the reason I was so teary eyed was because I would miss the Aussies so!

All in all, a fun day with good people at fun places. It's been a busy two days!

So today, I must clean.

Just thought I'd give you all a collection of my favorite pictures from this year. I've taken most of them, but one or two were taken by others. A new year's resolution many years ago was to take more pictures, and I think this year I've really lived up to that. My camera, "Cammie II" is always in my purse, which is actually a camera bag. And I don't care that people always make fun that I dn't have a real purse. There's just so many beautiful moments that I see that I love to share with my camera, so I need to have her around all the time.

So enjoy my pictures. I'm sure you've seen them all before, but it doesn't hurt to see them again!

Coming next year: Christine's artsy photo gallery

Photo Friday: Childhood

Catching Pigeons

You know, I'm really starting to like these weekly picture things...anyway, here's:

Theme Thursday: Discipline

Chicago Police in Riot Gear - 01.09.2003

There was a big convention in town, and Chicago stepped up it's police presence, and it was pretty intimidating to see all of them, lined up, dressed the same with the helmets, batons and plastic shields.

FotoFeelings: Complete

Sisters - April 1997

This was a toughie, but after some thought, I chose my sisters. We've all been away at school at different times, so anytime we get together, we feel whole, like all the world is right again.

OK, I've finally added my Marquette gallery. Click on the pretty picture for the gallery. Sorry to you dialup peeps, this graphic is kinda big, but any smaller and it wouldn't be as cool. ;)

There's a lot of pictures in there, I know. Most of them are just OK, but I think there's a few in there at are really good. But then again, when you take 400+ pictures at an event, you would hope that at least one or two turn out really good! I believe in quantity, with the hope of catching some quality in there. These buggers move too fast for my so-so camera to really catch any quality shots.

So I hope you like them, whether or not you're a short track fan or not.

Galleries coming soon:
Updated Bay City
Updated SLC
The return of the Milwaukee gallery
and....the long awaited WEDDING gallery! Yes, I know you guys have been waiting for it....(LARA). There are just so many pictures I don't even know where to start!

I know a lot of this isn't going to make sense, or may be inside jokes, but hell, it's my blog, so I'll put in what I want! It's really long, so if you don't get bored after the first few paragraphs, feel free to continue by clicking on the link below. Without further adieu, here it is:

- I flew in and my plane got in late at night. Our shuttle also had a pick up for the flight after mine, so we waited. While we waited, our driver told us his life story and we gave him some consolation about his upcoming divorce, and he gave us some advice about marriage.

- Unfortunately, the flight after us was WAY delayed. But you know what totally made up for it? It was Yang Yang A we were waiting for. I was giddy like a little schoolgirl. She was very nice, and amazingly beautiful. Those helmets don't do her justice at all.

- Friday morning, me and my roomie Bernadette went to breakfast with Noelle, Corin, Torrie, Denise and Susan at Tommy's. We had a lot of good laughs, and we were really excited about the upcoming races. I don't know if it was senior citizen's day at Tommy's or what, but the average age in there was about 70. I think we were the only ones there outside of Butta and Tysha who DIDN'T get the discount.

- I love our little short track family. Coming to these things is like a mix between going to Thanksgiving Dinner at grandma's, going to your 10 year high school reunion, and spending quality time with your teenage cousin. There are so many different kinds of fans out there, from different backgrounds, from different locations, each with a different reason why they came to Marquette, whether it be because of a love of short track, or of one particular skater, or just to come out and see the circus that is short track fandom. We all came, we had a good time. True, it wasn't one big group of fans that hung out together all the time, and I would be lying if I said everyone gets along. Because they don't. Too many different and strong personalities. But everyone was happy with their own group, and there's a single purpose that brought everyone together, and that's good enough, because it looks like everyone had a great and memorable time. And nothing could beat the enthusiasm that each one brought to Marquette. We were crazy fans, and we loved it. It was truly wonderful to see everyone again, whether I talked to them or not. I apologize if I didn't, but most of the time the time didn't feel right, or I was just too shy to approach people to talk, just as people were too shy to come up to me I later found out. I just hid behind my camera most of the time. Or my laptop. But to those of you who did say hello, thank you. It was great to finally meet Monique, Tysha, Lucinda, Sue and Jill for the first time. And I can't tell you how much it meant to me to have people ask about my mother and how she was doing. Probably the top two questions people were asking were 'How's your mom doing?' and 'So how's married life?' Sooz even went so far as to tell me to come to the next competition with a little one in the oven. We're working on it, Sooz.


- There was some AMAZING racing in Marquette. The Koreans were definitely a force to be reckoned with. Ahn and Choi seemed almost unstoppable (almost). And I had never thought that the ice in Marquette was known to be particularly fast, but there were a couple records broken - the top 4 finishers in the 1500m all beat the world record. When I heard that Korea, China, Italy, Canada, and Japan were all going to be in attendance in Marquette, I knew we'd have some good races. I was a little concerned for the US team, since all the major players would be there, so it would be a lot harder than SLC, but we did well enough to have Apolo and Rusty in the 3000m. And both of them did extremely well. The 1000m final was great to watch - when Apolo and Rusty came in and broke up the Korean chain the crowd was roaring. The 3000m was an excellent race, as well, with two Koreans, two Canadians and two Americans. But probably the most exciting was the men's relay final, with Korea, Japan, Canada and China. All the teams were close throughout the whole 45 laps, and it was a clean race, with no DQ's and no falls. Watching Korea and Canada switch leads in the last laps had the crowd screaming and biting it's nails.

- Some people may say I got a media pass so I could get kickass seats. Or so I could be closer to cute guys in skinsuits. Or have an excuse to talk to a cute guy in a skinsuit. Or so I can sit in on the press conferences. Or because I needed the internet connection. But the truth is, I got the media pass for the free food. Those Bavarian crème chocolate éclairs were to DIE for! I ate half the box, and took a couple home with me.

- Even though the media was comprised of mostly fans, there were a couple media people there that were, uh, actual media people. During the 1000m races, I sat on the media side of the arena to get some better pictures of the start line. Me and the rest of the gals in that area were playing a little game of musical chairs, trying to get the best seat without any obstruction from the block chasers. There was a point where the only seat left was next to this localphotographer/reporter, and we had a little exchange:

Me: Um, is this seat taken?
Dude: Yes it is, by you!
Me: Well, thank you!
Dude: Just don't tell my wife.
Me: It will be our little secret.
Dude: (staring at my chest, but in reality, trying to read my credential, or maybe not) What media group are you with?
Me: (showing him my creds) I'm with rustysmith.com
Him: Oh, I see. Are you his wife?
Me: (busts out laughing, then stops) HA! Uh, no. I work on his website. I have a husband. But it isn't Rusty.
Him: Oh. So do you come to these things often?
Me: About once a year or so. It's a lot of fun, isn't it?
Him: Oh yeah. It's really cool to see. You know, there's a lot of cute Asian girls skating.
Me: Uh, yeah, there are, I guess.
Him: I love to watch them.
Me: (internal alarm starts) Yeah, well, I think I forgot something in the media room. I'll see ya later.
Him: OK, I'll keep this seat open for ya.
Me: Uh, thanks...

- Thanks so much to Denise for driving me around. She is the coolest chick around. And I'm not saying that because I think she might have mafia connections. Or because Rusty Smith gave her his supersized check from the banquet. She's just the best.

- We came in late to the banquet, which is typical of me. Always late for everything. It was the first time I've ever gone to one of these things, and when we came in late, I felt like all eyes were on us crying 'Shame! Shame on you for being late!' I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be. It was pretty cool to be sitting with the Finish Lynx guys and between the Canadian team and the Korean team. Seeing the skaters outside of their skinsuits and helmets was an eye opener. The helmets do the women no justice. The Canadian women were gorgeous, as were the Italians. The food was excellent, and I was Susan's drink orderer for the night, and I didn't disappoint. It was cool to see the awards given out. When the Koreans were called up, they were so cute because they did this little run up to the stage. Those Koreans, always on the move. When Apolo's name was called, there was this huge roar of applause, and we heard one of the Canadians exclaim 'Ohno! It's getting hot in here!' Which made us all laugh, because he was referring to a sign that Lupe was carrying which was featured on the front page of the local paper. There was this huge rush of people that went to the stage to take pictures. I took a picture of it, but it didn't turn out too well. After that, it was people milling around, finding skaters to take pictures with, chatting with different people, and Apolo constantly had a good sized mob of people with him. I basically took pictures of people with other people for them. The camera gal. I got to talk to Rusty a little, and got our traditional picture taken together. I did manage to see Apolo for a split second as he was trying to leave, and I made eye contact and did the 'nod' of acknowledgement, but then he was swept up with other fans so that was that. I pretty much went through the banquet in a daze. Too much to watch, too much sensory overload.

- I didn't get to see much of Corin and Torrie of World Short Track in SLC, but I got to spend a lot more time with them in Marquette. Outside of the arena, they are just about the cutest couple ever. It's great to see them interact, and they are such great people. And they love and know the sport so well, it's great to talk to them about it. I know a good amount about the US skaters but not tons about other skaters. But Corin and Torrie were glad to educate me! Every once in a while, it's nice to take a break from talking about the skinsuits and ass and talk about the actual sport. Even outside of the arena, Corin was all business when he saw skaters, chatting up skaters left and right. All WST, all the time.

- Guinness, lemon drops, jack and cokes, pucker shots, kahlua and cokes, jager bombs, vodka tonics, car bombs. All the right ingredients for a fun night. From what I remember. Which isn't much. But I do remember helping out the owners of the bar, who were taking the place of their bartender. I gave them the recipes for drinks and educated them in the finer points of making drinks and mixing shots. I also learned that a drink called Bomba is the perfect replacement when you run out of Red Bull.

- My favorite media person was a Korean girl named Choi. Not the skater. The girl who had her head stuck in a notebook for the whole competition who would growl and snap at you if you interrupted her during the races. She was one of the hardest working media people I saw. Not the best pool player, but a pretty good reporter.

- I have to remember that my actions may be misinterpreted by people from another country. I had videotaped a couple of the races while I was in the media section. Behind the media section was the area where a lot of the athletes sat in between races. As I was reviewing my tape on my viewer screen, I could feel the eyes of the Bulgarian team (who were sitting behind me) watching my tape, too. I turned around, gave them a serious look, then pretended to hide my viewer from their line of sight. I laughed then smiled at them and gave them a better view. But they weren't smiling. I don't think they got the joke.

- A big thank you to the Japanese lady who taught me how to say 'Smile with your teeth' in Japanese ("walla te"?). I never got to use the line on Satoru Terao because I didn't see him at the banquet, but it's good to know for future reference!

- Sometimes I felt like I was still at work. I fixed the copier in the media room, helping with other people's computer problems, and taught people how to use their cameras. A consultant's work is never done.

- One of my favorite images from Marquette was seeing Susan's Fabio Carta sign amidst all the OZ gals. It was so big she was hidden behind it when she held it up. Fabio was the best. He came and sat behind us during the men's relay heats, and was giving us information on the relay. It was so cool to have him there, and I laughed because every time the Italian men would have a bad pass, or when they would be passed up, he would exclaim, 'Uh oh!' to himself. He definitely made himself a lot of fans that weekend by being so friendly, personable and photogenic!

- Kimo is like Santa at these things. He's always got something up his sleeve or a little something to give away. And he never fails to crack everyone up! Ghetto Santa and sweet, pretty Jan, holding up her 'Apolo we had dinner with you' sign. Must have been a bitch to bring on the plane!

-I actually got a chance to talk to Hyun-Soo Ahn. Well, kinda. There was a bit of a language barrier. After he won the 1500m, he came into the press room, and Apolo wasn't there and Turcotte was being interviewed by the local press. Ahn was looking around like he needed help, and since I guess I was the only Asian there, he came up to me. Since my Korean is pretty rusty, well, ok, non-existent, it was hard for me to understand him. At first I thought he didn't know where the locker room was. But then I realized that he was going to go back to the locker room. I told him that it was all right (as if I had some authority!) but made it a point to tell him that he HAD to come back. He never did. But then again, he probably had NO idea what I was saying or why this strange Asian girl was making these weird bird-like hand gestures. While we're on the subject, Ahn has REALLY grown up. He's taller and he even colored his hair. We were joking around during dinner that I'd start a site for him: www.LetsGetItAhn.com.

- One of the most memorable things about Marquette for me was the people of Marquette. They just embraced the sport and all the athletes. They just weren't cheering for the US team, they were cheering for everyone. All the local people I talked to had such a hunger for knowledge about the sport, it was incredible. For most of the races I sat in front of this father and son who were new to the sport. Every now and then we would answer their questions about the sport, and Corin even gave them his worldshorttrack.com business card to check out the site. The next day, they had visited the site, printed out the helmet sheets and everything. On the first day, the son seemed pretty lukewarm to short track, when I turned around and said, 'Short track is really cool, you'll see,' he gave me this, 'yeah right' look, since he was a hockey player. By the last day, he couldn't get enough of it. The whole town of Marquette was hyped up about the World Cup. From all the posters in the airport by school children welcoming each of the countries to the cut out skates adorning the light posts in downtown Marquette, I don't think there was anyone in Marquette that didn't know the World Cup would be there. And who knew that clowns, swing bands, and a wildcat mascot would add so much to the festive atmosphere? Me and Corin did some swing dancing on the side, but it didn't catch on...but it was a lot of fun!

- I didn't take any pictures with any of the skaters other than Rusty, mostly because I was too shy to ask, and it just seemed like they had a lot of people taking pics with them as it was. I was happy with just watching other people take pictures with them. But the one person that I KNEW I had to get a picture taken with was someone that I had seen around the rink throughout the competition. Someone who had caught my attention, who had that certain je nais se quois. A fire in his eye, the agility with which he moved, his smile, his attention to style, something about him drew me like a moth to the flame. He was the NMU Wildcat. Holy hotness, Batman!

- I need to start a petition. A petition to make it mandatory that all ice arenas serve churros at their food stands. There wasn't a churro to be found in Marquette!

- One of my favorite moments during the women's relay was at the end, when Caroline Hallisey was helping Maria Garcia skate off the ice. Maria had suffered a concussion earlier in the day, but the women needed to do the relay to get points so they could do it at the Worlds. I think Maria may have skated a couple laps, but the rest of the girls covered for her for the rest of the race. Afterwards, Caroline linked her arm with Maria's and gently skated with her off the ice. It was really touching to see.

- Phone service in Marquette sucks for Sprint users. I was roaming the whole time and didn't realize that my phone rang 5 times during breakfast - I thought the ring belonged to someone else. Roaming sucks! I'm scared to look at my phone bill. I got and received a lot of calls that weekend, some having to do with work, or when trying to coordinate a meeting time, or searching for lost friends who come in 2 hours late to the competition. You know who you are.

- I got a lot of exercise in Marquette, mainly because my seat was all the way on the other side of the rink from where the media room was. And the media room was down a set of stairs. And my seat was down a set of stairs. There was a lot of running around in-between races to upload pictures in the media room then back to my seat to catch the races. Fortunately, years of working in downtown Chicago has taught me the long lost art of people dodging.

- It was great to hear Andy Gabel call the races. The energy and excitement in his voice was really infectious. You could tell that he was just as excited about the awesome racing that was going on as the crowd was. He also made sure to add in little tidbits about the sport, like strategy in races, when the skaters start speeding up in a race, etc. He did an excellent job!

- Apolo was definitely a favorite for the weekend, and everyone in a way expected him to do well. It's a lot of pressure, but I think he handled it really well. The Koreans were definitely strong throughout the whole competition. Apolo got third in the 1500m, which was great, but there was nothing better when he came first at the finish line in the 500m final. He knew he had it, pumped his fist in the air and went around joyously for his traditional hi-5 around the rink. The applause and cheering was deafening, the crowd was out of their seats, and the smile on Apolo's face was a mile wide.

- In Marquette, it was easier to figure out who DIDN'T have a press pass than who DID. I swear, it seemed like everyone was in the media room the last day. Between rustysmith.com, ohnozone, fabiocarta.com, usspeedskatingfans, world short track, ohnovelocity, apolo anton ohno portal, speedreading, and so on and so on, there were a lot of media/fans in the room. I almost felt like I was at an Apolo signing. It's truly showing the speedskating community how dedicated the fans are to supporting the sport and covering the sport for other fans, since there isn't a lot of regular media attention to it (like NBC or ESPN). And it also shows that the number one source that fans use to get information on competitions is on the internet. On the down side, in a way, is that I don't know if press passes were given out liberally, but it seems like anyone and their mom can make up a website and get a press pass. Is that a good thing? I dunno. Hopefully press passes aren't limited to websites in the future!

- On a similar note, I had my 14 minutes of fame when I got interviewed for the local paper. It was so weird to see 'Christine Estacio' in print, but it was really cool, too. Basically the article had to do with what I stated above - how the internet community gets its short track information through fan sites and official fan site, mostly from reports from competitions given by other fans. The interview covered a lot more than what was in the article, but I was honored just to have my name in print.

So yeah, all in all, I had a great and memorable time. There's a whole bunch of memories that will never see the light of this blog, mostly because I don't remember them. But as much as this short track world can be stressing, Marquette showed that it could be wonderful, as well.

Photo Friday: Structure

The Olympic Oval
Salt Lake City - February 2003

Posted by Yano at 11:03 PM | Comments (1)

FotoFeelings: Free

Claudine Jumps Logs
Vancouver, BC - May 2002

Photo Friday: Work

As Always, Hard at Work: Chicago, March 2003

The crazy antics never end at my office. Here, the professional services group does some bonding. I tend to think better with Sam's ankles next to my ears. That sounds dirty, but it's not.

Photo Friday: Downtown

Unfortunately, I'm not home today so I don't have access to my kick ass pictures of downtown, so this one will have to do. This is taken from the museum campus, right behind the Shedd Aquarium.

Chicago Skyline

It was a gorgeous drive down to San Diego, going along the coast on the 5. It wasn't even a long drive. It took me 2 1/2 hours to drive up to Thousand Oaks last week to a client. It only took us an hour and a half to get to the zoo. And the time went by fast because we were listening to the Bears vs. Chargers game on the radio. It's a totally different experience to listen to broadcasters that are biased AGAINST the Bears.

So we got to the zoo and met up with Melinda, who is about the only person I know in San Diego, and who lives only minutes away from the zoo. We had a great time going around the zoo, taking the tour, riding the sky gondola thing and eating churros. I love the zoo, and I love animals. It's a beautful zoo, and it's HUGE. We didn't get through everything (we got there late, of course) but we got through enough. Maybe we could have gotten through more if we didn't stand entranced by the playful antics of the pygmy chimpanzees for an hour. It was really cute to watch them do somersaults and wrestle with each other.

Of course, we had to head out to the hippo area, because if you didn't know, I love hippos. We cleaned out the gift shop of all its hippo paraphenalia. I bought a hippo t-shirt, stuffed hippos, hippo photo album, hippo magnet, and a hippo backpack, that you can see in some of the pictures.

As for pictures, I went crazy - took about 200 pictures, of which you'll see a sampling of here. Once I get some time (which means NEVER) I'll post up some galleries of my artsy pics. I've got tons of pics of animals and of my drive to California that I never posted.

So here's the pics, enjoy!

This weekend is Dave and Christine's animal weekend. Today's stop was the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific. It was a ton of fun, though I was really hungry for sushi afterwards. *evil grin* We had a pretty good time, and they had some beautiful fish there. They also had a petting area where you can pet sharks, horseshoe crabs and stingrays. The sharks felt a bit like sandpaper, and the rays were slimy without being slimy. After a while, I didn't want to go. I just wanted to stay and pet my new friends. Dave also made friends with a green sea turtle.

So if you're ever in Long Beach, I'll take you there. I splurged a bit and got a membership to the aquarium, so I can go whenever I want. It's only about 15 minutes away from my place, and it's a great place to take kids. I was waiting for one of them to fall into the petting pool, but no luck.

Here's a couple of my pics I took. I'm a picture taking freak - I took about 150 pictures. God bless my digital camera!

Just a couple pics from the World Cup action today. Well, it was yesterday.

Since Emer always complains that I post up too many pictures of speedskaters, and not enough of him, I present to you the 'Emer at Betty's Blue Star Lounge' collection. Once I get my pics organized, look out for the special 'Pictures of Emer' page.

He calls this one 'Alki-Man!'

Fatima and Emer

Emer and me

And so the others don't feel left out...

Jen, Gil and me

The birthday boy, Angelo, me and Deo

Sorry Emer, but this weekend there's going to be LOTSA speedskater pictures being posted. But the next time I see you, I'll take a more pics. Maybe even start a fan page. *wink*

Photo Friday: Body

My Feet: Huntington Beach, September 2003

I'm in Chicago, so I don't have access to all my other pictures, so I'll post an older picture that I've posted before.

Photo Friday: Translucent

Aspen Bust - Chicago Comic Convention, August 2003

Photo Friday: Heights

The Capilano Suspended Bridge in Vancouver, B.C.

Photo Friday: Found

In my adventures to California, I found evidence that, yes indeed, Bigfoot DOES like riding rollercoasters. However, he was a tad over the height requirement so he left.

Today's Photo Friday: Aged

OK, so I'm cheating a bit here and using the same pic from a couple days ago, because well, this picture IS aged. It's a picture from my Chicago to Long Beach roadtrip, and I'm a little unsure as to where it's from. I believe it's somewhere outside of Nevada. I had so many beautiful pictures to choose from, but this one is my favorite just because of the different colors of the mountain. From the road, the black bottom looks like tents set up at the foor of the mountain. It was quite breathtaking, and the pic hardly does it any justice.

Anyway, when we passed by it, my dad remarked, "Its incredible that it took thousands of years to make something that beautiful..."

Well, I'll wait til I get more pics from friends before I put up my wedding gallery. For now, I'll post up all of my Wizard World pics, which I took last August. If you've forgotten my experience, you can live it in my "Adventures of a Comic Book Booth Bitch" post. One thing about that post: You never know who's reading the stuff you post on your site, so beware!!! It's all good, I meant every word of it, and I had a terrific time.

Thanks to everyone who mailed me suggestions about galleries to use. It seemed like there was some sort of consensus on "Gallery" being the best one out there. However, since I like making things difficult for myself, and I'm just stubborn about the design I want, I'm going with a different kind of format. I had always loved the way that Mona had her picture gallery formatted, so, well, I just stole the design. OK, I asked Raven to help me out with it, which he happily did. I know I'm making more work for myself, but I like the control I have with this gallery. So thanks to Mona for using the format that I've always wanted, and to Raven for designing it. Now if only I could get my pictures as good as Mona's!

Anyway, tell me what you think of the new gallery. I still need to iron out a couple things, but I really like it, and I'll probably convery the rest of my pictures to this format.

Melanie has pics from my wedding up...and my bridal shower and the bachelorette parties, too. (The clean ones, of course)

Mel's Wedding Page

Here's a couple samples to whet your whistle...

The whole bridal party...yes, I know, it's A LOT

Dr. & Mrs. Estacio exit the church and kiss

Good times in the Escalade!

I could have danced all night!

Me and Melanie

Girl, I'll be home on Friday, cut me a CD of this...it's good stuff! Thanks Mel!

And now, I bid you good night as my body is wrapped up in Vick's vapo-rub. Doctor Dave's orders! At least I can breathe a bit easier, but now I'm all tingly!

My first post as Mrs. David Estacio!

It was a good day. Thank God for giving us perfect weather.

Although not everything went smoothly, it was an unforgettable and perfect day and night. I wouldn't change it for the world!

Tomorrow, I leave for Long Beach. Wish me luck! Don't know when I'll be able to post. My target date is early on August 27th.

So with that, I leave you with these images of our wonderful wedding. There are a lot more, and people are sending some that they've taken, so I should have a pretty good gallery done by next week...

Here I am, on a plane to LA. I'll keep on typing 'til my battery dies. I don't want to make this too long of a story (not like the epic 'Memoirs of a Ex-Short Track Stalker" from February) but I'll try to get in as much stuff as I can on my way to LA. I know these story won't appeal as much to my core readership (well, what I think my core readership is, although I know you comic book lurkers are out there, too) but let me tell you gals, these guys are sweet, friendly, and mighty good lookin'.

So, to start things off, I go to the Chicago Comic Convention every year, this is maybe my 5th or 6th year going. I was going even before it was called Wizard World Chicago. I dunno what possessed me to go that first year, maybe it was the promise of getting FREE comic book stuff. At first, I just went for one day, but when I discovered you can get sketches done and that there were panel discussions, I started going for all three days. And every time I told someone I was going to the con, I would get that 'You read comic books?' or 'Are you crazy?' look. Basically, because I'm a girl who reads comic books. Also, who could stand to be at a convention for 3 days?

But it's a lot of fun. Me and Fatima go every year. She is the Robin to my Batman. The Lilo to my Stitch. The Tonto to my Lone Ranger. The Silent Bob to my Jay. You get the picture!

So this year, we had bought tickets to go and were really psyched about seeing Jim Lee and Sean Astin. And I have a friend, and I don't know if he wants to remain nameless, but I'll let him be nameless for now, who asked me if I was going to the con, to which I said I was. And then he asked 'Well, if they need help at the Aspen booth, do you want to help out?'

HELL YEAH!

Aspen MLT, as I might have mentioned before, is the company started by my favorite artist, Michael Turner (see the 'art' section for some of his art - yeah, I know the section sucks right now...I'll fix it in time!). There's only a few of them in the company right now, and I guess they weren't sure if they needed help at the booth. So of course, me and Fatima jumped at the chance to help out. We were as giddy as schoolgirls.

So we stopped by the booth on Friday morning, and they told us that they were ok, but to check with them later on in the day. We got to do some cruising around the 'con, and came back, and they said they were OK with help for the day, but might need us for the next day.

The next day, we came by in the afternoon to see if they needed help. By then we were thinking that they would be OK with help for the rest of the 'con. But since Michael and crew had a panel to do in the afternoon, it would only be Liz working the booth, as well as two Wizard volunteers. (Sorry I forgot your names, guys!)

So me and Fatima got to be Booth Bitches for the rest of the afternoon, and although it was a lot of work selling the art and comics, and answering questions, we had TONS of fun. It was interesting to see what it was like behind the table, and to actually see how much stuff these companies sell at comic cons. It was a LOT. It was pretty amazing how much people were shelling out for the posters and comics. But if I had the money, I would have bought all the prints. But we had a lot of limited edition stuff to sell, and the prints we had were GORGEOUS. Me and Fatima were drooling over them the whole time. Michael, Talent, Peter & Co had some really great stuff. We were in heaven selling this kick ass art to other people who loved the art, and chatting with them and joking around. These people loved the art as much as we did. It was REALLY cool!

So we worked there Sunday, too, and were really sad to have to leave early. Everyone at Aspen was SO cool to us, and we have to especially thank Liz Brizzi for being so patient with us when we were learning the ropes and for taking in the questions we couldn't answer for people. And also Frank Mastromauro for letting us work there, and for getting us sloppy joes on Sunday. We knew that he was busy already, and he took the time out to get us something to eat. He rocks! And to Peter, who could be a bit intimidating at first, since he's the size of most skyscrapers in Chicago, but who is cool as hell. And to Talent, for being a really cute guy, and for taking the time out to make a SPECTACULAR sketch of Psylocke for me in my sketchbook (I'll scan in later). And to Mike Turner, for looking eerily like Noah Wyle and creating this cool company that for a brief moment in time we pretended that we were affiliated to. Thank you so much, Aspen!

So, here's some other highlights from the weekend:

- Got a sketch done by Mark Brooks, who will be doing the upcoming series of Deadpool. He was an AWESOME guy who took a lot of time to work on the sketch of Psylocke that he did for me. He was cool, friendly and funny. I promise Mark, when Deadpool comes out I will definitely buy it and preach to my other comic book friends to buy it because 'Mark is such a neat guy.' And no, I will not be selling your sketch on EBAY! But I stole one of your pencils and it should be up for sale as we speak. Just kidding.

- Also got a sketch from Tone Rodriguez, who did a Psylocke sketch for me last year, but I enjoyed talking to him so much when he was sketching for me last year that I went back for more this year. He's such a funny guy, he had me and Fatima laughing the whole time. And he gave me a hug! He's a hugger! I love hugs from big burly comic book artists! He's the best. He's someone I will definitely be looking up when I try to infiltrate the comic book world in LA. Note to all the comic book girls out there: Tone's a huggable guy.

- Saw what I'd like to call 'my old friend' the Chief, Mike Wellman, who did Mac Afro with Luke Lizalde. Remember that comic that I was in? Yeah, that one. And he assured me that yes, that was me in the comic. Wheee!!! It was great to see him again, and he's got a new comic out called 'Gone South' which I will definitely buying once I have the funds.

- Got a picture taken with a man dressed in a 'Predator' outfit. The first time I was rubbing his belly. Then I went back for a picture because he was such a damn cute alien, and I asked him for a hug, which he gladly gave me. Note to self: Do not accidentally stick your hand in the armpit of a man who has spent all day dressed up as the Predator, because your hand will be moist and smelly. But I thank him for the picture.

- George R. R. Martin, I will be cursing your name! He's one of my favorite authors, and he was supposed to be at the 'con, but since he had to finish his book (which I have been waiting for forever) he was not able to make it. He is SO lucky that I didn't lug my big hardcover books to the 'con to get signed. I apologize to the guys working the booth, who I think I scared by taking my books and slamming them onto the table and damning them all to hell. I didn't mean it guys, it was the heat of the moment. But George, I'm over it now. I will just curse your name every once in a while. Just finish the book, ok?

- Funny exchange #1: at the Aspen booth

Dude, just how old do you think Mike IS? He's only a couple years older than me!

- Sorry to our 'little brothers' that were helping out at the booth with us for being so old. I know they were a little disappointed when they found out I was 28, a mere 12 years older than them and much to old to hit on. Well, they tried. It was cute.

- Rafael was the most easy going and sweetest person I met at the 'con. He just had this melodic quality to his voice which just showed that he was a gentle and kind soul. He drew me a female Mexican masked wrestler. I thought it would be a challenge, but I guess it wasn't! Watch out for Somnabula, everyone!

- Me and Fatima were hanging out at the Jay's Comics table, when the older woman there said she liked my shirt. I smiled and said 'thanks' and she looked at me, and replied, 'Have you been here before?' I said 'yes' and she proclaimed, 'I know you girls! You come here every year! Oh my, you both are so grown up now!' She was so sweet it was like seeing an old auntie. Then she saw my ring, and she said, "Oh my! And you're getting married, too!" To which I said, "Yeah, we grow up, then we get married!". She was such a darling. The next day, I was at the booth again, and her son came up to me and said " My mom was telling me about you yesterday, and she said 'There were these two girls there today and you would recognize them if you saw them!' and I saw you, and immediately knew it was you. Congratulations on the wedding!'. It was so cool, to be recognized by these people, it's like coming to visit old friends!

- Life as a comic book artist isn't easy. We didn't get to talk to Mike Turner too much because we saw how incredibly busy he was, doing signings, sketching for people, being part of panels and such. Poor guy was just packed with stuff all the time. There was one instance where he was doing a signing and sketches, and he really had to go to the bathroom, but he kept on getting interrupted on his way to the bathroom. I wanted to just say, 'Let the man pee!'

- Pet peeve of the con: People who get more than one sketch. Yes, I know you paid to get into the con, yes, I know that you waited in line to get a sketch, but spread the wealth, yo! There's a bunch of people behind you who've driven really far, just to get ONE sketch. Be courteous to your fellow geeks (i say the word affectionately, being one myself) and let someone else have the joy have having a sketch done. I had see too many people with the look of disappointment when the line was capped for sketches.

- There were so many great books there that I wanted to pick up, but didn't have the money. Hopefully once I settle down, I can grab some new titles. I'll definitely be picking up 'The Ultimates', 'Gone South', 'Violent Messiahs', 'Red Star' and 'Kabuki'.

- There were a lot of characters walking around, and one of them was Darth Vader. I watched as people took picture with him, some asking for poses where he was choking them or doing the jedi mind trick. I asked him if I could take a picture with him, and he said, in a low menacing voice, 'YES'. Then I asked if I could get a hug, because, well, even evil ex-jedi's need hugs, too. SO he said yes, and I took a picture with him. Then after Fatima took the picture, he reached behind him, pulled out a camera, and said "Can I have one, too?" Uh, yeah, sure Vader, as I could say no to you! So we took a hugging picture with his camera, too. Who knew that Anakin Skywalker had a Canon CoolPix? Not I!

- On Saturday I was wearing a 'Girl's Rule' t-shirt. Lots of comments on it, lots of men challenging the fact that girl's rule. But we do, so they all lost the arguments.

- A suggestion to my fellow geeks - try out soap. It helps. Sorry, but some people there just STANK.

- Talent Caldwell's mom is the cutest thing, and it's even cuter to see Talent with her.

- Although I liked to call us Booth Bitches, because we were doing the behind the scenes work at the booth, I would not go as far to call us "Booth Babes". Which brings to mind the Evil-Lynn that was there, or the Vampirella that was there two years ago, or any other scantilly clad lasses that adorn a booth. We were far from that! Guys would line up to take pictures of these girls. But to tell the truth, it made me and Fatima laugh really hard when guys would ask us if they could take our pictures. I mean, we're not babes. Just volunteer bitches. Nonetheless, it was cool that they wanted our picture.

- Funny Exchange #2 - At the DC area, taking a picture with Batman and Wonderwoman

- A couple people thought I actually worked for Aspen. I said no, I was just a lucky girl who got a break. I was also asked which character was based on me. I said none...yet. *wink* Then one person pointed at Aspen Matthews and said, 'She looks like you!' Nice try, guy! I said, 'Thanks, I wish! Sometimes when I read the book, I pretend she's me, but nope, it's not!'.

- Have I told you guys that Sam Campos is just about the coolest human being on the face of the earth? I just wanted to say that. Thank you.

- Although we were quite excited to see Sean Astin before the con, I think the excitement of working the booth took over. We waited in line to see Sean for a while, and saw him come in. He's really cute, and has lost a lot of weight since the movie. He's almost in 'Toy Soldiers' form. We knew that the wait would be long and tedious, so we stuck around for a bit, got bored of waiting, said 'fuck it', and left to check out the rest of the con. Another day, Samwise Gamgee. We shall meet another day!

Damn, didn't know this would be this long! Thanks for sticking around long enough to read it. Wait! I'm not done! There's more fun!

- Phrase that I can live the rest of my life without ever saying again (well, until next year anyway): "We've got limited edition prints here. They're hand numbered and each one is already signed by the artists. $35 for one, $60 for two, and if you get four or more, it's only $25 each, which saves you $40! Get them soon, because they're selling out fast!"

- More Aspen ass-kissing: Peter just oozes coolness, there's just something about him. Frank has the nicest smile, it's nice and big. Talent has gorgeous eyes, and he's just CUTE. I love Mike's voice, it's got a Disney stud quality to it. Liz has an awesome French accent, and as one guy said at the booth - 'It's really hot!' Aspen is DEFINITELY a good looking company.

- I got to see Jim Lee again. He's SO cool. Wow. No sketch, though, but SOMEDAY. SOMEDAY I will get a sketch from you, Mr. Lee!

- I saw this huge line at the back of the con, and I had no idea what it was for. Then I saw that Rob Liefeld was in the house. Wow. Haven't heard from him in a while. I guess people still care! And he was doing sketches, too! Damn!

- Best Fatima quote of the 'con: "When Mike was heading out to the bathroom, he looked at me and nudged me with his hand. Can you believe it? Michael Turner's magical, gifted hands touched me! I'm so happy!"

- Humberto Ramos looked at me. He gave me 'the nod', I swear. I don't know if it's because he recognized me as the girl who was stalking him two years ago and asked for a picture of Psylocke, or if he thought that he knew me because I was working the Aspen booth. Nonetheless, it was cool.

- Best pickup line of the 'con:

- Comic book kids are just about the most polite kids on earth. Just about every one that we gave a free sticker to politely said "thank you". It was so much fun to see the wonder and joy in their eyes when we offered to give them 2 stickers. "Two stickers? Really? Gee, thanks!" Ahh, to be young again!

- We were so happy to have Liz around. If we didn't, we would have been lost sheep. She was like our mother hen and we were her chickees. She was SO cool, and so nice. At first I was a little intimidated by her, but she was so easy to get along with, and we really grew attached to her.

- Best way to end off the day: We were sad to leave early, but I had to catch a plane to LA for work at 6pm. I'm sitting at the airport talking on the phone and reading my comics, when who saunters over to the gate but Mike Turner! So I sneak up to him and ask him to sign my book. He looks up, surprised, and laughs. He invites me to sit and chill with him before the flight. It was kinda weird sitting next to him while I was reading the book that he drew. And I don't know if my hands were shaking because I was sitting next to him, or because I had my first coffee in a month. I think it was the coffee. It was still pretty cool to sit with him. I didn't want to bother him much, though, because I knew he was SO exhausted from the 'con. I was content just being within spitting distance. *smile* Then again, he never DID sign my book. *evil grin*

OK, I think that's all. More will probably come to me later on, but I'll let you guys off the hook for now. I had a TON of fun, and once I get the pics formatted, I'll post them up. I might even have to make a seperate gallery for my Wizard World Chicago pictures, there's so many!

Thanks to all of you who made it this far. I'm thinking that only the geeks got to the bottom, but maybe you ST girls made it this far, too. Thanks to everyone at the 'con for making it such a fun time for me. Looking forward to the LA con in March! Don't know if I'll be working the booth, but I'll definitely be there!

I am definitely a lucky girl, and in no way will I take this experience for granted.

Photo Friday Topic: Sleep

This is my adorable little cousin Jillian, a week or so after her birth in November. She was the cutest thing, and every day since then she's gotten cuter and cuter. She's our first baby in the family for my generation, so she's spoiled rotten by everyone, but she's such a sweetheart it doesn't matter!

Well, as if I don't have enough to do, I worked a bit on the 26 things project during my lunch break. 26 things is a photographic scavenger hunt where you're given a list of 26 topics to take a picture of. Some examples are monument, animal, symmetry, footwear, etc. It was a lot of fun, and it helped me practice my photographic skills. However, I started it a bit late (last week) so I didn't get the kinda of pictures that I would have gotten if I took the time. anyway, check out my submission:

Yano's 26 Things Project

This is my favorite one - it was taken with a zoom from my office building at the building next to mine:

If you get a chance, check out Alan's and Mona's. They've got some great stuff!

OK, so Chris shared his right-out-of-the-shower pics on his blog, so I said I would reciprocate. It's so weird taking pics of yourself in the bathroom, especially in a towel. It felt like porn. Anyway, here they are! Enjoy! Remember, you can still sponsor me!!!

This next set of pictures is dedicated to the best roommates that a girl can ever have in college - Nikki, Emily and Jaygee. We had a 3 floor, 4 bedroom apartment on Elm Street in Urbana. During the time that the 4 of us lived together, we had some of the best times of my life. Jaybee graduated after a year, so it was just the three of us (and a fourth roommate, but she wasn't around much). Why the name "The Luscious Lolas of Elm"? Well, Lola means grandmother to most Filipinos. And to most people out there, we were the big sisters, the ones that had been around and who knew what's up. And I have no idea who came up with Luscious Lolas. But the name just stuck. That's actually where my bunny's name came from. And although Nikki is genetically, Italian, she's Filipino inside, baby. We had some great times in apartment 18! Pillow fights, late night cramming, potluck dinners, pre-parties, meetings, Papa John pizza nights, middle of the night talks, drunken revelry, barbeques, down low hookups, you name it, we did it. Good times were held in 18!

As you may notice in the second picture, I had a LOT of hair as a child. I was actually born with a full head of hair. And my mother loved putting curlers in my hair and treating me like a doll. As you can tell in the first picture, I'm not enthusiastic about the whole process.

Enjoy the young Yano pics. More coming soon!

Here's a never before published picture of the new sibling group that will be created after the Feliciano/Estacio nuptials. It's really great, because we all get along with each other. Fatima and Justin are like brother and sister already - they were very close friends in college.

L-R: Justin, Claudine, Dave, me, Fatima

Last Saturday I had my second wedding shower. Last week's was for the young'uns, this one was for all the relatives. We had it at Dave's aunt's house, and it was quite an experience to see the aunts and uncles from both sides of the family in one place. Talk about worlds colliding! So of course, I'm not great at social situations like this, so half the time I was having a little internal freak-out. I'm not great at playing the hostess, and I'm even worse at being the guest of honor.

The basement was packed, there were a lot of bodies in there. I think I did an OK job of mingling, but I did a horrible job of remembering everyone's name. Both sides of the family seemed to get along pretty well. Everyone loved my dad's barbeque. I don't know who's responsibility it was, but no one had the bridal bingo ready. I mean, what's a bridal shower without the cheesey games? So we were tying to get everything together, and had sent Melanie out to go buy pens. The crowd was getting restless. People wanted me to open my gifts, but we kept on saying that we were going to play bingo. We didn't know how to hold the masses back until Melanie's return.

Then one of my bridesmaids, and her name will be changed to protect the innocent, fainted. At first I had thought that Pachel had just fallen down the stairs, but then I was told the she had fainted. We looked around for a doctor in the family and found one. Everyone was in a frenzy and wanted to see what was going on. Then they told me to call 911. I said 'Are you sure?' and they looked a little uncertain. But then Pachel started fainting again, and they yelled at me to hurry. Of course, this wasn't my house so I didn't know where they phone was. So I ran to Dave's aunt asking for a phone, and she brought me to a corner where the cordless phone was at, and it wasn't there. So she's yelling for the phone, and she tells me that there's a phone in the kitchen upstairs. I run past the crowd that is fanning Pachel and go up the steps and find the phone. I call 911, and say that someone had fainted and fallen down the steps. Then she asks me the address. I don't know! I yell out, what's the address here? But by then the dispatcher had found the address. The ambulance is coming.

So I go back downstairs, and by now they had moved Pachel over to the couch. She's lying there with her eyes closed and they're discussing what to do. We've called her fiance to tell him what's going on, and he's half asleep. Only after we tell him that she fainted and the ambulance was coming did he wake up. We're all sitting there when the paramedics arrive. I'm pretty sure he's surprised to see all the people in the basement. "Is there a party going on in here?" he asks? There are two other paramedics with him, and they ask Pachel several questions. She doesn't want to go to the hospital because she's feeling better. So she has to sign a waiver. So they're standing there, talking to her, taking her blood pressure, when two more paramedics come down the stairs. Now several of these men were pretty good looking. One of the aunts came up to me and asked, "Just how many times did you call 911?" Just once, I say. When the second set of paramedics came down, Jen turns to me and gives me a look. It was a devilish look, which echoed the thoughts in my mind. Was this whole fainting spell an act by Pachel, so the male strippers had an excuse to come down? Because some of them sure did look like strippers. I was waiting for the music to start playing and the lights to go down.

But no strippers. It was for real. She signed the waiver and the paramedics were on their way to go. But not before the Titas (aunties) had offered them food. Several times. And when they said that they had dinner at the firehouse, the Titas offered to wrap some food up for the rest of the station. Yeah, can't hide from the Filipino hospitality!

So Pachel's drama cut up the monotony of the party. As soon as the paramedics left, I cried, "Who wants to play some Bridal Bingo?" We passed the cards out and I called the bridal words. It was tough to be heard over the chitterings of 30+ women, but I think they had a good time playing. After the games, I made sure that Pachel was still doing ok, and told her that I knew she was trying to steal my thunder. I had realized that she was just jealous that I was having a party that she needed the attention drawn to herself. Just you wait til your bridal shower, missy, I'll show you drama!

To top the day off, I opened up my gifts. I never really realized how powerful having a registry is. I got everything I wanted, and more! It's incredible! Now the question is, where to store all this stuff for the year that I'm gone!

All in all, it was a good time. My panic scale was pretty low, as was my stress level. Pachel had apologized for ruining my party, but I told her she didn't ruin it, she made it that much more interesting. My party will be the bridal party that everyone wil be talking about - where they fit so many people in the basement that someone passed out. She's ok, so it's ok to joke about it. We had some really good laughs later when we were talking about the paramedics being strippers. I had fun. My guests had fun. Hell, even my dad had fun.

Long, long ago I wanted to be an artist. I have no idea where my drawings are, or I'd share them with you. In college, I discovered the wonders of computer graphics, and the greatest program ever, Adobe Photoshop. Nowadays, with this page, work, the wedding, and life in general, I haven't had a chance to play with Photoshop like I used to. However, I just wanted to share a couple of the things that I've stirred up over the last weeks. The first two are pictures of Psylocke, my favorite X-Men character. I actually have a site dedicated to her. The line art is from the original artist, but I've colored the pics myself. Photoshop is like a box of crayons with a million colors to me. The third picture was just me fucking around with brushes and layers in Photoshop. I've always liked Marilyn Monroe, so I made a little background image of her.

Photoshop is therapy. It always calms me down and makes me contentedly happy.

Enjoy!

Melanie has some pics up from my bridal shower, so go check 'em out! Fortunately, she doesn't have the pics from later on that night. *snicker*

Yesterday, me and Bryan went for a walk during our lunch break. Fortunately for us, it was Chicago's "Music on the Mile" - various groups and musicians, playing music up and down Michigan Avenue. We stopped to listen a bit in several locations. The tourists were out in full force, with shopping bags, cameras and whiny kids. Bryan enjoyed the eye candy that the warm weather brought out. "I'm glad thinking impure thoughts isn't illegal, or I'd be arrested right now," he remarked after a young strappy tank topped vixen passed us. We realy enjoyed the music, especially the Irish band. We were ready to break out the Irish jig right then and there. But unfortunately, no Guiness to give us the liquid courage, so we just tapped our feet. We also got to watch this hip jazz trio, and the Chicago Chamber Orchestra. Here's some pics:

So last Saturday, we took Nina out to hunt for her flowergirl dress again. The David's Bridal by my house didn't have much of selection in her size - she's pretty young for a flowergirl, only 2 years old. Well, 2 1/2.

So I stopped by her new house, with a a stuffed Nemo doll in hand. I'm not below bribing little children with Disney toys to make them like me. This time, I made sure that Nemo wasn't scary looking (see the 'Nina runs away from scary Stitch video') Of course, she loved him. She even requested that he ride in the car with us.

So we get to the store, and we pick out her dresses. I make a bet with her mom that Nina's going to be a dress flasher - that is, at some point in the wedding, Nina's gonna lift up her dress. Because you know, little girls do that. And Gail says no way.

So Nina goes in to try some dresses, and as soon as she comes out of the dressing room, BAM! up goes the skirt. Fortunately, there's enough layers in the skirt that there is no possibility that she can lift the whole thing up. Nina tries on the various dresses, goes to her regular pedestal, and this time, the sales lady brings shoes and a tiara. A little girl that was there with her mom helps Nina put on the crown, like a lady in waiting. Nina is in heaven!

And we knew that she had found 'THE ONE' after she refused to take off the dress, and went into the corner and stared off into space. After about 10 minutes in the corner, she came out and changed back into her civilian clothing. Her moment as a princess was over, at least until August.

I can hear my thunder being stolen as we speak!

I stole this from Kathy's page. It's a pic of the cousins at our old apartment building.

(L-R) back: Maui, Trully, Vernon, front: me, Mel, Kathy, sitting: Karen

This was taken before Claudine, Jeff, Fatima, Kristine and Marlon were born. This pic really brings back memories of the old neighborhood. Thanks Kat!!!

Dave graduated today from the Des Moines University School of Osteopathy. It was great to see him up getting hooded. He's worked so hard over these last 4 years, and made a lot of sacrifices in the process (one big one being having a long distance relationship with me - it wasn't always easy). His fellow classmates would be the first to tell you that Dave is one of the most studious, hardest working med students out there. And today, all that work, all those late hours studying, have paid off. He's now a doctor of osteopathy.

I am the proudest girlfriend this side of the international dateline. I'm kinda pissed that my camera flaked out on me when I was taking his picture while he was getting hooded. But that's ok, I've got him on my new Sony MiniDV digital video cam. That thing ROCKS! Dave's main goal was not to get his cap knocked off while they were putting the hood on him. He succeeded. Unfortunately, they said his name wrong, saying it 'Esta-show" rather than "Es-tahshow" (like pistacio). Luckily, one if his friends yelled out the correct pronounciation. Speaking of, I'm happy that Dave has made some great friends in school. They're some really good people. They've got their internships in all different places, so we'll have lots of places to stay when we go traveling.

So one major step down in Dave's medical career. Next up, an internship in Downey, CA, where Dave will be moving to in a couple weeks, and I'll be moving to after we get married.

OT - I'm in the car driving back from Des Moines, and earlier a bird hit my windshield. Now it's raining, and the windshield wipers are spreading the guts across my windshield. Eew.

Anyway, congratulations to my Dave. I'm really proud of you!

Got a haircut yesterday. Some of you may know the handsome gentleman who cut my hair. More later today. Gotta go to work.

Since the fall of 1993, there has always been a Feliciano sister attending the University of Illinois. I started in 1993, ended in 1997, Claudine started in 1996, ended in 2000, Fatima started in 1998, and finished up yesterday. An era has ended. And my father breathes a sigh of relief. No more three hour drives through cornfields. No more moving in the daughter to a new apartment. No more bounced checks. No more calling your daughter at school and 1 in the morning, and she doesn't answer. No more 3 hour fashion shows he has to attend.

But for, an era has ended. I loved Urbana, and even after graduating, I had a reason to return and relive my college experience through my sisters. Of course, as time went on, I felt older and older, and more out of place, but still. It was home for me. But now, I have no reason to go back. I'll miss it.

And so, with that, I want to congratulate Fatima on graduating from the University of Illinois, with a Bachelor of the Arts in Psychology. Hope that degree does you more good than it did me, little sister. We're all proud of you! I'm really happy to have you back home.

It was a pretty long day, waking up way early, driving to Urbana, going to the graduation, then driving back home. Thanks to Mel for keeping me awake while we were going there, and thanks to her again, for what she did on the way home. No, we weren't in deep conversation. Actually, I think she was in a deep sleep. But knowing that if I crashed the car, I would be taking her own life as well as my own was enough to keep me awake. Most of the time, anyway.

And also, I did my part to save a life today. While talking to Fatima on the phone as I was driving, a opossum skittered across the road, right in the path of my car. I swerved a bit, gently hunked my horn, and the lil critter turned and ran the other way. I had seen enough carcasses on the road today - I didn't want to create a fatality. I want to give life, not take it away!

For my once a week hit of culture, I'm going to show you one of the best things to happen to comic books in a while, the art of Greg Horn. It's not your conventional comic book art - he usually does covers. He specializes in painting. Right now he's been doing the covers for Wizard Magazine and Elektra. I love his art. It's AWESOME! So here's a sampling of my favorites...

So Nina is only two, which is pretty young for a flowergirl, but seriously, this little girl is a cute as a button, there was no way I could pass up the chance of having her in my wedding. Unfortunately, since she's so young, there wasn't too much selection for her to choose from, but she had a GREAT time trying stuff on.

So my Ate Gail, her mom, is helping her change in the dressing room. She comes out in the first gown, and she looks absolutely adorable. She looks in the mirror that is connected to the dressing room, and I can tell she likes it. She tries on the second gown, and she's really getting into it, going up to the mirror and smiling into it. When she came out in the third gown she looked like a little fairy. She walked out of the dressing room, glanced at the mirror that was next to it, then kept on walking. We called after her, and she went to the front area of the store, where the brides try on their gowns, and went up to this little pedestal that was in front of these huge mirrors. And Nina just stood there and admired herself for a while. The other women there were remarking how cute she was, and she just sucked it all in.

So for every dress after that, that's what she did. Come out of the dressing room, go straight for the big mirrors. It was SO funny when she had a dress that was too long, and she would try to run in it, and she would fall down, but in slow motion. She could tell when we were at the last dress, because she wouldn't leave the front, and she just lay on the ground, not wanting her moment in the sun to end. She's hilarious. She's definitely going to make the wedding interesting with her antics. I can't wait!

Amy and Tony's Cinco de Mayo party was a blast. Never thought white people could throw such a great Cinco de Mayo fiesta. Just kidding. And yes, it wasn't the cinco de mayo, but the tres de mayo was close enough! I had a lot of fun, a lot to drink, and did a lot of dancing. I've also got a lot of interesting pictures. There would have been a better picture of Jon's ass, but unfortunately, it's just TOO hairy to post on my site, so you're just gonna get a look at a cheek. The food was phenomenal. The cheese dip was amazing, the flautas were delicious, and I couldn't stop eating the steak that was grilled for the quesadillas. And Tyson's frou frou blue island flavored pucker went well with whatever I mixed with it. DJ Jerry did a great job dancing with that pole, even though he didn't let me take a picture of him. And he told me to post something here, but unfortunately, I wasn't in a state to remember it...it was something like 'Jerry loves [something] and [something].' I think it was something like 'Jerry loves dancing with poles and Mexicans.' Or something like that. I laughed a lot. And I realized that I suck at playing 'Asshole.' And that after a couple drinks, Dan gets just a little more annoying. Just kidding, thanks for the ride, dude. But Claudine, if you're out there, Dan slapped my ass. Really hard. You need to keep your man in check!

Here's my pictures...

I love art. I love downloading art from the web and pretending like I'm cultured. So, I thought I'd share some of my favorites with you, whenever the fancy hits me. *bam* I just got hit with a fancy. Here's a piece of work done by Jack Vettriano, entitled 'Dance Me to the End of Love'. I love paintings of dancers, and this one just looks so elegant, you can almost hear the music playing in the background.

Well, it was my last night in Thousand Oaks, and Rick,