07.29.08 - The studio hybrid...

07.29.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

I thank Paul for sending me the email about the new computer from Dell now out. OMG... The Studio Hybrid is my new lover!

www.dell.com/hybrid


Paul said that he might get me this for an early birthday present or I have about $1600 saved up in my savings account.


Oh yeah, my favorite player from the Angels (Casey Kotchman) was traded to the Atlanta Braves... Its so sad.

07.28.08 - The Angels...

angels v boston
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

I love it when the Angels beat Boston... Boston fans are the worst... Annoying... Rude... Yuck.


Angels = win the World Series!

07.27.08 - The apple cat...

07.27.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

Back-to-school shopping...


All I got was a lousy notebook to take notes in. The kids backpacks are cute tho... Well, only the 2 Hello Kitty ones that I saw. Maybe when I get knocked up, I'll get my little girl a Kitty bag to take to school. I know my mom likes it. She loves those things!

4 more weeks till school starts. (joy)

07.26.08 - The book (Frog & Toad)...

07.26.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

Paul and I went to Barnes and Noble to see if there were any of my books for next semester (which there were not, unfortunately) but I saw a book that I read when I was a kid... Seeing those books made my day.

07.25.08 - The anniversary...

07.25.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

Paul and my 2 year anniversary dinner...


Homemade:

-mashed potatoes with bacon and shallots
-steamed green beans
-garlic bread
-corned beef (made all from scratch)

(we had nothing to drink, so I resorted to drinking one of the last 2 Sparks we had in the fridge)


<3

Here is to another year with the best-est friend ever!

07.24.08 - The peanut sauce...

07.24.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

Unfortunately, the only exciting thing today was having peanut sauce chicken for dinner. Paul is the best cook, seriously.

:) it was good tho.


Oh yeah, there is a bottle of gin in the background... Gin and Tonic, baby!

07.23.08 - The store (Whole Foods)...

07.23.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

Paul and I are going to make a home made meal for our 2 year anniversary on Friday. We took a trip to Whole Foods in Carmichael/ Fair Oaks to get our ingredients needed. On the menu: mashed potatoes with bacon bits, green beans, home made corned beef and pumpkin gooey cake. I love going to Whole Foods... The ready to eat food there is so awesome, we ended up having dinner there and eating peperoni pizza, mac and cheese for me and Paul had a vegetable soup and corn bread and a cola for the both of us.

It was also the first day back to work... Drama like usual. Not that bad tho. My goal for the new half of the year is to do the best job that I can and to not bring home the drama from work home with me. (good.luck)

07.22.08 - The car wash...

07.22.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

The last day of vacation... Sad to see it all end but glad that I had the time off to relax. Paul came home from work early because of his teeth still bothering him. He came home about 1230pm and since we both hadn't eaten, we went to Boston Market for a quick bit to eat.

A while ago, we both got these free coupons for a car wash at this place called The Pavilions Car Wash (it's in Fair Oaks in the nice part of town). I took Paul with me since the place was like 300 feet from the Boston Market. I swear, my car was the only domestic car there (I drive a 2005 Ford Focus, mind you) and also the least "fancy" car (there was a Porche, some Lexus' and lots of other new cars). Felt inadequate but I finally got that damn car washed (finally).

Ended up at Rite Aide. Got some items (hair dye and Dove bar soap for me) and spent more time then I would like to admit in the hair color, soap/body wash sections.

What a lame way to end my 13 day paid vacation!

07.21.08 - The rum...

07.21.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

I so wish I had the patients to read more books... I blame the inter web and the damn PS3. I feel like that is all I have done on this vacation, working on my digital photography and playing Grand Theft Auto 4. I love the game tho. It is very addictive and fun too. Paul and I went to Borders to look around. I guess our days of reading and returning is over. The store changed their return policy. It sucks but It was worth it for a long time while we had the chance.I told Paul how I love history books, like art history, ancient cultures and the history of certain things (like this book I saw about the history of Rum, my most favorite drink ever) but not US History (I don't like the history of current topics or events). I feel good taking 3 art history classes tho next semester... It should be really fun and keep me busy!

I bought a book by Christopher Moore called "You Suck"... Should be fun! I read another one of his books called "A Dirty Job" and loved it. Now, its time to read more books!!! Wish me luck on that.

Oh yeah, Mom and Dad went to Los Angeles to visit Grandma. I wish I went.

07.20.08 - The cut...

07.20.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

So, I cut my hair. Very impulsive, if I must say (but that's how I 'roll' sometimes). I actually did it myself. I got frustrated with the fact that my hair is uneven and the layers were bothering me too, so I chopped a few inches. I used to have Matt (the oldest of my younger brothers) cut my hair all the time in the bathroom when we were teenagers. I didn't mind if it came out bad, it fit my style at the time (being the rebel punk girl that I once was in a land far far away). It looks slightly uneven (Paul made it a point to tell me how silly it looked being off by 1/2") but I love it so much. I feel like my old self all over again and not someone else. Short hair fits my face and I love being a "wash and go" girl. I am going to try to grow it out again soon... Let's see how long that last.



Also saw the new Batman "The Dark Knight" movie... Interesting but some what disappointed. Lame.

07.19.08 - The birthday (Mom)...

07.19.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

Happy birthday Mom!


-Woke up at 8am to get my paycheck from Sara's home in Antelope.
-Stopped by Mom and Dad's since I was in the area.
-Deposited my check at the bank.
-Got coffee for Paul and me.
-Stopped at the Hello Kitty store to get some goodies for Mom's birthday gift bag I bought the other day.

-Went to Mom and Dad's.
-Watched some tattoo shows with Paul and Mom and Dad.
-Matt's girlfriend came over and made a cake for Mom and who also brought her SON over! WTF!


Seriously.

07.18.08 - The surgery...

07.18.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

Paul's oral surgery. Not fun. The appointment was set for 1PM which we got there early to hopefully fill out papers but had to wait to fill out papers and Paul didn't end up getting back till about 2pm. He didn't start the surgery till about 2:30pm because there was a back up somewhere earlier in the day. He ended up being done by about 3:30. We then had to go to Wal-Mart to get his prescription for Vicodin which took them so long. I bought Paul lots of soft foods like yogurt, apple sauce, pudding and tons of juices. We didn't get out of the store till about 5PM and home at about 5:15.


I played GTA4 till 3AM... Ugh.

07.17.08 - The last meal...

07.17.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

The day before Paul's oral surgery. We went out to dinner at our usual Mexican restaurant as part of his last meal before he had to fast for the surgery. We had a nice time eating our burritos and talking about all sorts of randomness going on. After we went to Best Buy to look at computers for his sister who is going to UC Merced this fall. Soon, I am going to get me a new Dell (just the computer part only since I have everything else). I got Mom a Hello Kitty bag at Best Buy (which is supposed to be for a Nintendo DS, but it looked cute to use as a small purse) for her birthday this Saturday.

07.16.08 - The tail light...

07.16.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

Things that make me mad... Having my car fucked with and no one having the balls to come forward and tell me that they had done that. Apparently, someone practically broke my right tail light and the bad thing is that I don't know when it happened and who did it and how they did it. It is going to cost me about $90 if I get a new part from the Ford dealership. I could get the part online and it will only cost me about $30 if I get it online. FUCK!



Oh yeah. Project Runway started and it doesn't look that good which makes me so very sad.

07.15.08 - The appointment...

07.15.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

A recent trip to the doctors to get my annual lady exam so I can get back on the pill resulted in nothing more then a chat with my doctor. Very bummed since I had my hopes on getting this done. Things I ended up learning from my doctor: 1) I am over weight. I know that to be honest. 2) I have high blood pressure. I get this from my Dad. He has had high blood pressure for as long as I can remember. 3) My headaches are most likely "tension" head aches and not necessarily from my glasses (which I don't believe)


Manda = needs to loose about 50 to 75 lbs.... Ugh. Not fun,

07.14.08 - The sellout...

07.14.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

Another boring but restful day. I ended up heading over to Michael's to get a frame for the Frida postcards I bought in San Francisco and also for the Picasso print too. I miss that store. I had some good times working there for 5 years. I would never work retail ever again! While looking down the isles, I saw this... And my heart broke inside. I swear, I did a double take when I was walking to the check out line... Damn you, Project Runway. Why did you have to sell out?

07.13.08 - The postcards...

07.13.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

My goodness. Lazy day. I think I have accomplished just about nothing on this vacation. I did get these small post cards from the museum. I am thinking of putting them into a frame in the house somewhere.

07.12.08 - The SFMOMA...

Adventures in San Francisco... It was the best day I have had in a long time. Manda + Museum of Modern Art = love


Any who, lack of posting is probably because I am enjoying being at home doing nothing. I am getting on catching up to the post tho... Not like it matters. Spending lots of time working on my photos and being lazy... Its nice.

07.11.08 - The tear...

07.11.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

Day 2 was more the same as day 1 unfortunatly. I mostly lounged around... crocheting... cleaning up a bit. I ended up going to the market that day tho. I got some things we needed (milk, bread, etc). When I got back to my car, I notticed this... Which totally made my day bad. I went home, watched reruns of project runway and the rest is boring.

07.10.08 - The sink...

07.10.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

Day one of vacation... OMG, I have forgotten how relaxing life can be without drama! I didn't wake up till about 9am and I only woke up because it was real hot inside the apartment. Paul had turned off the air and also the fan in the room. When I got up I took a shower and did some crocheting, ate some breakfast... I can back to the bathroom to get something and when I flicked on the lights, this is what I saw.

07.09.08 - The heat...

07.09.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

OMFG... Seriously, I don't think I have remembered it being this hot in ages. The one really bad thing about all of this crazy weather is that it was only 1 week ago (technically 6 days, not like it matters) when it was cool and breezy out here. The 4th of July was the most awesome day because of the cool weather outside, now we have this monster of a weather system... To make matters worse, there are still hundreds of wild fires all over California which makes it smokey as hell out side... If the smoke was gone, I think this weather would be slightly more tolerable then it is. Its the nature of the beast unfortunately. The Sacramento valley is notorious for weather like this... I have lived here for over 14 years... I of all people should know this by now. Fuck.this.shit.. Yay for sweating like a pig (can you hear the sarcasm?)!

Today was the last day of work. (thank.fucking.god) I was getting real annoyed of Sara being grumpy (well, she seemed that way to me... I don't know if she was mad or just tired or whatever the deal... She didn't talk to me practically at all and seemed real quiet and distant, more so then normal) but I don't have to see anyone for about 2 weeks, it was all worth it! 2 weeks paid vacation is heaven!

07.08.08 - The latest...

07.08.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

Ta Da! Here is the latest project that I have completed with crocheting plastic grocery bags. I am really happy how this project turned out. The bags were mostly from Safeway (the main place we shop for groceries at) but there are some blue and yellow bags from Best Buy in there and some clear bags from some packaging a while back. I decided to add a green trim too to make it look a little different. Those green bags came from Barnes & Noble and my roommates work. I feel real proud of this bag. My friend M said that I should sell these bags. I honestly wish that I could devote that much time and effort into making them (not that I don't do that already)... Plus, I don't have that many bags lying around the house. I was thinking of going to the market and grabbing some from the bin they have outside for people to bring the old bags for recycling. I want more colored ones tho. : ) Dare to dream.

07.07.08 - The pool...

07.07.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

The only thing I love about the summer is (besides the longer daylight to do things and being outside) going swimming. I have always been a swimmer. Since before I can remember, I have always been in the water (just ask my Dad about it). Paul and I went swimming at his uncle Larry's house in Sacramento. His house is currently going thru a whole house re-model and said we could still use the pool... I miss swimming. I wish I could do it all the time.

07.06.08 - The trip (Roseville)...

07.06.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

Ugh. The only good thing about this weekend ending was knowing that I only have to work 3 more days till vacation starts. The eye exam was a disaster to say the least. I was late, the lady who was doing my initial exam was kinda bitchy and tried to be funny but failed... My vision hasn't changed as much as I thought. My left eye has gotten worse but only slightly. There goes $80 down the drain. I think I need to make an appointment to see my primary doctor soon. Blah. The only good thing about this day was the side trip to In & Out. Sad but true.

07.05.08 - The show (We Are Scientist)...

07.05.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

Sleeping in is always a fun thing... Especially when your roommate ends up knocking on front door and calling your & your boyfriends cell phone after 1am because they forgot their house keys. Anyways, we ended up seeing Hancock in Natomas. The movie was alright... It lost me in the middle tho when Charlize Theron's character tells Will Smith's character that they are _______ & ____ and that she is a _________ as well. I almost thought that there should have been more substance then was there. Oh well, I can't win them all unfortunately. Soon, more good movies will come out and I'll try to take Paul to see them. My koi fish shirt that I bought from shirt.woot.com came in today and also my stuffed Snoopy from Urban Outfitters.com which both looked wonderful. Later that night, I took Paul to see We Are Scientist play at Blue Lamp on Alhambra and N St. I had a bunch of fun being at a show with Paul... We haven't been to any shows in a long time. The bad thing was that they didn't go on till after 1130pm! They played a lot of my favorite songs, there was a bunch of shenanigans in the audience (like 2 drunk-tards bouncing around and falling on their asses) Needless to say, the show didn't end till after 1am. I took the set list (which is now posted next to my desk) and we went to Denny's for a late dinner. The waiter took forever getting our order to us cause he had a "bad leg" (which I thought was ironic since a waiters whole job is to be on their feet moving quickly), we saw a tranny wearing short shorts, a long brown hair wig with a hat that looked like something that Blossom (the show from the 90's) would wear with a half shirt bearing a gut. Now today, I have an eye doctors apt because I keep getting headaches. Ugh. Time to get to getting.

07.04.08 - The 4th...

07.04.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

America.. Fuck yea! I don't know if I have said this but I am just so happy to have had a 3 day weekend. I wish I had more of these days... Only 3 more work days till vacation!!!! Anyways, today was just a lazy day at home with Paul and the cats. We bought some munchies and cleaned the house a bit thinking that my family would come over and spent the holiday with us... But that never happened. We bbq'd some steaks (well, Paul did since he is the master chef in this household) and watched the fireworks from outside our apartment. A fun day... Plus, I bought some fireworks. : )

07.03.08 - The garden...

07.03.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

You have no idea how happy I was most of the day on Thursday. Maybe it was the fact that is was a half day at work, meaning that we don't open up till the afternoon instead of being open both morning and afternoon, or that it was the end of the week and Friday being a holiday... 3 day weekend. When I got home, Paul had left already to head over to school to take a test for the history class he is taking this summer, I came home and went to the garden outside on the patio. On Monday, the neighbors from up stairs ended up moving out and they knocked over 3 of my plants that I had on the ledge of the patio. One of the guys tried to give me money as compensation for breaking the pots but since they only cost me like $1 each, it wasn't worth it... Plus I had a few extra pots that were lying around. I re-potted the plants and split up on of the ivy plants I had since it was getting pretty cramped in the new pot. I made sure that all my plants had plenty of soil and re-organized the patio by moving things around. I put on the mp3 player and listened to some We Are Scientist and Death From Above 1979. Beasley helped a bit... The tomatoes are coming in finally... Watched our new neighbors move in. It was nice being outside for a bit since it was windy. Odd weather for a July afternoon.

We ended up meeting our new neighbors, Justin and his girlfriend (who didn't tell us her name unfortunately). We then went to Chili's for dinner that night... Talked about all sorts of random things... Headed over to Wal-Mart for some items (light bulbs, soap, etc) and Paul ended up buying Grand Theft Auto 4 for the PS3... Which he was playing till 1am today. And I think we will be playing it a lot today. No doubt about that.

07.02.08 - The Legos...

07.02.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

Believe it or not, this is just some of the random crap in the apartment. I have these plans in my head of having a little Lego City up on the entertainment center one day... I remember when I was a kid, my favorite thing was to make Lego houses out of floor plans for houses I would find in my parents home improvement magazines. I guess it is the creator in me. Unfortunately, not a whole lot happened. Work was fine (slight drama towards the end of the day), spent more time working on my crochet project which resulted in my hanging out in the living room a lot and watching old reruns of Project Runway and waiting till the new season comes back on in a few weeks while Paul was in the bedroom studding for a test the next day.

07.01.08 - The inside...

07.01.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

I need a better picture of the new bag I crocheted out of plastic bags. Yes, plastic bags. It drove Paul mad to see me constantly cutting up bags and tying them together to make one long plastic yarn ball. I had 3 huge balls of white bags (lots of grocery shopping at Safeway), some black (the corner store near my home and office), a few green (the roommates work has green bags) and some yellow (from the Mexican market we go to sometimes) and some brown (from the rare trips to The Home Depot). I have been using the bag for the last few days. I just hope it holds up and doesn't start to crap out on me. Sara (my co-worker) said I should sell them... Maybe when I am on vacation, I can whip some up... Who knows.

06.30.08 - The bear...

6.30.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

Some people put the weirdest shit on their front lawn. I've seen people with tons of shit on their lawn, cars sitting on cinder blocks, a well with a bucket... We went to the park near our home to go play basketball but couldn't find a court available (there was a school next to the park but we couldn't find a way over the chain link fence). So, we ended up walking around the neighborhood looking at the houses and the area looking for another way to the school basketball court. As we were walking, we came across this beauty... Paul said the bear is totally ready to give a fist bump to us. Like a Black Panther would or something like that. Black Power!

06.29.08 - The Beez...

6.29.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

Yet again, we spent the weekend being bums (pretty much). I did some laundry and some crocheting and some gardening which Beasley tried to help me with. He loves to come out with me on the patio and "tend" to his catnip that I planted for him. He honestly looks sooo freaking cute while I am watering my plants, to look down and see him eating the grass and in this "zone" and going to town with his plant. I can't wait till I have a home of my own and have a nice huge garden that Beasley can roll around in and be the happiest little kitty ever.

06.28.08 - The bike...

06.28.08
Originally uploaded by Amanda.

Thank goodness that my cell phone is now finally working. Back to the blogging. This weekend, was like the same. Saturday, we did end up going to Sport Chalet because Paul had to return some shirts that he had purchased while in Los Angeles a few weekends ago. While in the store, I started looking at bikes for Paul and myself. I do have a bike (it is actually on the patio as we speak) but I want something newer. I have wanted to get one of those beach cruisers but they are just so damn expensive sometimes. Anyways, if and when I decide to get a new bike, one of these will be the "lucky lady"