Don't worry too much, 'cause I'm back.

I had a very full week, indeed!

I spent most of last week with my parents and siblings in South Lake Tahoe. My parents own a timeshare up there, and it's a good place to go to relax. You can pretty much spend all your time in the resort area without even going down to town or to the lake... there's a lot to do there. pharmaoffshore.com

My photo gallery from the trip is up. Most of the photos are of Maddie, but that tends to happen when you're around a cute little kid. Hah.

I also took Bren for his first geocache find. See the photos here.

Left for home on Friday afternoon, since Kevin was scheduled to fly into SJC later that evening. I made the drive by myself, since my sister and her family decided to stay another day. What a long and lonely drive... especially since I had to take a MAJOR detour through the mountains because of a forest fire. It took me close to five hours to get back home.

Saturday morning, Kev and I left for Monterey. It was really nice and cool near the bay... we loved it! I took him for his first visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which I know he really enjoyed. If you get a chance, go check out the Jellyfish exhibits there. They're kickass.

After spending the night in Pacific Grove, we left the next morning for the Gilroy Garlic Festival, where we met up with Mish and Andy. Lots of expensive (but gooood) food, some garlic chocolate, garlic ice cream, one bat t-shirt and a failed geocache hunt later, we headed home.

It's good to be home and in our own bed. My back was beginning to hurt!

I'm running out the door now, on my way to South Lake Tahoe.

Hope to get some geocaching in, as well as finish all the books I've half read, and RELAX.

That's a good thing, since I apparently have a pickle up my ass.
(quick, name the movie!)

See you all in a few days.

That's how I feel.

I usually consider myself a fairly independent person. I spent the entire day today by myself, for the most part. But it felt strange. Maybe it's something about being out of normal routines that is making me feel so... blue-grayish. Blah.

The house is still and quiet, except maybe for the ocassional break in silence from the cat. She's been sleeping a lot. Maybe I should take a page from her notebook. Wait... I did. I took a nap late this afternoon because I had no idea what to do.

Sure, the house could use some tidying, and I have some work I could do... it's the perfect environment for getting things done.

So why can't I? Not feeling super motivated.

...

Oh yeah, it could have something to do with monthly cycles. Hah!

5 more days till Kevin's back. I should be back to normal by then. ^_^;;

Kev left for Texas yet again today (er, Saturday)... San Antonio this time, for Siggraph 2002. Hopefully, this will be the last business trip for a while now. It's not a way of life we really want. Kinda quiet around here, it's just me and the cat. I'll be going to Tahoe for a few days with my family, starting Monday night, so at least I'll have something to do besides mill around the house all day.

Not to say that I'm really lost, just solitary, quiet and pensive.

The "Lost" part refers mostly to a find I had today. I almost ran over this black mass in the middle of the road today... stopped my car to see what it was, and it was a pack of at least 50 CDs. Man, I'd be bummed if I lost that many CDs. The problem is, there's no identifying marks on it. Oh well, what can you do? Kinda frustrating that I can't really do anything much about it. At least some of it is good stuff... I'll just ignore the crap CDs, heh. I wonder if this person has realized their loss yet...

I'm pretty tired. This week alone has been tiring. Or maybe it's just that time of the month. Oh yeah, it *is*.

The They Might Be Giants concert was last night at the Fillmore. What a diverse mix of people in that audience... a variety of ages, sizes, and races.

But they were all geeks. Totally. If I singled out any conversation going on around me, it was either about Star Wars, video games, Computer hardware, software, or programming.

This is the first concert Kevin and I have been to in years. As a matter of fact, the last one was a TMBG concert at the Fillmore something like 4 years ago. Imagine that. The music scene in Hawaii wasn't all that stellar... not too many acts would come across the ocean since they utilize busses. Only really big tours came our way... mostly mainstream acts that we didn't care for like Janet Jackson and Earth Wind & Fire. Weee. It seemed like a good excuse for the musicians and crew to take a vacation.

I missed the Bay Area music scene. I wonder if I'll get to hit more shows... considering how busy we are.

Who else puts on a good show?

Or rather, me shoot now. Or sometime soon.

Kev and I were having a discussion today about shooting photos. Well, duh. As Ace has put it, this is the "House of Cameras".

I haven't been shooting a lot lately. Well, save the obligatory photos during my geocaching adventures and some family snapshots. I deduced that I was afraid to shoot photos while we were out in San Francisco yesterday because I didn't want to seem like I was shooting the same things as he, and that my photos would be inferior to his. I really (honestly) respect Kev's skills and artistry as a photographer, and I had been afraid that my photos would seem juvenile and simplistic next to his.

That was pretty dumb. I know better than that. Even if we see the same things on the street, we can see them in completely different ways. I also need to shoot more and share photos with him to get his constructive criticism and support. This is the only way I will grow as a photographer. I want to go through all these great photo books that we have on our shelves as well as check out from the library, and share our thoughts on each photo. I want to be able to enjoy this hobby together.

I need to carry my SLR around more often. I've been using the digital for reasons of convenience, but I need to nurture my basic skills.

The quest has begun for better photos.

I'm convinced that ice cream is evil.

dammit.

I have been eating rabbit food, as proclaimed a few days ago. Tonight, the last bits of a pint of Godiva Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Caramel Hearts were calling me.

The damned evil frosty confection. It's breaking my stride!

NO, IT WON'T!

I will eat more salads. I promise. And I'll stop fighting with myself out loud.

"I'm kicking my ass!" (quick, what movie is that from?)

Ya gotta give the love to Japander.com... videos of American stars whoring themselves to Japanese corporations!

Must sees: The Simpsons hawking C.C. Lemon soft drink, and Nicholas Cage plugging a pachinko company (my personal fave: "On the Road").

I stayed up way too late LMAO to this stuff.

Fill in the blank.

It was hotter than _____ today.
I was sweating _____ all day.

Points for creativity.

Holy fook.

I am having an unusual case of heartburn. Unusual in the respect that I just don't get cases of heartburn. Ugh. Hurts like hell, donnit?

I guess you can blame it on today's activities. Let us recap.

We took a drive up to San Rafael to visit the Marin County Fair on its closing day. Before we got there, we stopped at Chevy's in Greenbrae for lunch... Culprit number one. Chicken Fajitas and the obligatory chips n' salsa. Mmm.

Culprit number two: Funnel Cakes. Kevin had never had one, or so he says. We get one for laughs. Cinnamon Sugar.

Still full from lunch when we leave the fair at 6. We stop by A&W afterwards for liquid refreshment. Culprit number three: Root Beer.

I skip on the dinner plans for the kids... they get some BK close to home. Kev and I wait until around 9:30pm. Culprit number four: BBQ chicken leg. I heat one up for Kev to munch on for dinner. I pick off a few bites while I wait for my soup to heat up.

Culprit number five: Egg Drop Soup. I make a quick batch and foolishly burn my bottom lip and tongue on a hot spoonful. I eat about half a bowl of the stuff. I wasn't all that hungry anyways.

Late night munchies kicking in. 2300 hours and counting. Culprit number six... we bake up a couple of Pillsbury choco chip cookies (ya know, the refrigerated dough kind) and down a glass of milk each.

All right, this was a bad day, food wise. This was not typical at all. Ugh. I'm gonna eat nothing but rabbit food for a while. Bleh. I need to go back to my old diet plan and lose this excess crap.

Hey, this makes the second food-related post in a row. Hmm, what does that tell me...?

Someone, please, kick my ass.

We went today to see the first showing of Lilo and Stitch. It's a damn good idea to see the first show of the day, I had almost forgotten about this long lost trick of the movie theater going experience. You get there, and find a parking spot almost immediately, you can find a seat in a preferred spot swiftly, and have lunch right afterwards!

Lunch was In-N-Out burgers. This is a rare moment where I will eat a hamburger on my own free will. Kev and I had forgotten how good this place is... living on an island for a few years can make you forget these things. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to go over well with the kids too much. I guess this is just the nature of kids... they want everything as plain as possible, and god forbid that In-N-Out cuts fresh potatoes everyday for their fries... they don't coat them in beef lard like McDonald's! Such a shame that many kids these days prefer the processed crap that's churned out by fast food joints.

Andy had reminded me that I need to read Fast Food Nation... it sounds like something I'd really enjoy.

So I spent the rest of my afternoon trying my hand (or is that green thumb?) at gardening. I went and bought a bunch of crap at OSH... well, not literally. I decided to go with the mushroom compost, thank you. Got some herbs for the garden, including some catnip for Sparx to get wasted on. Aerated the soil around the lawn and then planted some summer flowers and scattered some wildflower seed. Hopefully, these plants will stay alive for more than a few weeks... I'm not too good at this gardening stuff. I guess my place is in front of the monitor... ^_^;;

Of course, tonight was also poker night. The weekend would not be complete without it. I feel pretty good about losing my money to the "Feed Mish lunch for the week" fund.

This has been a summary of Courtney's Saturday. Signing off.

I was bummed when AdCritic shut down many months ago (not like it's new news).

AdAge (Advertising Age) has acquired AdCritic, and they're gonna relaunch the site better than ever... but no datehas been announced just yet. I signed up for their email update, so I'll pass on the good news when it's announced.

In the meantime, I've discovered Ads.com for all my commercial viewing needs... seeing that I don't watch enough TV to know what my friends are talking about when they say, "Have you seen that commercial...?"

What did we learn from today's celebration of our nation?

That (a) We like to blow shit up for fun to celebrate our freedom. (b) We watch horrible TV specials with horrible musical acts to commemorate events. (c) Americans eat too goddamned much.

Oops. I used the "G" word. My bad.

Now if you'll excuse me, I hear my pillow whispering towards me.

So. tired.

Must. Blog.

Found 4 caches today. Does that count for anything?

Thought so. Shut up.

Why don't you look at some cool weblog Snippets. I did. It's a really cool idea, I like it a lot.

g'nite!

Monday Mission... Truth, Love, and the American Way!

1. In the United States of America, it was recently ruled that the phrase "one nation under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. Do you agree with this ruling? Should the phrase "under God" be removed? Why?
I agree with this ruling. It's about damn time, I say. I am one of those people that believe in separation of church and state.

2. When was the last time you took a road trip? Where did you go and what did you do?
I think that was 3 years ago, when I flew to Minnesota and drove back with Kev and kids... we stopped at many points of interest along the way, pausing the longest at Vegas and Disneyland.

3. Do you have any vacations planned for this summer? Already gone? Where to and what?
No time, no money, no vacation. Blah.

4. What is the most drastic change to your appearance that you have ever made? Are you brave enough to post a photo?
Sounds very run-of-the-mill, but I would say that having braces really affected my appearance. I had them as an adult, and I'll tell you, as you get older, it's hella painful. But it changed my profile completely. It's amazing... I had many teeth pulled, and the fact that the gaps are gone are just amazing to me.

5. Tell me about something to which you are committed?
I'm committed to helping people be true to themselves. I'm sick of seeing people not truly being who they are... and it's so transparent. I'm tired of people not telling the truth because they are afraid of the consequences of the expression their true feelings... what other people think, how they will react. I try to encourage people to be genuine and truthful all the time. Not always a successful effort, but I think it's a fairly valiant one.

6. Now tell me about something you just flat-out gave up on.
I gave up on buying a new car anytime soon. I had *so* been wanting a Mini Cooper for like 3 years now, and was determined to get one when they were released here in the US. But... Bills to pay, blah blah blah.

7. (new saga) I've had it, this place is just wearing me out. You too? We need a break! Let's head out and go someplace new. You make the plans, I'll get things ready. So what do you have it mind, and did you want me to pick up anything special to pack for the trip?
Let's go to Spain. I speak adequate Spanish, and I'd love to experience the culture there... food, art, wine, people! Heck, I'd probably squeeze in some geocaching while there too, heh. Bring a good, comfy pillow. I can't stand hotel/motel/hostel pillows.

BONUS: Where is my hairbrush?
None of your damn business, Sam.