Sunday, September 30, 2007

Now you Know!

As the Sarahs have requested…here is my list of 101 random facts about myself (since this really is the 101st entry). The first 50 weren't too hard, but the second half was a bit challenging. So near the end I broke up the facts into categories. Enjoy!

1. I do not like mashed potatoes. (I know, it’s un-American…I hear it ALL the time). I could also do without beans, onions, bean sprouts, and 90% of existing vegetables.

2. I LOVE candy. Mostly hard candy vs. chocolate. (Chocolate always makes me thirsty and as a kid water wasn’t easily accessible).

3. Because I LOVED candy so much as a kid it has caused two small holes in two of my bottom teeth. Now next week I have to go get one filled in.

4. I would be worried, but I have the BEST dentist. They even give me a numbing liquid for my gums before they clean my teeth.

5. I finally got to tell a medical professional that YES my medical history has changed since I last saw you. (Can you tell I went to the dentist on Wed.?)

6. I can decorate cakes... I just haven’t in a long time. Here is one of my fave Halloween cakes.
7. I think I was around 13 when I gambled for the first time. We were in Reno and my dad let me play a video poker machine. I was going fine until a cocktail waitress came and asked me what I wanted to drink. I guess ordering a shirley temple gave my age away. Dang!

8. I was 9 lbs. when I was born and was 1.5 months late, because I was sideways and stuck in my mom’s pelvis.

9. I have owned three dwarf hamsters: Bilbo, Milkshake (AKA Milky), and Mini Snowball (AKA Mini). Bilbo is below:
10. I was so sad when they died that I never want to have another pet.

11. I used to be addicted to caffeine (Pepsi) and now I avoid it like the plague. Well I used to have a frappachino every once in awhile, until I found out how many calories were in them.

12. I used to get multiple migraine headaches a year, starting when I was 13, but I haven’t had one since January 2006.

13. I’ve broken two bones in my life.
My arm / cause = jumping on the bed and falling off.
My foot / cause = jumping from the couch onto a bean bag, and every time I landed the jump I’d move the bag further from the couch. Of course I had to challenge myself!

14. I love clothes and fashion but am too cheap to put my own money towards it. (It was super easy when it was my parents money!)

15. Sandwiches are one of my favorite foods

16. Most of the time I would rather eat more bread at a restaurant than dessert.

17. Fall is my favorite time of year. Here are some of the reasons why: football, Halloween, colder weather, snuggling in a blanket on the couch, rain (well obviously not here in SLO, but where I grew up).

18. Halloween and Christmas are my favorite holidays. I didn’t even realize that Halloween was #1 until last year. But when I did realize it was a total ‘duh’ moment. Here is one of my favorite Halloween costumes as a kid:

19. I LOVE living in a neighborhood that has TONS of trick-or-treaters. It’s a highlight of my year.

20. I strongly believe you should treat everyone how you wish to be treated.

21. I used to try very hard to always be a positive thinker. I’ve gotten out of the habit recently and am gong to try harder to do it. It really does make a difference.

22. I always believed in karma, but didn’t know it was legit until I worked with someone who was always unlucky and down and out. But then I got to know him better and realized that he lived a dishonest life so he basically he deserved all of his misfortune.

23. I had a perm from the 3rd grade until I was a senior in high school.

24. Ever since I was a kid, death has been my biggest fear in life.

25. I don’t believe that my grandma has really died. I still like to think she’s alive. Here is one of the last photos of us. She always used a Polaroid camera.
26. I’ve never gotten a ticket OR been pulled over.

27. I’ve always loved getting mail, and now I love getting email just as much.

28. I have terrible allergies to dogs, cats, mold, dust, dairy, almost every tree and weed. However I have found the best nose spray that makes them go away. I feel so lucky!

29. I love chocolate, but not chocolate cake.

30. I just started liking tomatoes and avocados.

31. I was lucky enough to win a contest back in 2000 go to down to LA for a small No Doubt concert where we got to meet some of the band members. Definitely one of the best days of my life.
32. I am left handed but use scissors in my right hand and never knew you were supposed to write and cut with the same hand for like 20 years.

33. Returning to London last year was also great and I loved being able to show John around, (and prove to him that I did know how to get around on the Underground. He had some doubt after an incident on the NYC subway).

34. I am a HORRID speller. When I was in the 8th grade my spelling level was at a 4th graders level. Spell checkers have helped me out, but not when I’m so far off that it doesn’t know what I’m trying to spell.

35. I love reality TV. But only the good shows of course: Survivor, Amazing Race, Project Runway, Beauty and the Geek, Girls Next Door, LA/Miami Ink. (Project Runway starts on Nov. 14th!)

36. I do love a few ‘non’ realty shows as well: LOST, The Office, and Big Love.

37. I’ve tried to limit my TV time, which results in my computer time. Not sure how good of a trade off that is.

38. I worked at the first bay area Cold Stone in Sunnyvale for a summer. One night, Amy, Rebekkah and I got dressed up and decided to pay the workers a visit.

Travel

39. My vacations are normally the highlight of my year.

40. We are hoping to go to Italy and Greece next year.

41. Even though I love to travel I still have a lot of anxiety going into foreign counties. I think it’s just because I’m a worrywart, especially if English is not the primary language.

42. I will travel to Australia, and Thailand someday.

43. I would love to move to a foreign country but don’t have the guts to do it.

John

44. John and I met our Freshman year in high school. I knew of him though because his older sister Molly was in the same grade as my sister. Here is the first photo of us (during that year). We were at a FFAD dance/gambling night.
45. John and I have invented our own words for certain items. Sometimes I have to stop myself from saying them in front of other people. Can you guess the meaning of them? Wads, sunnies, p-corn, show-show, sweaty, and controlie.

46. I wear my wedding dress on my wedding anniversary and then we watch our wedding video.
47. John and I own a scooter that we call ‘Scoot-scoot’.
48. I hate the fact that I don’t get to spend everyday with him…which causes me to really look forward to the weekends.

49. I normally want to write all sorts of flattering/gushy stuff about John on this blog, but I don’t want it to come across as bragging.

College

50. It took me 7 years to finish college.

51. But I have a learning disability! Ok… that has nothing to do with the fact that it took me so long. I didn’t know what I wanted to major in. How are you supposed to know when you are 18? I think they should require high school graduates to have to work for 1-2 years before they go to college. That way they can experience the working world and find out what their interests are.

52. I got all A’s in every photography class I took, except the class I took for fun where I got a C. The teacher was a jerk though. I at least deserved a B.

53. Sometimes I think I should have majored in photography. But I didn’t want the stress of being a freelance or wedding photographer.
54. I really liked being an art major and am very thankful that I found a path I enjoyed so much… and still enjoy! This one day I didn’t leave the art building all day. I think it was from 8am to like 7pm. I had classes, meetings and labs.

55. I loved going to Cal Poly. One of the happiest days of my life was when I got accepted.

High school

56. I LOVED high school. Ok, so I HATED the homework, but I loved that I had to go everyday and hang out with my friends.

57. Toilet papering was the main event on the weekends. If we weren’t tping we’d cruise around town and eventually wind up in the Safeway parking and hang out. Here we are one night up to no good.
58. My mom taught Spanish at the high school and I was her student and TA. I loved having her on campus! Here I am in her Spanish 3 class, and yes, that is John in the back.
59. John and I took Home Ec our senior year and Poust was the third person in our kitchen. Besides Poust singing Offspring all day and imitating Bevis and Butthead it was a lot of fun. It also didn’t hurt that Molly and Katy were in the kitchen next to ours. They were always willing to help us out!

60. Once Rebekkah got her license, we would always go cruising around. Her mom would often ask us to go to the store for her, which should have taken 10 minutes max, but we would drive all over town and get back home an hour later.

Childhood

61. I wanted to change my name to Valentine Ground Hog Scott

62. I loved Punky Brewster, Fraggle Rock, and Madonna.

63. My mom used to take me out to lunch when I was in the 5th grade once a week. I really enjoyed the time with her and it made me feel really special.

64. On my birthdays I would get to bring in boxes of conversation hearts since it was near Valentine’s day.

65. My mom had all my hair cut off when I was in Kindergarten because I had a sensitive head. She hated having me scream bloody murder when she’s fix my hair in the mornings, so I can't really blame her. After the cut I was constantly referred to as a boy. Not so fun. Here we are on one of our family vacations where we went on a cruise. I'm not sure why my mom and Amy have matching pants on.
Cancer

66. I still don’t know why I got cancer. The only reason I’ve come up with is that it allowed me to see Gwen in concert…but I really don’t think that is the reason.

67. People told me I’d be stronger after dealing with my cancer, but I don’t feel any stronger.

68. I don’t hate my scar anymore.

69. I used to worry that a friend or family member was going to get cancer. I never thought it would be me!

70. I feel bad that I still haven’t thanked the nurse who found the nodule.

Music

71. I really love music, but I’ve realized I only listen to music when I’m doing something else, like driving, cooking, or cleaning. I rarely listen to music just to listen to it.

72. I realized during the weddings this year that soon the music I love to dance to will be looked upon as the ‘old peoples’ music’ by the younger generation…just like the way I look at my parents dancing music.

73. I love going to concerts. When I lived in the bay area my sister and I would go to concerts all the time. The fact that I moved AND the fact that musicians have concerts on any days of the week now, has limited my concert going.

74. I love how old songs bring back memories.

75. I think the ipod is one of the greatest inventions EVER.

Eel River Sawmills

76. I worked at the front desk during the summers at my dad’s company (for 5 years). I had so much fun and thought it was great that I got to see my dad so much. Sometimes I’d go in his office and hang out and we’d talk about how many logs came in and how much lumber was being sold. Yeah right! I’m sure I was filling him in on the office gossip!

77. I also had a great co-worker Lori, whom I am still friends with today. We would have our ‘bugle breaks’ every morning, but we’d have to hid the box in our desk so that the other office mooches wouldn’t eat them. Do any of you know if they still make the cheese flavored ones?

78. This one summer a rat died in the office wall RIGHT NEXT TO MY OFFICE. It smelled SO bad. The solution? Buy scented candles. Like that would work? It just made it seem like there was rotting carcass potpourri in the lobby.

79. My dad would often let us leave early on Fridays. I thought that was an office norm. Apparently not.

80. This one year the receptionist was a crazy lady, and she had me go and pick up MY going away cake at the end of summer. I should have just kept it all for myself.

Reading

81. I used to love reading as a kid. The Babysitters Club was my favorite.
82. I stopped reading for fun once I had to start reading in school. Mandatory reading of books that I couldn't comprehend took all the fun out of it.

83. I didn’t start reading for pleasure again until I read the first Harry Potter book (in 2002).

84. I now enjoy reading, but have a very hard time making time for it. It was great when I was in my book club because it forced me to read.

85. This summer was so busy that I’ve been reading Memoirs of a Geisha since June. (But I did finish HP 7 in the middle of it).

Fortuna

86. Growing up our town, (Fortuna), only had 2 stoplights. It now has 5. It also just got a Starbucks a few weeks ago! That is major news!

87. I had never had Thai food or sushi until I moved out of Humboldt.

88. The clothing shops were so limited that my mom would often hire a seamstress to make my sister and I holiday dresses.

89. Even though the town was small, I was still able to take ballet and tap lessons.

90. I thought it was normal to drive 30 mins to go see a movie.

91. It’s a GUARANTEE you will see someone you know every time you leave the house. Problem is 95% of the time you see someone you don’t want to see. Or you see someone you do like, but you have nothing to say to them because it’s been 15 years since you’ve seen them.

Weight

92. If I eat junk, or don’t have any protein I can really tell…mainly because I feel like crap.

93. At my heaviest weight I was 40 lbs heavier than I am now. I think this might have been around that time:
94. I have lost 10 lbs of fat and gained 3.5 lbs of muscle since February when I started getting weighed at work. Our last weigh in is in November.

95. I just learned this year that our bodies get used to certain types of workouts, which causes the platues. It’s hard enough for me to work out, much less having a VARIETY of exercises.

96. I hate it when people who are skinnier than me talk about their weight. Actually when anyone complains about their weight. It makes me uncomfortable.

49ers

97. When I lived in the bay area I was able to go to a few different autograph signings and meet some of the players... Ken Norton, Brent Jones, and Merton Hanks.

98. I converted John into a 49er fan.

99. Since I don’t get to watch the games with my dad anymore I call him if they have a great play.

100. My dad would take us to a 49er game every year. It stopped recently once the 9ers got rid of Garcia and Owens. Before each game we would meet up with my Uncle at his tail gate party. It was always fun.
101. I will always be an Owens fan at heart. Even if he can be an a-hole.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Are You Kidding Me?

Only ONE comment from my most loyal reader Sarah V.? Is this true? Where are my parents? Where is Molly, Sarah D., Jen, Sam, Jenna, Lori and Maggie? Ok, so I know some of you might have been at work, so I will let that slide...but my parents?? You guys are retired! This should be the first site you check every morning!

I even checked my blogger settings to make sure they were set correctly so that anyone anyone can leave a comment. (Which they were). I would be a little more lenient but my map showed that 21 people checked the blog yesterday, and I didn't get the comment until TODAY!

So since I only got ONE positive comment does that mean I should post the 100 facts? I mean if I got one yes and one no I'd say they'd cancel each other out. But now it's tricky... especially since THIS is my 100th post. I'll give it one more day and see if any of you out there have an opinion.

Lucky for you it was Sam's b-day today so I have some cute pictures to post. I was fortunate enough to join Sam for her birthday lunch AND dinner. I do not have any photos of lunch since that was a work event, but I did take my camera tonight.

We had a great meal at
in San Luis. I think they have the best Thai food in town.

Here is Sam and her sister Rina.

Some of us thought that Sam was turning 28 today but she informed us that she was really turning 25. Very interesting since she had her high school reunion this summer.

Jen, Sam and myself after dinner.
I was really hoping tonight was Friday and we wouldn't have to go to work tomorrow, but no such luck. I am very lucky that I work with these two ladies as they give me something to look forward to everyday!


HAPPY 25th SAM!

Monday, September 24, 2007

Your Call

As some of you may know that in the blogging world when you reach your 100th post you are supposed to list 100 facts about yourself. (This is my 99th entry). Now I’m not sure if you all will really find 100 facts about me very interesting...so I’m taking a vote. Leave a comment and let me know if you want to learn more than you’ve ever hoped…or if you don’t give a flying turd.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

To Love it or Hate it

Love the fun graphic work I get to do in my spare time.
Hate spending my free time on the work. (I.E. spending all Sunday on a freelance poster and wedding program, which causes me not to spend time with John and not to have time to blog. It also causes me to feel non productive, which makes no sense).

Hate coming home from the store and realizing I bought the wrong kind of hair spray.
Love that it actually works better than my regular hair spray.

Hate that Sundays feel like I work in a wash house (washing and ironing clothes).
Love the feeling after everything is put away.

Hate to work out.
Love the fact that I do.

Hate feeling like talking on the phone is a waste of time.
Love catching up with family and friends.

Hate cooking dinner.
Love eating a home cooked meal.

Love The Office Season 3 bloopers.
Hate that there aren't more.

Love receiving flowers.
Hate that they die.

Love football season.
Hate it when the 49ers loose.

Love to rescue neighborhood dogs that are out on an adventure
Hate to return them to their owners, (especially when it's a corgi).

**Note: My sister checked this blog when she was in Puerto Rico and now there is a dot on the that country on the side map!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

4 Years ago Today

Four years married and 14 years we've been together. Man that seems like a long time when its written out! However it does not feel that long...honestly! I really had great intentions with this post but I don't have the time. I wanted to go through our album and scan some of the professional ones, and add some other reception faves. Instead I kind of cheated w/ these photos and just copied them off of my ofoto album! Some of these are my faves, so I guess I shouldn't complain. I never did get my photos organized...something I still hope to do. The ofoto album I have is totally random and has about 30 photos. Below are some of my favorites.

Our wedding day was the greatest day of our lives so far. (Thanks mom and dad!) I am still so thankful that so many of our good friends and family were able to be there with us. It made it much more special since you all mean so much to us.

Every year on our anniversary we watch our wedding video. Last year we only made it through the ceremony and didn't get around to watching the reception. So this year we watched the rehearsal and ceremony last night and will watch the reception tonight. It brought back so many wonderful memories that I wish I could go back and relive it. We are tentatively planning a 10 year wedding vow renewal in Vegas officiated by Elvis, but we'll see. Who knows where we all will be in 6 years? Will you all be ready to par-tee? I tried to get John to agree to a renewal at 5 years, but that didn't fly.


Here is Molly, my sister-in-law, and Maddy. She was such a great flower girl and did such a good job. I can't believe how small she was. (She had just turned two.)

Here is Scotty in the Limo on the way to the reception. This photo cracks us up...also not sure what Molly is doing in the back ground.

Here is Rebekkah and I, a little sweaty from dancing.

John and his buddies rockin' out.

This is one of my favorite self portraits John took of him and Amy on the dance floor.

The bouquet toss. I totally nailed my sister in the shoulder, and then it flew past her!

I'm not sure what kind of pose this is!

John and I had just gotten done taking a self portrait of ourselves when Poon ran over and had us take another one. So funny.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Don't Get Chumpatized

This past weekend was our first official weekend (since the middle of June) where we did not have ANYTHING planned, and we were SO excited! Even though we had nothing on the calendar we still managed to be super busy. But it was all ‘fun’ busy of course!

We were able to play tennis on both days in preparation for the Pousts who will be coming up to visit in a few weeks. We are very excited to have some friends to play against…as long as we don’t get hurt. My knee has been bothering me a bit and on a couple of moves I felt some twinges of pain. (Just another sign of getting old).

We also had lunch w/ my friend Steph who is due to give birth in 3 weeks. It was really great to see her even though she kept calling herself fat. I'd correct her by reminding her that she was in fact pregnant, but I’m not sure if that did the trick. I personally think she looks great and I can’t wait to meet her son!

After lunch we headed to our favorite movie theater in town The Palm, and saw The King of Kong: A Fist Full of Quarters. You MUST go and see this movie! It is SO good. Let me just say this…there is a man known in the gaming world as Mr. Awesome, who has a quote in the movie where he uses the word ‘chumpatized.’ Need I say more?

The movie is a documentary that follows a man who tries to break the Donkey Kong World Record Score, and while doing so has interesting encounters with the world champion and his cronies. In the beginning I first thought that the Average Joe trying to break the record was really odd, and that the champion was normal. By the end of the movie, my opinion had totally changed! There are events that take place in the movie that I’m sure the filmmakers couldn't have dreamed of happening. If you love documentaries like I do then this is a must see. You will not be disappointed!

After the movie we had about an hour break and then we were off to the Cal Poly football game! My boss is a season ticket holder and a member of the Mustang Club (which allows you into a free pre-game BBQ), and she gave us her tickets for the game. She had given us tickets for a game last year and we had the best time. We had so much fun in fact that we did look into buying season tickets ourselves, but never followed through with it. Now after having such a great time on Sat. we are mad that we didn’t get them! Oh well, as long as we keep getting freebees who can complain?

Cal Poly also just remodeled the home side of the bleachers and they are SO nice. Well they aren’t bleachers anymore, there are actual seats! For the most part the crowd was pretty mellow around us except for some loud mouths behind us. I have the feeling they might not have been season ticket holders, if ya know what I’m saying. On the opposite side of the field were all the students and I can’t believe how many there were! There were some crazies w/o shirts with letters painted on their bodies. John said that one group had GO CALPO, and I said, “I wonder where the L and Y are,” and John said he was trying to figure out who Calpo was! He thought he might have been one of the players! Later we saw the L and Y and they were girls with sports bras on with the letters on their stomachs.

Cal Poly totally killed Webber State. We have this one receiver who is 6’6” and SO good. He had 5 touchdowns before the half! We remembered him from last year, so I thought he was probably a senior, but he’s only a junior. Lucky for them.

Once again it was odd sitting with the ‘older’ crowd. Shouldn’t we have been there the topless peeps? Probably not…we are going to try to get tickets for this weekends game as well, and we also purchased some new attire! Are we ready or what?

I almost forgot!! On our way back to the car we spotted Mr. Bandit causing trouble on campus...so I had to take a video! Mr. Bandit doesn't give us much action, but John's commentary sure makes up for it!


Sunday, September 16, 2007

VMA = Pile 'O Crap

John and I taped the VMAs on our DVR last weekend and watched them last week. Let me just say that I have probably seen every VMA show since 1989? Well ever since we started getting MTV in Fortuna, and I must say this was the WORST SHOW to date. I know their ratings had been low since 1999, so they thought it would help by having it at the Palms and having a variety of performers in different parts of the hotel. What the crap was that? It just made everything so confusing...then it seemed like it turned into the JT and Timberland show.

Honestly we fast forwarded through about 85% of the show. There weren't any creative performances, and for those who tried, they all lip synced! I used to look forward to the award show all year long to see the fashions...LIVE performaces...celebs getting censored. I asked John if the fact that I am getting older had anything to do with my dislike for the show, and he told me no. I was slightly surprised, as I get daily reminders that I am getting older and older.

I will admit I was very excited to see Britney's comeback performance, but I had the same opened mouth facial expression as Fiddy did in the crowd. Out of all the VMA performances I'd ever seen I don't think I'd ever seen one as bad as Britney's. I mean the AWFUL lip syncing was all it took. How could she not have even TRIED to act like she was singing? I do believe the theory that she broke the heel of her shoe. If this is the case, then fine... she wouldn't be able to dance like her normal hooker style, but a broken heel should NOT have affected her lip syncing! I found this great video on YouTube that analyzed different parts of her routine that showed that in fact it looked like she had busted her heel. I just went to locate the video and it had been removed! ARGH! But I did find this one. It's not as good, but at least it's a little proof. (It's her right foot). All I have to say is that if MTV really wanted to get some ratings, they should just go back to the standard format and bring Arsenio Hall back.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

My Type of Crowd

John and I had a great time at the concert on Tuesday night, and despite the fact that we got home around midnight, I wasn’t very tired the next day since I’m still tired from the weekend! (Was that a run-on?)

This was the third time we’d seen Velvet Revolver and they were just as good as the previous concerts. Well… Scott Weiland’s voice was a bit off. I’m not sure if he was battling a sickness or drugs (hopefully not…even though the majority of their songs are about drugs), but he definitely didn’t sound like he normally does. Maybe we are too critical since we’ve seen them before? Despite the voice and lack of holding long notes, he put on a great show. John and I saw Stone Temple Pilots back in the 90s and it is always a treat to see Scott perform again (especially when we never thought we would).

It didn’t seem like there were as many odd rockers in the crowd this time. In the past we saw mostly mullets, flannel shirts, and we even saw a dude in a Slash hat. Everyone still went crazy during any Slash solo.

One of the highlights of the night, (and previous times), is when they sing Stone Temple Pilot and Guns N Roses songs. You think you’ll never hear those songs in concert again and then you do! They sang a few STP songs from their second album and sang Patience and Mr. Brownstone from GNR as well. The crowd totally went wild when they started playing them. We had a few hard-core rockers to our right that busted out in the full on head banging and throwing up the horns. I hadn’t been subjected to that since I was in Junior High when the ‘rockers’ of the class preformed a lip sync at the schools talent show!

Alice in Chains opened up for them and we were also very excited to see them. I read online that a ‘special guest’ was also performing. The concert started at 6:30, so I thought we’d at least be able to see Alice in Chains if we showed up around 7:30-8pm right? If the first act played for a half hour, then it took a half hour to change the stage it would be perfect! WROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG. We parked at 7:15pm and what do we hear? One of Alice in Chains hits! I thought ‘why are they playing that song so soon into the set?’ Well their set ended at 7:30pm! What the crap? So I thought that the ‘special guest’ probably didn’t show up, but I was wrong. Later on in the show Scott thanked Sparta for joining them on tour. Can you believe it? How long did they play? 15 mins? I felt even worse for John though, because he really wanted to see them. The other time he had a chance to see them was when they opened for Metallica, but he missed them that time too. He said it just wasn’t meant to be, and I think he’s right.

Half way through the show John spotted a lady on the stage near the back totally rocking out. I didn’t think VR had hired back up dancers for this tour, and plus she didn’t really look like one…she was a totally old school 70’s rocker. As the song went on she kept easing more and more from the side of the stage! Eventually a stagehand asked her to move back to the side, but I was totally hoping she was going to make a run for it and stage dive into the crowd.

Near the end of the show a few bras got thrown up on stage. John was waiting for some underwear to be tossed, but that never happened. Oh and I mosh pit even formed! You can’t mosh to that type of music! Geesh!

This concert was definitely scaled down compared to the last time we saw them in SB, (the other time was in Paso). There weren’t any screens or other elaborate stage decorations. Kind of a bummer since we weren’t that close. We decided to walk towards the exit during their SECOND encore and when we did we noticed that about a quarter of the top part of the venue was empty! What a shocker! The last time it was sold out and we were 2 rows from the very last row.

Overall it was well worth the trip. I feel so lucky that we have a venue 1.5 hours away that gets decent names. Who will it be next?

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Finally some photos and vids!

I've uploaded a few videos on YouTube from the wedding. The quality has GREATLY decreased after I uploaded them. I'm not sure if there's a way to make them better or not, but I"m going to have to look into it. After viewing the videos I did take, I really wish I would have taken more. Still shots of people dancing just doesn't relay the same feeling as a video does. Kind of a bummer.

Here is one of my favorite videos that John took. I slightly got in the Photographers way, and I was doing my best in trying to stay incognito!


Here is an accidental video that Rebekkah took of Amy and I dancing:


After going through all of my photos, I made a list of my faves that I would like to post here on the blog...that number totaled 24! How ridiculous is that? I guess it doesn't seem like THAT many out of 900, but I also don't want to use up all the space I have here on Blogger. So below are a few of my favorite photos. I'm hoping to get them on ofoto soon, but I know it's going to be a LONG process.

Here is the bride and bridesmaids at the rehearsal:

Here are the groomsmen, John, my dad, and uncle in their custom shirts:

Here is Sydney SUPER excited to be the flower girl!

Here is a shot of our bouquets:

Here we are all ready to go!

Syd relaxin':

Here is Amy and I walking somewhere...I'm not sure where, but this is one of my faves!

My fellow bridesmaids:

Bridal party after the ceremony:


So I know Amy doesn't look very good in this photo, but it cracks me up! We were standing together for a family photo.

Cake feeding!

John getting down! I love that my cousin Lisa and my second cousin Ashley are also having a great time!

Molly and Mike getting down!

Erin, Sarah and I dancing:

This bride is totally light weight!

Sunday, September 9, 2007

I Feel like a Wedding Crasher

Well we made it. I'm not sure what to really type as my eye lids are closing on me as you read this...well red this... WHATEVER I'm tired.

Anyway we survived BOTH weddings and I can't even describe how exhausted I am. See how lucky you are that I am so dedicated to my audience? I'm so dedicated, that I'm totally taking the easy way out and posting a link here to some photos of Amy's wedding...I don't even know the dude who took them! But they are really good. I told Amy that she could have hired him for free. CLICK HERE TO CHECK THEM OUT.

Both weddings were GREAT although I really wanted to wear my makeup and keep the same hair do for Davette's wedding. However I didn't want to be known as the tacky chick who was trying to look like a bridesmaid.

Hopefully I will have time to post more. We haven't even had time to look through our own photos. We are headed down to Santa Barbara on Tuesday night to see Velvet Revolver, so I can't promise much.

It was great seeing you all this weekend and I hope you had as much fun as I did!

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Attention All Wedding Guests

As some of you may know, the US Open Women's final tennis match is Saturday...the day of the big wedding. PLEASE do your best in not saying ANYTHING to John or I about the match if you happen to hear who wins, (this means YOU dad). We are taping both the women's and men's final matches and praying we don't hear who wins.

We have been in this situation before... 4th of July weekend in 2004 at the Steinbuck wedding. I was very successful ALL DAY in not finding out who won Wimbledon only to have it wrecked by one of the wedding guests. John had just told me that he found out who won at the golf course bar, and when this guest (who will remain nameless) heard 'Wimbledon' she gleefully expressed how happy she was that Sharapova won. I was SO mad!

One good thing is that most of the good tennis matches will be played this week due to the fact that all of the best players are in the same bracket. So hopefully if I do find out who wins, it won't be one of the best matches of the year...but you never know.

We are lucky however that the 49ers play on Monday night! So at least we know we will get to see them play.

I mean you people should really consult me before planning any weddings.

Monday, September 3, 2007

Wedding #3 of 2007

This past weekend we attended our third wedding of the year in Pleasanton. John's college buddy Nory got married to his long time girlfriend Jessie. They had the wedding and reception at their home and did a fabulous job both with the wedding AND the work on their house.

We visited them this past March and helped them tile their entry way. Here is John and Nory working on the grout.

However that was just one of the small improvements they did. They had installed pergo flooring, painted, and completely re-landscaped their back yard. Let me tell you that they do not have an ordinary backyard. Their yard is HUGE! They could probably fit two more houses back there, and still have a decent sized yard. I really should have taken some before photos when I was there in March, but I didn't. They re-built their pond, built a deck, laid new sod, and had concrete poured.
The colors were brown and ivory w/ an orange accent. The next two weddings this weekend also have brown as their main color! Jessie said they paid extra for the nice chairs, and I think they totally made a difference!

They had a caterer staff of 4 people and they did a great job... and the food was AWESOME! They had some great shredded pork that tasted just like the pork I had in Hawaii at the Luau we went to. What was even more exciting was that they had a roasted pig! Not cooked in the back yard unfortunately, but it was still really neat. They also had a variety of dessert finger foods, which was also really nice. Jessie said that she knows not everyone likes cakes at weddings, which is true. It was a perfect solution.

They also had a great slide show that was playing in the house on a continuous loop. My favorite photos were of course the college photos. There were so many crazy ones that totally cracked me up... and even a few unflattering ones of me that don't even remember them being taken! I'm hoping I can get Jessie to burn me a CD of them and I will definitely post them if I get them.

I actually thought we stayed pretty late, (midnight), but I guess the hard cores partied until 4am!! Including the bride and groom!

Nory was nice enough to walk us (and Scotty), out to our car where he then proceeded to try to get a goodnight kiss from me... or Scotty... or John! He really wasn't picky. John thought it was hilarious because he had his window rolled up and locked. However mine and Scotty's windows were rolled down and LOCKED! We avoided the attempted kisses somehow and then proceeded to chase Nory, and his Champagne bottle, down the road in the car.

Here are a few of my favorite photos:
Scotty, Poon, Nory and John before the ceremony. I have no idea what Scotty is looking at... I'm temped to crop him out!

Jessie making her entrance.

Mr. and Mrs. Ison!

The bridal party.

Scotty and John trying to look tough...however Scotty looks like he's day dreaming.

The roasted pig!

Ready to cut the cake!

How funny is this photo?

These were my fave. They were bite size pieces of cake covered in frosting...I think. Of course I had to get one of each flavor!

Jessie and I.

Nory and John bustin' a move.

Scotty and John dancing... they were actually dancing with me... not with each other.

Here is Nory trying to get his goodnight kiss!