Melinda

New Page/Blog

2009-01-03T18:18:00.001-08:00

Rob and I started a new web page. We have a bunch of ideas of stuff we want to put on there. I will have a new blog on that page instead of here. So.....

New Web Page And Blog Is Here: www.robmelindamac.weebly.com

2009

2009-01-01T15:37:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year. Anyone make any new years resolutions? Mine is to try to get to the gym more. Yup, the same thing everyone says every year.
How was your 2008? Mine was pretty good. Highlights include moving into our house and flying back to Buffalo for Julie and Amanda's weddings. Hopefully 2009 will bring lots of good times and new experiences.

Pictures

2008-12-17T20:10:00.001-08:00

I put up some pictures of mom and dad's visit.

Burr

2008-12-16T07:06:00.001-08:00

I've turned Californian when it comes to weather. It was only 33 degrees when leaving for work this morning. There was a layer of icy frost on my window. Everyone who comes into the office has something to say about how cold it is. It is funny. But before you Buffalonians start going on about what babies we are, keep in mind that we have much thinner blood than you. I feel colder now than I did in Buffalo when temps would be even lower. The frost probably killed my flowers.
On another topic, how's the xmas shopping going? Only 9 days left!

Monday

2008-12-15T06:19:00.000-08:00

Back to regular day to day life. Mom and dad are back to Buffalo today. We had fun and the week went fast. The weather was a bit colder than I had hoped. I'll put up some pictures soon.

B-Day

2008-12-10T04:15:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Mom! And you're here in town to celebrate it this year!

Watch your accounts

2008-12-06T09:38:00.000-08:00

Upon his morning check of our bank account, Rob discovered that someone got a hold of our debit card number and rang up over 1,000.00 in just 3 hours! They are putting a stop on that card. Wow I'm glad we caught it only 3 hours after the crooks made their first purchase. Go online and check your bank statements every single day. That's what we do and that's how we will stop those people from taking even more money out of our accounts. I have NO idea how they could've got our number.

Visit

2008-12-05T09:16:00.000-08:00

My parents are coming to visit tomorrow. They'll be here for a week. Yay!

Sonic Boom

2008-12-01T06:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday while putting up some xmas decorations we heard this loud crash on the roof. It definitely sounded like something landed on our roof pretty violently which shook the house a bit. We couldn't find anything when we went outside to investigate. Later when eating out with Rob's mom, she mentioned that a strange thing happend at her place where something seemed to crash on her roof at the same time as ours did. Upon hearing our confusion, the lady in the next booth overheard us and told us that the space shuttle landed and that was the sonic boom. Wow. Such power in a sound wave.

2008-11-28T17:52:00.000-08:00

We lost our Marmalade today. It was sudden and she went quickly so she didn't suffer too much. She was a good kitty. She kept to herself a lot but when she was in the mood to cuddle she would cuddle like crazy. She was found in a cardboard box on the side of the road as a very tiny kitten with her brothers and sisters. A friend of my parents cared for them and we took Marm home. Marm lived a good 13 years. I'll miss her.

Rain

2008-11-26T18:33:00.000-08:00

It rained today. Below is a map that shows what happens when it rains. Each diamond is an accident which may cause traffic backup. It took me from 3:00 to 4:40 to get home from work today. But I did see two rainbows. Very pretty.

On the topic of traffic.... You've heard me rant about lane splitting by motorcycles. Here's an example of it. You see this alllllll the time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cQvcZlo2yo

Rearrange

2008-11-24T06:51:00.000-08:00

We rearranged our living room yesterday. It opened up the room a lot. We also did a lot of Christmas decoration shopping. We finally have a house we can light up. Yay. My parents are coming out in a couple weeks. That'll be fun too.

We took Milo outside on the leash very shortly. He liked it. After we brought him back in, he sat at the door and meowed at it because he wanted to go back out. It was cute.

Driving

2008-11-22T06:57:00.000-08:00

Ha. I drive a lot. So I like this article because it is so true. http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=726147&topart=passenger Ten most annoying driving habits. I like # 1, 4 and 5 the most.
But they left out a few of my major gripes.
1. Tailgating. How does driving an inch from someone's back bumper get you anywhere faster? If they are trying to pressure me to go faster, it won't work because I'll usually go slower because of it. I want a license plate that reads "the closer you tailgate, the slower I drive".
2. Queue jumpers. The freeway is busy and cars are backed up and moving slowly. The lane on the right is an exit only lane. Most cars stick to the main lanes and leave the right lane for the exiters. The people that drive me CRAZY are the ones who don't want to wait in the line of cars like the rest of us and drive the exit lane all the way down and then cut back into main traffic at the last possible second. That just backs up people more. Ugh drives me crazy and I won't let someone in who tries to cut in front of me.
3. Extremely fast or extremely slow drivers. The fast drivers whip through traffic weaving in and out of every lane back and forth around every car. I just want them to get a speeding ticket so badly. Then there is the opposite. People who drive so slow, way below speed limit. They are even more of a traffic hazzard. And it backs up traffic, especially in rush hour.
4. Motorcycles driving between lanes. Don't even get me started on them!
Ah Los Angeles. :)

Wind and fire

2008-11-15T11:08:00.000-08:00

The wind has been really strong yesterday and today. Gusts up to 65mph. You can hear it blowing against the house really strong. It is also warm out...in the 80's. When there's wind and warm temps, there's usually fire. And that is the case this time. Yesterday there was a fire near Santa Barbara that burned over 100 houses. And today there is a fire in Sylmar. That is right where the freeways meet that seperate San Fernando Valley and Santa Clarita. All the roads are closed. It is a good thing this happened on a weekend because I take those routes to work everyday and I wouldn't be able to get to or from work at all. So far they can't contain it because it is so windy out. The fire is also threatening power blackouts for Los Angeles. Today Rob and I had plans to drive to Pasadena to go to a neat Christmas store. Well that's out of the question now... bummer.

Here's a picture of what the wind did to our fence.

V-Day

2008-11-11T06:57:00.000-08:00

Happy Veteran's Day. Yup.

Election day

2008-11-04T08:18:00.000-08:00

Election day is finally here which means no more having to listen to all the campaign stuff thats been going on for months and months and months. Unfortunately, before polls even close in California, they'll know who the next president is already. Makes it seem sort of pointless ya know? But nonetheless I'm gonna vote. I'm voting more for all the CA propositions than for the actual president.

UPDATE:
It is now 7:30 pacific time. The polls are still open for another half hour. No polling place can report their totals yet here in CA. However, the news is already saying that Obama won. So I guess not everyone's vote really matters huh. Oh well. Here's to hoping Obama is a good president!! I think he'll be fine.

Rain

2008-11-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

It rained on Saturday! At 6am there was thunder and lightning. It was great. It also thundered a bit later in the day too. I love thunderstorms and they are so rare here.

Halloween II

2008-11-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures

As neat as our house looked, guess how many trick-or-treaters we got..... ONE!!!!!! One little trick-or-treater with his parents. We were sitting there all night with our bowl of candy waiting for kids. The problem is that we are at the end of a cul-de-sac and noone could see our house. The other neighbors around us all had no lights on so all the trick-or-treaters ignored our cul-de-sac and cut over to another street that starts several houses down from ours. I took a drive and there were indeed kids going up to all the houses.... just not ours. Pout pout.

Halloween

2008-10-31T04:27:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

We carved pumpkins yesterday. I'll post a picture later.

Update: It was a very slow day at work. My desk faces the front door of the building so all day I watched people in different Halloween costumes entering and exiting. I've seen 2 Dodgers players, a couple cats, Popeye, Uncle Sam, mexican, inmate, John Lennon, funny tennis player, flapper, weird army guy with blonde wig, vampire, 2 Charlie Browns, bloody zombie, clown, witches, and some other neat costumes. Some people wore orange, and some wore Halloween shirts. Not that any of this is particularly interesting to anyone reading this.... but oh well. I'll post later with a pic of our pumpkins!

ring ring

2008-10-29T19:06:00.000-07:00

When we moved we got a house phone as a back up in case our cell phones don't work. The only problem is that we are always getting telemarketing calls on it. Today the phone rang 3 times. I usually never answer it. I answered one of the calls today. It was someone who called me Belinda and they wanted me to donate to a Thanksgiving food fund. We get calls all day from people wanting us to give them money for this or that. As for trying to stop them by adding our number to the Do Not Call list... no good. The DNC list does not stop charity organizations, only goods and services calls. If/when I want to give to charity, I'll choose where and when. So ring away telephone.... I ain't answering.

Cat

2008-10-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

Last night we were awakened by a cat growling. A neighbor cat came into our backyard and was nose to nose with Milo in the window. Milo was growling at it. He would've attacked it if he could. The cat wouldn't leave despite us trying to scare it away so it went on for a little while. I wonder if it'll be back tonight.

The debate

2008-10-16T08:08:00.001-07:00

I watched the debate last night. I am still an undecided voter so I was watching this debate rather closely.

Healthcare is a big deal to me. Obama seemed to have more plans in mind than McCain did to solve the problem. I didn't really follow what Obama meant when he was talking about how he was going to help people who are NOT covered by their employer and have to pay for their own coverage. I disagree with McCain's want to tax employer healthcare. That'd only make things worse in my opinion.

Education was ok. No big deciding factor for me. I did however like when Obama finished his speech about education, he said that it is also up to parents. He said something like: Parents have to put away the video games and instill good educational values to their kids. Very true and that alone would solve so many of the problems.

Abortion. I am pro-life and like that McCain is. At least Obama said he would consider banning partial birth abortion as long at it had exceptions like danger to the health of the mother. I agree more with McCain on this issue though.

Regarding Joe The Plumber, I know they are talking about the small businessman and it was interesting but it doesn't really affect me too much. I'm not a small businessman and I don't make over 250,000 so I would not be taxed by Obama's plan. I was interested that they spent so much time on him. McCain kept asking why Obama would raise any taxes at all in this economic crisis that we are in. But Obama would only raise it for the top 5% of the country which isn't too bad. He'd then use the money to "spread the wealth". BUT on the other hand, these people have worked hard to earn this money. Why should they be punished with higher taxes for being successful? I look at all these people milking the welfare system because they don't want to do any work and feel bad that it's the small businessman that has to pick up the slack. It is similar to the housing/mortgage crisis. Why should I have to pick up the pieces for other people who bought a house when they couldn't afford it? So I don't know.... there are pluses and minuses. I guess overall I should think about what would be best for me. And for this, I want to hear more about the Joe Sixpacks (middle class) rather than Joe The Plumbers (small businessman making more than 250,000). I hope I'm not totally missing the point and seeing all of this completely wrong. I have a tendency to do that sometimes.

Great line: "I'm not George Bush. If you wanted to run against George Bush you should have run four years ago" -McCain. However, how much does he differ? How much would he really change within his party? Would he continue with Bush's foreign policies or change a lot about it? They touched on free trade and talked about foreign oil but I wish they would have talked about their thoughts on the war a little more and the troops overseas. I would rather they talked about that than their blabbing on about negative campaigning.

So who am I going to vote for? I don't know yet. My vote won't really count too much anyway, this is an Obama state. I'm really interested on voting for the California propositions. Especially 2 and 8.

wind + fire = bad

2008-10-13T06:37:00.000-07:00

Hi there. It is Monday morning. It's really really windy out today. When driving to work this morning I looked to my left and saw a big fire. I could smell the smoke really strong too. It is pretty bad and the worst part is that the winds are spreading it quickly. Also, they can't bring in the water helicopters yet because the winds are too strong. I'm glad I leave early for work. I hear the 5 freeway is really backed up now. Hmm. I wonder if they're gonna close the 5. In which case I'm not sure how I'll get home.

Update: Firefighters got it under control. Yay. Much more smoke than fire now.

Update again: Another fire now to the west of the other one. It's that time of year.

Baseball

2008-10-10T07:15:00.000-07:00

Although we cheer for the Angels, the LA Dodgers are our other team. They are playing Philadelphia now, Michele and Drew's team. So it's us against them. Go Dodgers!!

Vice presidential debate

2008-10-03T07:25:00.000-07:00

We watched the vice presidential debate last night. We missed the beginning though. I agree with them both in some aspects and disagree with them both in others. All I can say is that Biden was straightforward and used examples to back up his points. Palin seemed all over in her answers but came back with a strong end. Overall, I'm still undecided but I could see Biden taking over as president if need be....... I cannot see Palin being able to run this country if the need arose.

Trip East

2008-10-01T06:27:00.001-07:00

I'm back from my trip east. It was fun. Here's a real quick summary of my busy trip: I flew into Philadelphia on Wednesday and spent all day Thursday walking around the city with Michele. Happily the rain held off. We walked a lot! I also took public transportation for the first time in a long time...trolly, subway, bus and train. Friday we checked out Temple University where I saw Michele's work and we met Drew after class. The drive from Philly to Buffalo was about 6 1/2 hours or so. We made it in time for Amanda's wedding rehearsal. The rehearsal dinner had a rough start with the restaurant not being ready for us but it all worked out. Good pizza and pasta and wings! Then Saturday was Amanda and John's wedding. It was nice. I liked seeing all my relatives again and dancing at the reception. I wished Rob was there though. Sunday was a relaxing day. Went shopping with mom and watched the Bills game. Glad the Bills won... it wasn't looking good in the first half. Monday morning I met with Rob's Aunt Pat and cousin Mary for a bit. Later, dad and I herded some geese at the park on our bikes. Very fun! My plane took off at 4:40pm on Monday. It arrived in Vegas 40 minutes early! That never happens. The Vegas to Burbank flight was so short. Rob picked me up at the airport and I had to go to work the next morning...blah. Overall great trip! I want to rewind and do it again. I took a ton of pictures and I'll post the good ones in a photo album soon so keep an eye out for them. That's it.... I'd better get back to work now.

Fall

2008-09-22T07:21:00.000-07:00

Happy First Day Of Fall! If you live somewhere that the leaves change color, enjoy that. I love the fall season and the whole halloween/thanksgiving/apple cider/pumpkin/orangy-brown feeling. (too bad we don't get that out here. oh well)

Almost trip time

2008-09-18T09:33:00.000-07:00

In one week I'll be in Philadelphia right now. Woohoo! It's going to be a very short trip but a good trip. I'm excited to see everyone. The only thing I hate is the airplane. I don't mind flying and I have no fear of flying. All I hate is the air sickness! My hands and feet tingle to the point that I can't close my fingers. I also get so hot and sweat horribly. Then the stomach ache begins. Yuck yuck yuck. Usually Dramamine helps and I hope it does this time.

Politics

2008-09-16T08:09:00.000-07:00

I'm probably the last person to talk anything about politics but why does Palin seem to be getting more press coverage than McCain, Obama or Biden? I've never seen such coverage of a vice presidential candidate before. I'm tired of seeing her.

Motorcycles

2008-09-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

I hate motorcycles on the highway. Here in LA, it is legal for them to drive between lanes on the dotted line and weave between traffic. They sneak up on you and come so very close to your car. It is scary. Cars are always switching lanes so quickly and bikes get right in your blindspot. Why would this be legal? I can understand them going between lanes when the traffic is really slow or stopped...then it makes more sense and is not as dangerous. My problem is when they do this when traffic is going at full pace. Just because they are a motorcycle, they think they can go 10 miles over the speed limit (and often more than that) and still whip between lanes. Couldn't they revamp the law to only allowing them to go between cars if the flow of traffic is under a certain speed limit?

New photo album

2008-09-06T11:04:00.001-07:00

I put up a new photo album of some of the animals that I've seen in our backyard. They are mainly all birds. I will keep adding to the album as I take more pictures of different animals. I hope to get many more different types of birds.

Hair

2008-09-02T16:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got a haircut and a highlight. Check out the pics. I had to take the pics of myself so please ignore the horrible looking pictures. And I just got home from work too.

I like the layers in the bangs.

Hi

2008-09-02T07:13:00.000-07:00

It was a nice long weekend. We had some people over on Sunday for BBQ and Labor Day itself was pretty relaxing. Now it is only a 4 day work week. Woohoo.
I finally took some pictures of the house for those who wanted to see them. Rather than posting them all here, just let me know if you want to see them.

Random post

2008-08-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

The olympics are over. I liked watching them even though I like the winter olympics better. Did you watch? What'd you think?
On another random topic, if you are a cereal eater, buy the bagged cereal. You get so much more for your money and they are coming out with many more flavors now too. That's it. Just wanted to post a random post.

Hummingbirds

2008-08-20T04:57:00.001-07:00

Monday was 88 degrees. That was the first time we've had temperatures that were below 90 since July 29th. Quite warm. Here's a picture of my mother in law's hummingbird feeder. There's always so many there.... 7 to 8 at a time!

There's 5 in that one.

Here I'm holding the feeder and there's still a hummingbird eating from it.

Invisible

2008-08-14T13:37:00.000-07:00

Read this short article: http://tech.msn.com/news/articlecnet.aspx?cp-documentid=9337061&GT1=40000

Ok, I understand the concept. BUT... if they can indeed do this and create some sort of material that doesn't reflect or scatter light, would we really be able to see what is beyond the invisible thing? I mean, the thing that they made invisible still does exist...it is still an object... so how could you see right through it? And if it neither reflects nor absorbs light, where does that light go that hits the material? Quite the mind boggler.

Les Miserables

2008-08-11T21:02:00.000-07:00

We went to see Les Miserables at the Hollywood Bowl last Friday. It was well done and the actors were all very good. The orchestra was right there on the stage. There was no big barricade or spinning stage but other than that, it was performed like a stage performance would be performed. Rosie O'Donnell was supposed to play Mme. Thenardier but she backed out which is too bad. She would have been good in that role. The thing that really bugged me was how much they cut out of the show. Songs were cut short and they left out parts that I felt were crucial to the story plot. I wondered if I didn't know the story already, would it be easy to follow? I'm sure people were confused with some of the storylines because of all the cuts.

Here's a short video I took:

Car

2008-08-04T16:46:00.001-07:00

It took an hour and a half to get home from work today. Worst traffic I've seen in a long time. Yuck.

House pics to come soon.

Birthday

2008-07-31T04:30:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday to me!

Earthquake

2008-07-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

There was just an earthquake. I am at work and everything started shaking. The building sort of waved back and forth. It was a little scary but pretty exciting too. It was a magnitude 5.8 and the epicenter was in Chino Hills which is 50 miles from me. Cell phone service is down right now. This is earthquake #2 since living here. This one was definitely bigger than the first one.

Doc

2008-07-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

My documentary that I made in college may have life beyond the walls of Fredonia. A professor at the college who worked with me wants to have the doc published on a website for a Virginia college. So that is neat. I have to do some edits this weekend. It was fun to watch the piece again after not watching it in such a long time.

Moved

2008-07-21T06:24:00.000-07:00

We moved into our house on Saturday. We hired a moving company. There were just two guys and they were awesome. The load, the drive and the unload took only about 3 1/2 hours and they put the boxes and furniture wherever we told them in the house. Very nice. We have a lot of unpacking to do now. The cats are doing fine. They seem to be adjusting nicely. We bought a bird feeder and a hummingbird feeder yesterday. We've had several birds at each already. Today was my first commute to work. I got on the highway at 5:15am and was very surprised to find the road as busy as it was. I'm going from a 2 minute commute to a 30 minute commute. That'll probably take a bit to get used to.
I don't have the internet at home yet so I can't upload any pictures yet. I have it at work so you can still email me and all that.

moving

2008-07-15T06:07:00.000-07:00

This Saturday is our big move to the house. We've been packing a lot. We already have a bunch of stuff at the house because we've taken several trips over the past few weekends. Our apartment looks so empty now. I'll take some pictures when we are all moved in.

The Bowl

2008-07-06T06:45:00.000-07:00

We've been moving stuff into our house little by little. Today we buy a washer and dryer! I'm excited for that.

Last night we went to the Hollywood Bowl and saw Bugs Bunny On Broadway. It was bugs bunny cartoons with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra playing the music. I was amazed at how perfectly they had everything timed to go with the picture. So that was fun. We bought a 5 ticket package which means we have 4 more shows to attend this summer. One of them is Les Miserables in Concert which I am very excited for. Woohoo.

(Picture found on internet)

Hands Free

2008-06-30T06:42:00.000-07:00

Beginning tomorrow, the law against talking on the phone while driving takes effect. I like it. I see so many horrible drivers who don't even realize they are doing stupid things because they are talking on the phone. Hands-free devices are still allowed. However..... there is a downside to this. The law does NOT include texting while driving. Why? I think texting is worse than holding the phone up to your ear. And now that people can't talk on the phone anymore, they'll text more which can actually cause more problems.
On another topic, this past weekend we moved a couple things into our new house. We are still deciding if we should get a uhaul and move everything ourselves or get a moving company to do it. We've got some really heavy things that would be hard for just us two to do. We are excited for the move.

Busy weekend

2008-06-23T06:52:00.001-07:00

*pictures to come soon*

It was a very eventful weekend. Heather and Adam were here Thurs-Sun. They are on their way to Sydney Australia for 3 years while Heather attends college there. We did a lot of stuff which included seeing Get Smart at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood and the Le Brea Tar Pits. Nice time overall. However, very hot for walking outside. Temps hitting the 100's.

Also, we are moving!!! We signed the lease last night. It is a nice house in a nice neighborhood with a nice backyard. I'll post some pictures soon. Sure the commute won't be too much fun, especially with gas prices, but I think the quality of life will be much better living in a house instead of an apartment. So that makes it worth it.

heat

2008-06-22T07:37:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to post this

First day of summer

2008-06-20T07:29:00.001-07:00

We are ringing in the first day of summer with very hot weather. I don't mind at all.

The tv off season

2008-06-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

Evenings are boring now. I'm usually here by myself since this is the time of year that Rob works late at his second job several nights a week.....and there are no good shows on at night anymore now that Idol, Survivor and Lost are done for the season. America's Got Talent begins tonight so that is fun. Here was last year's winner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTSFhIv9bYg&feature=related Very good! Is American Inventor coming back? I watched that too. Ah..... reality tv.
On another topic, my old high school friend Heather and her husband Adam are coming to visit this Thursday night for a couple days. I'm excited for that. Then they're off to Australia for 3 years! I never get to see her so it'll be great to catch up and hang out a bit.

random post

2008-06-11T17:35:00.001-07:00

Hi. I don't really have much to say but I thought I needed another post here. What's new with you? Leave a comment. That's really it.
Oh, by the way, remember the last post when I said gas was 4.43 at our corner station? Now it is 4.65. That's 22 cents higher in just 1 week. Pay rates aren't raising fast enough to keep up with inflation and these crazy gas prices.

Here's a cute pic of Misty

Still rising

2008-06-04T06:37:00.000-07:00

Ha. I find this funny. Our corner gas station......$4.43 as of yesterday.

Anniversary

2008-06-03T06:45:00.000-07:00

Happy 2 year anniversary to us!

Fire

2008-06-01T10:48:00.001-07:00

The Universal Studios Hollywood backlot caught fire. Several sets burned including the New York City set and the King Kong ride. Also, a couple sound stages burned down and the video vault too. They estimate millions of dollars worth of damage. Here's a couple pictues I took this morning.

This one is from our apartment.

And these are from Bob's Big Boy resturant right next my work two blocks from our apartment.

California has to have good firefighters. Being so dry out here makes fires spread quickly.

short post

2008-05-30T16:46:00.001-07:00

bummed.

Gas

2008-05-23T07:05:00.000-07:00

Gas prices are getting crazy. And the sad part is that there is no end in sight to this increase. What is gas by you now? Our corner station is $4.09. Pout.

Mother in law is here

2008-05-16T07:35:00.000-07:00

Rob, his mom and a couple friends of hers drove across the country this past week. They began on Sunday and arrived yesterday (Thursday). Their trip went really well. Her cat managed very well on the drive too. Now she is all moved in and just needs to unpack and set up her new home. California welcomed them with heat in the mid to upper 90's. This weekend will be reaching 100 degrees.

Buffalo and Julie's wedding

2008-05-14T21:16:00.000-07:00

We flew to Buffalo on Thursday. It was nice to be back there again. Julie and Ron's wedding was really fun. I put a photo album in the right hand column to look at. We took so many pictures it is hard to choose just a few to put online. So go look at them now.

I flew back to CA Monday evening. Rob is driving across the country with his mom and two of her friends. I'll post about that later.

Only the wealthy may fly

2008-05-07T06:49:00.000-07:00

The rising gas prices are costing the price of flying to go up and up. Not only are ticket prices going up and the charges for baggage, but now US Airways are starting to charge extra for window and aisle seats. Granted, it is only $5 and only for the first few rows of the cabin but it is the start. I wouldn't be surprised if this trend continues. Being a person who flies a couple times a year, this stinks. I booked a flight in September on the cheapest airline, 4 1/2 months in advance AND online to get the online deal.... Its still cost me $392 to get back and forth....and that's cheap.

3 day work week

2008-05-05T09:27:00.001-07:00

This is a 3 day work week and then its off to Buffalo for the weekend for Julie's wedding! I will fly back to CA on Monday. Rob will be driving across the country with his mom who is moving out here. We began to set up her apartment the last couple weeks.

Birthday

2008-04-30T04:53:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Rob!!

Article

2008-04-24T17:55:00.000-07:00

I found this article interesting. A mother let her 9 year old boy ride the subway alone. This caused a big frenzy among people. But why? Children used to go out on their own a lot in the past and people didn't think much of it. Are children in this age way too overprotected? Do parents live in more fear than in past generations? To quote a line from the article "Part of the problem is that with wall-to-wall Internet and cable news, every missing child case gets so much airtime that it's not surprising even normal parental paranoia can be amplified." I think we live in a very paranoid time.

In the movies

2008-04-22T07:30:00.000-07:00

Last week they filmed a movie where I work. We closed the gym and cancelled all therapy ahead of time to let the movie have the place for the day. I still had to work with one other coworker. We mainly stayed in the back office. The production was pretty crazy. They moved everything in the gym including the machines and there were lights, cameras, power cords, equipment and tons of crew everywhere. It was hard to walk from the back office to the front doors. They also had a ton of stuff outside the building including lights shining in and several trailers. They were supposed to be finished with interior shooting on Thursday and simply come back on Friday to do exterior shots. We knew that'd never happen but our boss didn't want to close another day so we booked a full day of therapy as usual. As expected, they didn't finish everything on Thursday and asked to come back Friday and "work around us and our therapy". Ha...yeah right. They came in and completely took over the gym again. We had to cancel a few hours of therapy. I found this all rather amusing despite having a ton of work to do cancelling/rescheduling and dealing with confused and upset patients and gym members. They asked if I wanted to be in the movie. All I had to do was sit behind my desk and pretend to talk to someone in the background as the main characters sat outside the gym then walked from the outside to the inside. I wonder how much you'll actually be able to see me after it is all edited together. I sat with the producer for a while. I took that opportunity to mention Rob and his facility for the post sound. It would be neat if he took my recommendation. Here's a link to the movie on imdb. Click.

On another topic, last weekend was our friends Brian and Amanda's son Zander's christening. Rob and I are his godparents so we went along with Brian's parents. It was really cute. Then back to their house for some really good steak and potatoes. Yum. Also last weekend, Rob and I went shopping for some furniture for his mom's apartment. We found a nice table, chairs and a bookcase. We've got 2 weekends now to set it all up.

Hi

2008-04-15T07:37:00.000-07:00

On the news today they said that California is overdue for a large earthquake and it is inevidible that there will be a large one within the next 30 years. Most likely, it'll be around a 7.0 magnitude. If we own a home before then, homeowner's insurance doesn't cover earthquake damage. Blah.
Tax day has arrived. I always wonder why so many people wait until the last day to do them. I'll never quite understand that.
Last weekend was in the mid 90's. I like the warm weather. It is back down to the 60s and 70s now
3 weeks and 2 days until going to Buffalo for a few days!

A post

2008-04-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while. What's new since my last post? Not too much. I got a new laptop computer. I like it! It takes up far less room than the other computer did and it'll make those plane rides better.

Two more fish died leaving me with two left from the original six. Bummer.

Rob and I have been looking around at townhomes or houses to rent out here. The reality of buying a house anytime soon is extremely slim and do we really want to wait out the years in a little apartment where it is too loud to sit on the balcony? Nah.

Milo had pink eye last week so we brought him to the vet and he had to have eye drops so they made him wear a cone around his neck for a week. Poor Milo. But he sure looked funny.

Elephants are smart

2008-04-04T04:52:00.000-07:00

Watch this video of an elephant painting a picture of an elephant. It is better than I can paint or draw.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/elephantpainting.asp

Sequel

2008-03-30T16:32:00.000-07:00

A Phantom Of The Opera sequel. I wonder how it'll be.

tv, internet and phones

2008-03-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

We got AT&T U-verse installed yesterday. So far so good. Many more channels and cheaper. Can't complain. The tv works and the wireless internet is working fine so far. We don't have a DVR for the bedroom tv yet. Gotta figure out how to set up TIVO with that.
On another topic, Razr phones rott. I haven't known anyone who did not have a problem with theirs. Mine loses bars all the time and the only way to get them back is to take out the battery and put it back in. And now the vibrate function has died so it is just still and silent when someone calls unless I have the ringer on which I don't like to have all the time. Sadly, it is probably time to buy a new phone. Rob just got an iphone which is really neat. He needed it. I don't need something like that for myself though.

St. Patrick's Day

2008-03-17T07:19:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day.
Today on the news, a reporter was at a bar asking all the partying people what St. Patrick's day is about. Noone knew. One said it was a holiday to celebrate the Irish. Some cheered that it is the best holiday of the year. I'm not a party pooper but I've never been too fond of this "holiday" because why have a holiday to celebrate drinking? That's what it's become. Far from this.

Update: One of our yellow fish died. I'm down to 4.

Stupid people story time

2008-03-16T18:06:00.000-07:00

A story: Rob and I were going to Target. I was driving and we were pulling into the parking lot. In front of us, there was a car stopped. Yes, Stopped..... right there in the middle of the entrance to the parking lot. With nowhere else to go and my car's butt almost out in traffic, I watched them as a person got out of the passenger side, and stood up, stuck his head back in the car and talked to the two people inside with the door still open. The guy getting out was obviously their son. We continued to wait and they continued to block the entrance. Cars were backing up on the road now waiting to turn in. I threw my hands up to show them frustration and to try to get them to GO. The woman driving looked at me but didn't do anything. Finally, the son shuts the door and walks away from their car and past our car. Then he hits the back of our car as he walks by!! This kid hit our car because I threw up my hands at them for blocking the entire entrance way to the shopping complex. If Rob wasn't on the phone with his mother at the time, he would have jumped out of our car right then and there. Once we got moving, we parked and so did they. We looked at them as we walked into the store and entered at the exact same time. We continued to glance back at them. They started to laugh and joke and said that they were going to call the security guards. Rob and I had a real hard time coming down from that one. We were soooooo close to saying something to them. Something bad could have happened. Surprisingly, we left the store at the exact same time as them too but they didn't see us. Once again, I could have been the car right behind them but I decided to go another way.
How can people have such a disregard for other people?

Fish & TV

2008-03-08T19:26:00.000-08:00

I got fish last week. I bought two bright yellow fish (I think they are creamsicle mollys), two flat fish (I don't know the official name), one bottomfeeder (I think its a striped raphael catfish), and a bala shark. So far, only one of the flat fish died. I don't know why. We did everything right to accimilate them. The red flat fish is really shy and the others always jump in it's way for food so I hope he doesn't starve. He's learning to be more aggressive I think. Anyway, here's a picture of the 4 fish. (The bottomfeeder is hiding somewhere. )

Unfortunately, after buying the fish, I read on the web that bala sharks need a bigger tank than the one we have for it. Oh well. Not much we can do for it now.

On a completely different topic, our TV DVR box broke the other day. We have no television in the living room now. We hate Charter. It is very expensive for our cable/internet and after we had it for a year, they raised the price and took away channels. We had our internet box die on us and only when we called them did they tell us that they did a system update that fried many people's boxes. Then they were really bad at coming to our home to replace it. And now our DVR box died. So today we decided to go with a whole new cable/internet company. They are cheaper, have many more stations (including the NFL network which makes Rob quite happy), HD stations and faster wireless internet. It's at&t U-verse and it is only offered in a few certain areas right now so we are happy. Have to wait for another week until it can be installed though.

Continuation from my last post.

2008-02-27T16:58:00.000-08:00

Here's the car.

And finally a video from the race on Sunday. (I'm testing putting a video on this blog to see how it works)

Weekend full of cars

2008-02-25T17:21:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, Rob and I went to the car dealership and traded in our trailblazer for a brand new 2008 Chevy HHR. It is cherry red, and fully loaded. It has automatic everything, automatic starter, leather seats, sunroof, seat warmers (which I love), etc etc. Very nice. Rob did a great job haggling the price and we ended up getting it for what we wanted. I'll put a picture of it up here when I have a chance to actually take a picture.

On Sunday, Rob and I went to the Nascar Race which was at the California Speedway. We got free tickets from a guy at Rob's work. It was raining as we drove there and raining when we got there. Somehow we managed to get an awesome parking spot not far from the entrance without paying. Don't ask me how. The rain stopped just before the race was scheduled to begin but then they had to dry the track. It took almost 3 hours to do. Finally, after some more delays, the race began. There was one crash with a caution due to water on the track. 21 laps in, there was another big crash (the car flipped over and another one burst into flames) due to water on the track. They red flagged the race for over an hour. It was now getting later in the day and the sun was setting. We were wet and cold and the threat of rain still loomed very close. We decided to call it a day and go home. It was a good thing we left when we did. They only managed to race another 60 laps or so (which included cautions) before it began to rain and they red flagged the race for another 3 hours before finally deciding to postpone it to Monday. Bummer. Jeff Gordon had an awesome car too. But it was still enjoyable and we hope to get to the fall race this year. Here's a couple pictures.

Before the race when there was a brief moment of sun.

The first group of cars go by on the pace lap as the second group rounds to turn 4.

Lottery

2008-02-21T04:48:00.000-08:00

The California lottery is up to 270,000,000. That's pretty nice. I probably won't bother buying a ticket though.

neat

2008-02-15T06:35:00.001-08:00

A neat thing about where I work is that we are located in a rather richy area and our club is somewhat hidden away so we get a lot of showbiz people. Sometimes I'll think someone looks familiar or I recognize a name so I check it out on IMDB and sure enough they're an actor/actress, director, etc. Just yesterday I found out one of our patients is a big record producer. Funny.

Heart Day

2008-02-14T06:04:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

Needlepoint

2008-02-11T16:24:00.000-08:00

I just finished my ladybug needlepoint. I'm still a beginner. What do ya think?

I see the goal but how do I get there?

2008-02-10T13:15:00.000-08:00

Not much going on around here. Same old regular stuff. Tax time is coming so we're getting all of our stuff ready for our accountant. It makes us think even more about our future. It is hard to figure out what to do. Our ultimate goal is to someday have a house and start a family. But the question is... how do we get there? Do we pay off all our college loans first? Continue to save for a down payment on a house? Do we dive into the housing market when home prices are at their low? Do we let that pass by and know that that would mean many more years of renting instead of owning and living in an apartment? I'm 26 and wouldn't mind thinking about starting a family by age 30 but how can we think about that without a house?... And how can we get a house without a down payment?... And how can we save for the down payment when we have to pay down other student loans? Together, we work hard and make a very decent income. This income would be more that sufficent if we still lived in Buffalo. We'd already be in a nice place of our own. Unfortunately we are trying to start our lives in one of the highest cost of living places in the country. (with the exception being NYC) I can't find a house anywhere in a decent safe-ish area that is close be being below the 300,000's. And even a little 300,000.00 house would mean a 60,000 down payment to meet the standard 20%. I guess its just a dream to imagine sitting outside on a lawn with a child running around playing. That's all I eventually want. Why so many obstacles? Why does it cost so darn much to live out here? Oh well.

Happy half birthday to me

2008-01-31T13:48:00.000-08:00

I don't have anything interesting to post today. I just want to put up another entry. Today is my half birthday. I'm now 26 1/2. Woo.
Are you going to watch the superbowl? A lot of people are saying they aren't very excited about it because we already know who is going to win and it is boring. I'll be watching it anyway. I like the commercials too.
Work is going ok. They are still making all these changes. It seems like this whole revamping of the system is taking longer than it should. Next Wednesday I'll have worked here for one year. Sadly, I have the world's most stingy and money hungry boss in the world so I doubt I'll be getting a raise. He's said no to others who have requested one before. Pout. Oh well. I'm gaining experience here and I love my hours so I suppose that's enough for now. Bye.

Baby

2008-01-24T18:33:00.000-08:00

Congrats to our friends Brian and Amanda on their new baby boy!

Funny American Idol

2008-01-22T20:26:00.000-08:00

Haha

Wow

2008-01-20T06:13:00.000-08:00

400 million! That's right. Let just how large that amount is sink in. That is how much money has been given/raised on campaigning for the position of the president of the US. I don't know about you but couldn't that money be used for better things? I can think of about a zillion things better. The candidates are always saying that they need to find ways to provide money to people and organizations and yadda yadda yadda. I see $400 million dollars was somehow found for the sake of campaigning. I know that picking a good president to run our country is an important thing but really......... that money could do a whole lot better. 400 million as of 9/30/07 according to this site.....and probably much higher by now.......and still growing.

My little cousin in college this fall

2008-01-15T17:40:00.001-08:00

My cousin Graham just accepted a full 5-year scholarship to Florida Atlantic University to play football. That's pretty neat. I hope he does well there next year. Here's a picture of him playing for Valencia as the QB.

Bday

2008-01-09T04:38:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday Dad!

Rob's blog

2008-01-07T15:24:00.000-08:00

Rob finally got his blog page up and running. Click on the link in the right column of this page or just click HERE to see it. I hope he keeps it updated.

Last Post Of 2007

2007-12-31T06:38:00.000-08:00

Christmas was fun. Mom and dad came in. First they flew into Vegas for a couple days then drove here. They were here from Friday to Wednesday. On Friday we went out to eat good steak. On Saturday we saw Sweeney Todd at the Arclight in Hollywood. It was good. I like Tim Burton movies so I knew it would be good. We spent Christmas morning at our place and later went to the Wilbert's. Their neighborhood had a lighting contest... not of individual houses but the entire neighborhood as a whole. It was really neat. Practically every single house was decorated elaborately. They won second place for Santa Clarita. The first place neighborhood won because someone brought in snow and put it on everyone's lawn and kids brought out sleds and stuff. Anyway, that is a quick recap of the holidays. Sad to see the season over already. Check out my photo album to the right!
This last weekend, Rob and I rearranged our entire apartment. We moved every piece of furniture in our living room and bedroom. It gives it a fresh new feeling for the new year. It was a big job and took two days and we still have a bunch of clutter to clean up and find places for.
Happy New Year!

Buffalo, NYC

2007-12-20T07:49:00.000-08:00

Today a guy heard my "accent" and tried to guess where I am from. When I told him Buffalo he was surprised and said I didn't sound like someone from New York. He went on to say that he has family in New York so he knows the accent. Sure enough, they were from Brooklyn. Ha. It is funny how people lump all of New York into NYC.
5 shopping days left. You finished?

Just a work vent

2007-12-17T10:04:00.000-08:00

Work is frustrating. It is hard enough trying to keep up with everything by myself here at the front desk but what's worse is when the girls in the back get snippy toward me about missing something or having someone on hold when I have 3 other calls I'm taking care of and there are two people at the desk at the same time. They don't realize that I do the best I can and I'm only one person. One person can only do so much. I always keep scratch paper in front of me and write down things I have to remember to do later but that doesn't mean I can still get everything done perfectly. Do they think I just blow off certain jobs because I don't feel like doing it? I just wish they could understand that I'm doing the best I can. Once I mentioned something about how it is tough on the busy days. The response I got was "well that's your job". Gee...how friendly. Ugh. Oh well. I like my job.... I'm just venting. On the plus side, I've got a half day next Monday, Tuesday is off for Christmas and I'm taking that Wednesday off too. I'm very excited for that!

Update: I feel much better than I did 24 hours ago. My supervisor and I figured out just how I can fit everything into my work schedule and that eases a lot. So good!

Update again: Ok maybe not. So stressed at work. Seems nothing I did today was right. A little acknowledgement of all the stuff I've been doing good wouldn't be that hard would it? Must I only hear what is not right? I can't wait until January when things are supposed to settle down a lot.

Phone etiquette

2007-12-12T11:21:00.000-08:00

Talking to people on the telephone all the time at work has made me realize just how many people don't have phone etiquette. They must think that since they can hide behind the phone, they can say whatever they want however they want. And how hard is it to say "goodbye" or "thank you" before just cutting off a phone call? If I ever answer a phone call and the person just says "who's this?", I always respond by saying "you called me, who's this?"

On another topic, Christmas is less than 2 weeks away! Are you ready for it? I'm excited. My parents will be in town that weekend so that'll be fun. Our apartment is decorated nicely however Milo likes to try to take down as many decorations as possible like garland and biting the Christmas tree. It's cute though.

Birthday

2007-12-10T04:50:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday Mom!

Back home

2007-12-07T06:10:00.000-08:00

We are back in Burbank again after going back to Buffalo for several days for Rob's dad's funeral. Very depressing trip but it was a nice service.

Stuff

2007-11-30T08:24:00.001-08:00

It is raining out. I like rain.....just not driving in it in LA since Noone can drive in rain here.
Michele and Drew moved into their house yesterday. That is exciting for them I'm sure. Lots of work though.

Trip to Buffalo

2007-11-29T08:14:00.001-08:00

Rob went back to Buffalo last night and will be there through the weekend. His dad isn't doing well and he wanted to have one last visit with him. Please keep Rob, his mom and dad in your thoughts and prayers during this time.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-25T12:43:00.001-08:00

How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was nice. We made a dinner for a couple people Rob works with. Good turkey. Here's a few pics.

Foggy

2007-11-19T07:44:00.000-08:00

It is really foggy this morning. I look outside and just see white. It sort of looks like it is snowing outside if I imagine it just right. Not much else to say. How horrible was that Bills game last night?

Christmas season

2007-11-16T09:04:00.000-08:00

We went to the mall last night and the Christmas season has definitely begun. All the stores are decked out in Christmas decorations and holiday music is playing. I think it is still a week too early but at least it is more understandable now. At Target, they had Christmas stuff before Halloween. Too early in my opinion. I've seen a couple houses with lights up already.
I like the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season......now that I don't work at a store anymore. I get to be the customer instead of serve them.

Veterans Day

2007-11-12T08:15:00.000-08:00

Why do post offices close on holidays? No mail delivery? People still need their mail. I'll give them Christmas and Easter and even Thanksgiving but I think post offices should be open on smaller holidays.

Writers Guild of America strike

2007-11-07T09:25:00.000-08:00

The Writers Guild Of America is on strike as you may have heard. That means no new shows will be made that have writers once their scripts run out. They are all standing with their signs outside several studios here in Burbank like NBC, WB and Disney. What a hassle with all the traffic and stuff. Not to mention, each day of the strike is costing LA about 5 million dollars. They think this is going to be going on for a long long time. Lets hope it doesn't affect smaller independent places like Rob's work. However maybe it'll make it even better because they are not union so maybe they'll get more shows that are still in production.

Halloween

2007-11-01T19:02:00.000-07:00

How was your Halloween? Ours was fine. We watched the original Halloween movie. Unfortunately we don't get trick or treaters. Here are our pumpkins. Rob's is the face and mine is the witch in the pot.

QMB

2007-10-29T17:17:00.000-07:00

I was part of the Quaker Marching Band in high school in the '95 - '98 seasons. We'd compete and all the smaller competitions would lead to the big New York State Field Band Conference championship. When I was in it we won our division one year however we were never in the highest "national" class. After I graduated they moved up to that division and this year jumped up and beat the once untouchable West Genesee to win 1st! That is awesome.

Anniversary

2007-10-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

Happy 2 year anniversary to Michele and Drew!