Come Here Pretty Lady

 


A preview of the view for all of you. We had a great day. More details and pictures to come later. 

Yet another stop motion sunset

So the sunsets around here have been pretty incredible and I can't resist taking a little stop motion video. I had wondered what the use of this feature was until we started going out to take pictures of our awesome sunsets. Now you all can watch it with me. Brad slowed it down for me so it is a little easier to watch than the last one.

I had yet another interview today. It went fine but I am feeling better about the whole process now anyway. After all this though, my client that I haven't heard from since the wedding called to book me for Tuesday. I guess I had to give up on the business for anything to happen. I still plan to get a real job but it is nice to know that there is some work out there if I want it.

I don't talk much about my faith on here but it is something that is very important to me and to Brad. Tonight we had the most incredible Shabbat service ever. I had tears in my eyes at the power of God's work. This was a new trial service and we all sat in a round and sang and worshipped together. I don't remember the last time I felt God's presence more clearly. Sunday we have Yom Kippur services and all day Monday. This is a very long day as we do not eat, drink, shower, brush our teeth or anything else that seperates us from animals. It sounds hard but it is a small price to pay for forgiveness and a clean slate.

I had something else I wanted to say but I have forgotten what that was. This can mean only one thing, it was terribly important. Oh one thing is that we are going to go to the zoo tomorrow so come back for lots of pictures of the experience. I love the zoo so much so I am so excited to get to go tomorrow. I am in trouble when we have kids cause I will be more excited about these kinds of things than they will.

Rejection

Hopefully above is a stop motion movie I took of a recent sunset. If it isn't there what can I say oh well something else I suck at.

So part of why I have been absent from here is that I have been focusing my energy on finding a job. This is by no means an easy prospect for me. First it is admitting that I am not capable of making a go at my own business. This in and of itself was a hard blow to my ego. Then there is the whole process of scouring the job boards sending out resumes and going to interviews. I hate this more than I can ever describe. Some of you may have the mistaken impression that I am a confident person, this is not true. I fill out each application knowing that in every aspect of me that there is someone that can do it better. So I go and I fake being the confident person. I try to believe that I am the best for the job and that really I am the best qualified. Some times I pull it off and I see myself as good enough for the position. I feel like if I fooled me I should have fooled them too. I leave the interview and wait for the call to see if I am chosen. The phone never rings. I suck up all my courage secretly knowing if I have to call them I didn't get the job, but I call none the less, still trying not to get my hopes up. They answer and tell me "We decided to go with another candidate." I choke back tears and say quickly before they get the best of me thank you, and hang up. The rest of the day I will now spend analyzing everything. What was the reason, was I too fat, too stupid, too underqualified, too over qualified. Was I just not likeable, did I have something on my teeth? Did I try to hard, or not hard enough? All in all the questions come and the only real answer is that there is always someone better than me. So then this new question arises, how many better people are trying for the same jobs as I am before I am found good enough. Why does this whole process reduce me to the kid on the playground being the last picked for dodgeball? How do I continue this process when I feel more beaten by the day?

Beyond all this though there are the people that you tell you scored an interview that are rooting for you. Now that you once again were found wanting how do you face them and tell them you failed? I feel like crap and really talking about this is about the last thing I want to do, yet there are so many people that know, so I must put it out there.

So I have stayed away from here because quite frankly I feel like crap about myself and the knowledge that even here I am not good enough, smart enough, or clever enough to receive much feedback is more than my ego could handle. But right now I am feeling pretty low because truth be told this was the job I wanted and I know I was qualified for it. I know I would have been good at it. I know I wanted it more and that the person that got it only wanted a job and not this job. So my first thought was that I hope this person sucks at the job and that every day the manager kicks herself for choosing poorly. I know that is not the right way to feel but I can't help it. I need the encouragement of my little blog family, and I will try to forget how much better at this some of you are than me.

I do have other jobs that I have interview with or applied for that are still in the works and so in a couple of days this can all resolve and I will feel stupid for feeling so raw about it. But if any of you out there are hiring people please remember what it feels like to be the person applying. We would love feedback without chasing you down. We are vulnerable. We are taking some serious hits to our egos so be gentle with us. Don't ask for a lot of information form them if you don't plan to hire them. If you know in the interview you won't be hiring them let them know then so they aren't waiting for you.

Pictures

I haven't really felt much like blogging so I took a little break. I am still a bit frustrated with blogger and I am hoping that they work out some of their glitches and the whole weirdness with the beta blogs. I don't know how to explain why I needed to get away from here for awhile other than I felt like I was reading or writing about life more than I was living it and I needed to balance some. So while I was gone I have taken lots of pictures, baked brownies, invented a new burger, shampooed the carpet, played video games, played board games, seen my brothers new car, and watched tv. I could probably go in to a lot more detail on any one of those things but I really don't feel like it so I will leave it at that. I have tried to go by everyones blogs but I wasn't able to comment on everyone because blogger wasn't playing nice today. So if you are on my roll call and didn't get a note consider yourself hugged.
 

Scary Day

So I was in my house tooling around this afternoon, when I started hearing a lot of sirens. Sirens in my neighborhood aren't that uncommon as we live across the street from a nursing home. But the Sirens kept coming and I could hear a lot of people outside. I looked out the back and to my shock this is what I saw. The building diagonal from me was on fire and we had lots of fireman to fight it. I should say from the beginning that no one was hurt and the owners of this unit got out ok. I live in Culver City which has it's own fire department, this is a very good thing. Within 2 minutes of the fire department being called they were already here fighting the fire. They got the fire out and kept it from spreading to any other unit or even any more of their unit then the bedroom it started in. It was amazing to see these men stand on the roof and saw any and the burning wood. They were so quick and we had more then 7 fire trucks here. It was really a site to behold. I chose not to take any more pictures of the incedent because I felt wrong in taking pictures, so I didn't take any until the fire was out. Now the question remains what is the best thing to do for these people now that the fire is over nad they can't go back home. Another neighbor has offered them a place to stay so I am planning to go over tomorrow and offer to make meals for them until they are back on their feet. Does this seem like the right thing to do. Tomorrow we will also be going through the house and making sure all the wires are safe and that there is no dust bunnies near outlets. I also plan to talk to our home owners association about an emergency plan and a way of helping people out after a crisis. So I would like to encourage everyone to go check your house and make sure you don't have fire hazards around. Also make a plan for emergencies you never know when there will be one.
 

Site Meter

Ok so I put in a site meter because I was curious who was reading me and how they found me. I have had it for awhile now and most of the times people google their way here it makes sense and I don't question it. There seems to be a lot of people who google chocolate cars and from that they find me no problem. Today though I was a little taken back when I found this was someone googled me. "why won't you have dirty hot sex with me?" Furthermore I was the only hit. Ok when looking back I can see how this happened. First of all because of the quotes it set me apart. Second of all it is a lyric from a song that I posted about over a year ago. It was a funny story about my boss, a very prudish christian and she kept walking in when this song came on the radio and then she would promptly leave. But I can't help but wonder if the person that was search for that was disappointed when they read my otherwise pretty tame blog. I mean I suppose with a phrase like that you would have certain expectations, that I certainly can't live up too.

So why is it that every time I go to some ones blog that has word verification I get the worlds longest most illegible word and once I type it in correctly using the power of the force the next word that appears that I am not getting is like 4 letters long and in large easy to read font? I mean I already hate those stupid things to begin with why to I have to get the impossible words? Anyway that is my vent for today.

Last night we had a very nice dinner with friends for Brad's birthday. The food all turned out well and everyone seemed to have a good time. It is nice being able to make dinner at home and have people over. It is also nice to not have to drive anywhere after. We had lots of wine. Now we have lots of leftovers. Anyway I hope you all have a great weekend. See you all later.

Happy Birthday

Warning if you should see this man out and about today you are required by law to shout Happy Birthday to him. He has turned 27 today and he gets more handsome every day. So feel free to stop by his blog and leave him a birthday comment. Comments make his day. 

Pictures

So for those of you even remotely interested in viewing some of the pictures I have taken lately you can now view them whenever you wish here

In other news we have had a very good three day weekend. On Saturday we went on our photo safari and if you read the post from then you already know that. Yesterday we went on a bike ride with our Rabbi and we talked with him and had a nice time. We came home and rested a bit and then went to dinner with Jens and Megan and went to see Beerfest. Dinner was nice and Beerfest was just as stupid as it looked. Today we sat around the house until 12:30 and then had lunch with Gordon. Apparently today the police were everywhere so we drove very carefully. After lunch we came home and hung out for a while and then went to see Invincible. The movie was very likeable and it is a nice feel good story. The movie itself was enjoyable but for some reason we were in the gross out noises section. Through the whole movie people were loudly snorting their snot, blowing their noses, burping, farting, and any other foul noise their bodies would make. The sad thing is it was from different groups of people and the noises were real not for effect. So I need you all to keep good thoughts that I didn't catch the plague at the movie theatre. After the movie we went to dinner and Gordon met us. We were seated and we got drinks, a long while after we order drinks they arrived. We ordered food and sat and talked. 30 minutes later our food was still not on the table and no one had been by to refill our drinks. Then our food came from a runner and still no sign of our server and no refills. I got up and grabbed the glasses and went over to the bar. When our server saw me at the bar with the glasses he came running to serve me. I told him we had waited forever and he never came by. I sat back down and began to eat my salad. I had a bite of it when I saw it was covered in tomatoes. I hate raw tomatoes and order them to be left off. So sent the salad back. When it finally returned to the table the boys had already finished eating. I looked at my salad not very hungry by that point and saw that in addition to the cubes of almost raw tri tip on the salad I was also given all the fat chunks and Grissle. Yeah disgusting. So at this point we get the manager over and so her the nasty food I had just been served. Her response, I will have them make you a new one. Yeah at this point I don't think so. I have lost my appetite and patience. I removed all the disgusting chunks and took the rest to go. Of course my meal was free. The funny thing is we are friends with the corporate chef, so Brad took pictures of my food and emailed them to corporate. I hope they step up cause that was terrible. Brad was making fun of me after the fact because this always happens to me. I probably have a terrible meal 1 out of 5 meals out. When I say terrible I mean like this too not mild mistakes. I swear I am not overly bitchy or picky I just have a knack for getting bad service.

Hollywood Sign, The Grove and Sunset

Today Brad and I went on a photo safari. What that means is we leave the house with all our camera gear and see where the day takes us. So todays pictures are all pretty local. The first is at Third and Fairfax on the roof of the parking garage. This is where the famous Los Angeles Farmers Market is. Today was such a beautiful day you could clearly see the Hollywood sign. Often here it is too muggy to see the sign. The second picture is of the fountain at the Grove part of Third and Fairfax, a very trending shopping center. The last picture is of the sunset taken in the baseball park down the street from our house. It seems to be a popular spot to watch the sunset as a lot of people drove up with cameras to do the same thing. Later I may post some of the night shots I got. I love night photography it is my new obsession.

 

MY Bad Day

So you know you are going to have one of those days, when at 1:30 in the morning you wake up and realize you had better run to the bathroom not walk. Then when you get to the bathroom your bum explodes. Better yet is the knowledge that this explosion was only the beginning. So being a loving wife I grabbed my pillow and went downstairs to the couch so I didn't keep my husband up all night. I watched movies and tried to sleep inbetween trips to the bathroom. Pixel was very helpful and cuddled up in my arms and purred slightly feel better Mommy. At 8 am the guy came to install a new faucet in Brad's bathroom. (yes we have separate bathrooms, that is how we are happily married) The worker is employed by our association so he kept running in and out to do other things inbetween. Also other workers would come and would walk in to meet him, not what you want when you feel like crap. At 10 the worker came down and in broken English asked if I had removed anything from the new faucets box, no I hadn't even opened it. Well it was missing the flexible hoses and would have to be returned. So I called Brad and yep he had the receipt in his wallet. Brad called home depot and they said it would be no problem for me to exchange it if I talked to Lance. So I threw clothes on and a hat and went to home depot with the faucet. I asked for Lance and they looked at me as if I was asking for a Martian. I explained the problem and an hour later I left with the parts I was missing. I returned home and tried to get a little rest. I took off my baseball cap and for some reason I looked at the inside brim of the cap, what did my wandering eyes see, a flea in the hat I had just had on my head. Needless to say I have been itching my head all day. Let me clarify that I grabbed the hat from inside the garage my house does not have fleas, I took care of them last week! So I am itchy none the less. Then I try to get online from my laptop in the living room and the stupid wireless won't work. So no internet in the living room. So I am about to crawl under the bed and hide until this day is over when the mail comes. What comes in the mail but a card from my bestest friend, telling me how much she loves me and in it she has given me a gift card to Starbucks. You know really it only takes a small gesture to turn a shit day into a good one. Thanks Susan I needed that.

Cheers and Jeers

So recently I have noticed a lot of things that need commenting about and so I have finally decided to post about it. I got my laptop running online so I am able to post from in in the living room where it isn't so hot and stuffy. Today's post will be about giving credits where credit is due and ripping to shreds things that need to be ripped.

Cheer- Little Miss Sunshine, the cutest funniest movie I have seen in a long time. I laughed the whole way through and it was nice to have a movie that had some smart humor for a change. I also loved that they were eating Dinah's chicken which is down the street from here.

Jeer- Snakes On a Plane, a very bad film if you are a woman. Brad loved it though but I wanted to leave the whole time we were there. Blood, guts and stupidity were a little too much for me.

Cheer- To friends that are always there for you and enjoy spending time with us. Playing board games and just hanging out and talking, it is nice to know that we are cared about.

Jeer- To any asshat that spits their gum were the rest of us walk. If Brad or I step in one more piece of gum someone is going down. In the last 2 weeks we have landed in gum 4 times. Use a trash can people. Also don't spit your gum on seats either because I don't appreciate sitting in your gum.

Cheer- To my little community and how you work together. Every year Brad and I go to the local city fair and we are always amazed at what a great little city we live in. We also have the best police and fire departments in the world and we are so happy that we have them to help us if we need it.

Jeer- To the fast food companies that in the wake of overwhelming obesity react by starting to serve another daily meal called snack time. Do we really need to run to McDonald's for a midafternoon snack? I am sorry but I would rather have fruit, or something healthy to snack on.

Cheer- to the fruit companies that are staring to sell fruit in snack packs that can easily be taken to go to work or to school. I think it is important that they are making some healthier choices easily available.

Jeer- To my home owners association for once again lying to us and pushing our fences farther into the future and not bothering to tell us. Our fences were supposed to be the next to be put up which would mean that next week we would start getting the new fence in our unit. Today when I asked the contractors if we were next they told me no they would be doing all the other buildings first. The thing is we live on the street and need only have a 3 foot fence which has caused our house to be broken into. Why are they doing all the interior units that don't have a safety issue first? I am ticked off that they didn't even bother to tell us they weren't doing our fence until last.

Cheers- To all my fellow bloggers that are way better about blogging than I am. These same people are quick to compliment and to offer advice and I think it is important to know that I love you all. I hope that you all get as much out of blogging as I do.

Where I have been and for Moto

So the top picture is what I have been doing all week and why I haven't been posting. I printed out pictures framed them and hung them so now our living room has our art on the walls. The last pictures I took at the Culver City City fair today. The dog is a belgium Malinois, sorry Soozieq if I spelled that wrong. Soozieq's Moto is the same breed and she is always saying her dog is spazzy. Well these are highly trained police dogs and they tended to be a little spazzy as well so I took pictures and video to prove that Moto is perfect for his breed. I shall try to post one of the videos later. Hope you all are having a good weekend.
 

Some times Stupid just follows you

Ok so I decided that I wanted popcorn for lunch today. Perhaps all the corn in Iowa made me crave all of it's varieties. Anyway I popped the corn and when it was done I poured it into a bowl. I had all of the popped corn in the bowl and I was setting down the pan, when all of a sudden one last kernal decided to pop. It flew out of the pan and hit me right in the eye. The force was hard enough to remove skin from my eyelid. So soon I will have a scab on my eye lid. Very attractive I am sure. So like I said sometimes stupid just follows you through out the day.

Today I got a call from a close friend that is beginning to plan her own wedding and is stressing out. She is at the point now where wedding plans are no longer fun. Man do I remember that well and I am so glad our wedding is over. She was trying to find a dress today and left the shop feeling so discouraged. I am glad that I can be there for her now and help her to know she is not alone. It is funny how such a joyous occasion can suck all the life source out of you for months to come.

So ok 3 posts in one day. I bet you all think I have gone crazy.

Pay attention to me

This little face needs constant love and attention. Currently she has snuck down into my office with me and keeps trying to stand on my keyboard. The thing is she can get kind of annoying and she drools. It can be very hard to type with her on your lap and getting her fur in your mouth. On the other hand she is so damn cute that you can't help but love her. And Soozieq I don't know what you are talking about, I would never post a bunch of times in a row to bury a bad post.

Traveling

Today at Chocolate Cars we will talk about some of the rules of traveling. First if you have a weak bladder and will have to get up multiple times during a 4 hour flight don't book the window seat. The girl trying to sleep on the aisle is getting ticked off that everytime she falls asleep you need out to pee. Second when you body check someone on the way to the bathroom apologize to them, it is only polite. Third if your kid is a screamer during the whole flight perhaps you should consider sedating them so everyone else in the plane doesn't have to listen to them scream. Fourth if the news and all the postings all around the airport say no liquid, don't argue with the screener for telling you that you must throw out your coffee.

At the hotel if you work for the cleaning crew and your hotel doesn't supply do not disturb signs, for the love of all that is good and holy don't knock on the door at 8:30 am. To some travelers it could be several hours earlier. Also if you do knock at the door to ask if you can clean and they tell you they are leaving in 3 minutes do not wait another 4 hours to clean the room. The guest may be coming back for a nap and be put out by your being in their room. Also please don't booby trap the closet doors so that when they are opened they come flying off maiming the guest as they try to iron their clothes.

Yeah Whatever

Ok so I don't feel like actually downloading the pictures from everything including last weekend on to the blog so instead I will post the link to where Brad posted them instead. Look Here It is a little to stuffy down here to catch up on posting so I will leave you all with the chance to look at pictures if you want too and if not than you can ignore this post altogether. Oh any and all pictures that have me dancing I can not be held responsible for, I was drunk on Cosmos and had promised to dance until the last song played. I did my part! Oh and the tower of glasses, about half those are from me, yeah I am missing parts of my memory of that night. So anyway have fun check out pictures, and don't laugh too hard at my expense.

Don't Leave Us Mommy

So this is what we come home to everyday. The cat's sit on the stairs and greet us and tell us how much they love us. When we go away for more than an afternoon they are there to say to us that they didn't approve of our departure and demand our love and attention from the moment we walk through the garage door. I will say that while it is a little annoying to trip over cats as you try to come in through the garage and make it up to the rest of the house, it is nice to come home to so much love. Today when we got in from the airport there they were.

This is how I feel about blogging some times. I want to see everyone and here what is going on but I feel a little burdened by the responsibility. So I went to by almost everyone and left a comment and I am blogging here cause otherwise JD will come after me and I know better than to mess with a pregnant lady, but I don't really feel like posting. So tomorrow when I have rested from our trip and unpacked I shall tell you all about our trip and catch up with all the meme that I am behind on. Now though I am going to go nurse my catering wounds because it is uncomfortable to have my burnt skin resting on my desk. See you all tomorrow when I am feeling more deserving of your love and attention. 

Leaving On a Jet Plane

Ok I am sorry I haven't been around much this week but I have been crazy busy catering two nights this week for 45 people. Both nights went very well but I am beat. My house is a wreck and tomorrow morning at 7:45 we will be catching a plane to Iowa for a friends wedding and we won't return until Monday. It is now 10:40 and I am doing laundry and I still have to pack. I should also at the very least try to find the bottom of my kitchen before I leave. I am thinking there is not much chance of sleep tonight. So I have a thousand things to do but I am here writing to you all. Perhaps my priorities are a little out of whack. Anyway I promise on Monday I will give a real post and do all the memes I have been tagged for. See you later. Have a great weekend.

Ballad of Ricky Bobby

Back in early December I was out walking when I saw these cars outside the Sony Studios. I live very near the Sony lot so sometimes you see famous stuff. ANyway I saw all these cars and I didn't know what they were for but knew it had to be a movie. So since I had my camera with me I took several pictures and figured sooner or later I would know what the cars were about. Well these are the cars from Will Ferrall's new movie. This afternoon Brad and I went to see the movie and it was really funny. The kind of movie you have to see several times cause you were laughing so hard you missed parts. I won't say it was intellegent humor but we still really liked it.

After the movie Brad and I had lunch and then we went back to the car because we had lots of errands to do and not a lot of time before the first preseason football game. At the theatre complex the parking spots are really narrow so I stood by the car while Brad pulled out. As I was standing there waiting, I noticed a women looking into the window of a MINI convertable and she was obviously in distress and she was talking to someone or something in the back seat. I went over and asked if she was ok and she told me she had locked her keys in the car and her 2 year old was strapped into the back and couldn't get out to get the keys. ALso he has a very bad ear infection and he is quite upset. I got Brad to stop and pull back into his parking spot and we began to try to help this lady. After making many calls we were told all they could do was tow the car to a dealership and then rekey the car. If we wanted something other than that we would have to break a window. We opted to break the window. So Brad got the tire iron out of the car and began to beat the back passanger window senseless but it would not break or shatter. Normally this would be very impressive but under the circumstances it was frustrating. So another man saw what we were doing and came over. We explained the situation and he said he was a parametic and that we were doing it wrong. SO he wrapped his shirt around his fist and tried to punch out the window. That also didn't work. Then the guy takes the tire iron and uses it to pry the little window down. The window went down into the body of the car and the lady was able to get her keys and open the car and calm the baby. SHe was so happy and grateful to be into her car, especially since moments before she was crying and freaking out.

In this situation I was glad to be able to help and I know she was glad for the help. The funny thing to me is that I don't think anyone else would have even noticed that she was in trouble and Lord only knows how long she would have been there trying to figure out what to do. I know that the reason I noticed is because the car was a MINI and they always draw my attention. Brad and I never go to 11 am movies and we rarely go to that theatre because we like several others far more. I think a force greater than us put us there at that moment to help her and I am glad in moments like that my heart is conditioned to hear the call. We didn't gve her any of our information nor did we take hers so we may never know anything more from her. I think that these types of things are strange and maybe someday we will see the whole picture of the day. 

They Giveth and they Taketh Away

Well our Karaoke On Demand was very short lived. It seems that the fine people at the cable company decided they would no longer like to service our area and so they sold us to another inferior company with out even telling us first. We lost more than half of the On demand features we had before and several channels that would get any mans panties in a bunch just days before football season. It seems we have lost the NFL network. My Husband is pissed to say the least.

Now on to my on going problems with our stupid lying Wedding Photographers. When I picked up the Thank you cards and the two disks of pictures she promised she would immediately mail out the third when someone came in to the office that knew how to burn a disk. Don't even get me started on what kind of moron can't even burn a disk if that is the kind of business they run. So of course last week Brad had to call them to get them to send the disk. She promised she would be sending the disks that day or the next morning, that was Tuesday. On Thursday morning she called and left a message saying she was on the way to the post office with the disks. Still they didn't come. Their office is a thirty minute drive from here. Finally today the disk came next day express mail meaning they didn't mail it until yesterday, a week later than promised. I hate to be lied to and I really feel in this situation there was absolutely no need for the lie. They also put themselves in a position to have to pay much more to mail a stupid disk. I am tired of their excuses and their lack of professionalism. So we are considering what is the best course of action to take.

Currently I have confined myself to the house. I am not allowed to leave until I have all the thank you notes done and mailed. I then have to pick the photos for all the little albums and get the stupid jerk offs to start making my albums. It may be a very long week. I actually shouldn't even be down here posting but I had to run away for a bit.

So next week I may have gotten myself in over my head, we will see. On Tuesday and Thursday I will be catering dinner for 40-50 people. No I don't have a staff to help me it is all me. It is buffet style so I am ok once the food is made and delivered it is just the making and delivering that will be hard. Think of me and my stupidity if you would next week.

Oh I have been meaning to post about this since my trip and I have forgotten. On my way down to Napa I kept passing big trucks carrying tomatoes. At one point in the road one of those trucks lost half their load and there were tomatoes everywhere. Then I saw garlic trucks and they would occasionally lose a clove or two. Finally as I kept driving I saw that a some point there must have been a lettuce truck because there was a big pile of heads of lettuce. I began to laugh because I had visions of the road kill cafe in my head, and I started a story about the vegetarian hillbilly finding their buffet. Also as I drove I had my Ipod turned on to random and I was playing music loudly in my car. Have you ever been driving down the rode and seen some moron dancing wildly to the music in their car and you just have to laugh at how retarded they are. Well if you have seen that then you have probably just driven by me in all my glory and I am happy to amuse you. How to you not rock out to Bohemian Rhapsody?