Creative Juices

And The Rest Will Follow

The moment you've all been waiting for! Pictures of my house.. from dirt to yesterday. There's a few, so click on the thumbnail for a nicer image.


1. Us and Our Dirt (May 6th)
2. My Very Own Slab
3. Two Floors Up
4. Interior Framing of the Kitchen


5. Interior Framing of Master Bath (and the man that moved my air vent from over the shower)
6. Exterior vinyl siding (the area around the garage and front door will be stone)
7. The kitchen with drywall and stairs to the 3rd floor
8. The living room with drywall (June 28th)

Can You Paint With All the Colors of the Wind?

Crayons are cool.
Sabrina is cool.
Therefore, it would only make sense for Sabrina to have crayons.
My last box of crayons had an untimely death. It was the summer of '98. I packed up all the things I wouldnt need and put them in storage for the summer. Didnt really think that one through. Cause when I returned in the fall, my crayons were one big puddle of wax. Which, you have to admit, is kinda neat. The best part, though, was that all those colors melted together made purple. Now if that isnt a sign from God that I should love purple forever and ever and ever, I dont know what is.
After that incident, I decided to stick with colored pencils for awhile. No melting there. But, I think I've matured since '98 and I'm ready for my next pack of 96 beautiful colors.
In light of crayola crayons, here's a little history lesson for ya. Enjoy.

But Please Don't Lose That Butt

I have a pain in my ass. Literally. I know that's usually a figurative statement... but my butt is actually hurting.
Last night, I was sitting at the table (which is a bar top table with tall chairs), waiting for the spaghetti to boil, reading the latest edition of Scraps (Creative Memories magazine). I slide off the chair to go check the spaghetti and this terrible terrible pain shot down my right leg. I thought to walk to off to the kitchen, but it still hurt. Like, it really really hurt. Right under my butt. It lasted for what felt like hours, but was probably less than five minutes. However, that muscle is still a bit sore, when I walk and move and do just about anything that requires my ass muscles (which turns out to be more things than I expected).
25, its all down hill from here.

Sometimes I Feel I've Got To

Those who know me well, or have known me for awhile, know how much I loved my years in high school.
So, I was thinking about high school the other day, and I thought of Christy Sheppard. One of my great high school friends. I'm not quite sure what happened between us, I mean, why we didnt stay in touch through the years. But I decided to google her and find out what she's up to.
Turns out I find christysheppard.com
It's her portfolio, and you really should take a look at it because it's very very impressive. And I'm not just saying that because she's an old friend.
I emailed her to get the low down.
She recently moved out to San Francisco and is now the Associate Art Director for Yoga Journal Magazine. BIG stuff. One of my coworkers is big in yoga, and I asked if she had a copy of the magazine, and she did! And Christy Sheppard's name was in it. And the layout design was beautiful. And I'm so proud.
Yay for Christy Sheppard.

But You Are My Only Hope

Something's bothering me. Its been bothering me for awhile.
Its the recent rise of angus beef in the fast food market. I dont like it one bit.
See, I love angus beef. Big fan. I dont know when it first started being served in restaurants, but I discovered it my senior year in college. And it was a big treat. Angus steaks definitely proved themselves to be extra tender and juicy, regardless of where they were served (which to me, proves its the beef and not the way it was prepared). You paid extra for angus beef. And I was willing to do so for a quality steak. Then, TGIFriday's introduced angus burgers. I was okay with that. They were tasty.
But then Hardee's announced an angus burger, and now Burger King. What? No no no. How can angus beef only cost 3 bucks? That doesnt make any sense. I realize its probably the crappy part of the cow anyway, and that with the popularity of angus beef, they're producing more of it... but still.
How can it be a special treat when you can get it at Burger King? It'd be like serving Dom Perignon with the fountain sodas.

Time to Get Your Picture Page

Two rolls of film, and only one picture of myself. Here's me and Slava before the Russians arrived.

And here's Slava with the gift basket I made for her. I'm pretty proud of this basket.

And what posting of pictures isnt complete without one of my crazy cats? I title this one "Heads or Tails?"

He Was a Good Friend of Mine

My wonderful friend Slava is getting married in August. I'm her MOH (maid/matron of honor). So, I arranged for her bridal shower. Not an easy task, because Slava lives in NY (well, Jersey, but its all the same). I had the help of a few bridesmaids, and Slava decided to have it at her house, making things ten times easier for me.
So, I flew up to NY last week, early early early Saturday morning. My suitcase was filled with nearly 200 dollars worth of Pampered Chef stuff, decorations, and my favorite chocolate for dipping strawberries. Another bridesmaid, that lives in Charlotte, flew up with me. She did not have such crazy things in her suitcase.
One thing you might need to know about Slava is that she's Russian (well, Ukrainian, but it's all the same). She speaks excellent English, though.
However, I didnt realize till the guests started arriving that me, and the bridesmaid I traveled with, would be the only people there that didnt speak Russian. And though I'm proud of my Russian vocabulary (Hello, Okay, Yes and Nine), all of the sudden I felt incredibly out of place.
That aside, it was a very successful shower, I think. She got lots of presents, things that she'll actually use (mostly kitchen stuff). If the pictures come out good, I might post one tomorrow.

Yo, Al, Let's Take a Vacation

Sorry bout that. I know you've been dieing to know how the rest of my brother's visit went. It was a good visit. He's everything a 13 year old should be... lovable, obnoxious at times, thinks he knows everything, innocent, short-tempered, thoughtful...
I had a good time. We visited the Duke Primate Center, which is one of my favorite places. They have a bunch of lemurs (including the famous Zooboomafoo), and other primates. The best part was the nocturnal house. You go in, they shut off all the lights, and you look through the glass doors at the tiny animals. There was on that I absolutely loved, he looked like an alien. Hopefully I'll get a picture of him up soon.
We saw the new Harry Potter movie (which was excellent) and The Day After Tomorrow (which was okay, good special effects, catastrophic events I never want to think about again, poor storyline).
We spent a lot of time at church, being that I had to run CG that week. But Donnie really enjoyed himself, and I even let him run the first song for the service. He was impressively good at it.
We played Laser Tag, which I must be getting too old for. I used to loooove laser tag. In high school, and the first summer after college, my friends and I would book it to Orlando for some laser tag. I loved it. Notsomuch now. I mean, it's still entertaining... but its not thrilling. Oh well.
We also took Donnie by our new house. Oh, let me not leave this story out... We're walking through the house, and I immediately notice that there is a fireplace in my Creative Memories room downstairs, when I didnt ask for one. Well, thats not so bad. Then we go up to the second floor... and the fireplace in the living room is not the way we wanted it. Still, easy to fix. Just kinda weird. THEN, we go to the master bathroom upstairs, and its all effed up. Totally not the options we paid for, its even missing a window. We went home and I notified our realtor and by the next day, they were saying it would all be fixed. And the next week, when we stopped by, it was. And now I have the coolest shower EVER.
The brother left Tuesday the 8th. And once he was on his way home, it occured to me that I was flying to NY four days later.
I think I'll tell you about that tomorrow. Promise.

Millions of Peaches

So, I took my trip to the airport. I got a security pass from the ticket counter so that I could pick my brother up at the gate. That was nice.
On my way through security, a guard commented on my shirt. It went like this:
He takes my ID and pass, looks at it, looks at me, looks at it again. "Heeeeeeeey...." I think, oh man, somethings wrong with the pass... he's gonna lock me up. "Nice shiiiirt." Phew.
I smile, "Thanks."
He hands me back my pass and I walk through the metal detector. It goes off. He suggests I take off my shoes. Of course. I do, walk through again, no problem.
"Wait a minute!" I turn back. Shit, now what?
"Uh, a red mushroom just makes you bigger. It's the green mushroom that give you an extra life."
Are you kidding me? "Really? Are you sure?"
"Oh, very very sure."
"Oh, well... Nintendo made the shirt..."
"And it's a lie! Your shirt is a lie!" He really did scream that. EVERYONE looked at me and my shirt. Nobody knew what the hell he was talking about, but they were looking. Then he smiled. "But it's still a cute shirt."
"Oh, well, thanks. Can I have my camera back?" (Its my new house camera that is normally in my bag, I didnt want the film to get ruined).

Later, Steve told me that in the original Mario Brothers (not the Super Mario Brothers that I played too much) but the original original... there was only one mushroom, it was red and it gave you a life. I'm happy with that.

So, I picked up my brother. He gave me a great big hug, and then I signed some crap to release him from the airport. He said the flight was fast (less than two hours). We grabbed his luggage and made our way back to the spankin new parking deck. I let him put his own CD in the car... he's really into Systems of Down and Linkin Park. I try to be current with music and all... but I'm still not on his level. I only recognized the songs on the radio... I showed my unhipnes with this conversation:
"You know the Rubberband Man?"
"No, I dont think I know him."
"It's a song."
"Oh. Well, then, I obviously dont know it."

But then I took him to Kroger and we bought a ton of junk food that my mom would never let him buy. And thats what makes me cool.

We played GameCube prior to dinner. I made some kick ass chili that he loved. Then we watched a movie... Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. It was cute. I hope the kid from That 70's Show does more movies... I like him.

Now, I'm leaving to go spend the day with my brother. The events include showing him off at work for a bit, lunch at Elmo's, making something for my mom at Glaze and Blaze (a paint your own pottery shop) and shopping at Old Navy and Pac Sun. Yay.

I'd Buy You A Monkey

My brother is flying in from Florida today. In fact, he should be at the Orlando airport right now. Hopefully the crazy airport people arent giving my mom any trouble about the under-age minor thing.
I'm anxious for him to get here... I'll try to keep you posted on the the events as they unfold.
Event 1: Trip to the airport, followed by Krogering for food 13 year olds eat. (Which is probably frighteningly similar to food Sabrina eats...).

PS - Please take note of the shirt I'm wearing today. It's my new favorite shirt. I first spotted it being worn by Morgan Webb on XPlay. I fell in love with it. What could possibly be better than a 1UP Mushroom on a pink shirt? Nothing. It took awhile to get my hands on one, but now it's mine, all mine!