These are the cutest plates ever. Must have them.

Maybe it's an aquarian thing, but especially lately I've been dealing with all these desires and interests in life that may or may not pass (more than likely they will just quell down like most of these little life splurges that happen).

Here are the top list as of today:

1.
I want to be a chicken mom! I so wish I could have chickens of my own. They're so funny I think they would provide endless entertainment.. although I think China would eat them. :( I've had a great time reading this bulletin board... especially the Chicken Behaviors section. It's hilarious!!

2. Cross-stitching. I've added a handful of different patterns to my amazon wishlist (see left) even though I'm only about 5% done with my first one. If I can get through to this one it's going to Lizette, as ahappy belated housewarming present. :)

3. Ebay. Ebayebayebay.. I futile-y tried to sell a bunch of clothes, but after two ebay runs they're remained unsold so they're either going to Goodwill or Craigslist. I have a really cute pair of size 7 Converse Oxfords I'd like to sell for $30 if anyone is interested. They're brand new, never been worn.. only bought them so I could get a deal on winter clearance boots at Copeland Sports. ;) If I don't sell them maybe I'll just wear them.. I just have way too many shoes at the moment.

There ya have it. :)

For those of you that know me, the following sequence of events may come as a shock to you.

I walked into a fabric store last night (shock #1) and purchased a thimble (shock #2). With that thimble (shock #2) I sewed the front of Isabella's horse blanket shut (shock #3). The front velcro of her horse blanket kept coming apart because the buckles in front were looser than the velcro, leaving the blanket very uncomfortable for her. I also waterproofed her blanket (shock #3.5 - not too shocking) and hopefully by tomorrow evening it'll be dry enough for me to put it on her and hopefully have a white horse once again. At the present moment she is quite brown with a white face (can't get the face dirty).

At the fabric store, I also purchased a needlepoint kit (shock #4). The pattern looks like this:



Kinda cool. It was the only one of the hundreds of choice that I was even remotely interested in (I just can't picture cute puppies playing and antiquey roses displayed anywhere in my home). I've completed exactly 18 cross-stitches. I'm praying they don't unravel since I can't make a pearl knot (what the heck is that anyway?) to save my life.

Also delivered to my home was a magazine I must've signed up to get for free, Bride (a surprise for me). I've decided it's time to get my bridal portfolio together, even though I'm not engaged yet (HEY - if Lizette can get her amazon baby list together before she's engaged, I'm allowed to do this!). It's tough to look objectively at wedding dresses when you're looking at thousands of them in a row, but I have to say I haven't found one in the magazine that I would even consider. I'm determined to find a dress with a little bit of color in it.. and I've actually had one in mind for a while if I can ever find it again. However, I did find a nice floral crown that was very pretty and some stationary I liked.

Spam mail is getting pretty harsh.. recieved today:

From: "Michael Richards"
Subject: Mr. Robert Woods (YOUR SURNAME DOES NOT MATTER)

Ouch.. that's harsh.

Happy weed found this morning.

Happy weed found this morning.
Originally uploaded by Julienne:).

A happy face for matty, man who collects happy faces.

As the mall closed the plastic people gathered.

As the mall closed the plastic people gathered.
Originally uploaded by Julienne:).

Naked manequin orgy.

I have the most humungous bump on my head right now. I was in a remote corner of a pretty much deserted building at work yesterday working on a computer. I moved my head too quickly and *ka-blam!* I knocked my head so hard on a corner of a metal table. I literally saw stars and wondered if I had been rendered unconscious if anyone would've found me.

Speaking of bumps, I went and saw my doctor the other night to talk about medications and the wierd bump I have on my elbow. I recieved this bump after falling off the couch.. yes, falling probably less than 2 feet. Matt and I were cuddling (aka tickling/goosing/torturing) each other one late night down at my mom's place in LA over Christmas break. Of course I roll too quickly, lose my balance, and land my elbow right into a vaccuum cleaner cord. Why are vaccuum cleaner cords so hard?? *cry* I almost blacked out it hurt so much. I felt nauseus, like I did when I broke my arm when I was 10.. I went upstairs to take a shower and felt so sick I had to lie down on the bathroom floor. The queasiness went away after a while, but my elbow has stayed sore for quite a while. Even today I can't put weight on it without feeling soreness. Anyways, long story short, the doctor said it's probably a cyst (GROSSSSSSSSSS). Basically because of the injury, joint fluid has leaked through the bursa into the injured tissue. A fluid filled bubble (GAG!!!). On my elbow. She said it might get bigger, but it should be nothing to worry about it. Ew, ew ew. It makes me nauseus just to google it. Maybe Mark's tumor and my cyst can be friends.

There was one more thing I was going to blog about tonight but talking about this cyst has gotten me ill and the bump on my head probably will turn into a cyst too, so I shall bid adieu now and go watch some 'Dancing with the Stars'.

My celebrity love match:

Batman



Batman, also known as the handsome billionaire Bruce Wayne, is certainly fits the description of tall, dark, and handsome. He has cool wheels (the Batmobile), lives in a mansion, and has a cornucopia of sex toys. When he makes love to you, you will see why they call him Batman.

HOT. I'll take the Christian Bale-Batman, thank you.

This morning I woke up waaay late and had to rush out the door, all because Matt was touching me. No.. not in *that* way you pervs. Anyways, he usually doesn't like touching of any sort while sleeping (wierd boy) so having him somewhat snuggled up next to me just made me keep snoozing the alarm clock indefinitely, so by the time I got up I realized I had a meeting I had to be at in one hour. Eeep! Fast-forward one hour and I made the meeting in time. Go me. :)

This past weekend was so wierd for both of us. I think it was the combination of Friday the 13th and the full moon that got us all mumblejumbled in our heads. First off, I thought a friend's going away party and Merima's dinner was Saturday, a week before it actually was. So I call Merima Saturday wondering what time we should be there and what we should bring and successfully confused her as well. Doh. Then Matt lost his wallet Sunday night just as we were going to go meet Mom/Mark for dinner. We spent about an hour looking for it before declaring its loss at 6:55pm. :( Very sad. There was something else odd that happened.. can't think of it now.

I managed to get a ride in on Sunday morning which was very nice. The trails were soggy here and there but we managed to find a few decent stretches to trot along.. Isabella felt very good. Her ears were perked and on the ride home I could feel she was feeling frisky.. alas, I was riding bareback and didn't feel like ending up muddy, so we didn't go too fast. I ended up totally sore the next day anyway.. so much for keeping in riding shape!

Anyways, it was a busy weekend with Mom in town and going back and forth to the east bay. Next weekend it'll be more going back and forth.. weekend after that, it is decided that we do NOTHING. mmmmbien.

The forcast for today called for lightning and thunderstorms.. a very cold stormfront was going to make its way to our poor water drenched coast. I was expecting hail and fire to rain down upon us with sheets of rain hitting sideway as in past storms we've had, but instead we got a few sprinkles and I got to test out my new $25 ultra-hot silicone windshield wipers that I just got. It would've been hotter with the Rain-X applied to the windshield as well, but I was happy with my wiper improvement. The wipers I had before suuuuuucked. They would fart embarrassingly with each swipe of the glass and on its way back down to its normal position it would leave the windshield blurry and smeared. Bad wipers!! Anyways, I'm glad we didn't get too rained upon.. I didn't have time to run out and put Isabella's blanket on (which she hates anyways).

Today Matt and I ran one million and one errands. Actually we only went to Fry's and IKEA (uuugh) but those two stores are enough to fill a quota of a whole weekend of errands. Fry's wasn't too bad. I purchased one package of bubble wrap, a camping flashlight, and a $0.29 ruler (which the lady didn't charge us for, tee hee). Matt purchased way more because he's working on moving in an office into my place. One step closer to doing the whole shacking up thing.

IKEA was as dreadful as we anticipated it to be. Although I do have to say with the major winter sale going on I got quite a few good deals. $0.25 for a package of 50 party napkins (I bought 4) and $0.25 for 6" tall candles ($0.25). I also purchased some ice cube trays for $1.99 each. Matt purchased a computer desk for $19.99 and a chair that cost the exact same amount.. doesn't make any sense, but oh well.

I'm soooo excited - today I got to thinking again of the coming ride season. The first ride of the year is coming up - February 11th (Shine and Shine Only - which means the ride only goes on if its sunny). I'm planning on doing a few 25 milers until the Wild Wild West ride which is a 3 day, 30/35/25 mile ride at the end of May. After which both Isabella and I will hopefully be ready to do 50's for the rest of the year.. two AT LEAST (Cooley Ranch and Lake Sonoma, both reputed to be easier 50's). My next major purchase will be a Garmin Forerunner 301 GPS system which tracks heart rate (will need to buy a converter to hook up to Isabella), altitude, mph, distance, and even has a feature where you can program workouts (walk 10 minutes, trot for the next 5, etc). Pretty cool! I found a website that sells the 301 for the same price best buy carries the 201 at (boo, best buy, too expensive)! I haven't done much riding with Isabella this winter because of the rain and muck.. it's supposed to be sunny tomorrow so maybe I'll attempt a ride if we don't get sucked into the mud first..

Work's been crazy busy, but I wanted to get a few things down.

First off, my review of Bareback, er, Brokeback Mountain. Feel free to skip ahead to the next paragraph if you don't give a hoot. Ok, here's the necessary disclaimer that I'm all about teh ghays (several of my closest friends in the past have been gay) - but I didn't like this movie. The scenery was spectacular, there were certain performances that I loved and could relate to on certain levels (Michelle Williams - don't ask), and I loved seeing the horses, and my secret desire in life is to become a sheep herder, so I loved that part, but I didn't really like the storyline and main characters (although Heath did a pretty good job). I just couldn't see the appeal in Jake Gyllenhaal's character. He wasn't likeable, and actually kind of aggressive and slimey in a way. His wife, Anne Hathaway who was in the Princess Diaries, was totally miscast and just looked out of place and bizarre in this movie. Maybe the XX chromosome in me just wanted a little more tenderness and romance in the guys/gays. Maybe I just don't get the intricacies of a male-male loving relationship. In any case, I don't see what the hoopla is about this movie. Boo.

This past weekend my truck got stuck in the mud YET AGAIN. I was driving up the long dirt road up to see Isabella and a horse trailer was travelling along the same crappy road in the opposite direction. They have the right of way so I move over to the shoulder to stop and let them pass. When I start back up again, my wheels start spinning in the soft shoulder and my truck slides down the muddy hill (which is totally covered in plants and weeds). Anyways, I tried to get myself out but just managed to maneuver my truck sideways down the hill some more so I called Julie, the ranch manager, in a panic. Our conversation sounded somewhat like this:

Me: OHMYGODJULIE, I'M STUCK DOWN THE HILL ON THE DRIVEWAY I NEED A TRACTOR QUICK, PLEASE HELP AS SOON AS YOU CAN I'M GOING TO SLIDE DOWN INTO THE CREEK, AIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!
Julie: Sure, I can get the tractor out to you.
Me: THANK YOU SO MUCH I'M TOTALLY FREAKED OUT!!!!!!!
Julie: No problem. Umm.. who is this?

Haha, I thought that was pretty funny. Julie's very mellow and doesn't freak out about anything - thank the Lord she was there to help. The driveway is used to access two ranches tucked in the outskirts of Moss Beach so there was plenty of traffic on a Saturday morning to gawk at me and ask if I needed help. Very embarrassing, indeed.

Anyways, Julie was able to get my truck unstuck in about 5 minutes and I enjoyed a nice peaceful ride on Isabella afterwards. :)

Oh oh, the Toys R Us in Daly City is going out of business so Matt and I stocked up on our PS2 games. We bought a giant fabric frisbee (30% off), Gauntlet Seven Sorrows, Sims Bustin Out, and Taito Legends - which has Bubble Bobble on it eeee!!!! Games were 10% off. Not too bad.

Anyways, we tried Taito Legends that evening and were pretty disappointed in the games. All those compilation arcade games seemed to suck. I turned around and put it on Amazon.

Might I say that it's very annoying that Amazon's Gold Box includes your gift list purchases. All my gold box offers are either random graphic design books or wierd penguin accessories. What the heck, I want stuff for me!! Knives and porn is what it's all about people.

So busy today.. and I still don't think that I got much done.

I just found the BEST pair of jeans evar to be created on the face of the earth. Ladies out there (Krissy, I know you've complained about jeans..) if you've ever had an ill fitting pair of jeans, these Wrangler Aura's will blow your socks off and you'll never want to wear another pair of jeans again. They're about $30, free shipping from Amazon. Order one size down from what you normally wear. There are loads of options including short/regular/long rise, colors, and a bunch of different inseams to choose from. Plus the jeans have stretch to them so they're ultra comfortable when you're sitting down for long periods at a time (and won't dig into your belly button like other jeans can).

I sound like I'm being paid, but honestly, they're just FABULOUS.

The waves right now in Pacifica are huuuuuge! Normally when you drive down highway one into Pacifica on a clear day you'll see the blanket of water out into the horizon with teeny little sparkles in the water. The past few days you see waves start out miles away from the coast and gradually get bigger and bigger until they crash down near the shore, leaving a big cloud of mist. The water near the beaches are all white and foamy from being churned up from all the splashing. The waves have got to be at least 15-20 feet high at the cliffs near my house.. surf's up dude!

Last night I was lying in bed for about 2 hours trying to fall asleep. With this Tahoe trip and seperate skiing trip coming up, I'm getting a little OCD in preparations (please slap me if I get too obnoxious). I had about a million ideas and plans going through my head for every minute detail that sleep was a concept far far gone. Finally, when I did fall asleep I had a few funny dreams. One was about work.. everyone is supposed to be getting a new ID badge soon and I dreampt that I got a sneak peek at what they're going to look like. One fellow co-worker came out of the HR building with his 'new and improved' badge. It was a lunch-box sized clear plastic container, like something from the container store, belted around his waist, with a little container inside with what looked like a transistor radio (the actual 'badge). Haha, wtf?? Why am I dreaming about work badges??

Back by popular (self) demand, Top 5 memories of 2005:
5. Moving to Pacifica. I love living by the beach, I love the weather, I love having work and Isabella close by. It totally rocks. (the only thing that sucks is having friends so far away) :(

4. Florida vacation. Good times - Matt and I spent 7 full days with each other without killing one another. The safari visit was definitely the highlight of the trip.

3. Completing my first 50. Definitely the highlight of the year. Even the ride before, where I completed 40+ miles and pulled was a personal accomplishment, being the longest distance I had ever ridden. What's even better is that Isabella completed the ride season happy and healthy..

2. Hanging out with Friends/Family. Ok, there's no real 'event' for this (maybe Tahoe and Humboldt camping).. but every time I hang out with them it reminds me of how lucky I am to have such goofball people in my life that keep me laughing.

1. Matty. Was there any question? He's numero uno.. even if he won't see Brokeback Mountain with me. :)


And my New Year's resolutions:
5. Try at least one cigarette to see what the hoopla is about.

4. Eat whatever the hell I want, you only live life once.

3. Ride long, hard, fast.. I have the need for speed! (Isabella and/or Matt)

2. Don't call/email my friends. If they really wanted to contact me they'd call/email me, right?

1. Take Matt for granted. I think we've come to a point where we've been around each other enough to be comfortable.

(uh.. please note that I'm kidding here..) :)

Woohoo! After a fierce bidding war (see bidding history) I bought new shoes! I desperately need a new pair of shoes to ride in and these waterproof hiking boots with a heel will work just fine. I'll keep using my Ariat Terrains for muddy yucky weather like we're having right now.. and once it dries up I'll bust out these bad boys. Awesome deal.. I feel great! WOohoo.. I'm going to hurry up and write about our xmas holiday before this adrenaline rush wears off...

Let's start with New Year's, shall we? We had planned on going to Walt's big New Year party, but instead ended up at 7-11 looking for herbal tea, tissues, and OJ. Both Matt and I got terribly sick (him way worse tham me), and ended up in bed. We are such crazy party people.. Matt spent the evening with the covers over his head and peeked out at midnight to purse his lips for a kiss and croak, "Happy New Year's, button.." before going back to sleep. Ah well. Last year's New Year sucked and 2005 turned out to be a pretty decent year.. perhaps this year will be a teeny bit better? :)

Continuing on with our story..

After spending Christmas eve in Santa Rosa, Matt's parents fell asleep and we snuck out of the house to make it to Pacifica around midnight.

Loot tally:
Matt: Oxo salad spinner, Serenity DVD, Teachings on Love
Matt's parents: beautiful dandelion earring/necklace set, scarf (to be returned - sorry!), yummy yummy fancy chocolates, flower wine topper

Christmas morning we awoke bright and early to leave around 7am for L.A. to spend with family. We arrived at around 1pm then waited until 3:45pm or so for Lizette and Andy to arrive so we could open presents (part 2). Andy came in with a walker, as he had spent the last few days in the hospital with nerve damage in his legs. See their website for a full explanation for what's been going on.

Loot tally:
Matt: Donnie Darko DVD (woohoo!!), Australian outback rain slicker (returned for a smaller size)
Mom: hand-knit scarf, an authentic Dooney & Bourke purse, gold/pearl earrings
Mark: $50 gift certificate to Best Buy.. haven't spent it yet. Have no idea what to get here..
Lizette and Andy: grooming shammy for Isabella, big rawhide bone for China, Serenity game (which turned out to be a book, but will be returned for Settler's of Catan, yay!!)
Dad: $200

I'm probably totally forgetting other things I got.. please remind me and I'll add it to this list!!


After we opened presents, we went to my uncle's house to have dinner with the extended family for even more present-opening festivities.

Loot tally:
Grandparents: $50
Uncle/Aunt #1: $50 Macy's gift certificate (purchased a track jacket, comfy yoga pants, and a very nice Angora sweater - all on sale for 70% off)
Uncle/Aunt #2: $50
Miri (cousin): American Eagle panties, which I exchanged for some corduroy pants (50% off), and berry breath mints. :)


The next day was a suprise for Matt. In addition to the new tennis shoes and Star Wars 3 DVD I purchased him, I told him we were going on a trip. The night before he had been racking his brain trying to guess where we were going. Among his guesses he had guessed Disneyland.. which was way too close for comfort. So I tried to steer him off the next morning.. "I hope you don't mind a little boat ride.." because he had also guessed Catalina the night before. Muahahaha. Mom and Mark were also in on it.. Mark "revealed" the destination by saying to Matt while petting China, "I guess you can't take China with you to Catalina.." to which Matt pummelled Mark with his socks saying that he gave it away.. hahaha. The day was drizzly and not very nice and when we started out on the freeway it really started to rain. Matt was very much not into the whole idea of a ferry ride out to a yucky day on an island with nothing much to do and started complaining.. "Why would you choose Catalina.. I thought you knew me.." "Can we postpone this trip to another day.." *whine whine cry cry* Meanwhile Mom and I were laughing to ourselves.. finally I gave up the ruse.. "Would it be better if we went there...?" and I pointed to the Disneyland offramp sign. We all had a good laugh and had a pretty good day at Disneyland, although it was crowded as hell and drizzled off and on throughout the day.

The rest of the vacation was pretty mellow. A few days of shopping and we returned back to the bay area on Wednesday. I got a ride in on Isabella on Thursday before the big storms came in..

New photos uploaded on Flickr..

Mar Vista Beach Ride

Christmas 2005 (including Disneyland)

I went ahead and upgraded to a pro Flickr account so I could keep all my pictures organized...