Monday, February 25, 2008

Here's a blast from the past. I was going through some files on an old webserver, and came across some photos of my favorite college apartment.

This was the third place I lived while going to UT, and most definitely my favorite. I have such great memories of this place!

It cracks me up how hideous the quality of these pictures are. It was taken with my first ever digital camera, the HP Photosmart 250. What's even worse is I remember that camera being around $400 when I bought it back in 2001. Wow.


This was my bedroom. That bed is now in the guest bedroom of our house. The Pooh Bear comforter set (bought from a Disney outlet in Pigeon Forge) now resides in our linen closet.. though I still love it. The smiley face pillow was purchased on my first "buying stuff for my dorm" shopping trip. I was obsessed with buying cutesy colorful things to make my mildew smelling dorm seem more cheery. On the nightstand is a picture of Matt and I (of course), and the windows are treated in a strip of random fabric.. since I was a poor college student and couldn't afford (and didn't want to pay for) real curtains.


The other side of my bedroom. I had about half the storage space for my clothes that I needed, so a lot of my stuff stayed piled on that dresser. Peanut loved to sleep on the UT pillow on the floor.


The "Dining Area".. and Peanut. We actually just sold that table set, since it's been sitting in our garage for months.


Both of these bookshelves are still being used in our office upstairs. While in school, it was used mostly for my textbooks and old VHS movies. Two of those birds are now dead. :(


My lil front closet that as usually packed full of pet supplies and old candle-making junk.


The cute little kitchen. This apartment actually had a dishwasher! And a window!


CA-related bumper sticker and magnets stayed on my fridge, since at this point I was only seeing Matt a few times a year. The little dry erase board was used to countdown to our next visit.


The living room, with half a Peanut and more hideous fabric-curtains. We just sold the end table/coffee table set (also residing in our garage for months) and the ratty old couch is now upstairs in our office/hang-out room.


Peanut loved the little balcony (yes the carpet was dirty that day.. anything on the deck got tracked into the apartment), but when it was raining she spent most of her time sleeping next to the door. She looks a lot more plump and young than she does now. :( :( :(

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Did anyone else catch the eclipse tonight?

So cool.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Sunday morning, while Matt and I were lounging around leisurely in bed about 10am (as most Sundays begin), I rolled over to climb out on his side, and *crash*.. we were on the floor.

Upon getting out of bed and removing the mattress and box springs, it was found that the lateral support screws had fallen straight through the frame, snapping and splintering the beam itself. It was amusing (and I forgot to take a picture, bummer)

Now, while I have received numerous lewd comments as to why our bed frame broke, I assure you that it was nothing more than the fact that our suite is about 10 years old and has been moved several times. Even still, it made for an interesting unexpected house project as we tried to figure out how to fix the thing. We drilled new holes for the screws and also glued the new beam to the frame.. tonight will be the first test drive. I'm scared.

For dinner tonight, I made an insanely easy recipe for chicken tenders. Dip trimmed tenderloins into fat free Italian salad dressing, then into seasoned Italian bread crumbs (I also add some extra salt and pepper, and you can dash some Creole seasoning into it as well for an extra bite). Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 375 for about 25-30 minutes or until crispy. We served it with pinto beans and biscuits with a little bit of honey. Totally simple.

Friday, February 15, 2008

The weather has been surprisingly mild this winter. I won't complain if I never see a "real" snowfall this year! Bring on the Spring!

I feel adequately productive about the work I accomplished today. Everything on my to-do list was ticked off, so that's what matters. It's 11:30pm now, so I'm trying to decide how to spend the rest of my night.

I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for the first time last weekend, and absolutely adored it. It had an incredibly important message that was presented in such a beautiful way. I will be buying the DVD, for sure. I tend to respond to movies that are raw and honest about human emotion, especially pertaining to personal relationships. Closer is one of the most honest and real movies I have ever seen. It's painful to watch.

I have a relatively easy weekend ahead of me. We're shooting a 4-hour wedding tomorrow evening with some fantastic people that I just met on Monday, so I know it's going to be a fabulous shoot. Sunday will be typical.. house-cleaning and grocery shopping. I'm glad my job is constantly changing and is always fresh and new, otherwise my life could feel very monotonous. I absolutely love what I do. I get positively giddy before our shoots.. releasing so much creative energy and knowing that you're giving someone something to treasure at the same time is so rewarding. On top of that, I'm also getting a fix for the techno-geek that still resides inside of me, since photography obviously has a very technical side to it. I couldn't have picked a better career, and I am thankful every day that I took the risk and made it happen before I got stuck in a 9-5, behind a desk, climbing the corporate ladder. Yick.

I think I'm going to head downstairs and find something to do before heading to bed.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

This little guy is so cute, and too smart! Watch him problem solve how to stuff that last carrot in there, rofl.

Monday, February 11, 2008

I had both a productive and an incredibly lazy weekend. On Saturday, I woke up around 11am, lounged on the couch (where I usually sleep) for about half an hour on the laptop, then showered and went out in search of The Perfect Comforter Set(tm) Our current set is only 3 years old or so, but it's made of satin and is showing little picks from the cats jumping on it. Time for an upgrade.

I went to 3 different places but didn't have any luck. The ones I liked all included the satin material, and the non-satin ones were ugly. I think I'm going to order something from http://www.overstock.com/, since I like the prices I'm seeing and they have some very pretty sets.

When I got back home I pretty much vegged out for the rest of the day. I am trying this new thing where I actually don't work on the weekends if I am not shooting *gasp* I would also like to take Mondays off on the weekends where we have a wedding. It would just be nice to not be working 7 days a week, from 10am until I fall into bed. That has to stop... soon.

On Sunday, Cleaning Day (tm), I woke up and got to work. Since I was alone, it took me almost 4 hours to clean the house. It has to be done, though. You can't live in a house with 3 cats and a dog and expect to maintain some semblance of cleanliness without giving it a deep clean at least once a week.

After the house was all shiny, I made a grocery list and did the shopping for next week. I found a cool blog post on how much an average family spends on food per week. Check it out We are usually right at $100 every week (give or take 20 bucks).. we can reach as high as $170 on the weeks we need to stock up on pet food/supplies or hygiene products. Pretty cool to see how we rank against the rest of the world (we are on par with the North Carolina family once you take away the added cost from their 2 kids) It's also pretty amusing that the two American families on the list had the most junky processed crap-food in their weekly piles. I'm so glad Matt and I buy mostly fresh ingredients and cook almost all of our own food. We are so much healthier now.

When I got back home, I was a total lump for the rest of the night, on the couch with the laptop watching TV. Ugh. I hate winter. Cold makes me lazy. Did anyone see Kanye West's Grammy acceptance speech? Pure arrogance.. I really dislike him. I'm also frustrated with Amy Winehouse, because she has a spectacular talent and she is wasting her potential to become a legend (not to mention killing her reputation) because of her lifestyle choices. Regardless, she deserved all 5 Grammys she took home last night.

So, here it is 9pm and there are still two items on today's To-Do that I need to knock out before heading to bed. Matt's original flight was cancelled and won't be arriving until after 11pm, so I'll probably be up pretty late tonight. As usual.

Ciao.