spotty blogging

We are now deep in the throes of moving madness. I've been cleaning and organizing the past couple days and getting my laptop ready to sustain my geeky side during transition. Tonight I get to help the husband by unhooking my desktop PC and in the morning or early afternoon tomorrow the cable will be shut off! My blogging will most likely be spotty at best in the near future. I will still have my laptop and cell phone to keep in touch until we are settled at the new place and of course will be stalking the free wifi from my hotels along the way and at parents house. So I will blog when I can. That is all I can promise you.

Tired already?

Today I've been so tired, and the real work's not even begun yet. I sent the cats off to my parents this afternoon. Before that took place it was a rushed stressed morning. There was last minute kennel cleaning, buying things like collars, tags, kennel stickers + towels, and then the fun part of getting the cats to the Cargo terminal by myself. I sort of enjoyed that part though. My shoulders ache from the filled kennel lugging and from being stressed out about if they made the flight or not. Bad time management on my part set us back quite a bit. But I can't imagine if I would have been forced to transport the cats and try to wrangle the girl as well. My parents called while I was getting her to bed to let me know they were able to take temporary possession of the cats without problems. Then when I came down to my computer after she was asleep there was a full 'intel report' about their first impressions of the new old temporary abode. What a Blessing it is to have people willing to watch our first children for us for an unknown length of time every occasion we've moved!

I've been documenting our last few days here on the Island with Black and White film. I have one roll to develop from a couple days ago, plus the probably trashed roll, and another half shot roll currently properly loaded in the camera. Yes, I made certain to visually see that the film got properly latched on. B+W film isn't cheap to begin with, and the processing is harder to find than color and it really isn't wise to get so excited about shooting that the loading protocol get tossed out the window! After the current roll is shot I have a roll of 1600 ISO to shoot and then I will be switching to color, basically for ease of development since I can't do my own yet. And as much as it drives me nutty not having the instant gratification of shooting digital I'm really getting fed up with the shutter lag on my CyberShot. It is painfully obvious now that I've played around with the DSLRs and my 35mm again.

That's all for now. I really want to try to get to bed earlier tonight. Big cleaning day ahead tomorrow! Thanks for stopping by!

The good with the bad

It has been an emotional whirlwind sort of day. The morning started off with the best attempt at laid-back plans. I was to get the girl and I up and fed and dressed, then pack up the cooler and head down to a park in Waikiki for a casual meet up with my friends before we move out. After a couple hours at the park we'd come home and I would clean the cat kennels and place the fresh towels in them for their trip tomorrow. Then dinner would be cooked and I'd take some time on the computer and after dinner, the usual bed time routine for the kid and geeking out for me.

The picnic got off to a very late start. I missed one of my friends, another friend had a family emergency pop up, I didn't wind my roll of film correct and the winter winds have caused my allergies to go into overdrive. I haven't cleaned the kennels yet, don't know where their food dishes are for in the kennels, and don't know what the policies are for animals needing meds to go with them.

The happy things were that I did get to see people who I can never get enough of, the girl had a blast playing around outside, regardless of the film's development status I can be happy knowing that I was thinking about each shot and the composition of it, and I did get the roll back from my friend's son's birthday, with pretty good results.

The list of goods seems shorter than the list of bads but the goods are greater as a whole. I will be ending the day feeling satisfied. Especially when this crazy sneezing marathon stops! :p

Busy, Busy Busy

Quick post tonight. I am almost shocked at how busy the day was today. I was doing errands all over the place and snapped pictures in the progress. I got the idea to document our last few days here in earnest and I'm trying to get pictures of the people and places who made a big impact on our lives here. I know there will be MANY people not included in the images but they will be forever printed on my heart.

The cats had their health certificates done up tonight and vaccines updated. They fly out this Saturday to stay at my parents house while the husband, girl and I are in our Nomadic state. When we get settled in the new place all the cats need to have their teeth cleaned. Tai-Grr needs to have a completel blood panel done and his heart listened to again. Slight murmur was heard tonight. Roofus needs to have his blood work checked up on as well. I will need to start looking for a job to pay for the Vet bills.

And I'm off! Thanks for stopping by again!

Please accept my apologies for

Please accept my apologies for the lack of proper blog. I was getting back in touch with an old friend, doing chores, and playing DJ at blip.fm

dreams

I awoke from a somewhat strange dream this morning:
I was at a condo with a shared pool, exploring the place because I was just visiting. In the pool was a large black lab and it was using the body of a deceased woman like a play raft. She was wrapped in a white gauze cocoon and in the pale state of rigor mortis. I calmly went back inside to find my host. By the time we returned, which was not very long, the body had been removed and the yard was filled with people socializing. The dog was all dry and working the crowd for finger foods and ice from their cocktails. My host was puzzled and I insisted that I really did see the dog playing with a corpse.

Not sure what to make of that. It was pretty surreal. I'm glad that I jotted it down while eating breakfast with my girl or else I wouldnt' be able to recall most of it now.

As for dreams in the awakened state, I would love to develop and digitize my own film. I miss it. The whole process was enjoyable. I don't think it will be happening for quite a while if at all though. It is too cost prohibitive right now. If I were to go this route, I'd be sacrificing my DSLR for it. I'm not willing to do that right now.

Yes, I decided on a DSLR rather than a fancy point and shoot. It seems as though for the cost of a P+S to get the speed I'd need to capture kids playing, the price of the camera would be about the same as a DSLR. But with the P+S not being able to have interchangable lenses I would be limited in what I could capture.

I'm trying to decide what to do for my farewell get together with the second families I've made while here on Oahu. Since I'm going to try to bring two groups together, a large turn out is anticipated and I'm thinking that a beach park picnic would be best with a BYOFood policy in effect. I can probably supply some drinks and filler food, but don't have the time or money to provide everything for another big party again. We are still killing the left overs from the Promotion Party. Another option would be to hit up a Karaoke place. I know that would exclude lots of my mama friends though.

Thanks for reading, more another time!

nothing to say, really. (1st "BLOG NAKED")

Dry spell. Haven't been abel to bring myslef to blog about the mundane every dya type stuff. It's the same old, same old, complete with typeos and senseless babblings. It would be funny, one day for every blogger to agree to jsut type and then post their blogs with no editing. Typos, mis-spellings, grammatacal errors and all. BLOG NAKED! Whee, that is what I'd call it! It could be the hottest new movement on the web since twitter and flickr (at least those were huge in my life). But I don't know... How many people would really do it? How many people think it would be worth it to do it? I certainly wouldn't hold a business blog to do it. But people who only do personal blogging like I do or maybe someone who does do personal blogging buyt some professional stuff on the side, I'd 'hold' to it. This wouldnt be a permanent thing. Just maybe a once a week tyoe thing. Just for fun and of course tellign people that you really do usually take the effort to edit the blog abnd show them that you are in fact an intelligent person. We all know that our fingers have a mind of their own sometimes. Something like this would help make spell checkers feel so mucgh more lvboed because after an autrocious entry like this you better believe that spell checmk is ever so muych more utilized. So we will see. I will probably think of a set date. Hopefully one with significance to launch the event. Like Secretaries Day? Or I guess that is "Administrative Assistant" these days. Got to love political correctness! Got to run, dinner's done!

sorry...

I had this great plan to make two awesome blogs today but I don't have any idea what to write about. Life is in a mundane state of limbo. Still. This waiting on our orders is killin' me. There's a storm ripping through the Island right now and while the worst part is on the other side of the Island it is highly likely that we will have power outages as well. Schools are being called off for the day tomorrow and many places of employment are only staffing with crucial personnel. Husband technically doesn't have to go in to work but we are really hoping to get this paper work sorted out!

I figured out why I'm on the pale nail polish kick. The pale colors seem to be soothing. Keeping the nails polished has been nice, the extra layers are helping them grow out some more. The holiday stress put me on a picking and biting binge, although really I didn't have much to 'worry' about. Only did cards this year and very minimal decorating.

Drank some Red Bull this afternoon. It was OK plain but since tomorrow's Friday that calls for a shot of Jaegermeister to be added, which will surely improve the flavor!

I think when we arrive at our final destination I will look into taking English classes. It feels like my writing skills have gone in the toilet and comprehension leaves much to be desired as well.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

stay tuned...

Tomorrow will be another two for the click of one blogging day. I kick myself off the internet every night, 11:30pm sharp, and I just ran out of time tonight.
Talk to you more soon!

Play that funky music, white girl!

It is a fun night of tunes blasting from my speakers. I checked out blip.fm and am streaming songs from MySpace Music. I've always loved music and have one song (sometimes two clashing!) going through my head almost all the time. On tonight's play list have been Stabbing Westward, Creed, White Zombie (and Rob Zombie) and Tool. I also checked out Shonen Knife.

This pretending to be DJ thing is fun. I should look into blip.fm further to see if it meets what I'm looking for: A site where I can save unlimited songs into a playlist so when some random song starts going through my head I can search for it and put it on my list. Then I could play immediately and save it for next time it creeps in. Sometimes the only way a song is forced out of my head is to hear it.

Right now I'm needing "Sober" by Tool.

When someone tells you the song going through their head, does it go into your head too? :)

composed offline

12:46 AM 1/11/2009
Well, I promised a blog a day and even though the clock has already turned itself ahead, I haven't. So, it looks like two blogs in one day but in theory isn't.

Today I will discuss my essential beauty items. I'm basically a low maintenance type of girl with my products. But there are a few gems out there in the beauty world that I feel deserve recognition. So here are a couple of them, more to come later!

Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat- This topcoat has saved the life of my manicures. I was so close to never painting my nails again as long as I lived because I'd always wake up to sheet marks! Not any more with my beloved Seche! This top coat applies a little differently. You glop on a nice big drop and sort of smooth it around on the nail and let it glide over the color to apply. Wait just a few minutes and BOOM! Shiny and smooth as glass manicure that is hard as rocks. When ever my bottle gets to half I get into panic mode and must get a new one to have on hand. I've never done that with a product before.

Urban Decay Primer Potion- One thing which always used to ruin my day would be when I'd spend a good twenty minutes getting my eye make up /just right/ then look in the mirror a quick two hours later and see it faded and smudged. The UDPP makes the fading and smudging a thing of the past. Pat this pale beige creamy base onto where you'll be applying your eye makeup and your hard work isn't budging! (Well at least from the environmental causes. If you are going to smash your fists into your eyes when you rub at them, then all bets are off.)

I am Happy.

Happy to have knocked out some boxes of old junk for the pre-move preps.
Happy to know that even though today was another day we did not get our moving orders, it is still one day closer to knowing when that day will be.
Happy that my girl is a budding bibliophile and enthusiastic about education.
Happy to be paying it forward.
Happy to have loads of clean clothes, yet have cat fur plastered all over some other clothes.
Happy that the Muses are out there, inspiring so many people to create so many awesome things.
Happy there is Happiness!
Happy to see people I care about in places they love.
Happy that the sun was out today, and that we got out to enjoy it.
Happy to know that maybe some of these things make you happy too...
=)

don't wanna.

Feeling rather uninspired tonight. It was another tiring day. What is it with me and those lately? Well I guess the whole day wasn't so bad. I took the Marshmallow Girl and I to Mass, and her behavior get me quite upset but looking back I'm not sure what set me off. Then we came home for a bit and met with my friend Ryan at the Base Gate to hand off some of our surplus food to his family. Then it was more hanging out at home. Marshmallow and I played and read together and I fooled on the computer and tried to get my Bluetooth devices to talk to each other. They finally did and then loading music onto my phone turned into a total pain. All the while in the back of my mind I wondered if my husband was ever going to surface from the tub. He was attempting to soak aches away. We went out to the front of the house for a bit and hung with the neighbors then broke for dinner. M had a melt down while the oven was warming because she was hungry so I made her corndogs in the microwave and whisked her to bed ASAP.

And there you have it. Time for me to turn my PC off.

Offerings

Yesterday for the promotion party one of the Airmen was going to be the chef. Not only did he cancel on us literally at the last minute (although I guess it is excusable, it was a call to assist with an excersise on base) but he also over estimated the food quantities. We could have done with one third of what we brought. I am offering the leftover, unopened food items to anyone here on Oahu who wants them, especially the meats. Here's what we have:

• 5 pounds chicken breast
• 7 pounds chicken thighs
• 15 pounds skirt steak, cut into strips
• 2 x 1.5 pounds sour cream
• 5 x 16 ounce bags tortilla chips
• 2 x 4 pound jars medium chunky salsa
• 3 x 4.5 ounce cans peeled chopped green chile
• 6 x 16 ounce cans traditional refried beans

I am planning to donate as much of this unclaimed food stuff to the Hickam AFB Chapel Pantry that they can take, in a couple days. I don't know if they will accept the meat, but I know the chips, salsa, chiles, and beans can probably go to them.

If you'd like any of this, free of charge, please let me know!

Color Me Curious

I've been on craving pale nail polish on my tips lately. With 'naked' toes. Not my usual fare. I tend to reach for dark 'vampy' colors or sometimes brights. And my toes are nearly always polished. Since this was puzzling, I read up on some 'Psychology of Color' web pages and am concluding that whites and pales are associated with purity, new beginnings, and neutrality. Now it makes sense- a new year, the upcoming move, and being in a clothing rut are all things going on right now and compatible with the color's psychology mindset.

Using my newfound knowledge on the psychology of color, I should pick a power color for my toes. Black, purple and red would be appropriate. There's a purple polish sitting on the upper level of my desk waiting to be 'loved on', and there's something to be said for the classic red tootsies, but black goes with everything unarguably. That decision will have to be for another night though, as well as repainting my tips.

We hosted a promotion party today for my husband and a couple other Airmaen from his unit who also got promoted. I did shopping for the party's food, chopped several pounds of chicken, assisted with setting things up and taking things down, and of course ensured our girl stayed safe (with the help of my husband). All that has got me worn out.

I'm hoping tomorrow will be refreshing and inspiring. I've been wanting to produce a really good piece of writing and everything on here just feels like mush.

I think I can...

Really, it's only 10 minutes. Yes, sleepiness is holding my hand and
nearly dragged me off but then I remembered resolutions and it's forlorn
expression at the thought of being cast aside.

And it happened again. Eyes closed and two moments seemed like an eternity.

This morning a wonderful rare event occurred: I rose from bed before my
girl! I peeked in on her sleeping little body a couple times and
couldn't take it any more so grabbed the camera and started clicking
away. The sleep of a child so often looks satisfying. She did get
awoken, but it was time for her to get up any way. I shared some of the
shots on my flickr page. http://www.flickr.com/photos/caramews/

The lure of bed is getting far too strong, and it's been 10 minutes. A
quick cuddle with my cats then to dreamland. I may just skip taking off
the make up, I really am that tired tonight.

cloud gazing

It's always been a pleasure to gaze at the clouds. To pick out the layers of color at a sunset or between brewing storms, watch their motions, experience them taking a life of their own. A few minutes and at least one discernible form has been found. Tonight I got two really distinct ones. First was the human. It looked exactly like the hunchback of Notre Dame. Shortly after came the Brontosaurus, lumbering it's way into the sunset. Then I had to get to making dinner, and the sky got dark. The daily show was over.

One of the most memorable cloud gazing moments for me was a couple years ago. My husband and I were on the front porch bench during a power outage one night. Our girl had already gone to bed so we were just out there killing time and chatting. The moon was bright, even more so due to the lack of street lamps from the Air Force Base. Suddenly I saw clear as day, the female reproductive system up there in the sky. I'm telling you, it was the whole she-bang- ovaries, fallopian tubes, cervix... and right next to it was a Dragon. Who then proceeded to eat the system. I kid you not- the reproductive bits blurred away but the dragon remained. It was so strange! I'd never seen the clouds take such a complex distinct shape before! Even more odd to me was that the one form completely vanished but the other remained for a long few moments after.

Some believe that our dreams are messengers from beyond. I wonder if the clouds could be the same. Perhaps they are merely a psychedelic heaven bound art show set for our amusement, if we take the time to slow down and look. I hope you do take the time, and if you do already, take a couple moments more each time. There is so much that we often miss while scrambling about our busy day. Everybody needs more of this sort of relaxing, free fun in their life! It is amazing how much grounding can be attained by staring at the sky.

May you have peace and marbled skies...

another test

Now I'm trying out the email a blog post feature! I didn't realize that
Blogger sends my phone a message back every time I text an entry. So now
I get to see if any extra goop gets sent by this method. I'm sure the
goop is actually useful, but my text box seems to fill up way too fast.
I may use this method to post more. I'm a chatter box and 160 characters
just isn't enough most of the time ;)

testing, 1.2.3. Is this posting

testing, 1.2.3. Is this posting to my usual blog? If so, w00t! =) The mobile posts are limited to 160 characters. Now I may not twitter flood =)

little update

We are waiting for our 'orders to drop' as far as moving off this island goes. We should have known by now. It is going to be a fast and furious move, for sure! I'm hoping that all will go smoothly and that we will be in SoCal for my birthday on the 27th.

I think I will be going with Canon for my new camera. Was looking at the SX10 and am impressed with most of its capabilities, but I need to get my hands on a model in store. The Rebel is looking very nice too. Where is the best place to shop for cameras in Orange County, CA?

Christmas was wonderful. I loved seeing all the cards we got and am so happy that people got our cards before The Day. We all are enjoying out loot and are pleased to announce there were no 'bomb' gifts!

I was trying to get this thing set up with the Mobile Blogging service but now my phone seems to be jammed, while trying ot receive a message. Hopefully that will be fixed soon and I can make a test post or two.

Thanks for stopping by!