doing my civic duty today......

I have/had jury duty this week. my county has a 1 day or 1 trial service so most people end up being there a day. today was mine. I was called for the 3rd jury group and was then drawn for the first group of those interviewed for actual service. I ended up at one point being "juror #4." I truly thought I was finally going to get the experience of serving on a jury. I even started to get a tad anxious realizing that I would ultimately have to help decide someone's guilt or innocence. THEN they called up another set of potential jurors and I was excused by the defense. still not sure why but I somehow think it was because I was female. J said it was because I was obviously too smart and no defense wants a smart female. not quite sure but I think that was a compliment! lol! needless to say, I got a long long lunch and hen spent a couple hours back in the jury pool not getting called before I was sent home.......done with service for atleast the next year. (though prior to today I thought it was once every 2 years)

the cool thing was that since I took public transportation, they gave me a replacement pass for the one I used in the morning and one to use to come home. and I ended up catching my regular train home!

12 of 12 July summertime break weekend edition

hello and welcome to this month's edition of 12 of 12! with inspiration from Chad, the idea is to take 12 photos of your day on the 12th of each month.

this past week was a rough one. unhealthy air, long hours at work and taking a horribly torturous notary class and exam, and the fact that J and R were gone to Scout camp left me not sleeping well. so this morning I was thankfully able to sleep in this morning......until.........

Tessa decided to bark at something and woke me up......... but hey! it WAS 3 1/2 more hours of sleep than I had been getting! and a week of exhaustion had resulted in me actually sleeping quite well finally! lol!!

but.....since R was gone I had to feed Stubbs........Princess Stubbs. I couldn't resist trying to snag a few photos. sadly I couldn't get a shot that wasn't ruined by some stuff on the side of the cage. I think it is the vitamin stuff we dust the crickets with before sacrificing them to the Gecko Goddess! lol!! (be thankful I missed the shot of her snagging her prey. has taken me almost an entire year to be able to watch her)

D fed Tessa. too bad this isn't a video so you could see her nosing out the *inferior* nuggets so she could eat her favorites......... those little golden squares. in a few minutes there are pieces strewn around the her food area and all the golden squares are gone.

I did my daily Webkinz and even helped a friend a bit. course, got myself a cheesy price for my own spin...... but she'll be happy to know I got her a Wish Token.

then I took some time to clean the fridge. oh boy oh boy what fun! lol!! it actually looks pretty organized now......and hey, I needed a food shot since I didn't show you my breakfast (that I forgot to eat! lol!) after cleaning the fridge I decided we have WAY too many pickles and mustards! there is half a shelf of pickles and a door shelf full of mustard. insane! totally insane!

after my cleaning I finished up work on a recipe swap I am doing. these were a whole lot more work than I expected them to be......but I think they came out cute!

yeah! finally J and R got home from camp. be darn thankful that this is not Smell-O-Vision because they STUNK!!! they were freakin' STINKY!!!!

so after they were showered, we headed out to Weiner Works for dinner. here D is posing at our table while we wait for our food. as you can see, the walls are covered with photos and writing, etc. you can see some of it on the side.

FOOD!!!!! these guys make the BESTEST french fries!! this is a large order.....just ONE large order! lol!! we rarely finish them....though this particular order seems a bit larger than the normal large! and you can't believe how wonderful those hot dogs are!

since I had taken the two photos here with my cell phone, R wanted to try and take one......so I got a good smoochie phone of me and dh! much better kissing him now than before his shower! lol!

the traditional odometer shot. my mileage is going back down now that I am not doing carpool in the morning. even better than before I think since I don't have my car at lunch I don't use up gas running errands. and hey, Light Rail is $4 a day......less than 1 tank of gas!

as for the temperature........ the high was only 91 degrees today. earlier this week it was over 110! so much for drama. not that I LIKE blazing hot weather, but it would have been a lot more exciting to post a photo of it being that hot instead of a boring 91! lol!!

ah shoot! I didn't even think about changing the orientation of this next photo. another one I took from my phone. and maybe now is where I should mention that our desktop is having a Zone Alarm problem and I can't get on the internet with it. so I am doing all this on the laptop.....with no photo program.

anyway........don't be too fooled by this photo. prices have been dropping the past week or so. this is the lowest I have seen....probably the lowest in all of Sacramento. I was excited to pay $4.25 a gallon earlier this week courtesy of my 10 cents off at Safeway.

Dairy Queen has Thin Mint blizzards. we had them tonight for dessert. we deserved them, right? another sideways one...... sorry!

anyway......that was my day. I think I actually had 13 photos.....but between using the camera phone and e-mailing them to myself and rigging up the camera to the laptop to try and use, I was thankful to have any!

don't drink the water and don't breathe the air.....

that was a song that I remember from my childhood. yeah, my parents were odd. we listened to a radio show called Dr. Demento that played a bunch of funny songs. Weird Al got his start there too I am willing to bet.

anyway........Northern California is basically getting smoked out! seriously.....I am beginning to feel like a smoked sausage......or a 76 year old chain smoker. about 2 1/2 minutes after walking out the door my throat is insanely sore. and I have spent the past 3 days with an intense migraine. I am sure the 110+ heat hasn't helped either!

but what brought this up really was seeing a few people wearing masks recently. they are just wearing the more basic masks like painters wear.....or dh wears while mowing the lawn. they tell us that we are ruining the air and water......but the smoke has been SOOO much worse than the pollution has been. does that mean we are getting better about emissions or that Mother Nature wants to beat us to the punch?!?!?

guess that was really all I had to say......

blogging from the baseball game

Right now the River Cats are winning 4 - 1. 7th inning for those following along at home. Honestly not a very exciting game and it is SOOOOO darn hot out here. We are used to evening games where everyone has some shade. The first inning hadn't even ended when I noticed that my thighs were getting pink. Needless to say I made a note to bring sunscreen for the other day games. And to think, I had considered bringing a light jacket! lol!
This weekend has been nice. I am still not used to working so much. Amazing how quickly I got used to not working. But yesterday I got 3 layouts done. They are for LM.....well, 2 are. the third turned out horrible and I don't plan on sharing it. Too bad because there is some cute ribbon on it.
In addition to that, I made it to the gym 3 time (4 days in a row thankyouverymuch), we finally got J's tow hitch installed (kinda), and lmost bought a new car. Yep.......we have been talking about trading in my beloved Santa Fe for something more fuel efficient. Our salesman at Hyundai offered us a sweet deal on an Elantra. So sounds like it might happen.
Back to the game......Robnett just hit a double and sent in 2 runners......and while I typed the next guy brought in 2 more. The score is 8 - 1 3ivercats over the Tuscon Sidewinders.

saving the world......one post-it note at a time!

so I got a Blackberry last week. I was tired of carrying around a cell phone, planner, and iPod and decided I needed to get something that was more portable for my daily commute on the train and getting internet access and e-mail was just the icing on the cake......until now.

tonight I found THE reason justifying my purchase: lists.

no post-it notes gave their lives in the creation of a shopping list today. usually I would have made one at home on a post-it note, put it inside my wallet and gone to work. mid-day I would start thinking of things to add and grab another post-it to continue my list. by the time I actually GET to the store I have usually used up 3 post-its. but not today. this time I was able to get my entire list in the notes section of my calendar. (I couldn't do that with my old cell phone....the notes section was rather limited for character spacing)

and even if I don't make a calendar entry I can still make a list of things....whatever things.....lists of lists if I want......and no post-it notes will give their lives!

p.s. congrats to Fresno State for some seriously awesome baseball! it was a total pleasure watching you beat Georgia! Steve Detwiler.......you are my hero (and darn cute too! lol!)

12 of 12 - the HELP edition!

so I guess I kinda failed this month. I didn't get 12 pictures. but really I failed because the 12th wasn't anything close to a regular day so the whole "random photos on a random day" thing went out the window......or down the elevator shaft........so to speak. that and as a scrapbooker, I didn't want to minimize the event that brought about the one photo I did take. somehow afterwards picture taking wasn't really important.....


this is a photo of the call button on elevator #4 at my office. this is me really trying to remain calm and get a decent photo.......while I was stuck in the elevator for 15 minutes. it wasn't that long of a period of time.....but I was alone......and a little claustrophobic. I started off thinking it was a little funny when I was just stuck there thinking I was at the 8th floor but couldn't get the elevator to open. but when the guy at the other end of that help button said "I'll send someone out" and "push the alarm button every once in awhile so the building knows you are in the elevator" I got a little worried. then when the elevator went to the 25th floor and started bouncing around a bit I got more worried. then when the elevator dropped down to the 22nd and then 21st floor I was as close to freaking out as I could be. funny how something like not-waterproof mascara can keep a person from crying.

luckily........at the 21st floor when I laid on the alarm button, some guy walked by and opened the elevator door. he was so casual about it and I can't figure out how I managed to stand up and walk out of the elevator.

needless to say.....I walked 13 floors down the stairs to get back to my office.

I promise to do better next month.

bookend birthdays.....

things have been crazy around here. trying to get in the swing of the new job has taken quite a toll on my free time. dh is working on taking over making dinners and R is helping out a bit more around the house. thankfully summer is almost upon us and that means that atleast I won't have to do the morning carpool before catching Light Rail to work.

today, being June 2nd is the calm in the eye of the storm. R's birthday was yesterday and D's birthday is tomorrow. we celebrated this year with a miserable day at Great America. it was cold and windy and the boys lasted about 5 hours before wanting to head home. on top of that lunch almost killed us all it was so gross. if anything might push me to becoming a vegetarian......it was that hamburger! all in all we spent more time driving back and forth than we did at the park.

yesterday we went to Melting Pot for the next part of the ongoing party train. we joined a grown up couple for a lovely dinner. thankfully no hamburger there and the food is always superb!!

today was our day to rest from stuffing ourselves and tomorrow we will be off to Red Robin for the last of our great birthday parties. seems silly but Red Robin is our traditional place of celebration. we go every year on Gotcha Day and for birthdays.

D turns 10 this year. it isn't as shocking as when R turned 10. I wonder if that has anything to do with being the second child or because he hasn't actually been with us for all those years? not really sure other than it is still strange to think that he is 10.......

so anyway........hopefully I will be back up to speed and blogging AND scrapping more. I sure hope so!