V-day Goings on

This V-day didn't go badly at all. I'm a little surprised since this doesn't seem to ever happen to me. But either way I enjoyed it.

We ended up going to Medieval Times since they were having this 2 for 1 deal thingy in the month of Feb. Got seated in the Green Knight Section. Which was cool except there were parts of the show we couldn't see very well being seated right next to the king.

We got the V-day package and got to go to the museum of Torture/Dungeons, Got 2 flutes to take home after drinking the sparkling Apple Cider, I got a carnation & a light up rose, and a Picture (see below) to take home.



They changed the show a bit but I won't ruin it for you. Lets just say we were sitting in the perfect section for us. LoL.

Thoughts on V-day

Ok I tried to reword this but really I couldn't say it any better than I did last year. And since I seem to have a bigger audience this year I feel it needs repeating.

February 14th... Valentines day... A day that I shutter at every year.

For a long time I thought of it as a made up holiday by the candy, gift and greeting card companies to get money out of you. Which... Honestly it has become.

But lets step back for a moment and try to figure out what the holiday is meant for...

It is meant for you to take 1 day out of your stupid year and appreciate all of those people that you love.

Now... I fully agree with those people who want to sit there and say... But why do I need a special day for that? Shouldn't that be something people do automatically and without prompting or feeling obligated to do?

Yes... the world would be a must better place if everyone thought about and made sure to make those people they love feel appreciated on a daily/regular basis...

But to those people who argue this... Can you honestly say that you do it?

I don't...

Like most of the world... we live our lives... bitch about the bad but completely neglect the good. Taking for granted that those we love will always be there. Until something happens... and we lose/almost lose them...

You never know what you've got until it's gone...

Then you run around and try to make up for it... often it's too late but you still hug everyone you know and make sure your loved ones know what they mean to you...

But time goes on... and memories fade... pain fades... and we sink back into our old ways.

1 day a year isn't too much to ask... It doesn't have to be Today... It doesn't even have to be this week. But don't be that person crying over a grave saying that you never told them how you felt... Or how many years had it been since you talked?

Valentines day is not about Gifts or Flowers or Cards or Candy... It's about Love. And if you think you have no love in your life... Then I feel sorry for you... You obviously have no family and no friends or you're completely and utterly blind in which case I feel sorry for your family and your friends.

For everyone reading this today as a Blog or a Bulletin. I want you to know I care about each of you or you wouldn't be on my friends list. I want to you to know I appreciate you and everything you've brought to my life good or bad. And Please don't ever forget that... no matter what I do or say in the future... and no matter how long I go without saying it... *hugs*

25 random things, et cetera

Ok I guess normally you get tagged to do this and then you tag other people to. But I agree with the others who have said that's just silly and do it if you wanna soooo here goes. 25 Random little known facts about me.

1. I know how to do wood staining/burning, etch glass, and make chain mail.
2. I can't drink soda anymore... I know... Cokegirl can't drink coke... It's the bubbles...
3. I play lots of video games and have 50 different characters in WoW
4. A couple years ago I lost 150 lbs. And no I didn't breakup with/kill anyone. LoL
5. I'm a Member of the Century Club (it's a game where you drink 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes)
6. I can recite the entire movie of "The Princess Bride"
7. I write poetry.
8. I used to be in Chior, Speech and Debate And Orchestra.
9. I loved Pickles BEFORE I got pregnant.
10. I can't ride a bike, roller skate, or ice skate.
11. I've never been off the continent despite having visited All over the US, Canada, and Mexico.
12. I'm allergic to Oxygen Masks... At least the ones they put on you at the dentist office and in ambulances.
13. I worked Halloween Haunt at Knott's Berry Farm several years in a row as a Monster.
14. I made 2 people puke, at least 20 piss their pants, 5 fall down the stairs and 1 crap their pants the last year I worked Haunt.
15. Can't stand the smell of Tuna (Cooked or Salad form. Raw is fine. Won't eat it though)
16. Allergic to smelt eggs.
17. My natural hair color is infact Dark Brown/Black w/ red highlights underneath.
18. I've only ever been bowling 1 time.
19. Never lived outside of Orange County.
20. I have a Blog! Which isn't really little known but it certainly seems like it is since no one visits.
21. When I was a kid I wanted to be a Voice Over person for cartoons or a Mathematician.
22. When I started working at Linksys I thought I'd only be here 6 months before moving on to a better job. It's now been 6 years.
23. I play D&D and other Dice/Tabletop Roleplaying games.
24. Been in a Hurricane (though it was reclassified as a Tropical storm the next day).
25. I can count to 20 in 5 different languages but can only speak/write/understand 1 fluently.

Catching up

Ok once again playing catchup. You're about to see a bunch of posts all out of order or back dated... This one will probably be out of order too because it really should be at the top to warn you but oh well. ;-)

Coffee

So over the holidays I got addicted to the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte...
Yes I know Starbucks is evil but... It was so good.

I got one yesterday on my way to my parent's house and then this morning I was on my way to work... and... They're GONE!!! Oh noes! No more pumpkin and eggnog. .../cry

I got a cafe Mocha but it's just not the same... so now I'm in a caffineless haze... I will get to my updates eventually.

Guess I'll go back to Chai Tea tomorrow.

Halloween

Nathan's first Halloween.
I went as Harley Quinn and Nathan went as Eeyore! He was so cute.

The Thursday before Halloween we had a costume contest at work. Here are a co-worker and I that won the contest.


Then on Friday I dressed as Harley Quinn and won another costume contest. Here's me and little Eeyore.
My niece went as Batgirl and she was adorable too

My Birthday

October 11th was my 26th Birthday.
Thursday, Oct 9th... There were layoffs at work. Not me but other people I know.
Blizzcon started on October 10th but of course we couldn't afford to go. That Friday I was offered the chance to go by a co-worker. But Patrick was upset I wished to go without him. Soooo I didn't.
Saturday... My friend/old guildie was throwing a party. Not related to my birthday but to Blizzcon. So we ended up going to it after dropping the kidlet off at my parent's house. Things were well for the most part but to sum it up it ended with a broken window... me having to pick up glass for 2 hours... and me screaming at Patrick for a while.
Sunday we were going to dinner with my family at Bennihanas. First my Sis and her family were all sick that weekend so they couldn't come to my b-day dinner. Then my parent's left the house right behind me... yet they managed to get to Bennihanas half an hour after us. They ended up going shopping for me inbetween leaving the house and getting to dinner... Wish they'd told us they were going to be late. And then it was these 2 HIDEOUS dresses... but ah well... Dinner was good though. They made some changes to the show... and Nathan only got upset once which was quickly quelled by a slice of lemon from the bartender.

The next week I went out shopping with my mom and replaced the hideous dresses with a cute little skirt suit and a cute shirt/sweater top from Walmart. Hurrah. So I guess it didn't turn out as bad as I'd thought...

I still owe my friend $150 but have yet to hang out with him since the window incident.

Updating the blog

Sorry I haven't updated in like a month. But I've been busy. So I'm going to make an attempt at catching everyone up on life as I know it.

Updates

So last week I took 3 days off of work. My Mother-In-Law came down on Thursday which was also coincidentally Patrick and My's 4th anniversary. Soooo Wednesday was spent doing laundry and hanging out with my parents for the most part. Thursday we met up with Patrick's mom at her hotel and she got to babysit the little dude while we went out to dinner. We went to Olive Garden... mmmmmm... they had their never-ending pasta bowl. On a related note.. the cheesy marinara sauce is Gooooood and so is their house red wine. Nathan apparently was really good for his grandma baby-sitter and we bought him these toys that strap to his wrists and rattle when he flaps his arms.

Friday was mostly spent walking around the mall. We were going to get pictures taken but there wasn't an appointment til 5pm and my MiL had other stuff to do. We also were going to go to lunch at Outback but they were CLOSED!! Who ever heard of a resterant being closed for lunch? At least one that has Lunch type stuff and is open for lunch on Sundays. But we went to Gangis Khan's instead which was good and Nathan's grandma bought him a HUGE Stuffed Eeyore which he absolutely loves despite it being bigger than he is. After the mall we went to her best friend's house and their kids attempted to play with and entertain Nathan.

Saturday we went to a resturant called Walt's in Seal Beach. It was nice and had good seafood. It was a little strange that you needed to make reservations for lunch but they didnt take them for dinner. I'd definately recomend it. They had good pasta salad too. But just as a warning Parking Sucks! as it does in all beach towns on main street.

Sunday was just very relaxed... Monday we took Patrick into an actual Pediatrist for his foot. FINALLY! There were X-rays and stuff and the doctor even talked into a tape recorder. Of course nothing has come of it yet but at least they scheduled him for an MRI on this Monday so hopefully they'll find something. After having to drag him in kicking and screaming I'd rather not be proven wrong about them being able to do anything to help the 9year old pain.

Other than that... This week has been pretty much same ol' same ol'.

New Poem

Ok so I've been having that writing itch lately again. Here's my latest creation.

Never Knew

Never thought I was lost,
until I was found.
Never noticed the sky,
until my feet touched ground.

I never minded the silence,
until I heard sound.
And I never realized I'd been alone,
until you were around.

Somehow you've taken over...
Every depth of my heart...
If I couldn't see your smile...
My day would never start.

You laugh play smile and such...
opening my eyes to see...
that I love you oh so much.

Your cries hurts sorrow and strife...
all are felt by me...
for you are my life.

And though sometimes...
it may not show...
you mean more to me...
than you'll ever know.

With that all being said...
no matter where we are...
or how far apart we've been lead...
you will always be my soul...
and always in my head.

Ugh it's Monday

Where'd my weekend go?

Well lets see. Friday my friend Nancy dropped by to drop her non-working computer off to be worked on. After she left the baby and I passed out until like 3am the next morning. At which point I sorta dozed in an out of sleep until 6ish when I finally got up.

Saturday morning was spent cleaning bottles and the car in a hurry cuz I had to be at my parent's house by 10am to take them to the airport. I ended up getting done at bit early so I headed up there around 9ish. Grandma and Grandpa were happy to see Nathan before they're trip and ended up taking us to Dennys before actually heading up to LAX. On the drive to LAX we noticed the 405S was going a bit slow but I figured it would clear up sometime in the next hour... Little did I know how wrong I was.

So we got to the airport around 12:15. Which was fine since their flight didn't leave until like 3:30ish? But you never know how long lines in the airport are gonna take these days. So I dropped them off. Everything going well and without a hitch. I should have known something was wrong. I tried to leave the airport and of course people wanted to just stop to the left of me so I couldn't get back into the lane... then I finally get in the lane and people want to unload/drop off From that lane. I get out of the airport finally and I think I'm home free. Baby is asleep and it's all good.

Get on the Freeway heading south... Everything pretty normal until I reach the 605 merger on the 405. And then... Stopped. Ok ok traffic is pretty normal for a Saturday. No worries right? I'm in the fast lane anyway so no hope of escape even if i wanted to. So I'm sitting in traffic pretty much crawling along for an hour and finally decide to call Patrick to find out why. He looks up Sig alert... "Accident at Brookhurst and the 405... Last update at... 11am?" "Huh... Weird... You'd think it would be cleared up by 1:30..." But no other news... And I wait... Finally I remember that AM Station 980 plays the traffic report every 10 min. So I switch over my radio and sure enough... "Things are slow on the 405S... Due to a Big Rig going through the Sound wall at Brookhurst and setting some houses on Fire..." Oh ok.... Wait... WHAT?!?! "Oh don't worry the fire is out... and just the right 2 lanes are closed"... So I'm thinking... How much longer can this possibly take? If it happened like 3 hours ago? Of course the baby wakes up and starts complaining... So I drive for another 30 min with my arm in a horribly uncomfortable position trying to feed him and drive at the same time. At around 2:30ish? This is what I saw...




It's amazing what becomes amuzing when you've been waiting in line 2 hours to see it... I felt like I was at Disneyland and didn't realize i was in the line for It's a Small World instead of Space mountain. Either way... I finally got home at like 3pm. I'm definately making sure to rub this in when my parents get back from their trip.

Note: It turns out the accident wasn't cleaned up until 9:06pm that night. So I guess I should be happy I wasn't stuck in it longer.

After that horrible Saturday morning. I found out the game we usually go to on Saturdays was canceled so we headed up to our friend's house to hang out. Note: we haven't seen these friends in like... almost a year? heh... It was fun... They got to meet the baby and we watched odd movies like Heavy Metal and something else I can't remember.

Sunday was pretty relaxed except that I discovered my Laptop is no longer charging. I tried moving the power plug to another plug and unplugging everything and replugging it in... and restarting the computer. All of which has worked before. But to no avail. So now I have a pretty expensive paper weight sitting on my desk until I can get a new power cord... As long as it's the power cord. Hopefully it's not the battery or the motherboard cuz then I'm really toast.

So now it's Monday... After this weekend I'm not sure if I'm sad or relieved. Ah well what can ya do?

Weekend Stuff

So this weekend was fairly eventful but kinda boring really. We had gotten a notice from our HoA that we were in violation by having a Window Air Conditioner and that it must be removed by This Monday. Which is kinda stupid since the thing has been installed for 5 years and can't even be seen from anywhere but the roof.

Unfortunately they were doing work on our building the last couple weeks and were on our roof of course.

So we spent the last week or so researching Portable A/Cs. Saturday we went to pick up our monthly pictures at JC Pennys and to pick up one of these Portable A/Cs at Home Depot. Which we discovered was a bad idea since they were really heavy and HUGE! So we ended up waiting until Sunday to go with my parents to get it. Patrick and Dad ended up taking the old one out of our window and putting the new one in that night.

Then Monday rolls around and... The HoA puts ANOTHER note on our door saying it wasn't fixed. I called and bitched at them and they said they'd fix it in their books or whatever. Stupid HoA.

Getting back to Saturday... after all the attempting but not getting anything done. Patrick wasn't feeling well so I ended up going to game with just the Baby and I. Nathan did a great job of playing Daddy's DnD character though and much fun was had by all.

New pics will be uploaded to the Baby's Online Album soon I just have been too tired to get around to it. Anyone who has the address I'd suggest checking it in a couple days.

Ok that is all for now.

Giggles

It's amazing how the sound of a giggle can make you so happy. Something so simple and yet filling you with never ending joy to the point you aren't sure if you want to laugh or cry.

I never thought it was possible to gain so much joy out of something so simple. Other than when you're a child of course. But being an adult and watching your child gain such happiness out of such simple things actually manages to make you just as happy as the child experiencing it.

Last night we finally got the baby to giggle repeatedly. And not just once or twice. But over and over and for minutes at a time.

I think the moment of holding him and having him laughing at/with Patrick and I may have been one of the happiest moments in my entire life.

If you'd told me years ago that I'd feel this way I'd have looked at you funny. I mean I knew it would be cool but I had no idea.

So weird.

Is it Thursday Already?

It seems like the week is just flying by.

So much to do... So little time to actually do it... and so much wasted time doing things I don't see as important. Bah! I hate work.

I need to find a new portable A/C cuz our homeowners association are Nazi's and won't let us have one in our window. Our HoA is kinda horrible with all it's rules and such. Can you believe they actually tried to convince us that Possums are harmless creatures?

Need to help hubby study his drink cards. Hurrah for Bartending.

I have like 50 billion friends whom I've promised to hang out with or even call back who probably haven't heard from me in like a month.

Ah well. Enough of my complainy ranting post.

Weekend Happenings

Quick summary of the weekend since I seem to have been neglecting my blog as of late.

Friday - Went to dinner with my Parents, Sister, Brother-in-law and Niece for my Sister's b-day. Even though her B-day is like a month away but our parents are going to be out of town (as usual) on her actual B-day and for 1 week before and after. Then with everyone being so busy it was work trying to even get this time scheduled. ANYWAY... We went to Amazon Brazilian BBQ in Fullerton. mmmmmmm... that place was awesome. Very nice atmosphere and yummy food. I'd give it an A.

Saturday -
First we went to my company picnic. Which was surprisingly fun. Decent food this year, hot dogs, pulled pork sandwiches, etc. No I didn't participate in the Bake off... It was baby's first picnic and I got to show him off though. He did quite well too.
See him eyeing the hotdog.


Then we went to my parents house to do laundry. At which point my mom ran off with my baby and decided to give us baby sitting we didn't ask for. Which worked out since we had a party to go to anyway.

Next we headed to my friend Jiggy's house warming party. Luckily it was right down the street from my parent's. So after a run to BevMo we headed down there and hung out with a bunch of people we don't know and ate more food. Hurrah! Really nice house and they got a cute puppy recently, who we must introduce to Aggro.

Sunday - We spent relaxing at home for the most part. Some reading... Some WoW... Same ol' Same ol'.

New Art Work

Lookie at the new art Patrick and I just got. Our friend Chris did it. They aren't the greatest pictures cuz the tats were still shiny and new. But you get the point.

This is on my right ankle.

This is on his right arm.

Work Reviews... Disturbing...

Ok... so normally I laugh at my annual performance reviews. I think I've only Once had my review done by the manager I was under for the entire year and who actually knew what work I was doing.

My first annual review 2003-2004... Well... I was a temp and I think I had like 4-5 managers that year... Hell my first manager I met then he went on vacation for like 2 weeks after I started and then was either fired or he quit... I was never quite clear.

I ended up getting hired on permanent a few months afterwards anyway.

2004-2005 - I think our new manager had just started like a month before my review. and I think I ended up getting a promotion here too... so he really wasn't giving me a review so much as notifying me of my pay increase and making a pretend attempt and being concerned with my career development.

2005-2006 - So despite the fact that I remained under the same manager this whole year... I was working on a special project. which wasn't under him. Sooo he really had no idea What I did. but he did my review anyway... Oh except it ended up being our team lead that gave em anyway. And it really didn't matter anyway because I ended up going on disability and then being moved to a different job when I got back anyway.

2006-2007 - Yay! Finally my actual manager does my review!

2007-2008 - Well... My manager Pei decided to return to Cisco the week before I left on Maternity leave. Sooooo yeah... Now I'm back and it looks like everyone did their self assessments while I was out. And my new manager is on PTO for like a month...

Now for the disturbing part... Through all of this I'd always at least been reviewed by my new managers... You know... the people actually directly above me. This time... Since my manager is on PTO... My Boss's boss... Is doing my review... and not only that... but keep in mind that these have to be approved by the next level up... So Now I'm having my review basically done by my Boss's boss's Boss... I'm not even sure he knows who I am...

First Post

Ok. So I'm a bit new at this whole blogging thing. Out of boredom I've decided to start my own rather than continuing to hit the refresh button on friend's and family's blogs in hopes there is something to comment on.

Who am I and why should you read?

Well... I'm a geeky gamer girl from So. Cal.
As for why you'd read my blog? I have no idea... other than your insanity and/or boredom being on the edge of overwhelming you.

If that's not enough... Well here's a summary of me stolen from my myspace.

What Johnny the Homicidal Maniac character are you?

You're Nny! You're psychotic and kind of evil, but somewhere in there is an emotion. Good luck finding it. Take this quiz!

You Will Die at Age 91

Congratulations! You take good care of yourself. You're poised to live a long, healthy life.

You Will Be a Very Cool Parent

Maybe a little too cool, in fact. You know that being a kid is tough, and you want to give your kids a ton of independence. But there is a fine line between being understanding and rejecting all discipline. You need to remember to be the parent, or else you'll let your kids rule your life.

Would You Be a Cool Parent?

Your Personality Is Like Acid

A bit wacky, you're very difficult to predict. One moment you're in your own little happy universe... And the next, you're on a bad trip to your own personal hell!

What Drug Is Your Personality Like?

You Are 13% Pure

You're definitely not pure. In fact, you may be one of the most evil people who's ever lived. Remember, good little girls and boys go to heaven. But bad little girls and boys go everywhere!

The 100 Question Purity Test

Questionable Content