Life in Color Photo

I can hardly describe how super awesome this show is. I had never heard of it while it was on the air, and if I had I would have definitely participated in the save wonderfalls campaign. I guess it was on two years ago on Fox, well okay I don’t guess, I know because I looked it up, but anyway. It’s so weird and fantastic. The main character, Jaye, starts having little inanimate objects talk to her and tell her to do things. It’s an hour long drama/comedy and did I mention it’s awesome. All the actors are so amazing, and the lead guy, Eric, is HOT!!! He is played by Tyron Leitso, whom I had never heard of before, but who is super awesome. Emilie and I bought the series at Borders with a coupon and watched all 13 episodes this weekend. If you get the chance to watch it you should, and then you should re-watch it over and over. The “Lick the light switch” quote is from the funniest episode: Cocktail Bunny. Um, ya, so that’s my recommendation for the day.

I was bored last night over at my dad’s so I brought a bunch of stuff over. Working on a late birthday card, and playing around with paper. I really have hard time not being in my space with my stuff. I do NOT however, have a problem sleeping in my dad’s bed. Tempurpedic = heaven!!! I do not like getting out of the bed early though. And when it’s dark out, that’s too early. Emilie did the funniest thing yesterday. I wake her up every morning because she’s not so good at getting herself up. Well the night before last I put in her hair extensions for her and so she had to wake up earlier than usual because she had to let them set, so she couldn’t shower at night, but she had to shower because that glue smells so super nasty. So she set her alarm and got herself up, well I had mine set to go off to make sure she would get up extra early, but she came in and said she had gotten herself up and was going to take a shower. So I hit snooze over and over and over. At like seven Em’s like, "Hey Honey Buns, time to wake up! Come on, get up, get up, get up" which is what I always say to her. It was so cute, how could I argue with that?

       This morning after dropping her off I gave my room and bathroom a deep clean so when I come home on Monday it will be nice and fresh. Ahhhh, I love how I get all I-want-to-cleany (does that make sense?) when I have other stuff I know I should be doing. I mean if you’re going to procrastinate by cleaning that’s not so bad right?  Anyway Em and I are going up to Beaverton this afternoon to drop some stuff off at Bj’s. I won’t be able to see him this weekend. I’ll have not seen him for like 10 days by the time I do see him next, argh, annoying. But I might go with him to Seattle next week since he can just drive there (not like the place he is this week: Toronto). I’m so excited at the possibility. I’ll have the daytime to myself, so I have to figure out what I am going to do that does not involve shopping. Because I have been so good. During my cleaning this morning I found all the miscellaneous receipts for January and I’ve spent the least amount this month than any other month since I’ve been keeping detailed (really detailed) track… like two years. Unfortunately the 853.17 it takes to survive on (rent, cell phone, insurance, gas, some food, and the big other) is less than I make from Ribbon Jar. But hey I’m trying. 🙂

Back to our regularly scheduled program.

Okay so I had a fabulous weekend. Bj came down on Friday we chilled and had dinner and it was so nice and relaxed. Then on Saturday we took a drive into the country and went to some little antique stores. We took the drive so I could take pictures, but it was pouring the whole time (shocker) and the only things that really caught my eye were on private property. I should get more guts, but I decided to stay off. We had dinner with my dad and Brent at a new place in town, Tre. It was pretty good. We were just filling ourselves all up for the Whose Line is it Anyway Night of Improve at the historic Elsinore Theater. I love the Elsinore, it’s really cool old building that’s been restored and it’s cool to watch/preform in there because the audience is right there. I was actually the lead in the Scrapwork Girl of OZ (how I got the lead in a musical I’ll never know, singing and dancing together is hard!). Anyway the guys were awesome. It was super funny. They were like, “Ya, we picked a good season to come to Salem, Monsoon season.” They had a bunch of jokes that had to do with our area and pronounced everything correctly, it was hilarious. Bj and I then went over to my dad’s and watch Troop Beverly Hills!!! I love this movie and Bj surprised me by getting if off of my Amazon Wish List for me. Now if only I could find the theme song online… When we came home it was like 11:30 but we decided to watch Napoleon Dynamite anyway, so we stayed up way to late. I did have the best wake up girl though:

“Auntie Amber are you in there? Are you awake?” 
She is sooo soooo cute! My brother Aarron, his wife Corallia, and Brianna had come up to visit because he is getting transferred from Travis Air Force Base (California) to a really important job at the pentagon (doing I’m not exactly sure what). Aarron is like the nicest guy in the history of the world and he got specially selected for the job. I’m really excited for them. It will be awesome for Brianna to get to experience all the culture of DC when she is so young (just turned five). 
     The other thing I did this weekend was knit. I saw this on Molly Chicken’s blog (a blog I came across somehow). And thought she had the right idea, especially after my sock fiasco. So big knits it was. These whipped up so fast. I did this one and one for Tex’s birthday that I kinda missed, oops! I really want to get some handwoven chunky stuff to make another. Now I’m over at my dad’s watching my little sis. We’re just chillin’ Well chillin’ and singing like fools to the High School Musical Soundtrack, oh ya. There was a brief break in the sun yesterday when I shot this:

Of course now it’s freaks-ville outside and the house sounds like it’s going to blow over in the 30-40 mph wind gusts, whoo hooo! Check out the photo of the day today. I have been still taking them, just uploading them in bunches instead of one at a time.

Dude. Did anyone else get the iTunes new music email a couple days ago and see that the number one album was High School Musical? I did and I was like, is this for real? So I looked online because I had never even heard of it and the reviews were ridiculously good. It’s a made for TV Disney Musical, here is the site. So of course the Disney channel is playing it over and over, not a problem for my TiVo to grab it for me. Well I finally watched it tonight. OMG I love cheesy musicals like this, and the music is so damn catchy, you really can’t help but sing along. The thing that did me in though: the dance off at the end. Ahhhh… You do not see these enough any more! Anyway I recommend it. I did buy the soundtrack, and if you see me driving down the freeway this week, I’ll be jammin to this you can bet… and just give me a few viewings to get some of the choreography down, I put that on “save until I delete” baby!

Oh and Bj had fun watching this too:

scene: Amber is outside taking pictures
Mom: “What are you taking pictures of?”
Amber: “The sun.”
Mom: “You can see the sun?”
Amber: “Well no, but it’s kinda bright out don’t you think?”

It was bright, see how you can see the differences in the clouds? Usually it’s just all over grey. Okay so this may not be a real sun break, but whether my mom believes me or not, I did have one this morning driving home from Bj’s. Seriously people, I could have put my sunglasses on for like five minuets in a row, of course I don’t carry my sunglasses in the winter because that would be a waste of space, but still. So I thought this might be a good time to post a forward from Sciarrino about natives of the Pacific Northwest according to Jeff Foxworthy. Thanks again Sciarrino this was so funny.

1. You know the state flower (Mildew)
our state flower is actually the Oregon Grape, it’s like holly we had it in our yard at our old house.

2. You feel guilty throwing aluminum cans or paper in the trash.
Yes! So true! Note to travelers Bj and I found the best places to recycle on our roadtrip were national parks. Also I should take a picture of our recycling can, it’s much larger than our garbage can.

3. Use the statement “sun break” and know what it means.
Like I said…

4. You know more than 10 ways to order coffee.
not me personally, but many people I know.

5 You know more people who own boats than air conditioners.
Boats come in a lot more handy, that’s for sure!

6. You feel overdressed wearing a suit to a nice restaurant.
heheheh

7. You stand on a deserted corner in the rain waiting for the “Walk” Signal.
Of course.

8. You consider that if it has no snow or has not recently erupted, it is not a real mountain.
This is so funny. When I was a counselor in Maine my girls told me how they went on mountain hikes and I thought that was pretty impressive until I saw the hills they were talking about. I had my mom  send me pictures from a recent hike, and I was like, see these snow covered things? Real mountains. Oh ya.

9. You can taste the difference between Starbucks, Seattle’s Best, and Veneto’s.
I don’t know what Veneto’s is.

10. You know the difference between Chinook, Coho and Sockeye salmon.
I’m not really a fish person, but mom I bet you could do this.

11. You know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Issaquah, Oregon, Yakima and Willamette.
“Can you tell me where Will-a-met University is?” Classic.

12. You consider swimming an indoor sport.
isn’t it?

13. You can tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese and Thai food.
Is this just a west coast thing? Because they are totally different types of food.

14. In winter, you go to work in the dark and come home in the dark – while only working eight-hour days.
Luckily I work at home, but this was true for crew practice for me.

15. You never go camping without waterproof matches and a poncho.
Actually I have been camping without waterproof matches and it was a nightmare.

16. You are not fazed by “Today’s forecast: showers followed by rain,” and “Tomorrow’s forecast: rain followed by showers.”
This is the actual forecast right now.

17. You have no concept of humidity without precipitation.
And boy was I in for a shock when I went to the east coast one summer, “What is sticking all over me!??!”

18. You know that Boring is a town in Oregon and not just a state of mind.
That’s where I spent Christmas baby! My mom’s family lives there.

19. You can point to at least two volcanoes, even if you cannot see through the cloud cover.
Yes I can.

20. You notice, “The mountain is out” when it is a pretty day and you can actually see it.
Guilty, I’ve said this.

21. You put on your shorts when the temperature gets above 50, but still wear your hiking boots and parka.
If you want a good laugh you should see the quad at OSU on the first sunny day of spring, it’s skin everywhere, but it’s cold!

22. You switch to your sandals when it gets about 60, but keep the socks on.
Bill….

23. You have actually used your mountain bike on a mountain.
Yup.

24. You think people who use umbrellas are either wimps or tourists.
It’s true, they hardly get used, I have two in my trunk I haven’t used yet this winter.

25. You buy new sunglasses every year, because you cannot find the old ones after such a long time.
That’s only happened to me twice.

26. You measure distance in hours.
Portland = an hour, Seattle = about four

27. You often switch from “heat” to “a/c” in the same day.
I can’t help it I get cold.

28. You design your kid’s Halloween costume to fit under a raincoat.
I don’t have kids but our costumes where always muddy on the bottom after trick-or-treating.

29. You know all the important seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Raining (Spring), Road Construction (Summer), Deer &Elk season (Fall).
Ha ha, road construction season so true!

30. You actually understood these jokes and will probably forward them!
Done, and done! I hope someone else finds these amusing.

In other sorta Oregon related news one of my favorite college professors has written another book about art for children called “Cave Paintings to Picasso: The Inside Scoop on 50 Art Masterpiecs” You can read about it here. I so freaked out when I realized I could take a class from Sayre, and it was my first upper level class in college, I was the only freshman in it. It was called the History of Design and it was so awesome. I would love to take another class from him.

How cute is he?!?! My mom is sorting through a bunch of our old family photos. Gosh I miss having my own personal dress up mini human. 🙂 Love you Brent!