Truthful Tuesday #3

WOOT! I missed Misc. Monday yesterday, but that's ok. I was too tired to post. Longest weekend EVER! More on that later though.

Today's Truthful Tuesday post is brought to you by Jack's Mannequin (not really, that just sounded fun). Andrew's (Andrew McMahon from Something Corporate - a band I miss terribly, truth be told) new cd, "The Glass Passenger" is fantastical. It was supposed to be out months ago, but I'm not even complaining cuz I luuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeee it!!!

Go Here and check out some songs from the myspace page. "The Resolution" and "Annie Use Your Telescope" are both off "The Glass Passenger". "Bloodshot" is one of my faves, with "Spinning" coming in a close second. Check out this page HERE for the amazon listing where you can listen to short clips from the CD. I highly recommend it.

It just makes me happy. Andrew is such a talented musician. The vocals, the lyrics, the musicality, the piano, the orchestration; I'm probably being redundant with a few of those words but I don't even care. Awesome awesome awesome. "Dark Blue" off "Everything in Transit" is STILL one of my all time favorite songs. And with lyrics like "I swim to brighter days, Despite the absence of sun, Choking on salt water, I'm not giving in, You gotta swim" it's no wonder I love "Swim".

Plus, if you get the extended edition, you get 2 live versions of songs off "Everything in Transit" and 4 additional songs. Totally worth $11.99.

So yea. LOVE THIS CD! Go buy it now, you won't be disappointed. And if you've never heard of JM or Something Corporate, click on some of those links up there and give them a listen. I've been a fan of Andrew's since I heard SC's first album a solid 7 years ago. Go dig up "Konstantine" online, you're sure to be blown away.

Have a great day/evening everyone :)

~Col

Things that make me happy......

• TGIF! Omg, I'm so glad it's finally friday. This week sucked just as bad as the last 2! Lol! But it's Beth and Steve's big wedding and I'm UBER excited.

• My new Nick and Nora monkey slippers. Pretty much perfection if you ask me :) (See photos below)

• The rented 24-70mm f/2.8 lens that I rented for the wedding (Beth asked me to play unofficial backup photog). I LOVE the versatility of it! I can be wide open and get some nice depth of field, and I love that I can be at a 24mm or zoom in to 70mm, and anything in between! It's a nice change of pace from my much loved 50mm f/1.8. I'm gonna play with the 85mm f/1.8 that I rented too :)
  

• Here are a few shots with the 24-70 (played with crops just because, boosted a lil, defogged, white balance adjustment).

• I'm beyond excited for Julie and Johnny and lil miss Olivia to arrive tonight. Miss O makes my ovaries do flips, but I just love her so. And of course, I love spending time with her mom and dad and too :)

• These 2 LO's make me happy :) First one for Digi Dare #101, second for Cookie #50 @ SSD. Click for credits please :)

• Lunch with a college friend today. I haven't seen her in like 3 years! Can't wait :)

I think that's enough happiness for today :P It's gonna be a loooooooong but good weekend for me. Have a good one, I'll catch you all on monday!

~Col

ITCHY!

Oh my goodness! The only thing worse than sunburn, is when it starts to peel! My stomach and chest finally started to peel, and omgosh! I just keep scratching at them through my clothes, lol. My forehead started peel tuesday night with the help of some exfoliating face wash. I like to just get the gross itchy peely part over with as soon as possible. I spent a good 5 minutes at the mirror this morning pulling off patches of dead skin on my forehead. I HATE when it gets all in your hair and it looks like dandruff. BLEGH!

Ok, enough grossness. Sorry, had to get it out though.

I wish I could stop biting my nails. They're AWFUL. But it's like a subconscious thing! I'll be fine, doing whatever, not biting my nails, and all of a sudden I've bitten half of them off. WTF? ::Sigh:: I've tried bad tasting stuff, I've tried keep nail clippers and files around at all times, none of it works. Frustrating.

The plan set still isn't done. I went home last night and worked remotely on one of the drawings for like 2.5/3 hours. At least that one is mostly done. I'll probably do the same tonight on the second one like it. Finished roadway elevation sheets are SO tedious. Like, mind numbingly dull.

I bought the new(ish) P!ATD cd the other day. It's kinda weird. I'm sure it'll grow on me like Jason Mraz did.

Apparently I like random posts.

I ordered the lens rentals the other day for the wedding next weekend. I'm SO excited to play. I offered to do some family portrait type shots for the matron of honor too, cuz you know, why not? All 3 of them are in the wedding, so it'll be cute. Hopefully I get some good ones and they can get them printed and put up in the house :)

I also ordered a really pretty skirt and shirt on supa sale from Banana Republic. I saved like $50! Plus, they're good basics so they won't only get worn once. Fingers crossed they ship today and get here in time for the rehearsal dinner next friday. Otherwise, I'm screwed for an outfit for that. All I need to find are some killer shoes :) I want to wear my teal necklace (the skirt is a black and white pattern, and the shirt is black cuz I couldn't find any white ones I liked) so I might try and find some cute teal shoes too. I'll be at DSW next week for sure, lol!

La la la.......what else.....

Oh, Jordan spent all last night cutting tiles for the laundry room. I felt really bad, cuz I couldn't help, cuz I brought work home. He was hoping to get those tiles laid last night so he could grout tonight, but that didn't happen. It takes a long time to measure and cut all those tiles. I'm hoping he can lay the tiles tonight and grout tomorrow and then on sunday I'll have my washer and dryer back. I really don't feel like going to the laundrymat. I found a pair of jeans in my closet that I thought were dirty, so I'll be ok until he gets them set up again. Now he wants to add a standing sink in there too. Not all that sure why, but he's doing so much work in there, that if he wants one, then go for it, lol! At least I'll be able to help whenever he decides to do the hallway downstairs. Then he can cut and I can lay tile. Should go a bit faster that way.

Ok. Time to work on a new plan sheet. Have a good day!!
~Col

Truthful Tuesday #1

If nothing else, I'll be blogging on mondays and tuesdays apparently. Since people have started doing a bit of a blog train over at SSD, it's gotten me more into blogging. This is good. It's also a lot more personal than playing over at DST, which is what I did before. There's too many people over there. I like my lil home at SSD :)

So yea. Truthful Tuesday. Here goes.
There is no way in hell I will able to work in this line of work for my entire life. I love it, but I REALLY can't deal with the assholes who work at the state. Unfortunately for me, most of my work COMES from the state. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place.

On the 4th of this month, we were told that we were allowed to proceed with our work on a certain project, since our responses to the comments had been received and accepted. On the 5th we got a call saying that Mr. Head Bridge Guy was going away for the month of October, and that they expected a full structural review plan set to be done by the 19th. 2 weeks. Oh, and we had to confirm our design AND check on 5 or 6 changes they wanted made if possible. Oh, and structural review meant we had about 12-15 NEW plan sheets we had to finish. In 2 weeks. With myself being the only person available to work on any of it. Right. Yesterday, we got 2 of the bitchiest emails I've ever seen written by a man. The first, was to complain that we weren't meeting our project deadlines. Oh, you mean the completely unreasonable deadline that you set 10 days ago? Just checking. The second, was to complain about random nonsense that HIS OFFICE had been slacking on for months, but was now our fault. I REALLY wanted to drive down to the state and kick him in the nuts. As I said yesterday, working for the state doesn't give you the right to be a douche. SO CUT IT OUT! (And yes, I've thought of actually working FOR the state, because then I wouldn't be on the receiving end of their bullshit, but I'd probably kill someone if I had to deal with them everyday at work.)

In my dream world, I work here for 5 more years with minimal contact with state employees (aka, NOT becoming a project manager (which will never happen because I'm practically one now) because I really might actually either kick someone in the nuts, or jump off the roof of the office). In that time Jordan has set up a system so I can work from home 3 days a week. Then I can stay home with the bebe's most of the time, limit my interaction with morons, and still make really good money.

And if that fails, I'm quitting and becoming the next Ali Edwards. I love that woman. Or StacyJ, cuz she's in Africa right now and I would KILL to travel like that.

Back to the grind.
~Col

PS~I'm almost done with a second fabric covered book (ala Donna Downey, minus the paying $35 to watch a flippin video) and I hope to finish it tonight. And my lil book binding experiment went EXTREMELY well last night. I'll soon be buying stuff for that I think :)

Misc. Monday #2

Hello again. Another week has started despite my endless protesting last night. ::sigh::

So. Without further ado. Miscellaneous Monday. :)

First, another Sweet Shoppe Blog entry:

You Are 85% Real

There's hardly a person on this earth more real than you are. You have no problem showing people who you are, flaws and all. For you, there couldn't be any other way. Because it's way too stressful to live an inauthentic life. You're very comfortable with yourself. And because of this, you're able to live an exciting, interesting, and challenging life.

How Real Are You?

I guess that's right? LOL! 10 questions is a bit short to determine my "real-ness", but whatever :p

• I've never been more sunburned in life. Like, boiled lobster red. But only on the front of my body cuz we were sitting in chairs talking. Thankfully, I don't look like rudolph anymore (the nose has faded slightly). You would think I'd have learned my sunscreen less by now. After this, I assure you I have.
  

• I bought this Japanese Stab Binding Kit off Etsy and it arrived today. I'm tossing my other projects aside tonight and checking it out. Then I can order more waxed linen thread and put some of the ridiculous amount of "scrap" paper in this house to good use. (I also bring it home from work, cuz the cleaning crews dump the recycling into the trash, nice right? So it's my own version of recycling - I think they call it upcycling?)

• Along those same lines, I stumbled across this site, TJ Bookarts, while checking my google reader today. OODLES of fun bookbinding links and tutorials, I'm way excited to check them out :)
  

• My wonderful and loving fiance, bit off more than he could chew this weekend while I was away (no, I'm not surprised). Instead of learning how to lay tile in small doses, he removed everything from the laundry room, tore up the linoleum in the hallway, and cleared out the closet under the stairs. Then he discovered he was pretty slow at laying tile. Then he discovered that he didn't know how to use the cutter he bought, so he went and bought a water saw. Then he couldn't figure out the water saw. I am without a washer and dryer until thursday at the earliest. Thankfully, he's aware of his mistake and has said he will be the one to go to the Laundry-mat if necessary. Um. Duh.

• People who change schedules and demand entire projects in 2 weeks notice, should NOT then complain about said project probably being incomplete at submission, and then send out the BITCHIEST email I've ever read. Just because you work for the state, doesn't mean you get to be a douche. Thanks.

• I plan on eating 2 wings and a billion french fries for dinner tonight. Diet be damned. I'll start over tomorrow.

• I can't WAIT to start our wedding registry. I got a Chef's catalogue today and am drooling over things. Crate and Barrel here I come :p

I think that's all. I'm tired. But I want to play with my book binding toy. :) Catch ya later!!
~Col

Please take a moment......

Hi everyone. Serious Col here today. The day demands it. I'm always somber on this day. I always remember exactly what I did. How I felt. Wondering if my Dad was working in the city that day, and was he ok? Did I know anyone else who was affected? HOW? How did this happen? What would happen next? Why? Where did this hatred and evil come from?

Too many innocent people died on this day 7 years ago.
Too many families lost loved ones.
Too many heroes were made.
Too many children lost parents.
Too many parents lost children.
Too many.
Too many.

Please take a moment today and say a prayer, or send a thought, or do whatever you do, for the many men and women serving in our military.
Protecting our freedoms.
Righting wrongs.
Seeking out the evil that lurks in the dark in this world.
We will not tolerate this evil.
We will not stand for it.
It better run.
Because these colors don't.

And always. ALWAYS. Remember.
The Big Picture is an awesome site and yesterday posted some moving images from 9/11 and relating to it. Check it out.

~Col
(Old layout from a few months ago. New one coming later today.)

Misc. Monday's

Mooooooorning!! I've decided that mondays will be for anything under the sun. Hence, miscellaneous monday. Monday's stink, but a little bit of randomness might help.

Here's a quiz. Clearly, I suck at life.

Your Common Spelling Mistake Score: 70% Correct

Your spelling is decent, but you do make quite a few mistakes. Let's just say you won't be winning a spelling bee anytime soon!

Do You Make Common Spelling Mistakes?

• I was UBER crafty this weekend and it was wonderful. Hannah was good for something after all. I figured out how to make notebooks/journals with fabric covers. SUPER cute and easy to do. I'm going to make a million of them and sell them on Etsy. Eventually. I always say I'm gonna do that and then never follow through. I have crafty ADD, lol.

• The Early November did the WORST cover of "Power of Love" ever. That song is NOT meant to be slow and acoustic. Get real.

• On the flip side, I'm still obsessed with the cover of "Just Like a Dream" by Gatsby's American Dream (both songs can be found on Punk Goes 80's).

• I'm totally digging Pat Monahan's solo release (the guy from Train). You can find music HERE. And scroll down to the Howard Stern episode in 2003, cuz it's a great interview and that's how I found out about it. I'm obviously late to the goodness of this cd, but I don't care. It's awesome. I'm talking about his first solo CD "Last of Seven". Not sure what else he has out. Should probably look into that more. "Oooh My My" and "Say (All I Need)" and "Ripple on the Water" rock my socks.

• We have SO MUCH of the wedding planning done. It's SO exciting to think about. Mikkel is awesome and came across my dress in a magazine and mailed it to me. WOOT! Thanks again girl! So now it's in my purse and I can carry it around and show people anywhere I go. I'm slightly obsessed, but it's probably a good thing to love your dress this much.

• I'm so unmotivated right now. I have a CRAP TON of work I need to do for the state by next friday. It's totally overwhelming. Which makes me unmotivated. Which is bad.

Speaking of, I think that's enough randomness for today. Besides, I've got work to do!

~Col

Close Enough for now

Well, I got things mostly figured out. Fingers crossed I remember wtf I did for the future when I inevitable decide the blog needs another facelift, lol!

I still haven't gotten that title block removed, and I still don't know how to mess with the archives to get that pretty. But for now (after about 5 hours invested in this), I'm calling it close enough! LOL!

Google is good and bad, and some of the stuff doesn't apply. I have about 15 projects I want to work on today though, so for now I leave it be. You haven't defeated me yet blogger!!

Enjoy the nice weather now that Hannah is gone! :)
~Col

BAH!

So as you can see, I'm trying to make the blog pretty. I'm doing this in the hopes that maybe I'll post more. Who knows. Either way, I wanted it pretty and to reflect my love of all things tropical.

Well it's pretty much been the biggest PITA ever. I've spent several hours working on it, and it's still messed up. I don't know why the post background isn't white anymore. I don't know why the blog description box is showing under the header (I don't want it to, it's redundant as hell and ungly looking), I don't know why I can't get the archives to look like hte rest of the sidebar stuff.

I just don't know.

I hereby give up for the evening. Blogger wins.

Blogger 1
Col 0