Bad Blogger

I have been a very bad blogger lately, because I have just been in crazy holiday travel mode (spending much needed time away from the computer). Still am. But I am planning a few post-holiday posts, so don't you fret. At some point between now and Sunday, they'll be written and published. Topics include such riveting things as: holiday food, snow, and perhaps even 2009 Goals.

Until then, I hope all of you out there are having wonderful holiday seasons, and here's to safe travels and a happy new year!

Totally Looks Like...

A friend of mine emailed this to me, and some of them are pretty great. And because I am waiting on hold for an Alaska Airlines representative (flight to The Boy's parents' house was just canceled! Hooray snow!), this is about all the blogging I can do right now.

edit on 12/30/08: apparently the images didn't work, so if you want to see what I saw, go to www.totallylookslike.com.

New Job For The New Year

So, exciting news around the Kitchen Sink these days. I've withheld posting about it so far, just because, well, I don't know I guess. Since I've emailed the friends and family, and mentioned it briefly on Facebook, I guess it's about time to blog, right?

I will be leaving the Great Google as of Wednesday next week. Starting January 5th, I'll be working for Pixar...and I'm pretty damn excited. :-) Google is a great place to work and all, but I've really been missing the arts. It'll be really nice to be back working in a field I'm passionate about, and I'll be getting back about two hours a day, since my commute will now be 7-10 minutes each way (instead of 75+ minutes each way). Granted, my actual working hours will be longer (it's a 50 hour week instead of my current 43-ish hour week), but to be doing work I'll actually enjoy? And to be less than 10 minutes from home when I'm done? Awesome! (this paragraph had a lot of parentheses. sorry.)

I'll be working as a Production Coordinator, and while I'll be doing a little admin work (booking a little travel, making sure my manager gets to her meetings), I'll get to be involved in the production side of things (pinning storyboards, setting up meeting rooms). Nothing terribly glamorous, but that's the industry for ya. You have to start somewhere so you can slowly work your way up (in any business, but especially in theatre/film), and I'm really excited to be at the not-totally-bottom (hey, I'm not a PA) of the ladder. And the projects my team will be working on are things I'm totally stoked about - where I had trouble connecting with the projects my engineers at Google have been working on, I think that here, I'll be able to connect to the work much better. (this paragraph had a lot of parentheses too. sorry.)

So yeah, I have three more days left at Google, and I feel pretty ridiculous and very, very lucky. In this economic climate, with news of layoffs by the thousands from companies all over the country, I feel a little guilty and incredibly blessed to be able to choose to quit my job at one fantastic company because I have been offered a job at another fantastic company. Granted, I work hard, and I plan hard. Even if it's only hypothetical, I think about the future. So it's not like this fell into my lap or anything, but still. I feel just freaking lucky to be going to a new and awesome job right now, that's all.

So that's my news for now...time to get ready for the my Google team holiday party! One last hurrah! :-)

More to come...


PS - putting in your two weeks' notice is kind of scary in the Real World.

Too Many Shoes!

I came home from work today to find this mess in my closet:

Note the bent bottom part just above the UGG boots. That, and the side parallel to it, was just totally bowed out. Not sure how to proceed, and not wanting to just put all the shoes back on (since the weight of the top levels would just make the bottom levels bow out again and it would just fall over again), I devised a little system to temporarily hold it all in place.

The temporary system involves a belt and a curtain rod. And that's about it. Hopefully it lasts for a few days...or more...but I'm thinking I'll have to get a new shoe rack at some point. Hey, this one lasted over a year, and it was just a cheap one (like $30) from Bed, Bath and Beyond.

The shoe rack, picture taken in the mirror. Yes, I have a lot of shoes. Note how it is standing upright, except you can still kinda see the 3rd level from the bottom bowing out again. Bowing in? Whatever, it's still kinda bent.

The view from the side. Same view-ish from the first picture, but it looks a lot neater.

Anyway...do any of you out there have any advice for longer-term shoe storage? Any shoe racks you particularly love? This is the space I have. This is the amount of shoes I have. I have gotten rid of 4 pairs already, and I'm not totally sure how many more I'll get rid of at this point..maybe one or two more, but it's still up in the air. That is, I'm still not sure if I can do it. :-)

Celestial Smile

I missed seeing this in the sky, but you can read about it here.

Cozy...

I'm feeling a bit under the weather this evening, so I thought it would be a good night for a bowl of soup and a little apartment decorating. It's just about that time when I should remove the pumpkins and ghosts from the string of white lights in my window, and get out the December decorations. Have I mentioned that I love having my own apartment?

Soup: tomato/red bell pepper, with goat cheese and sun dried tomato bruschetta and fresh basil from my window box garden. And Saltine crackers. Mmmm. Metropolitan Museum of Art Advent Calendar from last year (we, erm, forgot to use it last year).

Candles I bought last year. Should I light the tree-shaped one? I feel like I shouldn't...but that's what candles are for, right? You can't really tell, but all of these candles are covered in glitter. Yep.

I intertwined my blue twinkly lights with a really pretty white garland thing I bought last year on sale and draped it along the top of my hutch. It took about 25 minutes, maybe more, to figure it out. Longer than it should have. Worth it.

Not taken tonight, but this is how I feel. Cozy.

Gas and Flowers

I was driving around town the other day, and saw some shocking gas situations. There is a gas station up the street from me that has been boarded up for a few months, and it looked like this:
Note that the price of gas is/was $3.91 a gallon. Also note that this gas station is the "cheap" gas station, where it is typically ten cents per gallon cheaper than any other station.

I turned my head and looked across the street at the Chevron station. This is the "expensive" gas station, where you can typically expect to spend about the same as you would at most stations, but like I said, at least ten cents per gallon more than the "cheap" station. On this day, a few weeks ago, it looked like this:

$1.89 per gallon. Wowzers! Now, I know we have been conditioned to believe that $1.89/gallon is a hugely good deal, and I see the proof of this in the fact that gas was almost $4/gallon just a few months ago (pre-election...hmmm). I've been told that gas prices always drop right before and after an election, and I'm just hoping they don't go back up again. Maybe they'll even go down? Eh? Eh?


While you ponder that, peruse some pictures of flowers that I took at my parents' house over Thanksgiving. Pretty! TwistNHook would be proud.

Planty Plant Plant

So the plant is ever-growing...that little bit that I had referred to as a "sprout" that had previously been a "nubbin" is now it's own full-blown...leaflet? Branch? What are the technical names for these sorts of things? See pictures below.

the leaflet grows!

the full body shot...I think it's almost time for a new pot.

surprise! a new nubbin!