Down, down, down, down...

In general, I've been down for the past five days or so. I am working hard at work, and long hours. Jesse is also working long hours. We might come home late, or we might leave work early to rush across the bay to look at a potential wedding location, effectively killing an evening... we aren't eating altogether well, we aren't relaxing much, we aren't sleeping enough. In short, my (our) routine has changed drastically for the past week, and I'm none the better for it. Add to that a heaping helping of other stuff that's going on that I don't feel like discussing in a public forum, and you've got one very tired, stressed-out and down blogger.

Which doesn't make for an interesting blog... which is why I haven't been blogging... I just decided to say "hi" today to anyone who might be concerned about me. =)

Karaoke Night

Did you know that Comcast Digital Cable offers free Karaoke?

(I'll assume you said "no.")

Neither did we! So, last night when a commercial told me that tidbit of information, I thought to myself, "I've never felt so happy to have been informed by paid advertising! This is awesome!"

So I immediately stopped the show we were watching, and went surfing through Digital Cable menus (not pretty). Sure enough -- karaoke! So, Jesse and I had an impromptu karaoke night last night. You should've been there! (You could've stopped us...)

We sang such classics as:

"Somewhere Out There" in the style of Linda Rondstadt and James Hogan
"La Bamba"
and
"Pour Some Sugar On Me"

So, whereas at 7:00pm yesterday, I was totally ready to get rid of Digital Cable, by 11:00pm, I was sold on why we need to keep it. ;)

Wedding Central

We created our little Jesse+Amanda engagement space over at TheKnot.com. It's linked over there on the right-hand side of my blog. -->

There isn't much there yet, but we did write up a little synopsis of the proposal. It's in writing now, so we don't risk losing our voices from telling the story over and over. More details will be added as we, you know, decide on them. Enjoy! =)

"pop!" goes the question

... "yes!" goes the girl.

Most of the people who read my blog (Jesse, Jesse's friends & family, two of my friends) know already, but maybe I'll get a few surprise comments from other lurkers I don't yet know about, by informing the Blogger public that:

We're engaged!

That's right! On Sunday, May 14th, Jesse popped the question on the side of a Kona-Waimea highway (190). I had to de-code a numeric message, we were checkin' out a particularly awesome rainbow, etc, details... Apparently, he had already asked both of my parents for "permission" to marry me, and basically all of his friends and family already knew it was going to happen.. I was the only one in the dark. =)

...and none of my friends knew (not that Jesse's friends aren't my friends ... you know what I mean). So, if any of my friends are lurking, this is your sneak-peak at the news. ;) (Psst, let me know you're here, so I don't expect you to act surprised on Monday!) Otherwise, you'll have to wait for your email, phonecall, or glimpse of this near-blinding gem I'm cartin' around these days.

Any questions you have regarding our engagement or impending wedding will be answered tout de suite! Hopefully, we'll have one of those wedding announcement website things up within a couple of days.. We have lots of decisions to make, and people to keep updated!

Oh yeah, and we're back from Hawaii, too. Hello!

...and there we went.

Jesse and I are headed for Hawaii tomorrow morning. By 3:00pm Pacific time, we'll have arrived on the Big Island. If you want us to bring you back something, you're a little late. We're totally exhausted from cleaning, working and packing.. and now we're going to go to bed. Or, soon, anyway. Aloha!

Hey, is that Jesse?

I went over to MySpace.com today and saw the usual little "Cool New People" section right below the username/password fields, and thought at first, "Meh, whatever," but then I realized that one of the pictures looked just like Jesse!


That one on the left! With that other girl that's not me!

So I looked over at him (he was sitting right next to me) and said, "Hey, is that you with some other girl?" and he craned to get a good look and said, "Woah...that's strange."

Naturally, I had to investigate! So I clicked on that picture, logged in, and checked out the user's pics. Found it!



Yeah, no.. that's not Jesse. That's just some dufus who, when compressed down to thumbnail size, is lucky enough to resemble my Bug. I mean, I'm sure he's a perfectly nice guy, but he's no Jesse. Hooray!

Flaming piles of poop?

I found an ad for this product in the back of a home and garden magazine I'm fond of... it was an odd find, so I thought I'd share it with my blog patrons.

That's right, someone has capitalized on the idea of setting fire to human waste. It's the Incinolet, "The World's Only Electric Incinerating Toilet!"

I can't think of anything funny to say about this. It's a toilet that burns poop in the comfort of your own home away from home. The point, I guess, is that you'll no longer have to truck your waste to a treatment facility, because you can now go anywhere you want and just toss a bag of poo-ash in the nearest park trash can. Score one for you, score zonk for the elderly lady who sifts through that trash for lucrative recyclables to pay her rent.

And beware, fellow KOAers, the Incinolet requires good ventilation out the side of the RV. This may mean that your alfresco family lunch won't be sporting that fresh country air feature you were hoping for.

Cook for a day, eat sleep for a month.

We had a cooking bonanza at our house yesterday (Easter Sunday). I invited my mom and dad over. And so the four of us were around the house all day, with the world's biggest load of groceries and bowls, spatulas and muffin tins. It was fun, but it was a huge amount of work.

The impetus of the event was that, while we're all eating healthier (me, Jesse, my mom and my dad), we all cook dinner for just one or two people each night. Jesse and I have been having virtually no trouble with this effort -- we plan the week out in advance, and then cook dinners of varying degrees of complexity. No biggie. But my mom and dad both live alone, and so only cook for one person, which makes it slightly more difficult. And your food options can get boring after a while, with leftovers as a staple.

So I decided to plan this event, whereby we'd get together and cook up a storm, then cool the foods down (or in some cases, just prep them without cooking at all), and store everything as single or double servings. All of that goes into the freezer, et voila! Lots of dinners with virtually no prep required each night for dinner.

When all was said and done, we had a total of 9 different entrees, 2 breakfast dishes, and a bunch of cooked shredded chicken that can be added to various dishes on a whim (salads, soups, enchiladas, fajitas, quesadillas, etc.).

So, needless to say, after 10 or 11 hours of cooking and standing, there were sore feet and backs to go around. It was totally exhausting. And I would do it again in a heartbeat ... a heartbeat a couple of weeks from now.

Hawaii, here we come!

Jesse used to always talk about wanting to go to Hawaii. Well, last year (January '05) we went to Oahu, stayed on Waikiki, parasailed, went horseback riding on the beach, experienced a luau, and generally relaxed. I think it would be safe to say that he loved Hawaii. I loved Hawaii, too. =)

Well, I just wanted to take this opportunity to rub it into the faces of people who are reading my blog: we're going back to Hawaii in one month. In fact, we're going here. Seriously, that's gorgeous. I'm jealous of myself! =D I can't wait.

So, it's off to the Big Island (Hawaii) for us. One week. We'll be back, most likely as untanned as we were when we left! =) If I find any other gorgeous pictures of Hawaii that I have to brag about, I'll let you know.

The pain is all gone

I was reading through some of my old posts, just passing time.. when I stumbled upon this glimpse of my past. It serves as a reminder of why I blog, or take notes in any way about my life.

I had oral surgery on February 10, 2006. That's exactly 2 months ago. The wisdom teeth are gone. The pain is gone. It was totally worth any and all trouble I may have gone through to have the procedure done. Until I read that blog post, I had pretty much forgotten about that part of my life!

...Again, seriously, if you're still suffering with four extra useless teeth in your mouth, and you know who you are, please have them removed. I was the scaredest scaredy cat ever when it came to thinking about having that surgery.. but it was not a big deal, it was easy, and it's over. It has only been 2 months, and I don't ven think about it -- day in, day out, it's just pain-free jaw movement. Go do it!

Worst exposition ever.

Jesse and I spent most of Saturday in the studio at his work. He was mostly working, I was mostly hanging out. We decided to buy a new video game on the way home: Kingdom Hearts II. Yes, this is a Square-Enix collaboration with Disney. Yes, the first game was really fun. Yes, I liked this Disney product. No, I don't generally like Disney. But none of this gets to my point, which is: the beginning of this game suh-hucks.

It's about 4-5 hours of bland cinematics with brief "action" interludes, where you button-mash to do the most boring tasks on earth (beat the crap out of a bag of garbage on a cart to get it up a shallow hill and into a garage ... why didn't they implement a "push" action? .. or "defeat the strange enemies" seven or eight times for no reason -- they haven't even attacked). Dull. We would set the (wireless) controlled down for so long to watch the cut scenes that the controller would shut itself off from lack of use. Lame!

Follow that with 1-2 hours of "Oh my god, is the game going to start now? Wai--wha--crap, no. It's another movie. Oh my GOD this game is so dull!!" They give you so much time to dwell on how bored you are that you start to pick on other things about the game, too.. like why haven't PS2 graphics come further.. and why do they keep using that same music track for such different tasks... and why did they charge $50 for this piece of crap... and why did I even play the first game, if they were going to tell me the whole freaking story over again, complete with footage and dialogue from the original?

Anyway, about 6 hours into it, the game really took off -- and by "took off," I mean we finally got to do some real action stuff, in worlds that already existed in the first game (after that many hours, they still didn't deliver anything new?)

So yeah, can't wait to get back to that game soon. Of course, we will, because we still have an ounce of hope that it will deliver in the end. Please, KH2.. please don't let us down? Please?

Finger Cots

Have you ever heard of finger cots? That's right, they're condoms for your fingers.

My friend Mark had a little run-in between a vegetable peeler and his thumb. The thumb got all dramatic and apparently gushed blood for a few minutes. He was an unhappy guy, and had to buy that liquid bandage substance to protect the wound, because bandaids just weren't cutting it for him. Well, he showed off his wound for a week or so, and still mentions it occasionally.

So when Jesse and I were at Walgreens last night, perusing for nothing in particular, we found these most hilarious of First Aid tools. They were purchased, and I presented them to Mark today... explained that there were various sizes (small, medium, large, extra large) in the package... and he actually put one on. So awesome!

Anyway, that's about it. Seriously, folks, finger cots?

Income and Expense

I made a sweet donation to KQED (PBS) a while back and received two tickets to the "Real Estate Wealth Expo" in San Francisco for this past weekend. I invited Jesse to go, but he wasn't totally interested, so I invited my mom, and she was thrilled out of her mind. So my mom and I spent the weekend with about 60,000 other people at Moscone Center (North AND South) learning about real estate. This real estate expo apparently broke records for the largest event of this type ever held anywhere in the world. It was BIG.

There were four "keynote speakers" whose names you may recognize:
1. Suze Orman, finance guru, author and CNBC call-in show host
2. Tony Robbins, motivational speaker and life coach (or .. whatever)
3. Robert Kiyosaki, "Rich Dad/Poor Dad" author, investor
4. Donald Trump, duh

All of these speakers were amazing. They have huge personalities and lots of information to share. In fact, these people did the least amount of SALES while on stage. Throughout both Saturday and Sunday, there were tens of other talks you could attend at various times -- each and every speaker was selling their packaged set of tapes, books and other training for hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Suze Orman made no attempt to sell us anything -- I'm not even sure she mentioned that she's an author. So I went out and bought a book of hers, and my mom bought two. My mom already had Robert Kiyosaki's book, and Tony Robbins' tapes, and I watch Donald Trump's The Apprentice TV show. So, they all got our support when all was said and done. =) Great group of speakers. In addition to the famous group of speakers, I also really enjoyed listening to some others, James Smith and David Lindahl. I was very impressed.

It was a lot of fun. It was exhausting (walk walk walk walk walk walk walk, sit sit sit sit sit sit sit sit sit, walk walk walk, sit sit sit sit sit sit), but very motivating and intriguing. Not bad -- I got to support KQED and I got to go to a great weekend-long seminar.

Taxes and Awards

Jesse and I did our taxes this weekend. Yes, you can congratulate us. We don't owe any money. Suh-weet!

Jess also told me today that he found out he can bring a guest to the Game Audio Network Guild Awards on March 23. Excellent. =) I'm going to an awards ceremony with Bug! It'll be interesting to see how game awards go...

Ker-time-travel!

Ker-time-travel is a great sound.

I hear that this is also something Jesse would enjoy. Maybe we should keep it in mind for his birthday.

But this is my favorite for many, many reasons. Okay, two: I love the show The Nanny, and I constantly repeat that line from Deuce Bigalow, European Jigalo [sp] that goes, "Hi, I'm Deuce Big-gest lady I've ever seen!"

Yes, this is the Amanda you never knew.

How I made it through the weekend

First off, I left work at 5:30pm (woah, early) on Friday so that Jesse and I could head off to Cirque du Soleil. Let me just say, for the record, that I am a serious Cirque critic. I had seen six of their shows (Nouvelle Experience, Quidam, Dralion, O, Varekai, La Nouba) before Friday, and with the exception of La Nouba, the quality of the shows had been draining since Quidam. So, off we went, and I was so excited -- even though I only half-expected to be impressed.

But woah, nelly! As soon as we walked into the Big Top (le grand chapiteau), we knew we were in for a treat! What beautiful set design. It was very elegant with a Victorian flare -- there was a scrim painted with heavy "curtains," cherubim and seraphim.. and there were beautiful antique candellabra, and strings of dim light bulbs ... anyway, I think you probably had to be there. If you've seen any Cirque shows before, you probably wouldn't expect such a heavy-looking atmosphere. It's usually very modern and ephemeral. We sat there, tittering and nearly bouncing in our seats, we were so excited to see what else was next -- you'd think, at this point, that we were just in for a royal let-down, but noooooo... it was awesome. That's all. Just beautiful. After six or seven Cirque performances, you're used to the jaw-dropping acrobatic stunts, and the superb performances.. but the costumes! The lighting! The style and design of it all.. it was so impressive.

So, when you see one of those big Corteo billboards (if they're coming to your town, you will), just know that their little advertisement drawing doesn't do the show any justice whatsoever. It's a gorgeous show. I wouldn't say it has the most amazing stunts (not that the stunts aren't fantastic -- just that other shows are stronger in that area), but it is on the top of the list for Cirque beauty. There are some visuals in Corteo that make you think giddy thoughts like, "Wow, why isn't the world like this all the time?" and "I feel like the luckiest kid on earth! This is like a fairy tale!"

So, go see it. It's expensive (all Cirque shows are, and it's only getting worse), but I have to say ... it's worth it. (Not that I paid for it, because it was a Christmas present from Jesse... but you know what I mean)

...and now we move on to the part of the post I like to call, "the rest of my weekend" -- the other 48 hours of the weekend, as compared to the 3 hours of Cirque du Soleil, will only take 2/5 the number of words (the blog police can test me):

Jesse and I got up on Saturday and I made chocolate chip waffles for breakfast -- "woah, chocolate chip waffles?" you might ask.. to which I would answer, "yes, they were yummy, and I even dusted them with powdered sugar. how very domestic of me." Then we went to Santa Cruz to buy a new "alumni" license plate frame for my car, and to have linner out on the wharf, perched up over the water. Pretty! Followed by some hardcore couch-potatoing and then bed. Sunday, we woke up and headed over to a Cingular Wireless store, where they proceeded to tell us that a Motorola Razr phone would cost us our life savings unless we needed a new contract, so we left. Then we shopped at Target a little and came home to do laundry and make veggie corn dogs for dinner. I also took a bath (very european) and did my self review for work, two weeks late. Now you're all caught up on my weekend. Happy Monday!

Pretty Good Day

I worked really late last night -- didn't go to bed until 3:45am. But that was my punishment for not getting much done at work yesterday. I don't know what it is about my mind or body or whatever, but I love to work late at night. It's satisfying, I get a lot done, I can concentrate, I enjoy it. Anyway, I'm getting a lot done today at work, too. But that's because I have to. Have to. I turned down an invite to go out to lunch -- just hangin' out at my desk...

...because I'm going to see Cirque du Soleil's Corteo tonight with Jesse! Woohoo! It was one of his Christmas presents to me. I'm really excited to get out and see live performers, hear live music, and generally to be really content.

So I'm leaving work early today in order to get there on time. I have a lot to get done before then, so I'll bid you, my blog-reading audience, adieu. I wish you well, and I hope you're also having a pretty good day.

New rule.

Identify yourself if you comment on this blog!

It came to my attention that a few of my friends actually read my blog. Yet only one or two people comment. It occurred to me that maybe it was because I only allow Blogger users to comment here. So today, I changed the settings -- now non-Bloggers can comment. But you must tell me who you are. =) Even if that means emailing me with your special symbol or something.. I don't know.. something. =)

But, in other news, I'm thrilled that new "anonymous" people are lingering and commenting. Makes it worth my while to write. Welcome, anonnymooses!

And that's that.

I went to my follow-up appointment today for the ol' wisdom teeth extraction thing. The doctor was happy with the condition of the "area of surgery." He seemed concerned to find out if I had any numbness in my lip, chin or tongue. Apparently, my bottom wisdom teeth roots were so long that they had tangled around the nerve that leads to my lower lip. He seemed very relieved that I am experiencing no numbness whatsoever. That said, I believe that I am the most relieved one here. =) So anyway, he showed me my teeth (apparently they keep the patient's teeth if they are unusual in any way) and checked my mouth and then I was outta there!

That means it's done! Aside from the fact that I still have open wounds in my mouth, I'm doing very well. Almost no pain at all, except for the occasional chewing-induced ache, cured easily by Advil. All's well.

I'll say it again: go get your wisdom teeth removed. =)

It's Pink Flower Day!

Pink flowers! Specifically, gorgeous long-stem pink roses! Valentine's Day should be my favorite holiday, with all the pink!

This morning, my friend Mark presented me with two beautiful long-stem pink roses. I was touched! I couldn't figure out why Mark was giving me pink flowers.. He's a prankster, though, and made light of it. About an hour later, my friend Chelsea presented me with an identical pair of roses. Of course, then I was totally suspicious. Chelsea said that Mark put her up to it. Then some time passed.. there was a meeting, and lunch, and sitting around and working and all, and then I decided to call Jesse and poke at him and see what he would tell me.

Although Jesse hasn't admitted anything, I can't imagine why else I would have received two more identical pairs of roses this afternoon from friends Sharlene and Katie, bringing my current total to eight.

...Rob just dropped by with a suspiciously similar set. Total = ten.

...David just dropped by with the sixth identical set. Total = one dozen!!

And they all just say the same thing, "Happy Valentine's Day, Amanda!" and walk away.

So, Dear Diary, I'll keep you updated...