May 3, 2004A bathroom makeover
After taking our time, (and waiting for enough Bed, Bath & Beyond coupons!) we finally finished collecting all the accessories needed to give our bathroom a makeover. It's the only room that had remained the same since we moved to Richmond, and it was time for a new look. And now it coordinates with our bedroom. :)
 |  |
Posted by Olivia at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
Find me in: Home Life
May 3, 2004Say hello to my Tungsten E
After going almost a week without my Visor, due to it's unfortunate accident, I decided I had to replace it. With Jeff's suggestion, I was looking at the new Palm Zire 31, but once I saw it in person, was not impressed. The casing felt and looked very cheap, like a couple of plastic pieces just snapped together. The Zire 72 was a little better, with some sort of cool rubbery surface. But it cost a little more than what I was prepared to spend.
After pondering and spending way too much time walking around CompUSA, I made the snap decision to go with the Tungsten E, of Palm's professional line. It looks really cool with it's chrome casing, yet has all the functionality I need. All the familiar buttons at the bottom, plus a bright color screen make it just perfect! I love my new toy!!
Posted by Olivia at 1:32 AM | Comments (1)
Find me in: All About Me
May 5, 2004Shanaynay Rocks!
Pictures courtesy of The Shania Twain SupersiteAwesome.
Anyone who didn't make it to the Shania concert last night missed a great show. Despite the fact she still getting over a cold, and played a shortened set list, it was still a great concert. I've never seen a performer interact with the audience as much as she did.
But starting from the beginning: We got there and were in our seats by 6:30. Emerson Drive started right at 7, which was surprising. They were really good and I actually knew more of their songs than I thought. They only played for about 30-45 minutes and at 8 Shania came out.
But she couldn't just walk up to the stage. Nooo, they used the first of several diversion tactics used throughout the show to get her up there. A giant cylinder-like screen thing was lowered and when the music started she, or what appeared to be her, showed up as a shadow in the tube, dressed very similarly to her Man! I Feel Like A Woman! video.
When the screen lifted, she was nowhere to be found! But then she came bouncing up from our side (she played in the round) and onto the stage. So here's the set list as posted by someone else who was at the concert:
Man! I Feel Like A Woman!
Up!
Honey, I'm Home
Forever And For Always
Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?
Medley: When/You Win My Love/Come On Over/I'm Holdin' On To Love (To Save My Life)
You're Still The One
I'm Gonna Getcha Good!
The Woman In Me (Needs The Man In You)
That Don't Impress Me Much
(If You're Not In It For Love) I'm Outta Here
Any Man Of Mine
Rock This Country
The second set started with Forever and Always after a wardrobe change. The Woman in Me began with with the keyboards. They had the lights and camers focused on the keyboard player for a long intro and when Shania began singing she was sitting up with the audience! Apparently this is something she does at every concert. That was really cool.
After making her way back to the stage she brought the Harvest Foods donation drawing winner up on stage. (For $1 you could enter to win the chance to go up on stage and have your picture taken during the concert). Ended up being a fairly elderly gentleman who really got the crowd going when he said "I've never been so happy."
She then scouted the audience, and the many signs, for someone who knew all the words to a song. Two girls holding this huge banner that said "Pick us. We know all the words!" got to go up, but of course, didn't know the words to You're Still The One. So she sent them on their way and had another audience member come up and sing with her.
Oh, and during (If You're Not In It For Love) I'm Outta Here the Powhatan High School drum corps got to come on stage and play with the band. She never introduced them, but I found it in some news article.
Like I said, this was a very interactive show, from the guys manning the lights getting crowd cheers as they climbed up the rope ladders before the show, to the autographs, to the fireworks and confetti at the end.
So even though it was a short show (hour and a half) it was well worth it and I would definitely go again.
Posted by Olivia at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)
Find me in: Chit Chat
May 7, 200422 Questions
Stolen from XbabyK's blog which I found by looking through the 'Hawaii' blogs on the Globe of Blogs site.
1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down what it says:
If you have an empty conference room and interested co-workers, organize aerobic dance classes after business hours.
Title of Book:
WorkCare: a working person's guide to life balance
2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first?
Telephone
3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
Friends finale :(
4. Without looking, guess what time it is.
Oops, already looked.
5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
5:34pm
6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
Counting Crows, traffic going by, Umm..that's it cause I'm the only one here.
7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
2:30. Coming back in from lunch.
8. Before you came to this website, what did you look at?
My company's intranet site, looking at my department's calendar.
9. What are you wearing?
Jeans, black shirt, sandals and a sweater. It's freakin cold in here!
10. Did you dream last night?
Probably, but not that I can recall.
11. When did you last laugh?
A few minutes ago.
12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
Ah, the teal fabric of my cube walls. One has papers held up by clips, a calendar, and a coat hanger, the rest just have furniture against them.
13. Seen anything weird lately?
All the time. The most disturbing is the hand found on a golf course in an article Chris shared with me.
14. What do you think of this quiz?
Kinda fun.
15. What is the last film you saw?
Umm..uhhh...
16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?
A heater!!
17. Tell me something about you that I don't know.
I always wear polish on my toenails.
18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
Make everyone realize that we're going to destroy this planet if we keep living the way we do.
19. Do you like to dance?
Most of the time.
20. George Bush: is he a power-crazy nutcase or someone who is finally doing something that has needed to be done for years?
No comment.
21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
Umm.
22. Would you ever consider living abroad?
Yes.
Posted by Olivia at 5:39 PM | Comments (4)
Find me in: Questions to Ponder
May 12, 200410 Things
Here are some more fun questions for ya'll to read (and answer yourself!)
10 THINGS I LOVE
1. Family/Friends
2. Pets/Animals
3. Pictures/Scrapbooking
4. Chick flicks
5. The smell of fresh cut grass
6. The beach
7. Tivo
8. Candy
9. Vanilla Coke
10. My computer & handheld
9 THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO
1. Seeing my family
2. Getting married
3. Going to Hawaii
4. Having all the wedding planning behind us!
5. A nice relaxing weekend
6. The grass in our backyard growing
7. Finding dining room chairs
8. Did I mention going to Hawaii? :)
9. Going home (as opposed to being at work)
8 THINGS THAT I WEAR DAILY
1. Clothes
2. Deoderant
3. Glasses
4. Engagment ring
5. Toenail polish
6. Watch
7. Blistex
8. Necklace (most days)
7 THINGS I FIND ANNOYING
1. Small talk
2. Crumbs; on the floor, in the butter, on the table, doesn't matter
3. Ticking clocks
4. Jingling change/keys
5. Headaches
6. Talking with mouth full
7. Vibrating phones, pagers, etc
6 THINGS I TOUCH EVERYDAY
1. Bed
2. Glasses
3. Gizmo
4. Purse
5. Lotion bottle
6. Computer
5 THINGS THAT ARE ALWAYS ON MY MIND
1. My family
2. Friends
3. Wedding
4. Finances
5. Health-mine and others
4 PEOPLE I WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME WITH
1. Parents & brother
2. Grandparents
3. Friends from college who live far and not so far away
4. Friends from high school who live far away
3 MOVIES I COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER AGAIN
1. When Harry Met Sally
2. Save the Last Dance
3. Untamed Heart
2 MUSIC GROUPS/PERFORMERS I'VE SEEN LIVE
1. Alabama
2. Shania Twain
1 THING YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME
1. I can still play the song we did for our fourth grade recorder concert. By memory.
Posted by Olivia at 10:23 AM | Comments (6)
Find me in: All About Me , Questions to Ponder
May 24, 20041 nasty tick, tons of rocks, and 1 dead fan later we're home
Ahhhh...it sure is good to be home.
After work on Friday Jeff and I packed up all our camping (and offroading) gear and headed out to Bridgewater. We were off to the woods for a little offroading and camping with a group of CustomTacos folk.
The plan was to meet up with a couple of CT guys later that night to hang out at their campsite for a bit. We briefy chatted with the Pollards then went on what ended up being a wild goose chase to find them. Two hours later after driving down the dark trail in the rain we finally gave up. Turns out they ended up having to camp further from the road than planned, so we couldn't see the trucks or tents in the dark.
While getting ready for bed back at the Pollard's house I discovered a nasty little tick had somehow found it's way onto me. That is by far one of the grossest things ever. And it took forever to get off! Ew. Gross. I'm still not sure where it came from. We never open the windows or got out of the truck during our seach in the woods that night. But as I was walking into work today I remembered that on Friday I had walked down to the bridge over the creek that runs behind our building here. And quite possibly picked it up then. Even grosser. So anyways, onto more pleasant subjects.
So I didn't get much sleep Friday night and even debated on going with Jeff. But in the end I gave in and faced my fears. We met up with the non-Friday night camping group and a few of Jeff's high school buddies at 11am Saturday. Our group of 7 caravaned up into the mountains, passing by a group of 20-25 Jeeps we figured we'd be meeting up with on the trail later. Which I think we did, but thankfully not all at once! And luckily, the Friday night campers came out of the woods and met us by the road (and by road I mean paved).
With ten trucks we descended upon the woods with full force. The guys seemed to have a blast showing off. We'd stop at the more challenging and/or interesting spots to take some pictures and movies.
I was able to handle all the bumping around a little better this time. Still ended up with a bit of a stiff neck, but that could just be from sleeping on the ground.
We ran into some pretty interesting sites along the way: a Ford Excursion had gotten itself completely stuck in the mud and ended up with 3 flat tires. Jeff's friend Daniel, in the silver Land Rover helped tow him out. And on the trail up to the campsite there was an old car sitting very close to the endge of the cliff. Not really sure why it was there...curious.
Around 6:30 or so when we were hitting the second area of trails for the day, Jeff and I notice an odd smell, much like racing fuel. Neither one of us thought too much more about it until smoke began pouring out of the AC vents and from under the hood. The guy riding behind us (Jimmy) was on the radio in an instant telling us to stop, but we were already halfway out of the truck.
Turns out Jeff's dual electric fan that he'd install was having...issues. One fan was completely fried; the wires were crispy. Not to mention a blade was bent. After much debate and everyone crowding around to check it out, the decision to hard wire the second fan to the battery (the relay for the fan was also inoperable) and continue on, was made.
Despite this setback, the truck did pretty well. We had to stop once to let the engine cool off a little, and we ran the heat occassionally to help it out, but we were still able to make it up the mountain to Meadow Knob, which became our camping spot.
Before it got dark we set up camp and got the fire (somewhat) started. With the extra help of Jeff's lungs, the fire finally grew. Dinner was simple, hot dogs over the fire. And chips. And chips. And chips. And...oh yeh, someone brought waaay to many bags of chips. Ha ha!
It was so dark out there, that even with the light from the fire we could see tons of stars out in full force. While the guys talked truck I dozed off and on in the cool mountain air and heat from the fire. About 1:30 we finally gave in and went to bed.
Sleeping was not so comfortable. The ground was extremely hard, it was just cool enough to want some cover, but warm enough that the sleeping bag was too much. And I was still paranoid about bugs. I don't think either of us slept much, the first time I checked my watch it was 7:10, the sun was out and the wind was whipping the tent around like crazy. By 8:10 we'd had enough of the hard ground and decided to get up.
Most everyone was already awake, so we munched on some bagels before packing up camp and hitting the trails again. This trail was one we had done last time so we found some familiar hills and mud puddles to play in. Got some really good pictures at both spots.
Shortly after 12 we found the paved road again. A couple of us continued down the mountain to head out and the rest went up another trail. If Jeff's fan wasn't ghettofied we probably would have kept going, but we didn't want to push our luck so we headed back to the Pollards. We were able to clean up a bit before having to drive home.
So we hit the road about 3:30. When we got back, Jeff starting working on the fan; he replaced the aftermarket electric fan with the regular factory clutch fan. Good thing he usually keeps the factory parts he takes off the truck! While he did that I rescued Gizmo, unloaded the truck, unpacked, and started washing all the campfire smoke-filled clothes. It took some teamwork to get the truck de-muddied, but it looks pretty good now.
We had some dinner, then, with the Pollards recommendation, caught a late showing of Shrek 2. Very funny; lots of movie and other fairy tale references. And don't foget to sit through some of the credits before leaving. There's always something extra. By the time we got home I was exhausted. Too much bouncing, sun, and lack of sleep. I know it sounds crazy, but we really did have a good time. :)
Posted by Olivia at 5:13 PM | Comments (4)
Find me in: The Garage
May 28, 2004TPS Reports anyone?
As I'm sitting here complaining to Brian about my boredom it suddently occurred to me that the task I have chosen to accomplish today is essentially putting a cover on a TPS Report.
Change out the TPS Report for an IAT Report and you've got it. Oy.
What have I become? A drone in the cubicle of life. No, a drone in the cubicle of Accounting. That's more like it.
And what's even worse, I decided to make up this stupid cover sheet on my own. It's for work that only I (and maybe 1 other person) will even have to look at.
So why am I doing it? Because in the end it will make my job (which often involves research) easier.
Doing more work makes things easier. Hmp.
Posted by Olivia at 4:56 PM | Comments (1)
Find me in: Working Girl Blues