September 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Mom and I went and saw Mamma Mia! this evening. It was pretty funny, but the funniest part was actually a comment my mom made toward the end. So, it's like twilight and the girl is singing and the shot is a side silhouette of her with the wind blowing from her back to the front and it's making her shirt move out some. My mom goes, "she's becoming pregnant right before our eyes!" And I just start busting a gut. Even now just thinking about it I'm chuckling. And then because I'm laughing way more than my mom expected, she starts laughing, and we're cracking up during a non-funny part of the movie, at least to everyone else. So the other people in the theatre were probably like, "what are those crazy ladies laughing at?" But I thought it was seriously hilarious. ;)
Yesterday I just vegged around the house, as did my mom. We deserved it. Dad deserved it too, but sadly he had to go to work. :/ Anyway, on Sunday we were all doing chores. I steam vaced the whole house. Well, I have a couple small spots to do still where I have to move furniture around, but it was still a lot of work. It just takes forever because you have to move fairly slowly over every spot to vacuum up as much of the cleaning solution as you can so the carpet will dry faster. Our carpet's all nice and clean and pretty now though. :)
Now I think I'll have a snack. It may seem late to be eating something to most people being that it's 10:40 at night, but when you were up till four in the morning the night before and slept until about two this afternoon, it's still fairly early in the day for me. ;)
Saturday, September 27, 2008
I still want to go up to B.C. and see the Boys again, however, it's not sounding likely now. Emily had to go and point out that the weather will probably be bad for the trip, which is now a big deterrent for me. I looked at the map online and I'd have to cross over the Cascades in B.C. to get to the place, which means snow and possible delays or closures of the pass. Blarg. It's not a complete and official no yet, but it's definitely leaning that way. I'll see how much the tickets are and calculate the cost and think about it some more. Or, the Boys could just come somewhere closer to me, too. ;) lol
Last night I talked to Sam for a while on the phone since she headed back to England today and it's much cheaper for me to call Canada. Heh. We had a good little chat, and thought up some possibilities for the time between when she graduates and when the masters program she wants to do starts, including me going to live and work in England for like six months. Depends on how much the work permit would cost. lol I looked up some stuff online today and in a month or two England's introducing a new system for the work permits and there's one I might be eligible for. They don't have all the details up right now since it's not launched yet, but I'm qualified for some parts and since I would be there six months or less I wouldn't need a visa (or so the site said), which would be nice. It's all in the thinking stage right now, but it would be so cool if it worked out. :)
Today I got to get started on chores. Since my parents have decided we're going to sell our house soon (though it's not decided for sure where we'd move yet), that means we have to get the house spotless and keep it that way constantly. Joy. lol So, today I started cleaning windows, which isn't fun, but oh well. Tomorrow I'll be assigned more tasks as well. I shouldn't complain at all though since my parents are still letting me live with them, and for cheap, too. ;)
I was just going to check a couple of things online and then go to sleep, but now I am freaking out! The Boys have added more tour dates for this fall!!! *freaks* Not sure if they're going to add some more aside from the ones on their site right now, but there's already two in B.C. and I'm sorely tempted to shell out the cash and go to the closer one. Even started looking at hotel prices in the area. I know, I'm nuts. It would be way easier if, you know, they decided to come to Washington again, or even Oregon or Idaho or something... c'mon Boys! Okay, I somehow have to settle down now so I can get to sleep. Wish me luck.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
I have witnessed change. Kenny came over this evening so we could celebrate his birthday. We had a nice dinner and good conversation among all of us as well. Kenny and I have been getting along much better within recent years, which in itself is amazing (when our parents got married he took out a lot of things on me), but this evening he said something that rather shocked me. We were talking about jobs and such and he was saying I should get myself a fancy job so I could have money to travel. lol But anyway, I said I wasn't qualified for any of the jobs I'd be interested in and the alternative would be phone customer service/support which I wouldn't be the best person for. Then he said, "you underestimate yourself." Woah. A major compliment from my step-brother. Basically he said he thinks I'm intelligent, talented, etc. with that statement. Never saw it coming. Then my mom was agreeing and I was just sitting there with no response. I'm aware that it's likely true that I underestimate myself, but having someone tell me that doesn't automatically change it.
Yesterday mom took me shopping so I could look for shoes again. She's offered to barter with me: I do extra cleaning around the house, she buys me new shoes. The reason she offered was because I'm not willing to pay much for a new pair of shoes and she thinks that maybe I should go for a nicer pair. Well, I tried to look at some of the more expensive shoes--maybe I should qualify here that I think over $25 is expensive--and I even tried some on, but no luck. The ones I tried on didn't feel quite right (or not good enough to warrant spending a lot on them), and then some were just too expensive for me to bother trying on. I wasn't going to touch anything $50 or more. Because of the way my feet are, I wear down certain parts of the shoe pretty quick and then they start causing pain (like my current pair), and I need new ones. I don't want to spend a lot of money on something that likely won't last as long as it should, or at least would for other people. I do really need new shoes though, so I may just have to cave.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Yesterday my parents, my Aunt, Emily and I went to the Puyallup Fair. We were going to see Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman in concert in the evening, but why not make a day of it, right? We ended up leaving later than originally planned and made a few pit stops that took a while on the way, so we didn't actually get to the fair until sometime after three, I think. Emily and I split from the adults and wandered off to check out the rides and stuff.
Our first ride was called Ghost Pirates, and, well, it was really lame. REALLY lame. We sat in a little cart and went into a black room where a very poorly lit pirate skeleton popped up and something was said, though the audio was so bad we couldn't make it out. Then dark and another pop-up, then repeat about four more times. And that was it. Yeah, waste of tickets. I wasn't supposed to be allowed to pick out any more rides after that debacle, but I actually ended up picking up the rest. Of course, I would have preferred some others, but Emily said nothing that flipped her or spun her, which would have been the really fun ones! But, there was a wooden roller coaster that we ended up going on twice because that was pretty fun. It was a much longer ride than it looked to, and for what it was was very good. Emily kept her eyes closed most of the time and was gripping the handle bar, yet she says she wants to go to Disneyland with me next time I go. lol She'd better become less scared before then. ;) Oh, and the other ride we went on I'm not sure how to describe, but that one scared her, too, whereas I felt both were quite tame. *shrugs* But I've been on a lot more theme park rides in my life than she has in hers, too.
We walked around through some of the vendor areas, too, but actually didn't buy anything other than some snack food. Mad props to us. We only spent money on ride coupons and food, that's not bad. And my parents were very generous and paid for both of our concert tickets, which included admission to the fair. Oh, and Emily was actually going to go on Extreme Scream (shoots you up and drops you down ride) with me, but then we found out the ride didn't take coupons and was $10 per person! Heck no!
We got into the concert area and found our seats just a few minutes before announcer people came out to start the show. The Ticketmaster guy my mom got the tickets from had said that our seats were going to be on an inner aisle to one of the far side sections of the field, but it turned out we were on the very edge. It reminded me of the original seats Tammy and I had for the Boys' Never Gone tour where we could only see the first foot of the stage, though this time wasn't quite as bad. Thankfully, I didn't have the chance to get grumpy during the show because, unlike the Boys, both Mr. Chapman and Mr. Smith stayed up at the front of the stage pretty much their whole sets.
Steven Curtis Chapman was on first and started with a popular worship song that we sing in church all the time. I can't remember which one because I'm not good at retaining all those particular details (set list, etc.). I didn't know about half the songs he sang, as they were newer and I don't listen to the radio, but the others I knew at least the chorus to, and they were good ones. :) He also shared a lot of his recent personal experiences with us (the death of one of his daughters earlier this year), which I really appreciated hearing. I feel so much for him and his family and what they've gone through and it was great to hear his testimony. I felt blessed by some of his words, and love was just pouring at him from all of us in the audience. I continue to pray that God will bless his family.
Michael W. Smith also performed a number of worship songs that we sing at church, and some newer stuff I was not familiar with. I had really been hoping he'd sing some of his older material, which I really like, such as "Picture Perfect," and Emily had been hoping to hear "Place in this World," but he didn't perform either of those. He mentioned during the show how he felt very blessed to be releasing his 21st CD though, so obviously there wouldn't have been enough time in the show to sing everything. lol He did some of his songs that I really like though, so that was nice, and he also shared some testimony as well.
It was really nice to see them both in one night live. They're the first two Christian artists I ever really started listening to. That would have been when I was in elementary school, too, so it was a while ago (not to say they're terribly old or anything, lol). I've also got some good memories tied up in some of the songs, mostly from times I was babysitting a brother and sister, Tommy and Sara, of a couple from our church. Lots of fun dancing around their house to songs from both Mr. Smith and Mr. Chapman. Everyone had a great time, and the place was packed, which was pretty powerful to see.
After the concert we ran into some people from church, including a lady named Tracy that used to help out the youth group when I was in high school. I haven't seen her for a while since she doesn't attend our church anymore, so it was a nice surprise to see her. :)
Today was church in the morning, and Emily ended up coming with us for the first time, which was cool. :) Then we all went out to lunch afterward before Emily and I went to check out a writing group. However, lunch made us late and so we ended up just going over to her house to watch DVDs instead. lol Anything to procrastinate the writing. ;) So bad. Anyway, I had her watch the Don Friesen DVD we have and she agreed that he's hilarious. Then we watched Thunderbirds because, surprisingly, Emily really likes that movie. I'm sort of sworn to secrecy not to reveal that, but I'm pretty sure she just meant to people she actually knows. lol Her parents invited me to stay for dinner, so I did. Then I came home where I haven't accomplished anything. Haha.
Friday, September 19, 2008
First off, a shout out to my cousin Jessica who left a comment on my last entry. I just gave her this address so now she can keep tabs on me. ;) lol Hey Jess! *hug*
Yesterday morning mom and I went to a little jewelry show (you know, hosted at someone's house) for the very first time. Neither of us had been to one of those before, though mom used to do Tupperware parties, so it's similar. New for me though, and it felt nice to get an invite since I'm younger and whatnot. It was hosted by a very nice lady from church, who also happens to be the mother of one of my former co-workers at the theatre and, funny enough, the wife of one of the guys who's site I'm currently re-doing. Anyway... we were actually there for two hours, and there were some very nice pieces and most of it wasn't quite so expensive as mom and I thought it might be. I even bought Christmas presents for Sam, which she'll hopefully like. :)
After the party, I got myself a sandwich and then went into Starbucks for an Italian soda where I ran into an old co-worker from last years Christmas-time job. She was there with a lady who's working at that store now so I chatted with them for a while. They're very poorly treated by corporate, even more so now than when I was there. I'm surprised the one girl hasn't quit, but I suspect it's because she needs the job, which corporate probably also knows and is using against her and the others. I encouraged them to complain higher up in the company and see if some issues can get addressed.
After I got home and ate, I got back to work on the coding for that site. Then I showed my mom and asked what she thought and shegoes, "that part doesn't look very good--it doesn't look very professional." Rawrg. So I asked her what she thought it should look like, and I thought that would make it worse than it was. I needed to go down to the theatre so I put off sending it to the clients (good thing, too) before I left.
Broke down a movie at the theatre and then went by the library to pick up one item and see what books on eagles they had (for story research/ideas). I found a few promising looking ones and began a nice stack in my arms. Also looked for and found a couple of books for my mom that she wanted me to get, so by the time I checked out, I had quite the little stack. I checked my online account earlier and realized I've got 12 items checked out right now and like four more that are on hold and likely to come in soon. I need to read like mad man. Oh, and then as I was leaving, I ran into that same old co-worker whom I'd seen at Starbucks earlier. Funny. Just said a brief hi that time though.
When I got home I had an idea for how to fix the layout so it'd be a compromise between what mom wanted and what I thought looked better. When she came to look she said it still didn't look good! *head/desk* I didn't have a lot to work with. They said they wanted it to look pretty much the same as it currently is, I'm just making it so it won't be in frames anymore. I decided it was better and refused to change it any further unless the clients request it. lol So, anyway, I finally get the DIVs and CSS all nice and pretty and everything's good. Then I go to check it in Internet Explorer and it's all messed up. I can't believe I ever liked that browser! FireFox is WAY nicer and displays things better, including PNG files (see post from last week). So yeah, that took an extra 20 or more minutes of fiddling with the code so that it would look the same in both browsers. My code looks horrible now (IE was adding extra paragraph spacing to list items that were typed on new lines, as is proper, so I had to make that bit all one single line for IE to display it properly), but the page looks the way it's supposed to, and the code should still validate (actually forgot to run it again when I finished the tweaking). Stayed up rather late doing that, but got e-mails off to the clients, one of which I heard from today who likes how it's coming along, but wants me to use a different picture in the layout. I only had three that weren't that good to choose from, so I told him that and asked if he had other pictures, could take one, or wanted me to take one for it. At least he also said there's not a big hurry. Not that I want to take forever finishing it, but I will be busy this weekend and not able to work on it.
This afternoon I was back at the theatre building a movie this time. It went pretty fast, which was nice. Then I came home and found that I had some free time! I'd done most of my chores before I'd left (mom said I could put the last one off for a bit, wee!), so I got on my computer. Sam came online so we talked for quite a while, with a break for each of us in between. lol It's been a little while since we've had a good chat, so that was very nice. :)
And now I must be off. I think I'll watch tonight's Atlantis episode since I elected to talk to Sam longer instead of watching it, plus we always tape it anyway. lol Then I'll have to try and be good and go to sleep right after that. Even with waking up earlier most of the days this week, I've still managed to stay up crazy late. Apparently my clock is weird. ;)
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
This week has been rather full for me. Sunday was church, as normal, but afterward I had to stay for a training session on the new software for displaying lyrics, verses, and message points on the projector. I got pizza out of the deal, and it wasn't super long, which was nice. Mark was doing the training, and last Tuesday he'd asked me if I had downloaded the free trial of the software and done any of the tutorials for it. Ha ha, that's funny! Of course I didn't. Told him so, too. I didn't figure it would be that complicated--I generally pick up on that kind of stuff fairly quick--and I was right. It's pretty point and click and despite having gotten only four hours of sleep the night before, I was really on the ball. Mark's not super familiar with the program himself, so there were a few times he was trying to remember how to do things and I ended up figuring it out. One of the other people there learning remarked that I was smart and that made me feel good. At the end Mark asked again if I was going to download the software. *shakes head*
Monday was a fun adventure day. :) Emily and I were talking over the weekend saying we needed to go do something fun. I threw out going to the zoo and it was decided! We spent about five and a half hours at the Woodland Park Zoo, traversing the whole thing. We were quite excited to see the wolves moving about when we got to them. I can't remember seeing them at all the last few times I've gone there, but we caught them just before they decided to lay down for another afternoon nap. ;) We also shelled out the cash to feed a giraffe, which was pretty darn cool. It was definitely up close and personal. We first fed him some leaves and then pieces of romaine lettuce, which is what Emily is feeding him in the picture. When he ate the leaves on my little sprig, he slobbered some on my hand. It was quite funny. Oh, and speaking of funny... earlier we went through the butterfly sanctuary thing to take pictures, and I freaked out at the end. I thought I was the only one, but Emily's also not a big fan of butterflies, agreeing with me that they look too much like moths. But, they do make some nice macro pictures and the colors on their wings are cool. So, we took pictures, and then went to leave. We checked each other to make sure no butterflies were on us before we walked out, as you're supposed to, and then one whizzed right by my face and I freakin' jumped back. I bet the people standing near us thought I was a nut. I caught it in my peripheral vision though and it was close and I couldn't help it.
We also went to the raptor talk, which was really interesting. I was hoping to hear more about eagles since I've a story involving them, but they didn't touch on them much (so I bought the eagles issue of Zoobooks from the gift shop before we left). I did jot down a few notes that could possibly be used in my story though, and I learned a really fun fact about turkey vultures. Since they're purely scavengers, God has equipped them with an amazing digestive/immune system. They can eat diseased carcasses and they won't get sick like other animals (or us humans) would. And, their waste is clean afterward so they actually help prevent the spread of diseases. Therefore, vultures are cool.
When we were in the nocturnal exhibits, I tried to take a picture of a bat because I think they're cute (the big ones that have fluffy fir), but I couldn't stay steady enough. There's no flash photography in there because it would freak out the animals, so I attempted some pictures with my flash off, but even using a column for support and the image stabilization on my lens, I just couldn't keep from moving too much. *sigh* Oh well.
After I dropped Emily off at home, I ended up going with my parents to walk through some model houses again. My mom and I have a great time going through model houses, but dad got bored pretty quick. We all agreed on the model we liked best, but we're still not sure if we'll decide to do it, though it's looking like a good probability at this point. It's a pretty big house, and two stories. I have never lived in a two story house, so that'd be different. But man, my room would have a big walk-in closet and I'm totally okay with that! Big selling points for my mom were a huge kitchen and pantry. Anyway, we setup an appointment to visit the showroom the next day before leaving.
Yesterday morning I had an appointment with two guys from church about updating their website for them. It went very well. Basically, I'm keeping the general layout it's currently got, but pulling it out of frames and making it look a bit cleaner and nicer, and then doing some updating of content as well as adding some forms. However, when I started working on it this evening I realized there could be a problem. Their site's currently hosted on a Windows server so I can't use PHP for the forms. But then I was looking at their host's site and it says you can use PHP run as CGI, but when I uploaded a little test PHP file, no dice. So, I guess I'll have to contact the host and find out if I'm needing to do something special or what. Then I had to question if I should use XHTML or normal HTML because they're going to be using icky FrontPage to update the site content in the future, and it's an older version of the program. I guess, to play it safe, I'd best just code it in standard HTML. It's not a big deal except that I'm so used to XHTML now that I'll have to stop myself from closing tags I don't need to in standard HTML. But back to yesterday...
In the afternoon, after the meeting, my parents and I went to the showroom. The intent was to get a better idea of the final cost of the house plan we're looking at after adding all the features we'd want, etc. They had a lot of options for all sorts of things, except interior paint colors. The free colors are all white and off-white. EW! Mom and I are artists, we want actual colors. I mean, our current house has blue, teal, yellow, and magenta on the walls (the last two being in my room). I did find the area with the "premium" paint colors, but the selection was pretty small. I found two colors close to what I have now that could work, but I may decide to buy my own paint and do my room myself after the house is finished, again, if my parents decide to go for a new house.
We had dinner at Pizza Hut after going to the showroom, and then had to rush back for me to get get to group. At least I wasn't the only one there this time! One of the guys was already there when I arrived, and then a new guy came a bit later. So it was just me and three guys. Thankfully it's a much more mature situation than the theatre was, so it went quite well, minus Mark poking fun at me once toward the beginning. Gar. We're going to start a study of the book of James next week. Yesterday was the introduction to what we will be doing and what should have been a light topic got very heavy. I was holding back tears a few times. No way I'm crying at group. Uh uh. But I am really excited for this study, though it's going to come flying in my face. I also learned that Jesus had siblings. I always wondered about that, but since I haven't been good about reading the Bible on my own and haven't heard about it in any sermons, I didn't know. Rather interesting.
Today Speed Racer came in the mail! YAY! I have so missed that movie since we had it at the theatre. I watched it earlier this evening and it made me happy. Though, I must say, it was much better on the big screen than my tiny little TV. I ended up liking that movie a lot more than I'd ever have guessed. I like the story and, minus a few things, I actually really like the style they did the movie in. The colors are fabulous, transitions are very creative, etc., etc. It's fun, and I can't help saying "Go Speed Go!" :D
And now I fear I must be back to working on my new website job. I told them I'd send them a link for them to approve the layout "in the next day or two" which means I need to send them the link as soon as possible tomorrow, and I've got plans in the morning. Crazy. It's also already late. Crap. Gotta go!
P.S. Thanks to everyone who's left me compliments on this layout. :D Also, I forgot to mention in the original post, I named my flaming pegasus Jasper because it seemed to fit. ;)
Saturday, September 13, 2008
As you can see, I finished the new layout. Part of it went much faster than I anticipated, and another part took much longer than it should have. Beware, I'm about to be long-winded. ;)
As I said in my last entry, I had already finished the drawing I planned to use. I borrowed the book Draw 50 Horses by Lee J. Ames from the library (again), and followed the steps to draw a horse that I could turn into a pegasus with flaming wings. I did the sketch pretty fast while I was watching TV, which surprised me. I figured, however, that it would take quite a while to "ink" it in Photoshop (which I did with another piece of artwork a few months back). Wrong. Now that I've used the Pen tool enough times, it's easier and I inked the half-horse I drew in around 30 minutes. Since it went so fast, I figured I might as well go ahead and color it in while I was at it. Then I did the mane. Did that all Thursday evening.
Friday (yesterday) afternoon, I had to go down to the theatre and build The Women. Can't believe we're opening that. But, my mom and I will probably end up going because we haven't had a movie day out for a while and we're sort of desperate for one. lol Well, not desperate, but we really want to go do something. Besides, it's free for us both to watch this movie, so if it's that horrible, we can just get up and leave. *shrugs* But yeah, I already hate that movie without having seen it. Or, I should specify, I hate the print of it they gave us. Half of the reels were wound inside out, which meant I had to wind them on to different reels before I could put them on the platter making it take longer and making me nervous about possible issues. I got it done in about a half hour longer than normal, so that wasn't too bad, and no one called yesterday saying the movie was suddenly playing upside down with no sound, so hopefully that went okay. Haha.
After I got back home, I went to work on this layout again. I set to making the wings, which I did entirely in Photoshop (no pre-drawing of those). They ended up a little different than I visualized, but they look darn cool so no complaints there. ;) Then I decided the mane didn't look quite right so I touched that up into what it is now. It took me a few hours to get the wings done, but I was on a roll, so I just kept going... and stayed sequestered in my room the entire time our company was over. Oops. I'd meant to go have dinner with them, but each time I thought I'd pause, I kept going. No biggie though 'cause it was a couple from church and I'm sure they and my parents had a better time chatting without me. ;) By the time they left, I was done with all the graphics work and my stomach was none to happy with me.
After food and a TV movie, it was back to my computer to code! My goal was to use all DIVs and CSS like a good girl since tables are considered a no-no now. I've used DIVs/CSS for a few layouts before this, but this one was a little more complicated... at least, the original way I was going to do this layout. *sigh* You are viewing the "slightly less cool" version now (only slightly because my pegasus came out awesome, which is the main element in this layout). See, I had this cool line of flames that was going to go along the bottom of the page as a background and I was going to use PNG files to preserve transparency so the content could scroll over the flames, etc. It looked awesome in FireFox, but I was having some issues with one DIV not displaying properly. So, I put up a thread at the CodeGrrl Forums asking for help after hours of attempting to get it to behave on my own. It was VERY early in the morning by that time, so I gave up for the evening and shut down my computer. Before I went to bed, however, I decided to check the layout on my parents computer to see how it looked in IE. Crap. IE doesn't display PNG files correctly (die IE!) so everything that should have been transparent was light gray boxes. *shoulders slump in defeat* Too many people still use IE, so that was the end of the flames along the bottom. Here's what this layout would have looked like if IE wasn't stupid:
As you can see, it's the same as what's up, minus the flames along the bottom... but I really liked those. *sigh* Oh well, what's a girl to do? So, this evening when my parents and I returned home from our adventure looking at model houses, and mom and I had finished watching the Atlantis episode from last night, I re-sliced the layout saving everything as JPEGs and then got to coding. I sliced it a little better while I was at it and eliminated the potential of the problem that had kept me up till the wee hours of the morning in the process. Consequently, the coding went much faster this time, which was rather nice. :)
I'm quite happy with this layout and definitely proud of my pegasus. :D One of these days, I'll have to post the unicorn drawing I did via the same process of sketching on paper and doing the rest on the computer. I've also put holds on some more of the "Draw 50" series books, so hopefully I'll do some more and update the drawings page on this site. For now, though, I've accomplished my task and my tummy is telling me it's snack time, so I bid you all adieu.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Gosh, I really want to see the Backstreet Boys again. *sigh* Must be patient, though. I've a little hope that maybe they'll do some Christmas time radio shows this year like they did after the Never Gone tour, but I'm trying not to hold out too much hope so I don't get disappointed if it doesn't happen.
Since the concert things have been pretty quiet. My parents were on a little mini-vacation for a few days so I had the house all to myself. Watched a good number of movies in the wee morning hours. I didn't do much other than that, but I was quite proud of myself for accomplishing all the little chores my mom had assigned for me to do. Speaking of which... I get to do some more today. Joy. lol
Tuesday evening was a game night for the young adult group, but I was the only one who showed up! I had baked cookies, too, so Mark and I both ate more cookies than we ought to have. lol We played Super Nintendo for a little while, which I thought I might do okay with since it's the older side-scrolling type of game system like my Genesis, but that was not the case. We played Mario Cart first and I really sucked at that. Then we moved on to Super Mario Brothers 3, I believe, and I managed to beat two levels out of like... 15 or something. lol Hopefully the next game night will have at least a couple more people so I don't have to attempt video games again.
Lastly, I did work on some drawings the other day, one of which I've scanned and hope to use for a layout, so soon there may be a new look here. I've had this layout up since the beginning of January--I think it's time for a change. We'll see how inspired I am the next few days and how much I work on it. Heh.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
My right ear is still ringing, but last night was AWESOME! The Backstreet Boys have still got it, and more! *sigh* I really wish I could see the whole show again. I wrote out a long story earlier and I couldn't remember half the stuff that happened, but now I'm getting flashes of more of it back throughout the day, especially when talking to people about it. Here's a quick rundown of what I can remember at the moment (the memories come and go).
I got to the venue around four and had quite a bit of downtime. I ended up scrolling through the numbers on my cellphone looking for people to call. My cousin Steven called me back and right as we were about to say bye, some girls walked past me saying "they're coming." I look up and there's a tour bus pulling into the back parking lot. I went over to the gates with the other girls and stood toward the back. Brian waved at us from inside the bus, but I didn't really get to see him. Then, after they'd made us all clear out, another bus went by, but I didn't go back to the gate again. I was talking to Emily and standing out on the large grassy area in front of the main gate when the last tour bus came by. I told Emily I could see it, but that the windows were tinted so dark I couldn't see anything inside. And right after I said that, I see a hand waving at me from the passenger side of the bus at the front. I waved back, but I couldn't tell at all who the hand was attached to. Haha. Someone waved at me though. ;) And then I caught a glimpse of the driver and said to Emily, "Dude, AJ's driving the bus!" I think it was AJ anyway... either that or it was a guy that looked like him. lol
A while later Andrew finally got there. I made him a killer shirt that said "I should have been a Backstreet Boy" on the back. lmao Aw yeah! He loved it, which was awesome. We went "inside" (which would be inside the gate, but not into a building since it was outdoors--praise God for a beautiful day and no rain!) after that. I waited like 10 or 15 minutes to use the bathroom (only three stalls in one building surrounded by a whole bunch of port-a-potties that I didn't want to use unless I absolutely had to), and then after that we went and got food. Or, I should say, Andrew got food and I ate one of the granola bars I'd brought with me. He offered me some of his pizza, but I wasn't really hungry. While we were in the "food court" there was screaming and a bunch of girls massing by the fence off to the right of the stage. Turns out Aaron was on the other side and he was signing stuff that people held over the fence for him. Boy turned around before he got to me though. lol
I was alternately freaking out on the inside and then being calm and back again between when the opening act (that I missed almost all of--yay!) ended and the Boys came on. Baylee came out to introduce them and it was very cute. Hope they put good earplugs in his ears first though 'cause everyone screamed while he was out there. I couldn't understand most of what he said: something Backstreet Boys and rock. Too adorable though.
The Boys came out after that and I started to take pictures, but my camera was freaking out on me. I'd push down the button and it wouldn't actually take a picture. What the? I was like, I've always liked you camera, why are you doing this to me now? lol But, I still managed to get some really awesome pictures simply by taking as many pictures as I possibly could, knowing most of them wouldn't turn out, but that the more bad ones there were, the more good ones there'd be in turn. Haha. Fabulous philosophy, I know. I'm pretty happy because some of the pictures really are very nice, but I think I would have gotten a lot more good ones if my camera was behaving itself. It's not even that old and it's not like I bang it around against walls or anything. *shrugs* Whatever.
The Boys warned us pretty early in the show that anything might happen since it was the last night of the tour. The first thing that did happen is easily the most outrageous. AJ came out while Howie was doing his solo song in this flesh-colored unitard with rhinestones on it. Pretty much like the most freaky/scary thing I've seen, but I took a [blurry] picture anyway just because I had to have some proof to show people. lol Look at that one at your own risk though. ;)
AJ also got mildly electrocuted from his tambourine and wrapped up with glow-in-the-dark tape, the latter that Howie did, the former I'm not sure who was behind. Before Brian sang his solo, he asked us all if we had the Unbreakable album and of course we all screamed and raised our hands and he goes, "me too!" Hahaha. Then he went through the rest of the albums and the rest of the Boys popped out to help with the "me too's." *giggle*
Different crew members popped up on the stage a few times as well. One in a trash can while the Boys were singing "All I Have To Give." Then, a whole bunch came out while they were singing "The One" and attempted to follow along with the choreography behind the Boys. That was pretty funny 'cause they weren't very good. Haha. Some girl also go brought up on stage during the show and her boyfriend proposed to her. Aww. She said yes, of course, and then they got to have their picture taken with the Boys onstage.
Man, lots of stuff happened, but I can't remember it all at once. My "full story" write-up I did for the page in my concerts section here is really minimal because I couldn't conjure up hardly any of my memories from the show while I was typing it up earlier. Perhaps I'll try and flesh it out later. At the end, the crew sprayed silly string on all the guys, and Nick opened up a few water bottles that he proceeded to fling out onto all of us close to the stage. It was fairly cold after the show and so I put on my jacket and it was all damp and I thought to myself, "thanks Nick." lol
Oh, I so want to go again. Kind of wish I hadn't been responsible and decided that it was too much money to go up to the Vancouver show. *sigh* But, some other things ended up happening on the day that show was, so it's probably best that I didn't. I think I'll start saving now for the next tour though and try to go to as many shows as I can. Speaking of money... I actually didn't buy anything at the concert. I paid $5 for parking and then never cracked open my wallet again. *shock* First time I haven't bought stuff from the tour. Andrew and I walked over to see what they had and it might have been nice to have a program, but they were $20 and the line was really long, so I decided against it. Maybe I'll look on eBay in a few weeks and see if anyone got extras they're selling for cheap. Haha.
After the show, I ended up going to Denny's with Karen and her friend and we sat and talked and ate for a while. Nothing like pancakes at midnight, right? ;) At about one we parted ways and I got on the freeway to head home. A few minutes later, what do I see on the freeway in front of me? Why, one of the Boys' tour buses! lmao I'm sure none of them were in there, but it was funny as heck to see it. I seriously was cracking up in my car. Guessing someone was driving it back to wherever the Boys had rented it from.
All in all, it was an awesome night. I didn't get to meet the Boys, but someone waved at me and I had a lot of fun. Andrew really enjoyed the show too, and was fun to have there with me. Now I'm hoping maybe they'll do what they did after the Never Gone tour and come back for the radio's Christmas show. :D Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the show; the rest are on the page in the concerts section:
Monday, September 1, 2008
Today I went and had lunch with Karen. We had good fun chatting as we ate Mexican food. We talked about the Boys and concerts, of course, but also about other things and it was very nice. :) We weren't finished chatting by the time I was supposed to go meet Andrew to exchange ticket for cash, so Karen came with me. Took us freakin' forever to find a parking spot at the mall! Pish, holidays. lol At least with parking, anyway; I like most holidays otherwise. ;) We finally got a spot and then found Andrew.
After introductions and some sitting a chatting for a few minutes, Andrew broke open his wallet to pay up. ;) I pulled out the ticket to give to him and took the cash he offered. Then he held his hand out in a fist. I'm like, okay, people do that bump fist thing, alright. So, I bumped his fist with my right one. He goes no and my brain is confused and just puts up my other hand like I must have done it wrong 'cause I'm not down with the whole fist bumping thing--I like high-fives! lol He goes no again and says here. Turned out he had a fist full of quarters (paid me $5 worth of quarters along with the bills). Karen and he both got a good laugh out of that, and I joined in. Now I'm never gonna live it down though. Saturday the two of them are going to bring it up, I just know it! lmao
So the three of us chatted for a while, Andrew handed over the plain t-shirt he got for me to decorate, and then he had to go. Karen and I stopped for snacks on the way back to the car, and then the mission was on! Neither her nor I had every been to Marymoor Park before, which is where the concert is, so we decided to drive over and take a look. I was so proud of myself--I actually found it without any real trouble! And yay for signs with arrows. ;) The park is pretty big, but I followed the signs to the concert area. There was a self-pay parking machine, but we weren't even sure if we were going to do more than drive by, so I went past it and didn't pay... maybe I shouldn't have done that, but I'll come to that shortly.
We found a stage and the chairs and... yeah. I was expecting an outdoor venue similar to how the Ridgefield one had been for the Never Gone concert. There were concrete walls around it and a building behind the stage, etc. Not at Marymoor. There are no buildings. There's just a stage with grass behind it and grass (and some folding chairs) in front of it, all surrounded by your basic chain link fence with those little plastic strips woven through them. So not what either of us were expecting. And then, there were a lot of port-a-potties. Damn. I SO don't want to have to use one of those! At least there looked to also be an actual building bathroom in the midst of them, but I bet there will be lines for that. Suffice to say, it's a very low-budget place. Rather sad the fan draw isn't enough for them to play somewhere nicer. :( BUT... the fence was open so we walked in and I stood where my seats are and they're AWESOME!!!! They're just off center stage! *super happy grin* So while we were a little disappointed with the setup, the seats are good and we know the Boys will rock! :D
Now, the part about I should have paid for parking. It must have been bad karma or something. We walk back to my car after only being gone for no more than ten minutes, get in, and my car won't start. It didn't even try to turn over. *head/wheel* I was all like, don't do this to me now car! Not when Karen's with me! I tried a few more times, and still nothing. So, I called my dad and we agreed it was probably the batter again. Recall a while back that my old battery just up and died for no reason one day, because apparently it was a dud. I figured the same thing was happening again. I asked the closest guy for a jump and he graciously obliged. At first, my car still wouldn't even turn over. I'm starting to freak what's going on with my car and then Karen looks in from the passenger side and says, "shouldn't it be in park?" *head/desk* I'd left the car in drive when we stopped because at first we weren't sure if we were in the right spot or not or if we were going to get out. Then, when we decided, I pulled the parking break and turned off the car, but apparently forgot to put it into park. *head/desk (again)* Put it into park and it starts up. I thanked the guy for his help and then dropped Karen back off at her car after that. I turned off my car and then re-started it to see if it was just that I hadn't had the car in park the first time... it was. My car started up no problem. *sigh* Yes people, I'm a genius. At least I was able to laugh at it as we drove away from the park. I don't think Karen's gonna want me to drive us anywhere ever again though. lol
Sam gets to see the Boys live tomorrow night! YAY! Have lots and lots of fun Sam! Only five more days until I get to see them! :D Maybe after the concert I should put my car into drive again so it won't start and then the Boys would have to come help me, eh Karen? lmao
