Thursday, February 25, 2010

Trying it out

Alright here is my first attempt at trying to load up one of the clips I have of Mario talking in his sleep. I'm trying to find the best way to do this. So if any of you have any ideas...let me know




PS There are three different clips...make sure you get to hear all of them

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Cutting School

I have a list of stuff to do today. A pretty long list at that. However, with it being overcast and sleepy looking out, I've decided to take the day off and be lazy. I'm actually pretty ok with it. It honestly started last night. I got sucked into the apartment therapy blog. Completely sucked in. Like one story led to another story, led to another site, let to three other sites. I literally had 10 windows open and I couldn't figure out where the hell I had started.

So today I've started again. This time I've kept it to four windows. The only problem is, I have a list of about 10 projects that I want to start now. Those will absolutely not be started until I finish my list of shit to do...I swear! Plus I still have the garden to plant out. I haven't started that yet because when I'm not working, it's rained on those days. Although, one of those ten previously mentioned ideas has to do with the garden. Of course none of it will get finished if I continue being so lazy today.

Off topic...mario and I had a great time at the house of Blues on Monday. Hooked up with some friends and listened to music. It was a good time. Mario's friend was great on stage. It made me miss watching my friends play. So we're gonna have to go see some of them. We drank, danced, went out to breakfast afterward and had a great time in general. However, we discovered that we're not as young as we used to be. Mario fell asleep at work the day after the show...no surprise really but its funny trying to act younger than we are. Hell, maybe that's why I'm being so lazy today.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Dogs, Dorks, Drinks, and Ducks

Want to know why I am in a good mood? The cool girl at the party tonight complimented my hair. Yes, I'm back in high school. Mario and I went to a house warming party tonight. For the life of me I can't figure out how these kids have this beautiful house. Yes, they are young. They look like they're in their early twenties. So cute, two cute dogs, gorgeous house. He has the same job as Mario, so I know about how much money he makes. He must work a lot more consistently. Well actually Mario told me he worked on the Simpsons for a while, so yes, he's worked consistently for quite a while now. You don't get that on a lot of animated shows now a days.

Anyway, we showed up to this party with wine in hand. We walked into the crowded house and I immediately start looking around trying to figure out if I am going to recognize any one in the house. Mario makes friends fast and easy. As much as I'm comfortable with people, I'm still that awkward dork who would rather sit back and watch people. So, I immediately look around for the one person that looks like they would hang out and talk with me. They all looked too cool for me honestly. So, I tried to play it cool...and immediately poured myself a little drinky and got some food... and then dumped my plate on myself. Luckily, it was mostly empty and I just got a little juice on me. So typical though.

Then it happened. One of the cool people, a gorgeous mom with a cute baby in a sling walked over from across the room and said she loved my hair. She told me she had discussed it with Sierra... the adorable home owner. They talked about how cute my hair was! yup, made my night. Especially, considering that it took me a good 5-6 minutes to twist a bunch of loops, throw some bobby pins in and pin a flower in. My go to doo for when I don't want to dry, straighten, or even brush my hair...I've made laziness work for me!

Anyway, it was a good time. We just chatted around, played with some cute dogs, and I got to hear from lots of different people in the industry how talented my husband is. That's always good to hear.

And if one social event this week wasn't enough. Monday, we are heading to The House of Blues to listen to one of Mario's friend's band play. We're supposed to be there at 9pm...I'm already thinking I'll need a nap. Which means I'm old. I used to get ready to go out at 10pm. Now a 9 o'clock call makes me start thinking that I should really prepare myself...like I said I'm a dork. A couple of my friends' bands have played there and I never got to go. I will make up for that tomorrow. Mario's pretty excited actually. Should be a lot of fun though.

Which leads me to more the more exciting news. When Mario is excited about something like this it means that he's be a chatter box in his sleep. Luckily, last week we picked up a little digital recorder to record him while he sleeps. I've found that most of the action is in the first two hours of him falling asleep. The first night I got a ton of talking. Some of it gibberish, some of it was a little dirty, some of it just plain funny. The second night I didn't really get anything. Last night, he just farted...a lot. I told him it sounded like he went to bed with a duck. Lucky for him, I'm enough like a 15 year old boy to think it's funny. The one major benefit to this recording is that he now really understands what I have to live with and why I wear ear plugs to bed. He's amazed that I get any sleep at all.

I'm going to have to figure out a way to make this guilt work for me! So now, I'm just trying to figure out a way to get these sound clips online...don't worry I'll just keep it to the talking...I'm sure you all don't want to hear Mario's ass.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Rough Night At Mimi's

Mario promised me a celebration dinner for finishing my big project. So we set out to go to dinner last night...only to be told we weren't celebrating because he decided I wasn't finished yet. I'm still nitpicking on some images and he feels that until I'm completely finished finished, it's not a celebration dinner. However, the man never needs an excuse to go to dinner, so we still went. So, Angela (mario's sister), Mario and I headed out to Mimi's cafe for a pre-celebration dinner.

We sat down and so started the big decisions. Mario and I decided what we wanted fairly quickly. Angela on the other hand, took a lot longer. I'm not sure why it took so long, he woman knows she loves scallops. The first thing she eyed on the menu was the ravioli with scallops and shrimp. Of course, twenty minutes later and twenty choices later, that's what she ended up ordering. Mario ordered a hot sandwich and I got the seafood fettuccine.

Ten minutes go by and the food comes...mmm happy people, until the waitress puts the plate down in front of me and it is completely the wrong order. The waitress takes the food back and offers me a free desert to make up for the mistake...I'll take that offer. Angela and Mario were so ready to dig in, but being the nice people they are, they kinda shuffled their food around waiting for my food to arrive. That's when Angela realized that there were mushrooms in her pasta...the woman hates mushrooms and she'd forgotten to ask for them to be left out. So she started picking them out. The perfect way to keep her busy while we wait. Of course being the perfect gentleman, Mario was eating the mushrooms as soon as she pulled them off her pasta.

Then Angela suddenly got this look on her face and put her fork down. She hadn't just found one...but two hairs in her food! And one was completely stuck in a ravioli! So stuck that when she pulled it, it picked up the ravioli! (insert gagging here) We sat there quiet for a minute and out of the corner of my eye I notice Mario go in for another mushroom....I yelled "STOP! Those are hairy mushrooms!" Now it's not easy to gross Mario out, but he put those mushrooms back on the plate as fast as he could. You could see by the look cross his face when realized that he'd eaten a bunch of hairy mushrooms already. It totally skeeved him out.

Just then the waitress walked up and immediately saw the looks on our faces and froze. "Um the fettuccine will be out in a minute...is everything else ok?" The thing is our waitress was really cool. Angela didn't want her to think that we blamed her, but she still needed a fresh plate of hair free ravioli. So she slowly pushed her plate forward and told the waitress the problem. The waitress looked completely embarrassed and asked what she'd like instead. Angela said "Oh I'll have the same ravioli without hair and oh no mushrooms this time" Mario and I almost fell over laughing. She delivered the line so straight. It was such an honest but smart ass remark.

Off the waitress went to put in another order and we sat there with the giggles. Mario was talking about how you could pick up that hair and all the raviolis would hang like a mobile...it was gross really, but at least we were laughing. However, the laughter stopped when this really big intimidating manager type guy with lots of earrings walked up to our table. Turned out the scallops that were on both Angela's and my pasta was completely out. Sitting between Mario and I, Angela threw her hands up in the air and screams "NOOOOOO!!!" Mario, the manager and I fell over laughing. She's so dramatic but really the scallops were the the whole reason she was ordering that dish. Of course after Angela's dramatic display he offered us both extra shrimp on our pasta and desert for both of us. Then he stopped and looked at Mario's sad cold sandwich on the empty plate(he'd slowly eaten all his fries) and decided then that our dinner was on the house. SCORE!

Turns out we were kinda lucky the tab was on them because they got the bill completely wrong and it would have been one more problem to deal with. We left happy and made sure to leave a fat tip on the table for the waitress...she really was awesome despite all the problems we ran into.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

The Sweet Taste of Freedom

I'm so close to the finish line with these tours I can taste it. I know, dramatic considering I love the work. I think it's the amount of work and the deadline. I've barely gotten to leave the house let alone see my husband. On top of that, the most I've gotten to talk to him is in his sleep. Ok just kidding.

We actually spent a great Valentines day in Santa Barbara with some friends this last weekend. Dave and Colleen hadn't been with us to Santa Barbara before, beside our wedding. So I showed them the Santa Barbara I know. Which really isn't far from the tourist version except that I throw in a private beach that I like to call "My Beach"...more widely known as Miramar Beach. It's always the highlight of Santa Barbara for me. When I lived there, I would stop at the beach and walk it after work. Then I would spend my weekends laying on it reading and swimming. I love it. It's a quiet beach where mostly the locals hang out and it's a lot more real than the other beaches around. The main beaches are plowed and swept daily for the tourists...that's just weird honestly.

Anyway, we had a day of seeing the mission, Alice Keck Park, my old neighborhood, the mesa, my beach, the marina, and state street. Sandwiched in the middle was a wonderful lunch at the restaurant we had our wedding reception at. I've photographed there, eaten there at the reception, but had never had a normal meal there....it was awesome!

I spent the day taking some photos for fun and didn't get one shot of me and the mister on Valentines day...didn't even think about it. It was a great day and I'm dying to go back. Colleen and I were thinking of kidnapping a certain someone and taking her up there. Although, I'll take any excuse to go up there, so just let me know when you need a tour guide through Santa Barbara.







Monday, February 08, 2010

Jerks and Drips

After working until 4am Saturday morning, I fell into bed exhausted...but couldn't fall asleep. Earplugs were in, the rain was falling, I was all cozied up to Mario and then I heard it...a thunk. I froze. It was quiet. I couldn't figure out what it was but after a few minutes I relaxed again. Just as I was getting ready to fall asleep, I heard another thump. I listened again. I was trying to decide if someone was walking around the house. I quick turned on the light and looked. It was silent. I relaxed again and lay back in bed. Then I heard it again! I took out my ear plugs and waited and heard it again! Only this time I also heard what I couldn't with those earplugs in. I heard foot steps, running around, thunks and cat noises. Dexter and Bob were in full wrestling mode. They were tearing the house apart, knocking shit over and running into doors(the thunking I was hearing). Jerks! I totally thought someone was trying to break in!

Knowing they were the thunks and not someone breaking in, I put my wonderful earplugs back in and passed out...only to be woken up an hour later. Mario was sitting up in bed awake and it was thundering. I rolled over to rub Mario's back and then realized in my comatose state there was something amiss. Something felt odd and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what..."Why is my foot wet? Mario can you look and see why my foot is wet?" He looked over at me like I was crazy.

Me -"My foot is wet. Can you turn on the light and see why my foot is wet?"
Mario - "why would your foot be wet?" walking over to turn on the light
Me - "well the window is open" eyes still closed and in my cocoon with my wet foot
Mario - "Why is the window open anyway?"
Me - "Mario the window is open almost 365 days a year. When is it not open. I love fresh air"

I finally woke up enough to realize it didn't make sense, it would have to be be raining sideways to be coming in the window and hitting the bed. Mario turned on the light only to find a puddle at my feet. He looked at the window, then the cats, then at the ceiling. We had a leak. That woke me up. I jumped out of bed and grabbed some towels and Mario went to find a bowl to put under the leak. Luckily, it looked like the drip had started not too long before we woke up. It was a good size puddle but hadn't made it through the comforter.

I dried the the comforter off and put a towel down to catch any more water coming in. I was trying to figure out how and where I was going to sleep. When Mario came in the room with my ceramic lasagna dish. "That's an odd choice" I said. Mario told me that he figured it was heavy would be a lot harder for me to kick off the bed than any of the other bowls we have. Ok I'll go for that. We hopped back in bed and I passed out cold. Of course I had all these crazy dreams about leaking roofs and my lasagna pan breaking. I kept waking up to check on my pan and make sure I hadn't kicked it off. It was safe and sound the next morning.

I've had the giggles since then wondering why I couldn't possibly have reached over and turned on my reading lamp and see why my own foot was wet. Just the statement "Mario can you look and see why my foot is wet" is the most ridiculous thing I could say. I can't decided if I'm becoming that dependent on Mario or if I love sleep that much that I can't be bothered to just look down at my own foot. I do love my sleep, but still what a dumb thing to say!

Friday, February 05, 2010

Stalling

I've finished the hard and most time consuming part of the virtual tours...and now I'm stalling. Knowing that I am so close to being finished, you'd think I'd hurry and finish it up. Instead I am tooling around on facebook and wasting time. Dumb shit. I can have this finished up today and have a free weekend. There's no hope for me.

Anyway, I learned something about myself while I was sick. Cold medicine has the same effect on me as alcohol. I turn into a love fest. Not like that. I fall in love with television shows. Last year when I was sick, I fell in love with Two and a Half Men. Not my proudest moment, but there is a certain comfort in a cheesy non reality series when your sick.

We turned off our cable a few months back and turned on the Netflix. With the instant play on Netflix, I have access to some a whole ton of television shows that I would never have access to on cable.

I just finished watching "Dead Like Me" a show canceled a few years ago. A young woman dies by being hit in the head with a toilet seat from a space station and ends up being a grim reaper. Sounds horrible, I know but all I can say is cold medicine. Although, I hate the thought that I'll never be able to see it ever again.

I've also had access to some Australian and English shows, I wouldn't have seen on our stations. I'm currently addicted to an Australian show called "McLeod's Daughters" A couple of women inherit their father's farm. They run it while dealing with trials and tribulations, all set to really bad music. I'm working my way through season two with six more seasons to go through.

My other love is an English show from the 90s called "Vicar of Dibley". A new feisty female vicar some to the town of Dibley and turns things upside down. This is one of those comforty shows. Somehow it reminds me of my childhood. I haven't figured out if my mother watched it when I was young. Either way I love it now. There are only a few seasons of this goodie, so I'm watching it very slowly and savoring it.

The only problem now is that Netflix now thinks I only watch television shows with strong female leads. I'm all for womens lib, but sometimes I love a man to take the lead.

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Stupid Things I Do

This morning I came home from taking my friend's daughter for a walk to find a whole bunch of cool stuff on my doorstep. One of the perks of being a business owner is that other businesses want you to use their product. So they give you samples to check out. I love it. So far I have only really gotten a cheesy pen with my business name on and some magnets...all of which I am very proud of.

This stuff was really cool though. The sales person spread all the stuff out on the porch. There were Godiva chocolates, paper weights, little doodads, more chocolate, and a bag with a bunch of stuff and catalogs in it. So we picked it all up, packed it in the bag and hauled the booty into the house.

We immediately broke into the chocolates and I started pulling everything out of the bag to check it out. There was a package of 5 really cute umbrellas that could have my logo on them. I opened the package to check out the colors. They were all different cute plaid patterns. I was already thinking I would be using one of them when it rained this weekend.

There was also this chocolate skull thing. Doesn't really fit my style and I can't imagine why a photographer would want to send out a chocolate skull to clients, but I'm sure it's a fit for someone's business. Of course bonehead me dropped it and it completely broke. Not my day.

I kinda perused through the rest of the stuff, noticing that some things were kinda crappy but there was still some really nice stuff also. That was when it occurred to me that I didn't know if this stuff was for me to keep...and maybe we shouldn't have eaten the chocolate. So I started looking for the note that the sales person left with the stuff. I couldn't find it anywhere in all the brochures and papers.

I finally found it stuck to the bottom of the bag. I started to feel like a complete idiot. The sales person said they left the samples for me to look at, but would be back by in an hour to talk and pick it back up. Shit. That was in less than ten minutes. So I started putting everything back in the bag and cleaning up and trying to figure out what I was going to say. I finally turned to my friend's daughter and asked if I could blame her for breaking into the chocolate...yeah I know, nice example I am. However, she's old enough and cool enough to understand and was totally willing to take the blame. Love that girl!

Just then I heard foot steps and turned around to see the sales woman walking up to the door and my stomach fell. There was no way I could blame this adorable girl. And more importantly how the crap do I explain to the lady that I'm an idiot and didn't realize this stuff wasn't mine to keep before I went and opened it. Why the hell didn't I just read the note before I went opening someone else's property!

Just then the phone rang...saving me a minute or two to come up with a story. I reached for the phone as the sales lady came in and saw the mess we had made of her samples. She turned to me ... and the third ring finally woke me up! My first thought was...thank fucking god that was a dream! I can only hope I'm not that much of an idiot in real life!

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Mumble mumble

Well I'm feeling much better. Better in so many ways. Not only is my cold long gone, I'm most of the way through all the virtual tours, and my funk is gone. My attitude is in a much better place. I've been making sure to keep up with friends in a better way. And working on all these tours non stop has given me a mucho better outlook on my business.

Holidays are slow with the photography and it was definitely making me wonder if this is what I should be doing. However, being in such a hurry to get all these tours finished put me in a good place. I love the hurry and being so busy. It keeps me motivated. So being busy has put my head back in the right place. I finally feel like the year has started...I know a month late but what can I say.

So anyway, I've been working all day and staying up late to finish these tours. And that puts me in the prime time to hear Mario talking in his sleep.

I've found that as soon as Mario gets into bed and starts snoring, I start to hear mumbling. Then I hit the mute and listen for those little jewels. The other night went like this...

Mario: mumble...snore...mumble
Me: mute tv
Mario: You know that's my girl
Me: (smiling and hope he's dreaming of me for his own sake)
Mario: Snore

Mario:Mumble mumble mumble
Me: mute the tv
Mario yelling: They're assholes of course!
Me: giggling
Mario in his bedroom voice: Yeah, that's baaadd
Me: ok you better be dreaming about me mister
Mario: laughing and mumbling

Mario: mumble mumble snore
Me: deciding I should just keep the tv muted
Mario: They're wrong!
Me: what the hell is he dreaming about

Last night was funny though...
Just as I was getting ready for bed he yells out "Quit jerking me around!"
As I got into bed he half woke up but was drowsing in and out. So I told him what he had just yelled out.

Mario: yeah that makes sense. I was just dreaming about how we were planning a heist.
Me: You've been watching to much tv
Mario: mumbling...there were five of us. And we were just getting ready for the heist of the century. mumbling, snore...we were gonna steal the biggest lot of jelly doughnuts! It was going to be so good...but this guy was messing it up....SNORING
Me: I need to start recording this shit

Totally figures it would be jelly doughnuts he's be trying to steal...