it's been a while since i've had to put any money into my car...which has been kind of nice, actually. but it now has new brakes and a new tire, so hopefully that should keep it happy for a while. good car. niiiiice car.
this weekend a group of us went to idyllwild for a nice weekend spent indoors out of the weather. good thing i warned everyone to bring stuff to do - with all the rain and sleet and snow, we didn't really want to get out and do outdoors-y stuff. we ended up staying an extra day even because the weather was so bad. watching the snow fall was peaceful, as was falling asleep to the sound of rain every single night.
even the dog was snuggly. in fact, every time i sat down she was there asking to be in my lap where most times she promptly fell asleep. i don't ever think i've seen her sleep that much!
born free
mom brought keely to the office before we went to the mountains on friday. the little nut, er yorkie, was running around the office like a banshee. hehe. she's so funny when we bring her in. she prances around the carpet, racing up and down the stairs to my office - just so happy to be out of the house and out of the car. all this with a big doggie smile on her tiny little face!
there are just some days that i'm not motivated to do much of anything. this is one of them. work? eh. work out? eh. (though i did do both of those things. good girl.) sleep sounds best. i think it's the overcast gloom and impending rain.
happiness is delivering valentines to residents. i like making people happy. :)
there are few people in life that can make me immediately so angry that i can hardly think, much less talk. one of those unfortunately lives in the same complex as i do. i think what pisses me off more than anything is the total lack of respect that he has for me...or anyone for that matter. from him refusing to be even the slightest bit flexible on anything (and insisting his interpretation of the law is correct. hah.) to calling me 'honey' and 'dear' in the most sarcastic tone of voice...he's probably the only person i've ever come close to telling to f- off. since i don't cuss, that should say something.
all i wanted to do was show his apartment. at 6:30 pm. he insists that i can't do this because it's after normal business hours. so he "rejects my 24-hour notice." yeah. piss off. i'll let you deal with the president of the company since i'll probably say something that will get me fired if i say anything more about it. grrrrr....
i should quiz people at work about what our rights are as landlords so i can stand up to him...and put him in his place. so far as i know, so long as we give 24-hour notice, we are allowed to go in to an apartment. hm. food for thought.
i still can't believe the people that drive around in the rain with their lights off. the spray from the tires was so bad on the freeway this morning that i could barely see the cars that had their lights *on*. at least i made it to work safely. now i'm just trying to figure out how to do lunch without having to leave the office. ;)
last night's choir practice was *amazing*. i admit i was highly skeptical of how it was going to turn out since this was our first chance singing with the orchestra. in fact, i figured it would be horrible and full of stops and starts and such things. actually...we did pretty darn good. there were a few missed entrances and missed notes, but really it was alright. good thing since we're on sunday at 4 and this is something people are paying to see! funny how durufle's requiem isn't one of my favorite pieces to sing...until now. somehow it sounds different when you're singing it from when you're listening to it. still - my mind hasn't changed. i want faure's requiem at my funeral. :)
i spent part of the afternoon tweaking little bits of the code for the website that i'm supposed to overhaul, trying to see how much i remember without having to have the big red book next to my elbow. so far so good! looks like time away has given me a fresh outlook on things as well, as i was able to clear up some problems that had me stuck when i was trying to get the site done initially.
soon...soon, it will be time to stretch my css wings and see how much i've forgotten there...
just when i said i'd probably not work in web design for a while, work decided to update our current website and add some new features. guess it's time to dust off all the old web skills. i have some ideas, at least, and i'm going to give myself some time to work on this stuff. the best part is, the site's going to go through my design company, so i'll be paid extra - it's not going to be part of my salary. whee!
i am follow, hear me roar
sal came over last night to escape the mardi gras madness that was the gaslamp district. he brought a bunch of music with him and decided he was going to school me on the finer arts of latin dancing. american tango, i'll give him. i didn't know a whit of it. but rhumba? merengue? salsa? cha cha? c'mon. :) that's what being a follow is all about. of course, it probably would have looked a heck of a lot better had i not been trying to dance on carpet. hee.
tonight's the first of a series of balboa variations classes. i don't know if we'll continue our privates, so i decided to sign up for the series. two and a half months to rendezvous and counting!
there's a jazz band playing at excelsior tonight - may show up. may not.
a lotta dance, a little sleep...
amazing how a circle skirt makes you slow down and appreciate spins a bit more. i wore my great aunt's dress on saturday night to atomic. unfortuantely, a little bit of the lace on the back of the dress gave way. i'm going to look at it to see if/how it can be repaired. the skirt looked like it was white lace on top of black netting, so maybe i can track down some black tulle and patch it. against the black fabric underneath, you shouldn't be able to see it. in fact, maybe i should look at slipping tulle under the whole back to reinforce it. hmmm. anyway, i don't think i've had that much fun dancing since, well, new year's i guess.
now that i found out i don't have a balboa private tonight (whew!), looks like it's just tango dancing at tio leo's. mom and sis have decided they're going to introduce me to someone they met in their tango class. mostly i suppose i'm just morbidly curious as to what type of person they think that i would be interested in. at least they've picked someone who swing dances. but still. i think i'm doing alright on my own at the moment. we shall see...
like why can't i tab to drop down boxes in firefox on my mac? it's weird.
anyway, i've been thinking lately that i should pick the fiddle back up again. really i am. i wish that the bluegrass jam in encinitas was on another night besides thursday. my thursdays are quite crowded enough between choir and dancing...though choir is the main conflict. maybe this summer when choir's on hiatus. that thought should get me in gear. i've been toying with the idea of taking my fiddle to work and practicing there in the evenings. i'd be bothering fewer people there than at my apartment complex. i hope. :)
i suppose i should be glad when i google my name that my website is at the top. not sure how page placement works, but i must be doing something right here. probably because my name appears on every single one of these pages, and heaven knows with the archives, that's a ton. it's interesting to google your own name. see where things about you appear...and what other people with your name are doing - good and bad.
tonight finds me heading toward atomic ballroom for the normal friday night dance then to my mom's house to dog sit and be halfway to tomorrow - disneyland. might be some dancing in store tomorrow night as well, either at disneyland for their normal sat night venue or back to atomic since they're having a special dance of some kind. we'll see. sunday: choir, church, choir for a few extra minutes. (i really wish the director would let me sing first soprano, even if it's just for the sanctus of durufle's requiem. it's so drilled into my head, i can't even begin to hear the second soprano part. aie. i guess worse comes to worse, i'll just sing very softly during that part in case i'm off key. or heck - i'll pick someone's note and sing it. i suppose as long as in key with *someone* i'm fine, right?) that performance is feb 12, so it's starting to consume my thoughts. we just started to hear what the accompaniment sounds like and try to sing to it. what a disaster that is. almost seems like we should have done that ages ago. maybe alternate between with/without so that we could get used to hearing when our entrances are and such. then again, i suppose that's what the practice cd is supposed to be for. on the other hand, it sounds like the recording i already have is a better one. hehe. one of my fellow sopranos told me last night that on the recording, one of the singers "has a vibrato so big you could drive a truck through it." doesn't that sound awful? i'm glad i didn't listen to it. ;)
"Well I sat down next to a living hell
Tried my best until I struck out
Movement is not mine
I stood in the way pretending that I was the vine"
-- Sean Watkins, Nickel Creek / Speak
oh, sorry. valentine's day is coming up, too. or as my coworker called it yesterday, "singles awareness day". ;)
i'm getting rid of clutter. house clutter. body clutter. this week started a six-week challenge. in fact, we've got 10 people in the office doing it. since monday, i'm down 2.5 pounds. at this rate, getting the nine pounds off that i wanted to lose shouldn't be too bad. that's really all i have left after what i shed last year. not too shabby that i gained about 3 pounds back...without having to measure and watch everything i ate. then again, last year's challenge changed my eating habits, so i wasn't craving all the junk food and stuff. and i kept dancing and working out...
many more nights like last night at henry's where i was the only follow for 5 guys for quite a while...well, let's just say the rest of the weight isn't going to be an issue. ;)
i'm supposed to go to a birthday party tonight, but if the sinus headache i have from the santa ana winds continues, i think i may just lay low and go to bed early. it is nice to have it be 71 in february, though. ah, san diego. gotta love it.