Welcome to Santa Barbara

That's what I've been told by everyone I know the last two days. In fact, my friend Samantha made a point of calling me last night just to say that. The reason? We're having our first wildfire since our arrival. This is Samantha's third, and she's only been here a year. There aren't any wildfires to speak of where I grew up, so I did some research*.

For starters, the fire started on May 5 somewhere around 1:30 in the afternoon. The cause is under investigation still. From what I understand, wildfire "season" (I can't believe there's a season for this crap) starts a little later in the year. This is due in large part to the utter lack of rain that this area gets after March. See the graph I grabbed from weather.com for reference.

Of course, that won't mean much without a comparison, so here is the same graph for the town in Kentucky where I grew up.

The fire began in the Cathedral Peak area. To DS and I watching the news, the fire seemed more or less contained last night. We went to Japanese class, no one seemed panicked. On the way home, we could see flames for the first time in the dark. I went to work this morning thinking the fire was probably almost over.

A term we kept hearing on the news as a point of concern was "sundowner winds". We had no idea what that meant, so I looked it up. Here is an excerpt from a report by Gary Ryan of the Santa Maria Weather Service Office.

"Sundowners" [are] Santa Barbara's special version of the Santa Ana regime. Sundowners frequently occur in the late afternoon or evening hours - hence the name. Light sundowners create irregular rises in temperature downtown with gentle offshore breezes. Stronger sundowners, occurring two or three times a year, can create sharp temperature rises, local gale force winds, and significant weather-related problems. Rarely, probably about a half dozen times in a century, an "explosive" sundowner occurs. These extremely strong and hot winds present a dangerous weather situation. In these events, super heated air from the Santa Ynez Valley bursts across the Santa Ynez Mountains and onto the coastal plain, reaching gale force or higher speeds within the city. Dust storms occur, fires can race down the mountain slopes, and great stress is felt by the human population, by animals, and by plants.

I can tell you that last night, walking to Japanese, the dust in the wind was actually scratching my legs. Though I don't know that this is an "explosive" sundowner.

So as I said, I went to work this morning. At 1:45 this afternoon, I left work to drive 35 min south to Ventura to drop the car off for some work. I still didn't see anything too scary. Between 3 and 3:30, I started back north in my loaner car, and could see the smoke the moment I was on the highway.

I kept taking photos as I got closer, just clicking the shutter button without really looking since I was driving. Right as I was coming into Santa Barbara, I got this.

I drove through that mess. It was very creepy. With the sun shining down through the smoke, it reminded me of the lit tunnels that go under mountains back home. Not really what I want to feel like when it's actually sunny and cloudless out.

I missed my exit coming home because of the traffic and my fears of hurting the loaner car. So I went one exit down and then came back. While I was waiting on the overpass, I got this shot.

If you expand that photo, you should be able to see the insane traffic. It took me 10 minutes to go the 1 mile back to my exit.

In the time since I've been writing this, the mandatory evacuation area has expanded a few times. The fire has jumped its perimeter, and has now burned down its first actual structures. I'm a little freaked out, though everyone is telling me there is a very very low chance the fire would come here. This is based on the wind direction and the interstate being between us. However, the office where I work is now under evacuation warning (not yet in mandatory evacuation) and the winds are expected to pick up again tonight, as much as 70mph at times.

If you want to follow the fire, here are the two sites I've been checking:
KEYT News
County of Santa Barbara
Also, the CofSB site has a Google Map link that they've been updating periodically with the evacuation areas.

That map is also available for Google Earth, and I took the liberty of taking a screenshot for you. That yellow house is where we live. The darker shading is mandatory evacuation, and the lighter shading is the evacuation warning. We're 2.25 miles from the evacuation warning right now.

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*Please note: all information included here was found via internet searches and world of mouth. I do not claim to know what I'm talking about. Please visit the links I have provided for sources that do.

busy

Things I've been up to:

1. learning to quilt with my sewing machine (thanks again mom!!)
2. reading the chabon book i got from the library
3. experimenting with needle felting wool roving into decorated coffee cup sleeves
4. making a bunch of jewelry for various birthday presents
5. finishing a plaid scarf on my loom
6. sketching the beginnings of my first painting in years
7. making mother's day gifts
8. seeing the new wolverine movie at the matinee (pretty good!)
9. watching LOTS of streaming netflix while doing 1-7
10. game nights with friends (photos of my catan cookies if i ever get around to it)
11. exploring ventura (photos from that too.. again, if i get around to it)

1-8 have all been within the last 4 days.  i've been inspired, and it's wonderful.  i wish i felt this productive all the time.

also, we've had 3 japanese classes now.  the 4th is tomorrow.  i can count to 99 in japanese!!  it's pretty sweet.  ds can tell you all about it.  because i demonstrated for him.  out loud.  while walking back from class.  he loved it.

It's About Time!

My iMac died like 2 weeks ago. It was working more or less fine. I was surfing the internet, when suddenly I got caught in one of those insane popup loops.  They kept telling me I had a virus.  Now, I didn't really believe there was a virus already, but I was afraid those popups might have put something on my computer.  I hadn't gotten around to reinstalling my virus protection after the last time the computer was "fixed", mainly because DS keeps telling me it's pointless on a mac, and here lately I'm suspect of every little thing breaking my computer.

So I decide, just to be safe, that maybe these popups mean it's time to install the virus protection.  It seems to install fine, but wants a restart.  I tell it I'm busy, go away.  Later when I have time, I restart.  And that was all it took.  The computer went on a never ending restart loop.  I did all I knew how to do, and gave up.  Unplugged it and went to bed.  A week later I decided to try again.

DS and I found out how to eject the virus protection disc, since that was still stuck in there.  Then we figured out how to boot from a disc on a mac.  This let me attempt reinstalling the OS.  It promptly told me that it could only wipe the hard drive and start over.  I am SOOOO glad I bought a backup hard drive for this thing, because this is like the 10th time I've had to do that.  Normally, it lets me archive the old OS and start fresh, but it leaves all the existing data.

The install failed a few times, and then finally took.  I was excited to finally use this baby again!  But that was short lived, because the stupid machine wouldn't take my password.  After putting in every password I've ever had, caps and no caps, I again gave up and went to bed.  I finally got around to looking up how I might reset the password without wiping everything again.  TADA!  I am BACK!

Now I just need to meet someone who knows something about macs, because the dudes at the store have "fixed" it twice.  

melting

We're experiencing a heat wave here. It's supposed to be short lived, but it's far from the "75 degrees year round" I was promised upon moving here.

Yesterday's weather:
Actuals: 84 | 46
Averages: 70 | 48
Records: 86 | 39

Do you see that? I mean, really look at it. We had nearly a 40 degree night/day difference in temperatures yesterday. Right now weather.com tells me it's 90, and DS says Google is telling him its ~100. There's no breeze. My ceiling fans feel like the hot air blowing out of a furnace. I have no a/c. Hell, I barely have heat. This crazy weather is supposed to be gone in the next day or so, but it makes me very fearful of the summer. Could it be that they lied to us? Is it really not perfect all year? Will I regret not getting a place with a/c? I'm very fragile when it comes to heat. Put me in -20 with proper clothing (which I have), and I'm all good. Happy as a clam. Put me in anything over 75, and I'm crying. Sometimes even physically ill. I'm like a reverse lizard. or something.

One of the things I find incredibly funny about the weather here though, is how differently its covered by weather.com. This heatwave has had several severe weather alerts on weather.com. It's not just that the heat is odd for the season. Santa Barbara's weather alerts are highly detailed. They actually sound like a human wrote them, and cares. Every other place I've lived had weather alerts written in all caps that basically told you hail was coming, or some other very vague description of the forecast you already knew about. Here, we get like a 3 page dissertation on the potential of 1 inch of rain.

Example:

Issued by The National Weather Service
Los Angeles, CA
4:24 am PDT, Mon., Apr. 20, 2009

... UNSEASONABLY HOT WEATHER EXPECTED TO CONTINUE ACROSS MUCH OF SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA THROUGH TUESDAY WITH POTENTIAL RECORD HEAT...

A STRONG UPPER LEVEL RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE COMBINED WITH OFFSHORE FLOW NEAR THE SURFACE WILL CONTINUE TO BRING THE THREAT OF RECORD HEAT FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHWEST CALIFORNIA THROUGH TUESDAY.

OFFSHORE WINDS BROUGHT SIGNIFICANT WARMING TO MOST OF THE REGION SUNDAY... WITH MANY COASTAL AND VALLEY AREAS SOARING WELL INTO THE 90S. TODAY... TEMPERATURES WILL LIKELY BE A FEW DEGREES WARMER IN MOST INLAND LOCATIONS. IN FACT... SOME OF THE WARMEST VALLEY LOCATIONS COULD REACH 100 DEGREES. LOW TEMPERATURES ACROSS MANY FOOTHILL AND LOWER MOUNTAIN LOCATIONS WILL BE QUITE WARM TONIGHT... WITH READINGS REMAINING WELL INTO THE 70S THROUGH THE NIGHT.

WHILE SOME COOLING IS EXPECTED ON TUESDAY... IT LIKELY WILL BE CONFINED TO THE COASTAL PLAIN. MOST LOCATIONS INLAND WILL CLIMB WELL INTO THE 90S AGAIN. THERE WILL BE A CHANCE OF A FEW MORE HIGH TEMPERATURE RECORDS BEING BROKEN ACROSS INTERIOR AREAS ON TUESDAY.

MORE SIGNIFICANT AND WIDESPREAD COOLING IS LIKELY ACROSS THE ENTIRE REGION WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY AS OFFSHORE FLOW TURNS ONSHORE AND A MARINE LAYER DEVELOPS.

PEOPLE PLANNING OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES SHOULD TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION THE EARLY SEASON HEAT. WEAR LIGHT WEIGHT... LIGHT COLORED AND LOOSE FITTING CLOTHING. STAY HYDRATED BY DRINKING PLENTY OF NON-ALCOHOLIC DRINKS... ESPECIALLY WATER. TRY TO AVOID STRENUOUS ACTIVITIES DURING THE LATE MORNING THROUGH EARLY EVENING HOURS.

NEVER... EVER LEAVE CHILDREN... THE ELDERLY OR PETS IN ENCLOSED AUTOMOBILES... EVEN FOR VERY SHORT TIMES. TEMPERATURES QUICKLY RISE TO DEADLY LEVELS... EVEN IF THE WINDOWS ARE PARTIALLY OPEN.

I believe that is one of the shorter ones.

Anyway, if you're not cursing me for having "awesome weather", as I'm sure some of you are, then wish me a little cool weather. Or an a/c unit. Either way.

Belgium gets cool points

I shed a tear of pure joy watching this. I love that a group of people would decide to do this seemingly random act in public, and even more, I love watching the bystanders react. They start out shocked, and by the end, people are dancing along. Just awesome.

Learning Japanese!

Image via Wikipedia

I'm so excited!! The local community college has adult education courses at very reasonable prices. I really want to take some of their fiber art and jewelry classes, but as today was the first day of the quarter, they were full. Instead, DS and I are taking beginning Japanese! That's right, starting tomorrow night I might know 3 or 4 words in the anime I'm always watching. Huzzah!

Distractions

It's been several weeks since I've posted anything. Part of me feels like I haven't done anything worth posting about, and part of me feels like I've been too busy to post. Truth be told, I've been very distracted. There are lots of pictures I need to wade through so I can post stuff (be on the lookout for back posts in the near future). I've been making a meager effort to jot down small reminders of my more interesting days so that I'll have some kind of reference when I finally do get around to posting again.

Life is in disarray. Not bad. Not bad at all. Kinda good actually. But very much not organized. I had plans for life here. Work part time in the real world, part time for myself. Get chores done somewhat regularly, do some exercise, actually experience the outdoors from time to time. The only thing I'm consistently doing is working part time in the real world, and I think we all know why I'm doing that... Certainly not because it's the thing I want to do most.

I'm finding that I have a habit of obsessing over things, and then only really being able to do that one thing with any sort of discipline. The rest falls by the wayside and hopes I'll remember it and re-obsess soon. After I picked up Animal Crossing for the Wii, I did that for 2-3 hours everyday. I spent a lot of time setting up the craft room. Then I bought a loom, and spent a couple of weeks weaving. Last weekend I was starting over with Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, and the past few days have been split between crocheting a bunny and reading The Time Traveler's Wife (this book is AWESOME, btw).

Meanwhile, I haven't posted new jewelry to my store since 2/18 (though I have made a few things, and shipped some other things to a solid store), I'm not getting around to laundry until I have enough for a whole day's worth of washing, and the mail is in an ever-growing heap on the kitchen counter. I don't remember the last time I rode my fancy bicycle. I think it was early March.

Image via Wikipedia

So what's the deal? I'm young enough to be able to have energy to do things, yet 2 things a day seems to be my limit. And I'm sleeping like 8-10 hours every night. How do I get motivated? Any ideas? I need some kind of schedule that's flexible enough to allow my imagination to have room to come up with new ideas and keep me feeling fresh, but rigid enough that I'm actually getting something done.

Oh, and can anyone clean my apartment before this Firefly marathon we're hosting on Saturday?

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Seriously though, life is awesome. The weather is beautiful, we're seeing friends, and I'm happy. Just not productive :)

It's Scary Here

DS went to Pittsburgh Sunday morning for APS, which is, from what I can gather, a big conference for super nerds. Maybe even bow tie wearing nerds... I don't know. I've never been. All I know for sure is that there's like 10k people there, and the talks are only 15 minutes each. I don't even know how you could say anything useful about science in 15 minutes that you'd fly across the country to say. But he did, and he's gone. He'll be home tomorrow night.

But I digress. The point is, it's scary here. And not because he's gone. He left me in Madison all the time and I survived just fine. SB though... I don't know man. This place is like spider heaven. Also known as SG hell.

As an example, today along I killed 8 spiders. I'm not kidding you. 7 of them were in the two windows in our living room. 1 was in the shower. The most disturbing thing was that one was in the shower.

You see, the spiders appeared about 2 or 3 weeks ago. I had been living here, fearing tarantulas (because apparently those are in the hills), but feeling pretty okay about my actual apartment, for like what? 2 months? The BAM! The first week I found 3 in 2 days. This was kind of the worst week, because I wasn't ready for it. That, and one of them was found as it dropped out of the pajama pants I was putting on. Yeah, that's right. I put on my pajamas, and a spider dropped out of the leg. I screamed. DS was asleep. He cursed me as he stumbled into the bathroom, where I was perched on the toilet seat, and he even called me Jaime (his sister) in his stupor.

The day I found two on the screen door right after bumping into it with my back to open it (cause I was doing laundry, so my hands were full), I decided that was enough. I went to Home Depot and got some of that whole house spray that is supposed to keep bugs out for a whole year. The heavy duty toxic stuff. Since it is toxic, I started with the half of the house I could close off from the cats fairly easily. This included the bathroom. I soaked all the windows, and everything around the windows. Even the screens. I also followed the directions and covered all floor edges out to a few inches. Until today, I had not seen a single spider in that half of the house (though I did find 6 while using the spray).

Now there's one in the bathroom??!!?? A whole year my ass. It hasn't even been 2 weeks!

Also, this morning as I was walking to my car, a spider was running in my direction from across the garage. All I saw was black and a hint of red before I jumped in the car and slammed the door and prayed he wasn't tagging along. I'm trying really, really hard not to think about the fact that I was nearly run down by a black widow.... I might spray the garage tomorrow for good measure.

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*For those of you that know me, you know I have pretty bad arachnophobia. Like, bad. Like, I have nightmares about spiders and kick DS so hard while sleeping that he wakes up and finds me crying in my sleep. I know it's irrational, and I can't help it. One time I tried to think about ways I could get over my fear, and I got so afraid that doing so would make me feel okay about coming in contact with spiders that I couldn't sleep for a few days. One nice thing about being here is that Sam is on the same page as me on this topic. We both know that a spider will attack you if it sees you. And that if you don't kill it and immediately get it out of the house, it could come back to life and come after you when you least expect it. Seriously.

So, with that in mind, notice that I said I killed 8 spiders today. I did that! And yeah, DS might laugh as I get out my little can of Raid and jump backwards in fear at each spray because if I'm not careful, the spider will use the spray to crawl to me, I'm at least doing the killing now. There are parts of the apartment I can't go back to at the moment, because I'm afraid of spider carcasses as well (see above for resurrected spider revenge)... I'm not able to actually get rid of them. Just spray them from a distance and watch in utter fear with goosebumps all over my body to make sure they stop moving. Then run.

Baby steps people.

Weaving 101

I'm soooo excited!! As mentioned before, on Saturday I bought a loom. It's not a huge thing (you have to work up to that kind of commitment!). It's a 20" Knitters Loom by Ashford, a type of rigid heddle. Except it's only kinda rigid, because it can fold in half for easy transport. I'm in love. It's made almost entirely out of wood, and it feels so nice in my hands.

It came with complete instructions, beginning to end, for how to make a scarf. So I did. I'm very impressed with myself.

Weaving is so mesmerizing. It's like an itch that no amount of scratching will make go away. I hope it stays that way, because I had so much fun making that scarf. I just love pushing the shuttle back and forth, beating the threads... it's awesome. Besides, if I get goodat this, I'm going to sell all kinds of things! Placemats, coasters, small rugs. You name it! I'm taking pre-orders :)

Solvang

Today DS and I took a drive up to Solvang, a small town settled in 1911 by the nice people from Denmark.
As you can see, it's adorable.

We happened to show up in the middle of a huge cycling race. Parking was atrocious, and driving scary because you were always about to hit someone trying sooo hard to pedal uphill without dying. (I know that feeling! I always feel like that when I ride my bike :P)

But once the car was parked, it was awesome. And once the race ended, the little town quieted down some and we enjoyed walking by the shops. Especially the candy shops and bakeries. Yum!

We had lunch at the Red Viking, were we each had a real Danish dish. DS had Danish sausage, and I had Danish meatballs. It was okay. I was most surprised by the red cabbage, which I actually liked. It was kind of sweet. I think there was beet juice in it... but I have no idea.

I had actually learned of this place while researching looms after reading this blog post. There's an Ashford distributor in Solvang, and walking into that store was like walking into a crafter's heaven. I've never seen so much fluffy wool in rainbows of colors in one place in my life. You weren't supposed to touch it, but I couldn't help myself.

So I bought a loom! And then DS and I took the short drive back to Santa Barbara, where I spent the rest of the day playing with it. Isn't a beautiful drive? I can't wait to go back! DS promised :)

last one today, i promise!

holy cow, three posts in one day!! (did they come out as three posts? the interwebs acts funny when you're on pacific time. the world resets at 9pm...)

anyway, did you know my husband has a blog? no? i don't blame you. i forget it exists for roughly 6 months at a time. which is a good amount of time, because you're usually gaurenteed at least a little something to read if you wait that long.

anyhow, he's been updating a little more regularly here recently, and most of it is not a duplication of mine (really, it's surprising any of it is, because we sort of orbit the same thing, but don't share an orbit... though they cross sometimes. but really, i'm not going to blog about watching the daily show.)

my point: check it out. especially if you're related to him, because i know some of you read my blog to make up for his lack of communication.

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ps - zemanta recommend the following wikipedia links be activated: "orbit" and "holy cow". okay fine, i'll do it.

pps - it also recommended the following tags: "programming", "corba", "component frameworks", "object request brokers", "humor", "recreation". none of those apply!! (especially the humor - ooh snap! heheheheh. okay, it's obviously past my bedtime.)

don't be jealous*

Forecast for Santa Barbara, CA (93111)

10-Day Forecast

NEW: Larger Radar Maps & No Ads

			High / Low (°F)	Precip. %
Tonight Mar 05		Mostly Clear	40°	10 %
Fri Mar 06		Sunny	64°/40°	0 %
Sat Mar 07		Sunny	65°/41°	0 %
Sun Mar 08		Sunny	68°/42°	0 %
Mon Mar 09		Sunny	67°/40°	0 %
Tue Mar 10		Sunny	67°/41°	0 %
Wed Mar 11		Sunny	68°/42°	0 %
Thu Mar 12		Sunny	69°/44°	0 %
Fri Mar 13		Sunny	70°/44°	0 %
Sat Mar 14		Sunny	69°/44°	0 %

*or do, whatever. you could always come visit. assuming i like you. i guess even if i don't, but in that case, just visit the area, and not me.

wha?

Ship Method: FedEx
Status: IN TRANSIT
Shipment Date: Mar 02, 2009
Destination: Santa Barbara, CA, United States
Estimated Arrival: Apr 07, 2009

Date	Time	Location Service Area	Checkpoint Details
Mar 05, 2009	08:06:00 PM	BLOOMINGTON CA US	ARRIVAL SCAN
Mar 03, 2009	08:08:22 AM	LEWISBERRY PA US	DEPARTURE SCAN
Mar 02, 2009	01:45:00 PM	LEWISBERRY PA US	ARRIVAL SCAN
Mar 02, 2009	11:04:00 AM	LEWISBERRY PA US	SHIPMENT RECEIVED BY CARRIER
Mar 02, 2009	07:35:00 AM	---	SHIPMENT HAS LEFT SELLER FACILITY AND IS IN TRANSIT

just some stuff floating in my head

1. I was lying in bed last night, trying to get my brain to shut up so I could sleep (this happens frequently, and is probably why DS often finds me with the Nintendo DS [whoa, confusing!] on in the bed when he wakes up in the morning.. Pogo's Word Whomp occupies my brain just enough to shut it up, but not enough to keep it awake. It's like almost-instant sleep aid!). It occurred to me that I think about things in the format of blog posts a lot. In fact, the thoughts last night about thinking in blog format were also in blog format. Maybe this is why I always feel like I'm blogging way more than I actually am....

2. I've been doing some research and joining a few more crafty websites in the hopes of building a broader customer base. Europe, here I come!! Well, not physically... you know what I mean.

3. Battlestar Galactica is soon coming to an end, and I'm sad about it. I feel myself wanting to resort to this habit I have of not reading the last book in a series in the hopes that my brain will continue to think the world the series created still exists. Because for some reason, actually finishing it makes it fade and seem less real. Also, it doesn't seem like they could wrap up the whole show in only three more episodes, even if one of those is three hours long.

4. DS and I have made some new friends, which is always exciting. Last night they invited us to attend the Banff Mountain Film Festival with them, which was just amazing. DS had been once before in the past, but it was my first time. Unfortunately, we only had tickets for the first night, but at least now we both know we'll want to attend the whole thing next year!

5. I'm reading The Kite Runner, and it has a disturbing way of making me forget to put it down and go to sleep.... I guess that means it's a good book, but I should probably make time to read it when I'm not in bed. I'm also reading War and Peace, which doesn't have the same effect. Though in its defense, I'm only on like page 12 or something.

6. I'm working on jewelry right now that will be sold in a real live store! It's very exciting, and I'm really hoping that it goes over well with customers. I'm slowly getting 'stranger' customers on Etsy, which is very satisfying, but I have this feeling that I could do very well in a setting where people can see and touch the jewelry before buying it. I get a lot of nice comments on the quality of my work.

Image via Wikipedia

7. I was so excited to get the BBC when we moved out here so I could watch the new season of Doctor Who, and the stupid channel isn't showing it. From the looks of the channel guide here lately, BBC America is really like the Gordon what's-his-face channel. Bleh.

8. I've been trying out Zemanta, which is like a browser plug-in that finds photos and links and tags for your blog posts as your typing. All hyperlink courtesy of them. It's okay so far.

9. I LOVE Google Reader. I can't get DS to use it, which is a shame. It's just amazing. The only fault I have with it is that I want to subscribe to so many things, and then I get online after not checking it for a day and suddenly I have 400 posts to read... It has been difficult to make myself just click "mark all as read" and move on. Doesn't mesh with my "100%er" personality. But I really don't want to spend my every waking moment reading those things. Of course, part of what makes Google Reader so sweet is that your friends can share things, and so even if I can't read all of Super Punch one day, for example, there's a good chance anything worth reading is shared by someone else. My favorite part is reading the stuff shared by Kimberlina. In fact, she probably gets tired of the massive amount of e-mail I'm sending her to comment on all the stuff I love that she shares... I wish I could just comment on her shares without re-sharing them!

Miracle Fruit

When Sam and I were exploring downtown, we came across a large bush with red berries on it. We were intrigued, having never seen them before. She picked on, crushed it on the ground, and we peered at its insides. It was white, almost frothy, like milk. Afterward, I did some research on the interwebs and decided the little thing was miracle fruit, though as it turns out, I was wrong. Imagine my surprise when I get a call on Friday from her telling me I had plans on Saturday! She had gotten a shipment of them, and was having a food tasting party.

Apparently, miracle fruit is very rare. From what we have gathered, this is in large part due to its limited survival after being picked. The fruit arrived on dry ice, with instructions to move it immediately to the freezer. We had to eat it within 15-30 minutes of taking it out of the freezer. We were promised that after eating one, all foods would taste sweeter for 30 mins - 2 hours.

So the 11 or so of us each got one berry. We put it in our mouths and swished it around for a few minutes, attempting to get the fruity flesh off the seed without actually eating the seed. I'm told it tastes gross. The fruit itself did not have much taste.

Then, we each took a lemon or lime and bit into it. They tasted like VERY sweet lemonade! It was amazing. It was funny watching everyone, because we were all nervous. I'm not sure any of us really believed it would actually work. I mean, it sounds like such a scam. There was a lot of hesitation biting into that first lemon.

Once that first bite was out of the way though, we dug in. We ate everything with reckless abandon. Radishes, beer, black coffee, garlic, olives, pickles, cheese, baker's chocolate, bread, raspberries, Worcestershire sauce, sour candy... everyone brought something. And when we had tried all of those things, we ravaged Sam's kitchen. It was bizarre. Some things were sweet, almost too sweet. The raspberries were nice, because the tartness was completely gone. I enjoyed eating the radishes. They have a nice crunch to them, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't enjoy the taste otherwise. Pickles just tasted like sweet pickles, which I hate. Bleh. Baker's chocolate was still unappealing. Coffee tasted like water.

Eventually, around an hour later, the miracle wore off. The rest of the evening was spent chatting, which was great for DS and I, since we met some new friends. All in all, it was a great day. If you ever have a chance to try one of these things, I highly recommend it. You won't believe your taste buds :)

bummer

Total bummer man... the mac came home from the shop today. Complete hard drive meltdown. So much for my ram theory. So it has a new a hard drive, and no memory of me :(

Luckily I have Time Machine and an external hard drive. But the dummies at the store installed Tiger instead of Leopard, so now I'm waiting on the long process that is updating the OS. I don't remember it taking this long before...

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed that Time Machine will actually work, because this is the first time I've had to use it.

Out on the Town

Two weekends ago, I got together with my friend Sam, who I hadn't seen since high school. Turns out she lives here! Since she's been here a while longer than myself, she showed me some of the cooler things downtown.

I used this new found information this weekend, when DS and I went downtown for a nice lunch for Valentine's Day. We ate at Aldo's, an Italian place, where I had spinach ravioli with shrimp and tomatoes, and he had blackened yellowtail with a mango chutney sauce. it. was. delicious. After that, we walked down to Andersen's, which makes the most delicious desserts. I will love Sam until the day she dies for showing me that place. The butter ring sitting on my counter right now is like a little slice of heaven.
A block over from the bakery is the courthouse. It was built in 1926, and is just gorgeous. By law, it is the tallest building in Santa Barbara (except the Granada Theater is taller... but whatever), which makes going up in the tower a great place to view the city.

The grounds are gorgeous, and the interior is filled with exquisite tile work. They have a lot of weddings there, which sounds funny, getting married at the courthouse, but it's obvious why someone would want to once you visit.

As for presents, we did that on Friday. I got him a fancy George Foreman grill, because he's been lamenting our lack of access to one now that we don't live in a mega-complex. It's not quite the same, but it's the best I could do without breaking fire codes.

He got me some computer games, and a 2 lb box of See's chocolates. *drool* So.. you can imagine what I spent the weekend doing. He spent the weekend making me delicious grilled chicken and hamburgers, and the rain let up enough for him to climb this morning. We are both very happy!

Computer Ups and Downs

You know how I've had to occasionally take my baby (aka iMac) into the Genius Bar while I prayed for an hour that the dude there could bring it back to life? Yeah... we're there again. Except this time there's no Genius Bar, and I had to leave it at the Mac Shac which has no carpet, just a concrete floor full of stains like there used to be carpet glued to it. I dropped it off Friday, and have yet to hear from them... but, it's still under warranty, so whatever they have to do won't cost me anything. I'm really hoping they just replace all the RAM stuff, because at this poing I firmly believe that's been the problem all along.

So I've been without the computer that houses all my photos for quite some time. I may have just dropped it off Friday, but it's been very sick for a while, and I've been too phobic to call Apple about it. Thus, no pictures for blog updates. Well... that, and I've been extremely lethargic.

I do have a new lappy though! So far, it's pretty sweet, and it's beefy enough to run the Sims 2, so the old lappy and the old "gaming pc" were shipped off to friends in need. That was a toy I bought myself. Even more exciting is the toy that DS's mommy got me for Christmas that came last week - a Wacom tablet!!!!! Yeah, I'm stoked. Super stoked. You should probably add that tablet to the list of reasons I haven't been blogging. I've spent the last several nights curled up with the tablet and Corel Painter Essentials and just going to town. Generally speaking, this has not been helpful to getting stuff done for my business, as that requires tangible creativity (oh yeah, I'm now the proud owner of a California business license. woot!). However, last night I managed to finally finish something that's been on my to do list for months.

Yeah! Gift Certificates to my store!! You want one don't you? Buy a bunch for your friends!

Hello Year of the Ox!

Kimberlina posted about her Chinese horoscope, which intrigued me to check my own. As it turns out, 2009 is going to rock out!! (rock out with my cock out!! you know, cause I'm a rooster. perverts)

Overview:
Get ready for an outstanding year. Aside from the Snake, the Rooster has the best prospects in the year of the Ox. This is the kind of year you have been waiting for, as everything seems to go your way. You have been diligently working towards some long term goals that finally come together this year.
Does this mean I'll get out of debt?? Or maybe that I'll start a family? Or my business will take off? I have lots of long term goals!

Rating:
72% (10 favorable and 2 neutral months)
DAMN!! I can live with that!

Career:
2009 is a year that you should promote yourself: Your ideas and your talents will be highly regarded and you will be recognized for past and present efforts.
Okay, promote... I should read up more on the etsy articles for that!

Relationships:
The social life for the Rooster is a busy schedule. You will enjoy the company of others in many social functions and parties.
HAHAHAHAHHA! I'd have to make some friends that I can actually see in person first.

Health:
Take the time to get the exercise you need and everything should work out fine for you.
yeah... that's the problem, isn't? taking the time.

Wealth:
This a great year financially for the Rooster. If you have any available funds, you may want to reinvest it in your work. This could prove to be highly favorable and you will reap the benefits in your return.
That's soooo good to hear, because I was really worried about my finances. Part-time work is scary! But I do want to ramp up my business, so reinvesting sounds like a plan.

If my year is even half as good as all that, I'll be happy! As for red envelopes stuffed with money? Umm.. who do I talk to about that? Because I'm pretty sure mine never arrived... Is there a place I can get back compensation for all these years?

okay okay, a photo

I'm still iffy on the length (though from this angle it looks good.. but the waves in the back are annoying), but it definitely looks much better today.

It's a Good Day!

Maybe it was the inauguration, or maybe it was just that it was sunny and 75 again, but it was a good day. I was happy all day, I didn't sleep too late, and I had the gumption to come home after work and finish hanging all the framed pictures we have. Then, I did the unheard of... I cooked dinner. Not just any ol' thing either. I made mashed potatoes from real potatoes, and bruschetta, and tomato and garlic shrimp. DS and I enjoyed it over a glass of Riesling. yummy!!

In other news.. still undecided about the hair cut. I think it needs to be a bit shorter in the back. The crazy curls live along the hairline in the back, and at a 1/2 inch, they're choosing to stick straight out. Whacking them off should take care of that problem.

new haircut

Cut off all my hair today... not sure if it's the air here or what, but my hair has been nothing but a large ball of static mess since arriving. Couldn't take it anymore. So now, no hair. Well... it's about a 1/2 inch longer than my hairline. And I have bangs...

No pictures yet, I'm still trying to decide if I like it. I think I need to wash it myself. The hair salon lady was putting crap in it, and using fancy brushes and blow drying it.. Tomorrow, we'll see how it does with my roll out of bed and out the door approach to "getting ready". That will be a good test.

At least DS likes it. He's been staring out me with goofy grins and puppy love eyes all night. :P So you know, I've got that going for me.

So Exciting!

This is my big Christmas present that I probably mentioned before the move. However, tonight I got my first chance to try it out. I don't have any sewing projects at the moment, so I decided to just try each of the 99 stitches on a scrap piece of fabric. Okay, it was more like 94, because the last several were all button holes. It was so smooth! And threading it! Ah! Like butter. I can't wait to sew something real with it :)

Thanks Mom!!!

The Worst That Could Happen is Adventures!

Around 4pm today, DS and I decided to make the most of our last hour of sunlight and go for a bike ride. We live very close to some really nice paths, and you would think that would mean we could putz around for an hour and go home easily enough. But you'd be wrong.

So we started off fine, heading down the Turnpike trail, which hooks up our apartment with the Coast Route (aka, DS's path to work). Since the other day we took it east, we decided today we'd go west. It wasn't long before our pretty little bike path dumped us into neighborhood streets. A poor decision at an intersection to continue on the Coast Route took us into Hope Ranch, which is apparently where the rich people live. What we didn't know was that we were in for lots of windy roads in mountainous terrain. By the time we started doubting that we were still following a route, we'd already passed the point where I could have successfully turned around and biked home. That place was VERY hilly. And you would thing "coast route" would mean next to the ocean and flat, but you'd be wrong there too.

Around 5, we found ourselves at Arroyo Burro Beach, where lots of people had gathered to watch the sun set. There was no way we were getting home before dark, so I convinced DS to do the same, and hence, pretty photos! And also, my first time watching the sun set on the ocean :)

This was also about the time that the "bike route" began appearing as an actual thing on the road again, as opposed to sometimes having a bit of shoulder. So we hoped for the best and took the next painted route back towards where we lived.

Since we live less than a half mile from an In-N-Out burger (which I find hilarious... cause I'm 12), we took the bikes home and went straight out for food. We were exhausted and starving, and it hit the spot.

Now that I'm home, and have access to the online bike maps and Google Earth, I can tell you that we were, surprisingly, on the Coast Route the whole way through Hope Ranch, and that the total mishap ended up being nearly 14 miles of biking. Holy Crap! DS had guessed 8 or 9 miles.. no wonder I'm so tired! I'm not used to this "active" business.

My achy body is in need of a hot bath, and then I'm going to get ready for an interview to be the assistant to a toy designer in the morning. Life is good!

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*in case you were wondering, we made it to santa barbara in one piece, the apartment is great, and all is well. there are back posts coming, but we just got to the camera cable late last night, and a girl needs her rest.