Right in my back yard!

Squirrel snacking off the bird feeder.

The summer is almost over

This summer........

1. Finished my first really big project at work and it went well! Even had a celebratory BBQ for everyone on the project.

2. Went to the launch of a new US airline.

3. Read 3.25 books....., the first two Bourne books, 1/4 of the 3rd book & HP7.

4. So far seen 3 movies at the theatre: Ocean's 13, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix & yesterday I saw the Bourne Ultimatum (awesome movie BTW).

5. Took a picture with the SF Mayor - cool, huh?

6. Made new friends and reconnected with a long lost one.

7. Played matchmaker, maybe......

8. Went to Los Angeles for a graduation and some me time

9. Got sick way too many times - ugh

10. Outside of being in college, Smariek has always lived about 15-20 minutes away, this summer she moves away..... : (

My masterpiece?

Click here to create your own painting.

2 sites to simpsonize yourself!

Here is verstion 2 from the movie site.

I've been Simpsonized!

BBQ, new airline and more

A lot been going on lately. We had a end of project BBQ at work for everyone that helped with the taxi project - it was huge and so much work but it was great to have everyone there and being acknowledged for their hard work. My manager, Henry, put on an apron and actually helped with the cooking - which was really cool. We wanted to customize the cake to include a taxi but we couldn't find a matchbox one anywhere, finally found a toy car for $4.99 at Talbots Toyland in San Mateo - it was a hit though!

The Virgin Corporation has a new airline, Virgin America, a new low cost domestic airline. It took some time to get it going but it started operations last week and they're headquartered in San Francisco. There was a big to do with the start-up - check out the photos here. Part of the hoopla when dealing with airlines is the water canon salute pictured below - a jet of water over the plane (we have them at the airport when new airlines start-up and also when pilots are retiring). Part of the Virgin inaugral festivities included a flight from LA and NY coming into SF at the same time with parallel landings and both planes then got the water canon salute.

Saw the Alladin plane at the airport the other day. We don't get them too often, so it was cool being able to get out there and take pictures of it.

I went to the Indian fair at Fremont this past weekend, mostly so that Nikita could check out the henna artist. We got our hands henna-ed, did a little shopping and ate. It's funny, when I had the henna on my hands from my sisters wedding (in 2000), a lot of people asked what it was and were curious about it. Today, just about everyone knew what it was and asked if I had gone to a wedding.

For the Potter fans - lol cat

My theme song

V., your theme song is Independent Woman!

You could fit right in with Charlie's Angels themselves. When "Independent Woman" (be Destiny's Child) is cranking, your smooth and powerful groove announces your entrance to any event and nothing can get in your way. Maybe you're balancing school, sports, and a job. Or maybe you're seriously thinking about your career. Any way you slice it, you are a modern woman. When your song comes on the car radio, you turn it up and tell your passengers to hang on—you have a statement to make and a song to sing. You're a lass with sass, and plenty of sauce. Some of your girlfriends might not understand why you pay your own way on dates sometimes. But it makes sense to you. You can't be categorized by the usual labels. Hey, you've got your priorities straight and being dependent on someone all of the time is not one of them. And while strangers might be surprised enough to say, "Girl I didn't know you could get down like that," no one else is, 'cause you've proven your righteousness time and time again.

i iz in mai blog, writing about lolcats

I came across this on yahoo and had to explore the what it was all about - lolcats, meme cats and the like are cat photos with captions. Seems like the captions follow a certain format based on gaming. I spent some time looking at them and they are down right rofl.



One website linking to meme cats warns "this website will suck out your productivity. Possibly forever. I mean this". And I have to confess, once you start looking through them, it's hard to stop. Pretty funny - amazing how much free time people have to do this kind of stuff.

Things I want to do - someday

In not particular order or priority - things I would like to do someday.

1. Visit area 51

2. Go to a shuttle launch

3. Go whale watching

4. See the 7 wonders of the world

5. Go to Rome

6. Visit all 50 states

7. See the Taj Mahal in the moonlight

8. Visit the grave of a great artist, a great humanitarian and a great scientist.

9. Visit my boarding school again

10. Watch an eclipse

11. Visit New York City at Christmas

12. Take a hot air balloon ride

13. Work at an animal shelter

14. Work at a food kitchen for Thanksgiving or Christmas

15. Visit Stonehenge

16. Learn to salsa

17. Learn to cha-cha

18. Go to Yosemite

19. Visit Washingon DC

20. Go on a cruise

21. Plant and grow a garden

22. Go to the top of the Empire State Bldg.

23. Go to Seattle

24. Go to Simla, India

25. Spend a month in India

26. Read Moby Dick

27. Go star gazing

28. See the Starry Night by Van Gogh

29. Go to the Smithsonian

30. See the Gugenheim

31. See Falling Water

32. Go cross country sking

33. Stay on a house boat

34. Build a home with Habitat for Humanity

35. Make a spiritual journey

36. Learn photography

37. take an overnight trip on a train (again)

38. get a tattoo

39. learn to sew

40. make a quilt for charity

41. Visit Tibet (#35)

42. See the Declaration of Independence

43. See a live volcano

44. Fly a kite

45. Walk across the Golden Gate

46. See Wicked

47. Plant a tree

This is a work in progress.........




Done:

Visit Paris

Visit the Louvre

Visit Maui

See a volcano - Haleakala

Travel alone

In the world of JK Rowling

So you had to know I'd have my head buried in the book every chance I got this week and I am finally done. I can't say that I had my normal bit of staying up to all hours of the night reading (not an indication on the book) to make sure I could work during the day but between last night and today I finished the book and I've got to say:

IT'S GREAT!

I don't want to ruin anything for the people that are still working through it but it really did deliver a punch. I cried, I laughed, I was on the edge of my seat, so to speak, and I am really happy about how it ended. Course it would have been nicer some things weren't that way but we knew that was coming. I very much liked the Luna character here and you could totally see how the person playing her in the Order of the Phoenix was perfectly cast. Oh and Neville! Mrs Weasley - who would have thought she had it in her! And what about Kreacher huh? And Dobbie! And what about the turn on Big D and the story behind AD.

My cousin told me that as she was surfing along, a pop-up said "Voldemort kills XXXXXX" - how horrible is that to put something like that out on a pop-up, someone else told me that and totally pissed me off - why would you tell someone that knowing they're DYING to read the book???? Anyhows, that little bit wasn't true.

As some of you may recall, I had a hard time with how the Half Blood Prince ended and had to reread the book to look for clues fo it not being true but I feel content having finished this book and the ending.

Everywhere I looked this week, I seemed to see people carrying their HP - so cool to see how everyone has taken to this.

If you're interested in some reviews and talk on the book - check out this link - warning - there are spoilers

http://caffeinatedlibrarian.blogspot.com/2007/07/hallows-not-horcruxes.html

http://caffeinatedlibrarian.blogspot.com/2007/07/some-potter-links.html

Hmmmm, what am I going to do now?

I wasn't gonna

I was going to try holding out for a bit on the HP book but I couldn't stand the suspense and ran over to Costco and picked it up. I've made it through a couple of chapters already. Noticed Smariek also picked it up but her DH got to it first - so there won't be any discussions of anything here - only to say that it is good. I am so glad I didn't wait

I stopped by the mall to go to the Disney store to get something for my nephew and as I was walking out, I saw an employee working at the mall sitting in corner reading it.

You Are An ESFJ

The Caregiver You are sympathetic and caring, putting friends and family first. A creature of habit, you prefer routines and have trouble with change. You love being in groups - whether you're helping people or working on a project. You are good at listening, laughing, and bringing out the best in people. In love, you value harmony and mutual understanding. You will apologize or give someone the benefit of the doubt, if it means getting over a fight sooner. At work, you are good at building relationships and connecting with people. You would make a great nurse, social worker, or teacher. How you see yourself: Organized, dependable, co-operative When other people don't get you, they see you as: Opinionated, critical, and know-it-all

What's Your Personality Type?

You Are Pretty Logical

You're a bit of a wizard when it comes to logic While you don't have perfect logic, you logic is pretty darn good Keep at it - you've got a lot of natural talent in this area!

How Logical Are You?

Your Psyche is Violet

You are spiritual, intuitive, and serene. People trust you to rescue them from bad situations, and you usually come through. While you are quite enlightened, you find that your path is very lonely. When you are too violet: you can't connect to ordinary life or ordinary people When you don't have enough violet: you lack wisdom and can't learn from the past

What Color Is Your Psyche?

Personality Profile - is this me?

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have high extroversion. You are outgoing and engaging, with both strangers and friends. You truly enjoy being with people and bring energy into any situation. Enthusiastic and fun, you're the first to say "let's go!" Conscientiousness: You have high conscientiousness. Intelligent and reliable, you tend to succeed in life. Most things in your life are organized and planned well. But you borderline on being a total perfectionist. Agreeableness: You have medium agreeableness. You're generally a friendly and trusting person. But you also have a healthy dose of cynicism. You get along well with others, as long as they play fair. Neuroticism: You have low neuroticism. You are very emotionally stable and mentally together. Only the greatest setbacks upset you, and you bounce back quickly. Overall, you are typically calm and relaxed - making others feel secure. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is high. In life, you tend to be an early adopter of all new things and ideas. You'll try almost anything interesting, and you're constantly pushing your own limits. A great connoisseir of art and beauty, you can find the positive side of almost anything.

The Five Factor Personality Test

Insomnia, HP & more

Thankfully the big project is over! A big hooray for that. There were challenging system problems that made for a very long transistion and many long days/weekends for me but we've worked through it. The development team came through and we've been operating without any major problems for a couple of weeks now. So my next big thing for this project is planning a party for everyone that worked on it - should be fun and a great way to end it.

It's been really nice having a life again. I had forgotten what it was like to have a normal work load and work day and not bringing piles of work home. For a bit it almost felt abnormal sitting at my desk and having a moment to pause and not feeling overwhelmed. Oh, and the phone doesn't ring - that's just plain unbelievable.

Right after I finish the project, I get the insomnia again - grrrr - you would think with the stress gone that I would have no trouble sleeping but I did. It took me a bit to remember why I had this problem before - duh! The sleepless is related to a sinus infection and it wasn't that I wasn't sleeping but I couldn't stay asleep. And course once you're awake, you think of all kinds of things and there goes the sleepiness. Sleep deprivation makes me stupid and neurotic.

I took the day off yesterday, I wanted to catch up on sleep given the sleeping problems and of course catch the new Harry Potter movie - which I did. The movie was great - it was the best one yet and I wasn't the least bit distracted by that wasn't in the movie. Can't wait for the book to come out this month. A colleague is going to go see it in IMAX and I think I might try that some time, should be fun. Also stopped by Lowes and the nursery to pick up some pots and planting mix to transplant my orchids. I don't have the green thumb Smariek has but I haven't killed them yet, so I figured I would attempt at transplanting, to see if they flower again. Smariek manages to grow them with no effort whatsoever - they just grow like weeds in her house - amazing!

I need to add Transformers to the list of summer movies - getting great reviews.

I've given up on reading the Ludlum Bourne books - I got through the first 2 but I just can't keep up with the plot and the writing. And from what I can see of the books vs the movies, they're not even along the same lines, so I am through with Ludlum. Back to easy reading books for me. I've got a Dan Brown book laying around somewhere that I will start next or maybe the next HP book.

A trip to Los Angeles

I went to LA for an extended weekend to attend a graduation and celebrate dad's 65th birthday.


I drove down with the family (8 in the Expedition) and flew back - it's a really long story of how the plans transpired but this was somewhat of a compromise. The drive down was very very very long. I can't believe I agreed to it considering I knew the parental figures would take advantage of the opportunity. I had wanted to borrow a mp3 player from H but was told that I should enjoy the conversation. So I kept borrowing the i-pods from the kids in the back row when I needed to block the parental issues out.


I-pods, hand held games and cell phones have differently made family road trips a whole new experience. Everyone in the car, at one point or another, was in a conversation on their cell.


We arrived in LA at around 10:30 pm (we had left the Bay Area around 4pm) and went out for dinner, after that we went to my sisters place for the night.


On Saturday, my sister and I got an early start and went to pick up a gift for dad's birthday, we decided on a laptop and picked that up.


We headed out to the campus after lunch. We had a lot of time to check out the campus and the surrounding areas given that the graduation was at 6pm. Westwood is the college town around the campus - it has some fun stores, so we walked around there for a bit. Saw this bag at a gift store there - pretty funny.



The graduation was at 6pm and we were to arrive at 5:30pm. Surprisingly enough the whole caln was actually on time - early even. We were seated well before the start of the ceremony. The ceremony was in the basketball stadium on campus - it was huge - pictured below. The program was well planned to keep people engaged and the whole thing took less that 2 hours - they were incredibly efficient in getting the grads up on stage with 2 announcers calling the names.



We went to dinner after the ceremony to a restaurant called El Cholos, it was a very nice place and the food was very good as well. There we celebrated both the graduate and my dad's birthday. My sister had picked up 2 cakes and saffron ice cream for desert. All in all it was a great celebration and everyone seemed to have had a good time.

On Sunday we all went to lunch to celebrate father's day and after that everyone went on their way. The Bay area contingent started their drive back. I went back to my sister's place with her and her DH. We vegged for a while and then went for a movie - saw Ocean's 13. While the movie wasn't on my to watch list, I was surprised I did enjoy it. I didn't much care for Ocean's 12.

Monday my sister went to work and I hung around her place with her dog. We played ball for a while - he is such a good dog. Everytime I threw the ball, he would bring it back and sit with it like in the photo. When I played ball with him indoors - he kept returning to this particular rug and would wait there.

I went shopping and visited Santa Monica for the rest of the Monday. Picked up my sister at work and then we went to dinner and then to the airport to catch my flight back.

It was nice to be away for a while and not have work on the mind.

At the finish line

I can't believe it, it's here! The finish line - the project I have been working on for all this time starts up tomorrow. Part of it started this weekend with some technical difficulties but great response none-the-less. Tomorrow it all goes into effect and the users start as well. It seems like for the past few months all I have done is work on this project, about 10-12 hours a day and into the weekends. It feels good to be here. I just want it to be Tuesday - past the first day and into the second!

I am thinking of all the things I want to do once I have the project implemented and under control but the reality is that I actually have to move onto another project and get that complete in less than a month - so just more work. Maybe not as intense but still work! I sure could use a day away from work and phone calls and problems.

Going to LA mid-month for a graduation. Can't decide if I will drive or fly, if I fly, I must rent a car there. I want to spend a couple extra days there so that I am not just there for the graduation and then driving back. It's dad's 65th birthday, so there will be a celebration there with everyone. So what's a good gift for a college grad and for dad's birthday and father's day? The grad already has a job at KPMG - Smariek, any thoughts about what rookies there could use?

Check out the top of this cab - not something you see every day. I've seen it a couple of times now and every time it goes by I have to do a second take.

The weekend

I took a half day off on Friday and went to Fremont for a belated Mother's Day celebration. We were early, so we stopped by Lake Elizabeth and took a walk around the lake and park. There are a lot of ducks/geese at the lake. The weather was just perfect for being out and about - not too hot and a little breezy.
The dinner plans weren't as set as hoped and got to be difficult to get 15 people into a restaurant on Friday night without reservations. We landed up going to a chinese place which was actually pretty good.

Smariek and I went out for a bit on Saturday. Went to the mall, had a mocha frap and checked out some home improvement books (Smariek just bought a house - yeah!).

Been a vegetable for the rest of the weekend. I did however manage to finish the Bourne Identity and have started the Bourne Supremacy. I am normally a pretty fast reader but it took me a long time (2 weeks) to finish the first one - not sure if it's an indication of me being tired and slow or the book being detailed and long.

It's D's and Smariek's birthday tomorrow.

I am a Star

Actually I am not but I was on TV twice! On the government channel really so nothing to brag about just funny.

All the public meetings at City Hall are aired on Channel 26 and apparently re-aired again at a later date. I had a presentation the taxi commission last month. This was my second presentation, and both times I have had someone come back to me later and comment on seeing me on TV. Today I called to make a hair cutting appointment and the stylist told me she saw me on TV, at first she said I was in court and I was sure she was thinking I was someone else, then she said something about a hearing and eventually it dawned on me that she was referring to the taxi commission presentation I did. Pretty embarassing and funny at the same time.

I will be happy to go back to the norm of being just a face in the crowd at the airport with the taxi drivers and everyone else.

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Summer movies I want to see

Keeping track of movies coming out this Summer that I want to see at some point.

1. Spiderman 3
2. Pirates of the Caribbean 3
3. Harry Potter, The Order of the Phoenix
4. Shrek 3
5. Live Free or Die Hard
6. The Bourne Ultimatum

That's a long list for me..... looks like it will be a good (I hope) summer movie season.

San Francisco

It's been a while since I've been to the City and spent any kind of time looking around. I had a chance to do that yesterday. I was planning on taking the day off but also wanted to get some paper work finished, so I offered to meet in San Francisco to pick up the paper work from the other party. I didn't leave as early as I had hoped but nevertheless had time to peruse.

I took BART in and went to the new Westfield Shopping Center - which is entirely too overwhelming for me. I took my time looking around and then went to the Embarcadero as that's where I had to go to pick-up the paper work. I was early, so I walked over to the ferry building. It was an overcast day but pleasant enough to walk around.

The downtown area sure has changed since I worked there (late 80s, early 90s). So much nicer now.

There is a statue of Mahatma Gandhi behind the ferry building, odd to have a statue of an Indian politician in San Francisco.... It's been there since 1988 and I've never seen it before! I guess I never went past the Embarcadero.

The person I was meeting was running late which allowed for a walk around the Embarcadero and the Hyatt.

I met up with the person and we had a very nice lunch at 1 Market. Must go back there again. I had a ham and cheese sandwich, which was exellent and it came with the best onion rings I've ever had.

I am about half way through the Bourne Identity. It's really quite a bit different from the movie. I have mixed feelings about the character in the book but in the movie he was very likable.

What I've been up to....

I guess it was wishful thinking on my part that once the testing on my project was done that my involvement would lessen. When I was typing up the results of the test, I realized that I wasn't quite done yet and probably had another month's worth of work or more. But it's a bit better with the work loads, just the normal level of business although I am still working at good 11-12 hour day. Need to work on getting it back to 8 hours.

My dad is in town and my sister visited from Los Angeles this past weekend. Spent Saturday at a birthday party and Sunday lunch with the family and an afternoon with the cousins gossiping over Jamba juice. We were having fun talking about how each of us has had the opportunity at being the black sheep of the family and how when it's the youngests cousin's turn that there will be nothing scandalous left to be a black sheep about.

What else has been up - gave a presentation at the Taxi Commission on the project - it was held at City Hall with two 54" televisions in the meeting room. It was also aired on SF channel 26. A bit intimidating really but it went alright. Also had 2 other presentations to management on signage and the taxi project. Good to have all those out of the way and the stress over with. While the one at City Hall was intimidating, I think the one for the airport management was even more so.

The weather has been hot - much too hot for my taste but the fog rolled in today.

I am finally getting around to reading The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum, been wanting to read that for a while now and picked it up at the library.

Finally the end of the tunnel

I have been working on a project at work for some time now and it's finally coming to completion. If you may recall, I took a trip to Europe in December for the testing of the equipment, well, it was all installed last week. Between the construction, the equipment install and now the training and testing, it's been non stop.

I can't believe that I am so close to being finished. Just the a few details really and getting the new users oriented and using the new system - which falls on someone else - I play a minor supporting role.

I hope to be spending more time on fun things soon.

My creation

My creation
Originally uploaded by purple phoenix.

Look what I did with flickr toys.

He he - Happy Easter!

At least it's not Slytherin

I'm
a Ravenclaw!

Knitting get together

We had a knitters get together at work and I asked Smariek to join us. Some of us wanted to learn to knit with two circs and she's just so good at it. She brough little M along. I picked up a bunny treat from the bakery for Little M and here she is enjoying it. I love how she's just looking at me, her expressions are just like her mom. Love the sun glasses and cap - such a doll.

The second picture is of all the projects that people brought to share - many of them cap karma caps.

I've been spending a lot of time viewing photos on flickr - it's a great photo sharing site, in fact my photo badge is on the right side - click on it to see the photos I've got there. I've found interesting groups sharing photos of common interests, including cats "gatti, gattini, gattoni". Also found an incredibly handsome kitty living a great life, assuming in Sweden, followed around by an incredibly talented photographer - check out their photos.

The last photo is Milo, sitting still for a change.

Funny!!

Posting these here just in case I need a good laugh. The calculus problem I can relate to...

I don't think that's right....

You Are 35% Left Brained, 65% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

Recovering

I am just getting over the flu - it started with the chills and aches last Thursday and now I have laryngitis. It's been a bit comical really, started with the flu on Thursday, a rash on my arm on Saturday, pink eye on Sunday and laryngitis as of yesterday. I wonder what is next....

I recently went to the Home and Garden show at the San Mateo expo center, my aunt had free tickets. Nothing terribly exciting there, just checking out what's new and get ideas for home projects. The little garden vignettes are always nice to see but they didn't compare to the Flower and Garden show at the Cow Palace. I bought an orchid there - it's got sprays of tiny little flowers - need to take a picture to post here. Found some nice slate tile that might be nice for the fire place. The fire place is red brick from hearth to ceiling and we want to face that with slate on the bottom and drywall on the top and put up a mantel. The slate I liked was more of a panel than a tile really and it gives the look of different size slate bricks next to each other - not explaining that too well, am I?

Normal level of headaches at work - personalities, projects, yada yada yada.

Who comes up with this stuff?

Me, level headed?? Heart on my sleeve is about right.

Your Brain is 60% Female, 40% Male

Your brain is a healthy mix of male and female You are both sensitive and savvy Rational and reasonable, you tend to keep level headed But you also tend to wear your heart on your sleeve

What Gender Is Your Brain?

I am Hobbs! Like S!

Which famous feline are you?

You're Hobbes. First of all, the makers of this quiz would like to congratulate you. You have our seal of approval. You are kind, intelligent, loving, and good-humoredly practical. You're proud of who you are. At the same time, you're tolerant of those who lack your clearsightedness. You're always playful, but never annoying. For these traits, you are well-loved, and with good cause.
Take this quiz!

You Are Italian Food

Comforting yet overwhelming. People love you, but sometimes you're just too much.

What Kind of Food Are You?

I am a Canna

I am a Canna What Flower Are You?

"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."

This and that

I so hate dealing with computer problems!

Last month the laptop I use decided it needed a break and refused to work. I would turn it on and get this little blue screen that said something about memory dump etc and to call tech support. I tried to trouble shoot it a bit and realized that the C drive was still there but no way to fix the problem without reloading Windows. Wouldn't that have been great but no! There wasn't enough space on the computer to reload the software and I wasn't willing to lose any of my files (photos and such). With some guidance from Smariek, a little trip to CompUSA and the trusty desk top, I was able to rescue the files.

So I've slowly been getting the laptop back to what it used to be - first I reformatted, then installed the operating system, then video drivers, sbc/wireless, etc. etc. The computer is still downloading updates for something or the other. That was about 3 weeks ago.

As if that wasn't enough of a pain, blogger decided that I must upgrade to new blogger - which was harmless enough but they give you all these tempting features which required updating the template - that made a number of things disappear. Smariek helped me that again but it's not all right yet. Must admit I like the new blogger.

One of the annoying things with the new blogger is the center aligned text that came out of nowhere and won't alighn to the left. I think I've tried everything so I'll give up fixing that.

I guess I should update the template on cap-karma. Maybe this weekend.

Not much else going on, working, finished a cap a week or so ago, shown to the left. The pattern was by Smariek - it came out really nice. I have a hard time believing I knit it. I read a silly little book with short stories "A cat who had 14 tales".

Met up with Smariek for coffee a couple of Saturdays back. We always talk of getting together but don't. She gave me some very pretty dish clothes, much too nice to use! I love the ones with the cat and the cat paw. And the round swirl one is just so pretty.



The cat family is still working out their issues, not as bad as before but still working it out. There are some moments of harmony and improving every day. I noticed that through it all, Milo is the one that hasn't hissed but he sure is aggressive in his playing