Well, I was soooo close to being finished last night, so I just decided to stay up until 1am and listen to the end. Extra days just increase the chance of having the ending ruined for me anyway, so why not. Plus, I can’t do a lot of multi-tasking while listening (no websurfing, for instance) because most activities mean that I stop listening and thus don’t know what just happened.

So, 21 listening hours later, I am done with the book. Overall I liked it, and I will not say anything about plot points, because I refuse to ruin it for someone, like the major spoiler of Half Blood Prince was blatantly displayed on someone’s blog on an entry totally unrelated, and ruined it for me. Arg.

If anyone is dying to discuss it, they can do so via email if they want to mention specifics—no ruining it for others! :)

Now I can return to my regularly scheduled life, such as watching those soaps that I’ve neglected the last couple days.

Posted at 1:08 PM | (4)

On Saturday, around noon, my parents arrived at my apartment. We promptly left to go to lunch, eating at Harry’s, a place my dad is particularly fond of. After lunch, we went shopping at Paseo Nuevo. We also stopped at the nearby Scrapbooking store, so that my mom could go crazy buying up all kinds of special paper and stickers to commemorate our trip to Hawaii. I had already bought her a bunch of Hawaii stuff, but apparently you can never have too much!

After the shopping we went to hang out at the Alice Keck Park gardens to watch the funny little turtles and chat while sitting outside on what was a particularly lovely day in SB. Later in the afternoon we headed down to the wharf to have some ice cream, as it is a little more scenic than some of the other locales from which you could purchase dessert.

After ice cream, we came back to my apartment for a bit, until my parents departed a little before 7:30. It was a nice visit, although I think they were a little disappointed that they didn’t get to meet Ben, as he had a prior commitment. Oh well, I’m sure there will be a chance at some point in the future.

Later on in the evening I met up with Claire and Megan at Tonic, since I haven’t gone out too much, and especially since I don’t think I had seen Megan since her birthday. I had a nice time, although Tonic was PACKED full of people for some reason. More than usual it seemed. The dance floor was packed, the outside was packed too—in fact, they would stop letting people outside until enough people came back inside. Not sure what the deal is, as it’s not like it’s Fiesta weekend—that’s next weekend!

Anyway, today was a lazy day. Not sure why I didn’t write this sooner, but I do like to procrastinate sometimes. On a somewhat side note, I did spend a little bit of time looking at the full moon tonight, which looks red due to the nearby wildfires that have been raging in the Los Padres Forest since the 4th of July.

Posted at 10:19 PM | (1)

Last night I joined Ben to go see a band play at Chase Palm Park—every summer SB holds free concerts in the park, although this is the first time that I have ever attended one.

After the concert we eventually wound up getting a few drinks and appetizers before heading back to my place. All in all it was a nice evening, and what was also nice was that he randomly stopped by for about an hour that afternoon since he was in the neighborhood after being out and about for work. Unfortunately for him, I think he picked the hottest day ever to come over during the day, as it was quite hot in my apartment. Today it is not nearly so bad.

Not much going on today, except that it is now the start of another weekend. My parents are coming up to visit tomorrow morning and will stay for most of the day as they have on past visits. More on that after they leave, I suppose!

Posted at 6:22 PM | (0)

For the past couple days, one of my bosses (the one that lived in SB when I first started working for them) has been in town, and today we met up for lunch. He has been in town a few times since he moved to Boulder, but this is the first time that we have actually met up out here since that first lunch I had with him when he decided to give me work on a freelance basis.

We met at Brophy Bros., since he wanted to take advantage of eating at places that were uniquely Santa Barbara and thus could not be had back in Colorado. A place with seafood certainly qualifies, as would Mexican, since both things leave much to be desired out there. Being that I am not a seafood person, I got the cheeseburger, which is what I got last time during my first foray there back in May.

We talked and lunched for about an hour and then headed back our separate ways—me back home to work, and him to the beach to meet up with his family. It was nice to actually get to SEE a person that I work with/for, a rarity since I am the only one out here on the West Coast. The weather was nice so he couldn’t have picked a better time to come out and visit. Maybe someday the rest of my coworkers will venture out here, or else I will get to go out there again.

Posted at 7:26 PM | (0)

Perhaps in an effort to be trendy, I am now reading (or rather listening via audiobook) to the latest and final Harry Potter book. Being that the book is quite long and that I am prone to spacing out and setting a book aside, I prefer listening to the audio version. Not to mention, I get a kick out of hearing the narrator do all the voices—especially the female ones, like Hermione.

Also, I want to make sure that I finish the book before people start posting spoilers unintentionally. Like, the last book, I managed to avoid the big spoiler up until right before I listened to the book. The spoiler was posted on a knitting site, of all places, so I wasn’t expecting to stumble across it. But there, right at the beginning of a post that was completely unrelated to Harry Potter, the person wrote “I can’t believe ____ killed ____” And then I was like OMG. So upset. The person posted this maybe a month after the book came out, which given the length of the book, seems a bit early to just blurt that out without warning readers first.

So, that’s my justification.in listening to it right now, despite the fact that I haven’t finished my book club book yet. If I just keep listening though, I’ll be done in no time, so back to it!

Posted at 1:51 PM | (5)

Monday was the 21st birthday of Gemina, aka “the crooked neck giraffe” at the Santa Barbara zoo. She is pretty well-known among these parts, because, where else can you see a giraffe with a crooked neck? KTYD, a local classic rock station, recently compiled a list of the 7 Wonders of Santa Barbara, and Gemina topped the list!

If you haven’t seen her, if you’re ever in the area, you should pay a visit. The zoo is actually pretty good for its size and not too expensive. Plus, 21 is apparently pretty old for a giraffe, so who knows how much longer she will be around!

Happy 21st, Gemina! Don’t get too drunk now that you’re legal!

Posted at 9:17 AM | (0)

It’s hard to believe that a month has already passed since I went on that cruise. Where DOES the time go? It’s already been 2 weeks since the 4th of July. It always seems to me that as soon as the 4th hits, even though it’s still technically early in the summer, that the season is already on a rapid decline.

My weekend was nice. I didn’t do much on Saturday, but on Sunday I headed over to Ben’s for a bit before we went to his friend’s place to hang out by the beach. We spent the day talking and hanging out and going in the water and playing with the kids on boogie boards.

It’s a good thing I got out of the apartment that day—by 10am it was already super hot in here, and when I came back after 10pm it was STILL warm! But, down by the beach, the weather was perfect. I had to take a late night shower when I got back though because, being in the seaweed-filled water, I kept finding bits of seaweed stuck to me everywhere.

Not much going on during this week, I don’t think. I could’ve written this entry yesterday, but I obviously didn’t! Hope everyone (in the northern hemisphere, anyway) is enjoying their summer!

Posted at 9:19 AM | (2)

Last night Ben came to pick me up and we headed to Carpinteria so that he could check out this BBQ he found online for sale really cheap. The plan was that we would go get the BBQ and then get dinner out there at this place called Clementine’s which gets good reviews.

Ben did indeed wind up purchasing the BBQ, which will mostly just require removing some spider webs and making sure no spiders are still living in it before use. There was actually a huge-ass black widow in there that he killed with some sort of stick. Hopefully that’s all that was in there. *Shudder* I dont’ know how it managed to hide and not get burned when Ben fired up the BBQ to make sure it worked.

The dinner at Clementine’s was good. It’s in this house that’s been converted to a restaurant, and your meal comes with bread, some plate of veggies I didn’t eat, a soup or salad (soup AND salad for $1 more), your entree, choice of baked potato or rice or whatnot, and a piece of pie for dessert. Pretty good deal. For dessert I got banana cream pie!

Not sure what I’m up to tihs weekend, but perhaps I’ll venture outside if it’s nice enough. :)

Posted at 11:14 AM | (0)

Well, everyone has been talking about it for months and months, but I never bothered to sign up until a few days ago. I am talking about Twitter. I’ve seen some people use their accounts in amusing ways and so decided to give it a shot. You can find me here or else read my lastest post in my blog sidebar over on the right hand side.

And that’s about all I have to say about that! :)

Posted at 9:03 PM | (1)

After only a mere 2 weeks, I have finally posted a few of the good photos from my trip to the Hawaiian Islands. I took over 180 pictures, so obviously I have not included all of them—not by a long shot. My justification for this is that many of them are of the exact same thing, just a different angle, more zoomed in, or using the rapid shutter feature to capture a desired moment in time, and having all the other moments captured around it as well. All that’s left is for me to perhaps scan in the physical photos I received on board the ship that have me in them. Until then, you can enjoy (hopefully) the pictures I took. All done!

Just click on the picture below to view the photos!

Posted at 12:53 PM | (2)

It turns out I only worked 3 days last week—I took Friday off to go to Disneyland with Ben! He had gone down to Orange County to visit his dad for the 4th and I drove down there Thursday night so that we could drive to the park together and save on parking and not both have to worry about traffic.

We spent like 12 hours there and it was pretty hot and humid all day. Once it got later, the weather was more tolerable, although it then turned a bit chilly at night—especially since I hadn’t brought any sort of jacket.

We did a few Fast Passes so didn’t have to wait in a TON of lines (though we did wait in the long-ass Nemo line), and one of the best moments came during the line for Space Mountain when this whole HUGE family somehow managed to cut in front of us. I’m not even sure when they did it—one moment they weren’t there, and the next minute there were 3 of them, and then the next, there were 5, and suddenly mom and dad and two sisters and aunt and grandma were all in front of us. That of course wasn’t the best moment—the best was when a bunch of people complained to the employee standing nearby and he pulled the whole family aside and wouldn’t let them go because he was told by several people that they cut. This family was quite adamant that they did not cut, but everyone we saw joining them in line came from farther back, and they certainly weren’t there at the beginning, because Ben and I had been talking to the people directly ahead of us, and then suddenly, there was a group of people in between us!

We slept in a bit on Saturday morning since we were tired from all the walking and sun and stuff and then headed to the beach for a bit before he had to return to SB to possibly work. The beach was nice, although a little overcast, and afterward we went to the pool by his dad’s place for a bit before changing into some clothes, packing up our cars, and heading back to SB.

Overall it was a very nice weekend—his dad was very nice and I think liked me. The best thing is, that since I had Wednesday off and then Friday, that yesterday felt like Sunday. The fact that today was yet another day without work was like an added bonus. Tomorrow it is back to work of course, but this Sunday Evening is still young, so I shall enjoy it a little bit more.

Posted at 5:06 PM | (0)

Last night’s Independence Day celebration was low-key, but nice. My sister and Dominic came over and we had our little BBQ with steak and baked potatoes and corn and salad (though I don’t count the salad, since I don’t eat it!). Kevin texted me in the evening to say that he was extremely bored at the party he was attending, so I informed him that he could come hang with me if he wanted. He replied that he might take me up on it, and then he indeed did.

The neighborhood fireworks show began around 8:30, when it was still a little light outside, and didn’t stop until around 10 or so. We had several different groups of neighbors who purchased a bunch of not-so-legal fireworks—some of them were lame, some of them were kinda cool, and a few of them almost killed us (well, Kevin anyway) and/or set fire to our house when some of the burning debris flew in wrong directions. Yikes.

While watching the fireworks though, I kept expecting to see an example of Darwinism at work. Half of the people lighting them were totally just asking to get a limb blown off—or worse. I mean, girls were lighting them while their hair was dragging across the flame, and they as well as their male counterparts would light them, see they didn’t quite light, then pick them up and stare at them close-up, etc. They would also walk like THROUGH the little explosions because they couldn’t be bothered to walk around or wait for them to finish. And yet, everyone came out of the experience unscathed. I have no idea how that happened.

Hope everyone had a safe and sane holiday, and Kevin, I’m sorry our dog tried to get it on with you (well, unless you were into it, in which case, I’m sorry I didn’t give you two some privacy!) ;)

Posted at 8:30 AM | (2)

This year the 4th of July falls exactly mid-week, meaning no cool built-in 3-day weekend (unless you’re like my mom and take off the Monday and Tuesday and thus have a lovely 5-day weekend).

My apartment has been super hot the last few days, and I didn’t have any plans up in SB for the holiday, so last night I decided somewhat last-minute to drive down to my parents’ house and surprise them. So, I arrived last night around 10:30pm.

Today my sister is coming over and we are going to have a little BBQ, and then when it gets dark, watch all of the fireworks that my neighbors bought (we have 2 people on our street who go CRAZY with all the stuff they buy).

Not much else going on today that I know of…would probably be a nice day for the beach, but I suspect that the OC beaches where I would normally go are absolutely packed (for instance, I normally head out to Huntington, but I heard on the radio that TONS of people are there and that they plan to have this huge fireworks display, which would be cool, but also means large crowds). So, quiet, family BBQ and street fireworks it is!

Hope everyone is having a nice day!

Posted at 2:50 PM | (0)

Last night I met up with Ben in Ventura so that I could join him and his friends (a husband and wife) at a birthday party for another friend. The party was held at a little bar and also featured a live cover band, who were pretty good and did a number of pretty recent songs.

After the party, we walked back to the friends’ house where I first met up with them and we all crashed for the night. In the morning, it was determined that it was a beautiful day and also that the surf was pretty good for the first time in weeks, so off to the beach it was.

I hadn’t prepared for the beach in any way, so all I had was what I was wearing—a dress and some strappy heeled shoes. Luckily, I was offered some board shorts, a bikini top, and some flip flops to borrow by the wife, so I didn’t have to wear an outfit that was entirely not suited for the beach. Ben and his friend surfed while us women-folk sat in chairs and talked and watched all the cute doggies that were running around.

I hadn’t met these friends before but they were quite nice and it was cool hitting up the beach and hanging out some more this afternoon. After the beach we all went out separate ways, and now here it is, another weekend winding down. The weekends never seem to last long enough! Oh well, at least Wednesday is a day off!

Posted at 7:11 PM | (2)