a day in the life of me...one crazy busy Friday afternoon

so My Twitter Update from around 1pm (and imported to facebook) said:

"seems like over half the office took the rest of the day off. ;) Not me, though...still working away..."

and THEN I discovered a voice mail left from a broker for me, wanting to move forward with a deal that wasn't even put together on our side...and both our in-house leasing agent for that property (who's also the property manager) and the managing partner for that property were GONE for the afternoon. ACK!!!!

Here's the situation: This broker and his client had toured 2 available units that were next to each other in one park, and he liked both of them, but wasn't quite sure which one to take. He finally told us Unit A, so we rushed to put paperwork together (this guy wanted/wants to move in this weekend, of course) for unit A. Wasn't able to finish it Thursday afternoon (cause paperwork turned into us Lease Admins so late in the day), so it was finished 1st thing Friday morning. Only when we told our guy that it was ready (been approved by the managing partner and everything), he said to hold on sending it/printing off the hardcopies for the client/potential tenant to sign as the guy is now waffling on which unit! Gah!! He may want unit B after all.

Ok. Hold on that. Sure, I can do that. No problem. If it changes I'll just get new paperwork for the new address (suite B) with instructions for a different lease. (They were different square footages and different floorplans, so while the rental rate would be the same, I would have different $$ amounts to enter into the lease, different Lessee's Share % to calculate out for the new lease, new floorplan to draw up, etc...a trickle down effect where I would have a lot of changes to make and not just simple swap out one address for another on the already drawn up lease).

I came back from my lunch break and discovered:

1) The Managing Partner for this property (think ultimate boss that all deals go by since he signs off on them, literally) was out for the rest of the day, [Call him "T" for this narrative]

2) the Listing Agent/Property Manager for this property was out for the rest of the day, [Call him "J" for this narrative] &

3) I had a voice mail from the Potential Tenant's Broker saying they decided they wanted Unit B after all, and how quickly could that lease be gotten to him (& email him a copy) cause his client wanted to sign and get keys today?

ACK!!!!

I never even GOT a new lease request for unit B for this potential tenant from "J" (the Property Manager/Listing Agent) before he left for the day....so I had no numbers, etc.

Twitter update around then (not imported to facebook):

"Frantically scrambling to keep a deal from falling through. Ack!!!"

On our Internal electronic In/Out Board (system's called Gatekeeper :), the "T" (Managing Partner) had at least said that he'd be available by cell, if needed. So I called him and updated him on everything that's happened.

He had me check our listing to verify that both units were listed at the same rental rates (and that they were different square footages), and told me to go ahead with writing up the new lease (but I would obviously need to calculate out all the various differences, figure out what the percentage increase bumps in rent were for this guys Options to Renew cause I would have to duplicate that percentage with the new rental numbers, calculate out the new Lessee's Share % of the park - individual unit Square Feet divided by entire park's Square Feet - and use that % to re-calculate Base Year amounts,...etc. )

So I begin pulling all the necessary documentation together, working on the new calculations, found an original floor plan for the unit in our Plan Room and re-drew it in Microsoft Visio so I could then use the drawn image in a Word Document Exhibit, and just in general being frantic busy all afternoon.

Outside Broker, of course, called about and hour after I picked up his voice mail message in order to follow up on his previous message. I gave him an update (not exactly the one he wanted - he wanted it all done and ready right then & there, of course), and told him that both our broker ("J") he was dealing with was gone for the rest of the day and that the Managing Partner ("T") who signs off on things was also gone, so I had to scramble to get approval of the deal (cause I have no authority to sign off on deals - whew!! :) and was now working on it. And that it was more than a simple switch of the address cause this unit was a different square footage so I had to re-do a lot of the work from scratch (including various calculations) and that I was actually in the middle of re-calculating the rental schedule when he called. So, he left me to my work with my promise to keep him in the loop.

(whew!)

About an hour or so later (I'm still frantically working), I get a call from "J" checking in to see if we had ever heard back from the outside broker. Boy, had we ever! I filled him in. Not much that he could do for me, though, being unavailable to come back to work. He thanked me for stepping up, though. Oh, and I think it was that call from "J" saying he had just talked to the outside broker. And I'm like? What?!? Why is he calling you? I TOLD him you were off for the rest of the afternoon, and *I* just spoke with him/gave him an update like an hour ago.

Sheesh!

Needless to say, "J" said he didn't realize that the outside broker & I had already talked, and that we were working on fixing the deal...and basically apologized for not getting me the paperwork I needed before he left.

I go back to working on the stuff.

The one remaining Managing Partner (I have 4 in my office, and they cover different properties, so we always try to have 1 around at all times...just in case) - let's call him "F" - was in his office, so I went over to him and filled him in on the situation and asked if he would be around to sign the deal, assuming I got all this paperwork done in time. He said Yes, that he could make sure he was around, and then proceeded to leave the office to check out the unit himself (to verify its move-in condition) and retrieve the key in the lock box. (Yay! :)

Around now I called the Insurance Broker for the potential tenant (we had spoken yesterday, cause the guy was trying to start the insurance process in advance so he could have it when he signed the lease - we require proof of Commercial Liability Insurance that covers the premises leased before we hand out keys) and left a message with the guy saying I know he was working on an insurance policy for his client covering unit A, but the client now wants Unit B, so while we're re-drawing up the lease documents, we need him to change the policy to cover the correct unit. About 5 minutes later, I get an email from someone in their office sending me a copy of the Insurance Certificate (for Unit A). Wow! So I email her back with my request, and she's like "no problem, here you go!". AWESOME!! One hurdle down. :)

Back to frantically working....I get the other Lease Admin to double check my numbers on my calculations for the new unit. Yay, we match. :) "F" comes back from checking out the unit, I get him to verify that the floorplan I just drew up is correct and matches what he saw (yay!), and then I finish putting all the pages together of my new DRAFT of a Lease Agreement (with all its supporting paperwork too) . "F" then reviews the new lease and says its good to go. So I finalize it all, including printing to PDF files...and then compiling the various files down into 2 PDF files - one for the entire Lease Agreement with Addendum and Exhibit Pages and the other for the various lease supporting docs like the initial bill statement, a memo re: our late rent policy, Utilities and maintenance information, etc. - and then emailed off those PDF files to the broker. Then I called him to give him the good news.

:)

By now is was just after 4pm, so we were calling it close to get this deal signed, but he was very happy that the lease was ready for signature and said that he'd call his client and let me know if/when they were coming over to sign.

So while I waited, I called both "T" & "J" to give them the updates. (And also let them know that "F" would be able to countersign the Lease and give keys to the new tenant).

Outside broker called back and said his client (and himself) would be there in like 15 minutes. He wanted to know if his client needed to stop by the bank for a cashiers check first or not, but we ("T"s & "F"s decision) said it wasn't necessary as his client had such good credit. (We generally require that if you want to take possession immediately upon signature, you give us a cashiers check. You wouldn't believe the number of initial checks we've gotten that have bounced. Sad, but true).

The client/potential tenant arrived first, and I put him into our small conference room to start going over the paperwork with him. His broker arrived a few minutes later and joined us. And then I got "F" so he could answer the questions that were starting. (Better that answers were coming from a more 'authoritative' source than myself)

One last thing to figure out while they were going over the Lease - "F" asked me if Trash was included in the Common Area Operating Expenses or if the tenant was responsible for his own services (as he wasn't the managing partner so he didn't know). I wasn't 100% sure myself, I quickly scrambled to look through various past CAOE reconciliations and asked our Accounts Payable gal. I called "J", since he IS the property manager, but he was no help and couldn't recall off the top of his head if it was or was not. (Doh!) Fortunately, after talking with Accounts Payable gal, we verified that Trash was NOT included in Common Area stuff, the tenant was responsible for his own trash service. (And therefore my Tenant Utilities & Maintenance information sheet was still correct! Whew! :)

My Twitter Message when they were signing:

Woo-hoo! My scrambling paid off and the deal is being finalized (signed) right now. Yes!!! :)

By 5:00pm, the lease docs were signed, keys handed over, and the new tenant was walking out with his executed copy of the lease, ready to start moving in this weekend.

WHEW!!!

What a rush! But a good one.

:)

Great way to start the weekend!

Curse your Sudden but Inevitable Betrayal! (Firefly quote)

wash dinos
Originally uploaded by TiLT creations

How Cute! :) Someone hand embroidered that quote and some dinos!

I just have the ThinkGeek.com t-shirt :)

For those of you not in the 'know' about this quote, the quote & dino images have to do with a scene in the pilot episode of Firefly (tv series - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0303461/ ).

Here's the clip on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buCuMVmvZPw

Golden Bough's Program (10/26)

As promised, here's the program from Golden Bough's performance on Monday night (10/26) for the North Orange County Community Concerts Association.

:)

Golden Bough: Margie Butler, Paul Espinoza, & Kathy Ross Sierra.

"America Bound"

"Set sail for the land of freedom and opportunity. Tonight, the popular Celtic trio, Golden Bough, performs a new musical concert, America Bound, capturing in song the experience of millions of Irish and Scottish immigrants who crossed the Atlantic Ocean in search of a better life in the New World. Margie Butler, Paul Espinoza and Kathy Sierra trace that journey in haunting ballads, humorous songs, sea chanteys and rousing jigs and reels and demonstrate how the songs these immigrants carried in their hearts to their new home became the foundation for some of American's best-loved folk music."

PROGRAM

Mursheen Durkin

Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore

P Stands for Paddy

When the Boys Come Rolling HOme

Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears

Froggy Went A'Courtin'*

Frog in the Well**

When New York was Irish

The Little Beggarman / The Red Haired Boy***

The Bard of Armagh / The Streets of Laredo

Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye

Real Old Mountain Dew / The Arkansas Traveler

*Popular American Folk version of an (originally) Irish song, according to the performers.

**The Irish Version

***Went from Irish song to an American Appalachians/Bluegrass song. :)

- - INTERMISSION - -

The Water is Wide

The Scottish Soldier

Green Grow the Rashes-O

Black is the Color

Charlie is My Darling

Banks of the SAcramento

Irish Eyes Are Smiling / Too-Ral-Loo-Ra*

My Irish Molly-O

Bonnie Highland Laddie

Cape Breton Tunes

Donal, Where's Your Trousers?

*According to the performers, though these 2 songs are usually known as Irish, they' actually written by Americans. :)

Joy of Spontaneity (Celtic Concert)

Yesterday, around noon, I got a text message from my friend @Candai which said something to the effect of "tell me your available tonight?!?"
:)

After being on the recipient end of many of her last-minute invites too cool things (mostly where she got free tix through work), I've learned to say "Yes". :)

I asked her what was up, and she responded that it was a Celtic band performing in Fullerton (7:30p) and that FREE tickets had just fallen in her lap. Woo-hoo!

We BOTH love our Celtic/Irish/Scottish music! So carpooling plans were made, and we met up after work to travel straight over to Fullerton, grab a bite to eat, and enjoy the concert.

Though we missed one transition from 55N to 91 (too busy chatting, I know :), it turns out that it was all in the best as by taking our detour route to get back on the 91 fwy we COMPLETELY missed the car fire that shut down the other side of the fwy. (If we had made the transition, we would have been stuck in that horrible mess). Whew!

Walking about Downtown Fullerton, we spotted an 'early bird' special (2 for 1 entree price, w/purchase of 2 beverages...any beverages, even soda/tea :) at an Italian place so decided to chance it. Food was yummy, and the service was good (except when it came time to pay - the server was a tad slow at noticing that we were ready to to pay :). And best of all, it was w/in walking distance of the concert location.

The concert was part of a series put on by the North Orange County Community Concerts Association (NOCCC). http://www.northocconcerts.org/ Apparently, the NOCCC is celebrating its 64th season/year. WOW! Impressive. Though I've never heard of them before now...and its no wonder! @Candai & I were the *youngest* ones there! :) But it was all good. :) The evenings concert was by Golden Bough, a Celtic band (trio) who's been around for 30 yrs.

From the North OC Concerts website:
"Golden Bough, Celtic Trio Monday, October 26, 2009, 7:30 PM - A musical exploration of the Irish and Scottish folk heritage and its influence on some of the best loved folk music of America today. Golden Bough features spirited vocal harmonies and instrumental numbers performed on Celtic harp, guitar, pennywhistle, violin, recorder, octave-mandolin, accordion, and bodhran. Enjoy rousing instrumental music, ballads, humorous songs and sea chanteys, plus the stories behind the music"

Group's website: http://www.goldenboughmusic.com/
Besides concerts & special events (and educational programs), they also perform at some festivals (like Highland/Scottish festivals). Last night's concert was called "America Bound" (1st time they performed this particular concert) and featured a selection of Irish & Scottish tunes (ballads, humorous songs, sea chanteys, & of course jigs & reels).

The Irish set was up first, and then after the Intermission, it was time for the Scottish set.
All in all I really enjoyed the music. I personally would have loved to hear more reels & jigs (more traditional instrumental only songs) thrown in the evenings concert, but I did enjoy all their singing songs. They did occasionally ask for the audience to join in on some of the choruses, and of course, @candai and I acquiesced...enthusiastically. :) (Ok, me possibly more than her on a few songs...since I knew a few more of the sea chanteys, etc.).

Their last song of the evening (not counting their encore) was "Donal, Where's your Trousers?"... was of course fun to join in on the chorus!

(I apparently left the program at home today, so I'll type up the full list of songs covered in the concert later).

Afterwards, most everyone moved to a smaller room off the side where some light refreshments (fizzy punch!! and cookies/brownies :) were served while the performers sold and signed their cds and just generally chatted with people. @Candai & I struck up a conversation first with their Violinist, Kathy, who came out and asked us how *we* ended up coming/heard about the concert, as we were obviously the youngest ones there. (That got a laugh :) We explained, and then started chatting about various things. @Candai asked how Kathy went from training/playing violin the Suzuki Method to playing Celtic...and she actually gave us more than a quick & simple answer. (It was great!) She performed on both the Viola and the Violin during the concert (and sang too). Both were wonderful (especially when they performed reels. Superb playing!).

The other musicians were multi-talented as well.
Margie, who's one of the co-founders of the group, played a wide variety of instruments throughout the evening (tin whistles, recorder, bodhrán , a Celtic style harp, spoons - 'the bones', guitar, etc.) as well as performed vocals on I believe every single song that evening. Her father apparently was an Irish Tenor, and she learned many a song from him. Paul, the other co-founder of the group, played guitar and sang most of the songs, but occasionally he'd break out another instrument. Occasionally he'd use the Mandolin, and for at least one song he used a banjo and for one or two others an accordion made an apperance. :)

It was hard to choose which cd to purchase, since they had a bunch of them available (including a new one they just put together called Celtic Love Songs), but I eventually settled on their "Songs of Scotland" cd and got their autographs on it. :)

The crowd had thinned out a bit by then, so we all chatted some more. (Though Kathy was drawn off by some people in attendance from the Ross clan, who apparently wanted to interview her since she had some ties to the clan :). Margie told me that she really appreciated my enthusiasm in the audience. (Hey, we were 2nd row, front & center - and the youngest people there - easy to spot :). When you're at a Celtic concert, you gotta clap (and sing) along whenever possible. (And smile at the performers....there's nothing worse than performing and staring out at a sea of deadpan faces. I know! :)

Soon, though, @Candai & I called it a night as we had to drive back to my work (where I we left my car) before either of us could drive home. Great night of music, overall! YAY! :)

December's Dollhouse Schedule Confirmed

Just passing on some info for the other Dollhouse fans out there :)

Fox has apparently confirmed that the official schedule for the next Dollhouse episodes to air.
(Yay! :)


"Fox rep tells io9 that this is the airing schedule for Dollhouse between now and 2010:
Friday, Oct. 23 (tonight) - Episode 204 (9PM-10PM et/pt)
Friday, Dec. 4 - Episode 205 & 206 (Summer Glau episodes 8PM-10PM et/pt)
Friday, Dec. 11 - Episodes 207 & 208 (8PM-10PM et/pt)
Friday, Dec. 18 - Episodes 209 & 210 (8PM-10PM et/pt)"

See http://io9.com/5388711/double-the-dollhouse-in-december
(and http://whedonesque.com/comments/22131)

And *Don't Forget* that tonight's episode was directed by Jonathan Frakes. (Yes, THAT Jonathan Frakes...the one of Star Trek fame :). And if I heard/read correctly, tonight's ep is focusing on Sierra.

If you want to see a Clip from tonight's episode (&/or a Promo spot), go here:
http://www.dollverse.com/2009/10/a-clip-and-promo-for-tonights-episode/

Enjoy!

Another Leak from inside the Dollhouse

Another Leak from inside the Dollhouse
:)

This time the Memo is from Topher Brink:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/21182659/Rossum-LA-Narrative-Diagnostic-Tests

Memo's from Adelle DeWitt (Dollhouse)

Ok, so if you are a fan of Dollhouse, like I am, you'll probably get as big of a kick outta these Inter-Office Memos issued by Adelle DeWitt as I did.

:)

Oct 12th: http://www.scribd.com/doc/21008596/Rossum-LA-Client-Acquisition-and-Retention

Oct 15th: http://www.scribd.com/doc/21129621/Rossum-LA-Weekly-Staff-Meeting

Soup's On!

Since I tweeted about planning (and then making) soup and biscuits tonight, here are a couple of pics of tonight's dinner (made from scratch)...

Chicken & Vegetable Soup with Dirty (Whole Wheat) Biscuits

The Soup was really just something I threw together - I tend to do that most of the time. :)

The Herbs & Seasonings were picked by what I felt like would taste good, and the amounts were completely by guess (dash of this, pinch of that...you get the idea :).

Herbs & Seasonings that I used:

Fresh Ground Pepper

Kosher Salt

Garlic - (about 6 cloves - 1/2 chopped & 1/2 crushed)

Parsley (dried)

Rosemary (dried)

Thyme (dried)

Tarragon (dried)

Bay leaves (1 med & 1 small)

Ground Mustard (dash)

I also sautéed some finely chopped onions and celery stalks in butter before adding in the rest of the soup ingredients. (I used both chicken stock and vegetable stock for the broth)

Other ingredients:

Onion (1 medium sized one - finely chopped)

Chicken Breast (1)

Red Potatoes (sm-med, about 4-5, diced)

Carrots, chopped (around 6)

Celery (5 stalks, 2-1/12 chopped finely, 2-1/2 chopped in chunks)

Mushrooms (about 6? - roughly chopped)

The Biscuits are a simple Soda Biscuits recipe. For the flour I used a mix of whole-wheat flour and regular flour (1 cup of each - it wasn't a very large batch of biscuits).

And Yes, it does taste as good as it looks (or sounds).

:)

Leftovers are first come, first served! ;-)

September Wrap Up (pics online)

Well, pictures from September are finally uploaded to my flickr account (if you haven't noticed already ;-).

Sara's Baby Shower (9-12-09)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shutterbec/sets/72157622334291593/
This was the OC baby shower. Sara's in-laws were throwing another one on October 3rd (which I didn't end up going to). I only have a few photos as I soon was drafted to take notes while presents were being opened, but that was ok. :) Monica (my sis-in-law) was taking tons of photos throughout. (Official photorapher for the party and all that :).

The Match-the-Nursery Rhyme game (don't know if it had an official name or not, since I think my mom made it up - rules were based on the game of Pit :) was a lot of fun. It was definitely a mixer and got people moving about.

I didn't have time to make anything as a present (perhaps later), but two of the presents I gave were from ThinkGeek.com. :) I got my sister (as an early birthday present) this shirt:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/womens/bc2c/ and for the baby (my Niece!), this Onsie: http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/kids/59cc/
Awesomeness, I know! :)


My 31st Birthday (9-18-09) at Disneyland
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shutterbec/sets/72157622334350573/
I spent the day with two friends, David and Elizabeth (Betsy) and had a great time. Got soaked on Spalsh Mountain, but it was a hot day, so it felt goo. Crowds weren't too bad, since it was a Friday (yay!) and we pretty much got on any ride without much of a line. Space Mountain & Haunted Mansion were down (both being 'fixed up' for Halloween/Holidays, I guess). Even had a break from the rides (and the heat) by sipping a Mint Julep in New Orleans. All in all, it was a good day. :) I also got sucked into the great deal they have for Annual Passes and went ahead and turned in my "Get In Free on your Birthday in 2009" ticket towards their cheapest annual pass: the So. California Select. Pretty much no weekends and July and major holidays are blacked out, but no biggie. :) Who wants to go in July (heat) or crowded weekends anyways? :)


HCA's 1870s Summer Afternoon Picnic (9-20-09)
(held at the Banning Residence Museum, in Wilmington, CA)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shutterbec/sets/72157622465941158/
A lot of sewing was done to get ready for this event. I converted my sheer 1860s gown (with help from Maegen) into my 1870s outfit. But I still needed to make a bustle (undergarment) and the underskirt. And of course, besides small setback with sewing and working with a new (to me) pattern, there was the fact that my machine broke right when I was in the middle of the project and the deadline looming (1 week out). Fortunately, between having some PTO time left (able to take 1/2 days and a couple of full days off…one of which was used for my Disneyland trip :) and Maegen & Charlie allowing me to basically camp out at their place working (and using Maegen's sewing machine), I was ablet o get the outfit done in time. Yay! (Maegen threw together the hat I'm wearing in the pics, and made the brown straps for my overskirt the pull it up into an ‘apron’ in front, and also the brown belt).

The picnic itself was fun. I arrived about a ½ hr late (was getting ready with the Hensleys), but there were others still arriving so no big deal. It was a nice day, and we had lovely grass to picnic on in a large shady area – perfect! Downside –after a little while, I asked someone to take a picture of me with my camera, and to get a better shot for the picture I was asked to take a step backwards….which I unthinkingly did. Bad idea, as I quickly fell backwards (stepping on my trailing skirts and slipping on the slick grass with my 1860s boots – slick soles, no tread). Of course, the natural thing to do is throw out your arms to break your fall backwards, which is a BAD idea in my case, as I have repeatedly injured my left arm (around the elbow), so this fall re-injured the arm. (Elbow started to pop out of joint, and fortunately I was able to get it back in place as people assisted me up into a sitting position – the movement upward helped). Someone fetched some painkillers for me from her car, and Gina gave me a bag of ice from her cooler, so I could try to mitigate the pain. (Both helped, so thanks!) Maegen (and a few others?) joked that it isn’t an HCA event with me getting hurt in some way. :) Unfortunately, SO true!

At 2:00pm I joined in the tour of the house, since it intrigued me. A tour (with 4 Brits) had already started, but they and the tour guide kindly let me join in. While the rooms were neat, I was left feeling a bit disappointed as we went through very slowly and there wasn’t as much information given on some of the things I was interested in. (Also – I’d like to double check some information that my guide gave as ‘fact’, as I have never heard of it before in all my research…and I must say that I do like to research things for fun and know a lot of random and generally ‘useless’ knowledge). Between one thing and another (some confusion as to which order the rooms should be toured in with another tour guide flustered our tour guide, and getting off on a few tangents with the other people on the tour), I was starting to look forward to the end of the tour (and wondering if I should duck out early as I had been absent from the picnic for quite some time).

As I rounded the corner of the house, after touring the Garage/Stables/Blacksmith shop area in the back, I discovered everyone was assembled on the steps of the Front Porch to the house for a group picture! Ack! Barely made it back in time to join in! (I did miss a picture that was taken on the lawn just prior to this one, sounds like). No one apparently knew where I was. A couple people remembered I had gone on a tour, but didn’t realize it took SO long and thought it must have finished a while ago. Lana/lily was also arriving just as I rounded the corner, so we both got in the group picture (yay!).

Not too long afterwards, as there was no one for a 3:30pm tour, the docents started closing up the museum, and hence they’d start closing the grounds shortly afterwards…and we had to start packing up and saying goodbye.

Truthfully, I felt a bit cheated ‘cause I barely got to participate in the picnic itself (cause I decided to go on the tour – so my own fault – but that was part of the draw of this place, to see the historic buildings). But it seems like *everyone else* had a really good time, so that’s pretty much all that matters – it was a good event with a good turnout, which means we’ll likely repeat this event in the future. (Maybe same place, maybe somewhere else, we’ll see).


Sound of Music Sing-Along at the Hollywood Bowl. (9-26-09)
No pics, unfortunately. (Brought my camera, but never did end up taking a single picture). I met up with a few costumers and friends for the Sound of Music Sing-Along at the Hollywood Bowl. Now *I’ve* never been to the Bowl before (that I can remember, at least), so it was a totally new experience. Since I was in the area, I visited for like 20 minutes with some friends in West LA (that I hadn’t seen in a while) before driving over to the Bowl. One person suggested that I park at Hollywood & Highland (in the parking structure there) as there’s a shuttle that leaves every 15-20 minutes for the Bowl. Sounded like a good idea (instead of trying to navigate the Bowl parking on my first visit) so I took surface streets to get there and got stuck in congestion on Highland trying to get to the intersection of Hollywood & Highland. (doh!) Besides Bowl traffic, something was going on at the shopping center and at one of the nearby places. (They had closed off a portion of Hollywood and I saw some banners saying “Jimmy Kimmel Live” hanging off a building). After getting into the parking lot, I kept asking for directions to the shuttle, but only got vague directions. Got my parking validated (bought chocolate at the Rocky Mtn Chocolate Factory :) and then I went to the 2nd floor where I was told to go for the shuttle…but then couldn’t figure out where to go from there. Wandered for about 20 minutes, and asked more people (who were clueless), and finally ended up going to Guest Services down at street level at the front. She knew what I was talking about, but then told me that since the Show (really was the Pre-Show) already started, she thought the shuttles were done until afterwards. ACK!!! I pestered her until she *finally* called over to the Shuttle area and asked if shuttles were still running…and the WERE, much to my relief. So I finally got good directions and made my way to the Shuttle stop, paid my $4 (ticket) and entered the bus (which was almost full). We were off within a few minutes and shuttled over to the Bowl. Upon arriving, I made my way to the stands in order to seek out my seat and my friends. (Phone calls to one friend were just going to voice mail, but with the noise in the Bowl, it wasn’t *that* surprising she didn’t hear my calls). I eventually found the section in which my seat was and joined the others who had already arrived. (I wasn’t the last to arrive, though – Rizwan & Hollee showed up like 5 minutes later, and their seats were next to mine) Turns out I hadn’t missed much by being late. The “Pre-Show” pretty much as a Costume/Fashion Show in which practically anyone that had dressed up for the performance was allowed to line up and take a walk across the stage, announced by the Host for the evening. Ok in concept, but BORING. Perhaps if it had been whittled down to only a small number (of really good/outstanding entries), it would have been interesting, but for a whole hour – definitely not!

The experience of seeing the movie on screen with a bunch of people was fun. (Though the jerks with the lazer pointers did make a nuisance outta themselves ‘announcing’ the arrival of each new character with fresh bursts of laser pointing at these screen/characters. Grr. Worse, though, was the angry rumbling from the crowd, as I’m sure that only was egging on those attention-seeking miscreants.)

I could have done w/o the crowd ‘boo’-ing or hissing at the Baroness, as the crowd was instructed (paper ‘invitation to the ball’ enclosed in the gift back we received upon entering). The Baroness really didn’t deserve that. Yes, she was looking out for herself, in trying to secure the Captain’s affections and getting rid of a potential rival, but when she realized that she didn’t have a chance, she bowed out gracefully…and that’s the point. She actually had class! Now Rolfe, however…TOTALLY fine with booing/hissing for his character! (Little Hitler Youth/Nazi-in-the-making, after all).

Overall, I really liked seeing it on the big screen, with a lot of people. (But I liked seeing White Christmas in the LA Theater, dressed in 1950s better :).

The Crosbys (and Amy C., since she carpooled with them), gave me a ride to my car so I wouldn't have to figure out which bus/shuttle was mine (in the mass of people crowding near the busses). Thanks guys!

By the time I drove home, it was near 1am (I think I managed to fall in bed around 1:30am), so needless to say I was tired! The night air didn't help my already compromised system and I wasn't feeing 100% on Sunday. (Just was a bit off). I had coffee that afternoon with my friend Becca Metzger (who was driving home to San Diego after attending a meeting up in LA county earlier that day) and then I ended up bringing dinner over to Chuck (Hensley) - stopped at Paul's Place to pick up food for me and him...and Rhiannon since she'd snitch fries from both of us ;-) - and visiting with him and the kids for an hour or two. Ok, so maybe I mostly visited with the kids. But that was fine by both of us - allowed Chuck some time to work on leather stuff and I got to have kids time. (Rowan was bouncing with excitement when he saw/heard me enter...he loves my voice! :) We had a fun time, but I made sure to leave like by 9:00pm so I could get some decent rest before the work-week started.

Unfortunately, I ended up sick. Started coming down with a bad cold on Monday, and ended up going home early from work on Tuesday (9/29) from how sick I was feeling - and not to share my germs with my co-workers (which they appreciated). Stayed home to rest/get better on Wednesday (9/30).

And that's pretty much what's been going on with me since my last blog post in September.
:)

anyone want to go to Disneyland?

Hi all!

So I've decided to join the Disney bandwagon and actually take advantage of the "Go to Disneyland Free on your Birthday" promotion, seeing as its my birthday in a couple of weeks.

:)

Anyone want to come with me (i.e. meet up with me there) for either part or all of the day?

I would definitely enjoy meandering around Disneyland (and waiting in the various ride lines) more if I'm hanging out with friends - new or old - than wandering the park by myself. (Done that before, and its boring not having a friend to hang out with while waiting in line :).

My birthday (9/18) is on a Friday this year, which means Yes, I'm taking the day off work.

Let me know if you want to meet up with me. Hope someone (or a few people) can come along with me! :)

Great Aunt LaVaughn's Dill-Parsley Dip Recipe

This is a super easy (and simple) recipe, and its just SO yummy! One of my Grandma Doris' sisters (LaVaughn, if I remember which sister correctly) used to make this recipe for family gatherings and the like. Its perfect for serving with cut veggies.

My Grandma, Aunt Jody, and I have no idea where she got this recipe, unfortunately. But that doesn't stop us from enjoying it!

=)

So, without further ado...the recipe!

* * * * * * * * *

DILL-PARSLEY DIP

2/3 Cup Best Food Mayonnaise

2/3 Cup Sour Cream

1 ½ Tablespoons of dry white onion

1 Tablespoon Dry Parsley

1 Tablespoon Dill Weed

½ Teaspoon Beau Monde Seasoning+

Directions: Just mix all together, chill (overnight perferably), and serve!

* * * * * * * * *

+If you have never heard of Beau Monde Seasoning before, don't panic! Before I got this recipe *I* hadn't heard of it either. Its basically a blend of celery, onion, and salt. Spice Islands (spices & seasonings) makes it and its apparently an 'all-purpose' seasoning.

Enjoy! :)

Time for a New Hair Color...well, semi-new at least ;-)

Well, I managed to successfully dye my hair yesterday. Yay! :) Go me! Its been a while since I've dyed my own hair w/o help from a friend. (Its just easier to make sure that you completely saturate the hair all over...especially the harder to see/back of the head places...when you have another pair of eyes and hands helping out :). So I'm definitely feeling accomplished right now.

While my hair has faded from the really neat reddish color I got back in July for the Molly Weasley outfit (it was professionally dyed), I just never found the time to go and get it touched up...what with prepping for Costume College and then the actual convention, and then Life afterwards...and since then I've been too busy to even dye it myself. However, the last week or so, I've been pretty fed up of having my roots show, I can tell you! So yesterday, when I managed to get off a few hours early from work ('cause work was slow), I made sure to take the time and dye my hair. Yay!

So its back to a more 'normalish' look for me. (If I recall correctly, I'm pretty sure I used Garnier Nutrisse's "Brown Sugar 63" - which is basically Light Golden Brown. So hair is back to more of a light brown, but with reddish overtones...and, of course, some of the lighter highlights from before show through, which is nice).

Don't have any pictures yet of my current hair color. But maybe in the future :)

HCA's 1870s Picnic (Sept 20th) - Location Update

The Historical Citizens Association (HCA)'s Board is pleased to announce - we have a new location for our 1870s Picnic!!

 

We shall be picnicking at the Banning Residence Museum! (The Museum is located at 401 E M St, Wilmington, CA 90744-2610, in the Long Beach area.)  Picnicking will be FREE and we will have a croquet course (or two) set up.  If you have other games that you would like to bring, such as a set of Graces, please let us know. (Please email Lily Cressman regarding games or questions. lilycressman@historicalcitizens.org)

 

Also, we are pleased to announce that we have scheduled two docent-guided tours *just for our group*. Tours are approximately 1 hr each and our tours are scheduled for 1:00 pm and 2:00 pm.  Museum Tours are $5.00 per person (children under 12 are free, though the tour is not recommended for those under the age of 9). The $5.00 fee allows you to see ALL the public areas of the 16-room mansion, the barn with its vehicles and blacksmith shop, and the one room schoolhouse, plus you'll get *lots* of local historical information. (Great bargain!)

 

Parking - you can park all cars/vans on M Street (1 block south of Pacific Coast Hwy), which runs east-west past the house, or on Banning Blvd, which runs north-south from M Street (directly in front of the house).

 

As a reminder - 1870s dress is encouraged. Please bring your own picnicking items (blanket or table/chairs, as well as food and drink items). 

   

Hope to see you there!

 

The Historical Citizens Association Board

 

Rebecca/Violet, Maegen, Jen (R.), Karen, and Lana/Lily

www.HistoricalCitizens.org

feeling accomplished! (Crock Pot Dinner :)

So, this morning, I was determined to get some food into the crock pot before I left for work...and I did! Yay! :)

I had some stewing meat (beef chuck) on hand that I browned (in butter, of course!) and seasoned with some Arroyo Grande Seasoning (basically a dry rub/seasoning mix consiting of course ground pepper, course ground salt, & garlic - one of my favorite seasonings!) and a bit of Lipton's Onion Mix. Added about 1/4 cup beef stock to the crock pot, then threw in some Red Potatoes on top and some brown mushrooms (both sprinkled with the above mix of seasonings) .

Yum!!!

Looks tasty, if I do say so myself.
:)

If I had a *larger* crock pot I would have made the effort to go out to the store and buy some carrots and add those to the pot....but I don't have a large crock pot. (Someday, perhaps). For now, though, I'll stop on my way home and pick up some veggie (possibly carrotts, we'll see) to cook tonight and serve with my pot roast. Hmm...I guess its still a pot roast even if the the beef is cut into chunks and not one large piece of meat. Whatever you want to call it, it'll be tasty. :)

And no, this is not for any particular reason or for something special. (Just little ol me that will be partaking of this later on tonight). I just wanted to make something in the crock-pot so it'd be an easy dinner when I got home from work. :)

these Crazy Days...

Life hasn't really slowed down since Costume College, unfortunately. I came back from Costume College and was immediately thrown into a hectic work week...which turned into 2 hectic work weeks.

Ended up working till 8:30pm...twice, and then was so burned out I didn't care anymore about staying late to get the 'priority' urgent stuff done and just did what I could during regular work hours.

Dealt with a multi-day ant invasion at home...and finally found a product that worked (Yay!! for Epsom Salt!). Finally got to unpack my car from Costume College over the 8/8-8/9 weekend and start on laundry. Got into a fender bender around 5pm on Sunday (8/9)...sigh...cause I was *tired* and not paying enough attention. What a way to end that weekend! :p But at least I did get to hang out with my friend Gretchen for a bit and we went and saw Julie & Julia (which we both loved) on Saturday, so there was some good that came out of that weekend.

So, went from an awful week, and a so-so weekend, to an even worse week. (That 2nd day of working till 8:30pm was Monday 8/10...FUN, let me tell you!). But I got the urgent/priority stuff done that was super time sensitive, and I gave up on staying late the rest of the week.
(One contributing factor to why my workload was so awful was cause I normally share the workload with another lease admin - we split all the properties between us and it keeps everything manageable...most of the time. Though there are days when we're both swamped...that's just how our job goes. Our work load happens in cycles of super busy to barely anything. We've got not control over it either).

I also found out that our back-up location for the upcoming 1870s picnic was no longer available for our event on the date we wanted. (They wanted more than our simple picnic, and they said that that date wouldn't work for them and wondered if we'd consider changing our date. Date change is out of the question.) We've been planning on that date for months now...and we just want a simple picnic, so back to the drawing board in looking for a location to have our 1870s picnic. After emailing and talking with certain people, one location came up as a definite possible spot, and I had someone call to inquire (she knows the director) if they'd be open to having us for our picnic on the date we want...but the director was out on vacation (back on Tuesday, 8/18). So hopefully, we'll hear back from them soon and find out if that location is a go. :)

And there are other things that happened that I just don't feel like discussing over the Internet...so email me if you *really* want to know.

Two *POSITIVE* things last week - 1) I got to have a fun lunch at an Irish pub with a good friend (Jenn M)! We haven't done lunch together in a while. And we both love Durty Nelly's! :) , and 2) I did get a chance to go visit the Hensleys and play with the kids on Wednesday. (I SO needed some Kid Therapy time :) I brought over a new puzzle that I had picked up and Rhiannon and I worked on it together (she sure loves puzzles!) and just generally played with Rowan (and tired him out, really :).

Oh, and I got a "Fan Page" for Historical Citizens Association created on Facebook (and an event page for the 1870s picnic). Something semi-productive that was non-work related :) Small victory.

And my landlord had the AC serviced & fixed (got a new compressor!)...even if he forgot to let us know that he & the AC service guy were showing up at 8am on Monday morning (last week). I had asked him to scheduled service (its been a year, and the AC is old and faulty...and leaks coolant) and he said he would...but then he forgets to keep us in the loop as to when the repair guys are showing up. (My roommate was still home getting ready for work when the doorbell went off). He at least let us know that they were coming back sometime on Friday to install a new compressor. (That's something...I guess). But considering my week, I'm just glad we have a new compressor installed, so hopefully, when we next need to use the AC, it actually works!


Let's see - I also mailed off my check for my ticket to attend the "Sound of Music Singalong" (Saturday, September 26, at the Hollywood Bowl) to Colleency since she bought a block of tickets for a group outing. (Yay!). Now if I only can find the time to make an Austrian Drindle...that would be neat to wear to the outing. Realistically, I don't have the time. But that doesn't mean I can't dream. (I did buy the Folkwear pattern and put it on my 'to make' someday list :). If I somehow manage to find the time to make it...in time for this perform ace...that would be really neat. We'll see. I've got a bit of sewing to do for my 1870s and Regency outfits first! Even if I don't get that outfit done in time, I'm still looking forward to seeing the Sound of Music at the Hollywood Bowl. Sounds fun! :)


Eventually, the 'Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad' week ended :). Yay for weekends! And sleep! :) I did manage to clean off my cutting table (and put things away that were sitting atop it...not just shuffle things around, mind you) but discovered when I went to start cutting fabric for my next project that I couldn't find my white cotton fabric. Ack! After going through my stash, I eventually found the fabric (sitting where I left it - in a semi-obvious place, if I had remembered), but it wasn't going to be enough for my current project(s). So time for a trip to my 'local' fabric store (JoAnn's Superstore - nothing else really close that carries fabric, really). At least I got to use my 40% off coupon on that purchase (which was expiring that day). So rest of my Saturday turned into washing all the fabric (including re-washing the previously bought fabric). Sunday afternoon = ironing the fabric. Wow, that was a LOT of ironing! At least THIS time I didn't burn myself on the iron! :) (I certainly did that while ironing right after Costume College - had washed all the cotton undergarments for Civil War and Regency outfits that I had brought with me to Costume College...so it was time to iron them. And I burned one of my fingers and got a nasty blister from the iron. Ouch! Blister has since then popped, and the burned area is healing...slowly. Looks...lovely. :P )

What else did I do? Oh yeah! I cut the fabric for a hem facing on my 1930s red skirt (I didn't have time to do that prior to Costume College, when I was attempting to fix the hemline by lowering it, so I just did a 'quick fix' to make it wearable, and now I need to actually fix it). I found enough of my original fabric (from leftover scraps) to cut the hem facing. So I cut some strips and sewed them together. Left off at the ironing stage (i.e. to work on later). I pinned the hem on my 1930s wool skirt (also fixing that hemline by lowering it). And I sewed up the ripped seam on my cheap Wal-mart pj bottoms. (I had arrived at the Long Beach Civil War event in May and realized I forgot my pjs, so ran out to Wal-mart and bought *something* to wear at night. Threw them in the wash after the event with other regular clothes...and when I took them out from the dryer, discovered that one of the main seams had unraveled. So I pinned it and threw it on my "to sew/fix pile" and left it there...until this weekend :).

I also got in a bit of cooking - yay! (missed cooking with my being so busy first prior to Costume College with prep stuff...then being away at Costume College...and then coming home to hectic work stress/schedules). Did have to run out just as I was starting to prep some food to pick up a new propane tank for the gas bbq, as we had apparently run out. But at least that wasn't too long of a trek. :)

And I got to sleep. Sleep is good
:)

And Thanks! go to various friends that the I talked with during the past 2 (no-fun) weeks to help me stay relatively sane :)

We'll see what this week holds in store. Hopefully, a much better week. :)

Costume College 2009...is over

Whew! What a weekend.

Sorry I've been silent on here lately - lots of time/effort has been put into prepping for Costume College (CoCo). And it definitely paid off :).

And if you don't know what CoCo is...Wow! you mean I HAVEN'T talked your ear off about it yet? :) For more info, go here: http://www.costumecollege.org/

This year at CoCo I ran the Information Dept (Information Desk at Costume College), which was completely new for me. And, to make things MORE interesting, I decided to have a game at the Information Desk that CoCo Attendees could play. Basically, its a Wheel that you could spin, after after it stopped on a category, you answered a trivia question. Many of them were images that you had to look at and then guess the time period, the sewing tool, the movie/tv show, etc that it came from. I even had a section on Costume College trivia (past colleges/conventions). :)

Here's the full list of categories:
1. What’s my Scene? (Movies/TV Stills)
2. Say What?!? (Movies/TV Quotes)
3. Costume College Trivia
4. Sewing Tools & Equipment
5. Unmentionables (Undergarments through the ages)
6. Words of Wisdom (Helpful hints and tips provided by other costumers and some of our vendors).
7. Out of Time (Guess the Time Period)
8. Spin Again
9. Ghodfuzzy to the Rescue! (Free Choice. Player gets to choose the category.)

I had 12 segments on the wheel, so a few categories were repeated. Overall, I had a great reaction to the game, and everyone had fun (Yay!). So I'm glad I put all that work into it. Thanks go to various people for helping me build the wheel itself (vadenalim) and assemble the categories on site too (including collency, casketgirl, Maria, bygoneglamour, and others that I'm forgetting right now). Thank You!!! :)

I had 100 Name Badge Ribbons to give out to those who played the game, and by Sunday (morning) they were gone!

Information Desk itself went fairly smoothly overall. Some minor kinks that can be worked out later. I definitely have ideas for how to improve it (though some things will probably change just cause we're changing hotels next year...BIG change for us). A few holes in the schedule for covering the Info Desk (schedule is a tad harder to fill when ONLY Committee members or CGW Board of Directors can man the table, but various people stopped by and stepped up when there was a need for another body at the table. Thanks! :)

Oh, and I taught my Intro to Leather Tooling class this year, and it went Spectacularly! I could have probalby used some more time, and a few minor glitches, but nothing serious. The students had a great time (I had limited the class to a max of 10 students - all pre-registered so I knew how many to prep for) and did really well on learning the various steps of tooling leather even though we had to rush through a few stages. (They got the idea of the stage, but they could have used some more time to bevel or pear shade...mostly beveling...cause there's a LOT of beveling going on in the design...and its a good thing to practice. Lots of designs incorporate beveling). I even got requests from various students to teach this again next year (so they can bring back their projects and show me what they've been working on and how they've improved) and got a round of applause. (Yay!!! :)

I attended my 3 Limited Classes and they were all great! So very glad I got it. :) (Though I had to leave early from my first one cause I just wasn't feeling well and had to lay down/get fluids in me. I admit I am a bit dissapointed I missed out on good portion of that class, since it was a hands-on demonstration of dying different types of fabrics - something I've been interested in for a while - but I did get the handout and some samples. Plus I have some contact info for the teacher. She and I bonded a bit, too, when I drove her out on Thursday to an office supply store to get new handouts copied for her various classes since they were forgotten at home...and she was from out of state! So I'm not too worried. I can probably pick her brain later if I have questions on stuff I missed while I'm reading the handout.)

The Saturday Evening (Time Traveler's) Gala this year was fabulous! I arrived a bit late (was working on my 1930s hair with the help of my roommate, first time attendee Laura who also happens to reenacts 1940s, and it took a bit longer than anticipated to get it just right...but it was worth it. :) Sewgirljen and Becca M (my other rommates) had managed to save me a seat at a nearby table. I must say - that table was a lot of fun. It's always nice when you meet new people and you get along! Plus the "Who am I?" game did help break the ice a bit more. (Only suggestion is to play it earlier in the evening, like between one of the courses, to help the table socialize earlier).

Dancing at the Gala was a blast. Of course, we started off with the Time Warp (tradition!) and the floor was packed. Then other music kicked in and the dance floor varied between decently croweded to packed most of the night, courtesy of obishawn's great ability to read the mood of the crowd. I gotta say, that was the best selection of dance tunes at a Gala yet. (Yay! Keep it up obishawn! :) Never made it in to the Red Carpet room to get my picture taken, but oh well. Got a few pics on my camera and friends cameras...I was too busy dancing and socializing in the main room! :)

Sunday afternoon had the Tea, and I had never attended the Tea at Costume College before...and chartreusekitty was the Tea Mistress (and had put together an awesome looking tea filled with fun games and had arranged for various people to bring their teapots so the tea could actually be served in real teapots - I brought my 1 teapot for her to use :) so I decided I just had to attend! Just as the Tea was starting, and I was about to buy one of the remaining tea tickets for sale (i.e. tickets sold are ones that someone had purchased before it was Sold Out, but now the person could no longer attend so the ticket is being re-sold for original purchase price) someone handed me a ticket that an attendee could no longer use and was willing to GIVE it away (without selling it). So I took it (gratefully)! I had a great time! (I did have to duck out at 3pm so that I could cover the Information Desk...since it was a blank slot on the schedule...but then Natalie, the CGW's treasurer popped by to see how things were going and sent me back inside to finish my Tea and she covered the Desk. Thanks Natalie!!! :)

Sunday Evening was the CGW Annual Meeting...and fortunately it was under 2 hrs. Woo-Hoo! And...bonus...the various people I really wanted to get elected to the Board, and I voted for, of course, actually *got* on the Board. Yay! :)

Afterwards, a bunch of us (9 total) went over to Millies to have dinner and just be silly. We had a blast! A lot of us are/were on the Committee so we've been super busy all weekend and prior to the convention with planning/prep and the actual mayhem of CoCo. So we definitely needed some downtime. :) I gotta say that dinner (the company) was great as always! And of course, we were silly...the laughter just flowed from our table/area. Good thing we kinda had a section to ourselves! :)

Monday was packing up and making sure we got everything out of the various rooms (including conference rooms). I stayed to help collency make sure all the stuff was out of the boardroom (where committee stuff had been piled) and also helped collency and obishawn make trips of stuff to their car so they could check out of their room. Afterwards, I hung out with collency while we waited for Chaz to come by and pick up the last bit of Tea decoratations (the Arch) and we brainstormed ideas for CoCo 2010. :) We (Collency, Chaz, his Head Minion, and I) grabbed lunch at Beeps down the street...and then we all went our seperate directions.

Back to real life...and unpacking...now.
(And figuring out my receipts so I can turn in the ones for Costume College committee stuff and get reimbursed :)

Videos from England Tour 2008

Ok, I *finally* got around to uploading some of my videos from when I was on vacation in England in May 2008 to YouTube.
:)

Two are uploaded so far - and I've got a couple more I'll upload later.
Enjoy!

-- Evensong at York Minister
or click here: http://bit.ly/fptG8

-- Bells of York Minister
or click here: http://bit.ly/14dWix


Both of these were taken on 5/22/08 in York UK.

And now for something completely different...in hair color :)

Some of you may not be aware, but I've been thinking (planning) about dying my hair reddish for the month of July for a while now....especially once I decided to do a Molly Weasley outfit for a group trip (in costume) to see the Harry Potter movie.

And since I wanted it to turn out nice (and look fairly natural), I decided to spend the money and have a professional do my hair instead of attempting it on my own. And let me just say, I am SO glad I did. (I love my hairstylist, btw - she's awesome! I would recommend her to anyone. She's the only one I go to when I get my hair cut or trimmed.)

So, anyways....today I had my hair appointment at 4:30pm. I arrived WAY early (I know, me! You can pick yourself up off the floor now ;), and crocheted and chatted while I waited for my appointment. I also took a few "before" pics to use as a reference for comparison with my 'after' pics.

=)

Before Pics

After looking at my reference pics of Molly Weasley, Sherri set to work and started mixing dyes.

First, she mixed up something that stripped color from my hair WITHOUT bleaching it. (And it actually worked. Nifty, huh?)

Here's a shot of me sitting with the 1st round of stuff.

(She applied it in streaks, to do a sort of highlight effect. This helped her see how my hair would react to the dye...plus it would help give some lighter highlights later on to make it look more natural :)

After washing out that step, and drying my hair, a new batch of color (tint) was mixed up and applied ALL over my hair...and really worked in.

Here's two pics with the 2nd stage tint worked into my hair...and me crocheting while I wait for it to do its magic.

And here's afew pics from the final result!

(And from while she was curling/styling my hair - after she trimmed it, of course :)

Of course, by the time we're taking these last shots, its pretty dark in this hair salon (still sunny outside...but bad lighting inside). In the sunlight the blondish parts really show up...and the whole think looks natural with the multi-shades/hues.

All in all, I'm completely happy with my new hair-color. :) It's certainly different...and fun.

Can't wait to get some pics of me in the sunlight, to see how it looks in natural light. :)

Adventures in Ticket Purchasing (Harry Potter Group Movie Outing)

Yesterday afternoon tickets for non-Midnight showings of Harry Potter at Cinema Fusion Anaheim went on sale. Yes! (Finally!!)

Besides the fact that Cinema Fusion Anaheim is a pretty nice movie theater, in a nice outdoor shopping center (Garden Walk of Anaheim, near Disneyland), it also happens to have a 21+ Screening Room! Yes, that's right - one of their theater rooms is reserved for patrons who are at least 21 years old. (And yes, they do have a bar, so you can have beer or wine with your movie, if you prefer :)

The main selling point for my group with regards to this location for our group movie outing is the fact that while we all like the Harry Potter movies, and most of us going are costumers (or know someone who costumes) and will use any reasonable excuse to dress up ;-), we all REALLY like the idea of seeing the next Harry Potter movie without a gaggle of noisy kids in the audience!

As I'm the designated person to check show times and buy a block of tickets for our group :), I've been checking the website seems like daily for a while now, but no luck....until yesterday afternoon/evening. (I was in contact via email with someone at the theater, and had been told to definitely start checking on late Monday afternoon, 7/7...but unfortunately nothing was posted on Monday ). So, yesterday when I got home from work, I checked the theater website and saw that times were now posted for non-midnight showings! Yes! I immediately looked to see if there's *an around 8pm* showing for Friday 7/17. (Our ideal time since we have people driving down from Los Angeles to join us in the OC). However, the only 8:00pm showing was in the regular (general/family) theater and not the 21+ theater. Our choices were either 7:15pm or 10:15pm...so I quickly decided upon the 7:15pm and attempted to buy the block of tickets.

Problem! Oh no! Website would only allow a max of 6 tickets to be purchased at a time. I could theoretically purchase 6, and then go through the steps again...twice... to make sure I buy enough tickets for our group of 13. But that's just plain annoying. Group ticket discount doesn't start until you have a min. of 25 people, but you can't purchase more than 6 online? What's with that? (Plus, who knows if the credit card company will find multiple purchases from the same place w/in a matter of minutes a tad suspicious? Don't really want to find out).

So, by this time, I'm a tad frustrated cause I can't find a number to call the theater directly and talk to a 'live' person. And I decide I'll just DRIVE over to the box office and buy the tickets directly. They should be able to sell me enough ticktes in one purchase. So I did.
=)

I quickly sent out an email to the group to let them know of the change in estimated time (to an actual time), and that I was driving over to purchase the tickets. And then while I was driving I started placing phone calls to make sure people got the message. (Didn't want to get tickets for someone if they couldn't make the 7:15pm show after all!) Fortunately, no one had a problem with the slightly earlier time for the show. (Later would have been easier for people traveling, obviously, but that wasn't the hand that we were dealt).

Instead of heading directly to the theater, though, I took a detour and headed over to the Hensley's place, since they're fairly near my destination. After chatting for a few minutes (and they finished their dinner), Charlie, Rowan, & I went over to buy tickets (while Maegen and Rhiannon stayed home...Rhiannon decided to skip joining us cause she was dressed in her pretty blue princess dress and wanted to watch Cinderella while mom sewed ;-).

At the Garden Walk, we made our way over to the theater, and I went inside to purchase 13 tickets while Charlie walked around (pushing Rowan in his stroller).

Success!! I was able to purchase 13 tickets for Friday, July 17th at 7:15pm.
And I let them know we were coming in costume!
The guy working the register asked me what I/we were coming as, so I rattled off a few of the names of characters (outfits) we had signed up. He then turned to his co-worker (or manager, not sure), and said something to the effect of 'make sure I'm working that night' :).
LOL!

I made sure to get the parking structure ticket validated at the Theater, then went to find Charlie & Rowan. I eventually met up with them, and we made our way to the car...only to discover at the car that the now-validated parking structure ticket was MISSING! Ack!!! Frantic searching was to no avail. I went through my entire purse and wallet (a few times)...even had Charlie look. Nothing. I retraced my steps, went back to the theater and inquired if I had somehow left it or dropped it as I left...still nothing.

Dissapointed, I continued to retrace my steps and even asked a janitor if he saw a parking structure ticket on the ground. (His English wasn't that great, so I'm not sure if he really understood my question. Oh well).

I met up with Charlie on a different level of the parking structure, where he had stopped after driving around with Rowan (who had started fussing while just sitting in the carseat in an unmoving car). We watched the end of the Disneyland fireworks (well, I semi-watched...I was still going through my purse and wallet...again) while Rowan had a bottle.

When the fireworks ended, we gave up on finding the ticket and made our way to the exit where we spilled our sob story about losing the ticket and only coming in to purchase tickets (which I showed). This guy wouldn't budge - no ticket = pay max parking fee ($12!!). Bummer!

Though dissapointing to have to pay the parking fee, at LEAST we did manage to score enough Harry Potter tickets for the day and time we wanted. :) Yay!!!

(And yes, I double checked that I had all 13 as we left the parking structure :)

So that's my adventure in buying tickets for the new Harry Potter movie!


AND if anyone else would like to join us, feel free to come along. (You just need to get your own tickets). The more the merrier!!
:)


DATE: Friday, July 17, 2009
Movie Showtime: 7:15pm
Theater: Cinema Fusion Anaheim (21+ Screening Room)
http://www.cinemafusionanaheim.com/
>Located at the Anaheim Garden Walk (on the corner of Disney Way and Clementine, on the 3rd floor)
>Address: 321 W. Katella Ave, Anaheim, CA 92802
>Parking: there's a parking structure off Disney Way or Katella Ave, but the closest access to the theater is from the 4th floor of the structure off of Disney Way. (4 hours FREE parking with validation from the theater).


Current "Cast of Characters" attending:

Molly Weasley (me!)
Ginny Weasley
Hermione Granger
Luna Lovegood
Professor Sybill Trelawney
Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody
Draco Malfoy
Rita Skeeter
Fleur Delacour (in her blue Beauxbatons traveling outfit)
Nymphadora Tonks
and the rest are probably misc. students from Hogwarts.


So, if anyone else would like to join the group movie outing, here's a simple, easy costume: a generic student (from any of the houses)! We could always use a few more "Hogwarts Students" in our group. =)

Generic Hogwart's Student Outfit: Black skirt or pants, white button up shirt, black or grey sweater, tie, and black shoes (and in the case of girls, some Mary-Jane's for shoes). Easy!