"Late Twenties"

I officially become part of the "late twenties" crowd in less than a week. And what am I doing? Going to Disneyland of course! And, working... sadly. My birthday conveniently falls in the middle of a very long, very draining, event where about 50% of the attendees have probably never flown anywhere before. *sigh*

Hopefully, the trip with M to the Magic Kingdom makes up for craziness that will ensue. I just hope I'm not too tired to enjoy it.

New Website

I am spending my day off focusing on "the business." So I went and bought a domain name since all the county stuff is official.

minordetailsdesign.net

There isn't anything there, yet. But it's hosted... and there will be something there eventually. Woo hoo!

Vendor Rave: Tower Graphics

So, I swung by the old Alphagraphics building on J Street to get Shirley's wedding invites trimmed and the envelopes finished. To my chagrin, Alphagraphics is no longer Alphagraphics. The owner broke away from the chain and is now Tower Graphics. I went in 30 minutes before closing and Bob, the owner helped me, no questions asked. Even brought me to the back of the shop to make sure all the pieces were cut correctly. (Very glad I did because some pieces were backwards... something Kinkos wouldn't catch! Ugh!)

When it came down to the envelopes, he recommended offset, which blew the budget. So we tried running the envelopes at the laser printer in the front office. They worked, so we hung out and fed the envelopes through. All before 6:00. I paid... and left. Very nice. None of this "it'll be ready in 48 hours" thing.

Visit them at www.tower-graphics.com

Shirley & Jody - Invites

Woo! This project is approved! Done! Now on to printing. Printing will be done by both moi and a little bit of Kinkos action. (Ugh!) Hopefully I can sneak into Alphagraphics on the way home tomorrow, as they are my first choice. Here is a sampling. (Note, my friend's last name is not Sangria... but it sounds cool.)

Score! New Bedding

As some have figured out, Linens and Things is closing in Natomas. Hopefully the empty store will make way for something useful, like a Trader Joes. Mmm...

Anyway, everything is on a minor clearance right now. And M and I have decided to use the chain's misfortune to find a new bedding set. Especially since the current bedding shrunk in our washing machine after a foster kitty accident. (It's Dry Clean only for a reason, folks.) Plus, M never really liked my choice. (Whatever...)

So LnT put their entire Nate Berkus line on a bigger clearance than everything else... which now makes it about the same price as everything else. Either way, I managed to get the complete bedding set for $200. The comforter alone cost that much at regular price. Score!

Smoke Screen

If you've been living under a rock lately, you probably should stay there. Northern California is burning! And since we live in a valley with about 842 different fires surrounding us, it looks like mid-December, feels like mid-July, and smells like that nasty bar from college that didn't follow the "no smoking in enclosed spaces" law. Gross.

Here is the skyline on a good day:














Here is the skyline now:














Yuck...

Je vais bien, merci.

Footnotes for the last few weeks since I've been casually absent.

• The Basic Skills Initiative is guaranteed to change California college students and faculty. It apparently took over my life for about 3 weeks and I'm finally FINISHED with the regional meeting road trip. 6 2-day meetings in less than 2 weeks. UGH! Granted I didn't go to all of them, but I did have to help re-set up a majority of them because they were poorly organized.
• During my road trip, I managed to pick up some basic French phrases for our trip in November. However, since these are free podcasts, I can only go by what I hear. I know the website has free downloads, but I will probably have no idea what I'm looking at.
• I tried the Wii Fit and I LOVE it! Hula Hooping on a video game? Who needs a gym? I can do yoga with a funky CGI trainer who's lips don't move. Fun stuff.
• Lucy is our psycho "child." She's destroyed a good chunk of her toys and I find feathers all over the house. She's scratching her post... and the rug... and the carpets... and the ottomans.
• I really need a hair cut.
• I've been riding the bus for the last couple of weeks. $1 a ride. A/C. Good for the environment and I'm just saying NO to $4.50/gallon gas. HA!