EARTHQUAKE!!!!!

this morning, around 11:45, we had the biggest earthquake i have felt so far since living in california. it was centered in chino hills, about 45 minutes or so from us. i was in the lunch room taking my lunch out of the microwave when i felt the tremors and started freaking out. i am very thankful there were four other more earthquake experienced people also eating lunch. they immediately got under the table and when the shaking stopped we headed outside. a lot of our kids were scared and all the adults were on their cell phones trying to get a hold of their kids and spouses making sure everyone was ok.

i was hungry and cranky that my lunch got interupted... scared because earthquakes are one of the scariest possible thing to me... trying to settle my heart from beating so fast and trying not to sweat to death in the sunshine... instant messaging with jeremy and making sure he was ok...

sheesh. natural disasters. give me a tornado or hurricane or blizzard any day. this forest fire and earthquake business is for the birds!

i hope cricket is ok!!!!!

sequoia 2008

this year (our third annual trip to sequoia) we drove up on friday with lance and kris. ryan and kim were already there (they spent the night on thursday night too). when we got there we set up our tent and then ate dinner. we spent the rest of the night around the campfire talking and laughing. there was a huge family at the campsites surrounding us with a yappy dog, screaming baby, and drunk 15 year olds. it was super fun and peaceful.

saturday we woke up, ate our eggs in a bag (always a winner while camping), and packed all six of us into lance and kris's suv to see grant's grove and buena vista point. the video below is the view from buena vista point. you can see 360 degres of mountains, trees and blue sky. it really is a good view!

we hiked (very leisurely) around most of the morning then headed back to the campsite for lunch. jeremy and i stayed behind while the other four people went on another hike in the afternoon. after a yummy dinner of taco soup we took a long walk to the amphitheater for a ranger talk about night hikes and nocturnal animals. he taught us how to call coyotes and owls and the noises that bears and raccoons and skunks make (oh my!). i know how to talk a skunk down from spraying though. hopefully that is a useful skill that i never have to actually use. we saw several deers walking to and from the program. lance almost got two of them with his frisbee but barely missed. it was pretty awesome though.

we got the fire going again for smores and made friends with our new quiet neighbor whose friends punked out on him and was lonely. he came over for breakfast too on sunday. :)

sunday morning we ate and packed and stopped to see general sherman and the sequoia museum on the way out of the park. the general is starting to really get his gangsta lean on... he might topple over at any point in time.

we made it to bakersfield for a late lunch at sonic - ryan had never been! can you even imagine such a thing??? kris and i wanted to stop at a sporting goods store so we stopped in santa clarita to buy swimming goggles and swim caps. we started training for a sprint triathlon on sunday. man oh man.

(general sherman's footprint)

what a weekend. we saw two bears! one on the way into the park and one on the way out. we also saw tons of deers, including an 8 point buck, which was cool. i got seven mosquito bites which was not as cool. ever since taking accutane when i get a mosquito bite it turn into this huge bruise as it fades. it is sick. so one of my bites is conveniently located on my neck. cant wait for the big bruise on my neck to appear. classy.

Fool me twice... You can't fool me again

Cricket knows now that when we pack our bags we are leaving for some amount of time. She climbed in my bag after I unpacked it - apparently we are not allowed to leave again without her.
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just park it already...

i found this info in an old readers' digest...

the average time you spend looking for a parking space is 8 minutes.

100,000 hours and 47,000 gallon of gas are wasted annually by parking space hunters in ONE urban shopping district (and there are hundreds? thousands? across america)

if you just parked your car and walked for 8 minutes to the entrance of the store you would burn 40 calories.

the moral of the story is stop being so wasteful. just park in a spot and walk. you will save time, gas and money (cancel the gym membership! never have to buy "fat" clothes!)

the end.

fiction, nonfiction, and ????

so we all know what fiction (romance, sci fi, fantasy, "literature") and non fiction (history, biographies, boring books) books are. that is taught in elementary school and even though i used to get confused (NONfiction seems like it should be NOT true) im good now.

last night in the car jeremy and i were talking about books in general. we both just read i am america (and so can you) by stephen colbert. we agreed that it was hilarious... but was it fiction or nonfiction?

are religious books or inspirational or self help books nonfiction? if a person did not subscribe to the belief system that the person was espousing (good word huh?) then that person would think the book is fictional but typically people agree these books are nonfiction (i think). what category would humorous books go into then? authors like dave barry, erma bombeck and stephen colbert have some basis in truth when they write but they exaggerate and make things up for comic effect. is it fiction then?

we couldnt fall asleep last night worrying about this. ok thats a lie - i was asleep as soon as i turned off my light as usual. but i am worried. is there a semi-fiction category mrs. veenstra forgot to teach me about? how in the hell did i graduate with a 4.0 GPA from a private school and receive a college degree if i dont know these simple things?

Laundry Time

Cricket is such a good helper. This morning as I was sitting at our bar drinking my coffee she asked if I could help her with the laundry (she has a hard time carrying the basket AND the soap AND the quarters downstairs). I told her that I have to go to work to bring home kitty chow and kitty litter and kitty treats. She said that's ok mom I'll just do it myself.
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more pros and cons

as we spent three wonderful work free days in our apartment, i thought of a few more things that i like and dislike about the new one compared to the old one:



more pros:

ceiling fan

a bar ( i love barstools and i dont know why!)

5 washers and dryers (i can do ALL my laundry at one time!)

bigger bathroom with an actual counter and storage under the sink!

and by marble countertops i meant granite countertops...

more cons:

freaky ass kid that lives below us with a small bowl cut (with like a fingerbowl - it is bizarre) stands in his window and watches us walk by. goosebumps!

the car that parks next to us rides the line so it is a good thing i am skinny or i would be stuck in the car all the time

freestyle rapping

it is part of the game - for a bonus round the three team representatives had to rap about the fourth of july. jerimiah was on jeremy's team and ryan was on mine. jessica was on the third team. i dont know how to turn the videos so just angle your head. they are short.

pictures of our new place

as we slowly moved our stuff in and got set up... this is the view from our kitchen/hallway...

the view from the front door looking towards the kitchen/hallway

after we set up our bed and unpacked a few things...

Land of the Free

we spent the 4th at multiple picnics. first, we went to the mosaic picnic at elysian park. we got to spend time with doug and christine and shannon and kevin and it was fun. we played volleyball and bocce and ate and played with nelly, the greenes doggie. yes she is a pit bull and no they are not mean. :) (doug was wearing a shirt that said that). i got to sneak a piece of cornbread from the bbq the church was serving (we brought our own sandwiches). i love cornbread.

we left the park and showered and headed over to lance and kris's to party with our small group peoples (among others). we played ping pong and rock band and "the game" and washer and horseshoes and hand grenades...

i got to see both my babies (owen is SO big - we havent seen the stellers in over a month). lance grilled for us and we ate some really yummy food. al made tapas and they were great! lance set up the game and we split into three teams and started with the trivia and balloon animal making and movie clips and famous quotes and playdoh figurines and on and on. jeremy's team won and my team came in second. and yes there were more than two teams (there were three). we shot off a bunch of illegal fireworks (they are all illegal in LA county) and didnt get caught... i was reminded of a time when anna and i were shooting fireworks in the middle of her street in manhattan and almost blew up a car and the police came and almost gave us a ticket but they didnt. and it was fun.

pros and cons

the pros of our new apartment:
cold air con that actually cools the entire space
pool
gated parking
interior facing apartments with a locked courtyard
wood floors
marble countertops
walking distance to work and target and payless and cvs and food places
a vanity
lots of nice families in our complex

the cons:
shallow kitchen sinks
really strange shower issues
short shower head (easily solved by installing on of those handheld shower thingies that ive always been inexplicably obsessed with)
constant temperature fluctuations from freezing to scalding that are not dependent on us turning on the sink or flushing the toilet which means we have no control over them
mirrored closet doors (have never liked them but they do make our place look a little bigger)

i thought i would hate having a studio but so far so good. we miss our balcony and grill and garden but the dronens took a lot of our plants and she will love them too. we sold our stove and grill to the guy who lives downstairs from our old apt so we dont have to move them which is really nice.

obviously the pros outweigh the cons. when we finaly hang our pictures and put a few more things away (three day weekend anyone?) i will post before during and after pictures because i know you guys are all dying to know what it looks like.

!m!

hancock

we went last night to the grove and ate at the farmers market and went to see hancock for shannons birthday. it was fun. i got to eat at the crepe place which is one of my favorite fast food ish places in la. yum.

the movie was really really funny. the plot was a lot twistier than i thought - not as straightforward as the previews make it seem. will smith is so funny. his character, the drunken superhero gets a pr rep and makes over his image. when the pr guy (jason bateman) is convincing hancock that he needs his services he shows him a youtube video of hancock in shredded clothes shoving kids out of the way to get ice cream from the ice cream truck. hancock makes some comment about fighting crime "butt ass nekkid" and jason bateman says yeah you prolly shouldnt be doing that.

but i disagree. will smith fighting crime butt ass nekkid is not a public travesty it is a public service... come on peter berg! get it straight! anyways we enjoyed it and didnt find it cliched and predictable like the spiderman and fantastic four movies. go see it, but only take your kids if you are ok with the language and comic book type violence. besides the shredded clothes youtube video (and you cant really see anything except part of his butt) there isnt any nudity or sex. older kid friendly. :)

in other movie news, we saw previews for eagle eye (looks maybe good) and the dark knight (really excited) and another movie i want to see but cant remember the title.

has anyone seen wanted or get smart yet? those are the two movies i really want to see right now.

!m!