Archive for the 'Family Portrait' Category

November 30, 2009 | Family Portrait,Life in General,Movie Queue,School Daze,The 4-1-1 on Me,Weekend Wrap-Up

Hope you all had a great holiday. I know you’re finding it hard to get back into the groove of work and/or school. I know I am. After being off for so long (well, what amounts to almost a week), one tends to get a little disoriented. Thursday was feeling like a Friday, and Friday was feeling like a Sunday. Thanksgiving was good to my family. It would’ve been better if my older sister had been here, but she called and we all talked to her via speakerphone. My Mom doesn’t do turkey. We haven’t done turkey in a very long time. We do Cornish hen and this year was no different (last year no poultry was involved whatsoever). Deviled eggs, stuffing, cranberry sauce, corn on the cob, rolls dripping with honey and butter, collard greens (yech! I don’t eat those) and two different kinds of Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider graced our table. My Dad blessed the table and then we went around and said what we were thankful for. That’s been a new tradition just within the past two years. Another tradition is walking down to the neighborhood park after eating. Of course, walking it off defeats the purpose when you go back and eat dessert—which is what we did. Hee-hee. My Mom made two sweet potato pies and a lemon cake with chocolate frosting. My niece and her boyfriend came over and my nephew was there, too, whom I haven’t seen in quite some time. I see my niece more often than I see him because he lives so far away. It’s like taking a road trip. Crazy. You can see pictures HERE.

Later that night, Mr. Maul and I went to see a late showing of NINJA ASSASSIN (whomever directed this movie must’ve been a Tarantino disciple) and then yes, we partook in the craziness that was Black Friday at Arizona Mills Mall. Utter. Craziness. He had shoes on hold at the Nike Outlet. He said the line for that store was so far back, he was up against the wall on the opposite side. My line at the Aeropostale store (a new favorite clothing store) wasn’t as bad as all that. But it was utter. Craziness. If I’d known ahead of time that the 50%-70% off sale was going on all weekend long, I never would’ve done it. I picked up a red sparkly sweat suit.

Did I mention that it was utter. Craziness?

What’s even funnier is that we hit the Anthem Outlet Mall the next day. And hit up the Aeropostale out there where I picked up another sweat suit (white with raised lettering and the hoodie zips up) and a yellow, long-sleeved thermal-type undershirt. Thingy. Mr. Maul picked up a T-shirt and a striped polo. Then we went to the Tommy Hilfiger and Polo Ralph Lauren stores where he picked up a couple more shirts.

The rest of the weekend was laundry, laundry and more laundry, cleaning house and catching up on “our” shows. I say “our” shows, because I still have 6 eppies of SMALLVILLE and 4, I think? eppies of HEROES to watch. Mr. Maul doesn’t watch those. And we just found out last week that CHUCK is coming back in January! WHOOOOO-HOOOO! Bet you anything they’re going to air it on Friday nights and then cancel it after this season. *wipes away a tear*

School Daze – Finally turned in the electronic self-eval for my Math Explorations class. Once again, I took the advice of my teacher and wrote what I got out of the class. What I didn’t realize was that I had to do it in 1500 characters or less. Gah! You know where this is going, right? I had many good things to say–about the teacher and the class–but like every good writer, I had to cut and hack and slash and burn off like a festering…well, you get the gist, I’m sure. Since I couldn’t submit the original version, I posted it here.

My final project for my EIS class is due this Sunday and I’m going all out…in the form of a PowerPoint presentation. No one else will see it but my teacher and the others in my class, but she said to get creative. This is about as creative as I can get for an online course. And then I’ll be done! And have to fill out another 1500 character self eval. Oh joy.

That’s it. How was your holiday weekend? Did you do the traditional turkey or non-traditional like Turducken? Have you started Christmas shopping yet?

Technorati Tags: NINJA ASSASSIN, Tarantino, Black Friday, Arizona Mills Mall, Nike Outlet, Aeropostale, Anthem Outlet Mall, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo Ralph Lauren, SMALLVILLE, HEROES, CHUCK

October 26, 2009 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",Book Stuff,Book Three,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Family Portrait,How coolio is THAT?,Life in General,School Daze,The 4-1-1 on Me,The Family Jewels,Weekend Wrap-Up,Writer Moment,Writing Movements

On this Saturday morning’s episode of The Gurl House: paint and shaving cream. Yes, it’s as messy as it sounds. Mr. Maul spent some time with his BF, but when he got home that afternoon, we went to look for more stuff for his Halloween costume. We hit up Savers, where he found a nightgown and then Bubbles of Joy to pick up some claw gloves. And no, I’m not gonna tell you what his costume is. You’ll just have to wait and see when I report back next week. On Sunday, we had a late, late breakfast (we’re talkin’ late morning, early afternoon) at our favorite place, Original Pancake House and then we hit up the mall. For the past few years I’ve been Storm for Halloween, but took a break a couple of times. In 2004, I left the cape in the closet and wore a trench coat as Niobe (THE MATRIX): CLICK FOR BIGGER VIEW

And in 2005, I “grew” some horns as Darth Maul’s wife. If the Sith are allowed to mate, I imagine she would look something like this: CLICK FOR BIGGER VIEW

Great make-up job, yes? The hubby’s real good at that. For the record, breathing was not an option in that corset. This year, I’m only doing Storm at work. I’ve decided to be something else this year for the actual event (again, you’ll see next week). And it involved buying these sexy heels that I will probably only wear once:

I found these puppies at Hot Topic and had one helluva time trying to get them closed. They didn’t buckle—or snap—because really, that would’ve been too easy. Instead they button. Yes, button. Revolutionary, I know, but I’ve come to discover that only shirts and jeans are allowed to have buttons. Not shoes. I’ll be breaking them in this week, a little at a time, because my feet are already protesting at being crammed inside these babies for hours on end.

At this store called Shiek (I’m really hoping this was spelled wrong on purpose), I picked up a pair of Dereon’s:

Yes, Dereon as in Beyonce’s clothing line. Now, I can wear the shoes with the jeans. LOL. I may want to hurl every time I hear “Single Ladies”, but I like the design of some her jeans. And these are the only pair of shoes from her line that I would wear in public and not feel like a complete and utter dorkus.

School Daze – Working on my research paper this week for my EIS class: The Art of Healing: The Benefits of Art Therapy for Young People. I get to read books like The Freedom Writers Diary by teacher Erin Gruwell as research. By choice, not by requirement. If you’re a writer, you need to see this movie. And read this book. If you’re an aspiring teen writer, or you write for teens, then you really need to see this movie. And then read this book. I had an English teacher like Erin when I was in high school—Mrs. Smith—and she is the very reason I stuck with the writing. Not that I was ever thinking about quitting, but the encouragement was always positive and consistent. The rough draft of my paper is due this Sunday, so wish me luck. I haven’t done a research paper since college.

Writing Movement – I’ve been preparing for NaNoWriMo. Last week, I got two more chapters outlined. Altogether, I now have 6 chapters. At this point, I’m going to stop. On the blogs I’ve been reading lately, there’s been some posts about preparation for this challenge. On one blog I was reading (can’t remember for the life of me which blog it was) about the tips for getting through it. Turning off the editing mechanism won’t be hard for me. I tend to write the first draft all the way through without editing anyway. However, the “no time for getting stuck” part (a.k.a. writer’s block) may trip me up. As I mentioned in last week’s Weekend Wrap-Up, I’m a pantser by nature.

When I have a story in mind, the only thing I have is the title, the names of the characters, and a vague idea of the plot. The story itself emerges as I write. For this challenge, I decided to outline first and I’ve discovered that it’s really, really, hard. And I don’t like it. You have to know how the story is going to play out ahead of time and it was difficult for me to picture that. In regards to the “no time for getting stuck” tip, I’ve decided to stop the outlining process at Chapter 6. I’ve got a good start. I think I’m just going to wing it from that chapter on. If you’re looking for a writing buddy, look me up at DravensMom.

So, how was your weekend?

Technorati Tags: Savers, Bubbles of Joy, Original Pancake House, Niobe, THE MATRIX, Hot Topic, Shiek, Dereon, Beyonce, Single Ladies, The Freedom Writers Diary, Erin Gruwell, NaNoWriMo

October 23, 2009 | Family Portrait,Life in General,Random Thoughts

Party like a rockstar, party like a rockstar…totally dude! LOL

All he needs is the guitar. For the first time in a long time, Mr. Maul isn’t going to be Darth Maul for Halloween this year. This wig is part of his costume.

You’ll find out next Friday what he decided to do. Hehe.

September 15, 2009 | Family Portrait,How coolio is THAT?,Life in General,The 4-1-1 on Me,Weekend Wrap-Up

To celebrate our 3yr anniversary, Mr. Maul and I went to Las Vegas . We took Friday off, drove down and came back Sunday. So here’s what we did:

FRIDAY –

We stopped at the Hoover Dam. TRANSFORMERS was filmed there, y’know.

Got to Vegas a little after 3, checked into our hotel, Excalibur, then explored our surroundings a little bit, trying to get ideas for what we wanted to do. That night, we went to dinner at Cathouse in the Luxor:

This restaurant was designed to look like a bordello. The setting was very intimate and it was where I had my very first real alcoholic drink. I say real because I am not a drinker. I don’t like the taste of hard alcohol, wine, beer, wine coolers, etc. The only alcoholic drink I’ve ever really liked is sangria. And Olive Garden makes the best ones. The only reason I can drink that is because the taste of the alcohol is heavily masked by additional stuff. Taking that into consideration, the bartender gave me a couple of choices that I could handle without gagging, so I tried a Strawberry Blonde (Ketel One vodka, strawberry puree and something else). It wasn’t too bad.

I had a few good sips before I started to feel tired. Thank goodness we had coffee with dessert (little red velvet cupcakes, btw). I had sauteed garlic shrimp pasta for dinner and Mr. Maul had grilled tuna, seared raw (ewww, gross!).

After dinner we walked over to New York, New York Hotel where I encountered show girls:

a little touristy kiosk that had this funky headpiece:

and Gallagher’s Steakhouse, which, according to Mr. Maul, has the best steaks he’s ever eaten:

On the way back to the hotel, we got some good shots of the Statue of Liberty:

and the special memorial for the firefighters and police officers who lost their lives at 9/11:

There were plaques placed at certain intervals, of quotes made by famous people, and I had Mr. Maul take a picture of two of them. This first one is by Martin Luther King, Jr.:

And it says:

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in the moment of comfort, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy.”

The other quote is by Nelson Mandela:

and it says:

“There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.”

We also got some night shots of the, well, nightlife:

and our hotel:

But wait, there’s more (more…)

Technorati Tags: Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, TRANSFORMERS, Excalibur, Cathouse, Luxor, Olive Garden, New York, New York Hotel, Gallagher’s Steakhouse, Statue of Liberty, Martin Luther King, Jr, Nelson Mandela

September 9, 2009 | Family Portrait

It’s our 3 yr anniversary today! My how time flies. When I set our wedding date 3 yrs ago, I wasn’t thinking about the significance of the date 2 days later (9/11), nor was I thinking about the significance of another important date the following week: Mr. Maul’s birthday (9/16).

That’s just it. I wasn’t thinking. LOL.

I just wanted to a day that wasn’t going to be boiling hot. A day like that is hard to find in Arizona, needless to say. And I didn’t accomplish that on our wedding day. The fact that it rained in the morning that day didn’t make it any easier. He was still sweating. LOL. Literally, most definitely, and maybe a little figuratively, too.

We met online at Matchmaker.com.

Then we met face-to-face purely by chance at a nightclub in Scottsdale (The Buzz). I had no idea he was going to be there and vice versa. We hadn’t even talked on the phone yet!

I met him at a time when I was fed up with dating and was resigned to the fact that I would be living by myself. And I was okay with that. Seriously. I like my quiet time. LOL.

We have our moments, but he keeps me grounded. And he cooks. What more can I ask for, eh?

Tonight is just going to be a normal night at home, but we really plan to celebrate this weekend. We’re going to get a sitter for the “kid” and kick up our heels in Sin City.

Happy anniversary to us!

Technorati Tags: Arizona, Matchmaker.com, Scottsdale, The Buzz