Free

Stuff in the mail today:

• I won a Ryka tee in the tennis shoe contest I saw on emilystyle!
  
• My HMO seems to know that it's open enrollment time, because all of a sudden they have a newsletter to help me be healthy. It would help more if they could get my address right, so I'd have updated cards.
  
• I got a postcard in the mail for $1.00 off Buitoni whole wheat pasta. Normally I wouldn't care, but you can also download a recipe book for free from the site (must register, but you could use a fake email because it will pop up off the site, not email). It inspired me to start a folder of recipes on my computer. It might be worth it for the white bean soup. But, as my mom says, if you get one good recipe out of a cookbook, it's worth it. My stained Betty Crocker cookbook must be worth it's weight in gold then!
  
• On a side note, now I want the bridal edition.
  

Simple

Ever since the advent of tabbed browsing, I now usually keep three windows open, with about 6 tabs in each window, of the things I read every day.

Real Simple features New Uses for Old Things, and I could seriously spend hours on this website looking at all their fabulous ideas. For instance, this is brilliant for someone like us who have a tiny kitchen:


If we owned our own place, I'd put a shelf with these containers for spices and things under the stove hood. That would look good and be handy too!

Favorites

Travel + Leisure did a survey on peoples' favorite cities. I realized that I haven't been to most of these cities, so I really couldn't judge their fabulousness.

LA tanked in the ratings.

Is it really that bad here? Or is everywhere else just that much better??

More

Yes, the fire here is still terrible. It appears that all of San Diego is on fire. I can't imagine, but I've heard from people at work who actually have TVs and watch the news, that someone intentionally set some of the fires.

How could someone do this?


MSNBC has this map that includes Los Angeles. The fire that is closest to me, but still fairly far away, is the little icon over Santa Ana (it's actually in Irvine). It's eerie - we've hiked in Santiago Canyon. Malibu off PCH was beautiful when we took our day trip to Santa Barbara; we stopped at a Starbucks that is probably frequented by Britney Spears (she's in Malibu right??). The Pepperdine campus there was probably the most beautiful university campus I've ever seen. And we had a fantastic time in Temecula on an organized tour; that was the time that we both picked up a reception information packet, and we weren't even engaged yet.

I've read in the news people are comparing it to hurricane Katrina, and that is just not true. It is terrible, and it has devastated many people here, and it is very scary. But for the most part we're all going about or regular business. There is no devastation when we open the front door; no bodies in flooded streets. The San Diego area that has been evacuated is mostly wealthier neighborhoods, which is why people are choosing to stay in hotels. It's awful, but in a different way.

Thanks to my grandmother who offered us to stay with her if our apartment was on fire, and my cousin who checked in. It's very scary here. There is ash floating around everywhere, it's very dry, and the sun and full moon are orangey rather than their usual color.

Colors!

I just adore this. I'm going to get my hair cut like her by Melanie at JC Penney.

Still

Southern California is still on fire. If I were to imagine what the end of the world would be like, it'd be something like this. I didn't bring my camera, but I wanted to take pictures today. Maybe tomorrow.

Our apartment, both my campuses, and work are all safe from the fire, but it's still smoky and I feel like crap.

Math

In my project management class, there are 23 students.

6 of these students are female. That is 26%, about the same percentage of women in the class of 2009 (29%, according to the site).

2 of these female students are pregnant. That is 8% of the class, and 33% of the entire female population.

This totally blows my mind.

Fire

It's windy, and hot. And it smells like a campfire outside - you can feel it on your skin and in your eyes. It's smoggy and I feel like I have a cold; my head is all stuffed up and I keep drinking water because it's so dry.

I think most people know about the fires in Malibu because of all the famous and rich people that live there. But there's also fires in Santiago Canyon, near Irvine where I'm in school. It really does look like this:

I'm inside now but my nose is still burning and I still have a headache. We, and our apartment, are alright because we're far enough in the city and away from the fires. But what a mess! I hope it gets cleared up soon, because the dust and ash really sucks.

You can see how it's blowing out to sea (and covering everywhere I usually go) in this satellite picture:

10/21/07

This morning I failed to get up early enough to make the 10:30 opening of California Adventure. But sleeping in is SO GOOD.

My ring finger burn is healing pretty well. I've been anal retentive about protecting it and putting on silver sulfadiazine. I'm hoping that it won't be as ugly as I originally feared; there's no dent in my finger any more. Apparently you can buy it on amazon.com, but their site isn't working right now.

We're having super Santa Ana winds, and it's knocking the power out in north LA. Too bad, because I love windy warm days!

I got the Christmas Oriental Trading catalog, but I've been disappointed in what they've offered lately. But I tend to examine it pretty closely, and I noticed these little wood boxes that would be perfect for work "holiday" gifts. Maybe filled with Christmas-y candy?


I couldn't be more excited about Christmas this year. I can't wait!! School will be over for the time being, and I get to visit family, and they'll start playing Christmas songs on the Coast, and I can bake all kinds of things... But, we all know what really happens. I get really excited, finals come around, and I don't get around to any of it. I'm hoping this year will be different!

We made it out to California Adventure for the evening, but it was really windy. Trees were falling everywhere, and it was probably a little dangerous. But I was happy to see the decorations, and we went on the Tower of Terror and California Screamin' before we left for home to do the laundry.

Indexed

One of my classmates showed me this website after the topics of xkcd and geek humor came up. You need to check out this blog. Seriously.