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Sunday, November 08, 2009

sarah & marcos got engaged!


sarah_marcos, originally uploaded by iamvioletta.

We all knew something was up, but Marcos managed to keep a good secret.

Last night, supposedly for Mike and Linda's anniversary, we went to a Luau at the Island Pacific resort. (Beautiful setting with lots of bamboo and tropical Asian plants.) Marcos had a Mariachi band appear, Rayo was there--supposedly Marcos "won his photography services in a raffle." Marcos brought out collages of them dancing, and popped the question. Ring was in a mermaid case. A pearl, with diamonds around, and in the center of it. Very chic. Immediately afterwards, out came the champagne.

Congratulations to them!

The cane is not just for looks--he's had soccer injuries of late.

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Thursday, November 05, 2009

dad's been building bird houses

the only pedicure to get...

If you're going to get a pedicure, you must get it from Anette Dziak.
Here are ten reasons why:

1. She is cheaper than ANYONE. Come on, $25 for a french pedicure. No where else.

2. She gives AMAZING massages with reflexology technique with essential oils.

3. You sit in one little room, overlooking some trees and a porch. Not with 10 Vietnamese men talking to each other. Very relaxing!

4. She makes her own sugar and coconut oil scrubs for massage.

5. It lasted for 1.5 hours of gloriousness -- mostly of foot massage!

6. She used to work at a holistic wellness spa; she has experience in massage. Feet "are her passion and her gift in life" and she is "glad she found her calling" doing foot spas. Slightly hippieish, she is indeed terrific at her job! Reminds my vaguely of artist Auntie Prudence.

7. She gives you a real pair of free flip flops to take home. (And presumably bring back.)

8. She assumes you will fall asleep, and offers you a nice blanket, or to fully recline your chair to "sleep" position.

9. She does not use chemicals that "damage" you supposedly. She hates acrylic nails and all toxic fumes.

10. She hands out free Vitamin E oils to sample. She says if you rub them on your cuticles twice a day your nails become strong and healthy.

11. (bonus) She brews you up a nice cup of tea while you sip during your pedicure.

Natural Manicures & Pedicures
Studio 209
Annette Dziak
209 Country Club Rd.
Lake Mary, FL 32746
watermebe@yahoo.com
352-263-9190

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Tuesday, November 03, 2009

heart ache

I really think this is a great song by Robot Rambunctious. Great job guys!

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Monday, November 02, 2009

blik Bamboo wall decals

I like these blik Bamboo wall decals. But I feel lazy buying them, when I could probably do them myself with enough time.

Demeanor

Well, I've been thinking about demeanor today. Kind of hashing over in my head the importance of demeanor. It's a subtle thing, but so very communicative. I always feel as if I'm reigning in my demeanor to "mean" what I want it to.

Saw Wild Things last night. Execution of the movie was beautifully done. I give them an A on that. But the feel of it was kind of sad and honestly, I sat through most of it weeping and worried the kid would smash his head on a rock. I'm thinking The Fantastic Mr. Fox will be more upbeat.
I met this elderly lady this morning (at the fresh hour of 7:20) and she was wearing the most preposterous fox pin on her blouse. It was actually a small fox. Yes, attached to her blouse, staring out at me as I tried to understand her orders. I asked her about it (naturally), and she said it was her mother's. And she has always found it "just so fascinating -- especially when she pets the real fox fur." She then started stoking it.
I felt compelled to tell her about the Wes Anderson movie coming out. She assured me she'd watch for it.

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Sunday, November 01, 2009

Opportunity Knocks

Sometimes opportunity comes to your door, and you let it in. Why's that? Probably because you're open to it; even hungry for it.

Went to an engagement gathering for Danny & Rach tonight. She looks happy. This has been, most definitely, the year of the wedding.

It will be very interesting to see where everyone in our circles ends up in ten years. Good places, undoubtedly.

So many projects. I want to work on my play I'm writing, but just so much to do! Gotta work tomorrow morning, and Ben and I are going to see Wild Things (finally) tomorrow night. Can't wait. I've heard so many good things. Well, come now, a kid who throws tantrums and has some interesting, albeit dysfunctional, conversations with forest creatures...that captures my attention.

Family that one marries into is always an adventure. During some insomniac moments this week I opened Anna Karenina and started plowing through that mother of a novel. The frank discussion of family dynamics is, at times, slightly engaging; at times overdone. I genuinely like the family I married into, a definite plus I suppose. But adapting and understanding the vibes of other people takes time, regardless.

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Thursday, October 08, 2009

gazpacho

So Alice has been going on and on about her gazpacho. Today I made it, and it turned out pretty good!

Fresh Stuff:
6 tomatoes
3 cups tomato juice
lemon
garlic
cilantro
chives
salt
pepper
celery, 2 stalks
red pepper
purple onion
cucumber
1/4 c. olive oil
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
tobasco sauce

Blend it up! Serve cold.

Leave a few cucumber pieces to toss in -- and toss on bread crumbs. Great with grilled cheese!

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Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Great episode on Sri Lanka!

What a great episode of A.T. on Sri Lanka...reminds me of all the awesome reasons why I've always wanted to visit. The old, cheap, beautiful places to visit / stay. The British influence and the curries. ;-)

we'll start a brand new colony

I'll be the waterwings that save you if you start drowning
In an open tab when your judgement's on the brink
I'll be the phonograph that plays your favorite
Albums back as your lying there drifting off to sleep...

Hmmm...this week has been pretty good. So many characters in the world. From the old lady sitting in Meagan's chair to the poor, grumpy people who come in snapping for coffee at 6 am or confiding their nervousness on some topic.

My mom gave me an unexpectedly great haircut as I stopped in to grab her paper work. I've been getting up ungodly early, which is finally forcing me to sleep early. Saturday we move! I can't believe I've been in this apartment almost a year. Wow. Time just buzzes by. I'll miss our little space. But on we go. Life moves on.

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Monday, October 05, 2009

pretty, simple song...

This She & Him song is simple and fun to mess around playing on guitar.

a fun day


funny pic of us at ava's wedding

us...at Ava's wedding

Avril & Travis


travis speaks, originally uploaded by iamvioletta.

Ava's wedding...my sisters

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Sunday, October 04, 2009

I love hot food!

That curry lo-mein at China One in Oviedo is just to DIE for. I worked at Barnies today so took the opportunity to grab some. It's just insanely spicy-delicious. Elizabeth used to say "you just can't inhale it fast enough." I've been a fiend for spicy food lately.

Saw Ironman in Leu Gardens this weekend. I love Leu Gardens. It was so beautiful to be in a garden watching a movie. And Ironman is quite good. Maybe my favorite super hero movie.

My mom comments, "Is that girl a Gweneth Paltrow look alike or what! She looks just like Gweneth!"

"It is her mom."

"Oh, good! Because can you image how hard her career would be to live in her shadow looking so similar to her!"

I love my mom.

Marcos had a couple extra ticket to Universal and Islands of Adventure. Yae! I had not been in 12 years. We had such a great time. Ben helped us organize and make sure we used our time to efficiently ride as many great rides as possible in our time span. The waits were only about 10-15 mins which was terrific. Nice to just run around and be kids for the day.

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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The Man Who Disliked Cats - by P.G. Woodhouse

This is a nice free podcast of great books.

Man Who Disliked Cats

We have been reading some P.G. Woodhouse short stories. They all seem to be of the same theme, but funny: clever, poor, non-muscular guy wants to marry a girl...her mother wants her to marry a macho lion-tamer explorer type. Clever book-worm reads detective novels and figures out a tricky way to win girl. Slightly predictable, but great dialogue. Good opportunity for ridiculous accents, as demonstrated on this podcast.

Return to the Giant Money Pool

Man, I love This American Life. Ira Glass is such a great storyteller.

This show really helped me see how the giant housing-blow-up happened. It's so nutty -- lending people 1/2 a million bucks without checking to see if they had a job.

I never knew the "global pool of money" increased so much a few years ago -- doubling in 6 years, and banks had to find a way to spend it. Twice as much money, and not twice as many investments available.

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Monday, September 28, 2009

Another Pilates Quick Core Exercise

This one is cool.

Her voice in this one is hilarious for some reason.

Whole Foods Kale Recipe

This is a great way to make kale and seaweed salad -- super healthy, and soooo yum.

It's hard to find creative ways to eat seaweed something that really taste amazing.

I like this quick 6 minute pilates workout...

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Thursday, September 24, 2009

Beautiful Wedding Website

I love this website for wedding photography. So clean and beautiful.

Our Mutual Friend

Wow, that was such a great movie! I spread it out over two days -- it streams on Netflix, and is about 5 hours. Nina has been talking about Our Mutual Friend for forever, and I never got into it. But Monday I started it again and was hooked.

The characters are great. The cast is great. It has the Pushing Daisies actress when she was young. It has these "Dickens-esque" dark, scary types.

I think Bleak House is still one of my favorites, but Our Mutual Friend is up there too. Love that Masterpiece Theater.

Colorful Creatures

video

Hiking in Costa Rica

video

Getting Tired

video

Man, I wish I'd had video of Avril filling her pants with rocks from inside the caves in the dark.

Peeing Monkeys

video

Found these videos from our Costa Rica Trip in 2007. Good times!

This was an awesome hike we did to caves in Nicoya.

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Monday, September 21, 2009

red dress in the field


red dress in the field, originally uploaded by iamvioletta.

la belle Nina

nina


nina6, originally uploaded by iamvioletta.

Nina did a little modeling for me in this fantastic red dress she wore for the wedding.

milwaukee building


milwaukee building, originally uploaded by iamvioletta.

Some of the architecture in Milwaukee reminds me of Paris actually.

cat painting at museum


cat painting at museum, originally uploaded by iamvioletta.

Milwaukee Art Museum has some nice paintings. This one was pretty simple, but I love the color combos.

Willis building, formerly Sears Tower, Chicago, IL

Ben took this photo of the Willis Tower. He's got a great eye for composition. ;-)

chicago by night


chicago by night, originally uploaded by iamvioletta.

I'd never been to Chicago before. It was a great city -- very diverse.

Though I didn't make it to the aquarium, we did enjoy strolling around and seeing the water, the old bookstores and the University.

avril's wedding


avril, originally uploaded by iamvioletta.

My little sister got married. We had a fun weekend of family and adventure in Wisconsin. It was the perfect "tent on the field" wedding.

Also took a trip to Chicago. Really enjoyed the Oriental Art Institute and the University of Chicago.

Loved Milwaukee. Was pleasantly surprised by how beautiful a city it is.

Miss you Ava!

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Monday, August 31, 2009

Hiking with Llamas...

MAN, I want to go camping with llamas...

The most important advice: Don’t lose the llamas. “You do not want to be chasing down a llama in the backcountry,” Mr. Pommier warned.

Free Wi-Fi at Starbucks

For some reason, I had such trouble getting the free wi-fi at Starbucks to work. But all you have to do is keep a $1 balance on one of their Starbucks cards -- and login once a month.

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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Terror Storm Documentary

I found section 4 for Terror Storm particularly jarring, as well as section 5. All of this documentary is available on YouTube.

Total corruption.

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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Uruguay...Girl Goes to Vet School Interview


This Amateur Traveler Podcast on Uruguay was really interesting. I really want to go there now!

Sounds like a mix between a European city mixed with South American flavor. The teddy bear festival looks kinda creepy though.

Ben and I listened to the backpacker one on China last night too which was good. The travel news about the lady who bought out Business Class so that her dog could get a seat was hilarious. $32,000 she paid to get her boxer on the plane!!

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Monday, August 24, 2009

Convention Again...

Just got a mind-full from convention. I think it will take me at least a year to absorb all that. Awesome stuff.

Met some great new friends too; reminded me it's good to meet new ones at assemblies. I'm glad people took the initiative to come up to me.

It's very encouraging to think about how much we have to look forward to, how much we have to do now, and how much help we have to do it.

The Break Up - Scarlett Johansson & Pete Yorn

Love this video.

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Yae, red hair!


This Monkey's Gone to Heaven

Doolittle is such a great album. I've listened to it all Tuesday and I start on it again today...zoning in again. It makes work such joy! I have Wave of Mutilation on my ipod too, but I'm just not quite done with Doolittle.

I got the go-ahead to write a few freelance articles, so Tuesday gets to be devoted to that--which means cramming everything else into Monday and Thursdays for bookkeeping.

It's true, wanna get productive? Put me on a time constraint. Wish I didn't have to be defensive about it though. Ben's right, I've gotten relaxed about it. Nina's such an inspiration to just get RID of the debt though, ASAP. Move on and do other things.

This super retarded couple is cuddling next to me on the sofa at Panera with so much INTENSE eye contact I want to laugh every time I look at them. The girl, a tall Italian beauty (probably 19?) is lapping up his tips on "how to be an amazing actress" from who appears to be her agent from the conversation.

He is an older, sunburned character, with the chiseled features of could-have-been-in-a-boy-band 10-years-ago. Pet, pet, pet. She gets up, pseudo trips, and falls back on him. Giggle.

They came over to charge their phone at my table--no big deal. But every time it rings, the ask me to check who it is. (Um, can you see my headphones?)

"Marcella again!" I announce over to them. The third time this is getting annoying. Come on guys, answer your own dumb cell phone.

Mr. Cheese comes over to explain to me "It's funny, it's actually not even my phone. I'm answering it for someone else." Oh, yeah, that's so funny alright. That's just fascinating. Thanks for sharing.

He plops back on the couch. Okay, the girl is now giggling and straddling the guy. This is PANERA. I feel like they're auditioning for a Latino Daytime soap opera.

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Monday, August 17, 2009

Amateur Traveler - Fantastic Travel Podcast

I listened to this lady's interview on the Amateur Traveler podcast today. Lately, I've been loving the Amateur Traveler podcast. I loved the China episodes, and the one on Prague was great.

It's good to relax now and then...

Wow, like we didn't already know this. Vacations are linked to overall health, good mood, higher level of energy, and general satisfaction. Some leisure at home has benefits too.

Beam Me Up Scotty!

Man, I had the weirdest dream the other night. I was flying the Star-ship Enterprise--taking the bridge from Dr. Spock--and taking it to Kabul, where I was picking up taliban men and flying them to the Mississippi river to drop them. Somewhere along the way Whoppi Goldberg picked up the cutest little kid (who looked a lot like the kid from God's Must Be Crazy II) and told me I was to adopt it. Hah! A sign of all the recent sci-fi movies I've been exposed to, along with my Khaled Hosseini novels I take it.

Played some Penuckle yesterday afternoon. It requires more thinking than most card games, which keeps it challenging and fun. Helen & Fred are masters at utilizing wall space. I hate losing at cards though--which I usually do. Kicks in my competitive spirit.

I've enjoyed hearing everyone's take on 500 Days of Summer. Everyone seems to get something different out of it, a mark of a good movie I'd say. The one moment that bugged me in that movie was when Summer is in his door, and Tom's like "No, I want someone who will always know they'll want to be with me" and Summer says, "You'll never find that" -- which you just hate her for, because he should have stood up for his real want at that moment, but at the same time, you can't really hate her because that is currently what she knows to be true. So, she's just saying what she thinks is the truth, not really feeding him a line. But you just wish that he could believe in what he wants enough to say, "No, I think I'll find it."

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Monday, August 03, 2009

bye bye jetta!

Well, sold my Jetta last Friday. We'd had a nice run, her and I, but it was time to move on. One step closer to no debt.

Now Ben and I are officially a one-car-family. Yay! We're looking for a cheap scooter on craigslist for those must-run-to-store moments. Anyone know anyone getting rid of their scooter?

Preferable the used MotoBravo, vintage Vespa, or Piaggio -- but hey, we'll take anything the runs well and is cheap.

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Monday, July 20, 2009

War of the Worlds - Theater Production in Orlando

Interesting podcast interview with the producer of Orson Well's War of the Worlds show that will be July 31 - Aug 9th at the Shakespeare Theater.

Crazy, my grandfather saw this when it first came out!

it's the first word

It's "Calzado" on a ladder,
and the Russian alphabet,
which you found confusing
as you tried to learn to read.

As you lay down to sleep,
you saw the word, "crib"
which you remember now
as the first word that meant something.

Don't stick your lip out,
be nice to the neighbor girl.
Stop acting like a brat,
just because you find her quite inane.

Get out, I tell you.
Don't speak in the car,
I told you not to speak,
so why are you asking about conditions?

Puppets sing on Sesame Street
and a cheerful, assertive
little girl talks to them,
repeating words dancing on the screen.

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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

it's 19

It's a blue turtle neck shirt, sweater, call it what you will.
It's a haircut that reminds me of Sliding Doors, or aimed to look as such.
It's a Duncan Sheik song, though I can't remember it now.
It's the last one on his self titled album.

And Nina and I drove to Ebor city one night
And we went to a small venue called the Sapphire something.
I was 19 and we were exploring.
And concerts in towns off our path led us to sad people and who would have guessed, the audience was made up of lots of cripples, sad with their prosthetic limps and various ailments.

Where had we wandered to?
Where had we come?

I felt deja vu,
like a reincarnation of my mother,
chasing a dream in a white linen suit
down the coast.
A musician who drew her,
and whom she unabashedly followed.

Ending in Miami,
she introduced herself,
"I've thrown away Ivy League to follow you and all my heart possesses?"
"But I'm already attached," he replies.

What a pity.
"Here is my brother, you should meet."

"Life advice I have to offer, but you're not my cup of tea."

"Goodbye," she said, and continued her adventure.
Now in a new place, with a new future on horizon.

I sat on the edge of a bed,
in my blue turtleneck sweater.
And the insane heat of the moment,
blurred all senses in my head.
The depth of sincerity, clarity and surety,
I found so overwhelming.
It's 19,
and we'll move on,
I know it.
But now, in this moment, I can't fathom how.
Though I'm myself enough to know better,
than to commit to this so.