Zoo Lights

Ahhh, it's good to be home. 2 hour flight from PDX to LAX + 4 hour flight from LAX to IAD + 30 minute bus ride to the nearest Metro station + 30 minute Metro ride = tired and disoriented Tina.

Ginger was staging a silent protest this afternoon. Paper crafting was getting in the way of my feeding her. Clearly, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Tonight I went to the National Zoo with Meg and Robyn to check out Zoo Lights. The zoo strings up colorful Christmas lights on the trees and also arranges the lights in the shapes of animals. The flying bald eagle and jumping jaguar and the hungry chameleon (Pascal from Tangled!) were my favorites. We walked around the zoo for about an hour and then grabbed dinner at a nearby restaurant. The three of us are planning to go see Harry Potter tomorrow too. It's nice to have friends nearby! :)

Song of the day: "As Long As You Love Me" - Backstreet Boys. Umm. I'm feel nostalgic?

Portland, Day 3

WiFi at the airport = awesome. I'll be able to keep myself occupied until my flight at 7 PM. Yep, it's a red eye flight. I could have gotten an earlier one, but it would leave around the time that my meeting was scheduled to end. This was the next available flight. Thankfully, I have no trouble sleeping on the plane.

The meeting today did indeed start at 7 this morning, but thankfully, it wasn't too difficult to wake up. It closed up on a good note too. I'm sooo glad that we got the notes all typed up, next steps ironed out, and even follow-up conference calls scheduled. Hooray!

Quick stories:

• I was walking around town today, and this guy who was promoting some non-profit children's organization recognized me when I passed by him the second time around. "Hey, I've seen you already today. You have the cat pin (I have one on my peacoat). Do you like all cats or just that one cat?" Uhhh, all cats? I'm not picky. I guess preferably ones that are not mean and like to take naps with me.
  
  
• I noticed that people in Oregon are very friendly. People are always saying hi. I noticed that especially when I was walking around the mall after the meeting was over. When I asked the guy in the first bullet where the MAX station to the airport was, some woman overheard me and actually walked me to the station. Then, when I got to the station, the guy behind me in line helped me get my MAX ticket. "Can I help you make a decision?" Why, yes, you can. I felt a little embarrassed because hello? I've been taking the DC Metro for a very long time. How difficult could it really be to figure out the ticket machine, right? :P


• On the MAX this afternoon, I overheard a guy talking about how he had just gotten out of jail today and something about his parole officer and going to treatment. Isn't that a little TMI?
  
  
• Check out the cool soda bottle (made from aluminum) and the silver performer dude? I wonder how long it takes to get all silver like that. I bet that stuff isn't that great for his skin.
  

Now for a crafty weekend! :D

Portland, Day 2

Whew, 12+ hour work day. At least we got stuff done though! That's all I really care about. Get. It. Done. Work resumes at 7 AM tomorrow. Whhheeeee.

Lunch was super yummy (and quite filling) today. My group went to the restaurant in the hotel and ordered from the menu. I got the pulled pork sandwich, which came with potato salad. The sandwich was pretty good, but I'm rooting for the potato salad. I was surprised that it had a kick to it since the the stuff that I'm used to is ore on the sweet side.

After work was done for today, we went to this fundraising event that was taking place at the hotel this evening called the Red Ribbon Party for World AIDS Day. Activities included Drag Queen Bingo, Live Auction (travel oriented packages), Raffle (comfortable travel items) and Belvedere Vodka Drinks served on a Red Ribbon Ice Sculpture. I only stayed for the Drag Queen Bingo because I was just so tired from my day, but that was pretty amusing. They also had men walking around in tiny Speedos and a woman walking around in a bikini and spraypainted in gold. I felt out of my element, to say the least. Hooray for new experiences, right?

Portland, Day 1

Whew. I made it. Hello, Portland, OR. You're very rainy.

My first impression of Portland was that it's probably really green and pretty when the sun is out. There are evergreen trees everywhere. This is in contrast to the concrete jungle of DC and LA (where I had my layover).

The hotel that I'm staying at is quite nice. The front desk lady told me that I got an upgrade. Huh? That was unexpected (I hope the hotel bill isn't a big shock). I have a nice big king bed (of which, I'll probably sleep on one side) and 2 TVs in my room. Are they expecting me to have a party in here? Ha ha. Anyway, I'm a huge fan of the Christmas tree that they put downstairs. The hotel is also pet-friendly so there are lots of dogs roaming around. I want to go pet all of them. The lobby also have activities for kids like an easel with paints and a Wii. I'd go play with the Wii but I think it'd be weird to play by myself in front of random people.

This time difference thing is like whoa. My body is still on East Coast time, and I feel ready for bed, but it's really only 6 something. Tomorrow should be interesting.

Back to the Grind

Oh man. I was definitely spoiled with being able to sleep in for the past few days. Waking up to an alarm was, well, alarming. I spent most of the evening chatting with my cousin who's visiting from out of town and packing for my next business trip (this time to Portland, Oregon). I even managed to squeeze in a workout DVD too. Go me.

Between now and Sunday night, I have 1 business trip, 1 red eye flight, and 2 back-to-back craft shows. My goal is to make it through all that without crying from exhaustion.

ithinkicanithinkicanithinkicanithinkican.P.S. Kitty was getting crafty last night too. Merrr-ow. :)

CPS #195

I wonder if I'm going to regret drinking this large cup of hazelnut coffee later.

Oh well.

It's too freakin' good, especially paired with a slice of pumpkin chocolate chip pound cake. Pure awesomeness, really. I make 2 loaves of the cake and after splitting it up amongst my cousins, I was only left with half a loaf. I get to enjoy the food that I made without the daunting feeling of "Uh oh. I have to eat all of this?"

Today was "go Christmas shopping" day, but then it ended up being "go Christmas shopping + buy things for myself if they were on sale" day. I felt rather accomplished when I put some wrapped presents under the tree. Once the mailman comes this week, there will be more. Hooray!

I went for a short run (1.7 miles) this afternoon after shopping. Short because my left side was feeling strong, but the right side (foot especially) was cramping. Ever tried running feeling lopsided? Not advisable.

I watched The Proposal last night. It had shades of While You Were Sleeping, but it wasn't that good. Not even close. I was so disappointed. The ending just wasn't believable. Ryan Reynolds, you are cute, but sorry, eye candy can only go so far. Hmm, sounds similar to what happened when I watched Prince of Persia. Sigh.

Here's my attempt at CPS #195. I wanted to use this cute penguin stamp. I initially thought I would have to paper piece his hat and scarf, but with the help of a Sharpie and blender pen, I was able to just color him in. I was going for a tone on tone effect with the snowflakes, but some of them blend in so much with the light blue cardstock that you'd have to tilt the card to see them. Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird, Prussian Blue, French Blue, Ice Blue
Paper: Recollections- Time Line Red
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Upper Crest border punch
Stamps: Studio G (penguin, sentiment), Fiskars- Winter Wonderland (snowflakes)
Other: Red Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker, Zebra Sarasa yellow pen
Foam adhesive: Thermoweb
Button: Favorite Findings in Ocean

Song on the day: "I See the Light"- Tangled Soundtrack. You hafta go see the movie. Hafta.

Fall-To Layout #118

Whew! Did anyone venture outside today to go to the shopping mall? I did, but not with the intention of going shopping. I did some shopping online instead, so I'll be really happy to see the mailman in these upcoming weeks. I went to the mall to go see Tangled in 3D with my sister. This was my first time seeing a 3D movie, and hey, guess what, it was pretty cool. I really enjoyed the movie, even teared up a little at the end. The animal sidekicks (Maximus the horse and Pascal the chameleon) were especially amusing. It's definitely a movie that I'd buy on DVD.

I'm glad that we left the house early to go to the movie (well, also because I had to go to the Post Office) because trying to find a parking space took some time. We were stalking people who were leaving the mall, hoping that they were going to their cars to leave instead of putting their bags in their cars and going back into the mall. My car made it in and out of the mall without a scratch. It WAS kinda tight in some spots.

After eating some Thanksgiving leftovers, two of my cousins, my sister, and I set up the Christmas tree. It's time to get FESTIVE! Now we just need presents under the tree, but Mr. Mailman will help me with that.

Here's my attempt at clean & simple's Fall-To Layout #118. I wanted to use this piece of cardstock that I covered with Distress Ink. It was intended for another card, but the colors were just too bright for what I needed so I decided to put it aside for another time. This was the time. My sister suggested the tropical theme considering the Distress Inks that I used, and when she dug through my paper stash, she found some paper that had a row of palm trees on it, so I cut that strip out. I wanted to use my tag die, but the largest one was almost the right size. I was determined to make it work so I just cut about a 1/2 inch off the bottom and used my corner rounder on it for a finished look.Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment)
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Barn Door, Pumice, Wild Honey
Paper: Die Cuts With a View?
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch
Flowers: Prima
Die: Sizzix- Tags, Scallop Combo #2 (tag)
Brad: Recollections- Silver Circles
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
Foam adhesive: Thermoweb