Bootcamp @ work!

Our company has brought in an outside group to provide a bootcamp style workout class during lunch. We had our first week of it as a trial this week. There was really good turnout. I went on Monday and again today. I'm sore, but I'm very satisfied with the amount of exercise I got. I also know just how horribly out of shape I really am and I'm excited about watching that improve over the course of doing these classes.

Blog pictures

Acobox is a great place to find blog pictures. Signing up for an account is absolutely free and only takes a moment. They have quite a nice selection of images that already optimized for blogs. The images are categorized so you can easily browse through the selections they offer. But the best part is that you can search through all the photos using a keyword or phrase. When I searched on the word "lily" I came up with the following images:

Once you have chosen an image to use, the website makes it super easy to copy and paste the code right into your blog entry. You can choose the size and the alignment that you would like for your photo and it provides the HTML code you need to make the image appear.

Another nice thing is that the image is hosted by Acobox and you don't have to worry about going through the hassle of uploading the photo you want. The images also have all been properly licensed and as long as you follow the rules they lay out in their Terms, you don't have to worry about copyright infringement.

As a photographer, you can upload your photos to Acobox to offer for use by bloggers. It's a great way to build up a reputation as a photographer or just to share some beautiful photographs that you would like other people to have a chance to use.

Female Assertiveness Training

Today all the girls in the office were invited to participate in a call-in assertiveness training seminar. It was interesting. The one thing I got out of it was that an assertive woman wears black, gray or deep purple and accents with red. Yeah, so basically dress like a man and add your lipstick for that feminine touch.

Weekend Film Competition

A friend from work organized a group of us to submit an entry to the National Film Challenge. http://www.filmchallenge.com/ The goal is to write, rehearse, film and edit a 4-8 minute film in one weekend. That yeah, that's what we did this past weekend. If it shows up on YouTube, I'll post it here. I wasn't in it, but my hubby and car both were.

Punkin's Open house

Mosquito and I went to Punkin's school open house. It was good to meet her teachers. One of them I liked a lot, one of them creeped me out and another one annoyed the heck out of me. The rest seemed fine. I hope everything goes ok for her this year.

If you can't stand the heat...

In the summer of 1997 Seattle had some horrible heat and my car air conditioning system completely stopped working right during the thick of it. Luckily for me my car was still (barely) under the extended 100,000 mile warranty I had purchased and the replacement was covered. But, my experience sure made me realize how horrible it is to have a car without A/C during the summer heat. And Seattle isn't exactly known for the heat, so I'm sure it's about 100 times worse in other parts of the country.

If you find yourself needing to replace your air conditioning compressor or any other auto ac parts, then check out DiscountACParts.com to see if they have the parts you need.

Figure Print ordered!

Ok, here's the rendered photos from the pose I ordered.  The animated compliation is at the end. It said I should be getting my figure within a month.

Wedding Fail

Figure Print take 2

I didn't notice before that they offer the option to equip your ranged weapon.

I think this in my new favorite. Spell Cast Omni (B) with my wand equipped:

Oh, and I'm thinking of maybe not displaying the guild tabard, which would make it look like this:

Figure Print

I was selected to have the ability to purchase a FigurePrint of my World of Warcraft character. Now I just have to decide what pose I want for her.

Standing with weapons sheathed:

Standing with weapons out:

Walking with weapons sheathed:

Walking with weapons out:

Spell Ready Directed:

Spell Cast Omni (B)

New fabric

I bought 5 yards of this fabric on ebay and it arrived last week.

The photo just doesn't do it justice. It's so gorgeous.

Now I just need to figure out something to do with it. I have been going on a pattern buying spree lately and here are some patterns I have that I'm considering using this fabric for.


The dress on the right:

The dress in the middle right box:

Here are some other patterns I recently purchased, but wouldn't work for this fabric.

I like the neckline on both of those dresses, but especially the one on the right. I think those necklines are pretty flattering on me.

I just like short swingy dresses. I don't like the neckline on the one on the right, so I'll probably never make that one.

This dress just looked classy and I thought it would make a nice out on the town dress for my more elegant evenings.

I figured this was a nice classic coat pattern and I figured I'd pick it up while the patterns were on sale.

I love the swing coat and I want to make the white one in the front. I'm not sure if I'll ever get the time or ambition to do it though.

I picked this one up because I thought the construction and detailing on the skirt could go into a future dance costume.

Turbo charged!

My (soon to be former) dance instructor is a big car fanatic. I have a car and it is comfortable for me to drive and I take care of it, but I view it as a tool to transport me from one location to another and I don't really spend a lot of time or money on it. In fact, I really know very little about cars and how they operate. I'm a pretty smart girl, but I just haven't had the desire to take the time to learn anything. But I found this website that explains about the audi turbocharger and the differences from a supercharger. It's really pretty interesting. Both force compressed air into the engine's cylinder, but the main difference is where it draws it's power. The supercharger has a belt connected to the engine that drives it and the turbocharger uses a little turbine in the exhaust system that spins to generate power. See, I learned something new! If I were to upgrade my car to get more power out of the engine, I'd want to add a turbo charger. Check out the turbo charger pros website to see if they can help pimp your ride.

Losing my dance teacher

My dance teacher is leaving the dance studio I go to. This is pretty sad, even though it is a good thing for him. He's a huge geek and we get along pretty well, which is good when you are spending so much time close to someone. I don't really have any strong feelings about the other male dance instructors, so I'm moving on to the one my current teacher recommended to me. I have my first lesson with him on Friday. Although, I did have a lesson with him a while back so it's not like the very first time I'm taking a lesson from him. I'm not sure what will happen to the Tango routine I started working on. I haven't even had another lesson to work on it in a couple months anyway, so I guess we might just have to start over, maybe even with new choreography. I'll be sure to bring that up soon.

kitchen makeover

I want to do fix up my kitchen.

Here are some before shots from when we first looked at the house.



We've been slowly getting our cheap old nasty appliances changed over to nicer quality, black appliances. We only have the stove and over-the-stove microwave to replace now. I should take some photos now so you can see the difference just that makes already.

I would like to remove the overhead cabinets in that first photos and to paint the rest of the cabinets white. I found a guide on painting the cabinets.http://www.doityourself.com/stry/paintkitchencabinets.

I want to replace the counter tops and floor, but I haven't made any decisions on what I want to replace them with just yet.

I would like to paint the walls and put in a tile backsplash.

I need to do all of this as economical as possible. We don't plan on living in this house for too many more years, but I also want it to look nice and be a decent quality so we can enjoy it and when the time comes it'll be attractive to potential buyers.