Click one and be AMAZED (or at least mildly amused)

Okay people, it’s time for link city. First of all I have to credit most of these to a TV show that is one of the main reasons Bj and I can’t seem to let ourselves get rid of digital cable: Attack of the Show . The other reason is my mild addiction to Discovery Health Channel. Back to Attack of the Show. This show, which just changed it’s name from The Screen Savers, is the best on television for awesome links and great technology finds. Bj loves it for all the geeky stuff, but it can be very amusing even if you don’t want to mod your case (and if you don’t know what that is, you are not a geek). So, start watching the show and have fun being “in the know” like me :). 

Not all the links are from that show, and this one isn’t. It’s a link to another blog that lists incredible airfares. This cool blog is updated all the time as those ridiculous, this can’t be real fares come in. My mom and I are familiar with these deals, and I’m sure you’ve met someone whose gotten a deal you can’t believe, this will help you find one too. Our find was quite a few years ago, just one of those fluke of the Internet things that we ended up getting tickets round trip to Paris from PDX for like $300 bucks. We bought them then the deal vanished, as they so often do. Okay so I hope that will be fun for you. If you then do buy a ticket and want to know where to sit, check out this website that helps you pick the best seat on your specific aircraft. So cool.

A funny website to buy geeky things at: Think Geek. This site has tons of funny things, but I picked out some that I thought were extra funny (most of these they showed on Attack of the Show):
*This awesome toy set for grown ups: The Cubes know any guys that are hard to buy for and work in a cubicle? Here you go.
*Mom, I think You need this instead of that tiny drive you have for your CAD work, check out this Tiki Drive!!!  Okay so for the money you can get a lot more space in something else, but this sucker makes a statement, don’t you think?
*This is totally for me: Marshmallow Shooter, no, I don’t have a birthday coming up, but anyone who knows me knows I would put this to good use!
*How about the Red Swingline from Office Space? Cause they’ve got it!
Another geeky shop is Jinx. They have awesome T-shirts for the technology minded, my favorites?
*You are so off my buddy list
*I read your email
*Revolution is not an AOL keyword
and I won’t tell you all the words to the next one because you must click on it:
*Everytime you download music
There are so many more good ones too, but those stand out.

Here are some interesting websites using toys in very odd ways:
Toy Lab lets kids (6 and up) make new one of kind toys from recycled toy parts. Interesting creations abound.
Toddlerpedes are so disturbing you just can’t look away
I don’t know if this is really a toy, but I can’t believe what this guy can do with playing cards.

To find more outstanding websites you can go to the South by Southwest Web Awards site. They have lots of great sites, but a truly amazing and interactive site is Billy Harvey Music. It requires flash, but start clicking around and you’ll be amazed, so, so well designed!

Hope you enjoyed the links. Seriously if you have digital cable you should be watching Attack of the Show.

Woah Vegas is like Crazy Ridiculous

I’ve been to Vegas, baby. So, this past summer Bj drove me through the strip three times so I could take pictures like this:

Luckily, My mom and I didn’t go to places like that. But I did see plenty of excess. It’s amazing what all lots of money can do in the middle of the desert. Now, before I say that some things I saw were cool and I did appreciate them, I MUST preface this by saying that I, in no way, support an unsustainable settlement in the middle of the desert that uses up vast resources. Much of my feelings on this matter were gleaned from the book Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner. Most people assume that Las Vegas uses power generated from Hoover Dam, but in actuality only one of the large generators in Hoover Dam is used for Las Vegas and Arizona. The rest of Las Vegas’ power comes from other sources including coal burning power plants that are the main source of pollution for the Grand Canyon.
Okay I had to say that because water management really is important to me, but now I’ll get onto the Vegas. First of all I walked a ton and I have seven blisters on my feet to prove it. I think “the strip” is really deceiving.  You know, you ask where something is and their like “across the street,” or “two casinos down.” That really means “go up the escalator (because there are no real stairs), across the people mover, down to the street, across the walkway,past the fountain, and 1,700 shops, then you’ll get to the casino, go past 5,000 slot machines and then ask a guy named Hank.” It’s nuts!  My mom and I decided to go down to the Aladdin from where we were staying (Bally’s) and happened upon the Desert Passage shops (we were drawn in by a Sephora so it really wasn’t our fault). We walked around for an hour and a half. when we saw the street we thought we would be coming out a couple of miles down the strip but we were only about a football field from where we went in, what the!!!  So we did tons of walking and sightseeing and free things, but like my mom says, “You don’t go to Vegas on a budget.” So true. I mean who would have thought I’d ever see my mom in super trendy Juicy Couture sweat pants? You go girl! And we did a little gambling, despite my reservations it was kind of fun. I did win though, or at least break even, when I played blackjack. I sat down at the table and was dealt and ace then a face card. The guy next to me said, “you don’t know about doubling down do you?” Um, what? And I have no idea what the deal is with slot machines… do people not realize you always loose?  My mom did put a five dollars in and got twenty back the first day, but that was the only time we walked away with anything left. And seeing people shuffle over to a machine in a walker, sit down, light up a cigarette, cough, and insert a card hooked to their neck, NO THANKS!!
We had a lot more fun at the variety show we went to V . It did have some magic, which my mom apparently finds a little unsettling since she doesn’t know how it’s done, but the comedian more than made up for that for her. We had a lot of fun and it was a great couple of days, but I was starting to get a rash (allergic to Vegas?) and was sick of not taking a breath that wasn’t semi smoke filled, so it was time to head home.

Aren’t we the cutest!
Okay special props to Iman and Jane who let me know that the purple guy’s name is Grimace. Jane also sent me this link, Which McDonald’s Character are You? I’m the fry guy! Special, special props to Erin who knew the other two dudes names: Hamburgler and Birdie! Thanks Erin! You have to check out my photo album. I put up a great picture of the Chilhuly instillation at the Bellagio . It replaces another picture I posted today that has been my wallpaper for almost a year.

Free Association Wednesday

Rock Candy
Here was my idea. To do a kind of post that was just a hey, um, hello, hi, is anyone out there? But then I thought to myself, “alp (that’s what I call myself in my head sometimes), isn’t that a little mundane. Couldn’t you think of something a little better?  And I thought, hey I can!  I can make it INTERACTIVE!!!! Instead of just being the comment whore that I am and begging the 93 people that daily look at my blog to post a hello I am going to make it fun!  Yes, I will still be disappointed if you do not say something, but I think you will want to. So every Tuesday night I will put up a phrase or word and you can make a FREE association for Wednesday. Do you know what that is?  this might help if you don’t.  So you can just say anything that floats across your mind. Or if you don’t want to play just say hey, I’m reading you man, and that will be good for me. So once again the free association for today is:

Rock Candy
Okay so Bj just asked me what to do. You just hit the comment button and write the first thing that comes floating over your brain that you can catch and type out.

That’s a Good Question


How cute is that? She (Miffy) is a gift of sorts from an overseas friend that connected to me from my blog. Oh how cool is that?! Kay is the third person that has written to me after reading my blog. So she’s been reading it for a while and had some questions. She’s from Great Britain so she didn’t know some American things that I right about. And since she is not the only non-American reader I thought I would answer the questions here as well as in an email to her. Oh, but before I forget you can make your own Miffy with this: Download miffy_blue.pdf
. You simply print it out, snip, snip, glue, glue, and you too can have your own Miffy. Don’t be scared by the Japanese instructions, just look at the diagrams and you’ll get it. So to the questions (Kay is in green)
I have been following this for a while and blimey you’re energetic, this is a great blog but I have a few things I don’t understand and hope you can clear up for me my love:
OK, what is scrapbooking (she hesitantly asks)? Maybe that’s like saying ‘so, what’s the whole essence of your life?’ but we most certainly don’t have this phenomenon and I would like to know?  Is it your job?  What is your job?  Have you finished university now?  How on earth do you make a living?
Well what is scrapbooking? I think most basically it is taking pictures and putting them together with journaling to create a book that holds memories. I told Kay to check out Creating Keepsakes Magazine since they are like the number one scrapbooking magazine. You can also go to Two Peas in a Bucket a scrapbooking mega site. They have shopping, galleries of work, message boards, and a design team, called the creating garden that has some awesome examples of what can be done with scrapbooking. Yes, I scrapbook a lot, but I am trying not to make it the whole essence of my life. Though, be warned, if you know me well enough you will probably get something homemade and artsy for a gift at some point. My job. Well I don’t exactly have one right now. I’m on a break. I quit my job in late December and have been scrapbooking and traveling since then. I think I know what I want to do now, but I’m going to wait just a little big longer before I tell everyone so I can be sure. I graduated last June with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts and a Minor in Business Administration. How do I make a living? Um I sell some stuff on eBay, but mainly living off my savings from when I did work right now.
I like the apple.  Very good my chick, i am writing to you from my little iBook (and would not swap it for the world) so I share in your apple glory – I think you should work out how to list things on eBay though. Come on girl, don’t let the side down!  What is Alma mater? Nice new shoes, very nice new hair,  what the bloody hell is an inversion table? That nasty sugary egg thing sounds revolting, but I don’t like sweet stuff so maybe I’m not the best judge really.
I love Macs, enough said. 🙂 Okay okay I am going to be listing some more things on eBay, I’ll have bj post a link on the blog to them. An Alma Mater is a school you graduated from or went to. An inversion table is to help your back. Apparently if you hang upside down enough you can straighten out your back and relieve pain. I don’t know I think it is just kind of funny. Bj said it made him feel sick to hang upside down. Not many other people like those eggs either.
Okay so those were some answers. Now I hope everyone knows a little more about me! But still no one has answered mine, who is that little McDonald’s guy?

Odd things on the road

Bj and I drove back from the Tri-Cities today in the afternoon. Instead of pouring rain we got… extreme wind!!!  Yeah!!!  And when you are in a desert environment that means tumbleweed, cool. We were driving into the sun for a while. Bj was fine with that though, after he found these:


They used to be my mom’s and they have been in the Acura as a back up for 15 years, so they are quite “classic.” Before Hood River it started getting rainy instead of just windy. I did manage to get this picture of some gigantic tires, what are these for?



Bj says giant dump truck, Sciarrino says one of those big rigs that runs over smaller cars, and I say, “those are tires, damn.”  At the end of interstate 84 Bj asked my favorite question, “205 or do you want to go through the city?” My mom always asks me that when she picks me up from the airport. I’ve actually never said 205, I love going through the city so much. I love going over the bridges, and Portland is so pretty at night, even though it was pouring, so of course I said, “Through the city!” Just as we were getting through Bj asked if I really liked, “living in a water park year round.” Referring to the rain, rain, and more rain. And I really do. I’ve thought about it before. We didn’t get much rain this winter, actually a really low amount for us, and I missed it! I love nice rainy days. We got off I-5 at Salem to take the paper in for my mom. I’ve been passing this billboard for a while, and finally had the camera and was a passenger:


Bj says, “Ya, so it’s looks like they are just fixing it up or something.” “Those don’t look like two big tire tracks and you don’t think that rock was kicked out when the rig backed up?” “Well ya, that’s tire tracks, but they’re just fixing it up.” What do you think?  I think there is a big rig out there with rocks and dirt in the grill. Okay so the final question I’ll pose for the night: “What are these character’s names? I’m specifically interested in the purple one.
Mc
And do you remember the old McDonald’s play grounds? Man, I hadn’t had these cookies for a long time, and they brought back some memories. Oh, one final funny thing from Bj (regarding submitting layouts and stuff):
“Honey, you need to get your stuff out there.
Do you think they are just going to call you out of the blue?”
“well, no”
“Amber, do you have any layouts, we just picked you at random”
Bj in a high squeaky voice: “Hey I do.”
“Okay send us one layouts and we’ll send you $12,000 and a new car.”
LOL he’s right, I’ve got to start submitting!

The world upside down

I hope everyone had a great Easter. Bj and I were up here in the Tri-Cities, Washington area with his parents. We pretty much just relaxed up here. I got my hair highlighted just a little in the morning, it makes me look a little perkier. Last night we rented The Incredibles and I finally got to see what everyone was talking about! It was so good. And if you haven’t rented it on DVD you should because there is a new short film added to it, Jack Jack Attack, that is really funny. Other than that we just hung around. These pictures are of Bj and I on his parent’s inversion table, that thing cracks me up! It is really relaxing though!

At the races again, and shorty’s back


Isn’t Aj a cutie?  Bj and I got up super early this morning to drive down to the WSU vs. OSU race in Dexter. Here are the results. Like Bj said, “An hour and a half of watching and we got to see 20 seconds of racing. But that’s not the point… the point is freezing your ass off.” No Bj! The point is seeing everyone and cheering on my Alma mater. One reason I wanted to go to this race is because my novice coach, Jane, is now the head coach for WSU in Pullman. Jane made my first year of crew such a good experience. Because of the opportunity I had that year I got to travel all over and participate in the coolest sport with the best girls. I made lifelong friends and gained so much confidence. I love keeping in touch with everyone from crew, but especially my first year. I love seeing Jane. I know she thinks I’m a little hyper, but hey, I only see her every once in a while so I have to be. I ran into a bunch of old friends at the show:


from left: Karen, Lauren, Katie, Kathy, Me, Eric, and Jennifer.


Oh and Bj was there too! 

I also got this cute picture of Cj (Charlie’s son) on a fire truck that just happened to be there. He loves firetrucks, so it totally made his day. We only got to stay for a few minuets and didn’t get to see all the rowers after their races. I am planning a trip down to PAC-10s in Sacramento, CA at the end of spring with some other former rowers so I will get to see them all later.
Then we took off for the tri-cities. Man, it was the worst drive we’ve ever had. It rained, and I mean poured, almost the whole drive there. It was windy and sideways and everything. We only stopped a couple of times once for a potty break and once for Tillamook cheese burgers at Burgerville. We rolled into town at about 4:30. We both had “hair appointments” with Bj’s mom when we got to Bj’s parent’s house. I was first and after pretty poorly describing what I wanted and totally confusing her, my haircut got underway. I can’t stand this long hair any more! I hate in the shower feeling in on my back, and I hate blow drying it, and I hate putting it up cause then I get a headache. I was basically just sick of it. And I know a few people wanted me to grow it out, but that was just about as long as I could go. So below you will see my before and after!  I love it! And I think that I may have lost another pound, that was a lot of hair! Now we’re just hanging out and relaxing after our long drive.

At the carwash

Just some cute pictures of Beeg at the carwash tonight. I posted some more cool ones in my photo album, so if you haven’t checked it out please do! I like my new digital camera. It only has auto focus, but it’s great for point and shoot and keeping in my handbag (the real reason I got it). Oh, you know what I just realized that the other pictures I have of Bj at the car wash is in the same shirt, weird. hmm.

Off the wagon


uh oh…. easter candy.
I love easter candy. I stock pile it for the whole year. Everyone knows this. Jenna sent me a peeps card a month before easter just to get me ready for the holiday (it was so sparkly and cute it made my mouth water). There has been much research on peeps, but I think perhaps the funniest of all is the surgery to seperate peeps. After surgery was complete the “doctor” used fun dip to reduce scarring (LOLOLOL). Please if you click on nothing else check this (please tell me you all knew those were links before) out. So I have had some easter candy already. But the thing is I didn’t have to wait until easter. See I invest in a year round supply of Bunny Basket Eggs.

Now, some of my friends have had their gag reflexes evoked when they try one. They ARE sugary, but in a very unique way. They have a marshmellow in the center. One that is between the consistancy of a regular marshmallow that you roll between your fingers and the marshmallows from Lucky Charms. And way isn’t marshmallow spelled marshmellow? Ugh. Anyway then they are candy coated. Lots of products claim to be candy coated, but not like these. They have a good quarter inch of a hard crumbly candy shell around the marshmellow. This is what allows me to eat them year round. Yes, they get a little harder, but still yummy.
In case any one out their is wondering I have looked into the book The Sugar Addict’s Total Recovery Program. I went to the website where all the sugar addicts comfort one another. But I felt they were all just in denial about the good things sugar can do. You know how scientist and people like that say that one glass of red wine a night is good for you? Well I bet their next study will read something like this: “Amazing new link found between eating a half pound of Jelly Bellies a day and looking younger.” The sub heading might also mention the good effects on the heart. Ha Ha, I can just picture it now: these really healthy people have to eat Bunny Basket Eggs. They start making them in an “organic” variety and the price goes up like a hundred percent. And the mom’s are like, “please honey, you can have the brocolli as soon as you finish one more Bunny Basket Egg.” I should front the money for this study man. But in all seriousness; it’s not like I do drugs or drink alcohol (ew, that stuff tastes so gross and WHAT is WITH the BURNING?)! So anyway, I like sugar. Yes, I used to sneak sugar cubes from the pantry and put a little more sugar than cinnamon on my toast. But I turned out fine. And I think my sugar highs are an endearing quality of mine.
Okay so here are two pictures of my cute shoes.