I am half drowned, there is a gallon or three of salt water in my stomach, I have had sand in every orifice and I burned my skin all under the guise of having a great day at the beach. I have learned one thing today, one VERY important lesson, having children with you when you go to the beach DRASTICALLY changed this childless person’s mind of what you do at the beach.
I took Ms. Little and her twin to the Redondo Beach today. As a surprise I had picked up some boogie boards and man did we have a riot in the waves. I was a bit of a nervous Nelly. Neither of the girls know how to swim, which is something that I am going to have to try and remedy, so I spent most of the time in the water holding both of their little hands in mine making sure that they did not get caught by an undercurrent or get swept over their heads. We also spent some time gathering sand crabs, something that I did growing up as a child with my mother, but not exactly something that I found terribly exciting now. The glee on their little faces however when they came to show me their trophies was precious so I humoured them, I looked into their little pail full of gross crawly crabs and praised them over the amount. We also buried Ms. Little in the sand, I was volunteered to be the one to be buried but I quickly steered that one away from me. And between the crab gathering, the wave jumping, the nervously watching their every move I managed to forget to reapply my sun block, hence the burn.
By the time I dropped them off we had spent 5 hours together, 4 of which were spent either lugging the beach parifinalia to the water and running after two 11 year olds. I am way too old to be running after children or at least I need to build up my stamina. I was a wreck when I finally arrived home. I staggered in the door, took a shower to remove the sand from my person, I downed a nice big glass of wine and then slipped into bed to take a two hour nap. Ahhhh the luxury of borrowing kids rather than having them. It really is priceless.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Weighing Sacrifices
Mr. Rogue and I had a pretty hectic weekend. It was so hectic at one point that I would have given half my shoe collection if someone would have delivered me a wine in a box so I could rip it open, stick a straw in it and drink it like a grown up Capri sun. Seriously it was one of those weekends.
It did however start nice enough, it started pretty great actually. We woke up Saturday morning to realize that we had NO PLANS for both Saturday and Sunday. Now with our combined crazy schedules there is always SOMETHING going on yet out of the blue we get this free weekend. So usually when the box is empty I have this insatiable drive to fill it, so over breakfast Mr. Rogue and I decided to go and test-drive some SUV’s. I have an old 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee with 105,000 miles on it and it is about ready to keel over. It is so ready in fact that it recently started to spontaneously stall out almost every time we came to a complete stop. It also has a transmission problem and various other things are breaking and falling off. Since it is no longer a very safe or reliable car and because we need a good dependable family car Mr. Rogue and I have finally decided to donate the car and find a replacement. So Saturday we girdled our loins, gathered our information on the 4 vehicles we wanted to test drive and we were off. After hours of talking to salesmen, getting the pitch, haggling the deals and going to the next dealer to do it all over again we had all our information and were able to really sit down and compare what we wanted. We took all night and even some of Saturday morning and finally decided on a vehicle. I fell in love with the Lexus RX 400h and even though it was at the top of our budget, even a little over the max we wanted to pay it really had everything that I wanted. Rather than pass it up we decided to make a few sacrifices on other things that we had saved for. Our final decision dealt with us giving up our two week Hawaii trip, instead we have decided to take our new SUV and our tent on a two week road trip. We also decided to cut costs on phase two of our construction by scaling back what we want to do and doing more of the manual labour ourselves, which at least should make for some interesting blog-fodder.
Us making the decision about which car to get was only half the battle, the other half was spending all day at the dealer haggling to get the price that we wanted. Man oh man are those car dealers some shaddy bastards. We did have a few things going for us though because I had dated a car salesman when I was in college and he was able to teach me alot.
1. Plan on getting there early and bring a book or a magazine, ALSO it is imperative to bring some type of snack. The number one tactic of a salesman is to wear you down, that time he spends in his bosses office HAGGLING a “great deal” for you is just really to waste time. He knows how far he can stretch the price. The more antsy you get because you are bored or hungry the better opportunity he has of getting you to agree to something you don’t want just so you can escape.
2. Always haggle at least three times on the price.
3. Have a number in your head and be ready to walk out if they don’t get you what you want. This is hard to not be emotional about the deal which makes you act less practially.
4. Do the research on how much the car SHOULD be worth.
5. Buy a car in the last two days of the month (this is when they are most desperate to hit their monthly goals)
6. Buy a car only between July-October or the last two weeks of December. Because kids are out of school people are on vacation and not thinking about buying a new car, December is the same because a ton of money is already going out of consumers’ pockets because of the holiday. These are the car salesmen’s lowest sales months and therefore the best deals for the car.
7. Don’t buy a convertible in the spring or a SUV in the winter if you buy them OFF season, just like with fashion, they are less desirable and therefore cheaper.
8. If they won’t budge on the price to hit the number you want try and get other things from them to make it more even, like replacing a panel that was scratched, or getting a perk that comes extra with the car for free (upgrade to leather seats)
There see how I share, you now have the inside scoop which was the only good thing that came out of that relationship.
So, Mr. Rogue and I went into the car dealer at noon and we haggled, and we waited, and we talked, and we relaxed, and we haggled some more. Our car salesman was a little miffed that we were not really obliging on getting upset or antsy and that we were sticking to our initial price. After it was all said and done we went $500 over our base price and significantly under theirs which we were SUPER happy about and we got them to throw in a free heavy duty car mat and to take care of a scratch I had found in the interior. Although we did not get out of there until 6:30 and I felt like someone had beat me over the head with a club I was on cloud nine driving home in my shiny new car. Life is just better in a shiny new car and it made all the misery of the past two days completely worth it.
It did however start nice enough, it started pretty great actually. We woke up Saturday morning to realize that we had NO PLANS for both Saturday and Sunday. Now with our combined crazy schedules there is always SOMETHING going on yet out of the blue we get this free weekend. So usually when the box is empty I have this insatiable drive to fill it, so over breakfast Mr. Rogue and I decided to go and test-drive some SUV’s. I have an old 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee with 105,000 miles on it and it is about ready to keel over. It is so ready in fact that it recently started to spontaneously stall out almost every time we came to a complete stop. It also has a transmission problem and various other things are breaking and falling off. Since it is no longer a very safe or reliable car and because we need a good dependable family car Mr. Rogue and I have finally decided to donate the car and find a replacement. So Saturday we girdled our loins, gathered our information on the 4 vehicles we wanted to test drive and we were off. After hours of talking to salesmen, getting the pitch, haggling the deals and going to the next dealer to do it all over again we had all our information and were able to really sit down and compare what we wanted. We took all night and even some of Saturday morning and finally decided on a vehicle. I fell in love with the Lexus RX 400h and even though it was at the top of our budget, even a little over the max we wanted to pay it really had everything that I wanted. Rather than pass it up we decided to make a few sacrifices on other things that we had saved for. Our final decision dealt with us giving up our two week Hawaii trip, instead we have decided to take our new SUV and our tent on a two week road trip. We also decided to cut costs on phase two of our construction by scaling back what we want to do and doing more of the manual labour ourselves, which at least should make for some interesting blog-fodder.
Us making the decision about which car to get was only half the battle, the other half was spending all day at the dealer haggling to get the price that we wanted. Man oh man are those car dealers some shaddy bastards. We did have a few things going for us though because I had dated a car salesman when I was in college and he was able to teach me alot.
1. Plan on getting there early and bring a book or a magazine, ALSO it is imperative to bring some type of snack. The number one tactic of a salesman is to wear you down, that time he spends in his bosses office HAGGLING a “great deal” for you is just really to waste time. He knows how far he can stretch the price. The more antsy you get because you are bored or hungry the better opportunity he has of getting you to agree to something you don’t want just so you can escape.
2. Always haggle at least three times on the price.
3. Have a number in your head and be ready to walk out if they don’t get you what you want. This is hard to not be emotional about the deal which makes you act less practially.
4. Do the research on how much the car SHOULD be worth.
5. Buy a car in the last two days of the month (this is when they are most desperate to hit their monthly goals)
6. Buy a car only between July-October or the last two weeks of December. Because kids are out of school people are on vacation and not thinking about buying a new car, December is the same because a ton of money is already going out of consumers’ pockets because of the holiday. These are the car salesmen’s lowest sales months and therefore the best deals for the car.
7. Don’t buy a convertible in the spring or a SUV in the winter if you buy them OFF season, just like with fashion, they are less desirable and therefore cheaper.
8. If they won’t budge on the price to hit the number you want try and get other things from them to make it more even, like replacing a panel that was scratched, or getting a perk that comes extra with the car for free (upgrade to leather seats)
There see how I share, you now have the inside scoop which was the only good thing that came out of that relationship.
So, Mr. Rogue and I went into the car dealer at noon and we haggled, and we waited, and we talked, and we relaxed, and we haggled some more. Our car salesman was a little miffed that we were not really obliging on getting upset or antsy and that we were sticking to our initial price. After it was all said and done we went $500 over our base price and significantly under theirs which we were SUPER happy about and we got them to throw in a free heavy duty car mat and to take care of a scratch I had found in the interior. Although we did not get out of there until 6:30 and I felt like someone had beat me over the head with a club I was on cloud nine driving home in my shiny new car. Life is just better in a shiny new car and it made all the misery of the past two days completely worth it.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Where’s the Beef
Today is day 16, one day past the halfway point for accomplishing my goal to ‘Not Eat Meat for a Month’ and it has been both easy and difficult. I have dieted before where I have left out carbs or sweets or a variety of other things that I have tried to stay away from and I have to say giving up meat is SO MUCH EASIER than trying to stay away from sweets. If I had to choose between a nice juicy perfectly cooked filet or a piece of heavenly chocolate cake then I would always choose the cake, hands down every single time. Of course right this moment as I am typing I am drooling on the keyboard thinking about the steak but that is because I haven’t had one in a few weeks so it is beside the point.
Anyways although I miss not having meat at dinner I am doing remarkably well and have not once even thought about cheating, well maybe once but I swear they put those little barbecue meat trucks out on the curb at 2:00 in the morning just to lure me with its sirens song. I almost jumped him but I did somehow restrain myself.
Only two more weeks until I reach my goal.
Anyways although I miss not having meat at dinner I am doing remarkably well and have not once even thought about cheating, well maybe once but I swear they put those little barbecue meat trucks out on the curb at 2:00 in the morning just to lure me with its sirens song. I almost jumped him but I did somehow restrain myself.
Only two more weeks until I reach my goal.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Photo Phriday: The Front Door
If, as the saying goes, that your eyes are the windows to your soul then what does that make your front door. This week for my Photo Phriday I have taken various photos of peoples front doors, which weirdly consisted of me driving around neighbourhoods for hours shooting photos of people’s homes from my car. I am sure there were curious observers who thought terrible things about me maybe even some that wondered WHY I was taking photos of the house. Was I part of a band of robbers casing out possible hit, or was I a neurotic exterior decorator who instead of having talent went around and took photos of other homes so I could copy it exactly for my clients. Ok so maybe the thoughts of the neighbours were not that in depth but seriously I felt a little secret agent-ish.
Anyways back to the doors I found some curious things while I did a little research that I would like to share with you. There is for instance a whole philosophy, which I am not really sure that I buy, that says an entryway can be a reflection of the personal style within. And then I found the Front Door Test on blog things and of course I took the test. My results were surprisingly correct. My front door is white and my results were
You have simple tastes.
You like the classic basics, especially when they’re done well.
Lots of space in your life is very important.
You don’t like physical or mental clutter.
Wow that was pretty much dead on right. But of course that was not the end of it because I am crazy like that and because the questions TECHNICALLY asks what color would you WANT to paint the door of your new cute little home, I did the quiz again and picked red. Which would probably be the color I would paint my door if I was not so lazy and if my neighbour had not crawled into my brain and took my blue house red door with white trim color scheme, she painted her house six months ago and I think I cried for a month. The answer on the quiz was surprisingly correct AGAIN but for the crazy half of me.
You are bold, brave and easily excited.
You are passionate about what you believe.
And you’re never afraid to tell people exactly what you think.
You’re picky and particular. It is sometimes hard to meet your standards.
So seriously maybe I should have a half red door and a half white one, I am a Libra after all and my life is all about balancing out my sane self with my oh so crazy self. This Photo Phriday has given me a lot of food for thought.
Hope you enjoy the pretty pictures and they inspire you to look at your front door in a new light.
THIS TECHNICALLY PROBABLY IS NOT SOMEONE'S FRONT DOOR BUT IT "IS" A DOOR AND I DID LOVE THE GRITTYNESS OF IT
Anyways back to the doors I found some curious things while I did a little research that I would like to share with you. There is for instance a whole philosophy, which I am not really sure that I buy, that says an entryway can be a reflection of the personal style within. And then I found the Front Door Test on blog things and of course I took the test. My results were surprisingly correct. My front door is white and my results were
You have simple tastes.
You like the classic basics, especially when they’re done well.
Lots of space in your life is very important.
You don’t like physical or mental clutter.
Wow that was pretty much dead on right. But of course that was not the end of it because I am crazy like that and because the questions TECHNICALLY asks what color would you WANT to paint the door of your new cute little home, I did the quiz again and picked red. Which would probably be the color I would paint my door if I was not so lazy and if my neighbour had not crawled into my brain and took my blue house red door with white trim color scheme, she painted her house six months ago and I think I cried for a month. The answer on the quiz was surprisingly correct AGAIN but for the crazy half of me.
You are bold, brave and easily excited.
You are passionate about what you believe.
And you’re never afraid to tell people exactly what you think.
You’re picky and particular. It is sometimes hard to meet your standards.
So seriously maybe I should have a half red door and a half white one, I am a Libra after all and my life is all about balancing out my sane self with my oh so crazy self. This Photo Phriday has given me a lot of food for thought.
Hope you enjoy the pretty pictures and they inspire you to look at your front door in a new light.
THIS TECHNICALLY PROBABLY IS NOT SOMEONE'S FRONT DOOR BUT IT "IS" A DOOR AND I DID LOVE THE GRITTYNESS OF IT
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Sad Realizations
I was so excited when I got this photo of the Brown Pelican and I could cross off ‘Photograph an Endangered Species in its Natural habitat’ off my Rogue Life List. No I was beyond excited, I was ESTATIC and on a cloud so high. Unfortunately now having been to Mexico and seeing the abundance of the Brown Pelican and speaking to Ms. Ivey League I did more research and miserably had to come to the conclusion that the Brown Pelican does not count as an endangered species. Sadly I have to put this item back on my list. There ARE some sites that say that the Brown Pelican is endangered in the US, however, they say that the bird is up for review to come off the endangered list and I just don’t think that is a good enough for my Rogue Life List.
I feel like I did when I realized that once you got into the real world all that super hard work you did to get a super high GPA in high school and colage means squat. No one in the job feild, unless you are a doctor or something similar, asks what your GPA was, or at least I have never been asked. I could have skated by in school with a 2.8 and still done well. The moral of this story is to aim low my friends, aim low.
I feel like I did when I realized that once you got into the real world all that super hard work you did to get a super high GPA in high school and colage means squat. No one in the job feild, unless you are a doctor or something similar, asks what your GPA was, or at least I have never been asked. I could have skated by in school with a 2.8 and still done well. The moral of this story is to aim low my friends, aim low.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Livin in the Stixs
I was born a small town girl but now I am a big city girl and will probably never leave Los Angeles. I am however deep down under the designer clothes, love for amazing restaurants and being able to have everything at my fingertips; a country girl at heart. Mr. Rogue and I have lengthy cyclical conversations for fun about packing up everything and buying a lot of land without a neighbour in sight. The thought of raising our future children where they can ride their bikes in the street and where we can call everyone in town by their name is appealing on many levels to us. It will probably never happen, Mr. Rogue loves his job, and we both love Los Angeles, it is just that we both think that LALA Land is better lived in as a 20 something year old and not as an impressionable child. But like I said these conversations are cyclical and pointless for the foreseeable future.
One of my favourite non city things to do is something that my parents instilled into me at a young child, it is a love for camping. I am talking about throw a tent down and sleep on the ground kind of camping and not those trussed up farcified RV’s with electricity, air conditioning, and TV. People are sometimes surprised when they first find out that I love to camp because I am a high-heel loving, spa worshiping girly girl; but when I was a girl we were hard core campers going multiple times a year all across the United States. Mr. Rogue and I have gone camping many times, not often enough, but a sufficient amount to fall in love, each time, all over again with wide open spaces, inky black darkness, the smell of fresh air and the sky speckled with a million little stars.
One of my favourite non city things to do is something that my parents instilled into me at a young child, it is a love for camping. I am talking about throw a tent down and sleep on the ground kind of camping and not those trussed up farcified RV’s with electricity, air conditioning, and TV. People are sometimes surprised when they first find out that I love to camp because I am a high-heel loving, spa worshiping girly girl; but when I was a girl we were hard core campers going multiple times a year all across the United States. Mr. Rogue and I have gone camping many times, not often enough, but a sufficient amount to fall in love, each time, all over again with wide open spaces, inky black darkness, the smell of fresh air and the sky speckled with a million little stars.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
My Little Nerdy Secret
Ok there is something wrong with me, I am addicted right now to shooting bird photography. So rather than me continuously uploading a million photos here of all my birds I have decided to make a birds on the brain blog and just post all that stuff over there. For the two people looking at this blog that are interested in my bird photos, or maybe three (hello there secret nerdy bird lover), go here. Now that does not mean that I won’t ever post another bird photo here, I will, or may for Photo Phriday, or just because but it won’t be all the time. For all the rest of you, I and my blog will be returning to our normal selves tomorrow. I promise, cross my heart and all that stuff.
Oh and just for old time’s sake this is my favourite bird photo, or two, of the day.
REDDISH EGRET
GREAT BLUE HERON
Oh and just for old time’s sake this is my favourite bird photo, or two, of the day.
REDDISH EGRET
GREAT BLUE HERON
Nerdy Birdy: Bolsa Chia Conservatory
Today I went to Bolsa Chica Conservatory (3842 Warner Avenue, Huntington Beach, CA) where I spent a good 6 hours addicted to finding as many new birds for my list as I could. I originally only planned on spending two or three hours, but once I was there the giddiness seeped into my bones and I was left with no willpower. Damn my addictive personality.
I ended up with twenty three more birds to cross off the bird list.
244.LEAST TERN
241.SANDWICH TERN
239.ROYAL TERN
133.MERLIN
133.MERLIN FLYING
272.MOURNING DOVE
145. BLACK BELLIED PLOVER
150.SNOWY PLOVER
238.CASPIN TERN
588.CASSIN'S FINCH
359.SULPHUR BELLIED FLYCATCHER
221.RING BILLED GULL
166.WILLET
243.FOSTERS TERN
153.PIPING PLOVER
146.AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER
99.REDDISH EGRET
175.LONG BILLED CURLEW
196.CURLEW SANDPIPER
350. BLACK PHOEBE
64.PIED BILLED GREBE
519.CALIFORNIA TOWHEE
535.SAVANNAH SPARROW
154.KILLDEER
Here are some birds that I have already crossed off the list but I wanted to show you.
94.GREAT BLUE HERON
95.GREAT EGRET
96.SNOWY EGRET
I ended up with twenty three more birds to cross off the bird list.
244.LEAST TERN
241.SANDWICH TERN
239.ROYAL TERN
133.MERLIN
133.MERLIN FLYING
272.MOURNING DOVE
145. BLACK BELLIED PLOVER
150.SNOWY PLOVER
238.CASPIN TERN
588.CASSIN'S FINCH
359.SULPHUR BELLIED FLYCATCHER
221.RING BILLED GULL
166.WILLET
243.FOSTERS TERN
153.PIPING PLOVER
146.AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER99.REDDISH EGRET
175.LONG BILLED CURLEW
196.CURLEW SANDPIPER
350. BLACK PHOEBE
64.PIED BILLED GREBE
519.CALIFORNIA TOWHEE
535.SAVANNAH SPARROW154.KILLDEER
Here are some birds that I have already crossed off the list but I wanted to show you.
94.GREAT BLUE HERON
95.GREAT EGRET
96.SNOWY EGRET
Monday, August 24, 2009
Nerdy Birdy: I Apologize in Advance
So I have to apologize in advance because you see taking photos of birds is very very hard, and I have now set myself a goal to ‘photo’ all the birds in this super long list. It was not my idea, between my mother, Ms. Ivey League and this new beautiful telephoto lens that tells me to do things when I sleep, , I really had no choice but to submit to their combined will.
Now unfortunately birds don’t normally hop right up for their close-up and it is TERRIBLY difficult to get a photo like this, where the bird was still for a moment and I was able to get him completely in focus, the background is beautifully out of focus, and there are not a ton of branches and leaves in the way. Generally I get a shiz load of photos that are out of focus, the damn tree grew a branch in the EXACT location that it shouldn’t have for my shot, or I am all over the place with the camera and don’t have time to fiddle with it as I try to get the best shot I can. So I am going to upload now a slew of “not that attractive photos”, which hurts my artist’s soul, and the ONLY reason I am doing it is because I want to cross off all the birds I have taken photos of. Now of course I am going to continue to try and get that perfect shot of as many birds as I can, but those slightly off photos I am just going to have to post so my little OCD heart can cross them off the list. With that said here they are, my “didn’t make the cut photos the first time around photo” but ones that are going up anyways. Please don’t judge me, I am a little screwed up.
157.AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER
95.GREAT EGRET
1.BLACK BELLIED WHISTLING DUCK
BLACK BELLIED WHISTLING DUCK
108.WOOD STORK
96.SNOWY EGRET
104.AMERICAN WHITE IBIS
90.MAGNIFICENT FRIGATEBIRD
MAGNIFICENT FRIGATEBIRD
100.CATTLE EGRET
Now unfortunately birds don’t normally hop right up for their close-up and it is TERRIBLY difficult to get a photo like this, where the bird was still for a moment and I was able to get him completely in focus, the background is beautifully out of focus, and there are not a ton of branches and leaves in the way. Generally I get a shiz load of photos that are out of focus, the damn tree grew a branch in the EXACT location that it shouldn’t have for my shot, or I am all over the place with the camera and don’t have time to fiddle with it as I try to get the best shot I can. So I am going to upload now a slew of “not that attractive photos”, which hurts my artist’s soul, and the ONLY reason I am doing it is because I want to cross off all the birds I have taken photos of. Now of course I am going to continue to try and get that perfect shot of as many birds as I can, but those slightly off photos I am just going to have to post so my little OCD heart can cross them off the list. With that said here they are, my “didn’t make the cut photos the first time around photo” but ones that are going up anyways. Please don’t judge me, I am a little screwed up.
157.AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER
95.GREAT EGRET
1.BLACK BELLIED WHISTLING DUCK
BLACK BELLIED WHISTLING DUCK
108.WOOD STORK
96.SNOWY EGRET
104.AMERICAN WHITE IBIS
90.MAGNIFICENT FRIGATEBIRD
MAGNIFICENT FRIGATEBIRD
100.CATTLE EGRET
