Tuesday, January 22, 2008
ugh... i sprained my ankle
i landed wrong after spiking the volleyball. and darnit, i knew i was gonna land wrong after i jumped, but i couldn’t stop from rolling onto the top of my left ankle.
the doc says it’s not a fracture, and if this had been my first sprain, i wouldn’t have even gone to the doctor. but with the recurrent sprain and the feeling of a torn ligament, i just know i need to take more measures to heal properly. my ligaments are soooo loose that i rolled it far beyond what anyone else would do. so hopefully, with this ortho referral, i will be able to get some type of orthosis to help stabilize my ankles.
i’m thinking this:
or this:
or maybe an active ankle:
for some reasons the prices look much more affordable now than when i checked up on them a couple of months ago, but if the doctor prescribes them, then they’ll be totally free! and hopefully they also give me the orthotics so that when i sleep i don’t wake up with the numb feet i have been, maybe due to plantar fasciitis, but hopefully treatable…
ugh… why am i so broken so young?!?!
Monday, January 14, 2008
my camote plant is growing!
out with gus jr’s, and in with stater brothers yogurt!
my camote plant has slowed down its growth ever since that last big spurt, but i just moved it into a new container. it already looks like it’s loving the room for its roots to grow.
i love my little camote plant and i pet it every day! =)
Sunday, January 06, 2008
adorable cute puppies
these two cute little puppies were born to haley, the yorkshire terrier in the pictures. we didn’t even know she was pregnant! but if you thought yorkies are tiny, you should see their puppies! they looked liked two little stuffed animals! enjoy these pics of them:
cute, huh?
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Christmas tree shopping with perry & gigi
i stopped by perry’s house to do some last minute shopping on dec 23, right after our roomies’ Christmas celebration. we brought his sister with us to best buy, where we saw these two policemen passing by on horse!
we then decided to pick up a live Christmas tree for their house from home depot. here’s the 6-7’ tree they picked out
and then here’s gigi carrying the 4 foot tree that they cut it down to!
we went back to their house to get it decorated
it was a lot of fun getting to decorate a tree with several people! the three of us had a lot of fun pulling out the old ornaments and lights and decorating the tree, and even perry’s grandpa participated too, watching from the couch and offering advice on where to put the ornaments =)
Christmas with the roomies
we can no longer refer to ourselves as the bachelorettes from the bachelorette pad since rita got married, but we still have our get-togethers. this last one was particularly fun because we did our Christmas gift exchange at martha green’s in redlands, and everyone around us was enjoy our festivities too!
shelia gave kat these gloves in a nice purse as a wrapper
and kat and rita are leaning like cholos
while i got this present from kat, the bag imported from singapore!
it definitely was a fun time getting together and catching up on each others’ lives…
on the 395
we actually made the trip home during the day, and the scenery was beeeyoutiful!
here we are at lake tahoe at noon, right before the drive home
and a picture of the lake with the mountains in the background
i took the next few pics from the passenger seat while perry was driving… i couldn’t frame the shots the way i wanted to but i think they came out ok! the specs in the pictures are from the windshield and on one pic you can even see the dirt left from the windshield wiper. they’re still pretty good pics tho imo =)
and this last one i took while we were stopped on the side of the road right before entering bishop
pics from the tahoe trip
on dec 28, westy, meesh, kevin, perry, dean, allan, marc, and i headed up the 395 to south lake tahoe to get some boarding in. i took our mugshots at a gas station in nevada…
kevin had a fun time on the ride up…
and i think westy really enjoyed the trip too - he just kept on eating!!!
the five of us stayed behind to celebrate new years outside harrah’s and harvey’s
with the gorilla…
and with the pigs… hahaha just kidding. they were pretty cool…
this was the first new year’s celebration that perry and i got to spend together… the first time he was in the philippines and the second time i was in hawaii with family. it was nice to be together this time!
it was a happy new year celebration!
visiting temecula
on boxing day, marlene and shyla picked me up on the way to temecula and we had a lot of fun running around the south coast winery
here’s a close up of the fountain
we were so excited when we saw the little villa that we were staying in!
but of course we didn’t wanna spend all our time in the room, so we took a walk through the spa and then towards the restaurant, which was surrounded by this shrubbery
and then i had to test the macro function on my camera on a close up of the berries…
after some adventures involving taxis and other wineries, we came back to south coast and found out we couldn’t eat at the restaurant without a reservation. not a problem - we spent that extra time taking our hay ride tour of the Christmas lights! we were the best customers of the night, providing our own Christmas carols as we sang a not-so-silent, not-so-peaceful ‘silent night’
we had a bit of issues with the heater in our villa and then our keys not working in our room anymore, so chad (the manager) had to take us back to the villa with the right key. we got to ride the cart instead of walking back and forth in the cold!
the next morning we took a tour of the wineries and a sit-down tasting. it was pretty cool to sit down with the row of wine glasses on display…
our sommelier tara was very helpful and informative and made everything very interesting to us! i definitely learned alot and have learned to appreciate wine so much more!
thank you to shyla for inviting marlene and myself to enjoy the south coast winery with her!
new growth
so i came back from four day tahoe trip and found my camote plant flourishing on the windowsill. i’m so excited to see it growing so fast, especially since i haven’t watered it 4 days. i swear i will finally be able to grow something in my garden that won’t die on me in a couple of weeks!!
and just to make sure the plant continues to grow, i talk to it and encourage it daily. sometimes i even sing to it. and the other day i whistled a song to it! hahahha… i know, i’m a dork. but look at how well it has responded to me!
Monday, December 31, 2007
happy new years from lake tahoe!
so i’m here in south lake tahoe city, we boarded at heavenly 2 days ago, and then again today. it’s been alot of fun and i have other pictures to show but i’ll just share four of my favorites from today.
here’s a picture i took of allan (whose camera we were using), dean, perry, and marc
and then the pic allan took of me and perry in the same spot
right behind those trees was this awesome view of the nevada valley
anyways, happy new years y’all!!! from lake tahoe!!!
Saturday, December 29, 2007
my new camera is a samsung L730
so i purchased this camera from circuitcity right before christmas, and it was $119. it dropped to $109 a couple of days later and they gave me my money back! yay for circuitcity!
i was a little bit apprehensive before buying this camera because i wasn’t sure what this camera would be like, and there weren’t reviews discussing the features that i wanted to know about. but i think more than any review i saw was the test trial i did in the store - for all the cameras, i picked them up, turned it on, shot a picture of the store, and then turned the camera around and took a picture of myself. for all the other cameras in the same price range, i have to say that samsung had the best pictures, at least on the camera lcd screen. many of the other cameras (ahemkodakahem) had grainy images especially if you tried to look at any detail behind me in the photo. when i was trying out the samsung, there was a guy standing wayyyyy behind me and his head was a little circle above my shoulder, but when i zoomed in on it you could still see much more detail than with any other camera i tried.
although i said i was test-driving the samsungs, the actual model that i wanted to buy was not on display. and circuit city would not open a box to let me preview it. i was actually trying out the L77 (with 7x optical zoom!) and the S730 (which has the same specs as the L730 except that it uses 2 AA batteries instead of a lithium-ion battery).
what impressed me the most (beyond image quality in the lcd screen) was the quickness between shots for the L77 and the L730. both were ready almost immediately to take a picture when you turned it on and then after taking a picture both were ready to take the next one almost immediately. the L730 that i have has performed a little bit slower at home (but that might be due to it already being dropped and spilled on… -sigh-), but in general i’m happy with it.
the only complaint that i have so far is that the camera turns on with the flash in “fill-in/red-eye reduction mode”. no matter what setting i leave it on it always resets, even if i just preview the picture i took and then try to take another picture. i hate having the double flash because you tend to lose the picture so i have to toggle the flash option to get to “auto” flash. also, there is no “on” flash option - you can just toggle between fill-in/red-eye, auto, red-eye, and off.
i would also prefer it to have a super-macro but i realize that most people don’t use this option like i did with the last camera. and with the macro i was able to take the following pictures, so it’s still pretty good…
anyways, i’m pretty happy with my camera. it was within my budget and it takes lotsa good pics. yeah… i like it!
Friday, December 28, 2007
i have to catch up on my posting!
so this last week has been particularly active… AND i got a camera a week (which i will post about soon - but it’s this one for only $109) and a day ago so i documented it all pretty well. BUT due to all the activeness i haven’t been able to post about it. yet. i’ve only been around a computer a few times this week i’ve been on vacation, and i’ve spent time celebrating Christmas with various groups of friends, visiting family in LA, spending time with family in redlands, going to temecula, etc, that i have been building up posts. it’s a much better situation than i had this summer during which i had all the time in the world to post but absolutely nothing to talk about.
anyways, it’s wayyyyy too late right now but i think i’ll be posting more pretty soon. a lot of it might be outdated by the time i get to it, but i have pictures to share, so i’ll still talk about it enough to put pictures up. and make funny comments about the people in them. yup.
but for tonight, my only goal is to actually get this post online. i’ve already started 3 times today to no avail.
anyways, on to some spoiler pics for some posts to come:
my cousins on Christmas eve
Christmas loot addressed to “ms. puen” weird. i’m a miss.
marlene eating a chicken leg in a food 4 less. can we say ghetto? =) hahahhah… even better was watching rita take her picture with the cell phone camera. i love my friends!
our Christmas photo
some of the yammerz at the Christmas eve eve party
and this final pic i leave you with is of me and willis at the aforementioned party - we deemed it blogworthy the moment we took it!
aight… i’ll be posting more pics of the party, the other one with the roomies, jason’s 30-something birthday party, Christmas eve with the cousins, and of course, south coast winery in temecula. all the while i’ll be taking more pictures of us in tahoe.
this Christmas vacation ROCKS!!!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
two thousand and seven
thanks to “i don’t know" for this
1) Where did you begin 2007?
in maui on the beach
2) What was your status by Valentine’s Day?
um… together
3) Did you travel?
i wanna say yeah, but i can’t think of where i went…
4) Did you lose someone or something you love?
yup
5) Did you have to go to the hospital?
nope
6) Did you have any encounters with the police?
yeah… i’m a court mandated reporter so i had to talk to ‘em
and then on kat’s 30th bday the cops were called on us twice!!
7) Did you start dating someone new?
new? try -again-
8) What did you purchase that was over $1000?
my condo cost over $1000
9) Did you know anybody who got married?
rita. and jaylene. and val. am i forgetting anyone else? i feel like i am…
10) Did you get in any car accidents?
nope
11) Did you attend any sporting events?
a bulls/laker game, where the lakers kicked butt!
12) Did you move anywhere??
yup. we moved OUTTA the apartment 5 days before we could move INTO the condo. meaning i moved twice that week. and then 3 months later i helped rita move to newport. that sho’ was a busy time!
13) Did you keep your new year’s resolution?
i don’t really make resolutions, but if i do, it’s something like, “be happy this year” or “travel” or “learn something new i’ll always wanted to learn”. in which case, yes, i’ve kept it.
14) What concerts/shows did you go to?
um, i went to the hollywood bowl 3x this year.... and i think that’s it
15) What movies did you go see in the theater?
transformers. hairspray. simpsons. is that it?!!! i know i missed all the trilogies (pirates 3, spiderman 3, rush hour 3, bourne 3, shrek 3, ocean’s 3 - i mean 13, etc)
16) Did your hair color change?
nope. it’s still black
17) Did you get any taller?
i wish!
18) Describe your birthday?
barbecue at jason & rita’s the night before, salsa dancing at the granada in alhambra the day of. salsa music and mexican food.... mmmm!
19) Did you get any new pets?
i foster parented a chihuahua for 3 days. i thought about getting a plant to ease me into taking care of a pet, but i killed my tomato plant in about 2 weeks. i don’t think i am capable of caring for another being that cannot care for itself.
20) What has been your favorite moment?
i don’t know… i think my favorite moments are when i’m surrounded by the ones i love. nothing big or important, but those are the good times.
21) What’s something you learned about yourself?
i would rather sit at home alone than hang out with people who don’t know me (or who i don’t want to know)
22) What has been your biggest worry?
in january, i worried that we would move into the new place in those 5 days. i also worried about my loan status, etc.
then i didn’t really worry about finding a new job, but i did worry about my finances until my new paychecks started coming!
23) What was your best month?
now is good.
24) What music will you remember 2007 by?
oh gosh. i’m not good with music titles or lyrics or artists. i have no clue what my theme song for 2007 is… although there are some songs from the cruise (umbrella and lean like a cholo) that will always make me remember this time. but those songs are not my songs for 2007
25) Who has been your best drinking buddy?
perry.
26) Have you had to call the police on anyone?
yup. check question 6.
27) Have you gone skiing?
not this year. but i went snowboarding in mammoth early this year and i just made it up to mtn high last weekend!
28) Did you miss work due to illness?
just a couple of days all year long
29) Any like/love interests?
yep. guess who!
30) Get anything new?
new condo, new roommates, new job, and hence, new salary, and a new camera just yesterday!
Monday, December 17, 2007
Christmas tree update
so rod came over to help pull the tree out of the car, and he helped me get it into the tree stand. it was so close that the tree hit the ceiling on the way into the stand. and then i decorated it with lights as soon as it was up, but i waited for jill to come home before we put on any ornaments. we were so excited we took a picture with her iPhone (since my camera is broken)... it now has a star and a ribbon decorating it as well, but those aren’t in the picture.
isn’t it nice and huge!?!??? i love it!
reminds me of "minority report"
now ads can detect when you look at them. if you were raised the same brand of adventist i was, this is just another sign of the times, meaning that “they” are one step closer to finding adventists when we are trying to run for the hills!
i can’t tell if it’s my conservative adventist upbringing or my aversion to ‘big brother’ and movies like minority report that cause things like this to scare me. was anyone raised the same way i was? do you read things like this and think, “oooh! they’ll find me!”?? by the way, i also wanted to take the “wilderness survival class” that was offered during the summer. hahahha…
i think i’m just a dork.