ALSO, THIS IS ADORABLE.

PANDA!

Cake by: KralleCakes, as seen on Cake Wrecks

statistics

I admit, I love that Blogger added statistics. Its fun to see how many hits I get, and where they come from. What I don't understand though, is why I have multiple views of the same post always.

It's not even an interesting post. Three years ago I rambled for a paragraph about my weekend, where we went and what we watched. There are no links or even photos involved. So why, why does that post always have several hits, every day?

underground homes

I have been fascinated by underground homes for as long as I can remember. [and tree houses, but that's a different post.] I stumbled across this posting on Inhabit back in December and it's been on my mind ever since.
I love the idea of living in the country. But the suburban city kid in me wonders if I could ever truly leave the city. On the outer edges of the metro area, I believe it would be possible to have both. No we wouldn't be minuets from down town and in the hart of restaurant heaven, but we could have a small bit of landscape to let go wild, while being no more than 15 minuets to the grocery. Somehow and underground hose seems to fit into this idea quite well.
I think my favorite, at least from a modern architecture standpoint is the house featured from Vals, Switzerland. Because it lacks surrounding I had a hard time understanding the scale from the photos. It seemed that the varying pictures made it appear to be everything from a small cabin to a huge structure. Probably I would opt for some stained concrete, or devise a way to add a change of color to various rooms. I love: the natural light, self sufficient heating cooling aspect, modern look, lack of attack on the landscape and the overall aesthetics. The house is also visible in this commercial. [enter at 23 seconds]

The designer [Christian Muller] won at least three awards for this project and it appears to have gotten quite a bit of attention. [in fact it appears to have its own web site. re: Squee1 photos!] My understanding is that this was privately built, but available for vacation rental.

The blue tub is actually a hot tub.

Lakeside history and pictures

I stumbled across this great little write up today. [and also this one] As you know Lakeside is just about my favorite pace in the world, and now you can see why.

Movies

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

Beautiful scenery, great costuming, use of the cold sun of the southwest. And if that doesn't do it for you, the Gatling gun on a stage coach should.

Stars Russel Crow and Christian Bale.

Ladron Que Roba a Ladron (2007)

Set in California, the movie is in Spanish. A classic heist film that is fun and a bit silly. The story of a thief getting revenge on a thief for breaking their code of ethics. Available on Netflix on demand, worth a watch.

Adventures in Babysitting (1987)

Not a new watch for us, but one that is not nearly as popular as other 80's films. Probably because John Hughes was not involved. Pretty much everything that happens in this film is an example of the worst fears and warning told by people from small towns, or in this case suburbs, about the Big City. Hijinks ensue, theres a gang fight, carjacking, blues club, hookers and a frat party. The cast includes Elizabeth Shue, Keith Coogan, Anthony Rapp and Bradley Whitford.

enter 2011

Well, looks like I never got back to blogging in December. I've been thinking about blogs, what i would write, what i would save for another day. Apparently its all been saved for another day. Really what that means is that I should type them all up and have them auto update. we'll see.

December ended up being pretty crazy for me. I worked part time retail. in a mall. Really it went better than I expected. I admit, I had never worked retail, not really. and the thought of being in the mall at xmas was horrifying. In the end I really enjoyed it, worked with some awesome people and found the 2 weeks leading up to xmas to be about as much as my introverted self can handle. I enjoy helping people and i like running around with lots to do. I like going to work at the butt crack of dawn to unload pallets off the truck and I like that i was in food and not clothing. when you hand people truffles and other candy, most of them are nice. I only dealt with a few irritating people.

Looking at last years new years resolutions. it looks like i succeeded in all but one. the one is still rolling around in my head, but maybe in other forms.

This year i am thinking about:

creative projects that i want to get seriously rolling.

picking up the banjo again- I started learning, but got distracted around October. I need to get back on that.

finding a job. a good job. or get those creative projects rolling on a level that get me some income.

Because my memory is pretty much crap [looking back at this in a year will be helpful], here is a run down of the last year:

-started seeing an endocrinologist about my thyroid. [turns out i had, in fact had a problem the last 2 years and it went un treated.]
-started taking banjo lessons.
-lost my job in July. admittedly, i had been unhappy at that job since I started, so it was a good thing.
-went to Tod's wedding in WY, and saw the black hills, took a cave tour and finally saw car-hinge.
-picked up a seasonal job at Harry & David
-went to NYC in Oct, to a fashion job fair.
-we went to St. Louis for thanks giving, had a fun time, met the rest of Tim's relatives.
-experienced seasonal retail
-mom and dad went to California for xmas.
-had a fun xmas eve party with freinds from out of town.
-after a warm, brown December, the temps plummeted and we had several inches of snow just in time to cancel our new years eve plans and watch movies on the couch.

2010 was a very up down year for us, I'm thankful I had Tim by my side. I expect good things in 2011.