January

.: Adam and I went to a Ghost of the Robot show in Sacramento. Ghost of the Robot’s lead singer was (at the time) James Marsters of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I took photos of him singing and dancin’ around. Very garage-band quality, but fun nonetheless. I saw James Marsters! (insert girlish giggle here)

February

.: Iris, Adam, and I helped Al & Shannon move into their very first home. In the photo above, Adam is pushing Iris down the hallway on a moving cart. I’d say that we were just “typical wacky college students” but by then we were breaching a year since graduation.

March

.: For my 24th birthday (24 on the 24th!) my friends and family pitched in to buy me the best.gift.ever. My Canon10d… oh how I love thee.

April

.: Adam and I went to Hakone Gardens in Saratoga. Here I practiced using my new camera and we spent the day celebrating our 5-year Anniversary.

May

.: GRAND CANYON! In May I went on a weeklong roadtrip with Amy and her friend Maria. It was one of the best trips I’d ever taken.

Maria played with her life (and my sanity) along the edges of the Grand Canyon.

I went estatic over the snow that we saw along the Million Dollar Highway.

We feared the West Nile Virus in Colorado.

We went off-roading in Monument Valley.

Toured Vegas in one night – Oh Amy you must return for more than that!

Shot down Maria’s idea of traveling to California because we were “almost there”.

Found room in my heart for Hanson’s “Penny & Me” (Roadtrip music is the best!)

June

.: One random night, Marc and Shanta invited Iris, Adam, and I over for dinner. The results? Good food. Good fun. GREAT photos. I’m slowly collecting photos for what I shall refer to as my “National Enquirer Fund” – mwa ha ha.

July

.: 4th of July! Adam and I went to Discovery Park in downtown San Jose and watched the fireworks display. I had my supersnazzy new camera and took a plethora of photos. We used to just watch the display from our old apartment (before they built a huge condo complex infront of it) – but being there was a million times better.

August

.: In August we went to a barbecue being held at Matt’s house in Walnut Creek. During the evening of this barbecue, Matt’s friend Steven was told to entertain the group. So he turned on some tunes, jumped onto the diving board and began to shake and shimmy. Good times… good times.

September

.: SEA RANCH!! The vacation of the year. As I’ve raved before, this is my mostfavoritespotever in California. Just north of Bodega Bay (3 hrs north of San Francisco for those that don’t even know where BB is), Sea Ranch is 3,500 acres of land along the California coast. Beautiful homes sprinkled about, sitting bluff-side, in the meadows, hillside, or tucked away in the forest – most of the homes are rental homes. We’ve been going there for years. It’s a great place to relax.

October

.: Adam’s company offered some cheap tickets to Six Flags Marine World for a company picnic so we gathered up anyone who would want to go. Lonny, Cathrin, Thuy, and Thuy’s boyfriend came along and we had a great time seeing the various animal shows and riding the new (new to us!) rollercoasters. Later that day we headed on over to Umang’s house in Danville and kicked it at a party he was throwing. It was quite the fun-filled day.

November

.: VEGAS! Again! This time with Al & Shannon. We stayed at the grandparent-friendly hotel, Westward Ho! Home of the The Mega Dog. A 3/4 pound longer-than-footlong hotdog that costs a mere $1.49. Westward Ho! advertised this hotdog and their cheap margaritas all over the place. Shannon and I tried the margarita – and promptly threw them out. Mostly sugar, sweet flavoring, and a tiny droplet of tequila. We roamed the strip, stopping in our favorite casinos along the way. We watched the LAME LAME LAME Treasure Island “Sirens of TI” show and decided that we want our pirates back. I won money, took a ton of photos, and rode one helluva ride on the top of the Stratosphere. Yet another great vacation this year!



December

.: While December was filled with overtime at work and shopping and preparing Christmas gifts for the fam – there was one, weeee little thing I did. I went to a Matt Nathanson show! It’d been months (since MARCH people.. March!) that I’d been to a show – I was in *neeeeed* of one. I bought tickets the moment they went on sale, anticipating the fact that they’d sell out. It was a great show, he pulled out all the stops – singalongs, covers, singing a few songs of his own that he hasn’t sung in ages. Oh and he looked as hot as ever.

So that is my 2004 in a nutshell.

Goals and dare I say, resolutions, for next year?

1. I have a few personal goals to achieve (weight and appearance adjustments – the standard New Years resolution)

2. I will save money – SAVE SAVE SAVE – so I can go to France in May (and visit Marc and Shanta!) and Australia in December/January.

3. Try not to swear as much. I’ve noticed that I’m quite the sailor and need to knock it off. This resolution is directly connected to another, being “To stop getting pissed off at every little damn thing.” See?

So that’s that.

Happy New Years everyone!

I told myself that I was going to accomplish various tasks my week off – and so far, so good!

Monday and Tuesday has been spent scrapbooking with Shannon. I have plowed through several layouts for my trip scrapbook. You know, the trip I took in MAY. The scrapbook that I had intended on completing before Christmas. Yea, that one. Anyway, I have FINALLY finished pages through the Grand Canyon, and let me tell you, I am sick of seeing photos of that big hole in the ground. Yes, it’s grand..majestic.. beautiful, blah blah blah. I have several pages of photos of the damned thing. Now I’ve moved on to Tsegi…mountain.. cliff.. thingie and will be creating the pages for Four Corners and Monument Valley soon. You are so excited, I know. I can hear you biting your nails in anticipation.

I even filled in a frame (one of those collage-style frames) AND one of my 4×10 frames.

Tomorrow will be spent working on my work’s website design. I hope to complete two different-yet-similar designs by end of the day.

Thursday, Matt will be visiting! We’ll hang out and shoot the shnit and work a bit on his website as well.

Friday is another day of scrapbooking! Scrapbooking until the evening with Shannon, dinner and goodies… couple of hands of poker.. maybe a game of Cranium, and watching Regis and the ball drop in NY. Wild night, I know. It’s tradition. Here’s hoping that next year I will be watching fireworks over the Sydney Opera House in Australia!

Am I the only one who knows/remembers that jingle? Then RiteAid bought them out, and they changed it. So sad. BUT! Folgers has the holiday spirit and has revived the oldie but goodie “Home for the Holidays”. You know, the one where Peter surprises the family with his sneakiness, his indestructible feathered ‘do, and flawless coffee making skills. It’s quite the classic….

SO. Christmas has come and gone. Friday afternoon, I was supposed to leave for Motown a smidge after Noon. I didn’t leave until probably around 4 or 5. My gift for the girls (5 cousins) was a frame filled with various photos of themselves and other cousins in silly moments. I threw a few family shots in as well. This task took me much longer than anticipated. I brought that on myself, originally I thought I was going to only fill 15 of the 21 photo slots. Let the kids fill in the rest, it’ll be fun. Right? Well, as I filled in what I had prepared, I noticed that it looked pretty good so I decided to finish them off.

They were a hit! I was actually sort of surprised. I could have sworn the kids were not going to be excited to get a piece of room decoration. But the photos were fun for all to see. I was happy.

Despite the normal holiday cheer, food, presents, and decorations – there was one other added theme to this holiday. Scatological humor.

I never said we were a classy bunch.

The day started with my dad, always the prankster. He had purchased a self-inflating whoopie cushion. He had the perfect crowd for such a toy – eight cousins ranging from three to 14. He started on the three year old, Abbie. He’d push the cushion and pretend that he had farted. This sent Abbie to the moon, giggling and shrieking. Later in the day, she had obtained the toy herself and went around pushing it on everyone. Nothing says the holidays like a bunch of faux farts.

Toward the end of the day, after everyone had eaten and opened gifts. My Uncle Mike wanted to jump in the trampoline with the kids. After they’d been out there for a few minutes, I walked outside to take some photos. This is when I saw Mike curled up in the middle of the trampoline (holding on for dear life?) while 6 of the kids jumped and ran around him. They were yelling, “You have poo on you!!”

Poo.

On him.

Ew!

Apparently one (or all) of the kids accidently tracked dog poo into the trampoline. Since nobody knew this, everyone started to jump about and Mike started to roll around and play with the kids. He had a big dog-poo smear on his jeans – but did this stop him from having fun? NO! He used it to his advantage, and chased the kids around and around.

When it was time for some of the kids to go home, everyone got out of the trampoline. Mike had to change. He had another party to attend to later that day and needed to wear something other than his doggypoo-stained pants. My aunt MaryJo gave him a pair of sweatpants.

You’d think, at this point, the wacky holiday story would come to a close…. but oh, there is more!

Mike chose to change in the garage. I had the bright idea to scare him with my camera. Originally, I was going to just stick my camera through the door and scare him with the flash. But I saw my Uncle Ed and my dad plotting. My dad reached into the side door of the garage and hit the automatic garage door opener. I ran to the front to take photos (meanwhile, part of the family is outside getting in their car to go home)

Uh oh! The door is opening!



Run and hide! Run and hide!



Nowhere to go – hey are you blushing Uncle Mike?

So Mike, will this be next year’s Christmas card?

(check out my gallery for more photos)