Web Design Conference
At a 2-day conference in San Francisco called “An Event Apart – For People who make web sites”. It is named after a popular web site called “A List Apart” which discusses web coding. Kathy/the company paid for the conference which is a single track format meaning you don’t have to pick which speakers to attend, you get to listen to all of them. Today the conference was focused more on designers. I consider myself a designer first, but can do both design and coding. I would say there is a majority of guys here — probably about a 75% : 25% ratio men to women. A lot of out-of-towners too, even though this conference is held all over the nation. I stayed at the Westin hotel about a block away because it was a lot cheaper than the Palace hotel which is where the conference was held at. This photo was taken by a photographer at the conference and posted on the official An Event Apart San Francisco Flickr pool. I did happen to take notice that my picture was being taken so i tried to “act natural” and pretend i was listening. No actually…..i really WAS listening. =) Very good conference so far!
The logo for the event. When i came back from lunch I had a prize on my seat – a book on web design. Sweet!! Also sweet was the cake, mmm. Not so sweet – my 2002 iBook. Slow as a a mofo.
This Old House
Jeff wanted to hard-wire an ethernet cord to his computer by our new desk because wireless was just not fast enough for his EQ2 game. This required:
1. Drilling a hole from up top through the carpet.
2. Purchasing then dressing in a hazmat suit.
3. Crawling like an army man under the house with a flash light and various other supplies in tow.
4. Drilling a hole from down below (this should have required goggles — later noted)
5. Being scared by a raccoon under the house.
6. Discovering that raccoon was actually our cat covered in cobwebs
7. Sweating profusely from the hazmat suit and aching all over from unused muscles being worked.
AND FINALLY….
8. Connecting to the internet via cord not airwaves!
Butters covered in cobwebs. He must have hopped down the hole while we were not looking. After he came back up, we had to close the door to the bedroom but he wanted back in!
Torie’s New Puppy Xofi!
Meet Xofi the puppy! Orlando got her for Torie as a 1 year wedding anniversary present. She is so adorable! Torie is currently trying to train her and I think she is doing a great job! Xofi showed us how she can roll over for a treat. I love little poofballs! But what is with everyone getting a puppy? Too bad we can’t get one – Butters would freak-out! He had to stay in the office all night long, which he really did not like!
Wine Event & Aquarium
Bonnie and Kyle invited us to a wine tasting event at the Clement Hotel, then afterward we hopped on over to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for their member night. Part of the deal was that we had to pretend they were Kyle’s parents, Pamela and Steve. =) We also ate dinner at El Torito and had a nice corner window table to see the waves hitting the rocks. Fun night!
This was the only seahorse that posed nicely for me! Glad it turned out so well. Did you know that males are the ones to give birth to baby seahorses? Bonnie and I are acting as midwives for this father-to-be.
Glitter Tree Cones
Just spend a whole lotta money at Target on Christmas decorations and stuff for the Cookie party. I saw these the last time i was at the store and decided to think about if i needed them or not. I thought, then i bought.
Butters-proof Trashcan
Bought an oh-so-sleek-and-sexy Simple Human trashcan with suspension lid! Now Butters can’t dumpster dive for leftovers! Huge benefit! Butters says, “WTF! No can has cheezburger?”
Mod Shoes for Theresa
Our project manager Theresa is having her mastectomy today. She told all of us girls to take a photo of our “girly” shoes and send it to her. I dont really have any notable high heels but these just came in the mail from Zappos because i was thinking of wearing it with one of my outfits for Sandy’s 60s party. They look pretty mod, but unfortunately they don’t fit me! And i screwed up and tried them on outside in the parking lot so one side on the bottom is a little dirty — not sure i can return them. Anyone want them?
Prepping for the Cookie Exchange
Yesterday I finally got out the evites for the Cookie Exchange we are having at our house on Sunday, Dec 13th. Today I go to Target to get some prize ideas, decorations and supplies, and I see they have an aisle marker full of Cookie Exchange stuff from Wilson’s brand. They even had a cookie exchange kit with mock invitations that said “hosted by: Diane” on them. I thought that was funny! I wanted to buy everything… but i couldn’t since it was too expensive and also partly because I wanted to create my own. But i did buy a How-to Cookie Exchange book with lots of party and cookie decorating ideas, and i bought a pack of holiday cookie cutters since i didn’t have any.
A New Corner Desk
Jeff needed a corner desk for his computer in the living area, so we stopped by Ashley furniture first to see what they had … nothing we liked too much, also pretty expensive. We drove back down to south Salinas and saw our friends at Furniture Expo and we got this desk for $845. Still a lot of money, but a pretty good deal for a nice piece of furniture. Best part is they said they will deliver it in 3 days! We are ordering this desk layout but in a darker color to match our other furniture, and with more modern knobs. You can see the different configurations in the poster behind Jeff.
First of the Decorations
Went shopping at Pier1 imports and debated on buying some table linens and such, but ended up just buying these really cute fake christmas lights. They were a bit more than i wanted to pay for them but decided to splurge since we have practically zero xmas decorations. Later when i got home i found a $50 gift card that i got from Quinn for my bridal shower, whoops if i would have known about that…
These peg things are funny — everyone always asks what they are. I haven’t figured it out but decorations seem to work well.
Also check out our cool new bar stool. Almost should have bought 2 but couldn’t carry it when i was standing in the massive line at JC Penneys on Black Friday. It is quite useful, visitors always come sit on it when i’m preparing dinner and chatting.