Sensitive Soul I watched the first episode of Meercat Manor on Animal Planet, and I couldn't take it. They named each meercat in the family, and then one of them, Shakespear, got bitten twice by a poisonous snake, and he was really hurt. He limped home, which was pretty far away, and crawled into a hole and curled up. The narrator indicated he might not make it until morning. Prior to that, Shakespear had rescued his little brother from some vultures. I almost started crying, and I was angry at Animal Planet that they would name the meercat and make us feel attached to them, and then have one of them die. I was also angry that since they're keeping track and filming these animals, why didn't someone step in and help Shakespear when he got bitten by the snake?? I vowed to not watch the show anymore. A couple of days later, they had it on rerun again. So I pushed Info on my remote and the synopsis of the next episode came up. It said "Shakespear recovers from the snake bite..."! Shakespear's alive! So I might watch the 2nd episode. I've been through a lot the last couple of days. On Sunday I found out that my mom might have uterine cancer. It wasn't looking good cuz she was bleeding and had to go to the ER. The ultrasound did not detect any tumors, but both the primary care physician and the ob/gyn thought it might be cancer. She got a CT scan done and we were waiting for the results. I was so sad b/c I wasn't ready for my mom to go to heaven. I was also frustrated because I had told her for years that she needed yearly checkups and she didn't listen to me. I did some research and I was ready to do whatever was necessary to help my mom through the process, and push the doctors and medical establishments. Last night my parents called and said the CT scan did not reveal any cancer in the surrounding areas. That was GREAT news! We were SO excited to hear that. Mom will need a hysterectomy soon, but no cancer has spread! I slept like a baby last night, compared to two hours of sleep the night before.

I always feel privileged when I run along the stretch of Hwy 101 between Cardiff and Encinitas. The view down the cliffs is breath-taking. It reminds me of why I live here. How I Feel When I Run On The Coast: 1. Free. 2. Small & insignificant - the sky & the ocean are so big. 3. Thankful - to be healthy and running in such a beautiful place. 4. Breezy - the ocean breeze on my face feels good when I run hard. 5. Even when I don't bring my iPod, Jack Johnson songs come to mind. 6. Hungry! I always go to Beach City Burrito after a good run! 7. Peaceful - there have been times when I run and run and run, and then afterwards had no idea what I thought about. 8. Healthy - breathing in the salty wet air and listening to the waves just makes me feel healthy. 9. Sweaty. ;-)

You might be disappointed if you searched for Brad Pitt on the internet and clicked on my blog! I do not have pictures of Brad Pitt here! Literally everyday I get people from around the world clicking to my blog because I MENTIONED Brad Pitt once in my blog. It's hilarious. Nope, no pics of Brad here! I guess now I should start a business site selling something, and mention Brad Pitt! That way I'll have way more visitors coming to my site by accident. ;-p Yep, it's Sat morning and I was planning on paying some bills and scrappin' some pages, but got distracted... so easy to do on the internet.

I have to plug our local San Diego surfer girl/singer/songwriter Tristan Prettyman. We saw her over the weekend playing at Switchfoot's charity concert at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas. I took a picture of Todd with Tristan. :-)

Enjoy her video for "Love Love Love" below. It was filmed in San Diego. You can purchase her CD on Amazon or any other music store.

I had trouble with Blogger showing my blog onscreen when the video plays, so here's the link to play Tristan Prettyman's "Love Love Love" video!

Todd's band Blizzard is playing at Steve Westly's (democratic gubanatorial candidate) Primary Election Party tonight in LA. Apparently one of Westly's staffers gave him Blizzard's CD to listen to, and he liked it. Todd also played with The Northstar Session on Sunday at the Rock N Roll Marathon here in San Diego, at Mile 18. He's got another gig with them this Thursday night at the Casbah. Too bad I won't be able to go, because I have to get up at 4:45 AM that morning for my conference call for work! :-( I do have links to some pictures of his previous couple of gigs with Blizzard at the House of Blues, and with Kim Divine at Lestatt's. House of Blues wouldn't let me bring my camera in... I was so mad. AND they wouldn't let me in with Todd at the band entrance, I had to go in through their regular door! You have to get a photography permit to take pictures at the House of Blues. Then I saw a bunch of people taking pictures of the band with their cell phone cameras. How fair is that?? I don't have a cell phone camera. I wonder how long the show "Table for Three" will last on MyNetwork TV (the new Fox channel). Both "Desire" and "Secret" are filmed around here also. Todd was in an episode of one of those. They called him for a night shoot, and then he didn't even get fed! A couple of weeks ago, they called me for a funeral scene for "Table for Three", but it was the same night that Blizzard was playing at the House of Blues, so I couldn't do it. However, I did make a screenshot of my latest appearance on UPN's "Veronica Mars"... it's pathetic, I know. You can only see my back and my green jacket! But all the people on Veronica Mars are really fun to work with. The guy next to me in the blue shirt, he's usually a stand-in for Lynette's husband on "Desperate Housewives", and he's on Curtis' Ops Team on "24" a lot. He does this professionally, while I just do it for fun. I've been in a couple of scenes with Enrico Colantoni (from "Just Shoot Me" fame) now on Veronica Mars, and he always seems really fun too. Now that VM has been picked up for Season 3 on the new CW Network, I hope they'll call me a few more times for that.

Stuff I did this past weekend: 01. Ate at In-N-Out Burger, yum. 02. Went to Circuit City to check out the digital camera I'm thinking of buying. 03. Went to Barnes & Noble and read some magazines. 04. Got the blueberry tea latte at Coffee Bean, but they forgot to put sugar in there! 05. Got a free burrito at Chipotle for showing my zoo membership card. 06. Went to Moonlight Beach in Encinitas (it was hot!) and saw Switchfoot in concert for free. It was part of their Bro-Am surfing contest charity. 07. Made homemade guacamole. Yum! 08. Todd's band played at the Rock N Roll Marathon at mile 18. 09. Attended Sally's bridal shower, which is very fun and not obnoxious. Saw cute little pregnant Julie. We scrapbooked pages for Sally, ate cheese, crackers, and quiche, had little contests with prizes (I won notepads and cards!), and she opened her gifts. 10. Watched Gatchaman with Todd.

I found a free photoshop action at AdobeStudioExchange called "The Big Picture" by Panos. I ran the action in Photoshop Elements 3.0 and it split my Puerto Vallarta vacation picture up into 25 pieces, with white borders. It was so cool. I just learned how to run photoshop actions in PSE 3.0 last weekend, and I can't get enough! You can do SO MUCH with actions, stuff that I don't know how to do myself, or steps that are way too time-consuming! I also found some great photoshop actions for digital scrapbooking at Atomic Cupcake.

Ha ha! Well, this photo was taken by a skydiving photographer while all three of us were freefalling at 120mph! I think my hair looks pretty good for going at that speed. :-0 I used Gina Cabrera's American Dreams kit, and the stamped To-Do List is hers too. I don't know about hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro... worried about altitude sickness, especially with the latest news about that dude who almost died climbing Mt. Everest. I'm not THAT die-hard. I just want some cool achievements. Hmm... speaking of knitting, I haven't in a while... all those yarns sitting there going to waste. And now it's getting warmer, and I hate knitting in the summer. Maybe I'll knit with some cool summery cotton yarns...

Here's a set of 5 4x6 pages I made for my best friend's bridal shower today. I got these printed out at my local Rite Aid for 19 cents each, so can't beat that for printing out digital layouts! The size is so convenient and fits into any photo album. The digital kit I used is Gina Cabrera's Full Bloom kit. I love her stuff. Plus, since I bought a bunch of her stuff, I feel compelled to use it! Of course, being Listgirl, the last page of these 4x6's has a list of "Wise Marriage Sayings".

Just posting some more of my digital scrapbooking layouts.... "Never too old to dance" is made from Gina Cabrera's Flirty Girl kit. The pic is from my dance recital in 2004. It had a distracting background with other strangers in it, so I extracted just the two of us out. I liked the colors in this kit, as it matched our outfits! ;-p