Too tired for titles.

Does anyone remember about a month ago when I was sitting around all day long only leaving the house to walk the dog or visit the neighbors?  I do.  And I also remember thinking, “One day soon I’m going to wish I had this much free time to lounge around.”  But at the time I didn’t care because all that free time was making me INSANE.  Literally.  Just ask Dan.

Well, that day where I wish to have that free time again is here.  It is here and it is a bitch.  Don’t get me wrong, I love having projects, and being productive, and I always push myself to do more. But I've found my threshold. In the past seven days I…

Went with Dan and our pups on an overnight camping trip to Mount Umunhum near Los Gatos, CA.  We went with B.A.S.H., otherwise known as the Bay Area Siberian Husky Club.  We met all kinds of great new peeps and pups, watched the doggies pull stuff around for fun and slept in the back of the truck.  See my Facebook album for more on that.

Had my first product launch at work.  We successfully launched Katy Perry Revenge this week, a music gaming iPhone/iPod app with all Katy Perry music and graphics.  It’s very pink and bubbly.  On the upside we managed to keep the release of the game under wraps (sort-of) and we didn’t break anything such as servers, the game, our computers or each other.  On the downside I’ve been randomly bursting out into Katy Perry songs and Dan doesn’t seem to be much of a fan.

Met with Whitney Nichole, a Bay Area singer/songwriter who has just recorded her first full-length album and will be releasing it in a few months.  Through one of my previous instructors, Whitney contacted me for assistance in getting word out to the people about her new album.  How flattering!  Let’s hope I don’t screw it up.  She’s a super cool chick with a great sound who put Ludacris to shame when she and her sister recently covered the tune “Break Your Heart” during a live show at the Hotel Utah in San Fran.  Keep an eye on her; this could get epic…

Finished the week out at the Eat Real Festival at Jack London Square in Downtown Oakland.  It was a festival of food.  Literally.  There were food trucks and tents from local eateries, breweries, wineries and ice creameries all over the Bay Area.  We went with our friends/neighbors Elliot and Teresa.  I ate a burrito the size of my head that was so delicious I wanted to marry it and drank beer from a mason jar.  On the way home Elliot forced us into the Ben & Jerry's where Dan had a tender moment with a scoop of Peanut Butter Cookie Dough ice cream and I had a strawberry ice cream cone which was, again, as big as my head.  I'm now entering a food coma.  My kind of festival.  

Generally speaking this is where I’d leave you with some funny/witty/sum-it-all-up words of wisdom.  But since I didn’t bother writing a title, why bother writing a conclusion.  The end.

Hey blue eyes. Wanna come home with me?

Camper!

Yes, I did use this line on a guy today.  Sort-of.  Dan used it on him too.  He's about 2.5 feet tall, is really hairy, and has sparkly blue eyes.  His name is Camper and he's a husky that we just adopted from the sled dog rescue organization Norsled, here in the Bay Area.  We've been talking about/searching/wanting another dog ever since Sierra had to leave all her puppy roommates back in Florida.  She and Camper had lots of fun running around the park, and Camper also had fun finding an opening in the fence to run through.  Snap!  It may be a while before we can trust him off the leash.  But he's a very happy pup and (we think) about a year or so old.  He was handed over to the folks at Norsled in mid-July after being found roaming the mean streets of Modesto.  Actually, I'm not sure Modesto's streets are all that mean as I've never been there, but either way, that's where he was found.  He'd been staying with his foster mom and dad, Heron and Arturo, and their husky, Kira, for a little over a week when we scooped him up.

Sierra seemed to be a bit...er...confused as to why Camper stayed with us after his foster family left.  We tried explaining to her that she's Camper's big sister now and should be happy to have him here, but she doesn't seem to want to share her toys, bed, food, water or humans with him.  I guess maybe something got lost in the translation.

The Toy Stand-Off of 2010

We said, "Sierra, we brought home a new pup for you to play with all the time!  He's sweet, and happy and gives lots of kisses."

She heard, "Sierra, we hate you and in order to make your life miserable we brought home this new guy.  We're gonna give him all your toys, food, water and bed.  Deal with it."

Anyway, Camper seems to be enjoying his new home, at least that's what we infer from all the tail-wagging and kissing.  And Sierra's, well, dealing with it.  Lesson for the day:  Don't assume big sisters will jump on the little brother bandwagon right away, and don't google "activities for huskies in oakland california" unless you're a 250 pound single person looking to speed date.  Seriously.

Stay quiet, stay quiet, stay quiet...BLAH!

This past week was my first full week of work in, uh, a while.  And basically it would be really great if one: I actually liked my job and two: I was at least remotely successful and didn't completely screw things up.  The first one - done.  The place has great energy and everyone is super nice and loads of fun.  I mean, these people make games for a living, it has to be awesome, right?  I walked in day one, they handed me a brand new MacBook Pro laptop and instructed me to think up some fun ideas for new games, and play a bunch of existing games online and on my iPhone as research.  Anybody wanna play a little game called "I Win"? Because I win at accomplishing number one: emjoying my job.

So I hypothesized that the best way to accomplish the second task would be to keep my head down, work hard and STAY SILENT.  Easy...yeah right.  If you read this, you know me and also know I can usually stay silent for about 2.6 seconds before blurting out whatever goofy, inappropriate thought is in my head.  I think I managed to keep a professional facade going at work for about a day and a half until I met my downfall: the power cord.  I kept getting tangled in the power cord of my wonderful, shiny new laptop every time I got up out of my seat.  Thankfully, Apple designed the power cord for the MacBook with a magnet on the end that pulls out of the laptop when the cord is pulled on.  So, ideally, when I get tangled up in the cord on the way out of my seat, it would pull out of the laptop and everything, including me, stays in one piece.  Ideally.

But in at least one, particularly heinous altercation, I got up out of my seat and became instantly entangled in my power cord.  One foot in the air, hands full with notebook and coffee, I tried to pull my leg free unsuccessfully.  Perched on one foot, waving the other one around, I tried to break loose for almost a full 30 seconds before I blurted out "I'm gonna break my damn neck!  Stupid friggin' power cord.  Magnetic release my ass!"

I don't think I realized I'd said anything out loud until at least 2-3 people erupted into laughter at my exclamation.  I guess this means the plan to keep my head down and stay quiet is out, but at least it seems everyone is good humored enough to not hold my, um, we'll call it "bluntness" against me:)  We shall see...

Anyone missing a well-dressed drunk?

I woke up this morning to an email from our Property Manager, Beverly.  Typically emails from Beverly mean one of two things: surprise building maintenance, or we owe money.  Oh how wrong I was.  How amazingly, and hilariously wrong.  Some background information you need to know before I tell you what her email entailed:


We live in a building that has apartments and lofts.  We have a loft, which is on the first floor and has it's own entrance from the street.  People who live on floors two through four have regular apartments and must enter through the front lobby of the building.  We only go into the lobby to check our mail and dump our trash, so for the most part, we're spared the "joys" of apartment living.  Below is an excerpt of the email, detailing such "joys" which we have, thankfully, been spared:


"Good morning,
For the past few days, there has been an unusual amount of messes left around the building. Most surprisingly what was found this morning, a pile of feces between the 2nd and ground floor stairwell on the 10th St. side."

Yes people...feces.  Apparently when you gotta go, you gotta go.  Oh, but there's more:

"Earlier this morning, one of the residents found a drunk man passed out in front of a unit on the 4th floor. Please see attached photos and if you know who he is or if you saw anything last night, please let me know."

PHOTOS WERE ATTACHED!!!  I nearly lost my mind from giddy enjoyment at the misfortune of this seemingly mature, well-dressed gentleman.  The poor guy got all snazed  up only to pass out in the hallway of a strange building while his friends partied on, a stranger pooed in the stairwell, and an angry neighbor snapped his picture, which is now on the internet.  Now THAT is a Saturday night.