Snow!

The first time I ever saw snow was during a family vacation in Yellowstone. In July. Needless to say, we weren't prepared for snow because everyone told us, "it's gonna be hot." It wasn't. We had a LOT of fun, though. I have very fond memories of playing in the snow with my older brother, both of us dressed in jeans and raincoats. We'd run around throwing snowballs at each other until our hands were numb, at which point we'd go inside to warm them up by the heater before going back outside.

My view of snow hasn't changed. Living in California for most of my life, the few times I've experienced snow since them have been filled with excitement and the strong desire to be outside running around, no matter how I happen to be dressed. 

When I went to college in Washington and it snowed, two of my friends that also happened to be from California ran around campus with me - jumping, tossing snow and squealing with delight. When I lived in Norway for a semester, we played in the street around midnight with a couple of other foreign students. Senior year of college we fell into the ground to make snow angels and created my first ever real snowman. The snow hasn't failed to excite me yet.

When it started snowing yesterday, I couldn't contain my excitement! Seeing the snow still falling today brings a wide grin to my face. Although I can't take a snow day from work, I definitely DO plan to make it outside during my lunch break. I'll be the one in polka-dotted rainboots and a giant smile.

Just 8 More Months...

I am an impatient person. One of the several phrases my dad used to tell me over and over and over again was, "stick around and find out," due to my impatience and compulsive need to know what's going on at all times (although, amazingly, I really do like surprises). Anyway, I'm not a patient person, and I think one of the hardest things for me at the moment is that I need to wait until JULY to see the conclusion of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Yes, I've read the book and knows what happens, and yes, I know I signed up for this...but I just want to see it now! 

Part 1 of the movie was really good. I thought they did a good job of sticking to the book and setting up Part 2, in addition to backtracking some of the parts they skipped in previous movies. There are a few things that would likely be confusing if you haven't read the books, but I don't see how they could explain them and keep the movie under 3 hours. I won't give away any spoilers for those of you that haven't read the book and don't know what happens, but I will say that I laughed, I cried and I jumped a few times during the 2.5 hours. And I want to see it again.


For those of you that haven't happened to see a trailer, here you go:

The 411 on Tumblr

Since part of my job is knowing what's out there in the world of social media / networking, I've recently opened a Tumblr account: http://eksidley.tumblr.com (although I'm still planning on keep this account as my primary blog).


Tumblr is a bit different than a standard blog. The main difference that I see is that readers don't have the option to comment on each post the same way most blogs allow. Instead, users have the option to "like" a post (click on the heart) or "reblog" a post (post it to your Tumblr page). This makes Tumblr much more conducive to the content going viral - it can be shared with a completely new set of readers with the click of a button. 


There seem to be two major types of Tumblr blogs: those that focus around a certain theme (such as all things Disney, all things Star Wars, all things 90s, etc) and those where users share things they like (photos, quotes, videos...). Here are a few of my favorites:

• Distracted By Star Wars
• Those Were the 90s!
• Mickey and Minnie

Although Tumblr does allow users to write out an entire post like the traditional blog, most of the content is produced even more quickly than the standard blog post: a photo, a video, a paragraph, etc.  Tumblr etiquette seems to encourage numerous posts throughout the day, which is why I find it kind of like a hybrid of a blog and Facebook/Twitter. Although Tumblr is called a blog, I think of it more as a separate beast. 


What do you think? Have you used Tumblr? How would you describe it?


Photo Credit (top): chadarizona
Photo Credit (bottom): The Nothing Corporation

What's Your Favorite Color?

Earlier today I stumbled across an article on Yahoo about what your favorite color signifies. I tend to be fairly skeptical of generalizations that articles like these tend to show, but the explanation for people that like blue fit me incredibly closely -

Blue is a color of clarity, communications and charm. And regardless of the shade, this hue says: “I like to be understood.” On the downside, under stress, a “blue” person can send mixed messages, have trouble making up their mind, or just space out during conversations.


I'd say that's pretty true of me...


To take it a little further, I decided to take a look at Matt's favorite color: Green.


Here is the heart of the matter: green is the color of love...green is about expansive, humanistic love and acceptance...This person has a warm heart. Passion is probably in there somewhere, buried under their integrity and honor.


Interesting, huh? How accurate is the description for your favorite color?

Photo Credit: Kain Kalju

Attitude is Important

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18


I think that’s one of my favorite Bible verses. Granted there are a LOT of good ones, but I like that it actually spells out three things to keep doing over and over:

1. Be joyful
2. Pray
3. Give thanks

I had these on my mind this morning when I woke up to go to crew. I didn’t want to go because I knew we’d be erging (using the rowing machines), which I really didn’t feel like doing. As I was getting ready to go, with a very bad attitude of course, I realized that going through the motions was only a part of the task. I wasn’t grateful or joyful, and my prayers were definitely full of complaints. That realization, coupled with the decision to enjoy myself, made the morning (and the whole day) so much better! Yes, we had to erg, but we got to do shorter sprint pieces (the type of workout I prefer) and I was able to enjoy the company of my teammates and coach. Overall, I would say I had a good morning – all because I chose to follow God’s instructions!

Why I Love the Movie Tombstone

Okay, Tombstone is an enjoyable movie. A fun story, good characters, great acting (disclaimer: it is violent)... That’s not why I love it, though. Two years ago my husband and I departed for our honeymoon and, upon arrival, found out the place we were staying had a TV/DVD player! Sadly we didn’t know this before we left, so we didn’t bring any movies with us, and the only movie there was Tombstone. We must have watched it something like 5 times over the next several days. Needless to say, Tombstone is good memories now. I’m actually really excited to watch it tonight as we celebrate our 2nd anniversary!


On that note, I can’t believe we’ve already been married for 2 years! It’s strange because being married and living together is normal life now, but at the same time, it seems like just yesterday we were dating, planning a wedding, etc.


We’re also coming up on a year in our current city (well, in another month or so). As we only lived in California for about 8 months after the wedding, and then were in Bremerton for just 6 months, this is the longest we’ve stayed in one place since we got married, too. Fortunately the plan is to stay here for a while. As willing as I am to move when it’s necessary, it really is a hassle...


Anyway, a couple of additional recent highlights include:


Pulling out the Christmas music. I personally think some Christmas music could be listened to year-round. Jesus probably wasn’t born in December anyway, and why not celebrate his birth all year? Regardless, the day after Halloween I created a Pandora station to start listening to Christmas tunes and have been enjoying it immensely. 


Rewatching Harry Potter. To prepare for the premiere of The Deathly Hallows, Part 1 we’ve been rewatching the past movies. We’re on track to have all of them rewatched by Wednesday night so we can go to the midnight premiere on Thursday. I’m so excited!


Getting way for a couple of days at a friend’s beach house. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip:

 

On that note, my break is over and I need to get back to work!

Harry Potter and Baseball to Halloween and Pictures

You know what I'm excited for? Harry Potter! Only 2 weeks until the Deathly Hallows Part 1 comes out. This is the first time I'll see the movie after knowing the story - I read it for the first time last year after seeing the Half-Blood Prince. 

Harry Potter definitely grew on me...I read the first book when it came out and actually didn't like it. Of course I ended up seeing the movie because it was put on at a sleep-over or something, so when my friends wanted to see the second one when it came out I was willing to see it. I started liking the movies more and more as they came out, and after the Half-Blood Prince came out last year I couldn't wait to see what happens and ended up reading the entire series. Twice.


Speaking of movies, I got to see the Sound of Music on the big screen last week! We went to the sing along with a few friends, and I had a blast. Not only did I get to see one of my all-time favorite movies on a GIANT screen, but I also got to sing along to all the songs! It was kind of funny when the nuns were singing in Latin towards the beginning, the words were up on the screen, but the theater was silent. Until they sang, "Amen" that is - then everyone joined in!


Other big news lately: THE GIANTS WON THE WORLD SERIES!!! 

My Build-A-Bear & Matt's Flying Monkey celebrating

I was sooooo excited. Once they made it into the playoffs, my life became overrun with baseball. It probably would have been before that had the games been on TV up here. That's what happens when your team is two states south...I do think it's kind of funny that I've lived in Washington both times they made it to the playoffs - at least since I've been old enough to understand what's going on. Don't worry, San Francisco - I'm planning on staying up here for a while. 

Anyway, it was really nice to have a husband that understands the love you have for your team. Granted he's not a Giants fan (sadly he's not perfect), but he was really supportive of me taking over the TV for 3 hours every night and even skipping out on a few regularly-scheduled activities to watch the game. I also realized that this is the first thing that really made me miss living in the Bay Area. Yes, I miss our friends and family - but they aren't contingent on that geographic area. Okay, and I also miss Kinder's. But as much as I love Kinder's, I don't long to physically be in their shops...although I do long for their Ball Tip Sandwich from time to time...but my point is that not having the glimmer of hope of getting to go to a game or the World Series parade made me miss home just a little bit.


To change subjects a bit, this was the first year Matt and I ever both dressed up for Halloween. It was really fun! We went with his and hers costumes, but tried to pick something not too mushy - Mr. and Mrs. Incredible! I thought they turned out pretty well for being homemade costumes:

We wore them to a Halloween trunk-or-treat our church did in a nearby neighborhood. Not only did we line up five or six cars in front of a couple of houses (thereby providing five or six times the candy to kids), but we also handed out hot chocolate / apple cider, took pictures of anyone who wanted them (to be mailed to them later) and had a car with games for kids to play. All in all, it was really fun.


...and here are a couple more pictures I've taken recently that I've especially liked:

CBRC Regatta (plus a few random updates)

Today I had the pleasure of participating in my first regatta in 6 years. It was really fun! This was the first regatta I've been able to make it to since I started rowing again a few months ago. Matt was kind enough to come out, cheer us on and take a few pictures:

Approaching the finish line

Crossing the finish line

We're the boat you can barely see by the orange buoy

Needless to say, I had a lot of fun.

Another exciting part of today was the Giants beating the Phillies in Game 1 of the NLCS. It was torture to watch (of course) but had the sort of outcome I like :)

No other HUGE news around here, although I did finish Battlestar Galactica and really, really liked it. I'm also super excited about the Sound of Music Sing Along coming up later this month - we're planning to go on the 26th. It should be fun! We've been working on putting our Halloween costumes together, too...I'll post a few pictures once they're complete (as long as they turn out the way we expect them to). 

On that note, a couple of new pictures: 

The mountain looked gorgeous as I was driving to dinner, so I pulled out my camera and took a quick picture while at a stop sign.

The clouds looked so cool as we left the apartment on 10/14! This was taken around 6:15pm.

The oars lined up, waiting to be used.

BSG, Guests, Pictures

I have recently become obsessed with Battlestar Galactica. I'd never seen it before (although I've wanted to), so when one of my friends mentioned it and lent me the DVDs it completely took over all my free time. I'm really liking it. I'm almost done with the third season and am excited to see how the show and characters progress.

In other news, Matt's brother and his friend are visiting right now. It's fun to see them, and is providing a nice excuse to visit a few of my favorite restaurants - including Happy Teriyaki #3 and Brewery City Pizza. We've also been having fun with our toy shotguns.

And finally, here are a few new photos:

Feel free to follow my full 365 Project at http://365project.org/eksidley/365.

Why I Don't Like Naps...plus Fall TV I'm Excited About

I'm not a fan of naps. Most people love them, but I find they screw up my sleep schedule. I tend to be groggy for hours after I wake up from a nap, and once I recover I don't get tired by the time I should go to sleep again. Such is the case tonight. I actually took a nap this afternoon and now I'm just not ready for sleep yet. It's a little bit annoying.


I can say that I'm SUPER excited for TV shows to start again. The shows I'm especially excited about include Castle, Glee, Survivor and Bones. I've also been really excited about all the rain recently. Usually Fall through Spring weather is gray skies and a fairly regular drizzle, but over the past few days we've had real rain. I had so much fun playing in the rain Friday afternoon, evening and night. Here are a couple of pictures I took:

I do think it's kind of funny that, despite all the rain, I've seen a lot of sprinklers still being used. I even hear our apartment complex's sprinklers on right now. It seems like there would be plenty of water to go around at the moment...


Okay, I'm starting to get tired, so I'm going to try to sleep. Good night!

Friend Fun!

One of my best friends from high school came to visit! She's visiting the U.S. for a while and made a special trip up to see me :D We had lots of fun. Highlights included exploring boutique antique shops, watching movies, making homemade Norwegian pancakes & Belgian waffles, wandering around Seattle and more. Here are a few pictures:

Nice hat!

I think this dress is SO FUN (it comes in blue, too)

Yummy prawns

The fuzzy penguin in Seattle

While we were in Seattle I also picked up another jar of Tayberry jam (combination of raspberry and blackberry?). AND it started raining. I was one happy girl! 

Another Year Older

I just had a birthday! The whole getting older thing isn't really a big deal to me, but it's fun to celebrate. I loved all the gifts Matt got me this year. On top of delicious goodies and expandable animals, he splurged and got me Firefly on DVD:

The shark (Schroeder) and octopus (Olivia) are already soaking and growing - I'm having so much fun with them! I'm also trying to ration myself on the sweets, and have been successful so far.


We were able to celebrate over the past couple nights, too - last night at Brewery City Pizza with some local friends and tonight with cake at our Life Group. There were a few very generous friends that gave me unexpected gifts as well - gift cards, flowers, cookies, candy, etc. It was so fun to spend time with friends, and overall a very good birthday!


This year's photo a day project has continued to go well (we're now on day 9). Here are a few of my recent favorites:

September 6, 2010

September 7, 2010

September 9, 2010

And this one wasn't one of my official "photo of the day"s, but I liked the way it came out:

Recent Thoughts

In my last post I mentioned I decided to do a photo a day again this year. You can see all my pictures at http://365project.org/eksidley/365, but I'll post a few highlights here, too. Here are a couple:

September 2, 2010

September 5, 2010

So I've been converted to Google Chrome. It wasn't intentional, but last week Firefox randomly wouldn't work and, after complaining about it online, I was reminded of Chrome. After downloading it and trying it out for a few days, I have to say it's now my browser of choice (although I still like Firefox much better than Explorer). It has a lighter feel, probably because it doesn't have as many customization options. It also runs faster throughout my average workday. Firefox had a tendency to freeze up around 5pm (inconvenient and frustrating as I tend to work until 6pm). I thought it was simply the Internet since that was a time most of our neighbors were likely getting home from work and hopping online, but Chrome didn't freeze up at all, rendering me much less frustrated by the end of the day.

I've also been watching The West Wing again. Last year I talked Matt into watching it with me and we made it to the 5th season...and then lost all motivation. It's hard to power through the rough patch left when Aaron Sorkin left the show! Well, I ditched Matt, but I made it through and have thoroughly enjoyed watching seasons 6 and 7 (although I still have the last 2 discs of season 7 left). There are a lot of things that happen that I completely forgot about, and it's fun to see how much my understanding of the world has grown since it originally aired! 

On that note, I have laundry to fold.

I Like to Blog, I Like to Blog...

You know, every time I blog I tell myself I'm going to do it more regularly. I like to blog. But for some reason it just doesn't get done. Yes, it's probably because I have a lot of other things going on that seem to take priority, but isn't blogging one of those things you just kind of fit in because you want to? That's what it is for me at least...

Would you do me a favor and go to http://bit.ly/aU6Aa0 to vote for Daddy O's Burgers? It's for the Best of Western Washington and they make awesome burgers (plus Matt works there). You have to register, but all it takes is your email address and unchecking a few boxes. It really is super-easy. Any votes you can give would be greatly appreciated! 

Did I mention we got to set off fireworks this past 4th of July at our friend's mom's house. It was so much fun to watch how excited Matt was to set them off! Here are a few pictures our friend gave us (the last one is me spectating):

You know, I kind of missing taking a picture every day. I think I'll start that up again. Maybe today would be a good day...September 1. It's always nice to start at the beginning of the month.

Speaking of which, my birthday is a week from today. I'm happy to send my mailing address for all of you sending me packages. Haha. I don't know what we're going to do, but it'll be a nice excuse for cake - funfetti of course.

Okay, I really can't stay up too late, so I'm going to stop myself now. Because I could go on...but I'm really going to stop for tonight. Hopefully I'll make it back here soon!

Photo Fun

I've gotten into Flickr recently. I'm not the best photographer ever, but it's fun to see other people's pictures and post some of my own. It's also been a fun excuse to look back at pictures I took back in the day. Feel free to check out my photostream. There are a lot of really good photographers out there, though, and I've been enjoying checking them out.

I've been having fun going through the 365 photos I took over the past year, choosing my favorite ones, and making a collage by month, too. So far I've only done June, July, August, September and January...it's been fun! I'm thinking once I finish I'll print them out and make a little book of sorts. Here's January:

I've also gotten back into Tweak Today (well, as of yesterday). Users basically come up with "missions" (or an idea of a theme for the day) and vote the ones they like/don't like up and down. Each morning one is chosen and over the course of the day you post whatever the mission tells you to. For example, today the mission is "Take a picture of somewhere you would be out of place." So today, users have posted pictures of everything from a sorority house and a Tupperware party to a family on a picnic and a chess tournament (that one's mine). It's another fun online game of sorts...plus if you don't have time or don't like the mission you don't have to do it :)

Well, now that half my Saturday is gone, I suppose I ought to start in on the more responsible activities I've had in mind...

Photo A Day & Bill Cosby

I did it! One picture every day for a year. Yes, the year officially ended 21 days ago on June 5, but this is the first chance I've had to upload the pictures on Facebook and mention it. Looking back I really like a lot of the pictures I took, although there were a lot of dull ones mixed in. Here are a few of my favorites:

Other quick updates:

• We saw Toy Story 3 last night. It was really good. I really liked it. Matt thought it was good, too, although I liked it more. I also kind of made Matt watch Dear John with me. That one was better than we both expected. I thought it would be cute and cheesy, but it really wasn't cheesy at all...and as a viewer I really did care about the characters. The drama created was pretty realistic, too.
• I won tickets to see Bill Cosby in Seattle! He is a very funny man, and the seats were incredible - we were close enough we could see his facial expressions without the screen. Look at how close we were:

I'm sure there are other updates I should share, but I better get going because I have things to do today.