in love

married

an artist

a friend

a sister

a daughter

a daughter-in-law

shy

an introvert

dorky

silly

cool

may 05

june 05

july 05

august 05

september 05

october 05

i took a break in november 05

december 05

january 06

february 06

march 06

april 06

may 06

nothing in june 06

july 06

august 06

too busy in september 06

october 06

november 06

december was busy, too

current

t r e a s u r e s

during today's treasure hunt through kobey's swap meet, i came across a vintage salton hotray warming tray on a $1 table. it's little, but i figured it was the perfect size for keeping a bowl of chocolate fondue or hot cheese dip warm. and it only cost a buck. (i had found a larger one last year for $3, that i've used a bunch of times...including last night...and i just realized i mentioned it in my jan 06 entry)

when i got home i wanted to see if i could find anything similar on ebay, and i found the exact same one had sold for $30 PLUS $9.95 shipping earlier this month. the photo above is of the $40 hotray. i didn't feel like digging out a camera to take a picture of mine since it's exactly the same.

last weekend, jeff and i were cruising through the local thrift stores looking for treasures, but coming up pretty empty handed. we took a break for a smoothie and to check out a few cars and test drive one before heading towards home. we thought we'd pop into the one last thrift store along the way, but ended up getting stuck in a big line of cars trying to find a parking spot, so we decided to just go home.

as we passed slowly along the front of the thrift store trying to get out, one of the items propped up against the side of the building just happened to catch my eye. it was EXACTLY the thing we had been looking for to get his dad for Christmas, but never found. i jumped out of the car, grabbed it, and went inside to pay while jeff circled out of the parking lot and back.

the thing looks like it's brand new and it only cost $10.50! when i went home and checked online to see how much it would cost to buy a brand new one, it was going for as much as $195! i can't mention what it is, though, because we are stashing it for father's day. not that i want hans to think he only means $10.50 to us, because we were certainly willing to pay much more for it. it's just that it was such a good deal that i almost didn't catch!

so people sometimes wonder what it is that we are looking for when we go out "treasure hunting" at thrift stores and swap meets, but we never really know.

one of my best finds last year was a set of 4 diaries that the same woman wrote over a period of 10 years. she was the niece of a big san diego developer who was involved in enron-type scandals back in the 80s and among other things had a juicy fling some lawyer that still works for the sd da's office. my boss said i should sell them to a newspaper or something for their historical content, since they were written in the heyday of all that stuff...but they are just fun to have. and they only cost me $2.

hope you are all having a nice weekend. it's been fairly lazy, but jeff built a great new shelf for our tiki mugs, and we had a yummy fondue dinner last night (cheese main course AND chocolate dessert). the plan is to go to a bbq later today. and tomorrow i head to LA for a media conference. woo.

and happy birthday, trista!

camilles (11:46am, 1.21.07)

l o n d o n @ t h e s t r o k e o f m i d n i g h t

it's been ages since i've updated, mainly because i've been so incredibly busy.

since the last time i really posted anything on here, we:

spent 2 days at disneyworld in orlando, hitting 4 parks (mgm studios, magic kingdom, animal kingdom, epcot), before i set up and worked my last big tradeshow of 2006

marveled at grown men in ladies sweaters at the bad sweater bash II

spent quality time with loved ones for Christmas

admired the eiffel tower from the balcony of our hotel (and did a whole bunch of other things awesome things in Paris)

escaped being burned alive during the Hogmanay torchlight procession in Edinburgh (along with a whole bunch of other awesome things)

seriously art-nerded it up at the Tate Modern (and of course, did a bunch of other cool things in London, including being in a prime location to watch the New Year's fireworks and hear Big Ben toll midnight)

and last weekend, i got to see one of my good buddies from high school tie the knot. but i didn't take any pictures there. but i did get to catch up with a bunch of people i hadn't seen in ages.

so yeah. it's been a very busy, but wonderful, month.

in other news, i'm still going to the gym, but instead of killing myself with the strength training circuits i had paid to learn how to do, i'm participating in the free yoga classes. but i love yoga. and while i'm sure i've lost some of the muscle mass i gained from the strength training, i don't dread going, and i really really like the way i feel.

and in other, other news, jeff managed to aquire a wii just a few days ago. so that's pretty cool.

camilles (6:24pm, 1.12.07)