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camilles is: in love an artist a friend a sister a daughter a daughter-in-law shy an introvert dorky silly cool i took a break in november 05 nothing in june 06 too busy in september 06 december was busy, too february? forget about it got lazy in may |
 g o o d f o o d maybe i don't mention it all that often, but i love to eat. i wouldn't consider myself an expert on the subject, but i definitely do know what is good and what isn't. and i definitely know how to enjoy myself when it comes to food. a few weeks back, we were lucky enough to get to attend the fancy food show in san diego, which basically means that it is a convention center full of the top specialty food and drink producers just begging you to try samples of their wares, in hopes that you would consider carrying their product in your retail location. as my wonderful in-laws own a food related retail location, we (jeff, leanne, and i) got to join them for this overloading of the senses. but it was a lot of fun. my greatest victory?
 bacon salt. this stuff RULES. and the best part was that i had actually heard of it before, and was dying to try it. the guys manning the booth were so pleased with my enthusiasm, they gifted me with an entire bottle to bring home. and in return, it only makes sense that i tout the wonders of bacon salt. so far, it really has made everything taste better. i've eaten it on veggies. put it on stew. mixed it into my butter lemon dipping sauce for artichokes. i've dipped pieces of chocolate that i licked first into it, just to see how it would taste, and that was also good. so if you ever happen to see it, and you also like the taste of bacon, i suggest you pick some up. i ended up with "hickory," but i'm sure the other flavors are just as tasty. enough about bacon salt. on to other things. i was gone to LA last week for my media convention, which went fine. it's a little bit terrible to be stuck inside a hotel room for 3 full days, with the only fresh air you breathe in the moments between running out of the rental car and to the front door of the restaurant you are eating at for dinner. and those moments were brief, because it was raining. my coworker and i were definitely feeling stir crazy by the time we were headed home, but as he pointed out, at least we were able to survive spending that much time together and not want to kill each other by the end of it. during the "free time" we had between meetings, and when i wasn't checking my work email, i was surfing the web looking for food. we had a few tasty dinners, but what i really started craving was dim sum. and since the chances i would be able to get my coworker to get dim sum with me for dinner were slim, i just had to live with my cravings until saturday. jeff had a bbq to attend to, so i drove over to the closest place for dim sum and picked up a few things to satisfy my cravings.
 shrimp shumai, chasu baos (steamed!), and sticky rice in lotus leaves. YUM! it had been a loooong time since i had gotten the sticky rice in lotus leaves, so i was pretty darned excited. and it was good. the next day, we decided that it was finally time to use the electric grill that leanne had given jeff for his burtsday to make some korean bbq, so we attempted to drive to zion marketplace. man...that place was packed. so packed, we decided that we didn't want to try to bother parking at it. instead we headed over to mitsuwa, and managed to find some sukiyaki meat that would work out fine.
 my favorite part about shopping at mitsuwa this time of year is that there is usually a lady selling chestnuts right by the front door. so i bought a bag on our way out and started snacking. i had never noticed before, but there were instructions for how to eat them on the back of the bag (kind of like chopstick instructions). i thought they were cute.
 bbqing turned out awesome. set up on our stovetop, underneath the fan, and jeff was a bbqing machine. we didn't really have all the right condiments, but it didn't matter. the marinade was yummy, and we had lettuce and sesame oil and rice.
 the beef and pork came out perfect. soooo yummy.
 it was so tasty that all i could think about the next day was how i wanted more. but alas, we ate it all. :) yeah...i ate a lot over the weekend, but it was all yummy and good. the only problem is that i haven't really been able to work out over the last few weeks. remember that pain in my chest? well, it turns out it's costcochondritis. inflammation of my rib cartilage, caused by all the coughing i had been doing while i was sick. yeah. right before my trip. i got it checked out by the doctor and everything, and basically he told me that i'll i can do is pop 12 ibuprofens a day, put heat on it, and rest. he says that my off-road trip will probably make it worse, but you know what...screw that. i'm going anyway. i'm never going to get this chance again, and i'm hoping that as long as i'm wrapped up and strapped in well enough, i'll survive. i might be sore, but i'll survive. jeff is trying to hurry me up so we can grab some dinner, so i'll end this now. camilles (6:09pm, 1.30.08)
 p r e p a r t y today is my best girlfriend leanne's birthday, and to celebrate, we are heading to one of the tasty local restaurants that features a menu that changes daily and features delightful, locally grown food. if you are ever in the san diego area, check out the linkery. in preparation for the celebration, my dear husband jeff (who actually updated his website for the first time in like, a year), acquired 24oz tallboys of tecate, for my best guyfriend ben, himself, and me. whenever leanne celebrates a birthday, it makes me think about how many years we have been friends, and how lucky we are that we live so close to each other. we live closer to each other now than we did back in high school. and we've been friends since she was 13 and i was 14. which means we've been friends for well over half of our lives. work has been bumming me out again a little bit this week. i think it's the stress of knowing i'll be gone for a week next week, and then be back for a week, and then be gone again for another week. i'm not even ready to be gone next week, much less be gone to mexico anytime soon. next week won't be too bad, though. i'll be in la on a trip with one of my best office buddies, which means that if tradition holds, we'll get through hours of morning meetings, scarf down our buffet lunch as fast as humanly possible so we can avoid being social, and instead hole up in our hotel room to watch horrible daytime television, get through more hours of afternoon meetings, drink beers, and eat good dinner. it's kind of a bonding experience to be stuck in the front portion of your embassy suite for 9+ hours a day and it'll be our 3rd year in a row of doing it. by now we are pros. we know what snacks to stock. finally, i've posted the pictures of our piratey open sea adventure. it was fun, other than me being seasick. camilles (6:22pm, 1.17.08)
let's just keep our fingers crossed that it gets better by then. got my hair cut last night, by my favorite tattooed hairstylist in la jolla, who also cuts lovely cyn's wavy locks. i've got fringey bangs for the first time in a long, long time. i mentioned to cyn that i blew him away last night when he found out i was almost 30. like, he seriously couldn't even believe it. it was cute. that's on top of the lady at the embroidery shop thinking i was there to pick up a letterman jacket for myself. "what high school?" she asked me. ha ha ha. i've got pictures from the weekend that i still need to put online. but i'll get to it eventually. basically, we went out on the open seas on a tall ship for a mock cannon battle. it was rad. camilles (9:43pm, 1.15.08)
 i'v e g o t a n e w p a i r o f s h o e s... ...and i'm better than you! at least, that's the way the song goes. :) i'm not really claiming to be better than you, but you have to admit these are some pretty hot shoes. i realized that for the most part, the world of the internet has been deprived of my collection of weird and wonderful shoes. for that, i apologize, because i've got some fine, fine specimens. these are just the latest. the last hot shoes i bought were a pair of taaaallll converse that have sailor jerry pinup girls on them. if i'm wearing them when i'm doing an update one of these days, i'll take a picture of them. i'm on day 21 of my stupid cold. it's almost gone, but there is still a teeny little tickly, scratchy spot on the right side of my throat that makes me cough every once in a while. and if i hang my head down for too long, my nose still runs. so annoying. for some reason, i've been in a weird mood the past few days. like, kind of grumpy...but only at work. it's possible it's just hormones. i've been exercising pretty much every single day for the last week as i prepare for my trip to mexico, and i was hoping that might make me less grumpy. so far, it hasn't really seemed to help. at least i've got a lunch date tomorrow with two of my favorite coworkers. maybe i'm not the only one who is dragging through this week, because one of them started trying to figure out where we should go a good 24 hours ahead of time. the other coworker spent a good amount of time trying to figure out how to get a bunch of mp3s i have burned on a disk onto his computer so that he could upload them into itunes. i thought writing a note that said "save these on your computer, and then i'll show you how to load them into itunes" would have been clear enough. but it wasn't. he came by a while later and told me that my cd was no good, and that he didn't believe me that he could actually do such a thing. imagine my surprise when i actually had to walk him through the steps of dragging and dropping files from a cd into a folder on his computer. what the heck?! i thought he had to be kidding that he didn't know how to do it, but he was dead serious. i have to admit that i made fun of him a >little< bit about it. especially when he was so intrigued by the fact that he could "select all" and copy all the files at once, instead of dragging them one at a time. he said that it was the ONLY on-the-job computer training he's gotten the entire time he's worked there...so we figure it justified the time we spent doing it. totally blown away was i, that somebody who spends all day on the computer and isn't really THAT old, could have such a new world opened up to him through something as seemingly easy process of saving files off of a disk. DISCLAIMER: i apologize to this coworker if you are spying on my website, but i just had to share. it was one of those things that i guess i just took for granted that everyone must know how to do. just goes to show me that i really don't know anything! well, i've got another sewing project waiting for me downstairs. i'm thinking i might actually be able to complete the whole thing tonight, or at least get really close. :) time to crank the tunes and hide out in the garage! camilles (7:23pm, 1.09.08)
 s o b o r e d jeff is full on sick. and i am full on bored. he keeps apologizing for being a lump, but since i know exactly how he feels, since i was there 2 weeks ago, i just feel bad for him. and he feels bad for me, because he knows how bored i feel, since he was in my position 2 weeks ago. it's been raining all day, so even though i was out running errands for part of the day, i feel like i haven't had any stink blown off of me. i've called a few friends to see if they could help me escape, but one was sick, too, and the other has probably already made other plans. oh well. just to add insult to injury, jeff decided that he wanted to watch the presidential elections. :( he kept offering to change the channel, but since he feels sick, he has every right to watch whatever he wants. i retreated upstairs with the naughty book i was gifted from luckykat as part of her book clearing giveaway. it IS saucy. and now i'm here. writing about being bored. and trying to think of some sort of interesting story that i would like to archive into the life of my website. i've been keeping updates on this website since 1999. isn't that crazy? that's long enough to not remember what stories from my past that i have told. i was just scanning through old journal entries from this time in years past. i totally forgot that 2 nights ago was the 7th anniversary of jeff's and my first date. 7 years. my goodness. where has the time gone? here's to another 7 years. and another and another and another and another and another and another and another. that'll put us at 63 years together, which means we'll be 92. ! camilles (8:58pm, 1.05.08)
 l o o k i n g f o r w a r d t o 2 0 0 8 while it was nice to reflect on 2007, i'm pretty much always looking forward. i'm looking forward to 2008. nothing specific, just another year, but another year full of opportunities for fun and exciting things. vacations to strange lands. recipes. arts and crafts. unusual hair colors. new shoes. friends and family. i'll be turning 30 this year, and we are already thinking of the best way to celebrate. plus, my birthday is during the weekend! ok, so it's a sunday, but why not party on saturday night? what perfect timing. thanks, mom! of course, that's not for another 5 months, but it sure seems like time is irrelevant these days. with the lives that we lead, it'll be time to start thinking about christmas shopping all over again. no resolutions, as i had stated before. i guess i just don't really believe in them. any good changes i choose to make in my life always start in the present. i don't need a date on a calendar to implement them. that's not to say i'm going to poo-poo your efforts, if you are a resolution believer. better now than never! i'm happy to announce that my little sewing station is back up and running in the garage, and i completed a pretty project yesterday, and actually impressed myself. by no means am i even remotely skilled at this craft, and i generally don't have much patience for slow and steady work (which is why the knitting thing never really took off...but maybe one day). while there are a few rough spots on this thing i just finished, i'm happy enough with it that it is actually gift worthy. no pictures until after i give it, but i'm proud of my only minorly shoddy handiwork. :) work was as insane as i thought it would be when i rolled back into the office yesterday. the break was nice, but it's back to the grind. not that i mind. i really do enjoy my job a whole lot. i think i'm just worn out from this stupid cold. yes...i still have it. i went into the local urgent care on new year's morning (party time!) because my sore throat was back, and paid my $15 copay just to have the doctor tell me i've got the bad cold that's been going around. it's lasting an average of 10 days, he told me, which means for 50% of people, it's lasting LONGER than 10 days. woe is me. and woe is poor jeff who seems to have just come down with it. oh well. at least it isn't strep! i know, because i had the pleasure of the long q-tip being jammed into the one sore spot on the right side of my throat. it made me cough on the nurse. anyway, our house is a gigantic mess, and i just don't have the motivation to clean tonight. tomorrow is the beginning of a fresh new weekend, which means i should hopefully be feeling much much better, and ready to tidy up. camilles (9:26pm, 1.03.08)
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Jeff
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