it was a busy past few days, but today, i spent a good portion of it sitting on the couch with this view. yawning dog and all.

ok, so i also paid bills, did dishes, cooked a few meals, picked up my bedroom, grocery shopped...

considering i'll be in orlando for several days beginning next monday, i'm going to do everything i possibly can to enjoy being home. i love the holidays, and experiencing them in our real house for the first time is special.

camilles (9:12pm, 11.29.09)

for my sweeto who works so hard to provide for our little family and loves me unconditionally.

that we found an adorable, little dog from the shelter and we were able to give her a new life full of toys, love, and space on our bed every night.

to live just down the street from my best friend since 9th grade (1992) and her awesome boyfriend, which allows for regular adventures, both big and small.

my parents are so in love.

my siblings and sibling-in-law have all found new homes and have taken so many grownup steps in the past year.

my in-laws have found strength in each other through some challenging times.

that my family and friends that live far away are still close to my heart.

we moved into our little dream home with gorgeous views and dumped the cursed condo.

for the lack of crazy drama this year.

to still like going to work every day.

that we are able to live within our means.

for my happiness.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

camilles (9:10pm, 11.23.09)

i love my husband, but i think if i were single, i might find myself an older, italian man.

why do you ask?

well, until he got bloated, i harbored a decade-plus-long crush on vincent d'onofrio.

these days, my crush is on tory belleci of mythbusters fame.

ok...so he isn't THAT old at 39, but he's a little older.

jeff has a crush on kari, so it's ok.

camilles (7:31pm, 11.19.09)

my sweet jeff has spent many hours over the past month trying to get all the sprinklers and sprinkler system running at our house. he even installed a drip irrigation system for my garden!

the convenience of not having to manually water is a luxury that i'm still learning to fully appreciate, and should hopefully translate into a healthier crop of veggies/fruit in the next year.

leanne grew garlic this past year, and we got to enjoy a bit of her harvest...which convinced me that i needed to try it myself.

i planted 44 cloves of 3 different varieties of garlic over the weekend. each clove should hopefully produce a head. i figure if i even end up with half that much, maybe my days of striking out with dried out old grocery store garlic will be over. any abundance in my harvest, and i'm sure my friends and families will be happy to take some off my hands.

life is grand these days. we are comfy in our little house and enjoying all the work that has come along with it. the projects are neverending, but our visions for the future aren't that far out of reach. i love my husband, my dog, and my house, and feel extremely fortunate for all the other wonderful people and things in my life.

camilles (8:25pm, 11.17.09)

i've mentioned before that i work in a very dude-centric industry. in general, this doesn't pose a problem, and probably most times, works to my advantage. i'm not the girliest of girls, but i'll be the first to admit that i've used my lady charms and intuition when necessary to help me navigate the sea of my career. you attract more bees with honey, and a girlish smile can go a long way...

not to say that i don't work my rear end off. i think i've proven myself to the people that matter through the years of good work i've put in and the effort i've made to be the best i can at what i do.

but EVERY once in a while, i'll run into somebody who just says the wrong thing and rubs me the wrong way.

part of my job is to deal with people who are looking for my company to provide free stuff for their projects. sponsorship or promotional situations. it's really the only time i ever have to deal with the public, and over the years, i've come to have a love/hate relationship with that part of the job.

25% of the people approach me very professionally. are knowledgeable about the industry and the process for obtaining free stuff, and provide a good business case for why i should help them out. the other 75% are just weird or crazy, and come up with the most out there excuses for why i have to give them free stuff (the classic being the guy who told me that nobody has ever heard of my company before, so i need to give him free stuff so he could show all his buddies...OR even better, the guy who wanted free stuff just because he was asking me for free stuff, and it could be our secret if i could find a way to just sneak it over to him).

the other day, it was a guy who knows nothing about this industry, but he happens to be producing a movie and he needs to upgrade a key component of one of the central focal points in the movie. we got to talking about what he thought he needed, and i was explaining to him the differences between what he wanted and what we could offer, and a little in general about the product, when he interrupted me and said...

"wow. you sure know a lot about this stuff, for a girl..."

uh...what?

i ended up saying, well, yeah. i DO work for the company that sells this stuff.

seriously? WHY would a guy who was looking for free stuff CALL a company that sells what he is looking for, be transferred to the professional within the company that can help him with what he needs, and then say something like that? i mean, i don't profess to be the all knowing guru when it comes to our stuff, but i certainly know more than the average person walking down the street. and i certainly know more than YOU, mr. movie-producer-and-director-and-writer of some movie that will probably be direct to dvd.

MAYBE that was supposed to be some sort of weird compliment and i just took it the wrong way, but i certainly don't like people expressing their assumptions about my capabilities. they can think them to themselves all they want until i prove myself otherwise, and even share their thoughts with me once we are friends and they know i'm pretty good at my job, but if they are trying to butter me up so i'll send something their way...that's just not the way to do it.

camilles (6:18pm, 11.12.09)

halloween is one of my favorite holidays because it's just another excuse to dress up. jeff and i are notorious for having themed parties, because we think it's fun to dress up and pretend you are something or somewhere else for just a little while.

i've missed many years of halloweens because of my job requiring me to be out of town, and while las vegas would seem like an obvious place to be having a rockin' halloween, in the context of getting up early, standing all day long with a smile plastered onto your face, and then enjoying long dinners with your colleagues, a night of shenanigans isn't usually the most fun thing to do. BUT for the past 2 years, my schedule has actually allowed for me to be available for halloween activities.

i don't do store-bought costumes. i never have in my entire life, because starting when i was really young, my mom MADE us all of our costumes. how she managed to put them together, year after year, i don't know...but there was never a halloween that i didn't feel proud of the fact that i was generally something obscure and out-of-the-ordinary.

one year, i was an old grandma on rollerskates, complete with wrinkles and a cane. one year, my mom made a papier mache jet pack/helmet and an emergency blanket space suit so i could be an astronaut nun (i went to Catholic school...and it was also VERY hot that day, of course). when my sister was old enough to join me at the same school, we had joint costumes. my dad built a coffin onto our radio flyer wagon, and my sister was a corpse and i was the undertaker hauling her around.

there were lots and lots of years of interesting costumes.

anyway, this year i wanted a new costume. i have a few standbys, but figured it would be nice to do something different. i purchased a few odds and ends and sewed my own tail and went as the devil with a blue dress on.

a few people got it, but most people just thought i was a devil. i don't know how much more obvious i could have gotten, but again...obscure. and kind of an old reference.

:)

camilles (5:57pm, 11.11.09)

i made it through the week, and i'm still alive.

had a few delicious meals. most noteworthy was a joint called off the strip - just real food which is waaaaaay off the strip. as we were pulling up to it in the middle of a strip mall, my coworkers were doubting my insistence that we make the drive to try it...but nobody was disappointed. omg. quite possibly the best steak i've ever eaten, a sliced-to-order new york strip, medium rare, with some veg and cheesy potato pie on the side. the service was fantastic. everything we ate and drank was good. the desserts were incredible. i even liked the cheesecake, and i don't even like cheesecake.

so if you are in vegas and want to try something a little different, you ought to make the drive.

i missed my husband, and was happy he flew out to make the drive home with me. since we had the luxury of taking our time getting on the road saturday morning, we decided to visit our favorite antique store to see what treasures might present themselves.

see above.

thank goodness i had a minivan out there, or else we would have been in a tight spot!

we are now the proud owners of a vintage rattan dining set, complete with 2 leaves and 4 chairs. it was a little bit of a splurge, but i'm on a mission to sell off a few pieces of furniture we've got lying around the house to kind of make up for it. besides, it's perfect. it's pretty much exactly the dining set we knew we wanted, but couldn't quite visualize.

camilles (7:09pm, 11.8.09)

boo. i wish i had something awesome to say, but boo is much more accurate.

i read a letter that the editor of an industry newsletter we receive, which summed up the situation. it said something along the lines of:

if you see me this week, keep in mind that in spite of my big smile and cheery disposition, i'm dying inside.

getting to vegas ahead of everybody else has it's disadvantages and advantages. disadvantages are obviously that i'm working more than anyone else. advantages are a few nights of being able to enjoy the jacuzzi tub and cuisine that this town has to offer.

all year long, i look forward to my traditional monday night thai food take-out dinner from lotus of siam. i'll pick it up from the shady strip mall right down the street from my hotel, and hole back up in my room to enjoy whatever tastiness i happen to decide on. and of course, finish with mango and sticky rice. it's my last hurrah before the real suffering begins.

camilles (8:59pm, 11.1.09)