dear kiki...

The Best News EVER!!!!

Yeah today Freaking ROCKS!!!!  This next year is going to be the BEST year EVER!!!!  OK why Katie??  Why is it going to be the best year ever???  Well let me tell you...

My Job ROCKS!  I love it, I love the people I work with, I love the building I work in and I love the Company!

My sister is moving to SF and we are going to get an apartment together in a few short months!!  Which means after years and years apart we will be together again!

I'm planning a big European Vacation with my sister next year!!!!

OK and the final reason, the reason for this post.... Z just got a job in Oakland and is moving back to the Bay in a month!!!!  After 2 years of her being on the east coast, she is coming back!!!  I just got the news late yesterday!!!  She didn't know if she was going to get a job in Boston or NYC or maybe the bay but YES!!!!!  She is coming back!!!!!!!!  OMG I am soooo freaking excited!!!!!  Sigh, FRIDAYS RULE!!!!!   

That's it, I have nothing else to say, I'm soooo excited right now and I have to get back to work!!!!  Have a Fab weekend!  Ciao!

Randomness Thursday...

Tomorrow is Friday!!!  Almost there!  Man I'm tired, it's been a crazy week of late day deadlines!  I'm freaking leaving work on time today!  I am wearing the coolest T-shirt EVER today, pictured at left!  Oh yeah Joy Division rocking Travelocity!  I wish I could express in words how excited I am about this shirt but alas, I cannot.  Am far too exhausted to find appropriate adjectives.  Rad??  Kick arse???  Um bloody fantastic???  Seriously how much does this shirt ROCK!!!  Ok, I will try to calm down about the shirt, I will have to take a picture of myself wearing it later, until then the picture from UO will have to do.  I'm also wearing some awesome earings as well, all in all I look pretty sweet!

Ok so did anyone else catch the Daily Show last night?  I love Jon Stewart and that show sooooo much!  He had this woman on trying to explain why gas prices are so high, oh it's supply and demand, we don't have the supply etc. and Jon Stewart says, yeeeeesss but then why are the are the oil companies making record breaking profits???  To which she replies with some more incomprehensible dribble on how we don't have the supply and the demand is too high, blah blah, to which Jon Stewart replies yeeess but isn't that just all BULLSHIT????  OMG!!!!!  I LOVE this man!!!!  Sigh....

Yesterday was Administrative Employee day or Appreciation day or something like that.  I received a dozen beautiful roses from my Managers and a gift certificate to Target from the PR team!  Aaawwww!  YAY now I can go blow it on Vegan Method products!!  So that was swwweeeeetttt!  My roses smell soooooo lovely!!

The last non point I'm going to not make in this blog post is that I really wish that this lunch posted on Vegan Lunchbox today was my lunch!!!  Hmmm what should I have for lunch as I neglected to bring anything.  Either a black bean and rice burrito from Maya downstairs or some Vegan soup and bread from Harvest and Rowe.  Mmmmmm I'm hungry, is it lunch time yet?  Is it time to go home yet?  Is it Friday yet??  Ciao!

I made a Blue List!

Yep I made a Lonely Planet Blue List.  What is a Lonely Planet Blue List Katie and why did you make one?  Well a Lonely Planet Blue List is a kind of top 10 or 5 or 3 of travel tips, places to in a certain area, things to do etc. submitted by the public on the Lonely Planet website.  I made one A) because I have things to say and tips when it comes to travel and B) As practice and as a travel writing sample as I am attempting to illustrate my travel writing abilities to my company Travelocity.  I'm going to make another one and write an article as well.  I need more travel writing samples.  So go check out my blue list and rate it high and make it look popular ;)  I am hoping to transition into a writing position eventually here at Travelocity so these are all exercises to achieve that end.

I can't believe it's already Wednesday!  I feel like this week is flying by!  A funny thing happened yesterday, I received another email requesting the same layout as Legacy magazine.  Yes another magazine wants the same layout and emailed me the very next day.  Weird.  It's kind of an old layout too, you never know what mags are looking for.  Still it's nice to be requested!  I'm tired, I gorged out on reality TV last night and I still feel a bit queasy from it!  Bad reality TV too, well American Idol, eh it was OK and then MTV's The Real World, which gets worse and worse every season, wow, there is a girl on there that is sooooo effed up, it was painful to watch.  When your at a bar with a guy who likes you (or did before you freaked out) and then you start hysterically crying that guys think your roommate is prettier than you and you are second best and your ex-boyfriend beat you... You MIGHT have a problem!  Just my humble opinion.  Holy crap man, and I thought I was an insecure mess in my younger days, yeah, can't hold a candle to this chick!  WOW!  Then for some reason unbeknownst to me I left the channel on MTV and proceeded to watch another episode of 8Th and Ocean, oh why, Katie, why?????  I suppose the stupidity of the people on that show is somewhat hypnotizing, or it's like watching a train wreck, or a combination of both.  That's what I get for being tired and just wanting to veg for a bit, bad TV, mind numbing TV!!!  Tonight is LOST though, if it's a new episode, not sure, I hope so, that's my favorite show.  Regardless after the useless non-activity of last night I must do something productive with my evening once I get home tonight.  I have a layout I am working on that I need to finish.  I've just been too tired by the time I get home to finish it, but I should, it's bugging me that it is unfinished.  Well this is a rambling blog entry, oh well, what's done is done.  Happy Wednesday Bellas!  Ciao!

Self Portrait Tuesday...

It's Tuesday and that means it's Self Portrait Tuesday!  Last week of the April theme which is April fool!  That's a big vegan peppermint patty in my mouth from Vegan Essentials Mmmm!  I actually haven't tried it yet but I'm sure it's really yummy and sinfully delicious!  Silliness!  Yes this chick digs vegans!  I dig non vegans too though!  Also in other news, I had another layout picked up for publication yesterday.  A nice little surprise in my email!  It's for Legacy Magazine, I don't know what issue yet but as soon as I know, I will post it here!  It's good because I haven't been submitting and I have a couple more publications coming out and then there will be a break.  I love getting a layout request out of the blue, such a nice feeling!  Yeah and I'm still freaking sore, my poor muscles, I have abused them!  I can't imagine what it will be like after I take class on Thursday and then again on Saturday!!!  It's worth the pain ;) Have a great Tuesday!  Ciao!

The Sad Pout...

It's practically May so I am posting this layout from the March/April issue of Simple Scrapbooks magazine.  I will scan the the tear sheet from the magazine and post that as well, I just can't find it right now and I'm too tired and sore to keep looking!  Yes, Katie, should not operate computer equipment while tired because she does extremely stupid things like save over her original psd file of this layout with the flattened version...doh!!!  Damn that sucks, I'm pretty upset about it, good job, good freaking job!  Sigh... Anyway, I really love this layout, one of my favorites and about my sister.  Everything was created by me, and it's a cool candid shot I snapped of my sister at the airport.  I'm excited to have it back up on the blog and in my Two Peas in a Bucket gallery.  Yeah how excited am I that my sister is moving to SF and we are getting an apartment together!!!  We've been apart for way too long!

In other news, remember how I said I was going to be really, really sore??  Um yeah, it's just gotten worse, I'm typing this Sunday night and every part of my body hurts, every muscle in my body hurts, my ribs hurt.  I don't think the 2 hour dance-a-thon last night (Saturday) helped either but oh well.  The first dance class back after a vacation will always work you but I've had a rather long vacation and damn can I feel it!  Saturday night was another blast we went to this club called Hush Hush in the mission and it was bloody fantastic!  Small little hip joint with fantastic music, all I have to say is we got there, sat at the bar with our Grey Goose Lemon Drops (dangerously good) and they started playing The Cure, uh huh, that's what I said, it was pure ecstasy!  Robert, I love you darling!  They played kick arse music, mashes, 80's, hip hop, it was grand.  We danced for at least 2 hours without stopping, mmmmmm love it!  No scary incidents on BART either, all in all, super fun, I always have a blast with Jennifer, she ROCKS, we have soooo much fun together!  There was some unfortunate poking but that seems to always happen lately.  You would think that when dancing with a girl a guy would find THAT a  weee bit embarrassing and back off, but um no, damn.  Here's a picture of me and Jen looking super cute or should I say HOT before going out.

Dance, Danse, Baile...

Oh yeah baby, I went, I saw and I danced my ass off!!!  Wooo hooo!!!  It was a blast!  Loved every minute of it, even though it was hard!  Yeah, the neighborhood is sooo sketch, must get pepper spray, lot of cracked out looking people, but I've seen worse.  Now I know where it is and it's really close to the train station!  I'm planning to go 2 x's a week now, to start, Thursdays and Saturdays.  I need to really go 3 x's a week but I have other workout obligations as well and there are only so many days in a week.  Once I get back into shape dance wise I can up it to 3 x's!  The modern class was Awesome!!!  Loved it, although it was a small class and I was the most advanced student in the class.  I don't feel ready to take intermediate yet, I need a couple weeks of beg to whip me into shape first.  It was kind of  a beg/int class.  Anyway, it rocked, felt great, oh how I've missed and I'm soooo excited to be taking dance class again!!!  I'm going to be sooooo freaking sore tomorrow!!  I LOVE IT!  Dance class always makes you use muscles you didn't know you had!  I posted a better cover image in yesterdays post, I scanned the cover of the mag, so you know what to look for.  Today at longs though, they still had the previous issue on the newsstand, so hopefully at other places it's out, if not hang tight, should be out in a week at the latest. 

Do you like my new blog banner??? Do ya? Do ya?  Put that together last night, couldn't stand the interim one, like this one much better!  Getting some designing done today and then I'm going out with my girl, to um dance!  It's my PM dance workout!!!  What can I say, I LOVE to dance!  Hopefully I won't have another unfortunate incident on the train!  I'm also getting a mani/pedi tomorrow YAY!  Although now that I'm dancing again, it's going to get ruined!!  Dancing barefoot on the floor and turning, jumping etc., not so good for the pedicure!  I have to build up my turning callouses, sooo lovely!  But it feels soooo good!!!  I'm all high off of dancing, it works like that for me, very inspiring and invigorating!  Have a beautiful Saturday!  Ciao!

BHG Scrapbook Etc. May/June!!!

Sigh... Today is a good day!  It's Friday, which means I'm sitting here enjoying my Friday bagel with PB (bagels are vegan except egg & honey), I get to leave early today (everyone leaves early on Fridays), my super fun weekend is about to begin and yesterday I received my Better Homes and Gardens Scrapbooks Etc. May/June issue in the mail with my two page layout in it!!!  I'm very excited to be in this magazine, one of the last ones I wanted to get in, it's awesome!  So go pick it up, check it out, it's available at all major book stores and I've also seen it Safeway!  It's called Graduation and (shocker) it's about my High School Graduation, so Mike, Kris and my little brother, your in it!!!  Haaa Haaaa!  See if your my friend you NEVER know where your picture might show up, and I've got some incriminating photos ;)  I can't find a good cover image so I will scan it for you this weekend so you know what to look for.  So that's the big news for today!  I'm going to write this in my BLOG entry so I don't flake out and not go, but I decided to go take my first dance class in 3 1/2 years or so tomorrow morning!  Since the area is a little sketch I will feel a little less intimidated during a nice Saturday morning.  I just have to decide which place I'm going to for what class.  I really want to take a modern dance class, I LOVE modern, but only one of the 2 places has one on Sat, the other place has like a dance aerobic fusion class that sounds fun too.  I think I'm leaning towards the straight up modern one though, that's what I'm really craving!  I'm sooooo excited!!!!!  I miss it soooooo much!!!  It's just scary because I'm so out of shape (dance shape)  but I know I will have a blast and feel invigorated!!!  Anyway, I will give a report on that and maybe a pic from my fancy new cell phone!  Have a fab weekend!!!  Ciao!

I Heart Food Fight!

I am expecting a boat load of deliveries this week and next and the first of which arrived yesterday.  Food Fight an all Vegan Grocery in Portland Oregon, delivered a box of goodies pictured left.  Mostly snacks and some junk food that I can't get here.  Also a yummy white chocolate peanut butter spread, mmmm... and a bunch of vegan mints or myntz because I don't want to have to worry about finding vegan mints when I need some.  The all important Red Star, vitamin B12 fortified nutritional yeast, can't wait to try it atop popcorn!  Oh and some super fabulous Vegan buttons, YAY!  Oh and vegan hot chocolate, mmmm and lemon poppy-seed muffin mix!  I will let you know about my favorites!  They also wrote me a little note with my packing slip, aaawwww, I love Food Fight!!!  Check out the website and support them, because they freaking ROCK!!!  I don't plan on chowing on all this stuff in a junk food vegan binge, just some little treats for when I feel like it and some nutritional snacks!  I'm working way too hard in the gym to blow it on junk food, even vegan junk food!  A plus to becoming vegan is that it takes most of the food that is bad for you out of the picture, and as I've said before, I feel great not eating that stuff, don't miss it at all, I feel better and healthier than I have in wow, in a REALLY loooong time!  Really already some of the dairy is looking gross to me and I feel so good without it, why would I want to put it back into my body?? 

Anyway enough about that ;)  I also got a new phone, YAY!  I bought the Razor, yeah, I jumped on the bandwagon, but man it's soooo freaking cool!!  As some of you may remember my cell phone (and ipod @#$!) were stolen right after I moved to Oakland from SD, robbed in my apartment and I caught the guy!  I've been using my old, old cell phone mainly because it kills me to spend money on a freaking phone and I'm bitter about it due to replacing a stolen item.  My old phone sucked though, sooo old and the screen kept crapping out, and I just bit the bullet and bought a new phone.  It's super sweet man, it even has a special self portrait button for the camera function, um that's cool!  Plan to utilize it tomorrow or Friday and post the results! 

Tuesday night I also went to this uber hip club I've been wanting to check out for this little soiree with some friends 111 Minna, a art gallery/bar club, oh yeah, that's what I like to see!  Must go back there on an evening that doesn't precede another work day!  Mind you this place and like 15 other super fab places are about 5 steps from my office, thus our constant barrage of happy hours!  Damn you temptation!  Well that and I do work for an Internet company, we tend to like the parties!  I mean I put together a monthly happy hour paid for by the company, never had that before!  I think I had a point but I lost it way back there somewhere so in the vain of this completely nonsensical, chaotic post here are some pictures I took yesterday of my cute feet in some adorable vegan shoes!  I just liked the way my shoes looked peeking out from underneath my jeans.  Yeah I wear jeans to work, my job ROCKS!  Look though, don't my feet look precious???  Ciao!

Some Music and Stuff...

Not only did I go on a Vegan spending spree last week but I made the mistake of walking into Amoeba Music on Saturday and that always means trouble for my wallet.  I walked out with only 3 CD's, not too bad.  All of which I had wanted to pick up for a while and I figured why not??  They were all solid purchases. First up Clap Your Hands Say Yeah which I mean come on rule for the name of the band alone!!  Been wanting this one for a loooong time and man, it REALLY ROCKS!!  Highly recommend this, **** stars!!!  The whole album is solid from start to finish, kick arse, try it you will love it!  Next The New Pornographers Twin Cinema which lets face it again, the name of the band also makes them rule!  This one also came highly recommended from my absolute favorite music nerd fix website Pitchfork and they are tough so it's most likely awesome and it is!  LOVE this freaking album!!!  Another start to finish amazing disk, I hate being disappointed by only 1 or 2 good songs on an album and this one delivers solid rocking throughout the entire disk!  Another **** stars, a must have for 2006, seriously, buy this one, now!  Last but not least is the new one from Built to Spill You in Reverse.  Now, I'm a big Built to Spill fan, love their stuff and the side projects and I really dig this album.  It has gotten mixed reviews, I can see why but I still really like the direction they take with it!  It's still a really solid, good album, just maybe go off a little too long on some of the songs.  I personally am into that, Sonic Youth tends to do that and they rock my world but you can tell they are pushing themselves with this album, flexing a bit.  I highly recommend maybe *** and  a 1/2 stars!  At least give it a listen, I really love this band! 

And with that ends Katie's little music review section, hope you check some of it out because like me it ROCKS!!! 

Now as promised another new layout to post, I love this one, one of my new favorites, probably just because the pictures crack me up but I really like how the design came together.  This one is of the girls trip to Tahoe we go on annually, this year it was in January, man those are fun!  Badly craving girls trip right now, don't know if I can wait until Vegas in September, may need mini trip prior to that one!!!  Oh well, I will settle for some girl time this Saturday night until we all get another trip going.  Only have to wait until the end of May for a local reunion/giant graduation/birthday Par-tay!  I digress...  Without further adieu, I give you Tiggity Tahoe, enjoy, Ciao!

Self Portrait Tuesday...

Another Tuesday, another SPT Challenge!  Here is my Self Portrait Tuesday for this week.  The theme is April fools this month, this is me being silly with a silly pose in front of the camera.  Tried to come up with something really cool but procrastinated until Monday night, thus was too tired to be all that silly or creative!  My new gym regimen has me not returning home until about 8pm or so, last night 9pm.  I had a great time at the gym last night though, so it's worth it!  Tonight, I have a happy hour, mixer, group thing to attend with some co-workers and then try to hit the gym after that, I'm not a morning person so I know I'm not going to get up early enough to work out before work!  I also realized I need to invest in some pepper spray, I don't know why that hasn't occurred to me before, it's seems obvious!  I will feel better with some pepper spray on hand in case I have an incident and I have to defend myself!  It is a beautiful day today, the sun is shining for once and there is NO rain!!!  If only it would last!!  That's all for today, Ciao!

Well, there goes the blond theory...

Ick it's Monday!  Well I can't remember if I blogged about this before or not so I will quickly go over it.  My entire life, I have been a magnet for boys who are freaks (not in the cool vegan way) in the gross, sleazy, inappropriate, scary please don't talk to me, damn it why, why does he have to pick me to talk to way.  I think I blogged about a guy at a party a while back, ugh, he was strange and way too touchy!  Anyway, my theory has been that it's the blond hair, blond hair attracts a specific demographic of scary freak, and sleazy old men.  In Italy it's a beacon for please harass me the blond easy American girl.  My sister gets the same thing although that is in large part to her being drop dead gorgeous.  I'm not complaining that I get hit on too much oh boo hoo, no, you must understand, these are not normal people who harass me, talk to me, touch me, hit on me, they are scary and it happens all the time. 

Well now my hair is brown and guess what, it didn't help.  Saturday night approximately 8:30pm I am minding my own business reading a book on BART on my way to the city (SF) to meet up with a friend and go out to dinner and then dancing.  BART at night, alone as a female, I'm always a bit cautious, I keep my coat tight, put my do not disturb (bitch) face on and read.  Usually headphones are very helpful in this area but I haven't replaced my stolen ipod yet, so no help there.  Let me preface this by saying I have had a really scary, bad late night BART experience several years ago.  A group of guys gets on, they are loud, clearly have been drinking.  There are maybe 1 or 2 other people in my car that are not a part of this group.  I hear one of them trying to get my attention,

"Hey, you, girl, with the nose ring, reading, brown hair..."  I ignore this, pretending I don't hear it, burying myself in my book, praying that this works.  It seems to, some time passes and then it happens.  He gets up and sits in the seat next to me, practically on top of me  (oh shit, please no go away, leave me alone, stay calm, just ignore him, he will go away) and then he starts talking to me.

"Hi, what are you reading about" I don't answer "What's that book about?"  It's complicated I say.  "What?  What's it about?"  I said it's complicated as in it would take me a long time to explain I reluctantly reply.  "Oh, what's the title, what's it called?"  I flash him the cover.  "Are you in College?"  No, graduated  "How old are you?"  28 "oh shit, damn!"  Yes Mother F@#ker I'm old now kindly F**k off!  I want to yell.  I'm scared, his friends surround the area and I'm just thinking, what am I going to do, they could have weapons, I'm totally F**ked! "Where do you live?"  Oakland "But you don't have a boyfriend do you?"  Yes I do (like I would say NO, HELLO!!!)  "OK but we can be friends right?"  Maybe "We can be friends and then I can work my way up to being your boyfriend and then you can dump that guy"  No "But why?  We can be friends and then I can work my way up to being your boyfriend, I'm a good guy, I'm grown up and responsible.  That nose ring looks really good, see, does your boyfriend compliment you like that?"  Yes  "Well is he a good boyfriend, like romantic and does the right things?" Yes "OK but we can be friends, do you have a cell phone"  NO (yeah right like I'm gonna give you my number)  "Oh well, where are you going?"  (shit) My friends house "Where's that?" Haight Ashbury "Oh but do you know where it is?" Yes  "Well we can be friends and then I can be your boyfriend" No "Well are you sure everything is good with your boyfriend like he's good to you and romantic and when you get intimate?" What?  "Like when you have sex is it good?"  (OMG, I want to run out of this car, am praying it's almost my stop, so scared that if I tell him to F**k off he will become more physical as he is already touching me and leaning on me) Umm I'm not talking about that!!  "What why?  You should because I'm a good lover..."  He then starts to go into detail and I start freaking out big time!  Then miraculously it's my stop and I get up and run out the door.  As I'm walking through the station, my heart is beating so fast I can feel it jumping up into my throat, I can feel the tears welling up behind my eyes and I try to talk myself through it.  Your overreacting I say to myself, calm down, it's OK But flashes of what could have happened keep appearing in my head.  I breath deeply, remembering my BART trauma from years ago.  I feel violated, sickened, scared and angry.  I hate this feeling, I hate that men think they can treat women this way, I hate feeling so vulnerable and out of control because had I not been afraid of retaliation I would have told that guy off and pushed him away from me.  And I just keep thinking, why me?  Why did he choose me?  What is it about me that attracts this kind of guy?

Once I arrived at Jennifer's apartment and told her what happened I felt better, I tried to put it out of my mind and went out and had fun.  F**ker!  So yes, it happens to brunettes too, oh well, it was just a theory.  I felt so gross after that, but yummy Thai food and wine with Jenn, made it better.  Then we went to this club called Supper Club it's a really interesting place, liked it very much, very fun!  Great music, including live drums and guitar, kind of like a Cirque de Soleil dance club with tons of really comfy couches where dinner is served and perfect for making out with cute dance partners!  I will definitely go there again!  Met some cool people, did some danci'n, nice.  Here is a pic of me and Jenn on our way out, even though my eye looks stupid in it, it's still cute!  I hate jerks and I love to dance!  Ciao!

Some New Layouts...

Well, I didn't really blog about this but I entered the 2006 Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame contest.  I didn't win (no surprise there).  Sometimes I feel like I don't really fit into the scrapbooking world and I don't think my style does.  I think it's a little avant-garde for some scrapbookers.  That's OK, I don't do it for other people, I do it for myself and my creativity and because I love it!  Some of my entries are out there for scrapbooking and really personal.  I thought I would post a couple for you, they are all in the My Art photo album to the left.  I will post more here this week.  Maybe they will make you smile.  Ciao!

 

Brunette take 2...

Yup that's me, now as a brunette, take two... it was a two step process but the second attempt was a success.  This was exactly the color I was going for!  I'm liking it, very fun and the reactions I've gotten have been quite amusing, I must say!  My work colleagues, have all loved it, raved, but it's funny they don't recognize me, or can't find me or take a triple take when they walk by.  Then they say, wow, I REALLY like it!  So YAY!  Never done this before, so always a bit scary, what if it turned out hideous???  Not being blond is fun, I feel rather sexy actually. 

Am going out to dinner and dancing tonight in SF with some super cool Chicks!  Am Very excited!  Am also Very sore!!!  Have begun new crazy exercise routine to whip self into shape with upcoming bridesmaid duties and bachelorette crazy Vegas adventures looming!  Is working wonders yet muscles hate me right now!  So I am going to down some pain killers prior to leaving for girl sassy dancing party this evening, once I am warmed up and have had a cocktail will be feeling no pain anyway!  I updated my blog banner, but am not satisfied, will most likely change once more, but sick of old banner and ran out of time to achieve proper blog banner coolness!  Used some of the "stamps" I designed as a part of the Jan/Feb issue of Digital Memories Magazine free kit.  Also some paper, I designed and re-colored from the debut issue free kit.  Will be uploading some new layouts that have yet to be posted soon, my art section is way outdated except the last couple of posts as well.  I feel very behind on my designing, updating of blog etc. but promise there will be lots of updates and info going forward.  I must run, my weekend is far too short. I leave you with some breakfast yummyness!  MMMMMMM, new favorite, chai tea made vegan by using this mix and soy milk, you can use any dairy or non dairy product with this chai tea mix.  This is the only vegan one though because the rest have honey in them.  If you are not opposed to using honey, then try them all.  Soooooo delish!!!  Also my super cute Peas on Earth mug I picked up in Tahoe, love David & Goliath!  Try it, promise you will LUV it!!!  Ciao Bellas!  Oh wait I almost forgot!!!!  Ok I promised the 8th and Ocean stuff.  Wow, just when I though reality TV could sink no lower!  I like to work with noise, and often music or TV and nothing was on, landed on MTV etc.  Ok so anyway this is a show I gather about models, modeling and dating their career, think in Florida.  Whatever, this male model goes on a date with a female model and the following conversation actually takes place.

"Well, I wouldn't say that I'm smarter than other people, I'm just REALLY good at doing whatever people tell me to do..."  (female model)

"I like really attractive women, with dark hair, that wear long earrings, you know... well what do you look for in a guy?" (male model basically describing what the female model looks like)

"I like guys that are really attractive..."  (female Model)

"Other than being good looking what do look for in a guy?  Their appearance? I mean what do you like physically, other than being good looking?"  (male model)

And that officially ends the most idiotic, moronic, pointless mind numbing first date ever (well not really they hooked up, like that's a big surprise)!!  Wow, someone sterilize these people immediately!!!!  I actually stopped what I was doing and just stared at the TV for a moment, like did that really just happen???  Wow, um, wow, I have to go read something now.  Anyway that was just too good or horrific to not share!  Ciao Bellas!

No Pic but Vegan Spending Spree!

Wow, I need to stop shopping now!  I have been veganizing my home, slowly but surely weeding out my non vegan products/clothing, piling them up to give away, sell or trashing them.  I still have a long way to go, just with cleaning out my closet anyway, I think I have that Spring Cleaning, fever thing happening!  I have a lot of "stuff", must get rid of my "stuff", simplify.  Yes and then in the midst of my simplification, I go on a vegan spending spree!  In my defense I am loosing a huge chunk of my shoe collection and well, I had to buy some new cute vegan shoes...Really I did!  Luckily most vegan shoes are pretty affordable.  As a Vegetarian of 12 years, I stopped buying leather, purses, belts and wallets a loooong time ago, but I was a bad, lazy Vegetarian in the shoe area.  Why?  Because, I like shoes, damn it (not a good excuse)!  Fortunately there are tons of cute vegan shoes out there today, so I shall not be suffering.  The plus is the lack of in store impulse shoe buying that will occur!  Many of my fancy or what I call my sexy shoes are leather high heels, barely worn because they look great but hurt after a short period of time, so I'm going to sell those on eBay and that way fund my recent shopping spree (I am not saying wearing dead carcass is sexy, if I felt that way I wouldn't be getting rid of them but someone will).  I don't have a lot of wool but am checking my sweaters for that. 

Cosmetics are more confusing.  Luckily I use Bare Minerals, I recently made the switch and they do not test on animals and only the lipsticks, mascara and some of the skin care stuff has animal products in them.  I don't wear lipstick, gloss and chapstick girl and I use Mario Badescu for my skin.  The Mario Badescu line does not test on animals but you have to check the products you use to see if there are animal products in them.  I emailed the company for a list of those products but haven't heard back yet.  Hair, too, just getting my hair done, I had to ask for them not to use the Kerastase products on my hair because they TEST on animals and have animal products.  TIGI however does not test and I emailed the company and they sent me a list of their products that contain animal products, REALLY fast!  YAY TIGI!  Although it would be a bigger yay if they just got rid of the animal products.  Anyway, I don't use any of the ones that have animal products, I have been checking labels.  Switched to Kiss My Face shaving lotion which is AWESOME!!!  Switched to their body moisturizer too which is also lovely.  Kiss My Face doesn't test on animals but some of their products contain honey, beeswax, lanolin and or glycerin I think.  Their soap is safe though, but I know something they have isn't.  My brain is bursting with all this new information, it's hard to keep track of it all.  I just keep checking the various message boards, Vegan Freak is great!!  Aveda, is another great company, most of their stuff is animal free and they do not test.  I think just some of the makeup isn't.  I know their shampoos and hair care stuff is safe.  I ordered some of their shampoos and conditioners.  I already have used their products and I like them and I am picky about my hair stuff.

I need to go to Target and replace all my cleaning supplies next, with Method products, which I love anyway and started filtering in.  They do not test on animals and everything is vegan/animal free except their dryer sheets and body wash and from what I've read the dryer sheets will be animal free by August.  I also need to get new toothpaste and deodorant but I have a lot left and I don't want to just waste it, I'll see if I can give some away.  I have a Costco supply.  It is truly disturbing how many companies STILL test on animals and how many animal products are in EVERYTHING, not because they need to be, but because it's cheap!

Here are some great stores where I picked up some Vegan stuff I wasn't sure about in my own stores or couldn't find.  Vegan Essentials  Food Fight!  some really cute stuff here Alternative Outfitters and OMG!  I want all of these shoes and purses!!! matt and nat  There is a lot more too, but that's just a sample.  Sorry I slacked and didn't get my new hair picture loaded before work today, I'm going to try and remember to do it tomorrow because I'm sure you are all on the veritable edge of your seats awaiting the big reveal!!  My weekend is packed with fun activities and outings plus I need to clean and organize, get some designing done and try a new vegan recipe!  Have a great weekend! Oh and a Shout out to Bella who is in NYC right now visiting her sisters!  I miss you Bella, I wish I was having fun in NYC with you right now!!  Buy a kick ass dress, we're going to be the hottest bridesmaids EVER!  I can't wait to see you in October!  Take me back with you to Madrid ;)  Ciao!

Yummy Vegan Pizza!!

Mmmmm Vegan Pizza from Lanesplitters Pizza soooo yummy!!!  What in the heck is vegan pizza Katie??  I hear you asking yourselves...  Well there are two ways pizza can be vegan

1. A) By simply removing the cheese from the equation.  More common in Italy where I first tried cheeseless pizza!

B) By using a Vegan cheese substitute, tofu etc.  Lanesplitters uses what they call Notta Ricotta which uses Tofutti products.

Either way with mushrooms and artichoke hearts it equals YUMMY!!!  SO FREAKING GOOD!!!!  Seriously, I brought some to work on Monday and everyone was like what smells sooo good, ooooh where did you get that pizza it looks really good!  Hee hee I said, it's actually Vegan!!!  I will convert them with vegan deliciousness!  I also found out today that I am now no longer the only vegan at the company!  We just hired someone new in the Dallas office who is also vegan!  Woooo hoooo!  Anyway I can't tell you how awesome this pizza is or how yummy all the recipes I'm reading sound!  I am overwhelmed by vegan yummyness, now I have to start cooking!  Also I feel good, really healthy and toxin free.  The longer I go without eating all the processed crap that contains dairy/egg products the more disgusting they become.  Just as an update for how it feels physically to be vegan.  It feels good baby!  More to come on my vegan journey this week. 

I get my hair fixed today.  So I will have to post new pics with the darker brown color.  Hopefully it will turn out cute!  If not I can always change it again.  I think it will be ok, I'm liking the brown.   Hee hee, I can't believe I just wrote that! 

Well I was supposed to post this yesterday but was completely swamped at work and forgot to!  Oopsy!  Oh well, my hair turned out the right color this time, I think I like it, my eyes are looking very blue.  It's fun, I just hope it lasts a bit, it was a lot of work to get that brown to hold onto the blond!  OMG I did it again!  ummm that's what she said... I digress...

I have so much to post but I don't want 5 posts in one day, new hair picture tomorrow, observations on a conversation from 8th an Ocean (a terrible reality TV MTV show I stumbled upon the other night) Cute baby pictures of the sweetest dog ever baby angel Duke and new ones from a recent San Diego trip and more on my Vegan Journey!

Self Portrait Tuesday...

Well it's another week of Self Portrait Tuesday this week is a little joke for me.  The theme this month is April fool's, basic silliness!  I just changed my hair color from my natural blond to brown and there are quite a few stereotypes associated with being a blond.  I dyed my hair red once and experienced the stark difference in how I was treated and spoken to, it shocked me!  It's just hair but those stereotypes stick!  My hair actually turned out too light and blond looking so tomorrow I am going back to fix it and make it the color I wanted.  I like it, it's different, it makes my eyes seem even more blue and of course I look smarter!!  I went out last night, a Monday for my friends Bday and it was lots of fun, I wish it was Friday already!  I can't wait until next month when Z comes to visit, we have our party and I possibly go see her in NYC!  It's a crazy week, very busy at work, stuff to do after work and um like 3 happy hours this week!!!  Yikes, must rest at some point!  Not tonight though, off to workout, and return home for some American Idol, damn TV sucks!

The Sickest Movie EVER!

Oh yes Splatter Farm!!  It's so funny how this came up, this film deeply disturbed me!  I went to High School in Bakersfield, California, 3 guesses on how much there was to do there!  Yeah, so I was lucky enough to make some amazing friends and at the time (as crazy as it sounds) B-town had a decent music scene, most of which was crap but at least we could go to shows every weekend!  Ska, punk, it was grand.  Well our other activities included Movie Nights and playing pool and board games and card games.  So we started a tradition of each week movie night would be at someones house and the goal was to find the most terrible B-movie horror flick of all.  It was great! It was in this effort that we stumbled upon Peter Jackson and his genius, Bad Taste, changed our lives!! Our new vernacular were lines from that movie...

"Derek's Don't Die!!!"

 

Anyway, I digress... In one of these ventures, my friend Francis and I discovered Splatter Farm.  Words can not describe our horror.  This amateur film actually made us physically ill!  That's saying a lot, Francis is kinda twisted!  Of course I had to make sure our whole group of friends watched it and they did, one after the other in pure horror!  I have NEVER forgotten this film, it gave me nightmares, it is sick and twisted and yet I am fascinated by it.  Francis and I talked about it on Friday and then my friend Mike left me a comment on MY SPACE  with this pic and I cracked up!  Oh the memories.  You can read more about it here Splatter Farm, WARNING not for the faint of heart, or children!!  Well that's assuming you could even find a copy of this "film"  hee hee, sigh, I miss our movie nights!!  Good times!

Self Portrait Tuesday...

Yes after missing about 3 weeks of SPT I'm back!  Last month's theme was difficult for me because it required a lot of time and planning and I just didn't get it together!  This month, the April theme is lots of fun!  April Fool  yeah that's a pretty easy one for me, since half of my pictures are of either me, me and my friends or me and my sister goofing around!  Also I am a big dork, so being silly and foolish comes naturally to me.  I am sans camera this week as it is off traveling without me on an exciting book tour.  However, I have a plethora of photographs that would fit this category!!  I can't believe I am posting this picture but it brings tears to my eyes whenever I look at it because it is sooooo ridiculous.  It is from New Years and clearly we had a great time!  Oh yes I have a breast in each hand, am in mid speech and the classic thumbs up from Toby!  We were out of control and loving it!  When we all saw this picture the next day, we couldn't stop laughing, it seriously captures the moment, the evening the amount of alcohol we consumed!!  Sigh...  It was a good time!

DMM is HERE!!!

 

Wow, I have been a bad little blogger!!  I was sick and then busy, busy, work, life, veganism!  Oh well, going to try and get back on track this week!  Well the March/April issue of Digital Memories Magazine has arrived!!  Please go check it out because it is uber fabulous!!  I can't believe how talented the women I work with are!!!  There are some great articles and TONS of AMAZING eye candy!!  This magazine always blows me away!!  I had a SUPER fun weekend!!  Dustin started his book tour with Jodi Picoult this week but stopped back on Saturday and Sunday. 

Saturday we went to Lanesplitter's Pizza on Telegraph right by my house with my BFF Dennise for some YUMMY!!  Vegan Pizza!!!  and wine ;)  OMG!!!  It was sooooooo good!!!  Oh and they DELIVER to my house!!!  mmmmm I have leftovers for lunch today!!  Mushrooms and artichokes!!  YUM!!!  I love living in the Bay with lots of Yummy Vegan food at my feet!!  It's sooooo freaking yummy and soooooo good for you!!!!  Can I just say I LOVE being a vegan, I LOVE it!!  It is soooo awesome and I am soooo excited to start trying all the delicious recipes in my new cookbooks, see the right hand side bar.  I will be posting a lot about my new vegan journey.  Anyway then we went to one of my fave tiki bars the Kona Club and the three of us shared a scorpion bowl which, even though I am a tiki bar connoisseur and have been to tons, was the first time I ordered a scorpion bowl.  It was really yummy and fun, not too strong, not too weak, very delicious! 

Then on Sunday I went to a signing in Corte Madera with Dustin and Jodi and the media escort (so fancy)!  It was really cool, about 130 people were there and they were really excited to meet Dustin and see him in action.  Very exciting and inspiring!  We then went to China Town to first a VERY scary restaurant, my China Town worst nightmare with a menu full of fresh frog, frog legs in porridge, duck tongue,  OMG!!!  Hanging carcasses I really almost vomited!!  But so did everyone else we were with so we left!!!  THANK GOD!!!  I was doing my best to be a good sport and not freak out but I wanted to run screaming for the door!!!  It turned out great though because we went to a well known restaurant, Nanking and it was fabulous!  I've read mixed reviews of this place, there is a lot of hype behind it but it was great for me because you don't order, one of the owners orders for you and I explained I was vegan and our media escort was also vegetarian and you just wait for your food.  I had plenty to eat and it was delicious!!  I'm sure there are more authentic places, like say the frog leg carcass restaurant but I admire a restaurant willing to cater to vegans and serve good food!  Since unfortunately a lot of China town is not all that vegetarian friendly so I was concerned and really happy to have a staff that was familiar with vegan friendly dishes!!  It was really fun to hang out and chat with Jodi, she is very inspiring and so talented, motivated, driven, just pretty dang amazing!  Whewww!  So I'm kind of tired today, especially since I arrived in the office at 7:00 am this morning, um ick!!! 

In closing (hee hee)  Check out the newest issue of DMM and perhaps pick up a book on veganism or stay glued to my blog for lots of fun info!!!  Ciao!