a week in the life :: day 7 | sunday

see pictures from the week here.

• it's wonderful that a) ian keeps himself occupied when he wakes up, and b) maya sleeps in some days, like today (she didn't nap yesterday). i keep on snoozing until 8:30; rupert wakes up earlier and is reading for school on the couch while it's still relatively quiet in the house.
• spend the morning just hanging out on the couch, reading, and surfing the net. i was going to watch the snl biden/palin debate skit but realize i need to shower before ian's baseball game.
• rupert makes us a yummy lunch of leftover zankou chicken tortilla wraps. we hussle out of the house at 11:45 to make it to the field across town. this is ian's first game for the fall baseball league, which is not our local league. we were told to arrive an hour early, which we do, but we have no idea who to talk to or where to go. luckily, our local little league's president shows up and his son and ian are on the same team.
• the game goes alright, except that our kids are not used to the pitching machine or stealing bases. i think we lose (i miss the end of the game because i took maya to the playground) and i think ian is a bit bummed that he doesn't make a hit. but he had a great catch at first base for an out. his favorite position to play is pitcher, even if he actually doesn't pitch (he stands next to the pitching machine and catches the ball from the catcher). the game is long so we don't get home until close to 3.
• ian takes a shower, we eat some snacks, and then it's nap time for mama + maya. i read a bit more of my book and then fall fast asleep. when i wake up around 6pm ian is sorting laundry in the living room and rupert has gone to TJ's to find dinner. i hop online and take care of some pta business. commend ian for successfully sorting a huge pile of laundry and folding his own clothes. now that i know he can do this it will become parts of his chores.
• rupert makes dinner (korean bbq) so that we can eat our leftover kimchi. maya wakes up slightly cranky but seems pleased to eat salad. she perks up after that and is in a disturbingly good mood. we inhale a ton of meat and we manage to polish off a pack of korean nori. then it's time for fox's animation domination :: the simpsons, king of the hill, family guy, and american dad (which we normally don't watch but it's on in the background while we tap away at our laptops). the kids went to bed during family guy so it's just me + rupert hanging out on opposite couches. around 11 i im for an hour with my step-sis D through gmail. but by midnight we're all tired so we head to bed.

a week in the life :: day 6 | saturday

• another slow start to the day. i think it's getting to be that time of the year where it's so warm and cozy in bed i don't want to leave.
• got bit by a mosquito behind my knee yesterday at the sand dune and it itches like crazy. and it's swollen up.
• ian has a soccer game at 1 but i am completely knocked out with a tension/sinus headache. it starts to drizzle a bit so maya comes home and hangs out in the living room by herself while i continue to nap. ian comes back exhausted from the game ... and he made a goal. yay!
• we're supposed to head to the hometown fair but the weather's iffy and ian doesn't want to go and something that should be simple somehow ends up slightly complicated. in the end rupert + i drop off maya and my mother-in-law at the fair. ian stays with my father-in-law at their house by the beach. rupert + i are now free for the rest of the evening :: date night!
• dinner at daikokuya in little tokyo. our decision to eat there is influenced by the recent issue of la weekly. it's still fairly early but there's a wait; i tell rupert i'm going to pig out on noodles + gyoza. soooooo nice to slurp noodles uninterrupted, but i wonder why the noodles here are slightly chijiri and the same stuff i get at the market? i finish the noodles and savor the gyoza but find myself fuller than i used to be after polishing off a bowl of noodles. i fear my stomach is shrinking; rupert said that was a good thing. really?
• wander back to the car through japanese village plaza, browsing some shops along the way. since it's still pretty early (6:30ish) and we can't think of a single hipster thing to do in little tokyo/downtown, we head to borders near our house. order a coffee and walk around. i can pick up books and actually flip through them without having to worry about what maya is doing. consider buying something for my sister's birthday but i realize i forgot my weekly coupon. no shopping tonight.
• my question of the day :: could early man have pyromania if fire hadn't been discovered yet?and what's a cave man with ocd like?
• make it back to my in-laws' house to pick up the kids. maya had a great time riding the pony at the fair. ian had a mini pizza for dinner. it takes us awhile to leave because maya wants to take a walk with lucy, my in-laws' dog, which is their ritual. and then she insisted on having ice cream for dessert. i kill the time doing a sudoku, which i don't finish.
• after getting home, rupert puts the kids to bed. he wants to watch "forgetting sarah marshall" but i am engrossed with the internet. he turns it on anyway and i get engrossed with the movie. really cute and peter totally cracks me up (especially his dracula puppet musical). watch the special features too. and then off to bed.

a week in the life :: day 5 | friday

• to make up for the two previous unproductive days, i get up at 5:30am to go to the sand dune. i'm supposed to meet my friends there so i head out to get there by 6. i arrive earlier than the others so i start my workout :: trudging up the sand dune. in the end i get up 11 times, which is the most i've done so far, and i wasn't even dripping sweat! i think i can do more. :)
• when i get home i print out ian's oral presentation paper and take care of some emails for the pta. rupert is nice enough to pack ian's lunch for me and get maya out of her crib so i can shower.
• ince maya, rupert + i are going to the zoo with some friends after dropping ian off at school, i pack some snacks and get maya ready. i walk ian to school and we arrive a couple of minutes before 9:20. ian's disappointed that we're going to the zoo without him but i'll think of some place to take him on monday when he doesn't have school.
• we get to the zoo and meet up with our friends D+P and their daughter D. we spend the next three hours enjoying the animals and the great weather (the temperature is finally dropping). i assign rupert photographer duties and he takes some great shots of the giraffes. my favorite animal of the day is the koala :: there's an especially active and adorable one. rupert's favorites are the orangutans (the baby was pulling and tugging on the male, and the mom had to drag the baby away).
• by the time we leave it's kind of late and we haven't had lunch yet. i worry that we won't make it back home in time to pick up ian so i text my friend Y and she agrees to get him for us. now we can enjoy our lunch withour hurrying. we head to zankou chicken at rupert's request and enjoy a quick meal of chicken with garlic sauce. we say bye to our friends and actually make it back home by 3:05. as we stop at the intersection in front of our house we see ian standing at the corner with his friend R (Y's son). perfect timing!
• maya fell asleep in the car so we leave her in there and i spend some time in the garage uploading the pictures from the zoo (i open the garage door so i can see maya in the car). i tag-team with rupert and he works on the computer for awhile. maya wakes up a couple of hours later and we head inside for rock band time! the three of us play for awhile, and then rupert heads to the kitchen to heat up some food for the kids. ian and i play and we really get into it. rupert says we're ridiculous. and you know what ian says in his best rocker voice? "why? are we ridiculous because we want to rock?!"
• finished watching "sicko." became a fan of tony benn. i always take what michael moore says with a grain of salt, even though i'm a liberal myself and generally agree with what he's trying to convey. still, it is sickening to think what lack of health coverage/care does to people and their families. i know other countries' socialized health care systems aren't perfect, but it made me wonder why so many americans resist the idea of helping others for the benefit of the greater good. i guess i'm more of a socialist than i realized??

a week in the life :: day 4 | thursday

• what's happening to me? i didn't get out of bed until 8:30! (i did get up at 5:30 ... again ... because maya was scared and i had to convince her to go back to sleep.) jump in the shower to wake myself up. no surprise, i didn't work out. i ask rupert, exasperatedly, to pack ian's lunch. i don't have time for breakfast so i grab half of rupert's bagel and throw some fruit into a bento box for maya.
• walk to school, noticing it's already pretty warm, even though it's supposed to be cooler today. head over to the other school and end up chatting until 11am with some of the other parents. the shade is nice and there's a bit of a breeze; seems like it actually will be a bit cooler today.
• get home and plop down on the couch to finish reading "bonk." give maya some snacks and let her watch tv. eventually i fall asleep ... and keep sleeping ... and keep right on sleeping. i don't eat lunch again.
• decide by 2 that i am in no shape to go tutor. i don't necessarily feel sick but i don't have the energy or the willpower to get going. call my mother-in-law to tell her she doesn't have to watch the kids. call rupert and leave a voicemail asking when he's going to come home.
• pick ian up at 3 and slowly make my way home. maya fell asleep in her stroller so i carefully put her in her crib. she wakes up, of course, but i tell her to nap and close the door to her room. am so tired but i have to send some emails for the pta meeting i can't attend tonight. i also catch up on reading blogs. ian finishes his homework and then types up his presentation (about the medal he got from the 5k) for tomorrow. must remember to print it out before tomorrow morning. finish "bonk" and start reading "the year of living biblically."
• turn the tv on and watch the vice presidential debate. maya has been chatting, whining, and finally crying in her crib so i retrieve her. when ian realizes that "the simpsons" isn't on he hightails it to his room where he finishes reading "diary of a wimpy kid." bring up "the reality-based community" blog to read liveblogging during the debate. part-way through the debate rupert comes home. he starts making dinner (ravioli) while listening to the debate. he and the kids eat but i pass (i do nibble on a few bites of maya's leftovers, though).
• i am no fan of palin's but i can understand her appeal to the republican base she's already captured; she performs much better than her katie couric interview (and i use the word "perform" intentionally). i feel biden answers more of the questions directly, and he's more knowledgeable about what's going on in the world. but we'll see how accurate both of their claims are once the fact-checkers get through with them. to lighten things up we watch last saturday's palin/couric skit from snl. i wonder if they'll do anything about the debate for this week's show.
• we watch a little bit of the show "hole in the wall" while the kids get ready to go to bed. such an absurd show; no surprise it's inspired by a japanese game show. after the kids are in bed rupert pops in "sicko," which we got from netflix. this is probably not the right movie to watch before rupert gets his surgery ...
• in 45 minutes i will be watching episode 2 of "spain ... on the road again." it'll keep me up longer than i want because i have to get up early (5:30am) to go to the sand dune. but it'll be worth it.

a week in the life :: day 3 | wednesday

• maya wakes up once around 6am but i convince her to go back to sleep. and since ian is early bird on wednesdays i decide not to work out today, which means i sleep in until 7:30 (it probably also has to do with my staying up late reading). force myself to get up since i still have to pack ian's lunch and get ready myself. while pulling out lunch stuff from the fridge i notice that there are fruit flies in the refrigerator. wtf? where are they coming from? i freak out, thinking they're breeding in the fridge, so i start throwing out old stuff and scrubbing some of the grimier parts. check the clock and i only have a few more minutes before we have to leave. maya barely wakes up in time for us to leave for school at 8:20.
• it is another hot day; i'm sweating just walking to school. by the time we get to maya's "playdate" at the other school i feel disgusting. only stay for a little while since it's hot and maya's little friend has to leave.
• get home and have a feeling it's going to be an unproductive day. blame it on the heat.
• maya hasn't eaten so i toast her a bagel (a new purchase by rupert :: TJ's sprouted wheat bagels). she is displeased with my decision to put cream cheese on her half of the bagel. i am forced to eat off the top layer of the bagel with the cream cheese. we watch "sid the science kid" on pbs, which we really like.
• head to the post office to mail a tagE*blankE order and wedding magazines for my future sister-in-law. i think i got a new postal employee because he tried to charge me over $6 to ship the blankE, which i know should only cost $2 to ship. set him straight.
• i am already exhausted and it's only 11am. plop myself down on the couch and continue reading "bonk," which i am totally engrossed in. feeling drowsy so i decide to take a nap, especially since maya is actually keeping herself busy.
• an hour later maya wakes me up because she's hungry. i feel too hot to eat anything but ask maya what she wants to eat. she doesn't want anything but carrots, so that's her lunch. i cut up a nectarine for myself but can't finish it.
• keep reading (my own book and a pokemon book for maya) until it's time to get ian at 2pm. the sun beats down on us during our brief walk. we get to school a few minutes early so i spot my friend L and chat with her about her new job. should've brought my sunglasses because i'm majorly squinting. i spot riley, our friend's dog, coming and maya is cautiously excited (riley is bigger than maya and he licks her face if given the opportunity).
• get the boys and head to the park, our wednesday tradition. my friend Y (R's mom) has a spot staked out in the shade under a tree. hang out for awhile until maya gets cranky and insists we go home. ian is enjoying a game of football with some of the other boys and i have to tear him away from the game. maya's crankiness gets worse when the football is thrown at her chest.
• walk home and get the kids to bathe. sadly, i don't get a turn in the shower. i am stinky. after ian does some homework we head to the local farmers market, our new wednesday afternoon routine, before heading to ian's french class. maya likes to go to the baker and get a free cookie sample. this week they only have banana bread and macaroom samples. the kids like the banana bread enough that we buy a loaf. i head to the two booths i always hit :: the organic stand for four ears of corn and the fruit vendor for apples and nectarines. i was going to complain that the grapes i bought last week had seeds even though i was told they were seedless, but i realize that the vendor might not know a lot of english. (today i ask him if we're getting to the end of nectarine season and he gave me a blank stare so i'm guessing he's not fluent. it would be helpful if i knew more spanish.) the kids are zigzagging around the various vendors eating free samples, which i feel slightly guilty about but not that much since it gets the kids to eat fruit. leave the farmers market without having spent too much money.
• head to ian's french class 20 minutes away. plead with maya to take a nap, even though it's 5pm already. she does not comply and lets out some ear-splitting screeches instead. after dropping ian off, maya asks to go to the pet store (it's in the same stripmall complex). we spend a few minutes looking at the furry critters but maya's real interest is in reptiles. she is delighted with the lizards (the snakes are sleeping) and i must admit i got a little excited when i saw the baby bearded dragon eat a live cricket. on our way out we run into our former rie teacher (who happens to be the mom of one of my close friends).
• there's still some time before ian's class ends so we hang out in the waiting room. this is where i realize maya actually knows more letters than i thought :: we're putting together an alphabet puzzle and she identifies some letters. and here i thought she didn't know anything. i guess there's still hope for her.
• by the time class ends it's 6:45pm so we pick up dinner at a chicken place i've been meaning to try. it's peruvian-influenced so i order lomo saltado for rupert, chicken fried rice and platanos for me, and a chicken sandwich for ian (with grilled onions, which is weird since he normally hates onions). it's tasty but on the salty side.
• we watch the season premiere of "pushing daisies." it is really a cute, clever, and colorful show. i sort of forgot to keep watching it last season but i can see myself getting into it.
• and my night ends the way it has for the last two days :: uploading photos and blogging about my day. and a "friends" rerun with a strawberry popsicle.

a week in the life :: day 2 | tuesday

• wake up at 6:45, 15 minutes later than i intended to. rupert is already up because maya woke up scared. find them on the couch watching "maya and miguel."
• eat maya's leftover red bean pastry and drink a glass of water (with my calcium and fish oil supplements) before heading out for a run. come back 22 minutes later (2 miles), very sweaty. maya is watching sesame street, dancing and singing along to ll cool j and elmo singing about an addition expedition :: add 'em up!
• take a shower even though i know i'm going to have to take another one in a few hours (after i play tennis with friends). get dressed and get ready to face the day :: packing ian's lunch, having a snack (nectarine slices and a danish), looking over ian's homework, checking my email, getting maya ready.
• same routine as always :: get ian to school by 9:20 and walk over to the other elementary school so maya can see her friend J. but today we head to the park to play tennis (me + maya, J + her mom T, our friends D+Y). it is a scorchingly hot day and we are sweating in no time. we play for 45 minutes until D has to go to work. maya wants to go on the swings so we head towards the playground. J convinces her mom that she needs to go on the swings too. end up staying at the park for another 45 minutes while the girls play. on the walk home notice that there are tons of termites flying around. must be the heat.
• get home around lunchtime but maya is filthy so i put her in the shower. she wants to hold the showerhead and doesn't get too upset when she squirts herself in the face with water. i give her lunch (turkey, carrots, apples, and cheese), turn on sesame street, and hop in the shower while she eats. i continue to be slightly disappointed that my dr. bronner's bar soap doesn't keep its lather while i wash my body.
• scarf down lunch of leftover korean noodles and bean sprout namul while i browse the cookbook club catalog. it's now 1 o'clock so maya and i head to the library (a one minute walk across the street). she picks orange flowers from our front yard while we wait for the light. i return "tunnels," pick up the books i have on hold ("bonk" and "the year of living biblically"), and find a few other books ("the wall" and "diary of a wimpy kid" 1 + 2 for ian). maya kicks off her shoes, pulls books from the shelf (which i forget to return to their rightful places on the shelves), and ends up at the pre-k/kinder computer before finding a video about animals.
• since i have to tutor in the afternoon i try to get maya to take an early nap. i read her a japanese book about pooping before depositing her in her crib. i lie down in bed to read "bonk." before i get too involved in the book i call my mother-in-law to make sure she can watch the kids while i tutor. get back to reading; i'm already loving it and i've only read 22 pages. but i need my daily nap so i close my eyes at 2:04. the phone rings a minute later. it's my bff in san francisco. we didn't get to meet up while she was down in la over the weekend so she calls to check up on us. chat for about 20 minutes. i don't have much time before ian gets out of school so i set the alarm for 2:47 and try to take a quick nap.
• wake up 15 minutes later. turns out i don't need the alarm. brush my teeth, pack up the car with the afternoon necessities, and wake up maya. she must've just fallen asleep because i can't rouse her. carry her to her stroller and walk to ian's school to pick him + R up. maya finally wakes up when i try to transfer her from the stroller to the car seat. we head over to grandma's house with all the windows rolled down because the car is hot. the wind makes maya's hair blow into her face and paper scraps fly around the backseat.
• drop the kids off at grandma's house and make a dash out of there (i like to be on the road by 3:30 to make it to my tutoring job). i have a few extra minutes so i make a pit-stop at boba zone and buy two large boba milk teas to take to tutoring. the girl i tutor, Y, has homework in language arts (the different types of nouns :: concrete/abstract, common/proper, and collective), science (the characteristics of all living things), and math (multiplication + division of negative integers). she forgot her social studies worksheet so she'll have to use her free homework pass tomorrow. finish at 6pm.
• drive to the japanese market on the way home. i was hoping a new comic book would be on sale at the japanese bookstore but no luck. buy two packs of my favorite rice crackers at the market. realize spending over $6 on rice crackers is absurd; must cut back on cracker consumption. in the parking lot try to get in touch with someone on my cell so i know where to go for dinner (it's rosh hashanah and we're supposed to have a family dinner). rupert calls me from home (after he misses my call to his cell) and we decide that i'll go home so we can drive together to his parents' house.
• on the drive home i anxiously watch my odometer as it nears the 100,000 mile mark. i get my camera ready and take a few test shots while it's at 99,999 miles. it hits 100,000 miles as i cross rosecrans avenue. prop my camera on the steering wheel and take a few shots of the odometer while keeping my hands on the wheel. make it home and it's still at 100,000.
• hang out with rupert for a few minutes on the couch. check my email on his laptop. as we're getting ready to leave we see that our bathroom and kitchen garbage cans are infested with fruit flies. yucky! we get the garbage out of the house as quickly as possible.
• dinner is salmon with noodle kugel and broccoli. the kugel doesn't turn out exactly as my mother-in-law hoped (the noodles on top are really crunchy), but it's good nonetheless. we talk about the economic "bailout" legislation with my father-in-law; it doesn't get heated but my fil is clearly unhappy that the legislation didn't pass. rupert + i feel something should be done but it shouldn't be rushed.
• after dinner rupert helps his mom figure out the bus line to downtown so she can go to jury duty, which she is not happy about. meanwhile, the kids watch tv with grandpa and have dessert. it's getting late (already past 9pm) so we change maya's clothes and get ready to go home. my mother-in-law reminds us to look up flights to chicago so we can attend a family wedding.
• once at home, i immediately turn on my laptop and start uploading the photos from today while rupert gets the kids ready for bed. blogging about my entire day takes some time and rupert is waiting for me to finish.
• end up reading in bed for another hour. rupert is conked out next to me. don't want to stop reading but finally relent since my eyelids are so heavy.

a week in the life :: day 1 | monday

to kick-start my creative scrapbooking juices i'm participating in ali edwards's a week in the life project. she used to teach this class at cku, and i would've taken it had i attended again. so i'm really glad she's taking us through the project.

pictures from this week
day 1 monday ::

• 5:15am :: got up before the alarm went off. surprisingly, rupert did too. groggily got ready to go to the gym. ian wakes up and i send him back to bed, "it's waaaay too early." microwave my current favorite hot cereal, tj's oats + flaxseed. read the second-to-last chapter of "tunnels" while i eat.
• remember to take my calcium and fish oil supplements.
• get to pattie's at 6am, wait around for a few minutes while listening to npr. realize i should've texted her last night to see if she was going to the gym. after five minutes i decide to go without her.
• do a 40-minute workout listening to the "rock band" playlist on my ipod. come to the realization that my arms are weak and my cardio endurance is low. must get back into shape.
• come home to find ian working out on wii fit. get a turn in doing the hulahoop. don't quite make it to 300 spins.
• pack ian's lunch and cut up a nectarine to eat as an early morning snack. finish reading "tunnels" (it's due back at the library tomorrow).
• rupert leaves for work/school. feed maya some cereal while we watch tv. send ian off to his room to read while i shower. get maya ready and leave for school at 9:10.
• after ian lines up maya + i slowly make our way around the block towards ian's old school so maya can play with her friend J.
• make it home by 10am. we're both hungry and, therefore, cranky. i make fun of rupert all the time that he gets nasty when he's hungry, but i'm finding that i act the same way. it doesn't help that i eat breakfast at 5:45; my blood sugar drops by the time 10 o'clock rolls around. we snack on my favorite japanese rice crackers. maya watches franny's feet.
• send some email (mostly pta and sleepyhead related), catch up on my blogroll at bloglines, read craft zine and serious eats, check flickr, and look at some new food blogs (noodle whore seems right up my alley).
• must get to the market before it gets too late. but first, off to costco to fill up on gas. spend $43.62 to fill 3/4 of a tank -- thank goodness i only get gas every 3 weeks or so. afterwards, hop on the 405 and go to freshia, the korean market i've been meaning to check out. it's cold inside and maya complains. try to placate her by taking her to the fish section. she asks to buy nori. good idea. besides groceries we buy some pastries at the bakery. maya is enamored with the pretty cakes; maybe we'll get one for her birthday. on the drive home chow down on a sweet potato pastry. maya enjoys most of her red bean-filled rice pastry.
• make it home an hour later. eat lunch (korean nori wrapped around rice, bean sprout pajun, and (spicy) soon dubu). so full i feel like barfing. take a short nap on the couch before it's time to pick up ian at 3pm. maya was kind enough to have an unchi diaper before we head out. she puts a sticker on her unchi calendar.
• on the walk to school join up with our neighbor M, who is also going to pick up her kid. maya is delighted that M has one of her pet rats with her; she always asks, "where mouse?" when we see M. pick up ian and R (ian's classmate) and head home. R hops into his mom's car and i chat with his mom about playing tennis tomorrow morning.
• when we get home i'm exhausted and nursing a tension headache. plead with yell at maya to take her nap. she's getting tired too so she fights it, but i know she needs it. at 3:30 read her "a color of his own" (actually, i do a half-ass translating job and describe the pictures to her in japanese). tell ian to do his homework and crawl into bed.
• i hear maya babbling for awhile but i can't get up. ian comes into my room after he finishes his homework but i tell him i'll check it later (which i neglect to do). he wanders off to play video games. i dose off again until i hear rupert get home.
• finally get out of bed around 5:30; rupert brings me headache medicine. hang out on the couch and catch up with rupert about our respective days. play with his new laptop and check my email. deb (my step-sis) signs in to chat. we complain about how stupid boys are. rupert helps me start getting dinner ready by boiling some eggs. then he takes ian to soccer practice and shoots hoops at the basketball courts for awhile.
• i chat a bit more with deb until she has to go to yoga. maya wakes up in a bad mood. only castella and a spongebob dvd makes the tears stop. after rupert comes back maya + i head out to go get ian (good thing practice is just across the street). maya takes this opportunity to run around and blow off some steam.
• after getting home i start making dinner :: korean naengmyon noodles with korean bbq, kimchi, bean sprout namul, sliced pear, and a hard-boiled egg. it's pretty good until about half-way through, when the meat starts to cool and the fat congeals. the inside of my mouth gets a bit waxy.
• nothing good on tv so we decide to play rock band :: ian's on guitar (as always), rupert starts off on mic and i play drums. after a couple of songs ian relinquishes the guitar to rupert and i sing. get 95% on hard singing "dirty little secret." stink at "are you gonna be my girl" (on hard) but get "most gutsy" anyway.
• rupert gets the kids ready for bed while i hop back on the laptop to work on this project.
• it's 11pm now and i'm almost ready to go to bed ...

he has talent ... it just needs to be cultivated

one of rupert's photos from our trip to nyc was chosen to be included in the schmap new york guide's section on the central park carousel. the editors found it on my flickr page and contacted me about its possible inclusion in the guide, and today i got news that it's in the new "edition." you can see it here in the upper right corner by scrolling through until you get to the photo above.

rupert wasn't particularly impressed with this particular photo, especially since i loaded it up to flickr without editing it. i just wish he was more confident in his photo-taking skills. i would love for him to take a class someday and really make photography a hobby.

speaking of which, i'll be taking a photography class with karen russell at scrapbook oasis in february. can't wait! and what a great motivator to get our dear camera fixed.

moo cards = moo-velous!

my moo cards finally arrived! i was getting worried because i ordered them the week before thanksgiving ... but no wonder it took so long :: they came all the way from allemagne (germany).

the mini cards are so darn cute. and they are tiny; much smaller than i expected. they come in a plastic box and each card measures 2.75" x 1"+. the paper it's printed on is nice and thick, and has a smooth texture to it. i'm impressed with the paper quality, but i wasn't 100% impressed with the print quality. some of the images look a little grainy and dark. the image looks better if it's large and up-close. but all-in-all i really like them.

i ordered one set to use as business cards for the stuff i sell at the sleepyhead paper designs etsy shop. can't wait for someone to order something so i can include the moo card. :)

not my calling

for some crazy reason i was asked to photograph a wedding last night. no doubt about it, i was nervous about such a huge responsibility. i only took the job under the condition that i couldn't be held responsible for the results!

i do love taking pictures but i know nothing about the technicalities involved in professional photography. i read up a bit before the wedding, in hopes of gaining new skills, but i think that just made me more nervous and flustered.

and, sure enough, the outdoor pictures came out nicely but the indoor ceremony shots (of all things) came out not-so-good. i feel so horrible about not getting good pictures of their important moments. thankfully, i know other people were taking pictures of what i botched, but that doesn't minimize the guilt i feel for accepting money for a job not-well-done.

on top of all of that my beloved camera stopped working half way through the reception! i desperately called rupert to have him look through the manual but there was nothing in there about what the camera was doing. so i had to borrow a point-and-shoot digital camera and i'm really not sure how well those pictures came out. i was lucky that the bride was not a bridezilla and totally rolled with the punches about the technical difficulties.

in any case, i just wanted to congratulate O+A on their marriage, to thank them for using me as their photographer, and to apologize for messing it up!

p.s. rupert was is upset that our camera is not working properly ... especially today of all days :: maya's second birthday.