The sun and the sea...

Just got back from Croatia!!!

I can't recommend the Sail Croatia trips enough - it was an amazing week of sun and gorgeous waters and the most fantastic group of people. There were about 35 of us on board, and I feel so lucky with the group we had. There were about 23 Aussies, 5 Kiwis, 5 Brits, 1 Frenchman and me, the lone American. I went with my co-worker, Tim, and it was really nice to have a buddy on board, although it's definitely the type of trip you could go on by yourself and have an amazing time. We had young married couples, dating couples and singles, all somewhere between 21 and 35.


Here's our gorgeous boat, the Emanuel.

Other than that, I'm not really sure where to begin, so for now, I'll just put up this slideshow of my pics and write more later. I just wish I could have brought you all with me. But if you're considering any kind of trip like this - definitely do it!



Now I still feel like I'm moving a little bit today - haven't quite let go of my sealegs, so it's back to bed for me. (i wasn't seasick exactly but was a little queasy...but it didn't get in the way of an amazing holiday)

Holiday - it will be so nice

Hey all,

I'm off for my week at sea on the Croatian coast so I'll be offline for a bit. It's been a nice gentle week at work and everyone is back to their normal fun-loving selves, which has been great. Hopefully the next picture I post will be a tanner version of my normal self.

In other news, Matt and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary (dating anniversary, that is - just to avoid any confusion about secret elopements and such) which is a pretty awesome milestone. Hopefully this will be the only one we have to spend so far apart. He's off to a wedding in Chi-town this weekend and then starts his new job on Monday, which I'm very excited about for him.

I just caught up on the gymnastics Olympic coverage and I'm wishing I understood how the scoring works now. It was so much easier when it was all based on a 10 point scale. Those top 3 ladies were phenomenal, though - I can't even imagine. So awesome.

Email me before 3pm my time if you're hoping for a Croatian souvenir of some kind. =) Talk to you soon!

chop chop

I've been working like crazy this week, so the only news I have to report is that I got my hair chopped. I expected a big reaction, since I was pretty freaked out about how much was taken off...but even the one person who I know hates me with short hair (wait - "hate" is too strong a word, he has "strong objections") was like "oh, it's not that short. it looks cute." And there hasn't been much comment at work either. So either it's much worse than I think and people are just trying to ignore it, or it suits me so well that people aren't quite sure how different it was two days ago.

Anyway, I'll let you be the judges with this very fuzzy computer snapshot...


and please, if you think it's really bad, you have to tell me! It's just hair, it'll grow back but I need to know not to go back to that salon. I think I kind of like it...at least it's something new and it's low maintenance. I'm just still working on how much and what kind of product to use to make it work.

So the London screening is tomorrow, which means that my hell period is over. Then Friday I'm off to Croatia for a week. Yay for sun and sea!

I'll try to blog more before then. Laters!

Fancy Pants - i mean, Dress

For those of you who don't already know, "pants" here means underpants, not trousers...although all the Brits know what an American means when they say pants, they still like to make fun of me whenever I say something like "fancy pants" or "ants in your pants"...which to be honest are pretty ridiculous phrases for me to be saying anyway.

But to get to the story, Helen had a fancy dress (in regular speak, costume) flatwarming party this past weekend, with the theme circus/carnival/burlesque - so basically anything a little wackier than usual. I get really excited for any costume party and love that there seem to be so many more of them here throughout the year than there are in LA. Of course I've been thinking of a costume for weeks and was very excited about my idea... a knife-thrower's target... fake blood, fake knives, possibly a cardboard multi-colored wheel on my back.

The unfortunate parts are that I haven't had a day off for about 3 weeks so I had no time for costume parts gathering, and a dozen of Helen's friends went out of town "on holiday" that same weekend. Which meant that middle of last week, completely understandably Helen changed it to costume-optional so that no one's attendence was affected by a costume requirement. =)

But once I get stuck on a costume idea, I have to do it. So yeah, I was the geek who was by far the most dressed up at the party. But that's ok, I didn't mind. Plus, I don't get many excuses for fake blood these days, so I went for it. No cardboard wheel though - I didn't have time for arts and crafts.

Here's Helen and me:


It was really great to meet some of Helen's friends, her place looks amazing, and I was super happy to have some of my extra fun co-workers there too. An excellent gathering and a much needed night o' fun in the middle of this crazy work crunch.

I just found out my fam is coming out last week of August/first of September - so over Labor Day, and I'm really excited. We may try to go to Scotland for a couple days or take the train to Belgium (Brussels or Bruges maybe) If anyone else is considering a visit, any time in September is really good because work will be slower for me. The first part of October might be ok too but they're talking about our next screening being sometime in November.

I'll close with a pic of the Sunset I took last Tuesday. We were out on a deck by the river at Riverside Studios. It was a lovely little evening.