.:: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 ::.

another year older...somehow 31 sounds so much older than 30.

:: joyce 5:51 PM [+]::
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.:: Thursday, January 24, 2008 ::.

this is kinda fun. according to this quiz, obama is most like me, and hillary is #2. intersting...

:: joyce 5:47 PM [+]::
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.:: Sunday, January 20, 2008 ::.

i keep having dreams that i'm back in college. the dreams are always different, but it's always the first day of classes, and either i can't find my schedule or i'm so caught up in doing something else that i miss one of my classes. one time i just couldn't find the building. it's so strange! i've probably had 4 or so of these dreams now, maybe in the past 6 months. what does it mean?! they're kinda stressful cuz i don't want the professor to drop me from the class, and then i panic trying to find a way to get to class. of course no method of transportation is readily available so i end up missing it. strange. especially since i have NO desire to go back to school. and even less after having these dreams!

:: joyce 2:21 PM [+]::
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.:: Thursday, January 17, 2008 ::.

well, it seems i got lucky again! my company laid off 1300 employees nationwide, completely shutting down all offices except our main building. the entire wholesale and conduit teams have been eliminated. but consumer direct lending (that would be my department) is completely untouched and safe. for now. funny thing is we're still hiring sales ppl like crazy. i'm really sad cuz i first started out in wholesale and have a lot of friends there that no longer have jobs. they've been told the company will keep them around for 30-60 days to clean out their pipelines (basically close all pending loans) and tie up loose ends. a lot of my current team came from wholesale and/or conduit, so we were all very sad for our colleagues.

the bright side of all this? we're moving offices!!! to the main building which is even closer than my old building (it's in the same city we live, and i can actually see it from around the corner of our house)! so now my commute will be more like 2.5 miles. woohoo!!!! let's hope they move us soon cuz i'm sick of driving!

:: joyce 5:02 PM [+]::
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.:: Monday, January 14, 2008 ::.

i just noticed the link to my cutest thing ever doesn't work. :( i wonder if the person took it down. it was so cute...

so W got a PS3 last week, and he's been like a kid on christmas. we got rock band and i gotta say, it's pretty addicting. it was just the 2 of us last night, so he was on guitar and i was singing (of course). then i tried the drums and omg, it's hard! so we're still looking for a drummer to join our band. any takers? the lame part is the game has a guitarist and bassist, but only comes with one guitar, and the guitars for guitar hero don't work with it. and they're not actually selling just the guitar for rock band til later this year. so lame. why didn't they just include 2 guitars and raise the price a little??

:: joyce 6:08 PM [+]::
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.:: Friday, January 11, 2008 ::.

omg...cutest thing ever!!! i had him up on my 2nd monitor all afternoon! lol...

oh and i forgot to add glad steaming bags to my list of kitchen gadgets/toys/etc. i LOVE them!!

:: joyce 5:07 PM [+]::
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.:: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 ::.

food & drink favorites i just can't get enough of right now:

1. naked juice, orange mango
2. whole foods pizza dough (made a veggie pizza w/it and it was very good!)
3. whole foods fresh ground honey roasted peanut butter (it's just honey roasted peanuts that you grind fresh...soooooo good!)
4. single serving veggie trays from costco (they include baby carrots, broccoli and grape tomatoes, with ranch dressing)
5. dragon trail mix from
sunflower farmers market (the closest thing we have to trader joes in colorado, minus the cheap booze)
6. uncured turkey hot dogs from sunflower (no nitrites/nitrates, low sodium, low fat, low calories...but quite tasty!!!)
7. mighty leaf green tea tropical
8. organic fuji apples from costco
9. green beans
10. tilapia (my 2nd fave fish of the moment...1st is always sea bass)

some of my current favorite cooking gadgets/tools/etc:

1. pampered chef citrus peeler (best $1 i've ever spent!!! i LOVE this thing!)
2. citrus juicer (so handy to have...i'm sure you can find it somewhere other than sur la table)
3. pampered chef pizza stone (i bake more than just pizza on this stone...fish, tator tots, fries, you can even do cookies, but i don't want my cookies to taste like fish/tator tots/fries/pizza. i'll have to get a rectangular stone for my sweets.)
4. zyliss garlic press (so much easier than mincing garlic, but kind of a pain to clean)

and while i'm at it, here are some recipes:

1. thai-style halibut with coconut curry broth (so easy, sooooo delicious! i made it last night w/tilapia cuz i couldn't find halibut.)
2. ruth's red lentil & potato soup (add more kale, it shrinks!)
3. salmon & avocado with sesame soy dressing (sounds weird, but it's a great combination!)

:: joyce 7:16 PM [+]::
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.:: Sunday, January 06, 2008 ::.

places i most want to travel in my lifetime (in no particular order):

1. santorini, greece
2. amalfi coast, italy
3. lake como, italy
4. prague, czech republic
5. amsterdam
6. croatia
7. south korea
8. return to japan
9. return to tuscany

i keep finding more places i want to visit when i watch rick steves' europe, and also from watching amazing race (sidenote: i'm really bummed that the goth pinkies aren't gonna win...they were my favorite!).

in the US, i most want to travel to alaska, especially katchemak bay (as seen on 1000 places to see before you die (based on great book of same name). this couple (from colorado) entered a contest and won a 14 week trip around the world, going to 100 of the 1000 places to see before you die. how lucky are they?! i'm soooo jealous!!! staying at uber fancy hotels and resorts, eating at some of the best restaurants in the world, seeing amazing historic sights...trip of a lifetime.

we watched sicko, and my first reaction was "i wanna move to france!!!" after some discussion with W, i realized that some of the stuff we have here in the US really sucks, but overall, it's probably a better place to live than most others. but still, i would gladly relocate to another country (temporarily) if asked. :) the movie made me really sad. really sad for the ppl in it, but also really sad for our society. our leaders, who can't seem to find a way to make national healthcare a reality. how come other countries can do it but we can't? greedy politicians. greedy privateers. everything's about money in our country. it's really just sad...

:: joyce 1:48 PM [+]::
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.:: Wednesday, January 02, 2008 ::.

i seriously cannot believe it's 2008. i know i say that every year, but i swear as i get older time flies by much faster.

i was reading an article in sfgate about the changing demographic of SF, and how they're buidling so many new high rises and luxury condos around the city, especially in places that are being "rebuilt." it was weird when we were there this past weekend, there were so many new buildings in SOMA, all very tall, modern, luxury condos and lofts. the article was saying that the population of SF will become mostly white and asian, pushing out the blacks and hispanics as housing prices soar even more with these new buildings. i don't know how much truth there is in that statement, but it would be very sad. i mean isn't the diversity of any big city like SF what really makes that city? the article mentioned a district in SF called the dogpatch. where the hell is that?!

while we were out there, we also drove around our old 'hood, SSF and millbrae. it was so weird to be back there. it's changed little, but felt so different. it was cold and foggy and i don't miss that at all. :) at least when it's 20 degrees in denver, the sun is still shining and everything looks beautiful!

well, hope everyone has a safe, happy, healthy, prosperous new year!!

:: joyce 5:16 PM [+]::
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