Ryan and I were in Vegas Saturday through Wednesday of this past week. We took advantage of my parent's timeshare there but did not stay the whole week like they did. The place is really nice and is one block back from the strip at the Marriott Grande Chateau. They are right next to the Planet Hollywood which use to be the Alladin. All the rumors you've heard that Alladin/Planet Hollywood has the best buffet are true. Even if it is now the Planet Hollywood, the buffet is still the same. I didn't get to partake as many buffets as I wanted as my dad insisted on eating on the cheap at times and cooked breakfast for us most mornings. God bless Ryan as this was his first vacation with my dad. My mom has a point when she says that I'm the only child of the three siblings that will vacation with my dad. My infinite (well almost infinite) patience comes from having to deal with my dad growing up.

The first night we went walking along the strip and into the Bellagio. We went to see the very small American post-modernism exhibit in their art gallery where my dad tried to strike up a conversation with every Mexican and Asian man we came across, especially if they were about his age. He likes to attempt to talk to them in their native tongues never mind that his vocabulary in it might be limited. It was obvious the Asian man working the exhibit did not appreciate my dad's attempts at conversation with him.

On Sunday, Ryan and I spent the day getting tickets for the evening. We got discounted meal tickets at the Brazilian steakhouse in Planet Hollywood, Pampas. It was no where near as our favorite local Brazilian steakhouse here at home, Chima, but at $22 Pampas was forgivable. We took my parents there more for the experience than anything and they enjoyed it despite that my dad didn't listen to my mom's attempts to tell him that we were having dinner at 5 PM that evening so we could catch the 7:30 PM Mamma Mia! that we had tickets for. My mom and dad really enjoyed it. My dad didn't even fall asleep once! I enjoyed it too and I'm pretty sure that Ryan that did despite the fact that he said that it was "girly." The fact that the music was all Abba really made the show. My mom and I couldn't stop dancing. I didn't enjoy the ending of the story line as much but it was still definitely worth seeing.

On Monday, my mom tried to take my dad to see Phantom of the Opera but he had drank most of the day and pretty much slept through the whole thing. Meanwhile, Ryan and I saw Blue Man Group. (We couldn't get tickets to Cirque du Soleil's Ka). We had seen a documentary on PBS about their show and it was pretty much the same show but the show is phenomenal in person. We sat in the very back middle of the floor and got to start the paper trail to the stage. Their show is unlike any out there. It is incredibly original and about as interactive with an audience as you can get. They even came out to mingle and take pictures with the audience afterwards. Their show is truly an assault on your senses and is amazing. Yeah, the Blue Men kinda creep me out too but seriously the show is awesome.

Tuesday, Ryan and I and my mom went to spend the day at Mandalay Bay after getting a referral from one of my friends at work. His suggestion definitely did not disappoint. They split the men and the women at the spa so we each have our own facilities. Ryan and I both got hot stone body massages (not together since they only do Couple Massages on Thursdays and Sundays) and I opted for a deep pore cleansing facial. I was, however, talked into a $35 upgrade on the facial that I don't regret. My mom just got a regular facial. The nice thing about getting services at their spa is that you have access to all their facilities for the day even if you get one service. The only thing we didn't get access to was their many swimming pools but we were only really interested in their fitness centers and their spas. After that we had the steak lunch my dad had waiting for us back at the timeshare and we were all starving. Mom and I then went to the local Ross for some discount shopping at the northern end of the strip. I scored two pairs of black shoes (one pointy-toed and heeled and one peep-toed and heeled), two shirts, a khaki summer dress, and a white "leather" bag for my friend, Hannah, (who was also keeping Aja for us while we were gone), and some lingerie for a little over $100. That evening Ryan, me, and my mom went to the Planet Hollywood buffet after waiting for my dad to return from wherever it is he was. I've realized that I was bound to be an independent soul with two parents who don't like to answer to each other. :P

We left Wednesday morning and I slept most of the way home. We left sunny weather in the 70s to return to Baltimore's low 60's, grey, wet weather. It is now Saturday and I'm still incredibly exhausted. It wasn't like we spent a lot of late nights out or anything like that but definitely the walking can get to you. Plus, I think I was probably a bit overstimulated. Being an introvert will subject me to such exhaustion. My parents returned to Baltimore this morning and stopped at our place to pick up Aja who is now officially on vacation. They stayed most of the day which I wasn't really expecting and we had to cancel our appointment with our realtor. She did tell me though that the house we had been wanting to see, a great deal on a foreclosure in the neighborhood across the street from us, was already under contract. We had tried to see that house before we left for Vegas to no avail. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. Ah well, we keep trying, right?

Tomorrow we have no real big plans. We're going to mass in the morning. Yes, I'm aware we've become those "ChrEaster" Catholics that only go to mass on the big holidays but that will change once we have kids. It's holidays like these actually where I wish we had kids to do all these fun holiday, traditional things.

I've got a lot of work to do at work this week and will probably get a head start tomorrow. I hope I'm well-rested before Monday.

On another note, I finally kicked my butt into gear and got myself to the mall since I wanted to hit the Sephora and return something at Ann Taylor Loft. I love living so close to such a big mall open till 9:30 PM. I read up on reviews on Boscia Clear Complexion Kit and decided to get it a try. I'm really excited about it as it's preservative-free and pretty natural. After my facial at Mandalay Bay, I've been on this natural beauty product kick. I'll let you all know how it goes!

Labrador Retriever

The Caretaker

Your family is what makes you tick, and you never "flea" from an opportunity to hang out with the whole gang. A family picnic complete with hot dogs, deviled eggs and a refreshing swim in the lake is hard for you to stray from. Your sparky temperament and dogged intelligence mean you are not only a blast to hang out with, but great to work with as well. Your close pals appreciate your patience and forgiveness, knowing you'd rather let sleeping dogs lie than dwell on the mishaps of the past. Your dashing good looks may one day lead to a modelling career, if only you can tame the unfortunate clumsiness that sometimes causes you to go flailing from the catwalk.

This weekend, Nicole came to visit but had made plans with one of her friends in the area for today. I scheduled an appointment with our realtor since we didn't have next weekend to look at houses. More on Nicole's visit and our time with the realtor in another post. Anyway, I had made me, Ryan, and Nicole some breakfast and left it on our dining table. We left Nicole to lock up since her plans had changed and left Aja behind. When we came home this afternoon we found two pieces of bread that HAD been on the table when we left that morning strewn on the floor. I hadn't seen the table and I asked Ryan if all the food was gone and sure enough it was licked clean. She helped herself to half a bowl of scrambled eggs, a few strips of turkey bacon, and some turkey cold cuts. A feast for dogs!

Nicole left a note saying that Aja had gotten into the food while she was upstairs blowdrying her hair so even though it was pretty evident what had happened with the incredibly "clean" dishes with a few dog hairs in it Nicole told us everything. This is the first time that Aja has ever actually gone up on the table that I know of. We had been cutting back her food to help her lose some weight and I think temptation was just too great. Needless to say, Aja has not been in our good graces all day.

Two weekends ago, Ryan and I went to see my best friend's 'little' sister performance at GWU. Their family is incredibly musically-inclined. My best friend is an amateur tenor and she has an amazing voice as well. She sang my wedding and together they did a duet. I took video of her performance during their very-entertaining one-hour cabaret. My best friend took video the night before. He then combined both our videos to produce the following below. Hope you enjoy it!

My dad knew when I was young that I was going to be an independent one. I think it was about the time I started walking. Growing up, my mom would always get mad that I would never check in with her when I was out. When I turned 16 and could drive, I got a job at the Sbarro in the mall so that I wouldn't have to answer to my parents as to how I was spending my money (not that I'm frivolous by any means, my mom taught me to shop the sales well.) I don't like being micromanaged at work (thankfully I'm not) and like to come and go as I please. I knew I had outgrown my ex when I knew he would start questioning why lately I seemed to want to do something or not.

I love my husband incredibly and I think there is no one better for me than him but my inner independence struggles sometimes with the fact that I do have to run things by someone else. If I want to buy something significant, say a very nice bike, I can't just pay for it and take it home. Well, I mean, I could but my guilt gets the best of me. (There goes our favorite "G" word, T!) I'd say that we are a fairly independent couple. Even at home we do our own things and we have no problem with the other one going out and being social without the other one but again I feel rather guilty if I'm out too long (unless it's one of those things that is understood will take a while) or I'm buying something as I'm clearly the shopper in this relationship. He's never complained about these things either but I feel guilty anyway.

It's not that I don't love my parents and my husband and everyone else I should answer to, it's just that answering to people is not something I think of right off the bat. I could see it being rather discourteous that I don't think of these people while making decisions. I'm not use to having to negotiate and I realize that's been fairly selfish of me. How did I manage to go this long without having to do so? Well, to the point that I actually notice it? But I'm not inconsiderate truly, I am just use to doing things my way and not being questioned. I am truly blessed to be with people that allow me to be who I am and to be able to afford to do the things that I like to do. I guess the fact that I do feel guilty means that I'm not a horrible, inconsiderate person after all . . . at least a little bit.

I'm sure generally people have this opinion about being sick. It's a double-edged sword because there are tons of things I'd like to get down outside of my job that need to get done. So today, I am home so as to not spread my germs around and all I want to do is get things done around the house. Yet, I can't! I'm definitely not 100% as I feel I get winded easily. I also can't stop blowing my nose or sneezing. The achiness I was feeling yesterday morning has subsided greatly. Yet, I'm home. I should be taking care of all this stuff like laundry and things I didn't get to do over the weekend because I was too sick to. We have a houseguest coming this weekend too so you know the place has to be clean before that. She comes on Friday. Doesn't really leave a whole lot of time. I think I may have to tear Ryan away from his nightly video games to clean the bathroom. I hate being sick.

Angel[10:34 AM]:
i'm going downstairs to get osme breakfast
Angel[10:34 AM]:
do you want anything?
Ryan[10:36 AM]:
oh haha, yeah get me an egg sandwhich please, on a bagel
Ryan[10:36 AM]:
no bacon, no cheese
Angel[10:36 AM]:
what kind of bagel?
Ryan[10:36 AM]:
everything
Ryan[10:36 AM]:
onion
Ryan[10:36 AM]:
wheat
Ryan[10:36 AM]:
plain
Ryan[10:36 AM]:
in that order
Ryan[10:37 AM]:

Angel[10:37 AM]:
lol ok
Angel[10:37 AM]:
mr i'm not picky
Angel[10:37 AM]:
good lord
Ryan[10:37 AM]:
You asked
Ryan[10:37 AM]:

Ryan[10:37 AM]:
Don't ask
Angel[10:37 AM]:
because you're picky!
Ryan[10:37 AM]:
I am picky because you ask
Angel[10:37 AM]:
i ask because you're picky
Ryan[10:37 AM]:
no
Angel[10:37 AM]:
yes

Friday evening, Ryan and I made our way to Dupont Circle to pick up Lori and Kurt from their hotel so we could meet Char for dinner at Heritage in Georgetown. We took Lori and Kurt on the scenic route to the restaurant since we got lost several times on the way there and at one point were totally going in the wrong direction. But, alas, we got there and even gave Char time to hit up the nearby Whole Foods. Char had never had Indian food but was such a trooper with an open mind. She got the grilled chicken kabobs and you just can't go wrong that route. We probably sat down at the table at around 8 PM because we were late and didn't leave till almost 11 PM that night. I had NO idea that much time had passed. We girls just kept talking and talking. Kurt and Ryan were such great sports with our topics of conversations and I felt like I could have sat there longer just chatting the night away had the one busboy not kept giving us ugly looks towards the end. All in all, it was a fun night. Lori and Kurt were a great couple and all three of us couples (including the missing Carl, of course) had a lot in common I thought.


Saturday, I spent most of the afternoon getting highlights from my stylist. This is the first time I've had her do it. Some parts are definitely lighter than others but all in all I do like it. I don't think it's much of a drastic change but I will look into getting a picture up. I also had to exchange my size 12 Sweetheart jeans from Old Navy (found on Zafu.com) for size 10s after realizing I could pull them down over my butt with them zipped and buttoned up.

Sunday was Ryan's birthday as well as Superbowl Sunday. It was a pretty low-key night. We grilled out since it was beautiful out not that bad weather has ever stopped us from grilling before. He blew candles out over a big piece of tiramisu I had bought him at Whole Foods and he opened his presents from me. He got a lot less for his birthday this year from me since he had such a great Christmas. I couldn't think of a whole lot of gifts for him.


Then we watched the best Superbowl ever! For years, I have been having high hopes for Eli only to be disappointed year after year. I, like many Americans out there, never dreamed they would make it as far as they did and then at that I didn't really have high hopes they'd beat the Patriots. As a Steelers fan you automatically hate the Patriots. I try to keep an open mind about them but the Patriots' personality just rubs me the wrong way. Brady is a good QB, a great QB in fact as much as I hate to admit it but the Patriots were beatable and won a lot of games within a hair's breadth. The Giants knew what to do by bringing pressure and by keeping Brady off the field that first drive for as long as they did. They did everything right. I was a ball of nerves those last few minutes of the game even worse than when the Steelers won the Superbowl a couple of years ago. I just wanted them to win so bad! I never wanted anyone to win a Superbowl against a team so badly but it was just the best story ever. Patriots 18-0 with a near-perfect season going against a long-shot team that almost beat them in the regular season. If Eli lead his team to victory, the Patriots would not get the perfect season the wanted, the '72 Dolphins would remain the only team to have a perfect season, and the Patriots would be knocked off their high horse. True David and Goliath story. And it happened! Sweet Geezus, it happened! And it was wonderful!

I also picked a true knitting project since last year. Details can be found on my knitting blog.

I think I was reading up on Picasa's API the other day and stumbled upon a couple of websites that I thought were just too awesome not to share.

Picnik.com is an online photo-editing website. You don't have to download anything to your computer. You can upload pictures from your computer or other websites. It has fairly basic but pretty powerful tools that will allow you to edit your pictures. You can even put texts and little clip art around them, frame them, and then save them back to your computer or have them saved directly to your favorite photo storage website like photobucket.com or smugmug.com.You can upgrade to Premium for a small yearly fee which gives you more advanced effects and tools. It is great for really quick edits like fixing red-eye on a picture you want to send out to someone really quick. Or say, you are on your work computer and aren't allowed to download anything to your machine but you need to edit a picture. Granting of course you can get to picnik.com you should be golden. Have fun!



Animoto.com - I haven't yet actually tried this one but it seems really, really cool. It claims to be the website that will put an end to the slideshow as you currently know it. As I understand it, you pick a song and a bunch of your photos and it will create a 'show' to the beat of your song using your photos. They've got some pretty cool demos on there and it seems intriguing. One day I'll test it once I actually have something I want to make into a show. Actually, I think finding the right music would be harder for me. Anyway, if you do check it out let me know what you end up with.

I don't know why I haven't mentioned this before. I am one of those with an awesome Mp3 player that is NOT an iPod. It's the 'old school' iRiver H340, RockBoxed the heck out. I am really disappointed that most Mp3 manufacturers that supported a hard-drive-based player like the iPod and the H340 have stopped making them. One of my coworkers was in the market for a large-capacity Mp3 hard-drive player before Christmas and brought it to my attention that only Creative, Microsoft, and Apple (I'm sure I'm missing some) really make hard drive players anymore. iRiver, what gives?! You had an awesome product with a great community behind it. I dread the day that my H340 dies but so far it has done well for me the past 3 years. I basically just want a hard drive that plays music. I don't want to be tied to any software. I just want to plug it in, have my computer recognize it, and drag and drop the music onto it. Is that too much to ask?

But I digress, the reason for this post was to bring attention to Amazon Mp3s. In order to compete with iTunes, Amazon has been selling DRM-free 256 kbs Mp3s on their website. I discovered this quite by accident as I am on Amazon once a day and we order from there all the time. They make it so easy especially with Amazon Prime and their free shipping. Anywho, you can download whole albums for way less than buying the CD version and singly most downloads are $.89. A savings of $.10 a song from iTunes. Basically, you download their Amazon Mp3 Installer which basically unzips the *.amz file you download from Amazon when you make a purchase. You have 12 hours to have the Mp3 installer unzip the file for you. I learned this the hard way and had to call their technical support (which was awesome by the way.) You can download the songs up to 3 times and they are DRM-free so you can use them as you see fit. I use to buy my music (aside from CDs) on BuyMusic.com but it made things difficult for me because of the DRM. I'd essentially end up burning it to CD and ripping it as Mp3 anyway. At least this way, I don't have to do that whole burning to CD step. Anyway, check out Amazon Mp3s. To me, it's the greatest thing since sliced bread . . or at least RockBox.

I feel really bad that my husband has to deal with me most mornings. I am the CRABBIEST thing in the world in the mornings especially if I wake up before 9 AM. I need a few hours for me to get out of my morning funk and become a hospitable human being. Ryan likes to get into the office early and since we carpool, I oblige. But seriously, don't expect me to have the liveliest conversations and don't expect me to chuckle at anything on Howard Stern. You should just pretend like I'm not even there. Because that's pretty much what I'm doing. My freshman college roommate really got that about me. But then again she was also the same way. If we had 8 AMs across campus we'd get ready together in silence and no one would utter a word until we actually hit the Drill Field.

So today I was probably incredibly bitchy to Ryan who decided that I should try to attend that 9 AM informal 30-minute meeting that he had going on with a colleague. Yeah, it would have probably been a good idea for me to go but don't spring it on me with less than 15 minutes till start of the meeting and BEFORE I'd had breakfast. He waits till we get to the office to tell me I should 'stop by.' "No!" my mind and body yelled. I wasn't mentally prepared to turn my mind on so early and I hadn't eaten. Anything I am feeling is automatically exacerbated if I am hungry. He's like, "Grab something real quick and come down." My feeling is if you wanted me at that meeting so early you should have let me know ahead of time. At least even before we left the house. I would have planned my morning differently.

So we argued about it a bit this morning. He thought it wasn't a big deal. And it probably sounds really petty and bitchy but to me it WAS a big deal and I am crabby in the mornings. I just don't function like that. I need time to prepare. Don't worry, I've finally had breakfast and I'm about to start on my cup of coffee. I'll be much more agreeable soon.

. . . I graduated from high school. That means . . 10-Year Reunion! BUT . . I was also class Vice President. So what does this all mean? Basically, that I'm begrudgingly planning our 10-year high school reunion. I'm not doing it alone though. I was coerced by my two best guy friends (aside from Ryan) and one very motivated class Treasurer. Also, my mother and Ryan. Yes, I said my mother. We had our first kick-off conference call about it last night and it went well.

I'm just glad I'm not doing this alone. See, as class VP I was kinda in the background, which I have no problem with. I'm glad that I planned my wedding over a year ago because I don't think I'd be up for much more "in the limelight" planning. Where is the President you may ask? Good question. Well, she and I were best friends growing up but the last time we really spoke (which was a few years ago) she said that she wasn't really interested in planning the reunion. I think life before college did not exist for her. I was one of the very few links she kept to that life. Anyway, she has an almost 1-year old now and is probably busy. Either way, I'm not making that phone call for several reasons.

But the group of people we have are great and are very motivated and on board so I think that everything will be ok. We've been using Google Docs for collaboration and it is seriously so awesome. You can watch and interact with the documents in real-time. It's really impressive and you should check it out sometime. I don't know how people did this kinda stuff without all that technology before. ;)

Anyway, so that's another thing going on in my life.

So, I want to buy a house already. The husband is making me wait. Well, he's not being as active as I want to be with the whole process. We already know what area we want to buy in which is basically the surrounding area to where we live now. I've watched the houses in that area for months now. I have also watched a lot of great houses sell at great prices and they weren't to me! I have watched the number of houses in that area up for sell dwindle because they've either sold or been taken off the market. And yet, I must still wait. I have a feeling this may just come back to bite us in the ass. Then again, maybe it'll be good to wait. Everyone asks what he's waiting for, etc., etc. Basically, he doesn't want to buy a house only to lose money on it. Our options are to buy a smaller house within a decent price range that we will probably outgrow and want to sell in a few years or bite the bullet and buy a bigger house that will be more expensive and sit on it for many more years. Either way, I'm just frustrated. I really want a house and I'm getting impatient.

I got to sleep in today and then we proceeded to take Christmas down which made both of us a little sad. The big window where our Christmas tree once stood looks so empty now. It was a beautiful day for bringing it down though. I straightened out our junk closet and our little camera/printer section. After showering, I went and took the car for an oil change and to run some errands to exchange and return a few Christmas gifts. If you haven't been to the mall lately, there are some really good sales going on right now. The nice thing about Ryan not paying attention to price when he goes shopping for Christmas is that in January when everything goes on sale I get A LOT more bang for my buck. At several stores I was able to turn one thing into at least two and sometimes three while getting money back or paying just a little bit more. It was freakin' awesome! Barnes and Noble is having a sale through the end of the month where DVDs are Buy 2, Get 1 free. I have a bunch of new workout DVDs now. ;)

Right now, I'm going through all the pictures we've ever taken and currently our honeymoon pictures. I haven't ever finished post-processing them and I found a bunch more that we had on other devices around the house. I've moved all our pictures to one big external hard drive and use Picasa for post-processing. My goal is to get all those taken care of and re-uploaded to SmugMug by the end of the year. I've made good progress and this has been my ongoing project since we got back from Italy. At least all those pictures are taken care of. I just need to get these honeymoon pictures done now. Slowly but surely . . .

Augh, and I'm breaking out a lot these past two days. It's driving me nuts!

. . . for idiots hitting it while it sits in a parking lot!! Since moving up here in December 2004 my car has been hit while parked outside of our home THREE times, the most recent one being sometime earlier today or in the past few days. Luckily for us, there was a witness who left us a nice little note with what they think was the license plate number, a piece of the car that they left behind (maroon), and his phone number. We took pictures (which I'll post later along with some shots from our other 'accidents') and then called the cops for a police report.

Mr. Officer was a young guy and really nice. They tracked the license plate number (which was off by one) and found that it belonged to a guy in Woodbridge which is like 30 minutes from here. They called him and it turns out his daughter may have been driving the car and she has friends up here in this area. Bingo! Ryan doesn't think it's worth pressing charges for unless she ends up being a pain in the ass. She has 24 hours to contact us. We shall see. Mr. Officer said she's already in violation since she basically hit and run us. Just be responsible and take care of your business and pay for your mistakes.

The poor Sentra has been such a trooper. She has been reduced to a lowly 2nd car that barely gets driven around these days only when Ryan and I are on different schedules or have to be in different parts of the DC Metro area for work. She definitely does not deserve the kind of treatment she has been getting since moving up here. When we got the Camry we were so leery because of all the stuff the Sentra went through. We thought that by moving to a place that didn't have on-street parking we'd be ok. Apparently not. Ah, I can't wait to have a driveway or better yet a garage. One day . . .

By the way, Mr. Officer asked Ryan if he was an Ozzy Osbourne fan. Ryan replied with, "Sometimes." Apparently, he's right up the road at the Tysons Corner mall launching a new clothing line. Some of the guys on the force were doing security for him in plain clothes. It ain't Britney but I figured it was newsworthy. ;)

Augh, we lost 21-24 to Kansas. We always have such trouble winning the big games and we don't do all that well in Bowl games. It's so disheartening. I don't get why we didn't run the ball more. "Give more to Ore" was my mantra all game and I don't get why we were throwing when the run was doing so well. At least it was a close game but the Hokies could have won .. always coulda', shoulda', woulda, right? Sighh . . . .

It's almost the New Year and I'm sure tons of people are resurrecting old blogs or starting new ones. Here's my little contribution to the masses. I'll definitely try to be better at this.

Currently, battling a cold and the dropping barometric pressure. More to come . . .

Stolen from a friend . . .

THE WISDOM OF CHILDREN--

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year- old Irish wolfhound named Belker. The dog's owners, Ron, his wife, Lisa, and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached to Belker and they were hoping for a miracle. I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer.I told the family there were no miracles left for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for Belker in their home. As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker's family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away. The little boy seemed to accept Belker's transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker's death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, "I know why." Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I'd never heard a more comforting explanation.
He said, "People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life -- like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?" The six-year-old continued, "Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long."

And if you needed proof ... Aja, rolling happily in some grass. Hopefully, the story will be consolation for me whenever she does go and not for a very long time.

Something a techie like me would only love! Mine's the one on the left. =) I highly recommend widescreens for doing things like Photoshop, heck, even surfing the web. I think that I'm going to find working on the monitors at work PRETTY diffcult after this. It's 19 inches. Sweet!