Hmmm

I don't see a lot of people posting here. I guess I'll just have to post something. I know that you all sit around and wonder what I do all day and what my workplace looks like. Well I'm here to satisfy that burning curiosity. We had our offices painted this week and I took some pictures - primarily to send to my boss. She's in Geneva right now and whenever she travels she emails and asks me what's happening. So that's one of the things I do all day, answer emails from my boss. Time-consuming, but necessary. I also process orders for solar cookers and accessories, answer the phone and try to be patient with people asking incredibly stupid questions. Today a woman called to tell me her order wouldn't go through our online website. She then proceeded to read me everything on her screen. It gets frustrating. Ok, where was I? Oh yeah, what I do. I post stuff on Facebook and Twitter for work, I try to fix computer problems (hardware & software) for co-workers, I schedule volunteers to go out and do solar cooking demonstrations, I help design invitations to send to donors, I listen to my co-workers stories and complaints, I look up information on hotels in Nairobi (my boss is going there in June), I water plants, I call people and diplomatically tell them they are a deadbeat because their credit card donation didn't go through, I - well I guess that's enough. Oh yeah that was all in one day. Also I was nice to the landlady who is unhappy with the colors we chose for the walls. Nobody else wants to talk to her so I get to.

Anyway that's my life from 8:30-5:00, Monday-Friday. Here's some pictures of the painting. I think it came out nice although a little bright! The last picture is the drain spout thing outside my office. I sometimes go for a walk around the block to get away from work. The other day it was raining and I took the picture because I thought it looked kind of cool.

Now hopefully someone else will post. If not I have a lot more fascinating stories like this to share!

Just pictures

Some pictures from my rainy walks today. It's kind of hard to take a picture while you're holding an umbrella but I managed!

Video to share

Someone shared this on facebook and so I wanted to share it here.



A true story

One day a son asks his father:
"Daddy, will you run the marathon with me?"
The father answers yes and both run their first marathon together.
One day, the son asks his father if he wants to run the marathon with him again and the father answers yes. They both run the marathon together again.
Then one day the son asks his father:
"Daddy, will you run the Ironman with me?" (the Ironman is the toughest...it requires a 4km swim, 180km biking and 42km running).
The father says yes again.
This all sounds easy...but check this video.



I can't figure out how to put the video in, so I hope that this link works. 

My giant bug

Twice in my old apartment I found a giant bug in my bathtub. I'm pretty sure that people thought I was exaggerating the size. The other morning I was walking around my neighborhood and spied my bug in someone's yard. I was pleased for a couple of reasons: 1) I now have proof that I didn't exaggerate the size, and 2) It's living with someone else!

Not a lot to say

I really don't have much to say so I thought I'd share some pictures. It rained quite a bit here for a couple of days and the first picture shows the flooded corner a couple of blocks from me. The second picture is the parking lot at work. You're probably wondering why I took a picture of the parking lot! It was hailing and one of my co-workers said it was snowing so I went outside to take a picture of the snow but then we all realized it was just hail. I took the picture anyway but I don't think you can really see the hail. Although if you enlarge the picture and zoom in there is a little white spot that could be hail. . . Anyway I'm trying to pretend it really snowed. Don't ask me why - I guess I need some excitement in my life. It's pretty cold outside right now. It's supposed to go down to 27 tonight but I don't think it's going to snow.

The third picture is, I think, a cherry blossom tree. I just thought it was pretty! The last picture is one I took of my apartment from across the street. You can see my patio and bedroom window. In the right hand corner of my patio you can see my vine that's growing over the fence. I like the trees in front of my apartment - I keep forgetting to ask Jill what kind they are. Maybe she'll read this and tell me.

Update on stockton dance festival

OK so now i know that the dance tickets are free i just wanted to let you know that they are free if you are wondering because in my other post it said that i didn't know if they were and that's it i just wanted to let you know bye :I

updates from Stephen

Well, i've been a bit quieter than I had planned as of late, and I've no doubt fallen off the list of the faithful few who post regularly. So here's to hoping this is the start of renewed consistency and regularity in that regard. Not much new here. I'm still working on getting my photography business up and running, and I'm still looking for wedding and portrait gigs, so...if you know of anybody who is looking for one of those, send them my way. I'm going to a wedding and portrait photography convention in Las Vegas in a couple of weeks, and I hope to get inspired and enthused and filled with new ideas while I'm there. I've been a bit under the weather the last few days, so I don't have any new photos to show any of you. However, if you visit my blog (texeiraphoto.wordpress.com), you'll see some of the recent images I have posted, which will likely be new to many of you...okay, I think that's it for now. Oh, one last thing. People insisted I put my photo on my website, which have now done. Take a look at the site and let me know what you think of the photo on the about me page. Thanks.

stockton dance festival :D

Hi I just wanted every one to know about the Stockton dance festival. I'm going to dance at the festival with the other youth from church. They are coming from all over Stockton to practice with us. I'll put up the web site http://123everybodydance.blogspot.com/ that has the dances we are practicing. My favorite dance is the swing. It's in June I think its the 11th, and I think it's free to get in. Not sure though. I hope some of you can come.
Here are a couple of pictures of me at one of the practices.

Pictures from last weekend

I finally got my pictures from last weekend into my Picasa web album. If anyone wants to look I've listed them with links below. Since there are 27 albums on my Picasa site I thought I should provide direct links! I didn't edit them so there are some that are similar and some not so great but I guess that's ok.

Taken in Monterey
At Carmel Mission
At Soledad Mission
Along California coast

Cute story

On my other blog, Facebook and Twitter I attempt to maintain a veneer of sanity therefore I'm going to tell my cute story here since most of you are kind of, uh oops guess I should wait until the end of the story before I insult the readers. . .

As you all know I went away for a few days and Jill & John apartment/cat-sat for me. I think that Pippin must have missed me while I was gone. He normally will cuddle with me once during the night but last night he woke me up three times and insisted on curling up in my neck and cuddling with me. About an hour ago he started meowing loudly until I finally followed him into the bedroom where I had to lay down so he could cuddle again. I thought that was really sweet. Mellifera isn't as pushy about attention but I had to hold her last night and then again this morning. She's only hissed at me once so I guess that means she's glad to have me home also.

Ok, cute story over with. What else? Oh yeah - I signed up for a beginning birder field trip with the Sacramento Audubon society. I decided awhile ago that I wanted to figure out what birds I was looking at so I got a book to help me. I thought it'd be helpful to actually see them with people who knew what they were talking about. I wasn't going to sign-up for the field trip because I figured it'd just be a bunch of old people looking at birds. Then I realized I'm an old person who wants to look at birds. Anyway it's a 4-hour class at some park in Carmichael and I guess they'll tell me all about birds. It's only a $5 charge so I thought it was a pretty good deal.

That's about it. I had a good trip but am glad to be home. It was a beautiful day Saturday when I was in Monterey and there were a lot of people out. Sunday I drove down to Fremont on hwy 1. It was a nice drive and I got some great pictures. I'm going to put them into my picasa album and then I'll post a link here later. This one is really cool so I'm going to post it here. I have no idea how I got this picture. I was using my phone and I couldn't see well because I didn't have my glasses on and the sun was shining. I just pointed in the direction of the ocean and snapped a picture. It looks dark in the picture but it was only around 1:30-2:00 pm. While I'm pleased with the picture, it's a little disheartening to realize that one of the better pictures you took was completely accidental. Oh well.

Some pictures

Here's a few pictures I took today. There were a lot of people out by the water - I guess because it was such a nice day!

Location:Monterey, CA

Try this!

I'm trying to make this blog exciting and interactive. So. . . . here's a challenge for all of you: tell the story of your life in six words. Ok, it's kind of weird but try it anyway and share your story in a post or comment!

Yesterday I went for a walk by the American River. It was very, very, very cold and quite deserted. The only person I saw was someone picking up trash. They have the access road closed due to possible flooding so I had to park outside and walk down a steep hill. Ok, not that steep I was just trying to make the story more interesting. Anyway it was nice to walk by the river and I took lots of pictures. If you'd like to see the pictures you can see them on my Facebook page. I think you have to have a Facebook account though. I'm trying to put them into my Picasa album but it isn't working right. Here's a preview for you! In the second picture you can see the overpass. I wanted to walk up there and take pictures looking down at the river but I couldn't find the path to get up there. I'll have to go back later and try again.

Website Updated

For those of you who have been paying attention, you'll know that my photography website (texeiraphoto.com) has been having a few problems, primarily when being viewed using one of those Internet Explorer browsers. Well, after much anguish and confusion (and a lot of help from certain members of my family), my site is back up, albeit in a slightly different form. So, take a look and, if you haven't already, leave me a note on my blog letting me know what you think. And, as always, if you know of anybody getting married, let them know that you can get them a deal on a great photographer (I give everybody a deal).

Test result

The doctor called last night and said my ultrasound looked fine. I guess I just need to watch eating cereal mix & tamales!

A few pictures

This is my advice: when you go out for a walk in the morning, even though it's only going to be a short walk, you should always wear lots of warm clothing. Otherwise you'll be extremely cold despite the fast pace of your walk. Ok, stroll may be a better term. It was cold outside! Isn't Pippin cute in the last picture? He looks surprised because I think he thought that I'd gone to work and wouldn't be home for awhile.

Sick room update

Later that same day update: Turns out the test results indicate a gallbladder problem. . . . I'm supposed to go Wednesday for an ultrasound. I'm not exactly happy. Oh well.

Well I'm still sick. I'm somewhat better - my face is not swollen up and I can touch my neck - antibiotics are quite useful! I'm very weak though and my stomach hurts and I feel nauseous a lot. The doctor thinks something is wrong with my pancreas - he did a bunch of blood tests and all the results were in normal range except a couple. Those were pretty high but I don't know what that means. No one from kaiser has called yet sounding panicky so I guess I won't panic either. I haven't been eating much so that may cause the weird results - I don't know. He did say the pancreas is self-healing so I guess it's ok. I'm trying not to let my hypochondria kick in.

I was planning to go to work today but I felt so bad when I woke up this morning that I decided to stay home. Then I checked my work email and my boss was sending me emails about all the stuff she has to get done for a UN reception next week and I felt guilty but still too sick to work. Finally I called her and said I'd come in for a couple of hours and then do some work at home. She said just get what I needed from work and do what I could at home and not to worry. I think she's feeling panicky about this UN thing and other stuff and my presence is very calming. I know you're all laughing at that but seriously it's what everyone I've ever worked for has said about me (well except those WAC people) - that I have a very calm manner and they feel like everything is going to be taken care of when I'm around. Believe me I don't understand it either!

Anyway that's my update. I'm miserable and sick. I pinched my finger in my umbrella yesterday when I went to Kaiser. It hurts. My cats think it's weird that I'm home sleeping all the time. My apartment is a mess and I have bunches of dirty laundry. I have to go buy cat litter at some point today. I just ate a piece of toast w/peanut butter and soup. I feel icky. Aside from that everything is great!

Jill is sick also but feeling better. Colleen is sick but feeling a little better although she sounds bad. Dad is sick also. I don't know about Dad but Colleen and I are convinced Jill is the one who got us sick. Jill thinks I got her sick. I'm confused.