One of my favorite and most recently acquired things is this bowl. Hello, it has the high class of china but a touch of unexpected flair. It’s a metaphor for my life.
This was a gift from my two dear friends, Rachel and Amanda. I love this bowl
Actually not much of a story, one of our dear sweet kittens (Bella) passed away suddenly. There isn’t much of an explanation, apparently she must have been sick before we got her and she just couldn’t survive.
I was/am a total mess. I loved that kitty and I want her back. I guess I’m a real sap about those kind of things, my pets are family to me, and losing one of them has been a truly awful experience.
We couldn’t leave poor Claire by herself so we went back and bought her sister. We named her Pam (after the TV show the office).
Here is dear sweet, hyper Pammie.
Here is a picture of Claire
And of course Annyoung
I love my kitties.
(Bella, miss you.)
So yeah, it’s been one of those weeks where some of the worst things happen to you and some of the best things.
On Friday night I was driving on a two lane road when another car drove into my lane and hit me going 45mph. Lovely. Sent my awesome black jeep spinning around the road at least twice and then slid backward for a good 10 feet resting right next to the guard rail. Crap. The other car lands 30 feet away in someones back yard. Everyone and their brother pulls over and whips out there cell phones, while I just sat in my car blinking; wondering what the crap just happened. And then the people are shouting “you need to get out of the car, your leaking gas.” Ummm I can’t get out, I’m against the guard rail and what if I’ve snapped a vertebrae; should I really be climbing over the center console? Permanent paralysis or burning alive inside my beloved car? The people were insistent, so I managed to climb out, while shaking violently. A woman takes me into her arms exclaiming how lucky I am, I still can’t talk. Awkward. Firemen, paramedics and thirty bystanders later, I find out the other driver spilled hot coffee on himself and lost control. Oh and what’s that thing in my tow car drivers hand? Yeah, that’s my drive train. Snapped out of my car and allowed the back axle to creep under the passenger doors, snapping the leaf spring and puncturing my gas tank. At least that’s the running commentary from all the testosterone card carrying members of society. All I know is that this car is irrevocably broken. Cool. I sat on the side of the road and cried and cried. I loved that car.
car in tow yard
Yeah, bummer. Tires are now behind wheel well after the nice tow. And those tires, brand NEW, TOP OF THE LINE. Someone shoot me.
But the truth is… I’m really blessed. I’m fine, no scratches or bruises. Just sore (everywhere). And we both have insurance so… I’ll get something out of all of this.
But now for the cuteness. Just hours later I was in possession of this
Claire Kitten
And then Saturday I got this…
Bella Kitten aka Baby Kitty
So yeah these two make me smile. They’ve become part of our family.
Annyoung and Baby Kitty enjoying a meal
Claire and Baby Kitty in David's lap
I love my life.
Scott Townsley is an amazing amazing photographer!!
I feel ike I owe this man my sanity.
Here is a slideshow he created…
http://www.scotttownsleyphotography.com/slideshows/scoggan
More thoughts on that day to come…
Oh, neglected blog, I’m back, I’m married and I’m ready to reconnect. Have you missed me dearest blog? Awww, I missed you too.
Some new and decidedly guilty pleasures
I just joined the Twitter wagon, really cause I like using words like twitter, tweet, and twitterpated. You can toot my tweets at http://twitter.com/kristenscoggan. Yeah, I’m awesome.
I admit that I have been bitten by the fictional vampire bug. I’m addicted to Stephanie Meyer and her series on teen vampires. It’s the kind of reading that could rot your brain out, but I’m hooked; what can I say? The 4th and final book comes out on 8.2.08, and yes I’ll be at Barnes and Noble at midnight to pick up my copy. No, I will not be wearing wax fangs and no, I’m not a pre-teen girl. (PS. If your wondering – totally Team Edward).
I am completely addicted to blogs, I read about 150 entries a week, thus making Google’s blog reader something I can’t live without, combined with the iPhone version of the app, AMAZING. Here are a few of my favs, that I randomly found and now cannot stop reading **content maybe objectionable at times ie language, mature subject matter**
Dooce – Heather writes a hilarious blog about her life with husband, dogs, and stunning little girl. She is one of the wittiest people I’ve ever read and has a wonderful eye for design and photography. Her daily chuck is to die for.
Pioneer woman – Ree writes about her life with her family on a cattle ranch, she also does amazing photography and has section called Pioneer Woman Cooks, which is just tantalizing.
Amalah – What can I say? Amy just makes me laugh, and her son is the most adorable boy on the face of the planet.
These blogs are just three of the many, but they are the three that make me smile when they are aggregated into my blessed reader, they make me sit down and take a deep breath and a break from whatever I’m doing to just read and laugh.
Messing around with my new iPhone App and accidentally posted the item below, maybe my new WordPress app reads my mind and posts inappropriate phrases. Let’s hope not, this could devestate my career.
Sitting in my living room just now, I’m showered and well rested and fed, my bags are packed and my dress is hanging in the guest room of my house. All of David’s clothes are hung up neatly in one of my our closests.
Rachel just asked me, “are you all ready?”
My reply, “I’m all ready, but not at all ready.”
It’s a paradox, all the music and the meal, and the flowers and the plans are all finished and hours away from a first and last use.
But I am just beginning something. I am about to start a new life. And I’m not ready. I’m ready in all the ways I can be, but there are just somethings you can’t prepare for. I’m jumping off a cliff. The cliff that leads me to wifedom.
But I’m excited, and I love him so much.
So here goes everything… I’m going to be a scoggan.
I immediately loaded Wikipedia links and Facebook links to my home screen. I added some music, and bookmarked some YouTube videos. Holy Freaking Cow. I fell in love, the phone was so intuitive. All my text messaging shows up in different colored speech bubbles!! Visual Voicemail is literally amazing. I cannot even describe it. Soooo awesome.
Google Maps is by far the application that has completely changed how I live. I am never lost or more accurately I’m lost but not panicked. I just hit current location and drop a pin at my parking spots around the city and I can always find my way back to my car. Sweet. Really big tourist help. Huge. Help.
Also being able to find out any trivial information where ever I am. I was about to slip some mail in the drop box this morning and I quickly checked USPS.com to see when the rate change went into affect, and quickly withdrew my hand from the opening. That would have been tragic.
Planning a wedding? Never been easier with an iPhone, just Google Map search for your vendor and add them into you contacts. Heaven, i tell you heaven.
And with the Mobile Me software coming out this summer, my life will be even easier.
So yeah, and now they are cheaper, what the heck is everyone waiting for? Get out there. Get one.
June has been a crazy insane month
It has been the best of times and the worst of times.
But I think I should recap this last thirty days in pictures.
Here is a series I call “praying” in a prayer room
These are some shots from trip to Chicago
This is series of pictures from an Eddie James trip
And finally pictures of how the teen summer camp at IHOP affects me.
My jeep filled to the gills with gummy candy and and ring pops. God help us all.
The only thing that comforts me…
Well, this too.
Okay so I had been contemplating a PDA for a while. I needed a phone where I could get email and schedule meetings on the fly. I am THAT important. Not really, but while I would cherish the serenity of being out of the office I also feared returning to my inbox. It was causing anxiety and I was constantly missing meetings, I just couldn’t keep it all in my head anymore.
But even with all that I figured I could wait a bit to buy a PDA. And then one week before the most enormous, stressful, insane, exhilarating event of my entire work calendar onething I found myself frantically looking for my cell phone in my room. I slapped my forehead and starting spewing expletives took a deep breathe and ran downstairs, and fished my really very functional and fabulous phone out of my washing machine. DOH.
Thankfully, as I was still not ready to commit to PDA living, I keep a back up phone, I switched out sim cards (gotta love those things) and went on my way. This back up phone was truly crappy, truly. But I needed to do some serious research before I ventured into PDA world.
The obvious choice for me was an iPhone, wildly popular and highly praised, most bugs had been worked out, and I was already an At&T customer.
One hesitation remained, I use a PC, I use outlook, I have never owned a Mac. My PC user status is realistically not changing, it’s a work thing, it’s just not practical for me.
Scouring the internet I tried to figure out if an iPhone would work with clunky PC technology. Differing reports everywhere, some people declaring total integration failure, Apple claiming complete compatibility.
I decided, knowing no PC users personally who were on the iPhone, that it was worth trying. With a bit of fear, I trekked to the Apple store and bought one. Threw caution to the wind, the Crackberry simply would not suffice when it came to my PDA needs.
I had been entering all my phone contacts into Outlook for a month in hope that I would choose the iPhone. I plugged my gorgeous new phone into my laptop, using the ubiquitous Apple USB jack (i heart apple), and few clicks later I was on my new phone. All my contacts were perfectly loaded, my entire Outlook calendar was now in my phone. Whew.
Next morning I marched into the IT office and they worked their magic and poof… email, my work outlook email, in my phone. In truth this took a bit of finagling, not fully bug proof, but it was successfully working in less than an hour.
And just like that love blossomed, I cannot go back to my “other” non-iPhone life. I have burned the bridges, I’ve moved on, I’ve moved up, I’m living the future here people.
Part two: Living la iPhone Loco will be a more official review, with all the pros and the few cons of iPhone ownership, from a PC users perspective.
