happy birthday rob! and happy birthday to dana, who's birthday was exactly one week ago! :)

we spent the weekend in mexico at rocky point, and brought rob as his birthday present. aside from one member of our party running off with the mexican guy that sold us fireworks on the beach (uh, no, i'm not kidding), it was a great trip...really, even that had its drama value. jet skiing on the sea of cortez, playing in the tide pools, walking on the beach, setting off a huge fireworks display...good times :).

not much else goin' on here. i'll post a link to mexico pictures as soon as i get them uploaded...

an update, for the brave few that have the perserverance to check this blog (because i do always update eventually...sometimes it just takes a while...):

-redd is getting huge. he's learning how to sit and stay and all kinds of good things. i think we might be taking him on his first camping trip this weekend!
-gearing up to go rafting down the colorado river again in a few weeks. site visits must be done, and who am i to shirk my duties?
-also gearing up to go on my first trip to mexico, which will also be rob's first trip to mexico, because we're flying him out here for his birthday! i fully intend to make him ride the mechanical bull, because that's what a good big sister does. for sure.
-while going over my site statistics, i saw that not one but two people stumbled upon this web site by searching for images of stone cold steve austin. which now makes my second reference ever to stone cold steve austin on this blog (the first of which being a mention of the not-quite-life-size cardboard cut out of said wrestler that resided in my grad school office, which was in a post roughly two years ago).
-i also noticed that people from work have stumbled across my blog. hello, mystery co-worker(s)!
-uh...yeah. not much else. see, you should thank me for not posting when i don't have anything to say! then you don't have to read really boring pointless posts like this one.

adios, muchachos!

it's a shame they don't like each other. really.

first and foremost, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROOKE!! :)



life around here has been pretty puppy-centric lately. redd is doing very well, learning the ropes from big brother lukin and giving the cat grief whenever possible. chester is pretending to hate the puppy, but for the most part he's very tolerant (he'll make "I hate you" noises, but won't actually make any great effort to get away from redd unless he's really, really pesty). lukin loves having a play buddy, and he lets Redd chew on his ears and use him as a jungle gym--i'm very impressed with how good he's been (props to kate's mom for breeding such wonderful dogs!).

mom and dad are coming out for a visit this week, so dana and i are doing some house cleaning this weekend. we're going to take them up to the grand canyon next weekend, which will be very exciting b/c they haven't been before. speaking of the grand canyon, i may have another trip down the river for work coming up in late april. not definite yet, but i'm keeping my fingers crossed...hey, i need to visit my project sites and make sure everything is going well!

i'm going to go outside and play with lukin and redd. later gators! :)

more puppy pictures up over at my flickr site :)

this picture pretty much sums up how i felt throughout much of my college physics experience:

(click to see it bigger)

holy puppy breath, batman.

today is day six of Operation Puppysit. we have the entire litter of golden retriever puppies introduced in the previous post (12 puppies!), plus their mommy (gidget!), and for a few days, their daddy (bear). plus lukin, of course. for those counting along at home, that's 15 dogs. 15. dogs. yup. they are friggin' adorable and it's been a lot of fun having them here, but i must admit that i am looking forward to the restoration of order when they go home tomorrow. but damn are they cute. lukin has been phenomenally good with them--herding them around the yard, checking on them while they sleep, investigating when they make funny noises--i think he'll be very, very sad when they go. chester, however, will do a little kitty dance of joy. gidget and bear kind of want to eat chester, so he's been hiding in our bedroom. he will be very, very happy when they go. then we've got just enough time to wash the sheets on the guest bed before dana's dad gets here on thursday afternoon. hopefully. (kidding--we'll wash the sheets! jeez!). which will be cool, because i haven't met dana's dad yet.

in other news, there isn't much other news. isn't 15 dogs enough for you people?

meet the newest member of the family! dana's friend greg bred his golden retriever bear (to the lovely ms. gidget), and we're taking this little guy once he's old enough (early march). all twelve of the puppies (plus mom) are actually going to be staying with us thursday through wednesday of next week while gidget's owners are on vacation. puppy doesn't have a name yet; he's going to be dana's, so dana gets to name him. for now, you can check out my puppies photo set over at flickr to bask in the cuteness that is puppy. enjoy--more photos to come ;).

this french commercial based on march of the penguins had me laughing so hard i was crying.

"sometimes they slide on their bellies, to go faster"

"there are some really tender moments, too, like when they pass their eggs to one another"

ahahahaha! very, very funny.

...in which krista pimps out a craft site with its very own magazine to which she would very much like to subscribe:



this is from the makers of make magazine, if you're familiar. brilliant stuff.

...in which krista does some housekeeping. or blogkeeping. whatever.

i've edited my links over on the left hand side (no more dead ones!), taken out the "currently reading/recently read" on the right hand side (just don't have the time to read as voraciously as i once did...), and am absolutely flummoxed as to where my archives have gone to. not a clue.

in other news, i'm thinking about putting up some sort of web-based "store front" to sell some of my crafts...more on that as it develops...

[edited 1/28 to add that thanks to a helpful tip from jane, the archives are back. big, cumbersome, and dating back to 2002, but back. lucky you.]

some randomness...

*i am in love with this response (found by the lovely ms. jinxie) to this series of asinine articles claiming that the ingestion of soy is perilous and induces homosexuality.

*dana and i have been running together, and i love it. he's very motivating to run with.

*i am sorry, new england, that it is negative 150 degrees there today.

*this woman drives me batsh!t crazy. seriously.

*i want really, really good soup. who wants to make me soup?

i am baking today. scratch that, i am attempting to bake today. i'm making sourdough bread (from scratch! i even made the starter for the dough, which is a long, drawn out, slightly smelly, bacteria-involving process), but my dough is not rising. pf. i did the damage control mom phone call (which, may i say, i pretty much never have to do when baking--cooking, occasionally, but baking? not so much), and have amended the situation by dampening the towel laying over the bowl with warm water, and turning on the oven (which the dough is in a bowl on top of) so that the heat emanates upward. now i am waiting patiently to see if that does anything. i have also instructed the dog and cat to be very very quiet, and have turned down the volume on the tv very very low, because i specifically remember my mother telling us when we were little that if we made a lot of noise, the dough wouldn't rise. it may have just been a (very effective) way to shut us up, but i'm not taking any chances. i shall report back later with results.

ETA: i am the goddess of sourdough bread. holy yum, batman.

behold, the crackberry. i broke my cell phone in half last week, and was told by ver!zon that the cheapest phone i could get to replace it would run me $150 since my contract isn't up yet. but the guy that does the cell phones for dana's work was able to hook me up with a crackberry for much, much cheaper--it's used, but barely, and it's all wiped clean and looks brandy spankin' new. i've been spending my morning re-entering phone numbers into it, and basically trying to figure out how it works.

dana left at 3:30 this morning to go on a fishing trip in NM, so i am on my own until monday (which is our 2 year anniversary, btw...). my general plan is cleaning today, girl-time tomorrow, and brunch with some friends on sunday. other than that, i'm just enjoying the first day of my 4 day weekend, and my new go go gadget technology. whoot!

yay hooray! we've finally got dependable internet at home! this means i can check my email on a regular basis, which i am very excited about, and that i can update my blog more than once a month. yipee skippee! i'm also pretty psyched because i am (hopefully) getting a new cell phone today. i broke mine (as in, dropped-it-on-the-floor-and-watched-in-horror-as-it-broke-in-half kind of broke) last week, and have been phoneless. dana managed to get a deal through the guy who does the phones for his work so that i can get a phone for $50 versus paying $150 through veriz0n (my contract isn't up until april, so they'd make me pay retail).

also: the new pasttime du jour at the parmelee-osterberg household is guitar hero II. feel free to come over and get your butts whupped*. that's right, i'm talking smack. uh huh. so go on and bring your feeble guitar attempts, because we're punk rock over here**. that's how we roll.

*by dana. i pretty much suck at guitar hero, but dana will whup your butt.
**if by punk rock, you mean pretending to play guitar on a little piece of plastic. in which case, we are very punk rock.

well chickadees, that's all for now. happy 2007! :)

pinetop/lakeside, az.

that's where i am right now. it's sort of near the new mexico border, about a 4.5 hour drive from phoenix. thursday i'll be in prescott, which is in between phoenix and flagstaff. last week, i was in sonoita and patagonia, down by the mexico border. i went on a trail ride at a ranch to check out some waterers that the landowner installed to keep his cattle out of the creek, and rode over trails in the long grass cut not by the cattle, but by mexicans coming over the border. not something you see in connecticut...

i've been traveling for work lately, and it's made the past month or so absolutely fly by. next week is thanksgiving, and subsequently, the official onslaught of christmas. not that i'm complaining--i love me some christmas as much as more than the next girl. but holy cow, where does the time go? i find myself still telling people that i "just" moved here, which is relatively true, but i've been here for almost 6 months now. half a year.

i haven't seen my family since june. that is so incredibly difficult for me. i can't wait for christmas, when dana and i head back east and get to spend time with everyone. but i also can't wait for them to come out here, and see my life in arizona (quick, before it gets hot again!).

i'm rambling. but i'm posting, so that's good, right? i need to spend some time reviewing the presentation i'm giving tomorrow before bed, so this is all you get for now. more to come soon (including pictures of our pretty yard and other fun things...). later gators.

i'm not dead!


but i also can't update right now. work is crazy busy, and i'm going out of town tomorrow. but i was told (hi dad!) that i have to update, so i'm doing the next best thing and promising to update. soon.

it's 9:30 on a sunday morning. it's still fairly cool out--around 80, I guess, which feels cool compared to 100 degrees. i went running this morning when dana left to go golfing, and then i sat on the back patio and ate my breakfast. it's nice when it's cooler out, because the patio is like another room of the house. and while i was sitting there eating my grape nuts, sitting indian style in a canvas directors chair and listening to the birds chirping and looking out at our backyard and the flowering mexican bird of paradise trees, i think i "got" part of this whole arizona thing. everyone keeps telling me "just get through the summer, then you'll see. the rest of the year is why we put up with the summer." and it's still summer, sort of--still hot outside, still hitting 100 degrees or higher. but i can tell that it's starting to change over. it cools down at night now, so when you're up early you get to see the mythical 70's before the sun burns through. and there's something to be said for sitting outside enjoying your breakfast in your running shorts and a sports bra on the first day of october. i miss new england fall...i really, really do. i miss the leaves changing, i miss the first cool days where you break out a sweater, and maybe a scarf, just for the morning chill. i miss my body feeling like the season is changing, and wanting to bake pumpkin muffins and zucchini bread and foods that make me think of fall. but arizona fall, while it's not quite here yet, is going to be pretty wonderful too, i think. now, we'll just have to see about winter...

besides, how can i complain about anything when i have a boyfriend who carves birds out of apples?

Rhacodactylus_ciliatus

Rhacodactylus_ciliatus
Originally uploaded by kristaleigh.

ello. *bat bat*. i am kreesta's crested gecko *bat bat*. i do not have a name yet, but that weel not stop me from batting my eyelashes at you *bat bat*.

okay, enough of that. i figured if he was going to be outwardly flirtatious and batting his eyelashes, then he ought to have an exotic accent to go along with it. anywho...this is my new crested gecko!! dana surprised me with him last night as an early birthday present! this picture isn't actually him (i stole it off the wiki site), but that's what he looks like. i'll post actual pictures of him soon!

i am officially 26 years old today. time flies when you're having fun, eh? 25 was a pretty stressful year, but wrapped up well--let's hope year 26 is relatively stress free. relatively.

chadlisa

chadlisa
Originally uploaded by kristaleigh.

i am sososososososo excited for this weekend! chad and lisa are getting married, and dana and i are flying to NY on thursday night and staying until monday night. i can't wait to see everyone, and i am so excited and thrilled and happy and honored to be standing up there with my babycakes when she says her "i do's" :D

hopefully this week will fly by...today already (mostly) has, tomorrow and wednesday are meetings all day (which sounds awful, but always seems to make the day go faster to me), and i only work until noon on thursday. whoo hoo, i can't wait! last weekend was fun (ladies' weekend at the camelback inn in scottsdale, and dancing at e4). i even danced on a platform whilst a hip-hop song about backing one's rear end up played (who can guess?). and i wasn't intoxicated, either :P.