Moth

About a week or so ago, Brian and I stopped at a gas station while it was raining and I saw this moth on the ground. Her wings had gotten wet and she couldn't fly.
When I put my hand in front of her she climbed right on my finger, it was pretty cool. I put her on the gas tank so her wings could dry off.


I hadn't seen a moth that big or that pretty in a long time. :)

email issues...

Just wanted to say that if anyone wants to email me please use littlelottie1881 at hotmail dot com for now since my nicolecarina.com email address doesn't seem to be working...

thanks.

Butch

My parakeet Butch died last night. I could tell he was acting funny and then when he tried to fly to the bookshelf he landed in a heap on the floor. I picked him up but he could hardly hold himself up. I yelled for Brian, and he took him while I started frantically calling the late night vets in town, trying to find out what we could do.
Unfortunatly he died just a few minutes later, right in Brian's hands.

I know a parakeet doesn't make the same kind of companion that maybe a dog or cat would make, but Butch was really sweet. He'd sing whenever we'd play music or run the dishwasher (go figure). And he'd even perch on our hands or shoulders and let us feed him.

Brian said that since we don't know how old he was when we got him, over a year and a half ago, that it could have just been old age or something... We'll never know what caused it, but it's really sad that we won't have him with us anymore.

Beans and Bank Robbers

I spent the day in Jacksonville on Fri, got some wedding stuff done with mom. After that Bernie joined us for dinner at my parent's house and then we went to Beans to get some coffee. It was nice to joke around and talk about girly stuff with her, since we live an hour apart we don't hang out nearly as much as we used to.
After a little while Bernie's boyfriend Mike joined us. He used to have long hair but he allowed it to be cut by the highest bidder for a fundraiser for his church, I heard he raised a pretty good amount too. :)
Beans is actually in an old bank, and they have the vault open so people can see in it. Well I guess Mike just HAD to have some fresh columbian for himself, so I got this pic of him playing the "bank robber" haha!

Sushi and Sudoku

Today I met my friend Mark at the mall to grab lunch and do a little shopping. He brought his new Nintendo DS Lite with him so I could check it out. I'd seen it before but I didn't really have a chance to try it out until now.
I played Brain Age first, and my score was so embarasingly high I won't mention it, but I took it again and got at 46. Not the greatest but I'll take it for now. It's also got sudoku built in, which is very addictive.
We ate lunch at Nikki's at the mall, they finally opened and the food was great, better than the downtown location in my opinion.
After lunch he ended up buying another DS game and then he let me borrow it for a couple days before he went home.

One of the reasons he let me borrow it is because I saw a Hello Kitty GBA game on ebay a few days ago and bought it. The DS Lite will play GBA games so I played my Hello Kitty game for the first time today!



It's so darn cute you'll get diabetes. Seriously. Now I'm not really a "gamer" so the simple little quests suit me just fine. Basically Hello Kitty has to go around collecting things (cakes, balloons, etc.) and invite people to her party. There's all these mini-games and cute conversation between her and her friends. There's several levels and lots of things to do.

I know it sounds silly but I totally love it. :D

He also let me borrow Trance Memory and Big Brain, these should keep me occupied for a few days. ;)

Portuguese Platter

I picked up a ceramic plate that was made in Portugal for my mom. It even has the "made in Portugal" sticker with the gallo on it. It even matches an older piece of pottery she's already got.

Cookies!

We were able to get Brian's dad to make his famous chocolate chip cookies. They are SO GOOD. Especially right out of the oven with a glass of milk. We spent the day in Jacksonville on sunday and spent some time at both our parent's houses.

Stargazer Lilies

I wanted to take a pic of my stargazer lilies before they wilted, they're the only plant I brought from our old apt. They smell so nice and you can smell them throughout most of the breezeway.

Hello Kitty!!!!

Oh. My. Gosh. I am SOOO getting this!

Ok, well maybe after the wedding's paid off....

I may not post about it much but I'm a HUGH Hello Kitty fan. I'm hardcore hello kitty.

It's funny to me how some people used to say, "that's silly why would anyone like that?" and then when she became popular they started collecting hello kitty stuff too. I got my first Sanrio product when I was about 4 years old. My dad was statioined in Okinawa, Japan and brought me a tissue package with the "little twin stars" characters. The rest is history, I got hello kitty stuff wherever I could find it, mostly on ebay once I got the internet. I now have a disgustingly large collection of everything from shower curtains, to stationary, to contact lense cases, to tupperware, and everything in between. My most prized hello kitty item is the porcelene doll that Brian got me a few years ago. She's dressed in a traditional Japonese kimono arrainging flowers.

I can't wait to have a baby someday because thier room will be FULL of hello kitty baby stuff.... I sure hope I don't have a boy! :)

The Bento Box

Brian and I went to the Bento Box for lunch today, it's a new sushi place at the forum. I was afraid it would be all classy because we were in jeans, but it's actually really cool and laid back. The food was great, we had lumpia, salad, tempura shrimp roll and salmon roll. For desert they had this tempura cheesecake, yum. It was a little expensive but I'd go back.

Car Stereo

I really want this car stereo, Brian and I saw it at Best Buy today. I really only need it because it can connect to my ipod via the usb connection, my tape adaptor got stuck in my current tape deck. The cool thing is that once I connect it to the ipod I can navigate through my songs with the stereo itself, instead of the ipod. It's not terribly expensive, less than $250 after tax and installation and parts. I'd feel a little guilty if I bought it before the wedding though, or at least till everything was paid for. Brian said if I wait, maybe santa will get it for me for Christmas. :)

Crazy

Remember when the worst thing you had to worry about concerning your personal blog was your ex finding it? Or worse, your mother? (just kidding mom!)
So much for that, it looks like someone else got fired for talking about their job on their blog. She says she never mentioned the company's name, but that didn't matter to her boss I guess. Some people say that she should have known better and others say that her company has no right to fire her for what she does with her personal life outside of work. It makes me stop and think, have I mentioned anything about work here? Some people probably know what company I work for and what I do, but for the most part I don't have much to say about work exept:

I LOVE MY JOB, I LOVE TO GET PAID, PLEASE DONT FIRE ME. thanks.

I think people just forget how much you're exposing yourself when you post on a blog. That's one thing I've always loved about my LiveJournal account, you have alot of customizable privacy options for your posts. You can rant about your stupid cable company and block Suzie who works there from seeing the post. You can make posts completely private so no one can see them but you, and you can set your posts to be viewed by only people on your friend's list or they can be seen by the whole world.
And yet, here I am on blogger, for everyone to see. Maybe it's because I just don't have the kind of drama that I'm afraid of anyone seeing. "Oh no, I can't decide which style chairs to rent for the wedding reception! Whatever shall I do?" Yeah, real drama there.

(still got that livejournal though)

I've been a geek this weekend...

This weekend I:

- uploaded a new layout for my LiveJournal
- signed up with Technorati
- found a Bunch of cool new blogs to keep up with
- got an RSS feed program to keep up with everyone's blogs
- downloaded a program to let me check those RSS feeds straight from my cellphone
- updated my website
- updated my Vox account (very cool by the way, MUCH better than myspace in my opinion)
- changed the background image for this blog

Hmm... perhaps I should get Brian an "I love my geek" shirt to match the one he got me. ;)

Other than that we went to see Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest tonight. It was great, but the gross "sea people" pirates really creeped me out, especially the guy with the tenticle beard, ugh.

One cool thing though was the preview for... dun dun DUN... A TRANSFORMERS MOVIE. Yep, the same transformers as the 80's toys. The preview didn't show much of the movie itself, and it won't be out till next year sometime, but I hope it doesn't suck.

Sunday Afternoon

After taking the day off from all the wedding planning, Brian and I decided to go out to eat at Red Robin's and then hang out at Barnes and Noble. Red Robin's is this burger restaurant with every kind of burger under the sun.... too bad I'm not really into burgers.

Thankfully they have a really good "burger-less burgers" section. I've had the gardenburger, boca burger, turkey burger and now the fish burger (in the pic). They're definitly not wimpy and I can almost never finish one, they're so huge.

After that we got to BnN's right before it started to pour, it was nice to sit and read while listening to the rain outside. I got a couple black and white postcards for my collection. I've got a book that I put them in, I've been collected them for a couple years now.

The last pic is of the book on Lisbon I'll probably get after all the wedding stuff is over. The plan is for Brian and I to go to Portugal with my bonus next year. We'll probably just go to Lisbon though there's several places I wish we could see. I remember some things about the city from when I was a kid (we went there for my summer vacation when I was 9) like how BIG the statues and castles were. I can't wait to go back...

Chococat Mug

I got this chococat coffee mug at the hello kitty kiosk in the mall yesterday. The girl who runs the stand is really nice and we talked for about 20 min about wilmington and raleigh and how each city is great in its own way. She's from raleigh and will probably be moving back soon so I told her about my friend's bar near the college campus. This morning Brian filled my mug with chocolate rasberry coffee, yum! He's been really sweet lately getting up early to make me breakfast (ok he gets up to watch GI Joe cartoons but he makes me breakfast after it's over) I almost wish he didn't have to get another job so he could keep this up. :)

Here's a pic of my Gallo (rooster in Portuguese) my mom and Michael got him for me a while back. They're traditionally kept in the kitchen and the story goes that there was this man who was brought before a judge/king/mayor because he was wrongly accused of a crime. The man had prayed and prayed (probably to St. Anthony) to be proven innocent. The man was brought before the judge while the judge was eating dinner. The cruel corrupt judge couldn't care less if the man was innocent or not and said "I swear to set you free if the rooster on my plate stands up and crows" Well the rooster did, as an answer to the man's prayers so he was set free.

That's the gist of it anyway, I remember my mom telling me the story but I don't remember any more of the details. The designs are moorish in origin, since the moors lived in the area where Portugal is now and their influence on food and art is pretty obvious if you really look.

Been a busy girl today

Today was a busy day off for me, I woke up, met with the wedding coordinator, told her what I've done sofar, and got another huge to-do list for until the next time we meet.
Then I ran around town for several hours and was only able to get 2 of the 10 things I needed because they were either too expensive, or just weren't right for the wedding.
The first pic is of mom and I going over wedding stuff when I went to see her and Michael last week. (we ate at Red Lobster... yum). The second one is me at Davids Bridal by the shoe wall.... I need shoes by the end of the month for my bridal portraits but I just haven't been able to find anything that would match the style of my dress.
I need to remember to stay focused and not stress about how much is left to do, and realize that I'm more than capable to get it all done. I'll probably just take Sunday for myself and try to go to the beach or something.

A little encouragement

I received a very encouraging email from Ele today. Her wedding was only a couple months ago and she shared some tips to keep from turning into a Bridezilla while still pulling of a beautiful wedding.
It's still kind of surreal that it's all falling (pretty much) into place... No major disasters yet, but I guess that comes at the last minute right?
Right now I'm getting ready to print and assemble the invitations, I'm going to meet with the wedding coordinator tomorrow to double-check, address and mail them. Then I'm off to officially reserve all the tables, chairs, forks, linens, etc. I've still got a ton of stuff to do but I'm trying to relax and enjoy the process as much as possible.
Along with all the planning for the day itself is planning for our married life together. I know a lot of people don't see it as much more than a name change but I guess I'm just more old fashioned than that. I can't wait to sign the marriage license and for people to call me "Mrs. Jones" . I can't wait to be an official part of Brian's family and for him to be part of mine. In a couple years we'll start talking about having our first child, I really look forward to being pregnant. Maybe I'm looking at things through rose-colored glasses, but I don't care. It's nice to feel good like this. I hope I always do. :)

Sittin in my car on my lunch break. Its so nice to just get out of the call center and relax in my car. I had Chickfila, their waffle fries rule. I'm listening to Daniel Powter, it's one of my favorite albums right now. Thankfully "bad day" isn't his only good song. Tonight I've got to print the wedding invitations so I can mail them out tomorrow. I hope I can get my poor old printer to work with the vellum pages, and I can't wait to see them complete and ready to go!

The Arboretum off Oleander

The dragon of the lake

I love these roses, wish I could pick some for my bouquet ;)

If you look you'll see the island in the middle of the lake, we'll have some of the pictures taken there.

Here's something I'd like to do with the wedding pictures...

Brian and I picked up some lunch at Moe's and went to the Arboretum to eat it there, and we ran into my photographer, he was there to do bridal portraits for another bride. I got to introduce him to Brian and get a little more info about the photo shoot. The arboretum is so beautiful this time of year, and I can't wait for us to have pictures taken there after the wedding.

Even though the wedding planning has taken up alot of my time, and even gets a little stressfull at times, it's still one of the most fun and girly things I'll ever get to do. Life is pretty good right now, I have a great job, a beautiful apartment, I'm planning the wedding of my dreams, and I'm loved by the most wonderfull man alive. He's my perfect parter and I have no doubts that we'll love each other and be happy together forever.

Our 4th of July

I love this pic, we had such a great time. Brian even packed up the insulated picknick backpack I gave him with goodies for us.
Mom and Michael enjoying the music.





We had such a great time, we went to Jacksonville to see our families and then to Camp Lejeune for the fireworks display. They have the Marine Corp Band play a patriotic selection every year and this year they had the Crystal Coast Choir too. Our friends the Freudenthals were in town and sat with us in the feild in front of the stage to watch the fireworks. I used to work for them and help take care of the kids until I moved to Wilmington. The last two pics are of Betsy and Billy, the youngest kids. I remember when Betsy was born, they grow up so fast. It was a really great holiday.

A beautiful new baby!

Mie and Dav from Kokochi.com had their daughter yesterday. Welcome to the world Tesla Rhea Yaginuma!!!

Belated pics from last week.

We had such a great time last week, Brian's friend Caressa and her baby Orin came to spend some time with us. We ate at the Phoenix restaurant for dinner on Monday night, and the food was great. I love sitting outside at the bistro tables, watching everyone walk by enjoying downtown. We even had the local horse drawn carriage driver wave to us (what I wouldn't give to have one for the wedding!). The next morning we had bruch at the tea room. Caressa loved it, I hope her and Jim and Orin can make it to the wedding so they can enjoy the reception there afterwards.

I was able to get Brian to do a little shopping with me, and we stopped by the Ivy Cottage and picked up several nice teacups, the douple handled one is supposed to be for a cream soup instead of tea. I'd like to get a good book on proper tea ettiquitte, so I can learn exactly what all the different tea set pieces are for and how they are supposed to be used. I've already got a book on tea itself that explains different types of teas and brewing times, etc and I'm learning alot. I guess I'm turning into a tea geek. ;)

Tue night after shopping Brian took me to the fondue restaurant, our favorite place and where the rehearsal dinner will be held. The admosphere and food are always perfect, I can't wait to have all of our family and wedding party there in a couple months.

Tea Cozy

I knit myself a tea cozy for the mini tea kettle I bought for work. I also broght one of my teacups from home. Tea just seems to taste better when you drink it out a pretty teacup.