Illustration Fridays

I've always been meaning to start doing Illustration Fridays, so finally I decided I need to stopping whining and just do it! I was going to wait till this Friday's subject came out, but I had an idea for the current theme so I thought now is a good as time as any to start!

So here we are! The topic is: Multiple


I'm totally on this chicken obsession. I want to have my own chickens one day: ) Mmmmm, fresh eggs!

Well hello there!

That right there is my iMac giving my new MacBook friendly advice (transferring) on how to be a good computer.

Yup, I got my own laptop way sooner than expected! Rob's friend said he'd buy my iMac, yay! I know my iMac will be in good hands: )

We went out to the Apple Store today and picked up the middle version MacBook for me. And after a few hours or transferring and updating, I'm getting to know my new friend. What a wonderful friend indeed! The screen resolution is perfect and I can actually look at things, the two finger scrolling is fantastic, and its speed is awesome. I have yet to get lazy and sit on the couch with it, but tomorrow I'll have plenty of time. I'm so excited and even a little overwhelmed. I don't often make huge purchases for myself and lately not even small purchases since we've been trying to save our money...so I almost feel guilty. But, this is my only computer now and will be for a long time. I hope to have it as long as I had my last laptop.

I don't have a name for my MacBook yet. It will come to me as I get to know it better.

In other news, I have the next two weeks off from work. We just finished two big catalogs, so there's no work at the moment. I don't get paid though, oh well. I'm excited to spend this free time relaxing, crafting, cooking new things, playing more Mario Galaxy. I see it as a restart, to get things back on track, since lately I've been a lazy sack. I also need to take Faith for some major dental work, which I'm sure she'll be mad at me for, but in the end she'll feel better.

Maybe me and Faith can runaway to Paris for a bit.

Laptop Challenge Week Two....err and a half.

I was hoping to be fun and post a picture of the new computer set up and me sitting so comfy on the couch using the laptop, but Rob is reading and I'm sitting here bored waiting for Lost to start. So, I thought I'd write a post.

The laptop challenge is going great! I feel pretty much at ease with it. There are still a few hurdles that annoy me like when trying to navigate without a mouse and the screen resolution. But if I really wanted to use a mouse, I'd just have to get my butt off the couch and place the laptop on the table. As for the screen size, I hear the Macbook Pros simulates bigger screens, sweet! I even did some design work on it and it was fine. Overall, I think I'm going to continue with the laptop, I just can't picture myself going back to the cramped computer set up we had. I like the versatility of the laptop. I'll bring it with me into the kitchen while cooking dinner or even when greeting Rob at the door (ha!) I'm also spending less time on it, which I complained about last time. Yeah, there are nights where it's always on my lap, but I'm just a curious girl and I love learning new things like backyard chickens!

In health news, I'm doing great! I feel fantastic. The hardest part for me was just getting over my anxiety, which still gets me every now and then. But, with a wonderful guy like Rob being my cheerleader and some meditation in the morning I feel like I can do anything!

In other news, this year's taxes were good to us. I gave up sweets and alcohol for Lent and Rob gave up morning computer time. And I'm still digging my job at Amscan, where I leave there smiling every day: )

Laptop Challenge Week One and the Fainting Suzy

Well, I'm home on a Friday, recouping from the drama I caused yesterday morning. I woke up yesterday morning in a slight rush, went straight into the shower, had the water pretty hot, and got slighty worried about my bloody nose, all the while my blood pressure was low and so I fainted. Luckly Rob was there, but I did scare the crap out of him because this was the first time I fainted in front of him and I fainted with my eyes opened (ahh!!!!!) And I when I was waking up, I was fully aware but could not control my body (ah!!!!) and had no clue what was going on. So he got our neighbor to call 911 and within minutes I had police, firemen and the EMTs all in my apartment. Took a ride in the ambulance, spent 7 hours in ER and it was concluded that....since I tend to have low blood pressure, I gotta be careful about taking hot showers in the morning and get a humidifier for my bloody nose. Also my anxiety does not help one bit and even now I feel the panic feelings of yesterday still creeping in my mind and fear that all this can happen again.

Me and Rob learned from all this that we need to slow things down a bit. Our minds are constantly on work or things we plan to do in the future that we have no control over right now and we get frustrated and stressed out. And for me, I get more prone to panic attacks. We need to enjoy and appreciate where we are now. We need to take better care of our bodies and minds. We need to spend more quality time with each other and not quality time with us and the tv.

Anyways!!!!!!!

So I've been using Rob's laptop all this week. I'm managing pretty well, the smaller screen is kind of annoying, 'specially when I can't fit a full window. I noticed that I tend to be on the internet a lot more since it's so easy to sit on the couch with the laptop on my lap. That's not a good thing. I'd like to cut down my computer time, not double it! I think I just need to designate a laptop area, like the coffee table and only use it there, that way I can also use the mouse since it's not easy selecting text with the touchpad. But I like the ease of it all. I like that I can sit comfortably and not in a computer chair, hunched over which causes my should blades to burn.

I still miss my iMac, which still sits on the desk. We'll grab its box tomorrow and put it away. I'll most likely stick to the laptop because I know it's the right thing to do. We'll find a good home my iMac, where it could live happily in a one computer household, heh.

Suzy's Challenge

I love my iMac. It was my first big purchase I did all by myself with my own money that I earned and saved. Because of that, it's so special to me. But...

As I've wrote before, moving to New York and into this apartment made me realize the clutter and junk we have. While my iMac is definitely not junk, it's a part of the clutter. Rob and I both have our iMacs set up in our apartment. We share a table with our computers sitting back to back. We each have about 3 feet of chair space, which doesn't include under the table because our a large bar blocking the chairs from rolling underneath. Don't even get me started on the cable pile and lack of desk space. And it's not like this problem will go away when we move. Chances are, we'll have even less space or if we do have more space, I'd want my own desk.

Needless to say, it's not fun. But Rob and I just can't share one computer....we're too selfish, too net addicted and our professions both require a computer.

Sooooo.....since I don't mind change, and willing to do things to make our lives easier. I present....



I'm going to put my iMac away and use Rob's laptop and see if I can survive. And if I find that I can function well with it, I will sell my dear iMac and buy a new laptop (maybe an mackbook air!) Not only will it clear up tons of space and clutter, laptops are more energy efficient and use so much less than computers.

*ok, before my iMac i was using a laptop for about 4 years, so it's not that big of a deal, but sometimes it's hard to go back ; )

Suzy's Current Obsession

While we're waiting for Rob to get the AppleTV working so we can either a) watch normal tv or b) rent something on iTunes, I thought I'd write about my current obsession....Swaptree!



Like most Americans, we have tons of crap and want tons more crap all the time. It really hit me how much we had when Rob and I moved to New York into a small apartment from the spacious house in Arizona. We can't even fit half our stuff in the apartment, luckily Rob's parents are letting us store some stuff at their place. Ever since then I've been strict with what I buy, do I really need it or not.

Well, I found a website that helps you "balance" things out. Swaptree is a site where you trade your old books, dvds, cds and videos games with other people. Bought a book and hated it? See if anyone wants to trade it for a book you want. Finished playing that video game? Someone wants to trade for that cd you've always wanted for it. You're getting new things and getting rid of the old things that just cause clutter! And the only thing you pay is shipping. Sweet!

So far I've gotten a book I've been dying to read and two cds. I'm waiting to get another cd and a video game too.

Granted it's not perfect. Like you, most people aren't putting up the latest and most brand new items for trade. For me, I got things that I've been wanting to get for the past few years, not that cd that just came out. Also, you gotta have an open mind...yeah, you paid $60 for that game and someone wants to trade you a $15 cd. Seems unfair, but you have to kind of put it in the sense that that $60 game has been collecting dust for the past year. But even in the past few weeks I've been signed up on Swaptree, I see more and more up for trade. I'm expecting a book that I thought I'd never find on Swaptree nor in the bookstore by us, that's so cool.

Also, they make things easy for you. You can import your Amazon wish list (and a few others). You can print shipping labels directly through them, which means you don't have to go to the post office (although you pay about $2 more, but sometimes that's easier than finding the time to go to the post ofice).

Anyways, I kind of sound like an informercial right now, ha. I'm just excited that I'm finally getting books, cds and games that I've been wanting for awhile now just by trading in things that have been collecting dust. And I think it's a pretty green thing to do; you're not causing more waste, you're balancing it: )

Let's Try This Again

Happy New Year!


It's a shame that we started this blog in hopes of writing about our new life here in New York and the adventures we have and we've only posted a few times. Sure things got stressful and boring at times, but we still had some great awesome moments! So, with this being a new year, what a perfect time to start again! But first let's do a small recap of the past few months!


Rob got to go to Mexico with his job for their "annual meeting", while seeing some ruins along the way. Sweet job, huh?


We celebrated our one year wedding anniversary by going to Pennsylvania. Bed and Breakfast, local beer, cows, farms and wine...how much better can it get?


We also went up to Maine to see Rob's good friends John and Kristen. They threw a pretty cool Halloween Party!


November we went back to Arizona for the first time since we moved. We celebrated Thanksgiving and my nephew's 13th birthday.


Christmas brought me a tattoo from Rob! Woo hoo!!!

We did some other things in between. Saw a few art museums in New York City. Me dealing with snow for the first time. Rob is playing ice hockey again and I iceskated for the first time in over 10 years. Rob also is learning the guitar!

Things finally feel normal now and we're excited and pumped to keep moving forward. We have a few plans for 2008, some which are so huge that I dare not mention it because it's all still up in the air. And we'll try to keep this blog updated and share our adventures with everyone.