Busy, busy, busy

Hey y'all. It's not really like me to go more than a week without an update, so I'm writing one even though there's not much to say! We've been quite busy this week, me with school, work and my internship and Chris with state high school basketball championships. We've hardly even seen each other all week! My schedule has been so crazy that until this week I hadn't even seen my non-school friends since the Superbowl. Luckily, Erin stopped by (with dinner!) on Wednesday evening, which was really sweet and we got all caught up on girl talk and wedding planning. And then Na and I met up for a couple hours Thursday afternoon when the Nevada Museum of Art was having free admission. We saw the Woman with the Veil up close and thought it was so amazingly well preserved and so very lifelike for a 500-year-old painting. I'm so glad we got to see it while it was still here. We also liked the way this room was set up, with these prints in color-coordinating frames. May have to steal this idea for myself someday ...

Other than that, it's homework, homework, homework. The rest of my weekend will pretty much look like this:
But not to worry, friends. We'll have some funner (did I just make up a word?) posts coming up in March (maybe even a guest blogger!).

Stay tuned!

Gephyrophobia

I have always been afraid of bridges. Really. If I have to drive over one, I do so as fast as possible - the sooner I get to the other side, the better I say. I can't say for sure, but this fear may stem from a photo I once found of me as a little kid standing on a footbridge that had gaps between the wooden beams, crying. Apparently, someone thought it would be entertaining to have me walk the remainder of the bridge on my own. The last time Scoop and I were out walking along the river, we crossed one little bridge and I was pretty proud of myself, until we came to this one. The gaps between the wood freaked me out. I didn't think Scoop could navigate it. We turned around. But then earlier this week, I had to cross the bridge to get to some trails on the other side to shoot some B-roll for my internship. I'm embarrassed to say, it took me quite a long time. Itty bitty baby steps. I was just hoping and hoping nobody could see me from the office. But - I made it across and back.

So, today I decided Scoop and I would give it a shot again. It rained last night, and this morning it was crisp and cool and sunny - a good day for a hike. So we went. We walked along the river. We came to the bridge. I picked Scoop up, focused on the other side instead of down below, and walked across. Still slow, but probably cut my time in half from the other day. I'm glad we did. The hike was lovely.

Scoop sniffed all kinds of new things, and made lots of new friends (one little girl said Scoop was the cutest dog she'd ever seen) and the views were pretty cool. I think we will go back again, and see what happens if we turn left instead of right.

Valentine's Day

Hello, friends! Did you have a nice weekend? Chris and I both had to work on Saturday, but we had a very nice Valentine's Day. I made a cheesecake (which we couldn't resist cutting into as soon as it was ready just after midnight on Saturday night) and on Sunday Chris surprised me with flowers!

Scoop got a new toy for Valentine's Day, which she really enjoyed.

Later, Chris took me out to dinner to a really nice restaurant called the 4th Street Bistro, which we'd never been to even though it's close enough to walk from our apartment if we wanted to (but we didn't because it was cold).

Here we are getting ready to go to dinner.

I was excited to go because I'd heard the food was great, but also because they buy local, seasonal ingredients from sustainable farms and ranches. The dinner was so delicious! (I told Chris he probably shouldn't have taken me there because now I'll want to go every weekend!)

Thanks for a great Valentine's Day, Chris!

Have a lovely weekend ...

And a Happy Valentine's Day, too!

A work in progress ...

As coincidence would have it, the day after the Super Bowl and all the hoopla around the Google Parisian Love ad, I took a video production class and learned about screen capturing software. So I downloaded a free 30-day trial version and decided to make our own ad (would you call it 'Yuma Love'?). Here is the rough version ... I wanted to add music, but am having a little difficulty adding anything to a second audio track. So for now, you can just hear my typing. Hopefully I will have some time to play with it a little more and figure out music and maybe how to speed it up before my 30 days are up!

(It might be a little hard to read, so you may want to go full screen. Another kink I need to work out ...)

Super Bowl Sunday

Yesterday we went to our friend Chun's house for a Super Bowl party. Chris was hoping for a good game. I was hoping for a Saints win (for no other reason really than that I've been to New Orleans before - you may recall I'm not much of a football fan). We both got what we wanted ... though we both were disappointed in the commercials. Silly me, I forgot to take pictures at the party. I did take a couple before we left, though ...

These are the sugar cookies I made for the party - check out the recipe on My Cousin's Cookbook.

And here is Scoop, wearing her Mardi Gras beads in support of New Orleans.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

So long, farewell ...

Jen & Tom

On Friday night, our friends Jen and Tom had a going-away party. Chris was bummed to miss the party while he was on the other side of the state for work.

We met Jen and Tom through Erin and Sandor, but it turns out Jen works in PR and has known Andrea since college and we know many other people in common (in fact, I was surprised to see so many people I know through work or school at the party.) Tom, who played basketball with Chris for the last two years, just got his Ph.D. and they are moving to New Mexico where he will do his post-doc. It has been so great to get to know both of them the last couple years, and we will sure miss them! But we are also excited for all the adventures they have in store.

Na, Erin, Jen & Tammy

A good reminder

Yesterday, I interviewed a kid (I'm old enough to call 21-year-olds kids, right?) at the journalism school about a couple segments he did with ESPNU when they were here last week to broadcast some Wolf Pack basketball games. His dream job is to work at ESPN, and he was so excited to have had this opportunity. He didn't have to say it (although he did) because you could see the excitement in his face. And the passion. They guy loves sports, and he loves his chosen career field. He told me about how the opportunity came up, about how he talked over some ideas with one of his teachers, who told him to think outside the box. He told me that of course any fan can watch a game, but he loves writing about sports because he can give the fans "a different perspective, an insider's look."

It was a good reminder. It took me back to the summer of 2003. I was a sports-writing intern at the Monterey County Herald working on my first front-page story. The story came together nicely, but I was struggling with the lede. The sports editor told me I needed to get out of the office. It was a great piece of advice that I remember still. We went for a walk. We tossed ideas back and forth until we landed on one we both liked. I went back inside and wrote the lede. And the next morning I saw my name on the front page of the newspaper for the first time. What a great feeling that was.

In the daily grind I think I sometimes I forget what a blessing this job is. How cool it is that people let us into their lives, and let us share their stories with the world. I'm glad I talked to that kid yesterday, to remind me of that excitement and that passion. To remind me that even in these challenging times for journalism why I want to stay in this business.