the tides, they are a-changin'

So as Daylight Savings Time departed from the West Coast I felt compelled to do something with the extra hour left in its wake and I made the page look different. I'm not totally happy with it yet and some of the colors are still weird, but I was rather tired of orange and grey. I guess it symbolized my city (Orange) and the landscape (pavement) or something, but whatever.
The new template is adapted from a few photos of the Oregon coast taken in the summer. Let me know what you think of it. Maybe I'll throw together another one soon -- it didn't take as long as I thought it would since the layout is pretty much set.
blah blah blog.
I've had a rather social weekend/last couple of days. Saw a few movies, met some new people, had looong (and good!) chats with some of my posse, watched a play and won third prize in a pumpkin carving contest. Hoor-yay! I also haven't bought food or done laundry in like it seems. That would have been back when I still had the pipe yard job and was still making steady money. I am slowly getting better at freelancing it, though, and a magazine job at Chapman is hopefully on the horizon.

GUESTS IN NATURE SECTION!!
Last week I got to spend some time with some people who are close to my heart, but not close to my house and who also happened to be missing Y chromosomes. Erin spent nearly a week here giving me a good excuse to get out and do some awesome stuff with her, and my Mom and our family friend Linda Ellingson stopped by for a few hours on their way to New Zealand to visit my sister! Elizabeth wrote up a brief report on her site and talks a lot about flaura and fauna. It seems that nothing except DESERT is native to California, but we do have some good imports and visitors. Behold!


My mom hinding behind a plant by some antique boutique in The Circle.


Erin and I trying to be tropical fish at Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Who is more convincing?

As you can see, it was totally awesome having them both here. Um . . . there is so much stuff to talk about! But I'm also hungry and sleepy. And I'm wearing a cowboy hat. Anyway, so much more stuff will have to wait for tomorrow.
xxxooo
zzzzzzzzzz

PS -- I find it funny that blogger doesn't have the word "blog" in their spellchecker. It suggests "bloc" instead. And "Erin" isn't a real word to them either, although Ernst is. If anything is spelled weird, I blame them.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz x 2