About a month ago I made the decision to start a veggie garden. Let me preface this by saying I know absolutely nothing about gardening...well.. that's not entirely true... I know they need water and sunlight, but that's. about. it. 

I come from a long line of farmers. My grandfather was a farmer, his father was a farmer, HIS father was a farmer, and so on. Needless to say, the fact that I can't tell you the difference between an arugula and spinach, is a little embarrassing.

Now, maybe it was the beautiful weather, or maybe it's just part of my "turning 31 project" but I felt inspired to grow things!

So I swung by Home Depot on my way home and picked up a bunch of gardening supplies. My first batch of veggies would consist of starberries, blueberries, tomatoes, chili peppers, red bell peppers, and cucumbers.

The good news is nothing has died. Yet.  So far summer has been on my side!  Lots of sunshine and mild evening weather.  My garden even survived a recent visit from a deer.  She did manage to nosh on a fair share of strawberries and chilli peppers (who knew Deer like chilli peppers?) - but for the most part she left the plants intact. Very thoughtful of her, I'd say ;)

Flight of Fancy Blouse - Francesca's Collection
Seychelles Hawk Bootie - DSW
Brown Suede Skirt - Anthropologie

I've been thinking a lot about personal style. Specificially - my lack of personal style.

For as long as I can remember I have always been a jeans and tshirt type of gal. Easy-peasy. 

And then something happened... I'm not exactly sure how or why - but all of a sudden, when I turned 31, I had a deep desire to develop my own personal style. I had no idea where to begin. It's not like I know about these things! What I did know was:  I didn't want it to seem forced or artificial. And I most certainly didn't want it to be an epic fail. These are big goals considering I've never had any confidence or skills to develop a wardrobe I could  really call my own.

Can I share a short story with you? (It applies to this post, I promise).  It goes like this... I really only have one memory from kindergarten. It was sports day, and all the kids were sitting out in the field waiting for our P.E teacher to divide us into teams. Kristie (I don't remember her last name) was sitting in front of me. She was so pretty. I still remember what she was wearing. White tennis shoes, orange cotton shorts, and a white tshirt with the word ESPRITE written perfect matching orange. She wore little gold star earrings and a Jem and Hologram's wrist-watch. I looked down at my own outfit: black sweatpants, grey running shoes, and a basic t-shirt that rocked a basket of kittens on the front. Ugh. The only thing I could think was, "I want to be like her!" 

Well, I never did become like her. I continued to dress for comfort rather than style, and I've continued to be super cheap when it comes to clothes. In the past, paying more than $15 for a tshirt seemed truly outrageous.

So what changed? I guess I just got tired of seeing pictures of myself in frumpy and un-original outfits. I also realized that I didn't own a single girly article of clothing. NOT. KIDDING. I am the furthest thing from a girly-girl. And for the first time in my life - it bothered me.

I want to have the confidence to wear a skirt, or a dress, or strapy wedges.

So.

I did it. Just like that.

I started reading articles about personal style. I scoured the internet for blogs about the topic. I purchased fashion magazines from the grocery store. I started watching What not to Wear.  I even rented the Septemeber Issue.

After making a list of "styles" that I liked, I cracked open my wallet, dusted off the credit card and went shopping.

For this first personal style post, I've asked Arwen to be my model.  I know, this was supposed to be about me - but baby steps! 

So here she is... Arwen in a few outfits I put together.

 
Snake!

 
We shot these photos down the street from where we live. This was a neighborhood in development, but the economy put a hault on production. The sides of the road are complete over-grown now.

 
 We had such a fun time shooting these photos. Arwen was a natural!

 
In case you're wondering... yes, these are my clothes. Haha! These were the outfits I had planned for myself to model, but I was too chicken, so Arwen graciously agreed to be the guinea pig. (Thank you, Arwen!!). The most challenging part of this shoot was hiding all the safety pins! We had to pin everything in order for it to fit ;)

Downhome eyelet dress in yellow @ Frock Candy   cinnamon cider cardigan @ Old Navy  professional charm cardigan @ Modcloth

"For it was not my ear you whispered, but into my heart.  It was not my lips your kissed, but my soul." - Judy Garland

 A really neato thing about Google Buzz is only having to remember one (1) username and one (1) password.  This is especially effective for my step-daughter who does not have a Twitter or Facebook account.  She can email, chat, webcam, track her calendar, and now, update her daily status all via Google Buzz.

I'm not going to pretend it doesn't completely trip me out that an 8 yeard old knows how to email.  Or type.  Or use a search engine.  Or even turn the computer on.  It's a bit crazy to watch but I refuse to become my generation's version of  "those darn kids and their rock and roll music".  I refuse to let this shock me.

So,   I walked into her room the other day and she was voice chatting with her best friend.  I peered over her shoulder and her best friend yelled, "Hi LANI! My mom wants to say hi!"  Her mother and I could only stare at each other in amazement. 

What did we have when we were 8 years old? 

The only forms of communication I can think of (other than sitting my ass on my banana-seat bike and pedaling myself over to my best friend's house) were passing notes in class and using the telephone.  Notice I say telephone and not phone or cell phone. I feel telephone is a more appropriate word to describe the device that sent interrupted electrical pulses (known as pulse dialing) to the telephone system.  It was OLD SCHOOL.  I nearly had a conniption fit when the NKOTB came to my town in 1991.  I spent three hours on the phone trying to get through to ticket master! 

Why not use redial?

What a novel idea! And I would have except in 1991 I hadn't even heard of redial!  I spent 3 hours rotating that stupid dial clockwise and all I got was a bad case of carpal frickin' tunnel!

As demonstrated in the screenshot below, I am delighted that my step-daughter, Arwen,  will never have to experience such pain....

At first, I was confused. Like, really confused. I had no idea how I was suddenly seeing 30 of my "closest friends" status updates and discussions. My first thought was /unsubscribe please.  I mean, I already use Twitter, Facebook, myspace (shhhhh!), and Google Wave.  Do I really need another social networking tool?

Apparently I do. 

I keep gmail open throughout the day and it's usually not a distraction.  Every once in awhile the little google icon pops up from the corner of my screen and lets me know I have a message, but other than email? I don't do much with it.   

Something changed yesterday. 

The Google brains added a neat  speech-bubble-icon underneath the inbox link.  My eyes cant help but gravitate towards it! 

Every.  Single.  Time.  I log into gmail I want  must NEED to click that icon!  I'm trapped.  Updates are now full blown conversations that I want must NEED to be apart of.  I no longer have to log into Twitter or Facebook because I can update straight from Buzz! 

Streamlined social networking with real-time updating? Yes, please! 

The downside? Well, Google, the problem is... I actually really LIKE Facebook and Twitter.  I like Facebook applications and I like being able to follow Brent Spiner, GOD, and MC Hammer on Twitter.  I really do, and I have a feeling that none of them are going to hook me up with their gmail addresses so that we can buzz together. 

So, I'm back to being undecided. 

What do you think?  Do you feel the buzz?

Well, shit. 

I'm about to experience the most epic mission ever made, and then what? It's over? According to wikipedia (which means it's legit), Mass Effect 3 is planned for a release date sometime between 2011-2012. I realize this doesn't seem like a long ways off but when you're emotionally connected to your character and game, two years is a lifetime. I'm sure it's similar to what Twilight fans are going through between the saga's movie releases... 

Pain. Torture. Agony.

But wait. Did she just say "emotionally connected"? Why yes. Yes she did.

 In the first Mass Effect I spent a lot of time creating my character; tweaking her hair, eye colour, eye brows, nose, etc. And I spent a good chunk of time considering a background that would suit my character. I decided she was colonist, born and rasied on Mindoir, a small border colong in the Attican Traverse. When she was 16 years old, slavers raided Mindoir, slaughtering her family and friends. She was saved by a passing Alliance patrol and she enlisted with the military a few weeks later. Her psychological profile reveals that she's ruthless. Throughout her  military career, she held fast to one basic rule: get the job done. she's been called cold, calculating, and brutal. Her reputation for ruthless efficiency makes her fellow soldiers wary of her. But when failure is not an option, the military always comes to her first. 

The beauty about Mass Effect 2 is that you can port over your character from the first Mass Effect. I can't even begin to explain how crazy exciting it was to load up ME2 and see my character from ME in the opening cut scene. I was giddy. 

One of the most interesting aspects of the Mass Effect franchise are the relationships. Love, loyalty and betrayal are all part of what makes this game so much fun. The writing is fantastic and if you liked games like Fallout 3, Fable 2 or Dragon Age, you're going to love ME2. 

Alright...I plan to finish the final mission this week. I'll let you know how it rates on my epic scale...though I'm pretty it's going to get a rock solid 10.

When I first started this blog, I made it my goal to keep it updated. I can't recall giving myself any criteria for how often I should be updating but I'm almost certain I had imagined it being more than twice a year. 

Can I make it up in 2010? Well, it's already February 8th and this will be my first post of the new year. 

A lot happened in 2009. So rather than bore you with a bunch of stories, I thought I'd give you a snip-it of the year, in photos.

I hope you enjoy!

I started a new job in January 2009. View from our office. That's Pike Place market at the end of the street.

Race for the Cure, with two of my dearest girlfriends...

So many people at gamescom. It was insane. And stinky.

In Seoul, South Korea to shoot our game's podcast videos.

Halloween! 

 Vegas! Dex and I in front of Paris drinking a GIANT pina colada. 

The newest addition to our family. Raisin (aka Ray) and Dudley (aka Dudles)