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Thursday, December 30, 2010

2011

This will be the third year I've posted this quote and I have yet to find something that so perfectly captures my hopes for a new year

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself."
Neil Gaiman

I won't say resolutions, but this year, I want to:

Learn to knit. I want to use giant needles and fat soft yarn like my friend jbox to make super cozy amazing scarves and eventually blankets.

Open an Etsy shop. I like to make things. It would be fun to sell them to people. Even if it was only a couple people.

Learn how to use a digital camera properly. I have to get a new camera first, but then I want to learn how to use the buttons and the settings. Too many amazing photos have been lost to blurry and dark ignorance of how to take a picture!

Take a class at Night Flight. Doesn't this look awesome? My company gave them a small business loan and I so badly want to take a class. Spring, mayhaps?

Start a collage book. This is inspired by two people. The first is miss Ricci Cande who is one of the most creative people I know. She does collage books all the time. The other is miss Michelle (always all up in my inspiration grill) and her two friends Laura and Anna who have an amazing little blog called Someday Hopes. I especially love it because most of their someday hopes are also my someday hopes. Anyway, I want to keep a collage book similar to their blog.


Happy 2011!






Tuesday, December 28, 2010

A Ridderbusch Christmas

I really loved Michelle's post about images of Christmas and thought I'd try to take a few pictures of my Christmas with my family. So I'm already being a copy-cat and on top of it, I was just looking at her blog and it turns out we both must have discovered the same wonderful retro camera app. So Michelle, thanks for the inspiration and also, great minds...

Christmas with my family is pretty low key these days. I spend most of Christmas Eve day wrapping gifts for everyone. We go over to my Grandma's house and eat deviled eggs (or if you're me, crackers dipped in the yolk of the deviled egg), cookies, cheese, crackers, etc and open gifts from extended family. Oh and drink. There's always drinking.
This year, my lovely and amazing cousin Samantha made Camp Ridderbusch T-shirts for the whole family. I can't remember how in-depth, if at all, I've described Camp Ridderbusch but it is an annual gathering of madness and mayhem. It is amazing. All of the cousin's T-shirts say "I understand that you think you are right" which should probably be our family motto. I know it's mine. One of the best gifts, ever.

We spend that time together and then we all go our own ways to celebrate with our immediate family. It's kinda nice to still get that big family get-together but then be able to just go home and celebrate your own way. My family opens gifts on Christmas Eve. We started doing this a few years ago because one or both of my parents was always working on Christmas Day. We go home, make a drink or pour a glass of wine, and sit down to open gifts. I really enjoy our late evening. It was also nice to be somewhere with lots of decorations. My mother (however begrudgingly) covers our house in Christmas decorations every year and since I've been moving during Christmas the last two years I haven't had my own so I really miss them until I'm home.
Below is a picture of my mom's Christmas tree. You can't see it but the woman has something like 5 layers of ornaments on that tree. It took her days and days.


So, we opened gifts. My most exciting score was a variety pack of hot sauce. Seriously, I'm really excited about it. I promptly fell asleep IN my pile of gifts with Joseph. He was tired too. We've been moving and were tuckered out. This isn't him sleeping but it is him being adorable.



My favorite thing about opening presents on Christmas Eve is that we get to just relax and enjoy Christmas day. I slept in and my mom made bloody marys to start the day off properly.

My dad then made us a late breakfast of banana and walnut pancakes, eggs and sausage (for the meat eaters). His boss brought over some hand pressed cider too, which was fantastic.


It's all about the food. Mom totally made egg salad sandwiches for lunch, too. Fat and happy, is what I was. We went to see True Grit (always go to the movies on Christmas) and then I drank wine and read my new book until dinner. Note: the book is very interesting. I read it with a highlighter and pen for taking notes.


And for the grand finale...MORE FOOD. My parents made an amazing dinner of ham(which I didn't eat...although it took a lot of willpower. It's usually my cheat of the year.), brussel sprouts, chop salad, and the most amazing scalloped potatoes. Fatter. Happier.






This post is missing the usual quotable moments that my family so obligingly provides for me whenever I'm with them. Those little tid bits are in my notebook at home and will, I promise, be shared.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

beautiful people

coincidental continuation of beautiful couple stalking today.

This is Bobby H. I've been creeping on his lookbook for a while now.

This is Keiko Lynn. His girlfriend.

Had been thinking of starting a lookbook for those days when I'm especially pleased with my attire but then I look at people like them and don't want to muss up lookbook with my sub-par wardrobe.
I wonder if there's any way to get invited to their wedding. The styling would be phenomenal.

This is an obnoxiously perfect couple and their obnoxiously adorable blog. Their baby is also beautiful. For a baby, anyway.

5 most common regrets

worth reading.

Turkey Drop

Moment of Silence for three celebrity couples announcing their splits this week:
Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens- I love high school musical and I also kinda loved them.


Micheal C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter- Brother and Sister on TV and husband and wife in real life. I'm just saying this better not effect Dexter next season.

And saddest of all, my favorite hollywood couple- Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson. They're such a perfect storm of sexy. Apparently not anymore.


Normally not really into celebrity stuff but all three were actually people who I had googled in the past so the stories caught my interest. The Turkey Drop strikes again! Just think of all the millions of dollars these people are saving in Christmas Gifts!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

I need you to run a Jeff Goldblum

Hilarious people make work bearable and even enjoyable.
We have a process called “intake” which is basically when someone sends us a project idea and I look up all the census info and put it into a few forms and blah blah blah boring tax credit financing stuff. Anyway, I recently watched Jurassic Park and Independence Day and had Jeff Goldblum on the brain. I was making myself an intake checklist of sorts. I like to spice up documents of that sort with random celebrities or themes. So naturally, I made it Jeff Goldblum’s Intake Checklist. It looks like this:

So, since I made that list, when Audrey has a new deal she’ll email me and say ‘can you run a Jeff Goldblum’ or ‘JG please’. Today, Audrey (who also put the dolphin pictures all over my desk when I first started) needed me to do Intake on a new deal. I opened my email to find Jeff peering at me. No words. Just Jeff letting me know that some intake needs to be done.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Being an idiot is expensive and time consuming

I went to the Multnomah county courthouse today to see if I could get a $190 speeding ticket reduced.
The speeding ticket itself wasn't actually that idiotic. 53 down HW99 at night. Apparently the stretch I was driving through was a 24 hour construction zone with a 35mph speed limit. Bummer. Anyway, I was about 10 minutes late to the courthouse and then it took me another 10 to find parking. I parked in between two cop cars but double checked there was no sign on my space or anything. So I paid the meter and went to the courthouse. Went through security and ran to the traffic violation area, stressed out of my head for being late. In my mind, they would surely call me out in front of everyone, including a judge in a white curly wig, and tell me how irresponsible I am and that they would be, in fact, doubling my fine.
This didn't happen. It turns out they give hundreds of people tickets with the same court time on them so really, I was just late to wait in line. FOR TWO HOURS. And there were still at least a hundred people behind me. The wait itself wasn't actually terrible. I made friends with the guys around me and we played Angry Birds.
About an hour in I realized that my parking meter was expired. The guys held my spot while I ran out to feed the meter. There was already a ticket on my car. Dammit. So I put a bit more change in and headed back. I didn't even look at the thing. Left it on my windshield.
I go through security again and this time they decide that my bright pink pepper spray is contraband. It's not like they could have missed it the first time. Maybe I looked more threatening after an hour of waiting in line and running to my car in the rain to discover that I'd be lucky to break even on this adventure. Whatever the reason, they told me I had to get rid of the pepper spray. So, because my car was several blocks down and I didn't have time for this bullshit I hid my pepper spray in a 'free newspaper' box outside, under a bunch of portland tribune's or something and went back.
When I returned, the guys had so nicely held my spot and really only moved about a foot in line. After all the waiting was over, they reduced my ticket by about $30. Now this is a reduction, and I'm grateful, but dammit. They told me I could schedule a trial in one or two months. For what, maybe $10 more reduction? I mean, I WAS speeding so I can't really plead not guilty. So I take the reduction, bid my new friends adieu and call work. At this point I've missed over half the day so I'm forced to take a full day of PTO which could have been used for something way better like laying in bed all day.
I retrieved my pepper spray from its hiding spot and headed down the street to where I was parked. On my car, is a second ticket. There are two tickets on my car. I let out a soft 'shitfuck' and get in the car to read them. They are both for parking in a police only spot but one is for $40 and one is for $70. I took pictures of the spot because god dammit it's a parking spot!!! there's a park and pay thing right there and there's no marking WHATSOEVER that says I can't park there. Now, in the three spots around me there are signs that say police only. But not on my spot. As I'm pulling away I notice at the end of the block there is a sign wrapped around a pole that says 'police parking this block only 12-8'. fuckity shit. Normally I would notice such a thing when I was parking but because I was so worried about being late to wait in that line for two hours I missed it. Idiot.
Let's recap. At this point, a $30 ticket reduction has cost me:
$110 in parking tickets
3 hours of my life
8 hours of PTO

So when I got home I decided to call and ask about an outstanding parking ticket because I'd received a letter demanding payment of $151 within 10 days. The only ticket I remembered getting was for $150 for parking too close to a fire hydrant. I was outside what was left of the yellow paint but apparently that doesn't matter. You're supposed to measure that shit yourself. But anyway, I knew I had this ticket I just hadn't been able to pay it. It was, however, slotted in my budget for payment on December 20th. I was getting to it, I swear.
I call and actually the man who helped me was very nice. He told me that the $151 was actually for a $30 ticket I got in JANUARY. I don't even remember the existence of this ticket. In addition I have...wait for it...$544 outstanding on the fire hydrant ticket. Well, fuck me. Idiot.
So I set up a payment plan of $75 a month starting in January. Oh and also, they will take my tax refund to pay for those two tickets. So, awesome.

Dear City of Portland, thank you for the following lessons:
1. If you can't pay something, call. Tickets are not T-Rex's and they can see you even if you don't move.
2. If you are planning on going to court to get a reduction on a speeding ticket: bring a book, take an entire day off, and make sure you park in a parking garage. The streets aren't safe. Also, leave your pepper spray at home.
3. Never, ever, ever park ANYWHERE near a fire hydrant.
4. Don't be an idiot.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Why I love Hugh Grant


Besides the fact that I actually enjoy his movies and find him incredibly charming, I also love that he is completely aware that he plays the same role over and over again. Not only is he aware of it but he's not ashamed. I saw him interview with Oprah once and she asked him why he acts if he hates doing it. He basically said 'you people pay me millions of dollars to do something I'm rubbish at. Why wouldn't I do it?' In fact, if you see him interviewed you'll realize that for the most part, he just plays himself in each movie. Which is fine with me, even if he did get arrested for hiring cheap prostitutes and sometimes is photographed at college bars drunk out of his mind and way too old to be there. He's dashing and I adore him.
Running list of people I'd like to have dinner with: Mike Rowe, Ryan Seacrest, and Hugh Grant. Now that's a party.

Below, some more wisdom from HG.

"I did it as a joke job for a year after I left university," he says. "And I was so bad in the first things I did, I thought, `I've got to do another job to prove that I'm not quite that bad.' And that's gone on for 27 years now."

Hugh Grant insists he doesn’t like acting. So why does he do it? “Because I’m not really good at anything else,”

“As it is, I have a limited range as an actor—light comedy. I have never been a fan of romantic comedies and yet, that is what I have ended up mostly doing,” he said with a shrug.

"I kind of hate it. In fact, I hate it quite a lot - all acting, but especially movie acting."

"The truth is, I'd never seen a Cary Grant film. Since then I have watched his stuff and it's astounding, but I don't see any similarity between us. Except for the fact that I'm told he used to wear ladies' underwear, which is something I also do. "

"Most actors really love it, that's what they want to do. They burn to do it. And so they'll read a script and think, that's an interesting part. And because they love acting, that blinds them to the fact that the rest of it is pretentious nonsense, which it very often is."

"Well, you know I have an office, my film offices. So I know that syndrome. I fancy offices, so there must be something wrong with me. Even the window cleaner intrigues me. It's a very sexy environment."

"I don't think there's much point in putting me a deep, dark, heavy, emotional film because there are people who do it so much better than I do."

"I cling to the fantasy that I could have done something more creative. Like actually writing a script, or writing a book. But the awful truth is that I... probably can't!"