my favorite holiday! this is a picture of my pumpkin. he was cute, for about a day. i bought a small one, carved him and put a tea light in him. the one night i lit him, the tea light burnt the underside of the stem, which eventually caved in and fell off. jon suggested i put a spare night light in him that changes color -- spooky effects, right? the night light was as big as the inside of the pumpkin, and while it did look pretty cool changing colors, i only turned it on for one night. the sad pumpkin lasted about a week, started growing some funky mold on the inside, and got thrown away yesterday. poor thing never even made it to halloween! anyway... happy halloween!!

Look at this amazing photo someone took of the fires in San Diego...

my family and friends keep asking if i've had to evacuate because of the fires going on around here... no. as far as i know i'm safe and shouldn't have any problems. but, i have been able to see the results of the fires in the skies. and, for the first time on tuesday i could actually smell smoke in the air. i've heard that in parts of the city, stuff is covered in ash or soot. i don't know if that's true, and i haven't noticed that where i am in the valley. the smell has been faint but noticeable, although i only noticed it on tuesday. the sky is what is the most interesting to see, however extremely depressing. the sun is really bizarre too! i wish i could get a good picture of it. tuesday it was, for lack of better words, fire red.

yesterday the skies seemed a whole lot clearer, and i didn't notice any smoke smell in the air. the wind was blowing pretty good and the temps are a lot cooler than they have been in the past few weeks. so, maybe the forecast for rain this weekend will actually happen and help the fire fighters contain the fires.

the photos were taken on the roof of where i live. the first photo in both sets was taken on monday. the second on tuesday. the third on wednesday. all taken at approximately the same time of day, in the early afternoon (around 1-2pm). the sky is usually perfectly clear, crystal blue. lately, it's been gray or light orange/gray.

i have a good view of the edge of one big mountain, in the general direction of san bernadino, where a large fire is burning through the forests. this is how it has looked for the past three days: view image

my other view is in the general direction of the los angeles airport and the coast. there are no fires burning there, but obviously must be pretty bad in the air: view image

this is a great map that shows where all the fires are in location to los angeles.

so, in honor of the fact that today i turn another year older... i'm emerging to make a post. today is my "golden" birthday... at least, that's what i've been referring to this day as since i was really, really young: the day i turned the same age as the day i was born -- 27 on the 27th.

i don't know what to expect of this age... i think they're all the same once you hit 25, until you turn 30.

oh my god... my 30s are quickly approaching! ugh...

intersting link, via real simple mag: seatguru.com -- always fly in the best seat. the site allows you to select your airline and type of plane, then points out the good and bad seats on-board. really handy!

this state is falling apart. an action star is the governor-elect, the grocery stores are striking, and now the buses are too...

today i made my third grocery store visit this week. the first stop, at von's, resulted in me not even getting out of my car b/c the strikers were stopping shoppers on their way into the store. so, i drove to ralph's. strikers were at the front doors, but fortunately they were not stationed at the elevators underground in the parking garage -- so i managed to get inside without incident, but they had crap selection so i didn't get everything on my list. so, this afternoon i ventured off to a different and new (to me) store, gelson's. this chain must be the only large grocery store not striking, because i swear everyone in the valley was shopping there. hardly any parking and you could barely make it down the aisle without having to wait and let someone pass. at least i got most of what i needed.

maybe everything will get back to normal sometime soon...

my site, along with several other movable type published weblogs, has been victim to a spam robot leaving obscene links in the comments on old entries. not a huge deal, since i am notified by email of any new comments and i can delete them immediately, but just more of a huge annoyance.

in an effort to prevent future attacks, i've incorporated a security check plug-in in the comments section. which, even writing that sentence out now, sounds entirely absurd and pathetic. and makes me think, if that's the way it's going to be from now on, this blog is one step away from going comments-free... regardless, i don't want any spam type links associated with my site.

so, if you're one of the few who do leave comments on my site, you'll notice an image with a number that must be copied into the box below it. hopefully, i will be able to remove the whole security check system in the near future. but for now, seems like the easiest solution.

i cancelled my cellular service with at&t (after my one year agreement expired) and moved to t-mobile a month ago. my last statement from at&t arrived today and actually stated: "amount due=$0.08"

eight cents...

i'm pretty much out of the loop on some music stuff, so it's good to be exposed to some new tunes every now and again -- the other day ljc mentioned going to see a "sting-like" musician, john lardieri of twin a, and gave a link to his site. she also mentioned some mp3s to listen to. not one to pass up a good download (especially if the music is "sting-like"), i headed over to check him out. i'm so digging this guy now. he reminds me of someone... not sting, per se, but it's still good stuff. laid-back rock. check it out!

this looks like a great (and easy) way to recycle old, torn up jeans: chenille denim throw. [link via: sew wrong]

so, i finally saw the october issue of martha stewart living, and my question made it! wahoo!

i don't really remember how i worded my question about cleaning silpats after using them for baking, in the first place, but the question in the magazine is very eloquently stated. i highly suspect some copy writer fixed it up for me.

here's a scan of my question and "martha's" answer (i wonder how many, if any, of these questions she personally answers anyway?).