Finally...

Finally. There is some Todd Agnew sheet music available online. I tell ya. Todd Agnew is one of the hardest musicians to find sheet music for. I've been waiting for over a year and a half now for sheet music for his Christmas album, "Do You Hear What I Hear?" During the summer, they re-released his CD and for a whole lot of money it came with the sheet music for the CD. However, it was more than I was willing to spend. Finally ... the sheet music is also available now on MusicNotes.com, which is where I purchase the majority of my digital sheet music. I am so excited. Now only if I can scrape together enough money to buy some songs that I will probably never sing ... but what else is new?

What I did on my last day of vacation...

... I went to a marching band competition!

A couple weeks ago, Heidi told me her high school was hosting a band competition on October 28th. I told her I would request that day off so I could go. Then I realized, I was going to have that day off anyway. It was the last day of my one-week vacation. I was so excited. I haven't gone to a band competition ... I think since the year after I graduated. I went to several competitions during that year. But after that ... I don't think I went to anymore.

This competition brought back a lot of old memories and emotions. But I'm glad I'm not in high school anymore, on the field competing. But seeing those bands on the field ... I remember some of those emotions you get when you're on the field ... getting off the field ... circling up after a performance ... The best part of all this? Heidi's solo! Yup, our little Heidi had a solo during her band's field show.

The best show? It was definitely Thousand Oaks High School. We passed this band when Nina and I went to the car. They had some TALL trombone players. They had black uniforms and each player had a number on the front of their uniform. Why? The theme of their show was time. It was really cool. About a third from the end, everyone put down their instruments. I'm not sure what to call what they did, but it was AWESOME! I'll link the video if I can ever upload it. And I guess I can say this online ... but boy am I glad I didn't have the band director Arroyo did when I was in high school ;-) . He he he :-D

Pictures are up on my flickr in the Downey Field Tournament set.

Remember this feature?

Another one missing...

What I mean by that is ... I'm missing another memory card. It's bad enough that I'm missing my 1 gig memory card from my previous digital camera. When I got my new one, I got three 1 gig cards. Now one of them is temporarily misplaced. Where is it? If I knew, it wouldn't be temporarily misplaced. I need one of those big cases that holds multiple memory cards. How many? Let's see... I have two of those PNY 1 gig memory cards left, 1 512 mb SanDisk card, then the 32 mb Canon card that came with the camera, and a 2 gig mini-SD card. On top of that, I have two 1 gig cards misplaced. Then I still have my 256 and 512 compact Flash memory cards from my first digital cameras. In case you haven't noticed, the CompactFlash cards are becoming more and more obsolete. When I was considering replacing my first camera, I wanted to get another one that used CompactFlash. However, I discovered most cameras now use either a SD card, memory stick (if it was Sony), or another kind of card. But no Compact Flash. So, I moved on and got the SD cards. Why do I need so much memory space? Have you looked at my flickr lately? Do you know how many pictures I take? It's ridiculous. I know. But a zebra can't change it's spots, right?

It's been awhile, so let's catch up

Since I last posted. Only one post so far this month, huh? Wow. I think part of it was I didn't go online for a couple days. I had some things last week that I wanted to put down on my post, but by now they're all gone. How about them Rockies? Anyone out there following the Rockies now that the regular season is over? Amazing.

Anyone in my area venture to the Glendale Galleria this week? How many of you turned around as soon as you saw the line to get in? Not to get into the mall... to get into the parking lot? We got a notice a while back, maybe a week or two, about the construction they were going to do on Glendale Galleria Way. We had no idea it was going to be like this! It has been incredibly insane and ridiculous. When I went to work on Monday, I was fifteen minutes late because of the parking situation. There were two entrances open on Columbus (I discovered that when my usual two entrances on Broadway were closed and I had to drive around the mall) and a huge line to get in. On top of the line to get in, there was no parking allowed on the first level. So there was a huge line snaking through the first level to the second. Cones and cars everywhere. I drove down the street to find residential parking. First spot I parked in had a sign, from a certain time till five or six p.m., there was only two hour parking allowed. Considering it was two o'clock and I was late for my four hour shift, I had to move my car down a block.

Thankfully, I had Wednesday off and didn't have to deal with the parking. Tuesday, I was called out, saying they needed to cut back on their payroll hours and if I didn't mind not coming in. Of course, I didn't mind. I could use the hours, but if I didn't need to go in and deal with the parking, sure. Then today, I knew what a hassle parking was going to be. So I left my house an hour and a half before work so I could pick up my brother, drop him off, get gas for my car, and have time to fight with parking at the mall. It took me about twenty minutes to get to the roof level where I usually park. Getting out took about ten. And when I did get out, I ended up in the exit that only let you make a right turn. However, I needed to make a left. So I did what the car in front of me did. Pulled a U-turn. You know what else is ridiculous besides the single line to get into and around the parking lot? The people who don't know how to park their cars inside the yellow line. You know. The domino effect. One person parks crooked so everyone else is parked crooked. Then the you have the big SUV type vehicle who thinks it's a compact car and takes up two parking spaces!

And in case you missed it ... they filmed an episode of "Criminal Minds" on our street last week. They were filming at a house just two houses away from me. So, when I got home from work last Thursday, my street was blocked off. I parked on the corner and asked the police officer if I would be able to drive to my house. He said I should unless they made previous arrangements. So, I walked to my house, saw that my driveway was clear, and changed into some jeans and a t-shirt. I walked back up the block to get my car. When I was walking back to my house, I heard someone say "Hey Russell Martin girl." At first I thought it was one of the crew guys. But later on, I realized, it was the neighborhood guy who calls me "Russell Martin girl." The filming didn't wrap up till well after midnight. The Coroner van was parked in front of my house most of the day. Then when it got dark, they had the transformer thingy that provided their light and electricity. Billy's friend Cary came over to help him with his computer. When he was trying to leave, there was no way he could back out of the driveway. It was difficult because there was no good angle. So, he had to drive across our lawn and down the neighbor's driveway. Easy right? Well, the back of the truck made him coming down the driveway a little difficult.

On top of the filming and parking, someone left a rabbit on my front porch last Wednesday night, the night before the filming. It was either Wednesday or Tuesday night. My dad wanted to let it go. My brother and I wanted to keep it. We didn't want to let it go, because it would either become road kill or dog food. Angelina wanted to take it, but her mom wouldn't let her. Nina didn't want it because she thought it was fat and not cute. So, on Friday night, I brought it to church to see if I could find it a home. Angelina picked it up and held it. It was so good. It didn't try to run while she held it. It just sat there. Daniel convinced his mom to let him have it. Nina wanted it, after she saw it wasn't fat, and it was cute. Angelina thinks it's still a baby because it's head is so much bigger than the body. But because Daniel is still staying at Alan and Diane's, Nina was going to keep it for a week till they moved into their new apartment. On Saturday, they were painting the high school room and I got roped into going because Nina needed someone to pick up her, Harold, Kevin, and Daniel. While Nina and Harold were still at the dentist, I went to pick up Kevin and Daniel. They had Robbie (the rabbit) with them. At the church, we made a make-shift cage to keep Robbie it. He didn't stay in it half the time because we let him run around. Angelina brought a harness and leash she bought for her rabbit, Wyatt, but it was too big for Wyatt. So, we let Robbie run around. After that was done, we went to the pet store to get some things for Robbie. However, on the way there, Robbie decided not to be shy and take care of his "business" while sitting on Kevin's lap. Currently, Robbie has a cage and is still at Nina's house. But he's no longer hanging out in the tub or a in a plastic storage container. He's got his own cage, food and water bowls, and even a litter box that he does use to take care of his "business" ... most of the time. I'm glad Robbie found a good home. If I had known how friendly he was, I probably would have taken him out of the box more often. Because while we had it (for a few days), he spent most of his time in the box. I would've held him if I knew he was just going to sit there. He's so cute when he just flops over onto his side. The best is when he's cleaning his face and his ears. He is so adorable!

Hate is a strong word

But it comes close. I know we're not supposed to hate. I was putting some of my stuff away and noticed that I was missing some things. I asked my mom about it and she said my "sister" took two boxes of MY stuff home with her. MY STUFF. I can't even call her "sister". These were MY things that she felt she was free to take to wherever it was she was living. Without asking me. She doesn't even live here anymore and she feels that she can come in here, ringing the door bell like everyone's awake rather than sleeping at two in the morning. I am so angry. There's a lot of negative stuff in between us. A lot of negative history. To make a long story short, my blood pressure goes up every time I hear her bedroom door creak when she was living here. When I heard her come home last weekend, my heart beat started racing. I can't explain it. I can't explain how I feel. That's just it. I rather we go our separate ways and never have to see each other again. And I rather she leaves MY STUFF alone. I can't be home right now. I think as late as it is, I'm going to find an open Starbucks and leave the house for awhile. Let's hope I don't run into trouble