Need input

Has anyone been on vacation to Scotland? Or on an Alaskan cruise? Or to the Yucatan Peninsula?

Those are my top three vacation choices... And I need to pick one soon. Any and all input is greatly appreciated!

Really?!?

174 days since my last Tweet and even longer since my last blog post? How sad.

I blame Facebook... And those damn addicting games. I think they sprinkle crack in them. Why else would they be as addicting?

So what's new with me? Let me see...

We're pretty much settled into our house. We haven't done entirely too much to the house. We had the chimney repaired, purchased a new gas log, a few new pieces of furniture, hired Closets By Design, dug up the front planter sprinklers, planted a vegetable garden, and received a quote demo & rebuild the back patio. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things. Hey I can actually build on those for new blog posts!

my crap, i mean scrap room.

The post title is dedicated to Tony. ;-) He keeps on joking that my new office/craft/scrap room is going to be called my "crap" room. He even promised to get me a sign for the door. lol

So here it is. My own four walls that will, actually already starting to, contain my office. Or to my crafty buds, "my craft/scrap room". Crafting has taken a back burner. I hope to move it to the front burner very soon. :-) I know having my own space to decorate and do what I want with (within reason, of course) will get those creative juices flowing again. Even though I haven't scrapped in a long time, I do make cards every now and then, and I've also taken up playing with water colors.

I wish I would've gotten a shot of the closet as well. It has lots of shelves, conducive to storing a lot of craft supplies. lol Those craft supplies will be used.

I love my space. Loads of natural light as it's west facing and has two large windows, bamboo flooring, and as I mentioned a pretty kick-ass closet for storage. I was also gifted a piece of furniture for the room... A library card catalog! Yippee. It should arrive at the end of next week or so. I can't wait to get started. I will be emailing you all for some decorating ideas. Pam mentioned the color scheme at the Paper Source at South Coast Plaza. Anyone else have a color scheme they like, or some decorating ideas you like? All ideas are appreciated!

lucky

That's how I feel. I really do.

Life has had a few twists and turns; however, I've come out relatively unscathed. A better person for it too. At least I think so. :-)

Sometimes I step back and can't help but smile. Life is good.

I. Am. Happy.

To top it off... We're buying a house (in La Mirada)! I've been sitting on this for a while, not wanting to post anything just in case it fell out of escrow. So far so good. We close this Friday, July 10th. We should have the keys by July13th. Very excited. Hoping sometime soon after everything has settled down, I can host a scrap/craft gathering. Which equates to a catch up session with margaritas. :-) Who's game?

Yes, I know. I suck.

It's been almost five months since my last blog update. The blog post title says it all. Sorry.

Between Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, & this blog, you should all know my every move. lol FB has taken over my life. I'm addicted to the various apps. I dream of some of the games. That's pretty sad.

I need to unplug. Seriously.



But then, I'm afriad I'd die. (sigh)

what's your beauty regime?

Ok ladies, and gents. I'd like to know your beauty regime, secrets, tips, do's, don'ts and whatever else comes to mind. I looked in the mirror the other day and was quite shocked at how many wrinkles have popped up.

Seriously. Mega wrinkles around my eyes.

Now, I'm not the kind to get frantic or stress over wrinkles. I want to know what you do to stave off time from showing on your face? I don't want to look like I'm 65 when I'm a very young 25, er, I mean 38. (Did you hear that dear BF? 38, not 39!)

Give it to me. I'm ready to soak in your knowledge.

We had an interesting, fun weekend. We saw a movie and did a self-guided tour of Olvera Street & Chinatown. Photos to follow...

such a hard life... not!

This weekend passed by so fast. Unsure exactly what I did!

Friday evening we had planned on seeing The Wrestler. However we ended up having a longer than expected dinner at La Palapa del Mar in Long Beach. I had the pollo en rollado (Pan seared chicken breast rolled with prosciutto, spinach, red peppers & blue cheese, with mashed potatoes & grilled asparagus. Served with an apple raspberry reduction), it was pure deliciousness. All the flavors worked so well with each other. I'm not a big blue cheese fan either, but it worked. :) My boyfriend (BF) had the salmon (Served with grilled asparagus, mashed potatoes, lemon garlic butter sauce), he said his was good as well. I give their margaritas two thumbs up as well. Quite the kick, but not overpowering in tequila flavor either. Service was good. Our waiter was a bit odd though. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but my BF straight out said he didn't like him. lol They also have various musicians. When we were there they had an Andean band playing. It may have been Andes Trance, which is listed on their website. He was good... When he played Andean music. However, when he he crossed over to flamenco (or rumba catalana) which he did a few times, he didn't seem to have the right sound. He sang a few Gipsy Kings songs, but he didn't do them justice. Friday night was topped off with a new quiet beach walk. :)

Aren't weekends lovely when you can sleep in? At the same time, you lose half of your day doing that.

Saturday night we met my BF's cousin that was in town for a conference. We (I, BF and BF's mom) picked her up at her hotel in LA and drove over to The Stinking Rose. This was my second time to this restaurant and the bagna calda was a good as I remember it being. Bagna calda is their special appetizer. It's basically garlic cloves, oven roasted in olive oil and a bit of butter, with a hint of anchovy. They serve it with their focaccia bread. For dinner I had the gnocchetti. It was ok, not bad, but not outstanding either. The first time I was there I had the sea bass which was excellent. BF had the Forty Clover Garlic Chicken, but he made sure to ask if they actually used 40 cloves. Which they don't. His cousin had the meatloaf, she said it was good. His mom had the Baked Portobello Mushroom, she said it was quite delicious. We also shared a bottle of Mac Murray Pinot Noir, tasty. :) For dessert, we shared a wild strawberry cheesecake à la mode. And on the way back, I got a good dose of reminders to be thankful for what I have. We drove through the skid row area.

Sunday was another low-key day. We slept in. :) Decided to go for a ride on his bike, but unfortunately his back tire was flat. So we stayed in, watched more Charmed, slept some more, then made dinner. Excruciatingly difficult day, huh? To top it off, my BF prepared dinner for Monday night as well. :) Such a hard life I lead. :)

start breathing [edited]

Hola amigos y amigas.

I know I still need to share my Grand Canyon and China photos, but I just haven't gotten my act together enough to comb through all the photos, pick my favorites, Photoshop if necessary, then finally post. Doesn't that sound like a lot of work? Ugh. ;-)

Between my boyfriend and I we took approximately 4,700 pictures in China and another 600 at the Grand Canyon. Do you now understand my inertia? lol

I've kept myself busy. Small events, but fun nonetheless.

We recently planned a trip to Vegas that was derailed by snow. We weren't allowed over that first mountain right past Rancho Cucamonga. We were able to cancel our hotel and Cirque de Soleil tickets because of the snow. They were actually quite understanding. We were both surprised that both venues agreed to refund the charges. We figured Vegas is hurting enough that they don't want people not to go back.

I've also been playing a lot of Rock Band on the Wii. Can you say... "Addicted"? As in a major way. I've even been dreaming of Rock Band. Seriously. We've come up with all sorts of rock band names, most are pretty silly. Wii Roq is the one that's stuck. We must look pretty funny from the street. We all play the various instruments. Everyone, but my niece, shies away from the microphone. I personally like the drums, except my shin starts to hurt after a while. Gosh, I'm old. lol I like to read an online comic strip called xkcd. The comic "caters" to geeks, nerds, mathmaticians. etc... They have some pretty funny strips. This strip has been on of my favorites to far.
Besides Rock Band, I've also been reading. I finished Paulo Coelho's By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept. It was good. I guess I had such high expectations after The Alchemist. Don't misunderstand me, this was a good book, just not what I expected. It's a story about love, destiny, being strong, resentment, and eventually speaking up for yourself and voicing what you want out of life. This book is in a triology with Veronika Decides to Die, which I read, and The Devil and Miss Prym. The Devil and Miss Prym comes highly recommended by a friend that's a voracious reader. I may give that one a try as well. Although, that's not making my current stack of books any smaller. :)

After By the River... I read, or should I say, listened to The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. It was read by Campbell Scott. The reading was a bit dry and monotonous. However, now that I read more about the author, this is his first non-detective novel. I assume the reader, Campbell Scott, may have read his other books which his tone would've been perfect for, but for this, it just didn't work for me. Other than that, the story was engrossing. It deals with the comprehension and "fallout" of the holocaust, and with illiteracy. I became a bit uncomfortable at the beginning of the book because it dealt with the relationship between Michael Berg & Hanna Schmitz. He's 15, she's 36. All through the book Michael's love of Hannah never leaves him. Even when he's older, he still compares all his partners to Hannah. Her scent and her command over him never leave him. The book comes together as the trial commences in part II of the book. The Reader was made into a movie (trailer link), which came out last month. I may wonder over to the theater to catch it.

Speaking about movies. We caught The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas at the movies this past week. I loved it. I don't want to say too much about it because you should go watch it. The basic premise is that a young boy named Bruno, a Nazi commander's son, befriends Shmuel, a boy in a concentration camp at Auschwitz, which is near Bruno's new home. Bruno asks Shmuel why he's always wearing pajamas. Such a cute innocent kid question, Bruno has no idea how high up in the Führer's army his father actually is. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Even made me cry a bit. Worth checking out.

To top off my Nazi reading/watching, we also caught Valkerie (trailer link). I'm not a big Tom Cruise fan, but he was decent in the role. It's the story of von Stauffenberg's attempt to kill Hitler and use Operation Valkyrie. I wasn't versed in Operation Valkyrie so it was a good action movie for me. I"m sure if you're well versed in the operation, it may not be.

When I'm not viewing or reading about Nazi's, I'm watching La Femme Nikita on dvd. Or should I say, I was watching Nikita. We finished watching the series a few days ago. While viewing it I vacillated between, "just kill her already!", or "I love Nikita!". Now that it's over, I miss the show. Waaaa! Although we just started watching Charmed on dvd. As a few of you know I really don't watch much tv, except for the various dvds we watch. We don't have cable... But we have alot of dvds. lol So I guess I do watch tv. :)

Also, this past Saturday I got together with a few scrapbook friends. Although, we don't scrapbook together anymore, we still hangout when the opportunity arises. We were reminiscing how long we've known each other, the various stages of life we've seen each other through, and the various highs and lows. It's amazing. This is one special group of women. We all got to know each other because of our love of scrapbooking. Since then a few have branched out and made a name for themselves in the industry or related industries. We've shared plenty of laughs, plenty of tears, plenty of phone calls, and plenty of memories. I'm honored to know these talented and funny women. I'm kicking myself because I forgot to take a picture. Here's an oldie but goody from our outing to The French General and Sweetpeas and Snapshots in LA in August of '06.
The book I'm currently reading, Reading Lolita in Tehran is very good. I started reading it a couple of months ago, but had to keep on putting it down for various reasons. Since picking it back up, I've become absorbed. There's a line in the book that reads, "A novel is not an allegory.... It is the sensual experience of another world. If you don't enter that world, hold your breath with the characters and become involved in their destiny, you won't be able to empathize, and empathy is at the heart of the novel. This is how you read a novel: you inhale the experience. So start breathing."

What are you reading?

bad blogger

Yep. That's me.

My resolution to blog more often held up for pretty steadily through the month of October, then BLAM... I hit a wall.

I have lots of things to write about too. I still "need" to share my China trip photos and stories, my high school reunion photos, heck, I still need to share my Grand Canyon photos.

It's called procrastination... And not having a computer at home.

I've really been debating getting a lap or desk top computer for home. I don't like Photoshopping my photos at work. I just feel odd. Even though I do it during my breaks. I lost my iBook during my divorce. He "borrowed" and never returned it. I figured that's how it was going to play out. I've gone this long without a computer at home, and I don't absolutely need one, but I think it'll make working on my photos and blogging much easier. At the same time, I like not having a computer at home. I don't need the extra distraction. Believe I get distracted easily enough! lol

Life has been good though. I'm happy.

I took the following photo with my Centro cellphone camera.

i actually finished my bookclub title... in time, no less!

Yep. I deserve a pat on the back. Ok, well maybe just a thumbs up.

I'm notorious for not finishing my bookclub title in time. I go to the meetings unprepared, but I figure this is supposed to be fun. I'm not going to stress over it.

It took me a while to get into Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. It was a very odd book that skimmed all sorts of subjects. From an incestuous union between brother and sister (in 1922 Smyrna) to prohibition, from the 1967 race riots to hermaphrodites. Did I say it was odd? Yep. I sure did.

I geek out when I read books, and sometimes write little "cheat sheets". Normally timelines, characters, relations, etc... I kind of needed it for this book. There was a part in the book where Desdemona Stephanides is having a conversation with her brother, Eleutherios ("Lefty"). They state that in Turkey, and elsewhere, it is illegal to marry your brother but not your third cousin, and since they were siblings, but also third cousins, it must surely be ok. Huh? What? How were they siblings and third cousins?! I missed it. I didn't feel like going back to read where that previously came up.

Middlesex won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2003. Even though it took me a while to get into the book, I really had a hard time putting it down afterwards.

All through the book Cal refers to her, er, I mean his brother as "Chapter Eleven". I kept on wondering why Cal called him Chapter Eleven, and I never did figure it out. Even after I was done with the book. Now as I read Wikipedia's description, it alludes to the reason. D'uh!

Overall a good book. I'm glad I read it.

On to my next... By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coelho. I became interested in Paulo Coelho after I read The Alchemist. The Alchemist is a book about following your dreams, and even though you may end up exactly where you began, the journey is normally a grand one that shouldn't be missed. Setting aside fear and uncertainty is a big theme in most of his books. His themes can be a bit trite, but every now and then even though they are trite, they manage to hit you in a different way... At least I think so.

Wiki states that By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept is the first part of Coelho's trilogy "On the Seventh Day". The other two parts are Veronika Decides to Die and The Devil and Miss Prym. I read Veronika Decides to Die, I guess I may read The Devil and Miss Prym soon. lol

I have so many books in my "in the processing of reading" and "to be read" pile that they were literally falling over. I had to remove them from my nightstand and put them in my bookcase.

I feel like Henry Bemis in The Twilight Zone episode Time Enough at Last. Except the only thing preventing me from reading is work, various hobbies, laziness, sleep, eating, life, you know the regular stuff.

Happy reading to all!

can I get a napkin please

bowling, oktoberfest, & invite making

That's what consumed my weekend.

Friday evening we decided to finally go bowling, and we picked Westminster Lanes. We had been thinking about it for quite awhile now, but always opted to do other things instead. So off we were, with our enthusiasm and our backpack crammed with "illegal" drinks. :) illegal = homemade margaritas We decided to go one their "Rock and Bowl" night. Which includes unlimited bowling between 9pm-1am, loud music and a lively crowd. The bowling price was good considering you can play as may games as you want. The price is $16.00 person and a shoe rental fee of $4.00, so basically $20.00 a person. You have to have a minimum of four people per lane to have the lane to yourselves. If not, you run the risk of sharing a lane with strangers. They gave us our own lane even though there were only two of us, but she did say that if they did sell out, we'd be moved and have to share. We ended up bowling eight frickin' games. Yeah, no wonder my thumb was sore and aching to stop. This was nothing like Wii bowling. lol

Speaking of Wii bowling, we did some Wii bowling at my sister's. Saturday night she hosted an Oktoberfest get together. Really it was more of a "Come on over, we have brats and beer. And Wii!" gathering. That was fun. Michael, my sister's husband, got nailed in the elbow by his sister as we played a foursome of Wii tennis. I like to watch people play Wii boxing. The controls on that game seem to suck, but it's funny watching people play.

Sunday was a low-key day. We caught up on our presidential debates that had been sitting on Tivo for a while. We watched a documentary called Up theYangtze which followed two teens as they worked on a cruise ship that sails the Yangtze. Which happens to be the same ship we sailed on. :) Caught up on Dexter. All along I was making these invites for my mom's surprise 60th bday party. This invite is a bit unfinished. I went on to ink it a bit more as well as added some parenthesis stamps on the ends of "fiesta".

Well that's about it. How was your weekend?

inspired... kinda

My friend Pam has great taste, as well as being a pretty awesome human being. She has this penchant towards all things white. And not in a racist way, but a decorative color way. :)

She's the queen of organization. Kinda makes me feel second rate when I walk into her beautifully organized and decorated home. Even Brooklyn, their golden retriever, is white.

Anyway, I was referring to Pam because she's pushing herself to blog more often. To blog about everyday occurrences, not just those special little moments. I feel like if I have to wait and only blog about those special little moments, I'm never going to blog! So I'm taking a cue from Pam and I'm really going to try to blog a bit more often. I'm often told that if someone wants to know something about me that they have to read my blog or my Myspace page. I say, just ask me... or read all about it here. :)

Let me leave you with a few photos from China. These were taken on my cell. I still haven't organized my camera photos. One day, I promise.This is their typical bottled water delivery method. Crazy, huh? Not just to small shops, but to the airports as well. As we were approaching the Shanghai airport I saw one guy with 10 bottles on his motorcycle. You ask where the 10th bottle was situated? Between his arms. Yes!

I loved seeing the kids in these traditional baskets. You saw women using them in the larger cities as well as the smaller ones. This was snapped in a Toys r Us in Beijing. As we walked around, we saw a couple in their late teens playing with a karaoke type of toy, the guy had the best laugh. I tried getting him on video, but he stopped before I was able to switch over.

I now say adieu with one of the many signs I was able to capture. I loved coming across some of these signs. They made me chuckle each time. Remember... "Protect the nature. Please use less paper."

Have an awesome weekend!

20 yr high school reunion

Ugh. Has it really been 20 years since I graduated from JGHS? A whole 20 years?! Jeez. The photo above is from our senior powder puff game. Good times. Good times.

I'm horrible at keeping in contact with people... As most of you know. Unless I have an easy way of contacting you (blog, email, text, etc) I'm bad at picking up the phone and calling people. I always have been. I think that's why I never kept in contact with all my high school friends. I'd get a card from them, or a phone call, but I'd never return them. How sad.

I've been making the extra effort in returning calls and emails though. Really, I have. I guess it's really more that I'm "forced" to now. lol Since accepting to be on the reunion committee I've had to return a lot of emails and calls. Unfortunately since we dragged our feet entirely too long with the reunion process we had to go with just a get together instead of a full-blown reunion. We'll have a company ran reunion for our 25 year anniversary. For our 20 yr, we're just having a party. At a bar. At a small dive. Yep. A bar. lol I guess it could be worse. Oh well. It should be fun seeing all my old friends. Friends that I'll promise to keep in touch with but soon will fade again.

Let me leave you with a few more high school photos. Please keep the laughter to a minimum. I'm the one in the red cap and gown. I went to my senior prom with my friend David. He was such a sweet guy. I always wondered what became of him. Well I just found out. He's very local, as in Seal Beach! He works for Merrill Lynch as their Resident Director and Wealth Management Advisor. *edited: Right after I submitted this post, my office phone rang. Guess who it is?! Yep. He got my number from one of the other committee members and decided to give me a call. He's stressed, but doing well. He's been married for 9 years, and has two little girls. The best part of this committee is catching up with long lost friends. Life is good.
Awe. I love my old high school friends. :) Good times. Good times.

$8.10 S&H for a $1 item. Really?

So does Paper Zone really think they can get away with charging $8.10 for a $1 sale item? Really? Really? Show me a person that would pay that price. Please.

I wonder how many sales they've lost because of their ridiculous S&H prices?

I received an email from Paper Zone advertising some card & Valentine kits for $1 each. I perused their website and decided on a few items, fair prices, not great, but fair. I added a few kits, some Cutter Bee scissors, and an ink pad for a total of $21.98. I then hit the S&H calculation button. $13.18. Really? $13.18 for those few items. I thought it was too much, and mind you, none of the items were heavy. I then removed the scissors and ink pad from my cart and recalculated the S&H. $12.41. They're charging me $12.41 for paper, not a lot of paper either. I still thought it was ridiculous. No where on their site does it give you a breakdown of S&H charges. Hmm, I wonder why?

I proceeded to remove each item 'til I only had one small card kit left. One kit. Once small kit. One small, light, card kit. It's listed for only $1.00. One measly dollar. S&H is $8.10 on that one small, light, card kit.

Bite me Paper Zone.

you snooze, you loose

Jeez.

5 minutes.

That's how long it took for Kelly Rae's original artwork to sell out on her Etsy shop. 5 frickin' minutes. Poof! All gone. And none for me. :(

I've been purchasing several of her prints for friends and family over the last couple of years. I love her artwork. I can look at her pieces for several hours and still find something new in them. Don't know why, I just love them. I had been contemplating by a few more of her prints for myself, but figured I'd splurge and buy myself an original. Something to make me happy. Something I can stare at and be content. So I made sure to put it on my calendar, with a 15 minute warning window. As dumb luck would have it, my short morning meeting became elongated and I was stuck there 'til 9:57am. That meant I had 3 minutes to dash across campus and sign into my Etsy account. It wasn't enough time. :(

I made into my office and online by 10:01am. The original paintings went on sale at 10:00am exactly. There were only three originals left by the time they came up on my screen. I quickly scanned all three and one of my top choices was still available, so I put it in my cart. I was feeling jazzed. An internal Snoopy Dance of sorts was happening. By the time I clicked the purchase button, it was gone. Another Kelly Rae admirer had snatched it up.

I looked at the other two left, then within a few seconds those were gone as well. :( I sat at my desk in awe. Saddened, but happy for her success.

I posted on her website that trying to buy one of her original pieces was harder than buying Depeche Mode tickets in the 80's! Seriously.

So here I sit with an empty cart.

china or bust...

... Is what my suitcase reads.

See you in 17 days. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures. :)

countdown to china is on

Holy Smokes! This is actually happening. We're actually going to China!

Since the "let's go to China" talk started, I thought, "Ok, something may prevent us from going, but I'm still DAMN excited about the possibility." Then as the time started to draw closer and things were going as planned, I started to let my mind wander and really start to get excited, but I always managed to reel it in. I tend to go over pending events over and over in my mind, then that's all I can think of. I become extremely focused on the event and the days go by soooo s-l-0-w. I've managed to push the China trip to the back of head, but it would surface every few days. Now that the trip is right around the corner, I'm starting to feel the pre-trip anxiety of "will I be able to get everything that needs to get done?" lol All trip related plans are done. Now it's just packing and deciding if I prefer to hassle with heavier luggage and pack the clothes I want, or keep it to lighter luggage and only a few outfits. What a dilemma! ;-) We'll be visiting Beijing, Yichang, The Yangtze River, Chongqing, Xi'an, & Shanghai. Ain't that a mouthful?!

I guess it's about time I posted the video of my fall into Angel Creek in Phantom Ranch, on our Grand Canon trip.

I.O.U.S.A.

If you haven't seen I.U.O.S.A., get your butt to a theater. I throughly enjoyed it.

I knew we, the USA, were overextended. I knew we were in a trade deficit. I knew we were facing real trouble with Social Security. I knew it all, but this movie places it in a nice little package for you and slaps you in the face with the facts. Our debt to foreign countries was the biggest shocker for me. A total and utter wake up call.

A few parts of the film felt sensationalist(ic?). Even though the film was billed as non-partisan, there were also a couple of points that felt party or campaign-ish. Overall, a great film to see.

We saw the film last night in Huntington Beach. After the film there was broadcast (from Omaha, Nebraska) Q&A session with:
Warren Buffet (thought to be one of the world's greatest investors),

Peter Peterson (once the US Secretary of Commerce, and has served under various Presidents),

David Walker (once Comptroller General of the US, and current CEO of the Peterson Foundation),

William Niskanen (Chairmen of the CATO Institute & was on Reagan's Council of Economic Advisors), &

Bill Novelli (Chairman of AARP & creator of the Divided We Fail campaign)

During the Q&A session we picked up the fact that the four other men seemed hesitant to disagree with Buffet. I mean, who in their right mind is going to disagree with a man that's been heralded as such a "genius"?

I developed a secret crush, or not so secret now, on David Walker. He seemed very passionate.

If you're interested, here's the PDF transcript from last night Q&A session. Happy reading!

Speaking of reading... I actually finished my reading for my book club on time!

word

I found this awesome little website that turns your words (or blog, for that matter) into a word cloud.

I played with it for a few minutes and came up with my China word cloud. You can change the direction of the words, the size, color, etc... It's pretty nifty, and fun.

And no, I didn't choose China as my topic because of the Olympics, it's because I'm finally fulfilling a dream and heading there next month. Words can't describe how elated I am about this trip. I have to constantly stop myself from thinking about it. I am so very thankful for this opportunity. It's truly amazing. Amazing.