Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!

We hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween!


Where did these 3 black cats come from?!



Sunday, October 30, 2011

Sharell Fills in the Blanks Again!

Robby made up his own set of 20 fill in the blank questions so I am going to do those as well! Head on over and check out Robby's blog post to see his answers.

1. If I didn't live in California, I would live in Oregon, Colorado, or Costa Rica.

2. I can't swallow pills and I wish I could.

3. It amazes me how wasteful we are compared to other countries.

4. I don't understand why people would poison pets on halloween.

5. I want to compete in an art show.

6. Shaycarl always makes me laugh.

7. Commercials with sick children make me super sad.

8. (One of) My favorite artists is Amy Giacomelli.

9. I lie to myself about the fact that I will get things checked off my to-do list TODAY.

10. The world needs more lizards.

11. The world needs less mosquitoes.

12. I would make a horrible physicist.

13. The most daring thing I've done recently was walk up a mountain trying to avoid poison oak.

14. My laptop could be greatly improved.

15. I learned this week about how important it is to have insurance.

16. Monkeys are divided into the New World and Old World monkeys; each of which is a monophyletic group, but their combination is not, since it excludes hominoids.

17. I like that my friends are crafty, mellow, and funny.

18. If I went back to 1700 I would teach people about nutrition.

19. Cats and coffee are overrated.

20. Crocs are underrated.

20 Fill in the Blank Questions: Casey Edition

1. Sausages and eggs are always in my grocery cart.

2. Mondays are time to get back to work.

3. I will not run out of hobbies for a long time.

4. Today at 11am I was playing guitar.

5. My favorite band of the moment is anything Eric Clapton was in.

6. In the past week, the grossest thing that has happened to me is getting blasted by Mandy.

7. I wish guitar books were less expensive.

8. This weekend I am going to do my EMT workbook.

9. The sound of penny's barking always relaxes me.

10. I haven’t driven a stick-shift in a long time.

11. I can’t wait for tomorrow.

12. Someday I will have a job.

13. Getting an "A" on a midterm is a great feeling.

14. The last dinner I ate was pizza!

15. One of my favorite fast food guilty pleasures is the Sourdough Jack.

16. I am wearing a black "Air" shirt.

17. The last things I bought were a crêpe and a metronome.

18. Two things that made me smile today were telling my Dad about my good midterm grade and talking to my Panda.

19. I didn’t think I would have time to move my car today, but I did!

20. Now it is time to do homework!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

20 Fill in the Blank Questions: Sharell's Answers!

1. Whole milk and cheese are always in my grocery cart.

2. Mondays are CASTLE nights!

3. I will not run out of doggy potty bags for a long time.

4. Today at 11am I was training a cute dog to the DogWatch system.

5. My favorite band of the moment is Foster the People.

6. In the past week, the grossest thing that has happened to me is getting covered in baby puke.

7. I wish art supplies were less expensive.

8. This weekend I am going to be pulling a lot of wire through conduit.

9. The sound of water always relaxes me.

10. I haven’t been skiing in a long time.

11. I can’t wait for my turtle paper to finally be published in a scientific journal.

12. Someday I will have a kayak.

13. Taking off kneepads is a great feeling.

14. The last dinner I ate was tri tip, mashed potatoes, and corn!

15. One of my favorite fast food guilty pleasures is Jack n the Box curly fries.

16. I am wearing a blue dogwatch shirt.

17. The last things I bought were canned pumpkin, cream cheese, and dirt cake supplies.

18. Two things that made me smile today were the baby lizard I caught and this

19. I didn’t think I would have time to give penny a bath today, but I did!

20. Now it is time to go eat dinner!

What are your answers?!

Guitar Notes Reference Sheet

One fundamental way in which the Guitar differs from the Piano is that the same notes exist in multiple locations on the fretboard. There are upsides and downsides to this property of the instrument, but for me at least, it can make learning all the notes at each position challenging. So as an exercise and to have a reference for myself in the future, I created a printable graphic that shows all the notes on a 22-fret guitar neck (like the one on my Epiphone Dot), and where each of those notes is represented on the music staff. Hope this helps anyone else out there learning Guitar!



You can download or view a print-sized pdf version here.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Our Favorite Websites

1. Fitocracy

This is our newest favorite site. It turns fitness workouts into an online game. You can complete quests, get achievements, level up, and compete against your friends. You can even join groups and encourage fellow sweaty men and women. The idea is to get you addicted to fitness, and so far-it has been working! Everyday we log our activities and check to see who has more points. It is great for everyone-even if you do not go to a gym, you can get points for doing almost every physical activity you can think of! It is available right now through invite only, so let us know if you want one.

2. Swagbucks

I have been using this site for well over a year, it is completely legit, and I have earned over $400. On this site, you earn points for searching through the "Swagbucks" search engine instead of using one like google. Some other ways you can get points is for playing games, taking surveys, and watching short videos. Once you accumulate points, you can cash them in for prizes. They have many prize categories to choose from such as electronics, video games, and gift cards. One of the most popular prizes is the $5 Amazon gift card for only 450 swagbucks. I love getting gift cards for amazon and for paypal (who doesn't like extra cash?). And the best part? It is all FREE, so why not?! If you want to try it out, you can sign up through my referral link here: Sharell's Referral

3. Woot

This site puts up a new item for sale every single day at 12am central time at a special reduced price. The product can be anything-household items, toys, gadgets, electronics, the list goes on and on. We have purchased several times and love checking to see what the deal of the day is. It is a great place to get gifts as well!

4. Pinterest

Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard. It lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. You can browse pinboards created by other people which is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests. Pinterest is also invite only right now so let us know if you want in! Here are our profiles: Sharell's Pinterest & Casey's Pinterest

5. Etsy

Etsy is an e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items as well as art and craft supplies. These items cover a wide range including art, photography, clothing, jewelry, edibles, and bath & beauty products. Anyone can open an etsy shop and sell their handmade items. I can spend hours browsing this site and I even have my own painting shop: Sharell's Etsy Shop

6. Google Maps

One of my favorite things to do while I'm perusing the internet is to travel the world. Unfortunately, I haven't the funds to go in person--but with detailed terrain maps, street maps, and 360 degree street view in much of the US, I can at least get a taste for places I might like to visit in the future. And it's also nice to be able to find where I am going (even when I am driving across the country [again]).

7. Wikipedia

It's amazing how much time I've spent reading completely random articles on this online encyclopedia. Following a trail of links embedded in the text of each successive article, I've begun by reading an article about dogs, and ended up reading about the fall of the Soviet Union. Few websites can boast such time-sinking abilities.

8. City-Data

In conjunction with my habitual Google Maps usage, the city-data website and forums contain a wealth of information about many of the interesting places I happen upon. With an impressive amount of statistics in the site's main section, and personal anecdotes available via the written experiences of the forum's members, you can begin to form an impression of even some of the smallest U.S. communities.

9. PubMed

Why bother relying wholly on the interpretations of so-called experts when you can just read the findings of studies of all things medically-related yourself, for free (not all articles may actually be free). However, it does take a certain amount of knowledge of the concepts and lingo to get meaningful answers for yourself. But this stuff is the real deal--ground zero, I suppose, for the dissemination of new discoveries wrought by the minds of our smartest researchers.

A sorry excuse for an internet forum. But somehow a truckload of hilarious and sometimes shockingly insightful discussion occurs there anyways.



(1-5 for Sharell, 6-10 for Casey)

What are your favorite websites?


Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Reptilian Friends


I am going to give these guys a bite to eat before letting them go again. How cute are they?! My dad named the snake Barney and the lizard Dexter :)

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Exploring More Mesa


Today we hiked through More Mesa for the first time. Penny loved running around on the bluffs and sticking her head down the holes. It was a beautiful sunny day and I even found a little gopher snake! It was a very fun trip :)

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Camp Out!!

. . . on the roof! It was so hot in the house last night, we pulled mattresses up to the roof and slept under the stars. We watched some tv, saw an owl fly over, and saw shooting stars :)

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Happiness

Take time to indulge in the bliss of simple pleasures in life.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Fall

First rain of the season!

Monday, October 3, 2011

PigWatch?!

Yes folks, that's right, Snooki Doodle here is the first pig my parents have trained to the DogWatch Hidden Fence system. She is a crack up! She comes when called, loves acorns, and proudly wears her DogWatch collar along with the 4 dogs she lives with :)

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Happy Sunday!


What a great Sunday we had! After breakfast, we took Penny and headed down to the art show along the beach. We walked through beautiful Chase Palm Park on the way back to the car. After lunch in the backyard, I cut Casey's hair, worked on a painting, then we took the dogs to the reservoir, had dinner, and watched a movie. Back to work tomorrow though!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Happy Birthday Robby!

We went up to SLO today to visit Robby for his 23rd birthday. He completed a triathlon earlier in the day, so we went out to dinner and had dessert in the park. What a great trip! Happy Birthday Robby!