I just watched, for 2 hours tonight (!), America’s Got Talent. It was awful. I couldn’t tear my eyes away. After all the grief I’ve given cousin Jen for watching American Idol, I am feeling rather guilty. =)

What hooked me was a commercial promo before the show even started. They showed a kid (with no audio – someone was doing a voiceover) doing a dance I immediately recognized, even without sound. This kid did some moves from a Bollywood film called Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai – a movie I watched in college. I know the moves because I had a roomie who frequently practiced them.

So I waited anxiously to see this.

(The movie version is here.)

So nice… he lets me take pictures of him while I play with my new camera:

Dave, uploaded by tara.aukerman.

My body doesn’t know what’s going on.  After 4 hours of sleep, I stayed awake for 20.  Then I went to bed at 6:30pm (HI time).  I woke up every 15 or 20 minutes after 2:00am (which is my normal wake-up time of 7:00am, IN time) until I finally got up at 6:00am (HI time).  I’ve made it ’til 9:00pm tonight, but I’m fading fast. 

I’ve been trying to get in a last hour of work today, but work right now is some graphic manipulation, trying to squeeze an image and find an extra 24 pixel rows – then trying to use that image as the base of a 20-image series.  It’s just too detailed for me to really focus on right now.  So I’m posting a funny video.

We ate at the Hickam AFB officers’ club tonight – at a mongolian barbeque.  It’s a building with only 2 walls, opening out over Pearl Harbor.  While we ate, submarines and motor boats floated by.  I got some fun pictures of my family, but can’t put them online or they’d cry…  my favorite is one of my dad’s face right after a baby puked all over the table in front of him and in his coffee.  =)  Use your imagination.

Leah and I asked Kelly (mom’s friend) to take a picture of us goofing off.  I handed the camera to her in video mode instead of picture mode.  =)  Here’s us posing for her, then waiting, then posing for a second shot just in case the second didn’t come out (pushing the capture button started then stopped the movie):

[coolplayer] http://tara.elmadera.com/images/hickamposes.AVI [/coolplayer]

Other pictures from tonight are posted on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/taukerman/.

… are amazing.  =)  I had my first pedicure today with my almost-sister-in-law (less than 24 hours, now).  She needed a break, and I was more than up for trying something new.  My feet are so soft, my back and my legs have been massaged, and I have these great little foam flip-flop souveneirs.  Must do this more often.  Next time, we’re taking our Auker-men.

Carrie seems to be doing well – just a little stressed.  And no wonder!  As soon as she got back into the car and checked her messages (she wisely left the phone in the car during the pedicure), she got a frantic call that started with “Oh my God.  Something’s horribly wrong” (or something equally alarming – I can’t remember exactly anymore)…  Turns out, someone had ordered blue shirts for something and received lime green shirts instead – but it wasn’t even an emergency.  C’mon, guys – rule number two (after “Happy wife, happy life”) is “NEVER alarm a bride!”  Sheesh.

I’m taking a quick break from work to post – I’ve been hanging at the local Panera (free wireless internet) and working remotely today while David runs with the rest of them trying to get the various wedding places decorated.

I wanted to post because I wanted to show these pictures:

My office mate.  With a paper umbrella barette.

My boss (a la the FrenchWoman from the End of the Word flash movie).

Me.

Can I just tell you how much I love the people I work with?!  Sedona rocks.  Literally, actually – the guy who hired us, Kerry, is a [fabulous] guitar player/singer who makes rounds at a local restaurant/bar chain called “Cheeseburger in Paradise.”  We had planned, for MONTHS, to show up and surprise him some night while he played – we bought KerryLand t-shirts and everything – and the DAY OF our surprise drop-in (which, by the way, we planned for months), he invited us all out to see him play.  Dinner and drinks on him.

Meredith, Angela (another coworker) and I decided that the least we could do was have blue hair, too (like his logo).  Every one of us wore one of those three wigs by the end of the night.  =)

What a week! These past couple months might be the busiest I’ve ever had, and that’s saying something, considering my propensity to overcommit…

Even the weekends aren’t really relaxing. This Saturday, we spent the day driving to Shawn’s new place, helping him move into his new place, and driving back from his new place. We were exhausted when we got home, so we pretty much just crashed.

Yesterday, Sunday, I had to prepare communion during the first part of Sunday school, go to the quickie choir rehearsal before church started, put together two huge pans of baked beans for our after-church cookout (which I was in charge of organizing) and throw them in the oven during the beginning of the service, rush back in for the anthem (the choir part of the service), then leave the service right after communion to copy maps for folks driving to the cookout. Then I spent the afternoon being in charge of the cookout – setup, clean-up, what goes where, when things happened, etc. – and taking pictures for the website. I found time, though, to play a couple of rounds of Ultimate with the boys. =)

Today, I should be working. After all, I only get paid for the hours I work (unlike some other employed folk who get paid for being sick, for going on vacation, and for not working on federal holidays). I just can’t seem to get around to it, though. This morning, I’ve been doing things that need to get done – like dishes, fixing some things online, and updating the church website. I don’t really feel badly about it – I’ll get some work in, though not a whole day – and I get to relax a little. I’ve been feeling more and more like I need a break – there’s only so much doing and doing you can take before you have to rest.

I just got 11×14 prints of these pictures – they are A.MA.ZING.  Seriously, adoramapix.

We decided that we didn’t want that house. There were some really neat things about it, but neither of us really loved it. We figure that it’s not a good idea to spend that much money on something we don’t absolutely LOVE. So, we spent some time last night on MIBOR and have contacted several realtors about other properties. Hopefully we’ll hear back from them soon. =)

…

Also, AdoramaPix is having an amazingly great sale on 11×14 prints. Now’s the time.

Check this out. =)

http://www.uxmag.com/

I’m a fan of adoramapix.com.

they’re printers for professional photographers, and a friend recommended them to me when I was printing wedding pictures.

so… I had an issue with them once and sent ‘em an email about it. they fixed the problem right away and asked if I wanted to be part of a group of folk who’d test new site things for them. of course I said, “sure.”

hadn’t heard back from them until today – I get to beta test their new print site! it is SO much better than what’s up now and better than the other digital print sites around. for one, there are multiple ways to do bulk uploads! AND, they’re cross-platform now.

the best part: for going and looking around the beta site, I get a $25 credit! which means, sometime next week, I’ll have wedding photos for the wedding album. =)