Sep 3rd 2010 10:21:59 am

This post is based on the blogging prompt “What I Did Over My Summer Vacation” from IndieBizChicks’ September Blogging Special.

I already told you about my recent trip to Disney World here and here, but I haven’t shared many photos here, on my blog. (And I know you were just dying to see more… Isn’t that everyone’s favorite activity, viewing photos from another person’s vacation? ha!)

Above you can see Travis, Chelsea, Scott, and me on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster (I think). I love roller coasters! Especially the ones at Disney because they are less painful than other amusement park coasters. It is always amazing how after the ride, the super-long wait in line seems totally worth it. (The four of us took an almost identical photo last year at Disney Land.)

Chelsea and I loved these sparkly Minnie ears. We always end up trying on all sorts of ears and hats while we enjoy the air conditioning in the stores at Disney. I have never bought any (because what in the heck would I do with them once I got home?!), but I think they look quite cute.

Racing through the Speedway ride with Travis…. The Speedway is Chelsea’s favorite ride. While we waited in line to get our turn in the mini cars, we all pondered why they are still gas powered and not the more eco-friendly electric. The exhaust fumes were pretty intense.

So… I am actually still a little embarrassed to be sharing more photos from Disney World. Do not judge me too harshly. I know it is not a very adult vacation, but it was so fun. Plus, if we had gone to Las Vegas, I probably could not share the photos!

5 Comments » Categories: Family, Just for Fun, Travis, Trips

Jul 9th 2010 04:54:00 pm

Summer rolls on and on. It has been hot and it has been fun. A lot of my attention has been devoted to running lately, but I’ve also made time for some other activities. Travis and I went to a free, outdoor, She & Him concert on the 4th of July. It was fun but HOT! There were a lot of questionable and sweaty people wearing very tiny bathing suits even though there wasn’t a place to swim… it was a little gross. It was our first time to Governor’s Island and I definitely want to go back on a more comfortable day to picnic and rent one of the two-person bike cars.

What else is up in my life? Here, I’ll break it all down in an easy-to-read, bulleted list:

• Travis and I had our 7th wedding anniversary on July 3rd. We are pretty low key celebrators, but we did go out to dinner at Press 195 and had a fabulous dessert at The Chocolate Room. Yum!
• I wanted to write more about the 5 mile race I ran with Team in Training in Central park on June 27th, but my friend Jessica already did such a good job. You should go read about the race on her blog, Jessica Runs Like a Girl. (Gentle reminder: there is still plenty of time to donate to the cause!)
• I have imported all of the articles that I have written for Craft Critique into this blog. They are all post-dated to align with when they were originally published and their formatting is a bit wonky, but they are all here. Check them out.
• Swap-bot recently hosted a sponsored swap in conjunction with today’s movie release of Despicable Me. It was sort of a big deal because Universal Pictures sent each of the participants a free Minion character from the movie. The swappers then took photos of the Minions around their hometowns. There have been tons of great pictures submitted. You can check some out on the Swap-bot blog. We really hope to do more sponsored swaps in the future!

I guess that is it. Have a great weekend!

1 Comment » Categories: Crafts, New York, Swap-bot, Travis

Apr 28th 2010 04:33:37 pm

Life has been changing and moving quickly lately. On Saturday, we spent all day at the Handmade Cavalcade craft fair, then on Sunday we took an all-day trip to New Haven, Connecticut, to sell our car. Boohoo. I feel sad about it. We bought our 2004 Subaru Imprezza WRX about two weeks before our wedding in 2003. (The photo above is us driving off in the car after our wedding ceremony.) It felt like our kid, or maybe our home. We drove it across the country twice, and it had been our only car for five years. But for the last year here, in New York, the poor thing just sat parked on the street. We hardly used it (maybe driving 200 miles in the last six months) and Travis had to move it to a new parking spot twice a week. Yuck. Plus, the insurance was expensive. So, it is on to a new life via CarMax and we are car-less. It is a relief to not have to worry about it any longer, and after one last trip to the DMV we will be able to cancel our insurance. I do love extra money!

Early Monday morning we headed to the hospital (by hired car and driver) for Travis’ ACL reconstruction knee surgery. The Hospital for Special Surgery was fabulous and everyone there was very professional. You can read Travis’ thoughts on the experience on his blog. The surgeon said that the surgery went perfectly, and it seems like it did because Travis is recovering quickly. My only complaint is that it now falls solely on me to take Crusher down and up the three flights of stairs to our apartment every time he needs to go outside….

Life is good and all of the recent excitement has gone as smoothly as we could expect, but I am definitely ready for some downtime! If you need me, I’ll probably be taking a nap.

4 Comments » Categories: Family, Feeling Happy, Feeling Sad, Health, Home, Travis

Dec 13th 2009 10:13:32 pm

So… I think my blog is finally back up thanks to Travis and his tireless work trying to get everything fixed after our blog “emergency.” Travis is amazing and he will probably need to correct me on some of the details, but basically Media Temple – the supposedly big time, awesome hosting company where we store all of our blogs – was hacked. Some jerk stole some of their passwords and started overwriting important files. It affected all of the “Lamble Family” blogs (including this one, obviously), Roundrock Journal, and the Swap-bot blog. Ugh. The Swap-bot blog is the worst because now our users think that the actual site was compromised – which it was NOT. The actual Swap-bot.com site is hosted at a completely different company which has nothing to do with the current blog mess, but it is hard to convince people of that when they see “hacksor” on our official blog page. Anyway, we are slowly getting back to normal, but this situation was a huge setback, both personally and for Swap-bot. I already feel like I can barely keep my head above water and unexpected problems like this really cause me to feel completely overwhelmed.

It also didn’t help that last week, right after our big Swap-bot press in the NY Daily News, one of our ad networks (which we use to publish ads on Swap-bot) started serving up a horrible, bogus ad that made it appear that the viewer had contracted a computer virus. The ad didn’t actually spread a virus (it just sold anti-virus software), but it really frightened our users. We shut it down quickly and are no long using that ad network, but it is just another thing that is out of our control and yet causes huge problems. It also hurts to shut down an ad network because it means we could potentially be shutting off an opportunity to increase our extremely miniscule profits. Swap-bot has gotten to be so much work that it is very difficult to justify continuing to do it basically for free. We have to figure out a way to make it support at least one full time person (me) or we are going to have to let it go. Sad. Pay accounts and more direct advertising sales are both options, but both require a lot of work and it is hard for me to stay on top of things as it is. Basically, I am feeling overwhelmed and need to re-evaluate how I am spending my time…

This weekend was packed with holiday shopping and computer work. Next week, it is work, work, work (with a bit of holiday partying in the mix) – I have a tremendous amount to accomplish before Christmas!

11 Comments » Categories: Feeling Sad, Swap-bot, Travis, Website

Oct 10th 2009 10:48:46 am

Just some of the things taking up my brain space this month….

• Family – Travis and I traveled to Kansas last month for the grand opening of his dad’s new business. I haven’t had a chance to report about the trip until now, but it was a fun whirlwind!
• Food – The glob under the family photo is a bowl of homemade Asian Noodle Soup. I have been making most of our meals these days in an attempt to be healthier (read: skinnier) and a little more thrifty. Travis and I are trying to completely eliminate high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils from our diet… it is going well, but I wish I had a bigger kitchen for all the cooking I am doing.
• Boots – I have a burning desire for new boots, specifically these $500 Siegerson Morrison boots. Sadly, it ain’t gonna happen.
• Halloween! – I really like cute Halloween things. These stickers are from Doodlebug. I bought them impulsively and now I can’t bring myself to use them. They are just too cute! I’ll just have to keep them forever and ever…
• Swaps – Speaking of cute Halloween stuff… I am hosting a quick Halloween matchbox swap over on the ‘bot. Tomorrow is the last day to sign up, so hop to it!
• Vampire Weekend – They have a new single, Horchata, that you can download for free on their website.
• Crumbs – After months of research, I have finally narrowed down my favorite NYC cupcake shop: Crumbs Bake Shop. This is the Pumpkin flavor, their cupcake of the month. I haven’t tried it, but maybe someone will need to have some at his birthday party…

2 Comments » Categories: Birthday, Family, Food, New York, Shoes, Travis, holidays

Sep 1st 2009 05:36:42 pm

We’ve been hanging out at home a lot these days. It is cheap and easy and fun. We make our own dinners, work on our websites, play with Crusher, and watch old episodes of Arrested Development. It is not exactly what I expected when we moved to New York, but it is just the way I like it!

6 Comments » Categories: Family, Feeling Happy, Home, New York, Travis

Jul 30th 2009 09:48:47 am

I was not sure if I had scanned the photo on the left… It was taken (with real film!) at Disneyland ten years ago when Travis and I went there for Spring Break our senior year of high school. Man, that trip was fun! I loved Travis then (at 18!) and I knew we would be together forever. I can’t believe ten years have passed… so strange how recent that first trip to Disneyland seems! I had to take another photo with the indian when we were there last weekend. I wish I could have mimicked my original face.

Coincidently, our ten-year high school reunion was held last weekend. Obviously, we were not able to make it as it was in Kansas and we were in California. I would have liked to see old friends and get caught up, but thankfully we now have Facebook!

3 Comments » Categories: Just for Fun, Photos, Travis

Jul 3rd 2009 01:36:41 pm

8 Comments » Categories: Feeling Happy, Travis, weddings

May 31st 2009 01:04:07 pm

Do you recognize these screen shots? They are from the first Quest for Glory (aka Hero’s Quest) computer game. My brothers and I played this game for what seems like years because it is vividly etched in my memory. Keep in mind that Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero came out when I was eight years old. Eight! Twenty years ago! I actually had a dream about the game a couple of nights ago… which prompted me to go online and look for it. My wonderful husband has successfully downloaded and installed the game on my 2008 iMac. Now, I am going to spend the rest of my Sunday afternoon becoming a hero!

UPDATE:

Photographic evidence: Travis previously downloaded Hero’s Quest for me when we were sophomores in college (about eight years ago).

9 Comments » Categories: Feeling Happy, Just for Fun, Travis

Nov 27th 2008 09:05:55 pm

I hope everyone had a wonderful day. It was just the three of us at the Johnson household, but I went ahead and cooked a full meal and turkey just for fun. It all turned out pretty good. I used this Domino magazine recipe. The stuffing required roasted chestnuts and this was my first time making those. They were a pain to peel after roasting, but Travis turned out to be quite good at it which really helped. The recipe also called for butternut squash (I think in place of yams). They were not my favorite part of the meal. I don’t think I would prepare them again. They just weren’t very tasty — even with maple syrup. The turkey was great. Crusher had his fair share and now he is napping in my lap. It was a nice meal… with plenty of left-overs for tomorrow!

I am very thankful for so many things, including (in no particular order): Travis, my amazing and fun family, little Crusher, our home, our jobs, Obama being elected president, the internet, Swap-bot users, coffee, Jr. Mints, funny TV, the sun, the moon, the stars… you know, everything! And thanks to you for reading this crazy, little website. Happy thanksgiving!

2 Comments » Categories: Crusher, Feeling Happy, Food, Travis, holidays