#35 - Rainbow

Most amazing rainbow on my way in to work today - I've never seen anything like this! It spanned the entire sky and was so bright in color. Almost drove into two other lanes trying to get a picture of the entire thing. Will think twice before taking a picture again while driving.

#34 - Storm System #4

Carefully snapped this one on the drive in this morning. We're getting our 4th storm system of the week today - it's suppose to be the worst! Even had a couple of tornados the other day flipping cars and picking up boats. 9 times out of 10 I'd say nothing compares to the great SoCal weather, just don't ask me this week!

#33 - Dinner w/ The Phelps

Had dinner last night w/ Glenn, Heather and Hudson - hadn't seen them since my b-day! We had bruchetta, pita & hummus and cranberry/brie "purses" - delicious! Also had a couple glasses of wine - pinot grigio and cabernet (that helped keep us warm during this crazy, cold weather!!). Hudson is SO big and so much fun. Below is a pic of him on my lap playing "bumpity, bump."
Here is a pic from when Hudson crawled up to me - look at those teeth! He loves books and kept bringing them over for us to read to him. Such a sweet boy!

#32 - EXTREME weather

Flashes of lightning, rolls of thunder - this is pretty intense for southern California! Even heard there is a tornado warning!! This pic is a view from outside my office window. Check out the run-off from the roof (pooled up on the grass - in real life it's shooting onto the grass and into the parking lot). Supposedly a few more days of this...it's reported we'll get 5" of rain on Thursday alone.

#31 - Habana in Costa Mesa

I don't know if all Cuban food is this good but MAN this is a great place to have dinner! For appetizers we shared veggie empanadas and calamari. For dinner I got plantain crusted chicken breast on garlic mashed potatoes - phenomenal! Lui and his niece, Samantha, shared paella. Sasha and Sham shared a lamb dish. But it didn't stop there...we split flan and banana fritters, too. Ambiance is fabulous - it was a super night all around! No website but you can see pics of the food and read reviews on yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/habana-costa-mesa (LOVE Lui's face in this one! If that's not convincing and indicative of the fun we were having I don't know what is!!)

#30 - Bizhub

An all-in-one machine that copies, scans, faxes - sounds like a winner, right? Not always... I have spent more time unclogging this beast than I care to think about. Seriously, I think I could be a tech for the copy machine company at this point because I know this machine and its components all too well. I have temp. help on M/W/F and guess what she spends a lot of time doing? Printing - that's right, good guess! But today is Thursday...lucky me. Feel free to share your work-day woes. I'd love to hear them!

#29 - What do you do?

Several people have asked me this but I don't know if they know or really understand (which I'm assuming they really want to know the answer to since they asked) so here it goes -

I am the Marketing Manager for the South Coast Inland Empire Division of D.R. Horton, largest national builder for the past 7 years! My actual duties include:
1.) updating our community webpage (http://www.drhorton.com/corp/DivisionSearch.do?divisionid=25)
2.) touring community sites and making recommendations to increase foot traffic (if you went to the link above you'll see my properties are spread out all over southern CA = lots of driving)
3.) working with our ad agency on campaigns - includes media schedule (radio, TV, newpaper, magazines), unique URLs, on-site promotions
4.) opening & closing new communities - includes coordination with interior designers on model interior furnishings as well as sign companies for on & off-site signage
5.) working on collateral materials for the sales offices: brochures, flyers, price sheets, special event pieces

That's just a snippet. It's a fun job - no day is ever the same. I'm in the office mostly but prefer working in the field. I occasionally work weekends (ex. Saturday public grand opening of a new community). Challenges include tracking sales from marketing efforts, dealing with sign damage/graffiti, coming up with innovative ideas to help reach sales goals, lack of communication with those working in the field (I rely on my eyes in the field!), volume of work - we have 20 actively selling communities!