I feel compelled to do this. Why? Because I don't want to start working on a new sign right now.

I got this at A Yank Gone South. Go read it, won't you?

The Rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 random/weird facts about yourself .

3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. --Yeah, I'm not going to do this, but feel free to paste and post it if you want. I'm a rebel.

RANDOM KELLY STUFF

1) I get very irritated when unimportant things begin to get complicated. I like things to be decided on and then carried out. I Can. Not. Stand. to sit around and listen to people waffle about what needs to be done when easy answers are the best answers. This is not to say I am particular about what the answers are, I just want the answer to be decided on without undue talkage about them. If I have an opinion about something, you're gonna dang well hear it, but I'm easy going enough to go along with anything most of the time. If you start making a big deal about whatever it is, I'm going to start wanting to harm you emotionally. : )

2) I have a whole lot of friends, but only a few close ones. I kind of like it that way. It's not that I'm against making new friends or meeting new people, but good friends -really good ones, the kind you want to hang out with and tell secrets to- have to click. I really hate it when I'm told I "need" to meet more people so I can go out and do stuff more often. If I don't feel that specific click with a person, I'm ok not being their best buddy and am usually uncomfortable hanging out with them. I can do it, and I will, but I'm probably going to end up acting weird and awkward. My circle may be small, but it's quality. At least I believe it is. It's also not exclusive to anyone who isn't already there, so please don't think I'm a snob for feeling the way I do. This is probably going to sound cheesy, but finding a really close friend is like finding a piece of your inner puzzle. You know when you meet them. Did any of that make sense?

3) I HAVE to push the cart when I go to the grocery store. I don't know why. I won't let Steve touch it if he's with me. It gives me a sense of control in an otherwise crazy world, I guess!

4) I can perform in front of really large crowds with no problem. Small crowds unnerve me. I have sung in front of crowds as large as 2,000 and did a fine job. I sang for a group of 12 and sounded like there was an earthquake going on inside of me.

5) In a similar vein, one of my most guilty pleasures is to go to those booths where you can record your own CDs and make one. I don't always sound very good, and I very rarely let anyone hear the results, but I love to do it, and have spent way too much time and money on them.

6) I buy evening gowns for no reason what so ever. I don't spend a lot on them, but if I find one I like on clearance and I can afford it, I will buy it. At last count I had 5 or 6. Maybe I'm just hoping I will get a chance to wear one someday! I'm an optimist.

7) I wish I could dance. Really dance. Not the kind you do at your prom and corporate Christmas parties, but dance. Tango, waltz, rhumba...all of that stuff. Someday I'm determined to learn.

A BRIEF PEEVE

I know that I'm technically at the mercy of everyone else at the SpRocket when it comes to signs and displays. It's my job to take the requests they give me and produce legible, correctly spelled, and sometimes creatively designed signage within a reasonable time frame. I can totally dig that. HOWEVER, just because I can do that doesn't mean that they should call me at the last. freaking. minute. Maybe I've spoiled them in the past by being prompt. I don't know. But when someone asks for something rather complicated an hour or even a day before they need it, I begin to choke on my own hate. All I ask for is a reasonable amount of time to complete a job to the best of my abilities. If I don't get that, the requester is going to have to be content with whatever garbage I can cobble together in the time I was given. SUCK ON THAT, ADMINISTRATION! SUCK ON IT!

Ahem. That is all.

ASK KELLY: THE REAL WORLD GUIDE TO PROPER ETIQUETTE IN SITUATIONS THAT ARE CONFUSING, AWKWARD AND INFURIATING.

OK, so maybe I'm being a little pretentious by saying "I" know what the proper etiquette in all situations would be. But hell, at least I'll be honest with you if you ask me what I think, so it can't hurt too much for me to give advice. : ) I mean, I usually do anyways, whether or not anyone asks me. I'm opinionated. Bite me.

Actually, this came about during a conversation I had with Anthony last night when we were discussing many worldly things, such as the Regan administration, Transformers, Christmas, and of course, proper etiquette in different situations. He thought my answers were practical enough, and he suggested that I share them with the world, i.e. the five or so people who read my blog. Lucky to be you, huh? So in the future, if you have a question about how to deal with a situation, feel free to let me get all up into your business. I can't be any worse than Dr. Phil, after all, right?

My first question comes from Anthony from Huntsville, who asks:
Q: WHAT IS THE PROPER TIME FRAME FOR GIVING BIRTHDAY GIFTS?

A: I believe that you have a grace period of a month either before or after the person's birthday. Any earlier and the person will think you didn't know when their birthday was in the first place, any later than that and they'll know you just forgot the birthday and no amount of trying to explain will convince them otherwise. Of course, this doesn't count for people like myself, who tend to get so excited about giving gifts that they will just pick a random date during the year and give the gift to the recipient if the gift has already been purchased. However, you have to make mention of the fact that you just couldn't wait. That way they aren't confused. Also, never give anyone a bulletin board for their birthday, especially if it's obvious that the bulliten board was something you have bought for yourself, but are giving it to them because you forgot it was their birthday. That's just asshattery to the twelfth degree. No seriously, it is. You know who you are.

I've been inspired! Again!

For Thanksmas, my very awesome cousin Amy gave me a very rare, very limited edition copy of the book that she wrote for NaNoWriMo. Signed, even! So I think I'm going to try and do that next year. I mean, it is a whole year away and by then I could be climbing Mount Everest for all I know (stop laughing), but I am planning on it! I've always wanted to write, but I tend to have such a short attention span that I've never finished anything. Maybe now, I can join this thing and finally finish one, for better or for worse. : )

Go me!

Heh...

The school cheer of MIT is: "Cosine, secant, tangent, sine! 3 point 1 4 1 5 9!"

Math cheers.

?

This is going to be a weird thing to ask, but did anything important (good or bad) happen to any of you today, November 27th? If so, what was it?

Please don't think I'm strange, but last Monday I was sitting in my living room thinking about life and stuff and suddenly the date November 27th popped into my head. It felt bad, like when you think you've forgotten to turn off the oven, but you can't do anything about it because you are too far away from home to go and check on it. I'm not trying to imply I'm psychic or anything like that, but it was such a specific, yet random thing to pop into my head and paired with such a specific feeling...well, it bothered me.

Maybe something great happened to you and I'll be jealous or something, I don't know. I just know it made me feel bad. Anything?

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1)Since I haven't mentioned it yet, I now have another TV show that I love.

I love Chuck.

The creator of this show has to be a genius. I'm not saying this because the show is so very watchable, I'm saying it because the freaking premise of the show is so smart. Not exactly realistic, but smart. Let me give you a rundown in case you've never seen it.

Chuck is your normal, everyday computer geek who works for a "Geek Squad" type organization inside an electronics store called "Buy More." He's actually way overqualified for the job, but he had been kicked out of Stanford after being accused of cheating by his room mate and one time best friend. One night he gets an e-mail from this former best friend which Chuck opens and gets blasted with thousands upon thousands of subliminal images that embed themselves into Chuck's mind (apparently Chuck has an almost Rain Man-like ability to perceive and retain these images). Not knowing what the deal was, Chuck goes on about his day as a smart, geeky life. The next day he is asked out by a gorgeous blonde who turns out to be a CIA spy and is soon also joined by a big, beefy dude who happens to be a spy for the NSA (he's the guy who played Jayne on Firefly). Apparently his old room mate had been a rogue spy who had access to a supercomputer that held all of the government's most secret of secrets (the blast of images he sent Chuck) which was destroyed in some kind explosion. Therefore, Chuck now has the government secrets buried in his subconscious and can recall them if he sees trigger images or people involved in the files. So Chuck turns into an unwilling spy who is constantly placed in dangerous situations and hilarity ensues. Oh, and he's got the tingles for his hot-chick CIA bodyguard who poses as his girlfriend.

Anyways, the reason the show is so smart is this: Owing to my up-close-and-personal knowledge of the geek lifestyle, I've seen that the geeks, nerds and technoweenies like sci-fi so much because they want to be like the heroes in the movies and comics. It's not that they believe that they are going to get super powers, but because a lot of them lead such normal lives, they want to identify with someone more heroic and awesome than they believe that they will ever be. Here you have a random geeky guy who suddenly becomes a believable hero. Instead of flying space ships and beaming lasers from his eyes, you've got a person who you can honestly identify with (well, except for the computer in his brain) that is the everyman version of 007! Add in the beefy dude who makes all of the funny, snide comments and the hot-chick secret agent and you have all of the elements for a geek happy meal. It's a really good show!

Plus, of course, the guy who plays Chuck has a gorgeous smile. He smiles, I melt. Don't judge me.

2) OK, so my theory about after Thanksgiving shopping has been added to. : ) Don't these people know that even when you get approved for a credit card, you STILL have to pay it off eventually. Morons.

3) I have a LOT of yarn. A lot. Seriously, ask Steve. I have two whole storage units, plus some satellite boxes crammed full of it. I don't mean to collect it the way I do, but if I see some on sale that I like, or if the texture and color are arresting, I will buy it. My only problem is that when I want to make something, I rarely have enough of one kind to make what I want and I have to go out and buy more of the kind I need. It's a never ending cycle. That happened yesterday because I'm making a baby blanket for a cousin of mine and I didn't have enough blue and brown to finish it. One of these days, I'm going to sit down and just make everyone I know something out of yarn so I can clear some space in my office. Be prepared.

4) I'm a little hyper this morning. I need to go run around the museum a couple of times to git rid of some of this energy!

Oh, yeah, and this:

Just FYI: Sharks scare the hell out of me.


















That is all.

Well, I'm back home from Georgia, where I had Thanksmas with the family and I'm back at work after a two week hiatus. It was really nice not to have to go to work and to do other things that I wanted to do, but I realized if I didn't work outside of the home I'd probably go insane. Even I can only take so much of my own company, I guess. : )

We always celebrate both Thanksgiving and Christmas with the Georgia family while we are out that way. After a day of much food on Thursday, we had another evening of yumminess and togetherness at Greg and Kristin's house. I ate so much I thought I would explode, plus there was a chocolate fountain with all sorts of things to dip in it for dessert. I am quite surprised I didn't go into a diabetic coma, but it would have been worth it! HAHAHAHAHHAAAAAAA! I got a lot of it on tape, of course, so I'll be able to revisit it as soon as I find my camera again. Steve happened to get me on tape before I covered my head with a box lid, but luckily for me I can edit the sucker.

Good times, noodle salad.

This morning I had to go through the silly HR mess again to re-establish my employ here at the SpRocket. I'll give them some credit, at least they have kind of streamlined the process for those of us who are returning employees. We used to have to completely redo all of our paperwork from soup to nuts. Now we only have to fill out a few things that might have actually changed since the last time we did the paperwork. My only peeve this morning was that I was asked if I had my drivers license and social security card with me. I don't carry around my social security card for obvious reasons, but I know for a fact that they have it on file. I mean, I've worked here for the past 5 years or more! I know the number exists over there! Alas, I still must get the card from its safety box so that they can reaffirm that I am who I say I am, I guess. Grrrrrrrrr.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Hola, Y'all! I hope everyone had a magnificent Thanksgiving day full of family and food. I was up cooking all morning, but it was a lot of fun and totally worth it when we all sat down to eat. I was glad to have family around, but I really missed my dad today.

After dinner, I sat down to look out of the window at the leaves falling around my aunt's house and ended up waking up a couple of hours later. Apparently I just sort of fell out. The tryptophan apparently dumped into my blood all at once. Good thing I was clutching my video camera where no one could get it! I've become the unwelcome videographer at these family get togethers and if Steve could have gotten a hold of my camera, I would have become a part of the video itself. I always feel better if I am not actually seen on film. I don't photograph well. That's just how I roll. : )

Now I'm trying to decide if I want to sit up a bit more and listen to everyone play cards or if I want to go to bed. It's been a good day.

One of my little cousins told me what her family was thankful for and she said her dad was thanksful for "Football and Jesus." Hopefully not in that order, of course. Heeheehee.

Some of the family may be going shopping tomorrow, but I'm not going to go with them. Shopping the day after thanksgiving scares me. If I do leave the house, I'm going to places very, very close by. The last thing I need is for someone to beat me over the head so that I don't grab the last holiday barbie or whatever is popular this year!

Hmmmm, well, apparently Steve doesn't read my blog anymore. I mean, I can't blame him, really. We live together after all. What could possibly go on in my life that he doesn't already know, right?

However, since I'm slightly evil, I'm going to make fun of him as a punishment!

Mwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!

Steve has a gigantic head! He collects Han Solo dolls! He can quote entire Star Wars movies worth of dialogue!

There will be more later...

WEIRDNESS!

OK, do you want to see something really weird? Let me give you the story...

Today I went into the bedroom to put some things away. I turned towards the bed and saw something was on my pillow. My first thought was..."Oh! Gross! What is that?" So I picked up the pillow and tried to brush it off. Whatever it was wouldn't come off. I thought, WTF, mate? So I put the pillow down and stepped back from it and saw this:

It's my face! My face has been burned into the pillowcase! I have the pillowcase of Turin!

I'm not kidding, that isn't makeup or anything. I tried cleaning it off of the material and it's like my profile is bleached into the thing.






If you can't make it out, here is the outlined version:

Seriously, I don't know what is going on. This has never happened to any of my other pillowcases, so I'm not sure how it happened. I mean, I know I've had hot flashes before, but I didn't know I was putting out radiation!

Too bad it's not an image of Elvis or the Virgin Mary. I might could make some money off of it. : )

I SWEAR, IT'LL ALL MAKE SENSE BY THE END OF THE POST...

I didn't date much in school.

I'm not saying that I never dated at all, but I wasn't exactly the kind of girl who's dad had to polish his fire arm collection in the living room while interviewing a string of beaux who were over to ask me out. In fact, from junior high to my first year of college, I only dated 6 guys total.

Wow, I just died a little on the inside when I typed that.

Anyway...I said all of that to basically say, I had a lot of time on my hands. Of course, I could have just said "I had a lot of time on my hands," but I thought that was a much better way to begin this post. Don't judge me.

Ahem. With so much time on my hands, I did the only thing I could think of that didn't involve crime, illegal substances, or going outside. I was a reader. I read anything and everything I could get my hands on, and I somehow found myself in possession of several then-age-appropriate, but in retrospect very, verrrrrrrrrrrrry crappy books written expressly for girls my age. I had really completely forgotten about them until I stumbled upon this website: The Dairi Burger. This site is a riot. The writer seems like the type of person who I would love to go to the mall and sit in the food court and make fun of people's clothes with. Granted, some of you guys may not be able to relate to what she is talking about, but if you've ever read a Sweet Valley High book or any other YA series geared expressly towards girls who are only interested in lip gloss and boys, you'll like it.

*KERBLOOWIE!*

That was the sound of my head exploding from sheer delight!

I had such a fun day yesterday!

In a rather uncharacteristic move on my part, I decided to take advantage of one of my days off and drive down to Birmingham to visit the Museum of Art so that I could take in the exhibit on Pompeii.

It. Was. AWESOME!!

I'm afraid I'm going to have to geek out for a minute and gush over the fact that I was thisclose to things I studied about in one of my art history classes. I've always been interested in archeology, but Pompeii has always held a special interest for me. The body casts are one of the most amazing, but terribly sad, things I've ever seen. I was amazed by the jewelry, personal items, frescoes, mosaics...gah....everything! I had never realized just how seeing some of these things up close and personally would affect me. I've seen quite a few of these artifacts in books I've read and studied, but to see them in person really brings it home that these things actually belonged to someone. That someone cared enough about them to try and save them from disaster. I don't know if it is the intensely personal stories that arose from such a tragedy or if it is just the fact that I am amazed at the preservation of the things uncovered after such a terrible natural disaster. Well, whatever it was, I was in a constant state of on-the-verge-of-pants-wetting excitement while going through the exhibit.

A moment of silence for the death of whatever marginal coolness I might have once possessed.

I also had enough time to check out the other exhibits that the BMOA had to offer and I was in awe of the paintings and sculptures from the 13th-18th century artists from Italy and France as well as the Native American things, African stuff and hell, even the display of Wedgewood ceramics blew my mind. It was so much fun.

And to top it all off, I got to spend the evening with my very favorite Kenny, who took me to see the Vulcan statue! We sat and talked for a couple of hours, had an interesting discussion about the moralities of cloning, and got to act silly in the rain. I also went ahead and gave him his birthday and Christmas gifts, because I have no self control and was too excited about them to wait another month. When it was time for me to go he led me back to the interstate. Unfortunately for me, however, I took a wrong turn and wound up going SOUTH on 65. Huntsville is, of course, is in north Alabama. I drove quite a ways south before being able to turn around, but everything worked out in the end. I made it home before 10:00, so the Marines didn't have to be dispatched by my mother to find me.

My mom will forever believe I am 15 years old, but I'm glad she loves me enough to worry. :)

To whom this may concern, everyone else mind your own business... ; )

10:45 tour. I'll call when it's done.

My Mission, If I Choose To Accept It.

I got this from my cousin Amy, so I said... "OK!" We can always use a reminder about the things that make us happy, right?

*The rules are easy, just post 6 things that recently made you happy.

1) This dog.











2) Hearing my mom laugh.

3) Knowing that after 7 years I still haven't found a good enough reason to beat Steve to death while he sleeps, no matter how much I sometimes want to do it anyway. :)

4) Remembering that if you want to be happy, you can't rely on others to make you that way. True happiness isn't about the things that others can do for you, but for the things you decide to do for yourself.

5) Cashew Macadamia Nut Crunch from the Chocolate Gallery.

6) Having good things to look forward to, even when you know they won't turn out as great as you hope they will.

Today is my last day of work until after Thanksgiving! I'd say yay, but it kind of sucks because it's the mandatory lay off/rehire thing they do every year because I'm not a "full time" employee. I'm not going to complain too loudly, though, because at least I know I'm being rehired this time. : ) At least, that's what they're telling me so far!

I've got plans for my off time, oh yes! Wild times for sure. I'm going to see an exhibit on Pompeii in Birmingham at the art museum. I'm also going to clean my house and take frequent naps. Then I'll go on to see family the week of Thanksgiving. I'm a wild woman, you see.

Because I'm not going to be here at the office on Thanksgiving, my office mates and I wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to you and the people you love!

YES, CHEWING!

I hope you aren't tired of hearing my adventures with the Japanese candy I got, because I'm not even close to being done with telling you about it yet! Granted, it IS just candy, but it's weird candy. This information should be shared!

Over the past couple of days, I've been trying out the gum that I ordered. You'd think that gum is just that - gum. However, I don't think this is the case in this situation.

This gum is just funny. I have seen it on websites like ThinkGeek.com and such. It's got caffine or something in it, so chewing it is supposed to give you a boost. I don't know about it being caffinated, but it tastes like a strong mentholated cough drop in chewing gum form. Blech. When you get the first good taste of it, the menthol or whatever it is, mae it feel like someone is hammering a large icicle into your nose. It's also an appetizing gray color. However, as I've already told someone, it traveled across the world to get to me, so I'm going to darn well chew it! My favorite part is the packaging, though. I have no idea what the rest of the lable says, but the words "Yes, Chewing!" make me laugh. : )

This gum is supposed to taste like apples. It doesn't. It smells heavenly, though. When you open the package, it smells exactly like red delicious apples. When you chew it, however, it tastes almost exactly like the Black Black gum. Plus, it's also gray, which does nothing to help matters. Pleh.


This gum had a funny name, so I got it as well. I don't know what I was expecting, but these tasted like Pledge flavored Chickletts. They weren't as bad as the Xylish apple flavored gum, and they weren't gray, but they weren't kiwi flavored, I do know that. Of course, it says it's "Magic Kiwi" so maybe I've just never eaten a "Magic Kiwi" before. Meh.

Believe it or not, this gum was actually good. It was freaking sour, but good all the same. It's flavor is something like lime and yuzu (some kind of lemon or something) so it's very citrusy. It made my face pucker up, though. It's got some kind of goo in the middle that squirts out when you bite it, so it is a surprise.

So, there you go. Most Japanese gum sucks.

OK, I ate some more of my candy last night and realized a couple of things:

1) I now know why I don't make a habit out of eating candy. Granted, I probably sound like all I ever do is eat, but just a little something sweet normally suffices for me. I get sugar rushes like you wouldn't believe! On the plus side, though, I was hyper enough to do the dishes last night.
: )

2) I don't have any idea what this is.
I know it's supposed to be sour, which it is, and I know it's supposed to be some kind of gummy candy, but that is where my knowledge stops. The box itself perplexes me because it doesn't give me any indication about what the stuff is supposed to taste like. On a lot of the other packages, there are at least pictures of fruit or something. This box just has a picture of some kind of blobby thing wearing a lab coat, reading a math book, and has a puckered up mouth. The box also has the letters "IQ" on them, so maybe this candy is supposed to make you smarter or something. Another thing that bothers me about the candy is that I can't decide what the flavor is. It's kind of grape-like, but not at all grape like. I don't know. I'll just say it's Japan flavored. The pieces are small, cone shaped, purpleish gummy things that have a thin, sour coat of candy on the outside. The texture also bothers me because the gummy part plus the crunchy part make it feel like I'm chomping on a gummy worm with gristle in it. It's very strange. However, no matter how I felt about the texture and taste, I was helpless to stop eating them. I felt compelled to eat them, and had to physically restrain myself from eating all of them. It was very strange.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1)Last Saturday, we had some staff giving out information about Space Camp at the Alabama/LSU game. One of the things they had at the info booth was an astronaut helmet with the "A" on each side to make it look like the football helmets. Technically I know the dumb Alabama helmets have numbers on each side, but don't even get me started on that!

Anyways, some lovely University of Alabama students stole our helmet! On the pretext of having a picture made by some landmark or other, they took the helmet and did not return it. If you happen to see it, could you please beat the students with your shoe and remind them that stealing is a BAD thing?

2)My Japanese candy came yesterday! Woo-Hoo!
Unfortunately, the box came crammed with candy, but no packing list. Every one of the packages were, of course, in Japanese. Except for the packages with Engrish on them, I had no idea what kind of candy was in the pouches! I had to find my order form and make uninformed guesses as to what I was tasting. Steve also taste tested these with me, so I think between us both and a little internet surfage, we figured out what we got.


This is something called Mikakuto Juntsuyu, which is also called "Pure Mist" candy. It's like little hard pieces of love and happiness. There are two different flavors in the package. The lighter ones taste a little like cotton candy or slightly caramelized sugar. The darker ones taste like sweet tea. I'm not kidding. A sweet tea hard candy! If love had a taste, and it wasn't chocolate, it would taste like these things! They are the perfect size and they seem to last forever. My only problem with these is that you can't seem to buy them anywhere in the United States, not even from Japanese grocers. It would happen that my favorite of the whole lot is the one that I can't get unless I order it from Japan. BOO! Another proof that I always want what I can't have. : )

There was a great deal more taste testing, but I'm going to stretch it out so I have something to talk about later.

3) I have been having the weirdest dreams lately. The other night I dreamed that William Shatner tried to kill me. I don't even know why! Certainly I didn't do anything to him that I know of. Luckily, Steve saved me and killed Shatner in the process. I wasn't sure whether or not to be pissed or greatful. I also had that weird dream about the wedding again. It was the one where I'm serving cake at the reception and I cut my heart out and stick it to the table with the cake knife. I even did a drawing of it. Behold, my first dream inspired work of art. : )

I fear my subconcious!

No need to watch the video, but I thought it made appropriate theme music for my news.

The co-worker I always complain about got a new job.

CAN I GET AN AMEN?!!

I hope you will indulge me for just a moment so that I may have a small rant.

I am most heartily sick of something that has been crammed up my nose on a constant and regular basis for the past couple of months. No, it isn't anything even particularly personal on my part, but it is something that I think should be whacked with a newspaper and told to get off the couch. What is it? Well, for want of a better way to express it, I am tired of hearing the word "Green" and everything that goes along with it.

Now, don't get me wrong here. I don't want to offend anyone who honestly wants to do better by the world by conserving, recycling, and hugging trees or whatever. If it's one of your personal ideologies, I say more power to you. What bothers me, though, are the people who have jumped on the band wagon so hard and fast and suddenly the gospel according to Al Gore is being sung from every rooftop and network across the country. Personally, I think the whole idea of "Going Green" is both stupid and a high-brow way to pretend that people (the Hollywood types mostly) who really don't care a bit about the environment are doing something to save the world. I'm tired of hearing about things being "green." I am tired of hearing the words "global warming" and I'm tired of hearing the words "carbon footprint." I think it takes a lot more to help something than to make public service announcements and turning off your lights. I think if you really want to change something, you need to actually go out and DO things to change it. I want to watch Heroes without that stupid little green peacock emblem in the corner. I want to listen to the radio without having to hear celebretards talking about how everything that is going on in our planet's climate is caused by not driving a Prius or whatever trendy hybrid is popular these days and not because the world *GASP* has climate fluctuations. I mean, we should probably not look in the past and see the ice ages and things like that, because none of that counts. It's because we have lights and cars and garbage. Let's ignore the fact that most companies in America have cleanliness standards that have to be passed before they can be cleared to function. Let's pretend that cars don't have to pass emission tests before they can be driven. Let's also forget that in the past thirty or so years that most industrial factories have been using electronics and even digital technology that once might have needed coal or other polluting fuel to operate.

I'm not saying that harmful things aren't going on these days. However, what I am saying is that I'm tired of people talking about it. If you live a "Green" lifestyle...huzzah for you and your people. However, if you are a celebrity and suddenly feel that this is the most important thing to ever happen and we should change everything RIGHTNOW, shut up about it already.

Oh, and I'm tired of hearing about the Bee Movie, too. Shut up. Jerry Seinfeld.

THIS IS FUNNEEEEHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

WEEKEND UPDATE!

FRIDAY: Friday night we had dinner with Anthony at Red Robin. I don't think we've been out to eat except once since Josh left for Colorado! I didn't realize Josh was our social director until this weekend. : ) We had a great time, a fairly un-smart waiter, and a heck of a time trying to get the check worked out so that we didn't end up paying for the food the next table over had eaten. It all worked out, though. Afterwards, Anthony came back to the house and he told us about a new show that he likes called "Big Bang Theory." Don't worry, it's not about anything that will corrupt the young and rot the mind, it's just a sit-com about physicists. It's actually really funny. We were able to watch the episodes online and we wound up watching all of the episodes. Anthony also brought me a snow globe from Vancouver, where he had attended the IMAX convention thing! It was very sweet of him to think of me, wasn't it? Of course, it probably helped that I saw him right before he left and said "Snow. Globe. Damnit!" Good times.

SATURDAY: I was going to be on my own, and was determined to do something useful, so I awoke much too early and didn't do anything more productive than surf the net for a couple of hours. Sigh. However, I did do a bit of laundry and some folding of afore mentioned laundry, so it wasn't a total waste. I wanted to check out some of the shops in downtown Huntsville that I never seem to get a chance to see. Unknown to many, there are several small shops scattered around that locals run and they are amazing. I picked a place called Signature Gallery, which I have driven by for 7 years and always wanted to visit, but never had. Once I got inside, I realized why I've never been in there. It's basically an art gallery/dealership and I couldn't afford anything inside! I was both intrigued and scared, let me tell you. So I adopted my "hands-behind-the-back" posture and looked but didn't touch. I was so afraid I'd knock something over and have to mortgage the house to pay for it. The lady who ran the store kind of followed me around, too, which I hate. I know she was just wanting to be near in case I decided to drop a couple of grand on something, but still, she made me nervous. Luckily for me, they had just recently expanded and the next house over (these shops are in old houses) held items that I could reasonably afford. I was looking for a christmas gift for my mom, and I was able to buy her something there. I think I'm going to be going back there one day to get a few things for myself! I love knowing that something I get was made BY someone else and not just mass produced. That's not to say I'm a big snob about mass produced things, but hey, I'm an artist too, so I know how important getting your stuff out there is! I also stopped by the mall and looked around for a gift for my nephew. He's a HUGE Alabama football fan, so I stopped into some store that sells all things SEC related. I was scared. I've learned never to go into one of those places on a game day. Never. Again. *shudder* So I got some lunch and took it home, only to realize that I had forgotten something important I needed, so I had to run back out after I ate. I went to the Target shopping place to get it, and was immediatly sidetracked by something called Splash Dogs!
Of course, there were labradors EVERYWHERE, so I decided to go and see what the deal was. I wish I had my camera, because it was so fun to watch and there were some really beautiful dogs out there. I even made a new friend, whose name I never learned. He was a young yellow lab that someone had tied to the barrier fencing. He looked so sad that I reached down to scratch him and he adopted me on the spot. So I sat on the ground, watching the bigger dogs jump into the pool (please follow the link above for a better explanation than I can give) and I scratched all over that puppy. I wanted to steal him, but Steve would have made me take him back. :( So after I could tear myself away, I did my shopping and stopped by ColdStone to get some ice cream! Someone very generous gave me a gift card to the place when I graduated, and this was the first chance I had to use it! Unfortunately the guy behind the counter was new and didn't know how to ring up a gift card. FAIL! Oh well, that just means I need to make more time to get ice cream, and I will...oh yes...I will. : )

SUNDAY: My mom's church was having a dedication service that morning for the newly renovated church sanctuary and they were going to dedicate two windows that had been installed my dad and another lady who had recently passed away. I went to that. Then I went home and slept until this morning.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) BOOOOOOO! Sara had to be flown back down to Miami because of her recent clotting issues, so she is back down there getting treatment again. Get Well Soon, Scary!

2) Reason number 534 that I have a strange job. Today I spent most of my time working on giant, padded bowling pins for the Huntsville Havoc Hockey team. Space Camp is the sponsor for the "body bowling" segment of the evening. Although I've never seen body bowling, it was described to me as children being flung from a sling-shot out across the ice to see how many of the pins they can knock down. Unfortunately, because the business end of our sponsorship didn't close until this morning, the pins look kind of ghetto and I'm going to have to redo them next week. :( I also had to apply Bama decals to an astronaut helmet that will be at tomorrow's Alabama game. In my attempt to carry these things downstairs all at once and give them to the people that needed them, I had to drag two of the giant bowling pins across the museum while wearing the helmet. I am so glad no one took my picture.

3) A couple of weeks ago, I placed an order with a company for a bunch of different candy from Japan. I somehow stumbled across the website by accident and couldn't resist trying some of the weird stuff that they offered. I'll probably tell you more about it once it comes in, so be ready! Unfortunately, I can't track the package because it is actually coming from Japan and not an American company that sells Japanese products like I originally thought, so I have no idea when I will get it. Oops. Oh well, everyone needs something to look forward too, right? Mine might as well be candy.

4)I have finished more than half of my Christmas shopping! Go me!

Feliz Dia De Los Muertos!

Ole, ya'll.

Halloween was not very eventful this year. I was supposed to work at the Tunnels again, but I wasn't feeling well and honestly, I was not in the mood. I know how that sounds but with everything that has been going on, and my frame of mind, it just seemed sort of stupid. I went home and watched "The 100 Scariest Movie Moments" on Bravo. Since I wasn't planning on being home, I didn't buy any candy, but I was able to find a container of Elvis Reeces Peanut Butter and Banana Cups in the cupboard, so I was set. After the first two kids that came by, I realized that if we had many more kids to come, we wouldn't have enough candy, so I scrounged until I found some Halloween themed candy bags and I filled them with the rest of the chocolate and boxes of Tic Tacs. Thankfully we only had three more children stop by, because I was afraid that if I ran out, I'd have to start giving them tea bags and Mott's applesauce!

Today would have been my dad's 60th birthday. It's been exactly a month since he died, and it seems just as new as it did that day. It's funny, I thought I would handle it all better than I am. I mean, I'm not wearing black and clutching a hankercheif all day, but it just nips at me when I'm not prepared for it. I know that time is all I need, but there is just this big hole that seems so empty. I don't know. I'll never get over it, I guess, but I know I'll figure out how to deal with it eventually.