Thank You DefCon

Thank you DefCon for that beautiful quote.

"Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."

- Jamie Raskin, professor of law at American University, responding to MD state Senator Nancy Jacobs' biblical justification for supporting a ban on same sex marriage.

Dusting off the Old Bike

Today has been a pretty productive day. I woke up (always a good start) grabbed something to eat and headed to the tanning salon. It's always good to get there before the kids get out of school because then there isn't a long wait.

There was a lady working there that I hadn't ever seen before. After I gave her my name and pronounced it for her she was like well that's German. I was like yes it is. Then I bought some tanning lotion and she pronounced my name the way it is suppose to be prounounced in German and said my bed is ready. She said well I'm German so I'll pronounce it the way it is in Germany. I was like actually that's why I'm hear, I'm going to Germany in about 3 weeks and I can't go looking like a ghost. So then she asked me whereabouts in Germany I was going and we had a nice little conversation.

When I got back from the tanning salon, I got the video camera battery that I got off Ebay in the mail. You gotta love Ebay. I got a replacement battery for $15. I know it would have cost me close to $60 in the store. So I charged it up and I'm letting it drain in my video camera right now. It will be nice to have a spare battery for when I go to Germany. I remember last year my battery died after the wedding ceremony and it took forever to charge so I could film more of the reception. So now I'll be ready.

Also when I turned my video camera on, I realized that the video of my dad's pin removal was the last thing I recorded. So I watched that again and offered to show it to my brother, but I think the thought of it grossed him out.

I also decided to go to my storage garage today and get my bike. I can't remember when I bought my bike, but I know I had it for Freshman year of college back in 1996 but I rarely road it there or anywhere else for that matter. One of those good intention purchases. Well my mom got home from work at a decent hour today so I borrowed the pimp mobile (a.k.a. mom's minivan) and drove to the garage to get my bike. Of course the tires were all deflated so then it was back to our garage to find a pump. I got lucky and found my dad's one that plugs into the car and pumped up the tires.

I decided to take the old bike for a spin. I figured I needed to get in shape before I go to Germany so if my cousin says hey let's go for a bike ride, I'm not as out of breathe as I was last year. Plus I figured since I'm going to the gym a couple of days a week now, riding a bike shouldn't be a big deal. After all, you are sitting. BOY was I wrong. My quadriceps were the first thing that I felt. Usually my legs don't bother me as much as .... well the seat, but today when I got back, my legs were like jelly and I was walking a little bull-legged.

Here is a picture of Da Bike. I do have a nice cushony seat, but it really isn't my butt that hurts if you know what I'm saying. Guys think they have it rough. Maybe I just don't know how to sit on a bike.

I was curious as to how far I had actually gone so I went on yahoo maps and well mapped it out. It turns out I rode my bike for 2.4 miles. Not bad for the first time out of the gate. The bad thing with riding a bike as opposed to say jogging on a treadmill is that when you decide your done with the treadmill, you just turn it off and hop off, but when you decide your done with the bike, you still have to get home.
But I did have a nice little bike ride and I think I'm going to start doing it more often. Maybe on the days that I don't go to the gym, I'll go for a ride. Plus I'm sure it will help my tan too. I just have to watch what I wear so I don't undo all the good work I'm doing at the tanning salon and end up with a farmer's tan.

Week in Review

OK I know once again I have fallen behind on my blog reading, but this time it really isn't my fault. I've gone to start reading blogs twice now and whenever I do, blogger is having one of those damn time outs. Then I start doing something else and get distracted.

So here is my week in review. Let's see ....

Easter went well. We had the family over and had fun. I ended up doing my 19 year old cousin's taxes. Luckily she only had to use the EZ form. Honestly, I just don't get people who wait till the last minute. I'm usually a procrastinator, but when it comes to paying bills and my taxes, I try to do it as early as possible. Especially since I usually get a refund on my taxes.

Then on Monday I started tanning. I figured I couldn't go to Germany looking like a ghost and poorly representing Americans. So I found the cheapest tanning salon in town so I get unlimited tanning sessions for $30. I went in for 10 minutes and felt nothing so when I went back yesterday I told the woman I think I can get bumped up to 15 minutes. She told me that she was putting me in bed 1 this time and that it is alot stronger than the other beds so 10 minutes ought to be enough. BOY was she right. It had an awesome fan in there so I wasn't hot while I was in there, but last night ... well let's just say that my backside and frontside and face all had a nice pink hue to it. It wasn't painful, but just a little hot. Luckily when I woke up today everything is back to its usual non-red color. I'm not going to overdo it and just go every other day until I leave for Germany. That way I get my money's worht and I'm still not doing too much damage to my skin.

Then Tuesday night I had another girl's night out with my friends. Last week I brought over my card game Phase 10. We ended up playing a couple of rounds of that and I think I won all of them. So my one friend, M, is a bit competitive and was like you better bring those cards next week. So on Tuesday I brought the cards again and we played a game and I won again. Only this time they were totally ganging up on me. Last week we played so if you had a skip card, you skipped the next person in rotation, but this week C was there and she said you can skip whomever. So of course everyone was skipping me. But I STILL won. Now M is like you better keep bringing those damn cards every week until I win. I was like your not a bit competitive are you? I was like listen, I'm the only one here who isn't married, doesn't have a job, and is living with my parents. Can you just give me the damn game? They all laughed but she still wants another rematch.

Then last night my mom came into my room and apparently Tuesday night while I was out my dad brought up that he is turning 60 soon. He goes to my mom, your planning a party right? My mom was saying that she hadn't planned anything yet because he hasn't really been feeling well lately with his foot and everything. He was like well I just assumed because 60 is a big one. GREAT! Leave it up to him to ask for a friggin party. So now we have to act like we are planning a party for him and still keep up the surprise charade.

Is life ever simple? I guess just when I'm kicking everybody's ass at Phase 10!

Earth Day

Hi Everybody,

Earth Day is coming up soon, April 22nd. Instead of just letting that day pass every year and thinking yeah I love the environment, why don't we all pledge to do something for the environment starting on that day and continuing throughout the year. That is the reason why I added the Stop Global Warming link to the top of my blog that gives you tips on how to lower greenhouse gas emissions and help stop global warming. It is also the reason why I just posted my last post.

It really is the little things that count. Oprah did a show a couple of months ago with Leonardo DiCaprio talking about global warming and the things that we can do to help stop it. Unplugging appliances when we aren't using them is the easiest thing we can do. I have a halogen lamp in my room that I hardly ever use, so when it isn't on, I have it unplugged. I hardly ever use my desktop so I have it all plugged into a power strip and when I'm not using it, I have the powerstrip unplugged. As soon as I'm done charging my cell phone, digital camera batteries, or video camera battery, I unplug the charger.

So what do you pledge to start doing today to help the environment?

Earth Day, Apr. 22, a day to celebrate the environment. The first Earth Day was organized in 1970 to promote the ideas of ecology, encourage respect for life on earth, and highlight growing concern over pollution of the soil, air, and water. Earth Day is now observed in 140 nations with outdoor performances, exhibits, street fairs, and television programs that focus on environmental issues.

Netflix

OH I also canceled my Netflix last night. So I received my last 2 movies today. I believe I have until the 20th to return them without being charged. Which is really good because my new month usually begins (when my credit card gets charged) on the 15th.

I really need to concentrate on this job search thing and I think without the Netflix, I will have a ton of extra hours in the week. Plus with me being in Germany for 3 weeks, it would be a waste to keep it. My queue stays in the system for 90 days so if I decide to reactivate my account, I don't have to find all the movies again, but I did copy and paste them all into an excel document so even if I do wait too long, at least I have a backup.

So my "My Latest Netflix" part of the right toolbar won't be updated for a while. I'll probably start going through withdrawals in a couple of days, but I have a ton of movies that I'm behind on anyway. This is a good way for me to save money and try to get my shit together. Maybe I will use it as a reward for me to stop procrastinating.

Anyway I have to get ready for my wine tasting gig. I hope everyone has a great extended weekend. Stay safe. = )

Surprise

I think I've got too many surprises going on lately that I'm starting to get stressed out.

First I am keeping my trip to Germany as a surprise for everyone in my family there except for my one cousin and her brother. So now when they keep sending the emails asking if I was able to find a cheap ticket, I have to lie and say oh it doesn't look good. Plus I need to find a way to talk to my cousin and ask her what I should bring for the little kiddies without the rest of the family catching on to our conversation. It is always fun to pull off a surprise, but a little stressful in the meantime. I can't believe I leave for Germany in about a month and I haven't really done anything. Maybe tonight after I get done with my wine sampling/tasting, I will try to figure out what to wear to the wedding.

Then I am in the process of planning a surprise 60th birthday party for my dad. It is hard to surprise the man or keep anything a secret because HE NEVER LEAVES THE HOUSE. But my aunt volunteered her house to host things so that will make it alot easier. After she offered I had to see if it was alright with my mom and brother. Then mom wanted to invite people from church so she had to get me that list, then I had to confirm with my aunt that around 45 people was ok.

Then I went to the store to get invitations. Can you believe they want to charge you $3.50 for 8 invitations? What is that all about? I ended up just buying some nice stationary. They had it on sale so I got 25 sheets for $1. I've learned to become thrifty with my unemployment status. But then I had to design my invites. I did a little searching on the Internet and found some cute sayings and layouts. Unfortunately I couldn't seem to duplicate it in Word so I used my handy little program Snagit and saved it as a picture, edited it, and inserted into my Word document.

After getting that done of course I needed a time so I asked my mom and she said that I needed to confirm that with my aunt too. I'm telling you I've been on the phone more with my aunt in the past 2 days than I think I have all year. Then I printed everything out to see if my mom liked it and I think I was more impressed than she was, but who cares. At least I was somewhat productive yesterday.

Then it was time to get addresses. My mom had already brought up the church directory, but I needed the addresses of my dad's old school friends. My mom and dad were sitting in the living room listening to a CD (I was shocked that the TV wasn't on) so I ventured into the family room to my mom's desk to get her address book and a couple of seconds later she is right behind me. I'm like what are you doing, I'm trying to be inconspicuous and here you go drawing attention to me. But she gave me stamps too so that was good. At least I saved some money that way.

Then I typed them all up in Excel and practiced my Mail Merge skills in Word and got all of the envelopes ready to print out in one easy key. The only problem, I need envelopes. So once again I venture downstairs into my dad's office to get some and who is behind me once again, MOM. She was like dad is going to know if you take his envelopes. I was like that doesn't matter. So on my way back upstairs I was like Dad, I'm stealing some of your envelopes. LOL Crisis averted. But if mom keeps it up, I have a feeling my dad is going to start to get suspicious.

So I printed everything out, stuffed envelopes, and dropped it all off at the post office around midnight once everyone was asleep. I'm just hoping that I have the correct addresses because I put our return address on the envelopes. But I'm thinking I'm in good shape and I just need to be on the ball with getting the mail the next couple of weeks just in case so dad doesn't see it.

Well this is my work of art. The Shhhhhh It's a Surprise part is what I had to insert as a picture. I couldn't figure out how to get it to slant up like that in Word. The WordArt didn't offer that display. If anyone knows how to duplicate it, please let me know.

Yearbooks

Yesterday I had another girl's night out with some friends. We went over to my friend L's house and her younger sister M was there as well. L and I are the same age and we went to the same high school. Her sister M is 2 years younger than we are and went there too of course. The strange thing is that I never knew them in high school. I met them after high school when we were all working at the movie theatre together.

Anyway, L shows me a newspaper article about our old high school and was like look there in the background is Coach so and so. I was like I don't think I remember him. Do you have your old yearbooks? So she went and got them out. I can't believe it has been 10 years already. I probably haven't looked at those old yearbooks since the year I got them. It was funny looking at all the old pictures of our classmates. I really do hope we have a 10 year reunion this year because I'm curious to see how everybody looks now.

Since we didn't know each other in high school, we looked at each other's pictures in the yearbook and we all got a good laugh. In my opinion, we all look a hell of alot better now than we did in high school. Either that or the yearbook pictures were just pretty bad for all of us. Ahhh the 90's.

M was telling me that she was in the Environmental Club. I was like really, I did that one year too. So we went and found the picture and in the Environmental Club picture, we are standing next to one another. How funny is that? Here we didn't even know each other then. Well we all got a good laugh out of that one.

Maybe one of these days I'll dip the old yearbooks out of my closet and post some pictures.

DVD and Book Collection

I think you can tell alot about a person by the kind of movies they like and the kinds of books they read. It is always hard for me to pick a favorite. So I left that part blank in my profile. Instead, I've added 2 links to the toolbar on your right. Right above the FlickR pictures you can click on both My DVD Collection and My Book Collection.

Now just because I own the DVD doesn't mean I've watched the movie yet and just because I own the book doesn't mean I've read it yet. So don't think you can ask me about every one of them. Although I'm working on reading and watching everything in my collection before I add to it.

I'll work on my CD collection next, but that is going to take a while. That will have to consist of 2 lists: all my Madonna CDs; and all the rest.

I could be wrong, but just at a quick glance, I wanna say that the Madonna list is going to be longer than the other.

I made both of these webpages from an Excel document. I had an autofilter in there so you could sort by either the title of the book or the author, but when I saved the file as a webpage, the filters aren't there. If anyone knows how to add such a feature to the webpage, please let me know.

Saturday

OK I'm a couple of hours late, but now I can say the pictures qualify for Photo Sunday. There are too many of them so just check out Flickr on the right.

I woke up today to see that someone was really busy. It appears the Easter Bunny had arrived to decorate the entire house. Now that everybody is asleep, I snuck downstairs to document all of mom's decorative charm. See the pictures up on Flickr. You know I joke about it and it cracks me up when I see it all, but I would really miss it if she didn't do it one year.

Well I didn't have too much time to admire the house when I had to get ready for another wine tasting/sampling at a grocery store. I sampled Trinchero Family Wines again. I had their Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chardonnay. I think I spelled them all right. Anyway I tried all of them before I started and didn't like anyone of them. So that is when my marketing/sales charm has to do the job for me. It wasn't too bad really. I actually ran into someone who I went to High School with. I was shocked that I remembered his name and he remembered mine. Remember it has been 10 years now. Boy does that make me feel old.

Then I headed home and noticed something odd as I approached our house. I was like the nerve of someone to put all their branches around our lawn. WTF is going on around here, then I turned the corner and noticed that our tree was gone and they were actually our branches. (There are pictures of this sight on FlickR as well. Not as entertaining as the Easter decorations, but I couldn't resist.) I was like what has happened here in the 4 hours that I've been gone for this tasting. I know dad couldn't possibly do this and I highly doubt my brother would embark on such a thing on his own. I walked in the front door and saw that mom was at it again.

My mom said she was stuck in traffic and noticed these guys cutting down a tree. She observed them for a while and saw they were doing a good job and then noticed they didn't have a name on the side of their truck or anything so she figured it wasn't a big company (and probably a cheaper one) so she of course went up to them. She was like, I've been getting quotes to have a tree removed and they are all really high, I was wondering if you could give me a quote. The guy was like I can follow you there right now. So my mom was like listen, I don't want you to drive into my neighborhood and think you can charge me an arm and a leg (apparently our neighborhood is impressive which was news to me). She was like my husband had an accident and has been out of work for the last couple of months so I can't afford it. So the guy follows my mom to the house and asks if we could pay cash. My mom was like sure and he says how does $100 sound. My mom said she almost died because all the other quotes were like $200-$300 so she composed herself and said that sounded fair. And they did it right then and there. My dad said he wanted them to dig out the stump and roots so they had to call another guy to do that and it was only $75.

So now the tree that has housed the birds that have continually shit on my car since I've gotten it is gone. YEAH Now maybe my car will stay clean for more than a day after I wash it.

Plus all the roots from that old tree were tearing up our lawn. I have a feeling that will be a little project that my mom will want me to do since apparently everybody thinks I do nothing all day. So I'm suppose to research on the Internet the best way to get our lawn back to a respectable lawn. Like I know the first thing about it. I told her I would volunteer to cut it since its pretty much all dead anyway and never grows and there is nothing to cut. She was like very funny, make it grow. LOL

So if anybody knows anything on how to turn a piece of crap lawn into a beautiful green field, please leave me a comment. :)

I Hate Bugs

I was playing on my computer last night when I saw this crawl across my wall. The thing was so huge that I saw it out of the corner of my eye. Of course by the time I got up it had disappeared behind the furniture. Luckily I saw it once again and killed it so I could sleep at night.

Then a couple of hours later, I saw another one and killed that one too. If I see it, I have to kill it before going to bed because otherwise I think its crawling on me. If I kill the ones that I see, at least I can convince myself that those were the only ones.

Now tonight I just saw another one crawling across my floor and now I've lost it again. So now I have to kill this damn thing before I go to sleep. Hopefully it shows its ugly head again soon.

After doing some research on the Internet tonight, I found its called the House Centipede or Scutigera coleoptrata for all you science people out there.

It looks like I'm going to be doing some cleaning and spackeling tomorrow.

Wicked

OK I have been so busy playing catchup and reading everyone's blog that I almost forgot to post on Wicked which I saw last Tuesday with my brother. It was Christmas in April since he bought me these tickets for Christmas, but April 4th were the first seats available.

I was looking forward to it and it did not disappoint. It was an awesome show. Even my brother loved it. He was like I wasn't sure about this and first, but it was great. For once it lived up to the hype.

For those of you who aren't familiar, it is the story of the Wicked Witch of the West before she went and gave Dorothy a hard time in The Wizard of Oz. Now I want to go back and watch The Wizard of Oz, now that I know the background and what REALLY happened. LOL OK I won't give anything away, but I'll just say that I highly recommend it.

My brother was saying that it has an indefinite run here in Chicago so anyone and everyone should have plenty of time to see it. I'm not sure about the casts throughout the rest of the country, but this Chicago cast was "da bomb".

My favorite was the actress who played Glinda, Stacie Morgain Lewis. She was awesome. Had me from the very beginning. She reminded me of the actress that Rosie O'Donnell had on her show who played Lucy in the Broadway Musical, Your a Good Man Charlie Brown. It says in the Playbill that Stacie played that part for the Regional tour. Whatever that means? I'm wondering if it is the same actress or if someone else played the part on Broadway. If anyone knows, please let me know.

Well I could go on and on about what were my favorite parts, but I don't want to give anything away. All I can say is that if this is playing in a town near you, go out and see it. You won't be disappointed. Its a show you can bring your kids to. I think I just might go back and see it again someday. I've never done that with a play before, but this just might be the first. I just hope Stacie is still in it then. = )

Guilty or Innocent?

This is The Guilty Game. Next to the questions, put your answers as either guilty or innocent. Guilty if you have, innocent if you haven't. No pleading the 5th

Dated outside your race?
innocent

Given a hickey?
guilty

Had a one night stand?
innocent

Hooked up on the first date?
innocent

Singing in the shower?
guilty

Gotten a hickey?
innocent

Spit in someone's Drink?
innocent

Played with Barbies?
guilty

Made someone cry?
guilty

Opened your Christmas presents early?
innocent

Lied to a friend?
guilty

Seen "The Goonies" more than 10 times?
innocent

Played a Computer game for more than 5 hours?
guilty

Ran through the sprinklers naked?
innocent

Ate food that fell on the floor?
guilty

Went outside naked?
innocent

Got caught having sex?
innocent

Flashed somebody?
guilty

Mooned somebody?
innocent

Been on stage?
guilty

Been on stage naked or close to it?
innocent

Been in a parade?
guilty

Been in a school play?
innocent

Drank beer?
guilty

Gotten detention?
innocent

Been on a plane?
guilty

Been on a cruise?
innocent

Broken into a house?
innocent

Gotten a tattoo?
innocent

Gotten piercings?
guilty

Gotten into a fist fight?
innocent

Gotten into a shouting match?
guilty

Swallowed sea/pool water?
guilty

Spun yourself in circles to get dizzy on purpose?
guilty

Laughed so hard it hurt?
guilty

Tripped on your own feet?
guilty

Had sex with more than one person in a day?
innocent

Had sex outside?
innocent

Cried yourself to sleep?
guilty

Cried in public?
guilty

Thrown up in public?
guilty

Lied to your parents?
guilty

Skipped class?
guilty

Cried so hard you stopped breathing?
guilty

I've Been Tagged

OK Barnze tagged me about 2 weeks ago, but I'm finally getting all caught up on my blog reading. So here it goes. I'm not going to bother tagging anyone else, but if you want to do this, go right ahead.

Here are the latest 7 songs that I am listening to at the moment:
Weezer - Beverly Hills
Beyonce - Check On It
Dolly Parton - Travelin' Thru
KT Tunstall - Black Horse And The Cherry Tree
Sarah McLachlan - Ice Cream
Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke
Daniel Powter - Bad Day

Short Lived

Well I guess Spring was short lived since it got cooler last night and stayed that way all day today. But it did give me the opportunity to catch up on my TV Shows and movies.

Nothing really new going on here, but I hope everyone has a pleasant weekend.

Remember we get to set the clocks forward an hour at 2am. You gotta love daylight savings time.