The Love of my Life
Dear Internets, I am totally smitten with this guy. I think he is hot. Not only that, he is smart, funny, extremely compassionate, kind and did I mention, hot? This is Mr.Q and he will probably be embarassed to have his picture on my blog again because, unlike me, he is very humble. I just get so excited when I see a picture of him that I had to share. Plus, I don't have anything to say today and I just got this picture so here you go.
Signed,
Obsessed in Orange County
NPR : Painted Lady Butterflies Take Flight in Rare Migration
Despite my deep, deep funk, I have been able to smile about at least one thing this week (besides the gorgeousity and sweetness of my husband). On Saturday, TQ (teenage quilty) and I went shopping (tragically, not for me) and we saw hundreds and hundreds of butterflies. There were swarms (or is it
rabbles?) of butterflies. They loook like small monarch butterflies but I discovered that they are called Painted Ladies. It was, and is, quite spectacular. I just went outside and they are fluttering by in the most beautiful way. I don't know where they are going (Seattle, perhaps), but they seem to be going somewhere and in a hurry. They seem to be single-mindedly determined to travel away from the place where they were born. I am sure there is something symbolic there.
The migration is particularly large this year because of the copious amounts of rain we've received and the blooming of extra plants that they need to reproduce in vast numbers. According to the report I heard on NPR, a migration of this magnitude only happens about once or twice per decade.
I can't get a good picture because they fly really fast but hopefully, if you are in the area of Southern California, you can step outside and witness the coolness that is flying all around. I think it is so amazing that something so small and delicate looking could fly over 1000 miles. If we adjusted for size, wouldn't that be like a million miles for us. I know some won't make it, but isn't nature amazing? If a little butterfly can fly that far, imagine what we can do.
Update: If you care, you'll have to go read the updates. I don't know if it's a hoax or not. It has obviously snowballed out of control for somebody and I am tired of updating. This from Boing Boing: Link (via Waxy)
Update: It's an April Fool's Day hoax. Shannon sez, "the student doesn't exist, that school is a Christian school (that doesn't teach a course on Hinduism), and it's hosted on a comedy troupe's site that's trying to promote it's new show, and their webmaster is spamming blogs with their story under a variety of fake names."
Update 2: The people who posted this deny that it's a hoax, deny the spamming. You decide.I found this link (originally) via
SRWU. So, the scoop is this: basically a girl asks a guy (apparently randomly) to write a paper for her. The guy, Nate Kushner, agrees and documents the whole thing on his blog. Of course, he writes a pretty hilarious paper about Hinduism complete with Dharma and Greg references and not only posts the whole thing online, but reportedly emails it to the university president where Laura goes to school. It is really funny, even if it turns out not to be true.
Now, I have never been a huge tattle-tale or whistleblower (just a little one), but it really makes me angry when people try to cheat their way through anything. I know I should just trust in "karma" for them and they'll reap what they sow, blah blah blah, but it is really frustrating when I work hard for something and I see people screwing off and still achieving the same thing as me, whether it's a diploma or a raise.
I would love to find out what happens to Laura K. Pahl and whether she figures the whole thing out before she gets an F or expelled from school. Even if she doesn't suffer any ill consequences, I think it will suck to be her for a while since a Google search of her name turns up about a gazillion references to this blog entry!
End of Month Inventory
In honor of the end of the month, I feel the need to purge myself of all the little things that I usually hang on to and bottle up and which occasionally results in a meltdown or other unpleasant episode. So, in an effort to spare my loved ones the agony of witnessing my blow-up, here is a list of the things that are currently annoying me:
To the girl who sits near me in Biology class and who felt the need to disparage me, in front of the class and within earshot of me, for being a good student: You're an idiot! Have fun working at Burger King!
To the woman who types so loudly I think I might go postal: Could you please type louder? Geesh. Get a manicure, get a quieter keyboard, try decaf - anything, just please do something before I flip out. It sounds like a squirrel on crack over there.
To the radio waves: Can you please cooperate so I can listen to my favorite station (Indie 103.1) at work? I am trying hard to drown out the sound of squirrels on crack and it doesn't help when you fade out and play static for me. Please. Thank you.
To the bird that took an enormous crap on the hood of my car: Thanks! I needed that! I have so much free time and extra money lying around to wash my car. Really. Thanks a lot!
There. Deep breath. I feel a little better now. I will add more as I think of them. This rant brought to by the Flu, and the letters P, M, and S.
oh, the malaise...
The flu is ruining my life. I don't remember the last time I was a) this sick, and b) this depressed. I am generally feeling icky and achy but the worst part is the malaise. This is from the
CDC website's clinical description of the flu:
Influenza illness typically resolves after a limited number of days for the majority of persons, although cough and malaise can persist for >2 weeks.
And this from google:
Define: malaise: A feeling of general discomfort, distress or uneasiness; an out-of-sorts feeling. (emphasis mine).
I knew last week that it was not the time to decide anything or formulate an opinion about anything because I just wasn’t feeling well, but I thought by now I would be back to my chipper, relatively happy self. I’m not. I am beyond miserable. I can work and my cough seems to be subsiding so that may be progress, but I just feel incredibly unhappy. My life feels out of control. And I don’t know what to do to feel better. That is the worst part. I feel like crawling under the covers and re-emerging next spring. I think I need therapy.
I did have a nice weekend and Easter was really beautiful, but I just had a hard time enjoying any of it. I don’t even feel like writing about it now. I just want to feel better. Mr. Q has been extraordinary, as usual, but I am afraid I am making him miserable, too. He waited on me hand and foot and treated me like a princess for the last two weekends and all the days in between, but I still feel blah. I should do something nice for him in return. At this point, I think just going away would be the nicest thing I could do for him. A long vacation from me is probably all he needs!
I really do hope that I snap out of this soon. I hate to be a whiner, so I won’t be posting anything positive until I feel happy again. Keep your fingers crossed that it’s soon. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and just take me off your blogroll now!
To Do
Things to do today:
Correct my last post. Check. If you are going to write about something as important as Terri Schiavo, at least have the decency to spell her last name correctly.
Buy really cute cigarettes. Check. Marlboro has new cigarettes called 72s which are shorter than kings (the regular short cigarettes). They are so cute. If a cigarette can be considered cute. I know it's nasty. Sue me. I will quit soon. I just had to try the cute smokes first.
Wait in the drive-thru line for 25 minutes for the world's best jr. cheeseburger. Check. Even though I can't taste much of anything right now, I really wanted a cheeseburger. And not just any cheeseburger. A Hat jr. burger with cheese. It's totally worth the wait, and if you are in Orange County, you are a really missing out if you haven't eaten at
the Hat.
Try not to pass out from hunger while waiting on said cheeseburger. Check. Barely made it though. In my delirium, I ordered french fries even though I hate french fries. But I guess if you like them, the Hat's fries are better than average.
Stay tuned for more...
Stop the Insanity
As I was saying, I've been watching endless coverage of Terri Schiavo for the past 4 days. As, you must know by now, unless you've been living under a rock, the latest round of news is that the
11th Circuit Court of Appeals has voted not to reinsert the feeding tube. Of course, this means that the parents are going to try to appeal to the Supreme Court. And probably Jeb Bush will try to get involved. Again. This really hard to watch. The "right" seems to think that by withholding nutrition and hydration, someone is playing "god". I think by inserting the feeding tube in the first place, someone was playing god. If nature had taken its course, she should have died 15 years ago.
I hope Terri Schiavo gets some peace soon. She deserves to die with dignity (we all do). By intervening again, no one is helping her they are just prolonging the inevitable.
When "sick and tired" isn't just an expression
You can cancel the APB. I am back. As you may have imagined, or not, I was sicker than a dog and on my couch, watching endless coverage of Terri Schiavo for the last 4 days. I managed to function relatively well on Saturday and even went out for sushi with Mr. Q and his sister, the Rockin' Ms. S. I was suffering from a wicked, dry cough intermittently, but mostly just when I wanted to talk. After we drove home, I fell into bed and crashed hard. That's when the real fun began. Fever. Cough. Couldn't breath. CQ almost took me to the hospital.
I managed to roll out of bed sometime Sunday afternoon but I didn't do anything but sip some soup and go back to bed later that night. Monday came and I couldn't even imagine standing much less getting ready for work.
More couch. More Terri Schiavo (that poor woman). Showered and dragged myself to class. Sat in class for two hours listening to the stages of sexual response which would normally get me excited but didn't.
Tuesday was slightly better than Monday. At least I could stand up. But my legs felt as if I had just run a marathon - all jello-y and weak. I discovered something. You know how there are days when you feel kind of crappy and you argue with yourself about going to work or taking a sick day? I realized that when you are really sick, there is no such discussion with yourself. You just do it. There is no question. So, I guess if you have to ask, you should probably go to work.
My fever finally broke last night, and now I am back at work and feeling fabulous! Well, not fabulous, but a lot better. The craziest thing was that I wasn't hungry at all for the last 5 days. Suddenly, I am famished! I must be healed!
the post where I talk about nothing
I don't feel well today. I started to get a cough yesterday so I slept with Prince Nyquil last night. Today I have chills and aches. I think I must be getting sick. I don't do sick very well. I can't even remember the last time I was sick enough to stay in bed. I should go home and take a nap since my two bosses are out of the office and I am mostly caught up with my work. Except for the filing which I am hoping to put off until a) I die and it doesn't matter anymore; b) they hire a filing clerk for me so I don't have to endure all the hazards of paper cuts and the dreaded manila file folder cuts which are only slightly less painful than blueprint cuts; or 3) I get a wild hair up my butt one day and actually file something. It's not like it's a messy pile of stuff, it is very neat pile of paper so no body even realizes that I have filing to do at all. I am clever like that.
Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah. Is this blog on? Am I boring you? I am boring me. I feel like I need something fresh and zany. Maybe a new tag line. Help me out. I was thinking of something like "Recycled with 25% Post-consumer Material". Or "Quilted for Your Pleasure".
Speaking of quilts, the teenage Quilty decided she should drive to school today. Driving her to school every morning is one of my most
favorite things (HA!). Next to getting a root-canal, that is. It's basically one big cluster-fuck near the high school in the morning - a nasty combination of monstrous SUVs, cellphone-talking-teenage-drivers and pissed-off trophy wives dropping off their philandering husbands' children. I don't know what is more stressful - driving her to school or having her drive to school. I was thinking it might be nice. Man, that Nyquil really did a number on my brain! Since we have to pass through the intersection where I was smashed into last year, it's just not possible to achieve any state resembling anything close to serenity. She does need the practice. I just don't know if my nerves can take it. Not to mention my hair. At this rate of gray hair acquisition, I don't know if I can afford the hair color.
That's all for now... bon week-end!
On Benzedrine, Blue Soap and Men in Black
Memorable things from my trip to Vegas...
My grandma's orange blouse. The one she bought in 1968 in a bargain bin at JC Penney for $10. She has worn it every time I've seen her. I think that is pretty cool.
My grandpa's story of walking down a street in Greenwich Village in the 50s and hearing a song called "Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine?" I'm going to download it and send it to him.
My dad telling us that the day you stop dreaming and the day you stop learning is the day they throw dirt on your face. To that I say, "hear, hear"! Also, he melted my heart when he said he was paying for dinner. That isn't a big deal to everyone else, but in my family it's HUGE. I felt such a gush of emotion when he smiled and said "dinner's on me". I hugged and kissed him and felt like a real daddy's girl for the first time since I was five years old.
My mom's preference for non-blue soap. She has dry skin like me (from washing too much). When she walked out of a bathroom at the hotel, she said something like "ew. They have blue soap here. I don't like blue soap." I never liked blue soap either, but now I know why. She explained to me all of the different kinds of soap. White is soap with lotion and that one is her favorite. Green and blue are very drying to your skin. I forget what pink means. But everytime I see blue soap now, I think of my mom. She is so cute.
My uncle has a thing for punctuality. He gives you a hard time when you are late, but then he is always really late himself. Getting lost is okay (for him), underestimating the time it will take to pick up the whole family and drive to a restaurant (for us) is inexcusable. Okey dokey, smokey. Do we have control issues?
My cousin and her husband like NASCAR. That's all I know. I spent a whole 10 minutes (max) with them. The whole weekend. By the time they showed up to dinner on Saturday, grandma and grandpa were tuckered out and fading fast and we needed to take them home. It was like hi cousin! bye cousin! She does look hot though. The unfortunate part is that she knows it and has a hard time thinking of anything or anyone else. I don't know if it's too bad they spent the whole weekend at the races or if it was a blessing. I know my uncle and grandparents were disappointed and that makes me want to smack her!
My sister is hard to explain. She defies description! She is very tomboyish but she has long, flowing goddess hair. That's her - an enigma and a bundle of contradictions. Anyway, it was her first time to Las Vegas so it was pretty cool to show her around. She hung in there pretty well and only had one minor meltdown. I actually had a nice time with her and she wasn't too much of a pain in the ass. =) I can't wait to get her pictures because she had the nicest camera.
Mr. Q was heroic. He took such good care of everyone, especially my grandparents who are in their 80s and quite frail. I can't even begin to tell you how great he was - he was always attentive, always anticipating their needs, constantly vigilant and extremely thoughtful and generous. My dad really hit it off with him and that was a big bonus to me. My mom said he was "cultured" which I think is code for "snob" but I think she approved anyway. My grandparents fell completely in love with him (like me) and they spent a lot of time talking and laughing together. My grandpa even drew a picture of Mr. Q which I will cherish always. My grandpa just had a shunt placed in his brain to drain some fluid so he hasn't been able to write or draw for a while. He was an artist his whole life, so that's a big deal.
Anyway, it was not the redneck, white trash renaissance that I thought it would be. One of my sisters and one of my cousins were absent but it was a good family gathering. There wasn't any real conflict or strife. There wasn't any real disapproval. My parents were wonderful to be with. My grandparents are amazing. My sister was tolerable! =) (Sis, if you end up reading this: I keed, I keed!) The jury is still out on my cousin. All in all, it was fantastic.
Oh, one more thing: I love Rip Torn now. That sounds totally bizarre, but wait. Mr. Q gave me five dollars to play a Men In Black slot machine. It turned out to be a penny slot which I had never played before. When you got three flashy light thingys (you know, the neuralizers), Rip Torn would appear and point up to the top of the machine and it would tell you what you won. He did that a few times and I ended up winning $160. On a penny slot machine! It's not a great fortune but it really helped! That was almost the whole hotel bill. Rip Torn rocks!
Tripping Down Memory Lane
One of the coolest things I got this weekend was a CD full of old family pictures. Here is one of my favorites. That's me in the middle. Aren't my parents cute?! I've only recently begun to appreciate how good-looking they are. Even though no one knows who I look like in the family, I guess if I am their kid, I got their cute genes for sure.
Great Expectations
We're back from Vegas and meeting the parents. Whew! My optimism paid off because it was a wonderful experience. It was tiring and a lot of work, too, but it was so much better than I expected. My parents were great and they really hit it off with Mr. Q. My grandparents loved him and were happy beyond words to see us. It was awesome for us to see them too. We shared a room at the Stratosphere with my sister (who can be kind of psycho)and, fortunately, that went better than I had even hoped.
I have lots of little stories and interesting observations, but I am slammed at work! You would think that they could manage here without me for 2 days, but apparently the whole company fell apart while I was gone and I've got mucho catch-up to do.
A quickie
Found cool blogger templates here =>
http://homepage.mac.com/ravasthi/blog_templates/.
Haven't had time to thank them.
Will update my blogroll and superfluous links later.
Have a groovy weekend!
You rock!
Let's talk about the weather
The weather here today: Exquisite. It is absolute Perfection, with a capital P.
Since I am taking tomorrow off to run errands and vegetate, today is like Friday for me (woo hoo!). Me and Mr. Q are going to Las Vegas this weekend, sans kids (long, boring story), for the highly anticipated and much fretted about redneck, er, I mean family reunion.
I have a very fragmented and disjointed family. I haven't seen my grandparents in 13 or 14 years. I haven't seen my cousins in over 20 years. The last time we saw each other, we were kids. And of course, this will be the introduction of the Fabulous Mr. Q to the people who spawned me and vice versa. Hopefully, having weird relatives is not grounds for divorce or I am in big trouble! It really is going to be strange. It could be wonderful or it could be a complete disaster. I am hoping for wonderful, of course because, while I may be a malcontent I am also pathologically optimistic. I know my grandparents are quite intellectual and bohemian, so we'll have a great time with them. It's the rest that have me worried! I think if we stick to topics like the weather, we'll be okay.
Blogger has been all wiggy today. I had about a dozen things I wanted to say but by the time it started working again, I had forgotten. They were obviously of earth-shattering importance! Anyway, have a great weekend. The next time you will hear from me will be Tuesday when I will hopefully tell you that I am quitting my job and joining the peace corps thanks to the enormous jackpot I won in Vegas!
E-mail forwarding paradox hell
Egads! I was trying to be clever yesterday and reduce the e-mail accounts I use by one. I have two gmail accounts and they are awesome but now I've put myself into an e-mail forwarding paradox from which I don't know how to escape!
Normally, I have certain e-mail sent to a specific account (ms.quilty at gmail dot com) which forwards the mail to another account (none of your business at gmail dot com). If I feel like responding, I will reply from the non-of-your-business account which is generally for family and friends only. Apparently this has confused more than one person. So, I decided to streamline by forwarding email from my personal account with my real name to my blogging account which has my nom de plume. Are you thoroughly confused yet? If you are still reading this, you deserve a medal of honor or something.
So, I went into my personal account and selected "forwarding" and entered the other address. Clicked "Save Changes". Voila. C'est simple! I then went into the ms.quilty account and selected "Disable Forwading". Clicked "Save Changes". Nothing. I can't disable this for the life of me. I've tried everything I can think of short of throwing the computer out of the window. The funny part is that every time I save the changes, gmail tells me that my preferences have been saved! It's like a controlling parent now, telling me what my preferences are. The nerve! Well, that's just terrific! Now I have two email accounts forwarding email to each other and archiving the mail so now I don't know about new mail unless I go into the archive.
You would think that I could go back into the personal account and disable the forwarding there right? Then I would be back where I started which would be okay because it was working for me pretty well. Needless to say (I'm saying it anyway), the damn thing is stuck too! I cannot disable fowarding on either account now.
I already searched FAQ's and I don't find this particular problem mentioned. I will have to e-mail the help desk and hope I get the reply!
In other gmail news, I have 50 invitations. I am quite sure that everybody has an account by now but if you'd like one just let me know. More importantly, if you have had this problem or know how to escape, please please please let me know!
mwah!
Update: as of March 16th, the problem in gmail has been corrected. Now, I can disable forwarding!
Reason #76,986 Why I Love Mr. Q...
A few weeks ago, after trying to figure out our taxes and on the verge of a total breakdown, me and C. went outside just to get a breath of fresh air. He said the most brilliant thing. But first, some background.
CQ and I have been together for a long time in one way or another: best friends 13 years. We met at work in our early 20s and we've been smitten ever since. We've been living together 5 years and married for 9 months. We are newlyweds! We were never sure when or how we'd get married, because in every sense but the legal one, we were married already. Long story short, in a fit of romanticism last summer, we snuck off and got married. It was June 1st, it was just the two of us in our flip-flops and t-shirts, and we were married at 4:20 in the afternoon. The judge who married us, having never met us before the ceremony, pronounced us "best friends for life and man and wife". We were (and still are) really happy and still goofy in love. (awwww)
When we called our parents after the wedding, they were all beside themselves with joy. CQ's parents were always very supportive of us being & living together, but it really made them happy that we made it official. My parents actually never acknowledged our relationship because they did not approve of us living in sin. So, they were (or at least my mom was) ecstatic!
Other than making our parents happy, and me getting to change my last name, nothing has changed. We don't feel differnt, we haven't changed anything about our situation. We still share all the bills, have joint bank accounts, raise my daughter and his son, drive the same cars, work the same jobs, shop the same stores. Nothing has changed. Except now we owe taxes. Not just a little. A lot. It is a depressing situation for me and will make our life quite uncomfortable for at least the next month while we figure out how to pay the taxes. I am very bitter and upset about this mainly because nothing has changed for us, except our tax bill. Plus I will probably lose my financial aid at school. All because the government found out that we share a dual income.
So, back to the original point of this post. During our conversation, through the process of talking it out, CQ points out that since the only real benefit we have gotten since getting married is making our parents happy, it was still worthwhile to get married (we wanted to anyway). They have sacrificed and given us so much. They continue to be extremely generous to us. In that way, having to pay more taxes is a small price to pay to give our parents this small happiness. It is a worthy sacrifice.
Now, I already know what people are thinking. So before I get any comments, I want to clarify a few things. I never, ever condone doing something to make your parents happy. If you do something you don't want to do just to please your parents, that is stupid. However, if you do something YOU want to do and as a bonus, it makes your parents happy, that's cool. That's what we did.
The second thing is I don't mind paying taxes and I don't want to avoid paying them, but I don't think it is cool or fair that we have to pay more taxes now even though we are deriving no more benefit. I know we should have changed our withholding to avoid this situation but we didn't. Anyway, the point of this was that we have to pay more (right or wrong) and we are trying to feel good about it in someway. Is this a sophisticated rationalization? Perhaps. I don't know. The point is this:
My husband rocks in so many ways, I will never be able to adequately express how awesome he is. That he can find some personal reward in a slightly messed up situation is just amazing. I love his perspective on everything. I am his number one fan, and I don't expect anyone but me to get him. If other people do, that is also a bonus. I think it totally bites that we are basically being penalized for getting married (how's that for family values?). But I would give up a whole year's salary just to be with him if I had to. Even more.
In summary (and to shamelessly rip off a cheesy credit card commercial):
Tax software: $30
Tax bill: $1,000,000 (it might as well be)
Being with the most awesome man in the world: priceless.
100 Things, Part 2
Let's see if I can pull this off.
26. I have freckles.
27. I am allergic to avocados.
28. I've never been called for jury duty.
29. I've never been skydiving.
30. My husband has.
31. I don't know the past tense for skydive. Skydove sounds wrong. I'll have to look it up.
32. I would like to learn to play the violin or cello.
33. My husband used to be in a rock band.
34. I like to quote T.S. Eliot.
35. I collect books about words.
36. At home, many of our conversations are comprised of movie quotes.
37. I can name that tune in one note.
38. My daughter is very good at math and spelling.
39. My son is a very talented artist.
40. My daughter is too.
41. I would like to be a painter or a sculptor or a potter.
42. My mom never worked outside of the home.
43. I still own the skirt I was wearing the day I met my husband.
44. I met my husband at work.
45. I used to be a cashier.
46. Other jobs I have had include: customer service rep, child-care provider, accounts receivable clerk, adminstrative assistant, legal secretary, executive administrator, and ombudsman.
47. One day I want to be a professor.
48. I like clocks but I hate the ticking sound.
49. I have 20/20 vision.
50. I still had braces on when I had my first child.
100 Things, Part 1
I'm doing this on an installment plan. These are not in any particular order and they are separate from things you can learn by reading my profile. Prices subject to change. This list is void where prohibited.
1. I am ambidextrous.
2. I am balanced-brained (neither right-brained or left-brained).
3. I drink a lot of coffee.
4. My first job was as a roller-skating carhop.
5. I am the only girl in my family to drive a car or have a driver's license.
6. I have two younger sisters. I had a brother who died when he was a baby.
7. One of my sisters is blind.
8. I drive a Swedish car.
9. If I could be anybody famous, I would be Audrey Hepburn.
10. When I was young, I wanted to be either a brain surgeon or a hairstylist.
11. I have only been to two funerals in my whole life.
12. Sometimes, I think I want to get a pilots license.
13. I have never been outside of North America.
14. Except when I lived in Hawaii.
15. I am allergic to sunlight. It makes me break out in hives.
16. I broke my tail bone once while snowboarding.
17. I broke my nose once when my mom was trying to learn to drive and she drove into a tree.
18. My nose is still crooked and my mom never learned to drive.
19. My best friend also happens to be my husband. He rocks.
20. We are both first-born children, and so are our parents.
21. I have lived in Fort Worth, Texas; all over Southern California; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Seattle, Washington.
22. Mr. Q and I would like to one day to live on the East Coast for a while.
23. We'd also like to live in New Zealand even though neither one of us has visited there yet.
24. Mr. Q is going to meet my parents for the first time on Saturday.
25. I am not really that nervous but I think I should be.
...to be continued.
Good luck exploring the infinite abyss!
One of the best movie lines ever: "Good luck exploring the infinite abyss!"
10 points if you can name that movie.
Cool Date-e-o
Update: I made a technical mistake and can't live with myself if I don't correct it: I said that that date only happens once in a thousand years, but it actually happens every one hundred years. Doh! My brilliant observations for today:
It's Friday. The date is
03/04/05. How cool is that? I mean that only happens like once in a thousand years. Come to think of it, all dates (when abbreviated that way) only happen once every thousand years. The next cool date this year will be 05/05/05. Pretty neat, huh?
Coming soon - a list of the 100 most fascinating things about me. I'm on number 7, so this may take a while! Maybe I should just do 10 things a week. Hmmm. On second thought...
Coming soon - a list of the 10 most fascinating things about me.
The coming crackdown on blogging | Newsmakers | CNET News.com
Admittedly, I don't do any serious political blogging, partly because I am still suffering from major burnout from the last election. I wasn't blogging then, but I loved the blogging aspect of it. There is a grassroots element that had been missing my whole voting life. As it gets closer to the next election, I will be more vocal here about issues and such... or maybe not.
What is this all about? You'll have to read the article because I am really not that articulate today. It seems the FEC is getting involved in regulating the internet, blogs, emails. Apparently, we should be worried about links, emails, quotes from campaign websites and a plethora of other things. It seems like a legitimate article and legitimate issue.
I first saw this via
Mac.
Is your name Mulva?
The other day,
Mikey was talking about truck nutz, which is disturbing me beyond belief right now but I won't go into all that. It should be obvious that this is ridiculous and no more attention should be given to the 'tards that have them.
But, it got me thinking about one weird vanity license plate I've seen on the road recently. Since someone is driving around with this on their car, I figure they wouldn't mind if the whole internet (or the 5 people who read this blog) knew about it. You know there some plates you can't figure out no matter what but I think the majority are clever or attempts at clever or obvious and you can tell what they are trying to say. This one has me stumped (and I don't like being stumped). I hesitate to even post this because I am afraid of the comments I might receive. So behave! Anyway, after that uneccesary build-up, here it is: V FULVA. By all appearances, the vehicle and the driver of this vehicle were quite conservative. So, what could it mean? If this is your license plate, please let me know what the hell you were thinking! If you have a theory, maybe you can clue me in.
That's all. Nothing to see here. Just move on.
Adagio Teas - Link Reward
OK, I love tea. I don't love it as much as coffee but I don't love anything as much as coffee. Except Mr. Quilty and our kids. I found this link/offer/ingenious marketing ploy via
Dylan who found the link via
Ty. It sounds like a groovy deal. Even though my Google rank is probably non-existent or very, very low, perhaps I can score some tea. And one can never have enough tea.
Yes, I like to watch
If you like music at all and if you like watching American Idolesque shows, you should watch
Nashville Star on the USA network. It is a contest to find the next big country star. Wait. Come back. I don't even listen to country music but it is a terrific show. It's not a novel concept or anything. It's just a show where hopefuls perform and the TV audience calls in to vote on their favorites. One by one they are eliminated. You know the drill. The winner gets a recording contract with a big label. Anyway, it is far far better than AI could ever hope to be (in my humble opinion). It is more entertaining and a much better showcase for musicians/singers than American Idol and as a bonus - no Ryan Seacrest. Why is it better, you ask (besides the obvious no Ryan Seacrest part)?
1. It moves along quickly with absolutely no filler or time-killing or stalling. It's really just people performing.
2. The contestants actually, get this,
play instruments and often
write their own songs.
3. The judges are mostly nice and offer some constructive advice. Sorry, if you only want to see Simon Cowell - there is no one like that here.
4. The music is really good (even if you don't like country & western music).
There is one caveat however. We've been watching this show since it's inception. They are now on Season 3. There is a new host (Leann Rimes) and new judges. I can't tell, but last night was the first show of the new season and it wasn't quite as good as past seasons. Don't ask me why Bret Michaels is a judge and how he is qualified to judge music, country or otherwise. I'm not digging that at all. But the performances mostly rocked. You can easily see who is star quality and who is almost star quality.
Anyway, the contestants are actually talented and they always have solid performances. Last night, sadly, one of the female performers had food poisoning or something and had to run off stage during her performance to barf. How unfortunate.
So, it's on Tuesdays this season (instead of Saturday like the past two seasons). Try to check it out.
In other reality show news, did you know
Elyse Sewell has her own LiveJournal? You may remember her from America's Next Top Model, Season 1. I totally adore her, so do check her out too. She's quite entertaining.
The BLOG Shirt: T-Shirt Humor: The Funny T-Shirt Store
I saw this a while back, but it is even more poignant to me today. Since I am feeling very unblogworthy this week, it seems appropriate! Also, I can't stop reading them even though I have mounds and mounds of work to do.
it's the "little" things
One of the best things I've heard today: "Your bum looks small in those pants."
Here's to having a bum that looks small in these pants. Hey, I'll take whatever I can get!
and the award for most mental goes to...
Me. I woke up this morning and had a minor meltdown because I woke up late.
I would like to thank my beautiful husband who continues to put up with me despite my tendency to go on a crying jag over nothing first thing in the morning. Granted, I am a little tired and hormonal so it doesn't take much to make me mental, but still. I want to thank him for making my life so tremendously beautiful and easy even though I try like hell to make it complicated and difficult.
I can't believe how lucky I am that he is still my #1 fan after 13 years. And after living with me for 5 years, he can still deal with my moods. I may be a total mess and a five-car-train wreck, but I am so glad that I married him 9 months ago (today!). I don't know what I did to deserve you, Mr. Q, but whatever it is, I am so grateful!
That's all. I don't have anything cool to say today except we should all appreciate life and acknowledge that it is a gift and it's short and we should take every opportunity to tell the people we love that our lives are better because of them. When you think of life in those terms, the bills, the news, and the work piling up on our desks while we blog, all seems so insignificant, doesn't it?
Hope your day is delightful! Mine already is.
