please stop me before i sell travis to the highest bidder.

I have an Ebay Obsession.
O-b-s-e-s-s-i-o-n.
I went on to find one thing (a particular anniversary present for Trav), o-n-e, and now I have 7 things in the My Ebay section... I've won 3 (anniversary present, bridesmaid gifts - about 11 months early, and autumn leaves to decorate with at the reception - again, at least 11 months early), am bidding and winning on 1 (another thing of f*ck leaves), have been outbid on 2 (a polariod guestbook and, you guessed it, some more leaves), and am watching 1 (a beautiful handmade guestbook).

It's a sickness and I am powerless to stop it. I just need to resist more auctions until the one I'm winning on is over, and then I should be okay. Once the My Ebay section is clear, I think I will be alright again.

I mean, at least I am buying worthwhile things... and as we get closer to wedding time, I'm sure I will buy more things on there... they have gorgeous sets with guestbook, ring pillow, garter, etc. for relatively inexpensive. It's a good way to save us some dough. But for now, I just need to stop.

autumn haikus:

autumn come sooner
long mondays take too much time
goodbye to summer

Some monday afternoon haiku's for you. Both are about autumn, because that is the mood I am in.

when failure is sweet
the clouds taste like honey pots
autumn is my time

Today is going pretty damn fast... which is always welcome. This morning I felt very sick... nauseous and just plain off, but had way too much to do before my bosses return on Wednesday (or Thursday) to think about not coming in. So when I got here, I just threw myself into the forementioned work, and time has flown! Some noodles and some mint green tea, and I am feeling much better! Hopefully the rest of the day will pass just as quickly and I get get lots done.

So, this past weekend was great. Friday night was way too much fun. First I came home to find a dozen roses waiting for me, just because! How sweet is that. I think Trav knows I've been stressing a lot lately, about money and wedding stuff, so that was the sweetest gesture. Then we headed to Arby's (for me) and McDonald's (for him) to grab some dinner, before heading down to Rochelle and Pat's for poker... Pat's sister Cristen, her boyfriend Justin, friends Justin and Lydia, Brian, and Squirell were all there too. When we got there Cristen and Ro had already been hitting up the wine, which I happily joined in on. It was a great time, we played poker for hours, and Trav won again (he's good like that). At some point we finished the wine and started on Strawberry Daiquiris. Woo-boy.
I haven't downloaded my pictures yet, but here's one Ro took:

After the game was over, we ended up just hanging out, playing Scrabble, watching tv and drinking more. Ro got bombed, which was hilarious! Pat, Jut, and I got sucked into the weird movie: No Escape starring Ray Liotta. By the time it ended it was about 3a.m. and eveyone else was asleep... then Pat and I ended up talking on the porch until almost 4a.m., and which point I told him that I was about to pass out where I sat, so we called it a night. I was up at 7 (for about a half-hour), but luckily was able to fall asleep again until about 9 a.m. Still not a lot of sleep.

Saturday we headed home and got ready, then headed off to see a reception place. Their packages are amazing and include so much. The place is pretty nice too. So that is definitely an option. I would love to find a place where we could have an outdoor ceremony though, so we are still looking. We'll see, I guess. At least we know that this place is an affordable option. After that it was up to my parents place to relax and visit, where we stayed for a late dinner. I made Travis drive us home though, because after that I could hardly keep my eyes open. When we got home around 10-10:30ish, I was right up to bed (asleep before my head hit the pillow... I had a lot of days to catch up for) and slept until about 9:30 the next day, which felt great. After this morning though, I think maybe it still wasn't enough sleep.

Sunday was pretty lazy. Cleaned the bathroom... Travis scrubbed the shower/bath, I cleaned the sink (and sink area), toilet, and wiped down with bleach all the bottles before putting them back in the shower. It's definitely better. (I'm sure you really wanted to know all that.) Then we vacumned the living room, and watched some episodes of Monk (there was a mini-marathon). Trav made steaks and potatoes and corn for us for dinner... and by then the night was just about over.

Well, I should run... but hope the weekend was good to you all!! Ciao.

Oprah, call me!! aka. Fatigue, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again

"Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone"
(simon garfunkel)

Lately, my old insomnia is back again, and I find myself in bed at night... tossing and turning, for hours after laying down to sleep, travis long since out, simply unable to turn off my brain and drift off. And in the mornings, I am tired and headachy and find it so much harder to wake myself up then usual... my showers take longer, I end up running late, and by lunch time I'm already dragging. With the state of my emotional self already pretty low right now anyway, this does not help at all.
I'm so glad its Friday; I can't wait to sleep in.
Right now I am just so fatigued, I feel numb and unable to concentrate. We are going to Ro & Pat's tonight for poker... I hope I can keep up with the game. Hell, I hope I can make it through the game!

More reception site disappointment yesterday and today. That doesn't help.

Had a talk with my dad yesterday, which was both good and bad. I know he is having a very hard time right now with all this wedding stuff. Of course it is just hard for him to think about his little girl getting married, but I know it is even harder for him since he can't pay for it. He beats himself up about it, and I was hoping that talking to him about it would help him a little. By the end of the conversation I was feeling better about that aspect, thinking that he might be feeling (if only a tiny bit) some what better about it. But it made me feel pretty crappy to think about what kind of mindset my father is in right now, in general. He is bi-polar (manic depressive), and he is in a very depressed place right now. I wish I could help, but I know I really can't.
I suggested ways that he might be able to help me with wedding stuff that doesn't involve money. He seemed positive toward that.

This morning, I found myself reading

okay, somehow i lost the last two paragraphs of my post, don't know how and don't fucking care. too tired to re-type. fuck it.

Lol...

Um, thanks Barry. :-)

Barry... aaaayyyyy.  

lol, yea 

sometime i just want to do my hair like princess leah so that i can have buns over my ears and i don't have to hear you

Sometime it is good to look on the bright side of life, like i did a few posts ago... but sometimes I don't want to. Instead i want to bitch and moan.

I wish people would get over their own shit, especially when it has to do with me and something that is my problem, and by refusing to accept the way life is, they are making my life 100x harder, when they could instead, just as easily, make my life even the slightest bit easier by getting a grip on reality.

I like easier.

I also like run on sentences, especially when they have lots of commas ,,, .

I mean, if choice A is making yourself feel like shit, and making life harder for me, but being able to ignore a situation which is a little difficult for you, but actually isn't about you at all... and choice B is getting over said situation, realizing that it isn't your problem, and therefore making your life easier, and making my life easier... well, wouldn't you chose B?! I know I would.

*taking a deep breathe because i realized i was starting to hyperventilate and spit*

I mean, I wasn't going to get more specific, but I'll just say this much. It's Trav & my wedding. No one else's. And if someone wants to throw themselves a pity party because they **** ***** to *** *** **. Boo-f***in-hoo. I feel like shit enough about this wedding, since you know, we can't pay for it.

Truly, how do you pay for one of these things? Has anyone else done it here? If so, I would love the advice.

It's hard to save when you have nothing left at the end of the month.

It's frustrating. It's draining. All I want to do is get married. Why does everywhere have to be so expensive? Why can't I know someone with a huge backyard that I can get married in, that happens to be a caterer, and own 100 folding chairs??

Why can't something, for once, just be easy and just turn out the way i hoped.

People say not to get caught up in the day, that its just one day... but its our day, and honestly, all we want is something small and simple. But even small and simple costs a fortune. And a fortune we clearly do not have.

oh, i try

http://www.thirdframestudios.com/adgame/stripgen/view.php?id=23564


I"m not that funny, but you can be:
STRIP GENERATOR

Post 150.

Here is a funny and useful article from Newsweek today:

I Rise to Toast the Bride and Groom
A wedding toast should be egoless, true and brief. Most are exactly the opposite.

Newsweek
Updated: 7:17 p.m. ET Aug. 19, 2005

Two weeks ago, in my ongoing attempt to improve the state of spiritual etiquette, I wrote a self-help column on how to deliver a eulogy. I hinted at that time that a column on how to give a wedding toast was on the way, and I immediately received in my e-mail satchel a needful e-letter from an e-woman whose e-husband was facing an impending wedding toast and hoped I could offer some advice as soon as possible. So, here goes....

My advice to toasters is pretty much the same as my advice to eulogizers except that you should always remember that the people you're talking about aren't dead yet. Like a eulogy, a wedding toast must be egoless, true and brief. Like eulogies, the point of the toast is to wish the bride and groom well and ask God to bless their marriage, not tell everyone everything about yourself and more about the bride and groom than they would want known.
The two main problems I have seen in disastrous wedding toasts (which amount to at least 99 percent of all the wedding toasts I have had the painful opportunity to hear) are that, one, the people giving the toast are already drunk and two, the people giving the toast are trying to be funny. Being successfully sober is much easier than being successfully funny, so unless you are professionally hilarious, like me, my advice is to go for the tender personal toast over the potentially funny but usually tasteless toast. Most male wedding toasters (best man, brothers and buddies) just can't pull off either tender or personal toasts--drunk or sober. Fathers have a shot at tender and personal toasts, especially when they are marrying off their "little girl," but even fathers tend to be stiffer and more stilted than they need to be or should be during a wedding toast. Women can do this in their sleep, but they tend to cry a lot.
I think it is also unwise to extemporize your toast unless you are a professionally accomplished public speaker. Even then, winging it is dangerous. Write it out and read the damn thing. Yes, it's true that the emotional impact of a memorized toast is far greater than a recited toast, but what you lose in spontaneity, you will gain by not dissolving into a pool of sobbing incoherent goo, or saying something you just thought up that minute which will make the bride and groom hate you for the rest of their lives.
Also, if your written toast is more than one half of a typed page (single-spaced, 14-point font) it is too long. I have never ever heard a wedding toast that caused listeners to demand that the toaster keep on toasting for another 10 minutes. Less is more, just like a eulogy.
Another common mistake of wedding toasters is in assuming that it is funny or endearing for either the bride or groom or the guests or the waiters or the party enhancers or the valet parking guys to hear a list of the bride and groom's most embarrassing moments. If any of your sentences begin, "Dude, do you remember the time we were trying to score chicks at Cabo Wabo?" rip it up and try again.

Another problem is sibling rivalries. Get it through your head that your lifelong envious bickering with your brother or sister is embarrassing, irrelevant, unattractive and almost always destructive in a wedding toast. Talk about the great things your sibling has taught you and how much you love him or her. Even if it's a lie, who cares? Most people will not discover it until after the party and the people who do know that you hate your sib will think you finally made up--which you should do anyway. For a father of the bride who is offering a toast (I don't know why more mothers don't give toasts, but they don't and it's a shame), the obvious is the obvious. You should welcome everyone and tell them how much it means to you and your wife or ex-wife or both your ex-wives that they have all joined you for this joyous occasion. Welcome your son-in-law and his family into your family and tell his family how much you love their son and how happy you are that he will be spending every single holiday and vacation with your family and how he has willingly agreed never to see or speak to them again. Whatever you say during your toast, for God's sake don't end it with "Now let's party!" or "Boo-yah!"

For nonreligious toasters, I beg you to try to stifle your atheism for a minute and include in your toast at least the formulaic phrase, "God bless you both!" at the end of your toast. If you are religious, you might include the old Jewish legend that, just to keep busy, God spends every day after creating the world matching up brides and grooms. Then say, "Today we are here to celebrate some of God's best work." If it is a Christian wedding, say that it is an old Christian legend. If anyone presses you for a source, just offer him or her another martini.
I like toasts that include the phrase, "I pray that you will be blessed to see the children of your children's children." However, you should first check out any fertility issues. I once said that to a bride and groom during a wedding ceremony and discovered later from the weeping bride that she was infertile. I was then quickly ushered out of the party by her large and angry brother, so the fertility prayer is something of a risk.

A final word about eloquence, the guests who hear your toast are not expecting Shakespeare because some of them even know, or heard on MTV, that Shakespeare is dead. However, I implore you to try to lift the rhetoric a few clicks above "You guys are totally awesome!" You can do it. I believe with all my heart in the power of natural eloquence. A good way to do this is to talk about what you learned from the bride and groom and from their love for each other. Speak about how their love has lifted up and inspired not just the two of them but you and all their friends and family, as well. Speaking about our family and friends not just as family and friends but also as our life teachers is a good way to elevate and honor the true place of family, friendship and love in our lives. You might also want to speak about the shared passions of the bride and groom. However, if their principal passions are shopping and drinking beer, forget this and go right to the old Jewish legend. Just speak from your heart about what you love about them, and then sit down.

I once said to the bride who was marrying a kid I had known since he was 2, "Melissa, I always knew David would marry you. I just didn't know your name or your face until that day when he introduced you to me. But I knew it would be you; I knew it would be someone who would love his energy and his passion, his loyalty and his kindness. You were not only made for each other, you were made only for each other. And so my deepest hope and prayer for the two of you is that, in the words of D. H. Lawrence, 'May you have the courage of your tenderness'."

Something like that might work.

Anyway, Mazel Tov to all the brides and grooms and toasters out there, and now ... Let's party! Boo-yah!

© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.

Strip generator

Here is my comic strip ....

Go here to make your own!

Always look on the bright side of life... *whistling*

I realize that I am a lucky girl... I have the funniest, sweetest, most caring, and most awesome best friend that a girl could ever want. And a sweet, kind, compassionate, hardworking, devoted, funny, loving, handsome, etc, etc. fiance. Sometimes its good to look at the how lucky you are.

Love you Babwa. Love you Travis!!

monday motivation

Happy Monday everyone... I am back at my desk today (Miyano having returned from Hawaii), and that is almost enough to make Monday good. ;-) Add to that the fact that today has flown by, and that my boss will be our Friday, Monday, and Tuesday, and I'm feeling pretty upbeat right now.

Here is a little "motivation" for your Monday:

(If you can't read it, it says: If a Pretty Poster and a Cute Saying are All It Takes to Motivate You, You Probably Have a Very Easy Job. The Kind Robots Will be Doing Soon.)

Anyway, my weekend was good, and yesterday was very productive. We managed to sleep in a little, which was nice, and then got all inspired and emptied all the boxes from our living room, and organized all our bills and important papers which had been piling up, into a nice plastic file box. We also got a bunch of laundry done, organized the books onto our bookshelf, and unpacked our winter clothes from the boxes they were in, in the basement (talk about stale).

We've really just been so lazy about our house for so long... ever since it got ridiculously HOT. So we decided enough was enough, and that it was time to start working on it again. (Especially after seeing how gorgeous Brian and Stacey's house is!) We are going to start reserving Sunday's as house days... and we figure if we can in a slow and relaxed way, work our way through the boxes and the chores that we need to do for the house, we are less likely to get so burnt out. This way, hopefully by the end of the year, we will have most of the non-money draining work done, to (be cliche) "make our house into a home"... and make it really ours. The painting and the big stuff will have to wait until after the wedding, or until we win our Home Depot gift card, but the rest we hope to get done.

Anyway, well time for me to get back to work... just an hour left. And in case you were wondering, the talk with my boss on friday went well. I don't know that everything is suddenly grand, but at least now he knows how I feel, and understands where I am coming from. We each made a few suggestion, and we're both working on a different things to make each others lives easier. So, we'll see if things improve. *fingers crossed*

the thing inside.

Last night, while relaxing at Rochelle & Pat's (a great time, we missed them... and they got me a GREAT birthday present) we played darts, ate pizza, watched tv, and played Scrabble. All while consuming alcohol (mass quantities of beer for the boys, a few yummy fruity drinks for the women). Little did I know that amist the fun and laughter, trouble was brewing inside.

2am rolls around and we finally all roll into bed. Travis is asleep in 5 minutes... Ro and Pat are quiet almost as quickly. I lay awake, having just felt the disturbing rumblings of trouble in my intestines. Soon I give up on sleep and wander to the bathroom... I figure I can probably just fart my troubles away. Wrong.

[WARNING: POOP TALK BELOW]

Never have I had such a horrible mixture of intense gas and constipation. I sat on the toilet for about 35 minutes, writhing in pain, as my gut was slowly ripped apart from the inside out, until, at last I was able to let out a poop that looked disturbingly like a children's top... about 2+ inches in diameter at the top, and tapering to a point.

At that point (around 10 of 3am) I was able to tottle my way back to bed, and collapse into it... asleep in probably 2 minutes, a record for me, so great was my relief at the passing of that horrid, gut-wrenching turd.

Much to my relief, that was the end of it. I woke up at 8 to pee, and was back asleep until about 11. Everyone woke up around then as well. And today has been pretty successful... got our grocery shopping done, Trav got to stop at a garage sale (thought a rather unsatisfying one), and he was sweet enough to take me to see the puppies at the pet store down the road from our place. Now we are watching football, and upon thinking about the ungodly 2am I had last night, I would like to give this shout out (whether she see it or not):

"Dooce (aka Heather), you are my hero. The everyday trial of pooping, that you must endure, would leave most grown men sobbing. Me, and my colon, salute you."

lord i need a weekend (oh look, there's one!)

Ludwika: know what time it is?

Me: lunch time?

Ludwika: (giggle)

Me: no, what is it? (very eager for some excitement in my life) something exciting?

Ludwika: no, Megan, i'm asking, (enunciating each work carefully) what - time - is - it?

the talk

So I decided that I'm going to have a talk with my boss... hopefully today, but if not, definitely next week. I need more definition in my job... I need to know what I am responcible for vs. what some of my coworkers are responcible for. Often the two overlap, and I am left grudgingly getting all my stuff done along with this other stuff that may or may not be my responcibility. That added to the fact that they keep giving me more big, long term projects (see previous post, same job, twice the workload, yay!), its just becoming too much. I have high hopes about this talk, and am actually excited to work out with my boss exactly what my job responcibilities are so I can give 100% to those things, do better work on them in the process, and hopefully feel a lot less stressed at the end of the day. Right now I'm always left feeling rushed, chaotic, and like I'm forgetting something. It's not a great way to feel. Last night I was in a real funk, and I decided enough was enough. So, we are going to have "the talk".

Wish me luck.

(in an eeyore voice) oh yay...

I just found out I am the new intern coordinator here at my place of employment...
but without the job title, the pay, or the final decision on anything.

Isn't that exciting?

I'm so excited I could just throw up in my boss' face.

its hard getting older

I know you are all poo-pooing me right now. But this week I feel so old, and tired. I feel already stuck, and little things that stink manage to overshadow bigger good things. My birthday was good, but I miss the younger times when your birthday was a big deal and people would fuss over you. Silly, I know, but I miss that. The wedding overshadows everything. It's hard to watch other people plan away, and make what they want out of their weddings, when I know what I want, and know I can't afford it. And its not like I'm ridiculous either, I don't want some $100/plate place that's all about a name, I don't want a designer dress... but even the simple things I want cost too much money.

The same with my car, and our house, etc... I wouldn't give up owning our own place for anything, but its hard to see how little we have left at the end of the month when the mortgage, car payments, student loans, and bills are paid.

It was just so much easier as a kid, when you didn't have any of that to worry about. Now, I can't help but being cynical about the years ahead of me. I always pictured myself getting to a place where I was comfortable with my life... where we weren't rich, but making enough to save some at the end of the month, with a job that I enjoyed (even just most of the time)... but now I'm wondering if I'll ever see those days.



On an nicer note, we had a great dinner last night with Brian and Stacey. It was nice to catch up some, and finally see their place. Gorgeous! It makes me want to work harder to get our place organized. (You may all join me in a laugh on that one.) We decided to try and do that once a month, because we are both very bad at nailing down a date, and always end up letting months and months go by between visits.

Tomorrow we are looking forward to going and seeing Rochelle and Pat, because amazingly it has been almost a month since we last saw them; which is way too long. August has just been busy and has sped by so far. So finally we both have the time, at the same time, and we will head over there after work.

Time for lunch.


"I’m growing older but not up
My metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck
Let those winds of change blow over my head
I’d rather die while I’m living than live while I’m dead
Let those winds of time blow over my head
I’d rather die while I’m living than live while I’m dead" JB

hogwarts 6th year

So I have a little too much time on my hands this week:

Report Card sorting-hat.com First Year Exam
Right Answers	48
Total Possible	50
Percent Right	96%
Letter Grade	A

Questions Answered Incorrectly
#36.Q36. What colour are Bludgers:
Your Answer:	Brown
Correct Answer:	Black
#37.Q37. How many points does a side score for putting the Quaffle through a hoop:
Your Answer:	five
Correct Answer:	ten

Report Card sorting-hat.com Second Year Exam
Right Answers	48
Total Possible	50
Percent Right	96%
Letter Grade	A

Questions Answered Incorrectly
#22.Q22. How many School Governors does Hogwarts have:
Your Answer:	eight
Correct Answer:	twelve
#25.Q25. What is Dobby the House-Elf wearing when he first meets Harry:
Your Answer:	a tea-towel
Correct Answer:	a pillowcase

Report Card sorting-hat.com Third Year Exam
Right Answers	49
Total Possible	50
Percent Right	98%
Letter Grade	A

Questions Answered Incorrectly
#50.Q50. The Fidelius Charm:
Your Answer:	erases someone's memory
Correct Answer:	conceals a secret within a single living soul

Report Card sorting-hat.com Fourth Year Exam
Right Answers	41
Total Possible	50
Percent Right	82%
Letter Grade	B

Questions Answered Incorrectly
#4.Q4. How old is Rita Skeeter:
Your Answer:	33
Correct Answer:	43
#12.Q12. How many house-elves work at Hogwarts:
Your Answer:	150
Correct Answer:	100
#21.Q21. Who knocked England out of the Quidditch World Cup preliminaries:
Your Answer:	Ireland
Correct Answer:	Transylvania
#25.Q25. Who is the Irish World Cup team's Seeker:
Your Answer:	Moran
Correct Answer:	Lynch
#35.Q35. The incantation "Densaugeo":
Your Answer:	confuses
Correct Answer:	makes teeth grow
#43.Q43. What form is the Portkey that takes Harry to Stoatshead Hill:
Your Answer:	a rolled newspaper
Correct Answer:	an old rubber tyre
#46.Q46. How long had it been since the previous Triwizard Tournament:
Your Answer:	fifty years
Correct Answer:	over a hundred years
#47.Q47. Fleur Delacour's wand is:
Your Answer:	Ash, 12 1/4 inches
Correct Answer:	Rosewood, 9 1/2 inches
#48.Q48. In the First Task, Viktor Krum must get past which Dragon to get his Golden Egg:
Your Answer:	Welsh Green
Correct Answer:	Chinese Fireball

Report Card sorting-hat.com Fifth Year Exam
Right Answers	47
Total Possible	50
Percent Right	94%
Letter Grade	A

Questions Answered Incorrectly
#29.Q29. Which of the following is an ingredient of the Draught of Peace:
Your Answer:	sap of the Mimbulus Mimbletonia
Correct Answer:	syrup of hellebore
#43.Q43. Educational Decree Number 23 allows the Hogwarts High Inquisitor to:
Your Answer:	review and alter punishments ordered by other staff members
Correct Answer:	inspect, discipline and potentially sack any Hogwarts teacher
#44.Q44. Educational Decree Number 24 allows the Hogwarts High Inquisitor to:
Your Answer:	review and alter punishments ordered by other staff members
Correct Answer:	ban any student organisation, society, team, group or club

That's all they have for now.
Well, sorry for the complete lack of anything worthwhile, but I'm just not in the mood for serious writing at the moment. I you would like to test out your own Harry Potter knowledge, then head over to the Sorting Hat website (see icon on side of page -->).

Maybe I will write more later.
Maybe not.

unmentionables

We aren't even going to talk about the football game last night. I know its only pre-season, but really?!

On a nicer note, last night was a really good night. Dinner at Red Lobster was great! Since we've been really trying to save money, Trav and I haven't been out to eat in a long time. And its been even longer since we've been out to eat alone. So we tried to take advantage of it. We had a good, relaxing time and we ate lots. And I still managed to have plenty left over for lunch today. Mmm.... shrimp pasta. :-)
I also talked to my best friend, Babwa, for a bit, as well as my granparents and parents. And had cards in the mail from my grandparents and my hobag, Lauren! That really made my day. Nothing like some mail to make a girl feel loved.
I also made myself a new CD since I have a CD player in my new car (as of yet, still nameless). All this, and still managed to get to bed at a reasonable time.


Today has been pretty slow so far. Three people are out on vacation for the week, and two more are out just for today (one of which is my boss). Plus one person is coming in late. In an office with an everyday staff of about 10, that makes a huge difference! So it has been extremely quiet.
I've found myself daydreaming a lot. Especially about autumn time, weddings, my achy breasts, and other random things. I cannot wait for the autumn season to get here. It is my favorite of them all, and honestly if we could have a whole year of just autumn, I would be in heaven. Plus, there is so much to look forward to during that time of year, besides the great weather, the beautiful folliage, etc... Trav & my 5 year anniversary for one thing. Also, Halloween, which is one of my favorite holidays. Woo, there I go, off into space again.

And don't even get me started on my boobs! All I can say is that they better be growing for all the aching they are putting me through. I almost killed Trav last night when we went to bed... he rolled over and accidentally elbowed one of them. I believe my exact words were something like this: "(sharp intake of breathe) ssssssssssss uuuhhhhhh", followed by a few choice words.

Well anyway, it's time for me to go... my shrimp pasta is calling me!

feelin HOT HOT HOT

Hello All! Hope your weekend was wonderful. Mine was pretty damn good, except for the fact that it was HOT HOT HOT. This was one weekend when the no air conditioning thing really, really sucked.

Saturday was fun, dress shopping with my mom... we found some nice dresses, but not thee dress, so we will look again another weekend. Then it was dinner with the fam, made of my favorite dishes: tuna turnovers, macaroni and yeasty cheese, corn, and apple crisp for desert. Very good.
Then Sunday Trav and I hit up BJs, and then JCPennys. He took me shopping for my birthday, and was actually an active participant! I was so excited. He didn't just stand there while I tried things on, but brought me other pieces of clothing. I ended up getting two new pairs of pants (both of which he picked out), two cami-tops (which he picked out), a satin-like tank top, a peasant shirt, and a wrap cardigan. He actually had a better success rate in picking out clothes for me, then I did! Yay. Happy Birthday to me. :-)
Last night it was so hot that I just couldn't fall asleep. I lay there from about 9:30 until 11ish, when I finally started to drift off, only to be awoken again at 12 when the most amazing storm hit! It was like someone was flicking on and off the lights, the lightning was almost constant and it was so bright that it was hurting my eyes. And the rain was coming down in sheets so thick that it looked like fog.


Today is good so far... going quickly, which I like... and it actually still had some of that post rain coolness to the air. Tonight should be great. Birthday dinner with Travis at Red Lobster (I have a craving), then home to watch the Eagles vs. Steelers game. Woo-hoo! It has been a long off season.
Well, back to work for now, but here are some pictures of my old car, and my new car.

My old girl, whom is gone by not forgotten:


And my new girl:

So cute, right?! And here is me taking the pictures:

Ciao!

i don't want to work... i just want to bang on my drum all day

Friday friday friday FRIDAY!

Can you tell I'm a little excited that today is friday? This week has been unnaturally long and stressful. I kept having paranoid dreams last night that I couldn't get rid of my old broken down car, but that people kept driving it, and getting tickets that came to me because it was still in my name. I had to literally force myself to relax, so that I could really sleep. I was more then a little tired today, which would have been bad enough, except that I am also sitting upfront at Miyano's desk starting today until a week from Monday, while Miyano is on vacation. Not horrible per se, but a little boring, and I can't do all the work that I need to do, since Miyano doesn't have all the same programs that I have.

Not that I am complaining about having a little extra time to post and play games, but it makes the day go a bit slower.

Also fun are the new money worries that come with having another monthly payment to remember and take care of (this comes in because last night I was finally able to pick up my new car!!! yay!!!). Think I've decided that Travis and I will just have to have our wedding in our backyard and charge $10 for tickets, or $15 at the door. Tickets go on sale starting August 15th.

This weekend is all about relaxing, not worrying about anything. Tonight I am going to take pictures of my new car (name ideas are welcome, it is a girl), and upload all my pictures. Hopefully you will have something to look at come Monday. Otherwise, I think you all know my weekend plans.

Well, should get back to it and try to get something done! Happy Weekend all.

essense of chip

Chip: k, well time for me to walk the dog, if you get my drift

Me: oh jesus

Me: really, was that necessary?!

Chip: yup

Chip: just for that reaction

Me: full body shivers... and NOT the good kind

Chip: giggle

Me: okay, i'm going to go wash my hands now. since it's impossible to wash my mind, that is the closest i'll get

woo-doggie

Thank God tomorrow is friday because I think I just about reached my breaking point today. It was rough... just one too many "surprises" and upsets with all the new car/old car/insurance crap. Our insurance guy was having a little trouble communicating with us about some things, and we in fact have still not received any pricing info from him about how much it will cost to change some insurance stuff around. It's been a number of days, he's had the time. Plus getting rid of the old car is a pain in the ass, but will luckily be done tomorrow. So, finally around 1 o'clock I had just had enough, and started crying while on the phone with Trav telling him about the notary- women- that- was- coming- to- our- house (inhale) this- evening- to- make- the- signing- over- of- the- title- of- the- old- car- to- the- donation- place- official. (Deep Breathe.)

Luckily he realized how upset I was and called me back to try and make me feel better.

Luckily also, I have some great friends at work, and two of them - Joe and Miyano - took me out to lunch for my birthday. That was fun, relaxing, just what I needed.
Plus I love sushi. Mmm.

Follow that with a meeting that was actually informative, and exciting due to updating that will be taking place at work (I'm getting a new computer for starters)... and the afternoon flew by much more pleasantly then the morning.

And now, best of all, it is time to go home.

hump day

Today really has been a real hump of a day (Wednesday really living up to its name)... i'm a bit tired, and grouchy. The desk-stealer was in, and as nice as he is, he always manages to rub me the wrong way just by being here. I try not to mind him, but our first meeting being what it was, and all annoyances since, have just added up to at little too much for me to handle. That plus the fact that I'm still dealing with annoying insurance crap (which hopefully will be completely dealt with by this weekend), makes for one craptastic day. Oh well.
At least it is almost over.

My biggest comfort is knowing that after today, the weekend is so close and will be here before I even know it. Saturday we are heading to my parents for my birthday dinner. Before that, my mom and I will most likely head out to a nearby bridal shop to check out dresses. Then Sunday we are most likely having dinner with Ro & Pat. It's been way way too long since we've seen (gotten to actually hang out with) them, so that will be great.

So I finally finish reading Harry Potter... all the way through the sixth book:

I was completely shocked, and a definitely saddened by then end of the book... but now I am dying for the seventh to come out! I need closure, I need to have all my suspisions confirmed or denied! For any of you who haven't read them, I give them my highest recommendation. I was a little wary at first... thinking they were for little kids, but they are honestly just so well written, that no matter your age, you just get sucked into them.

In fact, here is a picture Travis' neice, Teagan, took of me on our vacation in Cape Cod (she hasn't quite mastered the whole aim thing yet)... where I couldn't put Potter down!!

Such great books. Serious... I want to be a witch now. :-) I'm already rereading them, literally can't get enough.

Also exciting is the fact that I will (hopefully) have my new car by this weekend! I love having Trav drive me to the train station in the mornings, just getting that extra time together is great, as normally he leaves before I am even really up. However, it also means leaving the house about 40 minutes earlier then normal! I can do without that. Not to mention that, while we're lucky that it hasn't been a problem for this particular chain of circumstances (for once our schedules worked in our favor), we're often doing seperate chores or activities on the weekends. I need my own car for that. We do the big things together, but Travis really doesn't want to have to go to hair cuts with me, and I don't think I could be patient enought to get up first thing in the morning on a Saturday to hit up a ton of yard sales. While I do enjoy them, I am more of an afternoon yard saler, and can handle one or two per trip... but Travis is a anytime, anyplace, as many as possible yard saler! Everyone needs a hobby.

Well, I should get some more work done before the day is over. Ciao!

tuesday, damn it, tuesday

No sign of naked guy today. Although I'm a little scared at how eagerly I anticipated such an arrival.
It seemed only a matter of time, as his window mocked me... all open and unshaded. It is simply waiting for him to get home, disrobe, and walk repeatedly back and forth.

P.S. Click my ads on the side -----> and make me some money. :-)

babies and cake; cars and naked

And on the sixth day, God made babies. He gave them adorable giggles and soft cheeks. And it was good.

And on the tenth day (why not?), God made cake. He gave them frosting and made them delicious. And it was good.

Saturday I attended Miyano and Hiro's party for their adorable baby Yuilu, with whom I share a birthday. He will be one. It was a lot of fun, with great food, and a great cake, and awesome fun people. Horseshoes was a big event as many of the people in attendance had never even heard of the game before. I, however, found that I could not play that well, as I did not have a beer in one hand, and my hair was both too short in the back, and too long in the front. (Just kidding... although not about the part about me sucking.) And both Miyano and Hiro were so sweet in that they had the cake read my name as well. I will post pictures later.

Sunday I attended Samuel Reagan Malnight's baptism. It was short, sweet, and too the point; and was followed by food and (you guessed it) cake, at the Malnight household. I got to see all my kiddies, hold that adorable baby, and hang out with Laura... and even managed to make her cry with my card (not exactly the reaction I was shooting for, but go me, i suppose). There were also mimosas... ahh the mimosas. When I get to drink champagne and juice during early hours of the day, in a socially acceptable format, well what could make a girl happier? If you had asked me Sunday, after mimosa number one, I would have told you that all was right with the world.

This past weekend shall hence forth be known as the babies and cake weekend. And it was good.

~~~~~~~

Also on Saturday Travis and I went car shopping for my *sniff, sniff* replacement vehicle. After many hot hours in the sun, and some disappointing findings... I found my new car.

2001 Toyota Echo

(this picture is from online, not of my actual car. But this is the car and the color, so good enough, right?!)

It is a Certified PreOwned Toyota... which means, not new, but practically new. Less then 30,000 miles on it... and runs like new, and all touched up. Plus it is under warrenty until 2007. I like that. It is actually not even ready yet... I got to it before it was out on the real lot. But hopefully it will be ready by this weekend. Yay!!!

~~~~~~

On another random note:

For any of you who watch(ed) Friends, I would like to report that I now have my own "naked guy". There are apartments directly across the street from where I work (on the 6th floor)... and the guy in the apartment with windows almost straight infront of the window that my desk is facing, was walking around in the buck today! I definitely did a double take on that one!

Um, naked guy, do you not see my window? Do you not see me staring at you with my mouth hanging open? Do you not realize that I am human, and therefore, incapable of controlling myself and looking away at such inappropriate moments?! Have some decency! Close your window. Show restraint where I cannot!!

Ro and I posing for the camera on the 4th of July.  

Pat, Phil, and George (on the floor) hanging out 4th of July weekend.  

Ro, Barb, and George with sparklers.  

Ahh, Peter.

I grew up watching this guy... He will always be the face I think of, when I think of the news.

Peter Jennings, Urbane News Anchor, Dies at 67

Peter Jennings, a high school dropout from Canada who transformed himself into one of the most urbane, well-traveled and recognizable journalists on American television, died yesterday at home. He was 67 and lived in Manhattan.

The cause was lung cancer, said Charles Gibson, who announced the death of his colleague on television in a special report just after 11:30 p.m. Mr. Jennings had disclosed that he was suffering from lung cancer on April 5, first in a written statement released by ABC and later that night on "World News Tonight," the evening news broadcast that he had led since September 1983.
In brief remarks at the end of that night's program, Mr. Jennings, his voice scratchy, told viewers that he hoped to return to the anchor desk as his health and strength permitted. But he never did.
It was a jarring departure for someone who for so long had been such a visible fixture in so many American homes each night. Along with the two other pillars of the so-called Big 3 - Tom Brokaw of NBC and Dan Rather of CBS - Mr. Jennings had, in the early 1980's, ushered in the era of the television news anchor as lavishly compensated, globe-trotting superstar. After Mr. Brokaw's departure from his anchor chair in December, followed by the retirement from the evening news of Mr. Rather in March, Mr. Jennings's death brings that era to a close.
For more than two decades, the magnitude of a news event could be measured, at least in part, by whether Mr. Jennings and his counterparts on the other two networks showed up on the scene. Indeed, they logged so many miles over so many years in so many trench coats and flak jackets that they effectively acted as bookends on some of the biggest running stories of modern times.
Mr. Jennings's official ABC biography notes, for example, that as a foreign correspondent, he was "in Berlin in the 1960's when the Berlin Wall was going up," and there again, as an anchor, "in the 1990's when it came down." Similarly, he was on the ground in Gdansk, Poland, for the birth of the Solidarity labor and political movement, and later for the overthrow of the country's Communist government.
In addition to reporting from nearly every major world capital and war zone, Mr. Jennings also managed to report from all 50 states, according to the network. He seemed to draw on that collective experience - as well as his practiced ability to calmly describe events as they unfolded live - not long after two hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Over the course of that day, and those that immediately followed, he would spend more than 60 hours on the air in what Tom Shales of The Washington Post, among other critics, praised as a tour de force of interviewing and explanatory broadcast journalism laced with undisguised bewilderment.
"This is what it looked like moments ago," Mr. Jennings said at one point that first morning, as he introduced a piece of videotape recorded moments earlier in Lower Manhattan. "My God! The southern tower, 10:00 Eastern Time this morning, just collapsing on itself. This is a place where thousands of people worked. We have no idea what caused this."
The coverage of all three broadcast networks that week underscored a maxim of the television news business: that however much the audience of the evening news programs might have eroded in recent years, viewers usually return during moments of crisis.
"He was a man who came into the anchor chair absolutely prepared to do the job, from years and years of reporting in the field, which is precious and not easily duplicated," said Tom Bettag, who competed against Mr. Jennings as executive producer of the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather" and later worked with Mr. Jennings as a colleague as executive producer of "Nightline."
"He established a level of trust with the viewer that would be difficult for anyone else to match going forward."
At the peak of his broadcast's popularity, in the 1992-1993 television season, Mr. Jennings drew an average audience of nearly 14 million people each night, according to Nielsen Media Research. He reached that milestone midway through an eight-year ratings winning streak, during which his audience sometimes exceeded those of both Mr. Brokaw and Mr. Rather by two million or more viewers. (For nearly a decade since, to his periodic frustration, his broadcast had lagged behind that of NBC's, even after Mr. Brokaw yielded to Brian Williams in December.)
Though the audience for the evening news has fallen precipitously in recent years - a casualty of changes in people's schedules and the competition offered by the cable news networks and the Internet - Mr. Jennings's broadcast and those on CBS and NBC still drew a combined audience of more than 25 million viewers this past year.

And however much his audience had aged - the median age of a Jennings viewer this past season was about 60, according to Nielsen - advertisers still spend in excess of $100 million annually on each of the evening news programs. Like Mr. Brokaw, Mr. Rather and now Mr. Williams, Mr. Jennings was well paid for his efforts: he earned an estimated $10 million a year in recent years. His most recent contract with the network was due to expire later this year , but at least until he became ill, the network was preparing to extend Mr. Jennings's time in the anchor chair for "several years to come," according to David Westin, president of ABC News.

Mr. Jennings's broadcast training had begun at an astonishingly young age, a function at least partly of his family background. Peter Charles Jennings was born July 29, 1938, in Toronto. His father, Charles, was a senior executive of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and a pioneer in Canadian radio news.
In "The Century" (Doubleday, 1998), one of two history books that he co-wrote with Todd Brewster, Mr. Jennings recalled an early exercise that his father put him through to sharpen his powers of observation. "Describe the sky," his father had said. After the young boy had done so, his father dispatched him outside again. "Now, go out and slice it into pieces and describe each piece as different from the next."
By age 9, he had his own show on Canadian radio, "Peter's Program." He dropped out of high school at 17, and by his early 20's, was the host of a dance show similar to "American Bandstand" called "Club Thirteen."
His rise to the pinnacle of Canadian television news, and later its far larger counterpart to the south, was swift. In 1962, at age 24, he was named co-anchor of the national newscast on CTV, a competitor of his father's network, a job that he held until 1964.
That year, he moved to the United States to begin work as a correspondent for ABC. Barely a year later, the network named him an anchor of "Peter Jennings With the News," then a 15-minute newscast, which put him, at age 26, head-to-head with Walter Cronkite on CBS and the formidable tandem of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley on NBC. Though he would serve ABC in that capacity for nearly three years, Mr. Jennings said in an interview last year that he was ill-suited for the job and unhappy in it.
"I had the good sense to quit," he said.
What followed was more than a decade of postings abroad as a foreign correspondent for ABC, during which, Mr. Jennings said last year, he got an on-the-job introduction to the world with a tuition bill effectively footed by his employer.
"I have no formal education to speak of," Mr. Jennings said. "ABC has been my education and provided my education. ABC has enabled me to work everywhere in the world and has ended up paying me beyond handsomely."
From 1968 to 1978, Mr. Jennings traveled extensively, including to Vietnam, Munich (where he covered the hostage-taking and killings at the 1972 Summer Olympics) and Beirut (where he established the network's first news bureau in the Arab world).
In 1978, he began his second tour as an anchor for the network, serving as one of three hosts of "World News Tonight," along with Frank Reynolds and Max Robinson, in a format devised by Roone Arledge, the sports programmer who had added the news division to his portfolio. Mr. Jennings was the program's foreign anchor and reported from London until 1983.
Three weeks after Mr. Reynolds died following a battle with bone cancer, Mr. Jennings was named the sole anchor (and senior editor) of the broadcast, titles that Mr. Jennings continued to hold at his death.
As an anchor, Mr. Jennings presented himself as a worldly alternative to Mr. Brokaw's plain-spoken Midwestern manner and Mr. Rather's folksy, if at times offbeat, Southern charm. He neither spoke like many of his viewers ("about" came out of his mouth as A-BOOT, a remnant of his Canadian roots) nor looked like them, with a matinee-idol face and crisply tailored wardrobe that were frequently likened in print to those of James Bond.
Though his bearing could be stiff on the air (and his syntax sometimes criticized as being so simplistic as to border on patronizing), Mr. Jennings was immensely popular with his audience.

During a trip last fall through Kansas, Pennsylvania and Ohio in the weeks before the presidential election, he traveled at times aboard a coach customized by the news division to trumpet its campaign coverage and frequently received a rock star's welcome when he decamped.

For example, in the parking lot of a deli just outside of Pittsburgh, where he had come to interview a long-shot candidate for Congress whose threadbare headquarters was upstairs, Mr. Jennings found himself on the receiving end of several hugs from loyal viewers.
"He's so handsome," one of those viewers, Vilma Berryman, 66, the deli owner, observed immediately after meeting him. "He's taller than I thought. He speaks so softly."
"I feel like I know him," she added. "He's just so easy."
Like all of the Big 3, Mr. Jennings was not without his detractors. Some critics contended he was too soft on the air when describing the Palestinian cause or the regime of the Cuban leader Fidel Castro - charges he disputed. Similarly, a July 2004 article in the National Review portrayed him as a thinly veiled opponent of the American war in Iraq.
The article quoted Mr. Jennings as saying: "That is simply not the way I think of this role. This role is designed to question the behavior of government officials on behalf of the public."
Mr. Jennings was conscious of having been imbued, during his Canadian boyhood, with a skepticism about American behavior; at least partly as a result, he often delighted in presenting the opinions of those in the minority, whatever the situation.
And yet he simultaneously carried on an elaborate love affair with America, one that reached its apex in the summer of 2003, when he announced that he had become an American citizen, scoring, he said proudly, 100 percent on his citizenship test.
In a toast around that time that he gave at the new National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, he described his adopted home as "this brash and noble container of dreams, this muse to artists and inventors and entrepreneurs, this beacon of optimism, this dynamo of energy, this trumpet blare of liberty."
Mr. Jennings's personal life was at times grist for the gossip pages, including his three divorces. His third wife, the author Kati Marton, whom he married in 1979 and divorced in 1993, is the mother of his two children, who survive him. They are a daughter, Elizabeth, and son, Christopher, both of New York City. He is also survived by his fourth wife, Kayce Freed, a former ABC television producer whom he married in December 1997, and a sister, Sarah Jennings of Ottawa, Canada. Having prided himself on rarely taking a sick day in nearly 40 years - and being dismissive, at times, of those well-paid colleagues who did - Mr. Jennings had missed the broadcast and the newsroom terribly in recent months.
In a letter posted on April 29 on the ABC news Web site, excerpts of which were read on that night's evening news, Mr. Jennings described how treatments for his cancer had proven more debilitating than he had expected.
"Yesterday I decided to go to the office," he wrote. "I live only a few blocks away. I got as far as the door. Chemo strikes."
"Do I detect a knowing but sympathetic smile on many of your faces?" he added.
About a month later, Mr. Jennings did make a rare visit to the ABC News headquarters on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. With a gray sweater draped over his shoulders, and his feet clad in thick wool socks and moccasins, Mr. Jennings held court for about a half hour late one morning from his desk, in what is known as "the rim," a newsroom one floor below the "World News Tonight" anchor desk.
His voice soft and his body as much as 20 pounds lighter than usual, Mr. Jennings told several dozen staff members who had gathered around his desk about the doctors and other patients he had been meeting and of a first-time radiation treatment that he had just received, according to one veteran correspondent who did not wish to be identified so as not to offend Mr. Jennings's family.
Mr. Jennings brought himself and many of his colleagues to tears when he turned to Charles Gibson, one of his two principal substitutes on the program, and thanked him for closing each night's broadcast with the phrase, "for Peter Jennings and all of us at ABC News." Mr. Jennings then put his hand over his heart and said, "That means so much to me," according to his colleague.
But whatever maudlin feelings were in the air quickly evaporated, Mr. Jennings's longtime colleague recounted, when the anchor brandished a familiar black calligraphy pen and began marking up the rundown for that night's broadcast. "No, that's not a good one," he could be overheard telling Jonathan Banner, the program's executive producer, about one segment. Of another, he added, "You want to move this higher up."
For his closest colleagues, the reassuring sight of the anchor-as-editor provided a fleeting moment of normalcy in what had been a disorienting and heartbreaking few months.

Ode to my Car

You were my first. You took me ever so gently, accepting my faults - my tendencies to speed, my abuse of your sound system, my inability to turn into a skid.
You loved me anyway.

We got to know each other, as can only be done with constant companionship. We were together everyday, and you always did your best for me. You never let me down...
Even now.

I will always remember you and love you, for what you were, for what you are. We fit together perfectly, your seats the perfect cushionedness, your re-glued rearview always showing me the way. I knew exactly how to parallel park you...
Your dimensions were my dimensions.

But, you are old now and I know that it is time to let you go. You stopped yesterday, a block before home, and you took a little piece of me with you. I know that you are most likely beyond repair... that whatever parts need to be replaced are probably worth more then you (blue book only, of course).
To me, you will always be priceless.

This weekend, I will look for someone new. But no one will replace you. You will always be my first. If I still lived in the country you would end up in my lawn, so I could look at you mournfully. But we are in the suburbs now, and they frown on that.
So, soon, we will have to part for good.

Goodbye my sweet, sweet girl. You were my first, and I will always miss you.

94 bloody degrees (look ma, i'm speaking Britsh)

We are doggy sitting currently... a cutie named Bandit, that belongs to Megan. Her and Mike are at the beach with his family for the week until Saturday. Bandit came over last night, and although obviously a little confused as to why he was at our place, he seems to be doing fine. I guess we will see how our house is doing when we get back from work today... but I'm sure it will be fine as Bandit is neither the type to destroy our things, nor would we most likely be able to tell even if he did.
I need help from a professional organizer.

Honestly I am more worried about coming home to deep fried doggy, do the this unnatural heat... and the fact that the poor boy isn't shedding right this year and still has much of his winter coat. Maybe because for the past 4 or so months he has lived in air conditioning (with Mike). Perhaps I will come home and simply find a dog shaped pile of hair on the floor next to a relieved, and thinner, looking Bandit.
We did leave him a big bowl of ice cubes though, so I'm sure he is happily munching those (he thinks they are like treats).


On another note... oh wait, don't really have another note. Lol. Just tired and a bit bored again. Looking forward to the fun events of this weekend (Miyano's party on Saturday and Samuel's Baptism on Sunday). So, since I myself am pretty boring today... for your amusement:

Today in History!

1892 - Lizzie Borden's father and stepmother were killed with an axe in Fall River, MA.

1944 - Anne Frank and her family were found hiding in Amsterdam by Nazis. Frank will die in the Belsen concentration camp the next year.

Yesterday:

1492 - Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain.

Tomorrow is even better:

1884 - The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe's Island.

1914 - The first electric traffic lights were installed in Cleveland, Ohio.

1962 - Marilyn Monroe died.

And on the 15th of August:

1057 - In events later used by William Shakespeare in one of his greatest tragedies, the Scottish king Macbeth is killed by Malcolm Canmore, the son of King Duncan I, whom Macbeth had murdered 17 years before.

1939 - The film version of The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, has its premiere in Hollywood, California.

1969 - On the opening day of the Woodstock Arts and Music Fair in upstate New York, promoters overwhelmed by the hundreds of thousands in attendance decide to waive admission fees.

Born on this day:

Napoleon I, French emperor (1769)

Sir Walter Scott, novelist and poet (1771)

Leos have regal and warm-hearted natures. Leos are said to be protective of people close to them, especially those who are weak. They also have a strong need to be the center of attention, and may be surprisingly sensitive.

Okay, that's enough of that. Time for lunch anyway. Ciao!

sleepy. grumpy. dopey. and meegs.

Tired today, disliking my job again and longing for something new. But no ideas what (can't even think of what I would be good at, which would be a good place to start looking). I think it is post-vacation let down.

I posted some pictures though, for your enjoyment as well as mine. I think the top one is the cutest, but boy was it a bitch to get all the spawns to sit still for 60 seconds so I could take the damn thing!

C'est la vie. Maybe more later if I get a second wind.
Although I'm not too hopeful, as it seemed I never received my "first wind".

Travis and the rugrats infront of the Hannan's house on the Cape... Sheldon, 11 (12 soon); Nicky, 9 (i think); and Teagan, 3, on top of the pile. If you could see thru the house, you would see the lake directly behind it.  

Travis holding the "baby"... Teagan, the youngest at 3... inside the hallway of their place.  

Travis with the Bass he caught.  

Trav's dad, two nephews, and neice fishing on the families dock with trav (sitting by boat).  

rabbit rabbit rabbit

I cannot believe that it is August already. This is ridiculous! The year is flying, and I have so much yet to accomplish. Of course the fact that last week was vacation made it go twice as fast as any other week. But we got lots done and it was a great time. Definitely a fabulous vacation (and not the flamboyant fabulous, but the fabulous that Angelina Jolie is and Britney Spears is not).

Tuesday we left after work and the trip went pretty smoothly, we got there around 12:30ish, so about a 7 hour drive. We entertained ourselves by finding fun license plates, singing loudly and obnoxiously to the radio, and had entertaining conversations... none of which I can remember now... but most of which involved Travis questioning my sanity.

Wednesday the first thing on our minds was getting to Baxter's for lunch and getting some of that clam chowder that i have been daydreaming about for the past few months. Love that stuff. Then we were off to spend almost $50 in the "penny-candy store", stop at the one t-shirt store, and then back to the house. We all (Travis and his parents, myself, and the 3 un-holy terrors- Sheldon 11, Nicky 9?, and Teagan 3) headed down to the little beach part of the lake. Teagan was adorable with her little life jacket on, and I swam her out to the raft, which she was happy to jump off of (if one of us would catch her). At the end of the night we took a trip over to the "Four Seas" to grab pints of ice cream.
Thursday Trav and I went and toured the Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory, and then in the evening the lot of us went to the Barnstable Fair. It was a good time, but a little scary, as I found myself sounding a lot like my parents (Trav and I took the boys, Trav's parents took Teagan to the little kid section). "Nicky, stop shuffling your feet, you're kicking up dust." "Sheldon, watch where you're going." "Will you two slow down." "No, you can't ride that, it's too expensive." Help me now!! Of course, Travis has his own was with the boys... because they are boys... "If you don't knock it off, I'm going to drop you in the middle of the lake/feed you to the fish/let your brother beat you up/hang you upside down until you puke/etc ..." It was entertaining, but I think by the end of the night Travis had decided that we were never having children. All the ground I gained with the adorable Brenna and Sarah was lost. It was a little scary too, because I realized that when we have children, they will be Hannan children! Not normal children. Not adorable little angels. No, I will be having little Hannan's, aka Spawns of Satan. It was a little scary to say the least. We actually looked at each other at one point and both said "adoption?".
The rest of the night was entertaining though, as we went home and put the kids to sleep, then proceeded to have "a few" cocktails each. The conversation was entertaining to begin with, then eventually turned to sex, and it was all down hill from there.

Friday was nice in that the spawns left, and Trav and I were finally alone. We had a great time with all the fam there, but it was nice just to have the two of us. We headed to the beach and relaxed there for a while. I got a nice tan, a little burnt on my back, and Travis proceeded to show off his Irishness, by slowly roasting himself to the perfect "done" color for a lobster. It was rather impressive because (due to the length of guy's swim trucks) it only make his already ghostly thighs look whiter. Perhaps inspired by Trav's new skintone, we went to the local fish market and picked up a 3.5lb lobster, which we devoured messily for dinner. Then it was off to Hyannis, to walk around main st. and shop a bit. We got tons of stuff, most of it for our friend's, because it is so easy to say, "oh wouldn't that be perfect for so-and-so."

Saturday we got up, got ready, and headed to the end of the Cape to hit up Provincetown. Love that place! It is fabalous in that flamboyant way! We walked thru tons of shops, and I picked up shirts for my parents. My dad's read: "Meet the Fuckers" followed by Bush, Rove, and Condi's faces. My mom's read: "I voted November 2, 2005, and all I got was this lousey president." Very amusing. After that we headed to Hyannis to pick up more clam chowder from Baxter's, and grab myself a hoody I had eyed up earlier. Then home for the night. We fished, or travis fished, and I proceeded to hook the same 3 tiny-ass-fish (perch and sunnies) approximately 27 times. I went through a lot of worms, and now have some killer bugbites, but we got some great pictures of the sunset, Trav's bass, and of the eels we both caught. Yuck.

Sunday, unfortunately, was time to leave. Luckily his aunt was coming later in the day so we didn't have to do a lot of the "closing up" stuff... so we were able to get on the road by 9:45 or so. Then it was off towards home, with a stop at my parents for dinner. It took us about 6.5 hours to get there and another hour + from their place to ours. Not too bad.

Also during this week I found myself becoming obsessed with Harry Potter, finally starting to read the books, and getting through the first on Wednesday, the second on thursday, and the thirday on friday. If I had thought I would have read them that fast, I would have brought the fourth, because I actually had to force myself to put down the third at points, just to make sure I didn't finish too soon (and run out of reading)! Reading the fourth now, and so far, so good. I've seen the movies at least 4-5x each, and enjoyed them so much, but reading the books make them even better.
In honor of my new Harry Potter obsession:

12", Holly, Dragon You scored 52 wisdom, 27 bravery, 21 emotional, and 11 martyrdom!

Holly is a powerful protective wood that good for use against evil, but it also represents dreams and fertility. Your dragon's heartstring core makes your wand very effective in hexes.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 76% on wisdom You scored higher than 15% on bravery You scored higher than 46% on emotional You scored higher than 7% on martyrdom

Link: The Harry Potter Wand Test written by sputnik845

Would it be completely ridiculous for a women in her 20s to buy a wand? ;-)

Getting home was nice (or would have been had we not had to think about the whole returning to work thing), made especially so by our great neighbors. Our neighbor on the right was great enough to not only collect our mail for us while we were gone, but also move my car from one side of the street to the other to avoid the two days of street cleaning. Not to mention that our mail was sitting next to a bag with a card, candle, and some fresh from her garden tomatos as a housewarming present. So sweet!

So now, unfortunately it is back to work.

It is quiet today, as I am sitting at the front desk in Miyano's absence. I always kind of moan a bit about sitting upfront when Miyano is out (because it always falls to me to do so), but it actually isn't that bad... and almosts like a day of relaxing, as she doesn't have all the programs on her computer that I do on mine... so there are some things that I just can't work on. Fine by me, makes for an easier first day back. Okay, I should get back to work.