Tuesday, February 27, 2007

YouTube - Fat Boys "Wipeout" feat./ The Beach Boys

OH YEAH. Someone at work asked for songs for a wedding shower game. For some reason, I pulled "Wipeout" outta the far reaches of my brain.

Thank you, You Tube!!

YouTube - Fat Boys "Wipeout" feat./ The Beach Boys: "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt0LBlH3dAc"

Monday, February 26, 2007

Why we can never move back to Michigan


This photo shows how much snow it takes for my office give us a 2 hour delay. Less than an inch of snow with a little ice on top.



This photo shows the 3 inches of snow we had this morning. My work, the academy (where Josh works) and all area schools are closed.

Notice that in both pictures the roads are plowed - and yet due to the "unsafe conditions" area businesses and schools are closed - Absurd!! I guess I get to be one of those people who say, "You kids don't know how good you have it, back in my day it could snow a foot and we still had to go to school!"

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Update for the band-os

Hey, got an update for this post.

It WAS NOT her. She was spotted elsewhere, more in context...still with tornado curls.

Well, it was fun speculating and reminiscing anyway.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Political Cartoon

Days later, this cartoon still cracks me up. It isn't the "news. " It's the "olds."

Who are you callin' weird?

With apologies to Tess, I went back to the original idea. My eccentricities:

1. I am genuinely afraid of taxidermy. Not all of the time, but most of the time. I know this comes from my childhood, which included being family friends with the town's archery center owner. Just one visit to his house or workplace would leave me with visions of the animals coming to life.

2. I like to eat M&M's (and similar items) in same color pairs. This also started in my childhood and shows a little OCD. I prefer to chew them at the same time, one on each side of my mouth. If I have only one left of a color, I used to bite it in half and chew one on each side. I have gotten over this with age.

3. I don't like to drink water that has been standing around for more than a couple hours. It doesn't have much to do with temperature, but has to do with mosquitoes. That's right, mosquitoes. Again, in childhood, I learned that standing water was where mosquitoes were bred. Who wants to drink that?

4. Sticking to the water theme...I don't like to get my hands wet. This DOES NOT mean that I don't wash my hands. I am an avid hand washer. But, I don't like to wash my hands and not be able to dry them or soak my hands in water while doing the dishes by hand, for instance.

5. I like to eat certain foods at certain temperatures. I don't like iced tea, but I love hot tea. I love pizza, but it can't be cold. Chicken is a hot food to me, not cold in a salad. Warm on top of a salad is a-okay.

6. I can't help but read things cover to cover. Newspapers - I read almost every word. I am able to block out advertisements, but I read every section. Magazines - I read every article. I am always puzzled by why I fill my brain with how to apply make-up (from my Oprah magazine) or what plays are playing in NYC (from the New Yorker. ) Meanwhile, if you need beauty tips or NYC entertainment info., let me know.

My weird things

1. I can fall asleep anywhere at anytime. Riding in a car or airplane, sitting straight up, lying down, after getting 11 hours of sleep or anytime the TV is on and it is dark in the room. My most impressive ability to sleep is the fact that I can sleep through Josh's practicing. It is loud, high (lots of altissimo), strange with multiphonics or slap tonguing and yet I can fall asleep to it in minutes. Even the tuning CD (A CD that just plays a long drone of certain tones) can put me out. There are times when I have woken up from a nap and asked him what he was doing while I slept. Turns out he was practicing and I had no clue. I would love to pass this trait onto young Joshela - it would make the first few years much easier.

2. I can go somewhere many, many times and still have to ask for directions each time. I had to go to Norwich this morning and despite the fact that our good friends use to live there, I have gone to doctors appointments at the hospital there, my boss who has invited over to dinner lives there and we were just there last weekend, I still couldn't remember which exit to take.

3. You would think that since I cannot drink right now, that I would want Josh to be supportive and drink less. Nope! At my suggestion, we have gone to the bar for the past three weekends. I drink water, he has 3 or 4 beers and I drive him home. Even if we don't go out, I will remind him that he has beer in the house and should have one while we watch TV. The weird thing is I have to smell the beer before he drinks it - man, beer smells good!

4. I hate feet. They are gross and disgusting. So are men's white tube socks for that matter. Despite this, I worked one summer in the shoe department of a store at the mall. It makes no sense! Luckily I was pretty bad at it and the store wasn't very popular so I only sold a dozen or so shoes over the entire summer.

5. I hate clutter that you can see, but if it is hidden in a drawer, closet or cabinet than I don’t mind it. I really feel like I can’t think straight if I am in a cluttered room. For example, there are very few knickknacks in our house and just about every day I make sure no papers, glasses, pens or such are sitting around. My solution is to just put the items in the nearest drawer or closest which then is cluttered and disorganized - but I really don't care. Basically out of sight out of mind. IF it looks clean on the outside then that is all that matters.

6. I will become hungry at a moments notice. I will one minute say "no, I'm not hungry" and then two minutes later have to eat now. Apparently just the mere mention of food or eating is enough to start my stomach growling. Hmmmm, I think I am done with this and am going to go make some lunch,

6 weird things

On my way to work yestrerday, I thought of a dozen or so weird things about me. However, I shall now attempt the daunting task of limiting myself to just 6:

1.) Speaking of 6s, I have a sixth sense when I drive. For example, I can sense when someone wants to change lanes a.k.a. "cut me off" before they even move the steering wheel. The sensation comes before I even look at which car wants to move. Then I zero in on the car that is sending me this feeling. After either gunning it or taking my foot off the pedal (depending on the situation), the car will change lanes every time. Fortunately, this ability has kept me from a few bad accidents over the years.

2.) I'm a counter. Yup, I count steps, stairs, and many other weird things. It began when I was a kid. I would try and make every staircase I climbed into an even number. Odd numbered things were "bad luck." This means that when counting, a person may need to disregard or include any landings that may appear so as to come out with said even number. It's quite exhausting, as you can see. As I grew up, this eccentricity expanded to include a weird thing I do with my jaw while driving (Are you sensing a theme here?! As a travelling musician, I find myself in the car a lot). I will click my jaw alternating on both sides as I go under over passes (or would they then be called under passes- I never know...). This has to happen a certain number of times before getting completely under the...over pass. I also make wishes while driving over train tracks, but perhaps that's any entirely different weird thing?!

3.) I LOVE bad media. To define "bad" media, I'll give you a list of my favorites: TV: E!, Entertainment Tonight, any show that discusses the stars. Magazines: People, Star, Entertainment, again, anything that discusses the lives of the stars. It never fails. When I'm in a doctor's office and have to choose between something like Newsweek and a trashy star magazine, I'll go for the latter every time. Believe me, as someone who reads the New Yorker religiously, this is very difficult for me to admit. Why do I even care about the Stars?! I've tried answering that question for years and have come up with a couple theories. It could be that no matter how bad my own life is, at least I don't have to live with Tom Cruise. Or perhaps it's because I'm fascinated with the lack of privacy these poor people have and am curious to see how they deal with it...by prying feverishly into their lives through these exploititive photos and articles, apparently. Anyway, this is one of the few reasons why Scott and I don't have cable- I have NO control.

4.) This entry is quite gross, so please do not read if you are eating anything or have a generally weak stomach. I can't move my bowels until I check my e=mail every morning. And if I don't check my e=mail, I 'm screwed. Although Scott is full of shit, as you all discovered in his six weird things he can relieve himself of copious amounts throughout the day. I'm a one time a day-er, IF my e=mailing is successful. Sometimes my new message list is fairly slim, which inevitably results in a less than stellar ability to drop the kids off at the pool. Trust me, I have tried fiber, but I'm telling you, it's e=mail. Now, if I'm really in a bind (pun intended), all I have to do is find the time to go to a bookstore. Upon setting foot in a bookstore, I can feel ready to approach the bathroom within minutes! Weird.

5.) I am both fascinated and freaked by psychics. It's a complicated relationship that I have with psychic premonitions. On the one hand, I find myself to be a somewhat rational being. I believe in the "cause-effect" scientific explanations for just about everything in nature. However, whenever I see a publication of the futuristic visions of someone like Nostradomis, I become a believer in just about anything. In recent years, I have had a fascination with the psychic Sylvia Brown. She predicted the London rail bombings on the show Montel before they happened!!! (NOTE: I am NOT a regular watcher of Montel; I watch only when Sylvia is on...regularly.) However, just recently she was exposed on Larry King as having said that someone's son was dead when he was actually alive and he was found shortly after her prediction. Hmm.

Despite my love of hearing about what is "seen" to be the future by various psychics, I am also deathly afraid of any premonition. I first heard about Nostradomis when my family was vacationing on the British Isles. We were someplace in Ireland when this girl from Mexico (it was a guided tour, and we had to spend 2 weeks with complete strangers, getting to know their eccentricities- but that's for another blog) brought out a book she was reading about Nostradomis. She was reading it voraciously because of the recent real news events- Saddam Hussein had just ordered the Iraqi military to invade Kuwait. If you twisted Nostradomis' words just right, you could read about this event actually happening. I couldn't sleep for several nights on that trip due to this girl's book. I would break out into a cold sweat every time I thought about it. So, despite my fascination with psychics, I only own one book by Sylvia Brown. You can bet your bippy that if anyone ever bought me more books of this nature, I wouldn't be able to keep my hands and eyes off them, nor would I be able to sleep! (This is NOT a request for more books- I need baby stuff more than I need books by psychotic psychics!) Again, my logical side prohibits me from indulging. So, no cable AND no psychic books.

6.) I HATE games. If we go to a party and someone says "let's play a game!", my heart absolutely sinks. Perhaps this stems from some kind of childhood experience with games, but really I don't care to figure it out. I just don't like games. Frankly, I find them to be a waste of time. I understand that some games like chess or checkers can actually stimulate the brain and help make you smarter. If that's the case, then please tell me what the point of Trivial Pursuit is?! Why is trivial knowledge celebrated in this country? As a child, I always thought that you had to be really smart in order to play Trivial Pursuit (so my sister said, when she didn't want me bothering her and her friends). As an adult, I find it hard to believe that knowing who won Wimbledon in 1982 is important to my every day survival.

And then there are card games. This is when everyone sits around the table, pretends that they have some kind of "strategy" for whatever game they are playing, and proceed to belittle all of their opponents. Card banter is the worst kind ever. I once stopped speaking to a whole group of people with whom I worked during a summer job because of the way their banter continually degraded women. For example, what's the worst card in the game Hearts? Some people call it the Queen of Spades. Most people, however, call her the Bitch. There were many other examples of this kind of degrading banter, but I have since blocked it out. Yes, I will play a game or two and take part in this meaningless banter, but trust me, every time I do it, I'm doing it just to avoid the worse alternative, which is everyone NOT playing a game just because I don't want to and then proceeding to make me feel guilty for apparently being a social moron. The thought "this too shall pass" gets me through every time.

So, I can't really think of anyone to tag, so I'm going to suggest a new topic: What are 6 of the worst things you have ever done in your life? I tag Stephanie and Stephene.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

What a weirdo

Six Weird Things

Unlike Animal, who tagged me, I was able to come up with six things right away. I wouldn't even say these are the TOP six weird things. Just the ones that popped into my head!

1) I am very afraid that I might actually stand up and scream during a choir concert. As near as I can figure this is a very specific social phobia...the fear of letting everyone know how I feel about choral music, I guess.

2) I find bread in the sink grotesque. It's in there getting all squishy and gross and I just can't take it! I think this weird thing started when I imagined one time what the texture of eating wet bread would be. ICKY. Makes me squirm just thinking about it.

3) I spend lots of time thinking up bathroom pranks at work. One, yet to be used prank involves taking this creature to work and putting it in the corner of the ladies' bathroom:



...and then I wait to hear the "buzz" around the office. Yeah.

4) I sometimes express my emotions by putting on some llama ears. (Gad, how can I even type that without sounding insane?) What I mean is, I put my HANDS up, as if they were llama ears (which are very expressive). If my "ears" are upright and facing forward, I'm very interested. If they are moving independently, I'm just casually chewing on something. If they're laying backwards, watch out.

5) Like Jenn, my eyes change color from hazel-ly multi-colored, to green, to dark blue, to this orangey-rusty color. As near as I can figure, it has more to do with the color I'm wearing rather than my mood. But I get stopped often to ask about my eyes. Makes me feel, I don't know...special. (I know that's a quote....where is it from???)

6) No matter what time I get up, I always get to work at 9:00. I either rush enough if I get up late or putz around enough if I get up early to manage this. I get teased a lot for this once I get in. But, I figure, my brain is useless until 9:00 anyway, so I would just be wasting the taxpayers' money if I managed to get there earlier.

Hmm...time for me to tag someone(s)...I'm going for the mothers-to-be trifecta: Tess, Strangela, and Susan! There must be some weird stories y'all can share.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

It's a girl - but do the old wives tales fit?

Congrats Tess and Scott! Now that you know its a girl, do any of the old wives tales fit? I heave heard the following mean you will have a girl: You have craved orange juice, the baby has not moved around much (stereotype that girls are passive), the baby is carrying high (another stereotype that girls are needy and boys are independant), you craved sweets and not salts, the heart rate was always on the slow side of the normal range.

We had our ultrasound a couple of weeks ago and everything looked fine. We told the doctor we didn't want to know if it was a boy or a girl. She made it clear it would not be written down in the file, and most likely this would be our last ultrasound, so it is definitely staying a mystery until July. Unless you confirm the wives tale that craving orange juice is true.......

Nobody cares?

I found this story about a mummified body found in front of blaring TV to be frightening. Is this another example of apathy (supporting Tess' theory) or what?

Clues:
Not seeing a person leaving or going to house for over a year
Mailbox stuffed full of mail
Phone books and other delivered papers piling up
No family or friends noticed he wasn't around
Bills not being paid (auto-pay for everything still isn't possible I'm pretty certain)

I realize when you get to a certain age that many family and friends would have passed on before you. But I would like to think that at least one person would notice I wasn't around...even if it was the meter reader or my doctor's office.

This is an example of so many people not even noticing, I can't even wrap my head around it.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Be flat

If you didn't hear this on Morning Edition this morning, please link over and have a listen...

Have You Heard About B Flat?


Interesting story, and hilarious delivery!

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Fun with kat's classes

This may start to feel like you're in class with me, but I thought this might be fun.

Take this abbreviated MBTI (it's a personality test) and find out how cool you are.

I'm an ENFJ, which was quite the ego-boost. Words like "extraordinary charisma" were in the description. (Sidenote: it's a good thing I'm by myself this weekend...I might otherwise try to prove my extraordinary charisma to the point of being extraordinarily obnoxious!)

Of course, the last time I took this test, I had different results. I think I was an INFJ. So, like any other test, consider this a testament to your personality at the very instant you take the test. Does that imply we have fluid personalities?

Friday, February 09, 2007

This one's for the band-o's

Ok, I just had lunch at Jimmy John's in the Hagadorn Plaza. While I was there, I believe I saw Mrs. Houston....WITHOUT TORNADO CURLS! I'm about 90% sure it was her. Honestly, it was kind of hard to tell WITHOUT said hairstyle.

Can anyone confirm?

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Logical, yes, but....

This is a great idea, and one I've surely thought of when a same-sex ballot issue is making me seethe. However, I know it won't realistically pass. I guess this is one of those "national debate" type initiatives...

More Washington News | NWCN.com | News for Seattle, Washington

Sunday, February 04, 2007

X-Rated Harry Potter?!?

Okay...we just finished watching Signs, and I was wondering about why we (meaning, "humans in general") use our hands to cover our mouths when we're surprised and/or shocked. I googled "surprise cover mouth with hand" and came up with a lot of things, but this one took the cake:

Coloured Grey

Harry Potter fans, beware: this is some sort of fan site dedicated, apparently, to putting various members (heh-heh) of the series into pornographic situations.

You were warned.

"Click away."

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Oh...my god.

No comment necessary...at least, not by ME.

Hand sanitizer found to pose abuse risk