first anniversary

Go wish her and him a happy first anniversary!




Here's to many more...

Love to you both!

quirk'd

The first player of this game starts with writing 6 weird things/habits about themselves and then selects 6 others to write an entry about their 6 weird things/habits as well as state this rule clearly. After making your list of weird things, pick 6 others. They are allowed to laugh at you in your comments as much as they want, so deal! Don't forget to leave a comment that says, "You are tagged!" on their blog.

---

Usually I am loathe to participate in surveys and memes (and lawd, there certainly are quite a few that make the rounds!), but since my quirks are too fun not to share...

In fact, I was recently chosen for, and participated in, a focus group because of my "quirky movie choices" (no joke).

(p.s.-- I'm not tagging anyone. Not because it's cruel and unusual to do so [you decide] but because most folks have already done it)

1.

I read magazines backwards. I think I started this when I realized the last page usually had some good tidbits (think "Jane"). I also flip through the entire thing first before committing to reading an article.

2.

When I sleep, I only can have approximately the top fourth of my head on the pillow. This is true no matter how I sleep -- side, stomach or back. If my face touches the pillow I feel like I'm suffocating.

3.

I hate when people leave me voice messages. HATE. Well, that's not exactly true. I hate when my friends leave me voice messages because invariably they say the same thing: "Hi, it's me, just giving you a call to see how you're doing/what's new/what's going on. Give me a call later!" Um, I have caller id on my phone, I can see who's calling. And if it's not that urgent, why leave a message? Some of us don't have unlimited minutes to be checking for frivolous messages!

4.

I have to finish all of one product/food item before buying a duplicate. It bothers me more to have several unopened items of the same product than it does to have extra on hand, but only slightly. When she and I lived together, this quirk was put to the test as we always had multiple packages of the same item open in the kitchen. She'd say she forgot that we already had, say, salt, and buy another container and open it when there already was one (or more!) open in the cupboard. Thankfully in our several years of living together we never shared a bathroom -- when she moved out she had all kinds of partially used products! (Hey, J, sorry in advance for "outing" you 'bout this! Love ya!)

This quirk also extends to work (unintentional rhyme)--when my staff says they need to order another item, I double check to make sure there isn't one a) already open and still has a lot of use left, or b) one in our storage area. (Despite what you think this may say about me, I am not a micro manager.)

5.

I have to finish something if I start it, even if it pains me. This particularly applies to books and movies, where if I start 'em, I finish 'em, even if it means scrolling through on 2x on the dvd.

6.

I've mentioned this before...I have a terrible fear of lighting matches. So much so that I've never actually lit one.

bag lady

I've been on the look-out for a new bag for quite some time.

I think I finally found it in this:



'Cept the accents on mine are silver, not brass. I don't know why I always seem to buy Coach bags that aren't leather, even though they're known for their leather goods!

Wheee! I'm stoked about my new purchase!

seemingly nonchalant

When I moved to Hawaii I brought a piece of California with me in the form of teenage hi-jinks.

My friends had never heard of the (politically incorrect term, yes) Chinese Fire Drill. A long standing tradition in my circle of friends in California, I introduced it one evening when our usual activities were deemed "boring," and a hit was born.

At the time, pre-9/11 of course, we thought nothing of doing it at the airport--in the middle lane of traffic and probably at peak times. But what did we know as 17 year-olds stuck on an island in the middle of the Pacific?

Now, when someone suggests we "do Chinese" (as in for dinner) I smile and remember that was the same way we'd refer to our teenage tomfoolery.

Road to Hana
Maui, Hawaii


This evening's balmy (er, humid) weather has me thinking about my favorite Hawaiian island and my time there. I could swear I caught a whiff of plumeria this evening. Upon arriving home after (yet another) late evening at work, the house had that same warm air feeling as the condo did after being closed all day and returning after a long day at the beach or off with friends.

Comforting, to be sure.

And it reminds me that it's been far too long since my last visit.

i'm not even in a bad mood!

Stuff I Don't Get Why People Like:
(aka Stuff I Dislike)

U2


Hot soup in the middle of summer (my gumbo Saturday night notwithstanding)


Hearing the same song over and over and over (and over) again


Lukewarm anything


Larry the Cable Guy


Eggs


Coldplay


Horror movies


Christina Aguilera

You know he's m'boy, but shoot.

Even I had a chuckle or two at the irony of his singing of Bobby Brown's "My Perogative."

Have a look here -- he's keeping reporters waiting while he finishes watching The Tyra Banks Show.

hotter'n blazes

'Nuff said.

goin' for it

My uncle (dad's youngest brother) got married for the first time three weekends ago. My grandfather lost his first wife, my dad's mother, to cancer when my dad was about 10 years old, and my uncle is from my grandfather's second marriage. Consequently, Uncle Dan is only 8 years older than I am and was more of a big brother to me growing up than an uncle; in fact, I've never actually used the word "uncle" when addressing him.

I used to spend a lot of time at my grandfather's house growing up, my babysitter was my grandfather's niece (got that?) and my uncle was the closest playmate to my age. Course it didn't hurt that Dan was pretty immature for his age, playing basketball and Fischer Price Little People with me until far past the age it was still cool to do so.

Dan would ply me with Hostess Ho-Hos late at night and bribe me to tell immediate family "secrets" with these tempting treats, something I still have trouble refusing at 7-11.

Dan never had a serious girlfriend until he met his now-wife, something that earned him endless amounts of ridicule among his siblings, half or otherwise. Even family members didn't believe him when he started saying she was different than other girls he'd dated. So because of this, and a couple of other factors, including the fact that my immediate family is pretty much ostracized from the rest of my dad's family, we never met Dan's "serious girlfriend."

When they announced their engagement last year, we figured it was about damn time we met this mystery woman who was finally getting Dan to settle down at the age of 35. Mind you, my uncle only lives one city over from me and about 30 minutes south of my parents, so to have not met her by this point was getting to be a bit ridiculous. Dan threw a party in May while I was in Texas, and my sister, mother, father and sister's bf finally got to meet her.

The results were mixed, but of course that left me, the only person in my family, immediate and extended, that hadn't met her. And to form my own opinion, of course, because really? My family likes people less than I do, and that's saying something.

So I got to meet my new aunt at her wedding to my uncle. I literally saw her for the first time as she was walking down the aisle. (This is how my family rolls.)

Imagine my surprise when I discover at said wedding that she is my age.

My aunt is the same age as I am. Actually, she was born the year after I was, making her (slightly) younger than I. For some reason this just trips me out. Not in a bad way, either. It just makes me smile that he's found someone that happens to be my age.

more "AD" news

TV Shows on DVD reports that the third and final installment of "AD" DVDs will indeed have extras.

-Commentary with Mitch Hurwitz and most of the cast (I think the only one missing is Jeffrey Tambor) on "Mr. F," "Development Arrested" and "Forget Me Now"
-19 deleted scenes and extras
-season 3 blooper reel
-behind the scenes featurette

But! It seems the release date has (again) been pushed back...August 29!

(full article here )

This just in:

"Arrested Development" reruns in HD

don't judge too quickly

Yes, another video.

Deal.

:)

diet coke and mentos -- a must see!

huge conflict

comedy genius!

Oh, that Merlin Mann cracks me up!

5ives ' Five Favorite Things on Your Blog hits the nail on the head.

Five favorite things on your blog

1. The kitty photos (especially that fourth set)
2. That one post where you were really drunk in Devan’s room
3. The time you ate that amazing pot pie but then got totally sick
4. Your series of charcoal drawings of Jonathan Frakes as a sword-wielding furry
5. That post where you promised to update more often

Genius!

crackberry

My company has changed cell phone providers.

Again.

When I first started nearly four years ago, we were with Nextel and I had the gigantor Zach Morris-like phone that got me mercilessly teased.

After about a year, we switched to At&T, now Cingular, and I was set with my itty bitty Nokia.

I traded up 6 months after we got that for a Motorola with Bluetooth capability.

Our company's office manager called me a couple of weeks ago letting me know we'd be switching to T-Mobile, and that I needed to select a new phone.

A new phone! At the company's expense!

I headed to the closest T-Mobile store the same afternoon.

I chose a modest Blackberry, an older model, that wasn't more than $50 after rebates and new service activation.

I called our office manager to let him know which model I chose, but all he heard was "Blackberry," and immediately said, "Oh, you can't get the most expensive model! It's too much!" Do you believe the jewels on this guy?! That just pissed me off and made me want to get the most expensive model. (If you recall, this dude and I have butted heads on more than one occasion.)

I told him I changed my mind, and needed more time to select a model.

Once I heard which phones everyone else was getting, I made my choice.

Now I'm waiting for the notorious finger cramps to set in, because we all know I'm going to be all over the full email/web browsing capabilities on this baby.

P.S.-- I am sending this from said phone. Woohoo for pretending to work!

photo friday: summer

Photo Friday

huzzah!

Emmy nominations are out today.

One word.

Huzzah!

Comedy Series: "Arrested Development," Fox; "Curb Your Enthusiasm," HBO; "The Office," NBC; "Scrubs," NBC; "Two and a Half Men," CBS.

Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Will Arnett, "Arrested Development," Fox; Jeremy Piven, "Entourage," HBO; Bryan Cranston, "Malcolm in the Middle," Fox; Jon Cryer, "Two and a Half Men," CBS; Sean Hayes, "Will & Grace," NBC.

Ohhhhh, yeah.
(image from the-op.com)

ribbon ceremony

Thursday was one of the best days I've had in ages.

Wednesday afternoon my father called me up and asks if I wanted tickets to Thursday's Giants game. Of course!

The catch? It was a day game. Since he was giving me the tickets, I (rightly) assumed I had the afternoon off, too. The other catch was that I had to invite my sister to accompany me to the game. I invited her, but she was insistent on going to work (!), so I called her, and she was more than willing to come with.

Game time was 12:35, and I figured we'd head up about 11:30 and get settled with plenty of time to spare. That plan quickly went out the window when the guy installing the new ice machine at one of my locations took over two hours to install the damn thing. He told me, "Easy job -- 40 minutes" when he arrived, so needless to say, I was running a tad late by the time I went to pick Tara up.

We stupidly stopped for lunch on the way up (Toxic Smell Taco Bell) instead of buying food at the park, and we had to stop at the office to pick up the tickets, so by the time we finally parked our butts in the seats, it was the top of the sixth inning.

I was ticked that we wasted so much time when we had seats like these:

6th row rocks. (No zoom on this baby!)


representin' the old skool.


The Giants sweep the series!




We made it out of the city in record time and headed to buy us both some new sneaks. I walked away with something very similar to these:



They're ClimaCool! (basically a breathe-able fabric that lets the air circulate)

and I absolutely adore them.

We then headed to hit some balls with the ball machine at her folks' club -- I am noticing a big difference this week after playing FIVE times last week!

The day was capped off with dinner at Chili's with some good friends -- what else could be better?

Tara says she's all set for retirement at this rate -- baseball games, shopping and tennis.

That's the life.

el cuatro de julio

Happy Independence Day!

beat box

from qwantz.com


Best when clicked on and viewed large

givin' 'em what they want

This is for her and all the other smokers out there, of which I'm not one.