these photos blew me away (pardon the pun).

it’s amazing what mother nature is capable of …
 

see even more here.

despite all the worrying — or maybe because of it — i experienced the most refreshing and productive weekend i’ve had for awhile.

the long and short: we’ve been living in an unorganized mess for months. it may look clean and put-together on the outside, but in each drawer and closet was a shoved travesty of random crap — definitely not good for someone as anal retentive as myself. 

fed up, and with an entire weekend ahead of me, i began pulling everything out of our office closet.

quite honestly, i don’t know why i started the whole thing. sara was coming over around 6:30, and i should have been getting ready for her.

i’m sure i thought it’d only take a minute to rearrange some things, but — after an hour — i found myself trapped in a whirlwind of STUFF. old photos, books, boxes, clothes, tools, video games and wrapping paper were spread out before me … what do i do NOW?!

fortunately, the BFF came over and kept me on track. five hours later, the closet was done.

after that, i was on a cleaning high. seriously, i couldn’t get enough.

nothing was safe in my two-bedroom apartment. i tore apart drawers, containers and shelves. things got dusted, scrubbed and vacuumed. if i hadn’t of loaned my steam cleaner out, i probably would have done that, too.

seven loads of laundry later, every stitch of clothing and linens we own found a place. we donated a whole mess of stuff and threw even more away.

husband’s favorite part? well, i suppose there’s two … one: he was working the entire weekend, and missed most of the cleaning fun. two: i set up our fall decorations! 

(at right: milo loved sitting in the pile of spring things i pulled down. yes, i left spring up three months too long. my bad.)

i am so proud of myself: i didn’t let the apartment conquer me, i CONQUERED the apartment.

game, set, match.

i may be exhausted, but it was fabulous to wake up this morning and see EVERYTHING in its place.

how long it will stay this way is another story.

p.s. a very big “thank you” goes out to steve. he went shopping for a new trash can and watched “my sassy girl” with me as i folded laundry. woooooord.
 

abcnews.com has a test to see who’s campaign statements — mccain’s or obama’s — you agree with most. they don’t tell you who made the statements, of course, but a statement made by each candidate on the same topic (economy, immigration, judiciary, etc.) will be side by side.

pick which statement you agree with most, and — after selecting all 13 — you’ll really see which candidate’s philosophy you support.

gee, i wonder how i did?

how’d YOU score?

i was flipping through usatoday when i came across this:

If your gaydar’s on the fritz, the Los Angeles Times lays out 
some possible “sexual orientation correlates.”  We’re talking about
clues to the biological roots of homosexuality, not stereotypical
characteristics, such as a love for all things Judy Garland. For men,
try counting the number of older brothers they have (the more they
have, the greater the chance they’re gay, which might be related to
“anti-boy” antibodies in their mother’s womb, research suggests). For
men and women, look at which hand they write with (straight men and
women are more likely to be right-handed, which could be related to
testosterone exposure in the womb).

this is what scientists are getting paid for nowadays?! (and for that matter, this is what journalists are getting paid to write?)

i
find it ridiculous to publish research that is borderline absurd. for
example, the LAT story discusses penis size in gay vs. straight men.
apparently, gay men will have a longer/wider penis when compared to a
straight men. they go into a scientific analysis, finishing it off with
how the GOT the data.

apparently, the researcher just asked for the men to measure themselves
at home. they even point out the obvious: men may have exaggerated the
results, to make themselves sound *ahem* more than they are.

it
just seems that a lot of the research was reaching at overly-flamboyant
straws. i’m sure that people are looking for “a way to explain away the
gay”, but it’s not that simple.

yes, i believe that people don’t choose to be gay. i think that it’s something they are born with, and destined to be. but i don’t think that half-assed results that only “explain” why/how of a portion of the gay population is correct.

i am proud to be friends with quite a few members of the LGBT community. in
fact, my uncle and his partner have been together for 20 years, and
exemplify what a relationship should be, regardless of orientation.
they are one of the couples alex and i aspire to be like one day.

it’s often been said that left-handed people are more creative, artistic and colorful. it doesn’t take a scientist to use this generalization and apply it to the stereotypical over-the-top nature of how a gay person is pictured in society.

and the older brother thing? puh-lease. i won’t even go into how overly-contrived this is.

what are your thoughts? do you think this research could be on to something, or is just totally bogus?

*repost from june 16, 2008

i just need a break for a few days.

work/life/job stress is beginning to overwhelm, so i need to direct my attention AWAY from the computer screen. just for now.

have a fabulous weekend everyone!!

i don’t know what’s gotten into me. the first real chance i get to relax, and i decide to clean out our office closet. (trust me, it’s scary!)

one of the greatest finds so far: my dad’s passport picture, pre-1988.

ahh, the infamous no-smile military face.

even without the grin, he’s still one hell of a handsome man.

more treasures to come, i’m sure.

                You Are A Pirate!(WoW) – video powered by Metacafe

yes, husband has a different version on his page … see THAT one here.

i don’t know about you, but i L-O-V-E  showtime shows.

i’m pretty sure it’s because of my dark humor and my appreciation for sarcasm.

(or, it could just be the cursing and sex that intrigues me.)

anyway, you can see the season premiers of dexter and californication ONLINE before their sept. 28 premieres.

the password is “lady killer”.

enjoy!

mom called this morning. after only six weeks, she’s decided to get rid of riley.

new to the blog? not sure who riley is? let me quickly catch you up.

last october, we got a puppy. we named her riley.

riley was an awesome puppy.

discovered riley had a pee-pee growing out of her vajou.

they operated.

it was bad.

(real bad.)

had other medical problems; had more operations.

became too overwhelming for us to handle.

ate walls and shiz.

went to mom’s for training.

came back home.

realized it wasn’t fair to keep puppy in apartment; sent her back to mom.

mom decided to keep her.

mom decides to give her away.

*whew* all caught up.

anyway, riley has been chewing on mom’s furniture … and apparently, lots of other naughty things. despite all the training in the world (my mom used to work in a vet’s office for years and pseudo-specializes in stuff like this), she couldn’t get riley to behave.

(sidenote: this is bittersweet vindication for me — for months, i would get lectures on how i was training her wrong or simply not doing things right … this just proves that she couldn’t do it, either.)

12 hours after she called to tell me she was finding her a new home, riley was handed over to a new family.

gone. forever.

i’m not going to lie. i’m sad. i’ve been missing her so much since she left. but at the same time, i’m thankful she’s going to a good home.

but more than that: i no longer have to figure out “how to make it work.” for us, having a dog in our life was like trying to jam a square peg in a round hole. it just doesn’t work, no matter how hard you try.

it’s the end of a long year.

good-bye, riley girl. for realsies.

husband was being silly tonight, bouncing on the yoga ball before picking up an umbrella.

before “don’t” was even out of my mouth, he opened it.

in. the. house.

all of a sudden, flashes of my mother shot through my head.

“never open an umbrella indoors,” she said. “you’ll have very bad luck!”

because of this — to this day — i can’t open an umbrella inside. i can’t even keep an umbrella open as i walk into a building! (quirky, i know) needless to say, i get rained on quite a bit in those few seconds of exposure.

isn’t it funny how those silly scare tactics stick with us?

what other things did your parents warn you against doing, that you still DON’T do today? what DO you do?