Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Can you OD on Ben Gay?

Oh, I hate to think what kind of searches lead people to this post...


It seems I have become old. Yes, I've been using Ben Gay all week. You might say to yourself, "But, Mike, you are a strong young man. Surely you just need it because you are working out too much."

Ha! You crack me up. And don't call me Shirley.

Do you know how I hurt my shoulder and neck? No, really, do you know? I have no idea. All I know is I was talking to Jenn and it felt like someone was poking me in the shoulder with a pencil. That pencil transformed into a dagger, which was slowly twisted around and yanked up to my neck.

When it first started, it was no big deal. I started moving my shoulder around to try and work it out, Jenn ran out to pick up some food, and when she came back I was nearly incapacitated and sitting on the couch. It was very weird. I wasn't lifting anything when it happened. I didn't just finish a workout. I was just standing there. I'm pathetic.

That all happened on Friday. I've spent the last few days downing Aleve and slathering my shoulder and neck with Ben Gay. My pillow smells like a menthol factory. I'm at least smart enough to wait until I get home from work to put the stuff on.

My shoulder feels a lot better today, though my neck is still sore. My guess is something is out of whack in my neck and causing the problem. Jenn has been telling me to make an appointment at the orthopedic doctor near our house. She's probably right. I like to wait for these kids of things to go away on their own, but it's taking a while and I can't do anything. When it is bad it hurts to walk, let alone run or do anything remotely physical. Heck, it hurts to lay in bed.

As I said, I'm old.

Maybe 60 minutes is looking for someone to blog for them...

Monday, September 28, 2009

I'll give you whatever you want.


Ransom? (3 sixty 5 -- #25)
Originally uploaded by Mike F.
This sign always cracks me up when I see it. It is semi-threatening, don't you think?

You have my headlight? What do you want? I won't call the cops, I swear. I just want my headlight back!

No, I haven't been drinking. Why do you ask?

Have a great Monday!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #56: Autumn

Carly wants something to do with Autumn this week. I took a few shots, some turned out better than others.

Here is a leaf full of holes. This was caused by a bug infestation that we had. Most of the leaves that fall from this tree look this way now. Let's hope it doesn't happen next spring.


Here is an attempt to show the red leaves showing up on this tree. It look really cool when it is all red. I'll try to get a shot when it is all red.


That's about all I have. Go to Carly's site and see the rest!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

So, these things happened

I feel kind of lousy today. I'm not sure if it is because I'm coming down with something that has spread through our house, or if it is only because I pulled something in my shoulder/neck area. I have no idea what I did, all I know is my shoulder started to hurt last night then the pain dial was slowly increased to medium-high. My shoulder doesn't hurt much now, but my neck does. It hurts to move my head. I need a neck brace. Anyone have a spare?

Anyway, onto the point post. Yeah, like there ever is a point to any of my posts.

This was a good one. As I've said before, we have a new dog that we adopted a couple of weeks ago. We have all the paper work from the place we adopted him from, as well as all the vet visits, but a few things weren't filled out completely. It wouldn't be a big deal, but Jenn was taking the dogs to the daycare place today to get Cruise used to it since they will be spending the night there in a couple of weeks. So, I called one of the vets to get documentation of one of his shots. That call worked out fine. No problems. Then I called the second place. I'll transcribe it here:

(Voicemail answers. I don't listen to the message): Beep!

Me: Hi, my name is Mike and I adopted a dog that was recently brought in to your office. His name is Cruise or Jerry. His patient number was (i don't remember right now) and was brought in by a person name Carole...

(Here is where I look a little more closely at the paper)

Me: Oh, Carole, I'm calling you and not the vet. Never mind. (Click!)

Yes, I'm an idiot. I guess I don't know how to read. Needless to say Carole called us later to check on Cruise. I had to explain how stupid I was and that there was nothing wrong with Cruise. We haven't put him in a hospital yet. I swear. She's probably regretting letting us adopt the dog right about now.

The next story is almost as good. I got home from picking up the kids from school and stopping at my mom's. It was about 4pm when I got home. I check the voice mail and there is a message from one of the parent's from school. He was calling to make sure his son got to our house okay after school. No, you didn't miss anything I wrote, we didn't have him. I didn't pick him up. Now, this wasn't my fault. We left a message for them the night before saying we'd bring him on on Friday. I guess they didn't get the message. Our at least the husband didn't. By the time I called him back he had everything cleared up and was picking him up at school. It's not as bad as it sounds since they have after-school care and his son is always there anyway. He just needed to know where to get him.

I guess it all boils down to voice mail conspiring against me for some reason.






Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Who stepped on Fred?

I took this picture today while out looking for something to shoot for the Flickr photo group. I wasn't planning to take pictures of ducks, but I liked the way this duck is lifting his leg like he is passing gas. Childish, I know.

So, that's the bad joke in the title. They wouldn't say, "Who stepped on a duck?" since they are ducks. Get it? Hee.

On another note, my son lost his front tooth today. He's been working on it for a week. I've asked him several times if he wants me to tie it to a doorknob, but he just looks at me like I'm insane.

It's funny though, I lost my last tooth about 30 years ago, but I can still remember what it felt like to have a tooth that loose in my mouth. I have know idea why that is. We can't remember how much we gave, him for the last tooth he lost since it was large gap in time. Do we just try and shove a Wii under his pillow? Is that the going rate now?

Okay, back to watching some new TV shows. Anyone trying anything new and interesting?

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Weekend Assignment #285: Lost and Found

Since I was a slacker and didn't get to Karen's last assignment in time, I making sure to get this one done quickly. Karen's assignment of the week:



I'm going to combine the main question and the extra credit all into one. I hope that is okay with you. Too bad if not.

I can't remember exactly when this happened, but it was close to ten years ago. At least eight. I think. Anyway, it was a cold and snowy January (maybe February) night. Jenn and I had just gotten home from a dinner at Chevy's and I just come in from taking our puppy, Cosmo, out. I noticed something was different as soon as I took my gloves off. May hand, more specifically my left hand, felt weird. The usual rubbing of the wedding ring on my pinky wasn't there.

Since I'm a typical guy, I didn't say anything to Jenn at first. I went up stairs to check my dresser. Maybe I forgot to put it on this morning, I thought. Nope, not there. It wasn't in the bathroom. Not in my coat that was hanging up. It didn't take Jenn long to figure out something was up. So I confessed, my wedding ring was missing. I looked around the house. I looked as best as I could outside where I took Cosmo out, and out around the car. Nothing.


We both figured I dropped it outside the restaurant when I took my glove off to get my car key out of my pocket. I don't remember if we called the restaurant, but we probably did. Jenn wasn't mad. She knew it was an accident. Somehow, all those times I played with my ring, I never lost it. That would have been bad, this was understandable.

Since I had recently finished my second round at school, and we were paying bills back, we didn't rush out to get it replaced. It's not like I went out to bars a lot anyway. Nobody was going to think I was available.

Well, since the title gave the climax of the story away, I'll jump to what happened.

Sometime in March we were doing some spring cleaning. The place we were in was pretty small, and we didn't have kids yet, so it wasn't a tough task. As I was moving some stuff around off to the side of the patio door, something shiny caught my eye. Yep, my ring. See, I was right about it coming off with my glove, just wrong about the location. This was the patio door I always took Cosmo out, and when I took my glove off by the door it must have flew behind the speaker that was right there. See, sometimes it pays to procrastinate when it comes to replacing things!

At least it was a happy ending, right? I've never lost my ring again. But, I have forgotten to put it on at times. Usually when I've hit snooze one too many times before work.






Saturday, September 19, 2009

Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #55: Bugs!

I think Carly is reading my mind. I've been taking a few pictures of bugs these last several days, and now the assignment is bugs. Cool. Not all of these were taken specifically for the assignment, but most were from this week.

First, I have a kind of creepy bug. I posted it on Flickr and someone figured out what it was. I just thought it was weird because of the super long legs. It was taken with my phone, so it's not the best quality.


This next bug shot is a little old. I took it while I was taking Quincy for a walk, again with the phone. It's a cicada of some sort coming out of it's shell, or whatever it is called.



This last one is a favorite. This was sitting on our doorstep the other day. It's a leaf bug. And since it was a macro shot, it takes care of the extra credit, too. The kids were very excited to see this outside. So excited that we were almost late for school.


There are my bug shots, now go to Carly's site and check out the rest.

Who says the suburbs are boring?

We had an escaped criminal on the loose here over the last two days. You may have heard about it.

It started in Rolling Meadows, just a few miles from my mom's house. They guy overpowered his escorts, took there clothes, then went into a Meijer store to buy some stuff. Then, when he came out of the store, he noticed the escorts freed themselves so he jacked a lady's car and headed towards Arlington Heights. Right by my old high school and current place of employment. I was off of work that day, so I wasn't scared. Seriously.

Since I was home and not watching TV, Jenn sent me a text message asking me to let her know when I had the kids at home and to make sure I lock the doors. No, I don't do that on the car all that often. But, in my defense, I grew up in the suburbs. Nothing ever happens here. Well, usually nothing happens.

The police swarmed an apartment building near work, but nothing came of it that day. I will say I double checked the door locks at home, and kept my eyes open on the street. I didn't want to be a hero, but if reward money was involved I could be persuaded to be more vigilant.

Not much happened the rest of the night as the police and US Marshals kept searching. The next morning I checked the Chicago Tribune website to see what was new on the investigation. I think I checked it around 8am and noticed the guy had struck again. This time he jacked a car in Hoffman Estates. This was about two miles from my house. Yikes! I'm glad I saw that after I was at work and the kids were at school. I just hoped the dogs would be okay...

Once again, he eluded police and they weren't sure where he was until he robbed a bank. Two things about that. He was going to prison for bank robbery, and he robbed the SAME BANK back in 2008. I must say this guy wasn't as bright as I thought. Why wasn't he many miles away? He should have been out of the state by this time.

A few hours later he was spotted and chased by police, stopped in a Taco Bell parking lot, gunned it out of there as the officers got out of the car, and was chased and crashed a few miles later. It sounds like he totaled the car he had stolen. I wonder how the insurance coverage works on that. "No, sorry ma'am. You gave the keys away. Not our problem." Also, can this person sue the agency that was transporting this individual? If it wasn't for their ineptitude her car would never have been stolen and wrecked. I'd also sue for psychological trauma. Why not?

He was taken down and cuffed, which is surprising. I thought this would go down a bit different based on the previous 48 hours. I didn't think he's come out alive. It's probably a good thing he got into an accident that hurt him. It made it a lot less messy.


See, we have exciting times in the suburbs. This kid of stuff happens at least once every 15 years! I'm glad it's over. I need a vacation from all this stress...

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Post race slacking: Walter Payton Race wrap-up

Okay, now that the anger about the car has subsided, I can talk about last weekend's race. Let me start by saying that, no, I didn't get sick. Was it just allergies? Did I talk myself out of having a cold? Did that one vitamin C table help? I don't know. All I know is that Friday I took a nap before working the afternoon shift, and I felt better. I wasn't excited about working until 11pm before a race, but you do what you have to do. Can I get an Amen?

So, let's start there. I get done at 11pm, like I just said. Or, that is when I'm supposed to get done. See, I have to wait for someone to come in and take over for me before I can go. Well, it's 10:58 and there is no sign of this person. Ditto at 11pm. Great. The one night I need to get home and get to sleep as soon as possible, my relief is late. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but that person had been out sick for the past two weeks. Chances are he was not supposed to be back yet and his shift wasn't covered. So, I didn't get out until about 11:15pm. Not bad, but every minute counts. By midnight I am in bed, watching the clock. I'm not sure what time I fell asleep, but it was probably about 12:30am. Maybe later.

I'm up at 2:00am to go to the bathroom. Maybe I didn't need all that water during the day.

4:00am: See above.

The alarm goes off at 6:15am. I hit snooze. I have plenty of time.

Alarm goes off at 6:24am. I realize I need to get moving and climb out of bed. I can feel every minute of sleep I missed. I don't know how, but I do. I get my clothes on and go down to have my usually pre-race breakfast; cinnamon toast with peanut butter. And water. I notice the family room and laundry room light are on. At first I thought Jenn left them on for the dogs, then I hear movement in the laundry room. Son has gotten up and hid in the laundry room so I wouldn't be mad. I send him upstairs to lay in bed with Jenn. I don;t want the dogs to wake up and start barking and wake up the rest of the house.

I take care of some personal issues, and get all my gear together. I left at about 7:15am for the 8:00am race. I probably should have left a little earlier, but it was so close to the house I didn't think it would be a big deal. I shouldn't have been.

I got to the parking garage around 7:30am (told you it was close) and started walking to the starting line. I think I got there around 7:45am. Plenty of time to use the porta-John and get in line to start.

Let me take you back a few days for a moment. When I picked up the packet I asked the people how many racers had signed up. She said it was around 1,000 people. This is runners and walkers. Now, if you remember last year, it rained a lot on race day. Like 12 inches. So, needless to say not many showed up, just us stupid people. Anyway, remember 1000 people.

So, I look for the line for the facilities. It really wasn't hard to spot since it was about 200ft long. Probably longer. Guess how many porta-pottys they had. Come one, just throw out a number. Ready? There were six. Six potties for 1000 people to use. Six! It wasn't pretty.

So I find may way to the end of the line, leaving bread crumbs so I don't get lost, and wait. The DJ guy is announcing that people should start to line up since the race starts in 15 minutes. Five minutes later I have moved about 10 feet closer to the front of the line. Now the DJ is telling us we should really think about lining up. Although he is saying it in that cheerful DJ voice, I really want to smack him. I run a systems check as I'm in line. Do I really have to go? Can I wait? The answer is a resounding no. Just to emphasize the point, my kidneys kick my bladder. "See how full it is?"

So, I wait wondering how far down the street the other runners will be when I start. Also, since I have a chip on my shoe, it shouldn't count against my time, right? Luckily, at this point, someone came to the back of the line and announced they were opening up the bathrooms inside the school behind us. I felt my bladder give a big sigh of relief. At least I hope that's what it was.

After I freshened up (as the old ladies say) I found a spot in line. I didn't want to go to far up front, but I didn't want to get stuck behind the walkers. Well, it didn't matter. Why don't the walkers realize they need to be in the back? Look, I'm not elite runner by any means, but there were walkers up at the very front. Those people up there are running full steam, they are going to get ticked at the walkers. Or run them over. Probably both.


Anyway, the first couple of miles were fine. I think I had a decent pace going, though I had to slow myself down at times. I was going to wear my Garmin Forerunner to keep an eye on my pace, but I decided against it. I felt I'd be constantly looking at it over the last four miles trying to figure out how much further I had to go.

Now due to the devious planning of the route, the 5K route and the 15K route start off the same. Actually, they are completely the same, so come the 5K mark you see those people peel off and finish their race while you have 2/3 of the race to go. How mean is that? But, it worked out since I stopped there and use the porta-potty again. Yes, I have a small bladder, what of it?

As I mentioned last year, the course is nice since it goes through a shaded residential area. Also, they post signs along the way on Walter Payton's career milestones. It's something to read while you are running. And, the people living in the house come out to cheer you on, which is nice. One guy had "Eye of the Tiger" blasting out of his house. That made me smile.

So, yes, I was doing fine until about mile seven. That was when I started to feel it. I wasn't breathing super hard, it was my legs. They were getting tired. It started out feeling like I was running in sand, then got to a point where It felt like a 40lb bag of sand was tied to each leg. But I kept going. Can you tell?


I think it was between mile 7 and 8 that I saw Jenn and the kids. That helped a bit. I told her I was hurting and she gave me a towel to help me keep cool. Oh, I should say this was about the time the sun decided to come out. It was hazy/cloudy/foggy until about the last 1.5 miles or so. You know, when I was the most tired.

I left the security of Jenn and the kids to run the last 2 miles. These were a a long two miles. What made it worse was turning away from the finish line several times. I kept thinking I was getting closer then, BAM, I'd have to turn away from he finish. I think they were just being mean at this point. Finally, I saw the 9 mile sign. Only half a mile to go. There were people on the corner cheering. "Only half a mile left!" Easy for them to say as the stood in one spot. They probably drove their car there. I smiled, I think. I was pretty numb by then. I wasn't smiling inside though.

You know how you see people running faster at the end of the race? You know, the ending kick? That wasn't me. I think I went slower. Which was hard to do since it was downhill. By some miracle my time was better then last year. I think that was because I didn't have to read water this year. I certainly didn't feel faster. But, hey, I finished. I'm still tired.

Look how pitiful I looked there?


I have another, tougher, race next month. I don't know what I'm going to do about it yet. I don't want to die.



Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Not a good end to the day

My plan was to do a write up about the race I did this weekend, but that changed when Jenn called me on the way home from work. It seems someone tried to occupy the same lane Jenn was in, as we all know from the laws of physics, that's just not possible. So, this was the result.




It's not terrible, though the mirror is trashed and the door scrapes the front quarter panel when it opens. Needless to say, some duct tape has been used. So, tomorrow I plan on making a few phone calls to get it fixed. Luckily Jenn wasn't hurt and the place we bought the car has a body shop.

I just hope this goes smoothly. It's never fun to deal with insurance companies. Especially when it is not your own insurance company.

We really have terrible luck with people being stupid around us when we have a new car.

I hope you had a better day.





Friday, September 11, 2009

I still haven't forgotten

I have nothing new to add about 9/11 this year. I still feel the same way about it. I still don't like to see or talk about it.

These are my thoughts from last year. They still stand today.




Weekend Assignment #283: Major Purchase

Karen wants to know what big purchases we may have made recently. Well, we've made two, so it's an easy one for me this week.

Weekend Assignment: #282: What was your most recent major purchase, that is, of a durable good worth $400 or more? (Yes, cars and houses count.) Was it something you researched and agonized over for weeks and months, or did you go through the whole buying process in an hour or a day?

First, about two months ago we bought a new car. Jenn's car was getting old and getting to a point where, even though it was paid for, we were spending about the same amount of money on repairs as we would a car payment. So, we decided it was time to replace hers and get something a little more reliable and save some money on repair costs.

It didn't take too long to find a car we wanted, though we did change the vehicle type after our first round of searching. We starting off looking for a crossover/SUV, but after looking at a few we decided to replace Jenn's small sedan with a mid-size sedan. It made more sense. I'm not a big fan of SUVs myself and Jenn doesn't like to drive the station wagon we have, so I don't see her enjoy driving a bigger car.

We ended up on a Toyota Camry. It was cheaper than the SUVs and has heated seats, so we're all happy.

The other big purchase just came the other day. We got a sectional couch for the living room. We are in the process of doing some changes in the way things are set up in the house and this seemed to be a good time to change the couches out. We ended up taking out the dinning room table and China cabinet and turned that area into an office. The computer is here now, we've moved in one of the love seats from the living room and now we have the new sectional in the living room. Now he have four reclining seats. How could we not be happy? We got them on sale and don't have to pay for them until next year, which is nice.

Extra Credit: Are you generally an impulse buyer, or do you prefer to take lots of time to consider your options?

I wouldn't say I'm an impulse buyer. I do check things out a little bit and think about what I want to get for a while. We did move pretty fast on the couches though.


Thursday, September 10, 2009

Terrible timing

No, I'm not sick. Nope. I'm not getting a cold, it's just allergies. It has to be allergies. There is no reason I should get a cold now. Not two days before a race. No, siree.

That's what I'm going to keep telling myself until Saturday is over. Or, at least once I am home on Saturday. It is going to be my mantra. I think I need to to hijack a truck filled with oranges and bathe it them, drink the juice and somehow force them directly into my pores. Any way to get as much Vitamin C as I can to keep this cold, I mean allergies, at bay. Yep, I'm just going to will this away. It's like those people you hear about who can lift a car when there little kid is trapped underneath. I'm going to summon that same will to fight this thing off. So, either I'll be fine come Saturday, or I'll tap into some latent ability deep down in my limbic system and turn into the Hulk. I'd probably win the race that way! "Hulk like run. Hulk crush opponents!"

As long as I feel the same as I do now, I'll still run. I'm not expecting a PR or anything, I just want to do it and get my medal and go home and fall into a coma. At least until I go to work the next day.

Also, this means I haven't run since Monday and I won't until race time. So, either I'll be well rested or I'll be laying in the middle of the street somewhere around the 6 mile mark. I should probably bring some kind of flare gun to so people can find me. Actually, since it is through a suburban neighborhood, I wonder if I could just run up to some one's door and ask if I can lay on their couch for a little bit. Just 20 minutes or so. No bigee.

So, to sum up, I'm not sick. Remember that. 

I should also mention that I have not taking an medicine at this point, so I really have no excuse for the randomness of the post.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Meet Cruise

Look how cute he is sitting there.



Mind you, this has been pretty much the only time he has sat still for the last 24 hours, if that tells you anything. Don't get me wrong, he's a good dog, he's just never been to our house so there has been some adjusting and sniffing time. Did I mention he is part hound? Yes, he sniffs everything. A lot. He could make a good vacuum cleaner. Maybe that's where they Dyson guy got his vacuum ideas. I need to find out if he has a hound of some sort.


There's another thing. What kind of hound is cruise? Are there are many different kids? Are they all the same? He doesn't bark too much, but it is a distinctive hound bark. If there are any former prison inmates living in the neighborhood they probably have flashbacks when Cruise barks.

Quincy and Cruise are getting along okay. Though Cruise reminds me of our daughter, he seems to try an irritate Quincy. Take going outside for instance, I'll open the door and Cruise will literally go underneath Quincy to get out first. He steals toys away from Quincy when he's not looking, and ignores Quincy when Quincy wants to play. This is going to be interesting.

I will say this, these two are wearing each other out. They've each had about four gallons of water these last 24 hours and I've never heard so much panting in one house ever. (I'll leave you to enter your own joke here.)

They have been rough-housing a lot. I've never had two dogs before so I don't know if it is all play, or when one is getting ticked off. I've broken them up a couple of times when they seem like they might hurt each other, but so far they seem to like getting each other riled up. Oh, and Quincy has not tried to steal any of the kid's toys since Cruise has come to the house. That is a bonus right there.



So, that was my big news of the week. Let's hope this works out. Pray for us.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

It's alive!

Seriously, doesn't this tree look like it's crawling somewhere? Maybe from some evil trees that are trying to beat it up.

Oh, yes, it's another picture post by the way. There are a bunch of downed trees in the park adjacent to the the municipal building for our town. Some are still growing since a portion is still attached to the ground. It's kind of an odd scene.

This was the same place the out local end of the summer bash takes place so some areas were still fenced off. Like this foot. Really, go look. It reminded me of something out of Lost when I first saw it. I plan on going back another day to see the whole thing.

Hope you had a good Labor Day! Some news to come tomorrow...maybe.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #53: Trees

For this weeks photo shoot Carly wants some pictures of trees. That shouldn't be too hard.

The other morning, actually the last few mornings, it was a bit foggy and our sickly looking tree looked a bit creepy with the filtered sun. Unfortunately, the picture didn't turn out quite as good as real life, but it was pretty good.




This tree I saw the other day when I was walking Quincy. I didn't great a great shot of it, since Quincy isn't very patient while I take pictures, but try and focus on the trunk of the tree. It comes out of the ground nearly sideways, then curves up like a normal tree. I don't know how the thing stands up at all.




That's all I have for this week. Go check out Carly's site to see the other pictures.


Friday, September 4, 2009

Weekend Assignment #282: I can has LOLZ

First, let me say thanks to Karen for letting me do this a bit late. I didn't have time yesterday before work and I sent her a comment pleading for an extension. She was nice enough to tell me not to be stupid since she won't post a new one until later today. Cool.

The subject this week is LOL cats. If you don't know what that is, go here to see. I'm sure you've seen some things like this around. Karen says:

Weekend Assignment: #281: Create a LOLcat (or a LOLdog, or a LOLpig, a LOLhorse or whatever). If you can do it with your own pet photo, great (I'm looking at YOU, Sara and Sarah), but alternatively you can just describe what it would look like. Don't forget the humorous caption! Here's a "lolbuilder" to help you out.
Extra Credit: Do you like "lolspeak" and other Internet slang, or mostly find it annoying?


I will admit I do check these out. I'll even go farther to say that I have an app in my iPhone for easier access. I can't explain it, cats are crazy and they crack me up. The app does have some of the other sites associated with the I Can Has Cheeseburger site, like Graph Jam, I Has a Hot Dog, and other funny things. I hope you don't think less of me.

Since Quincy wasn't a good sport today, I'm going to put some other animals up this time. That will teach him to cooperate.

First is a bird from back when we were at Disney World.





Here's a squirrel that was hiding from the rain in my wheel well. The car has never driven the same.








For the extra credit, no. I don't LOL speak. An occasional LOL is fine, but I don't do anything else normally. Luckily Karen put up a handy LOL dictionary up for us to use.

Edit: Seems the LOLs didn't like my layout. had to re-crop and resend a few times. sorry about that.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Random thoughts for an early September day

I was at the grocery store today and the misters went off in the produce section. I was in the next aisle, but I could here the announcement, "The misters are about to start. Misting helps keep the produce fresh and lock in the nutrients." The thought that popped into my head was, do I need all that information? I  mean, I understand why they inform you it is going to start, you don't want to get your arm wet (especially if you are a particular wicked witch) but I don't need to know why they are misting the vegetables. Do they say that so the crazy people that come into the store don't think they are spraying some kind of chemicals that are going to turn you into a vegetable hating zombie? Just wondering. Does you local grocery store have the same announcement?

I think I need to have Jenn start laying out my clothes for me before work. I am terrible at matching colors. No, I'm not color blind (Jenn!). I guess that part of my brain that says, "What they hell are you thinking? Those two colors together make me want to puke. Go Change," doesn't work. Or maybe I just don't listen to it. Just last night, after I came home from work, Jenn looked and me and said, " That doesn't match!" Great, so for eight hours I was at work looking like big(ger) dork. All I could come up with was, "But you said this is neutral." I guess it wasn't totally neutral. No, I'm not going to tell you what I was wearing. 

So, that Duggar lady is going to have child 19 around the same time as her daughter-in-law is having number one. Nothing like being older than your aunt or uncle, huh? But, really, 19?! I can't keep track of two kids, not to mention clean up after them, what do you do with 19? Imagine the laundry, the cooking, the dishes! Maybe they get a free lifetime supply of paper plates. I certainly hope so, it would be easier to toss out everything after each meal rather than cleaning the dishes.

If you notice a fair amount more of photos here from now on it's because I joined a new photo group on Flickr. I'll be out taking more pictures and probably putting some up here, too. I can feel the excitement coming through the Internet as you read this.

I saw some pictures of the California wildfires on the Big Picture. Yikes. I feel for you guys out that way. Stay safe. Try and keep your lungs clear.

That's all I have for now. Have a good night.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

I have to go to work, so here is a picture of a bunny next to a path

He looks like he is daring me to walk along the path so he can pounce on my. Where is the Holy Hand Grenade when you need it?

I stopped by a little park after I dropped the kids off at school today. I don't remember the name and the town seems to think it's not important enough to have on the park district website, so it can't tell you what it's called. It's a neat little (and I mean little) thing off then main road. I've seen people taking pictures there before.

More are on my Flickr Page. You'll probably need to go there to see the little bunny rabbit anyway. He's quite small in this version.