Saturday, November 14, 2009

Could I be SAD?

Just a quick post...

So SAD is Seasonal Affected Disorder that people get when it's all wintery outside and dark and they get depressed. Well, I'm not depressed in the slightest, I promise. I was just telling Hayley that I don't love going to work before the sun comes up--or just as it is rising--and coming home after it goes down--or just as it's setting.

I like snow. As much as a person who doesn't ski or snowboard can like the snow. I just don't like driving in it. What I do like is that the break room in my workplace has a whole wall of windows, so I sit right next to the window to soak up as much natural light as I can. Luckily the wall of windows is on the South side of the building, so the sun shines right in. I openly voice my opinion of how dumb I think it is to close the blinds in that room if they're closed when I get there. Hopefully THAT nonsense will stop.

So, while I'm not dreading winter or anything--and I'm actually looking forward to seeing a little snow--I just wish the winter could come and still have normal amounts of daylight. That's all. I'm not mopey or sad about it or anything. In fact, there's one particular day in winter--January, specifically--that I'm REALLY looking forward to. :)

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Tagged!

Hayley tagged me. I was actually just thinking that no one does tags anymore. Not that I'm complaining, it's just I don't blog much anymore because mostly I could just put links to Hayley's blog. So here's a tag (from Hayley even) to give me a higher post count for November. :) Enjoy!


Five Things I don't leave the House without

  1. Wallet
  2. Keys
  3. nu... phone
  4. iPod (now. I had never had an iPod before the Touch, and I really like it)
  5. One inverted nipple
Five Cartoons I watched when I was Younger

This depends on what you mean by "younger." When I was a small kid, the cartoons I watched were different than when I was a teenager... yes, I watched cartoons as a teenager. I think I'll list a mixture of both.

  1. Loony Toons (with Bugs Bunny)
  2. Tiny Toons (with Babs and Buster Bunny)
  3. Transformers
  4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
  5. Anamaniacs
Five Things That Terrify Me
  1. Heights
  2. Lawn gnomes (Seriously. They're so freakin' creepy!)
  3. Clowns
  4. Having onion breath
  5. ........hungry cannibals?
Five Things I hate/dislike that everyone else seems to like
  1. Mafia Wars on Facebook
  2. Twitter
  3. Macs OR PCs (Not that I hate either... I just have no strong feelings one way or the other, and it seems like everyone else has a strong preference...)
  4. Dancing
  5. the TV show Glee. I don't get it
Five Things I want to do before I Die
  1. Go to Chicago with Hayley
  2. Retire without debt and with enough money to not have to work during retirement
  3. Have a yard in which to do yard work
  4. Go on a cruise with Hayley (sorry, Hayley. Totally stole that one from you. But it doesn't mean I want to do it any less!)
  5. Write a book, maybe?
(I know, not super exciting things... but I'm kind of a practical guy. At least there's two fun vacations in there!)

Five People I tag
  1. Katey
  2. Diane
  3. Caron
  4. Cindy
  5. Erin
(Some of the tags are to see if you still read my bloggy blog. :) be sure to comment when you post!)

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Seemingly random thoughts

hmmmm... I'm sure everyone is sick of looking at that duck... so here's something new.

Hayley asked me to blog today... but I can't think of anything to blog about! So here are a few thoughts going through my head right now. Are you prepared for the madness?? To help, I'll separate thoughts by bullet points.
  • I watched V last night. Didn't really grab me right away and it felt like they had re-written the pilot episode a bunch of times, finding that they needed to move things along quickly to keep the audience interested. (If you haven't seen the episode yet, you may want to stop here.) So the aliens show up, start doing nice stuff, taking people on tours of their ships, and start giving clues that they're not entirely well-intended. But it seems like in that first episode, two months or so passed... Also, I wasn't a huge fan of the acting. The saving grace was Juliet from Lost was in it, and so was Alan Tdyk. So we'll probably give it a couple more episodes.
  • I like Cash Cab. I'm watching it now while I wait for Hayley to get home from parent teacher conferences. Mostly because I love trivia. I may or may not have 3 trivia aps on my iPod Touch. Even thought I like Cash Cab, I'd rather have Hayley home...
  • I caught up on a bunch of stuff at work today. With so many RFPs to work on, my desk got kinda cluttered, and I was behind on one of my monthly reports. Now I'm good to go, my desk is cleared, and the other projects I'm working on are doing just great. Yay for being on top of things!
  • Hayley let me make picaditas for dinner the other night, and I'm going to be making one of my favorite salsa recipes soon, too. Dinner didn't even suck that night! Pretty soon I'll be wearing a sombrero, pancho, and want to make agua de Jamaica (pronounced huh-mike-uh) for Hayley, too! ...kidding!
  • I'm looking forward to the holidays! I like the spirit of the season, the hot chocolate, and extra time with Hayley. I'm not looking forward to driving in the snow, however...
  • I'm looking forward to the last season of Lost! It starts in 2010 sometime... so I've got some time to wait, but it'll be fun once it starts.
  • I'm looking forward to going to Chicago with Hayley! She has a list of stuff we're going to do on her blog, and I sometimes click the links and get excited.
  • I like the Dr Pepper pajama pants I'm wearing right now. Comfy.
  • I kinda want a Reese's peanut butter cup right now. And for some reason, I pronounce it ree-seas, not ree-sez. Whatev.
  • I'm still wearing my brown work socks right now.
  • I find it interesting that my thoughts got increasingly shorter. Must be time to stop.
There ya go. What's going through your mind?

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Look at this...

Ok, so you've heard of those motivational posters, right? They've got a little phrase and a picture that are supposed to be inspiring, and they show up all over corporate America. My work is not exempt. We've got more than a couple on our walls... Here's an example of one.


I can't really tell what it says there, but you get the idea... Nice little picture, inspirational quote. Not really that impressive, but covers the walls and makes management feel a little better. So there's another website that makes fun of these types of posters. They use the nice little picture, but the supposed "inspirational quote" is really kind of mocking at the original idea of what these sort of posters should do. Case in point:


Well, thanks to the interwebs, we get all sorts of these, not just the classy kind of mocking posters like the one above. Now people make them just to make fun of goofy pictures or just dumb people. Observe:


I'm getting to a point here...

So with these sort of images running all over the place, and because I work in corporate America, I get various email forwards with bunches of all types of these pictures. The only real constant is the black background/frame, then a word or words in a large font, followed by words in a smaller font. Some are funny, some are not.

Today I got a forward with one of these types of images... I'm not proud of it, but I couldn't stop laughing. It's not that it's dirty or anything, it just really may not be that funny to anyone else. But I seriously could NOT stop laughing. Every time I thought or said the words "look at it," I would lose control. I even started crying, I was laughing so hard. Other people were laughing at it with me, but mostly, I think they were laughing at me and how crazy I was to think it so funny! Even after work when I was telling Hayley about the image, I started laughing uncontrollably. She also laughed; again, I think because I'm a dork more than because she thinks it's funny...

With my pride on the line, and the knowledge that you'll all think I'm a big, giant dork, here is the image that I think is so dang funny.


Isn't that hysterical?!!! Even when I went to upload the image just now, reviewing it made me laugh. I mean, it's a giraffe, right? It looks like he's pointing at that duck. Look at it. hahahaha!! LOOK AT IT!!

Ok, let the name calling begin.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Ingrid Concert

On Saturday, Hayley and I and two of her sisters and a niece went to the Ingrid Michaelson concert. It was pretty rad. I knew Ingrid before I met Hayley, but I have grown to love her music much more since we started dating. I'm now quite a big fan.

The concert was pretty awesome. Ingrid is a funny girl. Sure, she's obviously just ended a relationship, but at least the music produced by the breakup is good. ;) Ingrid, hope you get over that soon!

Anyway, I had a great time. Sure, I stood in one spot for like 3 hours (maybe 4? Hayley?), but it was worth it! And just to show you, I'm going to share a video I took. The song is called "The Chain." It's one of my favorites because Hayley and I sing different parts in the round at the end. It's fun. Anyway, here's the video. Hope you enjoy!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Lots o' stuff

I haven't blogged in a while. I think that's partly because Hayley is better at it than me. She updates more often, posts pictures, and even edits them all cool and stuff. I guess that shouldn't mean that I don't blog, but lots of the stuff that I would blog about have already been recorded! So, rather than give repeats, I'll give links, and maybe a little commentary.

We painted our house. It looks really nice, and I'm proud of Hayley and I for doing it. We did it all together and had a blast. We would write cheesy notes to each other on the walls as we were painting, and when each room and wall was finished, we would stand back and admire our work. Hayley was a little worried about the orange wall, but she likes it now. I'm glad. I like it, too.

We got carpet. It looks great! It was nice knowing we were getting new carpet while we painting. It meant a lot less prep work. :) And every time some paint would get on the floor, I would make the lame joke, "Uh oh!!! Looks like we better get new carpet!" Hayley thought I was a big nerd. With good reason. But I like the new stuff.

I put pulls and nobs on our kitchen cabinets and drawers. I think I did a pretty good job! I built kitchen cabinets from little cabinet kits thingers for a job once, but that was really my only sort of job like that. (Unless you count the night stand I made in high school. Which I don't...) There's just one pull I need to fix...

Other than that, not much else! Work is busy, and about to get busier, but we are having another Wii contest, so that's good. It's dodgeball. And I think my chances are pretty good! I'll keep you all (all 3 of you) posted on how that goes.

How have all y'all been? What have YOU been up to?

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Painting, exhaustion, and obnoxious neighbors

This post is sans-pictures. Sorry. But it's a fun read, I promise...

You may or may not know that Hayley and I are paintin' it up at our place. We originally planned on painting all the walls in the two bedrooms, some touch-ups in the living room, and maybe painting the bathrooms. Well, we've done a little more than that, and will be very nearly finished with painting all the walls and ceiling (which I keep calling the roof for some reason) in the second bedroom, all the walls in our bedroom (looks freakin' AWESOME right about now), and instead of touch-ups in the living room, we're repainting the accent wall. My lovely wife has agreed to a dark, brownish, orange color. Am I or am I not the luckiest guy in the world?

With every night this week involving some iteration of painting, we have gone to bed quite tired. Last night was no exception, only because it is the weekend, our obnoxious neighbors--whom we refer to less-than-affectionately as the Drunken Sluts--were having yet another party.

As a side note, sorry Mom and Dad, but they deserve the nick name. Also, how embarrassed would you be to know your neighbors refer to you as drunken sluts?? They should be ashamed. But they have more than earned this nick name. Guys are over there at all hours of the day and night, they drink, smoke, make a general ruckus, and the place is like Grand Central Station... They're loud, vulgar, and all around obnoxious. But I digress. Moving on with the story...


So the Drunken Sluts have people over. Not unusual. Hayley usually puts on her sound machine, and the noise usually drowns out their partying. With the weather being nice, we leave the windows open rather than use the air conditioning, so our bedroom window aims right at their balcony. Where drunken sluttiness often ensues. Again, the sound machine helps, and when we fall asleep, we hope to never hear from them again. At least until the next weekend.

Last night was not one of those nights where we fall asleep and wake up much earlier than the hung-over party-goers at the Drunken Sluts' place. They went on and on, and when I did finally fall asleep, they woke me up at about 3 with more loud talking. I was annoyed, because we were planning on painting all day the next day (Saturday). While in that state of semi-sleep and anger, I started dreaming...

I dreamed that I called the cops on them. I dreamed that the dispatcher was less than helpful. The dispatcher told me to go outside and inspect things, and as I was narrating the ruckus, the Drunk Sluts and friends started to get the gist of what was going on, and retaliated. They were louder, and even shined a flashlight at our windows when we got back inside. This pissed dream Hayley off to no end, and she grabbed our big flashlight, and shined it back at the sonsa bitches. Then, one of the guys at the party tried to scale our balcony by jumping up the walls a la parkour (obviously inspired by premier episode of The Office that we watched last week), and I grabbed his hands as he dangled from the balcony and threw him off, where he crashed to the ground. I don't remember much else from the dream except the feeling of extreme anger and hatred for the Drunk Sluts and their guests, and some strong indignation at how unhelpful the dispatcher was, and exasperation at how slow the police were to arrive at the scene.

I woke up at about 3:45 a.m. after this dream to hear the neighbors STILL talking loudly. I was completely pissed. I pulled on the shorts I had painted in the day before, left our room, went to the balcony, and yelled at them to shut up, citing the time as "nearly 4 in the morning" and using a few other choice words. Turns out it was just one of the Drunk Sluts with some guy, out on the sidewalk, chatting it up like it was the middle of the day. The guy sheepishly apologized, promised they'd be quite, and he left like 5 minutes later. My outburst sorta got my heart rate up, woke up Hayley, and didn't really help us get back to sleep. On top of that, at about 4:30, ANOTHER rambunctious bunch--not from the Drunken Sluts' place, mind--staggered out of their condo and started hootin' and hollerin'. I was pissed, again. This time, another neighbor yelled at this group. They took a little longer to disperse than the two I yelled at, however.

So not a great night's sleep. In spite of this however, we got quite a lot of painting done today, and only have one(-ish) wall and we are done! Well, we'll still have bathrooms and a second coat on a bookshelf, but we're mostly done! I can't wait to see the finished product! (Hayley will take pictures, don't worry. In fact, see pictures of the second bedroom here.) It will be even cooler to see what it looks like with our new carpet!

So pardon me if I'm a little sleepy or groggy if you talk to me in the next few days. It's been a blast painting, we love the fruits of our labors, but we haven't slept as well as we'd like. ;) Here's hoping our neighbors don't need to be yelled at again tonight. Because I might actually make that call to the cops this time, and not just in my dreams.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

It's the happiest day of the year!!!

Ok, maybe that's a stretch, but it's still exciting! For me, at least... it's National Punctuation Day. Who knew there was such a day, right? My mom actually sent the link, and it's pretty cool. If only I had known earlier! I might have been able to participate in the First National Punctuation Day Baking Contest! (Seriously. It's a real thing.) Now, if there was a National Punctuation Day Painting Contest, I think Hayley and I would have totally won... except that our painting had absolutely nothing to do with punctuation... but we used correct grammar while painting, with complete sentences like, "I freakin' love this color!" (While it is slang, the proper punctuation when ending an -ING word with the letter N is to replace the G with an apostrophe. Don't believe me? Check this out.)

If you'd like to learn more about my favorite punctuation mark, click here. You can also visit the home page and learn all about ellipses (not an instance when the moon moves in front of the sun, by the way), commas, brackets, question marks, semicolons, and more!

Ok, I'm a big dork. But I think it's pretty awesome there's a national day for punctuation.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

I learned it by watching you!!

At least twice this week, Hayley or I have said "I learned it by watching you!" in an overly dramatic and pretend-sad voice. It happened again today on our drive home from Tori's place, so I thought I'd share it with you all. Remember this public service announcement from when we were kids? I always thought it was a little funny.



I think I thought it was funny mostly because I never imagined my parents--or any other grown up that didn't have physical signs of addiction, for that matter--even considered drugs. As a kid, I thought drugs were for kids who hated life, mostly. I realize that's a very immature way to think about it, and I got some better counseling and direction, but this ad still makes me laugh... But it's serious, folks. Say no to drugs.