Party Planning

So, it's been decided that we're having a Halloween party. I had one two years ago and it was, by far, the best party I've ever had. So, because I've already planned the party, I don't really need to figure out what to do this time...and that means I have more time to plan my costume! Of course, nothing right now looks good. But I did find this, which I love. But, then again, all girls love '80s-era John Cusack.

And then I found this one!

The Number Game

I went to Wal-Mart today to get an oil change. While waiting, I ended up grabbing a cart and having a little bit of a bender. I finally had to sit myself down so I wouldn't put anything else in my cart, and then I started people watching and letting my mind wander. The number of people at Wal-Mart, the number of people getting their oil changed in the world right now, the number of people world-wide who are getting their oil changed and going on a shopping bender at Wal-Mart. Now, as much as I probably couldn't predict that number, I can however find out numbers of other goings-on in the world.

Link

Day off!

So, I feel like something of a hypocrite right now. Yesterday, I was practically gushing about waking up early. But then today was the first day in more than two weeks I was able to turn off my alarm clock and sleep in, thanks to our office deciding we should have a four-day weekend. And, what time did I end up getting up? 1:20 p.m.

Granted, I let myself go out last night until last call at a bar with some friends. But it's not like I was passed out; I had water the whole time. (No money for much else.) I think I just needed the sleep, too.

So when I woke up finally, I had to do something big. So, I decided to stencil the kitchen.

After looking [in vain] for a half hour for the stencil I bought months ago, I went back to the craft store to buy another.

Once I got back, I transformed this:

To this:

With that finished, I needed to add the final touch I had wanted to add before we even closed on the house:

Now, before you judge the fact we haven't painted the windows yet, please look at what the kitchen looked like right after we moved in (sorry, I had gotten excited and started ripping as much wallpaper off the wall as I could the first day):

It Feels Like Fall...

Two things come to mind when it starts feeling like the end of summer and the start of autumn: Phish and a patchouli air freshener I found years ago that I can't seem to find again. And, no, it's one of the few patchouli products that doesn't smell like dirty hippie; it actually smells more like Necco Wafers.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane...

It's a Word Cloud!

The Ride-Home Song

A classic from either 1989 or 1993, depending on which version you listen to:

Moxy Fruvous - King of Spain

Fact: Checked!

Jingle Bells Was Originally A Thanksgiving Song

This was said by a co-worker randomly. Doing my normal job, I had to check it out and found the following from howstuffworks.com:

"...the original music, composed by Boston Sunday school teacher James Pierpont, was conceived as a Thanksgiving song in 1857. Originally titled "The One Horse Open Sleigh," the song was taught by Pierpont to his pupils for a performance and was delighted to find that all 40 of them learned its lyrics almost immediately. Declared "a merry jingle" by a close friend, this holiday carol was fine-tuned and performed again at Christmastime, and quickly became a Yuletide classic."

The One Year I Pay Attention To The Olympics

Now I can't escape my morning news reading without seeing something new about Michael Phelps. While I'm happy for him and I'm glad he broke the record (I saw it at Chili's with my husband and our friend...the chips and queso was delicious), it's amazing how apparently his genetic mutant powers, his old school bullies and his mom all end up in the news.

On the lighter side, Phelps-isms are now replacing the "I've-already-heard-'em-all" Chuck Norris lines.

But my favorite quality of Phelps himself is the modesty he shows:

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

And the Answer is "No!"

Lowering the drinking age? 

This may be because the age of 20 seemed like it lasted eons longer than any other year of my life and then when I turned 21, after about a week, the thrill was gone.

Ironic or Real?

That's the thing with the hipster mentality: I have no idea if they're trying to be blatantly ironic or if they really believe what's coming out of their mouths.

I felt the same confusion (as well as a chuckle) when I found the Hipster PDA.

Word of the Day

HEURISTIC

I came across this word in my daily jog around my common Web sites. I must have read it before and been able to put it into context without a second thought, but today I realized I had no idea how to use it in real life. So I looked it up:

From Wikipedia: A 'heuristic (hy -ˈris-tik)' is a method to help solve a problem, commonly informal. It is particularly used for a method that often rapidly leads to a solution that is usually reasonably close to the best possible answer. Heuristics are "rules of thumb", educated guesses, intuitive judgments or simply common sense.

Well, how's that for irony?

Love it!

Goths Are Sooo Last Post...

The new group of tools are just as pretentiously annoying...

A Word About Goths

Word  

With that said, I could really go for some Viper Vials right now...my mouth is already watering just thinking about the rush of sour sugar in 7th grade homeroom...

If People Were Meant to Pop Out of Bed, We'd All Sleep in Toasters.

Since coming back three weeks ago from our honeymoon, I've turned into this pseudo-Emily I barely recognize.

I wake up early, I make the bed, I clean, I pack a lunch, I put on make-up at home (not in traffic!), I get work done early, I clean my car when I'm stuck in traffic on the ride home, I stick to a diet (for more than three days, even!), I come home and keep cleaning, I curse my husband for thinking the kitchen cleans itself at night, then I secretly thank him for giving me the mess so I can feel productive and keep this streak up.

There are these affirmations constantly playing in my head, since I got back:

"Emily P. wakes up late, splashes water on her face, brushes her teeth and doesn't care what she's wear as she runs out the door; Emily A. sets her alarm a half an hour earlier and only allows herself to hit the snooze button once."

"Emily P. only wears her hair down when she has the motivation to style it; Emily A.'s hair is styled everyday." -- Granted, this affirmation is unfair since I cut my hair on my honeymoon after letting it grow as long as I've ever had it just so I had more versatility for the wedding hairstyle.

"Emily P. says she'll do things, but procrastinates instead; Emily A. doesn't let herself procrastinate for too long."

"Emily P. lets things that aren't hers sit out, silently cursing whoever the items belong to; Emily A. moves things on her own, knowing that if they don't belong to her, they are probably her husband's. He still has to put them away, but at least they're moved out of Emily's way."

"Emily P. decides on a diet, becomes excited for it, goes full force into it, then fails; Emily A. has been on the same diet for two weeks now, not minding the stagnant days of weight loss here and there, knowing she can make mistakes, is going to be patient with the scale."

"Emily P. spends cash on lunch at work, eating cafeteria food filled with God-Knows-What; Emily A. packs her very diet friendly lunch every day, saving at least $25 a week on food."

"Emily P. needs to finish a bottle of wine before feeling accomplished; Emily A. feels accomplished when she notices a buzz from just one tall glass of wine, and can stop drinking for the rest of the night." -- Getting a wine stopper to keep wine fresh was also a factor in this.

"Emily P. figured she was an adult already; Emily A. knew she was wrong."

Links to inspire (Please don't be put off by the eye-rolling tendencies you may have when reading some of these; trust me, I did the same thing):

Rising early

Achieving A Goal

Positive Thinking

Morning Song

Woke up with this in my head. Now I'm incredibly glad I found this video with scenes from "Elizabethtown", as I love almost anything Cameron Crowe has a hand in:




By the way, if you've never seen this Cameron Crowe film, please do so. And, if it ever comes up, when I die, I want a very similar adventure to what Mitch had in the movie.

Cute = Wood Chipper

A former co-worker of mine and I decided one day to equate the level of cuteness of something by how badly we wanted to put it into a wood chipper. Don't question it! There are just some things in this world that are too damn cute to survive in this world, let alone have some sort of cute death to top it off.

Once this idea is revealed to others, it goes over their heads a bit, sends them into shock at the thought, and creates something of an uproar.

Not that we would ever actually DO it to the creatures! Just, well, maybe it's picture so we would stop biting the insides of our cheeks over just how damn cute something can be.

Two Cars, One Driveway

No, it's not a video; it's a lifestyle. It's a little after 6 a.m. and my husband just left for work. I don't have to leave until 8:30. However, I come home in the afternoon after he does so, unless he happens to be out, I have to park behind him...that is if he didn't invite company over before I got home and someone else is parked in the driveway and, god forbid, they pull their car up a bit so I wouldn't have to park in the parking lot down the street.


This may prove difficult for some, but we get along just fine. Think I'm sounding cocky? Come on, imagine sharing the road, let alone a driveway, with this creature:















I mean, honestly! Not only do I not care to look at feet when I'm stuck in traffic, but in driving her SUV, I have a feeling this position is not as comfortable as she would have liked it to be. Here's my interpretation of what was going on inside the car:



















No matter what the truth of the matter is (a terrible thing for any journalist to say, I know...), the fact remains that this person is official deemed TOOL.

Co-worker's Theory of "Jaws"

The Theory: "Jaws" is a Western, not a thriller.

Argument Given: "This bad-ass, gun-slinging-like shark comes into town, scaring all the locals. And the sheriff and his deputies have to get him out so the townsfolk can resume their normal lives! It's not really scary as it is a modern-day Western...well, as modern as the '70s can get, I guess."

My Take: "Hahahahaha."

Note: Picture found randomly on the internet, after a Google Search of "Cowboy Shark". Thinking I would end up having a boring movie poster of "Jaws" next to the generic John Wayne picture, I was almost squealing with delight at finding this picture worth considerably more than 1,000 words to add to this post. Thank you Keystone Light, or whatever the liquor was these fine folks had in them.

An Old Favorite

Just in case anyone is confused as much as I am with word-picture associations, these nice people have captioned these warnings:

http://home.carolina.rr.com/zerb/beready/

Currently Playing

I heard it on the way home from work today. It's been stuck in my head ever since.

Ironically, it's the only song I like from Lenny Kravitz. No, not like, LOVE!

Starting a Blog

10 Reasons I Didn't Want To Start A Blog

• I would get tired of it and never write in it. (Eg: My LiveJournal; the so-called Blogs on MySpace; the countless books I have started and never finished on numerous computers, hard disks and flash drives.)
• I would go the opposite of No. 1 and go nuts writing in it, not caring about content as much as I would care about post count.
• My husband would watch me as I was writing in it, which wouldn't be a bad thing but he would start peeking over my shoulder whenever I was on my computer, trying to be the "first" to catch a glimpse of what was in store.
• I would hear the phrase I hated when people would read anything I published: "So, I was reading your blog/column/post-it..." and they'd want to follow up or ask more questions. Soon, there will be comment etiquette available for the public to read...then promptly ignore.
• Would my random thoughts I find amusing strike others the same way?
• The fear of losing anonymity (not with friends or family, but people I don't want to know I have a blog).
• Having people who know what a stickler I am for grammar, spelling and fact checking point out my mistakes in the comments.
• Spending too much time on the blog instead of doing the other productive things I should be doing.
• Feeling let down when no one's reading it.
• Feeling too exposed when people are reading it.

Top 10 Reasons I Wanted to Start A Blog

• I miss writing. I loved having a column and getting comments from readers; maybe pretending too much I was a celebrity; knowing I could write circles around Carrie Bradshaw, understanding that five years' worth of columns doesn't even come close to the amount of money used to purchase ONE Manolo Blahnik, but just loving to write.
• The [sad] satisfaction I get out of being my own editor and fact checker. (It's astounding how the joy of checking the correct spelling of Manolo Blahnik and putting away the worry of looking stupid makes me feel.
• I send out tons of e-mails every week with links, videos, pictures and jokes to my friends, never bothering to keep any of them in my Frequent Contacts list, so when someone gets left off an e-mail, I hear about it later. It's easier to have one space I can put up whatever I'm currently enjoying.
• The thought that comes into my mind when reading other blogs: "I could write something like this."
• The dull lapses at work when I've looked at all my usual Web sites and can't think of a single thing to do, so I compose a long e-mail to one of my friends...ranting about nothing in particular, just so I can make sure I still type 80 WPM.
• Yes, 80 WPM.
• Another reason to use my digital camera more often.
• If you've ever been the "funny one" in a group of friends, you know the thin line between being the center of attention and being made to perform. Blogging can help me have some control over when I "perform".
• "Studies show..." this; "Reports are saying..." that. Blogging's good for you. Google it.
• I already worked so hard on the name and the graphic, I might as well use the blog.