Archive for March, 2008
Well, we did it. After months of deliberation, we have finally decided to add another member to our family. Last Friday, Ravi and I went to the vet for a check up and shots, and while we were there, we met Cosmo. Cosmo had been found in a crate on the side of a road, and a client of our vet brought him in. He’s been the resident office cat for the last few weeks, but the friendly staff at Cobblestone Veterinary Hospital have been looking for a permanent home for Cosmo.
And Cosmo was exactly what we were looking for: Bombay mix, male, neutered, with claws.
So we brought him home today. The adoption isn’t official; we’re seeing how he fits into our family for a few days. He’s made himself right at home, much to the dismay of Ravi, Cat Numero Uno. We made the mistake of letting Cosmo roam around on his own, and poor Ravi has been beside himself, hiding under one of our end tables. We’re currently trying to repair the damage we’ve already caused by leaving Cosmo in our office. He has quite the set up in there: litterbox, water, food, office chair, and plenty of toys.
I’ll keep you posted on Ravi’s bruised ego and Cosmo’s adjustment to the family. And soon I’ll be able to tell you if we’re officially adopting him and what his new name will be!
March 31st, 2008
I’ve been tagged by kch at Run Faster to write a six-word memoir, which means I have to sum up the last 25 years of my life in six little words. I can say with confidence that one theme continues to pop up in the decisions I make, the random things I do, and in what happens to me:
Beat my own path. Never looked back.
Now it’s my turn to play tag, and these peeps of mine should write up some fine memoirs:
And here are the rules of this little meme:
- Write your own six word memoir.
- Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you want.
- Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to the original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
- Tag at least five more blogs with links.
- Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.
Editor’s Note Due to some protests that my six-word memoir is actually seven, I’m slightly revising it:
Blazed own path. Never looked back.
There. Are you all happy now?
March 31st, 2008
- Monday: 3 easy miles
- Tuesday: Tone to the Max (60 min.) + Yoga for Athletes (40 min.)
- Wednesday: 5 easy miles
- Thursday: Tone to the Max (60 min.) + Yoga for Athletes (40 min.)
- Friday: Cycling (45–60 min.)
- Saturday: 6 easy miles
- Sunday: Rest
March 30th, 2008
- It would get me gifts.
- I wanted to make someone jealous.
- I wanted to be popular.
- I wanted to enhance my reputation.
- I wanted to say, “Thank you.”
- I wanted to say, “I missed you.”
- I desired emotional closeness.
- I wanted to put passion back into my relationship.
- I wanted to show my affection for the person.
- I wanted to change the topic of conversation.
March 29th, 2008
I’m so glad it’s Friday again! This week has been busy, but I have some worthwhile reading for you. Today you’ll note that there’s not the usual proliferation of fitness/health/running posts; instead I’ve got several cool designer-type stuff for you to check out.
- Bathtub With Built-In Bookshelves It’s no secret that I love books and bookshelves. And I can think of no better way to remodel a bathroom than with a bathtub that also moonlights as a library.
- Couple Wants Wedding Reception at Apple Store OK, so I didn’t get on the Mac train until I met my husband, and personally, I only have an iPod Shuffle, but I have dreams of owning my own MacBook one day. That said, I don’t think anyone can say that Apple Stores are not some of the coolest places to shop, so who wouldn’t want to have a wedding reception there? Why didn’t we think of that?
- Photoshop Express Now Online The designer that is slowly growing in me (courtesy of my hubby) is excited to try out the newly-released Photoshop Express, an free, online version of the photo-editing program we’ve all come to know and love.
- Pantone Offers Colorful Flash Drives I sent this to my hubby today because as a designer, he sort of lives and breathes by Pantone, the color authority in printing and design and the world. So now they’re offering flash drives in signature Pantone colors. If only they Pantone pens, i which I could choose the perfect pigment (in a Uniball pen, of course) with which to write and edit.
- Tricks From Madonna’s Trainer (via Daily Mail) I have envied Madonna’s toned arms (and mad dance skills) for a very long time, and now I know her secret! It’s her trainer and a repertoire of low weights/high reps and dancing.
- Letter To a Great Guy This one is a little random, and you have to watch the video and read the whole letter to really understand it, but here’s the gist: This guy was the first Canadian to medal in gymnastics. He broke both his legs in a training exercise. And he’s hoping to make a comeback. Yeesh!
- Do You Use Recycle Your Grocery Bags? My grocery store started selling reusable grocery sacks this winter, and I picked up a few at the first opportunity. Our consumption of plastic grocery sacks has gone down by an estimated 95%! What are you doing to be green today?
That’s your reading for the weekend! Enjoy
March 28th, 2008
I took a little spring break earlier in March to go home and visit my family. Ah, family. Yes, mine is as crazy as the next, but I think this takes the cake: My mother has joined the sheriff’s posse.
My experience with the sheriff’s posse is slim; namely, I remember seeing them at events like rodeos and demolition derbies sitting astride their horses and ensuring that drunken chaos never ensued. Apparently, as I’ve been corrected, the sheriff’s posse does more than what I’ve described. If activated by the sheriff, they have the “authority” of the Henry County Sheriff’s Department and can take action—whatever that means. More than likely, if they’re activated, they’ll be called upon to do sweeps and searches and such.
So Mom (and my aunt and uncle) filled out their applications and were approved by the sheriff, which is no surprise to me because my mom has been on the HCSD’s A list since I was a kid:
- We moved out of town when I was in first grade, and during the week, my dad worked away from home, so it was just Mom, Jacob, and me in our house and just a handful of neighbors on our dead-end road. At the time, the 100-year-old cemetery on the corp ground just two miles behind our house was the party scene for local carousers, and the unusual amount of traffic generated by weekend parties prompted Mom to call the sheriff’s department time after time until local partiers got tired of fleeing from law enforcement every weekend. At some point, they found a new party spot, and Mom could sleep peacefully.
- In 2003, Mom’s daughter dated the deputy sheriff for about six months, and Mom got to know him pretty well. Now they’re on a first-name basis.
- In 2007, Mom was chosen by the sheriff to serve on a grand jury for a high-profile (for Henry Co. anyway) manslaughter case.
- And just this winter, Mom got a late-night visit from a pair of deputies who were looking for a stray teenage girl (who had been with friends at the cemetery when they abandoned her and who made her way to Mom’s house in the middle of the night).
At first, I thought this whole sheriff’s posse escapade was just another excuse for Mom to take her horse Duke out (after all, they get ride in local parades)—and part of me still thinks that’s an alternative motive—but it’s fun to see Mom do something a little out of the ordinary. Of course, this doesn’t surprise me—she’s always marched to the beat of a different drummer, and that’s probably why I do, too. I have an excellent example to follow!
March 27th, 2008
One of friends who shall not be named sent me an e-mail yesterday asking if these people were in my family just because they’re from the same area where I grew up. And no, they’re not (but I did have to verify that with my mother last night). They do, however, live just a few miles from where my mother grew up and where my grandparents still live.I admit that I laughed a little when I heard the story: A redneck from backwoods Missouri used his .22 pistol to shoot a hole through a wall while he was installing his satellite dish and accidentally shot his wife. Sounds like something from CSI, doesn’t it? But this woman was a wife and a mother, and she was killed. That’s not funny at all.
So today I’m sort of in this weird mood about this news story. Part of me sincerely hurts for this family because they’ve lost someone who was very special to them. Part of me just wants to shake my head at the stupid things people do. And part of me wants to watch this video again, so I can laugh at myself and say, “I used to date the spokesman for the Henry County Sheriff’s Department!”
That’s right, the guy with the impeccable hair speaking for the HCSD is one in the long line of hearts I broke before settling down and marrying the man of my dreams!
March 26th, 2008
Turns out I can’t do everything. I try to do everything, and most of the time, I can do most things pretty well. And if I’m completely clueless, I usually hike up my pants, say to myself, “You’ve got a Master’s degree. You can figure it out,” and give it my best shot.
And that’s how my morning started. By 10:30, the seemingly simple switch from cable to DSL at work had me cursing under my breath. Turns out, I’m not good at networking: computer or social.
Next time, I’ll leave it to the experts (i.e. Ben, the rockin’ LPC intern).
March 25th, 2008
- Monday: 3 easy miles
- Tuesday: Tone to the Max (60 min.) + Yoga for Athletes (40 min.)
- Wednesday: 4 easy miles
- Thursday: Tone to the Max (60 min.) + Yoga for Athletes (40 min.)
- Friday: Cycling (45–60 min.)
- Saturday: 5 easy miles
- Sunday: Rest
March 23rd, 2008
Well, I’ve done it again and let two weeks pass between link-lovin’s. This week you’ll find some great political pieces, writing tips, and as always, random fun. Enjoy!
- Worst Easter Candies for Your Waist Let’s start off this week with something to depress you. Just how much Easter candy did you eat this week?
- Family Friends Race Gender Another great post from David Catanese at KY3. I think we can all relate to skating on thin political ice around friends and family.
- And You Think You’re Tired of the Democratic Campaign! Just imagine how the Democratic staffers feel! We were supposed to have chosen the Democratic nominee by now, but there’s no end in sight. Can you imagine not taking a day off for months at a time?
- California Parents Don’t Have the Right to Homeschool Their Children Did you here about this recent ruling from the CA court system? Unless parents are qualified, they’re no longer allowed to homeschool. I have both family and friends that homeschool their kidlings (and they do a fantastic job), so I’ll be keeping tabs on this news story in the future.
- Would You Confess Your Sins Online I’m not Catholic, but I find this topic fascinating, and much of my research for my thesis involved notions of online religion.
- Top 80 Church Websites ChurchRelevance.com released its list of top 80 church websites this year, and I couldn’t disagree with them more! The sites at the top of their list are Flash-based and not user friendly, but I suppose that a “cool” website trumps usability any day! Who cares if your church website is artsy if your visitors can’t find anything they’re looking for. Hmphf!
- Why Bloggers Should Moderate All Comments My gal pal Teresa is an avid blogger, and she recommends that bloggers moderate all the comments on their blogs. Good arguments to consider for all bloggers.
- Verbicide One of my new favorite blogs is the Mighty Red Pen because the blogger is also an editor. Have you seen “verbing” of words around your home? In recent years, Googling, blogging, and texting have all been “verbed.”
- Nix Those Adjectives and Adverbs This applies to anyone who wants to be a better writer—use plain English and keep your sentences simple. Thanks to the writers over at “So You Want to be Published”!
- Just Say No to These Three Enemies of Clear and Direct Writing Even though I have two degrees in writing, I’m always thankful for reminders in writing well, and this post from Copyblogger teaches us to say no to metadiscourse, redundancy, and pretentious words.
- Four-Word Thinking And blogging of clear and direct writing, now is as good a time as any to introduce my new blog: Four-Word Thinking. What can you say with four words?
- Running Long is a Gift This article from the Runner’s Lounge reminded me that I should be thankful for every mile I run. Running long is indeed a gift, especially when you must limit the miles you go every week.
- Guinness Petitions to Make St. Patrick’s Day a National Holiday I’m just a teeny bit Irish, but that’s reason enough for me to support the movement to make St. Paddy’s Day a national holiday. Agree with the peeps at Guinness? Sign the petition here.
- Daylight Savings Time ≠ Energy Savings Time I’m not the only one still recovering from DST; apparently, the promise that moving the DST schedule earlier in the spring and later in the fall isn’t saving the energy as Congress promised, which just goes to show that we shouldn’t let our lawmakers make scientific decisions.
March 21st, 2008
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