Random thoughts

(I’m starting this entry at 10:00am…)

On the train from Toronto yesterday, there was a severe thunderstorm warning for Waterloo Region. This is what I saw from my window:

AWESOME!!!! I love storms. My husband thinks I’m sick, ha.

Anyways…

Back to my random thoughts :D

Michael Jackson died, holycrap.
Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Billy Mays, who else? You’d almost think God was wiping out Hollywood! Crazy.

I have a stomach ache this morning, and I think it was the Oktoberfest sausage I ate for dinner last night. Gross.

Last night I got a good night’s rest. After I took two Aleve tablets of course… I think I’ve found my sleeping aid!

I’m so chatty today.

Tomorrow is CANADA DAY!!!!!! Day off, sucks that it’s in the middle of the week though, dumb. I was supposed to shoot engagement pics but it’s supposed to rain all day. Looks like a beach day is out of the question for later, too. That sucks. I haven’t been to the beach (any beach) since before I got married holycrap. That’s not right, I love the beach! Nic complains whenever I suggest it because I don’t swim in the lake. (It’s too cold) but hello! heat, sun, sand… dipping my toes in… what’s not to love? :-)

I also want to get making more hemp jewelry. It’s so beachy! :D

Speaking of hemp, I’m wearing an anklet I made awhile ago with wooden beads knotted in. The one morning, my kitten saw my foot hanging off the bed and she decided to try and play with it. Aw, so cute. LOL

I’m so distracted today. Weeeeeeeee!

So get this: I’m likely going to be covering a nice media-and-community event, Olympics-related, in February (photography-wise). I can has excitement?! :D

My iPod earbuds are dead. I thought there was something wrong with my hearing yesterday, when I discovered that the left earbud is just, well, dead. The music sounds SO FAR AWAY. At least the right side is still A+, but I tend to just listen with the left one so I still have an “open ear” when coworkers swing by my desk, lol. *sigh*

I’ve found about 68 caches now, woot! My mum & I went out to Burlington/Hamilton on Sunday afternoon and picked up five of 7 attempts. It was such a nice day out too, and we discovered cool places that we never noticed before. I LOVE GEOCACHING! :-)
See the photos from the day… this one I wanted to get another silhouette for my growing collection. I hope to print one of those photobooks of just silhouettes. I don’t know why, it’s just a project I want to do. :P

Last weekend was interesting… I had wanted to go see a movie but Mr DH couldn’t decide and then a friend messaged me to go visit. I agreed, and before I left, Nic headed out to go see a movie with his friend. GAH! *headdesk* anyways, when I got to my friend’s place, she (Krystal) and another girl (Elaine, it was actually her place we were at) were sprawled on the floor and painting canvasses. Sweet! Something new and different for a change. They were also attempting to watch “27 Dresses” but painting and talking were much more important. I concur. :-)

Now I want to paint again. I ended up painting green and pink (think: watermelon) dots on this white canvass for Elaine to hang up in her apartment. Nice! :-) I wish I had a photo… Krystal took pics but I haven’t seen them yet.

An online friend of mine is an artist, and I really like this one. Check it out:
http://www.aertenart.com/2009/06/fractal-no-39/

Ooh, and I just saw this on Twitter: How to speed up your website load time…
http://www.webweaver.nu/html-tips/load-time.shtml

And later on I want to check this out – 25 of the best photography websites:
http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/galleries/best-photographer-websites/

A small plane crashed (one person died) in Waterloo yesterday (yes, we have an international airport in my city! Pretty cool, but not when things like this happen). I was just out there on that same road where the plane crashed on Saturday picking up a cache. Scary!
Photos of the area:

And now it’s noon. I should wrap this up and eat my lunch. :D

Shorty’s got them Apple Bottom Jeans

I took this photo with my cellphone over a year ago while out shopping in Buffalo, NY. These are the new “Apple Bottom” jeans that are so “hot” right now.

I think they’re flippin UGLY.

Oh well. This photo has been viewed, as of today, 969 times.

I love Flickr stats!

J-K+8

I just watched the latest episode where Jon so proudly announced their separation. Even though none of us really knows them or their family… I really feel for them. It was upsetting to hear them talk about their marriage and their kids. Clearly, they are both up for keeping the kids’ interest front and center, but Jon’s comments were not convincing. Using terms like he’s “excited” to move on to this “new chapter” of his life? What the heck does that mean? What gives him the right to pack up and leave and start fresh? (We all know that’s why he’s leaving…) I don’t think he cares about his kids as much as he says he does. I saw his lack-of emotions and effortless speaking… I don’t think anyone can just outright say Kate drove him away. She was demanding and blunt from the very beginning of their show, how has things changed? Jon just clearly discovered “options”… morally wrong options.

I’m totally siding with Kate. Heck, I’d move to PA just to help out as a nanny or anything!

So sad. :( But who am I to judge… we only know what we see on TV. Still, very sad to see.

oh, dumb.

I think I missed doing anything and everything that was happening this weekend:

my own birthday bbq event | Baby Shower | Grandma’s birthday luncheon | printing photos | Waterloo Arts Festival | Bridal Shower |
The Ride to Conquer Cancer | OR watch game seven of the Stanley Cup

What I did was:
(finally!) watch A Time to Kill by renting it on iTunes
Pretty neat. I was looking for a few other movies to watch but they don’t have them (Twister, Jurassic Park to name a few). Once downloaded, there’s a new category on the left menu panel that says “Rented Movies”. They sit there for 30 days, and then once you hit “play” you’ve got 48 hours to watch it. Awesome! I think I’ll be using this feature a few times instead of running out to Rogers only to return movies late LOL

three loads of laundry
I totally hung it up outside. Not only is it good for saving energy, but clothes smell so much nicer! We use liquid softener as well so maybe that’s why we also don’t suffer from “itchy, board-like” line-dried clothes syndrome. Hmm.

cleaned up the house
Oh, my word. I left cleaning for too long. Sheesh. Took me three sinkfuls of water to get through all the dishes, two Swiffer disposable wet mops, and I eventually clogged the vacuum because of all the cat hair that was collected. Seriously gross. But, now it is clean! Yay!!

tried a new restaurant
After church, five of us headed to Ethel’s Lounge in Waterloo. Pretty cool.

went biking (aka geocaching)

About 4 hours worth. Found about 6 caches in the Stanley Park area with thebruce0 and gained about eight new mosquito bites because my repellent has no effect anymore

And what a beautiful weekend it was!!

movies

I love a good movie. A few favourites of mine include Armageddon, High Crimes, Double Jeopardy, The Client, Breach, The Departed, Enough, Twister, Jurassic Park (yes, all 3!), Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Rat Race, UP, Monsters Inc, Ice Age…

I’m in the mood for a fantastic conspiracy theory-type flick.

Suggestions? :-)

the week so far.

Well, it was my 25th birthday on Tuesday. I went out on my lunch and captured my 25th geocache, “just because” haha :-)
I didn’t do much for my birthday… my husband brought me home a nice bouquet of flowers, and for dinner we went out to Casey’s because the birthday person (on their birthday, with ID) gets $15 off their meal. Woo! I had chicken and ribs :-)

Also on Tuesday I took our kitten to the vet to get fixed. No more annoying moaning every couple weeks, and *hopefully* no more spraying around the living room. So gross. We’re going to get our carpets cleaned now and I AM SO EXCITED lol. It’s been a couple days now and kitteh (Mocha) seems to be healing well!

This morning I was up at 4:00am to go to the airport in Toronto to pick up Nic’s grandpa with his mom.

We left Kitchener at 5 and arrived around 6. Grandpa’s flight landed on time but getting his luggage took forever! After flying for nearly 24 hours (from Malaysia) I don’t know how he was still functioning! Anyways, my MIL went into the terminal to meet him while I drove around in order to avoid paying for parking, lol. An hour and a half later, we were all back in the car and on our way back to Kitchener. Woo!

This is going to be a long day.

well, hello blog!

I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve updated this blog in a decent way. I used to be all over blogging, bla bla bla and then it became a chore and I resorted to just uploading pics to my Flickr photostream. But I should probably keep this updated too.
I miss it.

So what’s new?

It’s my quarter-of-a-century birthday this week. Yay!
I’ve updated my wishlist if anyone feels so inclined to check it out… haha :-)

I’ve been somewhat busy with photography. I purchased a new website template and so far I still love it! (Check it out here)
A few portrait sessions in the last month but not much. I haven’t been advertising much either… It’s nice for some extra cash but I don’t think I’m going to completely change careers anytime soon. As you’ll read… I’m really enjoying my full time job…

I’ve been working in Toronto (an hour east of Kitchener) part time for the past three months just because of job shifting and shuffling.

street view from the office; I work on the 57th floor
It’s been a great shift for me; I’m working on numerous new tasks that I’m enjoying very much (website management, email creation, list management, etc etc – more “marketing” stuff than what I was doing before). I love it. Plus, my awesome coworkers in Toronto are awesome. I just wish I could work there all the time!

I’ve also taken up a new hobby: Geocaching!

me checking out a cache log
It’s so much fun. It’s a world-wide treasure hunt, right in your own backyard. Imagine that! I started finding a few caches with a friend because he’s got an iPhone with a GPS.

I just purchased my own GPS last week and now my cache count is up to 24! Check out my recent photos with this new hobby on Flickr.

At the beginning of May, my brother and I participated in the Paddle the Don event in Toronto.

From 9am-12pm we managed to paddle a canoe down the Don River – and survived! AND we weren’t the last ones to arrive at the finish :-) It was so much fun and so exciting! Unfortunately because I’d never been on this river I didn’t bring any cameras except my cellphone, so (click to view the set) these are the only photos & video I captured. Still pretty good I’d say.

Umm… that’s all for now. Next post I hope will be sooner than later! Cheers!

To Do List

Sometimes I make a list of stuff to do, and I include things that I’ve already done so I can scratch them off right away.

Just sayin’.

the World According to Americans

Whoever designed this is brilliant. I’m happy to live in the “uninhabited” space… that’s why it’s so clean and fresh up here, lol.

Click to view the full-size version.

the Swine Flu origin

Humour is the best medicine, I think. I don’t mean this to offend anyone, it arrived in my inbox today and I laughed.

freak storm!

the first freak thunderstorm happened this afternoon… the day began gloriously, balmy and clear as a bell. It wasn’t until about 3:30 that the sky began to cloud over and the wind and rain came out of nowhere.

I was spending some time at my parents house, (actually I was teaching them how to use Flickr and how to log into their account and upload photos). First it was the gusts of wind coming in the windows, and then the thunder. We got up from the computer and went outside (yes, in the rain!)

Standing in/under the garage hang-over, we witnessed a hockey net go flying past us, as well as two garbage cans and a garbage bag, everything that was originally in the backyard!

The clouds were swirling overhead and it was just amazing to see the rain fall in sheets. It was intense.

On my drive home shortly after the storm began, I saw lots of debris on the roads… branches and leaves, even a chair and a large bag of garbage in the middle of the streets. Thankfully I didn’t see anything too serious!

We heard on the police scanner in the evening that a house in Cambridge had actually been struck by lightning and caught fire. Yikes!

Wrong Email Address

From my email inbox this morning! Hahaha…. Enjoy!

This one is priceless….A lesson to be learned from typing the wrong email address!!!!

A Minneapolis couple decided to go to Florida to thaw out during a particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier.

Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel schedules. So, the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday, with his wife flying down the following day. The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an email to his wife. However, he accidentally left out one letter in her email address, and without realizing his error, sent the email.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston , a widow had just returned home from her husband’s funeral. He was a minister who was called home to glory following a heart attack.

The widow decided to check her email expecting messages from relatives and friends. After reading the first message, she screamed and fainted.

The widow’s son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen which read:

To: My Loving Wife
Subject: I’ve Arrived
Date: October 16, 2005

I know you’re surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now and you are allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I’ve just arrived and have been checked in.

I’ve seen that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow.

Looking forward to seeing you then!!!! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was.

P. S. Sure is freaking hot down here!!!!

Special Episode on GTA’s Most Wanted: Victoria Stafford

Please pass this on to as many people as possible.

ROGERS TV DIGITALLY ENHANCES FOOTAGE TO HELP IN THE VICTORIA STAFFORD ABDUCTION CASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 21, 2009 [Waterloo Region] – Thursday at 10:30 pm, Rogers TV Cable 20 presents a special, exclusive 30-minute episode of GTA’s Most Wanted, entirely devoted to the search for Victoria Stafford. The program will, for the first time, feature enhanced video imaging of the woman seen walking with 8-year old Victoria the day she went missing. This show will be repeated on Rogers TV Cable 20 on the following dates and times:

April 24 at 1 AM, 6:30 AM, 9:30 AM, 12:30 PM, 3:30 PM, 7 PM
April 25 at 2 PM, 6:30 PM, 11:30 PM
April 26 at 9 PM
April 27 at 12 AM, 10 AM
April 28 at 1 PM

Victoria Stafford of Woodstock was last seen leaving her school on April 8th, accompanied by an unidentified woman.  They were both captured on grainy video taken by surveillance cameras.  By interpreting the video and description available, Rogers TV has taken the initiative to enhance the footage of the suspected woman seen walking with Victoria.
“The Oxford Community Police Service asks the viewers of GTA’s Most Wanted to please call 1-877-537-6277 if they have information about this case,” says Laurie-Anne Maitland, Oxford Community Police Service, Constable, Community Relations.

GTA’s Most Wanted launched in January 2007 and works in close partnership with local police authorities. The show has profiled over 100 unsolved cases, 500 wanted criminals and has led to the direct capture of a murder suspect.
Rogers TV is a one of a kind TV channel tailor-made for local audiences. Every year, our stations proudly produce over 19,000 hours of original, informative local programming; reinforcing Rogers Cable’s commitment to the communities we serve.  Rogers TV is a service available exclusively to cable customers as part of the basic service of Rogers Cable Communications Inc., Canada’s largest cable company, delivering high quality entertainment, information and communication services to 2.3 million customers in Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland. For more information, visit www.rogerstv.com.  Rogers TV is available on cable 20 in Waterloo Region, Guelph, Stratford and Brantford.

Media Inquiries:
Jeremy Clark
Rogers TV-Regional Station Manager
jeremy.clark@rci.rogers.com
519-894-8120

In Memory of Columbine

“Cassie” (Acoustic version) by Flyleaf.

It’s been 10 years (April 20th) since the shootings.
Find out more here on Wikipedia.

Beware of Identity Theft [this Easter!]

Got this in an email yesterday. How adorable are these guys?! I want one of each! haha

Enjoy! I don’t know who the photographer is, but they did a fan-tabulous job!

it’s so nice outside!

it’s impossibly hard to believe that THIS will be coming here tonight/overnight/tomorrow! Right now, it’s about 10 degrees/50 Fahrenheit… the sun is shining and it’s so nice. Ugh!

Man oh man. Spring is full of surprises!

A DC Travel Agent

Another funny email I received today. Enjoy!

So, you want to be a travel agent in DC?
Enjoy…If you think a travel agent’s job is boring, just look at these examples.

A DC airport ticket agent offers some examples of ‘why’ our country is in trouble !

I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn’t get messed up by being near the window. (On an airplane!)**

I got a call from a candidate’s staffer, who wanted to go to Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information, and then she interrupted me with, ”I’m not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts Without trying to make her look stupid, I calmly explained, ‘Cape Cod is in Massachusetts, Capetown is in Africa ..” Her response – click.

A senior Vermont Congressman called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando… He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried
to explain that’s not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, ‘don’t lie to me, I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state!” (OMG)

I got a call from a lawmaker’s wife who asked, ‘Is it possible to see England from Canada ?’ I said, ‘No.’ She said, ”But they look so close on the map.” (OMG, again!)

An aide for a cabinet member once called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had only a 1-hour layover in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, ”I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between gates to save time.” (Aghhhh)

An Illinois Congresswoman called last week. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:30 a.m., and got to Chicago at 8:33 a.m. I explained that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois, but she couldn’t understand the concept of time zones..Finally, I told her the plane went fast, and she bought that.

A New York lawmaker called and asked, ”Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?” I said, ‘No, why do you ask?’ She replied,
‘Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said (FAT), and I’m overweight. I think that’s very rude!” After putting her on hold for a minute, while I looked into it. (I was dying laughing). I came back and explained the city code for Fresno, CA is (FAT – Fresno Air Terminal), and the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.

A Senator’s aide called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii . After going over all the cost info, she asked, ‘Would it be cheaper to fly to California, and then take the train to Hawaii ?’

I just got off the phone with a freshman Congressman who asked, ”How do I know which plane to get on?”** I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, ”I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these planes have numbers on them.”

A lady Senator called and said, ”I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola , Florida. Do I have to get on one of those little computer planes?” I asked if she meant fly to Pensacola, FL on a commuter plane. She said, ”Yeah, whatever, smarty!”

A senior Senator called and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China . After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him that he needed a visa. ‘Oh, no I don’t. I’ve been to China many times and never had to have one of those.” I double-checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he said, ”Look, I’ve been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express!”

A New Mexico Congress woman called to make reservations, ”I want to go from Chicago to Rhino, New York .” I was at a loss for words. Finally, I said, ”Are you sure that’s the name of the town?” ‘Yes, what flights do you have?” replied the lady. After some searching, I came back with, ”I’m sorry, ma’am, I’ve looked up every airport code in the country and can’t find a rhino anywhere.’ ”The lady retorted, ”Oh, don’t be silly! Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!” So I scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, ”You don’t mean Buffalo , do you?” The reply? ”Whatever! I knew it was a big animal.”

Not your average day

1. HAPPY ST PATRICK’S DAY! :D

On my way to Union Station last night to catch my train home, I noticed a parade/demonstration-type thing happening right in front of it. Turns out it was a protest/presentation of Sri Lankans yelling at Canada to stop the genocide in their country. Wow. I walked through the masses of them waving flags, yelling, chanting… I’ve never experienced that before and it was really intense. Not scary… but while I was “in” the crowd I certainly felt out of place, being really white & blonde, AND not knowing what was going on as I don’t speak their language. I was worried I might not make it into the station in time, but I just kept walking through.
Intense really sums it up.

I only had my cellphone with me – blasted!
never.leave.home.without.camera.AGAIN

Once summer really truly arrives, I would like to spend an afternoon just watching planes land & take off. The train goes right past Pearson International so I can see a few come and go, but not close enough. I remember years ago my mom, uncle, brother, Nic & I found a park with picnic tables in the flight path of landing planes. It was awesome and I’ve been wanting to do that again FOREVER. :-)
pfft… I was going to add a photo here, but apparently I don’t have plane photos in my Flickr stream. LAME!

update: The BEST Job Applicant!

I wrote awhile back about The Best Job in the World opportunity in another post. As it turns out, a local University student, Mitchell Moffitt, has been accepted into the interview process and is currently number 3 out of 34,000 applicants from around the world. (China and Russia are ahead of Canada/Guelph.)

Voting closes on March 24th!

Click here to view Mitchell’s page, including his video application!

What an opportunity!

it’s not Hungry, it’s Appetite!

isn’t he cute! but this guy we’re calling Appetite :-)

to buy Appetite, click here!

How to Send an Email

Knowledge Pointer of the Day:

Dear Co-worker,

The reason your email did not send was because “http://www.” is not an email address.
No, I’m not even kidding you.

*sigh*

100 things about me

1 I love photojournalism. I would like to learn more about it

2 my first favourite colour was pink

3 I have have three cellphone numbers

4 I have owned six cellphones with three different companies (different times)

5 I always have a camera with me

6 My dream as a young girl was to one day sing a duet on stage with either Mariah Carey or Bette Midler. I used to practice in my mirror.

7 My first celebrity crush was Jonathan Taylor Thomas

8 I dent my pop cans so I can hold them better

9 I love Tupperware dishes

10 I hate cooking. When I do, I like to think I’ll come up with the next big thing by throwing various ingredients together, hah

11 My favourite season is Spring because all the plants and nature things are coming alive again

12 I like to create webpages for everything. Books, movies seen, events that happen, etc.

13 I am not superstitious

14 I can eat almost any food cold or just lukewarm

15 I currently write four different blogs; two are public

16 Photography is my creative outlet, my outreach, my escape, my passion

HOCKEYVILLE!

Received via Email:

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Let’s get out and vote!!!
A note from David Brenneman, CAO of Woolwich Township:

Hi Everyone!

I would appreciate if you could please vote WOOLWICH for HOCKEYVILLE in the 2009 Kraft Hockeyville competition!

Voting is from 11 pm on Feb 28 until 11:59 pm on March 4.

There are 3 ways to vote:

• BY PHONE: – 1-866-533-8066
• TEXT: “Vote Woolwich” to 222111
• ONLINE: http://www.woolwichhockeyville.ca

VOTING is UNLIMITED, so vote often and please ask all of your friends to vote as well.
We are expecting that we will need 5.5 million votes to beat our competition, so if possible please vote in the hundreds and thousands.

Thanks for your support!
David

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Woolwich is just north of Kitchener-Waterloo, where I live! Please vote!!
I took this photo two weeks ago… :-)

Cleaning Weekend!

…it went by WAY too fast!

Firstly – the most annoying thing I’ve encountered with having a female kitten? When in heat, she pees in the house. Namely, behind the TV and in the front entrance. (GROSS I know – but keep reading!) Someone told me that she’s probably doing that because our other female cat is fixed, and Mocha (kitteh) is just angry at that fact. Hmm…

She’s only “in heat” for about 5 days at a time. Seems like nothing, but it happens almost every two weeks. And the low-meowing… growling… it’s headache-inducing. I understand she’s in pain and isn’t in the right mind… poor thing.

Anyways so this week I’m calling back the one of the animal hospitals in KW who had the cheapest rate for the spaying surgery. She’ll need shots first… $86. Ugh. Then 10-15 days later she can be “fixed” for just $223 + taxes. YAY. I really, REALLY hope that stops the spraying/peeing annoyance. My house has STUNK for long enough, and that’s the other part of my story.

This weekend I made it my mission to clean the carpets. Since the carpet cleaning company never bothered to contact me (I sent them an email a week ago) I just Google’d how to get rid the smell & stains by myself.

Annnnnnd I feel like an idiot for not doing that sooner. This site explained that all I needed was baking soda, water, vinegar, and hydrogen peroxide. Stuff we’ve had in the same cupboard since we moved in. Duh.

First – mix one part water with one part vinegar and soak the soiled areas. (Simple chemistry: the vinegar neutralizes the ammonia in the urine so she can’t smell where she last left her mark.) Check!
Second – wait for the carpet to dry. Use towels and a fan to speed it up. Check!
Third – sprinkle on baking soda and spray carpet with water & hydrogen peroxide mix. (the HP and soda gets rid of the fish ‘n’ chips smell, ha). Check!
Fourth – Scrub, scrub, scrub the carpet to get the soda down deep and to rub the stains away. Check!

This is where I’m at now. I’m just letting one more section dry all day today before I vacuum it with the carpet freshener “dust” stuff. But seriously – WHAT A DIFFERENCE! We woke up this morning and couldn’t smell a thing (except some vinegar I had sprayed around the front entrance… whoops, forgot about that! ha)
I had little hope that this simple cleaning routine would actually work but WOW. I’m so happy. SO-SO-SO HAPPY! Who knew a clean-smelling carpet could bring such happiness?!

[side note: here are more miracles of baking soda.]

I scrubbed it all weekend on my own. Mostly all weekend… and again this evening!

Then on Saturday my parents bought us a “hybrid plastic”, ventilated, “Eco-friendly”, five-shelf shelf. I picked it out at Costco as a need and not just a want, so they went for it. It’s awesome. We put it together last night (well… I had put it together but then realized I did it backwards, so DH re-built it LOL) and it’s sturdy (holds 125lbs per shelf!) and is an excellent place to keep all of my husband’s tools organized (…somewhat…) in the basement. They were on the floor before… More storage space!!!1!!11!

[I can't believe how excited I get over the smallest "home improvements". I must be growing up :P]

Local Sports Director Writes about Love

How awesome is this… the Sports Director/newscaster of our local news station (CTV:SWO), Randy Steinman, just published a book!

Crowded Maze is about love, and people who were “in the right place at the right time.” Click here to read a sample of the book that another news anchor claims is excellent to take on vacation.

I haven’t listened to the radio in months, and when I finally turned it on this morning, Randy was being interviewed by Adele on 91.5 the Beat. Apparently they’ve known each other for years, and he actually inspired her to pursue a career in TV or radio. I think that’s awesome.

I’m adding his book to my list!

Click here to purchase your own autographed copy!