Monthly Archives: July 2011

Random Tuesday – Getting The Hell Out of Dodge edition

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Stacy

Time to get yer random on, folks. And then go and support the rebellion!

  • I don’t like censoring myself but feel like lately, I need to do so on my blog(s).
  • I can be no more specific; it’s just a feeling. But I also don’t feel like I should ever hold back, you know? We’re all entitled to our opinions.
  • There’s this little old lady who called us to donate this amazing collection of really old books and though her phone calls got slightly tiring, I am really glad I met her. She’s about 90 and part-senile but I kind of enjoyed our daily chats.
  • We’re leaving later for vacation and um… no, I am not really ready. Not just yet.
  • I amend that last one: I am totally ready for a vacation. I’m just not entirely packed and ready to drive four hours.
  • I just changed the wallpaper on my ipod to a beach scene. Getting in the mood!
  • In my head, I totally just started thinking in an Australian accent. Very weird!
  • I’m not entirely sure why all four of us are congested now. Is this some kind of karmic joke wherein we can’t have vacations/nice things?
  • I waited for ten minutes in the c heck out line at Borders and I feel terribly guilty for not being here to do it again. I mean, I LOVE books and feel like it’s my obligation to get everything I can out of their going out of business sale. Also, that is so sad! I loved browsing the book store and drinking a coffee. Sigh. All the very best things seem to end prematurely.
  • What is one thing you always make it a goal to do on vacation? Mine is to take a funky pic at anything cheesy that we do. Like, if we go out to the pier, I want to take one of those hokey self-pics. Or if we go to a biker bar… or anywhere else touristy. I also really want to eat at Crabby Joe’s.

I know it’s not a whole lot of random but I have a ton to do before the day is done. Blogging hiatus begins tomorrow. See you next Monday!!!

Oh… wait. You want Man Candy, don’t you? Well, as to not disappoint… here ya go:

Model Martin Pichler.

Plug for a friend + Isaac cuteness

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A friend of mine, from way back in high school, is one of those hardcore crafter people. You know, she knits and makes things and she’s good at it. She has her own Etsy store now where she sells super cute kid shirts with different designs. Here’s Isaac showing off his gnomey-gnome shirt. He’s 15 months and some change and this is the 12-18 month size. Upon first glance, I didn’t think it would fit but it does and it looks great!

The shirts are American Apparel so they’re comfy and durable. The gnome applique is on there good and I think it’ll hold up during the wash.

I’ve added a button for her Etsy store on my sidebar but here’s the link either way. Be Knit Picky. It would be awesome if you headed over there and checked it out!

MMMM – TV tunes

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Time for some Monday Music, folks! Here’s what I’ve got for this week’s theme of TV tunes.

The theme for the new Avengers cartoon is badass. I was singing it all day yesterday since they were playing a marathon. Plus, it’s a good cartoon.

Following in the cartoon footsteps, the original Xmen cartoon had a kickass theme song as well:

Another of my all-time favorite TV shows is Bones and it has a decent theme:

And similar to that is the My So-Called life theme. I LOVED that show!

That’s what I’ve got. Head on over and see what other people are up to!

Friday Confessional – Getting your groove on edition

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I confess... I’m a little miffed that within the span of two minutes, my glasses broke and the coffee shop ran out of espresso. What a great morning! Oh, and right after that,  I was hassled for money by a homeless guy!

I confess… you’re not going to want to be around me once I’m done with this Everything bagel. Mmmmm… garlic.

I confess… I’m thinking about buying a fluff book before our trip next week and I think I  found one. Lets just say it’s about a rock band and a whole bunch of really bad things. I can’t wait!

I confess… that since it is Friday and not a lot of people are around my building, I am blasting some old school Journey in my office. Air guitar for the win!!!

I confess… I used to be #1 of all my friend on Facebook’s Bejeweled game. But lately, I’ve only been coming in at 3rd or 4th. And this sort of bothers me.

I confess… if I had the time and the money, I’d spend all of today buying books and coffee and new clothes and useless things. Just for the hell of it.

Ok, ’tis what I have. I do hope you all have a great weekend!

Realizing the sheer fragility of life

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Whenever people say “it hits close to home”, I tend to write it off as just another phrase and go back into my safe little bubble. But sometimes it really does hit close to home and something happens tangentially to your life that you cannot help but think about.

I got a call from a friend this morning to tell me that the man killed on his bicycle yesterday was our friend’s husband. I knew the girl from Girls’ Night Out stuff; she worked in the medical field with some of my closer friends. And this totally shocked and saddened me. I am never really good in these situations; don’t know what to say. I don’t know how anyone can ever recover from the loss of a mate. Especially in this situation because I know that they were very close.

This juxtaposed with the news last week that someone I knew in high school is now in jail, along with his apparently psycho wife, for doing some despicable things, just reminds me of how horrible the world can be. Bad things happen, I know, but you don’t always think about it. You CAN’T, because otherwise you’d go crazy trying to stop them from happening so you can go about your merry way and enjoy things like you want.

I used to say bad had to happen so you can appreciate the good. But news like this makes you quick to forget about the balance. The universe will balance itself; this is proven. For centuries, things have righted themselves, even in the direst of situations, the world has always pulled itself together, picked itself up by the bootstraps, and carried on.

I hope my friend can find some way to do this in the face of her loss, which I cannot even begin to comprehend, nor do I want to. But I am sorry she is going through this hell. It must be awful and no real words can express the hurt and pain. I’m sure of it.

But it will be better. Some day.

My Book Boyfriend – The Return to Vampires edition

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They’re my first love, vampire books. And I have been wanting to feature Hunter from Lara Adrian’s Deeper Than Midnight for the last two weeks! My biggest hurdle was the fact that the model on the cover is exactly how I pictured Chase, one of the other characters. But I finally found someone who embodies the pure killing machine that is Hunter, former assassin and Gen One vampire of many tattoos.

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Just saw the host of this meme also chose Hunter. Well, he’s a good choice. But the model I picked is different. This is Matt Schiermeier and wow, isn’t he fantastic?

I’m picking the first scene in which I think Corrine, the Breedmate in his charge with all the upheaval going on in the Order, and he make a connection. Hunter was bred for one sole purpose: killing. He was not allowed to have emotions or hell, even really like things or have preferences. He never lived a normal life. He takes her to a restaurant and the band is playing an old song she knows well from her childhood.

Corrine’s smile widened, then she laughed out loud. “I know what the lyrics say, but that’s not what they mean. Not at all.” her eyes still dancing with amusement, she coked her head in question. Studying him now. “What kind of music do you like, Hunter?”

He wasn’t sure how to answer. He’d heard some of the stuff the other warriors played at the compound, but he had no particular affinity towards any of it. He’d never thought about music one way or another, never paused to consider if any of it appealed to him. What would be the point in that?

Now he looked at lovely Corrine Bishop, sitting just an arm’s length across, from him, bathed in candlelight and holding him in her beautiful smiling gaze.

“I like… this.” he replied, unable to drag his gaze away from her.

The tension! After discussing some of the harsh things they both encountered while under Dragos’s thumb, she must leave the table in a hurried mess but then after… she asked him to dance with her.

Desire was something foreign to her after all she’d been through. After what she’d endured, she thought she would never crave a man’s touch. But she did now. Unbelievably, perhaps stupidly, she craved the stony, lethal warrior’s touch more than anything else in that moment.

She forced herself to take another hitching step backward. “Thank you for the dance,” she murmured, confusion clashing with the warmth that was spiraling through her. “Thank you for this.  For bringing me here tonight. I thought I’d forgotten what it was like to feel… normal.” She glanced down, away from the searing heat of his eyes. “I didn’t think it as possible for me to feel… anything anymore.”

His answering touch was light but firm beneath her chin. He lifted her face on the edge of his fingertips, until their gazes were locked once more. He lowered his head towards hers.

And then he was kissing her.

Le sigh. I think I have a problem liking heroes who have little to no sexual experience but yet, know when to take the reigns.

Hunter was such a mystery when he first came to the Order, a turncoat assassin, but I ended up liking him so very much in this book.

WWTK Wednesday – New Host Edition

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PhotobucketA new host? Awesome! This meme hosted by the above and Queso.

{1} What would you do with an extra $1000 a month?
I love this question because I frequently think about this, actually. If I had an extra grand, I would probably save half. Boring, I know. But I like having a cushion. With the rest, I would pay for yoga classes in advance, actually buy myself clothes for once, and probably spend way too much on music and books.
{2} What category of blogger do you think you best fall under?
I wanted to just blog my feelings when I first started in about – gosh – 2003 or so but it eventually turned into a pregnancy/mommy blog. Now I’m a meme follower and general daily life blogger.
{3} What is your go to solution when you are having a bad hair day?
Ponytail or bun. Simple. Easy. Lack of care.
{4} If you were a Crayon, what color would you be?
Cerulean. I like the name, it’s a little wispy and the color is about like me.
{5} They say love is in the little things. What is a little thing someone does to show you love?
My husband will just start taking over one of my usual tasks, like putting Isaac to bed, or he’ll buy dinner when he knows I don’t feel like cooking. He can be really thoughtful!
Click the button and go tell us what we want to know!!

Ridding My Life of Uselesness

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This happens every summer: I notice a distinct lack of funds and I start scouring the depths of my closets for stuff I can sell. In the case of this year, we’re also trying to get rid of decades worth of stuff that has been sitting in boxes in our garage since Ash’s father stopped paying for the storage area. When he moved across the country, most of their family’s old possessions had been stored and left behind. We ended up with everything he didn’t take or throw out and have been, over the years, chipping away at it.

So I have a bunch of antiques that a woman came out to look at yesterday. She only bought five items but I made a decent amount off of them. Some things went on Craigslist. Some friends at work bought a handful of vinyl records. I am selling things on Ebay and they’re really moving. It has put me in this frame of mind that almost anything – so long as it isn’t busted – has a resale value. So when this kids’ consignment store wouldn’t take my pack ‘n’ play, I got kind of mad. It’s all a racket. They give you a fraction of the value and resell it for way more. Meanwhile, these items have a lot of life left in them but serve no further purpose for me. I  feel like there’s a certain amount of injustice here.

When I stop to think about it, I do have way too much junk. I tend to hold onto things for sentimental value but I also realize there must be a line drawn somewhere. There’s only so many times I am going to read a book. I should get rid of them. Some things from my childhood that I have kept all these years will probably stick around. I really only have a few small boxes of childhood mementos.  But I have to get into that mode of clearing out before I will really do anything about it. But man, stuff can pile up so quickly. Our closets become packed full of things we look at once or twice a year and what for? We, as humans, are just pack rats. We buy  and buy and store and then it gets to a ridiculous point.

I feel really good, though, about moving so much of this out of my house. It also keeps me really busy, which I kind of like. Half the time I’m running around like crazy but I most definitely don’t feel like I’m just sitting around wasting time, which is what ends up happening if I have things to do but nothing pushing me to finish them. Like, say, cleaning. I sort of relish in the frantic nature of the selling process. I suppose if I kept this up, eventually I’d be down to just own the basics, the essentials. And I think my life would be a lot simpler then.

Random Tuesday – Full Bars edition

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Stacy

It’s that time again… bring out your random.

  • Isaac has shots this morning and it isn’t so much about watching him get them as it is just going to the doctor. The waiting… wondering how long until he’s so bored he’s crying.
  • Elliot has been really into Scooby Doo lately and the cartoon channels play it ad nauseum on weekends. The only plus to this is that the guy who plays Fred in the live action is pretty cute.
  • I ran on a trail for the first time ever on Saturday and found it delightfully exhilarating. And I didn’t break my ankle, which was a  major concern.
  • Post soon to come about how I’m selling a whole bunch of stuff and the implications of clearing out so many possessions.
  • We’re finally taking the vacation that was in the works for so long. Well, kind of. Originally we wanted to go to Hawaii but then we held it to the continental U.S. and then abandoned the idea altogether when we realized air fares are just straight up rip-offs. So now we’re dropping the kids off in Orlando with my parents and hitting up a beach-side hotel in Daytona. Three nights, pool, balcony facing the sea, and probably a lot of sunning and beer drinking. I. Cannot. Wait.
  • Someone told me yesterday that I couldn’t be much older than 22. I appreciated the sentiment but told them to add a decade. They were shocked and somewhat argumentative, which I find highly amusing. Like it’s an arguable fact.
  • We ventured out to dinner last night – something we rarely do anymore – and the kids were… hmm, how shall I phrase it? They were like the most feral dogs… gone wild. Ell kept talking as if we were 30 feet away and then managed to get on the floor for some odd reason. He didn’t want to eat anything but bread. Isaac was starving so I kept the snacks coming and then when food arrived, he was full and kept slamming his hand down on his plate, causing food to fly everywhere. Then he shrieked. A lot. And loudly. And oy, it was early enough in the evening that Outback wasn’t packed so my children were quite audible over the normal restaurant din. Needless to say, we were reminded why we don’t eat out that often.
  • After dinner we took them to the playground and let them blow off the stink. Best thing ever. Both kids went right to bed and even slept in a little.
  • Bad Juju!

Ok, that’s what I got except for this: one Brett Reeves. Yum!

Monday’s Music Moves Me – Spotlight edition

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So, by some chance of random luck, I have been chosen as the spotlight blog for this awesome meme hosted by Xmas Dolly. I’m pretty pumped but now the pressure is on.

OK, so earlier this week I explained on my blog that though I like Country music, I steer clear of Keith Urban. I think he’s kind of a fake. BUT, by the power of Pandora, I stumbled upon this song, “‘Til Summer Comes Around.” And though it is, in a way, about “summer love”, which I find to be a really banal song topic, I love this tune for it’s instrumentals and the feeling it evokes in me. The haunting sadness really drew me to this song; there’s a certain common emotion we can all relate to here.

Another long summer’s come and gone
I don’t know why it always ends this way
The boardwalk’s quiet and the carnival rides
Are as empty as my broken heart tonight

But I close my eyes and one more time
We’re spinning around and you’re holding on tightly
The words came out, I kissed your mouth
No Fourth of July has ever burned so brightly
You had to go, I understand
But you promised you’d be back again
And so I wander ’round this town
’til summer comes around

I got a job working at the old park pier
And every summer now for five long years
I grease the gears, fix the lights, tighten bolts, straighten the tracks
And I count the days ’til you just might come back

But then I close my eyes and one more time,
We’re spinning around and you’re holdin’ on tightly
The words came out, I kissed your mouth,
No Fourth of July has ever burned so brightly
You had to go, I understand
But you swore that you’d be back again
And so I’m frozen in this town
’til summer comes around

Oh and I close my eyes and you and I
Are stuck on a ferris wheel rockin with the motion
Hand in hand we cried and laughed
Knowing that love belonged to us girl, if only for a moment
And “Baby I’ll be back again” you whispered in my ear
Bot now the winter wind is the only sound
And everything is closing down
’til summer comes around

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I guess if anyone asks if I’m a Keith Urban fan, I’ll have to say I at least like one or two of his songs. But I still want to classify him as pop/country.

Spotlight Dancers

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