what's your type?

my saturday was devoted to a seminar on the myers-briggs instrument determining personality type. for all who are interested, i am apparently an intj. stereotypically, this means that:
i believe in change for the sake of change, it leads to learning.
i eat, sleep, drink and breathe complexity, competition and love puzzles.
i constantly ask 'why?'.
i perceive the person i view as the most competent as the leader instead of the person with the job title.
i tend to have extreme impatience for people i view as incompetent, and things that i view are a waste of time.
my dirty little secret is that i have a massive internal critic, and i'm always raising the bar.
my challenge is how to cope with never viewing myself as being good enough.

hm.
check it out for yourself - http://www.myersbriggs.org/

...still printing...

who would have thought it would take this long? but i'm almost finished. then i have to put the pictures in a book.
picked up the 2 cameras from costco - the first was from my parent's table, pictures were good but not great, a little dark. the other camera was from the will/jane/dana/marcello/mandi/ed table. those pictures were all great! except for the finger covering the camera lens. in almost every picture. no more disposable-cameras-during-the-open-bar for you guys.

printing... printing... printing

i have decided to get off of my kiester and print/develop our wedding pictures. so here i am, printing, for hours. i dropped off two of the table cameras (i picked them at random, so i can't tell you which ones they were, table #3) at costco for the one-hour while i shopped last sunday. of course, i forgot all about them and still haven't picked them up.
but i did buy grapes.

ecological footprint

i stumbled across this website - http://www.myfootprint.org/ which tells you about how much of the earth's resources you use. i consider myself to be an environmental person: i recycle, don't eat any animal products besides egg, dairy and certain kinds of fish, i take public transportation most of the time, i donate money to environmental charities. and if everyone lived like me, there would need to be 4.8 earths to sustain us all.
looks like i'm not very environmental, after all.

the perfect present.

mmm. the aston martin v8 vantage. breathtakingly beautiful, 380 horses and 0-60 in 4.9 seconds. now that's hot.

the bathroom war - interior decorating

www.fishandflush.com

Alas, the Los says no. But I'm working on it.

if only...

i present the smithsonian castle. if only my office/broom closet had a window, this is what i would see.

my.brain.is.tired.

i knew that grad school classes involved a lot of reading. i swear i did. but 150 pages per class? that's (for my part-time 2 classes) 300 pages a week. plus assignments, papers, and other stuff. not to mention working full time. and having a life.
i think i might have to give up the life.
sniff.

gelman library, where i have a premonition i am going to be spending a lot of time.

rub the hippo's nose for good luck. i'm going to be doing a lot of that.

book signing

on saturday, we went to a book signing by brad meltzer for his new book, the book of fate. he's one of my favorite authors, and also signed my copy of the tenth justice. other great books by brad are the zero game, first council, and dead even. i didn't really care for the millionaires that much, and he also writes graphic novels which are out of my scope of interest.
the signing was at wegman's in sterling, and we only waited in line for about half an hour. he was very nice, and seemed like kind of a dork, which i had already assumed. you can't write books that require this much research if you aren't a dork. sorry, brad.
we had only been to the wegman's in fairfax once, but i have to say this grocery store is huge. we ate lunch there from the deli part, which consists of about thirty different counters offering different kinds of food. we both got sandwiches, french fries, and cookies. the problem with grocery stores that are too big though, you think you need everything. which of course you don't. and then it goes bad in your fridge.

visiting the alpacas

obviously, no trip involving any member of my family (yes, including me) is complete without at least one trip to visit some kind of animal. this trip, we went to an alpaca farm (just like the ones on dirty jobs a couple weeks ago!)
what are alpacas, you ask? alpacas are a domesticated south american (from peru, bolivia and chile) hooved mammal having long, silky fleece, related to the llama and believed to be a variety of the guanaco.

this is the alpaca farm that was kind enough to let a bunch of strangers roam around for a while. visit them on their website, www.epfalpacas.com

vacation?

man, i need a vacation from my vacation. here's a recap:

tuesday - flew from virginia to indianapolis, drove 3 hours to decatur. ate at steak'n'shake for lunch, el rodeo for dinner.

wednesday - drove to mattoon, checked out some things for that pesky job, drove back to decatur. ate at monicals after a brief cry that the mongolian garden has gone the way of the dinosaur.

thursday - hung out with the parental units, drove to mattoon, ate at little mexico, went to a meeting, drove back to decatur (nearly ran a horse and buggy off the road), hung out at albright's bar (block's) with mandi and ed.

friday - ate lunch at steak'n'shake, went to my aunt's in bethany, went to torment my baby sister at her place of employment (texas roadhouse for all those who would also enjoy tormenting said baby sister).

saturday - ate lunch at o'charley's with jamie, ryan and austin. jamie is about to pop, she's due december first. played frisbee with my parents (yes, i know) then went to dinner with a different aunt at the international buffet.

sunday - went to my cousin's in cambridge. ate chili at her house, went to see some alpacas, then drove back to decatur and ate at la fontina or something or other.

monday - went to my uncle's fish farm, ate at ruby tuesday's, drove to indianapolis to catch a plane that never left. went to a hotel in indy.

tuesday - (i'm supposed to be home by now) went back to the airport, caught a plane that did leave, went home.

whew. i'm exhausted. and i think i gained at least ten pounds. i think all that we did was eat. who knew there were so many mexican restaurants in illinois???

holy praying mantis, batman!

woke up the other morning, and this was on my wall. outside, that is.

guys don't make passes at girls with glasses

ta da! the long awaited, brand new, much anticipated coach annabels have finally arrived!

check out my dragonflies! that was the major selling point for me. sooo cute! maybe i'll actually wear them out - i usually wear contacts.

drool on my shoe

prison break was all new last night. which meant i got to spend a whole hour... watching.
it's one of los's fave shows too, but he actually follows the plot line. now i just have to wait for lost, then my world will be complete.

it's always sunny in philadelphia

we spent the better part of the weekend visiting some friends in philly. hit the nats phillies game, a little bar, and just generally had a grand old time.

Check out the house swing!

trip to d-town

baby, i'm comin' home. no really. i am!
august 29 to september 4, i will be visiting and los will be, well, counting stoplights and asking if adm always smells this bad.
see you there!

update on the bathroom war

for those of you who haven't been to our place in awhile, you may not know about our Bathroom War.
our bigger bathroom (in the hall, not off of the master bedroom) is, well, old and honestly kinda ugly. this is the bathroom that guests use, and is my bathroom.
above the bathtub was a beige colored plastic lining thing. ask anyone who has had to clean said plastic wall covering, it's a royal pain. the floor tile is okay, but not particularly my taste, and whoever did the floor tile didn't really know what they were doing. the vanity is old. and for some reason when i specified what color i wanted Los to paint the bathroom before we moved in, it translated to 'sad, sterile gray' in his brain.
fast forward to last march, early in the month. Los comes home, all excited because he has come upon this very pretty tile (pale blue, glass) and wants to use it in the shower. okay, i'm all for it. he proceeds to rip out the nasty plastic wall protector, and the nasty walls behind it (didn't protect very well).
and left it.
like that.
for months.
until (angels singing in the background) wednesday. i come home from work, and find -ahhh!- progress!!! the tiles have been set into one wall of the shower.

disgusted and appalled

did you know that the most effective way to fight rabies is to gather up all dogs within the county of the person who was infected with (and died from) rabies and beat them to death? silly me, i thought that was why rabies vaccinations were so popular.

apparently, in china, they have not heard of vaccinations. twice now, chinese officials have ordered mass culls of dogs in the surrounding areas of rabies outbreaks. obviously they are not aware that other animals also spread the disease, or there would be no animals of any kind in those counties presently. these were not only stray dogs, either. ALL DOGS.

dogs were taken from their homes after searching, taken from owners walking them on leashes, owners were told that if they did not do the deed themselves, officials would come and do it for them. there was no euthanasia, no humane exit from this world. they were brutally, cruelly beaten.

these articles need to be read. people need to be made aware, and people need to step up and take a stand.

BBC NEWS
CNN NEWS
YAHOO NEWS

DO SOMETHING.

SIGN A PETITION

WRITE A LETTER.

Chinese Embassy
2300 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
(202) 328-2500/01/02

it only takes one person to make some noise.

a moment of silence

for reasons unknown, God has chosen to take a shining star from here on earth and give her a proper place in heaven.
we remember you with joy, smiles and laughter, just like you would have wanted.

the time you had too much wine at thanksgiving and got the giggles,
how you love flowers, plants and your cats (even though you feed them too much),
you dancing up a storm, even in a conga line, at our wedding,
the pure, unadulterated joy when you look at your grandson,
how you only want happiness for those you love, regardless of what that entails,
the pride so easily read in your face at your son's graduation.

there is a magnet on your refridgerator:
live well
laugh much
love often

we will always miss you.
we will always love you.

i hate tourists.

if you are visiting my part of the country, please keep in mind that i have a normal life to live, which includes getting places, including work, on time.

please:

• do not walk down the sidewalk five people abreast, then look at me like i shouldn't be coming from the opposite direction. normal people leave enough space on the sidewalk for other people.
• do not walk slow, or stop completely, in the middle of the sidewalk, where you and your whole family are taking up the entire sidewalk. i do not want to get hit by a maniac taxi while attempting to get around you.
• yes, i know the speed limit sign on route 66 says 55. but they meant 85. and on i495, they meant 95.
• if you decide to drive slower than the speed of traffic, drive in the right lane. the left lane is very dangerous for you, considering that if you are rear-ended you will cause a ten car accident that will take days to clear up. and it will be all your fault.
• if you cannot drive in precipitation (such as rain), reflecting sunshine, or other weather hazards that are apparently unique to the dc metro area, take a taxi.
• no, i do not know where the duck tour starts. i live here. i don't take tours.
• iwo jima is in virginia. so are the national airport, dulles airport, the manassas battlefield, the jefferson memorial, and arlington cemetery.
• when attempting to ride the metro, do not stop for a chitchat at the bottom of the escalator. there are people behind you! do not talk to the locals. they are on their way to or home from work, and do not care about your vacation. and if you're on the metro when i'm on my way to work, the museums are closed.
• FOR GOD'S SAKE, WHEN ON ANY ESCALATOR, YOU WALK ON THE LEFT, STAND ON THE RIGHT.