10 things to buy on the internet

1- the cutest shoes ever - http://www.zappos.com

2- used textbooks for school - http://www.amazon.com

3- face wash they don't sell at Target anymore - http://store.colorandflavorshop.com

4- picture books, just for you - http://www.shutterfly.com

5- candles and votive holders - http://www.cudge.net

6- groceries (who has the time?) - http://www.peapod.com

7- clothes on sale - http://www.alloy.com

8- music - http://www.apple.com/itunes

9- somebody to go to the DMV for you - http://usvrs.com/

10- IT - www.ebay.com

new playlist on the ipod

look at me, educating the masses on popular music.

1- walking dead ~z-trip, featuring chester benningfield (from linkin park)
2- move along ~all american rejects
3- i bet you look good on the dancefloor ~arctic monkeys
4- chocolate ~snow patrol
5- under pressure ~the muse and my chemical romance
6- i turn my camera on ~spoon
7- like eating glass ~bloc party
8- soul meets body ~death cab for cutie
9- evil ~interpol
10- jerk it out ~caesars
11- daft punk is playing at my house ~lcd soundsystem
12- finding out true love is blind ~louis xiv
13- nth degree ~morningwood
14- control ~mute math
15- steady as she goes ~raconteurs
16- so jealous ~tegan and sara
17- the rat ~walkmen
18- hate me ~blue october

take a listen: http://www.vh1.com/artists/

birthdays in june and july

thank god i didn't have to buy all ya'll presents.

laura turned 24 again.

dave turned 30 again.

ben turned 30 for the first time.

mike turned 30 for the first time.

chris-ann turned 30 for the first time.

man, all my friends are old.

soccer in mike n maria's yard.

we've gotten pretty good at flip-cup.

i don't know these people. i swear.

ten things everyone should have

ten: two good coffeepots, one at home, one at work

nine: comfort food in the kitchen, ready for whenever you need it

eight: a savings accout, a retirement plan, a credit card, and enough willpower to use it only for emergencies

seven: a fabulous accessory that makes a nice outfit dressy

six: a fabulous accessory that makes a nice outfit a costume

five: a piece of your childhood

four: a car that you drive because it's fun, not for transportation

three: a collection that serves no purpose, holds no value, and is comprised only of things that bring you joy, for no particular reason, that you don't have to explain to anyone

two: a favorite book, dog-eared and love-worn from how many times you've read it

one: a best friend who loves you unconditionally, listens to you with rapt attention even when you're a raving lunatic, comforts you when you're upset, never lies, knows how to keep a secret, never judges you, and always takes your side in an arguement

Blood and Tickets

I try to donate blood as much as I can. For some reason, they usually give you something (I do it for the cookies) - I've gotten a bracelet, several t-shirts large enough to house a family of four, and a random assortment of things that I don't really know what to do with.
But the last time I gave blood (last Friday), I got 2 movie tickets. Score! I thought... finally! something that I will use!
Problem is, the tickets are only for movies that have been in the theater for over two weeks. Now, if a movie is good enough to have been in the theater for over two weeks, and I haven't seen it by then, it's probably because I'm not particularly interested in seeing that movie.
Although, my normal excuse is, "I'm not paying $10 to see that. I'll get it for free on-demand in a few months."
So maybe I will use the tickets. They are free, after all.

Our latest movie adventures: (pics from imdb.com)

The DaVinci Code: Read the book. It's much better. Although I have to say that if the movie stayed true to the book, it would be about ten hours long. And nobody's sitting through that.

Superman Returns: I liked it. I mean, I was never much of a Superman person. The X-Men and Batman are SO much cooler. The power went off in the theater for about ten minutes half an hour in, but they got the generator figured out and we got to see the whole thing. For explanations of power outages, see previous posts about rain and homicidal trees.

Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man's Chest: Not as good as the first one, and I think the whole purpose of the second movie was to set the stage for the third movie. But Orlando Bloom is pretty, Johnny Depp is funny and creative. What else does a movie need? Oh, and we went to see it because we didn't have power at home, and Los gets cranky without air conditioning.

Hell Month

I've got a couple of classes to finish up before I start on my master's in the fall. Problem is, summer courses are so damn intense. For the next four weeks, I will have class all night Monday through Saturday. (Saturday!!! I must be a masochist.)
So, please understand that I'm not ignoring anyone, ya'll are still my friends. And I will read all of your forwards and reply to your witty e-mails when I am again able to obtain 6 hours of sleep a night.
And I'll return all of your phone calls from the car on my way to class.

The Best of International Soccer

So I've abandoned the World Cup. After watching match after match of horrible reffing, with the team the ref wanted to win winning, the whole thing just turned my stomach. Fair, my ass.

So here's my own little score board. All pics are from www.fifaworldcup.com.

Best of the US:
Brian McBride, forward, #20.
Plays for England's Manchester United.

Best Bald Guy:
Zinedine Zidane, France, midfielder, #10.
Plays for Spain's Real Madrid.

Most Envied Water Bottle:
Michael Ballack, Germany, midfielder, #13.
Plays for Germany's Bayern Munich.

Most Overrated Player:
David Beckham, England, Midfielder, #7.
Plays for Spain's Real Madrid.


Best Man-Stubble:
Ricardo Cabanas, Switzerland, Midfielder, #7.
Plays for Germany's FC Cologne.


Best Press Shot:
Luis Garcia, Spain, forward, #11.
Plays for England's Liverpool.


Best of the Barely Legal (you can't buy him a beer):
Lionel Messi, Argentina, forward, #19.
Plays for Spain's Barcelona.
Just turned 19.


Best of the Barely Legal (but you can buy him a beer):
Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal, forward, #17.
Plays for England's Manchester United.
Just turned 21.

Best Six-Pack on Display:

Although they probably all have one, they're not showin' 'em. :(
Emmanuel Adebayor, Togo, forward, #4.
Plays for England's Arsenal.

Most Interesting Tattoo:

Djibril Cisse, France.

Power-Less 4th of July

As a result of a short, but apparently very windy, thunderstorm, a lot of damage was done to NoVa. We were sitting an hour into Superman Returns when the power in the movie theater went out. Not so bad, after about 10 minutes it came back on and we got to finish it. But when we got home, there was no power.
Luckily, it came back on around 10:30, so the humidity that didn't factor into the thoughts of DC's forefathers when they decided to build a city on a swamp didn't kill us.

Casualties:
-Lots of downed trees. Many blocking streets, taking down power/telephone lines.
-A lot of Ffx County hasn't had power restored. Honestly, some people's power still hasn't been restored from the storm we weathered three days ago.

And the kicker:


Yes, that's my car. And yes, that's a fallen tree about 3 feet away from it. Talk about a Guardian Angel. Whew.




A closer look at the tree that tried to eat my car.

Strange Ailments of the Midtolate-Twenties

At least once a year I am befallen by some strange ailment.

2001- Kidney infection that landed me in the hospital. I would have thought I'd get liver or lung problems before the kidney. And what does a kidney really do, anyhow? Create bile? Who needs that?

2002- Flu. I know this isn't all that abnormal, but it is when you can't hold food down for over a week. Yes, slightly dehydrated.

2003- Fainted due to sunstroke. In the middle of a bar, in the center of all my friends, at the beach. I hadn't even drank anything yet. Just -boom- on the floor, with a healthy crack to the head. They even called an ambulance. On a side note- the paramedic was trying to see if I knew who/where/what I was, and I kept insisting I was 21 (he was looking at my driver's license) and that I was old enough to be in the bar. And of course he was looking at me like I had amnesia, I was 24.

2004- Spider bite on my eyelid. Walked around looking like I'd gotten in a fight for about a week. Not cool.

2005- Broke my foot after tripping down a step and a 2 inch tall welcome mat. Sam Adams pushed me. Went dancing immediately afterwards, then walked around the entire next day telling people I wasn't really hurt, I just needed to walk it off. Got the cast removed just in time for the wedding.

2006- My wisdom tooth decided to suddenly make an appearance. I'm 27, for god's sake. Aren't you supposed to get these in high school??? So half of my face is swollen, it hurts like anything, and I'm not sleeping very well. The best thing that seems to make the pain go away is -get this- Altoids. Man, they really missed a marketing opportunity with this one. Maybe I should write them a letter.

Yay me.

Your Tax Dollars

What I did at work today:

CAT equipment AND the Capital Building. Gotta love DC.

My boss was excited because this sign says Decatur, IL twice on it. 'Cause CAT's in D-town. And now he knows it actually exists, and is not just a figment of my imagination (I told him it's the soybean capital of the world, he thinks I'm making stuff up.)

Diggin for oil, in front of the Smithsonian Castle. Wonder if they found anything?

After making a smart comment about needing to find the Miller Lite stand...

LO AND BEHOLD. (angels singing in the background)

So now we can walk around outside on the Mall, look at heavy machinery, and drink beer. And it's not even my lunch hour. I love work.

Rain, Rain, GO AWAY!!!!

Here in the DC/NOVA area we've had a record amount of rain. Which shows absolutely no signs of stopping.

Team losses:

I-395 shut down due to mudslide.

GW Parkway had a flash flood and is recovering.

L'Enfant and Federal Triangle metro stations have been taken over by the alligators who used to live in the sewer. They have since been recovered; however, they still smell like the sewer.

The IRS, Federal Archives, Reagan Building, Smithsonian. NOT where I work, but real close. But not close enough for me to stay home and get paid for it.

Hunter Mill Road has been under water for awhile. VA now owes me 35 cents, as the only other route is the damn toll road. Lucky for them I had change floating around in the bottom of my purse.


And of course, this is what the 12th Street Tunnel looked like on Monday morning. Just to give you some sort of dimensions, at it's lowest point the street was under probably six feet of nasty polluted DC rainwater, which probably has more infectious diseases in it than the CDC can count.

A usual advocate of public transportation (not only do I really suck at parallel parking, but I also don't make enough to pay $15 a day for parking) I metro'd it. Only to stop for 10 minutes at each station between Vienna and Metro Station. Which, due to flooding, is the last stop. Federal Triangle was closed. So, I am hiking with my high heels, dry clean only clothes, and my PETA umbrella (spay and neuter your dogs and cats, man. the shelters are full enough already without your horny mutt adding to it.) the 1.2 miles from Metro Center to the building in which I work. In 100% humidity.

Boy, was I late to work.

boolsheet

I wanted to get this out of my system before the US plays Ghana today at 10.


What Italy had to do to get a red card, McBride's pretty face after DeRossi let him have an elbow.

















Apparently, the US doesn't have to try so hard.

Mastroeni gave a dirty tackle. Which for most teams, would be a straight yellow card. But for the US, it's obviously a red. Thanks, ref.

A slide tackle, resulting in a second yellow for Eddie Pope, should have been... nothing. It was all ball. He didn't touch the guy.

Copa Mundial 2006

We've been pretty distracted lately. At 9am, 12pm and 3pm everyday we've been glued to the television, the radio, or the internet for a couple hours each time.
I'm not going to post any brackets or scores, I'm just going to tell you where you can find them.


http://www.fifaworldcup.com/ (brackets, scores and articles)


http://broadband.espn.go.com/broadband/EBB2/web/shellMain (live on the web, but you have to have Flash Player, which is unable to be downloaded by many people at work)


http://clients.mediaondemand.net/theSun/?Channel=1 (radio feed, all the way from England)


http://www.laradiodelmundial.com/ (to listen in Spanish)

See you later!

D-C-U-NI-TED

We love soccer.
And this time, it wasn't just for the tailgating, although that was fun, too.

DC United - 1 New England - 0

YAY!

Memorial Day BBQ

Memorial Day marks the beginning of lots of things.
The pool opens.
You can now wear white shoes.
Summer is finally here.
The DC humidity kicks in.
What better way to celebrate these beginnings than a BBQ? Fire up the grill, pass out some cold ones. Gather up all your friends and toast the beginnings.

Out of all the guys present at the BBQ, us females all agreed that this one was by far the best looking. No offense, guys.

Fishies!!!!!

Okay. We all know that all things underwater hold some kind of strange fascination. So, we make the trek to the best place within driving distance to see the underwater, the Baltimore Aquarium. You can find out more about the Baltimore Aquarium at www.aqua.org.

Australian Freshwater Crocodile. As with all crocks, the depth and temperature of the nests where eggs are laid determines the gender of the babies.

Giant Amazon River Turtle. In the wild, they eat only during the rainy season when the Amazon River floods. Weird.

Parrotfish. Parrotfishes graze on coral, and have the ability to change genders.

A really cool fish that looks like a rock. Sorry, I don't remember it's name. If you do, let me know!

Coral reefs. The second picture (sorry about the quality) shows some great marine worms.

The outside of the aquarium at night.

Another great place to see fish:

www.montereybayaquarium.org