St. Lucia Honeymoon

If you had purchased...

If you had purchased $1000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago you will have $49.00 today.
If you had purchased $1000 of shares in AIG one year ago you will have $33.00 today.
If you had purchased $1000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago you will have $0.00 today.
But if you had purchased $1000 worth of beer one year ago drank all the beer then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling refund you will have received $214.00.
Based on the above the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle.
It is called the 401-Keg.
A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year.
Another study found that Americans drink on average 22 gallons of alcohol a year.That means that on average Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon!

Makes you proud to be an American!

We're Back!

Chris and I are back from our amazing St. Lucian honeymoon! We had so much fun. I will be posting pictures of both the honeymoon and the wedding soon. If anyone has pictures from the wedding, please feel free to email me them and I will post them.
Thank you, everyone, for your well wishes and love!

In-Law Bridal Shower

Chris' Birthday

How Chris celebrates his birthday... playing with his new toy!
Happy 30th, to my old man.

Whoopsie! on Invitations

Just a slight correction

My First McDay

So I started working at McDonald's today! Yeah!
It's something I never thought I'd do, but it's turning out to be a whole lot of fun. The people are really friendly, and of course the food is addictive.
My bosses make sure my MS doesn't interfere and even provided me with a chair to sit down on when I get too tired. I only work from 7am to 11am, so it's not that long, but it is a long time on my feet! At least a lot longer than I thought it would be, so the chair is really appriciated towards the end of my time. I work the register at the drive through, which is really nice. Someday I'm going to learn the headset, but that's kind of scarey to me.
(written later on) It's so busy in the mornings! I didn't realize how many people have McDonald's every single day for breakfast! There's a lot of regulars. One lady always brings her little yorkie with her to the drive-thru.
Anyway, keep eating McD's and remember that the lunch menu doesn't start till after 10:30am. :)

London Cruise on the River

Catch Up

It's been a while, I'll try to catch you up. Sorry about that. Check out some of the previous blogs: I'm going to try and post with previous dates, so you'll hahve to go back in time... sorry :) Hope you have fun checking out what I've been up to! It'll be that way throughout my blogs.

Vesica Piscis Part 3

Vesica Piscis Part 3

Vesica Piscis part 2

Been a while

It's been a while since I've posted, and a lot has gone on. I'll have to fill you up on everything as soon as I have a moment to catch my breath... and that moment is coming. I'm starting to get the hang of this "married life" thing, I think... maybe... maybe... the dust is starting to settle, which is good, because I've got the big wedding to plan! I do have my dress, **squeal**!! My mom and mom-in-law went with me to help me pick it out. Read about it soon on the wedding page (I promise that update is coming soon too; time, people, I need time!).
Chris is enjoying his new job here, which is good. I am searching for a part time job, while doing part time work at the Ranch. Also, I'm learning that housekeeping and wedding planning are almost fulltime jobs to themselves! But most everything is under control with the wedding thanks to the VP personelle. Housekeeping is getting there... I just got to get into a daily routine and not let myself fall behind.
Christopher did such a wonderful job surprising me with a beautiful setup on the house! Everything was put away... and we have furniture! It's great! I just have to pick up every once and a while to keep everything as wonderful as he made it for me. It's hard to do, because I get out paperwork and just spread out all over. I know it annoys him. But he's a dear and doesn't say anything. That's one of many reasons why I love him. Anyway, enough gushing. I should get some sleep.

McDonald's 'Chicken Legend'

Here's one of the chicken legend commercials, but I like the other one better... I'll try to get it downloaded soon. :)

Official Virgin Holidays Advert - Starring Charlotte Church

It's such a fun advertisment!

New Haircut

I got a new haircut today! Great feeling. I love it!

This is me before:





This is me now:

Aren't I cute/sexy!! I love it! It's nice and short, but still long enough to do stuff with.

Mom got her hair cut as well. Isn't she georgous?

Think before you speak

Think before you speak...

Here are six reasons why you should think before you speak - the last
one is great!

Have you ever spoken and wished that you could immediately take the
words back... or that you could crawl into a hole?

Here are the Testimonials of a few people who did....


FIRST TESTIMONY:

I walked into a hair salon with my husband and three kids in tow and
asked loudly,

'How much do you charge for a shampoo and a blow job?' I turned
around and walked back out and never went back.

My husband didn't say a word... he knew better.


SECOND TESTIMONY:

I was at the golf store comparing different kinds of golf balls. I
was unhappy with the wome n's type I had been using.

After browsing for several minutes, I was approached by one of the
good-looking gentlemen who works at the store. He asked if he could
help me.

Without thinking, I looked at him and said, 'I think I like playing
with mens balls'.


THIRD TESTIMONY:

My sister and I were at the mall and passed by a store that sold a
variety of candy and nuts.

As we were looking at the display case, the boy behind the counter
asked if we needed any help.

I replied, 'No, I'm just looking at your nuts.'

My sister started to laugh hysterically. The boy grinned, and I
turned beet-red and walked away. To this day, my sister has never
let me forget.


FOURTH TESTIMONY :

While in line at the bank one afternoon, my toddler decided to
release some pent-up energy and ran amok. I was finally able to grab
hold of her after receiving looks of disgust and annoyance from other
patrons. I told her that if she did not start behaving 'right now'
she would be punished.

To my horror, she looked me in the eye and said in a voice just as
threatening, 'If you don't let me go right now, I will tell Grandma
that I saw you kissing Daddy's pee-pee last night!'

The silence was deafening after this enlightening exchange. Even the
tellers stopped what they were doing.

I mustered up the last of my dignity and walked out of the bank with
my daughter in tow.

The last thing I heard when the door closed behind me, were screams
of laughter.


FIFTH TESTIMONY:

Have you ever asked your child a question too many times?

My three-year-old son had a lot of problems with potty training and I
was on him constantly. One day we stopped at Taco Bell for a quick
lunch, in between errands. I t was very busy, with a fu ll dining
room.

While enjoying my taco, I smelled something funny, so of course I
checked my seven-month-old daughter. she was clean.

Then I realized that Danny had not asked to go potty in a while. I
asked him if he needed to go, and he said 'No' .

I kept thinking 'Oh Lord, that child has had an accident, and I don't
have any clothes with me.'

Then I said, 'Danny, are you SURE you didn't have an accident?'

'No,' he replied.

I just KNEW that he must have had an accident, because the smell was
getting worse. Soooooo, I asked one more time, 'Danny did you have
an accident ? This time he jumped up, yanked down his pants, bent
over, spread his cheeks and yelled

'SEE MOM, IT'S JUST FARTS!!'

While 30 people nearly choked to death on their tacos laughing, he
calmly pulled up his pants and sat down.

An old couple made me feel better, thanking me for the best laugh
they'd eve r had!


LAST BUT NOT LEAST TESTIMONY:

This had most of the state of Michigan laughing for 2 days and a very
embarrassed female news anchor who will, in the future, likely think
before she speaks.

What happens when you predict snow but don't get any?!

We had a female news anchor that, the day after it was supposed to
have snowed and didn't, turned to the weatherman and asked:

'So Bob, where's that 8 inches you promised me last night?'

Not only did HE have to leave the set, but half the crew did too they
were laughing so hard!

Tracy's Trip

These are a long time coming; but here are the pictures from Tracy's trip to ASF.

6 things that resemble the Death Star

It’s a simple shape, a sphere with a concave dish set in the surface. In 1977, the shape was forever linked to the movie Star Wars and is known as the Death Star. In the movie, it was a space station as large as a natural moon that housed the “ultimate weapon”, a planet-destroying laser.

1. Hotel Full Moon

The Hotel Full Moon in Baku, Azerbaijan is a design from Heerim Architects of Korea, to be built on a peninsula overlooking Full Moon Bay. The luxury hotel will have 382 rooms in its 35 stories. Another hotel on the bay will be called Hotel Crescent, also with a shape to follow its name.

That’s only the most recent example. Keep reading for others.

2. Convention Center Near Dubai

The RAK Convention and Exhibition Center in the new city of Ras al Khaimah, UAE looks very much like the Death Star. A project still in the concept stage from the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, the design is the result of a competition. The project team is led by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, who also designed the CCTV building in Beijing. The building will hold hotels, offices, restaurants, and stores as well as a convention hall. See more pictures here.

3. Belarus National Library

The Belarus National Library moved into a new building in 2006. It’s not spherical; the shape is a rhombicuboctahedron (try saying that three times fast). During the day, the 24 sides sparkle with glass panels. At night, they are illuminated by 4646 color-changing LEDs. The Minsk building is imposing and not without controversy. It has been referred to as the Death Star both because of the way it looks and how it was financed.

4. AT&T Logo

AT&T’s world globe logo was designed by Saul Bass in 1984, replacing the phone logo that had been in use for nearly 100 years. This came about because of the forced breakup of Ma Bell into seven regional “baby bells”. SBC Communications bought AT&T in 2005, and a new, slightly different logo was unveiled. The newest one hides the classic death star spot somewhat better, but some can still see the Evil Empire in the logo.

5. Panapet

The distinctive shape of the Death Star was around before Star Wars. It’s possible that George Lucas, or some of the other creative minds behind Star Wars owned a Panasonic R-70 transistor radio, marketed as the Panapet. Very likely, in fact, since it seemed everyone had one. They were produced in the early 70s.

6. Mimas

The most amazing similacrum of the Death Star is Mimas, one of the inner moons of Saturn. It has an 80-mile-wide crater named Herschel, which looks like it could easily focus a superlaser. The uncanny resemblence is coincidental, as Star Wars was made several years before the first photographs of Mimas with its crater were taken.

If you love the shape, and don’t want to travel to Dubai, or Minsk, or Saturn, you can build your own Death Star with a Lego kit -or just watch someone else do it.

The Story behind the Cereal

The Stories Behind Your Favorite Cereal Mascots
By Nick Hansen

Everyone remembers the wonderful Saturday morning ritual of diving into multiple bowls of sugared cereal while watching hours of cartoons. (Some of us haven’t moved on yet.) Cereal cartoons are one of the largest and most successful advertising trends in history. I still sympathize with the Trix Rabbit for not being able to enjoy a bowl of his fruit-shaped cereal. Here are the stories behind the characters that successfully motivated us to beg our parents to purchase their sugary products.

Horatio Crunch — Cap’n Crunch

One of the grossest things about cold cereal is when it gets too soggy and turns mushy. Captain Horatio P. Crunch was born in response to a survey kids that said they hated soggy cereal. Jay Ward (above) drew the captain and, according to his daughter, based the cartoon on himself. The honorable captain was charged with guarding the Crunch from the evil barefoot pirate Jean Le-Foote. The Captain has protected his cereal from the menace of sogginess so well that there was a movement to promote him to the rank of Admiral. If you look closely at the early commercials, they look familiar to other cartoons of the day. That’s because Jay Ward also animated other popular TV shows like Rocky and Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right and George of the Jungle.

Can you see the resemblance?

Snap, Crackle and Pop — Rice Krispies

Rice Krispies had the distinction of being a cereal you could hear. A jingle for the noisy cereal inspired illustrator Vernon Grant to create the characters Snap, Crackle, and Pop:

“Listen to the fairy song of health, the merry chorus sung by Kellogg’s® Rice Krispies® as they merrily snap, crackle, and pop in a bowl of milk. If you’ve never heard food talking, now is your chance.”

Grant’s flair for fantasy caused him to draw the three characters as gnomes. Snap was the first gnome and appeared in a few solo ads before his brothers came along. When they first started appearing in 1939 they fought against their rivals Soggy, Mushy and Toughy for the hearts (and bowls) of the children. Once the television ads began to be seen by a larger and younger audience, Kellogg’s decided to modernize the three and make them more human-like. Snap, Crackle and Pop are now the longest-running cereal advertising campaign in history.

The Rabbit — Trix

Before he was animated, the Trix rabbit was a hand puppet. The original tagline for the cereal was “I’m a rabbit and rabbits are supposed to like carrots. But I hate carrots. I like Trix.” Catchy, isn’t it? General Mills knew that television was the best way to advertise to kids and they decided to spend 97 percent of their advertising budget on commercials. It paid off: the “Silly Rabbit” campaign was a hit. By 1976, General Mills was worried it was sending the wrong message to kids by having the rabbit always fall short of his aspiration. They decided to do the American thing and let the kids vote whether the rabbit should get a bowl. The Rabbit’s campaign was so successful that more than 99 percent kids voted to let the rabbit have a bowl. The Rabbit has succeed in grabbing bites here and there, but he hasn’t had a full bowl since 1980. And as you can see, it is probably a good thing because it seems to have some sort of weirdly stimulating effect on him.

Tony the Tiger — Frosted Flakes

Cartoon spokescharacters were all the rage in the 1950s. The Kellogg Company wanted an animal to advertise its new Sugar Frosted Flakes to appeal to the younger generation while reassuring mothers that it was OK to let their kids eat a sugared cereal for breakfast. The Leo Burnett advertising agency came up with four different choices: Tony the Tiger, Katy the Kangaroo, Elmo the Elephant and Newt the Gnu. The agency could not decide between a kangaroo or a tiger, but the marsupial was sacked when the feline outsold her by huge margins. The tiger concept was so successful that Kellogg’s sued Exxon Mobile for their use of a tiger in their advertisements.

When Tony first appeared on cereal boxes, advertising critic James D. Wolf said, “I am very fond of breakfast cereals, but a tiger fails to give me a hankering.” Evidently he didn’t realize how “great” Tony would become. If Tony’s singing voice sounds familiar it’s because his voice actor Thurl Ravenscroft also sang “You’re a mean one Mr. Grinch” for the Grinch cartoon. [Stacy’s Note: He also sang one of the ‘Grim Grinning Ghosts’ parts in the Haunted Mansion at Disneyworld.] Tony’s son also had a short lived spinoff cereal called Frosted Rice.

Lucky — Lucky Charms

The concept of marshmallows in a bowl (or “marbits,” as General Mills called them) was easily appealing to kids, but a much harder sell for parents. Lucky was spawned from a concept to base the marshmallows around a charm bracelet. Lucky was replaced for a time in the 1970’s by Waldo the Wizard, but the leprechaun came back within a year. The marbits continued to evolve due to increased product sales every time a new one was added. Lucky’s original charm bracelet included yellow moons and stars, but now are blue moons and shooting stars. Kids could not resist trying to catch Lucky to get his marshmallow-filled cereal. Fortunately, Lucky provided the secret… go to the store and buy a box. Arthur Anderson supplied Lucky’s voice for 29 years, but surprisingly he’s not Irish.

See All Our Great Lists >>