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.

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My Baby's So Sweet Now that She's got a hair cut

House in Owasso OK

Yard Sale

Yeah! The yard sale is over!

We made quite a bit of money and are very happy with the results. We did have a few boxes of knick-knacky things to donate to Goodwill at the end of the day (which ended up being at 4pm) but all big items went really quick.
We had a preview on Friday which was supposed to start at 4pm, and ended up starting at around 3:30. The actual sale on Saturday was supposed to start at 7:30am and ended up starting somewhere before 6am. I was not terribly a happy camper. But I was glad to take the money.
I was very greatful that Patti and Anita were there to help, because I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. All those people with their questions! I think I would have sold everything for a dollar, including the fridge, if they'd kept asking me. Thank goodness for the kindness of other people, because I was about to explode. That is why I stuck to doing the money.
It was a very tiring day, and fufilling. I feel a great weight is lifted. It continues to go with me as we pack for our future. Chris and I are both still weeding out items that we no longer wear to take to Goodwill for donations again. We are filling our souls, and it feels good. It feels good not to have so much stuff taking over our lives and bogging us down. And especially since we wont be carrying it with us. It's like a clean escape from this state. It will be good.

Oral Trials

Okay, so this could go under either Job or Everything Nice, but for right now I feel it definitely deserves to go under EN. As ya'all know, there's been talk of an oral drug coming out for MS treatment, well the clinical trials have been going on, and so far so good, so they're going to do long term clinical trials. And one of the study centers is in Tulsa! So I'm going to try and get signed up as a lab rat as fast as I can. I really think it'd be great.
I've talked to some of the other people who have taken the clinical trials who were obviously not taking the placebo and they say that it works wonderfully, with no side effects, so that's really good news. I'm really hopeful. I have my next appointment with Dr. E at the beginning of March, and I've gotta ask for my Oklahoma transfer then, so I'll ask for the recommendation for the clinical study at that time as well. I checked it out, and filled out the survey, they seem to think I'd be a prime candidate for it. I'm really excited. **Squeal!!**

Just a Few LOLCats

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Sister's Wedding Pictures

http://walker-wedding.blogspot.com/

Check out my sister's wonderful winter wonderland wedding! They are awesome pictures!

Food for Thought

THESE clever landscape photos prove art is a matter of taste – they are made from the contents of a FRIDGE.



Artist Carl Warner, 44, combines several images to create the amazing scenes, including a broccoli forest, bread mountains, cheese village and smoked salmon sea.



The dad-of-four plans to turn the photos into a book to encourage kids to eat more healthily. But he admits his own children still have trouble eating their greens. Carl, of Tonbridge, Kent, said: “But at least they don’t play with their food as much as I do.”

Long and Winding Road

http://www.tomrobinsonphotography.com/images/romania/_DSC0916.jpg

Brilliant photo. I love it, which is why it's on this page.

So I found this article in the December edition of Real Simple Magazine (in the Life Lessons: Good Intentions) and I thought it just had to be shared:

Bad Santa
You want: a present that expresses how he feels about you (bonus points if it's romantic). He wants: a detailed wish list (bonus points if you'll settle for gift cards). Men aren't Scrooges, Kyle Smith explains. They're just holiday-shopping challenged.

In the mobster movie Donnie Brasco, there's a scene that every guy loves. Al Pacino's broken-down old wise-guy, Lefty Ruggiero, celebrates Christmas by giving a cash-filled envelope to Brasco, a young street hood who has become his protégé (and who is, actually, an undercover FBI agent, played by Johnny Depp). Brasco reciprocates with an envelope stuffed with what appears to be the same amount of money. The two men hug, and everybody seems happy.
The scene is supposed to underline how dumb and crude gangsters are, but doesn't it really show how clueless the rest of us are? Unless yo have kids, you expect to spend about the same amount on holiday presents that others spend on you. But, unlike Donnie Brasco, much of what yo get - and give - will be the wrong size, the wrong style, or completely ill considered.
Just to be clear, I'm not against Christmas. I love Christmas. Midnight Mass is beautiful and serene and holy; Meet Me in St. Lois is a great movie that can be watched only between December 1 and 25 (so is Love Actually); and in the Northeast, where I’ve spent most of my life, the question of whether there will be a white Christmas is always surprisingly suspenseful. I look forward to the family reunions, crackling fires, and goofy shared jokes carried over from last year, especially when all of this is accompanied by pie. It’s the gift giving where I, and many of my male brethren, run into some trouble.
A Jewish friend of mine once expressed incredulity that exchanging Christmas gifts was a valid expression of love or friendship. “Aren’t you just doing each other’s shopping?” she said.
Sort of, except, like most men, I can’t stop.
I feel overwhelmed in malls, and last-minute crowds irk me. (Of course, I cold do my shopping in October, like my mother, but I happen to be really busy every October. Do you have any idea how many football games there are to watch?)
In his novel Microserfs, Douglas Coupland writes that the average male has only about 73 calories of shopping energy, and once they’re gone, they’re gone for the day, if not for the week, and can’t be regenerated. We’re shopping light-weights, and the reason is that the experience stirs up some dour, primal memories of being helpless little kids who spent long stretches of our most impressionable years being dragged from every Casual Corner to Marshall’s to Dress Barn by never-quite-satisfied mothers who responded to our whining by telling us to just hush up and be patient for six more hours. I think I have Post-Traumatic Shopping Disorder.
I’m man enough to admit that many guy gifting errors spring from within. Our misfires, while well-intentioned, are usually a result of our poor listening skills or a general lack of knowledge of women’s vocabulary. I confess that, over the years, I’ve been guilty of the latter many times. (“I thought you said you wanted a tennis racket…. Oh…. What’s a tennis bracelet?”) Female sizes remain a mystery to me. (Why is it that my pants have specific measurements - 32-inch waist, 30-inch inseam – but women’s pants carry mysterious numerals, like 8, that don’t indicate anything? Eight what?) To me, luggage is something made out of sensible glow-in-the-dark nylon held together with thick, webbed straps and stainless-steel D rings so you can strap it onto your back when you’re about to march up a mountain in China. How was I to know it meant a cute quilted bag like something Helena Bonham Carter would have carried to a tea party in Howards End?
My inept gift exchanging hasn’t always been entirely my fault. Before I got married this year, I used to engage in a dismal hobby dating passive-aggressive girls. Christmas is the day they look forward to all year; it is to the passive-aggressive what Halloween is to the Goth. In mid-November, a variation on this conversation would occur about once a week:
She: “So, what are you going to get me?”
He: “What would you like?”
She: “I’m not going ot tell you. You have to guess. Bt it better to be something original, thoughtful, and personal.”
He: “OK. So… a gift certificate to the nearest chain store.”
She: (Icy stare, storms from room, doesn’t speak for four hours.)
Unlike the exes, my wife has been very understanding about my gift-giving issues, and she and other members of my family no longer bother dropping hints to me. They don’t say things like “Oh, just pick out some earrings or a sweater that looks nice.” Left to my own devices, I’m liable to buy something that went out of style back when Joanie Loves Chachi went off the air. Instead, they provide me with detailed Christmas wish list, and I do the same.
But here’s the thing about buying me Christmas presents: I don’t want any. I live in a Manhattan apartment the size of a dog kennel, and my closets and shelves are already heaped with stuff. But if I tell my relatives not to get me anything, they won’t listen. If I don’t give them a list, I could wind up with a grandfather clock or a kayak or a cello. So I’m careful to suggest items readily available from established national retailers. Not everyone in my family plays this way.
My mother collects ceramic Santa Clauses, which stand in phalanxes on her shelves and in a vast china closet. I have no problem with getting her what she wants, even if I find these little figurines frightening and am convinced that every time I turn my back, they move an inch closer to me. But they are limited-edition, special handcrafted signature collectible, and the one she decides to add to her collection every year is, according to eBay, available only from one woman in Lawrence, Kansas. (That holds true whether I’m looking to buy Caribbean Santa, baseball-playing Santa, or unicyclin’ Santa.) I don’t know how to win an auction on eBay, so, in a full-on December 21 panic, I end up paying the inflated “Buy it now” price with extra tacked on for overnight shipping and yet more for gift wrapping, only to discover the next day 15 identical Santas selling for a third of what I just paid.
At other times, Mom has asked for an item she saw in a specific store (sorry, it’s not available on the website), and this is no less terrifying. The stores are teeming with immense, seething crowds and sinister perfume ladies who spritz everyone who comes within 10 yards of them. Because it’s cold outside, I wear a winter coat. But it’s 84 degrees inside, so I develop a boiling headache as I wait in line at the jewelry counter, only to be sent to a different jewelry counter, where I wait behind someone who is determined to try on every bauble in the case. I finally ask about the watch Mom wanted. They probably don’t have it, because it’s nearly Christmas and they’re sold out of everything. But if I’m lucky and find the present I’m looking for, then I get to wait in a gift-wrapping line like the one at the post office on tax day.
Luckily, I have acquired a secret weapon. My wife loves to wrap presents – even her own. She likes some of the same things my mother does and knows where to get them. She actually likes ot shop, especially for other women. I’ve already had the undeniable peasurable experience of sitting by the Christmas tree and seeing my mother open a perfectly wrapped present marked. “To Mom. Love, Kyle.” My mother will respond with something like “Oh, lovely! How did you know I wanted this?” And I’ll just smile mysteriously and look up to see what I got her.

Kiss Me Under the Mistletoe

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All Better

Everything is better now. My computer is back and running. Admittadly, the Geek Squad did nothing but tell me what I already knew. Well, they did copy files off of my harddrive, so that's good. Anyway, I did the right thing and restarted my computer completely. It's running faster. Connecting easier. A lot better. I re-installed Quicken, Microsoft Office, and Blackberry items. All is running like a brand new computer. Yeah!!!
So since my computer is better now, I'm better now.

iPlunge

Hi guys. Listen.

Um.

I'm preparing to join a cult.

The iCult.

That's right, I'm thinking about buying a Mac.

Don't look at me like that. It's not because I think I'm better than you. It's just that ... they're so easy. (And pretty). And they apparently don't give as much guff as PCs, which is good, because I'm about done with getting guff from my friggin' Dell. (And it's pretty).

I read reviews and compared specs online, and even when taking various PCs into account, Mac still seemed closer to my iNeeds. Ooops, I mean needs. Needs.

So hopefully I can beam up to the mothership in the next few weeks here. Gotta figure out if I want to order an Apple. Either way, if the thing acts up I can take it to my nearest Apple store -- wherever that may be when this hypothetical situation occurs -- and say "here, fix this." Which is another big, big plus for Apple, in my book.

Today I was doing some more iResearch -- um, research, I mean -- including an entertaining click-through on the Japanese Apple site, which led me to this:

Tell me. Does anything seem eerily ... familiar ... about those guys?

Take a gander at the Japanese PC/Mac commercials here. Quit yer whining that you don't know Japanese. Trust me, you'll get it. And you'll be simultaneously amused and weirded out.