Adam, Dad, & Jared at Goldie's on our recent trip to Norman.

Ingrid, Melinda, & Brian!

Ingrid, me, & Bethany "BeatDown" Jones.

Ingrid & me- she paid a visit Labor Day weekend.

Mister Roger's Neighborhood

if it were an option, I would adopt our little neighborhood kid.
he’s such a good little guy. his name is Collin and he’s 9 years old. sometimes I pay him to help with yardwork or whatever… but last night he said “I just want to help for free”. ahh... how cute... makes me feel like i live in Mister Roger's Neighborhood when he offers to sweep my driveway or sidewalk... just for the joy & warmth it brings to his little heart...
you think he’s just working on me? nnnaaaahh…… he’s truly a good kid. he cracks me up too.
I wish I could record some of our conversations and so you could hear what comes out of his mouth. he’s gone through a lot in his little life already… more than a lot of adults I know. sad… he’s had to “grow up” more than a lot of adults I know too.
hmm… all I have to say is you should never underestimate a 9 year old. :)

interactive posters… what will advertisers think of next? seriously, look at this: http://www.adverblog.com/archives/001971.htm
dang, if you ask me, it might spook some people…. could be a lot of fun though.
you know it will definitely grab people’s attention.

i stand corrected.

well- good news- I stand corrected. the little email subscription notice thing DOES work. whooflippinhoo. so, have at it… if you’re so inclined. and you can always unsubscribe if you get sick of it… which is very possible.

so here’s something annoying: I got some very dirty unwanted spam comments overnight. I immediately deleted them. ugh- I hate junk like that! anyway, so, now you’ll have to do a word verification when dropping me a comment because I don’t want anymore junk like that… yuck.

surprised that I haven’t mentioned anything about the hurricane? well, I really don’t know what to say about it… it’s a sad thing that is going to take a lot of work for a long time… from a lot of people. even if they don’t rebuild in New Orleans… thousands of people will have to rebuild somewhere. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be in their shoes. the best thing I know to do is to give to the relief funds & pray.

if you haven’t noticed… I’ve tried to avoid talking about anything sobering, serious, or spiritual lately. the last couple weeks have been crazy! I’ll get around to getting out all that serious junk later. :)

on a different note, whoohoo for shopping. Ingrid & I did a little shopping this weekend & I got some new bedding. yeah! it coordinates well with my black furniture. for some reason the pattern reminds me of India.

this weekend's purchase...

my new bedding.

yeah for Labor Day weekend!

well folks, I had a fabulous 3 day weekend. hope you all did too.
My dear friend Ingrid came into town & we got together with tons of friends. Good times! i'll put a couple pics up before too long. unfortunately... i think that any weight that i had lost... i gained back this weekend. oh well... the cheesecake was totally worth it.

so i added the "subscribe" feature via bloglet last week but i'm not sure it works properly... so for the handful of you that actually keep up with my blog... i guess you'll just have to keep me in your favs for now.

later-
k

slimjim goodness

last week my boss came back from a trip with a slimjim. he hasn't eaten it. nope, he's been using it as a whip... slapping his desk when he's frustrated, or joking around, etc. well, today when he took a break to go to the restroom, i went into his office with a slimjim of my own in hand. i promptly hid his slimjim in a drawer. i opened my slimjim and sat down and awaited his return. jamie, one of my coworkers, joined me. as she & i waited & chatted, i proceeded to eat my slimjim. of course, i knew that when he came in that he would assume that i had opened his slimjim to partake as i pleased. well, you should have seen his face. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?! WHY ARE YOU EATING MY SLIMJIM!?!" i said "what? this isn't yours... open your drawer."

hahaha... good times. he was a good sport.

thanks slimjim. http://www.slimjim.com/

Wakamaru and Cuckoo

okay, those in favor of sending the Japanese the dvds of the Terminator movies say "I".
"A child-shaped humanoid robot that can recognize about 10,000 words and work as a house sitter will go on sale in Japan in September..." see the full story:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/J/JAPAN_HUMANOID_ROBOT?SITE=NCAGW&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

I had a good weekend. hung out with friends… ate a lot of good food… watched movies… got some work done… pretty successful weekend.
one of the movies I watched was One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. gotta say… wasn’t expecting it to end the way it did… but I truly enjoyed it overall.

H2O phenomena and dontdatehimgirl.com

so, I was on this blog today:
http://www.newpersuasion.typepad.com/

I enjoyed her entry about water because I’m a bottled water connoisseur…
a bottledwateroholic…
a bottled water snob...
a bottled water extremist…
a bottled water lover…
a bottled water freak…
anyway, at least I own up to my bottled water issues. i've been a bottled water connoisseur for as long as i can remember... maybe it has something to do with living in Oklahoma and preferring filtered H2O to tap?
no, i'm not the water lady from Return to Me.
(what a great movie! http://www.mgm.com/title_clip.do?title_star=RETURNME ).

here’s something else that I found funny on her blog:
http://www.dontdatehimgirl.com
oh… dear… lord…

in the news today...

from one extreme to another:

iced out babies:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,166346,00.html

$7 landfill tour:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1057708

all I have to say is what an exciting & ridiculous day for the newscasters.

fun ideas

so someone asked me if i had a favorite entry that i’ve written since i’ve been doing this blog thing. i can’t believe that i’ve been writing stuff up on this since October 2004! crazy. anyway, this “favorite” question got me thinking and i went back & read some old ones. don’t we all have our moments? i’m sure that most bloggers could say that they have some “favorites”. as for me, i think that my best mental spills come after i’ve been around kids or after i’ve been speeding down the highway at night blaring music in my car. hmmm… if i’m most inspired when i’m around kids and when driving… maybe i should switch career paths… school bus driver? okay- don’t fly off the handle- i’m just kidding. besides, i don’t think it’d work since i like to drive at night speeding down the highway with the music…. really don’t think they’d allow overnight delivery of the kids. but it’s a fun idea.

speaking of fun ideas… SPRAY-ON salad dressing! hmm… spray-on ranch doesn’t sound too appetizing… but spray-on Italian maybe… yum. seriously, check this out:
http://adage.com/news.cms?newsId=45819

well, i'm off to lunch... bye for now.

i work with an Elmer Fudd.

http://www.reelclassics.com/Audio_Video/Videos9o/looneytunes_rabbitofseville.mov

anyone else work with any annoying cartoon characters?

i bet my friend D does. see his new blog:
http://www.fullhousley.blogspot.com

CORRECTION: www.seriouslyd.blogspot.com

the following may not be suitable for young children:

so as I was getting ready for work this morning I heard a “news” story on the Christian radio station. …and very quickly became seriously irritated. the story was about how this missions training school “discovered” that they could train pastors in Uganda via the internet. in other words, they now have online courses.
whoohoo! duh, we can have online courses?!?!? you mean the internet can be used as a valuable tool? whoa! yippee! thank you reverend dipstick! what’s taken you so long to figure this out?! maybe if you weren’t sitting in your bubble all the freakin time you would have found this out a long time ago! the internet? what’s that??

so, this amazing “news” story got me thinking about the AGE OLD question:
Why are most Christians always 10 years behind?

and then i started to think about Jesus in the Garden with his disciples…
you know when he asked them to pray and he went off to pray by himself. he kept coming back to find them sleeping. oh boy, was Jesus a nice guy. i have a feeling that when he said Come on guys, can’t you stay awake?? that it was probably very evident that he was serious… it probably came out with some divine emotion. but if i was Jesus, i would’ve been DIVINELY PISSED OFF when i kept finding them sleeping!!! AAAAAHHHHHH C’MON YOU STUPID LAZY MO’FOS!!!!!!!!! WAAAAAAAAAKE UP!
Most christians are always 10 years behind because they’re sleeping… just can’t seem to stay awake. please note that I said MOST and not ALL.

since I’m sure someone might think it, let me just say that i do not by any means claim to be perfect… but I’m no sleeping bubblelover.
here’s another bone I have to pick w/sleeping bubblelovers:
why is it that the UK and Australian Christians are sending MISSIONARIES over to the U.S.????? why????

anyway, sorry about all this ranting & raving. I just get divinely pissed every once in awhile and have to get my “preach” on. WAKE UP YOU SLEEPING BUBBLELOVING MO’FOS!!!

wow, sometimes i read something i've wrote & think what's got into me?!
i'm really a nice person... i think. THAT'S IT- no more writing about christians that tick me off for at least a month.

you think?

Is blogging a crutch? Is it a valid substitute for face-to-face conversation? I think blogging should be used as an introduction to people you want to meet in person, because no matter how cool someone is on her blog, she is much more interesting in person.
-from Matthew Homann at
http://thenonbillablehour.typepad.com/nonbillable_hour/2005/08/blogher_brain_d.html

well, i'm not sure that always rings true... but I think I like Matthew Homann.

While you're checking Homann's blog, here's another you should look at:
http://www.michelemiller.blogs.com/marketing_to_women/

big ad

Click on the link,
click "YES"
Then "HIGH"

http://www.bigad.com.au/

all by myself in the office

i was working a bit this evening so that i can leave early tomorrow... Rebecca & I are going to an Alison Krauss concert. anyway, i'm listening to Coldplay's Fix You in my office here and i'm getting emotional. i know, it's ridicluous. Fix You is just like my life in the past few weeks. but who's fixing me? Who!?!?! it's hard for me to not try to fix things all by myself. i learn a little more everyday how to give things up- to let God do stuff in my life- rearrange things- fix things. ugh...

i gotta say music is a beautiful thing. i was thinking about it this morning... thinking about how music is an art form that pretty much everyone in the world enjoys. of course, people have different preferences of musical styles... but everyone likes it and is moved by it in some way. i think it's a gift from God. love it.

i would like to give a shout out to my dear friends the Burkes & the Etzkorns. love you & lots of people are praying for you all.

No Diggity

i took the StrengthsFinder Test yesterday. It's the Gallup Organization's Web-based talent assessment tool.
Just in case anyone is interested, the test's results say that my five most dominant themes of talent are:

Belief: People strong in the Belief theme have certain core values that are unchanging. Out of these values emerges a defined purpose for their life.

Relator: People who are strong in the Relator theme enjoy close relationships with others. They find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal.

Strategic: People strong in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

Activator: People strong in the Activator theme can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. They are often impatient.

Responsibility: People strong in the Responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.

Yes, I agree with the assessments.

btw, i'm having a GREAT week at work... so far.

pics and personal email

so i've added some pics (see below) that i took way back... way back in february... the trip to Colorado. I've also added a few from our recent trip to the zoo. it was a family thing. Here's Jared & Joel (above) on the happy zoo train. thanks to the grocery store's crappy developing, Jared has some phantom lightscar on his face.
anyway...
things have been going okay with me. busy as usual. lots to say... but i don't feel like saying much at the moment. :) can you believe i haven't seen the new star wars flick yet? what the heck? i need to go see that.
okay, here's something frustrating: i want to get a new personal email address but every possible login combination i've tried is already taken! well, everything except sexylamb. you guys have any ideas?? i was hoping to keep it short & sweet... i need at least 6 characters... and i'm not sure that i want to go with sexylamb. please help.