Pssst.....

Go here to win a free handbag! There are some very cute ones and you can select which one you want to be registered to win. Pick any one you want, but if you pick the giraffe print, you will lose to me! Just saying....

Twilight

I know that everyone was waiting for me to weigh in on the whole Twilight craze. (/end sarcasm) But I did read the first book over the weekend. And....I was underwhelmed. WAY underwhelmed. I will give Stephenie Meyers credit - I think she did an excellent job of capturing the voice of a high school girl. However, the voice of a high school girl is REALLY FREAKING ANNOYING. (Yes, I know it's aimed at young adults, but this would have annoyed me even as a high schooler.) There are also tons of grammatical errors. Seriously, where were her editors? Does anything get edited anymore? I cannot believe all the grammatical errors I see in books these days. And I'm certainly not an expert, but sometimes they jump off the page. So I'm going to come down on Jonniker's side of this one, except instead of a second grader, I think it reads like a high school freshman wrote it. The repetitive descriptions! The ability to make a mountain out of EVERY molehill! And it contains EVERY SINGLE cliche of vampire fanfic. Oh! And if it's going to be a mystery that Edward is a vampire, it might not be the best idea to put that fact ON THE BACK COVER of the novel. It takes about 10 chapters for Bella to figure out that Edward is a vampire, there's build-up and intrigue and everything! And all the while, I'm going, "DUH! He's a vampire! I READ THE BACK OF THE BOOK!" It's long, and (and I don't usually say this) boring. By the end, I was torn between dreading picking it up and wanting to finish it so that I could read something better. I wouldn't say it was completely awful, but I don't think I'll read the rest of the series. The preview of the second book annoyed the hell out of me, and I really can't imagine reading through an entire (very long) book of that, much less three more (very long) books. Do check out this hilarious drinking game based on the series, though, it's priceless.

Blog Post of Love

To Jess and Torsten! To their happiness!



Seriously, if you are not familiar with Jess' blog, go read it. She's a fabulous, thoughtful girl who loves purple. And Torsten sounds like a wonderful guy. They are an adorable couple and they are very happy and in love. Their wedding is a little less than two months away and they are so calm and prepared, it's awesome. I cannot wait to see the wedding pictures. They are lovely people and I wish them all the happiness in the world.

Brief Updates

Our office is moving tomorrow, so work is insane right now. But instead of packing my office, I'm going to write a blog post! WHEE!

• Supergirl's birthday was last Saturday. She's officially six now. How on earth do I have a six year old?
• In the new office space, I have a (slightly) bigger office...WITH A WINDOW! *moving on up...to the sky* The office is still pretty small, there's a big, square column that sticks out from the wall, and the view from the window is of the parking lot, but hey! I'm excited.
• I'm waiting for an office meeting to start. They're scheduled for 5:15 now because New Boss can't get his shit together to start the meeting at 5:00. Heh.
• Washing machine is still broken. Casualty of this weekend's visit to the laundromat? A pair of pajama pants have white spots from detergent or bleach or something. But since it's just a pair of pajama pants, I won't say anything.
• We also discovered that the answering machine got fried by the lightning. That's the second answering machine we've lost that way. (That whole lightning never strikes twice? Bullshit.)
• After I griped about my MIL and Rock made the comment that we may wait until next month to fix the washer because of some other bills, she gave us some money to fix our washing machine. I take back the mean things I said.

How's your week going?

Hey Nineteen, That's 'Reatha Franklin

Two of my co-workers and I had an interesting conversation this morning. They were trying to remember what year the Columbine school shooting happened. (It was April of 1999.) That was the year I graduated college. It was the year one co-worker graduated high school. For the other co-worker (admittedly, the youngest in the office), that was seventh grade. (I KNOW, RIGHT?!) But what was interesting was that the girl who was in seventh grade when it happened told us how it had impacted her high school experience. She said the kids made lists of who was likely to shoot people and who was likely to be shot. She said they were often afraid. It was really eye-opening to me, because I was well out of high school when that happened and I was never once afraid to be at school. What a horrible feeling that must be.

Gonna Have to Face it, You're Addicted to Love

Okay, so I was a little stabby yesterday. Thanks for letting me get that out. (And for saying that my requests were reasonable.) Today, I'm stealing a meme from Hotfessional.
List five addictions then tag two people.
1. Root beer - I go through phases with soft drinks. Right now, I am completely addicted to root beer. Rock and I both are, actually. We scavenge Wa!-Mart and the grocery store for six packs of the IBC bottles.
2. Fresh Market - I bought pre-made chicken kebabs there for Supergirl's party. I also go there for lunch frequently. Their sandwiches are great. And they sell individual bottles of IBC root beer cold. It freaks my co-workers out when I sit in my office and drink root beer. They think it's beer at first.
3. My Crest electric toothbrush - I got it free at my dentist's office and I love it. It really gets to my back teeth.
4. OPI nail polish - Favorite color - Bogota Blackberry
5. Burt's Bees products - I know that's cheating, but I use too many to list individually. There's the lip gloss, two kinds of body wash, baby wash, almond milk hand lotion, and the hand salve. That's more than five right there!
And I'll tag Shauna and Alice, because I would like to hear their answers.

Rant

Okay, I don't usually do this, but here are some things I want to say today:

To my beloved husband, who doesn't want to fix the washing machine: (Backstory - our house was struck by lightning two weeks ago. The washing machine was running, so it drew the lightning to it and was fried. We called the company and they said it's either the electric motor or the control panel. They can send us both parts and we can fix it ourselves. Rock will be able to fix it himself. However, he went to the laundromat yesterday while I was at work and when I got home, said, "You know, doing laundry at the laundromat is less expensive than fixing the washer. We could just keep doing that.")
I thought that was a bad idea when you suggested it, but now I have proof. There is a small (but noticeable) hole in the sleeve of my sweater today. The sweater I bought LAST WEEK and washed at your mother's house on Sunday. Our washing machine would not have torn my sweater. You introduced me to the luxury of a Staber washing machine and now I am accustomed to it. (It has a metal inner tub that revolves instead of a wringer in the middle that wraps your clothes around it.) It is MUCH, MUCH gentler on my nice clothes that I wear to work than regular washing machines are. Last week, at the laundromat, one of my button down shirts was ruined because some jackass had used bleach on the last load of clothes. It was an old shirt, and I needed to replace it anyway, so I didn't say much when it was ruined. But this is TWO articles of clothing that have been damaged by inferior washing machines and I am running VERY LOW on patience with this situation. I DO NOT have a large enough wardrobe to ruin an article of clothing every week. PLEASE FIX OUR WASHING MACHINE WITHOUT ME HAVING TO YELL AT YOU.

To my MIL:
Please appreciate the house you live in. My husband built it, with minimal help from the rest of us. It is far, far nicer than anything you could have afforded to have built for you by anyone else. It is far, far nicer than the house I live in. You lived rent-free in my house for two years while we built it. You now live rent-free in YOUR house, because we pay your mortgage. I don't ask for much, but your lack of gratitude astounds me.

Parties and Politics, Oh My!

Well, as usual, my resolve to post more frequently lasted exactly one week! Yaaay. Last week was pretty hectic, though. We had Supergirl's birthday party on Sunday, so I spent most of last week preparing for that. She will be 6 this Saturday. We had the party a week early because some out-of-town friends were visiting. It was a great party, we grilled steaks and chicken kebabs for the adults and hot dogs for the kids. And of course there was cake and homemade ice cream for dessert. The only problem was the weather. We always have the party on my in-law's porch, and yesterday was the hottest day in about a month. We were all hot and some of the kids complained. So we moved inside to eat cake and ice cream, then hung out in their living room and kitchen from then on.

Also, I stayed up late last Wednesday night to hear Sarah Palin's speech at the RNC. Before anyone jumps to conclusions, I have not decided who I will vote for in this election. But I wanted to hear Palin speak for herself, before all the pundits and talking heads got hold of her speech. I liked her, and I very much like the idea of a female vice president. I was very disappointed that Obama did not ask Hillary Clinton to be his running mate. That would have swayed me a great deal, I think. There are lots of things that I disagree with McCain and Palin about, but there are also lots of things that I disagree with Obama about. I'm a registered Independent, and I always will be. I've voted for Democrats and I've voted for Republicans. The few short months that I worked in politics, I worked for a Democrat. The party affiliation had nothing to do with my decision to leave that job. (The soul-sucking mean-spiritedness of my co-workers did, on the other hand.) And I never, ever voted for Bush. Not even the first time. I have to say, though, that the Republicans have a secret weapon - Piper Palin. She's the youngest daughter in the Palin family. At one point during Palin's speech, the camera focused on Piper holding her little brother and she proceeded to lick her hand and smooth down his hair. I just about fell off the couch laughing. That is totally something Supergirl would do on national television - lick her hand and smooth down Wildman's hair. That's class, y'all.