Life In Color

Twilight Zone

OMG OMG
Celebrities are real and my friends are having encounters!!

→Kristin, friend and fellow bridesmaid to Ceara was in Las Vegas riding the elevator when who should get in but Paula Abdul! For real, and she did what any sane person would do and stayed on until Paula got off for full effect.

→Sciarrino JUST had the coolest run in yet. She's been traveling Idaho visiting family friends. Well this one lady she was staying with told her she had to stop at this bakery in Stanley, Idaho for the best sticky buns. Well of course she did. She had to go to the bathroom though, so she went in there first. When she came out she saw this girl that looked like Cheryl Crow. She was debating whether or not to tell this girl how much she looked like Cheryl Crow when she reached in front of a guy to grab a menu. Hello, the guy was Lance!!!! Lance Armstrong!!!!  Winner of seven Tour De Frances!!!! OMG. Upon this realization Sciarrino also noticed that Cheryl was, in fact, wearing a Livestrong bracelet. So cool. She said Cheryl was small, as small as me!  And that Lance had the tightest butt ever (good job for women kind for looking Sciarrino). She didn't say anything, playing the cool card, very respectable Sciarrin. She did walk past Lance on the way out to her car, and he smiled at her. Swoon. I heart Lance (who doesn't?).

I wanna see someone. Come on, the only famous people I've seen are golfers. And no, not Tiger Woods. :(

Free Association Wednesday

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Just comment with the first thing that pops into your head when you see this word, no real thinking required. If you need help see the first free association Wednesday, and please comment because you know you want to.

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craigslist

If you haven't checked out craigslist, then you totally should. More and more cities have been added. You can get tons of cool stuff, meet people, find a job. But the best thing has to be "best of craigslist." People nominate the listings and they are usually hilarious. Here are two of my personal favs:

A Tip for Cellphone Junkies: A Phone is Not an Invisible Forcefield.

Yes, that was me who ran into you this morning on the way to work and didn't apologize. What did you expect? You were weaving all over the sidewalk like an old drunk trying to get home. It was enough to trying to get around your zombie carcass in the first place. Am I supposed to predict your next thoughtless sideways move based on the pseudo-voice coming through that piece of plastic?

Next time you have to take or make a call, instead of pacing around like you're in a protective bubble, why not try standing against a building? I know you think you're "multi-tasking" by walking and talking, but you're not. You're only talking and you're in everyone Else's way. You are lulled into a state of non-reality when you have that thing against your head. You're the one who should be apologizing for being such a drone. Wake up and snap out of it.

Why Geeks and Nerds Are Worth It...

In the wide world of dating, there are many options. Do you go for the flashy guy with the smooth smile, or the dude in the corner typing away on his laptop? The following are reasons why I think my fellow females should pay more attention to the quiet geeks and nerds, and less attention to the flashy boys.

1.) While geeks and nerds may be awkward, they’re well-meaning 9 out of 10 times. That smooth dude with the sly grin and the spider hands? Wonder what HIS intentions are... plus, I’ve never had a geek guy not call me when he said he would. Score major points THERE.

2.) They’re useful. In this tech-savvy world, it’s great to have a b/f who can make your laptop, desktop, and just about anything else that plugs into a wall behave itself.

3.) They’re more romantic than they’re given credit for. Ok true, their idea of romance might be to make up a spiffy web-page with all the reasons why they love you, with links to pics of you and sonnets and such... but hey. It lasts longer than flowers, plus you can show your friends.

4.) Due to their neglected status, there are plenty to choose from. You like ‘em tall and slender? There are plenty of geeks/nerds who are. You like ‘em smaller with more meat on their bones? Got that too.

5.) They’ve got brains. Come on now, how can intelligence be a bad thing?

6.) Most are quite good at remembering dates. Like birthdates and such, especially if they know it’ll make you happy. Due again to their neglected status, they’re more attentive than guys who “have more options”. Plus, with all that down time without a steady girlfriend, they’ll likely have mental lists of all the things they’d love to do once they GOT a girlfriend.

7.) Sex. Yep. Sex. I’m not really familiar with this myself, but I’ve friends who’ve been intimate with geek guys and it’s raves all around. They say a virgin wrote the Kama Sutra... all that time thinking about sex, imagining sex, dreaming about sex, (they are male after all) coupled with a desire to make you happy? Use your imagination.

8.) They’re relatively low-maintenance. Most can be fueled on pizza, Twinkies and Mt Dew. No complicated dinners needed here, so if you’re not the best cook, eh. Can you order a pizza?

9.) Most frequent bars as often as slugs frequent salt mines. You won’t have to worry much about your geek guy getting his “groove” on with club hotties because, frankly, he’ll be too busy rooting around under his computer wondering where that spare cable went. You won’t have to worry about him flirting with other women because, 9 out of 10 times, he’ll zip right by them in a perfect b-line towards the nearest electronics store. I’ve seen this happen.
Me: “Eww. Victoria Secret’s Models... They’re so skinny. How is that feminine? You can see her ribs!”
Geek Guy: “ooooooo...”
Me: “Hey!” *notices he is staring lustfully towards the computer store*
Geek Guy: “What?”
Me: “Never mind...”

10.) Although he may not want to go to every outing with you, you can arrange swaps, as in, you’ll go to his Gamer Con dressed as an elf princess if he’ll take you to the ballet. Plus, if he doesn’t want to go someplace with you, you won’t have to worry much about what he’s up to. You’ll probably come home to find him asleep on his keyboard in a sea of Mt. Dew cans with code blinking from the screen. It’s ok. He’s used to this. Just toss a blanket over him and turn out the light.

11.) His friends aren’t jerks. I can’t stress this enough. You’ll more likely get “Omg! A GIRL!! Can I see?!” than “Hey hot stuff back that ass up here and let me get some grub on...” They’re awkward geeks too and will, 9 times out of 10, treat you with the utmost respect and, more than likely, a note of awe. A cute girl picked one of their clan to date? It could happen to them! Hope! Drag some of your single girlfriends over, open up a pack of Mt. Dew, crack open the DnD set and get working. Nothing impresses geek guys more than a girl who can hack-n-slash (well ok maybe if she can code... a geek can dream).

12.) They’re rarely if ever possessive. They trust you, so you can be yourself around them. You like to walk around the house in a ratty t-shirt for comfort? He won’t care. He does too! They won’t get pissy if you don’t wear make-up or don’t want to bother primping your hair. If you gain a few pounds, they won’t try their best to make you feel like crap.

13.) They’re usually very well educated. Physics majors and the like. See #5. You won’t have to listen to him blathering on about his car (ok maybe a little), he’ll have loads of other interesting things to talk about. Politics, world events, how much the chicken burgers down at the local place rock, so long as you douse them in hot sauce...

14.) You’ll almost never have to hear, “Yaw dawg whazzap!!” plop out of their mouths. Unless it’s in jest. They spell properly, use correct punctuation, and are able to tell the difference between the toilet and the floor. They almost never get “wasted”, so you won’t have to worry about coming home to find him and his friends passed out on the floor amidst a pile of beer bottles. Mt. Dew cans, perhaps...

15.) And the final reason why geeks and nerds make great boyfriends: They actually give a damn about you. Not how you look (though that’s a plus), not how skinny you are, not how much make-up you primp yourself up with, but they like you for you. That kind of thing lasts longer than “DaMN baby you got a fine ass!!!” Believe me.

Who ever wrote these so hit the nail on the head. Geeks are the best (love you babe), and some people definitely think a cell phone is an invisible forcefield. Now I don't feel so bad for hitting that sorostitute with my bike.

Annual Portrait

onmanIt's true, I'm such a snob that I get an annual portrait. Well wait, it's at the fair and in a photo booth, so it's not that bad. In fact, it's quite fun!

I don't really look like I'm getting that much older, hmm. But I am. I'm 25! Yeah me! I'm a whole quarter of a century. Hey somebody should have gotten me a state set of quarters this year, that would have been cool. Last night I went with Kathy and her friend Katie (a dairy princess) to the fair. So this last one wasn't actually on my birthday, but close enough. We had a blast getting the requisite greasy food, going on the rides, and checking out everything at the "it slices, it dices" building (as my family calls it). I, of course, went on the swings, the all time best ride in my opinion. And we went on the spider, which was the downfall of the beeg man last year, and resulted in lots of upchuck. I got my Australian licorice and special jerky. We sat in the beer garden to eat and played dollar bingo (and lost). The best part was probably seeing Karen in the Dairy Wives barn (I guess it is just Dairy Woman now). This barn has the best deal going on ice cream. $1.50 for a cone, and it's huge. And when Karen makes it, it's even huger. We came back around for her at nine o'clock when she was done volunteering for the night. Then we had some more yummy greasy stuff and checked out all the animals. It's nice going with farmers who actually know people, and what's going on and stuff. I decided I am going to get Shetland sheep when I "grow up." Then I am going to spin my own yarn and make you all hats, ok? So all and all it was a great time at the fair. Every one should go! They say revenues are down and I just don't see why, it's the best!

Tequila Sunrise

No longer will they be called rainbow sails. My dad informs me this is Tequila Sunrise. I found out more about how my dad got the boat this weekend. He went on one ONCE and then decided it would be cool to get one. This was 1978 and it was his first big investment. He picked out the sail color and chose this one, called Tequila Sunrise by Hobie Cat. Pretty much the coolest colors you can have in my opinion. He then went out once with someone who had one, and from there on out he learned from his "learn to sail the Hobie way" manual that he gave me this weekend. He's coasted on one pontoon, flipped it, done an endo, pretty much done it all. So now it's my turn, since he gave me the boat.

And I love my boat.

My dad likes to exaggerate and complain that the thing takes "two fucking hours" to set up, but that is so not true. My brother, dad and I made great time getting the mast up and sails. Yesterday we set up the lake and managed to get pretty banged up, but did not flip! Brent was the first to eat it. He was on the trapeze wires, just hanging out, because we didn't wear our harnesses. So basically there are these trapeze wire that come off the top of the mast. They are connected under the trampoline and have rings on them that you can hold onto. They also have little metal pieces that you can clip into if you are wearing a harness (like a big old lady diaper type thing). So he had his feet on a pontoon and a trap wire in each hand. Instead of being stretched out all the way his arms were kind of bent and so were his knees. So we got up on one pontoon ( =very fast) and he was sort of leaned out, but then the boat came back down and he was knocked off balance. He lost a wire, then the other, then tried to grab the edge of the tramp. I managed to pull him up when he reached over to me, but he got slammed pretty good and has lots of bruises.

Then later I was out on the wires, leaning way back and we got a gust and I lost my balance and some how managed to swing my self in front of the boat. I totally lost the wires and was clinging to the tramp. So this basically means that the bottom half of my body was in the water and I was being plowed into by the boat. I managed to scramble back on before any major damage happened. After getting back into an arm of the lake we decided to head back or risk loosing our power (wind). We let our sails out and headed back in at a leisurely pace while sipping on beverages in our cooler.

Today we went out on a 31' boat with some of my dad's friends, talked a bit, jumped off the back and swam, and then had them bring us back to the dock when the wind picked up. It looked like it was going to be "gnarly" and we had to be really careful getting the sails up. We were going pretty good, but the wind was weird and swirly, so we didn't stay out long. I sailed over half the time, and all the way back. My dad is not a technical sailor, so I'm not going to be either, but I don't mind that. I have fun just feeling for the wind. I've got to get a few new parts, but the boats doing pretty well. It came down easy too, which was nice.

So I'm burnt from rafting Friday, my arms are sore from rafting and sailing, I've got bruises, and a weird rash, but I am a very, very happy girl.

*edited to add: They have tequila sunrise sails on the first episodes of The O.C. Their sail number is: 50862. Every sail number is unique and in order. Just thought that was interesting.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

OMG, Fun:

OMG, not fun:

I'm a little nervous for tomorrow. Found these on the web. Let's hope I survive, it's been a while (try like five years!)

Girls Go Down

Katie (since Katie has the longest and hardest to spell last name she will officially be called Katie, and all the other will be surname only!), Karen, Kathy, Tex and I went down the Santiam today. Nothing major, the biggest were class III.

Thanks to OSU and Karen sister (who is still a current student, we're all graduated), we got a smokin deal on our raft rental. $45 bucks for our 12 footer.

Karen gets to work pumping it up (I put all my body weight on the pump and couldn't get it to go down, can you say no upper body strength).

I like how the boaters is put in quotation marks, why is that?  So ya, we put in right here (um, can't remember exactly where), and took out at Fisherman's Bend. I thought that was a run I had done a million times (okay about a dozen) at my dad's company picnic, but I was confused. At the picnic we put in at Fisherman's Bend and did a much mellower, shorter run. This run was a little higher energy.

But don't worry Katie, you'll make it! :) Actually we all did fine, thanks to:

Kathy, our fearless leader! She took the guide position in the back of the boat, and will probably be super sore tomorrow, having done most of the work! Don't be fooled though, I did paddle some. Of course I was in the boat with some powerhouses so my work didn't count for too much and Kathy had to keep switching me to try and balance out power. Sorry girls, I swear I'm going to start working out again soon. Well okay, I better not swear, but how about I'll try? So the best part: We had gone done quite a ways (the whole thing took three hours I think) and were feeling pretty good. No real big problems or anything. So there was this class III coming up and Kathy was all ready and everything and the part above it was really slow. So she had us line up just right and told us, "No matter what, keep paddling." Sure Kathy, we'll do it, no problem, after all there are some boarders on the rocks, and we want to look like we know what we are doing. Well we probably paddled about two stokes before things went to hell. There was a rock, just under the water and totally unseeable, and ya, we hit it big time. So a flying we went. I decide to lunge for the middle and once in the middle of the boat I look over to see Katie right next to me. Katie said later that once she saw Tex had stopped paddling she figured there was no point of anyone paddling. Katie and I kind of laughed at both being waist deep in water in the middle of the boat, and then Katie and I look over. Karen has almost completely been tossed but somehow her feet are still wedged in the boat. She has an arm outstretched towards her and a look on her face that says, "grab me" but is completely silent. Katie filled in the silence with, "KAREN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I just look over and think, well there's no way in hell I can pull her up, so I just kind of sit there. Katie lunges for her and grabs her hand, pulling her back in the boat.

It was all over in reality in like four seconds I bet. As we came through it and saw that everyone was still in the boat I was actually pretty amazed. The guys on the rock were having a good laugh, but not as good as us.

This is right after that part. We could not stop laughing and doing re-enactments of Katie's heroic rescue and Karen's mute plea. We totally had to stop and bail, since Katie and I were in the middle up to our boobs in water by this time. I had such an awesome time and love these crew girlies so much! I'm sad to see Tex heading back to Texas {and I just have to interject that we call her that as a shortening of her last name, the living in Texas is a recent development and handy coincidence only}. Tex is going to email me some more pictures of the day, so check back. I'm surprised we still have our cameras after all that. Tomorrow I go sailing (I can't get enough). Actually I'm taking out my boat! Yes I have a boat, a Hobie Cat catamaran. It was my dad's and I love it. It has a rainbow sail people. I never take it out because I'm too small to by myself (you need ballast weight in case of flipage, which happens often). But I won't give it all away now. Apparently the water is low at Detroit so my dad said it might be, "gnarly" let's hope I survive.

Thank you isn't enough...

Okay so I finally have time to give my backtakcer secret pal the thank you she deserves. I was in this swap where you send fabric to someone, then someone sends you fabric. Then with the fabric you get you make a bag. I posted the one I made here. It doesn't even hold a stick to the one I got though. Sara over at knitwerk made it for me and I love, love, love it. She has more photos on the blog so check it out, my cameras batteries kinda got fizzled out.

This is the coolest bag, it's made of an old sweater, so cool, and did I say it was cool? And do I love the alp? yes I do!!!

This is the inside of the bag. I love the blanket stitching around the edges. The yarn I got is super cool too.

Then I got this cute cute reversible bag with awesome stripes. In case you didn't know, I love stripes, yes I do. And I love green even more.

I got this cool pouch with all kinds of goodies including some homemade knitting markers. This is very handy since I make hats and you need those things. I'm not really sure what all the tools are for, but I am going to take a cable knitting class this winter and hopefully figure it out.

Then I got this cool roll, it opens up and has little slots for all my knitting needles. The lining is really pretty too. God I love these stripes.

And also she got me this book. Okay I love love love Nick Bantock. Now, I don't know if this was on my wishlist on amazon or if Sara is a crazy mind reader. But this book rocks. Now I got totally inspired and even managed to scrapbook last night. Check it out, I posted this on 2peas last night.
Phew, creativeness rocks.

Free Mad Lib Wednesday

Okay people it's time to see where all those good nouns and adjectives went!

I did not have enough joiners so I had my brother and mom fill in the blanks. Here goes:

A gigantic contest in which you already may be a car. Anyone, and we mean anyone, can enter this fabulous contest. Just follow these freaky rules. Write down in six words or less why you think Tommy  should be elected art gallery Of The Year. Remember she does not know that you think so precariously of her. First prize will be a deluxe, three-speed yacht plus a year's supply of rice krispie treats. Second prize is a twenty one foot bottle of JD. Third prize is a full-color basketball plus a set of camel spiders. Each entry must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed Space invader. Decision of the boys will be final and in the event of a tie, duplicate penises will be awarded.

Pretty good. But I think we will stick with the free associations from now on, until I get a regular reader base because then I won't have to call on my brother and get words like penises. :)

-Kay it was funny, but I've seen it before!

And a quote of the day since I've been watching my Seinfeld DVDs:

" At ages 0 through 10 candy is your life. There's nothing else. Family, friends, school, they're only obstacles in the way of getting more candy."

-Seinfeld, the junior mint episode.

This may still be true of me...

Nice People Are Everywhere...

If you look for them.

This morning I was cleaning up Bj's new place and I was like, "hmm, self, wouldn't it be nice if these boxes that go to Goodwill were gone when he got home?  How hard would that be to do? There are about fifty around here and I could Google Local it." So I wrote out directions and got to the place no problem. But there was no visible donation center so I was sort of going really slowly in front of the building and this guy with a gruffy voice goes, "what's up man?" in a really rude voice. And I didn't even realize what I had been doing so I exclaimed, "oh, I'm so sorry" because he was trying to walk through. And then you know what, I think he expected a really rude remark back, so he was all nice, "oh it's no problem." Anyway I realized there was a drop off around back and a really nice guy helped me get all the stuff out. So I set out of there feeling very accomplished. This is when I began to have problems.

I have a notoriously bad sense of direction (and many people did remark when I was coxswain that I could steer a boat better than a car). But I was sure this would not be a big problem because not only could I just reverse the directions, but I was only 1.4 miles away!  The thing I forgot about was that going one direction the road I had to take was called Baseline, but on the way back it is called Jenkins (I know, what is up with that?). So I missed my turn. But instead of trying to short cut over, I turned around (in a restricted area, oops), and went back. But the street disappeared which was very unfortunate. The other unfortunate thing is that you are going through basically neighborhoods with lots of cross streets and the speed limit was 45 so I was getting really lost really quickly! I went next to the Nike World Campus which is of course a big landmark. The thing is I don't happen to know yet where that is in relation to everything else in Beaverton, so I just drove past it doing 50 (FYI, there are hot guys playing soccer in the front, if you live around there you should check it out). So then I turned. I don't know what convinced me this was a good idea, but I managed to turn into a construction area. I was just looking for a slower road, really. Finally after trying to pick a couple more streets and none of them leading me anywhere I flagged down an old guy in an old truck at a stop light. I yelled, "I'm trying to get to 217." He said you need to take a left here (crap I was in the far right lane). Luckily I this man is the nicest motorist on the road and he told me to pull in front of him when it turned green. I did and then he zoomed in front of me and actually led me all the way to 217. I realized he wasn't even going that direction because at the light in front of 217 he got out and said, "go straight here, you'll get right on." I said, thanks so much and he turned to go back around.
People are so nice. I love nice people.

Speaking of nice things, happy early birthday to me:

www.overheardinnewyork.com

Erin sent me this link and I almost wet myself reading some of the things that people have over heard. Erin, this is something we should have come up with long ago, remember those quote books?
Thank you!