Snark Bait

Apparently this is what I do on my lunch break when I'm feeling particularly irritated.

Last year I saw this full-page ad in a Christian e-newsletter I receive regularly. It rubbed me the wrong way, in so many different ways, that I put it in Paint and scrawled snark all over it. I have no recollection of what was going on in my mind at the time or why I decided to vent in this particular way; I just found this picture file on my work computer.

It's safe to say that I am not the target market for movies like "Courageous".

Some stuff done

The thing is, it seems as if I do a lot of work almost every day, and yet despite that, my to-do never shrinks. It grows. What is up with that?!

Anyway, in keeping with my tradition of being late for almost everything, I'll finally post a picture of my Halloween costume. I don't usually dress up for Halloween, but I had an arrangement with my beloved BFF Elizabeth--she was going to dress up as Rapunzel in Tangled, I was going to dress up as Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon, we were going to have a whole "kids' movies" theme going on... Elizabeth got the Rapunzel costume pretty well, but I discovered that there are very few items available for Astrid costumes, and absolutely NONE for a fully grown woman. I did some quick thinking, and decided that I could probably make do with a costume based on another beloved character from a popular series of films: Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter!

I think I didn't do too badly. I was able to pull together the outfit from clothes that I had on hand, and then ordered an authentic Ravenclaw tie (as well as hat and scarf, but they're not pictured here) from Amazon, as well as some spectre-specs. I hand-made radish earrings and a cork necklace, a wand, and a copy of the Quibbler. I actually really loved how most of it turned out, and I hope I have many reasons to wear the costume in the future. It helps that I think I share a lot of characteristics with Luna, including long blonde hair, an surprisingly analytical mind, and an otherworldly perspective. And of course, I'm a Ravenclaw!

Zoo Visit

Early March, and just warm enough that we could wear light jackets during the day.

Caption Contest Winner

Remember how we had the caption contest last month?

We had some great submissions, and I hereby declare the winner to be... The Real Deal from The Road to Valinor. Similar to the dead deer in the truck at McDonald's, your prize will be truly representative of life in central Ohio.


That's right, Mr. Real Deal! Official Ohio State University Buckeye Candy! Congratulations!

Send me your address via e-mail (your wife can hook you up with my contact info) and I'll send your prize through the postal mail.

Now the Face of BCBG Max Azria in Their SS 2010 Campaign!

And as a glamorous supermodel, I can now become a jet setter and escape my life of daily toil...

Just kidding! When in Austin with Elizabeth and Sara, we went to the outlet mall and found the most amazing dress in the BCBG MA shop. I tried it on and Sara took these pictures.

Midnight blue, great lines, great price (designer dress under $100)... I didn't buy it because I really had no reason to own it. Maybe someday!

Great for dancing!Am I fierce?!?!

Elizabeth also modeled the dress and it was fantastic on her, but sadly, my pictures of her did not turn out as well. She looked gorgeous.

I'll LOL you into a false sense of security...

Despite my assertion that my awesome picture does not NEED a caption, it has received a few anyway.

From Frisbee Guy at work:

From me:

Got a better punchline in mind? Post it in the comments! Or post the captioned picture on your blog and put a link to it in the comments here. In fact, let's have a contest. The creator of the best and funniest caption will receive a small prize of some yet-undetermined nature (Picture of Nathan? Genuine buckeye artifact?). Have at it!

BESTEST PIKCHER EVAR!!!

Rural Central Ohio.

Any further captioning would just be superfluous, don't you think?

Seriously?!

Seen at Barnes & Noble:
You really expect me to believe this book was written by an individual with the name of "Rosetta Stone"?

No Business Like... Snow Business?

It snowed this morning. I didn't get all hyped up about it because it wasn't very much and I knew it wasn't going to stick. You can see in this picture that it was mostly melting on contact anyway.


You can see that there is a significant layer of fluff on the car, though.

Nathan was surprisingly unimpressed with the "snow" thing I kept mentioning, although I'm sure that when we get more of it, and it stays around for a while, he will be much more interested. The cats, by contrast, were rather intrigued, even disturbed. I realized that my hyper-aware and intelligent ninja cats had never seen snow before, and they were very cognizant of the fact that the white flakey stuff in the air and on the ground was something very new. They are inside-only cats, so they were not able to directly experience it, but let me know something was going on: They ran around my ankles meowing, then paced back and forth on the windowsill, their noses pressed against the window glass while their tails twitched and swished in slightly alarmed agitation.

The first snow of the winter season!

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving from the Buckeye State!

Ohio High Holy Day

Yesterday was the Most Important Day of the Year. Bigger than Independence Day, Christmas, New Year Day. No holiday, no day of personal significance, nothing can compare to... the Ohio State versus Michigan football game.

After all, everybody supports Ohio State on game day. Even us.

We don't have a television, so we never watch any games, but we do like to go to the shopping mall (the mall, mind you, not even near the OSU campus) to see the hundreds and thousands of people decked out in OSU gear. I took a lot of pictures at first, because it really is a sight to behold; I've never seen anything like it in SoCal. However, I guess I've kind of gotten used to it lately.

Anyway, Ohio State beat Michigan pretty soundly, which is good; I won't have to deal with Cookie Boss being all mopey. He is obsessed with OSU, but I guess it's understandable in his case because (unlike most of the people around here) he actually went to school there.

Penguin

Buckeyes!!

See how far I've come! Or, how far I've fallen...

But I decided that Baby Bug and I are real Ohians (Ohio-ans?) and Buckeyes now. If I'm going to move most of the way across the country and totally change my life around, I'm not going to be half-hearted about it. Maybe together, the two of us can enjoy being part of a larger community here.

And let me tell you, the Buckeyes are a HUGE part of the community here. People are CRAZY about Ohio State, especially now that football season has arrived. People are rabid OSU fans, even if they've never been to college (heck, they probably can't even spell it!). So it's sort of self-preservation to start showing a little spirit right about now; I'm beginning to fear that if I don't put an Ohio State pennant in my window, my neighbors will slash my tires.

Oh, I kid, I kid! [But only a little.]

Oh, yes, he's mine, all right!

Gryffindor!

We went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Grandma Willow made Naters a Hogwarts scarf, and she is pretty certain he belongs in the Gryffindor House.


So, dear readers, please leave a comment and tell us to which Hogwarts House YOU belong, and why.

Disneyland picture!

A few weeks ago, Dan and Jennifer took Nathan and me to Disneyland for Nathan's first real trip there. Nathan appreciated a lot of it, but more than that, he enjoyed getting to know his Uncle Dan and spending time with his Aunt Jeffie. They really have a special relationship, because even while Uncle Dan was serving overseas, she was a big part of Nathan's life. She even came to visit him in the hospital when he was just a few hours old!

(Photo credit: Dan)

Nathan says it in his own words:

Deer ant Jeffy,
I luv yu. I miss livving neer yu. Tank yu for takeing me to vizzit diznylan. I reely liek yor nue hare kut. I wil sea yu sune.
Luv NATHAN yor nefew

Quick one-shot

Since I don't have anything of note to write for a post, here is a somewhat recent photo of Nathan and me to keep you coming back to my blog. Aw, he's so cute!

Everybody needs to vote!

Of course, voting in political matters is important. But this is about something else, entirely.

My beautiful and wonderful friend Sherida entered a photo in a contest, and she is one of the finalists!

Please, please, please go HERE and vote for her (Name: Sherida; Blog: My Life).

[Willow sent me some adorable pictures of the New Boy that I was supposed to submit to this contest, but I got distracted with some life-related stuff, so I never sent them in. Oh, well, Willow's pictures will win next time.]

Bikini *gasp*

Mary's birthday (July 31) at Coronado Beach in San Diego.

Growing

Three Weeks:

One Month (forgot 3x5 card):

Six Weeks: