memorial day weekend

Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all of the veterans and serving members of the armed forces. Today is a day for us to give you the respect you deserve, and to remind us that we must be thankful for you and your service each and every day. Again, thank you!

As for me, it was a long weekend away from the stresses of work. I must admit, I was actually able to relax for a change this weekend. This is a rare occurrence for me. I was able to work in the yard, planting even more flowers, and added yet another flower bed. I'm insane with an unyielding desire to tear up more ground and plant MORE! always MORE plants! Due to that unrelenting motivation to wield a shovel, trowel, hoe, etc. the yard work budget has already been busted for June, even though it is still officially May. This means I'll have to work with what I've got as we move forward through the summer.

As for summer - oh my god, I love it. I broke out the short shorts and it was a marvelous weather weekend. I cannot explain how much I love summer. I want to tongue kiss it every time I wake up to the balmy, hot weather. The man appreciates the fact that I wear fewer clothes when the weather warms up, so it is a win-win on that front.

One of the highlights of the weekend is the amount of time the man and I were able to spend together. Not too much, but just enough. I spent a good deal of our time together here:

This is one of the holes at one of the local disc golf courses. The man bought me a couple of my own discs and we hit the course on Friday and today. My game is only slightly improving, but I love being outside so even though I suck at disc golf right now, it is still fun.

I'm making an effort to take more photos to share with you all, because I know that words alone are not very entertaining and for fuck sake, if you are going to click over to my site, you must be in desperate need of entertaining...I kid. Anyway, I've also hit up some garage sales, which yielded some exciting finds. I'll be sharing those and a few of my Craigslist purchases with you in the coming weeks.

dislocated, then relocated, but not like in witness protection

This weekend was finally SUMMER! That deserves all caps. As with most weekends, I spent the majority of it outdoors, and while doing so I dislocated my middle finger on my left hand. Or rather, the dog dislocated my middle finger on my left hand.

The grainy cell phone pic shows my gangley, alien hands, so disregard all but the knuckle of the second finger up from the bottom. You ca kind of see that it is swollen, and this is after I had an icepack on it for a while. It isn't too bad, but it throbs, so that isn't very fun.

I honestly never realized how much I use my middle finger (not just for gesturing to get my "point" across in traffic). Here's a brief list of the the "oh shit, that hurts" moments I've had today:

• buttoning clothing (tried this on one button and then completely changed wardrobe to buttonless)
• prying lid off cat food container
• using directional signals (car)
• snapping - worst one yet
• air quotes
• typing

On that lasts note, yes, typing doesn't feel pleasant so I will leave you now.

make the whole world orange

Best idea ever - this is so awesome because orange is my favorite color. Not a fan of AT&T, but this commercial is great.

best concert i've ever been to

Seriously...best musical experience I've had.

This video doesn't give you the full effect and the sound quality is shit, but I'm posting it anyway because it was taken by a dude standing right next to me w/ his phone, just to let you see how close we were to the stage:



Unfortunately, dude taking video did not pan to the left to show the cute guitarist we talked to after the show (a very brief hand-shake moment which added to Kristen's sense of euphoria from the sheer delight of seeing the concert).

This is one of my favorite songs of the evening. I honestly hadn't listed to very much of his music before going to the concert, except for a scratched up copy Kristen burned for me. I'm going to have to get onto Amazon to buy some albums now though. Yes, I'm still one of the weird people stuck in the 20th century who likes to have an actual hard-copy of my music.

As for you, I suggest you download some of Butch Walker's music or at least check out some videos on Youtube...make it to a concert if you ever get the chance and you won't be disappointed.

Thanks to Kristen for "dragging" me along.

rumble in the jungle

My nephews love the Wii. My brother and his wife also love the Wii because it keeps my nephews entertained and helps them to burn off some energy when the weather is nasty outside. Also, it tires them out before bed time.

This is why they are tired:


It is definitely better than them actually hitting one another and they do pretty well for a three-year-old (Brady on the right) and a nearly two-year-old (Max on the left). They also play tennis, though they can't really return a serve yet. I've seen them in action, and let me tell you, there is already a competitive nature bubbling to the surface of each of them.

Their parents will definitely have their hands full when the fight is over the car keys as opposed to which Wii game to play.

may goals and why i suck

I suck at posting, obviously. Suck with a capital S. Now that we have determined that, here's my list of goals for May. You may also note that there was no April goal list, due to my sucking at posting.

• order glass for console table
• finish my library book before it is due
• complete ottoman upholstery project
• get car tire repaired - I already did this, but I did it in May, so it is now a completed goal
• get car checked out at repair shop (and pray that there is nothing really expensive wrong with it)
• secure a date that the roommate will move out - "summer" isn't very descriptive (addendum: do not throw roommate's shit out of the house and onto the lawn in a moment of unbridled disgust for his overall disposition, appearance, and slovenliness)
• complete expansion of flower bed to encompass new shrub that was planted (photos to come)
• find a chair for the living room and decide on a sofa to purchase (not to be purchased in May, but category should be narrowed to one or two options)
• mail all Mother's Day and birthday cards on time
• finish the piggy bank project for nephew

I think that is a good and do-able list for May. I also aim to post at least once per week. (And this makes post one for week one: so far, so good.)