Sunday Stealing

The Strange Question Meme, Part 2


Cheers to all us thieves!

Sunday Stealing: The Strange Question Meme, Part 2

26. What color is your watch? Silver, but I currently don't wear it.

27. What do you think of when you hear “Australia”? Visiting there with my Spouse

28. Would you strip for money? LOL. That's funny. One day I'll blog on the topic.

29. Do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive thru? drive thru

30. What is your favorite number? 14

31. Who’s the last person you talked to on the phone? hmnnnn. I texted someone more recently than I spoke to someone. I think my last conversation was with a foster care worker.

32. Any plans today? Nope.

33. In how many states have you lived? 3 states and 3 provinces

34. Biggest annoyance right now?

35. Last song listened to? Alice the Camel has 5 humps.

36. Can you say the alphabet backwards? if I am reading it.

37. Do you have a maid service clean your house? nope

38. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time? birkenstocks

39. Are you jealous of anyone? nope

40. Is anyone jealous of you? nope

41. Do you love anyone? yes

42. Do any of your friends have children? yes

43. What do you usually do during the day? work

44. Do you hate anyone that you know right now? I'm not feeling "hate" right now.

45. Do you use the word hello daily? yes

46. What color is your car? purple

47. What size wedding ring do you wear? I have no idea

48. Are you thinking about someone right now? Now that I thought about the question I am !

49. Have you ever been to Six Flags? nope

50. How did you get your worst scar? uh.... I don't know. I have a scar from burning my arm at work and some scars on my knees. I have a surgery scar on my foot and a scar on my foot from dropping an exacto knife when I wasn't wearing shoes...

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

these type of people

In Puerto Rico a teenage gay boy by the name of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado,was killed and decapitated this weekend (November 14th 2009). One of the original investigating officers reportedly said to the media "When these type of people get into this and go out into the streets like this, they know this can happen to them."


These type of people?

Get into this?

Go out into the streets like this?

I am confused, because I am "one of these people" and when I go out into the streets I don't expect to be killed and decapitated.
On that note - I would like to give a HUGE thank-you to the Mormon church, who in an official statement said that they believe homosexuals should have the right "to have a roof over their heads and the right to work without being discriminated against." Wow. Housing and employment and not being killed. Things I think I shouldn't have to ask for from ANYONE or ANY organization. But that's just me.

still procrastinatng school work

I am still procrastinating doing my thesis - which means I am still going to the library and checking out books. I just started to read "The Time Traveller's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger (how do you get a cool name like THAT?!) and I am LOVING it. I heard some mixed reviews about the movie but I have been "kinda" interested in the book for a while. I was hooked as soon as I opened the front cover and read the poem "Love after Love" by Derek Walcott.

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

sunday stealing

Sunday Stealing: The Over the Top Meme

Part One - Describe:

Your hair? Short

Your mother? Tall. My mom is an amazing woman. She is the hardest worker I have ever known.

Your father? My dad is the strong silent type. He has a wicked sense of humor. He loves technology.

Your favorite food? Mexican.

Your dream last night? I had a totally weird dream last night. I was living at home, my parents owned two properties and were selling one. I was upset they were selling one and they told me if I was so upset I should buy it and move out. I was shocked they would ask me to move out!

Your favorite drink? I love Dr. Pepper, the American kind.

Your dream/goal? My current goal is to make some home improvements and get the boys to sleep the night through.

The room are you in? I'm at home in my living room.

Your hobby? I love reading, but is that a hobby? I love crafting and cross stitch. I am itching to start a new cross stitch but can't decide on what project to work on.

Your fear? Losing someone close to me.

Your TV? We currently have one working television in the house. It is a 13 inch tv/dvd combo and it is on top of the armoire where no-one can reach it.

Your Pets? The pet population in our house has been dramatically reduced in the last month and a half. We now have two cats and one dog.

Friends? I have some!

Your life? It has certainly taken me to places I never thought possible, places I never even knew existed!

Your mood? I'm working on improving my mood. My spouse watched something that said coke has a negative effect on mood so I am trying to reduce my coke intake and fight the headaches I get EVERYtime I try. (I have given up coke more times than I can count and I always end up drinking it again!)

If you're missing someone? I miss my parents.



Part Two - The Where's?



Where do you want to be in 6 years? Wow, In six years I will have two boys in school, so wherever we are it will be close to a great school, and hopefully closer someone in my family.

Where were you last night? At home, watching television and playing on the internet.

Where did you grow up? I grew up in a small town, in another country, close to my aunts and uncles and both sets of grandparents. It was a wonderful childhood.

One place that I go to over and over? The Library.

Your favorite place to eat out? When I was living in Ogden I loved going to the Union Grill or to Burrito Grande. Now that I am in a small town, I don't have a favorite place to eat out.

Wish list items? Because we are currently working on the house I wish I had a bigger budget to afford all the improvements we want to make! A new roof, gutters, a new bathroom, a new kitchen.....

Last time you laughed? I laughed a minute ago at my 16 month old who walks like he is 90.

Last time you cried? Putting Tora to sleep last month.



Part Three - The What's?



Something that you aren't? Ridiculously good looking.... oh wait.......

Last thing you did? Tried for too long to copy and paste this fetching meme.

What are you wearing? My pajamas and a long sleeve t-shirt that is very comfy.

Something you're not wearing? Shoes

Your favorite store? Hm. I don't think I have a favorite store. I like overstock.com and lee valley

word update

The appointment with the hearing specialist is at the end of this week and we are nervous to hear what the prognosis is for our boy. In the meantime he is saying new words almost every day. This week he said ice and rice, yesterday he said bottle, and today he said bubbles while he was in the tub!

Shel and I are going to look and see if there are any opportunities to take sign language classes somewhere. That's one of the drawbacks of living so far away from a major center - we don't have lots of opportunities for things like that. at this point we are willing to travel to learn what we can. He picks it up very quickly, it is harder for us and we are just hunting and pecking for individual signs on the internet as we think we need them. I really think he would be using a lot more signs if we were. The challenge is to get him to use the correct sign all the time because he really modifies them. Shel and I understand what he means, but anyone else using REAL sign language would have no clue!

Unfortunately we cannot find a sign for worchestershire sauce which is a staple in his life. He isn't quite ready for finger spelling!

my dewey decimal

My Dewey Decimal Section:

703 Dictionaries of fine & decorative arts

MY NAME = 0129531085894525845 = 012+953+108+589+452+584+5 = 2703


Class:
700 Arts & Recreation


Contains:
Architecture, drawing, painting, music, sports.



What it says about you:
You're creative and fun, and you're good at motivating the people around you. You're attracted to things that are visually interesting. Other people might not always understand your taste or style, but it's yours.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

12 of 12

12 of 12 is courtesy of Chad Darnell. I will put a link up here asap. I need to hurry and post this though, so I will come back with the link..... enjoy!
Here is the link to Chad's site. Check it out! It's worth your time.


I am posting these backwards because I am having issues with my internet connection and I want to get this posted in the next 20 minutes... my apologies.

#1. My baby is up WAYYYY too late but he thinks if he is cute he will get away with something. He is right. He should not be playing with his phone but SLEEPING.


#2. I love, love, love the PVR. It means when I get home late I can still watch my favorite shows and PAUSE the action when something "interesting" is on the screen!

#3. Zuva got a new collar. It is a reflective collar. She apparently has had a long day and is sleeping. Unlike me and the baby.

#4. Nyxie had an extra long day. It looks like Max got into the paint and tried to color her up. He doesn't realize Halloween is over. Poor Kitty needs a bath.

#5. It's 10:30. I am still resenting daylight savings. That means that my body thinks it is 11:30 pm.

#6. This is what is left of my Birthday Balloons. The have held their helium very well.

#7. This is a picture of an actual article from this weeks newspaper in my town(the paper gets published once a week and I just bought this weeks edition today). Front page news. "The plop hits the spot."

#9. This was sometime around 6pm? My desktop. The only thing better than P!nk is .... 4 P!nk's

#10. 9am at work. Not the best picture, I was trying to show that the red light is on. That means there is a message for me (or messages) at work. I hate seeing this little red light primarily because there are a few people who call me REPEATEDLY and so instead of getting one message I get seven from the same person.

#11. Who gets a new finger condom? I DO! I DO! It even has little breathy holes so my finger doesn't sweat while I do paperwork :)

#12. So I got a NEW phone at work. I don't know why I am excited about a new phone - now there are two phones on my desk one right next to the other which I think is very funny. I like new things and it is prettier than my "old" phone. Unfortunately people can still leave multiple messages for me :(

disagree with me

My spouse disagrees with me that the killings at Fort Hood were an Act of Terror. We haven't really had a chance to talk about it, but disagreeing on things like this is not new to us. We have different opinions on a few things - like the death penalty.
I am looking forward to talking to her more about it to see what her perspective is. It's difficult to find someone whose opinion differs and who you can talk to about it openly. People are so very invested in their opinions that conversations can get quite heated quite quickly. Don't get me wrong, we have some pretty heated discussions ourselves, but I always enjoy hearing her perspective. When we got together (over 13 years ago now) we came up with a solution to relationship conflicts that has worked for us to this day. We just agree that I know everything and she is always right.

it serves me right

Yesterday I posted that I like words - now I have to eat those words - and believe me , they are NOT TASTY. In fact, I have to gag them down and it hurts me!
Today I started out the day listening (ad nauseum) to an issue being beleaguered over semantics. It took FOR EV ER. I'm pretty sure my stomach started to hurt at some point as I listened to the comments going back and forth without resolution.
Yes, I like words, but seriously folks, sometimes it is just TOOO MUCH to go back and forth and back and forth and back and forth again over removing or adding words to sentences. We take ourselves MUCH too seriously. It reminded me of a women's studies class for crying out loud.

the words we use

I am fascinated by the words we use. I know. I am a bit of a geek. I simply find it interesting that words and their meanings change over time. I also find it interesting how we manipulate the meanings of words.
I have been thinking of this again recently as news reports about the shooting at Fort Hood have been coming out on various websites and news stations. The most recent report that I read, on the BBC, reported from a statement from the FBI that Major Hasan "was not involved in terrorist activities or terrorist planning."
It simply does not make any sense to me how the meaning of the word "terrorism" and "terrorist" have changed so much over the past few years. As far as I am concerned, the acts of Major Hasan were acts of terror. He created terror, a violent act intended to cause fear. Whether it was his intent when he set out to shoot people that he would cause terror or not, (how could it not have been, but I have no way of knowing what he was thinking) his act was an act of terrorism, regardless of whether the FBI believe it to be or not.
This week is remembrance day. A day set aside to reflect on those people who have given their lives for our freedom, both here and abroad. I don't pretend for one minute to have insight into the pain that of those who have lost loved ones or who have suffered themselves as they have been exposed to conflicts while representing their countries and defending freedom.
I am grateful beyond words. My gratitude will not change, no matter what words come to mean in the passage of time. I simply hope that the way we use and change the meaning of our words will not bring more pain to those who live through the terror. I hope their pain is not marginalized by our manipulation of language, and because the "FBI" said so.

I AM NOT A MAN!

I don't really understand why people have to categorize lesbian couples and having a "male" and a "female" component in the relationship. If there is anyone out there who can explain WHY there is a need to categorize us in this way can you call me please and let me know?
If I wanted to be a man... I suppose I would have started the process LONG ago to change my gender and I would be trying to "pass" as a man. I'm not. I haven't. I won't.
I don't want to be a man. I don't want a penis. I have NEVER wanted a penis...but I do think it is cool to be able to write your name in the snow with urine.
We took the boys to kindermusic. Shel has been taking both boys every week and it is a bit too difficult to handle both of the boys and do all of the kindermusic-ey "THINGs" that have to be done. She asked me if it were possible for me to join her. Last week I was able to leave work a little early and help her out. As I walked in the door the lady who runs the session said.. "Oh look! DAD has joined us!"
I have been told a lot of things. I've been told I'm too young to be so fat. I've been told I have too many double chins and my face wont fit in the passport picture frame. These things are annoying, but nothing tops the frustration of being called a dude. Let me just say - I have nothing against men, simply that I am not one!

words

It's after 9pm and we are hanging in the living room with two kids who are overtired. We don't have this bedtime ritual worked out yet since we moved the baby out of our bedroom. We figured it was due since he was 15 months old and had been in our room since birth, but I think we are getting LESS sleep since moving him out of the room. I love these boys more than I knew was possible, but parenting does not come easily to me.

Max is balancing books and Cj is clapping and saying "yay" every time Max makes a successful pile.

Max's words are coming with a fury now it seems. The speech therapist said to only expect two words by the end of the school year and the surgery on his ears apparently didn't work so we didn't even expect to get two words from him.

His first word was "onion" and he jumped right from onion to "Hi MOM." He was saying "ma" but the speech therapist said it was too much of a sound and not enough of a word to count for anything.

Since he started school a month ago he has said "ball", tried to say "bat", said "go" and today he said "ice". we are excited about every new word he says, but he seems to be getting MORE and not LESS frustrated with his communication. Oi vey.

meme

This is part 1 of a meme taken from Sunday stealing.....



1. What is the color of your toothbrush? blue and pink actually. I can't remember the last time I had a pink toothbrush before this one. I've had it less than a month.

2. Name one person who made you smile today. The actors on SNL doing a skit.

3. What were you doing at 8 am this morning? In bed asleep

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? Watching a movie (ladyhawke) and playing on facebook.

5. What is your favorite candy bar? I don't have a favorite, what I choose depends on my mood. Probably Cadbury's fruit and nut more than anything else.

6. Have you ever been to a strip club? Only for a job interview

7. What is the last thing you said aloud? Only for a job interview.

8. What is your favorite ice cream? vanilla

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? coke

10. Do you like your wallet? I don't have a wallet really. I like my purse, but it is actually a pencil case, an elephant skin pencil case.

11. What was the last thing you ate? popcorn

12. Have you bought any new clothing items this week? nope

13. The last sporting event you watched? UFC

14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn? regular

15. Who is the last person you sent a text message to? Nikki, and I'm pretty sure she is ignoring me.

16. Ever go camping? yup

17. Do you take vitamins daily? no, but I need to

18. Do you go to church every Sunday? nope, but I did for more than 1/2 my life.

19. Do you have a tan? kinda.

20. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza? yes

21. Do you drink your soda with a straw? no

22. What did your last text message say? something about someone who was somewhere they shouldn't be.

23. What are you doing tomorrow? sleeping in, reading and UNFORTUNATELY for me - going to work



24.Favorite color? green



25. Look to your left, what do you see? the wall

machinery going ALL DAY

I am having a very indulgent day. I slept in, read a book from cover to cover, watched some UFC fights and now I am watching a movie and eating popcorn. I love this kind of a day.
all day long - from the time I woke up until long after dark I have been listening to the machinery of the farmer going over the land all around us. It has made me realize a few things... Number 1. It is very easy to become accustomed to the absolute silence out here, and to appreciate it. The noise of them working has been annoying all day and every time we let Zuva outside she barks like mad which is more annoying. She has a lot to get used to with the changing landscape and being alone.
Number 2. Whomever it is that is working the machinery in the field is a ridiculous worker. I can't imagine that the thing has a very good heater and it has not stopped going ALL day and it is cold out. The machine has literally not been turned off for a lot of hours. They obviously want to turn what was bush into viable farmland as quickly as possible and they are sparing no expense to get it ready as soon as possible and start making money off it.
Number 3. They must have a whack of money - for the time and the equipment that has been coming and going, even if they don't own this machinery they are paying a pretty penny to rent it and get the work done.
Number 4. As annoying as it is to hear them working all day, the sooner they are done the sooner we will not have to listen to it anymore and it will just be the "normal" farmer work being done in the fields.
Number 5. We REALLY need to be ready first thing in the spring to get our windbreak up as soon as possible and put some trees on our property. We will never be able to replace what was there, but we will be able to make a difference --- THAT IS OUR GOAL.

meme

Sunday Stealing: The Magical Mystery Tour Meme

1. Is there anybody you just wish would fall off the planet? yes

2. How do you flush the toilet in public? the same way I flush a toilet in private - with the toilet handle

3. Do you wear your seatbelt in the car? no

4. Do you have a crush on someone? no

5. Name one thing you worry about running out of. time

6. What famous person do you (or other people) think you resemble? when I was skinny and had long hair people thought I resembled steffi graf. Now I resemble no-one.

7. What is your favourite pizza topping? ham

8. Do you crack your knuckles? no

9. What song do you hate the most? La bamba

10. Did just mentioning that song make it get stuck in your head? no

11. What are your super powers? none

12. Peppermint or spearmint? depends

13. Where are your car keys? hanging on the key rack

14. Last song you listened to? something by five for fighting.

15. What's your most annoying habit? I don't know, it doesn't annoy me I guess.

16. Where did you last go on vacation? we haven't gone on vacation in so long I cant remember... San Francisco.

17. What is your best physical feature? my hands

18. What CD is closest to you right now? oh shoot. Probably one of maxies kindermusic cds somewhere.

19. What 3 things can always be found in your refrigerator? sour cream, milk, Worcestershire sauce.

20. What superstition do you believe/practice? I'm not hugely superstitious I don't think....

21. What colour are your bed sheets? we have all different colors... blue is probably in most of them.

22. Would you rather be a fish or a bird? bird

23. Last thing you broke? a fingernail?

24. What are you having to eat tonight? snacks.

25. What colour shirt are you wearing? purple

26. If you could be doing anything else today, what would you rather be doing? sleeping right now.

27. Do security cameras make you nervous? not at all

28. If you wrote a book about your life, what would the title be?

29. Last time you went to a cemetery? when I was in California and went to my great grandmothers grave.

30. Last concert you went to? hopefully the NEXT concert I got to will be U2

31. Favourite musician(s)/bands you've seen in concert? Indigo girls

32. Next concert you're planning to attend? U2

33. Do you talk to yourself? all the time and out loud

34. Have you ever adopted or purchased a pet? most of the pets I have ever owned have been adopted

35. Have you ever been present when an animal is being born? I was pretty close to being present when shorties kittens were born, Shel was there.

finally friday.....

Doing this nablopomo thing is making me try to get my creative juices flowing again to try and come up with creative things to post about and not just use meme's to fill the days. I do enjoy memes though so I will likely post a few this month. And I won't pretend for a minute that I am having any luck coming up with interesting ideas to write about.

In the meantime, I am glad it is Friday, I am glad I am done with work for the day, and I am looking forward to getting into bed with some books we got from the library last week. I have read four books this week - I feel almost human! (o.k. so they were the twilight series books so not anything deep or time consuming, bit it still felt good to read something from cover to cover!)

Unfortunately I have to be back to work on Sunday so I don't really get a whole weekend off. I am SPENT. There are not enough hours in the day for me to catch up on my sleep.

all messed up

Some things have changed in my schedule at work and for the first time in six years I am not working late nights on Thursdays, but on Wednesdays instead. There are some things I like about, but there is one thing in particular that I HATE about it. I cannot get used to the fact that when I go into work the day AFTER my late night it is NOT Friday. I am so accustomed to coming in to work just one more day after my late night shift and then having my weekend. I have been working this new schedule for almost a month already and it has messed me up completely. All day Thursday I think it is Friday and I am ridiculously sad to get up on Friday morning and realize I have to go into work because it is not the weekend. It also seems to "chop" my week into weird parts.... I don't get as much done in the week before my late shift and my two days afterwards feel like a hazy mess. It's a real mind f&^%.
When I walked out of the building tonight I said to two students "Have a good weekend" to which they responded "Oh - do you get the day off tomorrow?" I could have cried on the spot.
I am not a person who typically has any aversion to change at all, but this change has messed with my whole groove and I am struggling to get back into it.

swine flu

I am working tonight and my spouse just called to let me know she things the swine flu has hit our home.

I should not be surprised, our boys get sick with EVERY bug that passes. Max has had an upset stomach today which is apparently one of the symptoms. He also has a fever and body aches. Shel asked him if there was any part of his body which "DIDN'T" hurt and he said no.

ARG

shake my head

In my profession there are always things cropping up that are unexpected. Some are funny, some are annoying and some are sad. Then there are the ones that just leave me shaking my head because I am simply baffled.

Today for instance, two female students came to the front counter. They are living in an apartment together and one bedroom unit is unoccupied. They were concerned that "someone" today had entered the third bedroom and turned on a light and left it on. We have had maintenance in the unit working on the heating system and thought it was possible (though unlikely?) that maintenance had let themselves into the bedroom. Still, stranger things have happened and so the office administrator went to the apartment to unlock the door and turn off the light. It turns out there was no light on in the bedroom, it was....THE SUN! Yup. The sun was shining through the window and a stream of sunlight was shining under the door and it freaked them out. I suppose it's true, we don't see much of the sun WAYYYY up here in the north. Unfortunately we were unable to turn it off for them. I'll bet that shows up on our exit survey.
"Office administrator unable to turn off the sun when it shone under the door." We have had complaints about the darkness you know.

Then there's the guy who comes in to make a payment plan and so I ask him what funding he is getting and why he needs to be on a payment plan. He asks ME what funding he is getting. That meeting got confusing very quickly. I am starting to wonder if I live in an alternate reality.

Unfortunately for me it was just "one of those days". I had to do a requisition for some new fire panels. So I do the requisition (in triplicate) and print it off without saving it, because why would I save something I just printed off three copies of? Then I open my email and see a quote from another company for a lesser rate than the one I just made out the requisition for. So I tear up ALL THREE COPIES that I just printed off and start to work on the new requisition and THEN realize that the email is about INSTALLATION of the panels, and the original requisition is for the panels themselves. Nice.

I decide I'm not starting on that lengthy project again this afternoon, I will just make a quick call to a vendor about getting some key tags. My call went through to a salesperson at the company and I made my request. I know EXACTLY what it is that I want. I have a catalogue in front of me and all I need to do is ask if the product comes in more than one color. She asks me "Why?" I should have known then that the three minutes I planned to take on this phone call just blew right out of the window. I was on the phone for over 20 minutes. Instead of her helping me, I spent the entire call tried to explain what I was doing to someone who had NO conception of the project and who was becoming more confused by the minute. She had some interesting suggestions for the project though - WHICH MADE ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE WHATSOEVER - and she ended up directing me to the website (which I already had used!)

CAN THIS DAY END? Where is my office administrator when I need the sun turned off?

not expected

Somehow this is not the image I had in my mind of the end of October!

where the wild things are

I have always loved the book "Where the Wild Things Are". I haven't seen the movie yet but we plan on going and taking our little ones to it - their first movie in a theater. I suppose for them the theater will never play as big as role in their lives as it has in mine, just because we live so far from the theater.

My number one son is named Max. I'm thinking of getting a tattoo of the Max from Wild Things as my representation of my boy. Right now he is still not really interested in sitting in our laps and being read to - which makes sense if he can't hear us right? It bothered me a little that he would never sit in my lap and let me read to him because reading is SO much a part of our lives. Now that he is in the school program and they visit the library he seems a bit more interested in checking out books. I hope this book will be one of his favorites. I can't wait to read it to him.

If you haven't read the book yet - you must. I love it. I hope the movie does it justice (but do they ever?)

November already

Our beloved Tora is resting in peace now. She was a gentle soul and we all miss her desperately. October was a hard month for us all. With putting Tora to sleep and all the medical appointments for Max we were coming and going all month long.

I can't believe the month is already over. Maxie has been in school already for a month. He seems to be settling in - or he is just very excited every day to be picked up! The speech therapist said we should set a goal for him for the year of learning two words. His first word was "onion" which cracks me up. This week when I picked him up the teachers said he said "ball". We are super excited that he has already said two words because in one of his appointments this month the doctor said he was "profoundly" deaf and that the surgery in September for his ears didn't work.

Max has decided that he LOVES pumpkin carving. We carved a few together and he had a complete ball.

The farmer finished cutting down all the trees to the north of us leaving us completely exposed - and feeling it. It looks horrible and we can barely wait until spring to get new trees planted. I am sure it will make a difference, but it will never be the same.