It's Britney, Bitch!

Thats right, bitches. I'm sitting here listening to Britney's new album, and I don't care who knows it. I FINALLY bought my iPOD! This is clearly not my hand, but I liked the picture, and it is an accurate representation considering I do in fact have Nelly Furtado on my iPOD, it is silver, and it's totally cute and small. The Nano is perfection. It's light-weight, it's got a full color display and plays videos, and it has a couple of your standard games already installed so I can occupy myself on the bus now! Not that I really needed any more accessories on my head, but now this thing is never coming off.

Our Winter Festivus was quite enjoyable. We let the dogs open their gifts on the Solstice, and we exchanged a few little things over the course of the month. On Christmas, while everyone else was opening their mounds of gifts, hoping to be happy with what they got, Jenny and I spent our morning painting a client's house for $20/hr (each). So we each made $80. Not bad considering I was already getting paid for the holiday. Plans to go back this weekend, and on the 1st to make even more extra cash. I think I may tuck it away for my next hair appointment.

Speaking of, I don't know how I'm feeling about the blonde I put in. I think after the dark for so long the blonde isnt quite what I'm used to and I almost want to go back to the brown. We'll see. I think I'm going to give it at least another month before I go messing around with it.

Reasons to live downtown...

...Or at least experience downtown. As I walked from my bus stop today, two women were engaged in a conversation across the street. As they approached my corner, I could over hear what they were discussing.

Woman #1: "I did cocaine the whole time I was in prison."

Woman #2: "Wow, really? How'd you get it?"

Woman #1: "It wasn't that hard, it was everywhere. I did coke, meth, and I was popping pills, too."

Woman #2: "How'd you pay for it?"

Woman #1: "I'd have my grandmama put some money on the books for me, I'd buy somethin' and get some cash back, it was easy. They don't care, they almost want you to get addicted."

Jesus. This was not a conversation you should be having at full volume speaking voice on a street corner in downtown.

So, Jen and I are finally getting some solid, undisturbed sleep. Now that the girl upstairs has stopped fucking her nasty boyfriend at 12, 2 and 4am in the morning. It's sick when you can hear people having sex... the squeeking of the bed and occassional moaning, then they get up, pee and probably flush the rubber, slam some cabinets and then shuffle back to the bed. Nasty. I don't want to hear all that. It's like they are practically in our bedroom having sex it's so loud. And Im obviously am not down with hetero sex happening in my bedroom.

I'm a believer in Pip, Bitch.

I fuckin' LOVE Tori Amos. I'm still buzzed from the show. And the excitement from meeting her. *sigh* FANTASTIC.

Cruel

Heart Of Gold

Change Your Pack

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Bouncing off Clouds

I'm a Believer

Sculpture Park & more...

Jenny took me on a date to the Olympic Sculpture Park the other day.... lovely, cold, Seattle evening. :) We hadn't been, and even though I was crampy and bitchy, she took me out in public. That's love. We stayed until sunset, and then walked up to Cyclopse for some drinks and food. Jenny had the best Mahi Mahi tacos, and I got a green chili enchilada. The Thanksgiving holiday has turned us into compulsive eaters so we obviously ordered dessert. She had an underwhelming espresso creme brule, and I had a very fattening but tasty key lime tart. YUM.

We went shopping this weekend, and I decided to buy holiday-ish things, and have erected a pleseant artifical tree in our living room. Pictures of that to come...

PS. We heart the new digital camera.

Stuffed Turkey

No... not the actual turkey... ME. Oh My Goddess, we consumed so much food over the Thanksgiving holiday, it's rediculous. And for no good reason. It's MADNESS I tell you, madness. Just having a holiday dedicated to eating is awful. I have determined we consumed enough holiday food for the remainder of the year. So no "xmas" type meal for us. Maybe we'll make a salad bar at home.

We had not one but two dinners... one in W. Seattle with friends, and another the next night because Jenny felt we didn't have enough left overs. So, we went ahead and made a whole other meal. *belch*

And we STILL have left over food in our fridge. Nasty. Tasty, but nasty.

Just say no to greenbean casserole kids, it's bad news. Me + Jenny

Meal #1

Meal #2

Mrs. Potato Head

I've been overly productive today. I think I need to pace myself. This is basically the first break I've taken all day, aside from the 10 minutes I used to walk over to the cafeteria and get a salad. On the way back, I surprised myself and showed some restraint. I didn't go down stairs and join the circulation dept. in the Annual Potato Bake. It is one of the most beautiful, and fantastic events that happen here at work, and I had enough will power to walk away. I actually talked to my salad in the elevator "Keep going, just make it back to the desk and you can eat allllllll of this salad." Yum... belch. It was really good, and I know I would have felt like a blob of sour cream (ooooh sour cream...) had I eaten one of those hot, heavenly buttery baked potatos. Man, I'm pathetic.

But anyways, back to my over productivity. It was actually more like fixing a mistake that was part my fault, part someone else's fault, and could have been avoided if some other people weren't at fault too. Not to point fingers or anything. So I spent the better part of my day on and off the phone with New York, talking to agency reps trying to save my ass a $10k adjustment. In the end, I did. I salvaged the buy, and we got to keep our money (and some of our dignity) and the agency got what they paid for. Beers for everybody!! Oh, well, not yet I guess.

Rain, rain go away. Come again another day.

Maybe the rain could go away all together...

I hate getting up in the morning and walking to the bus in the rain. Cold and wet is no way to spend 30 minutes crammed like sardines in a bus. Actually, the bus was pretty empty and if I remember correctly (I'm tired and can't remember 6 hours ago - SAD), I sat alone today.

Our bus driver offered the most commentary I've ever had while on Metro transit. When I got on, it was "Good Morning. Transfer?" Then as others got on it was "Good Morning! It's a wet one!" Then it was, "Well folks it looks like we're about 30 seconds early for this stop." "Is it too cold back there?" And he felt the need to call out almost every stop along the route. Maybe he's bored? Jenny and I rode the bus downtown for the KEXP BBQ in August, and on the way back (around 10pm) we had this bus driver to would ramble off about 6-8 businesses at each stop, it was crazy. Apparently, he had only been doing the route for less than a year or so, and he is so bored at night he took the liberty of memorizing stuff at every stop along his route.

We had a bunch of bat shit crazy dogs at our house this weekend. By Sunday morning I was ready for them all to go home. Seven dogs vs. two people. It's easy to guess who went nuts first. I'm hoping that this week is a little quiet as we start or Thanksgiving holiday dog sitting the end of the week.

I'm totally underwhelmed by my blogging abilities today. Eh.

Bus Blues #2

I think I might start doing Bus Blues more often.

Today I was basically sandwiched between every undesirable male in Seattle.

Guy in front of me = Leather, bomber jacket + mullet (with tail gingerly tied with a rubber band)

Guy behind me = Incessent cougher + bad breath

Guy who decided to effing sit next to me = shaggy over grown hair + bad '80s Miami Vice clothes + some weird clear tool box with unidentifiable contents.

UGH... #5 to Downtown you are my own personal hell.

Bliggity Blog...

It's Wednesday, and my hair is wet. I think I need to bring a blow dryer to work with me. Wet hair is bad for Shannon for a number of reasons.

#1. My hair is super long, so wet, long hair easily resembles a mop. And its quite ugly and unattractive.

#2. My hair likes to retain water and gently drip on my shirt, creating more than one issue... wet shirt & I'm freezing.

#3. If I don't blow dry my hair right away, it gets frizzy, and wavy, and a little bit greasy. Like immediately.

I've been lucky enough to reconnect with some old friends recently. It's always nice when you can kind of pick up where you left off with people. No ill will, there was no real reason for the falling out of touch, it just happened. This reconnection has really made me look back at where I was in my life the last time we were together, and I have changed so much. I no longer carry baggage about my ex. My life has evolved far past that. I'm more secure with myself. And I do things for myself and my community. I think I've come out quite well actually.

Tonight, Jenny and I are going to an Island Dog benefit. If any of you didn't know already we adopted a dog from the Island of St. Martin a couple months ago. Sophie is a good puppy, and will turn into a great dog. The night should be a fun one with raffles, and music and BOOZE!!

Eh, nothing else to blog about I guess. OH EXCEPT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! .... PROP 1 was shot down last night at the polls. Thank God.

Its Halloween, why not...

Aside from carving a couple pumpkins, I'm not doing anything for Halloween. I sometimes get the urge to dress up and go out, but then realize I really don't have a good reason to. I'm creative with costumes but not with one's that would actually look good on me, or be appropriate to wear. Jenny had a great costume idea, for all those people needing something easy and quick, here is a list of a few items you'll need to complete the look.

- Grey, zip-up hooded seatshirt

- White shorts

-White Socks

- White tennis shoes

- An umbrella (pointed end)

AND.... a bald head kit from any respectable Halloween store.

Put it all together, and you've got one scary bitch. I give you... bald CRAZY Britney.

Thats some scary shit.

Eh, other stuff... Wedding plans are picking up speed. We ordered and recieved our wedding invitations. They are cute, and casual and I like them. I am working on our geocities http://geocities.com/shannonandjennyswedding/ its not a work of web-art but it'll do. I bought 29 small vases last night, as well as a half dozen decorative wine bottles, and some candle stands for $10 off craigslist. A really good deal. I'll probably use 3 or 4 LARGE vases too, but these little ones are great for around the penthouse, and small center pieces on our tables. Today I'm trying to find pictures of flowers I like, and I'm going to mimic those.

Auto Show Friday, Cash & Carry & Costco this weekend. I'm so excited to get a Costco memebership. Now I can buy all the 10lb blocks of cheese I want!!!

Hope everyone is having an OUTRAGEOUS Halloween!!! (Hahha... that's for Jeanna & Carollani... )

Bus Blues

Have I mentioned lately how much I hate Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays? Especially when my bus is 20 minutes late and the whole point of getting up and going to the gym early is lost because some bus driver couldn't get his shit together and be on time. We have the absolute WORST transit system, and it pisses me off.

When we went to NY and Boston, we had no trouble getting around. It was so easy, Jenny was able to ditch me on a train and I found my way back to our hotel with no problem, and in a timely, dare I say swift, manner. But here, in Seattle, life taking the bus sucks. You stand around hoping today is the day your bus shows up on time. Once you get on the bus, you're praying the bus driver isn't one of those guys who waits 30 seconds at every stop to see if some I-slept-in-late-but-still-had-time-to-get-my-latte mother-effer comes barreling around the corner. And then of course as you are finally comfortable enough to stop watching every person get on the bus, some smelly, old, fat, loud, obnoxious, drunk, cell phone talker (choose one or all as applicable) gets on and decides YOU - lucky you- are the one s/he wants to sit next to today. Oh kill me.

The only reason I do this, is because I love Jenny. Thats really all it boils down to. She deserves some time to herself in the morning without having to tote me off to work every morning. Sure, I go work out. And I'm sure that is beneficial in some way, that I may see results from eventually. But overall, I do it for her. So she can relax a little. Meanwhile, I'm subjected to inhaling other people's filth, perfume, cigarette smoke, breakfast sandwhich, BO, and in one particular man's case on my bus this morning... urine. Man, am I getting my $1.50 worth of life.

So, as a final note... if you see a gym clothes clad young lady riding the number 5 around 6:30am, with a scowl on her face, leave her alone. Don't sit next to her, let her have some space.

Please. Give me a break.

Bring on the Rain

Obviously the look of my blog has changed. Randomly, and without warning blogspot crapped out and no longer liked the template I had chosen. It reverted back as quick as Lindsay Lohan out of rehab, and was just plain text on a web page! *gasp* So, here we are, new season, new background I suppose. Awfully accurate due to our change in weather...

Hmmm, updates:

Jen and I have been enjoying entertaining friends at our house. Both Jeanna and Sarah, on seperate occassions graced our couch with their skinny asses, it was great to have them over. And last night we finally hauled ourselves over the Justin & Marika's new place for drinks and celebration (Jen's bday and their new apt. -- which is fantastic and I'm jealous). Marika was hostess enough to surprise us with Trophy Cupcakes and promises of mani/pedi's at her salon Julep. Then she further attempted to ruin my diet (successfully I might add) by whipping out grapes, brie and crackers.

Speaking of diet, or lack thereof, I've also been waking up at 6am M-W-F to go to the gym for an hour 3 days a week. *Gold Star for Me* Thank you very much. That is no easy feat considering it is now pitch black when I wake up and walk the 3 blocks to the bus stop. Yes, I said bus stop. On the upside I feel good about going to the gym, even if my legs don't, and I'm sure my jeans will be happy soon too. I read Good In Bed (by Jennifer Weiner) and I have to say that maybe I'm not meant to be skinny, but I can at least be healthy and larger. So there, I will continue my hellish 6am wakeup calls and go to the gym. If not for my health, than at least to use as an excuse for eating 1.5 cupcakes last nght.

Good things to come this weekend. We are heading up to the cabin for a long weekend, and it looks like we just decided to bring all our friends along for fun or something. 11 people total (incl. J&I) will be crammed into the cabin for 3 days. Make or break it baby, we're goin'. Nothing too spectacular is planned, aside from a few stops at wineries, possible mini-hydro races and some serious no nonsense drinking.

Here's to the begining of a good fall season...

Memories Unwind...

Thanks Brent for the Smashing Pumpkins revival. I had the Adore album when I was in high school. Not that long ago which is halarious, God I'm practically a toddler.

The week has managed to drag it's sorry ass out as long as possible. I think it's because I'm still suffering from intermitent allergy attacks. Sad business. I'm steering clear of Brent because I believe he is full on sick, and I'll pass on that. Work is chugging along daily, I'm getting ready to do another random "holy shit I've been here for how long" tally. Maybe I'll waint until September to do it. I've been juggling an extra desk this month and it's just adding to my fun filled days. But whatever, it's better than working retail. Or selling cars. Evil.

I spent yesterday exchanging HUGE emails with my sister Heather in Texas. I can't get the little bitch on the phone, but damn will she ever send you an email. We talked all things weight loss related, and she is awesome. I've found my buddy I need for motivation. Very good to have.

On the agenda this weekend is alot of cleaning, including the carpets. Hmm... wet carpet + dogs. Not a good idea. Hopefully we can sneak out of the house for a while and let it air out. Otherwise I think they'll roll around on it and then our clean carpet will smell like wet dog.

Eh, I'm over the blogging for today.

Umm, I'm going to fall alseep on my keyboard.

Jenny and I went to the KEXP BBQ Saturday and it was way fun. I really enjoyed myself even with the incliment weather issue. Pela is an awesome band, and the Blue Scholars were totally worth the $20. We ran over to Whole Foods after and had a scrumteous little meal of just about everything they had on their hot bar of food. Tasty.

I am so drowsy and loopy right now it is taking all of my energy to type this.

F*ck allergies. F*ck Benadryl.

Lacey, Cailin and I enjoyed a night of Sex and the City Sunday, after Lacey and I gorged ourselves on spag & meatballs. YUM. Super nice weekend. I'm far too drugged to be typing right now.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Sneezing, itching, runny nose..

My skin is peeling. I like this and dislike this. I like this because I kinda like peeling the skin off. I dislike this because it means my sunburn will soon flake away and I'll be pasty and white again. I was a kid in California once who was brown as a paper sack. I have hispanic heritage. And yet I am as white as the underside of a fish. My arms, face, chest and back tan. Even my stomach holds good color year round. But my legs stay a sad, powder white that doesn't change no matter how much sun I am exposed to. Its disgusting actually.

Camping was nice. Hot, but nice. We left our camping chairs at home. Which made life a little less cozy but it didn't damper the trip at all. We left town at 4:30am, and arrived in Junction City, OR by 10:30am. Shopping at Safeway there was uneventful and slow. People move at a much quicker pace here in Seattle, and we certainly don't pay with a check and take 10 minutes to fill it out. Good God! Have it ready people. Jenny felt weird walking around with her QueerFest tshirt on... I dont blame her, we were in a very hillbilly area of Oregon. I couldnt live there. White trash takes on a whole new meaning in a town like that. Its the norm.

Our campsite was big and sunny, almost a little too sunny. I layed out with my Seattle Times umbrella b/c the heat was too much after a while. We napped and ate, ate and napped. Hit up some of our favorite wineries and came home with a case of our favorite wine at half the price.
We made it home Monday, and I ran errands while Jenny worked next door at the dog daycare for a couple hours. The trip was great, but Sophie came home a shit eater. Yes. Our dog is now eating other animal poop. How fucking gross is that? Last night we ran to Petco for some doggie things and came home to poop bags strewn across the living room carpet, some ripped open, and the contents obviously had been eaten. I mean, c'mon. This is sick. Sophie spent the rest of the night in a crate. She wasn't allowed in the bed. And I'm still mad at her. The dog is filthy.

Anyways, good to be home. Good to be at work. I just wish I could shake the allergy attack I picked up in Oregon. I've been sneezing for days.

Bouncing off Clouds 2

Thank God its Thursday. I've been waiting for this week to be over before it even began! Jenny and I have had a camping trip in the works for months, and the long awaited weekend away is here!

I have to say right off the bat, yes we are freaks... We are set to leave Seattle tomorrow morning at about 4am. Which means we'll be up around 3am. Which also means by the time we get home tonight, run errands, eat, watch our Netflix, and PACK the car, it's going to be about 11pm. Yippee for 4 hours of glorious sleep... in our own bed.

We've been house sitting for the last week in Queen Anne, and while it had it's advantages (ie being closer to work, within walking distance to bars, stores etc, and provided us with an excuse to booze it up with some QA locals) I was ready to go home to our comfortable apartment, that only consists of our 3 little tots, not 2 huge Weimeriner's with limited training. I could deal with the dogs, but the fact I've been sleeping on our air mattress for a week while Jenny slept in the single bed in the same room, kinda sucked. Tack on 3 more days of sleeping on that sucker, and I think I'm going to start to like it. (ya, right.)

The buzz from yesterday's excitement still hasn't full worn off. I've been listening to Tori Amos for years, and I really enjoy her music. It's so unlike everything you hear on the radio. I love that. To finally be able to see her live is going to be awesome. Jenny and I have had the best luck with concerts. And this is no different, the Gold VIP package consists of the following:

-reserved tickets in the first 20 rows of the venue
-Special viewing of a portion of Tori's sound check
-An exclusive Tori gift bag
-Crowd free merchandise shopping

I'm really excited for the Sound Check! We couldn't afford the Platinum package that includes a meet and greet (suck!) but this is pretty rad. Our seats are smack dab in the middle of the first 20 rows, in the center of the floor. We should have a good view. If you aren't familiar with Tori, you should be. And now, for your viewing pleasure go watch the video...

Bouncing off Clouds...

Sweet Jesus... I am counting my lucky pennies today. Jenny and I snagged ourselves VIP Gold packages for Tori Amos' show in December. We both logged onto Ticketmaster at 10am, and both went for tickets, after she purchased them I went back and tried to search for tickets again, and both VIP packages SOLD OUT. 3 minutes or LESS. Insane.

I'm so excited, I'm at a loss for words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you haven't watched it yet...

...you are doing yourself a disservice.

Get on the ball, and go watch the Democratic Party Debates .CNN partnered with YouTube and it is HIGHLY entertaining.

Things I can say right now, after watching the entire debate.

1. This is a great change in format! Talk about giving the American people a chance to speak their minds, and make an impression on the possible candidates.

2. I'm really looking forward to what youtube-rs submit for the Republican Debates. CNN is going to be hard pressed to find a handful of useable videos, let alone any that are postive and upbeat. The dark cloud circling the Republican Party that is President Bush has effed it up for all of them.

3. Anderson Cooper is a God among men for being able to keep Mike Gravel from Alaska under control. GOD, what a blow hard!

2008 is going to be difficult for Democrats, almost more difficult than republicans are going to have it. One of the most qualified candidates is a woman. One of the most passionate and inspirational is bi-racial. How are we going to be able to send these people to the ballot without worrying they could lose based soley off of some portions of this country being too "red" to see past the broken down chevy propped on cynder blocks on their lawn? John Edwards may seem like the obvious default, but the others... the others seemed more passionate than John. Passionate, but completely un-electable if the other half of the country gets to vote. No Republican would elect Dennis Kucinich, at least not one in their right mind. He is far too progressive, and liberal to ever get into office. Bill Richardson is fantastic but seems a little light on "what have you done for us lately" topics in the debate. Where is his voting record in Senate? Oh thats right, he's not a Senator, he's a Governor. Talk about jumping the gun a little, ok so he was the US Energy Secretary, maybe we could give him another shot at that job, seems like we still have a problem or two there... And you know what honestly, I don't have a whole lot to say about Joe Bidden and Chris Dodd, I'm sure they're great people and all but maybe I'm ready for someone other than an old, grey haired white man with money to lead the country.

Book Worm

Mmm sugar-free gum. I think I'm going to be one of those unfortunate souls that dies from the over consumption of sugar subsitutes. I've heard it's bad for your liver or something. Right now a good portion of the food I'm eating contains it, but I think eating fresh food (not frozen or processed) the rest of the time is going to even it out. Jenny has been cooking some awesome meals, and I'm so thankful. We had a great chicken w/ stirfry veggies and pasta w/ peanut sauce the other night. YUM. She's amazing. :)

It pissed rain all weekend so there wasn't much else to do besides rent movies, and go shopping. Jenny finally bought a new pair of shoes! She's been walking on pavement for months. She managed a nice pair of $110 North Face shoes for $69. I love Nordstroms. I came out with new makeup from Bare Minerals. I swear to god it's the best makeup I've ever put on my face. My skin is already clearer. We swung by the body shop and bought more shower goodies, and snagged some new books from a 50% off sale.

I made a book list Friday of books I need to buy, read and add to my collection.

Dear Diary - Lesly Arfin
Party Monster - James St. James
Dermaphoria - Craig Clevenger
The Contortionist's Handbook - Craig Clevenger
Stranger Than Fiction - Chuck Palahnuik
Rant - Chuck Palahnuik
Clown Girl - Monica Drake
Remainder - Tom McCarthy
Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris
Falling Man - Don DeLillo
A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers
Less Than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
The Rules of Attraction - Bret Easton Ellis
Glamorama - Bret Easton Ellis
Lunar Park - Bret Easton Ellis
The Good Life - Jay Mcinerney
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell - Tucker Max

We got our tickets to the KEXP BBQ, I'm so excited. We have alot of fun stuff going on in August, and I can't wait!!!

OH ... and I got the most beautiful bouquet of 24 roses Friday at work. :) :) :)

Oily Poop

So, I was researching "diet pills" today. God, I miss Ephedra... it was simple, pick up anything, and it was in there. Now that they've taken it off the market you have to go fishing around for "natural" or "herbal" versions. Suck. In my quest for a magical weight loss pill, I've run across a few really amusing websites, and some really scarry side effects of one of the "Top Selling" weight loss pills on the market today.

I'm talking about the new Anti-Obesity wonder drug, Alli (better known as a straight shot of Orlistat). Some of the features and benefits of the pill is 30% less fat absorbed into your body. So, if its not being absorbed, where is it going to go you ask? Well, I've got the answer...Right out your pooper!

The major side effect of the pill is oily poop, and increased flatulance. Oh man... sign me up. Rather, sign my co-workers up to be miserable, stuck in an office with an uncontrollable farter. I found alot of the information on Wikipedia (I love that site), and the part that stood out the most, in all it's horrific splendor was this... "Until you have a sense of any treatment effects, it's probably a smart idea to wear dark pants, and bring a change of clothes with you to work." (Linked to the post for your reading enjoyment) SICK!!!!!!!!! Who in their right mind would voluntarily take a pill that would simulate IBS and Crohn's Disease... wow.

Thanks GlaxoSmithKline,

You have officially detered me from buying diet pills....shit. Ew, not litterally.

Fatty Mc-Fat Fat

It's diet number 156,768 ... I think I've done about every diet you can possibly do. And to be honest, it's not the diet's fault. Most of them are perfectly good diets, and for most people I'm sure they work well. I just suck. That's all there is to it. I've tried Weight Watchers, South Beach, Slim-Fast, Lean Cuisines, Diet pills, and gym memberships... its halarious actually.

I think I need to stop eating processed foods. I think that might be the problem. I've been eating Lean Cuisines, or varients of, for the last year and it doesn't seem to help weight loss at all. I think there is too much artifical crap in it. I'm going back on Slim Fast, ONLY because it has vitamins in it, and the rest of my meals are going to be drastically smaller and consist mainly of vegetables. Jenny brought me home a stair stepper, very cool considering it was free (a client). And I'm waiting for Cailin to fax me her home work out routine.

I enjoyed my last crappy meal this weekend at The Ram. It had to be the best chicken burger I've ever eaten. Not to mention the mud-pie we all split afterwards. Ya, I'm disgusting...
The next day, Jen and I went to the U Village and picked out outfits that could possibly be our wedding clothes. I bought the pants I loved, but were WAY too small, for insipiration. I will not weigh myself... I will just put those pants on (or attempt to) once a week until the f*ckers fit.

We finally decided on our Save The Date cards, and they will be disgustingly cute. People will probably vomit on them. We also researched (or Jenny researched and I merely commented yes or no) on ideas for food after the wedding and our wedding "cake" or cakes. Many ideas floating around but they are all good and on track with what we want, which is an easy, fun, casual wedding, that people will enjoy like a party rather than something serious and uptight. Maybe by then I can eat some real food, and not blow up like a balloon. One can only dream...

Curly Poop

Thats what my hair looks like today. I wish it were blonder. I miss my blonde hair. I hit the snooze about 4 times this morning, so instead of straight hair, I have a fluffy semi-curly mass on my head, and it's bugging the shit out of me.

Next...

I've spent the last week thinking of magical ways to lose weight. I need to get on that now so I don't look like a cow (or I ate a cow) in our wedding pictures next year. I'm trying to think on a daily scale, instead of a whopping overall scale. So instead of thinking "I need to lose _lbs in a year", I think I'm going to go with "I need to lose _lbs this week/month"... maybe if I work on it daily instead of giving myself an overall goal, which I havent been able to achieve, maybe it'll work. Eh. I've been walking on my lunches, until this latest heat wave hit. I just couldn't stand it the other day, so I gave up and came back early.

Things to buy: Pedometer, step machine, elliptical? I wish there was an affordable gym near our house!!! Maybe some slim-fast (I need to start eating "breakfast").... and hey how about some Trimspa for fun. LOL

In other news, if you havent heard Jenny and I are crazy dog ladies and adopted a 3 month old puppy. So that brings the grand total to three. We are a couple of suckers. Well, actually I think I'm the sucker. Jenny wanted to "foster" a dog, and that quickly (within hours) turned into us adopting the dog. I think I'm the pushover. But its ok, she is a great pup. Pictures below... her name is Sophie Lee.

In the real news... Bush Equals Nixon's Highest Disapproval ... haha, we are fools. Why is this man still running our country? 559 days to go!

What PRIDE is really about.

For the last 4 months of my life, I have been completely consumed by organizing the QueerFest Pride Festival in Capitol Hill. Last year I participated as well but I don't think I was anywhere prepared for how this sucker was going to turn out.

Saturday, I walked into Volunteer Park at 9:45am, I had been at the park the night before when it was pitch dark and crews were working through the night to set up equipment, stages, and booths. In the light of day the park looked immediately different. Vendors setting out their items, volunteers running around setting up last minute tents. Base camp looked like a refugee camp. A good majority of our team had to spend the night in the park providing security we were unable to pay for, in order to watch over the $100,000 sound system we rented. Everyone looked tired, and haggard, far worse than I look when I camp out somewhere. There were no tents, no camp stoves, no camp fire, certainly no sleeping bags. Just a few chairs, some blankets thrown to the side, and massive amounts of take-out boxes, and cups that once held coffee.

I gathered all my supplies and headed out to get familiar with my surrounding and the stages I'd be ultimately responsibly for. The mainstage was massive... I wasn't expecting the lights and towers, and full blown sound system. The second stage was considerably smaller, and run by a union outfit as opposed to the rogue crew of AV Pro which inhabited the mainstage. I set up shop in a little tent opposite the mainstage and was completely unprepared for the choas that was just mere hours away.

My volunteers slowly arrived, and while getting them up to speed I began to familiarize myself with the radio that would become my lifeline for the entire day. I was outfitted with a Motorola radio with this great attachment that allowed it to clip onto my pants, then a cord ran up my side and an attachment was clipped to my collar. I felt like a cop, or a security officer, only without the handcuffs. (Although those may have come in handy now that I think about it.)

Around 11am the call came over the radios, the parade was stepping off. In the background you could hear crowds cheering, and music playing, goosebumps covered my arms, and I was immediately anxious. It could have been fear... We were 45 minutes behind schedule to start, the parade took far longer than expected to make its way through Capitol Hill and into the park.
Around 12:30 we recieved the call "15 minutes until we reach the park!", the crowds were even louder, and you could barely hear the executive director speak... minutes later the crowds arrived and calls of "Here we GO!!!!" and "Standby, standby, the parade has reached the park!" and "Happy Pride everybody!!!" screeched over the radios. I could have peed my pants at this point.

The begining was a little bumpy behind the scenes, but from where the crowd was standing it looked like everything was running as planned and thats how I like it. Speakers hopped on and off the stage quickly, and our first act took over. It wasnt as successful as I'd hoped, turns out some of their practices while on stage were a little vulgar, and irresponsible. About halfway through the set, a very angry Dyke got in my face over the inappropriate behavior of the band, all I could focus on was her horrible breath, and bad choice of outfit. (Leather vest w/ no shirt OR BRA, on a FAT lesbian is NOT cute, nor does it smell good.)

Acts came on, and as the day progressed I think we all fell into a comfortable groove. The once frantic calls over the radio were more precise, and thought out. We had found our rhythm as a team, and by 5pm a call came out... "why are these radios so damn quite??!"

We had done it. We had successfully hosted a festival for 30,000+ people, and managed not to kill anyone in the process. Including eachother. The vibe at the end of the night was a happy one, a PROUD one. I didn't get to leave the stage ALL DAY, so most people say "You didn't get to have any fun"... but it was the most fun I've ever had at Pride. And the fact I ended the long day feeling PROUD and like I had accomplished something, isnt that the whole point of celebrating Pride anyways?

I'm very thankful to my volunteers who worked almost the entire day without one complaint. I'm very thankful to my friends who came out and supported me. Brent for volunteering, and his wife for giving him to me for a whole day. Soo and James for sitting in the grass and being my "volunteer supporters". And of course I am very thankful to Jenny, for supporting me in doing something I am passionate about, something I love, and something I can take great PRIDE in.

Here's to 6 months of peace and quite before the whole madness starts all over again!

(Pictures soon I'm sure...)

Eheeeee... cuuuute....

Beene made a new friend at the dog park today!

This is Maggie... cute little french bulldog.

Beene doesn't usually like other small dogs, she is very discrimiating when it comes to other canines. She favors large dogs mostly, the ones big enough to eat her are her favorites. Last summer, Jen and I house sat and she made nice with a Newfy, Jake. It was cute, she had to be about 1/18th his size....

Beene likes dog parks though, not for the dogs, just the people. Her peer's owners... I know no other dog who gets such a kick out of the PEOPLE at a dog park. Leave it to her to find a chubby lady on a bench, climb all over her with her muddy paws and get fawned over. She's a whore.

I'm kind of not so much blah today as I was yesterday, just kind of bored I suppose. Hopefully we get a little sunshine this weekend so I can forgo making another tanning bed appt. and just sit in the real sun instead. 10 days until Pride, and I'm tired... the day of is going to most likely kill me... or I will kill someone else. I hope there aren't any sharp objects around.

Currently Needing: MONEY. Ive been broke for a week and Im getting dangerously close to an overdraft. Sad...
Currently Reading: "High Maintenance" sassy, tounge-in-cheek girly novel. Typically of what Ive been reading lately. Maybe thats why my brain feels like soft serve ice cream.

Words On A Page.

Eh... nothing is really happening here at work, might as well type a short blog recap of how uneventful my life is... if anyone actually ends up reading this I'd be thoroughly surprised.

Pride planning has been trucking along for weeks now. I'm still enjoying the work involved although balancing that and home life gets hard. And I can't blame Jen for being pissed when I have 2 meetings in one week. So, Ive tried to cut back, successfully so, as I haven't been to a real "committee" meeting in weeks. I can't really stomach sitting through 2 hours of people twice, almost three times, my age bickering over how the meeting is run and who gets to talk. Never really succeeding in getting anything worth while accomplished. Seems like a blatant waste of time. So, I'm boycotting. I'm still productive during the week, and my end of the festival is running smoothly and on plan, so I'm happy. And semi-sane... always a plus.

Since I've defected from all things "committee" related Jen and I tried to go camping this last weekend. Only to be met with rain, and wind in Bellingham. Definitely not the way I usually prefer to camp. Friday was clear when we arrived after I got off work. We quickly set up camp, I'm an expert at the tent (broken pole, no problem!), and Jen made dinner on the camp stove. The weather was clear, and we enjoyed a camp fire, marshmallows and beer for a couple hours before slinking into our tent with the dogs, and under our new sleeping bag, curled up on our blowup mattress. Not a bad way to camp if you ask me. The bathrooms (fully stocked, clean, and had lights) were one campsite over from ours, super convenient at 4am when you need to pee. We got up and had a great breakfast of blueberry pancakes and faux-sausage (meatless--yum). I managed to spill hot chocolate on myself before 8am, no easy feat... and just after changing clothes, it started to sprinkle. Luckily, Jen had rigged a tarp over our table and we had some cover, so what to do... Well being the drunkards we are, might as well start drinking Gin. We beat our personal record for drinking in the AM... it was only 9:30am, narrowly beating out our 10am record set at the cabin. A few rounds of WAR and quarters later I was bored, buzzed, wet and cold, and the dogs were wet, smelly, tired messes. We trudged into Fairhaven 10 minutes away to get warm, and decided shortly thereafter to pack it all in and go home with our tails between our legs. The weather wasn't letting up, so we called it off, and went back to the camp site... WHICH WAS DRENCHED. Ick. We made excellent time packing, only took 20 minutes and got the hell out of there and on the road home, sad, defeated, and cold.

Bummer... but, the weekend felt really long coming home Saturday afternoon, we still had plenty of daylight left, and all of Sunday. So unpacking went slowly, and easily. And we even took a little trip down to the Fremont Sunday market. All that "fun" and I came into work Monday feeling dizzy and almost nauseated, not a good way to start your week.

Anyways... Currently I'm on a reading binge... that's all I've been doing in my spare time. I'm running out of books... I've read 4 in 3 weeks. I just finished my fourth book, and decided to waste some time blogging since I now have nothing else to read today. Man my life is exciting.

I can't seem to find a decent way to end this blog, it could be never ending, so I guess you don't get something pre-packaged and pretty. Stop.

The business of Pride

Well kids, it's that time again. The birds are chirping, homos are humping, lesbos a' leaping, yes... Pride season is upon us. I've been suckered, coaxed... hoodwinked into working Pride again this year. Obviously the following statement rings very true:



On my plate for 2007 : Entertainment. Oh the glorious world of booking agents, backstage tents, and the pounding 80-90 degree weather Seattle provides in June. I'm already tired, and its only May.

I've been attending planning committee meetings for months, and the ball is now rolling... FAST! And without prejudice, as it seems to keep rolling back and forth over my foot. Man, I'm tired. Did I say that already?

We've secured Saturday, and I'm glad. Sunday is someone else's deal. God Bless 'em. I wouldn't want to be involved in that cluster f*ck. Unlike last year, I think I might actually do to the downtown event, it may be the last, so I might as well.

###

In other news, this weekend is Jenny and I's 1 yr. anniversary. Gosh it feels like more. In a good way.

-----Stop reading now if you aren't interested in sappy love talk----

I love her, so damn much. It's disgusting. We have so much fun together, whether we are alone or with friends, it's like we seemlessly compliment eachother's personality and play off the other's jokes. It's awesome. The dogs are doing great. Harper and Beene have really turned into sisters, licking eachother's faces, sharing toys, laying in the sun together. I think they'd be lonely without eachother, just like me and Jen. I love my little modern-day family. I never thought I'd have one, traditional or otherwise, but this fits nicely.

*sigh* butterflies... thats a good feeling.

Happy spring everyone. Lets dust off our helmets, summer's a comin'!

Save the Date...

May 10th, 2008

Thats right bitches! We've set a date. We finally sat down over the weekend, cracked open a calendar, and set a date for our wedding. Ehheeeeeee! I'm excited. Stay turned for more details to come, as well as invitations.


In more current news, we are heading to the cabin this weekend for a quick getaway, even though it will most likely rain the whole time. It will just be nice to get out of the city for 2 days.

Team Drunkard

US on Friday @ The Pig & Whistle



We not only made an appearance at The Pig but we stumbled over to the Beardorff (?), super seedy bar. Felt like somewhere my ghetto mother would go to pick up on bad country karaoke signin' middle aged hetero's. Scary.

US on Sunday @ The Chapel



Feeling we hadn't consumed enough alcohol on Friday, we made a stop at Chapel for $4 Martinis from 5pm-8pm. We drank solid for 3 hours, 6 drinks a piece. I tried as many as I could, until I had a Mint Gimlet, and was immediately hooked. It's like a super concentrated Mojito. Yum.

This was a brief alcoholic message, brought to you by Team Drunkard.

Celebrating their second Summer Season. Look for upcoming invites to events.

I'm so bad with titles...

I'm never able to think of an appropriate title for my blogs. I think my problem is that I try to name the blog before I type it. Hmm.

Q: Fellow bloggers, do you typically name your blog before or after you've typed it?

Hopefully, some of you will answer and that will shed a little light on my inability to title.

Onward...
We've kept up with the weekend hike, so now that totals 2 hikes 1 trip to the dog beach. This weekend we walked the Cedar River Trail out in BFE of Issaquah. We were passing cows... seriously. Farm country is fun, I really like driving through the area, checking out all the animals.

Fun fact: Farmers keep llamas in order to scare off coyotes, protecting the sheep.
Look at this weird guy...



I've begun my yearly work for the Seattle LGBT Center, this year I'm coordinating the entertainment for the festival in Volunteer Park. The majority of the work so far I've been able to do in spare time. Luckily, I don't take it home. Saturdays we meet and update the rest of the committee and move forward in planning. It's good we started so early this year, last year felt like a Chinese fire drill.

I'm really looking forward to the summertime, we've whipped out the calendar and started making notes on camp sites we'd like to visit and how many stops at the cabin we'll be making. I think I should have plenty of vacation hours, this June will be my 4 year anniversary at the Times, and so that respectively bumps me up to 4 weeks of vacation a year. WOOHOO!

Finally, the moment we've been waiting for... Anna Nicole's Cause of Death. I thought it'd be something more scandalous. Oh well. I guess I'll take what I can get.

Friday night, we did our usual 1.6 mi walk after work with the dogs, and then watched Mini's First Time. Haha, Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 57% "rotten" rating. I thought it was fairly entertaining for a Friday night. It's got a few big name actors to counter the bad plot, so I think it broke even in the end. Saturday Jenny had 2 business meetings with new clients, and then I had a Pride meeting at the LGBT Center, all the running around left little time for us together, so we stayed in and watched Ocean's 11 & Ocean's 12. I hadn't seen either, and I really liked them both. We'll have to check Ocean's 13 out in the theatre when it's released.

After packing some snacks and the dogs into the Prius, we ventured out Sunday to the Preston-Snoqualmie Trail and hiked about 4 miles. Yes, I hiked. Although, I don't think its really hiking walking on a paved, practically flat, road but it's something. The weather was great, and I really enjoyed the hike when we reached the end and had an awesome view of the falls. We wanted to take a little side trip and hit up the lodge for some wine and appetizer-ish fare but we headed home instead. If we had gone, we would have missed our golden opportunity to gorge ourselves at the XXX Root Beer Drive In, in Issaquah. Kill me now, we completely wasted that 4 mile hike and devoured a Triple X Burger (arguably the biggest burger I have ever eaten), onion rings and a Extra Large Root Beer. What a couple of fatties...



We rolled back to the car, and made it home to clean and prepare mixers before Soo and James came over for dinner (yay!). We met their new puppy, Belle, and sat outside on the deck in the sun with our Vodka Cran's until dinner time. We laughed all night, and even made a pit stop to McDonald's (more like McHeartAttack), and had some dessert. All of us were sleepy by 9pm, and called it a night after Beene went into her crate on her own. Sleepy puppies!

We did so much this weekend. I woke up exhausted this morning. All I wanted to do was stay in bed, nuzzled into Jenny's arm pit. But alas, I am at work, baffled to be typing a blog.

TONIGHT: Running around, maybe tacos for dinner?
THIS WEEK: Super Busy!
THIS WEEKEND: Sat: Meetings Sun: Another Hike?

Back in the saddle...

Ok, so maybe I'll give the new Blogger Beta a shot. I heard horror stories long ago, that some friends I worked with were unable to access their blogspot after upgrading to the new version. I logged in today and Blogger, in it's infinite wisdom, no longer gave me the option to proceed while using the old version. I was cornered. Forced into upgrading! So, hopefully this thing lets me post, as the leaf seems to keep turning and I'm typing out a blog exactly one week since my last. Not bad.

After we bought the Prius, we took it out to the Whidbey Island Dog Beach Sunday. The weather was awesome. We packed PB&J, chips, apples, and some treats for the puppies, and we all piled into the new car. We spent a good 3 hours on the beach, walked from one end to the other. The dogs had such a good time running around off leash, and swimming around. Beene is a little social butterfly and enjoyed running up to all the other dogs and people with her sandy wet paws. They ran so much, they slept the whole way home, completely crashed! I loved spending time in the sun with my wifey, she is so beautiful in the sun.

Brent had introduced me to meebo. This this is rad. You don't have to download any programs, and it logs you into all your IMs and keeps them neatly in one browser. If you haven't tried it, you should.

Well, I guess thats all for now kids. I leave you with my current obsession... a link....
to Perez Hilton (the Queen on All Media) and X17online, for all your celebrity gossip needs.

Looking forward to: Tacos, and a movie tonight with my lovely. *Sigh* Twitterpated... :)
This weekend: Meeting Belle, Soo and James' new puppy!
Next week: ANTM with the ladies.

Absentee Blogger... Day 2

Note: I have stopped and started this blog twice. Just reinforces the entire first paragraph that follows...

I am a horrible blogger. I think committing to blogging is just not something I'm able to do. I think about doing it, but my follow through is severely flawed. Maybe I was a blogger in another life, and the residual need is left but the will power to consistently type about my day is not present. Who knows. However, recent events deserve a blog, so here I go.

1. May 13, 2008 - We have set a date. 5/13/08 will be the anniversary of 2 years since I met Jenny, we are planning our wedding around that date. I am so excited. Details will surely come as it gets closer, but for now I'm just floating on a cloud, and looking up little things daily that will tie into the overall planning. Ceremony in Canada, big reception here in Seattle. Stay tuned.

2. Heather got Hitched! - My little sister got married Feb. 17th. My sister was the chill-est bride ever leading up to the big day. But when it hit, and things started going wrong she went into survival mode! My drunk ass mother decided to make a fool of herself, missed half of the wedding while she was outside smoking and drinking herself into oblivion, and then had the audacity to send her sorry-ass southern boyfriend over to harass me. I was able to avoid prolonged contact with both her and him, and all for the better. I could have slapped her. The groom got some kind of food poisoning and wasn't able to make it through the ceremony before he had to run out the doors vomiting. It was a mess. A puke filled mess. My sister was upset, but pulled it together and they finished the night out strong. Apparently, they had a great honeymoon, so hopefully that will over shadow some of the not so fab moments.

3. NYC & Boston - Jen and I just got back from out trip out East. We spent 4 days in New York and 3 days in Boston. New York was very busy, and all I thought it would be. I loved Boston and could imagine living there. It's such a well thought out city with so much history. I was really powerful being in two great cities and experiencing so much. I am truly grateful Jenny and I were able to share that.

4. The BIGGEST, NEWEST NEWS: We bought a 2007 Toyota Prius! Jenny and I have been mulling over the idea for weeks, and Saturday we went down and did it. We got rid of the 2006 Ranger I just bought, and for good reason. We were getting anywhere between 14-20mpg which is NOTHING. In the Prius we are averaging 52mpg. How insane is that? It is such a wise investment for us. Money may be tight for a little while but its well worth it. (Ps. Its not that expensive to buy one.) A little irony, we bought a green Prius on St. Patrick's Day. The dealership was covered with green balloons, so we have appropriately named it Clover. :)

G-Damn Seattle Traffic...

Dude. Really. I live 7.4mi away from my work. Why in the hell is it taking me 45 minutes to get here? This isn't L.A. for fuck sakes. I think all the shitty paranoid drivers were driving at speeds around 20 miles per hour today at the first mention of 'ice in patches'.

Patches? We don't need no stinking patches... HA. Again, we aren't in sunny Beverly Hills, CA folks, so lets everybody drive at the same speed limit, and quit riding your brakes!

---End rant---

The housewarming party was awesome on Saturday. My sister and her fiance stayed the night, and got shitty drunk with us, and 25 of our closest peeps. Guests were nice enough to bring us enough wine to last us the next 3-4 months. MMmm tasty. We've aquired a few gift cards as well, and can't wait to buy a wine rack from BB&B. The house is still cozy with all the flowers from the party, and I've managed to spend the better part of my evenings poking around on the new PS2 I bought. Damn those Urbz: Sims in the City, I'm an addict.

I can't wait for dinner tonight. We are having Carollani over for dinner, a movie, possibly a game, and some booze! Good times ahead, I love having people over now that we have the space.

Does anyone have a spare wheelchair?

I could really use a wheelchair today. I feel like my legs are about to pop off. I'm so exhausted from moving this weekend, I just want to curl up and sleep under my desk. I think people might notice though... I could start a new trend. Mid-day naps at work. I miss nap time.

The Condo is coming together nicely. I prefer to continue calling it a condo considering it's probably the biggest place I've ever lived in, and doesn't feel much like an apartment. Especially with the new paint we slapped on Friday. We have eaten like complete shit for the last couple days. Time constraints have made us rationalize eating at Jack in the Crack twice, a mexican place near our house TWICE, and has given Jen a reason to devour half a bag of tortilla chips with some Cheetos on the side. Ick. We need to get back on track!

The Evite has gone out for the house warming party! I'm so excited. We're making lists of things to buy (mixers, snacks & such) But it's bring your own booze, so I hope people come prepared!

As tired as I am, I'm really looking forward to painting our bathroom, and getting the rest of our stuff unpacked. I just want to be at home, completely!

I hope everybody had a good New Years Eve, Jen and I were so pooped from hauling boxes all day, we were passed out by 10pm. Exciting, I KNOW!