Merry Christmas

A face only a hedgehog mother could love...

Ruby says, "Merry Christmas, or else....I'll....I'll poop in your stocking!"  

She wasn't too happy with me when I woke her up this afternoon to clean her cage before I left town for the weekend.  And she really wasn't happy with me when I made her sit for a few photos.  I was hoping to get a cute one, but I couldn't stop chuckling when I saw this one.  She does not look like she has the Christmas spirit.  She looks downright pissed.  I suppose I would to if some yay-hoo woke me up, put me in a box, then shuffled me around and started flashing this light in my face.  

So even though Ruby doesn't share my Christmas spirit.  I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Christmakkah, etc!

Love,

The (still) Single Sister

Haiku ode to da shoes

Wobbly heel

Destined to fall off soon

Squeaky heel

Peelin soles

Pullin slippin zippers

Scuffed leather

This single sister should have asked for a new pair of shoes for Christmas.

No Advil in the last 6+ hours?

That means its time to celebrate!  The strep is on its way out!

For the last 36 hours or so I've been taking 2 Advil almost every 4 hours to avoid the sore throat, stiff neck, body ache, and try to fend off the throbbing headache.  But I just realized that I haven't taken one since......ummm.....noon?  This must be the light at the end of the tunnel.  The kiwi sized tonsils are now down to a peach pit...ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit.  But thats how they felt!

While I didn't have quite the level of strep that Erin had back in June when she was begging for Vicodin, this was definitely the worst sore throat I had ever had.  (Reading back to Erin's post, I realize strep has the ability to make grown women cry to their moms out of misery.  I don't remember doing that with a cold or the flu in the past few years.  But boy was I crying on Wednesday, twice.)  I'm typically not someone to go to the doctor for everything, but I waited for nothing (ok, maybe I at least waited for the clinic to open) Wednesday morning to make an appointment as soon as possible.  I've never had strep before but, but I knew this must be it.  This level of sore throat wasn't bearable any longer.  The doc did a rapid strep test and it came back positive.  Whew, didn't have to go through more tests.  She wrote me a note for work and a script for antibiotics and sent me home with strict instructions to do nothing for the next two days.

And that's exactly what I've done.  Hopefully all the sick is done and gone.  Between the cold last week before Thanksgiving, then the migraine on Friday, then thinking I had the flu on Tuesday which just ended up being strep on Wednesday...I'm done being sick!

Sexy Scents? Seriously?

Its Wednesday morning at work and I'm heading down to the breakroom for a morning coffee.  As I'm waiting for the coffee to dispense from the machine I see the latest People magazine on the table and its the Sexiest Man Alive issue.  I start flipping through and it falls open to Michael Phelps.  Well that doesn't surprise me that he's in there.  Of course he's wearing his trademark low-hip-hugging-just-a-centimeter-lower-we-could-see-mini-phelps-pants.  But surprisingly thats not what first catches my eye.  Its the caption next to his neck saying "RUB HIS NECK to smell his sexy scent" that I first see.

What? 

Seriously?

Scratch and Sniff Phelps?

I turn a page back.  Yep, Chris Meloni - Scratch and Sniff. Taye Diggs - Scratch and Sniff.  Chase Crawford - Scratch and Sniff. 

Its a whole section featuring guys and their Sexy Scents "What fragrances make these guys feel their sexiest? Rub the pictures to find out!"  

This disturbs me on many levels.  First of all, who wants to be caught smelling a picture of Michael Phelps.  Can we say creepy?  Secondly, I get that they are telling us what cologne they wear, but it just sounds....bad.   Smell his sexy scent?  I guess when I read that my mind goes to the gutter.  

Its just weird.  

Blissfully Boring

That's how my weekend went.  Blissfully boring and I loved it.

Friday night was fun. I had a Splurge Party at Maurices.  Invited my friends to come to Maurices after they closed and had a little shopping party.  Everyone got 15% off their purchases and had fun trying on (and eventually buying) lots of clothes.  Jamie had her Mary Kay lady come and give makeup tips and finally got me over my unnatural fear of eyeliner.  I don't know why, but I've never learned how or tried to apply eyeliner correctly.  I have a theory that my fear and timidness of eyeliner (and eye makeup in general) comes from all those years of applying HEAVY BLACK eye makeup for Danceline in high school.  So I was eased into it on Friday, and I'm starting out slowly.  Anyone need any Mary Kay makeup?  Apparently I'm having a party on December 1st.

So that was the extent of my excitement for the weekend.  Saturday and Sunday I had the apartment to myself and I did a lot of tv watching, Wii playing, and snoozing.  Perfection.  

Two of My Favorite Things

Here are two of my favorite things...and how I managed to combine them.

Thing Number 2: totallylookslike.com  

Once again, another site by the creators of icanhascheezburger.com and punditkitchen.com (making fun of all things politics).  This site compares people/things and how the may look like other people/things.  Ok, that wasn't a very good description.  Here are some of the examples.

Otter Totally Looks Like McCain

Amy Winehouse Totally Looks Like A Trainwreck

Posh Spice Totally Looks Like Falcor From The Neverending Story

Ok, now that your familiar with Totally Looks Like.  Moving on.

Thing Number 1:  Grey's Anatomy

I. Love. This. Show. Period.  The relationships, the gore, the medical mysteries.  Its been said that this season isn't quite up to par with past seasons.  But I still love it.  *SPOILER ALERT (if you haven't seen last nights episode)* I love how the have managed to bring Denny back.  Even thought this means that Izzy is probably coming unglued.  (Writers writing her out of the show?  Maybe?)  

Ok, how have I brought these two together?

For you Grey's Anatomy watchers that are reading this.  You know the new doctor?  The tough military dude with red hair who cuts first then asks questions?  Yeah, that one that totally made out with Yang?  Yep.  

He totally looks like Vincent van Gogh.

Ever since he (Kevin McKidd) started on the show I always picture an earless van Gough.  So much so that I had to create my own look likes on totallylookslike.com.  So thats my handiwork so you should go and vote on it!

Wii on the Brain

Yep, this Single Sister got a Wii.  And I've become a Wii Addict.  

Symptoms of a Wii Addict?

Sore arms? Check

Feeling the need to exaggerate everyday tasks? Check

Suddenly wanting to battle all your friends in bowling, tennis, or beat them up in a round of boxing?  Check

But I really realized this morning that I was a Wii Addict when I saw these beautiful pictures in an email this morning and the first thought that came to mind? 

"That would be a wicked Mario Kart track."

Undecided? Want to make sure you voted correctly today?

I headed to work early today in hopes that A. I would stop and vote on the way or B. be able to leave during the day to vote if there were long lines.  Lines?  What lines?  I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were no lines. I was able to register and vote in under 10 minutes.  Now I'm at work early killing some time in the interwebs.  A coworker emailed me this site that I thought I would share with you.  Its a quiz.  A series of quotes from Obama and McCain on some of the hot topics and you choose which one you most agree with.  In the end it matches up the quotes to the candidate and tells you who you agreed with the most.  

Thankfully I voted correctly this morning according to the quotes that I most agreed with.  Thanks goodness, I don't think they give do-overs at the polling places.  

Check out this quiz to see where you stand.

Speedy Updates

Once again I have let neglect-o-blog take over and I haven't updated in a while.

So to catch you up to speed I thought I would highlight events in the past couple of weeks.

• Amery Scrapbooking weekend.  4 days of scrapping, eating, and talking (and getting called by my sisters name the whole time.  I've come to just answer to the name Erin).  Pictures can be found here at said sisters blog.  I do have pictures, I'm just being lazy about posting them.  

• Iowa City Crop Marathon.  Because I didn't get enough of scrapbooking in those 96 or so hours I attended a  scrapbooking marathon with my aunt and two cousins two weeks later.  The idea was to have 26.2 hours of straight scrapbooking.  We were among the few people that made it the whole time out of about 50 women.  We started 8:00 on Friday evening and didn't stop till about 10:30 Saturday evening.  Crazy?  Yeah.  Fun?  Yep!  

• Halloween.  Made a last minute decision to head up to St. Paul for a Halloween party that friends of mine where throwing at HoBR (House of Booze and Rock the name so appropriately given to their place of residence).   As usual they had their specialty, wop of doom (see urbandictionary.com #7: An alcoholic beverage consisting of hard liquor and fruit. The fruit soaks up the liquor leaving a fruity tasting beverage, and very highly concentrated alcoholic fruit. Usually filled in a large tub.  The fruit is eaten.).  In other words: yummy and dangerous.  Many people there and with lots of great costumes.  Scariest one?  Sarah Palin.  Wow, did this girl look just like her.  She had the hair, the glasses, the pearls, everything.  My costume?  An icanhascheezburger cat.  Also known as an LoL cat.  How did I do it?  Simple: cat ears and tail from a costume from college, whiskers drawn in eyeliner, and a flip book I made with classic LoL captions.  Still confused?  Here are a few pictures from icanhascheezburger where I got my ideas:

The picture that started it all.

I figured this caption would come in handy.

As well as this one.

And we all know someone that could use this caption scrolling over their head.

conflicted

As my life is pretty uninspiring at the moment my blog has taken the toll.  Sorry to my few readers.  Passing the time, and not unlike the habits of small children, I'm delaying going to bed: checking facebook, catching up on my reading on Dooce (watch this, its funny).  As I'm reading my eyes wander to the text ad section of Dooce.  These are the tag lines that catch my eye.  In order: (internal monolog in italics)

Life is NOT Crap. ---- Whew, I'm glad someone sees the glass as half full.

Bacterial Vaginosis Gone? ---- Well I sure hope so, if it's not then the ad above is lying to me and life is crap.

Got snark? ---- Yes, yes I do.

Life is full of crap. ---- Ha! See, I thought so.  Quit messing with my head!

Maybe its just me, but the juxtaposition of the random placement of these text ads struck me as funny this evening.  Maybe this is a sign that I should just stop fighting it and go to bed.  

What is a Gooseberry?

On Sunday I decided that The Print Geek (TPG) and I needed to head up to Duluth.  We decided that if it wasn't raining we would leave early Sunday morning.  Well, it was raining but we left anyway.  After a breakfast at Mickey's Diner in St. Paul we got back on the road and were wondering if the forecast of partly sunny in Duluth was really true.  When the parents didn't answer, TPG came up with the next best thing.  He 411-ed a McDonalds in Duluth.  The whole conversation was pretty funny to watch.  I'm sure the poor girl thought she was getting prank called.  After we confirmed that it was in fact partly sunny in Duluth despite the torrential downpour that we were driving through we kept going.  Finally at about Willow River it finally stopped raining and we made it to a partly sunny and colorful Duluth.

After a quick windy stop at Canal park we headed up to Gooseberry falls.  The last time I was here was just before 7th grade and I've always wanted to go back.  TPG and I definitely made sure to bring our cameras.  See, besides being a Print Geek, he also knows what he's doing behind a lens and knows all the cool tricks in Photoshop that I never seem to get the hang of.  The guy is like a walking tutorial, its great!  :o)

So here are a few shots that I managed to get at Gooseberry Falls.

Are these Gooseberries?  I have a feeling they aren't.

After one wet foot (mine) and exhausting ourselves climbing the rocks and stairs we headed to Betty's Pies.  Apparently food network was just there so make sure to keep an eye out for it on TV.  This is the first time eating there and it was well worth the 30 min wait.  I couldn't decide between getting a piece of pie or getting it in a pie shake where they stick a whole piece of pie in to the blender and mix it with ice cream.  When TPG confirmed that it would be too gluttonous of me to do both i settled on a piece of 5 layer chocolate and he had Great Lakes Crunch.  Soooo yummy.

We made it back through Duluth and drove right back into the rain for a rainy ride home.  Apparently Duluth had a bubble around it, they didn't get the slightest bit of rain while we were there.  

It was a fun way to spend a Sunday.  It did get to be a lot of driving, but it was worth it...or maybe I'm just saying that because I didn't drive?  :o)

* Edit

I take it back.  I had introduced the new guy as The Print Nerd.  Apparently he prefers The Print Geek.  I mention this site to anyone that I name on here (nickname or not).  I just don't want it to be surprise down the road.  Of course this always carries the possibility of getting the eye roll and "oh, your one of those".  This time with The Print Geek, he just shrugged he shoulders and said "Huh, I've been mentioned on a blog. That's a first."  But he did want to clarify that he prefers the nickname The Print Geek.  So it shall be.  

He came over after work yesterday (Hey, I'm already seeing him more in a week than I got to see The Good Bad Weed in a month.) and we made Pioneer Woman's Tomato Basil Pizza (we made the pesto side).  While it wasn't a complete flop...I definitely know what to do differently next time. The end result was rather mushy and we may have set the smoke alarms off because of some juice overflow-age in the oven.  But really...when you can pick off melted fresh mozzarella with slices of tomato covered in pesto, it can't be all that bad.  And lets face it.  I tend to just pick off the toppings of a pizza and eat them san crust anyway.

So, second date with The Print Nerd Geek went well. We may even be planing something fun for the weekend. Lets hope for great wether on Sunday.

Stay tuned.

Quickie

Just a quick post before I start my day.

This is the scene of my morning "commute". 

I walk outside to a brisk fall morning, realizing that I'm not going to be able to go much longer without wearing a coat to work.  The trees on my street are starting to turn, kids are walking to school, others are lining up for the bus stop, and the school buses are making their respective stops.  Wow, where do I live?  This sounds like a Norman Rockwell illustration.  

I turn down Oak and head for Main Street and wham, back to the year 2008, 6 cop cars parked in a parking lot and 10 are standing around chatting.  Ah yes, its the early-morning-speed-trap that the police like to set up every couple of weeks.  Its convenient for them because this parking lot is blocked so you can't necessarily see the 6 cop cars parked there while you are gaining speed down the hill and two are hiding behind a telephone pole with a radar gun ready to flag you in.  This scene isn't that unusual, I just kind of shake my head and feel sorry for the people who will get nailed today.  

I get to the stop light at Main and make a left, past the power plant, over the bridge, over the train tracks.  Why is that school bus just sitting there?  I drive by and realized that a little car had rear-ended the bus when it made its "VEHICLE WILL STOP AT ALL RAILROAD CROSSINGS" stop.  The hood was all scrunched up, steam pouring out.  It didn't look like anyone was injured, the front of the car had gone under the bus and only the hood was scrunched up.  Wait, something is missing from this scene...where are the cops?  Oh!  They are two blocks up and around the corner setting up a speed trap.  

I know, it looked like it just happened, the cops probably hadn't gotten the call yet.  They were completely unaware that anything was going on.  

It was just kind of a slightly humorous start to my morning (humorous since it didn't look like anyone was hurt).  Here is an accident and it appears that all of the cops on duty that day are standing around the corner, two blocks away. 

And really, how do you rear-end a bright yellow school bus that has flashing lights?

Lunch Blogging

I know, I know.  Its been a while since I've posted.  I have no excuse.  Its not because things haven't been happening.

Its not as if Diego and I didn't spend a day at Valleyfair with some of my friend and had nothing to say about it or a picture to share:

P.S. My first time at Valleyfair and first time on a real roller coaster.

We had so much fun, and I had the bruises and muscle ache to prove it.

Its not like In the last week and a half I haven't had one relationship fall off the map.  The Good Weed has weeded himself out.  One day he just stopped texting and calling.  Three days later he called only to tell me he was going to be hard to get ahold of for a while and he had to take care of some things.  That was over a week ago and I still haven't heard a word form him.  Just like all weeds, he had to go.  Odd thing is, he doesn't exactly know this yet.  It still baffles me.

And lastly, its not like a I don't have a new guy to introduce you too.  The Print Nerd.  He found my profile and emailed me through one of the dating sites I'm on, but don't exactly check anymore.  Initially he thought I was seeing someone (hadn't changed my status) but saw that we had similar interests and wanted to be friends.  His email definitely caught my eye and I made sure to set him straight that I wasn't seeing anyone anymore.  We ended up chatting all night and made a date for Saturday night.  

I had so much fun.  We both work in the same industry and both love what we do.  He calls himself a Print Nerd (so I decided this was a good nickname for him on here).  He loves to travel and loves photography.  What could be better?  Oh yeah, he grew up in Austria till he was 18.

But this brings us to the end of my lunch and the end of my quick update blog.

Nerd Alert

Yes, I'm aware that I'm a nerd. Not only for reading the following article, but for now blogging about it.  Its ok, I've accepted this.

Its the  26th birthday of the emoticon!

:-)

:-(

;-)

If you've ever wondered who started the neck bending craze of showing emotion through the interwebs check this article out.  You know your inner nerd wants to.  

The Elusive Townhouse

I haven't talked a lot about my search for a townhouse.  Basically because there isn't anything to mention.  I look online once a week to see if there are any new listings and unfortunately there isn't.  Same three townhouses that I have already seen.  Although, the cheapest townhouse did sell, or they took it off the market after a year of being for sale.  It was the one townhouse we were honestly too afraid to enter.  

The original townhouse that sparked my interest and made an offer on is still up for sale.  Same price, except now there are new pictures up.  New pictures showing an empty place.  I'm guessing the renters are no longer living there.  Which means the place is empty and the owner will soon have to start paying for heat in an empty townhouse.  

So it makes me wonder, should a make another offer?  Wait a few months before doing so?  I think the Roomie's parents would kill me if I make her move so soon after moving her in.  Maybe I will sit on it for a few months and think about it.  I'm still thinking that a townhouse is the best path for me and my first housing purchase.  

That question still lingers, is this the right place for me?  Or do I wait for the perfect place to come along?  I still keep  thinking that this is the right place, for the right price.  The right price will let me turn it into the right place with new paint, new kitchen floor, appliances, and some updating to the cupboards.  

I think I will wait a few months and see what happens.

9-11

I was just reading thehansonhattrick's entry A Beautiful Tribute and it hit me that middle school students were hardly in elementary school when 9-11 happened.  Not only was it a I'm-getting-old moment, it also made me think of where I was 7 years ago.  (I still don't believe its already been 7 years, has it? Must be.)  This moment  will always be one of those "Where were you when it happened?" moments.  

I was in my senior year of high school and my first hour of the day was Spanish.  It wasn't until the end of the hour that I heard first that a plane had hit the Pentagon.  Unfortunately it was from my odd-duck (to put it lightly) teacher who was laughing about it.  That still hits me every time I think about it.  Why was he laughing?  Maybe it was his weird way of coping, maybe he didn't know the severity of it.  I heard more from people talking out in the hall. "Planes were hijacked" "World Trade Center" "Pentagon".  

My next couple of hours were Art.  Since the school was under construction the cable tv for the classrooms had been cut just earlier that day so work could be done.  The art room was one of the only televisions in the building that still had bunny ears and could get a signal.  Teachers brought their students in for the day to watch everything unfold.  I watched one of the towers fall.  I can't remember if it was 1 or 2.  I watched as they realized a fourth plane had been hijacked and  crashed in Pennsylvania.  I even remember the false report of a car bomb outside the state department.  I had to get away from it all after lunch so I spend the next hour in the dark room.  Sam and her boyfriend provided their usual drama that day to relieve the sense of dooms day.  I remember the moment it hit me that Brian was at boot camp at that moment.  That his dream of being able to travel and spend time in Japan wasn't going to happen.  That the furthest that he would travel would probably be the Middle East.  Unfortunately that ended up being true.  He thought it was safe to join, we had been at peace when he joined.  

Thats my "Where were you when it happened?" moment.

What's yours?  

Ren Fest

Today the Roomie and I ventured over the to Renaissance Festival.  It was her first time going, and my first time going dressed up.  Yep, I was one of those people.  And it was a blast.  Who knew the dress I wore as a kid playing dress up would one day fit me and I would actually wear it on more than one occasion (it was part of my pirate Halloween costume two years in a row, make a few adjustments and its a renaissance dress, it could also easily turn into a gypsy dress). 

We met some of our friends there who were also dressed up for the occasion, got our hair braided (see below), saw some shows, did some shopping, drank (some more than others), ate a turkey leg (of course), and met some new, fun people.  

It was pretty cold and rainy when we first got there.  It was especially cold for those of us me who wore a sleeveless dress, and sandals.  But it warmed up pretty quickly, or was that just me and those beverages I consumed?  Maybe both.  While I was getting my hair braided my feet were a nice shade of purple...but it was worth it.  

See?

Its a 5 strand french braid.  Pretty cute, huh?  I'm attempting to leave it in tonight to wear to work tomorrow.  For what I paid for it, I'm going to get as much out of it as I can.  

I didn't bring a camera with me (sad, I know) so thats the only picture I have of today. (BTW, do you know how hard it is to take a picture of the back of your head using a big SLR camera?  It's pretty difficult.)

Speaking of pictures...I still need to get those state fair pics up...maybe that will be tomorrows task...

Letter

Dear person who always gets my 20 cents that I forget in the coffee machine,

Your welcome.  

Sincerly,

She-who-forgets-her-money

P.S. I remembered today so don't bother looking for it.

My Favorite Things

I know hate is a strong word. 

But. I. Hate. Washing. Bras.

Hate.

And I suppose it doesn't help that I have the most difficult bras to wash.  Hand wash, lay flat to dry.  And to top it off, these suckers take 24 hours to dry.  I know, I have weird bras (Secret Embrace from VS) but I love em!

But I have made a discovery, The Bra Baby.  

Ta-Da!

Tuck the straps into the inner ball and wrap your bra around it and snap it inside the bigger ball and your bra won't loose its shape in the wash.  My days of hand washing bras are over.  Now I can throw them in the wash with the rest of my whites and not be afraid that they will lose the shape that I pay Victoria $42 for.  

Find them for $8 a piece at Target.

Tennis

TGW (The Good Weed) and I played tennis last night.  Well it wasn't so much playing tennis as TGW hitting balls at me and me attempting to hit them back.  I think most of the time was spent chasing after the balls to retrieve them. Apparently I look like a drunk cat with ADD chasing a ball of yarn, but a determined drunk cat with ADD chasing a ball of yarn.  LoL  

But we had fun.  

He had fun laughing at me and I had fun laughing at myself and my attempt to hit the ball.

I think I may need to get a couple of rackets and balls and get The Roomie to play with me after work.  

She's here...

I'm here.

I'm alive.  

I know I haven't blogged much lately.  I know there are updates to write and pictures to post.  But I've been occupied doing other things.  And when I say that I don't meant that they have necessarily been productive things.  Although, I have managed to clean my entire apartment to get ready for The Roomie to move in.  And I've even been cooking yummy meals for us.  Turns out my theory of "I like to cook, just not for myself" is true.  But most of my time between cooking and cleaning has been spent laying on the couch with The Roomie watching episodes of Project Runway, Tabitha's Salon Takeover, and even episodes of The Hills on MTV.  (I'm completely guilty of watching too much reality TV lately.) 

So this weekend was spent moving Jamie in so she is officially The Roomie.

Meet The Roomie:

In her words: 

"We've been friends for less than 6 months,

and we are already moving in together.  

If this were a relationship, it would be doomed."

  

She had lots of help from her family so we didn't have to do all the work.  But now the unpacking is left to do.  Since she manages a clothing store, she has a lot of clothes. Illustrated here in the picture below. I was being lazy and playing the role of moral support and snapping pictures along the way.  

A State Fair blog will be coming soon.  I meant to get those up yesterday, but blogger wouldn't let me upload my pics.  What's a State Fair post without pictures of the food we ate?  (Yep, apparently I've become one of those bloggers.)  I'm a little behind, but what else is new?

Update Time:

Townhouse Hunt '08 is still underway.  But at a snails pace.  I keep checking every week to see if anything new is out there to look at, but the same 3 townhouses are the only ones up.  Something is bound to come up, right?  Hopefully it won't become Townhouse Hung '09. But after moving Jamie's things, we are not exactly looking forward to another move.

I haven't talked about him a lot lately, but The Good Weed and I are still dating (I really should come up with a new nickname for him).  I wouldn't consider us a long-distance relationship since he's only 37 miles away from me, but it sure has felt like it!  Before yesterday, I hadn't seen him in 3 weeks.  Thats just entirely too long for a new relationship.  But his work schedule has been crazy so I'm just hanging in there hoping things will get better.  He's in town for a few days so its good to see him again.  I'm hoping it will stop raining here today so we can go out and make a fool of myself play some tennis.  He's a really athletic guy and I've always thought tennis would be a fun sport to learn so it might be something fun to do together.  (Read: Its the only sport that interests me to at least try. And since its usually just played in pairs I won't have to look like a fool in front of a bunch of people or strangers)

That has been the life of this single sister lately.

I Am Woman Hear Me Rawr

I discovered something kind of interesting this afternoon.

The Chief Executive of the company that I work for is number 20 on the  "100 Most Powerful Women" list, according to Forbes magazine.  I'm probably a nerd for admitting this, but I think thats kind of cool.

Here were a few other women that were listed below her ranking:

#28 Hillary Rodham Clinton

#35 Nancy Pelosi

#36 Oprah Winfery (this one surprised me, I thought she ruled all)

#58 Queen Elizabeth II

#62 Katie Couric

#63 Barbra Walters

#65 Diane Sawyer

My Favorite Things

Yep, I now have a weird obsession with anything hedgehog.  But this doesn't mean I'm going to buy everything that I see with a hedgehog on it...sorta.  I'll limit myself to the really cute ones.  Likes these:

My obsessive need to see blog updates paid off when Dooce featured this guy in her Daily Style section.  She included the link to the etsy.com shop (great place to find one of a kind handmade items) where she got it.  I know from the past that anything she features gets sold fast so I had to make a decision, there were only 4 left.  It was so cute!  And hedgehoggy!  And pink!  $26 later, its mine.  1 hour later, they were all gone (no I didn't buy them all).  Score!

Even though I'm not going back to school this fall (thank god) I always enjoy roaming the back to school section at Target.  It must be because I can now do it without feeling the dread knowing that my free days are numbered and I would soon have to be productive.  Last week when I was taking a look at notebooks and folders I found a set with hedgehogs on them.  Cute!  I think you all know me well enough by now and I don't even have to mention that a notebook and a folder found their way into my cart and now are on my desk at work.

We did it!

And we didn't die!

Since my last post all I was able to think about where all the possible things that could go wrong on that ride.  But something in the back of my brain kept saying that I should just do it, this will probably be the only time I won't chicken out.  And in the words of The Roomie, "If its my time to go, its my time to go."  

I know its kind of sad, but this is the most daring thing I've ever done. I'm kind of a chicken when it comes to these kinds of things. I was never much of a fair ride kid growing up.  There was that one summer that I blew all my summer allowance on the rides at the Wild Rice Festival back home, but after that summer my stomach just couldn't handle rides anymore.  

So Friday night The Roomie, Derik (we drug him along for moral support), and I went to the fair and headed straight for The Sling Shot.  There was no avoiding this, we were going to do it.  There was also no time to think about it or the many ways that I was about to die.  We paid our $50, I hugged my coworkers that met us there to watch the craziness, and we climbed the steps to what I was sure was going to be my impending death.  

As you'll hear my Roomie say in the video below, the anticipation is the worst part.  They strap you in and away you go, no count down or anything.  You are sitting there strapped in, next thing you know your being flung through the air at over 70 mph, you see the ground getting smaller, and you see that your going past the top of the 160 foot blue towers, you just hope that the bungee will hold and snap you back down to earth so your not catapulted out to space, or over to China.  

Don't get me wrong, my Roomie would love to meet marry and have his babies Michael Phelps, but I don't think that would be her ideal way to get over there.  

Oh, and when you do fall back toward earth, you are heading head first into the ground.  Then you just continue to bounce and do a few more spins (The guy lied to us and said you have to do at least one spin. As I point out in the video, there were at least 5.)

I had Derik take video with my phone from the ground so thats the first video clip you'll see.  Hear that screaming?  Thats mostly 98% me.  The second video clip is the DVD of the recording of our reactions in the seat the whole time.  I knew they were going to try and sell it to us, and I had ever intention to NOT buy it.  But after watching it, I couldn't resist.

So here it is. Just to warn you, I do udder the c-r-a-p word a few times.  I'm surprised thats the worst that came out of me.  I just wanted to warn you incase there were small children or bosses around.  (I know R&R would reprimand me for saying a bad word.)

Ok, enough talking about it. Watch it!

Cost to get flung @ 70 mph, 160 feet into the air: $50 ($25 each)

Overcoming a fear: Priceless

DVD of our reactions: $15
Watching ourselves screaming our heads off: Priceless

Am I crazy enough?

This week is the Steele County FREE Fair in Owatonna.  Apparently its the states largest FREE county fair.  When I first moved down here I was always baffled by this because I thought all county fairs had free admission.  Apparently not.  

Last night The Roomie and I went out to the fair to get something to eat.  Mmmmm Piggy Blues Loaded Baked Potato.  Every year I have to get at least one of these during fair week.  Its a baked potato that I swear is baked in a vat of butter, topped with shredded pork, nacho cheese, and sour cream.  Sooo yummy.  You can also add jalapanios and onions if you like that gross stuff.  ;)  

While wandering the fair with our friend Derik later that night we went to check out The Sling Shot.  Have you ever seen this ride?  The ride where you sit in a ball that is attached to two huge towers and you get propelled through the air only to get pulled back down by the bungee cords?  Here is a video: Sling Shot

Somehow Derik and The Roomie have talked me into doing this on Friday night.  I had my glasses on last night and if I was going to die on this ride (I've come up with at least three scenarios in which this happens) I want to at least be able to see it.  So we decided that Friday night would be a good night to die do it.  

Now here is the question...am I crazy enough to go through with this?