Problem

I have a confession to make.  

I like shoes.

This is probably no shock to anyone who knows me.  My love for shoes is right up there with purses, bags, and jewelry.  But while I was doing some reorganization in my closet, and I kept finding more and more pairs of shoes, I realized that I think I have a few too many.  How many is a few too many?  I had to find out.  

And after gathering them all together the sight was so ridiculous that I knew I had to photograph and blog about it. 

34 

I am the owner of 34 pairs of shoes.  I need to know, is this normal?  Do most girls have this many shoes?

Do I need 34 pairs of shoes?  No, probably not.  But at the time of purchase I'm sure I had a darn good reason for buying them.  Like the Black Patent Leather pair (middle row second from the right) that I got in Chicago for my cousins wedding.  Or the black ballet flats to go with my purple dress because I forgot I already had a pair of black flats.  And the pink(!) and green sneakers I got because, well, they were pink(!).  Have you ever seen pinker sneakers than those?  Me neither.  

I know, I need to stop buying shoes.  A girl doesn't need 5 pairs of brown flip flops, or 5 pairs of boots.

At least I have an excuse to keep buying more jewelry, I'm just expanding my business.  ;o)

Bean The Ferocious One

I would like to introduce everyone to Bean.

Bean is my friend Sarah's cat.  He's part Persian and part Barn Cat.  You wouldn't be able to tell from these pictures but he was quite the ferocious kitten, a true ankle biter.  He still has some ferocious tendencies, but he's getting better.  

But what you can't see in this picture of Bean The Ferocious One is the whole reason for this post.

Bean got a badly needed haircut.

And he now looks like a lion.

Complete with a big bushy fluff at the end of his tail.  

Sarah, I think you need to teach him how to dust with his tail now.

It kind of grows on you after a while.  I personally think its a good look for him.  And he doesn't seem to mind.  

The best thing about Bean?  He suddenly started to play fetch one day.  No kidding.  If you toss a hair tie he runs and slides after it, brings it back, places it in front of you, and waits for you to throw it again.  He'll do it for hours if you let him.  

Here he is playing fetch and one last look of his new 'do.  

Hope that brought a little excitement to your Thursday!  :o)  I know it made me chuckle.

My Goal

One of my favorite things to do everyday is to check my google analytics for this site and see where on the map all of my readers are at (all 515 hits so far).    And I can pretty much pinpoint that The Hanson Hat Trick has visited 69 times, mom and dad have visited 56 times, and I'm assuming my 20 hits from Iowa are my cousin Michelle (Hi Michelle!).  

Of course the vast majority are here in Minnesota (475).  But I have had a few hits from other states.  I always wonder how that person found their way to my site, what did they think of it, will they come back again, why didn't they comment?  But then I stop at that last question because I think of all the blogs I read and don't comment on.  

But I do have a goal.  Just once I want to check my google analytics world map and see that someone from another country viewed my blog.  I get excited about the small things. 

So I just wanted to say thanks to everyone stopping by to see what this Single Girl is up to and I hope I don't run out of things to say!

No pictures! Please! No pictures!

Break out the oversized sunglasses and jewelry, it's Celebrity Day at work today!  Sadly I couldn't get a realistic looking baby bump going.  That would have been a perfect addition to my ensemble for the day.  

This is how you bring back the side ponytail. 

(By my count; at least four people just thought of Willard Parks)

We even had paparazzi following our every move.

I did my best to shield myself.  

But they are just too good at their job.  

Which Tabloid will I end up in?

And yes, we do manage to get some work done around here.

Bringing back the side ponytail?

Or maybe not.  Its Bad Hair Day today at work.  As you can see below, my coworker Kandis was rocking out the big teased 80's hair so I joined her in the decade and did a classic side ponytail.  

I always say that one of my favorite images of my childhood friend Abby is when we were in 5th grade (probably in '94) when we were outside for recess.  I picture the scene perfectly:  Abby is standing on a snowbank with her hands in fists, on her hips and she's giving me the nastiest glare ever.  Why is she glaring at me?  I can't even remember, something silly I'm sure.  The best thing?  Her outfit: white Sorel snow boots, and a bright teal calf length winter jacket.  She's probably wearing snow pants, but the jacket is so long that I can't tell what color.  The greatest thing about this image?  Her hair is pulled into a tight side ponytail.  So tight I'm sure she's getting a face lift at the early age of 11.

Ah...the good old days of side ponytails, pogs, leggings, save the rain forest t-shirts, and when my favorite colors were teal and purple.  

Lovely and Ethereal

So Pioneer Woman posted some FREE photoshop actions on her site today.  I've been anxiously awaiting them so I was excited to see that she finally posted the download this morning.  I've just spent a little bit of time playing with the different looks on some photos.  I've found that the key is to find the right action that fits the photo and what you want it to look like.  What looks good on one photo might not look good on the next.  I had some not so good turn outs but found that the "Lovely and Ethereal" action really worked on this photo of CJ and Nicholas on the day Nicholas came home from the hospital.  

Here is the SOOC (straight out of camera) shot:

And here is the same photo with the Lovely and Ethereal action applied:

I love the soft glow that this photo has now.  Its going to be super cute when I get to scrapbooking it!  

Is it just me or does CJ's left eye not look right?  I turned up the blue in them, and did some cloning action on his left eye and something doesn't seem right.  Oh well, just don't look too closely at it.  ;o)

If you have Adobe Photoshop I highly recommend downloading this action set!  Find it here.  

Mac users - I had to use Firefox to download the action set.  Safari just came up with a window of code.

Twitterfied!

What is Twitter?  

Want to be updated on someone's every move?  Feel like you want to post something but don't feel its worthy of an entire blog post?  Want to update when you are away from your computer?  Are you obsessed with blogs and want to take it one step further?  

If you have answered yes to any of the above questions then Twitter is the site for you!

Log onto Twitter and type in the answer to the simple question: What are you doing?  But your response has to be less than 140 characters.  The best part? You can set it up to be a Widget (Page Element) on Blogger.  When you update Twitter, it will automatically add your update on your blog.  AND you can even send a Twitter (or would that be Twit?) via text!  

Check mine out on the left.  Yep, right over there.  

Chick Food

Nothing says "I'm a single chick living alone" like the contents of my shopping cart at the grocery store.  I was once told by a boyfriend that I had nothing but "chick food".  Yes, I'm guilty.  

Fruit Leather? Check

Carrots? Check

Bananas? Check

Yogurt? Check

Lean Cuisine Meals? Check

Orange Sherbet? Check

Amy's Organic Frozen Macaroni and Cheese? Check

Yep, chick food.  Check

Survey

See my survey?  Take it, let me know your thoughts on hedgehogs as pets.

eHarmony....3rd times the Charm?

As many of you already know, I've tried my hand at on-line dating.  And as many of you know, it hasn't exactly been successful.  (On a side note: is it sad that every time I spell success or awesome the old high school cheers go through my head to help me spell them?  "S-U-C-C-E-S-S thats the way we spell success!"  or "A-W-E-S-O-M-E awesome, awesome, a totally" with the added head roll and hand flick.)  Anyways, moving on.  Where was I?

Oh yeah, my lack of success (S-U-C-C...you know the rest)  with on-line dating.  Sure, I meet some guys.  Some great, most not so great, some turned into relationships, some didn't.  The one thing they all had in common?  None of them were right for me.  Its been a couple of months since my last attempt at eHarmony and I'm wondering if I should go again for my third time or cut my losses and join another site.  

What do I have to gain from another site?  Probably new matches, new method of matching.

What do I have to lose?  Not much, just time spent into my eHarmony profile.  Thats probably the thing keeping me from joining a new site.  Having to fill out the dreaded profile.  Its probably the one thing I loath about these sites. That one question that you inevitably have to answer, describe yourself.  You want to write something  that accurately describes you without sounding desperate, something thats going to stand out from the dozens of other girls, without being over the top.

See...perfect example: as I write this i've been filling out a match.com profile just for the fun of it.  And I get to the third section and screeeeetch I come to a halt.  The dreaded questions:

Describe yourself and your perfect match to our community.

Your dating headline. (a catchy opening line to get those guys to view your profile)

I get to these questions and my mind goes blank.  What did I write for eHarmony?  Maybe thats why I like that site, I didn't have to answer that specific question.  They ask other questions to get your personality to come out.  

So thats my hesitation for joining another dating site.  I just don't know which one to fork over my $30-$60 to be matched with the single guys in the area.  Maybe for now I'll save my money and take a bit more of a break from the dating sites.  Focus my attention on other things; friends, family, work, lia sophia.

Politics

Its no secret that I'm not a fan of politics. I'm even sitting here trying to figure out where my dislike of politics comes from, and I'm drawing a blank. Its not because of a lack of family interest. There has been a friendly Republican vs. Democrat rivalry between my sisters and my parents for years. Maybe its just my inner hippy coming out and rebelling against "The Man" - or maybe not. What ever it is, I just can't seem to get into the political scene. I do vote every Presidential election, and if I had to label myself? Democrat.

But! Finally! A website about politics that I can get into! From the makers of icanhascheezeburger and ihasahotdog comes: Pundit Kitchen

Ok, so its not so much a political website as a site poking fun at our potential political leaders. Maybe I like it so much because its a way of saying: "Hey, lets take a break from this crazy Presidential race and have a good laugh at ourselves."

Make more pictures for your blog

Make more pictures for your blog

Make more pictures for your blog

And couldn't we all use a good laugh right about now?

Ok, one more and I'm done.

Make more pictures for your blog