Coffee

I like coffee!!! During the summer months I will order an iced non-fat, half caf/half decaf carmel latte. It's the best!

I know I'm addicted.......but seriously....what's up with the boy figure?

I just saw this picture on the internet of LiLo (for those of you not utterly addicted to celebrity gossip, that is short for Lindsay Lohan - it's pretty sad that I know that isn't it? Oh well - I have lots of time on my hands these days. In any case, here is the picture I saw:

There WAS a pic of Lindsay Lohan here, but it was a bit too racy so I deleted it. (Plus, I couldn't stand looking at her everytime I logged onto my page). :)

Shawn and I have talked quite a bit about this and we both agree that women with no curves look like little boys with boobs. I'm sorry to be so judgmental and so superficial but it irritates me to NO end that women (or girls for that matter.....hello Paris, Nicole, Lindsay etc....) are portraying a body that is soooo unrealistic. Yes, of course I want to eat 700 calories a day, which by the way equals to an English Muffin with no butter, 2 eggs and maybe a Lean Cuisine dinner AND THAT'S IT!!! Not only are women that skinny utterly unattractive, they very much look like 11 year old little boys with boobs (some of them anyway - some of them don't even have boobs). This body image also perpetuates the idea that ALL women must be like this. Now, there are people trying to fight against this, namely the Dove campaign for "real beauty" - but even that perpetuates that ONLY having an extra 10 pounds is o.k. but nothing more than that. What happen to the days of old where women who had a little weight on them were considered beautiful because it meant that they were well taken care of? Or back in 1628 when Peter Paul Rubens painted this:

Look at those women. They were the perfect picture of beauty!!! They have PERFECT figures. Hips, boobs, a curvy waist...what more do I need to say? This is a depiction of a beautiful woman back in the mid sixteen hundreds. And look at the first picture - that is a pic of the perfect woman (or close to it) in today's opinion. Heck, in fact back in the 1980's, Cindy Crawford was a supermodel and even had a tiny bit of extra weight on her (not a whole lot, but at least the woman had hips).

I'm sorry to sound off like this, however, it really bothers me that women are not able to be who they want to be and they have to struggle every single day to strive to be someone they clearly are not. This is not to say that people should be huge and have health problems. I think that a variety of people, shapes, sizes etc... is very acceptable. It bothers me that when you watch even cartoons on TV like the Family Guy you have a large husband, a skinny wife....but what bugs me even more is that the African American couple are both big (both the husband and the wife). What? It's not ok that white women are a little larger? But it's ok if people of other races are? What's that all about? Not only does this cartoon have a bit of weight discrimination, it also has some form of racial discrimination. Not good!!! I hate the fact that little kids are subjected to the daily struggle of people on our society to be something they are not, both men and women, and learn that pattern of behavior at such a young age. I am done now!!! Thanks for listening!

What do you think???

As many of you may already know, my husband and I bought a house that is a definite "fixer - upper". The picture of it below is the "before" picture. Here's where you come in - I need to figure out a color to paint the house. Please please please look at the house and post a reply with what color you think would look great on the house.

Our plan is to remove the front deck and re-do the entire front yard that will make it more even and pretty beautiful. Now, all we need to do is figure out the paint color. Of course we are removing the facade shutters and will be replacing them with newer, updated facade shutters. So here's what I need from y'all - what color should the house be and what color should the trim be? We are going to paint the house within the next month so we need to decide on this ASAP.
Keep in mind that the house to the left of us is a light green and dark brown wood color and the house to the right is maroon/barn red. So what would look good on the house and in between each of those colors? I appreciate your input. :)

Home Update

We finally finished the floor in our movie theater. Now we have red walls, a white ceiling, black curtains and a very light colored wood floor. We are going to be putting white trim around the windows and doors and also white baseboards and crown molding (although I am not sure it's going to actually be 'crown' molding since I don't like that stuff too much). But, I think it's going to look cool. Now when people ask you the age old question - "What is black and white and red all over?" you can say with 100% confidence, "Carol's movie theater". LOL

We have figured out though that the dog is not a friend of the slick floor. She already fell once today - which is not good for her since she has pretty bad arthritis. But, in our defense, we are going to be putting area rugs down on the floor in a lot of places so there won't be too much for her to slip on. I am looking at the poor pooper right now and she's knocked out. She doesn't like when we come up here to do work. She is the ultimate protector and NEEDS to be with us all the time otherwise she thinks she is not doing her job. So, when Shawn and I walk in and out of the house 100 times she ALWAYS gets up from where she is sitting or laying and the blocks the door until we come back in. We would have taken her with us and let her freely walk around except that it's about 110 degrees outside today and the ground is simply too hot for her little paws to handle. In addition to that, we were using the Skil Saw and Chop Saw all day and it's a bit too loud for her sensitive ears. Plus, all we need is for her to knock one of us over while using one of those things. So we thought it best if we kept her in the air conditioned house.

On a much more positive note, I am getting used to the heat. It doesn't feel quite as hot today as it did yesterday. I went down to Folsom for a bit yesterday and thought that I was going to die when I got out of my car. It was about 120 degrees out there when you were standing on the asphalt. But, up at our house it was about 10 degrees cooler. Plus we put a window air conditioner in the bottom floor window to keep it bearable in here while we worked. So it was only about 80 degrees while we were laying floor over the weekend - thank God for little blessings.

Lessons from today...

I learned that when driving to a far away location, you should not caravan with an old clunker car. Why you ask? Because, maybe, just maybe in 106 degree weather, the car COULD break down 7 miles away from your destination after traveling 165 miles. I also learned that 106 degree weather feels just like 95 degrees or just like 85 degrees.

I learned that the power company has permission from the State of California to ram people up the booty on power rates during the summer. In addition to this lesson, I found out that the power company blames the state of California for your "base rate usage" - and the state blames the power company for exactly the same thing. Apparently we get something like 19 kilowatts hours alloted per day during the summer and 30 for the winter. This sucks because we do not have a WOOD BURNING AIR CONDITIONER!!!!! So how do we fix it? We boil ALL summer long in a VERY hot house unless we want to pay a $3-$4 hundred dollar a month power bill.

I learned that if Placerville gets to be about 106 degrees during the day, at 10:30pm at night, the weather is still at about a cool 93 degrees. And, for that matter, the ground is still a bit too hot to walk on.

I learned that little blessings come along everyday. For example, when our car broke down 7 miles from our house, a tow truck just "happened" to be passing by and helped us out. Thank God we did not need to stand in the 106 degree weather for more than 20 minutes. As it was, we were already dripping sweat from just standing there. Little blessings are good!

Hot Weather = Not My Friend

Ok, so I am going to sound off here for a minute so please bear with me. I have learned from Teen Mania that I should "never state the obvious". In fact, when I was a TL I enforced the whole 'stating the obvious' thing because it doesn't get you anywhere and it brings people down. Those of you that have been with TM for any length of time can relate I am sure. However, I am pretty angry about the weather these days. Even though I am moving away from the Bay Area, I AM STILL HERE - - which means that I pay overall too darn much for an apartment, gas etc.... Because of the extremely HIGH cost of living, I EXPECT that the weather is AWESOME all year round. Oh, but this is not so. It is approximately a million degrees outside right now and it's almost 9pm. In fact, the temperature is only getting down to.....uh, I don't know.......80 degrees overnight. What's up with that? I expect this kind of weather in Placerville where the cost of living is a bit lower and it's beautiful scenery out there - I mean really, there has to be a trade off right? I am a reasonable person. I know that I can't have it all.....but in the Bay Area can't I have something??? Give me either low cost of living or beautiful weather, I don't expect both. But neither - come on now. I think I am getting jipped!!!

Busy Busy Busy

I have been a bit preoccupied the last week or so. I am thinking about starting a business and have done nothing but research over the last week or so. Believe it or not, I think Shawn and I are going to be starting a toe ring business. We would likely go to art and wine festivals and set up a tent and fit people for toe rings. You know, the ones that are 'almost' permanent - not the adjustable ones. I am finding that this may be a viable business for the two of us. I am pretty excited about it - well, not necessarily about the work that has to go into it, but excited about the prospect.

I went to S.F. today to the BIG jewelry wholesale area (which you need a resale license to be admitted) and checked out the products that I am probably going to be selling. It's pretty interesting how this has all come together in about a week. I already have a resale license and business cards. Now all I need to do is get some art and craft festivals lined up and I will be in business. I had no idea starting a business was so easy. In any case, that's why I haven't posted in a while.....I have been a bit preoccupied. Actually, with all of this business talk I have neglected to prepare for my new classes this semester. I know, I know - I AM THE PROFESSOR - I should get on top of it. But to tell you the truth, I don't wanna!!! I want to play around until the end of summer. For all of those out there that think that their professors are totally on top of it, let me tell you, some of them ARE NOT. Don't let me mislead you, I am always prepared before class, but that does not mean that I don't stay up half the night the day before class to prepare. It's interesting, even though I am responsible for hundreds of students every semester, I am still a Toys-R-Us kid and I will NEVER grow up - NEVER NEVER NEVER!!!!!!!!! (This attitude makes for interesting classes - LOL - always fun, but always informative and useful!!!).

Oh yeah, back to my point - my business. I came up with the name uTOEpia. I think it's cute, and it's probably going to look really cute on a sign - and it certainly looks cute on my business cards. What do you think? Do you like the name? I can remember, before my sisters wedding I got toe rings so my feet would look cute in my open toed shoes - which they did. I had actually purchased my first set of 'fitted' toe rigs a number of years before that and was hooked. It's been about 8 years now and I feel naked without them. Plus, I think feet look sooooo much cuter with them. So, if any of y'all out there would like a toe ring, I can certainly help you out. :)

Can someone please help me???

Before I post something else interesting, I would like to know about Xanga etiquette. When someone posts a comment responding to one of my posts, how do I respond to that? Do I post a comment under their post on my blog? If I do that, do people go back to see what I have replied? Or, do I post a comment under one of their blogs? Please help!!! I don't want to be rude, but would really love to reply to people's comments on my blog, I just don't know what is customary. Thanks everyone!!!

I have a secret

As you may already know, Shawn and I are remodeling our whole entire house. We bought the house and it was a total disaster when we bought it - we knew it needed a lot of work. So, here's my secret - I look at real estate agents websites (you know, their listing websites like MLS listings) and I look up really super expensive houses. I then look at all of the pictures for those super expensive houses. I then 'borrow' ideas with what kind of structural changes we are going to make, design ideas and paint ideas. It works really well because I know what's on the market and what is selling for a really high price. Then, we model our house after those really expensive houses, and POOF, we have a really expensive house. I am brilliant....

Alcatraz

Here are some pics from Alcatraz last week:Can you believe something so pretty came off of Alcatraz Island?

Here's a little tip for those of us that have a little extra under the chin. When you are taking a picture of yourself like the one above, always hold the camera higher than your head a little bit so it doesn't show the double chin. LOL

In bed

I am stuck at home in bed today. I did something to my back yesterday and it's now killing me. I used a heating pad last night and this morning and it's feeling a bit better. My muscles aren't spasming too much today. But it's quite frustrating not being able to exercise. I would really like to get up and go hang out on the elliptical machine for a while. Maybe I will go later and just go really slow. I can't stand not moving around and getting at least some kind of exercise. But, I guess this will give me the opportunity to get some stuff together for my new class I am teaching next semester. I was hired at Evergreen to teach two argumentation classes which is good because it expands my field of experience for teaching. This means that I will be more equipped to teach other stuff when I get to the Placerville area.

That's it for now. I will update again later. :)

It is later (about 10:30pm) and I MUST share. My dog is CRAZY for this lowfat/lowcal frozen yogurt that we get from a place called Sweet Retreat. Shawn and I have discovered that if we give her BIG spoonfulls, she will eat the whole thing and just swallow (typical dog). So, to combat that we started packing a small amount of frozen yogurt into a red plastic cup....but tonight she ripped that apart. We had to put the remaining yogurt into a thicker plastic container so she wouldn't tear it apart. Here is a picture of her....enjoy.

No Make-Up

I don't know what it is, but seeing celebrities without make-up makes me happy. I checked out http://www.tmz.com and it showed Eva Longoria without make-up on and it makes me very happy (I know, I know...I shouldn't be happy about someone else's bad pictures - but I am). It makes me happy because celebrities are NOT perfect. Yes, they may skinnier than a ritz cracker - but I can say one thing - at least I am not a total (rhymes with witch) because I haven't eaten in 4 years. They are normal people who look bad without tons of airbrushed make-up, tummy girdles that hold in everything, and hair extensions that cost $3k. Have you seen JLo before she was "JLo"? She looked like a normal person - but now that she bathes in Pellegrino or Evian and gets pampered at every turn, she looks like gold. She has perfect hair, perfect nails (both toes and hands), a perfect body with no lumpies or bumpies (thank you very much body slimmers) and of course perfect skin (which I guess should be thanks to Proactiv since EVERYONE in Hollywood uses that stuff now). But, before all the glitz and glamour, all of these people looked exactly the same - NORMAL!!! As beautiful as Eva Longoria looks in Desperate Housewives (which I do not watch by the way), she looks just like any other woman walking down the street. Sighhhhhh - little blessings brighten up my day. Knowing that even Hollywoods most beautiful women are NORMAL without all the primping they do makes my day just a little bit better. :)

A song from a long time ago that has recently touched me...I love it!

Dime Store Prophets Lyrics - Baby's Got A New Dress Lyrics

Salvation in cotton,
you've never looked this good before.
Raise your chin child, guilt is not my style.
I'm the one you're looking For.

A chemical breakfast,
and a liquid lunch,
let me be your addiction.

Said he'd love you all night long,
but in the morning he put his pants on and he was gone.
He left you naked.
I'll never leave.

Chorus:
I don't love you For your yesterday's,
I'll meet you just right where you are.
I don't care what kind of clothes you wore.
Angels sing and I confess, hallelujah, baby's got a new dress.

I watched you dancing in the arms of another,
remember, I am the jealous lover.
White looks fine on you.
It cost me a life's wages just to give it to you. My love is truth.

Who loves you baby, I do...

What irritates me is......

I have come to the realization that I need to update this thing before 9pm EST in order for it to post with today's date. So, I am holding my "time" place until I return from a focus group that I am participating in. But when I get back I will update this blog with things that really irritate me - the list is long, but it will be entertaining. Until then......

Here's the list...
1). Bad drivers - drivers who can't merge, drivers who stop in the middle of road because they are idiots, drivers who drive too slow and driver's who simply can't drive and cause other people to get into accidents.
2). Stupid people who can't walk - which I assume also can't drive. It irritates me so much when someone stops walking in a store right in the middle of the walkway.
3). People who don't think before they speak or act.
4). College students who are lazy!!!
5). People who are unappreciative.
6). People who feel it's their God given right to 'police' other people in EVERY situation.
7). Technology - while it's supposed to make our lives easier - I think it just takes us away from our true purpose in life.
8). Dishonest people - enough said!
9). When someone does not answer a cell phone - why have a cell phone if you are going to ignore the call?
10). Small apartments.
11). Fleas!!! Our apartment complex does not spray for fleas - and yes - it's that season again. I am a magnet for fleas - they love me and my blood.
12). Hot weather - Placerville is pretty hot during the summer - why am I moving there again? Oh yeah, because it's gorgeous there and very close to Lake Tahoe.
13). Cleaning the apartment - there is no place to put anything and it's a never ending battle.
14). Not being able to be on missions right now.
15). (deleted for fear of the wrong people coming across this comment) :)
16). Having chronic insomnia.
17). Living in a place where "the whore from next door" (I know, not the best name we have given her - but she literally has a revolving door to her apartment - well, actually, her mom's apartment) has sex against our common wall from 2am to 4am. Before you ask - yes it was loud - yes it was rhythmatic - YES it WAS sex (amongst other stuff) - yes it lasted 2 hours (actually, it was 2 or 3 times in 2 hours) - and yes, it IS her mother's apartment, but her mother was gone that weekend.
18). Kids who are perpetually blaring music in the pool area.
19). My back perpetually bothering me - even though I try to do stuff to make it better.
20). Video games (I am not going to expand on this - but I am sure you can imagine - see the movie Prime for the video game comment)

This is by no means an extensive list - but for now it will do. If you couldn't tell, today was a bad day! ;) Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Which Golden Girl are you? This is NOT a quiz!!!

I am finally back from dinner with two of my closest friends and one of their moms. I had a good time. But let's get back to my point here. I was on the elliptical machine today and I came across the Golden Girls on TV. I was thinking, "which Golden Girl would I be?" Would I be Blanch? The ultra glamorous, promiscuous lady? Probably not since I was a virgin until I was married (and I was 27 folks - that's a loooonnnnnngggg time to wait) and I really like to knock around the house in yoga pants and tank tops - plus I pretty much hate frilly clothes. Would I be Sofia? The ultra independent, yet dependent Italian mother? Probably not right now - maybe when I get older. Would I be Rose? I don't think I have many horrible and virtually pointless stories - but some may disagree....lol. I really think that I would be Dorothy. I hate to say that because she is the least attractive of all of them, but I think when I get older I will be just like her. Sharp, sarcastic, witty, intelligent and full of life. She is a teacher - and she's got a fashion sense that I would probably adopt when I am older. Right now I really like to wear frumpy clothes, which Dorothy is the queen of - and I think I will probably take it a step further when I get older - but who knows, maybe I will be the queen of fashion when I am older. But it would probably safe to say that I will be somewhat like her when I get older. Which Golden Girl are you?

Dear Abby

This is not a letter to Dear Abby - this is a confession. While I have never written to Dear Abby with a problem, I am addicted. I read the column everyday almost without fail. I have a sickness. I am also addicted to Hollywood gossip, local news sites and checking my email. I check all of these everyday to the point of obsession. While I am teaching at San Jose State or De Anza, I check my classes email about 20 times a day - no lie. It's my main form of communication with my family, friends and students. My husband sometimes gets mad at me for checking so many times a day, but I can't help it. How much easier is it if an instructor is readily available when you need them? And how much does it suck when you are stuck on an assignment and can't get in touch with them? That's why I do it (well, the email part anyway). I also look up celebrity gossip online at least twice a week if not more. I need to know what's going on with my peeps. Did Brad and Angelina break up? Did Ben Affleck make another horrible movie or loose more hair? Did Lindsay Lohan get into yet another fight with Paris Hilton? Did Britney and Kevin break up yet (because you know it's inevitable right?). Although I wish no ill will towards anyone, there are just some things you can see coming from a mile away. But the point is, I think I have a sickness! I NEED to know what is going on in my world. And it's not just trivial stuff - just yesterday I read that North Korea sent test rockets into the ocean (can someone say, "Hello next world war?") and Bush has taken it as a provocative move. Duh, of course it's provocative. Kim Jong Il (if you've ever seen pictures) has the biggest hair I have ever seen. Seriously, this guy has some height issues amongst many other issues - can we say "inferiority complex?". Now, I don't want to talk about politics because I am bound to piss someone off. But my point here is that I HAVE to see the news. I get up early enough to watch at least a half hour of news in the morning, then I check my local news websites, and of course Dear Abby, check my email and then I can get up and take a shower. Unless I know what the heck is going on in the world I can't function! I think this all started with the whole 9/11 thing. Shawn and I were talking about this the other day, how surreal the whole experience was watching the second plane crash into the towers. Ever since then I have been glued to the TV in the mornings and can't leave the house without seeing something on the news. The mornings that I am running late and can't watch, I have to check the news websites the first chance I get.

I know, I know - I need to stop, but I don't want to (I sound like a 5 year old don't I? - yikes - Amber, was that a blast from the past? "5 year old" comments - lol - I was soooo mean back then - sorry babe!!!). Some days I long for the times when I was in Russia, Peru or Kazakhstan. There was no communication with anyone or anything and I was happy. I was happy to know what was going on in the lives of the people around me. Or even in the Internship (for those of you that read my blog, I am sure that you are aware that it was called the Internship before it was called the Honor Academy - therefore it will always be known to me as "The Internship") when there was NO tv, no newspapers and the only thing we listened to was Christian CD's. Dave Hasz used to make fun of us for not knowing what was going on in the world - uh, hello Dave - get us a TV and we will watch CNN (jk Dave!!!) It was amazing though how much we didn't know about what was going on in the world. As soon as I got home I began asking everyone to tell me what the heck has gone on in the last year. It was kind of weird, like coming out of a coma. Anyway - that's my blurb for today. I will most certainly update again tomorrow - but not before watching the news. :)

The adventures of Tess Part 1

I could probably write a book about my dog. Most of the time she is a typical dog - loves going on walks, loves being pet by her humans and loves sleeping. But every once and a while she does something to push us over the edge. If you remember, a number of weeks back she pulled an entire bowl of spare ribs off of our counter and ate it - which inevitably resulted in 2-3 days of a sick doggie at our expense. A few weeks before that she had doggie blisters on her paws (our fault) and had to be carried up and down our apartment stairs at least 3 times a day and could barely walk around the apartment for a while. Well, the puppy is at it again. For those of you that are dog lovers, you're gonna love this.

This past Friday, Shawn and I were going out to the movies to see Superman with some friends. Before that, we went to the store and got some Tri-tip for sandwiches on Saturday. We went to Albertson's - which always has a bbq on the weekends and they make the BEST tri-tip that you can purchase already cooked. So we bought a small piece, enough for about 4 generous portion sandwiches over the next few days. Since the meat had just come off the bbq, it needed to sit on the counter to cool off. (Can you see where this is going?) So, Shawn and I had to stop by the movie theater in the afternoon for the movie that night just so we had tickets in case they sold out. After going to the store and coming home, and leaving the meat on the counter to cool, we were off to the movies. We got back about 30 minutes later and come home to meat juice on the carpet and no tri-tip. Yes, that's right - the damn dog took it off the counter and ate THE WHOLE THING. This wouldn't have been that big of a deal, except when the person at the store was packing it up, I asked them to put some sauteed onions in the container with the meat (I liked cooked onions on my tri-tip sandwiches). Yes, that's right folks - my dog ate onions. Onions are toxic to dogs!!!! So, by the time we got home, Tess had eaten the whole tri-tip and ALL of the onions. I totally freaked out. I had Shawn look up our vets phone number, but they were unable to help. We had to call the Animal Poison Control Center (I had no idea such a thing existed - but it does). So I get on the phone and ask them about the onions - and they kindly let me know that there is going to be a $55 dollar charge to talk to a licensed vet. That's right folks - the damn dog got the meat - AND $55 dollars of my money - all because she is a total freak. Now, don't get me wrong - I love this dog and would do almost anything for her - but this made me mad. I finally get a vet on the phone and they told us to induce vomiting because she could pretty much die from ingesting the onions (if you have time, check out what onions do to a dogs system - it's pretty nasty). So, we give the dog 4 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide (please don't try this without the advice of a vet because this amount of peroxide was determined by the vet for Tess' weight and breed) mixed with some frozen yogurt (the dog LOVES frozen yogurt - but I will leave that for another post). She lops that up and we wait. It takes about 10 minutes for her to start puking - but finally she throws up EVERYTHING. I then had to put on some gloves (2 layers) and, get this, dig through the 'stuff' to make sure that she puked up most of the onions. That's right folks, I was on my hands and knees digging through doggie puke to make sure that she got everything out so she wouldn't be - and excuse my pun here - sick as a dog. The poor thing puked like 5 times - but it was all worth it because she is fine. No sickness - nothing! Thank God for the Animal Poison Control - otherwise it would have been touch and go for the next 3-5 days or so (that's how long it takes for onion poisoning to take effect - and let me tell you, the effects are nasty and could potentially be deadly). Life lesson (yet again) - DO NOT LEAVE FOOD ON THE COUNTER - FOR IF IT IS WITHIN TESS' REACH - SHE WILL BE SURE TO EAT IT!!!!!