Twitter Tea

So today is going fairly well! I rode my bike into work (rather to the bus stop); I've been getting loads done; my mania is a bit less severe today; and the best part of my day so far . . . I got to join in for Twitter Tea!

So for those of you that are unaware, I am on Twitter. It's a sort of micro-blogging/status feed that a whole lot of people are doing. I have an acquaintance on Twitter that (seems to me randomly) has Twitter Tea Time! Those involved talk to each other with hash tags and @replies [both twitter things]. We post pictures of us and our tea. It's a real great time. My favorite tweet to me was this one from @FrankieP: @stephysite I'm horrified at how you have to make your #TwitterTea

My favorite pic is this one! Must be some GREAT tea Allan!


Yea, so thanks to the following people for allowing me to join in today! Can't wait to join in again! @FrankieP @jamesgallagher @DaveJ @eolai @AllanCavanagh @CormacMoylan

A quick happy birthday to Skweak!

Word...
cash and prizes: Your junk, privates, twig and berries.

Tomorrow I Take Off

I'm very excited, as today is my last full day of this week. Tomorrow I take off to Dublin/London/Glasgow. I just checked the weather and it should be in the 70's with rain. I should plan to pack an extra set of pants and maybe less shorts.

Tomorrow will be hectic. I am having Chris drop me off at a Metrolink station so I can take Metro downtown to work for a few hours. I think sometime around 10 or 11 I'll leave work to Metro to the airport. My flight isn't until 3, but with the President coming to St. Louis for the All-Star game, I have to be prepared for hassles at the airport. Metrolink to the airport is about 45-50 minutes from downtown, so if I leave at 10, I should get there around 11, and I'll just eat lunch inside security and have about 3 hours to kill. I'd better pack another book!

It has just occured to me that I used the words President and kill in the same blog! Egads! What do you think will happen?

So just a quick review of my weekend and then I'm off to work as much as I can possibly stand today!

Saturday, Amanda and I went for a bike ride, partly for the ride, partly for the geocaching experience. We looked but found no geocach. We also rode in the rain, which was slick, but fun.

Sunday, Eva and I went for a hike up at Pere Marquette State Park. We are getting Eva prepared for her trip to the Smokies. While there, we looked for a geocach, and surprisingly enough found it. Lucky for me it had a Travel Bug so I get to take that with me to the UK to deposit in a different geocach! I am very excited about this!



Words-
ungood: Surfer term for "bad". Also used in George Orwell's bovel 1984.
drunk catcher: An obstacle found in one's path that, while drunk, provides, an incredible challenge to avoid. This includes cracks in the sidewalk, low-hanging tree branches, abnormal curbs, and members of the opposite sex who are of questionable attractiveness. Generally these are ranked by class, or degree of difficulty: class 1 being the lowest and class 5 being the highest.

In Use: The captain totally tweaked his ankle last night on a class 5 drunk catcher.

Crunk On Gatorade

I started my morning off great! Rode my bike into work, drank Gatorade, and really, does anything get better than Gatorade? I think not!



Anyway, I have two really cool gifts to mail out today. I would post what those are, but the recipients read this so it will just have to be a surprise! I did take photos so that once the recipients receive their gifts, I can share with you!

I posted online for the HOK Life blog, I think you should go check it out! (I of course always think you should check out the HOK Life blog)!

I am a traitor. I went yesterday and bought a lime green iPod Nano to replace my stinking bastard of a music player I once called my beloved Zune. The Zune won't work, and it pissed me off, so I traded sides! The blasted Zune still doesn't work, so I am contemplating driving over it tonight just to get some aggression out of my angtsy bones!

For Drew, here is the Chet the Jet link!

Word-
crunk: Highly intoxicated. Combination of "crazy" and "drunk". Made popular by hip-hop artist Lil Jon.

Oh yea . . . I'm Pushy

Oh yea ... so I rode my bike to work yesterday. I left work late which means I caught the train to East St. Louis to catch a bus. E. St. is not the best place for a girl to go alone (especially at night in my skin). Never stops me! So yesterday, a woman sneered at me, turned to her pal and whispered (rather loudly) "cracka". So it was obvious I was unwelcome by at least one individual. It's disappointing that I can be fair to most, but do not receive fairness back. Instead I'm judged.

But what I thought to myself for those few moments was how defiant and pushy I am. I toe the line, I push the barrier back millimeters at a time. I urge people to challenge me. I'm always looking for a fight, and am always, ready to fight. I'd get my arse kicked to smithereens, but I'd do it anyway! You have to stand up for what you believe, no one else will do it for you!

Tides of Change

In the tides of change come great new things . . .

Economy got you down? Lose your job recently? Check out this networking website to see what other people are doing! Thanks to Janet for blogging it!

I wanted to say thanks to my sis Holly for actually blogging this past weekend. I am always asking people to blog, partly because I find it so relaxing when I write; partly because I enjoy reading blogs; and partly because I am just damn nosey! In any case, Holly blogged. So thanks! In fact, thanks to everyone that blogs so that I may read...Justin, Janet, Frank, The Carr's, Dan Z., Kelly. I don't even know these people, but I seem to know little insights to their personalities that make me happy to know them, but well, not know them! Moving on . . .

You may or may not know that last week I had two deadlines (and a short week). I won't discuss the details of either (one because I can't due to confidentiality agreements, and two because I'm so glad it's over I don't want to think about it); but I was so happy to see the following e-mail from my boss.



Here is another e-mail that I have saved, and so on days when I'm down, I read this to know everything will be okay if I make it through the day. (I covered this person's name since I didn't get approval to show it here).



It's these little things that really get me through each and every day. I swear by it. If we can't close our eyes at the end of the day feeling happy about something or someone, knowing we did what was right and best for us, then what do we have?

Small list of things that get me by (cont'd)-
Practicing obiedence traning with Bella and watching her learn these simple tasks such as sit, wait, and heel.
Knowing that Riley is a genius of a dog, and watching him teach Bella simple tasks.
Neighbors not recognizing me due to such hard paced efforts and health change.
Bike rides where the honeysuckle is the only thing I can smell.
Being sleeping, laying down, not thinking about sleeping, and simply dozing off into dreamland.

Likes/Dislikes-

Claiming that genetically altered monkey's research done for human health reasons (maybe is, maybe not), is this necessary? Where will it go? Super race? What happened to Darwin's "survival"? Too many questions for me to ponder, thus causing brain overload!

Last of Last Week's Comic Sharing-


Word(s)-
toy: A graffiti artist's term for a novice. More experienced artists will often write "toy" next to the tag or graf of the novice.

nerdrection: When a nerd experiences or anticipates a certain event that is expected to have a positive effect.

Did You Remember Your Towel?

This weekend, and in general some things I found interesting . . .

1. Yesterday, Monday May 25 was Memorial Day for the US, a Bank Holiday for the UK, and Towel Day for everyone. What's that all about you ask? Read Hitchhiker's Guide and you'll know all about the need for a towel. You could also check out the following website: http://www.towelday.org/! For those of you that are unaware, some Irish fellow is commisioned to write the next installment of the Guide. I'm holding him to extremely high standards! (How does one pronounce that name, Eoin? (Owen??)an be assured I will read it and let you know my opinions!

2. LoopLoop Video, Sorry I'm Late. Watch all the way to the end to see how they made this short film. For those of us not artistically savvy, it's really cool. For those of you that may be artistically savvy, perhaps you already know how cool it is; but neat to watch anyway hopefully?

3. I went to the bookstore twice this weekend. It should be no surprise to you that I left both times with books. What did I buy? Dog On It; Bloodsucking Fiends; Broken; Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bible; Fool; 101 Things To Do With Ramen Noodles. I finished Lovely Bones and am mostly through Dog On It!

4. This week, one of my favorite comic strips, Brevity, is mixing it up.



So what is Your favorite comic?

5. My broken window was repaired on Friday; Grace was 4 on Saturday, party that morning, then we had a mellow night at Eva's; I went for a bike ride on Sunday on a winding path that was really neat (in Glen Carbon); I washed a load of towels on Monday for Towel Day, so yes, that does mean I had Monday off of work; I don't know that I ever updated anyone on any of my cool birthday presents; I watched Eagle Eye yesterday, good film, I've been waiting for the government to contact me; surprisingly enough I am in a good mood today that I can't explain (nothing great happenend, nothing bad happened, didn't sleep bad, didn't sleep great; it's very odd, I'm sure it will dwindle as the day moves along).

Words-
shank:

1. A homemade knife.
2. To stab someone with a homemade knife.

muscle queen: A gay man who pumps iron every waking moment in order to be as physically appealing to other men as possible.

totty:

1. An attractive or sexy person. Usually refers to a women, but sometimes used for men.
2. To be unsteady on one's feet, usually as a result of intoxication.

Cynicism Shined Through

Friday, Friday, Friday . . . oh how I love thee!

Went to the game last night (with the Sutter clan), the last against the Cubs series . . . and it was a glorious sweep! We had bleacher seats, and they were awesome! On a side note, I better see my hat again . . . in ONE piece and alive!

My cynicism shined through as I tried to convince Emily to stay away from the nice boy who is way too nice for his own good. My argument is that the nice guy is just a front. Everybody is mean . . . so I'd rather know your degree of meanness when I meet you up front rather than have you break my heart later. See, the nice guy is the lure, and eventually the nice guy will have you chained to the basement wall. Stop rolling your eyes at me! If you think about it, you know it's true!

I rode my bike into work today so I could go to lunch with others to the Crown Candy Kitchen! This is going to be so fun! Yippee Skippee!

Now . . . I have something very exciting to show you. If you know me at all, you will know that my favorite architect (despite his poor ability to provide quality construction) is Frank Lloyd Wright. One of my favorite toys are Legos (click here for cool Lego dude). So what could be better than FLLW Legos?



Sweetness pours over me! Okay, seriously, keep your head out of the gutter please!

Now, to Drew and Becky, THANK YOU for being awesome peoples that also use made up wordifiles. I had started to wonder if I was the only person to have a unique vocabulary. It's not that I like to brag or anything, but this obviously means we are quite brilliant!

To Chris, THANK YOU for finding me cheap junk yard glass for my car! And thank for saying you will put my car back together. You don't have to do that. But I'm not going to turn down the help either! I'll get you a check when I get home. We need to remember to go to the bank so I can put my ASCE reimbursement check in there this weekend!

To Jeremy, THANK YOU for the recommendation for T-Shirts @ T-shirthell.com. Deadly stuff . . . wrong and deadly stuff!

To Amanda, I believe I have thought of a solution to your problem of having too much on your plate . . . either A) get a bigger plate (but the not the ideal solution) OR B) find another plate to shove some of your "food" onto (seems enough people are doing it to you) OR C) Get that dog Emily wants and shove some of the "food" onto the floor, most dogs will eat anything!

. . . this brilliant mind needs to get to work, so onward I shall go . . .

Word-
purse out: To not do something because of a girly reason, to wuss out. Generally used from one male to another.

So Did Anyone Find T-Shirts For Me To Buy?

Just so you know, I did bike today! Everything went smoothly, got here at my normal time.

I'd love to stick around and chat but I have lots to do today. I will have to update you on the work situations that have risen at a later blog. [Reminder of these work things: struct. moving in with arches; Andrew new position so struct. down to 6]

So did anyone find any cute/fun t-shirts for me to buy? I'm serious about wanting to get some more t-shirts . . . and, on that note, Kelly wants that bacon shirt from my earlier blog [hint hint].

Word of the day-
bagsy: To claim something for yourself. There is no higher authority than a bagsy; once someone has bagsy'd something it can't be taken away.

In Use: I bagsy my seat. I gotta take a leak.

Other Transportation - National Bike Month

For National Bike Month, I plan on riding to work tomorrow. Well, actually, I will be riding my bike to the bus station and then catching the bus the rest of the way. This is my route to the bus station . . . 1.6 miles [2.57 km]



If I were to ride to the grocery store, this would be my route . . . 1.2 miles [1.93 km]



If I were going to ride to my mom's house (about the farthest I would safely venture), I would take this route . . . 9.5 miles [15.29 km]

Why Is This Wet?

Hoo-rah...hoo-rah; today is my birthday. 30 years ago around nine in the morning, I was born, dislocated hip and all! I wanted out real bad, eager to get this life going. I chose to come out before the doctor was ready to deliver and somehow managed to dislocate my hip! I would have to say that this particular action set me up for how I would manage the rest of my life; too eagerly and far too clumsy! Those of you who know me well enough are laughing. Maybe not laughing at me, but laughing at how true this all is!

Before I move on; I want to rewind back to last week. The hi-lite didn't occur until Friday evening, and frankly, it's well worth the rewind. Chris and I went to the Trowbridge's for movie night (featured presentation=Bolt (2008)). So let me cut to the chase, Grace, my 3 year old buddy was carrying around a pink flamingo doll. Christine, (a.k.a. mom) picked up pinky and felt that it was wet. "Grace, why is this pink flamingo wet?"; "because I -----". That last part so indistinguishable, we all leaned in further to hear; "what Grace, why is this wet?"; "because I peed on it"! It was beyond difficult to stifle the laughter and tears that were slipping out; a rather tense moment for a 3 year old turned my entire week into a great one!

So, fast forward to Sunday, Mother's Day; a decent day all in all. The one thing though, worth mentioning, is that some one thought I was young. Very young! I met Jen for a bike ride, and her step-mother (in-law?) was at the house. Jen introduced us and we chatted for a moment before Jen and I took off for the Katy trail. Later that day, Jen called to tell me that Step-Mom thought it was so nice of Jen to take the little neighborhood girl out for a bike ride. It wasn't until later that she noticed a car parked next to hers that she asked Steve (Jen's hubby) about it. Steve told her it was mine; her response was to ask Steve if I was old enough to drive! It was an extreme compliment! Here I am disdainfully celebrating 30, and she thought I was barely old enough to drive! In hindsight I wondered if it is because I acted immaturely . . . but I really don't care how I acted since I was polite and I enjoyed myself!

Other stuff to note: I broke my phone Friday, had to get a new one (which was going to happen this year anyway); purchased a new pair of eyeglasses (will get them in about a week); Chris planted a tomato and cucumber plant(s) in the backyard; I blogged on Friday for work; stole old photo albums from mom to scan photos for online (yes Holly, that does mean I will get you those promised photos of dad finally (albeit electronic)); last, but most unpleasant, I got bad news about my cousin Matt who had a stage two cancerous tumor in his brain (if you pray, please pray for him).

So, that leads me to here, today, my birthday (Dusty's as well). I hope your day is enjoyable.

Word of the today and the weekend-
moose knuckle: The male version of camel toe. Usually found on older rotund gentlemen wearing a suit.

pour one for my homies: To pour liquid (usually an alcoholic beverage) on the ground as a sign of reverence for friends or relatives who have passed away. In many cases, a 40-ounce bottle of liquor is used.

Sleepy Thank You's

Yesterday was a fairly decent day. I was tired all day, not surprising since I'm not sleeping well. Yet again, I didn't sleep well, although last night wasn't about having a bad dream. My legs were agitated, leading me to confirm my belief that I have Restless Leg Syndrome. I lay down to sleep and my legs are just annoyed; so they ached, fidgeted, and kept me awake. My mind is all over the place too. I figure that eventually I will be so tired that I will just crash into the bed and sleep for 24 hours. I'm at least hoping for something like that! I really do want to sleep!

Tonight I have an eye appointment. I came into work early to leave early. I like doing this for a couple of reasons; 1) I get to save some PTO, 2) I get a lot more work done when it's this quiet around me! So I am sure you are wondering why I am blogging when I have other things I should be doing! It's a valid point, I should be working, but I AM multi-tasking. While I wait for my program to load, run an analysis, etc., I write. Thankfully I have Auto Draft Save! What appears to usually be a 15-30 minute written blog is usually over a course of a couple hours!

Anyway, so I have a few thanks and shout outs today.

I wanted to say thank you to Kelly G. for reading my blogs yesterday. Well, I don't know what, or even how many she read, but I know she at least read one blog, she left a comment. That counts, so thanks!

Thanks again to Kelly G., an accomplished English teacher, for choosing not to comment on my "run-on-sentence" style of writing!

I want to say thank you to Chris for shutting the window because the damned frogs that are breeding in the pool are loud jerks that are inconsiderate, and to think I feel compelled to save them! (Well, yea, I still feel compelled to create a loving eco-system for them in the back yard so they'll stay out of the damned pool)!

Thanks to Eva who made an awesome invitation for my birthday party...thanks for throwing me a party! Thanks for making such a cute invitation for my party! Thanks for letting me dress up in ultra-sweet 50's clothes and bowling shoes! Despite how I may act, I am looking forward to it! (If you didn't get an invite and want one, write me)!

A shout out to Sharline who is passing exams at a spectacular rate and doing well with her new job. I am very excited for you!

Thanks to Holly for responding to my blog. Glad to know you are getting through the paper stacks. Hang in there!

Thanks to Shane for playing some great tunes for me, I always appreciate it! I am very glad to see you are figuring out this blog thing even if you still have no idea what purpose it serves!

Thanks to Mike C. for ... wait, have you been nice to me at all this week? Just kidding doll! Thank you for checking out the HOK Life blog, and looking at my bio! I love writing, and getting to write for work is a lot of fun. Especially when they let me be me (read the bio)!

Thanks to Seth for saying that the short 1.6 mile bike ride from my house to the bus station is considered riding my bike to work; therefore allowing me to participate in National Bike Month!

Happy Birthday Clint!

So, for those of you reading, I hope you will at least leave a comment to let me know you read. It's nice to know who is out there and to know how you are doing! So Chris, Drew, Becky, Maureen, Eva, Sharline, Kelly G., Mike C., Holly, Skweak, Shane, Jason, Amanda, Sara, Dusty, Rancid... thanks for reading; be sure to comment or send me a message so I know what you are up to or at least let me know that you are okay! You should know by now that I am a worrier!

Word of the day-
no diggity: No doubt; for sure.

I Am Not Smelly!

My favorite smells-
First there is the smell of lavender; then there is the smell of fresh cut grass; lastly there is the smell of the bike trail on a fresh Spring day (no, not the smell of dead animal from winter whose rotting corpse is now thawed and smelling as such; but the smell of the fragrant flowers in bloom mixed with that fresh air smell). There are other smells that are wonderful such as the smell of some one familiar, puppy breath, Bella's ears, that spot on Riley right between his eyes, fresh lemonade, a limey gin and tonic, baked goods, my favorite perfumes, old books, new books, pizza, popcorn, etc. I'm sure we could all name dozens of smells we love or miss.

Why am I talking about smells? Well I smell really good today. I am not smelly! It's a combination between my hair, my body, and my perfume. I'm wearing Inis, one of my three favorite perfumes (pay close attention to that, my birthday is approaching (Ralph, Body, Inis)). I washed with lavender soap last night and I can occasionally catch a whiff of that literally soothes me to the bones. Then there is my hair. It's just the cheap shampoo that I buy, nothing fancy (recycled containers, not tested on animals), but it smells clean and wonderful when it brushes across my cheek.

But seriously, why am I talking about smells? I just didn't have anything else to talk about!

And that paragraph above about not having anything to talk about, it's a lie! You knew that, I almost always have something to say! I also should mention that I do not lie very well. I end up telling on myself (as I just did); or I look rather suspicious when I try to lie. So there you have it, I talk a lot and can rarely lie.

So about my weekend-

I posted a video in my blog at stephysite.blogspot.com. I post so many places, I don't know where else it might be. Probably YouTube (my user name is Stephysite), but I'm fairly certain that is set to private!

I went for two bike rides, one with Eva, and one alone. I've video'd both rides, but the content is shaky at best. The audio for the ride with Eva is classic! Deadly classic! I will post that when I get the chance.

I, ... I mean Chris, saved frogs from the pool, but they went right back in, so, ... eh, yea, so much for saving frogs.

I finished Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson. It was a very good book, I recommend it. Sweet love story.

I went to watch the Cards vs. Cubs game at the Trowbridge's house on Friday. I spent most of the time hanging out with my cool little friend Grace. We ate a lot of popcorn! We had some good conversations about her upcoming birthday party. Her birthday is May 23rd. She will be 4.

I went to a skating birthday party for my niece Grace, who just turned 5! Happy birthday Gracie! I hope she likes everything she got; it was a good party for her! Her actual birthday was April 23rd (Holly, correct me if I'm wrong).

I got a bird feeder for the back yard. I haven't seen any birds eating from it yet. I imagine they are scared off by the thought of Bella the Beast charging at them.

You should read Justin Z.'s blog. Funny stuff! Poor guy got a j-walking ticket. Obviously not enough crime in Toronto!

Side note-
A shout out to baby cousin Sara whose 21st birthday is today! Happy Birthday baby doll!!

----

Words of the weekend and today-

frenemy: Friends, yet enemies. Or an enemy disguised as a friend.

NIB: "New in Box", often used for selling EBay items. Refers to being brand new and never used.

You Can Call Me Nanerpus

For those of you that may have had the opportunity to see the commercial, you might know who Nanerpus is; for those of you like me, it's on YouTube.

I'm going to pretend to be a guy for a moment: Long story short, Rachel named her baby Nanerpus.

Now back to being a girl: Following delivery of their baby, Randy looked and saw "it" was a boy. The doctor said, "what do you want to call him"? Rachel, in a drugged state of existance said, "you can call him Nanerpus"!

So yea, Miles was born on Friday the 13th. Randy calls the baby Miles. Rachel still calls him her little Nanerpus. It's actually rather sweet.

Since Miles was born early, Rachel and Randy never got the opportunity to get the things they needed for bringing home a baby. Eva and I went shopping this weekend for some of the items they needed. No one carried anything we seemed to go there for, but we got them plenty anyway. I got them a Serta Sheep changing matress. Are you surprised? Didn't think so!

Anyway, when I wasn't looking for things that appear to not exist, I spent a lot of time YouTubing this weekend, which is what happens when I have time to spend on the Internets. I watch old shows, good commercials, and lots of music. It's always worth the time I spend.

I rode my bike on Sunday because the weather was nice. I was worn out, and took a nap. Well then I woke up absolutley stir crazy. So I decided to start cleaning the basement of stuff I do not need. Seriously, I am a packrat so I save everything. Well, there's lots of stuff that I wanted to save all these years, but I don't want to drag it with me everywhere I go in life. So, I just started going through it and cleaning out stuff I didn't need. There was a lot that I decided to keep though. I at least consolidated. I might take pictures of some of it, and I might scan some photos when I get time. Some of it is too classic to trash and needs to be shared with the world!

Quick shout out to Ben and Ashley, who are now engaged, I'll spare you my ideas on being married. A quick shout out to Steph for reaching her 100th Mobile Blog post (oh wait, that's me).

Well, I need to move on to something more productive, so here are your words of the weekend and today:

pi day: March 14. A "holiday" celebrated by math geeks everyhwere. Pi is approximately 3.14, and March 14 is 3/14.

de-loosify: Loosen.

In Use: He made the big switch to Tropicana from Minute Maid orange juice because he was unable to de-loosify the lid.