Friday Photo: Part Deux

Maybe this will be a regular feature, maybe not, but I'm not coming up with anything I want to write about today. So....how about a picture! I think the part the cracks me up most is the little legs.

Thanks to Cute Overload for this pic.

Fetch!

So my kitten, Cady, taught me a new game. It's fetch. Yes, she taught it to me. At least she probably thinks so because this is not something I tried to teach her. She just started bringing me a toy and dropping it by me. Finally I figured out I should throw it.

She loves to race off after it and play with it a bit. Then she picks it up in her mouth and carries it to me and drops it. So I pick it up and throw it and she races off to get it, plays, brings it back and gives it to me again. This goes on for quite a while. She likes to vary where she puts the crinkle ball. Sometimes its in my hand, sometimes it's behind me on the couch, and most often it's just on the floor in front of me.

It's very cute to hear her make her trill little meow as she runs off to get the ball. (If I had a video camera, I'd try to capture this. But I can't even get a photo of the ball in her mouth.)

I have heard of a few cats who do this, but I always assumed someone trained them like a dog. Perhaps my cat is some sort of genius....

It's all relative

It's snowing AGAIN. Enough said.

But it allowed me to recognize an interesting phenomenon today. It's happened a lot, but today I just picked up on it and analyzed it. I'm pretty sure it doesn't have a name, so I'll call it Road Condition Relativity for now. This is the conversation that lead to my discovery.

Coworker who just got to work: "Wow...the roads out there are getting bad. Even the sidewalks are slick."

Me: "Great. It was a bit slick when I drove in today too, but I was hoping it'd get better."

Coworker: "Yeah, it was pretty horrible on some of the curves I took. I thought I'd wipe out."

Me: "Hm. Maybe I should rethink my appointment this morning. I have to drive to my doctor and she's in NorthSuburb (20 minutes away)."

Coworker: "Nah. You'll be fine."

This is where I noted the Road Condition Relativity. It was clearly bad for him. It was horrible even. But for me he thought it wasn't so bad. So road conditions are seemingly correlated directly to those driving them. The "self" driver being more important than the "other" driver. What's horrible and dangerous for one's self is deemed not so bad for a coworker. Interesting. Has anybody else ever noticed this?

Friday Photo

I'm so happy it's Friday! I thought I'd share a picture that made me laugh this week.

Only a Three Year Old...

Last night I was hanging out at my sister's house playing with my nephew and niece. Nephew is three now and has a very large vocabulary. He continually uses words that amaze me. Last night's phrase that stunned me was, "thunderous sound." How many three year olds do you know that use that phrase? (I know plenty of people I work with could never use it!) I had to pause a minute when he said it and asked him where he learned the word thunderous (and how he knew how to use it correctly). He repeated it several times with his typical excitement and then ran off to his bookshelf. He came back with a book and turned directly to a certain page and had me read it. Yep...there was the phrase, "thunderous sound." He should do well on his ACTs someday.

With his big vocabulary he also shows the innocence of a three year old. Last night he was dancing around saying he was "BIG!" after I asked him if he could fit into a tiny "cave" we'd built. Then he widened out his arms and said, "I'm fat!" and continued his little tippy-toed dance (as only a three year old can do). Then he leaped at me and said, "Webgal," (he used my actual name here), "Are you fat?"

I was struck silent for a second as I absorbed his question. I wasn't offended. I mean, I AM fat. But, what's more is...he didn't mean it to be offensive. He doesn't see the world that way. He didn't say it to inflict harm or to tease. He sees big and small and short and fat as simply as words to describe size.

My sister was, to say the least, flabbergasted. She's was all flustered saying, "how did he learn that? He doesn't know that word!" I know she felt embarrassed, but it wasn't in the least embarrassing. He was just asking a simple question. A simple question he asked while flinging his arms around his aunt and giving her a great big hug. I'll take getting called fat any day if it comes like that.

My Political Endorsement

Ralph for President! Pick a winner!





:)

Lost my Virginity

I lost my eBay virginity that is. (Quit blushing mom!)

Yes, even though I'm WebGal, I've never signed up to bid on anything on eBay. Yesterday I took the plunge and I bid on a memory stick for my parents' older model Sony camera. (Apparently Sony changed their memory sticks and new ones don't work in older model cameras. Nice.) So...after getting the shaft from an apparent fraudulent online store two weeks ago,* I decided to hit eBay to find my desired merchandise. Luckily eBay had plenty to choose from and I found the perfect item to bid on. I've had to outbid a few people a few times, but right now I'm the highest bidder on an auction that closes in about 3 hours. Cross your fingers!

I'll update the results later on.

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Update 1:05 p.m. - With 1 minute left in the auction, I was able to make the high bid and won the auction. Yay! Now I need to do this again!

*While I got the shaft with the online shyster, I'm going to dispute the charge on my credit card. I expect to fully be reimbursed.

The New Dating Game

Most of you know that I do the online dating thing on and off. And on and off again. I thought that I kept doing it out of desperation of no dates. That seems like a natural conclusion, right?

Well, after thinking about it (and having signed up yet again for one of them), I really think it's a form of entertainment for me. It's my own personal dating game. I'm past the point where I believe I'll meet someone on there. Now I just do it for the thrills. Will he reject me? Will I reject him? What's next? It's also pretty good blog fodder when the date is exceptionally weird (see the tale of the Blue Bear Boy).

And OK...it's a little out of desperation. Anybody know any good single men?

Go Away Valentines Day

Why does this day mock me? Why must my department at work act like elementary school kids with decorated card boxes? Why do they hand out valentines to each other? Why?

If you haven't guessed, I'm pretty anti-Valentine. (Now you're thinking...that's just because you're single.) Well, you know what I have to say about that? You're 100% right. I think this day is probably great to all those who have a valentine. But I don't. And haven't for quite a while. So, this day serves as a reminder that I'm alone.

But hey...all you people with a valentine...be glad. You could be bitter like me.

:)

No more snow!

So, I'm going to beat Monnik to the punch and complain about the snow today. What is with this weather here? It's always snowing! Enough already!!!! We've had our share, now go away! I want to go outside and enjoy it! But, even on "nice" days here (and by nice, I mean 32 degrees with no wind), there's so much snow around it makes it nasty to go anywhere as the parking lots are slush-lots from all the melt.

But then...it refreezes. So...even walking into the grocery store is dangerous (even more so after work in heels)!

I want Spring and thunderstorms and birds chirping and flowers blooming and...well...whatever ISN'T snow!

Secret Compulsion

I'm going to share a little secret of mine. This time of year is crappy with the cold and (constant) snow beating our moods down and making us long for the warmth of Spring or reminisce of the wonderful crunchiness of Fall.

But I have one tiny little thing that makes those sad dreary, snowy days a little better. I love to kick the snow chunks from the wheel wells and mud flaps of cars. Weird, huh? It's so bad I have to restrain myself when I see other people's cars with big piles of snow built up there that haven't been kicked (or melted) off. I sooo want to kick that snow off. It calls me to me, it pleads with me to do it and get that strange little thrill when I hear that "ka-thunk" sound when it falls off (or when I kick it).

So now you know my hidden little secret.

Something Big

Two posts in one day? Wow!

So here's the deal...a friend of mine is following a dream of hers. It requires a lot of faith because she's going to give up her job and move to Africa to volunteer for a few months. That's HUGE! I'm soooooo in awe of her. How amazing to give of yourself like that! I'm sure this is going to be an awesome adventure for her and I totally wish her the best.

I also thank her for making me revisit something in my head. I want to do something like that. Not necessarily give up my job and moving to Africa...(but I wouldn't mind giving up my job). I've thought about this on and off for a while. I'm never quite sure WHAT or HOW or IF or SHOULD I. But it's always there. I'm supposed to do more.

And then it happens. I start making the excuses of WHY I CAN'T. The list changes. It grows and shrinks and fades and glows. It's always there.

I'm sure I'm not the only one. But what I'm wondering...how do people DO their dreams. How do they put the list aside? So if anybody reading this knows or knows somebody who knows, send them my link, you know?

Seriously. I want to know. Maybe we can start a list to help people like me overcome

Chatty Kathy

I just wasted 20 minutes I'll never get back. I stopped by my cubicle neighbor's office to tell her that a meeting had been canceled. Here's where I should mention, that I know she talks a LOT. I hear her on the phone and talking to the people who report to her, her other cube wall neighbor and others. The woman likes to talk. But, I've never really been her target...until today.

I walked over (rather than yell over the wall like she does to her other cube neighbor) and told her about the meeting. I started to turn back when she went on a 20 minute babble about the weather, the snowy streets, her paper route at 3 a.m., how she used to live on a hill that made parking difficult in winter, how she went in the ditch today, etc. I believe I nodded and made polite comments here and there (which was dumb), but she HAD to see the complete disinterest in my eyes! Finally I escaped as she was winding down one of the topics...but just barely as she was probably about to launch into another topic. Whew!

And in case you were wondering, her name is Katherin...so she truly is Chatty Kathy.

~~~~~~~~~~~
In other news. Enough snow already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tag!

I've been tagged by Debbielou at One Day Closer Until.... So I guess I need to do this thang.

Basically I need to list one fact about myself for each letter of my middle name. Each fact must begin with that letter. So here goes...

L - Lazy (I wouldn't be this weight if I wasn't)
I - Intelligent (I'm trying to be more positive about myself)
N - Nifty (this word isn't used very much anymore and it just came to me to use it)
N - Nice (too much so, I think)

I don't really have anyone to tag on here, so I'll just leave it to any of my readers who want to participate. Have fun!