Just Another Day

So I think it is safe to say that almost everyone has a roommate horror story. It's almost a rite of passage to have shared a place with either a drunken lunatic, or a closet kleptomaniac. But isn't it interesting how it is always someone else who was the horrible roommate, but you, on the other hand, were an absolute joy to live with? Well, I thought I'd throw my little saga into the ring. I met A over one summer, when we worked together as recreation leaders at a summer park program. We were both twenty, and got along famously together. I couldn't believe my luck, because when you were partnered up with someone for the summer, you saw that person 8 hours a day 5 days a week. And it was just the two of you. If you didn't get along, then your summer totally sucked. But ours didn't, it rocked. We had a blast, and spent lots of time together outside of work as well. Actually the whole recreation staff all hung out together, parties and the like. I was doi...

Welcome to the gray day in sunny Callifornia edition of Pointless Points Trivia , where the points don't really matter. Yes, just like my efforts to spruce up the looks of this blog, they just don't matter! For the points, answer this question. Which of our U.S. Presidents had a pet raccoon? This question has been answered. I have been playing around with my template, and lost my comments. Again. So, please bear with me while I tinker.

So I never used to color my hair. As you can see in the picture, I have had blonde hair for a very long time. But, I should have known that my blonde hair would go the way of my father's. He was born a towhead, and by his twenties, it was black. I wouldn't go so far as to say my hair went that dark, but it was mostly dirty and hardly any blonde. As a point of pride, I told myself that I was fine just the way I was. I didn't need to go the artificial route just to try to look better. I held off until probably my mid-twenties, and all of a sudden, I thought, I am not on a level playing field here. My hair looks like crap next to all of these women with shiny golden or red highlights. So off I went to a colorist, and got my hair weaved every three months on a fairly regular basis. I prefer weaving because it looks more natural than straight highlights or frosting. It also tends to last longer than either of those procedures, because usually there is no "zebra...

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog. Yes, I have decided like many other wise bloggers such as POW , Suzanne , Chichimama , and J to forgo the damn word verification and go with Haloscan. Because I am a cheap-ass, I have not yet decided to pay (or in their terms, donate ) them, thus all prior comments are kaput. I need to think about it, there's a lot of stuff I can get for 12 bucks. So y'all will have to live with the little adverts at the bottom of the comment window. At least for a little bit.

So yes, I admit that we crossed over to the dark side yesterday and attended a live Wiggles concert. The tickets weren't too expensive, the place wasn't too far away, and I have to admit I have a soft spot for Le Wiggles. In my pre-child days, I had heard some faint, faint murmurings about them, but as I had no children, I paid absolutely no attention. I don't even remember asking my mother for the boxed DVD set Mr. Personality received for his second birthday. But, in Mr. Personality's early years I didn't have many DVD's (this was pre-Bob the Builder era) so I popped one in on a sunny morning. Mr. Personality did not like them. He screeched at me to turn them off, and so The Wiggles were not heard again until perhaps six months later. After that, he loved them. And as my luck would have it, they had just finished touring the West coast for the year, so no dice on seeing a performance. When I first viewed these singing and dancing wonders from Down Under, ...

So welcome to the post-Wiggles concert Pointless Points Trivia , where the points don't matter. That's right, just like your efforts to explain to your 3 year old that mommy and daddy don't make enough money to buy every souvenir being hawked, they just don't matter! For one thousand (can you believe it, one thousand!) points... What is the proper name for the metal band that holds the eraser to the pencil?

So in the younger, child-free days of our relationship, Hubba-hubba and I loved us some travel. Remind me later to tell you the story of how we turned a 40 dollar plane ticket into 4 round-trips across the Continental United States. But as we are thinking of perhaps loading Mr. Personality on a plane in order to satisfy our barely-dormant wanderlust, I remembered our tried and true method to keep anyone from sitting with us during our long cross-country flights. You see, we had to fly Southwest Airlines due to the way we parlayed that lone plane ticket. And as everyone knows, Southwest has no assigned seating. Our biggest nightmare was having some buffoon between us from, let's say, LA to Baltimore. So we hatched a plan. It was actually quite simple, and alarmingly effective. This plan only works with two people, and on planes that have 3 seats to a section. Mind you, all the interaction is between you and your partner only. Step 1: Board the plane as early as possible, wh...

So I have been thinking lately about immigration. Illegal immigration, that is. This is a hot button issue for some, so I know I might be taking some chances in saying what I believe, but I am just going to forge ahead. There are so many reasons why I feel this issue is a problem that needs to be addressed. But as I was thinking about my "points" I wondered why in the world we do not hold Mexico more responsible for taking care of its people. They have the capability to become a First World country, but for some reason, many of their citizens live in Third World conditions. Their government is beyond corrupt. Power is in the hands of mainly a few prominent families, and they, like most people who hold power, are not about to share. The country contains some of the largest oil reserves in the world, and they still cannot provide decent medical care, jobs, or schooling for the vast majority of their citizens, especially indigenous peoples. Partly this is because they will...

So I am all about music today. Otherwise known as "writer's block." Favorite love song- "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" Alison Moyet version, but Roberta Flack rocks as well. Love song I am ashamed to admit I like - "Separate Ways" Journey. I have a crush on Steve Perry's voice. Best use of song in a movie - Nothing can quite top "In Your Eyes" during "Say Anything." Runner-Up- "Don't You Forget About Me" during "Breakfast Club." Hmmm, not showing my age or anything, am I? Song which I hate but know every word- "Welcome to the Jungle" Guns n' Roses. Song which I never fail to turn up the volume- "Galvanize" The Chemical Brothers. Most overrated song- "I Will Always Love You" Whitney Houston. Just too theatrical for me, although she has a great voice. Song that makes me cringe and change the station every time- "I Just Called to Say I Love You" by Stev...

So I'm pretty sure I have admitted my deepest, darkest secret to you, my friends. Yes, I married a Republican. The debates in this house are often a sight to behold, usually winding up with one of us chiding the other about being loud enough to wake Mr. Personality. Hubba-hubba is by far a better debater than I, you would think I learned some tricks from him for the 16 years I have known him. But no. So sometimes even if he agrees with me, he will argue the opposite point just to piss me off. Are all Republicans like this? Our "discussions" about this particular Administration have inlcuded pre-emptive war, No Child Left Behind, domestic spying, Chinese relations and the trade deficit, the national deficit, Republican hypocrisy regarding government funding and spending, immigration, CIA operative name-leaking, tax cuts for the upper class, and the evangelical right, just to name a few. I can rarely make him really angry during these sessions. He is very calm and lev...

Welcome to the Thursday afternoon edition of Pointless Points Trivia , where the points don't matter. That's right, just like the "shakeup" of the Bush Administration, they just don't matter! What movie is this line from? "You are the reason I am. You are all my reasons." (Hint- 2001)

So I can be a perfectionist. Yet annoyingly, I am sure, I am not a perfectionist about everything. There are some things I care a lot about doing correctly, and others I could give a flying rat. Things that don't need to be perfect: My hair - I try, but I am not one of those women who will shellac their hair into submission. I always have little flyaways. I have always just washed my hair, put some mousse or gel in it, and then nothing. I blow dry my hair perhaps three times a year. My clothes- I try to match, and a goodly percentage of the time, I do. But, sometimes I just want to get out of the house pronto, and if the shirt is a little off with the pants, people are just going to have to deal. Ditto with the shoes. My car- I used to lovingly wash my old car every week when I was in my late teens and early twenties. In between the vents I would go with a moistened Q-tip, because my car was an extension of my cool self. Uh, now it is littered with sippy cups, pretzel...

So I thought I would pull an AC and post pictures of some of the flowers in my patio. * I have no idea what the top flowers are, and the bottom ones are my "Tequila Sunrise" bouganvilla.

So we had a lovely Easter at my sister's home. I was tearing the lettuce for a salad, chattting with her and her sister in law. We began talking about candles, and who makes the best ones. We voted for Illuminations , she liked PartyLite . Suddenly, my sister ran over to her mantle and held up one of her recent purchases, excited as could be. "Look!" she cried, with what looked to be one of those silver candle snuffers. "I thought you already had a candle snuffer. Is there something revolutionary about this particular one?" "No, it's a wick cutter." "Huh?" "You know how you have the big candle jars and you can never get down in there to trim them right? Well, this cuts it perfectly every time ." I just goggled for a second. Now, I love my sister. She isn't even a rabid consumer-type. Usually she will not purchase something without the utmost planning and thought. It seems, though, that candle related accessories a...

Welcome to the day-after-Easter edition of Pointless Points Trivia ! Where the points don't matter. That's right, just like my attempts to keep my 3 year old from eating too much candy yesterday, they just don't matter! Da da da dum! What is the name of the famous ranch that Georgia O'Keefe visited and eventually bought in New Mexico?

So as I was sitting here, filling the plastic eggs for our home egg hunt tomorrow, I got a little carried away with the candy. I have no problems giving Mr. Personality candy for major holidays, he never gets it any other time. Unfortunately, it was turning into the "Three Whopper Robin's Eggs for the egg, two for me" variety, and it needed to stop. And here I am! The sugar coma only lasted a minute or two, it was nothing compared to the day after Halloween. I thought all the build-up toward Easter was going to go down the tubes. Mr. Personality woke up with a drippy nose on Friday. I mentally flogged myself for allowing him to play in the water outside after visiting the Easter Bunny for pictures. That must have been it! Even though it was literally 84 degrees outside, my parental neglect was astounding. NEVER get them wet days before a major holiday. Mental note made and filed. All otherwise planned activities ground to a halt on Friday due to the over-moist nas...

So I have been tagged by Broomin' YaYa over at Beyond the Broom . It is the lovely "6 Weird Things About Myself" one that every time I have read it at someone else's blog, I have wondered what the heck I would say if I was tagged. Here goes: 1. I have absolutely no compulsion to match my bras to my underwear. I could care less. Pink bra, green underwear, it's all the same... 2. I will not eat fruit (except for a banana) unless it is very, very cold. I think this can be traced back to my lunches in grade school. 3. I have written about this before, but for those of you who don't know, I like to have people take their clothes off when they come to my house . 4. I intensely dislike plain water. 5. I don't like anyone watching me when I go through my bedtime routine. 6. I will do whatever it takes to avoid wearing pantyhose. And if you can't run fast enough, consider yourself tagged!

So this is something that we have on the side of our fridge. I say the side because we have a stainless steel model and only the sides are magnetic. (Click to enlarge) It was something I stole received from my former place of employment. It was supposed to be given to participants of a mental health study, but a lot of us liked it so much that we just went ahead and took one for ourselves. Hubba-hubba and I occasionally use this for communication purposes. His job requires him to often work late into the night, and either he or I will position the handy little indicator to the appropriate mood to help our spouse gauge what the morning might be like. They have a pretty good range there, but there are definitely some moods that are missing. "Amorous" would definitely be one. And for today, "That Mr. Personality is lucky he is so cute, otherwise, he would have been placed on the corner with a sign hanging from his neck that said 'FREE TO GOOD HOME' ."

So here comes the late, late night edition of Pointless Points Trivia ! Where the points don't matter, my friends. Just like me picking up toys off my floor every day, they just don't matter! Ba da boom! From which Shakespearian play was this line spoken? "What wound did ever heal but by degrees?"

So this is something that crossed my radar. I did not copy the entire article, you can go to the Los Angeles Times website to read the entire thing. Christians Sue for Right Not to Tolerate Policies By Stephanie Simon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer April 10, 2006 ATLANTA — Ruth Malhotra went to court last month for the right to be intolerant. Malhotra says her Christian faith compels her to speak out against homosexuality. But the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she's a senior, bans speech that puts down others because of their sexual orientation. Malhotra sees that as an unacceptable infringement on her right to religious expression. So she's demanding that Georgia Tech revoke its tolerance policy. With her lawsuit, the 22-year-old student joins a growing campaign to force public schools, state colleges and private workplaces to eliminate policies protecting gays and lesbians from harassment. The religious right aims to overturn a broad range of common tolerance progr...

So I was infected by the Indie Virus from Oshee over at Hallucinations . Sorry it took me so long to get this up. (cough, cough) You see, Pearsonified has started a small, casual social experiment, it's called "The Indie Virus." Here's how Pearsonified describes this experiment: The experiment, henceforth referred to as "The Indie Virus," has two goals:* 1) To bring exposure to lesser known blogs (especially those outside of Technorati's top 100); 2) To explore the metrics behind a viral linking campaign launched by the 'little guys' (less popular blogs). So without further ado, I happily wish to infect: Heather at Fumbling For Words . Heather is an amazing writer, I am always glad to see her up on my Bloglines. Bobita at This Sister's Journey . Bobita is a recent addition to my blogroll. In the relatively short amount of time I have been reading her blog, she has made me think so much my head almost hurts! But in a good way! And finally...

So it seems that lately my life is simply serving as a cautionary tale to others. Witness: Do you see this child smiling happily, holding the wonderful Libman mop? Do you know why this child is smiling? Because he does not have boobs, that's why. I believe also that they have to qualify as big boobs, at least a C cup. If you are less than that, this warning does not apply. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT ever be in a hurry to finish your mopping if you own a mop similar to this. DO NOT ever be distracted by that cobweb that is hanging annoyingly from your light fixture as you are pulling the handle up in order to bring it to its normal position. If this does happen, you will painfully catch your boob in between the "stopper" part of the handle and the wringing mechanism. Think of those horrible, twisting pinches you used to get from the boys in grade school. Then multiply it by oh, about 3 on the pain scale. What makes it worse is that the pain is so shocking, you will s...

So welcome to the sneaky, you-didn't-think-I-would-do-them-so-close-together Pointless Points Trivia Sunday . Just like the truth and Fox News, the points just don't matter! Ba da bing! Who was the first ruler to have his head on a coin during his reign?

So I was tagged by Hope , because I really am a very slow runner. 1) What is something that you have done that you regret? I remember really losing my temper at this child that was in the day camp where I used to be a counselor back in my late teens and early twenties. Yes, he was being a jerk, but I took him to task in front of the camp in a very hard manner. Knowing what I know now about children and their self-esteem, I never ever should have done that. 2) Name one thing about yourself that very few people know. I can smell anything miles away. Don't ever think that you can "squeak" something by, because you can't. As Hubba-hubba is well aware. 3) Have you ever cried to a love song? Good grief, what woman hasn't sat there at least one time in her life and took the excuse of a good love song to bawl her eyes out? I say you are inhuman if you haven't. "Sad Eyes" always does it for me. 4) What are your three "WORST" qualities? My criti...

So, being the SAHM I am, sometimes I do not get to use the bathroom without a 3 year old audience. If he is bored, then he comes right along with me, although I do make him stay outside in the hallway. I do not consider myself a prudish person, I do not shy away from Mr. Personality seeing people in their "natural" states if the chips happen to fall that way. I never close the bathroom door when I am with him, so from infancy, me in the bathroom is a familiar sight. Only recently has he seen fit to play twenty questions. I should have been more prepared, I should have seen it coming. You see, I have sacrificed, so that you all may learn from my mistakes. Mr. Personality: Mama, are you going pee-pee? Gina: (sigh) Yes, dear. Mr. P: Is the pee-pee coming out of your own pEnis? Gina: No baby, girls don't have one of those. Mr. P: Why? Gina: (reverting to classic) Because they just don't! Mr. P: Then where is it coming out from? Gina: Uh... Mr. P: Your own booty? Gina: ...

Yes, it's Pointless Points trivia again, where the points don't matter. Just like the law and President Bush, they just don't matter! Ba da da bum... Fossils show that coelacanths lived more than 300 million years ago, and were thought to have died out with the dinosaurs more than 65 million years ago. In the 1930's, they were discovered living in which ocean?

So Hubba-hubba is quite the stereotypical man who is unable to match clothes. I don't know how he managed to hide this lack of talent during the years we were dating. Perhaps he wore jeans and threw up a prayer that the shirt matched. Probably nineteen times out of twenty it worked, and the other times it was too dark for me to tell. Somehow, though, I never found out until it was too late. I don't know how many times I have stared at him after he has put on gray pants with a gray shirt (!) and seriously expected to walk out of the house that way. He asks me if he looks ok, and I tell him Caspar the Friendly Ghost would like his outfit back. The sigh and eyeroll executed by me after such a faux pas was perfected eons ago. I think I should apply for a copyright. I have asked him if he is colorblind, but he vehemently denies it. Methinks perhaps the protest is a bit much. He does the very same thing with Mr. Personality's clothes, even the pajamas. Does it take a geniu...

So when I was around 10, my grandparents took me on a road trip across half the country in their banana yellow Oldsmobile. They had done something similiar with my older sister, and would also do it with my younger cousin. Sort of a clan initiation rite, I suppose. One of our destinations was my great-uncle's farm in Colorado. He had a spread of a couple acres, upon which he attempted to grow fruit trees. I say attempted, because gentleman farming was not what my unlce loved, it was singing. So the farm limped along while he tried to finance his recording career. From what I can remember, being a Los Angeles native, it was the first time I had ever been on a farm for longer than perhaps ten minutes. I was taken on a grand tour my second day there. It had a pretty stream flowing through it on the eastern side. A few acres is considered nothing in the farming world, but to my eyes, it looked huge. On the western side, the property abutting my great-uncle's was a goat far...

So today it was raining. Mr. Personality was bouncing off the walls, having just recovered from a week's worth of nasty coughing. I will leave out the part where I thought he had bird flu, however, since this post is about something entirely different. Inspired by a blurb I read in a children's magazine, we decided to take Mr. Personality to a local airport. He loves mechanical things, so this would be a slam dunk. How could we go wrong, we naively thought. We would be indoors, there would be planes and baggage claim machines and men loading luggage in little carts. Besides, with the rain I thought there might be a chance that all the runway lights would be on, making the experience even cooler. Silly, silly. You see, we happened to forget something. That something called 9/11 and what it did to our airports. When I was a young lass, I loved going to the airport. There was something mysterious and exciting about airports. All these people rushing around, or even more in...

Welcome to the Monday edition of Pointless Points trivia, where the points don't matter. That's right, just like sequential logic and a three year old, they just don't matter. Today's question deals with Geography, which is a topic I am interested in, but wouldn't call myself an expert. Drumroll.... Which is the only country in the world whose English name begins with "O"?

So the debate over here is public or private school for Mr. Personality. As extra money is a little hard to come by over here, it is quite a fractious issue. I confess that I might be a bit of a school snob, having been sent to private school for my entire 1-12 career. I did attend a public kindergarten, which I don't really remember. My only concrete memory is that I jumped rope by myself to 100, and the teacher didn't really seem to care when I told her. I think my feelings were hurt. Perhaps that event has colored my view of public schools. I tend to have this vision of the school board snapping their collective fingers and changing the curriculum on the slightest of whims. Of bullies roaming free in the hallways, shaking people down for vending machine money. Of cafeteria ladies with hair nets and stained aprons glopping mystery food onto student's plates. As well as huge classes where the students are faceless entities. I should know better since my sister is a ...