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Odds and Ends

~ Aub ~ 1 Comment
Crazy week. Enough said. These are some things I have been looking at and thinking about this morning:
-The fantastic stuffed peppers I made the other night and the even more fantastic company I had. An oldie but a goodie 🙂
-How odd I find this family to be. I appreciate difference and respect when people choose to be different but after watching a couple episodes of this show I find the family dynamic to be completely suffocating. It is one thing to invite your children to live a certain way but it is another to not encourage them to experience any sort of diversity. They are told that their way of living is the best and that is that. The kids, (all 17 of them) have a warped vision of what the “outside” world – they are home schooled and seem to only be friends with others whom are part of their congregation. I think they preach ignorance, not acceptance. However, I am mesmerized by the show and will most likely continue to watch it when its on, what does that say about me…
I need a life???


-And how much I have been enjoying this mans photography,
http://hmmm.co.za/lates

Photography by Daniel Cuthbert

A Funny thing Happened on the Way to the Office…

~ Aub ~ 4 Comments
Ah I can’t believe how long it has been since I last posted! Things have been kind of crazy lately, I have actually had work to do (I can’t believe those words came from my keyboard) and I was in a bit of a funk last week and when that happens all energy seems to dissappear. Soooo I am back and back with a vengence 🙂 I have a bit to do this morning but I wanted to just pop in and say hello and let everyone know that I haven’t actually dropped off the face of the earth, I just took a minor break from it.

Pecularities

This is what I witnessed during my morning commute:

A woman stuffing her face with these two ingredients. Is this perplexing to anyone else?
Healthy – yes.
Gross – wicked.



My second odd observation from this morning happened when I was exiting the train station. I was just about (like literally two inches away) from opening the door when I man, probably in his mid 30’s, swirved in between a group of people to situate himself right between me and the door. He then went and opened the door for me but then scooted back behind me so that he could exit through a different door. I said thank you and then started giggling; my typical response to just about everything that happens in my life.

Its a funny world out there.

Ramblings

~ Aub ~ 2 Comments

So since just about everyone seems to be writing about that lovely, lovable, loving day that is just right around the corner I figured I should probably throw in my two cents.
*WARNING – DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF VALENTINE’S DAY IS SACRED TO YOU.
I am not a huge fan of Valentine’s day.
(Insert Gasp)
I know, I know it is crazyiness! I just don’t see the big deal. Not that I don’t enjoy giving and receiving gifts but I would much rather receive a gift on just some ordinary day rather then have that special someone (giggle giggle) try to conform to a pre-existing mold that every other man is also trying to do on V-Day. However, I have a very nice weekend planned out for my guy and myself but not because Cupid will be looming over us but because it is suppose to be beautiful out and we haven’t seen each other in a month!! YIKES 🙂
* On a side note I do realize the importance of V-day for married people. In marriage it seems as though sometimes the “love”aspect of the relationship is put on the back burner and people need to be reminded every once in awhile to appreciate one another. AKA – Men need to be reminded that their wives are pretty much goddesses and should be treated like queens more often 🙂
I found this while perusing through random sites this morning and thought it was worth sharing with all you good folks. It is pretty funny and pretttty much right on target.
Dictionary for women
Argument (ar*gyou*ment) n. A discussion that occurs when you’re right, but he just hasn’t realized it yet.
Airhead (er*hed) n. What a woman intentionally becomes when pulled over by a policeman.
Bar-be-que (bar*bi*q) n. You bought the groceries, washed the lettuce, chopped the tomatoes, diced the onions, marinated the meat and cleaned everything up, but, he, “made the dinner.”
Blonde jokes (blond joks) n. Jokes that are short so men can understand them.
Cantaloupe (kant*e*lope) n. Gotta get married in a church.
Clothes dryer (kloze dri*yer) n. An appliance designed to eat socks.
Diet Soda (dy*it so*da) n. A drink you buy at a convenience store to go with a half pound bag of peanut M&Ms.
Eternity (e*ter*ni*tee) n. The last two minutes of a football game.
Exercise (ex*er*siz) v. To walk up and down a mall, occasionally resting to make a purchase.
GroceryBold List (grow*ser*ee list) n. What you spend half an hour writing, then forget to take with you to the store.
Hair Dresser (hare dres*er) n. Someone who is able to create a style you will never be able to duplicate again. See “Magician.”
Hardware Store (hard*war stor) n. Similar to a black hole in space-if he goes in, he isn’t coming out anytime soon.
Childbirth (child*brth) n. You get to go through 36 hours of contractions; he gets to hold your hand and say “focus,…breath…push…”
Lipstick (lip*stik) n. On your lips, coloring to enhance the beauty of your mouth. On his collar, coloring only a tramp would wear…!
Park (park) v./n. Before children, a verb meaning, “to go somewhere and neck.” After children, a noun meaning a place with a swing set and slide.
Patience (pa*shens) n. The most important ingredient for dating, marriage and children. See also “tranquilizers.”
Waterproof Mascara (wah*tr*pruf mas*kar*ah) n. Comes off if you cry, shower, or swim, but will not come off if you try to remove it.
Valentine’s Day (val*en*tinez dae) n. A day when you have dreams of a candlelight dinner, diamonds, and romance, but consider yourself lucky to get a card
Also I have been meaning to post about how much I have been loving Masterpiece Theatre. I just finished watching Sense and Sensibility and was glued to it the whole time. I also watched Tess of the D’ubervilles which was just as good. It is really a wonderful channel and the movies they develop are so rich in character that you forget you are watching remakes of already classic movies/stories. Perfect entertainment for a lazy afternoon.

Tea Gueland

~ Aub ~ 10 Comments
Did you know that “Tea Gueland” is another word for Ireland? Just a little Tuesday tid bit for you 🙂 And an excuse to post this pretty picture…
Oh how I wish I was back there!

To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don’t Disguise Your Voice!

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, ask If They Want Fries with that.

4. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks . Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.

5. In the Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write ‘ For Marijuana.

6. Skip down the hall Rather Than Walk and see how many looks you get.

7. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.

8. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is ‘To Go’.

9. Sing Along At The Opera.

10. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can’t Attend Their Party Because You have a headache.

11. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream ‘I Won! I Won!’

12.. When Leaving the Zoo, Start Running towards the Parking lot, Yelling ‘Run For Your Lives! They’re Loose!’

13. Tell Your Children Over Dinner, ‘Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.‘

And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity

14. PICK UP A BOX OF CONDOMS AT THE PHARMACY, GO TO THE COUNTER AND ASK WERE THE FITTING ROOM IS.

Thanks Amy for this!!

Tag, your’e it!

~ Aub ~ 4 Comments

Milestone in my blogging career:
An icon!!! Excitement of the week!

Wow my lifes worth was just brought down a peg however its all about the small things right? So anyways I would like to thank Princess Freckles for fulfilling my blogger wishes and tagging me in an activity that inlcudes a mascot of sorts. Here are the rules and regulations folks so listen up, this is serious business we are dealing with here:[1] Choose a minimum of 7 blogs for brilliance in content/design. [2] Show the winners and let them know. [3] List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

READY. SET. GO.

1. I have two alarms set for the morning. The first one is a forwarning, a heads up to let me know that quickly approaching are the worst 15 minutes of my day. The second one is a kick in the stomach, I am aware of the physical and mental pain to come and force myself to reconcile with my not too distant future. I steady myself, pull it together and after a few minutes of debating whether or not I should call in, I hop out of bed and turn the bright over head light on – which in no way will let me slide back into my layers of comforter heaven.

2. Dinner is not dinner without dessert.

3. I really enjoy decorating. I believe I get this from my mom, she is a great decorator and I hope I will have the same talent has her 🙂 It is something that I was looking foward to do when I moved into my apartment this fall, however within weeks I realized it was useless while living with two boys. “GIRLS RULE AND BOYS DROOL!”.

4. In the past I have been guilty of flipping to the end of a book to read the conclusion. If and when this happens it is simply just evidence of a great storyline, one too good to wait for.

5. I use to be very shy, but finally came out of my shell in high school and am now the one you can sometimes find dancing on the bar or for that matter simba style while being held up in the air by massive basketball players (odd but true).

6. I have a lot of friends but few very close friends. Growing up I thought quantity mattered but as I have matured I have realized quality is what matters most. I choose to stay in touch with some and out of touch with others. Your friends say a lot about you and I am proud to say mine are the best, caring and most thoughtful people I know 🙂

7. I prefer tea to coffee. However, I rarely drink tea. Tea tasted best while drinking it with my grandfather.

8. I love the idea of doing nothing on a weekend but when it becomes a reality I quickly get a bit stir crazy.

9. Marriage scares me a bit.

10. I eat far more chocolate then I let on. I seriously eat or drink some form of chocolate probably everyday. AH now that is honesty for ya!

Ok so now I tag:

The Lavendar Lilly

Vineyard Vogue

Walking in Memphis

Stop and Stare

Sherlock’s Stuff

Lindsey

Aartee

Brittney

Ops that was 8 wasn’t it? Ah I am such a rebel

Lazy Daisy

~ Aub ~ 6 Comments

Winter blues have held me with a tight grip these past couple weeks but I am happy to say that I have finally sprung free and so far this week has been great! Granted it is only Tuesday buttt I am being optimistic 🙂 Last week a few of my friends, including my mom, all lined up and did the unthinkable – weighed ourselves in front of one another! Well to be honest I waited until it was only my sister and I…
We then went on and measured oursevlves in all the necessary area’s and called it a day; vowing to stay true to the competition we had submitted ourselves to (lose goal weight by June, winner takes home jack pot). Last week was our first week of dieting and exercise. Want to know what I said to that?
“HA I am going to go straight home every night and get into bed. I am then going to gorge myself with as much food as possible. I am going to eat ice cream as much as I want. I am not going to exercise. And I am going to do this everyday for the rest of the week.”
And that is exactly what I did! It was so dreary and rainy and snowy and gross and blah blah blah – I can think of a hundred excuses for my unhealthy week. Yet, what is important is that this week I woke up with no excuses, only plans 🙂 For one, I went to the grocery store last night and cooked up all healthy meals for the rest of the week. For two, I went and got a gym membership yesterday and am heading there right after work. FYI Power Fitness is a realllly cheap and great gym. $20 bucks a month, can’t beat that! The sun finally decided to grace us with a bit of warmth and light the past couple days and I think I can safely thank mother nature for my renewed energy and spirit!

On another note, I just signed up to be part of a local “Wine and Dine” book club. I am so excited to meet some new people and get involved in something a bit out of the norm. However, we are trying to choose a book to read and can’t come to any conclusions. This is the list I provided:

Josephine Tey, The Daughter of Time
Antonio Munoz, Sepharad
Ann-Marie MacDonald, Fall on Your Knees
Wally Lamb, The Hour I First Believed

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

At the moment I am reading, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski.
I just started it and although it is written beautifully I have found the storyline to be a bit to0 subdued and uneventful for my liking. I believe the writer hoped for it to be more poetic then anything else and that it is. The story, so far, is about a young boy who is growing up on a farm. His dad is a dog breeder and much of the novel takes places in and around the crevices of not only the relationships formed on this farm but the farm itself; every leak and creak having a tale of its own. I have yet to get to the climax of the story but once I do I will let you know if it gets any better 🙂

Ok folks, I am off to brave the windy wicked weather that has swept into Boston this afternoon!
Have a lovely night 🙂

Dum de Dum

~ Aub ~ 3 Comments

ITS FRIDAY!
Ok so first on the agenda for today is to finally join the Letter Game that Emily from Vineyard Vogue (http://vineyardvogue.blogspot.com/) sent me. If you want to play just leave me a comment (as I did) and I will send you a letter 🙂 All you do is post ten things that you enjoy in life that begins with the letter you are given. If anyone comments on your list or post you send them a letter and yada yada, I think you probably get the point by now. OK, so my letter is L, hmmm what oh what do I LOVE that starts with the letter L…

1. LOVE. I like everything about love. Whether I am knee deep in my own puddle of love or I am watching others flying sky high, with that “I’m in love, nothing can phase me” kind of look – I love it. Sure there comes messyiness and sometimes hurt but what would life be like without it?This is a great site and has a fantastic collection of what love looks like through a lens, http://leloveimage.blogspot.com/.


2. Limos – who doesn’t?
3. Lady Bugs – They are good luck and definitely the cutest of all the little critters.
4. I love lamp. Hehe I couldn’t help myself! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VGM_jAzPj8
5. Lace is always pretty, its one of the few fabrics that I unconditionally love. It can do no harm in my book.
6. Leo.

7. LIPSTICK JUNGLE – I sooo hope it doesn’t get cancelled 😦
8. Lists. I always have a running list for about 4 different categories. Banking list, food list, calendar list, life list.
9. Lightening but only during the day. I think I may have been struck by lightening in another liftetime or something.
10. Lollipops! O, lolli lolli POP!
Friday Fun Fact:
Shakespeare invented the words “assassination” and “bump.”

I HOPE EVERYONE HAS A FANTABULOUS WEEKEND!

Holy Smokes

~ Aub ~ 4 Comments

What a day!!!! Ah, this has just been a topsy turvy, upside down, in and out, crazy daisy, “for realz?!?!” sort of day. It is almost 4:30 and I feel like I just woke up. Where has the day gone?!?! As happy as I am to know that it is ending, I am just as unhappy to know that the unavoidable will soon be happening – my horrible, no good, awful commute home. However, it will all be worth it when I get into my nice comfy cozy bed 🙂

Ok, my bed is not quite as nice but you get the jist.

I have lots more to say but have to get ready to head out into the gross slushy muck that is sure to be covering my entire trail home tonight. Wish me luck and I will be back tomm with all my other things I have been meaning to talk about this week!

PS. Thank you Vineyard Vogue for sending that little game my way 🙂

PPS. I thought this was cute.

~ Aub ~ 4 Comments

We have a new president. Or did you already know that? Barrack Obama is the new president. Or did you already know that too? Well unless you have been hiding under a big old rock, chances are you already know this. There is not a person in this continental state that should not know that Barrack Obama was sworn in today as the 44th president of the United States, not a person. HOWEVER, does anyone else get the feeling that everything that has happened in the last few days has been a bit over the top? Or how about the feeling that President Obama has been president for less then 4 hours but seems to line himself up with the greats – Lincoln, King ect? Maybe it is the media that has categorized him as such but when a person in the lime light starts out as a hero and savior before they have even proven themselves to be one, I get a bit nervous that perhaps they will prove not to be.

I did not vote for Barrack Obama, but he seems to be a skillful diplomat and promises to stay true to bipartisan statutes. I have faith in the system and believe that he has been elected for a reason. As a president it is his duty to this country to represent Americans well on the international front as well as the domestic front. He is responsible for securing our civil liberties inside our borders as well defending our sovereignty within the international community. Now can you imagine having this on your shoulders (as well as hundreds of other tasks) AND having to be the SAVIOR that so many are expecting you to be? It is a sham and although I think it is terrific to see so many people out and about refueling their patriotic tanks and gearing up to support a man they view as the “change” this country needs, I feel as though this may come back to bite them in the tushes. He is only a man and that is something that has seemingly been forgotten.

PS. Wouldn’t it have been nice if all the millions of dollars that went into this huge, gigantic celebratory ceremony had instead been alotted to different charities or perhaps used to help the hundreds of thousands that are out of jobs right now? Or maybe have even used the concerts as a venue for fundraisers? Just a thought…

On another note –
Wouldn’t it be odd to share your wedding with 699 other couples?

“On October 16th, in the Republic of Artsakh,internationally known as Nagorno-Karabakh, the country celebrated a mass wedding of 700 young couples. Artsakh is a small, aparently soon to be thriving country, in a territory disputed between Azerbaijan and Armenia. This was sponsored by the Nagorno-Karabakh as a way to stimulate growth and optimism for their country. I’m sure this will help them with a population increase…”
NAGORNO KARABAKH REPUBLIC
NKR, STEPANAKERT
REPUBLIC NEWSPAPER