would you like to take a survey?

For some reason I've fallen prey to doing a few random surveys on Facebook, something I said I'd never do. ;) Since I haven't had time (new job promotion!), energy (new baby on the way!) or inspiration (no excuse!)I have been neglecting my poor, sad lil bloggie. So I figured I may as well cut-and-paste the surveys that I do take over here... y'know, for fun.

(anyone remember the nasal voice in some commercial or song or something from the mid-90's that said over and over "would you like to take a survey?" No? Maybe it's my imagination.)

So, let the survey-taking commence! The items with an "X" next to them are the ones I have personally done. My extraneous comments are in italics.



Things you have done during your lifetime:

(X) Gone on a blind date (um... yeah.)

(X) Donated blood (does plasma count? It was awful enough.)

(X) Skipped school or class

(X) Watched someone die (my aunt... it was actually pretty incredible)

(X) Been to Canada (Lake Louise in Alberta... honeymoon, FTW!)

( ) Been to Mexico

( ) Been to Florida

( ) Been to Hawaii (hoping to set this straight this summer!)

(X) Been on a plane (countless times...)

( ) Been on a helicopter (I want to SO bad!)

(X) Been lost

( ) Been to Washington D.C.

(X) Hugged a homeless person

(X) Swum in the ocean

( ) Swum with stingrays

( ) Been sailing in the ocean

(X) Cried yourself to sleep

(X) Played cops and robbers

(X) Recently colored with crayons (Macaroni Grill!)

( ) Run a marathon (does a 5k count? Yeah, I didn't think so...)

(X) Sung karaoke (in Nashville, of all places. Hall of shame moment)

( ) Volunteered at a soup kitchen (no, but I tell myself every Thanksgiving that I will do this *next year* Lame.)

(X) Paid for a meal with coins only (quite common in Reno, actually)

( ) Been to the top of the St. Louis Arch

( ) Seen the northern lights

(X) Been parasailing (Almost! But the place was closed for the day)

(X) Been on TV (just various news clips here and there)

(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't (umm, this survey. Haha)

(X) Made prank phone calls (hello, is Mr. Wall there?)

( ) Been down Bourbon Street in New Orleans (no, but Rob has)

(X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose (how embarrassing!)

(X) Fed an elephant (at the circus when I was little)

(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue

(X) Fired a gun (BB gun. haha)

(X) Danced in the rain

( ) Been to the opera

( ) Written a letter to Santa Claus

(X) Serenaded someone

( ) Seen a U.S. President in person

(X) Been kissed under the mistletoe

(X) Watched the sun rise with someone

( ) Driven a race car

(X) Been to a national museum (hmm, I've been to a bunch of museums, I'm sure one of them had to be "national")

( ) Been to a wax museum (I totally want to! My grandpa got mistaken for a statue at the one in London; he scared the people next to him when he moved)

(X) Eaten caviar

(X) Blown bubbles (uh, who hasn't?)

(X) Gone ice-skating

(X) Gone to the movies

( ) Been deep-sea fishing (no, but I almost went one of the many times my brothers have gone... I'm bummed I didn't)

( ) Driven across the United States (like, ALL the way across? East-West? I've gone from OK to MN several times, and that's *almost* all the way North-South)

( ) Been in a hot air balloon (Another thing I've always wanted to do!)

( ) Been sky diving (never in a million years. Period, the end.)

(X) Gone snowmobiling (Tahoe, baby!)

( ) Lived in more than one country

(X) Lay down outside at night and admired the stars while listening to the crickets

(X) Seen a falling star and made a wish

( ) Enjoyed the beauty of Old Faithful geyser

(X) Seen the Grand Canyon

( ) Seen the Statue of Liberty (seeing the 4th of July fireworks around the Statue is on my "must-do" list too)

(X) Gone to the top of the Seattle Space Needle

( ) Been on a cruise

( ) Traveled by train (I always thought this would be so romantic)

(X) Traveled by motorcycle (traveled? Like on an overnight trip or around the city?)

(X) Been horse back riding (lots and lots of times)

(X) Ridden on a San Francisco cable car

(X) Been to Disneyland OR Disney World (Land. Several times)

(X) Truly believe in the power of prayer

(X) Been in a rain forest (Africa- near Victoria Falls)

(X) Seen whales in the ocean (from my aunt & uncle's telescope)

( ) Been to Niagara Falls (no, but I've been to Victoria Falls in Africa, which is similar. I got wet.)

(X) Ridden on an elephant (on Bertha the mascot of John Ascuaga's Nugget in Reno. It was at a circus when I was little)

( ) Swum with dolphins (that kinda creeps me out)

( ) Been to the Olympics (almost went to Atlanta in '96)

( ) Been to the World Cup

( ) Walked on the Great Wall of China

( ) Seen and heard a glacier calf (what in the world is that?)

( ) Been spinnaker flying (huh?)

(X) Been water-skiing (and wakeboarding)

(X) Been snow-skiing (I think snowboarding qualifies)

(X) Been to Westminster Abbey (okay, well... I walked up. They were closed that day! So have *have* been "to", just not "in" )

( ) Been to the Louvre

( ) Swum in the Mediterranean

(X) Been to a Major League Baseball game (several)

( ) Been to a National Football League game

( ) Swum with sharks (uhhh. right. If dolphins freak me out, there ain't no way)

( ) Been white water rafting (not after the horror stories my brothers tell all the time!)

( ) Written a book or screen play

(X) Been to Europe

(X) Been to Vegas

( ) Climbed a lighthouse

( ) Seen the cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C.

( ) Flown a plane

( ) Owned a boat

() Gone skinny dipping (not sayin')

( ) Watched grandchildren grow (whose? If mine, then no... but other people's, sure!)

( ) Been to the Kentucky Derby (oh! this is on my "must-do" list!)

( ) Been to Key West

(X) Been to a rodeo

( ) Owned a convertible

So there ya have it, folks. Exciting, eh?

this one goes out to the one I love

5 Valentine's days with you and you still set my heart on fire. Love you, Babes!

running on "E"

I just don't have much energy to blog right now.

I mean, I barely have the energy to do the necessities like drag my tired self out of bed at 5:30 and make it to work, then drag myself home, eat (ugh) and crawl back into bed by about 8:30 or 9. Toss in the occasional grocery store trip and church on Saturday nights and I'm spent. And Rob's doing most of the cooking and cleaning, on top of his studies, classes, *and* work... the dear man!

I honestly never knew I could feel this depleted. I did find out from my Dr. that besides from being worn out from growing a whole new human being, my body is also trying to fight off an ongoing infection that I never knew about, so hopefully that will get taken care of in the next week or so as the medicine takes effect. I can't wait to feel like myself again! "They" say that most people turn the corner around the 13th week (ie- beginning of the 4th month) of pregnancy, and all I can say is "bring it ON". Until then, I'll be conserving all the drops of precious energy I can.

In other news, I'm getting a cool promotion at work that should just about *triple* my income, so that's awesome!

a minor cat-astrophe

Excuse the silly pun, I just couldn't help it. ;)

Yesterday was a big day for my kitty, Chester. He went to the vet to get "tutored", in the words of Gary Larson. After the initial exam, the vet emerged from the back room with perplexing news: Chester couldn't be neutered. SHE had to be spayed.

Huh? What?

All this time, Chester is a GIRL!!

Rob tells the story much better on his blog. It's hilarious, really. Now just to mentally adjust...

kitschy 80's movies that surprise

Saturday night Rob introduced me to Condorman, a cheesy Disney movie that I had seen previews for when I was little, but never actually watched. Generally, I think that it's best to watch a nostalgic kid's movie only if you've seen it when you actually were a kid, otherwise you miss the nostalgia and "greatness" of the cheese factor and it's just a stupid movie with a weak plot and outdated special effects. (can you tell I've experienced this? haha) But I have to say, although Condorman was indeed cheesy, I was caught off guard by how much I actually enjoyed it. For sure, there were outdated special effects and the plot was predictable at times, but there were plenty of things that caught and held my attention. Mainly, the cool cars that the "bad guys" used to chase down Condorman and his lovely lady. Observe:







I mean seriously, what gets more cool than 5 black Porsche Carreras with drivers wearing all black leather and black helmets? And the action in the chase scenes is actually pretty cool and mostly believable (a rarity in current movies).

So the cars were cool. Admittedly, that's not what caught my attention in the first place, nor what held it throughout the movie. :) It was Barbara Carrera in the leading lady role as "Natalia". Well to be more accurate, it was her clothes. Heh heh heh. She wore so many great outfits that I wanted to pause the movie on each one to take a screenshot so I could copy her look. She was seriously cool, even as a gypsy. ;)

The first outfit that caught my eye was this one:

Fabulous long purple poncho/cape thing, slim dark jeans, and a pair of tall leather riding boots that exactly matched the color of her hair. It's a shame you can't see the pants and boots in this picture. They really were smashing.

There's a scene where they ride a ski lift to make their escape, and while the men looked laughable in their silly one-piece snowsuits (tight red shiny overalls, anyone?)Natalia looked like this:
The perfect little snowbunny. :)

Later we see her at the house of Condorman's evil nemesis wearing this getup for a party:
This picture is the only one I could find of this outfit, which was MUCH more amazing as you saw it full-length and from all different angles. I couldn't tell if it was a dress or floaty pants (I think pants, actually) but the overall effect was cool, breezy, Mediterranean, and highly fashionable with the cape and the daring, sassy wrap on her head. I would totally wear this. Maybe. :)

Of course, since this *is* a spy movie, Natalia's first scene has her looking the part of the 1950 undercover agent:
Gotta love the hat and Veronica Lake curls!

So I guess you could say that I enjoyed the movie... how did it end again? ;)

(just kidding, I remember!)

Love is...

So many people have asked the question, "what is love?" and some people even ask what love has to do with anything. There are surely as many answers for as many times this timeless question has been asked. And love is definitely a multi-faceted concept, revealing new dynamics of itself as it grows and deepens. But for Rob and I, right now this is our answer:

where there's smoke...

Yesterday morning we had a little problem... I hopped out of the shower to the scent of burning plastic and the haze of smoke, which is never a good sign. We spent the better part of the morning trying to rid our little not-so-well-ventilated apartment of both of these unsavory pneumatic essences.

But let me back up.

The night before I had made a yummy dinner of Thai noodles with tofu and sugar snap peas (go me! That's the first meal I've made in over a week). After the water for the noodles boiled I took the lid off the pan and set in on the stove, and that was the last I thought of it. Next morning, Rob in his husbandly kindness started to make my morning tea by turning on an [electric] burner to heat it up before putting the kettle on it. Of course he happened to turn on the one burner that I had left the pan lid on. Uh huh.

Next thing we know, we're being choked by the stinging smell of burning plastic and there are flames shooting out of the top of the pan lid, and the handle was in an unrecognizable pool of black goop all over the stove top. Not good. Rob put the fire out pretty easily (whew!), but the smell and the smoke... they're still hanging around today. Even after leaving all our windows and sliding door open all day in the freezing temps yesterday. It smells so bad that it still stings our eyes this morning. And poor Chester, he had to stay home in the awful smell all day.

Currently, we're experimenting with various "home remedies" to rid our apartment of the noxious fumes. First up: cut up lemons. They're supposed to "absorb" the smell. We'll see. If not, we'll move on to simmering a pan of various citrus fruits and spices like cinnamon, cloves and the like. We both agreed to avoid the advice to leave cut-up onions all around the house. Heh heh. Hopefully the lemons work!

Now to replace my pan lid...