Somebody's all tucked in with her sock monkey and blankie.
Also, I decided it's ok for me to post just photos on the blog-blog instead of the photo-blog as a way for me to keep the photo-blog aesthetically focused. Because while this is totally adorbs, it is not a good photo.
Random, undirected clicking can lead to terrible, terrible discoveries.
Restored my iPhoto library from my old hard drive and Boy, oh Boy am I glad I did, because all of my pictures from this year's trip to the cabin in Canada were on there -un-backed-up, and I don't know if I could go on with my life without this one.
Okay fine, this one is a little nicer. Happy?
I openly admit here to living under a rock, as far as news is concerned, but I knew about Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity this weekend in Washington D.C. on the National Mall. So I joined the other "six million" people who convened for really nothing other than to make fun of political media and see what kind of show had actually been planned by Stewart and Colbert. We were so far from the stage, speakers, and jumbotrons that most of what I got to enjoy came straight from the Rallygoers themselves, rather than the actual show (which I watched part of later on Tivo, and it was totally hilarious). I was literally sandwiched between my buddy Mike, a cop lounging on his motorcycle, and a dude in a banana suit holding a picket sign with hardly enough room for my lungs to expand to breathe, but as far as I know no one was trampled or groped beyond what is generally accepted in those circumstances. The crowd was happy, cooperative, and oddly calm and collected. Many were in costume. Occasionally someone would yell something funny, or point out a good sign that had migrated closer. And as promised by Stewart, whose target audience was people who want to come and show support for something but don't want to pay overtime to their babysitter, it ended promptly at 3, but took another hour for people to dislodge themselves from each other's limbs and actually get off the Mall.
If you look really hard, you can see Waldo hiding in a tree just to the right of the jumbotron. And that second photo IS a bunch of kids collapsing a handicap port-a-potty.
I hear that The Roots took the stage for a good half hour, and also a few of the Mythbusters did some experiments with the audience doing the Wave, but I missed that part because I was waiting in line to pay the fare for the Metro for an hour and 15 minutes. Also, when I finally gave into the food vendors and decided it was time for a hot dog, they had run out of buns, soda, and water, but were still charging the full $4 for a hot dog wrapped in paper. And the Official Merchandise tent had already been taken down by the time I could walk in full strides again, but I would rather get a pair of star-print pants like the ones Stephen Colbert wore with his leather jacket, anyway. All in all, a very good time.
A smattering of the best posters sighted. This post title would have been mine if I felt like making one.
I was too busy playing with the pupkin to take very many pictures of her, so here are a few of my favorites, taken by my mama. Thanks, mama.
So this blog pretty much sucks for 1st quarter 2010 (having just filed my tax returns) but I fully intend to fix that, starting tomorrow (so that I just can claim April fools and not write again until May, really).
I've been exceptionally busy at work, and cleaning up puppy poop, and trying not to let my A1c creep back up from the multiple pounds of chocolate I can't stop eating every week. Admittedly, I'm a lot better at World of Warcraft. I know, I know - shoot myself in the face. My twitter, facebook, blahblah, and other internet outlets have also petered out. That diabetes daily photo posting lasted about 3 days. So I'm going to pick back up here, first and foremost, concurrently with attempting to develop a regular workout routine. So I'll keep you posted on how that's going. I still haven't run any damn half marathons. I'm going to train Maisy to be my running partner. We went on two 3+mile runs that went pretty well, actually. About two weeks ago. So it's very much a work in progress.
I also am slowly building an arsenal of dinner recipes I can actually make besides Seebacher's Famous Marinara Sauce and pasta, and I can share the good ones if anyone's interested. I made one terrible awful potroast last week that was really, really bad, so I won't share that.
And just because these are horribly, horribly overdue (not to mention the fact that I haven't had time to take any decent pictures):
Everyone loves a Theme Party!!
My dress and shoes were TO DIE FOR, unfortunately I am a total noob at the art of taking photos of oneself.
I don't think I ever posted about this, but a couple months ago, Max (Remember? Big fuzzy guy? REAL big?) presented with a really aggressive type of skin cancer under his gums that looked like brains bubbling up behind his teeth. It was really creepy. At first we thought it might just be an infection from eating bones of roadkill, but alas... They surgically removed it a few times at the local vet, but it kept growing back. Why? Because its cancer and it does whatever the fuck it wants with no rhyme or reason. I hate cancer.
Earlier this week, Dad drove down to the Univ. of Wisco animal hospital where they admitted Mashmash and poked and probed and CT scanned him, and then removed the front part of his lower jaw, and 6 of his teeth. This was the preferred method of treatment, since chemo or radiation can have unexpected long term effects. This way, he may have trouble getting the food into his mouth, but he can still chew it once its in there (also, NO MORE CANCER). I mean, he was slobbery before, but now he physically cannot keep his tongue inside his mouth. Dad sent this picture yesterday when picking him up, "Max: the Shortened Version." It looks so silly, but he's still a happy dog, AND he'll make it to this Christmas, and hopefully several to come!
Moral of the story? Wear your sunscreen. And for the Love of God, don't ever get a dog. Too many bad things can happen.
So with this whole "New House" thing, I also decided to start some "New Hobbies" like fermenting my own hard cider/applewine, and getting a "New Puppy".
Here's Maisy Jane, a 12-week-old Lab/Hound mix that I adopted from a shelter yesterday:
Her dark coloring makes it hard to get her features show accurately (my very own little Basement Dog) but she has giant ears and the cutest little tiny face I've ever seen. She's already peed in the new house twice. And yes, she gets along just fine with Oliver, thought they're both a little hesitant around each other.
I am home, safe and mostly sound, from Hamburg and I just wanted to throw this out there before I go to bed:
The Fish like their new tank
(MIB saw that picture and was like "that tank is HUGE!" and I was like "but its exactly half the size of the old one...")
And the food in Deutschland rocks my face off.
I'm currently working a deep, thoughtful post about diabetes. And working one some other REALLY BIG stuff that I can't talk about until its set in stone and notorized. It might have something to do with moving sometime soon. And the sky is falling, on and off, at work so I haven't been doing much with my pictures. Which is a bummer because we just got into using the flash inventively in my photo class. In the meantime, here are TWO new pictures of The Sarge, for your ogling.
You all should know by now how much I appreciate data and its presentation. While this looks more like a custard to me, its still brilliant! And it makes me smile.
Max, ready for his close-up.
Max, who prefers a firm mattress. Porcelain, even.
Max, after a heroin overdose.
Max, on a disco dance floor.
Max, giving me a rash on my face.
Max, believing "Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs" was a true story.
He was not happy about this photo being taken, but I wanted to let you know that Oliver Jones is still alive and kicking and hopping and chewing on my shit. I've also started leaving him locked in his cage with a fair mound of food over weekends when I go away (read: every weekend), because I think he prefers being left alone to the stress of travel. He has also been well behaved enough lately that I can leave him out in the room when I go to sleep at night. More than ever he's a wild animal who just happens to live in the same room as me. But he still almost fits in the palm of my hand. And his fur is still soft and silky when he lets me touch it.
There is a concert tour happening this summer that I was so excited about that when I learned of its stop at A Casino Near Me, I had to change my pants. Twice. It is: No Doubt, back together, with Paramore opening. *swoon*
I managed to pull together 12 tickets in the same row so that I could bring my roommates, half my coworkers, my two favorite people in the whole world, and two of my midgets and rock the f*** out. It was a slow, trickling process, getting 12 people in the same place at the same time, so the early of us gambled for a little while to "earn" some free drinks on the floor. I lost $6 and Joe got his "free beer" (see below) and then by the time the show was starting we were all finally in some stage of eating dinner at the Summer Shack. The majority of us ate corn dogs. They were fast and we'd killed our time before the show pretty effectively...
After dinner, I put my camera in the room because I didn't want to risk having my baby taken away. So the next picture I have is this - a bunch of us hanging out in the hotel room, waiting for our ear drums to stop bleeding. Well, actually is the reflection of us hanging out in the hotel room, with another branch of the building through the window. Awesome photo. Patting myself on the back. The concert? Everything I hoped it would be. Everyone around me was hoping through the whole show that I wouldn't inadvertently punch one of them in the face in my crazed, surprisingly uncoordinated hopping around screaming in my seat.
After the show, some of us went to do more gambling damage, some of us went for a walk in the woods, some of us went home because we are under the age of 15, some of us went to a bar 10 minutes before last call and were asked to leave with drinks in hand and unpaid tab, and some of us just disappeared back to the hotel rooms. Mariana won $650 on her first time at a casino, ever. We ordered room service around 3 am after a rousing game of "The Price Is Right" on the room service menu. You can't see from the tableset, but there were pints of Ben & Jerry's, as well.
I throw one heck of a party...
Dear Google,
Thank you for analytically informing me how many of my friends actually read my blogs. (Absolute Unique Visistors = IP addresses, so I'm sure there are repeats if people have laptops they use on different networks)
Dear Friends,
Step it up.
Love, Allie
Rode over with the Cap'n in the wheelhouse! Did a whole little photo shoot of him, actually :)
Spent just enough time on the beach to not get sunburnt.
Realized the water was too cold to do anything in/with anyway.
Went fake-shopping (and realized the store that says "Home Made Fudge" painted on the front of the building is actually a mini-arcade...such a disappointment...)
And took the ferry home with 900 hormone-filled beach-bound high schoolers.
My step-cousin Kaitlin's daughter turned a year old this weekend. Happy Birthday Claire!
She partied until she couldn't stand up on her own anymore. But since she's bad at napping she kept going like a little party zombie.
