Friday Tunes

I'm not doing a 30 Days of Songs song today. Because I've been listening to Pandora and this song just came on and it reminded me of back when Mr. T and I had started dating and he made me a "mixed tape" (CD) of a bunch of songs and it was the first time anyone had ever done that for me and omg it was just the sweetest thing. This was "our song" even though we later claimed that "Prettiest Girl in the Room" was. I think I'm going to go back to saying this one is, because it doesn't compare me to a high-class prostitute. 8P

Also, what is up with this music video?

BioShock: Infinite, Day 2

Day 1

So some weird stuff happened last night when I tried to play the game. Turn on the PS3, go to BioShock: Infinite (yup, BioShock is right underneath it >.<), click it....and the TV is all "I gots no signal!" After I ejected the disc the PS menu appeared again. Put the disc back in and the game started automatically, no problems. But when I started up actual game play, my analog sticks weren't working. I could hit Start and go into the menu and the left one would work (I'm not sure the right one even does anything in the menu, anyway) but as soon as I went back into the game, nothing. I was just dangling from this railing like a dummy. By the way - where does he store that crazy hook arm? Because when you're walking around he has a gun in one hand and his magic twitchy thing going on with the other. But as soon as you need to jump up and grab a hook or get on that railing he's all "I GOTS A HOOK HAND!"

I digress. The point is, I had to restart the game like 3 times before it started working. Very strange.

At any rate, once I did start playing it was telling me to go get some Shock Jock, which I thought I had already done. I swear I had. But the way I got it...I definitely didn't do it that way before. So I don't know what happened. I had to go the "Hall of Heroes" which consisted of a couple of different areas that had reenactments of a couple of battles. One with Native Americans and one with the Chinese. More racism, guys! Anyway, there's some guy who was actually a soldier who fought in the wars that is pissed that this prophet is taking all the credit and I have to get the shock jock from him. He sends all his soldiers to fight me, because they'd rather die by the hands of a human than by the prophet's "tin men". So that's weird. Also, apparently I was a solider at one point and this guy knows me. I'm not sure if I would have known that had I played the first two BioShock games...I'm assuming I would. But whatever.

After I slaughter all the soldiers (I only died a couple times, I swear!) I catch up to him and he's all hurt and stuff and is like "Finish me!" and I have another choice! Spare him or shoot him. I spared him. Maybe I shouldn't have. I don't know. So far it hasn't come back to haunt me yet. But my hand is still wrapped up in a bandage from getting stabbed. Funny,  I can get shot - a lot - and even die and get revived. But that stab wound, man...it's no joke! 8P

Uh, yeah. So the shock jock is to power the ship we're going to use to escape. We get on it and even though I told the girl I was hired to take her to someone she is still surprised that I'm taking her to New York instead of Paris. So she knocks me out and takes over the ship. Little b*tch. We end up...somewhere. The leader of the Vox-something talks to me. She's the one that supposedly killed the prophet's wife and their little band are the ones who are at war with the prophet. She tells me if I get them a bunch of guns we can have our ship back. Then I have to chase the stupid little cunt girl I rescued all over the place because she's pissed we aren't going to Paris. She gets captured and almost dies a few times.

Oh - the place we are now is the factory for this guy named Fink who creates all the steampunky aspects of the world. And I'm probably going to have a run-in with a handyman soon. Basically this guy almost died of stomach cancer, so Fink put his head on this giant robot body and now those (I'm assuming he has since made more than just the one) are his goons. No one that works for him ever gets any vacation or sick leave and their lives are very structured. I think they should stage an uprising or something. Just sayin'. Anyway, I've seen a couple of handymen (or the same one twice, depending on if there are multiple) including a sort-of fight with one during a cut scene. But I have yet to have to fight one. Apparently if I shoot them in the heart it will cause more damage, thanks to a helpful little screen tip that caused me to panic for about 10 minutes thinking I was about to have to fight one.

Yeah, I didn't get very far last night. I only played for a couple of hours. I had to watch Project Runway! And then I passed out on the couch. I stayed up too late the night before, okay?? >.<

source

Yeah - that guy. Oh! I did see one of them early on, for all the white people to marvel at (racism - it's everywhere in this game). It was kind of like the old Frankenstein movie with the fire and how it caused the monster to panic and then get murdered. They were taking pictures of him with those old flash-bulb cameras and he was flinching away and covering his face. I was like "That's probably foreshadowing for my death later on..." So, yeah. I have a bad feeling about these guys. Maybe they will one day be my allies??

BioShock: Infinite, Day 1

So my friend Tiny Hippo has started a blog. He is supposedly reviewing video games and whatever, but only made two posts and then disappeared. Sucks to suck, Tiny Hippo.

In the spirit of being a better blogger, I've decided to take you on a journey with me. A BioShock journey. Specifically BioShock: Infinite. A few things you need to know about me and gaming before we begin:

1. I'm not really a gamer.
   The only 3 games I've completed in my entire life are: Portal, Portal 2, and Kingdom Hearts 2. I've played a lot more games, but usually lose interest before finishing them. Or they get too hard and I give up. >.< Case(s) in point: Assassin's Creed 2 and Borderlands 2. 
2. I'm really terrible at FPS games.
   Especially when there are zombies. A roommate's brother tried to get me to play Left 4 Dead with him and it turned into him going "Okay - zombies are going to come through THAT DOOR, so stand in THIS CORNER and aim RIGHT THERE. Now don't. move. until it's over. I'll block you." Otherwise I would panic, forget how to use the analog sticks, point straight up or straight down, and spin in circles shooting the sky/ground. And then die, of course. Mr. T tried to get me to play Dead Island and I was so worked up and panicky I didn't even make it to a zombie before I tapped out.
3. I've never played a BioShock game.
   Actually, I knew next-to-nothing about this game before I started playing it. I knew it looked kind of steampunk-y and that was cool. It seemed more cartoony than a lot of FPS games and everyone seemed to have great things to say about it. Jen, over at Epbot even reviewed it and said she enjoyed it, and it sounded like she's worse at FPS games than I am.

Oh, and one last thing ALL OF THIS WILL BE SPOILERS! As I said - not a gamer. I wouldn't even begin to know how to go about reviewing it without spoilers. I don't have anything to compare it to - plot, graphics, difficulty, nothing. So sit back and enjoy.

Day 1:

I'm not sure when I started playing, but I definitely stayed up until 11:30. For shame! I was exhausted at work the next day. >.< I think I probably started around 7:00 or 7:30, so I put at least four hours into it.

Starting out, you're on this row boat with these two people with British-y accents. They talk to each other and pretty much totally ignore you. Also, they show up a lot. There was this quote at the beginning about how inter-dimensional travelers create false memories to help them cope or something. I felt like that might be important so I tried to remember it. Not sure if it's important yet or not. Anyway, the beetchs dump you off at a lighthouse. There are all these weird Biblical-y quotes about Eden and Sodom and cleansing yourself and as you go up the staircase you eventually find this person who has been tortured and is dead. There are signs telling you you better get some girl and give her to "them" or you, too, will die. Oh, and you can flush toilets and turn sinks off and on. So far - not been useful. Go up and out to the top of the lighthouse, ring some bells and the sky goes all red and there's weird music and then the door to the light opens and inside is this chair. Sit in, get locked in, rocket ship to space. Or the clouds, at least. And you're in the magical land of Mormons!

You're in this temple kind of place and there is water and flower petals and candles everywhere. It's very strange. Lots of elaborate statues and alters and Biblical-y quotes regarding the prophet, his lady friend, and their baby - "the lamb". You end up having to get baptized before you can enter the city. The priest dude almost drowns you and you wake up in this...pond?...surrounded by statues of the Founding Fathers. Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson. Something about a key, a scroll and a sword? People are praying to them. Actually, almost everyone you meet in the first 10-20 minutes in this city is praying. Pretty sure it was some sort of holiday. Wander around for a bit and eventually see the statue/building where she's being kept. So then you have to get to it.

A couple of things I didn't anticipate regarding this game:

1. Superpowers?
   You drink/eat things to get "salts" and then use them to do magical things. Like control robots/people, shoot fireballs, call on crows, and throw people around (that's all I know about so far, but it looks like there's room for a lot more). So, uh, yeah. Didn't think that was going to happen.
2. Racism??
   Yeah - everyone is suuuuuper racist. Not gonna lie - didn't notice everyone was white at first, because hey, I'm white. Yeah... Anyway, they have a statue of John Wilks Booth and hate Lincoln for his whole emancipation thing. Apparently they were part of the US and the US told them to stop being so racist so they just left the Union and went up into the clouds. Much like what Texas wants to do about half the time. I kind of feel like they created this game just to use a bunch of racial slurs that haven't been around for a hundred years or so. There is the more obvious black racism, but they are also hating on the Irish pretty hard as well.

Anyway - there is some sort of Antichrist figure and turns out it's me! Woohoo! I guess the prophet predicted someone would come and try to take away his lamb. She is supposed to bring the apocalypse down on everyone down on the ground and I'm going to stop her. I guess. Ummm...so, yeah. Lots of people try to kill me. Also, I'm really bad at the aiming and not panicking. Which is pretty much all there is to a FPS game. I died a lot. Like...a lot. And you lose money every time you die. So I never have all that much money. I also keep forgetting about my super powers, so I stick to the gun a lot. Or just melee. Which is the triangle button. And our triangle button sticks. And half the time I accidentally press the circle button, because I'm from the generation of Mortal Kombat button smashers. Circle makes you crouch. So I'm running around, crouched, firing at walls and punching ineffectively. I wish it was multiplayer so I could see myself. lol!

You also get to make decisions, which is kind of cool. I'm pretty sure I always pick the wrong ones. The first time this came up was when I finally went "YUP - RACISM" and when I figured out I was the Antichrist. Or false prophet. I forget what they call me. There is a "raffle" and it's actually throwing baseballs at an interracial couple. Oh, yeah. 'Murica. So I had to decide between throwing the baseball at them or at the guy in charge of the raffle. I chose the dude, because I felt like people would judge me if I did the other. Which, those guys ended up helping me later on! Kind of? I mean, they said they wanted to help me, but I'm not sure that the did anything. I just saw them later on and they said thanks. But by throwing it at the dude they found out who I was and I started getting shot at. Not sure what the other outcome would be.

Another decision came after I got the girl. We were trying to buy tickets and dude obviously knew who we were. It was very much a trap and I had to decide between pulling a weapon and yelling. I was like "well I'll just yell" and he stabbed me in the hand. >.< Also, I had to choose between stealing a gun and not...I stole a gun and pissed a lot of people off. I think I died once or twice in all that. The last choice I made involved picking a pendant for the chick to wear on her choker. It was the same British-y people from the beginning (this was like the 3rd or 4th time they'd shown up) and they wanted her to choose between a bird and a cage. I chose cage because why not? I'm not sure if that has affected anything yet or not.

Anyway, one you get to the girl in the tower you find out they've been monitoring her. She knows she's been locked up, but had no idea they had two-way mirrors all over the place and were watching everything she did. Which, for the record, is super creepy. Also, the whole behind-the-scenes place was destroyed, but it didn't seem to be the girl that did it. MYSTERY. She can also rip holes in space-time and reveal alternate realities. Or something. I don't know. She's also really into Paris. And music. And thanks to all her reading she can heal me. And pick locks. I don't question things, I just enjoy them. Which is the dude's outlook. It's kind of funny. He's all "Well that's weird. IGNORE!" I like that life motto.

The girl can take care of herself, thank God. Because if I had to keep her alive and also keep myself alive, pssssssssh. I debated on playing the game on easy, but I knew all my friends would be mean to me if I did, so I'm playing on medium. I probably should've done easy. Just saying. I die all the freaking time.

What else, what else.... 

So, yeah. I rescue the girl, we leave the one part of the sky island or whatever. Now we're on some sort of beach/vacation place about to get on some flying escape thing. That's when I realized how late it was and that I needed to go to bed. STAY TUNED!

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Here are the two people that keep showing up. And another "decision" thing I forgot about. I chose "tails" like a FOOL. It's always "heads", apparently. He has the same thing on the back of his sandwich board and it's all heads over there as well. So far these guys are my favorite people in the game. So they'll probably kill me.

Encouragement

by The Bloggess:

15 things you absolutely must know about social media or your face will melt off and get eaten by goats

#16: There is no 16. There’s not even a 1-15. There are no real rules or magic potions. Blogging success is fleeting, fickle, and largely based on luck (much like everything else in the world). This might seem depressing, but in a way it’s rather freeing. It allows you to write for yourself instead of just following a set of rules someone else made for you. Find your own voice. Find your own rules. Find a way of measuring success that’s more about freedom and fulfillment rather than page-views and analytics. Page-views mean nothing a year later, but the words you’ve put together may stand and affect others for a lifetime.

Things That Are Annoying

#3: Having to go back to the bathroom immediately after leaving because you forgot a tampon the first time.

Friday Tunes

Day 28: A Song That Makes Me Feel Guilty

Hmm... This is a tricky one. I can't think of any songs that make me feel legitimately guilty. I tried to think of "guilty pleasure" songs, but I'm not really embarrassed to like any of the music that I like. Oh, oh - I know!

I feel like I need to explain myself. So I had just recently discovered Here Come the Mummies. And they were playing at Live on the Green in Nashville. I was also teaching as a GTA in the CS department. It was time for class to start and I needed to print something off. I think I taught a 8:00am class, so the office wasn't open before class and I had forgotten to do it the day before. So I was like "Well, I'll play them a YouTube video while I run to the office!" And then I was like "I should try and introduce them to something new and free - Live on the Green! And this band I barely know anything about!"

When you do a YouTube search for here come the mummies, "Pants" is the top video. So I clicked it, and left. I get back and it's all "I'm coming in my pants!" and I'm all "oh my lawd, I just played THAT to all my students?!" So, yeah...I guess I feel guilt over that? Or just extreme embarrassment? Or it's whatever - they're a bunch of college kids, they've probably lived out the song already.

Things That Are Annoying

#2: My neighbors' kid who has no boundaries. GET OFF MY LAWN.

100 Days of Pictures: Day 25

My Favorite Day

Wowsers...that's a bad picture of me. >.< Anywho - I chose this picture because it represents a day that Mr. T and I hung out together. Not at home. It was his birthday and we left the house! Even though we spent 6+ hours at the pottery painting place. And didn't really talk to each other all that much. But, yeah - pretty much any day I have a full day of Mr. T all to myself is a good day. 8}

100 Days of Pictures

Going Legit

You guys.

Yooooou guuuuuys...

I'm sleepy. And hungry. This whole "lifestyle change" is a mild form of starvation, I think. I have a banana staring at me right now, but I'm trying to save it for after 2:00. It's all I have to look forward to until dinner. Which is going to be DELICIOUS, by the way. Grilled chicken and corn on le cob. And I'll probably eat half a gallon of pistachios when I get home. Man, I love those things. One fun thing - Mr. T and I have both noticed improvements in the bathroom department. Ever since Bonnaroo my intestines have been piiiiiissed at me. I'm glad that's all getting sorted. It really is better to eat healthier. Duh.

But gee willikers, that's not the point of this post.

I maybe don't pimp out my husband's art gallery enough on this blog. Or I pimp it out way too much. I never know. I'm bad with knowing where lines are and when I've crossed them. As you may have noticed by the awkward poo discussion earlier. Anyway - go like the Facebook page. Yet again - I've gotten off topic.

The point of this post is to let you know that I'm going legit with my blog. It may be a mistake and ruin my life, but I'm going to buy a domain and hosting! And not have ".blogspot" in my URL! I just have to find the time to do it... I was going to do it Sunday night, but my sister came over to hang out. I was going to do it Monday night, but a friend of mine who had just graduated came over to hang out. I was going to do it last night, but I was so exhausted from waking up early to do other things I hadn't done due to people coming over to hang out the first two nights that I went to bed early. Tonight isn't looking so good, because we're grilling out and I've invited people to grill with us. Which  Mr. T doesn't know about because he hasn't called me, so I'm washing my hands of the responsibility. (I sent him a text asking him to call me when he's free, because I usually call on my lunch break but he was going out with his grandmother and uncle so I didn't want to bother him.) And tomorrow I want to go clothes shopping. If you follow me on Facebook, you may remember the status I posted where I was speculating that an article of clothing had been peed on by one of my feline enemies. Well it was my shoe. I need new shoes. I also need:

• black heels (Splinter chewed up my only pair)
• at least two pair of flats (I was down to the one and now those smell like cat pee - plus they weren't all that great to begin with)
• dresses or skirts - I want maybe 2 more? I like feeling pretty, but most of the stuff I own isn't work-wear
• work pants - I neeeeeed more pants! I've only had about 4 pair for the past...oh, year and a half? The ones I have on today have the hem stapled up because I'm lazy. Plus, I hate all of them since I've worn them so much
• shirts - I need all the shirts! Like my pants, I'm sick of everything I've worn for the past forever. I've only bought clothes twice since beginning here. I NEED MORE CLOTHES.

....time passes....

Speak of the devil - Mr. T called me! He's fine with people coming over, so hooray! But now I've completely lost my train of thought...

Did I ever actually post what I came here to post? I'm buying domains and hosting for the gallery and this blog. The gallery is going to have a legit "this is a website" site, so I'm more concerned with that one. For this, I'm just gonna go with Wordpress, most likely. I feel kind of dirty talking about it here, like talking to your mistress while you're in the room with your wife or something. Yes, Blogger - I'm leaving you! Don't cry!! You've done nothing for me the past...two years. Nothing!

I'm also thinking about manually moving my posts over. That way I have to re-read all of them, and can start adding appropriate tags and whatnot. I dunno, I may not. We'll see how productive I feel. 8P

I think I need to stop typing now. GOODBYE.

100 Days of Pictures: Day 24

Something Ridiculous

We spent about an hour and a half in our backyard on Sunday and attacked the foliage with manual clippers, a weed-eater, and even a sword. THAT is the pile we ended up with. And we didn't even finish!

100 Days of Pictures

Lifestyle Change, Week 1

Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday

The Wilsons are undergoing a lifestyle change, you guys. Not a diet and not a workout regime. A lifestyle change. I also have a mosquito bite on my boob and it's very distracting. I can't keep scratching it or it will also be distracting to coworkers. But omg it's so itchy.

Oh, funny thing that happened yesterday - my foot fell asleep in the car. I was like "My foot's asleep! When did my foot get sleepy?!" And then realized I sounded like a crazy person. Unfortunately Mr. T was there to hear and got a good laugh out of it. My arm fell asleep later on that night (I have terrible circulation) and he was all "When did your arm get sleepy??" Harumph. ALSO, I wore a dress to church and noticed this huge patch of hair on the back of my calf. Thankfully I have incredibly pale hair, so I don't think anyone else would see it. But I couldn't stop staring at it. Maybe if I had darker hair, it wouldn't be so easy to miss patches of it.

Anyway, back to our lifestyle change. It doesn't involve me being any more on-topic in blog posts, for the record. It just involves eating better and exercising. Now, because there is a scale in the handicap stall at work, I will be monitoring my weight. I'm not gonna post it on here or anything, because - in theory - weight doesn't matter. This is about being healthier and more fit, not dropping pounds. But I'm totally a girl and am going to weigh myself anyway. 8P

We took before pictures for fun. Mr. T asked when we were gonna take after pictures and I said when we started to look better. ;) But actually, we may try to take new ones every month.





I can't monitor what Mr. T is eating as closely as I can my own nom-intake and working-outedness, but it should be roughly similar. Oh, and as for our plan - the next two weeks we're going to be pretty restrictive on what we eat - fruits, veggies, and unseasoned chicken. Then we're going to transition to just eating well and begin working out in some form or fashion. Still not sure on that - most likely it will be some sort of workout video, since we don't want to pay for a gym membership.

Anyway, on to this week's review (I'll be updating this throughout the day and week, hopefully, so you'll need to come back to this post every so often if you want to keep up - or just check it on Friday or Saturday). Oh, hey - something I just remembered. I tried a similar diet to this back when I was trying to fit into my wedding dress for our TTD session last summer. By the end of the week I was one angry woman. lol! And Mr. T wants to drag this out for two weeks....lawdy lawd.

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Monday
Breakfast:

• smoothie (1/2 for me, 1/2 for Mr. T) - 4 frozen strawberries, 2 bananas, some orange juice, some pineapple juice, and a splash of pomegranate/cranberry left over from a party
• 1 cup coffee (no one's perfect)
• Luna bar - S'mores flavor (It's a whole nutrition bar for women!) 

Lunch:

• Lemon Pie yogurt
• baby carrots with ranch dip
• plum
• Golden Delicious apple - only the best kind of apple ever!
• (Side note: I just finished lunch and am already hungry. >.<)

Dinner:

• I cooked chicken breasts in a skillet with some canola oil. Mixed in some squash and zucchini. Added just a touch of seasoning because we're not animals.
• I also had wine.

Snacks:

• pistachios - more than is appropriate but omg they're so good

Water:

• 1 large Which-Wich cup: x3

Exercise:

• walked the dogs in the morning
• took stairs at work: x7

Naughty:

• I had about 3 glasses of wine...and maybe like 10 pieces of popcorn. My friend came over to celebrate her graduation!

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Tuesday
Breakfast:

• smoothie (1/2 for me, 1/2 for Mr. T) - 5 frozen strawberries, 2 bananas, some orange juice, some pineapple juice, and a splash of pomegranate/cranberry left over from a party
• Luna bar - white chocolate macadamia

Lunch:

• peach yogurt
• baby carrots and ranch dip
• a plum
• a nectarine 

Dinner:

• chicken breast with a bit of BBQ sauce on it
• steamed asparagus
• white rice

Snacks:

• pistachios (OMG SO DELICIOUS)

Water:

• 1 large Which-Wich cup: x2

Exercise:

• took stairs at work: x5

Naughty:

• Because of the friend that came over last night, I didn't get the dishes done, so I did that instead of walking the dogs in the morning. Hopefully I walk them this evening! (I totally didn't - it was raining.)
• I wore heels to work so I took the elevator in the morning and evening instead of walking the stairs.
• I missed stairs one hour because I lost track of time. Shame on me for working! ;)

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Wednesday
Breakfast:

• smoothie (1/2 for me, 1/2 for Mr. T) - 5 frozen strawberries, 2 bananas, some orange juice, some pineapple juice, and a splash of pomegranate/cranberry left over from a party
• coffee - but I only used ONE creamer tub today! ;)
• Luna bar - caramel nut brownie (best one so far)

Lunch:

• key lime pie yogurt
• golden delicious apple
• half of a cucumber with either salt or ranch dip
• banana

Dinner:

• grilled chicken with spices only Mr. T knows about
• grilled corn on le cob
• I also had a bit of zucchini and a bit of peach that our friends had grilled.

Snacks:

• PISTACHIOS! (Our roommate tried to say they were bad for you!)

Water:

• 1 large Which-Wich cup: x3 (can't remember if 2 or 3)
• 1 small superhero cup: x3 (can't remember if 2 or 3)

Exercise:

• took stairs at work: x5

Naughty:

• I didn't walk the dogs - again. I was exhausted from waking up so early yesterday. It's Mr. T's day off, so we're hopefully going to walk them this evening when I get home. (NOPE!)
• Missed the stairs twice at work because of working.

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Thursday
Breakfast:

• smoothie (1/2 for me, 1/2 for Mr. T) - 5 frozen strawberries, 2 bananas, some orange juice, some pineapple juice, and a splash of pomegranate/cranberry left over from a party
• Luna bar - peanut honey pretzel (even better than the caramel brownie one!)

Lunch:

• strawberry/banana yogurt
• the other half of that cucumber
• a plum
• a nectarine 

Dinner:

• I cooked some tilapia and bell peppers in a skillet with a bit of oil and some lemon pepper seasoning. It was SO GOOD you guys. So good!
• I also drank chocolate milk. It, too, was delicious.

Snacks:

• I don't think I ate any snacks!

Water:

• 1 large Which-Wich cup: x3
• Wall Street cup: x1

Exercise:

• I walked the dogs!!! They were so happy! 8}
• took stairs at work: x6

Naughty:

• Missed the stairs once at work.

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Friday
Breakfast:

• smoothie (1/2 for me, 1/2 for Mr. T) - 5 frozen strawberries, 2 bananas, some orange juice, some pineapple juice, and a splash of pomegranate/cranberry left over from a party
• cup of coffee (one creamer cup!)
• I left my Luna bar at home, you guys. I'm STARVING!

Lunch:

• I forget.

Dinner:

• Gondolier's deliciousness

Snacks:

• I forget.

Water:

• I forget.

Exercise:

• I walked the dogs!
• took stairs at work: x2

Naughty:

• You guys...just read the Saturday/Sunday recap. I fell off the wagon so hard I may be dead and not know it yet.

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Saturday/Sunday
Naughty:

We failed! So hard! We ate all the junk food. All of it! There is none left in the world. I'm sorry! You'll have to travel to Mars to find anything delicious anymore, because Mr. T and I ate all the things this weekend. And it was GLORIOUS! Glor.i.ous. 8}

Also, I found this journal difficult to maintain and I'm lazy. So I don't think I'll be doing it again. I'll give weekly recaps, maybe. Just a quick "We suck" or "Yay, we sucked less this week!" Hope you had fun not reading this!! 8P

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Wreck This Journal

Some of my photo experiences with Wreck This Journal:

"Chew on this"? Okay, I guess...

Rawr! I will destroy you!

This is kind of terrible.

omg this is the worst.

There! I did it! Blech...

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"Tear out and crumple"? Kind of boring.

Hmmm...

"OH GAWD, WHAT'S THIS?!"

"I actually kind of love him."

"Mmmmm...you are my best friend!"

"What are you looking at?!"

Needless to say, Vigo had more fun than I did.

100 Days of Pictures: Day 23

My Favorite Book

I don't really have a favorite book, but I just started the experience that is Wreck This Journal and it is fun. And I had a picture of it on Facebook, so it was easy to grab. 8}

100 Days of Pictures

Things That Are Annoying

#1: Dog hair in my bra, making my boob itch all day.

Friday Tunes

Day 27: A Song I Wish I Could Play

I'm just gonna leave this right here and walk away.

100 Days of Pictures: Day 22

Something I Wish I Was Better At

Yard work.

Well, it's not that I'm bad at it. Well, maybe. I'm not sure if I'm bad at it. I've never done it! I bet I would be, though. Either way, we neeeeeeeeed to start working on our back yard! Pronto. LOOK AT IT.

100 Days of Pictures

Lottery

I heard on the radio today that one of the lottery games is up to triple-digit millions.

Don't you always fantasize about what you would do with that kind of money? I do. Every time. Actually, I meant to text Mr. T and ask him to buy a ticket at some point today. Oh, well.

I would take payments, I think, instead of the lump sum. I'm pretty sure they take more out if you do the lump sum. And who needs that much money all at once? I like the security of knowing I'd have x amount coming in every month or year or however they do that.

The very first thing I'd do is hunt down Dave Ramsey and put him (or one of his underlings) in charge of me. Be like "DON'T LET ME BE A FOOL, DAVE!" Then I'd complete Baby Steps #2 and 3 - pay off debts and have a decent savings account.

I think I'd want to donate next - to my church, and World Vision. I've been contributing to World Vision since high school. Supposedly I'm helping this kid in India. It's only $30/month, so I'm counting it toward good intentions and assuming they're doing the right thing. I'd probably also put money toward animal rescues. PAWS, and a couple other local ones, including the few ladies in my hometown that are trying to get things under control.

The hard part would be dealing with friends and family. I'd want to share with everyone, but who is "everyone"? Maybe I'd just agree to pay off everyone's debt, or give them up to x amount. So if the amount is $50k and they only have $20k in debt, they'd get $30k in cash. Only immediate family and close friends. But who is a "close" friend? And who is "immediate" family on Mr. T's side? Technically he doesn't have any full siblings. But he's got about 20 step-siblings (only slight exaggeration) and three half-brothers.

I don't know about work. I'd probably quit. Or maybe not. I might stick around to get all the sites live, and then go. Or stick around to train someone? I dunno. I'd definitely buy a Smart ForTwo, though. And a sexy scooter. Mr. T would probably get a vehicle upgrade, too. And a scooter. Or a motorcycle. Whatever.

Ooohh...I'd definitely pay someone to get our yard in shape. Back and front. Cut down trees, sort out that slope in the backyard, plant new trees. I wouldn't have a permanent lawn service or anything - our yard is too small. I also don't think I'd move. I would get a state-of-the-art alarm service.

I think I'd still want to DIY a lot of home reno. And be a lot more confident, since I knew I could always just hire someone to fix it if it went south. But I'd pay someone to do big stuff, like put in hardwood floors. Build a built-in shelving unit I want for the living room. I'd also need to pace myself. Don't want to redo the entire house in a year or anything.

The thought of having children would be a lot less terrifying. Well, financially, anyway. The whole "raising them" thing would be terrifying. Maybe even more so. Kidnapping for ransom, people wanting to marry them only for their money...

Mr. T would definitely open his own shop. Not sure if he'd stay where Two-Tone is now or not. It would be an amazing feeling to know we could do that and still be financially stable. AND WE COULD HIRE PEOPLE! How sexy would that be?!

Alright, I've gone too far down the slippery slope. In reality we're not going to win, mainly because we don't buy lottery tickets. We're going to work our butts off and hopefully retire with a nice little nest egg and NO DEBT. Healthy, with tons of friends and family around. Mmm... Now that is a dream worth having.

Ramblings

I was sitting here trying to think of something to write about when I realized...I didn't used to have to have something to write about. I used to just ramble for a bit, and then stop when my brain shut down. So this is going to be one those rambling, pointless posts you guys used to love so much. You're welcome.

This is always a busy time for us, these few weeks between July and August. My birthday is July 21. Mr. T's is August 3. And our anniversary is August 14. For my birthday, Mr. T got a giant friggin 3D TV. The beauty of being a tattoo artist is that you can do stuff like trade tattoo time for a TV. So we didn't pay for it. The barter system is alive and well in this country, you just have to find it. He also spent about $200 on a 9" tablet that shoots 3D videos. We haven't actually attempted that yet, though. Mostly I just play Candy Crush Saga on it and curse the stars above. I've used it as an e-reader as well. It's nice to have a back-lit option for inside. Since I got my Kindle for my birthday right before they released the Paperwhite. So pissed. lol I had asked for books for my birthday and no one - no one - bought me books. Well, my brother did. But it's more dramatic when I say "no one". Sorry, brother. Everyone (except my brother) gave me money. So I bought books! So many books... I think it was like 14 for the Kindle and 5 physical books. That reminded me to check and see if they were delivered and THEY WERE!! I have books waiting on me back at the house. Weee... If you want to know (I know you do!) I got: 642 Things to Draw, 642 Things to Write About, and Wreck This Boxed Set. I also got a case for the tablet.

For Mr. T's birthday, I got him just a few little things. A Bill Murray pillow, a Ghostbusters t-shirt, and a poster with the rules to Fight Club on it. We're also going to send his Vita in to get repaired. We don't discuss the Vita. Just...don't mention it around us. We'll get it fixed and everything will be fine. Oh, also for his birthday we went to The Pottery Place at The Avenue. I went with the ladies from our small group at church a few months ago and thought he would enjoy it. Oh my goodness - he loved it! We were there for six hours, guys. SIX HOURS! He took reference materials. >.< He ended up doing an incredibly intricate Ghostbusters mural on a mug. I have a feeling we're going to be going back there a lot. Which I'm totally okay with! It's a ton of fun, and allows us to spend some great one-on-one time together not in front of a TV.

Anyway, here is Mr. T's super-impressive mug:

And here is my much-less-impressive giraffe piggy-bank (giraffy-bank?):

I was so pissed when that heart messed up. So pissed! But I can't wait to see them glazed and fired! If you've never been to one of these places, the colors are way more pastel and muted before the glaze and firing. It takes about a week before you can go back and pick them up. I've only ever been on a Saturday, and the pickup time for that is Friday after 3:00. I'm not sure if it's the same every other day of the week, but I would assume so.

Ahh...where was I? Right, our anniversary. We've been sticking to the traditional gifts to help us each year. I thought I had pictures of the previous two years, but I only have them of what I gave to Mr. T. >.< I'm going to start a scrapbook soon, so I need to get pictures!! Anyway, Year #1 is paper. Mr. T sketched several scenes from our wedding pictures onto paper and made a shadow box using pom poms and plastic flowers we'd had at the wedding. I'm not describing it well, but trust me - it's snazzy. I did a boudoir shoot for him. Here is the only picture the photographer released:

She's a Christian photographer, and a friend of ours - she also did our engagement, wedding, and trash the dress shoot - so I'm not going to post more. She stipulates that they are for husbands' eyes only. 8} But that is totally my lime green bra. So naughty! I miss fun hair...

Year #2 is cotton. I bought him about $200 worth of socks, underwear, t-shirts, and PJ pants. 8D

I was really proud of my pile. lol! You can kind of see what he got me in this picture - it was a suuuuper nice sheet set. It actually had a thread count! I don't remember what it is, now, but know that it had one! Those sheets are sexy, let me tell you. I think I'm going to put them back on the bed when I get home today.

Year #3 is leather, and I'm not going there. Like I said - I'm gonna scrapbook this shiz, and I don't want my kids seeing some dominatrix bs 20 years from now. I won't post what I bought him, since I haven't given it to him yet. Just know it's awesome. 8}

I've gone on for too long. Fin.

Friday Tunes

Day 26: A Song I Can Play on an Instrument

Yeah, I don't play instruments. I used to play clarinet, though! This is a video shot in 2006 of MTSU's Band of Blue playing a couple of songs while MTSU's biggest fan rocks out. I loved that old man. I don't think he's dead now or anything, but I'm not in band anymore, and I'm not going to pay for a ticket to an MTSU football game. lol I was a freshman in 2006 (that was seven years ago, guys) so I'm pretty sure I was at least pretending to play the songs along with everyone else. And that's as good as it's going to get. I doubt I could play "Three Blind Mice" right now. >.<

100 Days of Pictures: Day 21

My Favorite Night

What's that? You thought I'd put my wedding night?! Ha! How little you know me!!

Actually, I got tired of scrolling. Our wedding was three years ago, guys - there have been a lot of pictures posted to FB since then. AND these nights are pretty awesome. Me and Mr. T sitting on the couch, eating dinner. The dogs are all chill and behaving. There's something great on TV...AND this picture was taken on a Saturday. Those are the best nights. 8}

100 Days of Pictures

Oh, Mr. Darcy

It took me a good many years to jump on the Pride and Prejudice bandwagon. I think I even saw the movie first. And not even the Colin Firth one. The Matthew Macfadyen one. I've never seen the Colin Firth one, actually. Actually, the only other film I've seen is Bride & Prejudice, the Bollywood interpretation. That one is fabulous, for the record. I love Bollywood!!

But, yeah. I got the Barnes & Noble "leatherbound classics" edition of seven Jane Austen novels (link) for Christmas a couple years ago. First - can we all rejoice in the beauty that is B&N leatherbound classics? We own at least 10-20 of those bad boys, and I want them all. All of them! They're gorgeous books. GORGEOUS. That was the first time I ever read P&P but I loved it! I also read Sense and Sensibility and enjoyed it. I started on Mansfield Park and it was too much for me. That style of writing is difficult, the family is awful, and it's obvious the cousins are going to fall in love which is just...ew. And it's much longer than the other two. So I've taken a break from Jane Austen until I decide if I'm just going to skip over that one or suffer through it. Oh, side note - don't waste your time with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. That book is just dreadful. Brilliant concept, terrible execution. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, on the other hand is glorious.

Holy smokes, I'm off topic. Are you surprised? THEN YOU DON'T KNOW ME AT ALL.

The ladies from our small group at church had a "Pinterest Party" last weekend. We all brought recipes we'd found on Pinterest (I made frozen hot chocolate and peanut butter fruit dip and they were delicious.) and attempted to recreate this pin:

source

I've gone to Facebook and stolen all their pictures of their completed stuff. I got ones without faces in them, at least. Anyway, here are the final results:

She is an art teacher.

She prays this verse over her daughter every night.

Her husband got fancy in a word editor. 8P
This was everyone's favorite by far.

This is going into a Dr. Seuss-themed nursery.

I'm  saving mine for last because everyone loves me the most. Anyway, the art teacher's husband has a printer-type thing that creates vinyl stickers, so we gave her the text we wanted and she had him print it off. Everyone did it kind of differently, but basically you set it up how you want the letters to look, put stickers over it, then set it up how you want everything around the letters to look, and then peel the stickers off.

Everyone did basic painting, except for me. I MOD PODGED! Going back to my weird Pride and Prejudice rant that up until this point has made no sense in the context of this post... I made a Mr. Darcy quote. If you've read P&P, you'll probably know exactly the one I used. Also, if you remember me mentioning P&P&Z...well, we had a copy of that book, which sucks. And the only copy of P&P we have is in my super sexy B&N leatherbound edition...so the pages I Mod Podged were from Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. 8} I didn't look too closely at which pages I pulled - I just got ones that had full text from top to bottom and no chapter numbers or blank space at the end of a chapter in them. I also used the picture where Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are standing in the middle of a cabbage patch full of zombies that are eating cabbage because they thought it was brains. That book is so weird. And don't let those last two sentences make you think you want to read it, because - trust me - it sucks.

So, yeah. I Mod Podged the paper down, put stickers on it, painted over it yellow, and pulled the stickers off. Some things to do differently:

1. Make sure you cover the paper completely with Mod Podge before putting the stickers down. They peel off super easy, as long as they're not on non-Mod-Podged paper. There were a few that were directly on the paper, and it just peeled off with the sticker. Super lame.
2. If you use a light color - like yellow - the letters are not going to show up once you peel the stickers off and expose the white paper. So then you'll have to go back in with a tiny paintbrush and fill in the letters with black, cursing the day you were born.
3. If you ignore #1 and #2, make sure you at least start early in the day. I started around 8:00. Left my friend's house around 11:00 and it took me...maybe 30 min to get home? I was up until about 3:00 filling in the letters and doing my final layer of Mod Podge. Granted, I was also watching Orange is the New Black, so I might not have been super speedy.

ANYWAY, here is the final result:

pre-yellow
Some might think I should've left it like this.
I don't disagree...

with the yellow
There is an Instagram filter on this bad boy, but you get the idea.

It was fun. 8/10 - I would do it again. Only I'd be smarter about it.

100 Days of Pictures: Day 20

Somewhere I Want To Travel

This one is tricky, because I'm trying to only use pictures that I've already uploaded to Facebook. And I don't usually post "I'd love to go HERE" pictures. >.< Let's see what I can find...

Alright, I'm using two different pictures. Suck it.

The first one I came across was from Bonnaroo. You guys, it was so much fun. We got to see PAUL MCCARTNEY. We got to MACKLEMORE. WE GOT TO SEE WEIRD AL. Plus, you know, other stuff, too. Those were my big three, though. No clue who is playing next year, but I know I want to be there. 8}

Kind of a weird picture, but when I saw it I was like "YES! Barnes & Noble!" lol! When I took the picture, I got a kick out of Fifty Shades of Grey being beside a Lincoln biography, or whatever that is. 'Murica. Anyway, I asked for books for my birthday this year and instead was given money to buy my own books. >.< It's cool - I've already bought 7 with the Amazon gift card my sister gave me. It was $25 and I still have $3 left! I had nearly 130 books on my list, so I just went through and chose the cheapest Kindle books on there. Got 2 or 3 for $0.99. 8} Anyway, all that to say I need to spend the rest of my birthday money! All on books!!!

100 Days of Pictures

Half-Bath, Part 2: Paint, Paint, and more Paint

Part 1

Sorry for the lack of updates on the bathroom. It's because we're the slowest remodelers ever. My first post about this was on the 14th and here we are, two weeks later and the room is maybe halfway done. All we're doing is painting! Heaven help us if we ever get into demo remodels... Anyway, here are some pictures:

color palette, sorry the black is on black, but you know what black looks like

removed hardware/spackled

There were FOUR anchors for the screws holding the tp on the wall. I tried to pull them out and the drywall started bowing. PAINTED OVER.

first coat of white

second coat of white

so pretty and clean...

first coat of black

No pictures of second coat, but these are bad enough you can't see the red coming through, I don't think. If you can, just know we added a 2nd coat so it isn't there now.

Installing the light. Makes the room even darker, but not as dark as these pictures make it seem.

So, yeah...that's where we are. Well, I've splotched on the off-white over the white, but those pictures look like crap, due to the lighting and lack of a decent camera. They're also not easily accessible right now. So I guess you're get TWO painting posts. At the rate we're going, the next one will be go up around December. 8P

Mr. T started working on the stencils for the picture frames. I'm working up the courage to begin trying to stencil in the birch trees on the white area. We're...I'd say halfway done with painting. We got a lot of surface area covered, but the details are going to be more tedious.

Oh, and that art? We just had our silent auction at the gallery (you should really come out to one sometime!) and I bid $75 on them, plus another $20 on a smaller piece of art from the same artist. She turned me down. I knew it would be a possibility, but it was worth a shot! The worst part about it was when Mr. T asked her how much she would be willing to take - open the floor up for some negotiation, you know? - and she said "I don't know."

.........

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you don't sell your art. Thank you, and have a good day. Hopefully there will be some cool stuff coming in this month that I can bid on.