...and much more peaceful than six hours ago.

so, i finally decided that i'd tile my kitchen, like i've been meaning to do for, oh about a year or so now. i bought the tile at home depot earlier this week, and i just borrowed some spacers and a tile cutter from sean last night. so today i started to just dry-fit the tile, to see where everything would go. i cut my first tile, to fit it up against the wall. it's not perfect, as i am probably the least handy person alive, but it's not too bad either.

a few things i've noticed, though: first off, the spacers are shaped like cat food. this is a bad thing with loki; i'm pretty sure he'll be pulling about all of them out before this is all said and done. i also am going to the tile class at home depot tomorrow, to make sure i know all the things i need to know. should be interesting.

( the progress so far )

This family vacation started with, "I think this is going to be our last trip here. This place is a dump." And true, it really kind of is, but a) it's still the beach, and b) it's still pretty fun.

The kids are being hilarious and are all getting along (all 8 of them, counting my cousin's friends' kids), so that's amazing. I made the mistake of teaching my little 4-year old cousin Kiley the most obnoxious knock-knock joke in the world (banana. banana. banana. orange. orange you glad I didn't say banana), which she has somehow morphed into: "TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. TV. Glasses. Orange you glad I didn't say banana...no. wait. TV...glasses." or some other variation ("orange you glasses I didn't say banana?") She's the cutest thing ever, and has decided that she loves Murphy and tries to kiss and hug (and headbutt) him every chance she gets, which as anyone might imagine, he absolutely hates. Also, I witnessed the longest game of tag in the history of time tonight...which only ended because the grown ups got tired of the screaming and running...especially after some of us got roped into playing, too.

Sadly, the necklace that Murphy made me on their rainy craft day a couple of days ago broke at a restaurant today and spilled beads all over the floor. I was able to salvage some of the beads before they all fell off, so all is not lost. I still have a cheap child's craft to hang around my neck, at least for the duration of the trip (or until it breaks again). Yay!

I haven't gotten as much reading/writing in as I would have liked by now, but there has been some insanely good and much-needed quality family time instead, which is 800 times better. Amy is the best sister-in-law I could have ever asked for, if asking for any one in particular would have been an option. And Murphy just slays me. I've been trying to write down the funny things that seem to spew out of his mouth, but I keep forgetting. Hearing him say, "Oh, no she didn't" complete with the accompanying gesture (one hand on hip, the other hand shaking the finger in a 'no-no' kind of way) and head-bob was enough to make me and my brother almost lose our collective shit.

Taking some good pictures, but I'll have to wait until I get home to post the majority of them, as my USB charger/connector for the phone doesn't work with my brother's laptop, so I'm down to just the car charger...which comes in handy when I just walk wherever I need to go. Maybe I'll take a drive around PCB tomorrow and let it get some juice while my skin takes a breather from the sun.

Oh, yeah. I got sunburned today, but I didn't think it was that bad...until I got out of the shower, which always happens. But still nice to feel, in an odd way.

However.

After a 4.5-hour interrupted nap in place of a restful, uninterrupted night's sleep on cushions pulled from a loveseat to a very slippery laminate floor, getting sunburned, and tiring oneself out from swimming in the ocean with children, one should not then board a "pirate ship" to spend two hours in the blazing sun with even more children (all armed with water pistols, plastic swords, tambourines, pirate hats, "buried treasure", face paint, and temporary tattoos), unless a) one is wearing something other than corduroy shorts--which feel awesome on sunburned legs--,and b) one has cash for the bar aboard said "pirate ship". Neither of which applied to me, unfortunately. I saw some dolphins, but ended up getting a little sea/sun-sick and spent a good bit of the final hour trapped in a booth in the bar area, which was kind of okay with me until all of the rocking started happening. I survived, though, and am happy to report that the fried oysters from The Boatyard totally made up for the Sea Dragon.

On the agenda for tomorrow: more swimming, more beach, more family time, and fireworks on the beach. I have to say, as much as I'm enjoying the time here, I am looking forward to Saturday very much when many adult beverages will be consumed, guilt- and judgment-free. Weeee.

Ah, the places i go. today i was working out at a bank in roswell, and the route i take, i pass right by two targets. such a beautiful commute for someone like me. plus, since i was running the job today, i got to dictate when we left. so i made sure we took a 30 minute lunch, and left a little early, when we were completely done, at 4 this afternoon. i then went by the targets as follows:

target, hwy 92 - transformers animated starscream, and superhero squad hulk & abomination. the former was on sale for $18, and the latter was on clearance for only $4.50. good times!
target, shallowford road - again, the clearance items got me. this time it was a "first strike optimus prime." basically just the movie optimus repainted with the cartoon optimus colors. but hey, it was on clearance for $13, so i couldn't resist.

nothing that i was actively looking for, but still, not a bad shopping day.

( my weakness for clearance toys )

I always forget how unwieldy my hair gets at the beach. In my family, we have started calling this the "clown hair" effect.

short post - nothing really going on. yesterday, i went to home depot to buy some tile; i'm finally feeling motivated to tile my kitchen. i was just randomly watching something on tlc or something last weekend, and they were tiling a bathroom, and i was like "that doesn't look too bad - i could do that!" so i went to home depot, and bought a few dozen tiles, just to dry fit them on the kitchen floor. i was also going to run by sean's, since he had a tile cutter and spacers that i was going to use. he was out mowing grass, though, so i just got the tile. i then moved the little breakfast table downstairs (by myself - and it was a pain; i'm so stubborn), and put some tile down to get a feel for what it's going to look like. in a few months (my estimated completion time, given how quickly i do all my other home improvement projects), it should look really nice!

oh yeah, and to keep up with the toy collecting documentation, i stopped by target on barrett, and toys r us on barrett. nothing at either.

Headed to the beach with the fam tomorrow. Need to pack, but first....

a) Some work
b) Giving andrew some wisdom (yay, wisdom!)
c) Watching the Braves (v. Phillies) at Johnny's. Is Chipper Jones' name really "Chipper"? Who would do that to a kid?
d) Remember this?

Well. I was watching last Thursday's episode of The Daily Show today, and saw this (the main point is at 2:30):


So, this leads me to one of three possible conclusions:
1) I share a brain with one of the writers from The Daily Show
2) I obviously need a job working for The Daily Show, because, HELLOOOO? That was my joke first
3) One of the writers from The Daily Show reads this and stole my terminology (in which case, "Hello, My name is 'Flattered'")

I think it's 1 or 2, because there is absolutely no chance of 3, not even in my humor-writing dreams. Happy early 4th (and Happy Early Birthday to Laura (karura16)), though because I am a junkie, I'm sure there will be beach posting and such. Weeee!

From: tbons' Manager
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 10:51 AM
To: Technology
Subject: Congratulations to tbons!

Congratulations to tbons on her promotion to Product Development Manager. tbons has been with the company for 5 years and over the last 2 years tbons has been an instrumental part of the Employer Product Development team. tbons has worked closely with Technology on several projects including search enhancements, Security, HTML Editor, French Canadian Site. She also plays a key role with sales and customer care support with site hosting, ecommerce product portal & corporate product portal, phone product and State/Gov't projects.

tbons has also been a part of our internal Leadership Development Program (LDS) for over 2 years and recently started Georgia Tech's Executive MBA in Management of Technology.

tbons has consistently demonstrated a strong work ethic and a dedication to success.

Congratulations tbons!

tbons' Manager
Sr. Product Development Manager


In other news - If you are looking for something fun and for a good cause in Atlanta, July 17 is a Karaoke contest for GOAL. Please click here for more details!

Saturday - slept in till around 11, after my long day before at six flags. then, i just sat around, watched tv and stuff until ben IMed me around 1, saying he wanted to go to a movie. at first i said no, i needed to clean the house; then i remembered i love to procrastinate, and i wanted to go see wanted. so he came over, and we went to see wanted at 2:30. first, we stopped by target though, and i bought some red converse shoes, for a dr who costume at dragon con. yes, i'm gonna be one of those people, apparently. my friend have talked me into it. but i opted for dr who, so really all i'll have to do is wear a blue suit with red converse; no crazy makeup or gadgets or anything. it should work out all right.

wanted was....ok, i guess. since i loved the source material, the comic, so much, i definitely wouldn't say it was as good as that, but i think as a movie on its own, it was an entertaining time. the action sequences were amazing, and angelina jolie is super hot. so i think yes, i would recommend it. i'd also recommend reading the comic, as it is the amazing story that got this movie made in the first place, even if they only have a passing similarity.

dinner was at barnacles, with the whole family and the norwegians. it was fun times, except for the fact that the only place that had room enough for us was the game room, and so half the night, we were shouting over the air hockey table. i wouldn't recommend it. but the food was good, as always, and the kids were shocked by the wall to wall tvs, which is always fun.

toy shopping roundup for the day:
target, barrett parkway - transformers animated lugnut. just another one to fill out the collection.
toys r us, barrett pkwy - transformers animated bumblebee; he seems to be the harder to find one of the series, so i got him when i could find him.
wal-mart, barrett pkwy - transformers animated black arachnia.

( toys! )

so today, i took the norwegians to six flags. i have to say, as much as i've been to six flags, and i've seen most of it already, it really does take on a new meaning when you're seeing people from another country experiencing it. but let me start from the beginning....

( My long winded story of taking norwegians to six flags )

It's one of those: "will the day ever end?" days. It's not in a bad way. It just feels like I've been here for three days. Probably because of all of the material we've gone over today. School at an excelerated pace is exhausting. I would recommend it, but be prepared to not sleep for a couple of years.

@ the aqarium with the fam...murphy being silly

This week marked a big week in the huge summer events for me. All the Avengers comics that came out revealed a lot about Secret Invasion, and Final Crisis #2 came out as well.

First, Final Crisis. I think I’m officially done with this one now. Grant Morrison just isn’t for me. He has some great ideas, but somehow he loses me in the execution. I’m sure the idea for a “bullet that travels through time” sounds great, but this story still made little to no sense to me. Plus the fact that you have the gods from Apokalips running around as humans, which I have no idea how that happened, and a random throwaway death of the Martian Manhunter, and I’m just out.

Secret Invasion had a lot of major reveals this week too, and the miniseries didn’t even come out. I love how Bendis is showing how the skrulls replaced certain characters. While not essential to enjoying the mini, it’s good for the people like me who wonder exactly when they were replaced. I know when it was revealed that Hank Pym was a skrull, everyone wanted it to be a long time ago, so the “real” Hank wouldn’t be a wife beater. Sadly, that’s not the case. Instead, Hank is still a bastard that beat his wife, then hooks up with a hot little college student in England that turns out to be a skrull and replaces him. Ah well. But with this issue, and the New Avengers that came out this week too, it seems like Bendis is taking the characters out right as he started writing them, so he’s not contradicting other writers’ work, so far. Which I think is nice. So for Secret Invasion, I’m still all in. Good work Marvel, this is what I like to see.

Slight other rant, though, on what is annoying me with Marvel. It pisses me off when they ignore continuity to tell a story they think is “better”, or to coddle a great writer. Now, I love Mark Millar; his Fantastic Four story hasn’t really been too great so far, but Civil War was excellent, as was Wanted, and Enemy of the State, just to name a few. But to make everyone get a “Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four” comic just because he’s in the middle of his story, it just rings untrue to me. Supposedly Millar’s story is set in present time, but in present time, skrulls are invading! It just gets confusing. They’re going to do the same with the X-Men soon, having a separate Secret Invasion mini. I’d like to see the regular story get interrupted, just to give a sense that these people are in the same world, instead of doing a one-off mini that doesn’t have any impact on the regular title. Bleh.

And that’s my brief thought about what’s going on with comics this week.

Hooray!


I can't decide whether I look deliriously happy or super-crazy sleepy. I think it's a little bit of both.

Trivia Tuesday @ Trackside was a success, but only in the social aspect. We had a huge team this week. But...We. Effing. Sucked. The questions were unbelievably hard, and we talked ourselves out of a few answers that ended up being right. But it's not always about winning is it? It's the act of playing and have fun doing it. At least that's what losing teams always say.



( ...and some pictures. )

I guess we weren't feeling quite as funny this week as a collective, but here was some funny dialogue:

Kit talking about how she was having a conversation with someone this weekend about how Jewish guys all have small dicks. "I've had a sampling, I know." Which led to the conclusion that Jewish girls have small cooters. All of which led to the best nickname for Kit anyone has ever come up with (thanks, Russ): "What are you, Wiki-dickia?!" And yes, she totally needs a t-shirt.

Kit (talking about the appeal of roller derby): "Girls with short shorts and roller skates."
Russ: "You can't beat that!"
Justin: "No, but the internet can."

ok, eddie izzard was awesome tonight! just to put it down, a few bullet points to remind me of the good stuff:

- giraffe charades
- Charles Darwin's book, "monkey monkey monkey monkey you"
- Viking words: yogurt, yacht, kiosk
- triceratops: like making a tank that shoots daisys
- badgers can be choosers
- citation - needed on wikipedia, and a jet airplane
- battle of thermopolae, just an anagram for good ship lollipop
- germans, just went batshit crazy all at once
- thou shalt not cover your neighbor's ox
- tigers get confused by furniture
- only one way to fight a greek with a 20 foot spear

and that's just a few i remember off the top of my head. sorry this one made no sense, but i knew i'd forget a bunch of the stuff i heard tonight, and wanted to get it down so i remembered some of the funny parts.

And I got a 93. Now, if I can just conquer Biz Stats...

douche gaggle: a grouping of two or more people who a) are, on their own, Certified Douche Bags(CDBs)™ (in some regions, more commonly known as "douche baggles"), and/or b) tend toward a particularly douche-like disposition.


Example: Ugh. I do not wish to attend the opera with that douche gaggle. They are all so incredibly annoying.