So, This Sure Puts a Damper on Our Plans

Get it? Get it?? A Damper? Har har...

It always just generally and unecessarily annoys me when the rain has to start on a Friday. Even when I'm just planning to stay home for the weekend. Somehow I would feel better knowing that today was just as much of a grey stormy mess as what we're likely to encounter tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday.

Oh well though. The only plans this will surely have an affect on include riding our bikes all over the valley (mostly because I'm sort of a weeny about getting my purty bike all wet in the rain), taking lots of pretty pictures (because I'm definitely a weeny about pulling my camera out where it's wet), and picnicking with my husband out in a pretty meadow (who likes soggy bread?)...we still plan to hike and camp and snuggle up close in our Element (the possibility of sleeping in our tent is now nil, but I prefer the car anyway).

Stay dry this weekend, and I'll be back...if not with pictures, surely with some funny stories.

Project 365 - Month 2

It's been two months since I started my Project 365.

03.24.09 - 04.23.09

31 pictures that tell the story of the second month of my 28th year.

If you haven't already, click on over to my Project 365 blog to see all these photos, larger and with commentary.

I'm having so much fun with this project, and I think you could have a lot of fun with it too! If you think you might be interested in starting your own Project 365 and/or you feel at all inspired by me/mine, let me know so I can feature you over on my other blog, just like Shelly, Andrea, Michelle, Jesse, and Dianne.

Previously in this series:

Month 1

The Weekend Cannot Come Fast Enough!

Friday morning, Todd and I will be leaving for a weekend in Yosemite, and I am ecstatic! You know that feeling you'd get when you were a little kid just days away from leaving for a trip to see Disneyland? I have that feeling.

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Adding to my ever-growing excitement is the giant factoid that Todd has never been to Yosemite! I'm fast learning, as I disclose this information to others, that many people have never been to Yosemite.

Baffling.

I have been to the park more times than I can count or recall. I've hiked the mist trail to the top of Vernal Falls more times than I can remember. And I've looked down upon the valley from Glacier Point more times than I can count on my fingers and toes.

Though all of my childhood (and several adult) moments and memories seem to blur into one hodgepodge of bountiful waterfall and granite glory, I am always beyond thrilled to return for more moments and to make more memories to add to the hodgepodge. But this time, I am extra super duper thrilled to share the experience with my husband.

My husband.

My. Husband.

Eight months (in 3 days) later, that is still so fun to say/write/think/know/be...

This weekend, my husband and I are going to Yosemite. What are your plans for May Day?

Everyone's Entitled to Their Own Opinion. And I'm Entitled to be Critical of it.

So, you knew it was coming right? My thoughts on Miss California’s answer to that question in the Miss USA competition…in case you’ve been living under a rock, you can check out the video here.

My favorite part (note my sarcasm, please) was where she said, “…no offense to anyone, but…” and then goes on to throw out her incredibly offensive statements about believing that marriage should only be recognized between a man and a woman.

First, I’m going to pretend like I actually care about pageantry. I’m going to feign interest in this “competition” and the people in it and pretend like I think it actually matters who becomes Miss anywhere/anything/anywho. Only because I have a few points to make, and I like making my points on this issue well known on this here blog. Remember?

I’ve been reading a lot about this and I’ve found that there is quite a bit of support for Miss California from people and groups who oppose same-sex marriage. Shocking, I know. But, one thing that surprises me a bit is that there are some folks who are in favor of same-sex marriage but still supportive of Miss California. This group tends to claim that “at least she stood up for what she believes in,” and commend her for her voice, for her conviction.

Further, a lot of people are claiming that had she not been posed with (and subsequently forced to answer) such a controversial question, she would have been guaranteed the crown. I even heard there’s a Facebook group out there claiming she is “the real Miss USA.”

My opinion? I hope that the comment cost her “the crown.” I hope the fact that she feels that way at all (and was willing to publicly say it, no less), cost her something important and valuable to her.

I hope that’s the case because it says to me that we really are continuing to move in a forward direction where people who make discriminatory and prejudiced comments, who have discriminatory and prejudiced thoughts and opinions will not be tolerated, much less rewarded for stating those thoughts.

Now, she absolutely has the right to feel that way and she has the right to say those things, but in my opinion, her feelings and her comments are also a completely justifiable reason to criticize and penalize her, especially in a "competition" that is intended to potentially put her in a position of being a role model and/or representative of our Country.

Just because you (meaning, anyone) have an opinion on something, put “no offense” in front of it, and claim it’s “just your opinion” doesn’t mean you’re not totally and completely wrong. It is my opinion that an opinion can be wrong. Let me give you some examples.

There are groups of individuals in this Country who currently, presently, today believe women shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Don’t believe me? Google it. That’s their opinion. Is it really not wrong?

While I lived in Alabama, a friends’ Southern Baptist Deacon father told me that he believed (it was his opinion) that black people and white people should not attend the same churches. He told me that Jesus loved everyone the same, but that, in his opinion, races should “stick to their own church, to their own kind.” Is he not wrong?

What about my friend in the Engineering world who claimed (with well-intentioned sympathy) that the work we did together must be harder for me because in general, he believed men are better at math than women? Never mind that this can be proven wrong…it’s his opinion! What do you think? Just respect it?

Sixty years ago, the majority of people in our Country had the opinion that black people were inferior to white people and that they should be given fewer, if any, Civil Rights. Was that not wrong?

Miss California stated her opinion, her belief about same-sex marriage, and I believe (that is, it is my opinion) that it is unjustifiably wrong for her, or any person, to possess that opinion.

To desire to keep a group of individuals from possessing the same rights as the majority is just plain wrong.

She deserves the backlash, she doesn’t deserve a position of influence or role model-dom, and frankly, I’m not sure she deserves much more of my blog space. So I think I’ll just wrap it up.

I don’t respect her opinion. Feel the same way she does? I don’t respect your opinion. And you can pretty much bet the farm that I’m not ever going to.

But hey, this is all just my opinion. No offense.

Tax Day (almost)

Tomorrow is tax day!

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Though I'm sure you don't need a reminder from me.

I normally look a little too forward to tax day. I really should alter my witholdings a bit because the refunds we get are just not-so-smart long-terms loans to the federal government. This I know.

Because of a somewhat questionable financial decisions we made last year (related to the planning of, enjoying of, and subsequent paying for our wedding), we aren't getting a super lofty return this year. But it's still something to look forward to.

In fact, we actually owed a very little bit of State taxes, which I promptly mailed today. Because I'm one part procrastinator, one part happy to keep my own funds in my interest-drawing checking account for as long as possible.

Any other last-minute tax preparers out there? For the record, we had them done via TurboTax back in February. It's just the actually hitting "file" and writing the check that we procrastinated on this time.

Anyway, Happy Tax Day-eve!

Oh, and to my loyal subscribers...sorry about that weird glitchy premature-post of yester-minute. Oh, how I love thee Google, but you are still far from perfect.

Happy Easter!

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This has always been a favorite Easter cartoon.

I hope you're all enjoying the Holiday with family and/or friends!

Happy Easter!

Belated Birthday Wishes

Crazy busy moving made it virtually impossible for me to log on to the internet and post a message wishing my dad happy birthday.

My dad and me dancing at my wedding. I love the smile on his face.

So, happy belated birthday to my dad.

Two days late, but with lots of love and good intentions.

Shug & Cozy Turn Three!

Three years ago today, these two baby kitties were born.

Most people are surprised to learn these two were born to the same cat-mama. Shug with his long orange hair, a stub where a tail would be, and much independence and Cozy with her short dark stripes and brown patchy hair, a long, animated tail and a snugly disposition that matches the name my nephew gave her, I just know these two were meant to be our fur-babies.

The last few days have been really hectic and crazy. We're moving and I honestly am flabbergasted by the amount of stuff we own, but watching these two explore their new home has been nothing short of a joy.

And joy is exactly what Shug & Cozy have brought to our lives every day for the last 3 years. And so this post (not unlike 70% or so of the other posts on this blog) is dedicated to them.

Happy Birthday, our Shug & our Cozy.

Happy Birthday, Cliff!

Hardly anyone who knows my husband, and then meets my father-in-law can resist making a comment about how similar they are. And so it makes a lot of sense that I think my father-in-law, Cliff is an absolutely awesome guy.

On the very off/unlikely chance he ever sees this post, I just want to say I hope you're having a super happy birthday, HeathCliff.

To everyone else, my father-in-law is better than your father-in-law...and Happy Thursday!

Donate Life

April is National Donate Life month, so I thought today would be a good time to post here on my blog about my commitment to donation, why it's important to me, and to ask you, my readers to at least consider becoming an organ donor if you’re not already.

I've always believed in the importance of organ donation but it really became an issue so close to my heart after the passing of my friend Brian’s 4-year old daughter Delaney in May 2004.

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A little back-story…

While I was in college, I decided to participate in a cooperative education program which gave me some real-world job experience, a semester-at-a-time break from school, and quite a bit more money than I was able to make during school as a gift-wrapper and customer service gal in the mall.

I worked one quarter and three semesters at a local water & sewer municipality (one more than required, for a total of about 15 months), and got quite a bit of experience as well as met some pretty incredible people along the way.

One of those people was my boss, Brian. Brian is such a great guy. A kind, funny, jovial guy who loves absolutely nothing more than God and his family. At the time that I met Brian, he had two little boys about the same ages as my cousin’s Brittany and Eliot, and a darling little girl named Delaney.

As I said, Brian loves his family. It is so obvious. He has pictures of his children and his wife, Carolyn in his office at work and he talks about them so much. He openly admitted with pride that Delaney had him wrapped around her little finger. He loved telling us how she relished having her tiny 4-year-old nails painted by her daddy when he’d come home from work.

In May 2004, I was nearly at the end of my final semester as a co-op student. I arrived at work one morning and was told Brian would be out for a few days because of some health concerns with his daughter.

Delaney had had a crooked smile, and had been diagnosed with Bell’s palsy some time before (I’m not sure of the exact timeline and don’t want to speculate). When it didn’t go away as quickly as the doctor had predicted, they went back in for more tests. It was then that they discovered a tumor in her brain.

They performed a biopsy not long after that. It was all very serious, though I can remember the magnitude of it not hitting me until word came to our office that she’d been put on life support. It literally never occurred to me for a second that she could pass away until I heard those words. Life. Support.

The biopsy had caused the tumor to swell, putting pressure on her delicate brain, and she never woke up.

When the doctors let Brian and Carolyn know that Delaney would not wake up, one of the first questions Carolyn asked was whether anything they had given to Delaney during her procedure would prevent her from being an organ donor.

Delaney’s kidneys, liver, and lungs were donated to three people, including two very sick young children.

I cannot stress enough how greatly important it is to me to spread the word about organ donation and how great an impact you can have on the lives of other people by becoming a donor yourself. Each organ donor is truly a hero whose life literally goes on in the world. If you think of the impact Delaney’s organs had on the lives of those three people and all the people who know and love those three people, you can begin to see just how widespread and amazing a gift it truly is.

I know Brian and Carolyn miss their little girl every single day, but they have great faith in God, 5 healthy and happy children around them, an expansive and supportive group of family and friends, and they are truly amazing people for the gifts they gave the world in Delaney’s life and in her death.

Donate Life. Seriously, it’s important. For more information about how you can commit to donation, follow this link and find your state.