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Manic Monday 42 – Plant

Yesterday (and today) has been incredibly gorgeous, in terms of the weather, and I was sitting outside watching my gremlins play in the front yard, while watching them I noticed that my poor plants are in dire need of some TLC. In addition, I need to add some plants to a few of the pots that are looking a bit sad or really sad depending on your positive/negative bend.

I think I’m gonna plan on picking up a few plants this weekend & clean up the whole front porch! Just in time to impress my guests for Sunday. Hmmm, I’m kinda starting to get excited about the prospect.

Enough for now,

Ciao

Friday Bullets – 5th Edition

Welcome to Friday! It’s been Friday for hours now & in some places it’s really Saturday already but hopefully there isn’t anyone in those places reading this post & thinking “Shit! It’s still Friday? WTF?!” But anyway, where I live it’s still Friday and I’m gonna do another boring edition of Friday bullets cause I got nothin’ better to do. And not piles of work. And not crap to get together for the CPA or anything. Heh. So, without further delay.

• I’ve been holding onto this picture from LOLcats for MONTHS or maybe just one month. Have you seen it? I luurrrve this picture!!! Look at the fish! And look at the cat! Ahahahahaha. I also like the message. Because really, death IS always closer than you think.

more animals

• As long as the weather holds out, we’re meeting up with some other peeps tonight at Honey bunny’s school for a bit of star gazing.
• I have no idea what to wear to a bridal shower that I’m going to tomorrow.
• The gift that I got for the shower is probably more appropriate for the bachelorette party, if you know what I’m talking about.
• So hopefully it doesn’t embarrass the shit outta anyone. Especially the bride. Or perhaps her grandmother.
• Avoidance & procrastination are my best friends at this time of year.
• My little pumpkin is turning 4 years old in ten days.
• It blows my mind that she is turning four already.
• We were looking through pictures of her when she was first born and my god I was the size of a HOUSE!
• My dad is going to Philippines next week & he has been having radiation and chemo treatments since December.
• I’m REEEEAALLLY freaked out that he is taking this trip.
• Yet, I know that he has to go cause its truly important to him.
• I alternate between scared, happy, depressed, angry, joyous, and a dozen other emotions on an hourly basis these days.
• Maybe I should consider some medication?
• And finally, a hilarious literal video translation from the Funny or Die site ~cause this is one of my happy moments. It is the White Wedding Video from Billy Idol (if I had more skillz wit da html I could figure out how to display the video below but I suck) so enjoy the video anyway!

White Wedding: Literal Video Version – watch more funny videos

Enough for now,

Ciao

What Desiree needs…

You may have seen this meme going around…type (your name) needs into Google and see what you need. Then write the first 10 things you find…

1. Desiree needs… a vacation!! (Ha! This is perfect.)
2. Desiree needs… everyone now. (For a great big party with lots of alcoholic type beverages)
3. Desiree needs… solace. (This is kinda true, actually. Weird)
4. Desiree needs… a hobby that doesn’t start with “f” and ryhme with chasebook. (Holy shit!! I’m not making this up!!!)
5. Desiree needs… 100 color copies in binders. (Huh, apparently someone thinks I’ve got work to do!)
6. Desiree needs… to get a mortgage. (WOW I’m starting to get frightened by this now.)
7. Desiree needs… a pulpit. (Bwaahhahahahaha, nobody wants me to get behind a pulpit, believe me)
8. Desiree needs… some help (and some adult conversation). (Preferably with my best girlfriends & lots of alcohol)
9. Desiree needs… a family that will be patient with her. (Sooooo, true.)
10. Desiree needs… to be vindicated. (Wha huh?)

So now, if you want to participate, then follow the incredibly simple instructions above and get on with it! Oh, and put a link to yours in the comment section so I can find out what it is that you need.

Enough for now,

Ciao

Getting to know you… getting to know all about you. The couples edition.

I was reading dooce last night where  she completed this meme. So I decided to be a copy cat and answer these questions for the husband & myself. Please to enjoy!

What are your middle names?
My middle name is Duplan ~ funny name you say? Well, it wasn’t always my middle name. Originally -at birth- my mother & father gave me a lovely middle name Leigh, in case you were wondering, and when we got married I changed my maiden name to my middle name. Rob’s middle name is Arthur. And it is his father’s middle name & it was his grandfather’s middle name & his great grandfather’s middle name. Since we didn’t have a boy child we couldn’t carry on this little tradition. Although, I guess we could have given one of the gremlins Arthur as a middle name. Added some fodder for the psych appointments.

How long have you been together?
We’ve been married thirteen and a half years, together over 18 years. Yep, that’s half my lifetime.

How long did you know each other before you started dating?
Roughly two weeks, I’d say.

Who asked whom out?
He asked me for my phone number then called me the next day.

How old are each of you?
We’re both 38, he’s 19 days older than me. Which I like to throw in his face every time he tells me I’m old.

Whose siblings do you see the most?
Mine since Rob doesn’t have any siblings.

Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
I think the thing that causes the most difficulty is the children. WTH were we thinking having kids?! No, I’m kidding! But honestly, we have very differing parenting styles and I think this is one of our biggest challenges.

Did you go to the same school?
Nope. He went to school in one city & I went to school in another city.

Are you from the same home town?
No. I think I made it fairly obvious with my answer to the last question.

Who is smarter?
I’m not sure. We share a brain these days so it’s 6 of one / half dozen of another. I’d have to say that he is definitely smarter in some areas & I’m smarter in others. Together we know a lot of useless information.

Who is the most sensitive?
Oooooh, that would be me.

Where do you eat out most as a couple?
Almost every restaurant that we go to we can take the gremlins but if we’re going to eat out just the two of us, then I suppose it would be La Fondue.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
China.

Who has the craziest exes?
Well we’ve been together for so dang long that we never had a chance to accumulate a bunch of crazy exes.

Who has the worst temper?
That would be Rob.

Who does the cooking?
Me, that is when I’m not being persuaded to go out to eat -yet again- by Rob & the gremlins. I try to cook, I suggest things but since I’m not a short order cook & can’t make what each individual wants to eat for dinner on that given night, the restaurant ALWAYS wins.

Who is the neat-freak?
Freak? Don’t call me a freak. Just cause I like to have things tidy doesn’t make me a freak!

Who is more stubborn?
Um, this is a tie. We are both extremely stubborn. And now we have two ridiculously stubborn children to add to the stubbornness mix.

Who hogs the bed?
With a King sized bed there is plenty of room for two or four people. Before you go all, “oohhhh, who else do you have in your bed?!” I’m referring to those two stubborn children.

Who wakes up earlier?
Hahahahahaha. Me. Cause Pumpkin comes into our bedroom, walks straight up to my side of the bed and in not so hushed tones tells me to get up & make her some breakfast. This usually occurs at some point between the hours of  5-6am EVERY DAMN day of the week. Yes, even on Saturday & Sunday.

Where was your first date?
Movie theater

Who is more jealous?
Probably me. Thank the stars above that I have nothing to be jealous about.

How long did it take to get serious?
We were serious almost right away. Pretty much within a month and a half we were dating exclusively.

Who eats more?
Rob does. Now. But there was a couple times ~when I was preggers~ that I could out eat him.

Who does the laundry?
Let’s see… hmmm…. d’oh, that’s right, I do. All the laundry. All the time.

Who’s better with the computer?
Hands down, Rob. He had one of those first personal computers that was the size of a baby elephant – well not really- but close and my first computer was one he got for me when he worked at Apple. So he’s had years more experience with computers & it has always been the field he’s worked in.

Who drives when you are together?
It’s a toss up. If it’s my car, then I usually drive. If it’s his car, then he drives. Although lately I’ve been having him drive for me. Laziness? Sorta.

If you’d like to participate in this stolen meme, then copy & paste into your own blog, email, facebook, myspace, whathaveyou, and answer the questions. Add your link in the comment section so I know & can read all about you.

I seem to have forgotten I have a blog

I am not entirely certain if I haven’t written a word on this blog in nearly one month’s time because I have nothing to say (which isn’t wholly true) or I’m too dag gum busy (which is wholly true) or some other reason that escapes my tired brain… oh, yes, I remember now, a couple things called Facebook & Twitter. Between the two of them and my regular every day family/life/work stuff I manage to stay quite occupied. But I am still alive and kicking for those of you who only know me through this blog.

It’s also the start of a new year, which means that I have to assemble all the data from 2008 into a legible, manageable form to present to the CPA so he can in turn assemble our tax filings. And I have to do this for both our business and our personal records since I am the anal number cruncher of the family.

So until I can get my head in gear to post something of interest to me (because it’s all about me, really), it might be a bit light around here for awhile. We shall see.

In the mean time, here is something that did manage to make me laugh so hard I was crying & my stomach ache from using muscles that haven’t been used in over three months (that would be about the time I did my last workout, truth be known). And frankly, I’m not super happy with that situation which makes me think I’ll be gettin’ back to the gym next week. Hopefully.

Enough for now,
Ciao

Manic Monday 35 – Candle

Over the last few weeks I’ve been burning candles like crazy. Why? Ambiance. The smell, the look, just because I can. We haven’t had regular Christmas trees in the house for the last four years so I burn a few candles to scent the house like trees. Yankee Candle has a great one but I can’t think of the name of it at this moment in time. Sorry. But I like lots of different scented candles. I have Pumpkin Pie, Vanilla Cookie, and the tree one I can’t remember – something like Juniper, maybe?

I’ve had a love affair with candles of a loooooong time. It drives the husband insane because I love to have them burning at all times & he can’t stand it! I think it’s best to have all the varied scented candles burning simultaneously. Then the house smells really delicious.

In fact, I think I may need to go out & buy some more candles just because I’ve been burning them so much, they’re starting to run out!

Enough for now,

Ciao

Manic Monday 33 – Lights

I always set up our Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving – well I’ve been doing it that way for the last few years anyway – and we put lights up on the fence out in front of our house. Last year we hung the lights from the fence but we didn’t have enough sets of lights to run the whole length of the fence! So we decided to hang them anyway with just a bit of a gap in the center of the fence. Yeah, it looked a little silly but at the time we just didn’t want to go out and buy more lights. It’s a long, long story and I don’t have time to go into it now. Just check under my rants & raves category for the We’re Moving series…

Anyhoo, so this year I decided to hang the lights and fill in the gap. Let me tell you, it looks AWESOME!! But, there was a bit of story first. You see I went out & bought the lights not realizing that the husband had planned on buying lights at the same time he was buying a timer to run the whole system. And you guessed it we ended up with too many lights.  Never fear (as if) the husband was actually able to fix a small problem that I created. You see we have an entry gate near the center of the fencing & I just said “F*CK it!” and ran the lights across the entry gate – he fixed it by using the extra lights to run back on either side allowing the gate to swing open as it’s intended. Yeah for the husband!

So now we have beautiful icicle lights all along the fencing and at night it looks wonderful!

Enough for now,

Ciao

What’s in a name?

I’ve been thinking about what’s in a name. Sort of Romeo & Juliet style. Like a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. What is it that makes us who we are? And do our names influence who we become?

I have an unusual name. It’s not that there aren’t other people in the world with my same name but you just don’t have five Desiree’s in your school as you do with Jennifer.  And you know what I find interesting is how some people who have unusual names either LOVE them or HATE them.  They’re never indifferent to their different name.  I fall into the former category.  Every memory I have growing up is of loving my unique name.  And even now I do like my name.  Maybe it’s because I like compliments and every where I went people always complimented me on the loveliness of my name.  That equated to MY loveliness.  Ultimately those people were actually telling me that I was lovely, well in my mind anyway.  Feed ego, feed ego, feed fragile ego.

It’s been my experience that the people who hate their unique names are almost embarrassed by the designation.  Like they’d prefer to disappear then be complimented on something they can’t stand.  And why is it that they hate the unique name?  Why would they rather be a plain Jane or Jennifer or Sarah or something. Not that there is anything wrong with those names ~btw.  Is it that inherent part of us that wants what we can’t have?  Although, in this case, you CAN change your name.  Why don’t they?  My own mother changed her name only just a few years ago.  She decided that her name didn’t suit who she was anymore, so she changed it.

So, does our name play into our personalities, behaviors, thoughts, and feelings about ourselves?  And if you change it to reflect who you are now will you want to change it again later?

My name came by way of a movie.  As I suspect many peoples name do.  The story is that when my mom was a teenager, she had gone to see the movie Desiree starring Marlon Brando & Jean Simmons.  It’s the tale of Napoleon Bonaparte and his original love Desiree.  She spurned his love but eventually fell in love with him as he rose to power.  And as wont to happen, fate / destiny / chance intervened in the form of Josephine.  If you know anything about history, then you know who he chose; the more politically advantageous Josephine.  Desiree in due time chose Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte.  Who eventually rose to become King of Sweden & Desiree his Queen.  So anyway, my mom decided on that day, at the movies, that she would name her first daughter Desiree.  And that is how it came to be that I have this name.

But back to my question, do our names influence who we become?  I think the answer is YES.  What I don’t know is if we fall into stereotypes of what people by certain names should be/do or if those people with those names are predestined to be/do/act certain ways.  There have been studies done that show people with certain names are predominate in certain industries.

What do you think?

Thursday Thirteen – 4th edition

Thirteen PLACES I want to go to soon:

1. Scotland

2. Las Vegas (oh, yeah, I’m going again in two weeks. Huzzah!)

3. Butchart Gardens in Canada

4. England (I should say, go back and see more)

5. Spain

6. Greece

7. Italy (or rather – go back & stay in Venice)

8. Ireland

9. Demark

10. San Antonio

11. New Orleans

12. Germany (been there but want to go to a different part)

13. Seattle

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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