A Change is Gonna Come - Otis Redding

via notrihanna

via flickr.

heard it babysitting....

While we were boxing each other and he hit me in the chest:

Val: Oops, ha I hit your booby!

Me: No fair!

Val: Why?

Me: Cause you don't have boobies.

Val: Yeah, but I'll have nipples someday.


And while at McDonald's eating happy meals:

Val: You're one of my favorite babysitters.

Me: Oh yeah? How many babysitters do you have?

Val: Two.

He's so diplomatic.

funny looking animals of the week!

thanks mal!

Miserable Marci’s Monday Rant - coming back from vacation.

Last week I was on a cruise. It was marvelous. Here's some stuff that happened on it:







Now I'm back at work. It's raining outside and I want to take a nap. This sucks.

They should warn you when you go on a cruise, or any other vacation, that you are going to be exponentially depressed when you return to your normal life. Especially when your normal life sucks.

funny looking animal of the week!

Roll Away Your Stone, by Mumford and Sons

Check out their album, Sigh No More. It's great.

thanks jv

around the office

So much happening around my office today, there's hardly time to fit work in! First of all, I got an email saying that Dairy Queen was celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Blizzard, and was giving away free blizzards on 23rd and 5th from noon-1 today. That's right where I work! Hooray! I promptly grabbed a friend and went outside. When we got there, I was not pleased with the long line...



But! The line actually went pretty fast and then I was rewarded with a free oreo blizzard. Then the truck started making it snow. It was glorious. And I was happy...



Thanks, DQ! Then, later on I heard Bradley Cooper was shooting a scene for a movie across the street from our office (such a happening place). So I went out and there he was in all his suit wearing glory. A real live movie star. I gawked for a moment and then got bored since the scene he was shooting was just him stumbling around looking confused for a second. And grips kept yelling at everyone around to "Move along!" So I moved along.

I guess that's all that's happened today at work. And lots of meetings in between. I give our new office neighborhood a big 2 thumbs up.

funny looking animals of the week!

dinner for schmucks trailer

good looks

real simple.

Made chicken with zucchini and prosciutto last night. A "15 minute recipe" that took me a little bit longer than that to prepare because my oven isn't up to snuff! But it was yummy. Top Chef, here I come! ....

heard it babysitting....

While walking up 2nd Avenue, Val spots a man who has his arm in a cast and a sling.

Val: Look at that guy!

Me: Yeah, looks like he broke his arm.

Val: He's a Robot!

duuuuke

Everyone hates Duke. But I say "Congratulations Duke." Sorry the underdog didn't win, and sorry that Duke was a #1 seed that actually lived up to it's ranking, and sorry that only rich white snobby kids go there and a lacrosse rape scandal happened there and that they've made it to the finals a bunch of times. And sorry that they spend millions more on their basketball program than Butler does. I like when underdogs win.

But they didn't win. And Duke played well. You can't deny them that. And you also can't deny that Coach K looks like a small child in this photo:


So congrats, Duke, on winning the big dance.

Little Bee

Just started reading Little Bee, by Chris Cleave. You know when you start reading a book and right from the beginning you get the feeling that it's going to be incredible? That happened this morning. Only on page 10 and can't wait to read more.

"...and I ask you right here please to agree with me that a scar is never ugly. That is what the scar makers want us to think. But you and I, we must make an agreement to defy them. We must see all scars as beauty. Okay? This will be our secret. Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived."

"Who Knows, Who Cares" - Local Natives

funny looking animal of the week!

courtesy of liz.

funny looking animal of the week!

heard it babysitting....

Val: Can you buy me a present for my birthday next year?

Me: Okay, what do you want?

Val: (thinking)

Me: A dog?

Val: Yeah. I'll ask my mom if it's okay if you get me a dog.

Me: Okay cool.

Val: But if she can't, I want one of the guns that the Storm troopers carry in Star Wars.

dogs shot at 1000 frames per second

As long as we're on the subject of dogs, check out this awesome video I stumbled across at JoeLaz.com.

STRAY DOGS!

The weather was beautiful this weekend, so we hung out at the park on Sunday morning. On our way home, I noticed a black, furry streak up ahead. At first, we thought it was a cat, which isn’t something that out of the ordinary to see roaming the streets of Jersey City. But then we realized it was a dog!

There in front of us was a pack of three of the mangiest, scraggliest looking dogs I have ever seen. One of them was actually cute, a smaller dog that just needed a bit of a haircut. Here was the second one, who reminded me of the dog that became a footrest in Beauty and the Beast:



The third one was the really weird looking one. It was a little dog but had pretty long skinny legs for a small dog. It had black fur, real short on its legs, but on its body the hair was crazy and out of control. Every time that dog walked towards me I got the chills. That thing gave me the creeps big time.

So we kept walking home after determining that these dogs weren’t wearing collars and didn’t belong to anyone. Everything would have ended there. Except they began to follow us. And Becca Palmese encouraged the following by continually snapping her fingers and talking to them, despite my telling her to QUIT IT! So as we walked the remaining 6 blocks to our house, we had 3 of the grossest looking dogs in tow. They would run up ahead of us and into streets, but always would barrel back towards us again.



I started worrying “What is going to happen when we get home!” These dumpster dogs can’t come into our house. I told Becca to stop talking to them. This made her talk to them more. And laugh uncontrollably. When we got back to the apartment, we rushed inside. Except Becca did not rush inside. So I closed and locked the door and told her to get rid of the dogs and then she could come in.

But the dogs were not leaving now. They stood on our stoop with Becca, waiting to be let in. Finally, a nice couple walked by and started petting the dogs. Becca informed the couple that they were strays. Then this really turned into an adventure.

One hour, several phone calls to animal control and Jersey City Police Dispatch, and 7 neighbors pitching in later, we had secured the dogs in a kind woman’s backyard. Animal Control in Jersey City is not open on the weekends, so she was going to keep the scraggly dogs in her yard until today.

Nothing like dumpster dogs to really bring a neighborhood together.