Girls just wanna have fun

Hi, hello, hidey-ho!  FRIDAY!!!

That was awkward.

Anyway, right now it's last week, but after making my post full of pictures of the boys, I was really excited, and so I decided to just put together the post of the girls' pictures right then and there.  And if you've missed out on wedding photos/video, find the video here, our first glance here, and the pictures of the boys here.  I have a lot of love for these particular pictures, as I'm sure you can imagine.  So be ready, because there are a lot.

This girl... my Cancerian luvah.  My sounding board.  My sanity.  The best friend a girl could ask for.

This sister.  So kind, so caring.  So willing to do whatever needs to be done.  I wouldn't have pulled any of it off without her help in executing the details the day before the wedding.

This friend.  So sassy.  So sweet.  So able to say something hilarious at just the right time.

They even told me they liked the dresses they had to wear, even though I know they probably won't wear them ever again.  That is love, right there.

 I felt so ridiculous and awkward, everyone was staring.  My photographer calls this "white dress sydrome"... the bride has a hard time relaxing, because people are just standing around gaping open-mouthed.  So the fact that she got some good ones amazes me, and makes me want to be just a little narcissistic.

She always shows me one picture during the shoot on her camera, to prove to me that I don't look ridiculous.  She showed me this one right after she took it.  I died of happy.

You know what would have made this picture better?  A beer.

Anyhow, that's what I have for you today!  Have a wonderful Friday, make sure you spend some time gazing out into the distance with a beverage in hand.  It helps you make good choices.

Like cats and dogs

Over the past 5 days now, I have gotten a really good sense of what it takes to own both a cat and a medium-to-large size dog.  And forking fork is it exhausting sometimes.  It's brought out the best and the worst in my, and in the pets, too.  For instance, Beckham has NEVER hissed at a soul, until the night Geneva walked into our lives.  Ammon and I were pretty shocked when he did it.  What happened to our sweet, docile kitty that will let anyone and everyone mess with him?

 Yeah, he looks all nice and stuff, but it turns out his inner cat sometimes channels something a little more tough, Like a big cat protecting one of their young.  Except that Ammon and I are his young to protect.

Geneva has decided that she likes Beckham... from a distance.  After the initial "I'm going to his and take swipes at you" phase Beckham went through, he's settled down quite a bit around her, but tries to maintain a cautious distance.  However, Geneva really wants to be his friend, so she will just charge up and start performing grooming on Beckham.  It's pretty hilarious, I wish the two of them would allow me to capture it on video.

Then there's food.  Beckham is a total grazer, and since we've lived in this place, we've only ever kept his food in one spot.  That is, until Geneva came into our lives.  She had scarfed down nearly half a cup of ridiculously expensive cat food in the time it takes to do a slow-mo "Nooooooooo" on her first evening of residence.  We thought the simple solution was to move the food to a place accessible by the cat, but not the dog.  Wrong.  Even though the cat knew where his food was, he went all Ghandi on us and didn't eat for two days, and then kept us up all night with his yowling and scratching at the door to the closet where the extra food is stored.  So now we have to oh so carefully set out Beckham's food when Genenva is in her crate, and make sure it is put up again before we let her out.  And did I mention that because we now do this, the cat will eat his food, no matter where we put it???  Or the fact that the dog thinks that the all natural hulled wheat cat litter we use is food, and thus spends a good part of her day trying to eat it???

Overall, this whole experience could be MUCH worse.  They are both really good pets, and very loving.  Hence why they follow me around the house, everywhere I go.  It's like an animal parade.  I understand when moms talk about getting no peace in the bathroom.  Beckham has always followed me in there for attention, it's as if he knows he has a captive audience with nothing better to do than pet him.  But Geneva totally does it too, which is somewhat problematic, given the size of our tiny bathroom, and how disconcerting it is to have a dog plop her head on your knee while you're trying to get some business done.  Our next place must have a bigger bathroom, if only to accommodate my ability to be in there with a dog and a cat.  No exceptions.

I wouldn't trade this time for the world, though.  It's so sweet to lay on the couch doing homework, and have the dog peacefully napping on the floor at my feet, and the cat laying on top of the sofa just above my head.  I wish I had any pictures of it, because it is so sweet, but that means that Geneva would have seen someone moving around, and so then she would move too, and the peace is broken.  So instead, you will just have to take my word that it's precious.  And while Geneva isn't the ideal dog for us, instead of quenching our dog desires with a part-time foster, it makes us realize that this is do-able, even though it requires some extra maneuvering and patience.  So no permanent dog for us yet, but sooner rather than later, that will become our reality.

Anyone out there with cats and dogs:  do yours get along?  Politely ignore each other?  Play together?  Fight?  Hide in terror?

Ethics and Morals

This semester, I'm taking a course in Human Resources Management.  It's a class I was pretty dang stoked to take, because it fits in really nicely with payroll, and other Accounting functions.  Additionally, any office job or job working with the public seems to require a given level of mastery of the skills taught in a human resources class.  Unfortunately it seems for me, the very second chapter of the semester deals in Corporate Ethics.  Womp, womp.

For the record, I believe that it is important to work for an agency or organization that adheres to a strong set of ethics.  However, I really, really, REALLY hate the manner in which this subject is addressed academically and in corporate training environments.  My text starts off by explaining the sources where people find their moral and ethical compass, religious texts as the primary example.  Duh.  However, in the very same chapter, they are talking about how we must respect the ethics policies of different cultures.  Ummmmmmm... why do we have to constantly have to contradict ourselves?  Why do we wholly admit that it is not okay to base a corporate ethics policy on religious tenants, but not okay to admit to these ideals, a-la Chick-Fil-A?  And more importantly, why do ethics trainers talk about ethics as a philosophical debate and concept, but then go on to insist that there is a "clear" answer???

Via

The point of philosophy, as I understand it, is that there is no "clear" answer, only a decision that is justified by a well-thought out and reasoned argument based on the ethics of an individual or a larger organization of people.  Making the assumption that all people see issues in the exact same way is so short-sighted.

And then the text went on to talk about Corporate Social Responsibility, and how it's not only a crucial aspect of HR, it's vital to a business' Employer branding.  2 pages later, CSR is deemed to be largely not viable on the global scale at this time, as changing regulations, foreign policy, and cost-saving measures often stand between doing the right thing and your bottom line.  So the take-away there is that you should practice Social Responsibility, but only in your own backyard.  Keep hiring the 6 year olds in China, though, while you're donating to the Ronald McDonald House in the town your business is headquartered in.  Holy Mackerel, does that ever reek of hypocrisy.

Google said it best:  "Don't be evil".  I don't understand why we have to make it more than that.  Be a good person, and do the best that you can.  Work for a company whose values align with your own.  Support businesses that do things you like, and don't spend your money at places that do evil things.  Let Capitalism ring, people!!!  **Steps off soap box**

I really hope this chapter is not setting the tone for this entire textbook.  Since I have the honor of taking most of my classes online, I tend to develop strong feelings about textbooks and their authors.  If this is any indication, it could be an awfully long semester...

We should talk about it

Did you see it yet?  I wasn't ready to talk about the *NSYNC reunion yesterday, but I'm much closer to being ready now.  I think.  So let's talk about it.

First, if you didn't see the whole Justin Timberlake video vanguard performance, watch it here, care of Mr. Perez Hilton.  Smoochies and thanks for uploading it right away, Perez.

And now here are my points, in a numbered list format for your perusing pleasure.

1)  The lighting was TERRIBLE.  I could hardly see any of the guys.  I think this may have been done on purpose, which I will address in some of my follow-up points.

2)  It was too short, and WHY THE EFF was it in the middle of the entire thing???  Would have been so much better as a stand-alone, or at the beginning or end of the whole performance.  I would have loved it at the beginning, because then he could have time-lined his rise to fame.  And if he did that, he should have made a nod to his MMC days too.

Via

MMC brought us all of the good hotties.  It should get more love and recognition.

3)  Our favorite hotties made yet another questionable wardrobe choice.  I mean...

Is it a tux?  Why with the stripes???  And the collars?  And why do Chris and Joey have coordinating facial hair?  Did they decide that twinning is just what they were put in the group to do?  So many things that I do not understand on any level.  And also, why Justin thinks that Fedora is cool, I will never, ever understand.  I consider all of this a valid reason why the lights were so low.

4)  The dancing was a little sloppy.  I understand that times are different now, and only JT gets a lot of time and practice in wowing a crowd.  But you would think these guys could probably still do the choreography to "Bye, Bye, Bye" in their sleep, backwards, underwater, on a boat, or in a moat.  You would think they could do it on a train, or in a plane.  Instead, Lance somehow ended up lunging across the stage madly after having missed the "stage right" cue.  And they weren't quite... in sync if you catch my drift.

5)  JC's face looks wrong.  Too pointy and angular at the bottom.  I was also annoyed that he tried to steal an extra moment for himself at the end of the tribute.  You had your chance, it didn't work out.  Sorry buddy, I don't love you any less, I just only love you for the feelings you inspired in me when I was 13-18.  Also, none of them are as trim and hottie-mc-tottie like as they once were.  I imagine this contributes to the lack of appropriate lighting.

6)  Nobody licked or humped the stage, Digital Get Down style.  Good or bad, it did not happen.  I welcome your opinions on if this was a benefit or detractor to this performance.

7)  The cutaway to the celebrities... I was frustrated that they chose Taylor Swift, she seems too young to fully appreciate *NSYNC.  They should have cut to Beyonce, or "Britney, b***h".  In fact, that would have been awesome.  I would kill to see Britney jamming out during a JT performance, given their "history" and all.  In addition, I felt that it was disrespectful that the One Direction kid was drinking beer.  *NSYNC are your elders, put the dang beer down when they're showing you how it's done.  Even with the questionable outfits and the sub-par dancing, they were still a million times better than you, and they didn't count on auto-tune for that shit.  Boom.

8)  I appreciated their use of the old school choreography (even when it wasn't perfect.  I'm just a ball of conflicted feelings and emotions today).  How could anybody not?  I mean... they even did the lean.  The lean that made all of us girls swoon just a little bit.  It is a far cry from the BSB "we're too old to dance, so we'll sit on stools" cop out.  They put in some good effort to do Wade Robson's original choreography justice.

9)  Why was it so short?  Less than 2 minutes of an almost 20 minute performance montage.  The only thing I can guess is that either Justin hates acknowledging where he came from, or my guys tire out quick these days.

10)  I feel like Girlfriend was a questionable song choice, and they should have done a classic.  Girlfriend was one of those songs that was okay, but not iconic, not in the way "God must have spent..." or "Tearing up My Heart" both were.  They had so many options.  Even Gone or Pop would have done more for me than Girlfriend.  However, I think they picked Bye Bye Bye for closure.  To tip their hats to the past, and walk boldly into the future.

I really wasn't kidding when I said I had thoughts on this.  What were some of yours???

Our weekend wins

I don't care what anyone else may think or say, our weekend wins.  Hands down.  Why?  Because Ammon and I picked up this pretty lady Friday night.

Her name is Geneva, and we are fostering her for the Mile High Labrador Retriever Mission.  This awesome rescue saves dogs from high kill shelters around the Nation and brings the to super-lab-friendly Colorado to find furr-ever families.  The rescue relies solely on foster homes to take in dogs until they are adopted.  Since Ammon and I are allowed to have 2 pets, but aren't quite ready for a full-time dog, fostering sounded absolutely perfect to us.  We have decided to make Geneva's time with us the best we can, so we spent the whole weekend doing dog-friendly shenanigans.

Saturday morning we went to a local dog-friendly brewery for beermosas.  We were also going to hit up the local corn roast festival a block down, but it was really, really crowded and hot, so we decided that it would be much better to come back in the late afternoon when it was quieter and less busy.

Geneva loved hanging out on the patio mooching love off of passerby.  I loved the $3 Beermosas.  All in all, Ammon had 2 happy girls on his hands.

After some lunch and a rest, we went back down to the corn roast festival with our friend Paul and Geneva.  We got to try out some moonshine, eat some corn, and show off Geneva.  She ate up the attention like no other.

After dropping the pretty lady off at home, the two-leggers went off to get dinner at my fave, Cafe Rio.  No pictures, because I just don't have the mental fortitude to take pictures of my Cafe Rio before I dig into it.

Yesterday we were pretty tired, so we were lazy for most of the day.  Geneva loved just lounging on the ground and coming around for some pets every now and then.

We finally got less lazy around 4pm and took her to the dog park.  As it happens, she isn't really into dog parks.  Balls, frisbees, and playing with other dogs are not her kinds of things.

She really loved getting some extra attention, though.  And believe me when I say that she really has an affinity for pupuccinos, though.

We really aren't sure how long she will be with us, since it depends in part on luck, but we are really enjoying this sweet lady for now! 

How was your weekend?

Let's hear it for the boys

If you thought you had seen all the wedding photos you were going to see, then you are dead wrong.  These pictures are going to keep all of us entertained for a long time to come.  Today we're dedicating it to the boys.  Without further ado, my favorite photos of some of my favorite guys.

Ammon's hand-made boutonnieres turned out SO WELL

It's the duty of the best man to make sure the groom looks his best.

We don't understand, but the little brothers are taller than the older brothers.  Exhibit A.

Okay, really, everyone's just taller than Ammon, since his best man was his older brother.  It's okay, I don't like getting a crick in my neck every time I go to kiss him.

Well hello, Mr. GQ

Exhibit B showing little brothers being taller than older brothers.

Our brother-in-law happened to match really, really well.

What happens when the professional photographer takes a picture an amateur is setting up.  Hilarious, since amateurs were doing this to her all day!

The boys weren't down for tons of pictures of just them, not the way the girls were, which you will all see very soon (foreshadow...).  Happy Friday!

Life changing news

There is one, and only one true subject on my mind today.  It's a subject that I hold near and dear to my heart.  It is something that touched my life in a deep and profound way yesterday.

Clearly, I think it's obvious to everyone how big of a deal it is that yesterday the world found out that *NSYNC is doing a reunion at the MTV VMA's.

*NSYNC brought countless moments of joy to my formative teenage years.  I have already admitted to you all that I discovered a deep love of writing through writing angsty teenaged Fan Fiction.  My best friend choreographed dance routines their songs, and then she attempted to teach me those dance routines with limited to no success.  Their ballads made me believe in good love stories and romance at those times when I thought that I was unlovable. 

I had this same exact debate so many times with my friends between 1998 and 2004.

I had this poster on my wall, and many like it.  This was one of my favorites, because it was before JC had that awful hair crisis, but after Chris had the pineapple-fountain ridiculousness.  While I disliked Chris on principle of his age, it detracted from the group that he had his hair that way.

I cried the day that Lance announced he was gay.  I was so in love with him.  I mean, those eyes... and for some reason, I was into crunchy hair.  Questionable judgement, but I like to think that I've moved beyond it.  I will not move beyond those eyes, though.  Sweet, sweet celadon.

And also, breaking news, I just found this on Pinterest.  Awesome, glorious, fantastic... none of these words are adequate.  My favorite GLBT boy band member dancing to my favorite pop-jam.  All of those years of forced choreography have done him a ton of good when it comes to Wii games.

I really hope that the rest of you write about this today.  I can't wait to see your thoughts on this subject, and who your favorite was!

Back in the saddle again

Yesterday I had to get back in the saddle with school.  Oh yeah, school.  Did we all forget about that?  I know I did.  So much so, in fact, that I almost didn't get everything done in time to attend classes this semester.  Luckily, I eeked in just in the nick of time, and now this semester I'll be taking another 9 credits of awesome.

Okay, not as awesome as a rainbow sprinkle cone, but pretty good, I guess.

Seriously guys, I'm pretty stoked about my classes this semester.  That NEVER happens.  Who am I?  The last couple of months since the wedding I have felt so dull, and bored, and tired.  I thought taking a break was supposed to make you feel refreshed, but it isn't until I'm back in the thick of things that I start to feel like myself again.  I feel awake, alive, like I'm me when I'm busy.  I have a sense of purpose.

That being said, I really did need all of the TV time and extra sleep I got between the wedding and now.  It really helped me realize how much I enjoy being busy.

Yesterday I bought some notebooks and filler paper at Target, and it was AWESOME.  I can't wait to use all of that scratch paper in the coming months as I toil away on projects, and I'm kind of almost looking forward to endless discussion forum postings.  Why is it that school is wasted on kids?  They want to be useful DOING stuff, or inventing, or playing, or wondering.  I enjoy LEARNING far more now that my body isn't quite as functional as it used to be.

Speaking of my body, I start running again today after taking 9 days of rest.  I'm really looking forward to my run, and training in earnest for my next half marathon.  I'm using Hal Higdon's Novice 2 program, because I am really needing to train in higher mileage.  I'm also going to *try* to lift 3 days a week, but if I can do at least 2, I'll be alright with it.  A different focus for a different season.

And speaking of seasons, throw your hands in the air if you're ready to wave bye bye to construction season.  Whitney, I imagine you're jumping up and down, but for different reasons than the rest of us =).  The two main roads right by my office have been under construction since May, and it has really made getting to and from work a challenge.  Much as I hate the snow, I enjoy when it gets cold enough that the construction crew have to hibernate for a few months.  2 months to go.  Just 2 more months.

And 3 months until Thanksgiving week in TX!  So many good things coming in the future.  Guess I'd better get in the saddle and move towards them.

Perfect weekend for...

I'm feeling a tidge downtrodden that the weekend was over.  It was a winner.  The perfect weekend for so many things.  Since I'm not ready to let it go you, you should know what the weekend was perfect for.

This weekend was perfect for...

... Going to see The Samples play live at New West Fest.  They played my gardening jam for their show closer.



...Watching hippies and hipsters alike dance like people possessed.  Going to festivals is my favorite, because my awful dancing is 100% unremarkable when the dude in denim short overalls with a huge afro was going to town with his be-dreaded friends.

...Playing Uno and Candyland at the bar, and losing pretty epically at both.  Candyland is a brutal game.

...Sleeping in late.

...Eating super yummy Mexican food at our local Taqueria.

...Watching lots of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, marathon style.  Can we reflect on the fact that this show came out in 1997 when I was 12???

Also, I remember nothing of Season 1, and am now questioning if I ever saw it.  The way I remember it, Spike was always around???  Either way, I love it and Ammon mocks my enjoyment.  It's the perfect show for me.

...Dance parties in the shower.  It was a weekend for dancing, anywhere I could.

...Finishing a sewing project, and making some headway on my counted cross stitch project.

What was your weekend perfect for?

From first glance

I really hope that this post makes your day, because putting it together totally made my day.  Sunday afternoon as we got back into town we found out that our wedding photos were ready!  Some of you have seen the couple our photographer put on facebook, and some of you have even seen the gallery with all 700+ photos.  But I don't care, and we're all going to look at wedding photos today, particularly my favorites from our "first glance" before the ceremony.  Looking back, the first glance was one of my very favorite parts of the day, because it was all about us.  Nobody else mattered in those few minutes, as evidenced by Ammon walking away from his mom as she was trying to talk to him (see picture 3).

Have a wonderful weekend full of love!