recycling excites me more than the twilight series

these are brand new recycling bins at andy's condo complex. pretty maids all in a row, all shiny and clean. i couldn't resist.

channeling oscar the grouch

the old recycling program only accepted plastics 1 & 2, aluminum, and newspaper. so we had to stash all our other plastics, glass, office paper, and soup cans for recycling elsewhere. the new program accepts most stuff, even plastics 3-7. although we're just waiting to see how many people dump their trash in the bins. i don't get it. every time i put something in the bin i see someone's bag of household trash. don't be that person.

note: this recycling bin is new. very clean. i would never get in a normal used bin. just so you know.

u-scan fail, take two

i will admit that this time the perpetrator doesn't have as many groceries as the lady from yesterday, but she still has too many for the u-scan to be practical. i guess it's hard to tell just how packed this *bas-cart is from this angle. my bad. and by the time i took these pics she had already scanned two huge bags worth of goods.

sorry these pictures suck, it was hard for me to take a steady photo whilst giggling.

*bas-cart: basket/cart hybrid. you only wish your grocery store had these. the handling is amazing.

um, for realz?

another "wtf" moment caught on camera:

after i got this great shot, i proceeded to the nearest manned checkout lane with my 4 items - no line. i'm about to go back to the store to see if this lady is still scanning.

southern accents

posting this video clip is probably violating some kind of copyright, but i found it to be pretty awesome and decided you must see it immediately. i know it's totally lame that i recorded this clip on my digital camera but that was the quickest method for delivering the comedy.



lady, you're sick. and yes, i watch this show, but it's low on my priority list.

beer can technology

as andy & i were tapping the rockies aka drinking coors light this past weekend we noticed how the cans are just riddled with ridiculous features: wide mouth, vent, and color-change can. i hope you like my graphic. yeah, these cans have been out for a few years. so all that time prior to 2007 i've been screwed out of complete beer consumption efficiency!!! i feel a bit...cheated. i mean, we sent a man to the freaking moon a long ass time ago, but this kind of technology doesn't surface until now? someone explain that to me.


if you haven't seen the color-changing can, here's the deal: the mountain graphic on the front turns blue when the beer is at optimal drinking temperature. this is neat, but totally useless - i think i know what "cold" feels like. so how about this: spare me the "technology" and just charge less for your beer. that'll do.

just something to think about

a lot of song lyrics/meanings can be interpreted in a variety of ways. you think you may know what a particular songwriter intended but then you hear him/her talking about what he/she meant, and you're like ooooh that makes way more sense now. the first one i thought of is "love song" by sara bareilles. it goes, "i'm not gonna write you a love song cause you asked for it cause you need one..." so at first i took that to mean she's dating this guy and he's totally into her but she's not that into him, as in, she's not gonna write a song about it. and then i heard this song was actually about her relationship with her record label, or something. i guess the company wanted her to put out some kind of love song ballad and she wasn't having it.

now, it's no secret that i like pop music. i sing aloud to kelly clarkson's "my life would suck without you." so yes, i am a fan, as i have purchased 2 of her albums. you also may know that recently she's been packing on the pounds. not that i care, but honestly she looks not so good anymore. andy likes to make fun of her and came up with another meaning to "my life would suck....": she's not singing about a guy, or even a person. she wrote it about a piece of chocolate cake. now that you've got that in your head, go listen to the song and it totally makes sense. pretty funny, andy.

kenton & chris got my back on this one :)

i was going to type out a hypothetical scenario to replace what actually happened to me a few days ago, but it got a little convoluted. this involves my job. i usually try to avoid work-related anecdotes for obvious reasons...but this one's good.

i was leaving the office a little after 5 on monday afternoon and i got a phone call. i don't get a lot of calls so i was already thinking it was a wrong number or something. so the guy, harvey, on the other end of the phone starts telling me he's calling in regard to an ad on craigslist, and immediately i assumed he was talking about the printer or the computer i had just listed. he went on about an install disc for an ibook and i'm like hold on a minute, is something wrong with the ibook (because i sold one to some guy like 6 months ago) and then it's obvious we are talking about two separate things. he explained that his wife posted an ad about needing an install disc and someone had replied saying to contact *me* because i could get him the discs.

apparently my boss is trolling craigslist trying to create work for me because he doesn't think i have enough to do. i mean, i know that's not it, but it's just another one of those things that makes me shake my head and say "oh, michael..." you know the worst part of the whole thing is that i could have / should have just told the dude "no" and that'd be the end of it. two days later i'm still waiting on him to figure out his paypal account so he can send me money to cover postage.

smuggling alcohol on a cruise ship

andy & i are going on a cruise w/ naomi & brandon and some others in november. we'll be cruising aboard the carnival splendor which sails from los angeles and down to puerto vallarta and cabo san lucas. this will be our first cruise. i've heard a few things about carnival's on-board alcohol policy but want to hear from some experienced cruisers. carnival's official policy is that each person over 21 can have one bottle of wine/champagne. hooray. but what about the hard stuff? our cruise planner dude says you can smuggle clear alcohol inside a plastic water bottle and stash it in your big luggage. he said they don't really search your bags. but recently i talked to someone who recently got back from a carnival cruise who saw people having to dump our their water bottles that were filled with vodka. when i google the topic ("carnival cruise smuggling") i get a lot of message boards filled with all sorts of advice but none of it is conclusive. i'm not looking to smuggle an entire suitcase full of booze, but it would be nice to have a small stash of my favorite beverage. anyone have advice on the subject?

if you don't already think that i'm weird...here you go.

as my mother, grandmother, and boyfriend will tell you, i tend to get creative with my insults and terms of endearment (which, funny enough, are sometimes one in the same...maybe i should stop doing that). sometimes i use words that sound completely made-up, but to my surprise are actual words. a lot of the times i never know what these words mean (i should probably stop doing that, too). here are some examples:

cheecharone: noun, sounds like cheech-ər-own, not cheech-ər-won. do you like my schwa? boo-yah! the real word is spelled chiccharón, and means "fried pork rind." i use this word to mean a variety of things including but not limited to goofball, loser, fatso, meanie, hoodlum, and r-rated versions of everything i just mentioned. basically, it's a good, clean (?) substitute for various curse words & racial slurs. i'd like to give a shout-out to my pal daniel head for introducing me to this word, like, in 10th grade. yeah. i've been saying this word for over 10 years. is that pathetic? i don't think i say it that often: it's popularity comes & goes at random. the funniest thing is that my grandma picked it up from me during a week-long trip to europe ten years ago and still says it, primarily as a phone greeting, knowing that it's me on the line. awwww.


fluffernutter: i have no idea when i started saying this word or what prompted me to use it. it's a decent substitute for the f-word, or any other expletive. if i spilled my drink i might say "oh fluffernutter!" but on the other hand i think the connotation is nice enough so i use it as a pet name too. just this last weekend i called andy a fluffernutter and he insisted that it wasn't a word. i made him look it up, and honestly, i didn't know what it meant but i was pretty sure it was a word. educate yourself here.


well...damn. i can't think of any other examples right now. i know there are more. so take note.

p.s. - i totally just realized both of these words are food items. weird.

b-holes are tasty & flavorful

i heard this hardee's ad mentioned on the bert show this morning:



genius! i imagine they're in a bit of trouble with the fcc, but i suppose controversy could be good for business. according to a news source, "Hardees says it has no plans to pull the ads which is says run after 9 p.m., but it says franchisees are free to run them or not run them at their discretion."

the coolometer

my friend matt made this for me in calculus class in high school.


i was inspired to post this because he recently made the indie-o-meter. gotta love that metric system, still makin' the list 10 years later.

friends with benefits

so my friends and i went to hilton head this past week for vacation. if you're wondering, it ruled. so just as my buddies got to reap the benefits of my grandma's oceanfront home i also got some of my own good stuff from my friend - v.i.p. passes to a pre-screening of harry potter #6. chad's uncle works for warner bros. and chad's always getting free movie passes. chad's probably - no - *definitely* the biggest harry potter fan i know and thank goodness his uncle delivered on this one. so the best part about this pre-screening deal is that the show was at 6pm, there were no small children, the theater was only half-full, and no one was in the chair next to me. oh, and the movie was fantastic. and did i mention free shirts?!

cathy & me wearing awesome free shirts

i'm on the verge of tears as i type this

i know everyone is talking/blogging about the recent rash of celebrity deaths but i am terribly bummed that billy mays died. i feel like i should pay homage or something to this guy. i was going to make an image map sound board thing, but i'd have to steal the .wav files and the image, not to mention it'd probably take me half an hour to do it, and i'm at work...

i know a lot of people thought he was completely annoying, but i was a huge fan. the booming voice, the thick, lustrous beard, the beady little eyes, the enthusiasm for cleaning products...sigh. i guess he just put a smile on my face because he was so ridiculous. when my friends gave me some mighty putty two weeks ago i was so excited (i have yet to use the stuff).

good sounds - http://www.billymayshere.com/

a really good one - (taken down recently, sorry)

some pitchmen video - http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/pitchmen-whats-hot/

if i'm ever feeling down, andy knows he can always cheer me up with a billy mays impression.

tribute to a bad hairstyle

john & kate plus 8. they're everywhere. including here. yep, no original material this time. but i was thinking: i have zero kids and i'm kinda bitchy on occasion. so i know i'd be a total bitch all the time if i had 8 young kids and a seemingly slacker husband.

i also like to put myself in john's shoes: i'd totally check out if i had a crazy bitch screaming at me all the time. especially with that abysmal hair.

so here's what i got for you:

it's a wonder i don't weigh 300 lbs

you know, i was just thinking about how i've eaten some really good food lately. i guess that's kinda stupid to blog about, but what disturbs me more is the fact that i'm thinking about my recent meals and snacks in the way one would think about his childhood friend. leads me to believe that i like food a little too much. not that i'm getting fat and need to stop eating or anything, but sometimes people are shocked by my enthusiasm over meals. "people" being friends, family, waitstaff, and well, myself. and then i have to play it off like i'm joking or just being wacky.

i wouldn't dare withhold details about these great foods. food from bakeries, restaurants, costco, etc. some of these i just discovered for myself; others have been long-time favorites. i feel that i shouldn't be the only one enjoying these delicacies, so i am sharing the wealth:

green giant white shoepeg corn in butter sauce - this can get confusing because they sell white shoepeg corn minus the sauce, corn niblets in sauce, and some other variety of corn probably with sauce. make sure you get the exact product i named or you will be disappointed. it comes in a small box.

figo - don't get the ravioli because the serving size is meager. there's a vinings location now thank goodness. i dig the linguine w/ checca sauce, andy likes the spinach fettucine w/ siciliana. it's inexpensive. i'm getting hungry thinking about it. aww rats.

rold gold honey wheat braided pretzel twists - i discovered these today because no one in my office eats them and there were 4 bags. the ones i ate came out of a baked lays variety chip box from costco. i am assuming you can buy a bigger bag at a grocery store.

chocolate cream pie - the mother of all chocolate pies made by the good people at metrotainment bakery in atlanta. so good. i don't usually go bananas over chocolate stuff (i'm more of a pound/cheese cake eater) but even thinking about it makes me happy.

multigrain cheerios - i've never liked cheerios: plain, honey-nut, or any other variety. i tried these because i had a $1 off coupon. they were freakin' awesome.

willy's tomatillo salsa - better than moes. wanna know how many of those little salsa cups i use during a meal at willys? even i don't know, because i have started bypassing the small cups and now i just fill up a cup that's usually for water. sometimes the consistency varies and sometimes it's too oniony, but boy, when it's good - which is more often than not - i pretty much just drink the stuff.

soup garden restaurant - in the strip mall with bedbathbeyond on cobb pkwy @ akers mill. oh my, where to start with this one? everything here is good. andy's ecstatic because they finally have eggs with the shell removed. they have pickled okra, which is definitely the best thing on the salad bar (jason's deli recently took it off their salad bar, those bastards). i can make a meal outta those bad boys. and there's mama rosa chicken soup. tuna pasta salad. freakin' ginger bread!! for best results go at lunch time, just before noon. if you stick with water for your beverage i think the price is reasonable.

pocky - japanese. thin bread stick coated with chocolate or other flavors. tastes like cookies, but better. i like strawberry. can be bought at world market. katie smith introduced me to these back in the mid 1990s. her dad brought some back from japan and we went nuts. i kinda forgot about them until i saw some maybe 8 years ago. it's impossible for me to go into a world market store and not buy pocky.

fellini's house salad dressing - i guess you'd call it a creamy italian. has to be unhealthy. tastes amazing. sometimes i'll go in there and just get a cup of dressing. the people that work there never know what to charge me so i just give them a dollar (unless bobby is working, he'll give it to me for free). andy likes it so much he drinks it. ask him about that sometime.

archer farms fruit strips - naomi included one of these in my birthday card. i was like, what the hell is this? but then i ate it, and now i understand. they can be found at target.

i could go on.

happy digital transition day

There's a tv in the breakroom at my office. We don't get cable, the antenna kinda sucks, and no one ever watches it. A few weeks ago it occurred to me that I could get one of those converter boxes and possibly get a bunch of channels. I got in on that $40 government coupon, bought a converter box, hooked it all up, and like magic we have about 10 channels now. So today during my lunch hour I decided to enjoy some good quality digital tv. I turned to the ch. 2 news and they had this dude on there who was the very first engineer for the station, as in, he was in charge of their very first broadcast. Pretty old guy. They brought him into the studio today so he could be the one hitting the switch to turn off the analog signal. How cool is that?! But the guy in the tux? So awesome. Apparently I missed the actual "switch" but thanks to youtuber JohnAMcGrew you can see it yourselves!

on this day in 1982

anne's birthday. also known as:

• international anne day - courtesy of blake hennon

• national anne day of sweetness (or NADS) - from matt weeks

as of right now i have gotten 24 birthday wall posts on facebook. the mix of people who wish me a happy birthday is a little weird. some of these people probably couldn't even pinpoint the month of my birthday, but whatever, i appreciate the sentiment. i do.

the collection of people who posted on my wall includes 3 distinct sub-groups:

1. people i know really well: boyfriend, mother, aunt, cousin. these people no doubt felt obligated to post, even though they sent me a card and/or called me, or even saw me that day. so, that's fine.

2. people who i'd definitely consider my friends, but with whom i don't communicate regularly: these people probably saw that a mutual friend (most likely in this same group) sent me a message and they wanted to do the same. unlike members of group 1, these people did not post out of obligation. i'd like to think that people in this group genuinely wanted to wish me a happy birthday. that's pretty awesome.

3. a few random outliers: some creepy guy i met at a party, someone i wasn't really ever friends with in high school but for some reason is my "friend," my boyfriend's coworker, etc.

as for the people that didn't wish me a happy birthday on facebook: you guys are probably the coolest, because you're not addicted to facebook.

dvr is my bff

a bunch of people who know me have been wondering what i'm gonna watch now that a lot of my favorite reality series have wrapped. actually, they probably weren't wondering so much as bringing to my attention the fact that the "good" reality shows are over. smug bastards can suck it, because i've found a ton of crap to watch:

• so you think you can dance - i think i've said this before, maybe even on this very blog, but i like this show more than idol. reason: i can sing. pretty well, actually, so i don't go completely ape shit over talented vocalists. dancing is a different story. me not so good, so i really like watching it. the contestants on this show are freaks of nature, in a good way.

• the bachelorette - i can't *not* watch this show. this season's girl, jillian, is a cast-off from the previous season of the bachelor. she's petite, tan, successful...surprise.
  

• the fashion show - project runway's replacement. instead of "you're out," it's "we're just not buying it." hilarious. i miss tim gunn.

• real housewives of new jersey - italian. botox. bubbies. not sure about that last one? check it out on hulu

• john & kate + 8 - i've been aware of this show for quite some time since i watch a bunch of stuff on tlc, but i never tuned in because i don't really like watching shows about parents with babies. i probably caught 5 minutes here and there, most of it was kate barking at john, being a total bitch. no wonder this guy went elsewhere looking for affection. anyway, after all the drama surrounding john & kate's relationship, i *had* to watch. i love train wrecks.
  

• paris hilton's my new bff - so i wonder what happened to her old bff, brittany? new season starts june 2 (andy, please don't dump me for watching this).

• hitched or ditched - new show on the cw. this is on the dvr. haven't watched yet.

CS 2130: languages & translation

it's been four years since i graduated from tech. which means it's almost been long enough for me to forget the bullshit i had to put up with. almost, but not quite. tonite i was digging through some old saved aol im conversations and was quickly reminded of said bullshit:

---------------------------------------------------------
GTSkyFlyer: Anne if you calculated your average right now what would it be?
Lenina Crowne: ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm not good. like 30?
GTSkyFlyer: without the projects then? which you did well on prj1
Lenina Crowne: no not that low. actually the damned thing didnt splint totally and the hashtable was off
Lenina Crowne: i got some stupid pslint errors'
GTSkyFlyer: but they've been fixed since then?
Lenina Crowne: well not the splint errors, i actually forgot about those until i just mentioned them
Lenina Crowne: somethign about not checking return values of ungetc and fclose?
GTSkyFlyer: ok those are easy to fix.
GTSkyFlyer: anyways with the final and the prjects grades
Lenina Crowne: i am kinda nervous, i totally deserve to pass
GTSkyFlyer: that will put you over the 40 % mark
GTSkyFlyer: and honestly a 40 is all you will need to get a C
Lenina Crowne: mmmm C
--------------------------------------

btw i did pass that class. i got a C. that was after getting an F the semester before. good times. what the hell is splint? ungetc? fclose? hooray for knowledge!

just a regular day at the office

today our office building management company put on a tenant appreciation luau. it was ridiculous. you should have seen all the *real* professionals who work in the building - they came down for the food and immediately went back up to their offices. these kind of things are always really weird but this was pretty good. good job 5th street management.

the dancers drew a large crowd

i sucked pretty bad at this.

was even worse at hula hoop contest

(the guy back there on the robo-wave stayed on for like 5 minutes, it was insane)