estacey
Friday, March 30, 2007
  i broke.

first coffee product since 3/6, originally uploaded by estacey.

after no coffee since 3/6, today, on the second day of a headache, i decided to go ahead and get myself a little frappuccino. not sure if it'll help with the headache, but i really wanted it. :)

i don't feel too bad, though - i plan on continuing with my tea-instead-of-coffee thing. but a coffee every few weeks isn't the worst thing in the world. :)

 
  Goodness, how I love the Times (and how bad used car salesmen suck)
Reading the newspaper is really something I wish I had time for each day. Sometimes I do get a break at work and check out NYTimes.com, though. And it never fails to disappoint.

It's Not You, It's Your Apartment

Looking at that top picture, I think, no, maybe it really could be him. Then again, a dead seal? I guess it could be both. :D

I dunno what's going on with getting a new car. The salesman at the car dealership has lived up to the used-car-salesmen reputation and been slimy and skeezy, assuming skeezy is a word. Every bit of polite Midwesterner in me has long since fled, and we had a heated discussion after work yesterday, my position being that a $500 dealer fee is bullshit. When we reached an impasse, I gritted my teeth, said thank you in the most fake way possible, and hung up. I sent them a fax afterwards, which included a printout of the calculations all his extra fees would make the final car cost be, the suggestion that he call if he were willing to get the car down to the price I was willing to pay, and a great deal of attitude.

He called last night. Twice.

But at this point, eh.. This has been stressful and time-consuming (I have been so distracted from school!), and a huge lesson in how low people can be. Chris, in true Chris fashion, offered me to use his Corolla for a little while if I was dead-set against driving my no-a/c Civic. I'm thinking I may take him up on it, and just put this off for a few months, at which point I will have more money in the bank, less credit inquiries on my report, and a much more realistic understanding of how all this works. I also think I'm going with a private party next time.. Using Carfax and trusting your gut, I think it is very possible to get a good one-owner car from a private party for a lot less than I'd pay at a dealer. Plus, as a bonus: no used car salesmen. I can get a nice Corolla for well under $200 a month through a private party. Yipee! :)
 
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
  the who!

The Who, originally uploaded by Scott Ableman.

went to the who concert last night. chris saw the billboard for the who i think on our way to billy joel and thought maybe we should go. i'm glad we did! i only knew a handful of the songs, but liked lots more. plus, it's always weird to see people in person that you've only ever seen in the media before. with the help of the binoculars, i could see the veins on pete townsend's arms as he played guitar. very strange.

due to the fact that i stayed up too late reading on sunday night (i've been in such a reading mood lately - three books last week alone!), and had a (rare) hell day at work yesterday, and then the concert last night, and the fact that i gabbed with dawny for an hour afterwards, i am TIRED. tired, tired, tired.

 
Monday, March 26, 2007
  question
i'm lookin' into buying a car.. i am wondering how much my car insurance will go up. right now, i pay for liability only - $90/month. with a car that has a note on it, i will have to pay for full-coverage. i'll be going along the route of a toyota, so i won't be getting anything that'd be too costly to repair or anything..... but am curious if anyone knows how much i could expect my insurance to go up, reasonably? thanks if you know anything.

update: y'all were right. well, at least two of you. ;) i checked with my current insurance company - full coverage on this particular car would cost me $180/month. i checked with progressive. $160. geico? $115. excellent. $25 extra a month is much better than i was expecting. thanks for the suggestion & the clarification on how the credit check works!

 
Friday, March 23, 2007
  jeeeeez

Posing King Penguins, originally uploaded by Antarctic M.

this is this where this chick LIVES.
amazing, right?

no pun intended on the chick thing.

 
  guess who's tired

and who can't sleep...

tonight was the cats. i had some great, great news there. this nice kitty named marty has been there since i've started volunteering. he disappears every now and then, but that's to de-stress at the shelter after being at petsmart.

sometimes i understand why certain cats haven't been adopted. for example, freckles the really fat tortoiseshell who did nothing at all except lay in her bed - i literally would move her in the bed from her cage to the floor to another cage and she'd just lay there - except she always wanted you to pet her and when you stopped you'd have to do it ninjalike or she'd scratch you in protest.. yeah, she's no longer at petsmart, but i'm 99% sure that means she's sleeping in her bed on the petsmart cat lady's bookshelf or something, 'cause no one is going to adopt that cat! so anyway, sometimes i understand.

other times, as with marty, i don't. he's a nice little cat. playful, sweet, nice... an all-around good cat. doesn't beg for attention, but when you give it to him, he appreciates it. he's been a homeless cat since he was a kitten, and just didn't deserve it.

but tonight..! a little girl came in with her mom and right away set her sights on marty. even despite the stiff competition, such as a super-soft tiny girl calico, and a cat much like oreo but without all the attitude - the cat literally HUGGED me the first time i opened the door. they ended up looking at the other cats, but the little girl kept coming back to marty. yayayayayay!

i have to stop doing the cats next semester. there is just no way i can keep it up then, taking even more classes. but man, i'll miss it.

when i came out afterwards, my car was dead. ha ha ha. it would seem that my brakelights decided to stay on after i shut off my car.

i stopped off at my house, and made sure the lights turned off when i turned off the car. i went inside and had a massive guilt attack about my kitties and being such an awful mama to them. but i had to go back to chris's tonight in case my car is dead again in the morning, so i can take his spare car. so three minutes after i turned off my car, i went to start it back up and.... it was dead again. ha ha ha!

i'm so tired - i was barely awake when dealing with my car two hours ago - but am all jumpy and can't sleep.

maybe i'll read some more and it'll help me to fall asleep. this book is really good. it's gotten me to thinking a lot, too - these women who have stayed working are all so dedicated to their jobs. that's such a foreign concept to me. i assumed at first it's 'cause it's just not on my nature... then i realized i have never had a job that really challenged me, that allowed me to really use my mind and talents on a daily basis. so we'll see if that changes someday...

 
Thursday, March 22, 2007
  self-indulgent
when i got to class last night, i discovered that.. it had been cancelled!

so i took a mental health night and went to barnes & noble for two hours, where i spent $50 on books. one book: algebra for the clueless. it would seem i’m not remember some pretty basic principles, so i hope this will help.

i’m telling ya, i get in these moods where i want to do nothing but READ sometimes. i’m in one right now. sadly, work and school interfere too much, but i figured i deserved it last night, so i spent most of the rest of the evening in bed, reading.. not the algebra book, but one called mommy wars, which i heard the author talking about on npr a while back. it’s a collection of individual women’s stories of their struggles with the children vs. work thing.. how these women do it, why it is that working mothers vs. stay-at-home moms seem to disrespect each others’ choices so much.

this is an interesting subject to me.. not because i’m lookin’ to have kids anytime soon, but because i wonder how people do what they do. how do stay-at-home moms feel about their lives? how do you feel about someone else raising your kids from 8-5 five out of every seven days? when they’re little and go to bed early, that gives you only a couple of hours each day of quality time. scratch that – a couple of hours of time, during which you have to do dinner and baths and all that other stuff. where’s the quality time? of course, i guess quality time is a luxury not everyone can afford to worry about.

s-a-h moms look down on working mothers for putting work first (“how can you let someone else raise your child?”), working mothers look down on s-a-h moms for not having a career (“don’t you get bored at home all day?”). and it obviously is a very personal choice – some women wouldn’t be happy leaving their kids all day, some wouldn’t be happy not having a career.

both categories of women give things up to do what they do.

s-a-h moms give up their careers, own income, etc. some of the women recounting their stories said they had less of a say in financial matters once they stopped working.. for example, the one woman’s husband “vetoed” the christmas portrait she had planned. it sounds pretty awful to be powerless like that, without a voice – but i guess that depends on the husband, how respectful he is.

s-a-h moms are looked at as uninteresting. looked down upon. a former book editor suddenly found people shying away from her at cocktail parties when she responded to the “what do you do?” question to see more interesting conversation partners, as if she could no longer handle conversations about something other than diaper rash.

s-a-h moms entrust their futures to someone else. the editor of the book married a man who she thought was her soul mate, but who ended up beating her, one time strangling her until she blacked out. she re-married, and is still married to that wonderful guy, but she’s never fully gained her trust back – and that is part of the reason she couldn’t not work. what if he left her? where would she & the kids be then?

working moms give up, obviously, time with their family. it’s a constant struggle to try to balance work and family, and lots of women just feel like they’re doing badly at both. The one woman thought she had found the perfect resolution – a job for a boss who chose to use the last two weeks of each month to work from home on his novel. So she spent those two weeks each month at home with her kids. but the other two weeks? she was m.i.a. as teenagers, her son developed behavioral problems and her daughter developed anorexia. maybe they would have had those problems anyway, but she wonders if it could be because they felt abandoned for half of their childhood.

it’s obviously a personal choice, if it's a choice at all. the book’s editor repeats: the best kind of mom is a happy mom, so you have to do what makes you happy.

a few years back, i wasn’t sure if i wanted kids. well, i always WANTED kids, but i didn’t know if i would ever actually want to have them. (if that makes sense.) this was horrifying to my sisters: “but you’d make such a great mom!” but i couldn’t think of a mom whose life i would want. for example, my sister, kelli, loved her new role as a mother, but oh my god – she must have only gotten to spend one waking hour a day with her son from friday – sunday. we won’t even start on the other stuff she deals with.. and the stay-at-home moms? life seems pretty sad for them, in that stereotypical way. but of course, your life is what you make it. some of the s-a-h moms in this book are living full, enriched lives that go beyond just the kitchen and the kids.

my sister kamille has worked out a pretty good situation for her second daughter, more than 12 years after she had her first. she goes to a babysitter, a stay-at-home mom, for about three hours each day. her husband watches the baby early afternoon. she watches the baby late afternoon. the baby is with someone that probably feels like family at this point for three hours a day, and is with her family the rest of the time.

so anyway, i think i want kids now. but only in a really good situation – as a happy, well-balanced person, with a good partner. in the best position possible to make my little people into kind, happy big people.

reading mommy wars has made me feel even better about my current goal to become a teacher. i don’t know if it would be any better than any other job when the children are young, but you definitely get more time off (read: more quality time with the kids) than most jobs. plus, once your kids get to school age, you get home from work at the same time they do.

this book is really good so far – very thought-provoking. btw, i finished female chauvinist pigs. it was alright, but.. i dunno. it’s more like i felt like it didn’t teach me much, aside from some feminism history and this whole boi culture i was unaware of (the “bois” that are girls, that is). she did make a few good points – that women try too hard to be “one of the guys” and reinforce the idea the being a woman is something that we need to overcome.

anyway, that’s my huge long rambling of the day.
 
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
  Blargh
So my last two evenings were devoted entirely to algebra. I have a test tonight and really, really want to do well on it. I did a practice test last night in the book.. I got a lot of it. Some I still didn’t.

It’s insanely frustrating to not get this. It’s tough on the ego, to feel so stupid.

I really don’t get why I’m so bad at the math. I mean, I’m not a stupid person. So why is this one subject so hard for me? Why is solving every problem a challenge…? Then when I figure it all out, I can’t remember what to do for the test anyhow.

But I have to finish this class – and two more after (three actually, but only two in the immediate future), so I have to keep at it.

Anyway, so that’s all I’ve been doing.

May I state, also, that Chris is a dear? Well, he is. Last night, he sat patiently beside me and explained (and re-explained) the things I had questions on. He laughed at one point and recalled how his dad used to sit by him for hours as he worked on his math homework, in case he had a question. That his dad would be falling asleep but still sat with him. How incredibly cute is that? And not surprising at all; Chris had to learn this patience and dedication from someone.

I'm figuring out this summer's schedule. I'm taking College Algebra and Math for Liberal Arts I simultaneously throughout the whole summer. My other options for the mini terms at the first and second parts of the summer are: Philosophy, Developmental Psychology, and American Lit I or American Lit II. I'd like to take all three, but I.. ya know, value my sanity and all. So I have to figure it out.
 
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
  this girl so funny

it makes me want to get a christmas sweater and go to sears for a portrait.. oh, wait, i DO have that cat sweater with bells on it. hmmm....!

 
Sunday, March 18, 2007
  quick note fo' i got to bed

emu, originally uploaded by estacey.

ah, no time to write. i've had a busy weekend... though all at home. math (though not enough) and a speech test and homework and a quiz in the other class and two movies watched and two assignments for film class....

other than that, today we went on a nice long boat ride down to borders, where i got some chai tea and a book (female chauvinist pigs) (which is funny 'cause some chick with big fake tits flashed some other boat when the guys yelled to her - while i was reading the book! oh, ariel levy, you speak so true!). it was really effin' beautiful out this weekend.

on the food front, i've been doing very well! last week, as well as i can. weekend, i did pretty good - for a weekend! last night was pesto pasta w/ scrimps! mmmm! today i did break and had some ice cream, but eh - it's sunday.

i took sebastian for a jog yesterday. although it was only 75, the sun combined with the lack of hard sand to run in (therefore i had to run in the loose stuff) really knocked me out. i was miserable. i usually LOVE running on the beach. blech. i meant to go again tonight, but you know how that goes...

chris and i went to lowe's yesterday and got a lychee tree (thanks!!!!) and a mango tree and a shop vac and a shower organizer for me. these are all very awesome things. we planted the trees today and can look forward to fruit in a mere five years or so! :D i shop vac'd all the dead lizards out of the garage today, which was a blast (thanks, little orzo). shop vacs are good stuff.

i almost looked at an apt today, but am undecided as to whether i want a roommate again. well, of course i don't, but you can't always get what you want.... but i'm trying to decide what i should do. so i called to cancel.

as for my other problem, that being my extreme hatred of my car beast... which, btw, isn't so bad now except for the a/c. i filled my tires on um.. thursday night and the car handles so much better. it turns out the tires were really low! how did no one tell me this?? i always assumed they checked that stuff when they changed oil and stuff, but apparently not. so i shouldn't hate my car, but in light of the no a/c and quickly-approaching summer, i really do. i think i am going to try to resolve this one, quicklike, even if it means i gotta budget myself even more. (and i've been doing well lately!)

ok, off to seepy-seepy.

 
Saturday, March 17, 2007
  weird

Amy Winehouse, originally uploaded by mediaeater.

for the second time, after seeing a picture of a singer and finding her very intriguing, i downloaded some songs... and totally dug 'em. the first time was M.I.A. this time it's amy winehouse.

i only have downloaded three songs so far, but they're good. my favorite is "you know i'm no good."

there's just something about her... and just something about M.I.A. wierd that the way they look (more about style than actual looks) intriguing me has led me to discover that their music does as well.

 
Friday, March 16, 2007
  too cool!

pelitee or manacan?, originally uploaded by flkrakr.

 
Thursday, March 15, 2007
  oh, the math!
the math is killin' me!

i went last night to take a quiz that i was 100% sure about... he forgot to make up quizzes, so he just gave us one question. i didn't understand the question. let me restate: i did ALL the homework for the unit, and understood it completely, and the question he gave us, based on the unit, i had no idea how to do. i guess there was a trick to it (if the first number is cubed, you have to add a zero, or something). wtf. so not happy.

i was only 2 pts away from a b on the last test, so that's an improvement, but i really really have to get through this class, and it's killin' me. and i believe i will be taking TWO math classes this summer, so i have more of the same to look forward to. :(

anyway, how i did yesterday:

food

breakfast: banana, two rice cakes.
snack: dried apricots and apples.
lunch: 1 slice ezekiel bread with almond butter and blueberry preserves, 1 serving raw cheese, 1 newman's own cookie (whoops) & some salt & cracked pepper chips (also a whoops, but not so bad).
drink: 1 bottle yerba mate (80 cals)
dinner: 2 slices ezekiel bread, 2 breaded fake chicken patties, cottage cheese with a half container of stonyfield farm's chocolate underground yogurt. although i don't like cottage cheese plain, it is ridiculously good when mixed with fruit (and its juice) or yogurt. and, served that way, it has lots more protein and lots less sugar.

you'll notice i had no coffee again. i'm on day 3 of being coffee-free now!


workout

nada. (i had class, i forgot my running shoes at chris's, i was tired when i got home. excuses, excuses.)
 
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
  babies are clean.

macy eatin, originally uploaded by estacey.

 
  a story that brought tears to my eyes
 
  so if you ever want to feel about your job..
be advised that chris has worked about 29 hours this week so far. yes, just on monday and tuesday. poor guy.

now, as i said i was going to do....

how I did yesterday
Food
breakfast - banana & 110-cal green tea nutrition bar; lunch - 1 slice ezekiel bread w/ almond butter and blueberry preserves, one serving raw cheese; one half newman's own cookie from breakroom; snack: 1 serving raw flax crackers (free sample from work); dinner - leftover spaghetti (kamille insisted we make 1.5 boxes; we'll be eating spaghetti for a week) and stonyfield farms french vanilla yogurt (this was a whoops, because i ate straight out of the container and probably too much!)

Workout
45-min jog with Sebastian on the beach. It was freaking gorgeous out, and my favorite time of day - when the sky is blue & pink and the water is turquoise. Thank you, time change!
 
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
  my OTHER adorable niece

amanda, originally uploaded by estacey.

the original!

how grown up has my mandy gotten?

she's very 13. honestly, it's amazing exactly how 13 she acts. into all the big-girl stuff, but still a little unsure of herslef. VERY bershon. too cool for most things, except for hollister and long necklaces from claire's. and still my little girl. :)

 
  had to post this picture

macy maaaae, originally uploaded by estacey.

because is it one of my favorites that i got of her. :)

 
  Macy loved the beach

macy
Originally uploaded by estacey.

What a cute pic, right? My sis & nieces left today. Man, I wish I could see them more often. I think they had a nice time, though, and am hoping Amanda will come visit me for a couple of weeks this summer. I'll take her snorkeling!
----

So I put down a deposit on this beach studio last week, and gave notice at my current place, as I couldn't foresee any reason why they would turn me down. The owner of the studio lives in Europe, so I wasn't expecting to hear back right away. Today I realized it had been nearly a week, so I called the owner's agent. It turns out some other dude was willing to move in right away (not April 1) so they gave it to him instead. Uhh. Thanks for letting me know!

Now what? This was so not what I wanted to deal with today; the prospect of moving was bad enough, but now... I guess I could just take my notice back, but how does that work? Then what about next time? And sadly, I really was looking forward to being fixed in one part of town, not driving all over.

Anyway.

In opposite news, I got a 90 on the paper I wrote for Film as Literature, "Fargo Humanizes the Crime Drama". Not perfect (I missed some important examples that would support my thesis), but still an A.

Some background: we have to write two major papers for the class. I had two months to do it. I thought it was due today. Sunday night (morning) at 1 a.m., I looked at the class site and discovered that it was due... at 1:00 p.m. Monday. So I worked on it for a bit that night, then again the next day but was distracted by dogs and kids and all that, so just really concentrated on it for a little over an hour before I had to submit it. And I got a 90. Long gone are the days I spend hours writing a paper, of being a perfectionist when it came to my writing. It was a sad discovery that I work well on that stuff under pressure, because it makes procrastinating so much more rational!

Update: Even better; turns out the 10 points were knocked off because my paper was 20 minutes late. Not because of the content. Ha ha ha!

 
Monday, March 12, 2007
  :)

chris & macy, originally uploaded by estacey.

how cute is he?

(answer: really, really cute.)

 
  aww

eatin a baby turtle!, originally uploaded by estacey.

caught this bird eating a baby softshell turtle right off the anhinga trail yesterday. i wanted to help the turtle, but what can you do? i rooted for the turtle, until the bird shook it while holding his head, and then i was pretty sure the turtle was toast. a bit surprisingly, the bird did eventually get this big guy to fit down his throat - pics @ flickr.

 
Saturday, March 10, 2007
  eyelashes

sleepin', originally uploaded by estacey.

:)

 
  why i will not be starting the writing-down-what-i-eat thing until AFTER the family leaves

$5 key lime pie, originally uploaded by estacey.

well, ONE of the reasons. :D

 
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
  look how goddamn thin i was!

Me under a baobab, originally uploaded by estacey.

Honestly, I am just so tired of not being happy with my clothes & the way I look in them. So, so tired of it! And having my family come visit is a scary prospect – are they ever an excuse to eat badly!

I always mean so well, with both diet and exercise. But then we get a tray of two-bite brownies with lunch, or like this morning, they bring in French toast for us! I can do so well when I'm really trying.. I just don't know what's wrong with me lately.

Losing weight requires DISCIPLINE, which I seem to waiver at so badly these days. So I think ACCOUNTABILITY is the next strategy I am going to try.

So, starting tomorrow (not today, due to aforementioned French toast and tonight’s trip to The Cheesecake Factory, where all the healthy options are chicken salads), I am going to report to the blog. I got the idea reading an article in the NYTimes about how people sometimes use blogs as a way to develop financial discipline – having to answer to someone, even if they are strangers, is a deterrent to buying things you shouldn’t.

I’ve got some good stuff planned for later this year; I would like to look good for it! And, you know, the rest of my life too - it's just helpful to have a target date and all that in mind.

One thing that may help: I put in my application for a studio by the beach. If I end up moving there, the lack of decent cooking facilities is the perfect reason to make it a raw-food only zone!

 
 
kitten, again
Kitten watching a bird.

kitten
Kitten looking at me.

Someone on Flickr (hi, Ike!) pointed out that there is a huge contrast between the way she is looking at the bird and the way she is looking at me. I realized he's right. It's like, interest vs. mild contempt. Ahh, cats.. :)
 
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
  so this lady walks into a salon with a pineapple...

and says: "i want to look like THIS."

the amazing part is, they did it.

 
  pretty blue sky

the sky was really pretty today, originally uploaded by estacey.

the sky looked gorgeous all day. i really wanted to get home to get pictures, but sadly did not beat the sunset. so this is all i got!

 
  dogs love food.

thinks with her stomach, originally uploaded by estacey.

 
  bjorn is really gaining on wailey

bathtime for the tortugas, originally uploaded by estacey.

ain't he?

 
Monday, March 05, 2007
  me encanta esta foto

LA_TRIP_0682, originally uploaded by Mooshies.

 
  Isn’t this picture cute?

Sonatina Slumber, originally uploaded by immortallyyours.

As usual, the picture relates a little bit to my post.

Last night, we went out to Blue Moon Fish Company for dinner. Chris was right; they had nothing for me -- I guess it was the lunch menu I got excited about.

Anyway, our dinner guests were Chris’s parents’ friends from back in Pittsburgh. The woman used to be Chris’s piano teacher. She said he was a very polite little boy, which was both very cute and no surprise at all. They were a really sweet couple -- married 40 years and still nice to one another! And, honestly, it's a nice thing to be exposed to folks who are still married in their golden years.

I pretty much dread social situations like that a little bit, but when it’s all over, I’m glad I went. I like sweet people. :) And I like Chris in situations like that, too, because I am reminded of how polite, humble, and adorable he is. And he talks with his hands a lot more.

At dinner, Chris pulled out his pay-the-bill trick. That is, you excuse yourself to use the restroom partway through dinner to slip your credit card to the waiter. That way, when the bill comes, your card has already been swiped and there’s no fighting over who gets the honor of picking up the check.

Had he not, I was worried that Chris and the mister would’ve been embroiled in an all-out brawl. The mister was very insistent on paying the bill, and only after Chris’s trick was revealed did he relent.

Now, scenes like this happen all the time amongst Chris’s friends and acquaintances, and it always absolutely cracks me up. When it happens, I keep picturing my friends out to dinner, and whatever poor soul got picked to be in charge of collecting money for the bill exclaiming, “I’m $5 short!” and having everyone at the table shrug. Or everyone putting their money in and discovering we put too much, and then a fight ensues about whether the waiter deserves that good a tip or not. And if he doesn’t, who gets the extra $2 back? Whee...

This weekend was pretty quiet. After the dog walk, I took a big long nap, during which I vaguely remember Chris coming in and warning me that I was going to become a vampire. I woke up with a roaring migraine and watched The Devil Wears Prada with Patty. Then I took Excedrin and drank some yummy coffee and my headache vanished (and it was good). I went home to pet the cats and took lots of pictures. We ate couscous and watched part of Trainspotting for my class.

Sunday, um.. what did I do? Cleaned my closet! Went errand-runnin’ with my boy. Did homework. Went to bed too late.

This week, my sister and nieces come! I have lots of homework to do – movies to watch, papers to write, and math to learn – but it should be fun. I'm honestly really excited. :) I hope I get some time to take some pictures and get lots of sleep. No work for me from the time I leave on Wednesday until I go back to work on Tuesday. Yay!

Chris & I are going to take them on the boat this weekend - Macy's first-ever boatride! And go to the farmer's market Sunday and maybe to the beach. And, of course, I have to take them SHOPPING, which I will do while Chris is at work as to spare him the mall. And Amanda wants to go snorkeling - hope my wetsuit fits her! And I get to see Macy! And Amanda! I'm so so so excited! :) And I can't wait to see how the dogs react to the little people!

 
Sunday, March 04, 2007
  doesn't this dog look like a HUGE sebastian?

HUGE steroid version of sebastian, originally uploaded by estacey.

i thought so.

 
Saturday, March 03, 2007
  did the dog walk today

sweet part chow, originally uploaded by estacey.

and this was my favorite picture. this doggy was being pampered, coveredin a wet towel and doused with water. very sweet & cute. :)

 
Friday, March 02, 2007
  The week! It's over!

And I do be glad!

Spring break from school starts after I finish my assignments for Sunday, and I have next Thursday, Friday, and the following Monday off. I still have a lot of work to do during that time off, but it should be a nice break. After all, having Kamille, Amanda & Macy here will force me to do some fun stuff.

I got a call late in the night on Wednesday.. well, okay, it was like 10:30. But still. Kamille was calling for Amanda, who wanted to know how deep Chris’s pool was. She said she didn’t want to “get greedy.” And by that, I think she meant she didn’t want to think he had a great pool if he had an three-foot-deep, above-ground pool like we’re used to in Wisconsin. So she had to get that cleared up before she visited. I could only answer with, “Deep enough that I can’t touch,” and followed it up with a picture the next day. Amanda freaked out when she saw it, ecstatic.

Chris is pretty boggled about how excited they are about a swimming pool, so obviously he has been out of non-Florida winters for far too long. :) After all, they're shoveling snow and dealing with freezing rain back there. Here? It was 87 today and, as you see in the picture, perfectly sunnily beautiful. :)

 
Thursday, March 01, 2007
  for tom

Because I would like to respond to your comment on my previous post, but do not have your email address.

What timing! Why? Because I picked this magazine up when I went to Whole Foods last night for dinner. I actually subscribed a few weeks back, since I buy National Geographic every single month at $5 an issue and a whole year is something like $25! But anyway, yeah, I picked that up last night. I decided to not read the elephants article last night, specifically because I didn’t want to get depressed.. but I did decide to read the Orlando article, and sadly came across some of the elephant pics while flipping through to find it. The cubs killed me, and I honestly got mad at the folks for putting this quote in the magazine because I think it’s so powerful in such a painful way: “Hearing our voices, the two cubs emitted high-pitched growls and squeals. They wrestled and tumbled, not knowing that without their mother, they were now members of the living dead.” Ugh.

I’ll get to the elephant article this weekend, and no doubt feel sick about what people can do to these creatures. Same with the whales. I mean, jesus – there’s no denying they have family bonds, care for one another, mourn for one another, feel pain….. So how could you gun down 16 elephants, for their goddamn tusks? How could you kill the gentle, amazing whale for its.. what the hell do they use whales for anymore? We don’t need their oil for our lamps. We don’t need their meat.

I just don’t understand the ugliness of people sometimes.

It’s really kinda sad – I’ve started retreating from the things I love because of it. I no longer stop on the nature shows on PBS because I know that, sooner or later in the program, they will be upsetting. I will feel like what we’re doing is unfair. I will feel like I wish I could do something, and feel powerless that I can’t. I will wonder what our children’s children will think – that these gorgeous creatures are extinct because people liked trinkets made of ivory. Or that sharks are in the decimated populations they are because people fished them for their fin soup, then threw them back in the ocean to die.

Anyway – onto another subject (that of diving) that you commented on, Tom.

I haven’t been diving since, like, summertime! As soon as the water warms a little, I want to get back in there. And I have to do a lot of diving this summer to make sure I’m good and ready for Costa Rica! We may even go out on the boat sometime! Let me know when you come down to South Florida! :)

 
  Birds hate LeBatard
I posted a while back about a billboard I pass any time I'm on 95 that cracks me up.

I pass this every day on the way to work..

7 a.m. or midnight, there was always a line of birds over the guy on the right's head. Always. And nowhere else. And he looked like he was in the middle of a blizzard.

Then they replaced the billboard with one of Dan Marino. No birds.

Now the billboard is back.. and so are the birds!

the billboard is back!  and so are the birds!

I snapped this going 60 mph, so unfortunately it didn't get the whole thing in there... but trust me, the birds are just over LeBatard's head again. Can anyone explain this?
 
I'm Stacey. I'm a 31(!)-year-old Wisconsin girl living in sunny South Florida. The highlights in my life are my lovely boyfriend, my aloof cats, my adorable/adoring stepdogs, my two lumbering tortoises, select family members, being outside, being underwater, taking pictures, yadda yadda. Stay tuned for lots of babbling!

Name:
Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States

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Making a difference

A small boy lived by the ocean. He loved the creatures of the sea, especially the starfish, and he spent much of his time exploring the seashore.

One day the boy learned there would be a minus tide that would leave the starfish stranded on the sand.

When the tide went out, he went down to the beach, began picking up the stranded starfish, and tossing them back into the ocean.

An elderly man who lived next door came down to the beach to see what the boy was doing. Seeing the man's quizzical expression, the boy paused as he approached. "I'm saving the starfish!" the boy proudly declared.

When the neighbor saw all of the stranded starfish he shook his head and said: "I'm sorry to disappoint you, young man, but if you look down the beach, there are stranded starfish as far as the eye can see. And if you look up the beach the other way, it's the same. One little boy like you isn't going to make much of a difference."

The boy thought about this for a moment. Then he reached his small hand down to the sand, picked up another starfish, tossed it out into the ocean, and said: "Well, I sure made a difference for that one!"


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