estacey
Saturday, October 17, 2009
  Hahaha
Every time I see cat costumes, I ask myself, WHO ARE THESE FOR?

Not that I'm above dressing up my cats. No siree. I've even bought them a couple of wigs but we'll just say it didn't work out.

Tonight I was on a website and I saw all these cat costumes for Halloween. Including a tutu!

http://www.petsmart.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=3302317&f=Taxonomy/PET/3302317&fbc=1&fbn=Taxonomy|Halloween+Shop

I'm like, wow, maybe people actually do get to dress up their cats. I mean, the cats in these pictures surely don't look happy, but nor do they look drugged up or dead or anything.

Then I realized - IT'S ALL THE SAME CAT! Baha! They found ONE CAT who was willing to wear a costume. One!



Wings! Bless this little cat's heart... If I put wings on any of my cats, I am guessing they would run through the house screaming bloody murder trying to get away from the THINGS on ITS BACK!!! Shit, I remember the first time we put a collar on Kitten... she was like throwing herself backwards trying to get away from it!

The last item is not shown on a cat. I am guessing the shoot ended and they were unable to get back in touch with the cat model so there went their chance of getting it photographed on a cat...
  2:54 AM 2 comments
Friday, October 16, 2009
  Cutest little baby accent ever
http://www.flickr.com/photos/millylillyrose/3991008008/

Even Chris was smiling big at it, and when I asked if I should play it again, he surprisingly said sure. And laughed again. SO CUTE.
  7:28 PM 2 comments
 
OK, so I am still (mostly) vegan. I had some questionable sauce at dinner the other night, and then shared a fourth of a piece of cake with the chicks I was out to dinner with. It was a "chocolate malt cake" so I suppose it had all sorts of bad things in it for me. I definitely think I'm holding the "eating vegan" thing a bit close, only sharing it with people that maybe may not be like, who knew Stacey could be more of a PITA? So when my friend Meredith wanted to take me out to dinner to celebrate me gettin' married, I wasn't going to make her to go to the one vegan place in town. But whatever. I've cut I'm guessing like 98% of dairy/eggs out of my diet, and 98% is a whole crazy shitload better than 0%. I hope someone challenges me on that. Really.

Ha, I told the guy at work, who like.. is animal CRAZY. Seriously. I was like, oh, he's an animal lover, he'll be sympathetic to this. He was talking about some crazy shit that he heard someone did, animal-related, and saying, woe is me, how can people be so cruel to animals, I said something like, "Well, one thing that basically everyone contributes to and it's awful for the animals, is the whole meat-eating thing." I swear, he basically ran away from me. He was holding a Dunkin Donuts bag which I'm pretty sure contained a sandwich with ham. Some people really do not want to know, I guess. Even they do know, it's like... if they don't know all the details, it's OK to keep eating meat. People that go home and treat their dogs like they're one of the kids. It just doesn't make sense.

Anyway, so the big weird thing is... I feel like I've made this huge change, right? It is a huge change. But part of me feels like because I FINALLY took this leap, like something should change. Does that make sense? Like, I get these PETA action alerts and it's all this-or-that about the egg industry or something. Hear about the recent Land O'Lakes scandal? http://blog.peta.org/archives/2009/09/land_olakes.php This Land O'Lakes supplier has been charged with animal cruelty, it was that bad... Really, there are so many things that they do to meat/dairy/egg animals that would be ILLEGAL if you did it to your pet, but it's OK for farm animals. So if someone gets charged, they really done messed up. And I see the title and instantly I think, "But I don't EAT dairy anymore..." I mean, I know the world didn't change with me... logically I know that. But it just feels so WRONG now. Like it's not a "choice" thing, but instead, I have finally recognized the TRUTH, and how can everyone else not see it?

http://www.peta.org/actioncenter/land-o-lakes-gallery.asp
Is that worth milk? Is it worth cheese?

And then I start spiraling down a really depressing thoughtstream. Because no, most people have not changed their mind about meat or milk or anything else. That video that prompted me to stop eating dairy? That baby cow still died, and many more like it experience an entire lifetime in about four minutes that consists of being cut out of their dying moms, having their throats slit, writhing around on the floor in their blood, and then being tossed, still alive, in what I am guessing is some sort of calf body dumpster. And it's just so epically wrong to think that living beings of any kind are treated like that. As time goes on, it becomes harder and harder for me to understand how people don't see that... or how the very first step you have to take in stopping this insane, awful behavior is to stop eating meat. And honestly, it is a small step. Really, honestly. Sure, I miss fried chicken and cheeseburgers a little tiny bit, from what I remember of them as a kid, but is a yummy meal worth what it costs? No. The worst part of the downward spiral is realizing that more people are joining this earth every day, and more formerly veggie-oriented countries are welcoming McDonalds and the shit American diet into their lives every day. Yay heart disease, yay obesity, and yay factory farms!

Anyway. This was going to be a short post about this whole vegan thing. I did want to mention how amusing(?) it is to me that I've had a similar reaction from more than one of the few people I've told. You know, I say I've been a vegetarian since 14, but I just stopped eating dairy... and I've heard, "I could never give up cheese." My boss said that; he is lactose intolerant, but he just could never give up cheese. I'm like, "Oh my god, ME NEITHER!" And really, that's true. I have/had an unnatural love of all things cheesy. Enchiladas, pizza, feta cheese in my salads, cheese sandwiches, etc. Ice cream was always my pick-me-up of choice. I am talking LOVE here, folks. But there are things even love cannot overcome.

I do have to share, speaking of my love and loss of cheese; I found an awesome FAKE CHEESE. We love our little pita bread / flatbread pizzas, right? LOVE. We ate them all the time. Chris told me over and over how glad he was that I made the "discovery" that we could have healthy pizza that we both love. Then I went.... VEGAN! And then we had a couple of weeks with no little pizzas. I tried some tofu cheese in my burrito and, let me tell you, it was nothing to write home about. But I decided to give the rice cheese mozzarella a shot and omg yum! And the Smart Life ground "beef"? Get some flat bread, slather it in pizza sauce, cover it in fake meat, then sprinkle grated fake cheese on it and slide it into the toaster oven. I laugh at it because it looks like a real pizza with sausage or something, and loads of cheese, but it's all FAKE! I think, "Mmmmm! Fake pizza!" And it's delicious! Score one for the Rice Dream cheese. :)

Also, score one for Chris. He has been absolutely nothing but supportive. He hasn't made fun of me or my food or anything. In fact, he eats the fake ground stuff with me. The only meat he ever eats here is a turkey sausage every now and then... we're talking like once a month. He still eats cheese on his pizza, the real kind, but he switched to the super low-fat kind and he said it is absolutely no better than my rice cheese, so once he runs out of it we may both be eating the faux stuff.

OK, one last thing. Going to a nearly-all-the-way vegan diet has given me something so huge and awesome. I have never had the best "relationship" with food. It sounds so cheesy (haha) but it's true. I like to eat stuff that is really, really bad for me. And then I apparently like to feel bad about it. And I try to lose weight and get so upset with myself for not being able to, and then I feel weak for not being able to resist eating both enchiladas on my plate or from buying a pack of M&Ms to snack on. Being fat was just an outward expression of my weakness inside. But now? It's like I've been fucking freed from all that. I read it put like this before, and it's true... Giving up bad stuff for the sake of my health was just too huge of a thing. You know, how could I give up something I relish SO MUCH? But giving it up out of heartache and compassion has made it not at all feel like a sacrifice. It's just, you know, the right thing to do. I don't weigh myself every day now, because I certainly am not eating perfect, but I don't eat cheese for chrissake - CHEESE! - so what more can I do? So this is me. Hopefully there will be less of me in the future, but I'm not eating stuff that is bad for me on a daily basis; today's indulgence was a late-night bowl of granola. What more can I ask for?

And my fridge? I am so proud of my fridge. Chris and I never were really much for junk food or anything.. but it's gotten so much better. Moreso when I have just gone shopping and am being good about vegetables, because then my the refrigerator is something when I was a kid I would've been horrified about, but now it's like, "Yeah, yeah, this really is how we eat!" You want a sweet, cold treat? You eat SORBET, mothafucka!

So that's what I have to say about that. In case you wondered. :)
  1:13 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
  Oh my gosh, can we keep it?

Oh my gosh, can we keep it?, originally uploaded by estacey.

I have never understood tiny dogs all that much. But oh! Chris found this one running in the streets. Our neighbor's door was open and there was a beagle inside, leashed up, barking... and this doggy running in the road and the yard. So I caught it and brought it home and he ran around scaring the rabbits and the cats and he was so so so so cute.

All I'm sayin' is that the neighbors better be damn happy that I was able to catch this pup so he didn't get hit by a car and that I already have three at home or I totally would've stolen him away!

He wasn't interested at all in being picked up by a stranger, even a stranger with salmon treats, so I had to get down on the ground and do the play bow. Then he was like, oh! She wants to play! Yipee! You'll notice that I played the same trick to get him to look at the camera for half a second to get a picture. All the rest of the pics I snapped are just brown blurs of fur.

  9:58 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
  Did I mention I quit my job?

I like it. Even though I know it's just a blurry butterfly. :), originally uploaded by estacey.

I don't think so, since I haven't updated this since, like, last year. Soo... yeah. I did. Last Monday. And it felt GOOD. I'm still going to work each day, but next Thursday I leave for Fiji and hopefully they will have found a replacement by then so I will be FREE FREE FREE!

I'm stressed right now. And PMSing. NOT A GOOD COMBINATION. Good news is that maybe I'll get my period before we leave so I'm not in the throes of Bad Cramps Day in Fiji. Cross your fingers for me!

I take Piper in to get fixed tomorrow. I'm going to warn them that I have lost one bunny to anesthesia and one bunny to cancer in the past year so PLEASE BE CAREFUL. Again, cross your fingers for me.

I have spent a lot of time in the mall. It has sucked. But! I found a dress. I don't think it looks like.. um... flattering? But it's white-ish and I'm faaat, so what can you expect? I seriously needed to lose like 20 more lbs and this would've not been such an ordeal. But hey, it's me.. It's my wedding for Chrisstake. I'm trying to not stress about that too much. Hopefully I can lose a little more by picture time in December, so we'll see Thing is, I cut out ALL CHEESE and other dairy, which means NO ENCHILADAS and NO ICE CREAM. You'd think I'd be skeletal at this point, but nope! The slothlike amount of activity can't be helping, but I'll aim to fix that when I get back from the Fiji.

OK, yeah, time to watch "Lie To Me" on Hulu and fall asleep. Tomorrow will be a long day.. Won't be home til like 11 pm on account of Piper's surgery, so, yay. I'm going to try to use the time wisely and go to YET ANOTHER MALL which isn't going to be all that fun but it needs to be done.

Oh! Chris got me the 24-70 2.8 lens. Early Christmas gift. :) I am getting it now so it's in time for Fiji. I had to track the fucker down, and I did, and it should be here Thursday. I need to learn how to do cartwheels for times like this.

Yawn!

  11:42 PM 0 comments
  Mr. Big

Mr. Big, originally uploaded by estacey.

  11:36 PM 0 comments
Friday, October 02, 2009
  Life is beautiful
I'm laying in a bed in my hotel room in downtown Atlanta. I just had a key lime martini and a vodka and cranberry and I ain't wearin' pants. Now you understand the blog post title.



So I'm at this Cowbelly pet photography workshop for the weekend. Optional day one was today. We had the workshop today and then went out for dinner n drinks. I use the term dinner loosely. The only thing there for me was the hummus.. Until I found out that the smokey taste was courtesy of trout. Doh! We ordered something special for me and it was good but it didn't help with the alcohol absorption. :D. As I figured, vegan traveling is a bit of work. My appetite has changed so much though.. So it is SO not a big deal. Amazing!



Atlanta is cool. The weather is effing perfect. I went to the aquarium yesterday. I have mixed feelings about it, but like most of the aquariums I've gone to - New England, National, Monterey Bay - it was overall really cool. I got a few pics I'll have to upload when I get home.



OK back to the awesome and mindless television I can't get enough of here. I again thank god we canceled the cable, but I absolutely adore sitting and staring at this ridiculous shit.
  8:54 PM 0 comments
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!

About Me

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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