Love, Love, Love This and Will Use It, Even Tho It Would Have Served Me Best Years Ago

"Go! Go Rodrigo y Gabriela" or "Not Since Regina Spektor"

I'm not sure when it was that I last felt this excited about discovering a new artist. I realize now these guys have been floating around the music circuit for a couple years now, having last night sought out their website and several posts on YouTube, but man... I just found 'em, okay?! ~ and I'm freakin' thrilled!

Last night, I got my honey-man to listen in and watch their "Diablo Rojo" video, and next ya know, over an hour later, I was still sitting at the kitchen table and we were watching everything we could find. I just bought their self-titled album via iTunes and it's playing as I write. I just love this album!

Not many of my family read this blog... which is good, cuz I know what yer all getting from me for Christmas this year! Back to work now!

P.S. We found out last night they were just in Vegas on the 19th, playing at The Joint. DAMN! Even though we were in L.A. last weekend, we so would have gone had we known! Even if it meant our arriving in Burbank around 3am!

And Donnie Osmund Too!

""Everything Comes Down to Pooh" or "We're in Business, Baby"

Time for a Health Update: The latest is that they're really not sure whether or not I have a spastic colon, considering my pain is almost always localized in one area, among other things that all basically amount to a "No, it can't be a spastic colon." The general gist: They still don't know what's wrong, and so, about 4 weeks ago, I was scheduled for a colonoscopy late next month (geesh, not too fast people, come on, eh?). And for the most truly up to date info, as of this afternoon, I've gone to the bathroom more in the last 24 hrs than I had in the last 2 months combined = 9 times?!? Yeah. And I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to be doing that either.

But time for some truly good news (and then we'll get back to the poo)! Today, I saw my gyno and after checking out 'clear' for a full year, and now officially off 'The Pill,' despite ovarian cysts galore on both the left and right, my doc told me today that I'm ovulating without issue. We could soon be in the business of making a wee baby! Yay! Not right now, not right away [SIDE NOTE: We can't with my colonoscopy scheduled first.], but relatively soon [TRANSLATION: 'Soon' being some time this next year, which ain't that far away.].

But Back to Poop: Considering I've got a colonoscopy around the corner, I think this video on YouTube from the TV show, Scrubs, is rather appropriate, don't you think? Wendy had told us we should seek this one out...

Our Mornings with Otis, Minus the Bat

Found this via CuteOverload.com (love this site!)

The Most Interesting Version Thus Far

This is fantastic - I LOVE IT!!! I so, so, so LOVE it!
And it's especially funny right now, as we're still working to finalize our wedding music... I'd thought I'd heard every version there is of Pachabel's 'Canon in D.' In fact, I've listened to over 150 different audio clips of the tune, and that's NO exaggeration - - try the search for 'Canon in D' on iTunes! Just try it!

Although this is definitely the most interesting version I've found thus far, I don't think this one will make the cut for our wedding mix, even if it did make me cry (I'm such a freakin' sap).

Um, Can you say "Way CUTE"?

I Wanna See This!

"..It's a Thinking Problem"

I'm not a watcher of Craig Ferguson all that much, but I saw this one and he's made some very valid and valuable points.... This clip is over 12 minutes long, but I think it's an important, poignant message re: alcoholism and the inappropriate, yet rampant and popular public ridicule of public figures in the U.S..

Child Car Safety - Can't Take it for Granted

Ohh my guhooodness - this one makes me bawl. Considering my own recent accident, although our outcome was quite fortunate, any effort on my part now, to prevent or minimize the results of any future accident, I'm all over it... My honey-man's angel boy-O may be 8 years old, but he weighs under 55 lbs still.

On my things to do list for today: pricing for a Britax Regent car seat!

"Sleepy Kitty Making Biscuits"

This one's great too!

"Sweet Tired Cat"

The best part happens near the end of the video...

I could see me doing this... heck yeah!

First time I watched this, the realist in me was all "How could they do this?" Imagine how many people scoffed at such an offer, I'm sure... and how many thought they were nuts? and thought they were just plain stupid... and How many suspiciously suspected some kind of perversion as the motive for such a thing? And then I thought, overwhelmed by tears, it is so sad that we wouldn't all jump at the chance for a free hug.

It's too bad that half of us are too scared to even offer up a pleasant 'good morning' to an unknown passerby. Some of us, we can't hardly look one another in the eye and offer a smile without the fear of rejection... It's so sad.

It's both Funny AND Absolutely Terrifying - what do you think?

BUSH v. BUSH
(or 'What a Schmuck!')

An Inconvenient Truth

I'm not sure yet, but I think I finally figured out how to embed a YouTube vlog into a blogger post... Here's one that I so wish were as popular as the Ok Go videos... I can't believe 'the U.S. masses' can't care about this more... and as for our government's role in all this,
I am scared.

I'm in Love with Ok Go

Thanks to Dooce, I discovered what is now my new found source of toe-tapping, head bobbing, instant laughter.

Ok Go (also here with loaded music play)


I love them. I wish them oodles of mind boggling (yet healthy, if that's possible) success! They're great! Great fun. I haven't yet figured out how to post Ok Go's YouTube.com vlogs (oh yes I have, now! ~ as you can see below my original links), but here's a couple links, if you haven't already heard about Ok Go:

Their 1st video, for which now exists a gazillion published video parodies:



And Ok Go's most fab follow-up video, which I think I've now watched at least a dozen times:

SPF ~ OCD, Baby!

Once again, it's Self-Portrait Friday! I juhhst love SPF day ~ it's the total nerd in me. Today's theme: Your Obessive Compulsive Disorders! Initially, I didn't know what to do with this one... I used to bite my nails, but quit at age 10. I used to bite at my split ends (out of sheer boredom though, when in school), but stopped that long ago. I used to have panic attacks once in a while, but haven't had one in years, and I don't think general insecurity from time to time qualifies as an OCD tendency, but this morning I thought of some something!!!

Although #1 is supposed to be "my Bad Habit," this is more like a grand combination of my Bad Habit, plus #2 "my Obession," and #3 "my Anxiety": I obsess over the condition of my towels - this includes swim towels, bath towels, hand towels, washcloths and wash rags - any towel. I CANNOT stand to see/have a wet towel thrown on the floor or any even semi-damp towel of any kind tossed in the laundry basket before it has first been laid out and/or hung up to dry. No No No NO tossing a wet towel into the laundry basket until it has dried out completely! WHY? a wet towel breeds mildew!!! Note: I do not own a single solitary sponge in my home. Sponges serve as nothing more than bacterial breeding centers! blak! Any wash rag used by me will be rinsed out REALLY WELL and rung out TIGHTLY to get rid of as much excess water as possible so it may dry out as quickly as possible. I HATE SEEING A WASH RAG LEFT UNATTENDED IN THE SINK or LEFT WADDED UP ON THE COUNTER! MAKES.MY.SKIN.CRAWL. I reeeeallly hate it. See, once a towel gets that lovely mildew invasion going, you might as well throw it in the trash! Unless you can and do bleach your towels, you will never be rid of the mildew. NEVER! I took a microbiology class! Science supports my claims here, people! Mildew is a microscopic fungus and it saturates every microfiber! No amount of laundry detergent or fabric softener can destroy or cover up that smell - I have an excellent sniffer and lemme' tell ya! I can smell it a mile away!!! Once a towel gets mildewy, as soon as it's wet again, the mildew swiftly returns and if I get a whiff of a recently-wronged towel, I can totally identify old mildew. IT'S DISGUSTING! One time while out of town, my ex-husband left a couple bath towels heaped on the bathroom floor, utterly fouled by the time I returned. I refused to ever use them again for their intended purpose - they were expensive towels too [generous wedding gifts so rock! - still have 4 of the 6 original sets, 8 years later!!! - yes, we were given a ridiculous amount of ALL matching (a wedding miracle in itself) towels]. At first, I tried to super wash them, even ran them through 3 wash cycles (OCD! OCD!), but they were ultimately banished, doomed to wash and wax cars the rest of their towel lives, never to return to the fresh, cool linen closet.

My towel obssession doesn't stop with the mildew obsession/anxiety. See the washcloth laid beside my bathroom sink here? It is not for human skin use! it's used strictly to wipe up the counter and sink area after any messy sink use (my honey-man shares this very same side-sink clean-up washcloth habit - I love it!). Once used, I always lay it out on the front of the sink, over the edge of the counter so it may dry out properly between uses. But if you're ever a guest in my home, make no mistake, this side-sink washcloth is never to be used on human skin, even if I do rotate new washcloths every 3 days or so.

And see the hand towels hung at either side of my bathroom sink area? The one to the right is used strictly for patting my face dry after it's been washed clean. The one to the left is used strictly for drying hands. DO NOT wipe your hands on my face towel OR my body towel! ICKY! The towel will go straight to the laundry basket - ONLY after it has FIRST had the chance to dry out though, of course. Why?!? People usually DO NOT wash their hands as thoroughly as they should, and so they end up just wiping germs off on the towel when they dry their hands - and I DO NOT want yucky remnant hand germies on my body towel or the hand towel I use for my face... thanks.

Another um, funny (neurotic) little OCD thing I do involving towels... after using someone else's bathroom, I'd rather use my own pants to wipe/blot my hands dry, than use someone's typically over-used hand towel left available for me. Plus, I often bring my own washcloth when I travel and will lay it out in such a way that it can dry out during the day or overnight before I may have to pack it back up. ALSO, I once used my travel washcloth to dry myself off after showering, because the guest towel given to me was mildew-tainted, according to my nose. Have you ever tried using a washcloth to dry yourself after showering? Ya end up having to air dry, basically. Yeah, neurotic, I know.


For last measure, a non-towel related Bad Habit:
The pics below look disgusting - yes, yes, I know - but try pullin' big ole', nasty, collected clumps of this stuff from my tub drain on a weekly basis - THAT'S GROSS! no Wait! Let me explain: I have long, thick hair - lots of it. Any day of the week, whenever I wash my hair, several individual strands come out into my hand while I rinse my hair. Now I can either let them rinse off my hands to ultimately plug up my tub drain each week, or I can slap them on the shower wall and later spin them together and toss 'em in the trash once I'm all clean and toweled off. As you can see from the pics, these lil' wall collections from day to day may very in size. No, really - you don't need to tell me how gross this is, I know. Anyhow, the bad habit here involves my FORGETTING to throw the hair in the trash right after I shower, so that it hangs there or falls down from the wall, waiting until I shower again, to be discarded. Otis and Owen have both learned this happens and they will occasionally hop in the tub and the two of them wait for it to fall from the wall. I once found one of these hair clumps (I don't know what to call 'em) out in the front room, having made its way there via Owen, I'm sure. Very gross. I'm not too bad at forgetting - maybe once a week - but when I'm in LA, I forget all the time!!! And often when I remember that I forgot, I go to the bathroom and my honey-man has already tossed it without saying a word of complaint...