Girl In The City

Macro Monday: Peanut

Monday, March 31st, 2008 | Anna, Macro Monday, Meme, photo | No Comments

Reese started a cool meme called Macro Monday. I love love love macro photography and will take any chance I can get to put that 100mm lens onto my camera. I figured since I took this shot this weekend of Peanut I’d use him for my first submission.

This little guy is a constant ball of loving energy. He is so sweet and loves to play and cuddle and sleep under your covers. Amber and Lupe kept threatening to send him home with me and seriously, if Ben would not have COMPLETELY FREAKED OUT, I’d have totally stolen him and brought him with me. Although Amber and Lupe act tough, I know they’d be lost without him around because you can’t spend more than 2 minutes with this dog without completely falling him love with him.

Tags: dog, macro, Macro Monday, Meme, Peanut, photography

Spring is nature’s way of saying, “Lets party!”

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 | Anna | No Comments

Last year, like ever single year before it, I swore that this year I’d make a more solid effort to beautify the outside world by planting… things? And I’ve planted lots and lots of things over the years! And most of them have died. Because planting things I can SO DO! Really well, actually. But killing things? I totally OWN at that.

This year I figured I’d just start out slow by trying to better NOT KILL the things around my house that are already growing. Like, the rose bushes in front of the living room window that I hate so much. But just because I hate them doesn’t mean that I should just let them die, right? Well, not until I rip them out of the ground which I plan on doing as soon as I can get over my debilitating fear of The Thorns. And it doesn’t mean that I’m going to let them fall prey to the 15,326,224,889 Aphids that are EATING THEM ALIVE. I know that’s the number because Ben questioned me so I counted.

So when he asked if I wanted to ride with him to OSH the other day I went along because I had… a plan. A plan which involved 1,500 vicious, blood thirsty and highly trained ladybugs.

Unfortunately I can’t give out all the specific details of Operation Eat The Aphids Till They Are Dead because it’s a highly protected and privately funded program and the fact that you simply know the name is putting you in danger. GRAVE DANGER! As a matter of fact, I might have to kill you when you’re done reading this.

What I can tell you is that Phase One of OETATTAD has turned out a little differently then I’d expected. When checking on The Clone Army the day after they were deployed I found that Phase One, previously dubbed Search and Destroy, has turned into Find The Nearest Leaf And DO IT.

Like, you know, DO IT. IT! SEX PEOPLE, I’M TALKING ABOUT SEX HERE!

Everywhere I looked there were vicious, blood thirsty and highly trained ladybugs DOING IT. All over the yard! Fraternizing among the troops! I didn’t ask, I shouldn’t have been told! What was going on!?

So I did what comes natural to any General in time of great despair. I grabbed my camera! I wasn’t able to post all the pictures because I was kind of worried that flickr would tag me as “unsafe”. Some of these pictures are pretty graphic, people. Five sets of ladybugs DOING IT in one frame is a little much for the general public to take on. Besides I’m pretty sure I can sell those to Playbug or Bugs Gone Wild for some good money.

All I can do not is hope that Phase One: Find The Nearest Leaf And DO IT leads to Phase Two: Feast Of The Ladybug Larvae.

PS - Nine days till MAUI!!!!! (That’s how I say Maui now. In all caps with 5 exclamation points behind it. Sometimes I even vocally BOLD it.)

MAUI!!!!!

*Title quote: Robin Williams

“Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.”

Friday, March 21st, 2008 | Anna | No Comments

My dad and fabulous step-mom came to visit us while my dad had some business to do locally this week. I seriously love them both and and am still laughing a little at some of the stories I got to hear while we caught up. There is never a dull moment when we get to hang out with them. It’s all laughing and funny and light hearted and “pull my finger” and horrible dirty bathroom humor.

I could go on here about how much my dad likes to tease me about talking about poop. Although I think that for every time I might have mentioned poop in casual conversations he’d point out how much I like to talk about poop TWO TIMES. So really, he talked about it at least twice as much as I did.

But! Instead I’m going to post this fantastic video that my step-mom, Cherie, and step-sister, Danielle, worked so hard on and and are, rightfully so, very proud of. I’m proud of both of them too and wanted to publicly thank them for reminding me once again how thankful I should be for all the simple pleasures I’m afforded. When I see things like this it causes me to really reevaluate my goals and “dreams” and consider just how selfish I’ve become when I think about “what’s important in life”. Because having lots of makeup and Coach purses and the latest and greatest techy toy should NOT be what I value most. And I’m not particularly sure what I SHOULD be focused on but I know that realization and reflection are the first steps and hopefully, in time, the rest will follow.

So sit, watch, listen and when you’re done go leave them some love.

*Title Quote: Helen Keller

The one in which I try to grovel for being such an inactive schmuck.

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 | Anna, Babbling, Ben | No Comments

I should apologize for the fact that I haven’t written a blog entry in, like, two weeks but I’m really not sorry. I was sick. NON FUCKING STOP. The Plague, then The Great Belly Ache of 2008, then The Sinus Headache To End Them All. And in the midst of all this Ben had the audacity to also catch The Plague and be sick and not able to take care of me in a manner in which I require while I’m clearly in need. All I ask is that he bows to my every whim and desire. He acts like this is ASKING A LOT but really, how hard is it to hand feed me chocolate ice cream while scrolling webpages for me and wiping my nose? Seriously.

Married life has been fabulous despite that one shortcoming my husband has and I have now officially acquired his last name. And can I just say that WHAT THE HELL!? Women get the shaft on that end. Social security cards, drivers license, ATM cards, bills, email addresses, online accounts, credit cards… all of them have to be contacted, forms filled out, phone calls made, then you have to call them all 29 times and yell at 17 different people to get them to understand that ALL I WANT TO DO IS CHANGE MY NAME!

Anyway! I’ve been reading all your blogs and will get around either today or tomorrow to comment and show you all much love. But I missed you all lots and lots and lots. I’d make you all cupcakes and hand them out if you were here to try and grovel but you aren’t… so I’ll just eat one in each of your honor instead!

And because I feel bad for not showing all my girls love, I command you all to go tell Brit stop being so reclusive because I miss her, poke Ashley’s belly and wish her well on her upcoming arrival, go welcome Sewwy to the inked skin family, congratulate katy on her new geek job, remind Becca that mommyhood is full of sickness and booboos and she ROCKS at it, give Steen the love and positive thoughts she needs in the wake of losing her beloved Riddle, and tell Jenn to stop blogging so much because she’s making all us slackers look bad.

There are many more of you, but I’ve reached the point at which I’ve become too lazy to continue.

*big hugs*

If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of empty pages.

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 | Anna, As seen on WWW, Meme | No Comments

I am really bad about meme-ing. I hardly ever do them when I’ve been tagged because I can never just give a one word answer, everything requires explanation! And the pressure of having to write is something that seriously feels suffocating to me sometimes. This one has been cool though because it’s only four and the DVR and food questions have been fun to read.

So I catually DID IT! YAY!

Amanda tagged me with this meme…

The meme consists of four questions requiring four answers, and then the tagging of four people.

4 Jobs I’ve Had in My Life:
- Gift wrapper at Sneads! Man, Stephaine and I could even make wrapping boxes in a small cramped room fun.
- Carmel corn bagger/sales associate (HA!) at the great Kern County Fair.
- Computer Sales rep at Best Buy. Please buy the warranty. Please.
- Professional blogger. I think since I’m making money off this site and others now, I can add that to my job list!
4 Shows I DVR
- Big Brother 9
- Lost
- House
- Family Guy

4 Places I’ve Been
(It was hard to pick only FOUR because I was lucky enough to have a Grandma growing up that took us all over the country, literally, when we were growing up. So I picked some of my favorite places.)
- Fombell, PA. I lived there in second grade with my Aunt Cathy, Uncle Larry and cousin Stefanie. Some of my best childhood memories were there. It was like my second home and I miss it dearly sometimes.
- Maui <3
- Washington DC. TWICE! And I can't wait to go back again and getting to take Cassidy with us.
- Mackinac Island, Michigan. I absolutely plan on going back there and staying at the Grand Hotel. It’s on my bucket list.

4 Favorite Foods
- Garlic Chicken Calzone DELUXE from Frugatti’s in Bakersfield
- Any souffle from Bella Vista in the Bay Area
- Clam chowder in a bread bowl from Spash Cafe in Pismo
- Mom: home made fettucini alfredo, Dad: rosemary (fresh of his plant) potatoes and turkey noodle soup (he makes the noodles too).

4 People I Tag
You, you, you and YOU! And Jenn MUST DO IT!! Like, every blogger IN THE WORLD has been tagged with this in the last week. If you aren’t one of them, TAG! You’re it!

*Title Quote: Elaine Liner: We Got Naked, Now What, SXSW 2006