I Am On Vacation!

I don't want to make all of you (too) jealous, but I am on vacation! I'm in Destin, Floreeda with 6 other girls from church. (It's the first time I've been to the beach without anyone in my family!)

So I just wanted to let you know that I won't be blogging at all for a few days. But I'll have pictures to post soon -- pictures of Tosca, Destin, and NYC! Yay!

Thing I'm thankful for: swimming in the ocean. Now THAT is the kind of workout I like!

I Came Ahcrahs A Wicked Good Site

I was browsing around ahnline yestahday and found this: The Wicked Good Guide to Boston English. The Snows ah reahly gawna eat this up.

Okay -- I'm dropping the accent for a minute. I was perusing the site, when it occurred to me that Boston English is a lot like British English. Take for example the "r" that's added to words that end in vowels (when they precede words that begin with vowels) -- very British. I was considering this, when I came upon that very discussion on the site. And I immediately thought, "Wow. My British movie-watching has really served me well in deciphering language sounds and origins." :)

So check out this excerpt from the site. It's really good.

Don't worry about poor lost New England R's, however. In typical Yankee fashion, we re-use 'em - by sticking them on the ends of certain other words ending with "uh" sounds: "Ah final ahs just disappeah, but wheah they go we've no idear." But wait, it gets more complex. As seasoned Boston English speakah Alan Miles has gently tried to pound into a poor Nooyawka's thick head, that missing R only reappears when the word is followed by another word that starts with a vowel, for example: "I have no idear if the movie begins at nine or ten," but, "Does the movie begin at 9 or 10? I have no idea."

I absolutely love it.

Thing I'm thankful for: my wicked good family and our love of speaking in dialect.

What About Bob?

My mom, dad, and I were watching "What About Bob" last night. They both said Bill Murray should've won an Oscar for that role -- they especially love the movie because my dad is a psychologist and he used to have a Bob. (His name really is Bob!) Anyway, I would agree with that Oscar nod, though. Bill Murray is an incredible actor. I looked him up on IMDB and found a comment he made about the Academy Awards:

"We used to joke about it: 'Give me an affliction and I'll give you an Oscar!' They're not giving an award for acting. It's, 'Thanks for making me feel something. Here's a prize.' Somehow people don't put comedy in their emotional bank the same way. It relieves a tension, it unties a knot, but it's not something where people want to give you a prize. They just want to say, 'Thanks for making me laugh,' which I genuinely treasure. That makes me feel good."

So true, isn't it? If I were a member of "The Academy," I would nominate movies like "So I Married an Axe Murderer," "Groundhog Day," and "The Baxter." I would give Oscars to Mike Meyers, Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, and Martin Short.

Who would you give an Oscar to?

Thing I'm thankful for: watching late-night movies with my parents. I love to hear them laugh together.

I'm Not the Only Person Whose Favorite Color Is Blue

From the Binney & Smith Web site:

After counting more than 25,000 votes cast by Crayola® crayon fans of all ages in the Crayola Color Census 2000, the final tally revealed that Americans’ favorite Crayola crayon color is blue. Six other shades of blue finished in the Top 10 including cerulean, midnight blue, aquamarine, periwinkle, denim and blizzard blue. Other colors rounding out the Top 10 list included purple heart, caribbean green and cerise.

Thing I'm thankful for: the old coloring books of yore. (When I say "yore," I mean the 1980's.) They were so much better than the ones kids have now.

I Completely Forgot About One of My All-Time Favorite Duos!

They're Binney & Smith, of Crayola Fame.


Cousins Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith took over Edwin's father's pigment business in 1885. In 1900, they began producing slate school pencils in their newly opened Easton, Pennsylvania mill. Binney & Smith introduced the first dustless school chalk two years later. In 1903, they saw a need for safe, quality, affordable wax crayons, and Crayola was born -- the first box of eight Crayola crayons sold for a nickel. The Crayola name, coined by Edwin Binney's wife Alice, comes from "craie," the French word for chalk, and "ola," from "oleaginous" (That means oily.).

Anyway, I really like the Binney and Smith company. You can find more information about the company on the company's site, which is where I stole the above info.

Thing I'm thankful for: mommy teaching me how to draw and color and paint when I was little.

Dynamic Duos

I was browsing the internet today and somehow started reading about a certain company's founders. This pair has so much intelligence between them, and they seem to really want to make the world a better place. Well, thinking about them gave me the idea to write about the greatest duos in history and contemporary society -- greatest to me, that is. So I'm giving you 5 pairs for now, and I want YOU to come up with some yourselves! Please, leave a comment!

5. Steve Jobs & Bill Gates


4. George & Ira Gershwin


3. Disney & Pixar


2. Rogers & Hammerstein


1. Larry Page & Sergey Bin -- That's right, they're the pair that inspired this whole post. Google's mission is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." If only Google had the need to create more content -- I would apply for a position directly.


And just for fun: Bosom Buddies


Thing I'm thankful for: board games.

HAPPY BIRTH DAY, ERIC OLSEN!

I just got a call from Eve's sister Rachel -- Adam and Eve's baby boy was born at 4:30 p.m. Congratulations, you two!

Thing I'm thankful for: that I was on the immediate call list. That's nice. Eve must really like me! :)

You Are Special!

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a 20-dollar bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?"

Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this. He proceeded to crumple up the $20 bill. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air. Well, he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpld and dirty. "Now, who still wants it?"

Still the hands went into the air. "My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20.

Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who DO LOVE you. You are special -- don't EVER forget it."

This story was in a forward I received the other day. I liked it, even though it was passed around in forward form.

Thing I'm thankful for: $20 bills? :) I'm even more thankful for you special people!

One Meel-ion Dollars

MSN just released an article called How Much Home $1 Million Will Buy. It covers Forbes.com's sampling of 1-million-dollar homes. Check out the slideshow and see for yourselves.

Where's it at? Although I'm no realtor, I can tell you that you'd find a great deal in the Southeast. (But maybe I shouldn't say anything, or else all those crazy-rich Californians will discover our secret . . .)

Thing I'm thankful for: A yard. It's nice to have some grass to walk on, and you don't have to be a millionaire to get it here.

Car Talk's Lame Joke of the Week

This joke is from Ken Hayden:

Last night, my wife and I were sitting in the living room, and I said to her, "I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent upon some machine, and getting all my fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug."

She got up, unplugged the TV, and threw out my beer.

Thing I'm thankful for: bunnies. That's right, bunnies. There were two in the backyard of my office yesterday and it was fun watching them.

Good Quote

I noticed the new quote on Ezra's blog today and thought it was excellent. It goes along well with my post on Walt Disney not too long ago. Anyway, here it is:

We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action. (Frank Tibolt)

It makes me realize how much I have to do to be a better person. In general, I think I'm a hard worker, but not hard enough . . .

Thing I'm thankful for: other people's succinctness.

Favorite Cereal

Until Saturday night, I thought my favorite cereal was Life. I love it. I have a bowl of it every morning.

Sometimes, though, I thought about a cereal I used to eat when I was little. I couldn't ever remember the name of it. All I knew was that it was round with little pieces of something in the middle, and there was promotional stuff on the box once when the movie "Willow" came out. So in my head, I have always thought of it as "Willow" cereal, and I thought the cereal ended when the movie had gone to video or something. Weird, I know, but sometimes there isn't another way to explain faint childhood memories.

So Saturday night, Clay and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up some Mother's Day baking ingredients, and we ended up in the cereal aisle. Clay was pointing out the good cereals -- Cinnamon Life, something else, something else, and Oh's. I looked at the Oh's box and thought, "Oh! Oh's!!! That's the "Willow" cereal! I never knew!" I hesitated a little about buying it -- what if it didn't taste as great as I thought it would? But I got it anyway.

I had a bowl as soon as we got home. It was WONDERFUL! It kind of tastes like Cap'n Crunch to me -- Cap'n Crunch with more substance and without that waxy feeling. It was so good, and although it scratches my gums a little more than I'd like, I'm going to say it's my favorite.

What's YOUR favorite cereal, readers?

Thing I'm thankful for: two very good bosses.

Color Me Cool

A few people have asked where my makeover pictures are. So let me just say that all of the girls looked really good that night because all of the girls there can get by with warm color tones. I, on the other hand, cannot. I've never looked good in orangey-reds, golden browns, or tan. Let me give you some examples.

I don't look good in the first set of colors. I do look good in the second set of colors.














Can you see the difference? Basically, I don't look good in any colors in which red is the base. It has to be a blue base! Makeup artists usually don't notice this about me. Even when I say, "Hey, I'm a cool-colored person -- no bright reds or tan, okay?" -- they still say, "I'm gonna go with coppers and purple."

Copper? Did she just say copper? Whatever -- do what you want. At least you're not prepping me for a date . . .

And that's what happened on Thursday. The Mary Kay lady did have a nice way of putting on eye shadow, but the colors were so wrong for me that I looked like I had a black eye. Even my mom told me it looked bad when I got home.

So. There are no pictures of me on here because I just don't want you wondering why I look like I got in a fight that night . . .

Thing I'm thankful for: my mom's intrinsic knowledge of color theory and her foresight to share it with me.

Makeup and Mystery

For Keely's bachelorette party, Jenean threw a murder mystery game. I had never been in one before, but it was pretty fun. Basically, we were all characters in a murder story, and we had to figure out whodunnit. The setting was a southern beauty salon.

Dylan was a manicurist who wanted to be a star. She was also psychic.


Hillary and Jenean


Heather, the beauty salon owner, and Dylan


Jenessa (hmm, is that how you spell it?)


We also had Mary Kay makeovers.





I thought Yvonne's makeup looked especially good!



I can't remember what was so funny here, but I'm glad I got a shot of it!


And what about the guest of honor? Here is Keely before:


And after!


So who was the murderess? It was Hillary!

Thing I'm thankful for: girl time.

April's Wedding

This wedding happened all the way back in March! Congratulations, Lee and April!


Mommy went with me. The reception was held in Douglasville. I must say they did a great job decorating the church!


April's brother Matt and niece -- they were being so silly . . .


Matt and Allyson -- I don't know if any married couple matches more than them!


Here's April in all her glory:


April and Eve


Me and Karen, who I hadn't seen in a very long time -- great hair, Karen!


More Davis silliness


Pregnant Eve. You may remember the post about Adam and Eve's wedding last August. In this picture, Eve is about 6 months along, I think. You know what that means -- she got pregnant a month after they were married! A month! Now that's the way to go . . .


Adam and Eve


Me and Eve. I miss talking to Eve -- she's so smart!


The happy couple. I like that they look the same in this picture. Same facial expression, same fidgety hands. I wonder what was going on in front of them . . .




Congratulations, again, you two!

Thing I'm thankful for: going to weddings. I had to go to two that day, and I was not looking forward to it. But I found that I actually like going to weddings. I like celebrating marriages, and of course, I like the cake!

The Tennesse Aquarium

In mid-March, Michael and I went to the Tennessee Aquarium. Wait a second -- we live in Atlanta, home to the world's largest indoor aquarium . . . What were we doing in Tennessee, you ask? It's not easy to get tickets to the Georgia Aquarium less than a week in advance. So we just decided to take a day trip to Chattanooga. It was fun!

Mr. I'm-So-Cool (Who wouldn't be, with a mohawk and a Bruce Lee shirt? But apparently there was another Mr. Cool in Chattanooga with the same exact shirt!)


First we saw the rays. They weren't the stinging kind.


You could pet the rays, then dry your hands in a shark's mouth . . .


What's a butterfly garden doing at an aquarium? It was nice, though -- and tough to catch a picture!


Speaking of tough pictures, these little suckers were difficult to capture on film as well. Otters are SO fast! After watching them have so much fun in the water, I couldn't make up my mind about which animal I would be if I had to choose -- a cat or an otter . . . Hmmm.


Fun!


The Tennessee Aquarium basically has one very large aquarium. It has some other little ones, but there is only one huge one. But it's pretty cool because there are a bunch of different views you can look from.




These are jellyfish, but I can't remember what kind.




I forgot what these fish are called, but I liked the way they looked as they were swimming by.


And here they are swimming away . . .


Anyway, I had fun.

Thing I'm thankful for: long drives and good conversation.