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Happy Anniversary

The Folks
Originally uploaded by Michael_L.

Today is my parents 43rd Wedding Anniversary!

Hip Hip Hooray.....Hip Hip Hooray.

Don't they look fabulous, but then again they were married when they were children!

LOST

Anyone else watching Lost?

Was that not a GREAT episode last night?

So my question to you is this:

Did they "know" this story line already and filmed it at the same time as the beginning of the show.....or did they go back and "recreate" scenes?

A New Home

If you're reading this than I'm sure you've noticed that there's been a change to WhatsABoyToDo!

I've been wanting to add some things to my blog, like on the sidebars and stuff and with the recent merge of Google & Blogger for some reason I couldn't convert for the longest time, then when I did if I wanted to get the new features I had to start out with a totally new template.

Which meant that I had to re-create everything that was there plus add the new stuff, and honestly I have not been up to the task as of late but today I wanted to add something...so I took the plunge and moved over to the new Google/Blogger version.

It's pretty nice here isn't it? Let me know if there's anything I missed, I don't want you to think I just swept things under the carpet.

If you haven't moved over to the new template yet, you really should, it's well worth it. It only took me about 20 minutes to move EVERYTHING over from my old template. (If you do change over I recommend copying the HTML first and then using it to make sure you get all of your links, etc.)

So welcome to my new home, if you'd like to send presents I'm registered at Tiffanys, Nieman-Marcus and The Dollar General Store

Make some money

I'm so excited, I actually made some money off of this interwebs thing here! It's so exciting that I wanted to share it with you.....I made $2.00 in the last month, how amazing is that?

How did I make this $2.00? I made these $2.00 by posting photographs to:


I wanted to share this with you because I know a lot of you are amateur photographers like myself with aspirations of something a little better. I really like this site because you upload your pix and then add keywords/descriptions, etc and then you get paid everytime someone "buys" one. You can even offer license deals and stuff.

So if you've got some great pictures you want to share with the world and make a little money check out BigStockPhoto

Oh yeah, tell 'em I sent you.

Technology

I love technology. I love gadgets. I love new things on the market. I'm a technophile, I admit it. It's amazing the things that are being developed...just recently TI announced that they have developed a DLP projector that will fit in a cellphone, isn't that amazing!

As much as I love technology, there are some aspects of it that I just thoroughly detest - like cellphones. OMG, what in the hell did people do before cellphones? Even though I love technology, I was a late adopter of the cellphone, I don't think I got my first one until 1998 back when Cingular used to be BellSouth. I was an even later adopter of Digital Photography not getting my first camera until 2003 - can you imagine.

But there is one piece of technology that I abhor and wish had never been made.....the freakin bluetooth cellphone headset!

OH MY GOD those headsets are the most annoying things in the world. Why do people feel that they're so important that they have to wear their phone on their heads like that? Do they all have a secret fantasy of being Uhura?

I guess I don't get it? When I got my Razr almost 2 years ago it came with a free bluetooth headset, I think I used it twice. First it was a major pain in the ass to pair the phone with the headset and secondly it was the most annoying thing ever to wear. I ended up just carrying the thing in my pocket and pulling it out when I needed it - but then I had to pull the phone out to see who was calling and then I just gave up using it at all.

We were at lunch yesterday....and the waitress had a headset on....how annoying.....I was at the local bodega...and the girl behind the counter had a headset on......I was walking down the street and coming towards me was this sort of well dressed woman talking nonsense to herself...sort of screaming...sort of not....I was looking at her trying to figure out what's going on when I realized that she wasn't talking to herself, she was yelling at her "boo" through her bluetooth headset. I went downtown the other day to take pictures, I passed this family of 4 (Mom, Dad, Teenage Daughter and Teenage/Adult Son) they ALL had bluetooth headsets on?!? WTF is up with that?

Are Bluetooth Headsets the current status symbol? Do you constantly need to be in touch with someone that you're willing to wear it all the time or do you want to "show off" that you've actually got a $39 headset?

The best part of it all though is.......whenever I'm around friends that have these blasted things - they have no problem saying "Oh, I've got a call" and attempt to put me on hold - even though they're looking right at me! How Rude, I'm not like Caller Waiting - I'm standing here in front of you having a conversation with you.

I've gotten to the point where I ask my friends to take off their headsets.....that or I just continue to stare at the little blue light until they realize that I'm not paying attention to them any longer.....(**EDIT - I love this line but it's sorta mean so please don't include it with the rest of the blog - Maybe it's their fault if the little blue light is more entertaining than they are.) and instead looking at that little light wondering which aisle has the Blue Light special?

Do they still have Blue Light Specials at K-Mart?

Poor Anna Nicole

So, for once the tabloids have been proven WRONG! Just the other day I was standing in line at the grocery store where the tabloid covers screamed that Anna Nicole was killed by this person and that person and this group of people.

Well it was revealed yesterday that she actually killed herself. From a list in the paper today

Clonapine (commonly known as Clonazepam or Klonopin)
Diazepam (commonly known as Valium)
Lorazepam (commonly known as Atavan)
Chloral hydrate (a sleeping medication)
Benadryl,
Tamiflu (the flu medication)
Topamax (used to control seizures, migraines and weight gain)
Cipro (antibiotic)
Methadone for pain control
Acetaminophen
A number of "anti-aging" supplements including human growth hormone, vitamin B12 and immunoglobulin.

Apparently she had a pus infected "wound" on her buttocks from giving herself repeated injections. They say that because she was in a weakened state because of stomach flu, the bacteria on her butt and other things going on in her body that the "normal" combination of drugs was just too much.

They say that the Chloral Hyrdrate is the one that pushed her over the edge, apparently she used to swig the stuff directly from the bottle (on a side note - this is also the same drug that pushed Marilyn Monroe "over the edge" as well - hmmmm).

In the long run, it wasn't a consiracy, it wasn't murder, it was just plain old poor judgement.

I'm a Mender

That's Mender as in fixing clothes not Mhendi as in intricate tattos made with henna.

As you may recall from an earlier post - I'm not very apt to fix clothes that lose their buttons, hooks, strings, etc. When my Grandmother was alive, she loved to do these types of things - fix hems, holes in pants, etc. so I always "saved" a pile of clothes that I would take her so that they could be fixed....alas Grandmother is no longer with us which means that these clothes don't stand a chance in hell of getting fixed.

Well yesterday was beautiful here in Chicagoland - we broke our record high with a sweltering 80 degrees and a slight breeze - it was fabulous! Everyone who was anyone was out and about enjoying the day - including me! There's a local bar Big Chicks which has a great Sunday afternoon buffet and vodka lemonades so a bunch of us agreed to meet there to soak in spring!

As I was pulling together my wardrobe, the worst thing in the world happened.....a button broke on the shirt I was going to wear. Not fell off mind you, BROKE into pieces. It was almost too much for me to handle, I mean it was the perfect shirt to match my orange Dickie's shorts that I got last year at Wal-Mart. Time was running short and I knew I would be late - but I had to do something I hadn't done in years.

I pulled out the sewing kit and sewed a button back on. Fortunately the shirt had one of those "spare" buttons on the inside, otherwise that poor shirt would have truly seen the inside of a trash bin.

So apparently my clothes are now talking to each other because today when I got back from lunch and went to the washroom - the zipper on my pants decided to not function any longer. No matter how much fiddling (with the zipper that is) I can't get it to work, so you know what - I can fix a button, I can maybe fix a seam, but there is no way in hell that I'm fixing a zipper on a pair of khaki's.

So goodbye old Khaki's, I'm sure you'll be fabulous when I use you as a cleaning rag! See, you are multi-purpose.

Let's just hope that between now and the end of the day - Big Willy doesn't make an unannounced visit - thank goodness I'm wearing undies today!

What's Up?

Can I say that coming off of vacation, being sick, and having a co-worker quit has been driving me crazy! OYE, I'm not gonna bitch, but long story short:
- had a fabulous time in florida
- 2 days after getting home, started getting sick
- missed 1 day of work
- stupidly went back to work for "going away party" for co-worker
- missing 2 more days of work
- going back to work and having "major initative push"
- me getting better - roommate gets sick
- The Boyfriend having The Son for a whole week

Well now it's a long story - so sorry!

Let's just say it's been crazy...but this too shall pass.

Some fabulous things did happen in the last week or so though. It's spring and boy can you tell it....there is no snow anywhere here and it's sorta been warm. Highs have been in the 50's but the sun has been out and then Wednesday it rained most of the day, in fact we got caught without umbrella's twice that day - once coming back from lunch and once going to get our free Iced Coffee's from Dunkin Donuts.

It's getting caught without an umbrella that makes me think of this funny thing that happened to me a long time ago....

let's go back in our wayback machine.....picture it, 1986.....Michael isn't quite gay yet and he's in New York City with his girlfriend and as I now know them to be - my two fag hags. How sad is it that in High School, I had fag hags and didn't even freaking know it!

Regardless, the four of us went to NYC on a bus trip, I think we were going to see CATS! - Now and Forever - well not forever any more - but it was back then and that's what we're talking about - the four of us in NYC, fresh from the farm. I loved going to NYC, we could grab a charter bus for $35 and it would take us into the city on a Saturday morning and take us home in the evening - it was fabulous! So we organized a little trip and went off to the big city.

I remember that we were walking around near Times Square when the clouds just broke and rain poured out of the sky! It was a disaster - we had no umbrellas. I spied a Woolworth's (again that's how you can tell this was a while ago) and we ran in, along with thousands of other wet New Yorkers - ick!

We hustled over to the bin that contained the umbrellas and started to work our way in. Considering that everyone else has got the same bright idea that we have, it was a little chaotic at the umbrella bin. Finally we made our way to the front of the herd and figured we'd better get an umbrella quick and get the hell out of dodge. So we're picking through the umbrella's and my friend S starts critiquing them "Oh, I like this one. Oh that ones gross. Oh do you like that one. Oh wait, let me see that one."

She's in the middle of one of musings when this old Jewish woman looks at her, sways her head from side to side and says "Honey, when it's fucking raining like this who cares what the god damned umbrella looks like, just pick one and move on."

Well let's just say - being the country kids that we were - we were a little surprised at that...we had a serious moment like "oh my god did that just happen." and then suddenly we broke out into laughter and so did a few of the other people that were doing the same thing as us.

And that's what I think about everytime I get caught without an umbrella.

It's Finally Spring

Finally Spring has arrive, the Spring Equinox! It's the start of something warm for us but unfortunatley the start of something cold for our friends South of the Equator - you know who you are, please don't make me point you out!

Although I feel bad that you're just starting your winter, I console myself that you had a warm Christmas - how fabulous was that for you when we were sitting up here freezing our bums off?

Actually Spring sprung late yesterday, at 7:07 pm CDT.

Oh yeah, we're on Daylight Savings Time now, so check your watches...if you haven't set it yet, then you've been running late for a week and thought everyone else was fucked up.

So Spring has sprung and it's raining out - but we need the rain to feed the fabulous flowers that are going to be coming out of the ground soon - I am happy to report that just this weekend I saw my first spring flower. I was so happy that I danced around it but unfortunately during my dance I stepped on it and crushed it - well that's what it gets for being the first flower of the year!

I hope you're having a great Spring and that you personally haven't sprung anything yet!

America's Next Top Model

Is it just me or is Jaslene just a little odd?

Everytime she opens her mouth I swear someone is "feeding" her lines and she doesn't quite understand what they're saying.

And YES, I watch America's Next Top Model.

I also watch Hero's, Lost and just recently The Dresden Files oh yeah and don't forget Ugly Betty.

I don't like American Idol and I probably will only watch Dancing with the Stars to see if Heather Mills loses her leg.....don't cluck your tongue at me....you know that's the only reason you're going to watch it!

Sorry

Sorry I've been "out of the loop" lately but since I've returned from vacation I've been fighting off (and not very well I might add) a terrible cold that has turned into massive congestion. I've missed a bunch of work (fortunately my boss is very understanding) and I've not been blogging (I hope you'll forgive me).

But I am here....and I will get back to it soon, I promise!

Are people really this stupid?

This was on The Smoking Gun, if you've never been there go check it out.

After the Superbowl there was a major ruckus that prince was showing off his "penis" to the world via a light and a sheet. Uhm, I watched the show and honestly the first thing that DIDN'T come to my mind was Prince showing off his penis behind a sheet?!? And it should have!

I don't understand people...check out this complaint that was sent in, here's part of it:

"It was obscene to show Prince, a HOMOSEXUAL person through a sheet, as to show his siluette (sic) while his guitar showed a very phalic (sic) symbol coming from his below-midriff section. I am very offended and I would preffer (sic) not to have showed it to my 4 children who love football. One of them has hoped to be a quarterback and now he will turn out gay. I am actually considering to check him for HIV. Thanks CBS for turning my son GAY."

OMG - I know that there are ignorant people out there in the world, but when I actually "see" it I am just floored. I want to contact this person and say "That's not what makes you gay. Oh and yeah, you can't "catch" HIV by watching TV."

Why must people be so stupid?

Ain't Technology Great?

I promise I'll post about my vacation, but work has been well.....making me work those bastards!

But I just wanted to share a great tip with you. If you're in the US and you want to send pictures to someone you can do it quickly and easily on the web.

When I got back from vacation, I wanted to send my Mom some pictures so I logged into www.walgreens.com and uploaded my photos that I was going to print, pick up and then mail to my Mom. At that moment inspiration hit me....if I could pick them up at my local Walgreens, what was stopping me from sending them to Florida where Mom could pick them up herself - thus saving me the cost of mailing and postage!

One of the advantages is that you can send one picture or a hundred pictures and you can pay for them upfront.

Now granted, everyone loves to get something in the mail, but this is even better.

I called my Mom and told her to walk over to her Walgreens approach the photo counter and ask for them....and wouldn't you know it - there they were!

You can do this with a lot of places now - CVS, Target, Wal-Mart because they all offer the ability to upload photos online and then pickup at the store...there's no reason it has to be YOUR local store.

So if anyone wants to send me pictures, choose the Walgreens at 5625 N Ridge, Chicago, IL 60660. I'm also close to Target at 2112 W Peterson, Chicago, IL 60659

Just let me know when you send them so I can go collect them.

Something New

Something borrowed, something blue, something old and SOMETHING NEW!!!

I got a new camera....of course I got it AFTER vacation so what's the point in that huh?

Sixty-Two Degrees

Was the body ever designed to handle a 63 degree change in climate within a 4 hour period?

I'm home....and it's 27 degrees in Chicago, just a few short hours ago it was 90 degrees in Orlando. I had a fabulous time with my family, got to spend some time sitting by the pool and actually IN the water! Learned an exciting new game called LCR, it's so easy to learn and gets really intense where you're yelling and screaming at each other. We went to two Disney parks - EPCOT and Animal Kingdom, and ate at way too many buffets!

But seriously, today I saw an amazing 63 degree change in my climate, do you think the human body was ever designed for this kind of travel? I don't think so. Last night we had the A/C going full blast and tonight I'm trying to keep it ABOVE 60 degrees!

Give me a little time to get organized and I will post tales and photos for you.