Summer Fun

It was a great weekend of time with friends and family. Saturday we had a cookout with friends over to my house.

Sunday we went to the local minor league baseball game. Thankfully, our seats were in the shade there was a nice breeze coming in off the water.

Troy was enjoying his time with his new neighbors, cousins Dylan and Taylor in the pool.

Is Green the New Black?

It appears that green is the new black in this country.

Everything is becoming earth-friendly from cars run on water, cleaning products, light bulbs to clothing. There is now a whole new television network about living green. I think it's great and hope Americans jump on this bandwagon for the long ride. I admit, I would love to live in an eco-friendly house and be as green as Kermit the Frog but is it feasible?

I drive a big, gas guzzling SUV. I don't carpool although I could in my new job. I throw out the plastic grocery bags if we have enough on hand already. I use disposable diapers.

----But----

I do recycle. I do turn off my eco-friendly lights when not in the room. I take short showers. We put on more clothes in the winter instead of turning the heat up. We used recycled paper products as extra insulation in our attic.

Do all these little things help? I hope so because I want to be green and in style for awhile.

Hulu?

I am a Gen X'r that reads the paper everyday. I know, it's hard to believe but I have been reading the paper daily for at least 15 years. I learn lots of things by reading it...
For example, I know what the weather is supposed to be like; my horoscope (because I love being a pisces); which celebrities are celebrating birthdays, Dear Abby; during football season I read about the best school ever, Virginia Tech. On Saturdays, I like the Home section (we were featured last summer, look here) because I like to see how much homes cost in my neighborhood.
In the last week I learned two new things. One, there is a website that allows users to watch television programs and movies for Free on their computers with "limited commerical interruption" at http://www.hulu.com/. I recently cruised through the entire first season of 30 Rock using Netflix on demand but the second season isn't out on DVD yet. Not on http://www.hulu.com/ ... it's available!
The second thing I learned is that people apparantly like to confess their secrets to strangers. There is a popular blog (http://www.postsecret.com/) and four published books of people writing their biggest secret on a postcard and mailing to a man in Maryland. Some are quite funny but others are sad. I think I know who may have wrote a few of them.....
Here's a sample:

Where's the Beef?

I'm playing around with Photoshop and Fireworks to see how I can manipulate the thousands of pictures I have taken and get them into the absolute best format. Today, it was experimenting with the Cinqo de Mayo shot of Troy. It definitely highlights the size of his gi-normous noggin' and his new teeth that were popping up at the time.
I could spend hours just looking at that cute little face (on that big head!).
I can't believe it's almost the Fourth of July. We are heading to Bumpass, Va. for the annual fireworks viewing over the water. Does anyone else have any fun traditions they'd like to share? I bet eating hamburgers and hot dogs is one of them.
I read that the weekend Americans consume the most meat is Memorial Day, followed by Labor Day and then Fourth of July. I guess they'll be a sale on hot dogs next week at The Food Panther.

George Carlin

I would never name George Carlin as one of my favorite comedians but I was sad to hear he died yesterday. I won tickets off the radio ten years ago to see him in Hampton Roads. I laughed my butt off.
I'm stealing off the internet to share some of his "gems" from over the years.

• As a matter of principal, I never attend the first annual anything.
• Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
• When someone asks you, A penny for your thoughts, and you put your two cents in, what happens to the other penny?
• One can never know what a deserted area looks like.
• “"I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence?
• “Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that ...”

By the way, Billy Joel was GREAT on Saturday night and it wasn't just all the mojitos I had beforehand to sway my opinion. Our seats were great, maybe 25 rows from center stage. Too bad all the traffic delayed us getting there on time.

So I think I can dance

It's sad that with hundreds of channels of televison programming there is nothing to watch. I have joined the bandwagon of watching SYTYCD which to the common person is So You Think You Can Dance.
Well, I think I can.
Troy is also quite the dancer at 19 months. We had him moving his arms, lifting his feet and shaking his money maker earlier.
I'm also pleased to share that we purchased two lawn tickets for Billy Joel tomorrow but received a gift of two VIP tickets in row 12, VIP passes and a parking pass. Score! I will be up close and personal with The Piano Man. Don't worry, I'm packing heat. I'm taking a flask and my camera.

Pearl Jam

Falling into almost free tickets for Pearl Jam at the last minute is the best. Enjoying it with my husband and good friend, makes it even better.

Tim, Nadya and I had a great time at Pearl Jam's concert. The moon was almost full, the air was warm and there was a nice breeze blowing.

Eddie fortunately kept his anti-Iraq sentiments to himself which was wise when playing to a pro-military crowd.

They sounded almost as good as their CDs and did play the old, popular stuff mixed in with songs I had never heard before.

In case you're wondering, Eddie Did have on a flannel shirt. It was very a la grunge '92.

Fire! Fire! Fire!

We finally took our friend Jay up on visiting him at the Fire Station. There are promises of being put in the basket on our next trip and being lifted off the ground.

Fancy Dinner Out

I love birthdays. I love Troy's the most and then my own, of course. However, I do enjoy celebrating birthdays because usually there's cake involved and if not at work, booze!

CC and I took Nadya out to a "fancy dinner" at Lucky Star on June 11th.

Thankfully, it wasn't crowded and we had a fiesty waitress. The food was delicious and we paid our compliments to the chef too.