Another reason to drive sensible cars...

more funny fail pictures at FAIL Blog

I got flowers!!

Perfect.

Attack on the Domestic Savannah

This is a home video I took a while back that randomly turned out well. I hoped to edit it as a nature-esque parody, but even with no sound effects or voice-over, you get the idea.

How old am I, you ask? Why, I'm twe--holy crap.

This was my work environment today. You can't quite make out the confetti, birthday leis, miniature toys, chocolate eggs and jelly beans, but believe me when I tell you I was surrounded by mirth and junk-edible and otherwise. Surprisingly, I actually got all of my work done, but it was broken up with well-wishers, lunch at a fancy place a couple of blocks away on my coworkers, and rich, delicious cake. So, now that my bootcamp work has been tossed out the window all in one day, I'm sure I'll have a weekend of alternating moments of celebration and complete shock that I'm no longer in my twenties.

And you were there-and you, and you!

So, Wednesday night I went to bed about 11, as usual. It had been rainy and stormy all day, but I remember reading somewhere right before I went to bed that the unsettled, stormy weather had passed Austin that afternoon, so I didn't think about what the weather would be like overnight.

I woke up at 12:30 to drunks screaming in the street. This is not unusual even for a Wednesday when you live across the street from an old neglected co-op with a sign in the window that reads "House of Nuts", especially when you have to think twice about what they mean by Nuts-the delicious and nutritious pecans that litter the neighborhood and their cousins? Is it a play on the street name, which translated from Spanish means nuts? Or, is it because the people inside are...interesting, and have littered-I mean decorated- their porch and yard (I don't want to imagine the inside) with old, stained furniture, multi-colored christmas lights, newspaper dispensers (pointed toward the house), children's toys and odd, disheveled 'landscaping'? The unusual part about the screaming in the street was that it was that panicky people-won't-know-I'm-scared-if-I-make-a-joke kind of screaming. What kept me awake was the huge gust of wind and constant flashes of lightening. This was followed quickly by pure chaos. I jumped out of bed to look out the window, fascinated by the quick change of events, and soon became confused as to what to do, frightened and just a little excited. I like storms. They finally grew on me, thanks to Dad, but this one was just past the verge of being no fun at all. The rain was horizontal, and was soon followed by at least golf-ball-sized hail, which set off my car alarm and made the 'nuts' stop running around in the street. I heard a couple of "OW!"s over the din, and heard no more from them for the duration. It only lasted about 20 minutes, but felt like forever. I tried to open my door and watch out the screen door but the wind and changes in pressure were so severe that the door would get sucked closed right out of my hands. I've learned since that this was a textbook supercell storm.

I was one of the lucky ones in my apt. complex-walking through to get my mail the next day I felt shattered glass crunch under my feet and looked up to see nearly all of the windows on one side of the building cracked or broken, and the screens had hail-shaped holes in them like swiss cheese.

The walk to work the next day took half-again as long as usual, what with weaving around and jumping over limbs and debris. It's always a shame when the big old shade trees are victims of such quick, violent weather. The photos are typical of what downtown Austin will probably look like for a week or two while landscapers, auto body shops and window salesmen make a killing. The music accompanying my birthday weekend will be the droning of chainsaws.

Panda Sneezing Fit

Panda Sneeze Attack - Watch more free videos

This has to be one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

Words to live by...

I read an interesting sign today. It said: " In the Spring, at the end of the day you should smell like dirt." After boot camp I wouldn't say I smell like dirt although I'm covered with it, but I like the reminder to get outside and play, find your 'inner child' and say to hell with fashion and pride. You'll live your moments more fully and make memories rather than watching your life fly by as it inevitably does.

Awareness Test

Well, I did it. I survived my first day of boot camp, and as the instructor, um, instructed-I didn't walk.

There was quite a range of people there, it seemed like at least half were returnees, and were talking about how their butts had changed, and such. Even still, I was in at least the middle of the pack, and I think I did better than a lot of them. The tall, thin guy that looked like a natural runner was walking after 3 or 4 minutes, the 'big-boned' fella with a beer gut found every excuse to get up from the exercise and talk to the trainer about something-his shoes hurting, or form, or whatever he could think of not to just do it, and the frat-boy-with-too-much-product looked like this was just his warm-up, doing the harder versions of all of the upper-body work and smirking. Punk. He'll get his, I'm sure. I'm of the school that if you blend in, you won't get picked on, and thus made to be even more sore than you would be anyway. And you would.

We ran, sprinted, dipped, pushed and ran some more, and finished with some decent stretching. We only did the upper-body workouts, which I'm not good at. I'm scared because I think today will be lower-body and abs. Ouch. I went straight home to a glass of chocolate soy milk (studies say it's best for muscle recovery), advil and an ice bath. My heartbeat was at least as high getting into the less than 40 degree water as when I was sprinting on the track an hour earlier. It was pretty bad getting my legs in, and then realized that I had to keep going, to get my arms and shoulders (bound to be the most painful, as they're the most wimpy) under the water. I kept thinking of the Titanic, for some reason...maybe it was the ice cube or two floating by, threatening to make me crack.

I wasn't as blotto as I thought I would be. I actually had a decent dinner, did a few things around the house that didn't require lifting my arms above my head (I've adapted well to that today, also), and got my stuff ready to go back. Today. Wait-I'm paying for this...??

Boo...

Yesterday on my walk home all I found was a chewed quarter.

That's twenty-five times better than finding a chewed penny, though, I guess!