have you ever been reading some sort of distraction online while at work, and it was so funny that you couldn't help but laugh out loud? that just happened to me and it was awesome. unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) my office is pretty far away from everyone else that's here so no one heard and asked what was funny, so i had no on e to share it with. hence the blog post :)
in case you were curious about what i was reading, you can check it out here. "baked poo souffle with a side of #2 nuggets"...man i'm still laughing. what does that say about me i wonder? :P
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
10 new things!
i am much belated but january is almost over and i couldn't let my awesome things pledge fall completely by the wayside. so here we go - 10 (short) awesome things from the past 10 days!
#18 - 3 day weekends: although i didn't have the full day off for martin luther king day, i did go home really early and alex came out to hang out. it was such a blast to see him and have some extra time off of work!
#19 - seeing the grass again: last week we got some rain and warmer temperatures, which combined to melt the 12+ inches of snow that had been sitting on the ground for...a long time. i think leonidas was even more excited than i was about the grass - all kinds of new smells AND he didn't have to wear his coat to go the bathroom, haha.
#20- restaurant date deals: i'm sure most of you have seen ads for the2 for $20 deal at chili's or the 3 courses for $25 at fridays, and after taking advantage of several of these deals with alex and my family, i have to say they are awesome. for couples on a budget, restaurant date deals are the way to go.
#21 - seeing relatives from far away: last week my uncle flew in from AZ to visit my grandparents, and it was really fun to see him! he's very sharp and interesting, but has all the quirks you'd expect as my grandfather's son. he's also super competitive when it comes to wii sports and i crushed him at canoeing. i'll admit, i was a little sore the next day but it was worth it!
#22 - when grandma makes a joke: my grandma is this incredibly sweet 84 year old lady and over the past few years, she and i have grown very close. unfortunately, she suffers from some dimentia and is very hard of hearing, so big family gatherings can be challenging for her, BUT every so often, she'll catch my grandpa doing something ridiculous and she'll crack a joke. her jokes are always awesome :)
#23 - weird old people ideas: with my uncle in town, we spent LOTS of time together as a family, elderly included, and twice this weekend i caught my grandfather doing something ridiculous. first, we were out to dinner and i look over to see his winter hat tucked into the front of his pants. why you'd chose to put a hat your pants rather than in the pocket of your coat is beyond me. he removed it at my less-than-gentle request, haha. then, the next day at sunday brunch, we're out to eat again and my grandma asks him to hold her purse. rather than setting it on the empty chair next to him, he started to unbuckle his belt and feed it through her purse straps! why this man cannot find anything but his pants to hold on to things is beyond me.
#24 - bowling: recently alex and i went out on a bowling date! neither of us are very good bowlers (rarely getting over 100), but we still have a lot of fun getting a pizza, a pitcher of beer, and making total fools out of ourselves. since we're both terrible, there's not a ton of serious competition between us, but i must point out that i beat alex 119 - 118 in our second game. it was an awesome tenth frame :)
#25 - photography blogs: we are in the midst of picking a wedding photographer and it is a tough decision! every photographer has a cool blog with lots of fun pictures and i always get excited thinking about what pictures from our day will look like! although i could never find that creativity in myself, i definitely appreciate it in other people!
#26 - getting taken out to lunch for work: yesterday one of our vendors for work was in town and they came by to take me out to lunch! after talking to them exclusively on the phone, it was funny to see them in person and find out that my picture in my head was way off, haha. anyways, it was a delicious lunch and a fun perk of being in the working world!
#27 - solo cups with scratch off name panel: our office has the most awesome solo cups. they have a panel-like thing on the front and when you peel off the label, you can scratch your name (or whatever else you want) into the black space! what an awesome idea for keeping cups straight at parties and whatnot! i wish i had thought of that...
#18 - 3 day weekends: although i didn't have the full day off for martin luther king day, i did go home really early and alex came out to hang out. it was such a blast to see him and have some extra time off of work!
#19 - seeing the grass again: last week we got some rain and warmer temperatures, which combined to melt the 12+ inches of snow that had been sitting on the ground for...a long time. i think leonidas was even more excited than i was about the grass - all kinds of new smells AND he didn't have to wear his coat to go the bathroom, haha.
#20- restaurant date deals: i'm sure most of you have seen ads for the2 for $20 deal at chili's or the 3 courses for $25 at fridays, and after taking advantage of several of these deals with alex and my family, i have to say they are awesome. for couples on a budget, restaurant date deals are the way to go.
#21 - seeing relatives from far away: last week my uncle flew in from AZ to visit my grandparents, and it was really fun to see him! he's very sharp and interesting, but has all the quirks you'd expect as my grandfather's son. he's also super competitive when it comes to wii sports and i crushed him at canoeing. i'll admit, i was a little sore the next day but it was worth it!
#22 - when grandma makes a joke: my grandma is this incredibly sweet 84 year old lady and over the past few years, she and i have grown very close. unfortunately, she suffers from some dimentia and is very hard of hearing, so big family gatherings can be challenging for her, BUT every so often, she'll catch my grandpa doing something ridiculous and she'll crack a joke. her jokes are always awesome :)
#23 - weird old people ideas: with my uncle in town, we spent LOTS of time together as a family, elderly included, and twice this weekend i caught my grandfather doing something ridiculous. first, we were out to dinner and i look over to see his winter hat tucked into the front of his pants. why you'd chose to put a hat your pants rather than in the pocket of your coat is beyond me. he removed it at my less-than-gentle request, haha. then, the next day at sunday brunch, we're out to eat again and my grandma asks him to hold her purse. rather than setting it on the empty chair next to him, he started to unbuckle his belt and feed it through her purse straps! why this man cannot find anything but his pants to hold on to things is beyond me.
#24 - bowling: recently alex and i went out on a bowling date! neither of us are very good bowlers (rarely getting over 100), but we still have a lot of fun getting a pizza, a pitcher of beer, and making total fools out of ourselves. since we're both terrible, there's not a ton of serious competition between us, but i must point out that i beat alex 119 - 118 in our second game. it was an awesome tenth frame :)
#25 - photography blogs: we are in the midst of picking a wedding photographer and it is a tough decision! every photographer has a cool blog with lots of fun pictures and i always get excited thinking about what pictures from our day will look like! although i could never find that creativity in myself, i definitely appreciate it in other people!
#26 - getting taken out to lunch for work: yesterday one of our vendors for work was in town and they came by to take me out to lunch! after talking to them exclusively on the phone, it was funny to see them in person and find out that my picture in my head was way off, haha. anyways, it was a delicious lunch and a fun perk of being in the working world!
#27 - solo cups with scratch off name panel: our office has the most awesome solo cups. they have a panel-like thing on the front and when you peel off the label, you can scratch your name (or whatever else you want) into the black space! what an awesome idea for keeping cups straight at parties and whatnot! i wish i had thought of that...
Thursday, January 21, 2010
health care debate
so i know i am belated in posting my awesome things for the past few days, and unfortunately this is not a post to make up for that. after everything that has happened over the past few days, i felt compelled to respond. please understand this is not intended to be a judgment of anyone else's position - i am not a health care professional and so i have the luxury of approaching the issue from afar. however, i do think it is important to hear all sides of an issue before forming an opinoin of your own. so, in the sprirt of open dialogue and an acknowledgement that my perspectives are limited, i'd like to explain why i believe a national health care system is fiscally irresponsible and will end up lowering the quality of our care across the board.
first, you should know that the debate is not about whether or not heath care reforms are needed - everyone agrees that costs are astronomical and access is too limited. amidst all of the rhetoric, i believe the focus on those goals has been lost - we need to find a way to lower health care costs and provide increased access, but i do not believe a national health care system will accomplish either of those goals.
the financial argument that i've heard for a national health care plan is that the government, by being able to operate at a loss, will be able to provide coverage below the market value of other insurance plans and force insurance companies to operate more effeciently to lower their own costs. this argument rests on three extremely misguided assumptions.
all of this is not to say the government cannot help - it can. allow companies to buy insurance across state lines, thereby increasing the level of competition and lowering costs. allow small businesses to pool their resources to negotiate for better rates. enact reasonable tort liability reform so doctors don't have to charge consumers for insurance against frivilous law suits. reduce fraud in medicare. those are small steps that would make a big difference and help us reach our ultimate goals - lower costs and increased access.
first, you should know that the debate is not about whether or not heath care reforms are needed - everyone agrees that costs are astronomical and access is too limited. amidst all of the rhetoric, i believe the focus on those goals has been lost - we need to find a way to lower health care costs and provide increased access, but i do not believe a national health care system will accomplish either of those goals.
the financial argument that i've heard for a national health care plan is that the government, by being able to operate at a loss, will be able to provide coverage below the market value of other insurance plans and force insurance companies to operate more effeciently to lower their own costs. this argument rests on three extremely misguided assumptions.
- it assumes that the government can be efficient. to see an example of the government's inability to operate a health care program efficiently, we need look no further than medicare. when looking at the total cost of medicare, a whooping 10% of the bill goes directly to fraudulent activities - i don't mean old ladies getting extra massages, but organized criminal operations that are taking advantage of the government's inability to efficiently operate medicare. 10%. if we're trying to lower government costs, i'd say let's start there.
- it assumes that other areas of the economy can afford to pay for a program that operates at a loss OR the country can simply incur more debt without any consequences. when the government operates a program at a loss, it either has to bring in additional income from other sources (i.e. raise taxes on non-union so-called "cadilac plans") or it has to incur more debt. in terms of the debt, it took 43 presidents to incur $5 trillion of national debt, which is a staggering number already - between the stimulus bill earlier this year, health care, etc. this administration has plans to double the national debt in 5 years and triple it in 10 years. $15 trillion dollars in debt. that is something that me, my children and my grandchildren will have to be worried about paying off for....ever.
- it assumes that doctors and health care providers will simply accept lower rates for the same quality of service. again, i will refer to the medicare example. as i understand it, when a patient uses medicare to cover a medical expense, the doctor in turn submits the claim to medicare for reimbursement. unfortunately for the doctor, medicare does not reimburse at the actual cost to the doctor, and so the doctor has to take a loss. let's say an MRI costs $1000, but medicare only reimburses $500 - the doctor loses $500. but because the doctor runs a business, he has to find that $500 elsewhere, either by raising prices for non-medicare patients or by cutting costs in another area of operation, like research and development.
all of this is not to say the government cannot help - it can. allow companies to buy insurance across state lines, thereby increasing the level of competition and lowering costs. allow small businesses to pool their resources to negotiate for better rates. enact reasonable tort liability reform so doctors don't have to charge consumers for insurance against frivilous law suits. reduce fraud in medicare. those are small steps that would make a big difference and help us reach our ultimate goals - lower costs and increased access.
Monday, January 18, 2010
#17 - talking to people about W&M
in case you hadn't heard, the tribe will be welcoming a new addition to the basketball team next year from my area! i am particularly excited because we go to the same church, our parents know each other, and the night before he made his decision to chose W&M over several other schools, he called me and i did the final convincing :)
anyways, we ran into his family this sunday and his mom was expressing some nerves about how far away he'd be, how different virginia might be from here, etc. well, i was thrilled to get to talk about W&M to someone who will be heading out that way so soon - i told them all about the chapel and the basketball guys there (who he talks to regularly already), the great food, colonial williamsburg, my first visit there, and how awesome the students and community are at W&M. i told them that alex and i had both made friends for life and our experiences there are something we will always treasure.
i don't often get to talk personally about W&M and my time there, but whenever i do, it is awesome. maybe one day i'll get a job recruiting for them...haha. go tribe!
anyways, we ran into his family this sunday and his mom was expressing some nerves about how far away he'd be, how different virginia might be from here, etc. well, i was thrilled to get to talk about W&M to someone who will be heading out that way so soon - i told them all about the chapel and the basketball guys there (who he talks to regularly already), the great food, colonial williamsburg, my first visit there, and how awesome the students and community are at W&M. i told them that alex and i had both made friends for life and our experiences there are something we will always treasure.
i don't often get to talk personally about W&M and my time there, but whenever i do, it is awesome. maybe one day i'll get a job recruiting for them...haha. go tribe!
#16 - Swedish food
saturday night alex and i went out to dinner at the little Swedish restaurant just 50 feet from his apartment. if you hadn't heard, his school has a relatively large Scandinavian population, so all things Swedish are more prevelant than most places. i have to say, the food was awesome! i had crab cakes with roasted red pepper sauce and french onion soup, and alex had a chicken and ham dish that came with green beans and mashed potatoes. it's a tiny hole-in-the-wall place, but the authentic Swedish cuisine was delicious.
Friday, January 15, 2010
#15 - winning contests
alright guys, here's the deal - i entered leonidas in a cutest pet contest and i need you all to VOTE FOR HIM!!! if he wins, he would appear on Bissell vacuum products, we'd get $10,000 to donate to charity of our choice, a $500 pet shopping spree, and a free vacuum! if you hadn't guessed, the contest is through Bissel, and this is what you need to do to vote:
Simply go to this website or visit www.bissell.com and click on the Pet MVP logo on the left side. Click "View this week's pets" on the right, which will direct you to the competition. Then, search for Leonidas and his picture along with a description I wrote will pop up! Click on his name, and then click "Login to Vote". You'll have to enter your email address and password to vote, but be sure not to subscribe to their email list (unless you want vacuum updates - then feel free). Then, just vote!
pass this along to as many people as you'd like and maybe one day you'll be able to buy a vacuum with Leonidas on the package - how awesome would that be??? VOTE FOR LEONIDAS!!!
Simply go to this website or visit www.bissell.com and click on the Pet MVP logo on the left side. Click "View this week's pets" on the right, which will direct you to the competition. Then, search for Leonidas and his picture along with a description I wrote will pop up! Click on his name, and then click "Login to Vote". You'll have to enter your email address and password to vote, but be sure not to subscribe to their email list (unless you want vacuum updates - then feel free). Then, just vote!
pass this along to as many people as you'd like and maybe one day you'll be able to buy a vacuum with Leonidas on the package - how awesome would that be??? VOTE FOR LEONIDAS!!!
#14 - mini food
last night i had an event for work where we served appetizers and they were delicious! i like appetizers because they are mini versions of good food, so you can sample several tastes. i had a few mini pizzas (which actually looked like mini quiches, but they were not), mini quesadillas, and mini egg rolls - all awesome!
#13 - seeing Alex in the middle of the week
i know this is a cheesy one, which is not normally my style, but i couldn't help myself...on wednesday, alex drove out to the western suburbs to come and see me and i was reminded how awesome it is to be living close enough that we can see each other in the middle of the week AND on weekends. yay for the beginning of the end of long-distance :)
Thursday, January 14, 2010
#12 - checking things off
this week at work has been pretty busy - we've had four events, the boss was in town, and we were finishing up a big mailing project. well, in order to be sure that i didn't let anything slip through the cracks, i had a big to-do list. well, yesterday i checked off all of the most pressing things on my list and it felt awesome! some days, it's the small victories :)
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
#11 - unfortunate last names
now i know these are not awesome for the people who have them, but for those of us bystanders, it can be pretty awesome. today i ran into someone who's last name is "hickisch"...that's right, like hick-ish, as in having the qualities of a hick. totally unfortunate and totally awesome - anyone else have awesome stories of unfortunate last names??
a quick addendum - i also discovered someone that lives in Boring, OR today. Unfortunate, hilarious, and awesome.
a quick addendum - i also discovered someone that lives in Boring, OR today. Unfortunate, hilarious, and awesome.
Monday, January 11, 2010
#11 - free jeans
today i got my free lee jeans in the mail from the facebook drawing and they are awesome! i'm actually wearing them right now and they are quite comfortable...alex got his too and he's pretty psyched from what i can tell. did everyone else get there's too?? anyways, i have to give katie credit for today's awesome thing...good find katie :)
#10 - monopoly deal
for christmas alex gave me an awesome new game - monopoly deal! for those of you that like monopoly but don't have 7 hours and more than two people, this game is the best. alex and i played a bunch last sunday and i beat him like 25 games to 2. we played again this weekend and although he exacted his revenge (he beat me 5 games to 3), i still think this game is awesome. you can play with more people, but we haven't tried it yet...i'm sure that'll be awesome too!
#9 - giant icicles
right now in chicago, there is a big "thaw", meaning the sun is out and temperatures are in the 30s - whoo hoo! that also means houses are covered in icicles, which are one of winter's more beautiful features. and when i say icicles, i mean big ones - the one i knocked off my house on saturday was almost 4 feet long! it was awesome, but i think i might have killed a bush in the process...only spring will tell!
Friday, January 8, 2010
#8 - when popular TV trumps politics
maybe you heard this but maybe you didn't - there was a chance that the State of the Union address this year was going to bump the LOST premier to a whole week later! for those of us die-hard LOST fans who have been waiting like 18 years for the new season, this would have been upsetting. well, worry no more because today it was announced here that LOST will begin Feb. 2, on time and on schedule, and that is an awesome thing!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
awesome things 1 - 7
1 - holiday compromises: for those of you that have dealt with splitting holiday time between your family and your significant other's family, you know how tough it can be to keep everyone happy. well this year, alex and i dealt with that for the first time and we struck an awesome compromise! we moved "Christmas morning" with my family to Christmas Eve morning, went to church with my family, and then on Christmas Day, we drove 11 hours to PA to have Christmas dinner with his family. we spent the next 5 days with them, and then it was off to Indianapolis, where we spent New Year's with my extended family. we got quality time with everyone and no one felt left out!
2 - outrunning a snow storm: on Christmas Day, the forecast had called for an big ice storm in the midwest, so we'd be praying all week that the traffic wouldn't be bad on our drive to PA. well, lucky for us, the storm hit after we already left and we didn't hit any traffic at all! it was awesome!
3 - long down coats: for Christmas, i asked my parents for a new coat - a long, down northface to keep me warm while walking the dog, scraping off my car, etc. well, they were great enough to get one for me and it is awesome! it keeps me so toasty, it has a hood, and it reverse-zips (unzips from the bottom) so i can sit down in the car without feeling restricted.
4 - wii canoeing: for a Christmas present, my brother, alex, and i all chipped in and got my parents a wii, which is awesome, but what's even MORE awesome is the wii resrot sports game that my aunt and uncle got them to go with it. you can do all sorts of things, but my favorite to watch and play is canoeing. you hold the remote and paddle side to side just like you would with a real canoe paddle. my mom even loves it! i have never laughed so hard as when i watched my mom and dad race each other in canoeing, paddling their hearts out in front of the tv, and talking smack to each other. awesome AND hilarious.
5 - daily calendars: alex knows how much i love calendars (he does too), so for Christmas he got me a daily calendar of quotes from the office! i have to say, there is something incredibly satisfying about ripping off a new page every day and having the restraint not to read days ahead. it's awesome because it gives me something to look forward to every morning at work. he also got one for my brother that's got entries from the blog "stuff white people like", which is also awesome.
6 - family pot lucks: this is one of my favorite things about alex's family get-togethers - everyone brings food and everyone's food is delicious! this time the unintentional theme was meatballs...alex's mom, grandmother, and uncle all brought fresh homemade meatballs and the all had different sauces! it was really fun to sample all of the different kinds, and believe me, they were all awesome.
7 - fresh snow: today chicago is getting a fresh snow, about 12 inches or so. when i walked the dog this morning, everything was so peaceful and clean and quiet. the snow was fluffy and coated the trees and the plows hadn't been through yet, so there wasn't a speck of brown, dirty snow in sight. it was awesome. when we talk about God making our hearts as white as snow, that is what i think of - clean, beautiful, and peaceful, just like the morning after a fresh snowfall.
2 - outrunning a snow storm: on Christmas Day, the forecast had called for an big ice storm in the midwest, so we'd be praying all week that the traffic wouldn't be bad on our drive to PA. well, lucky for us, the storm hit after we already left and we didn't hit any traffic at all! it was awesome!
3 - long down coats: for Christmas, i asked my parents for a new coat - a long, down northface to keep me warm while walking the dog, scraping off my car, etc. well, they were great enough to get one for me and it is awesome! it keeps me so toasty, it has a hood, and it reverse-zips (unzips from the bottom) so i can sit down in the car without feeling restricted.
4 - wii canoeing: for a Christmas present, my brother, alex, and i all chipped in and got my parents a wii, which is awesome, but what's even MORE awesome is the wii resrot sports game that my aunt and uncle got them to go with it. you can do all sorts of things, but my favorite to watch and play is canoeing. you hold the remote and paddle side to side just like you would with a real canoe paddle. my mom even loves it! i have never laughed so hard as when i watched my mom and dad race each other in canoeing, paddling their hearts out in front of the tv, and talking smack to each other. awesome AND hilarious.
5 - daily calendars: alex knows how much i love calendars (he does too), so for Christmas he got me a daily calendar of quotes from the office! i have to say, there is something incredibly satisfying about ripping off a new page every day and having the restraint not to read days ahead. it's awesome because it gives me something to look forward to every morning at work. he also got one for my brother that's got entries from the blog "stuff white people like", which is also awesome.
6 - family pot lucks: this is one of my favorite things about alex's family get-togethers - everyone brings food and everyone's food is delicious! this time the unintentional theme was meatballs...alex's mom, grandmother, and uncle all brought fresh homemade meatballs and the all had different sauces! it was really fun to sample all of the different kinds, and believe me, they were all awesome.
7 - fresh snow: today chicago is getting a fresh snow, about 12 inches or so. when i walked the dog this morning, everything was so peaceful and clean and quiet. the snow was fluffy and coated the trees and the plows hadn't been through yet, so there wasn't a speck of brown, dirty snow in sight. it was awesome. when we talk about God making our hearts as white as snow, that is what i think of - clean, beautiful, and peaceful, just like the morning after a fresh snowfall.
the power of positive thinking
recently i found out about the blog called 1000 awesome things. it's pretty self-explanatory - every day they put up a blog about an awesome thing, and they're doing it until they reach 1000 (almost 3 years). it's nothing super deep, but so far they've been amusing and true. now, i'm not going to try to achieve something that remarkable, but i am going to try to come up with an awesome thing that happens every day for the month of january.
here's why. first, i'm not a great blogger and hopefully this will motivate me to be more consistent. second, it'll be a fun way to fill you in on things that happen in my life. third, in a year where there is a lot going on in my life that can get stressful, this will be a way to focus on something awesome that happened that day.
now, i know i'm late in starting this for january, so my next post is going to be 7 awesome things that happened over the Christmas/New Year break, and that will catch me up (and catch you up too!). feel free to join me in the quest for finding the awesome things every day, or just leave thoughts/comments when they come to you :)
here's why. first, i'm not a great blogger and hopefully this will motivate me to be more consistent. second, it'll be a fun way to fill you in on things that happen in my life. third, in a year where there is a lot going on in my life that can get stressful, this will be a way to focus on something awesome that happened that day.
now, i know i'm late in starting this for january, so my next post is going to be 7 awesome things that happened over the Christmas/New Year break, and that will catch me up (and catch you up too!). feel free to join me in the quest for finding the awesome things every day, or just leave thoughts/comments when they come to you :)
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