It Annoys Me Too

I hate it when I check my blog and it hasn't been updated. This happens with embarassing frequency. Embarassing not only because of how often I check my blog, but how every time I actually think that it may be different than last time I checked, even though I AM THE ONLY ONE WRITING. Yeah. I guess deep down I refuse to surrender the hope that in my absence the blog fairy has paid a visit and deposited a witty, well-written gem on my website.

Alcohol & Hair Gel

It has been a few days but there are still some quality pictures to post, thanks to our awesome readers. As promised, this one features people you know (although you may not recognize them with their stylish fauxhawks).




Photo courtesy of Shaw.

Happy Father's Day

I know it's not today because today is Monday and Father's Day is always on a Sunday. But then again it wasn't yesterday either and apparently I'm the only one who didn't know this.

I had started thinking several days ago about what I should do for my dad, but of course I couldn't think of anything good. So on Friday I decided to head to the mall to see if I could find something. There I ran into Ellie Dixon in Lord & Taylor (they're having a large store closing sale) and I mentioned that I was looking for a present for my dad (not in Lord & Taylor, I just stopped in because they were having such a massive clearance sale). She said that her family didn't really celebrate Father's Day, not with presents or anything. Hmm, I thought. Since my family is extremely low-key when it comes to holidays (even the big ones like Christmas-- while the Dixons get all dressed up Christmas Eve and eat in the formal dining room, we make French toast the next morning and eat in our PJs), it seemed odd that here on a Hallmark holiday I would be one of those people in the mall thinking I needed to find a gift at the last minute.

Then (several minutes later) I had a revelation. I realized that we don't really celebrate Father's Day either, save for a pan of brownies (which we make for my dad on any occasion, which I guess would just be his birthday and Father's Day now that I think of it), a card, and maybe some lobster rolls out on the boat for lunch. I remembered that I didn't get my mom a present for Mother's Day; I had just sent a card.

So, the pressure off, I decided I would just whip up a batch of brownies and make a card. I had talked to Pam a few days ago and she said she would send a card we could both sign but it hadn't come yet and I figured she had been too busy with work to send it off in time. That night before I went out I made some brownies, joking about how it was hard to do surprise cooking when the kitchen was in the living room but then again how surprising was it anyway that I was making brownies when tomorrrow was Father's Day. When the brownies were done, I gave them to my dad with a card, wished him a happy Father's Day, and went on my way.

Yesterday afternoon my mom happened to mention that she had been talking to her friend the night before and had wished her "Happy Father's Day," which caused her friend to exclaim, "Oh no! It's not tomorrow is it?", concerned that it had somehow snuck up on her. My mom looked over at the calendar and saw that no, it wasn't until next week.

But you already knew that.

Photo Contest?

It looks like Laura was the winner of the recent photo contest. Why? Well, basically she was the only one competing. Not that she was the only person who sent a picture, but she was the only one to identify her email as "Photo Contest!"

However, this is not to say that Laura's submission would not have won on it's own merits had there actually been a competition. Especially if the contest was called "The Scariest Photoshop Collage Ever." If you thought "Amy & the Pigs" was a disturbing use of digital alteration technology, wait until you see this.

Laura submitted a photo collage, but unfortunately it was too big to upload in its entirety. Although fortunately it was a .tif (whatever that is) instead of a compressed high resolution .pdf, so at least I was able to open it and extract the key picture.


Tomorrow we will see the winners of the "Best Drunken Picture of the Blogger and 1/2 Her Readership" and "Best Random Google Image Search" categories, as well as the winner of "Best Napoleon Dynamite Spoof Video."

Smoke

Met one of our new neighbors, Clarence, in the shared hallway last night when I opened the door to try to fan some of the smoke away from the multiple fire alarms that were going off when I filled the house with smoke trying to make sauteed chicken cutlets with lime sauce. He was standing there with a newspaper trying to do the same thing. Apparently the smoke detectors are hardwired and so there is no removing the battery to get them to stop. So we just had to wait an insane amount of time (it seemed even longer because I had set them off and was hoping it would all just quietly go away) while they beeped and beeped until they were satisfied there was no more smoke in the house. So that was fun. Not exactly a great anecdote but I am making myself write something every day and I have to go paint the porch now before it gets cloudy and rainy again.

Can someone send me a picture for tomorrow? I like pictures and I haven't posted one in a while so the blog is looking boring (in addition to actually being boring).