Friday, December 26, 2008

Air Traffic Control

This video is amazing. My friend Scott showed it to me. Its a graphic of all of the air travel in one 24 hour period. Notice how much traffic picks up as the daylight moves over different areas and how it slows down when it gets dark. Each yellow dot is an airplane. If its not good quality click on the link and go to YouTube to watch it in high def.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Christmas Bloopers!

Since I posted the Halloween videos, here are some with a little Christmas flavor...



(don't mind the weird German thing at the end)

Sunday, December 21, 2008

C-O-L-D

How cold is it outside?














It currently feels like -9 outside. That's cold.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Shana's Update

So, I think I am going to start a new label and always title my updates the same. I could always hyphenate my title right? What do you think.

This past week I have been sick with a cold. I think a cold at least. Today is the first day that I feel a little bit better. I didn't go to work Monday or Tuesday, and my boss sent me home early on Thursday. I still have a cough and my nose is running like crazy. I look like crap run over today. My eyes and nose are so yucky that my makeup stung so I didn't wear any and than I decided because it was raining not to do my hair. I look like crap run over alright. Josh told me my hair looked pretty crazy this afternoon when I went home for lunch. He has been really sweet to take care of me while I have been sick. He made me grilled cheese and soup for lunch. Which this is a story by its self.


Here is me at the office right this second. Don't I look awesome, yikes!

It was funny, I kind of was a brat. Well, I was a brat. I asked Josh when my lunch would be ready so he hoped up to start my grilled cheese and reheat my soup. I had potato soup last night for dinner too and he was just going to reheat the leftovers. Well, when it was all done and on the table ready for me to eat. I took a good look at my soup and thought it looked a little funny. He had reheated me sausage gravy. It was really funny. So, I put it back in the frig and reheated the right container. It was funny, that is what I get for being a brat right.

Josh is off work today. When I get home we are going to go grocery shopping for the Falls. They just got home with their baby. I am going to have to be careful not to get to close, which is sad I haven't seen them yet because I have been sick. I know the best thing is to wait. Mommy and baby don't need to get my cold. YUCK. Then, tonight we are having a little Christmas party for our student small group that Josh has started up here. This will actually be the first one I get to attend because I am always working when they have small group. It should be exciting. We are having pizza, yum, and making desserts and watching one of my favorite movies ever, ELF. Although I am pretty mad at Will Ferrell right now. He needs to clean his act up. He should be ashamed of himself for the movie Step-Brothers. I can't imagine what his mother thinks. Enough of that tangent.

Here are some photos of the snow we had this week.




Not crazy huge, but enough. That is Zoe you see grazing in it. Seriously, it took the dogs forever to go potty because all they could think of was that the ice fairy had come. All of you who know my pups and a ice machine know what I am talking about. They are getting cabin fever in this weather. We have been able to play in doors a little. Well, Zoe has been able to with Calvin at his house. Bogie wouldn't tolerate that one bit. O well. Moving on.

Ok so I think that is probably enough for now. Josh and I are so excited, 4 days till we head home. Can't wait for Christmas.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Study Bibles

Here's a great article by Dr. Mohler about study Bible recommendations.

This is particularly helpful if you are wanting to get someone a Bible for Christmas.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Santa came

Josh and I decided to do our Christmas gift exchange a little bit different this year. See, this year we are going home to GA. We leave Christmas Eve and probably will come back New Years Eve. With that, we decided not to put up a tree or do much of decorating. We didn't have the space to store stuff like that anyways. Judy was gracious and mailed me my Christmas wreath for my door. So, we do have some festiveness on the outside.

Well, Josh and I decided to surprise each other through-out the month of December with random gifts. This way we didn't have to travel with it home and bring it back, and also we didn't have any boxes to wrap anything in. Saved a bit on cost. I know I am such a cheap skate. Well, we really liked this. Josh got me my new space heater. I am soooo happy about that one. He also got me some new shoes, ear muffs, some teflon whisks, a salad spinner, a crock-pot cookbook, and a gloves/mittens/scarf set. He is also going to get me a new cell phone (blackjack II), but we are waiting till we are home to purchase that one. We'll be those dumb people out the day after Christmas. Hopefully, Gainesville AT&T stores won't be as bad.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Cheap Skate 2

This is a pretty easy one. Keep your heat at 68 and your AC at 78. It will take about a month an a half to really see drastic savings, but afterwards you'll never go back. If you are a cold natured person, try having a small space heater to help give your body a warm up boost so you aren't playing with the thermastat.

We have fans that help with the climate control in the summer. They are amazing to have when we get to those months were you don't need AC or heat. We open up windows and doors and use the fans to help bring in the outside. This airs out the house which is also healthy to do. We used to have a small space heater that would help kick start me if I was really cold, for example when I take the dogs outside, but it just broke. I am hoping Santa Claus will bring me a new one this year.

This is a simple tip, but seriously has tons of savings attached.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Movie Update

I'll post something more "meaningful" later, but here's a long update on the movies we've seen in the past couple of months.


We Are Marshall

3 boxes of popcorn. I'd probably give this a little butter if Matthew McSixpack didn't annoy me so much. I think he's a little over the top in this one. The other Matthew (Fox) was much better.







Thank You For Smoking

3 boxes with a little butter. This movie was a very witty and clever parody of the smoking industry. Watch out for the language. The ending is hilarious.








Baby Mama

3.5 boxes of popcorn. Hold the butter. I find it funny that Hollywood makes movies like this since they are so Pro-Choice. The entire movie while Amy Poehler is pregnant they talk to the baby like it's ALIVE! What a double standard. After you get past that aspect, the movie is clean and funny.





Goodfellas

2 boxes of popcorn. Wow. So disappointed. This is supposed to be one of the best gangster movies of all time. I give it 2 boxes because the first part of the movie is worth 4 boxes and the second part is worth zero. The story starts off great. Ray Liotta, DeNiro, and Joe Pesci are great. Then the story gets too long and too sad and just pathetic. I guess you're supposed to feel sorry for the Ray's character, but eh, not so much. No where near as good as any of the Godfathers or The Departed.




You Don't Mess With the Zohan

3 boxes of popcorn with butter. Not 4 because this movie creates a moral/ethical delima for me. It was rather sexual. Not so much like the S.I. Swimsuit calendar, but more like The Full Monty sexual. I'll leave it at that. We watched this in mixed company which apparently left some people feeling a little uncomfortable, but I was laughing. Sandler was old school Sandler. I just wish the writers could figure out how to end movies like this a little better. The ending was weak, but that's not why they make these kinds of movies.


Shaun Of The Dead

Hilarious. 3 boxes of popcorn with light butter. Not four because if fell off at the end. The language was a little rough, and it was pretty bloody. However, it was zombie fake blood. Not for the kids or the faint of heart. The basic idea of the movie is a marriage of a British comedy and a zombie movie. The best part: when they fake like they're zombies so they can move through the town without being noticed. Very funny.





Casino Royale

4 boxes of popcorn. The best Bond movie in a long time for sure. I saw this one in the theater, but Shana missed it so we Netflixed it. She loved it as did I. Daniel Craig is a great Bond and Shana has a crush on him.






Quantum of Solace

3 boxes of popcorn, hold the butter. This is the first Bond movie that was a sequel. All of the other ones are stand-alone movies. This one picks up right where Casino Royale leaves off. It was a bit hard to follow throughout, but the action was great. The story ties up nicely with a "take-that" ending. I don't like Judy Dench as "M". They need to bring back "Q," have more cool cars and at least one gadget per movie but not too much. Then it just gets cheesy.




Body of Lies

4 boxes of popcorn. Leonardo DiCaprio. Russell Crowe. Ridley Scott. Great movie. I don't know how it happened, but DiCaprio somehow became a great actor. I don't get it. I used to not be able to stand the guy but then came The Departed and Blood Diamond and now Body of Lies. Excellent movies.






The Spiderwick Chronicles

3 boxes of popcorn. This movie is geared for kids and was a bit of a stretch for us. We watched this on Thanksgiving Day with the Falls. We all agreed that we were pleasenty surprised. The story moves quickly but I think the main bad guy is way to scary for little kids. I would have peed my pants. It's kind of like a modern day Labyrinth with great CG effects.




Get Smart

4 boxes of popcorn with a side of Twizzlers for Shana. This movie is great. Steve Carell is so funny (and I don't even watch The Office). Definitely worth seeing. There are subtle references to the TV show which are nice. But Carell makes this movie. If you like him you'll like it.






Step Brothers

1 box of stale popcorn that Shana would have returned. This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I didn't even finish it which means that, along with Jury Duty, there are now two movies that I've turned off due to its absurdity. It was riddled with inappropriate profainity, terrible sexual jokes, and John C. Reilly - who is just not funny. The premise of the movie was good but the writing and acting was horrible. Don't waste your time or money.



Wanted
2 boxes of popcorn. This is a movie that Shana and I really wanted to see. Shana has a crush on three famous people: Peyton Manning, Daniel Craig, and this guy James McAvoy - who plays the main character in this movie. It also stars Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. Overall - A Let down. The action and effects were awesome, but I could never buy McAvoy as a stud assassin. He's scrawny and just not tough. Even after the obligatory "training sequence" in the movie. Plus, there was tons of f-bombs which made it hard to watch. Cool premise for a movie, but just never delievered.



We watched all of these movies over a few months. I just haven't updated the movie portion of this blog in a while. The only ones we saw in the theater were Quantum of Solice and Body of Lies.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Texas Business Trip

Back in October I had the opportunity to go to Texas on a business trip. I know I am just now posting about it because I just now realized I could send the pictures I took on my phone to my computer. Sorry for the delay, but hey better late than never right.

I have been with the Kentucky Bankers Association since July 10th, and I am still loving my job today. One of the reason I love it is all the different opportunities I get. I don't know to many Accounting Assistants who get neat opportunities like I have gotten through my work. Highlights for this year so far are: going to Texas and meeting Karl Rove at our convention.

So, you are probably wondering why I went to Texas. I went to the Texas Bankers Association for a user group meeting for some software that we all commonly use. It was a lot of fun getting to meet different people at the other associations. It was also neat to learn how they were doing things in their states. I learned a lot about the program we are using and also learned a bit about a program we were thinking about acquiring. All in all it was a really fun trip. I got to know one of my co-workers here better. That was a really neat opportunity. We stayed up late on night talking in the hotel restaurant about election stuff, and I was able to share my beliefs with her in accordance with why I am voting for (or voted for) McCain. Since then we have carried on a relationship back at home in the office. She is really neat.

Ok, so I went to Austin Texas. I sent Zach Watson a text letting him know I was in his favorite place, without even mentioning Texas. He stated something to the effect that he couldn't believe I was in the holy land. He is crazy. Although it was pretty awesome.

I stayed in downtown Austin at a Radisson. It was really nice. I love cities. I had an awesome view of the city from my room. Here are some shots.





This is the main road that runs straight into the Capital. The Texas Bankers Association is also down that way. It is seriously across the alley from the Governors mansion. They had neat stories to tell about when President Bush had been there.



This is the other side of the hotel, from the elevator. Evidently across the way on the other side of that river are tons of bats in those trees. Supposedly every night at dusk all of the bats take off at once to catch their prey. Supposedly it is pretty creepy to see. I never got a chance to see it, but it sounded cool.

We ate at a bunch of cool restaurants. We ate a few places the locals kept calling Mexican, but I am here to tell you this wasn't Mexican. Their salsa was weird, and they didn't have queso. They had something called cheese dip, but it was like what you ordered from Chili's. That ain't cheese dip or queso. It has to be white to be queso. So, I was really bummed every time we went to so called "Mexican" and there was no queso/cheese dip. Every time we went to another "Mexican" restaurant it was as if I was setting myself up, I was in denial that this state didn't know what queso/cheese dip was because I would consistently look for it and ask the waitress for it, and they would consistently look at me strangely and eventually tell me they didn't have it. SO SAD I pretty much just eat at Mexican restaurants for the cheese dip/queso. It is like chocolate to me.

Another favorite for me on this trip was having a king size bed all to myself. Don't get me wrong I love my husband and he loves me, but he would be just as excited. I also loved having breakfast brought to my room every morning. Here is a blurry picture of one of my breakfasts.



All and all it was a lot of fun. I ended up breaking my personal computer in the airport on the way home that trip. I should have taken a KBA computer, definitely learned that lesson. Just this week though the KBA fixed mine and it is home safely keeping my life in order.

Ok this post is already to long. Later

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

And Just In Case You Missed It...


FINALLY!!! WELCOME PAUL JOHNSON AND YOUR TRIPLE OPTION.

And let's not forget about the Pro-Team...

2 Great Moments in Sports this weekend...

Rookie Derrick Rose of the Bulls... (the commentary is sorry)


Wes Welker of the Patriots gets destroyed...


you can go to the youtube link and watch these in HD on their website

Monday, December 1, 2008

Sick Zoe



Here is probably the most recent picture I have of my sick baby Zoe. Zoe was sick this weekend. I think she is getting better, but she was pretty bad Saturday night to Sunday morning. She had uncontrollable diarrhea. It was green too, yuck. I boiled some bones for the pups from Fresh Market and I guess they didn't go over to well. Don't get me wrong they loved them, but I don't think they agreed with their stomachs. At least that is the only thing I can think of that made her sick. I might have left them in the refrigerator to long before I boiled them. So, this is not at all a bad reflection on Fresh Market. Surprisingly Bogie didn't get sick as bad. Normally he is the one that always gets sick, but not this time. Thanks to our Vet from downtown Norcross, he gave us some diarrhea medicine a while back and told us to give it to them at first signs. That was wonderful and I think it helped her out a bunch. Needless to say she was dead pretty much all day yesterday until she saw her boyfriend Calvin and than she risked some energy to frolic with him a bit. He put her in a better mood.