Randomness...

1) First, this is what I'm wearing today:

It reads "Wood is Good"
and in the small print below that it says "Protect Our Rainforests" - Pervs ;)

You like? I'm a big fan of this shirt. In fact, I would've bought 2 if they had 2 in my size but sadly they didn't.

2) Binderclips' quotes from this weekend:

"I like beaver not Bieber"*

3) Hulabuns' quotes from this weekend:

To Binderclips "I'm not sure I'm prepared for something that size"**

4) This past weekend Binderclips was driving me, my sister-in-law, her husband, and our niece (she's 4 years old) around. While going around one of the corners to get on the expressway our niece raised her hands like she was on a roller coaster ride. So, what did my sister-in-law and I do (we were in the backseat with her)? We joined in and raised our hands too.

5) When Binderclips and I get mad at each other we "hug it out" to get over it. You should try it, it actually works. The only requirement is that one of you has to say "Come on, let's hug it out" (preferably in an angry tone) to the other.

6) Yesterday my horoscope read: 

Your sex appeal is evident to everyone. Attracting admirers is as simple as gazing into a victim's eyes. 

When I showed Binderclips it, he laughed hysterically then said "Your astrologist must be a comedian." A couple minutes ago he sent me a text that read "Be sure not to look Turner (our dog) in they eyes. with ur sex appeal that could be a dangerous event."

7)  If while driving, you and your spouse are having a disagreement and you decide to wave at the guy dressed up as a leprechaun who's advertising the local income tax preparation services, the disagreement will most likely dissipate immediately. Just an FYI.

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

Later gators!

*It's not what you think. Ok, maybe it is.

**This is actually not what you think. No, really, it's not. It was about a watch, the face on it was ginormous and I seriously was not prepared for the size. It kind of was like a punch in the face. :)

PS TB - this is as good as our PhotoBooth software gets for turning off the mirror image, at least you can read it now. Thanks for the suggestion!

Giving Thanks

This is the Missouri History Museum (where we were when I received the call mentioned below).

When I was little my Mom would make dinner for us all and before eating we would all have to say what we were thankful for. I always hated it. I'd usually be thankful for stuff like this:

1) I'm thankful I don't have to sit next to my brother this year

2) I'm thankful that we have food to eat

3) I'm thankful that this will be over soon

4) I'm thankful that Aunt So-and-so isn't too drunk to stand up

Now, at my age, I realize how important it is to recognize what we're thankful for and not take things for granted. I also have a hard time not thinking about what happened 4 years ago around this time of the year. My Mom was diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), oh I don't know maybe 8 years or so ago. She also has been diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure, Type II Diabetes, as well as some other stuff. In short, she's in and out of the hospital quite often. However, I can count on my hand how many times I've gotten a call from the doctor saying "Family should get to the hospital as soon as possible to say their final goodbyes". It's actually happened 2 times, just so you know.

Four years ago I received that kind of call. Binderclips and I were in St. Louis on a surprise birthday trip I planned for him. We were at a museum when I received the call. As I walked around the museum and struggled to hear what the doctor was saying I remember hearing the words "septic shock" and "not stable" several times. He proceeded to tell me that "We are keeping her breathing by hand right now, she's so unstable that we can't even intubate her." I was in shock. I also remember feeling absolutely helpless. We live 12-13 hours (drive-wise) away from my parents, but that day I felt like I was a million miles away from them.

Binderclips and I got there as soon as we could, which, wasn't until the next day. Thank goodness she was strong enough to make it through the night. However, when I got there the person I saw laying there did not resemble my Mom in any way, shape, or form. It was terrifying. My Mom was swollen to what seemed like 2 times her normal size. So swollen, in fact, that her eyes were swollen shut. The heartbreak I felt the moment I walked into the room is indescribable. I felt like this was it, we were going to lose her for sure this time.

As I stayed by her bedside day and night holding her swollen, lifeless hand, so many thoughts drifted in and out of my head: What if she passes away? What if she passes away and I don't get to tell her that I love her again? How will I ever survive without her? I cried almost constantly. It was devastating. I needed her, she couldn't leave me now, I just wasn't ready to say goodbye yet.

It wasn't until about 4 days later that she was stable again and it was 11 days until they started to take her off the paralytic to see if she would even come out of it at all. At about 13 days later, she began to open her eyes. It was amazing. We hadn't lost her, she was going to make it. Well, she did make it and she's continued to impress all of us with her determination and stubbornness. She is a strong woman and she's my Mom and I am soo proud of her.

You might be asking yourself why I'm sharing a story like this with you at such a thankful time in the year. Well, I share it with you because that situation helped me realize that I need to not have any regrets. I almost call my parents daily to tell them I love them and it's on very rare occasion that I get angry about anything. That situation taught me to be thankful for the people in my life, thankful that they are a part of it and continue to be. This extends to you guys as well. I can't thank you enough for being a part of my life. Even though you're out there in blog world I appreciate you and all the lessons I learn and/or laughs I get from reading your blogs.

Happy Thanksgiving! I'll be back to blogging on Monday.

Later gators!!

It's a Beautiful Day - NOT

Do you guys have a song that's your designated pick-me-up song? No matter what it cheers you up and brings a smile to your face?

My usual pick-me-up song is U2's A Beautiful Day. However, sadly today it isn't working. :(

Now, this doesn't happen too often, but today I'm downright grumpy. Therefore, hump day today = grump day for me. Ahhh well, at least it's almost over.

Because I'm having a grumpy day I've been doing a lot of thinking, you know how that goes. And after realizing I had a really bad attitude early in the day I decided to remind myself of one of the Rules for Being Human from the book "Life is a Game":

You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called life. Each day you will be presented opportunities to learn what you need to know. The lessons presented are often completely different from those you THINK you need.

I actually reminded myself of all the rules, but this is the one that spoke the loudest to me today, so - I thought I'd share it with you. I hope it gets you thinking like it got me thinking. What lessons do you think you are meant to learn, do you think they differ from what lessons are being taught to you?

I do. Now I just need to figure out what they are. Wish me luck!

Also, I'd love to hear what your pick-me-up songs are, so please share.

Later Gators!!

Bad Blogger

It's a foil hat. What? What's weird about that?

Hey folks! No, I'm not actually talking about Blogger as in what I use to blog, instead I'm talking about me, the blogger. I've been a very bad blogger lately. I mean, I haven't updated my blog since Tuesday, that's not good.

But, I have been super duper busy with work and I'm just gonna come right out and say it, I'm trying to lose 5-10 pounds. That's right, I've been working my fitness and on Thursday I ran 6 miles and my knee was really really really upset about it. I think it's finally forgiven me though, thank goodness. In fact my goal tomorrow is to run 4-6 more, but we'll see how that goes. Wish me luck on that.

Any who, I wanted you guys to know I've been thinking about you. And I thought I'd share a couple of statements that were spoken this very night, that, can be taken several  different ways (or are just plain funny) with you.

1) Me to Binderclips: "You could never get in these pants"

2) Binderclips to me: "Just stay still, that would be sexy"

Ok, so there aren't that many, but you could interpret them several different ways, no? What you should know is that I said #1 to Binderclips while out in public, you know, where other people could hear me. But, I didn't do it on purpose and I most certainly didn't mean it how it sounds.

See, I was talking about the pants I was wearing this evening. Ok, so that still doesn't sound good. What I meant was that the pants, when I bought them, were super duper tight and I couldn't even get into them. So, when I said "you could never get into these pants" I meant myself. The pants were tight and I hardly got into them at the store prior to buying them, because they have 2% spandex in them. I know what you're thinking and the answer is "no, I did not buy the pants at an adult store". They are made out of 98% organic cotton and the left over 2% is spandex. OK? Anyways, at the end of the night they had stretched out to the point that my pants were dragging on the ground. Which, makes me think of this, but that is totally NOT what I mean. The pant legs were dragging on the ground, I was not wearing my pants like a gangsta, letting them drag on the ground - just so we're clear here.

The second thing is what Binderclips said to me when I said "If I did that I would not look sexy like Beyonce does" in response to seeing this commercial. His response was "Yeah, you should just stay still, that would be sexy".

Ahhhh, to be me. Oh well, at least we're always having a good time, right?

I hope you all are having a great weekend!

Later gators!!

Invisible Doggie Teletransportation

Hello Everyone! I've been super duper busy with work lately, that's why I haven't been posting as often. Also, I joined Twitter and am trying to figure it out. As TB stated in one of her posts "Twitter Confuses Me", well and it apparently confuses me too.  Wish me luck with that, oh and if you are on Twitter, look a girl up, ya know?

Also, just so you know, in my next post I plan to explain the last picture in my last post as well as provide some others (believe me, you won't want to miss them). Anywho, I thought I'd share a recent conversation between Binderclips and I with you. It went a little like this:

Binderclips calls me from work...

Hulabuns: Hi Monkeypantalones!

Binderclips: Hi Ape. How's it going?

Hulabuns: Good. What's up?

Binderclips: Is one of the dogs chewing on your headset microphone?

Hulabuns: I look at the dogs, I can see them playing in the living room (roughly 20 feet away). Then say "Yep, one of them used the new doggie teletransport device that we have. However, I'm not sure which one because prior to using it they used the invisible doggie dust."

Binderclips: Do you think we should get some ice cream to eat for tonight?

Hulabuns: Really? So, you're not even going to respond? Did you even hear what I said?

Binderclips: Yeah, something about doggie teletransportation.

Hulabuns: You forgot about the invisible doggie dust.

Binderclips: No I didn't, I was just wondering how either of the dogs found it if it's invisible?

Hulabuns: I sit in silence thinking 'Man, he's getting better at this game than I thought'

Binderclips: "Wait. So, have you lost one of the dogs?" he says in a serious and worried tone.

Hulabuns: Probably

Binderclips: "Seriously, did you lose a dog?" he says with urgency

Hulabuns: "I'm not really sure, seeing how they got a hold of the invisible doggie dust" I say. Then follow it up with "It makes them invisible, you know?"

Dogs start barking at some noise outside.

Binderclips: "I can hear them both, thank goodness" he says relieved.

One more thing, I changed the comments so that I have to approve them before they are visible. I did this  so that friends that are following won't accidentally leave our real names in their comments. Just thought I'd let you know.

Later Gators!

Damn! That's a Nice Dam

As I've been promising for a while now, here are the pictures from our tour of the Hoover Dam! I believe at the end of the pictures you will be saying "Damn! That's a nice dam!" So, prepare yourselves for it folks!

Picture from the helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon, we got to fly over the Dam on our way in.

Another helicopter view, however this time it includes the new bridge  - the Colorado River Bridge. The bridge officially opened on 10/19/2010 - so shortly after we left the Vegas area.

These are the 4 intake towers that draw in water from the river to create energy. The 2 intake towers in the back of the picture are located in Nevada and the 2 in the front are located in Arizona.

Power plant what!? Yep, this is the power plant IN the Hoover Dam.  There are 6-7 generators that generate energy based on the flow into the intake towers.

Colorado Bridge view from on top of the Hoover Dam.

Want to know what I'm doing in the below picture*? Come back in a couple of days, I have plenty more pictures where this photo came from! ;)

Later gators!!

*BTW, I do know that this is a TERRIBLE picture of me...but, I also know that you all will appreciate it. I do this stuff only for you folks. ;)

WARNING: Eating Candy Results in A LOT of Math for Me

This is an old picture of me eating popcorn that Binderclips made on the campfire. We were camping at Holland State Park in Holland, MI.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween and didn't eat too much candy! Last night Binderclips and I were hanging out and I told him I just wanted one bite size MilkyWay candy bar (again, just 1). It's at that point that he decided that he needed to go to the store, then proceeded to come home with an entire bag of MilkyWay fun size candy bars AND an entire bag of 3 Musketeers also. The serving sizes/calories for the fun size snack bars equates to the following:


MilkyWay (Serving Size 2 bars)

Calories: 160

Fat Calories: 50 (or 6g)

Carbohydrates: 24g

Protein: 1g



3 Musketeers (Serving Size 3 bars)

Calories: 190

Fat Calories: 50 (or 6g)

Carbohydrates: 34g

Protein: 1g


Why does this matter? Well, any time I consider eating any kind of sweets I review this information as well as the ingredients. For the purpose of this post I'm going to not focus on the ingredients because, let's face it folks, the ingredients are not good (both include hydrogenated oils and corn syrup as well as other not-so-favorable stuff).

Any who, do you ever read the calorie information and wonder what on earth it all means? Well, I'm going to break it down for you. Basically, the grams listed on the packaging are converted to calories by multiplying the grams of protein, fat, and carbs by the number of calories yielded per gram of each nutrient.

So, for fats - each gram is multiplied by 9 to give you the number of calories. For carbs and proteins - each gram is multiplied by 4 to give you the number of calories per serving. Therefore, for the MilkyWay:

Fat calories = 6 grams X 9 calories per gram = 54 calories from fat

Carbohydrate calories = 24 grams X 4 calories per gram = 96 calories from carbs

Protein calories = 1 gram X 4 calories per gram = 4 calories from protein

Total calories = 54 + 96 + 4 = 154 calories*

If you're still thinking 'So what?' - think about this: To lose one pound you have to burn 3500 calories in one week, or in other words, burn 500 calories per day for each day of the week (500 X 7 = 3500). Consider that running or walking a mile roughly results in 100 calories being burned. So, if you were going to create a deficit of 500 calories per day by exercise alone - you would need to run or walk 5 miles A DAY. The better approach is to create this deficit by eating 250 less calories per day and to burn 250 calories by also doing some type of physical activity.

Anyways, do you see what happens to me?! I become a calorie calculating weirdo. Sigh. My best bet is to stay away from the candy and sweets, otherwise I am constantly doing math. While I do think that focusing on calorie counting isn't the best way to go, it's just what happens when I eat crappy food. In addition, when I'm on the treadmill I am constantly calculating things....it's apparently just a problem I have. Oh well! I hope your Monday is treating you well. I'll post the Hoover Dam pictures next time.

*Total calories listed on the package also take into consideration fiber and therefore, may result in your calculations not necessarily being what is posted on the packaging. Also, the FDA allows some wiggle room on what is posted for calories on packaging - this results in some discrepancies in regards to what is posted verses what you calculate as well.