I seriously love the site, The Onion. They just consistently deliver funny content and make me laugh out loud, which is fantastic! They are just so dead on, it’s amazing. I don’t know how they do it week in and week out, but they do, and I’m thankful for it. There area times I just need a good laugh. Like this video.

The other thing I love, foggy, cold weather right before the summer in So Cal.  I come from the coldest summers, and even though I’ve been in a hot area for over 5 years, I’m still getting used to having heat for so many days in a row in the summer.  So when we get our fog and our cold this time of year, I’m so happy I can barely stand it.  I try and soak in as much cold as I can in hopes that it will come back to me when it is flippin 110+ degrees outside.

Another thing I love… seriously… is my new car (well, used, but new to me).  I love love love my car.  I’ve wired it for Sirius and my iPod (yes, I did it all by myself!) and am in love.  Yep… in love with a car.  I don’t love it as much as I love my husband… but I do love it.  I will have this thing for at least 10 years… I hope… and I will love it and care for it so it is happy and good to me.

Another thing I love… watching my dogs play with their toys and wag their tails and show love to us just because we’re here.  The joy I get just seeing them wagging their tails when I get home… so much that I think they may fall off their butts from wagging so fast… is just the best joy after a hard day at work.

So… there you have it… some things I love.  Of course, I love my husband like nothing else… and that just rocks!

As posted on boingboing, the father of the chaos theory died. I seriously love this theory and I reference it all the time, even in situations that have nothing to do with chaos theory. But, it is my personal believe that everything that happens does actually affect everything else, whether it’s a butterfly flapping it’s wings to create a tornado, or the ability to get where one is going on any So Cal freeway.  It’s all chaos, and it somehow brings us all together.

RIP Edward Lorenz

Give the man a toast tonight… just in case your local weather person forgot to.

Is that so wrong?!  I think it’s the Sex and the City of the 80’s with women who were just a little older.  I don’t know why, but this show just comforts me.  I love these women, and I remember always thinking how great it would be to grow old and have friends like them.  Then came Sex and the City and I felt lucky to have friends like these women had.  I really am lucky to have such great friends in my life.  All of them different, and all of them great.  It’s a good thing to know I have friends I can call at 3 in the morning.  Not that I do that… but it’s nice to know I can.

I’m off this weekend with some great friends… and I can’t wait.  It’s going to be a relaxing weekend… and I can’t wait.  The weather is supposed to be perfect, and being in a beautiful area of the state of Cali will be the best.  Oh, and I get to drive the new toy on it’s first long distance trip.  That is the most exciting thing!

Off to pack… I love packing… it’s the start of an adventure.  It’s the unpacking I hate.  It means it’s over.

What should I bring to knit… of course… socks!!

Yep… saw Lewis Black this weekend… yep, was in Vegas, and yep… had a good time at the pool!  Vegas is a very weird place… it brings together people from everywhere who do things they would never do when they are back at home.  For me, I like to sit by the pool and play a few penny slots… I go more to relax, while I see a lot of people there who are looking to stay up all night, all day, and all night again.

During my time at the pool I continued reading the book, A New Earth.  It continues to get better and better and I’m pretty sure I’ll read this book more than a few times.  It has me thinking about things in a whole new way, and I love it!

I didn’t do any knitting while I was in Vegas, but I thought about it.  My next project will be *another* pair of socks… I just love socks… great here in So Cal.  I still need to put up a picture of my last pair… will do that soon.

Hope all of you are having a good week.  I’ll leave you with this great piece by Lewis Black:

I bit the bullet, and did get a new car (used, but new to me)… and it’s a lovely BMW and I seriously love it.  I’m starting to make my own little tweaks to it (like wiring it for sirius and iPod integration with the stereo), which means I really consider it mine.  Oh, and yes, I do the wiring myself… I don’t hire someone to do it!  I love doing that stuff, and as a woman, it seriously makes me feel empowered.  I don’t depend on anyone else to do it their way, I do it my way (oh… an ode to Blue Eyes!).  My husband has said he’s so happy to be married to a woman who not only does all of her own research, test drives and choosing when it comes to cars, but he’s happy to be married to a woman who will go out and negotiate, haggle and take on any crazy sales person at a car dealership.  He’s also happy to see me doing my own stuff to my car… I seriously love this man when he says things like that!  I was always scared of marriage because I thought it meant I’d give up some or all of my independent nature, but I realize that is just what I saw around me, and that my marriage is not like that at all.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my husband to death, and there are definitely things we depend on each other for, but it’s things that are about ‘us’ and aren’t things that I happily did on my own before (and still enjoy doing on my own).

So… yeah, I totally got a new car, and I even had a few sales guys who thought they could roll over me, and I showed them not only can the not do that, but they will never get my business, ever!  I found the perfect car for me, and love everything about it!  So… yeah, gave in, but this car will be with me for a long time!

I’m off to find a crazy road with lots of twists and turns so I can go do some fun driving.

Hope you’re all having a good weekend.  I’ll be writing more frequently again… things have been a bit hectic, mostly with work, but things are more even again.

Yep… went away for a few days… now I’m back, rushing around SoCal, getting back into the groove.  It’s always hard coming back… felt off all day yesterday, but now am back in it.  I knit a beret and half a scarf while I was away, and love them both.  As a knitter, I’m very happy to have cooler weather back, but I know it’s just a cruel joke.  Soon it will be 90 degrees all day and I will enjoy it for about a month and then will wish for it to be cooler, but it won’t be.  Even when Fall is back, it won’t be… because that’s not the way we do things here in SoCal, nope… we actually get even more heat when others are roasting turkeys and wearing sweaters, we are putting on flip flops and going surfing before the bird gets served.  It isn’t until New Year’s that we can really put a fire in the fireplace and even then, it’s the duraflame that we use so that there isn’t too much heat coming out of our fireplace.

Yep… folks, I’m already talking about summer being gone, and it hasn’t even hit yet.  As someone who grew up where summers are colder than the winter (Mark Twain said the coldest winter he ever had was a Summer in San Francisco), I’m still trying to get used to the fact that summers here in So Cal are really truly hot.  I’ve been here for 5.5 years, and am still getting used to the fact that i don’t need to grab a jacket every time I leave my house in the middle of July.  Some habits are hard to break.  If you look in the back seat of my car, you will always find a jacket or a sweater.  You just never know when a cold front may come in!

So, as I’ve stated in some previous posts, I’ve been thinking a lot about religion, spirituality, all of it.  Still Reading the book, “A New Earth” and still really enjoying it.  I’m feeling less guilty about not subscribing to the religion of my youth, and more open about my journey through it to where I am today.  It’s quite an amazing feeling to realize that I don’t need to carry around the guilt, nor do I need to worry about what others who knew me then think about my decisions now.  We all have taken different paths that work for us, and isn’t that what it’s all about.

We all find our way in life, and for some… organized religion is something that brings them peace.  For others, like me, it doesn’t, and because of the more fundamentalist approach I was around, I’m very turned off by it (even if it’s not as shrouded in Dogma as the religion of my past was).  I still get uncomfortable around those who are very ‘rules’ oriented and seem to think that you’re a horrible person if you don’t believe their ‘rules’.  But, many others who I know from my past or have just met recently, who are in organized religion, are more accepting and see that we all make our own decisions, and there is no good that comes from shoving rules that one believes in down another persons throat, who doesn’t believe in them.  To me, this feels like such progress across humankind.  To treat people, well, like people… and not like these things that must conform or else they are not able to be part of your life.  I’m really happy to see that more of us are being accepting of each other, and have a more well rounded view of the world.  A well rounded view that allows all of us to have our own beliefs, and at the same time, doesn’t cause us to alienate others just because they may feel differently.  Yep… to me… that is great progress!

Another sign of progress in my own personal life… I haven’t eaten every Cadbury Egg I have… yet.  I bought a package of four, right after Easter, and I still have two left.  Now people… that is my own personal victory… because a a couple years ago… I would have eaten all four before I even made it home from the store.  Yay to me!

Happy Tuesday… Watch American Idol!

So… this site Hulu.com launched and it has movies, clips from movies and TV shows (including really old Saturday Night Live stuff that brings back great memories!). The cool thing about this site is that is allows you to embed this stuff into your blog posts. So, people, you will be seeing these once in awhile as I find some of my favorite clips. To start, this is seriously one of my favorite movie clips… ever! I mean, seriously!

This clips makes me laugh so hard I almost throw myself into an asthma attack. I don’t know if it’s Uncle Rico almost cracking himself up, the sound that’s made as the steak hits Napoleon or just the whole look of the scene. All I know, is I love it!!

Movies are so great, I love that they can just make me laugh out loud to the point of crying. I love that, when they are good, they transport me to another place for a few hours. When I see a movie from my childhood it can take me back to that place in time immediately! Breakfast Club anyone??

One more clip for you… this is one from a movie that made me laugh the entire way through to the point that my stomach hurt for a good day afterwards. Oh so good!!

Happy Tuesday! One day closer to the next rounds of March Madness! I knit a pair of socks last weekend (on size 7 needles, love it!)… I’ll probably start another pair this weekend, but it will be on #2 needles so I doubt I’ll finish them this weekend. Will post some pics of the pair I finished in the next day or so.

Yep… it’s March people… which means one thing… March Madness! This is seriously my favorite time of year in sports. I love love love it and watch non-stop Basketball for 2 weeks (minus the three days it’s not on in between the long weekends). I love the upsets, I love that it’s college kids who still love the game, and play because of their love. I love that you see such emotion and I love seeing the schools you’ve never heard of beat the big teams. It’s just lovely (even when it royally screws up my bracket).

A great example of all of the above is our very own So Cal team, San Diego. Great game, went down to the buzzer, and these kids are so happy to be there and to win, against UConn… it’s just awesome!

My bracket is officially a mess due to the San Diego win, the Vanderbilt loss and the W. Kentucky win. But I’ll tell you something, I’ll gladly lose the money I put into the pool to see such great upsets and such fun games!

I’ve got UCLA winning it all… we’ll see how well I’ve chosen.

This is a shout out to our CHP.  Thank you for stepping out into freeway traffic to pull over the morons who think it’s cool to go all the way down the carpool lane and then, in major traffic, go from 60 to zero, cross over 5 lanes of traffic to get on the other freeway (which by the way, people, the exit on the carpool lane for such freeway is about a mile before this occurs) all the while practically taking out about 5 cars with them.  I personally have almost been hit at least 6 times in the past few months from people like this, and I don’t want to think about how much that would hurt, both me and the car.

So… this is my shout out to the CHP… thank you, thank you, thank you!!!  You are most definitely saving us from a very bad accident by really cracking down in this location.

Marketing… it’s everywhere.  On my way to work, at work, at lunch, at the gas station, in the bathroom at the gas station, on my TV, on my radio (even satellite radio!)…. everywhere!  What’s a girl to do?  How does one try and stay above the messaging, not give in to temptation, not think they’ll feel better if they buy the latest and greatest makeup, car, coffee, jeans, etc?  Now… I definitely admit that there are things that this girl just loves, and I’m totally willing to admit that sometimes it is due to marketing, feeling good, etc.  Like… I’m really tall.. 6′0″ to be exact… which makes jeans really really really (did I say really!) hard to find in a length that makes any sense (yes, I’m a 36″ inseam).  So… I end up buying a brand that is extremely costly just so I can have my 36″ inseam.  I justify the cost by saying I feel better, they last longer, I don’t need to buy a pair that are two sizes too big just to get them to hit at the bottom of my heel.  Really, this has been my vice, so I’m okay with it.  Other things don’t draw me in as much as long long long jeans.

So, all of the above being said… why, oh why… am I wanting to get a new car???  My car is not that old, and is a great car.  But, I’m in SoCal, I see such fun cars, and with a commute, I do feel like it’s an extension of my home, so should be comfy.  But, does it need to be a BMW or an Audi or a Mercedes?  The answer to this, people, is no, it does not.  Do I want it to be… you bet (I just love the look, feel and all around engineering around cars!!).  I know that logically… the money is much better off being invested and saved (although with all the news around Bear Stearns, I’m not so sure anymore!).  I’ll be happy when I can retire 1,2,3,4,5… years earlier because I saved my money.  But… people… it’s tough to try and not go down that path.  I’m not even sure I won’t, but I’m trying to talk myself out of it.

What do you think… do you have things you really want but you tell yourself not to give in?  Do you have things you have given into and your glad you did (or not glad you did)?  Where I give in, generally speaking, is good yarn and a few fun pieces of clothing once a year (I actually do not really like to shop for clothing, so I usually do it all at one time and throw in a couple fun pieces during the year).

Look at this beautiful car!

If I had more money than God… this is the car I would definitely splurge on (Maserati)… look at the lines… you know it will just fly!