Michelle's Daily, Semi-Annual, Bi-Monthly Blogfest.

..And DB Was It's Name-o

2008-04-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

We got our vanity plates yesterday. As you may remember, we bought a Mini Cooper recently, and I made a spontaneous pun on the name before we even got it, (it's a Cooper, so I joked we should name it "D.B.") and it just sorta stuck. So, in the spirit of taking things too far, we ordered a vanity plate. Since "DB" was already taken, we got our alternate. It works.

So there you have it. The tale of DB Coop the car. And as if that wasn't interesting enough for ya, we live in the northwest, the same part of the country where our car's namesake jumped from the plane.

I know!

Got A Piano You Want Smashed?

2008-03-25T18:12:00.000-07:00

So brother in-law's can be a pretty cool thing. Mine works as lead security for various concerts and shows that come into the area. And as such, he sometimes gets swag from backstage. You know, guitar picks and the like, and becuse he's just that kind of a nice guy, we get some of it!

So he stops by last week, and brought with him a pretty cool souvinier for us from the Blue Man Group show he worked recently. It's the piano smasher mallet they use to, well, smash the piano. It's just a cheap mallet made out of PVC pipe and foam, and the foam head is split because of the pounding it took during the show (yep, it's used), but cheap or not, as fans of the Blue Man Group, and having seen them in Vegas, it's a really cool thing to have, I know people get drumsticks and paintings and stuff at the show, but not sure how many have an authentic piano smasher. All I know is, I feel quite special to be one of the few.

Anyway, here's a couple pics..

Peep Jousting!

2008-03-23T14:27:00.000-07:00

Enable javascript and get the Flash Player to view this video.

So we finally decided to try some peep jousting this year. What? You haven't heard of peep jousting? Well it's easy, simply take two peeps, give 'em each a toothpick, set 'em in the microwave, and place your bets. Typically, the winner is the one that doesn't implode. Well, that's what usually happens anyway. Our tournament turned out a little different. Let's just say the old saying "Two will enter, but only one will leave" may not always apply.

Anyway, enjoy!

Are Eggs Supposed to Look Like That?

2008-03-23T10:15:00.000-07:00

Wow did Easter sneak up on me this year, I didn't even realize it was this weekend until Friday! I thought it was the 3rd Sunday in April? Apparantly not. Or maybe the leap year just screwed it up somehow. Regardless, I was completely caught by surprise. So, we rushed out, got some eggs and dye and did our annual egg coloring yesterday. We'll hide a few this morning for each other 'cause we're just that weird. Besides, who says you gotta stop having fun just because you grow up? Nobody I respect, that's for sure.

Oh, and we did Peep Jousting for the first time this year. So that was... fun. I'll put video up in a bit.

Anyway, Happy Easter!

He's Baaaaaaack!

2008-03-05T11:57:00.000-08:00

Yep. Our pal Woody is back for '08. Tappin' his little heart out on our chimney to try and attract his one true love. It's always interesting when something like a woodpecker ventures into your yard, and how quickly you go from "Hay cool, a woodpecker!" to "goddamnit... the f'ing thing's back.."

It typically takes about 3.8 seconds.

Is This Seat Taken?

2008-03-02T20:34:00.001-08:00

So our downstairs, tv-watchin' double reclinin' loveseat finally bit the dust after nearly 4 years. And if we've learned anything from the adventure, it's that double reclining furniture doesn't seem to be made for long life. Enough opening and closing and eventually bolts start falling off. You don't see it, you just hear a screw drop inside, and your butt drops half an inch. But since we didn't really want to give up the ability to recline during a long movie, a broken couch can mean only one thing, time for new furniture! Woo hoo!

The new one is pretty similar in color and style to the old loveseat except it's a little larger and has the center storage console area, which, granted, kinda inhibits the "love" part in loveseat. Still, it's actually useful as you can see, and doubles as an armrest which is nice too. Okay, so it doesn't recline quite as far as the old one, it sits a little higher, and instead of having a handle or button on the outside to extend the footrest, it has a weird parachute type pull that is located under the armrest cushion, which is, IMO, an odd design. But, it's also more pillowy, which makes it more comfy then the last one, and why not end a blog entry with a plus. That's just how I roll.

It's a Beautiful Morning..

2008-03-01T09:58:00.000-08:00

Well, just discovered during my last publish that my website has somehow been reset, and everything but my posts is gone.

*sigh*..

Guess i'll just use a default template til I can come up with something better..

Stupid People: Part 1.

2008-02-27T13:36:00.000-08:00

We have a no soliciting sign on our front door. It's a sign I made, it's nicely worded and succinct. It simply asks people to not solicit our home or leave an ad on the doorstep. It's simple, obvious, and to the point. Yet, 90% of people choose to ignore it.

I don't understand this. I really don't. I mean, I get it, people are retarded, and they don't care about some lame sign. Whatever. My point is, how hard is it to just not solicit the occasional house with a sign? I mean, most homes don't have one, so there's still plenty of other people to annoy. So why bother the ones that obviously don't want what you're selling? It's not as if you don't see the sign, after all, it's right in front of your face. So what do you think's going to happen when you knock? That i'm going to invite you in, offer you a cookie, and listen to your sales pitch with glee? Fuck, if you think that, you're stupider then I even thought.

Truth is, all you're going to get is me being a massive bitch, because I have no patience for idiots. And if you knock or leave an ad when there's a sign directly in front of your face asking you not to, you're an idiot. Simple as that. You know we don't want it, whatever it is, you just don't care. You just see the sign and think "fuck you, i'm leaving it anyway". And that says all I need to know about the person you are. Not to mention the ultimate irony of you leaving the ad because you want our business, yet you just guaranteed you'll never get it.

I dunno. It's not that i'm getting old and cranky, it's just I don't understand why people can't do the simple things in life that asks nothing of them, but means something to the person their respecting. Is that too much to expect from people? I mean, I'm literally asking you to do nothing. So it's not as if i'm being unreasonable. So why do you gotta be?

Getting Mooned.

2008-02-20T23:33:00.000-08:00

So didja see the lunar eclipse tonight? Happened around 7pm, so I thought i'd take my new cam and a tripod out to see if I could get a decent shot. It's a nice digital camera, but not really designed for shooting something 250,000 miles away. Still, they came out better then I expected. Especially when you consider that I didn't really know what I was doing. And in the end, I was just happy that the clouds broke apart long enough for us to see it for a little bit.

Ta-Da!

2008-02-18T18:29:00.001-08:00

Kinda spifty eh?

The Anticipation is Building..

2008-02-17T17:16:00.000-08:00

Do you know what's coming?

T-minus 18 hours..

Headline Of The Day.

2008-02-11T18:34:00.001-08:00

Y'know how sometimes you're reading though the headlines of the day, when you come across one and decide not to even bother clicking on the link because the headline pretty much says it all?

Dolly Parton postpones tour, blames breasts

I mean, what more do you need to know, really?

NetDisaster.com

2008-01-30T17:23:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this may take the lead as my new official favorite website ever. It's called Net Disaster, and similar to the Dialectizer, you just punch in a URL, and you can then strike, crash, flood or smite any website of your chosing. Try it, it's fun to smite things!

Me, I think i'll send the scribbling baby over to do an editorial on the Fox News site.

Heath Ledger Dead.

2008-01-22T14:57:00.000-08:00

I don't normally report hollywood deaths, and i'm not even a big Heath Ledger fan or anything, but i've really been looking forward to the new Batman movie, alot, so the news today that Heath Ledger (who plays Joker in it) has died, actually stunned me.

What a terribly depressing thing to have happen.

It's About Time.

2008-01-14T18:22:00.000-08:00

So as of last night, the houses in our area are officially devoid of Christmas lights. Woo Hoo!

See what you can accomplish by ranting on a blog that no one reads?

Watch out peeps, i'm changing the world!

Jesus Wouldn't Have Kept Them On This Long..

2008-01-08T17:47:00.000-08:00

I'm about to go and buy calendars for a couple of our neighbors.

What is it with people and Christmas lights? Look, I enjoy lights as much as the next person, but once it's well into the following year, ya think you can turn them off already? I mean, I get that you may not be able to find the time take them down yet, but you really feel the need to keep turning them on?

Come on people, Christmas is sooooo last year..

Hey! Teachers! Leave Them Kids Alone!

2007-10-19T01:48:00.000-07:00

So this last weekend, my sister and her daughter, (my niece Tallyn) had a mom and daughter day of beauty at a salon where another one of Tallyn’s aunts work. They got their hair styled, and Tallyn got some light purple streaks in her hair (see pic above). It looked really cute, and she’s a kid so of course she loved it and had a fun time.

But when Tallyn went to school the following Tuesday (having had Monday off), she was told by the powers that be that she couldn’t stay and attend class because of the purple streaks in her hair. Yep, that’s the actual reason they gave. Now keep in mind that Tallyn is 7 years old. And her hair isn't a bright color, nor is even all of it purple. She has some relatively subtle streaks in it as you can see, and that’s all. Not that it should have mattered if she showed up with bright night-glo green hair anyway. But someone at the school deemed her hair inappropriate, and she was forced to have grandma come and pick her up.

Grandma is furious, mommy and daddy are livid, aunt Michelle is red hot… I think you get the picture…

So daddy takes her in to school the following day and demands she be allowed back in class, purple streaks and all. They refuse, so daddy says he isn’t leaving until she’s back in class. The principal, who was apparently on vacation while all this happened, was called, she came down, and 3 hours later Tallyn was back in class.

Here’s the thing, you hear in the news from time to time about kids, usually the high school crowd, wearing some sort of “offensive” shirt to school that upsets the more uptight members of our society. These people complain, and the kid is often forced to not wear the shirt anymore. Now while I support that kids right to wear the shirt, I will concede that some shirts are designed to make some sort of statement, perhaps truly offend, and I can see how something like that could be distracting or even inappropriate.

But we’re not talking about teenagers making a rebelling statement here. This is a 7 year old girl who had a fun day at a salon with mom, got some light purple streaks in her hair from her cosmetologist-to-be aunt, and was expelled for it. From.. elementary.. school..

Now there must be another reason right? It couldn’t have been JUST the hair… she must have done something, maybe she was cursing like a drunken sailor in class? Nope. They flat out said it’s the hair. “Because it’s not a natural color.” Now before you rush to judgment and think Tallyn must be some sort of 7 year old anarchist who lives to fight the establishment with an iPod full of Green Day & Sex Pistols tunes in one hand and a bag of pot in the other, she’s not. She doesn’t even know what an establishment is. Nor is this a private school with a required dress code, so I’m not even sure where they get off telling her what color her hair should be.

In fact, there are apparently several other kids in the school who have hair colored far more radically then hers. Which just makes this reaction all the more baffling. She isn’t a trouble-maker. She’s a good kid, who loves school... well... at least did anyway, until mom got home that evening and Tallyn told her “my school is mean”.

So that’s the education Tallyn got at school that day. Her school doesn’t like her.

Is this what we've become? A bunch of unthinking automatons who overreact to things that, in actuality, require no reaction at all?

What are we teaching kids when the adults in charge of them act so retarded? Look, if Tallyn had brought drugs or a gun to school, it’d be an entirely different story, but she didn’t, her big offense was coloring her hair.

I just don't get it.

Goodbye Aunt Diane.

2007-10-16T22:37:00.000-07:00

Diana OAKLAND Born March 4, 1939 and passed away on October 13, 2007 after a year long battle with cancer.

Her greatest sense of pride came from her 49 year marriage to the love of her life, Merlin. Together they raised three daughters and were blessed with six grandchildren. Diana found great joy in spending time with her family and friends. She loved to entertain and her home was always open to everyone. She was an excellent cook and gracious hostess. She enjoyed flower arranging, camping at Bainbridge Island and Christmas shopping year round for her family and friends. She was a true lady and lived her life with honesty and integrity. In her last days it became apparent to all that her quiet demeanor masked a powerful inner strength. She will be remembered daily by those who loved her.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Bernard and Laura. She is survived by her husband, Merlin; Daughters, Linnae, Lori, Leslie and her beloved cousin, Clara. She was a great influence in the lives of her six grandchildren, Danielle, Drew, Brittany, Ariana, Darrell and Jim.

Donations can be made to the American Cancer Society.

You Just Might Be a Redneck..

2007-10-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

Yep. Check out the wonderful view we now have from the windows of our home..

That's right, we just hit the new neighbor trifecta. Kids, a dog, AND a bright fucking orange truck. I could just about feel the price of our home drop $50k as soon as that thing pulled up and parked half on the curb.

Gaah!

Tallyn on the News!

2007-09-13T08:22:00.000-07:00

Enable javascript and get the Flash Player to view this video.

So my 7 year old niece Tallyn was on the local news this morning. Tallyn wrote a school paper last spring where she mentioned that one of the things she does in the morning is watch MJ McDermott of "Q13 news in the morning" do the weather. So my sister sent it in to her, and it made the air this morning! It was a small segment, MJ showed the pic of Tallyn holding her paper, and quickly went over what it said. And even though she mis-pronounced Tallyn's name (it rhymes with "talon", like an eagles claw), it was still a fun little moment.

So now we have a local celebrity in the family. Let's hope the fame doesn't go to her head.

Hey! Nice Shirt!

2007-08-23T12:18:00.000-07:00

So my cousins just started their own little online t-shirt shop though CafePress called "Hey! Nice Shirt!". You should probably go visit and do some shopping. I'll like you better if you do.

Hey! Nice Shirt!

And The Cradle Will Rock..

2007-08-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

Well, as I mentioned previously, the album artwork on the official Van Halen website was altered to remove bassist Michael Anthony from the covers and put Wolfgang Van Halen in his place. A completely inappropriate and unacceptable thing to do. Well, the fans made a giant stink about it, and the artwork has now been changed back.

But here's the thing, damage already done. It's not just the artwork that was the issue, it's what that move meant. Removing Mike from the album covers served no purpose but to say "fuck you, you don't count now, and never did". And what's the reason for that? Mike played bass on those albums, not Wolfgang, so if you want to give the finger to the guy, I guess you can do that, but editing him off the album covers is nothing short of childish and immature.

Way to go 'ya bozos. You can edit the album artwork, but you can't Photoshop that stunt from the fans memories. There are times like this, when I wish I could unlove this band. Unfortunately, it's just not that easy.

Who ever thought Eddie's Hot for Teacher video destiny would end up being so prophetic.

A.F.U.

2007-08-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

The official Van Halen website (www.van-halen.com) was just updated following the press conference, but as I was looking around, I noticed something that is about as cold as it gets. The album covers framing the site have been edited, cutting Michael Anthony out, and replacing his picture with Wolfgang, who wasn't even born when those albums were made!

Thats just cold. Really cold. Mike never said a bad word about anybody. Where's all the hate from Ed coming from? I just don't get it. In fact, I think i've made my decision about wether or not i'm going to the show. If this was just some fan site, it'd be no big thing, but given that the webmaster of the official site doesn't do much without band consent, it seems safe to conclude it was the band's call.

Van Halen has become like the ocean. An amazing wave will come along that you can ride for a little while, but soon after it collapses and drowns out all the fun you were having. *Sigh..* will it never end?

Could This be Magic? VH "Reunion" Official.

2007-08-13T12:09:00.000-07:00

Well, here we go again. But this time it seems it's really gonna happen. Van Halen held a press conference just a few minutes ago announcing they are going out on tour. It's very exciting news no doubt, if a bit tainted by the fact that Michael Anthony won't be a part of it (not by his choice). But I've posted about all that before back when the tour was supposed to happen earlier this year before Eddie went into rehab, so I won't bother repeating it again. Needless to say, i'm still on the fence about wether or not to go. Wether or not the way the brothers have jerked everyone around they're still worth supporting, and wether or not I can accept a reunion without Mikey.

But fuck, I mean, it's Van Halen!, and the only thing in the world that makes me weak in the knees besides Scott, is my love for this damn band.

For now, i'm just hoping this keeps going without these guys killing each other, and that, the rock god willing, there'll be a new album.

#756

2007-08-07T23:15:00.000-07:00

That is all.