Can't we all just get along?

I just need to write a post congratulating those of us in the world who are comfortable enough with our opinions as to not need to surround ourselves with only those who agree with us. I think one of the things I most enjoy is understanding why people believe things and what went into their decision making. It annoys me more when someone who agrees with me can't explain their rationale, than when someone who doesn't agree with me can. Especially at this point of the election I would like to thank all those who can confidently, but respectfully discuss their opinions. It makes me smile when I can agree with someone on one point, disagree with them on another, but all the while respect them for their interest in hearing me at the same time as I hear them. I don't understand why some people get so crazy about their political opinions, but apparently it's worth it to them to act psychotic just to attempt to prove a point. Oh well, such is life. I can say that I can't wait for the election to end, I'm ready for politics to slow back down to a simmer rather than a rolling boil.

This is Spectacular

ahh, I love Photoshop. That by the way is not my work, but whoever did it did a brilliant job.

Zippidy Zoo Da

I have no idea how to spell that, but if you've seen 'Song of the South' or were even paying attention to life when you were younger you'll know what I'm singing...you know with the blue bird on my shoulder. It's more or less a way for me to convince myself that today was fun :) It began rather harmless with me actually getting up on time, but then falling asleep on the couch, yet waking up with just enough time to get to work (I don't think I've really caught up on sleep from the weekend binge of visiting people and not sleeping much). Work wasn't too bad, but still rather crazy when attempting to handle 4 projects that all are due within a week of each other.

The fun began about 10 minutes before I left work when I realized that I didn't know where my phone was. This is a bit of a problem for me since I have very few people's phone numbers written anywhere, and only Sandor and my parent's memorized. But I thought positively and determined that perhaps I left it at home when I went back to grab lunch. So, after finishing a few things up I headed home to find that in fact my phone was not in my house. I also came home to find that my cat seemed to be attempting to pee all over the house. This is not a normal occurrence, but a disturbing one unless you like the smell of cat pee. Of course my vet was closed at that point and it has to be pretty bad for me to head to an emergency vet, so I figured I would start calling some of the other vets in the area to find out if they had extended hours. Turns out the vet I used to go to when I lived in West Ashley did and they could fit me in, so instead of having a nice relaxing evening at home (the first of those in about 2 weeks) I chased the cat into the cat box and headed across town.

Upon entering the car, I did find my phone which was a step in the right direction. And $146 later I found out that Mishu has a UTI and I need to give her antibiotics for the next 10 days - that should be pretty entertaining seeing as how I still have marks on my legs from her claws when I tried to give her flea meds a few months ago and didn't position her so she could bolt without scratching me in the process. I then found out once I got home that my parent's cat died, which is sad, but she lived a long life so it's ok. And now I'm trying to pay bills without sinking into the very real feeling of 'are we EVER going to get out of debt?'. Oh well, at least we can pay our bills without going into more debt, which at this point is something a lot of people are not able to say.

So, I will end today on a good note (and with a blue bird on my shoulder) purely because I feel it would be a waste of a day to end it badly. After all, I still have all my phone numbers and my grandfather's surgery went well...well enough anyway. A good mood or a bad one is all a choice after all...

C is for Cookie

This week I've been at a 2 day conference and then yesterday had meetings from 8am until 2pm. Needless to say, I'm a little over taking in information and need some time to sit and actually let my brain figure out how to deal with it all. My brain did figure out a few things about how to deal with conferences, however, which up until this point I have been unable to truly accept about myself.

1. Eat the cookies at break time and don't feel bad about it. It is not humane for a person to sit through hours and hours of being talked at without having some sugar to get them through the day. Sandor and I are doing a detox (thus no sugar or starches) so I felt even more guilty about having a cookie than I normally would, but at some point during the day I realized that while there are certainly times in my life where my self restraint is an asset, eating a cookie during a 2 day conference when I know that I'll be a crankypants without it, is really not that time. Therefore I have finally come to terms with the fact that I love cookies and my life will just need to deal with it!

2. Do not feel as though you are wasting your conference fee money by going to talks that don't necessarily have to do with your job, but that you think would be interesting to go to. On Wednesday afternoon the last two talks I attended were first - the tearing down and recycling of the old Cooper River Bridges and second - water response for the tsunami and Katrina. Clearly neither of them have anything to do with my job, but they looked interesting and by the time you get to the end of your second day the talks need to be pretty darn interesting to hold your attention. So, I left the session that had to do with my job and went to those talks, and man was it worth it! It was a nice reminder that saving estuaries, while important, is not the center of the universe - and every one can do with a good dose of reminding they are not the center of the universe...specifically after they have had a cookie and are feeling able to hear that message.

3. Conferences, while useful, need to be taken as nothing more than what they are. Take what you can out of them, don't worry about what you miss, and move on with life! There is always a trade off at this big conferences with concurrent sessions where you feel like you have to be in 3 places at 1 time to get the most out of the day. In the end, you get what you get and you forget the rest, so stop worrying that you are going to forget the important stuff. If it's important enough to remember, you'll remember it (or at least write it in your notes to remember it later).

So, for anyone getting ready to go to a big conference there is my advise, and really the advise probably works just as well for a normal day in life - eat a cookie if you want to, listen to things that are interesting rather than only thing you think relate to your job, and don't worry about missing out on things - there is plenty to catch in this crazy world of ours!

It's Official!

I have officially voted - I dropped my ballot off at the post office today and off it went! I always feel humbled when I vote knowing how blessed we are to live in a country where even voting is taken for granted. I hope that more people start seeing what a privilege we have to live in the United States, and accept the responsibilities that go along with living in our privileged country.

One Crazy Animal

I am FINALLY organizing all the pictures we took on the new camera during the first few months. Sandor went a little out of control, so I am doing some QA/QC work so we don't have 8 million of the same picture with different lighting. This one cracked me up...welcome to the world of living with Kaylinn...this is how she insist on greeting you every day...

On of those days

Today is one of those days where you just want to curl up in bed with your pets and take a nap. Which always reminds me of this picture Sandor took last year that cracks me up. Good luck to all of you who are still trying to motivate yourselves to finish off the week...it's going to be a rough next 2 and a half hours...

Funny Things in Random Places

I am generally not a huge fan of 'King of the Hill' but Sandor watches it every Sunday (in addition to all the other cartoons on Sunday evenings). As I was sitting here tonight checking e-mail I did hear a pretty funny quote however regarding carbon credits. 'It's for people who care about the environment but don't care enough to do anything about it.' It's kinda been my whole view of carbon credits as well. Not that they are not useful, but generally you don't see people using them in addition to actual changes to impact their carbon imprint. You see people use them as 'the way' they deal with their carbon imprint. There is now an entire episode about making their own carbon offsets by planting trees on a random plot of land. So there you go, you can find entertainment anywhere!

And as I was trying to find the exact quote I found the clip of the Saturday Night Live skit on the VP debate. I heard it was pretty good, but man, it's incredible! If you watched the debate you will be laughing out loud. Tina Fey could literally pass as Sarah Palin and the guy who did Biden's description of Scranton is awesome. They also did a great job of making fun of the fact the moderator wrote a book on Obama. Ah, sometimes Saturday Night Live comes back to it's glory days of actual humor.

Sneak Peak of What's to Come

This morning on my bike to work I was a little taken aback by how chilly the breeze is while you are biking. I'm used to running where you wear a long sleeve shirt for the first mile or so and then you are warm enough to sometimes even take that off, but you certainly don't need to wear anything over your shorts unless it is REALLY cold out. Biking is a bit different. You get that breeze from actually riding faster than one would run and so the legs and hands tend to be a little cooler. It seems as though I'm going to need to get some biking pants (and wear my little gloves) now that the mornings are cooling off.

As I was riding I was thinking about the fact that I think a chilly breeze on a bike is cold and in one month I'm going to be leaping into the water in Monterey Bay to go diving in the kelp beds. I'm actually quite excited about it, but being that my poor fingers were cold today I am a little concerned with how well my wimpy body temperature regulator is going to deal with life. After talking to my dad last night I'm also concerned with how much weight I'm going to need to wear. I had to wear 12 pounds when I was diving with nothing but my swimsuit, so I'm probably going to have to wear 40 diving with a 7mm wetsuit. It should be pretty interesting!

But then I think about the fact that I can most certainly suck it up for 45 minutes so that I can see something like this...
Yeah, I think I'll live :)

Rock the Vote

Today I received my absentee ballot, which means that I could technically vote at any moment. Granted it's not going to be counted until November 4, but it's still kinda fun to know I could fill it out tomorrow if I wanted to. I will be in California on election day this year at the NERR annual meeting. I think I'll be surrounded by a bit different world than I would sitting in South Carolina on election day! I have thus far attempted to be unclear about who I'm voting for, not that I don't know, but more to leave you all guessing :)