The Picture Challenge

A fellow blogger-friend of mine, Joyce put this picture challenge on her blog and it seemed like fun. I always enjoy searching the 'net for random pictures anyways.

The Rules:
1. Go to photobucket.com
2. Type in your answer for each question into the PhotoBucket search bar.
3. Only use the first two pages. Choose your favorite photo to represent your answer.
4. Copy the html and paste it here.
5. You can only answer in picture form

1. What is your first name?

2. When is your birthday?

3. What kind of car do you want?

4. Where did/do you go to school?

5. What is your favorite season?

6. What is your favorite type of shoe?

7. What is your status?

8. What is your favorite movie?

9. What is your favorite song?

10. Who is your favorite Disney character?

11. What is your favorite clothing line?

12. What is your favorite vacation destination?

13. What is your favorite dessert?

14. What is your favorite letter?

15. What are you most afraid of?

16. What is your favorite TV show?

17. What annoys you the most?

18. What is your job?

19. What is your favorite animal?

20. How old are you?

Take a DEEP Breath

It's not 100% back to normal, but it's getting there. I think/hope my blogroll is complete. If I've missed anyone, please let me know!!

G.D.M.F.S.O.A.B.!!!!!!!!

So as you can probably tell, I decided to update my blog a little. I was starting to get bored looking at those same Hawaiian flowers that had been on here for the last couple of months. It was a pretty painless process and I have to admit and I really like the new layout.

What IS painful is that I lost all my widgets (the sidebar stuff that I previously had) in the update. I took the time to add my 101 list back but my kick-ass pictures & my ENTIRE blogroll is gone. Who knows how long it's going to take me to get all that stuff back.

DAMN YOU BLOGGER!!!

45. Join a professional organization

Last week was a toughie. I'd been house-ridden since coming home from Africa, sick with allergies due to the horrible cedar season in Austin. Like last year, I developed a sinus infection as a result and had a pretty tough time of it.

Luckily for my sinuses, I headed to Houston this week to spend some time in the office. It's been a busy week but it's always nice to come back to headquarters and see my colleagues in person as opposed to sending emails all the time. Plus, I got to pick up my 5-year service anniversary pin. =)

Speaking of work.....I finally got my ASTD membership card in the mail so I'm able to cross another goal off my list. ASTD, the American Society for Training & Development, is a pretty cool professional organization (especially considering I'm doing training & development) and I'm really looking forward to getting more involved with them.

81. Contribute to a Wikipedia article

Hot damn I actually did it!! It wasn't much, but I did!!

I was watching the 2008 Grammy Awards and was looking stuff up about Andrew Bocelli and realized there wasn't an entry about his performance on the show....so I added one!! I know it was a pretty cheap entry, but an entry nonetheless!!

Whew...I honestly thought that one wasn't going to happen...

Tag, You're It!!

Anyone up for a game of Blog-Tag? Well, I've been tagged (gee, thanks Larisa). So I'm supposed to share 6 random bits about me and then tag 6 fellow bloggers and so on...

Uh.....here goes:

1. I sort the clothes in my closet in "rainbow order." I'm sure there are other people out there that share this same trait but it's something I've done since I was a kid. I swear I have OCD sometimes and I'm sure my days working retail didn't help the problem. Oh, and I hate wire hangars too. How very Mommie Dearest of me.

2. I don't find politics the least bit interesting. AT ALL. I've tried to learn more about it in the hopes of sparking something but it's just a black hole in my brain. I know that's probably the worst thing I could say (considering it's an election year) but honestly....blah. I vote to vote and ultimately don't care too much about the outcome. Maybe I'm just eternally jaded.

3. Whenever I alphabetize things I literally have to sing the ABC's in my head. If it's obvious (A, Z) then I'm good but I always get confused as to which comes first: E or F, M or N, U or W. One would think that after 27 years I would have it down by now.

4. I can't stand the movie Top Gun. I think it's horribly cheesy, Tom Cruise is not that special, and if I hear another person say, "I have the need for speed," I'll probably hit something. Not to mention the ridiculous over-use of Kenny Loggins' music. Seriously people...

5. For some reason, I can smell Rolling Rock beer from a mile away (and to me, it ain't pretty). Miller can go out with his buddies and have one Rolling Rock, a dozen Miller Lites, come home & brush his teeth and I can still sniff out the Rolling Rock. Gross.

6. I think celebrity gossip & pop culture = news. I probably frequent more pop culture sites & celebrity blogs than I do traditional "newsworthy" sites each day. When I do visit MSNBC I scroll down to the entertainment section FIRST, and then go back to the regular headlines. A girl's gotta have priorities.

Okay, seriously that was hard. Who knew how difficult it would be to come up with 6 random facts about yourself. So, in the spirit of sharing the wealth....TAG YOU'RE IT:

Amy L.
Cristina
Kelly
Marysia
Nisha
Tiffany

I'm in Love

Meet Dyson (cue the angels).

Who would have thought that a vacuum cleaner could inspire me to do great things. Okay, well maybe not but seriously this thing kicks ass. (And for a retail value of $600 I would sure hope so!!)

So the cheap $40 Dirt Devil I bought 5 years ago finally died. After realizing how much hair Riley actually sheds (he's currently in the middle of blowing out his coat....not fun), it was time to try and really take care of the situation. It's kind of embarassing to go out in public with so much pet hair on your clothes that people look at you like "the cat lady." I did extensive research online and read that the Dyson is one of the best-rated vacuum cleaners for picking up pet hair. Not to mention that it's wicked-cool looking.

Miller looked at me like I was smoking crack when I told him how much the dang thing would actually cost, but thank gawd for 20% off Bed, Bath & Beyond coupons and left-over wedding gift cards! I felt like a kid on Christmas bringing it home and assembling it. I don't think I've ever been that excited to vacuum before.

A lot of Dyson owners recommend vacuuming with your old vacuum & then immediately vacuuming again with the Dyson so you can really see how much crap your old vacuum leaves behind. Considering the lack of suction power our old vacuum has I wasn't able to do this but I had just vacuumed less than a week ago. How bad could it be? Yeah. I had to stop twice to empty the Dyson canister and it looked like there was a dead animal in our garbage can when I was done. I'd love to put a picture on here to further illustrate my point, but I'll save everyone the disgust. It was really kind of frightening how "dirty" my carpet was. Who knew how much hair a little dog could leave behind.

I wonder if I could vacuum Riley to get all the extra hair off? You know...like the Flobee.

KIDDING!!!

39. Read a fiction book

My last couple days in Tanzania was a giant whirl-wind. One thing I do remember is reading The Kite Runner. I'm so glad that one of my goals was to read a non-chick lit fiction book and I'm even more glad that I picked this one. This book was so good I literally couldn't put it down.

Considering the fact that this was Khaled Hosseini's first novel and that the subject of Afghanistan could possibly be viewed as "controversial" for some adds to the amazement at how good this story really is. I literally cried at the end of the book. Who knew words on paper could have such an impact on me.

The Kite Runner has already been turned into a film (which I haven't yet seen) and I'm definitely going to add it to my Netflix queue. Like most books-to-film, I'm sure the movie won't be able to do the book justice but if the movie is half as good as the book then it's definitely going to be worth my 2 hours.