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Friday night a friend invited me to a girls night out, painting party. This lady had a business where you get a group of 10 ladies, bring your own wine, and the canvas and paint is provided and she basically instructs you how to paint it where anyone can do it. It sounded like fun, so I said sure sign me up. Later it grew to be a combined birthday party for Cortney and her mom (neither of who I knew). I just showed up at someones house and later a limo picked us up and took us to the studio. This was the most fun I've had in a long time. Partly b/c a couple of the ladies were pretty wild and fun. Oh, and maybe the 10 or so bottles of champagne and wine helped :) I'd highly recommend it. Oh, and I did find myself pretty jealous of the artist Rebekah - pretty cool job!

This just made me happy after watching it, so I had to put it somewhere that I'll remember to watch it again. Turn the speakers on, there is a funky beat.



Cute Kittens Bop Their Head - Watch more free videos

Saturday Jeff and I moved the baby maple tree with attached bush to the backyard. Maybe it'll have a new friend tomorrow if they are giving away free tree seedlings for earth day tomorrow at work.
We got to Birmingham about 1:30 and had a late lunch with the brother clan (this now includes a sister-in-law, but I prefer the shortened terms). We took a side detour to check out Jim's apartment - very nice for an apt - older building with high ceilings and curved arches. Later the boys played foosball on the floppy table and then we grilled kabobs. While sitting on the deck we watched a neighbor cat play with Rita's previous kill of the day - a chipmunk. Stardome Comedy club was packed when we got there, but we made it in without too much trouble. Our table location was great, lower floor in the back. The first comedian was not very funny at all. James Gregory was ok but hard to look at, sorry he's just an ugly man. Bits were funnier toward the end but I think some of my party was falling asleep by then, not sure if it's because it was 10:30 or if it was all the beer :) The guys made an awesome breakfast of omelets and pancakes Sunday morning. Jeff and I headed home in the afternoon and made a stop in Cullman for the Bloomin Festival. It's just a small town arts festival but I was disappointed with the more crafty vendors. I did get a cool hummingbird feeder, hopefully it's not too late for the birds to find our house. It was a nice break from our usual weekend and fun to hang out with the guys.

Jeff and I have been watching the daylilies come up and upon examination of the rest of our flowerbed we thought we found a new weed. It's right next to a small bush. Turns out it's not a weed, we're pretty sure it's a baby maple tree, hopefully a japanese maple (looks like the one at our last house). So I need to look up if we should dig it up now to move it, or wait till winter when they go dormant. Its probably only 12 or 15" tall right now but the base seems pretty thick. It's just right next to a bush and within inches of our house, so I think it definitely needs to be moved.

After reading this I was pretty worked up. Feds to collect DNA from every person they arrest. They plan to take and store DNA from every arrest, not just a conviction. If you're tried and found guilty, sure store the convict's DNA. but what if the police officer makes a mistake, and you're never even tried. Now you have to spend your energy and probably money for lawyers to get your DNA removed from CODIS database. I have no confidence in the gov't being able to protect and secure that much information. Not to mention pay someone to keep up with all the unnecessary entries. I know how gov't contract rates are padded like crazy and to me it's a waste of money and a very unnecessary risk for people that will undoubtedly be falsely accused.

I learned something new yesterday that cracked me up. I dont have kids yet, so I miss out on these things. My officemate was telling me about going to his kids preschool and how the teacher had them sit in a circle, criss cross applesauce while they were reading. I said - woa, back up, what was that applesauce part. He said to be politically correct they can not use the term 'indian style' anymore for sitting down crosslegged. I laughed pretty hard. You just never know what will offend some people anymore.
That was the only funny part to my day that was sucked up with a 6 hour meeting on rocks. As part of that, our lunar geologist spent an hour explaining the process for me to capture in a flow chart but after so many chemistry terms and making up rock names by adding 'ite' to the end, my brain just hurt.

Check out the Bahrain World Trade Center - Beautiful sail shaped towers with 3 huge turbines in the middle to generate power. It is forecasted to provide the equivalent of 11-15% of the power for the two towers when fully operational. And here's another link with a couple more photos and a video.

We got our new camera in this weekend, the Canon Powershot SD950 IS 12MP Digital ELPH. Now I need a fun roadtrip to test it out. Or maybe I'll get a lunch together for the Botanical Gardens tomorrow (free day). I need to master it, so I can take it to Chicago and get some cool shots. I get to go to Web Design World in Chicago in May. I'm pretty excited - new city, and a fun conference. I've been to 2 others (Seattle and Atlanta).

As my friends know, one of my goals in life the past couple years has been to be nicer, or rather not vocalize everything that comes into my critical mind. (yes it's still a struggle) Well I have a new inspiration source. A guy I work with is always so friendly and always cracking jokes (he's actually funny). He was part of the group for a work trip recently and that is where I realized that his niceness would wear me out. I'm not just talking nice to the co-workers - I mean to everyone from the flight attendant that ran her fingers through his hair (true story), to the gas station clerk - everyone! So even if I'll never be on his level, I can still use him a reminder to set me straight. Today was another example. I go over for a meeting and somewhere after cracking a joke with us he mentions a headache that is going on a couple days. Then maybe 15 minutes later he makes a remark that the loratab still hasn't kicked his headache. OMG - his headache is so bad he had to take a loratab, and he can still function normal and be smiling. I'm amazed b/c in comparison I'd just be sitting quietly at my desk not making contact with anyone for fear of being to grumpy. Actually if it were loratab I'd be curled up in a ball on the floor shaking and sweating, but that’s another topic of my reactions to pain pills.

going to work today, arrive at the gate...thats 5 lanes of traffic coming to stop and each lane slowly moving up inch by inch all at different speeds. but today, it's 7:20 and I'm kinda zoning, then realize both lanes around me are moving and I'm not. I can't describe the feeling but for 20 seconds each lane on either side of me was moving forward and I was not. no idea why my lane got stuck for a while but it made for a weird feeling looking around. I kept thinking I had seen this in a movie or something.