Cha-cha real smooth.

I'm still in a creative mood. I've been in it for quite a few weeks now and have continued painting things around the house. My holiday weekend included the sanding down of a pair of dressers that I inherited as a kid. They were originally my grandmother's and were your average wood-stained dressers. I'm still working on one of the dressers, but one is done. I hope to be able to put some of my clothes back in the drawers and close them all the way in a day or so. I love the color a lot. It's a really nice teal color. High gloss in a bold color + new drawer pulls will change your entire room.

And then, in my case, make you feel that now you have to re-do everything else in the room to try to match the coolness factor of your newly revamped pieces. I've decided to go with a sort of Indian meets Bohemian Gypsy vibe. I already had a sari floor pillow. I found a new lampshade for a lamp that actually already has a sort of Middle Eastern kind of feel to it. I tried to paint one of the frames of a mirror I had, but it's turned in to a bit of a disaster and I think I might just look for a new mirror entirely. I'm looking for a rug and a bedspread. Both of which I have a lead on at Urban Outfitters, so it's all looking up.

Speaking of looking up, I saw a squirrel fall out of a tree today at lunch. It fell into a bunch of hostas, which must have broken its fall. It kind of wandered around for a bit but seemed to be a-okay. I'd never seen a squirrel fall out of a tree before. It kind of takes you aback. Tree climbing can be fun. A few weekends ago when I was in St. Louis I went to visit my mom's grave and she's buried under a really fantastic tree. Perfect for climbing. One of the few in the whole cemetery that looks like it's grown itself expressly for people to sit, rest, and climb on. It's great. I'm not a very good tree climber, but I did hop up the trunk and look around a little. There's a place in St. Louis that offers tree climbing classes. For a pretty reasonable price, they'll take you to Shaw's Garden and you'll climb trees with ropes and things for half a day. They teach you how to do it without hurting yourself or the tree and they use the same techniques as the botanists who study the canopies in the Rainforest use. They've got swings and hammocks and things up in the canopy of the trees. It sounds pretty awesome as long as you're not afraid of heights.

Last night was the kick-off of the Summer Special Olympics here in Missouri! It's on Mizzou's campus, but this is the first year I've really been around it. It's so much fun! They have a thing called the Victory Village in the afternoon today and they'll have it tomorrow (hopefully the rain will let up for it) and I went out for a walk in the afternoon and the DJ was playing Macarena and I had to run back inside and get my co-worker to come out and go with me down to the party. The Macarena was over, but we sat down there and it was such a fun atmosphere. I might volunteer for that event next year. It looked like a lot of fun. I danced a little of the Cha-Cha Slide before coming back to work.

Everybody clap your hands.

Plus, in breaking news: I accepted a new job today! Same place, different duties (including some photo collection duties! Yay!). More permanent. We'll see how it goes, yes? I am hopeful that it is wonderful. I really like where I am and the co-workers I have, but this is a better opportunity for me. Plus, they want to change that section of the workplace into a more positive and fun place and feel that moving me over there will help in that goal. I'll be taking some of my bright origami cranes over, for sure. A future blog entry might be about how I'm re-decorating the research room with bright colors and fun prints. As I'll be in a more public area, I'm not sure just how to do this, but insight will be had and fun will ensue. I hope.

Betty Smith

To live in color.

It feels like time is going by really quickly. Ever since I graduated, things have been moving at a pretty rapid pace. Nothing in particular, I guess, just....time. I have more of it to spend on things other than studying. Maybe that's why it's going by more quickly? It seems like a long time ago that I was in school. Someone asked me today if I was a student at Mizzou and I answered that I used to be, but now I just work there. It was the first time a stranger has asked me anything about my affiliation with the university since I graduated. It was strange to say that I was not a student. Kind of fun, but also kind of weird.

I finally saw The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel today. A sweet movie. I enjoyed it. India is not really on my short list of places to visit, but that's mostly because the number of people that I would be around kind of intimidates me. I love watching movies that are filmed in India. I love all the colors, I love the elephants, I love a lot of the culture that I've learned about. But, I don't really like big crowds and there's just no way to get around that. When I'm in a crowd, I get pushed around and end up feeling anxious and un-fun. I can't just hang out and look around at my surroundings because I feel like I have to rush to get someplace rather than actually just enjoying the walk/ride to wherever I am going. I tend to put a lot of weight on the 'getting-to' parts of vacations as much as my actual destination. I like to enjoy everything, not just parts.

Still, I think that someday I would like to go and give India a whirl because those people know how to live in color. I think I would fall in love with the textiles and the way in which Indians seem to attract vibrant colors to their dress, furnishings, and life in general. I love that! I feel like Americans, for the most part, are kind of scared of color. Apartments are often boring white, with landlords that threaten to evict you if you dare to paint the walls. Realtors tell you neutral is best. People walk around dressed in only one color, oftentimes some sort of neutral, like they're too scared (or too bored) to make any sort of actual statement with their clothing choice, so they go with khaki pants and some boring neutral shirt. Come on! Color makes you feel things differently. I think Americans could really stand to get out of their beige habit. Beige does not make you feel anything but bored and does not project any sort of image except that you are boring. Wear bold colors and just try to not feel more alive, I dare you! Paint something bright and decorate your space with it. It will change your whole environment. I'm a huge fan of wearing colors. I'm a huge fan of color in general, but the bold color trends that are in the stores lately? Awesome. The best thing to happen to American fashion in a long time. If only more Americans would actually take the plunge and wear brighter colors, I think this entire country would get a jolt of fun energy. We could be all like, 'What recession? We're all wearing jade green pants, orange tops, and bright blue cardigans! There's no recession here, only lively human beings!' There is a reason that preschools are usually full of bright, bold colors. Human beings thrive in those sort of environments. We learn, explore, create, and have adventures in these bright, lively spaces and then we grow up and enter 'the real world' where we get stuck in beige boxes wearing tan khaki pants and white shirts and then we wonder why we're sad and bored with our lives? Hello? Color transforms your whole world. I think it's a huge part of our senses. It just makes you more alive to be around things that are bold and colorful and interesting. I think realtors, office managers, and administrators need to lighten up (and brighten up) and back off their neutral/boring stance. It's lame. Live in color and be excited about living again!

Sights to behold.

Check out some of the sights I've been seeing lately. It's been a good several days of 'Ohh, look at what somebody did?! How cooooool.' And thinking that the people who do such things make me happy and also make me wish that I knew them and could hang out with them because I bet we'd get along.

These first four dandies are from near my work. Here's the background: Once upon a time, there was a parking lot that students used that was located very near to campus. Not so long ago, unbeknownst to (mostly) everyone, folks came and tore up that parking lot and began to build a building. According to a little billboard the kind folks have posted, the new building will include condos and some sort of shoppy-shops. They've been constructing for months now. And about six weeks ago, they decided to put up a little walkway over the sidewalk, which was considerate since they might drop something on us as we wander past. Anyway, this sad little walkway just sat there for weeks and weeks, a woeful hallway of plywood and steel that we all had to wander quickly through and that kind of caused us to walk closer to each other than anybody is truly comfy with... And then, one day a music promoter decided to staple a music poster to a few of the areas of the temporary sidewalk. And we liked it. And soon others followed suit and it became a bulletin board/sidewalk combo. Then, last week, someone came and did the most awesome thing ever. They  put graffiti on the sidewalk walls with super sweet slogans. See here:

Be happy.

Let your light shine.

Think positive.

Let the love in your heart rule your life.

I think that last one is my favorite. So nice! That has made us a lot more comfortable going through the temporary sidewalk, let me tell you. Suddenly we're all kind of happy to be walking through it, uncomfortably smooshed together or not.

So, there was that last week. And then over the weekend while chilling out in St. Louis, I saw this super fantastic sight!:

Benton Park neighborhood has their own free little library on the sidewalk!
Aside from assorted other cool features of this 'hood, I think this is reason enough to live here, pronto. 

The weekend was really nice because there was no special event going on. Nothing to have to pack for,  nothing to have to make it in time for, nothing to do but relax and explore and visit with good people. It was probably one of the most relaxing trips to St. Louis I've ever had. It was great. I returned home on Sunday, not feeling exhausted and like I didn't get a weekend at all, but rather like I had a great weekend and spent it fantastically and was as ready to face the work week as I would have been had I stayed at home in my jammies all weekend watching Gilmore Girls re-runs...which I have been doing on the evenings of this week. Good show. I still miss it. And feel more certain than ever that Rory's best boyfriend was Jess and that Dean and Logan were both total putzes. 

Happy Odd Compliment Day!

I thought we could begin this week with some odd compliments, courtesy of the tumblr blog by the same name.  It's Monday and I hope you don't have a case of the blah Mondays, but if you do and you need a pick-me-up (and the Calming Manatee isn't working), try these. Because, although I might not know you in real life, when I find out that people are stumbling across this blog, I feel happy to have virtually met you.

Oh, you.

Aw, beanbags.

Buzz was kind of a buzzkill, actually.

Truth. I would enjoy this a lot.

*I would try my best not to slap your head* makes me giggle.

(Quite possibly the best pickup line ever.)

Stephen Chbosky

Hey birdy!?

Hello Friday afternoon! I got a jump on the weekend today after working extra long earlier in the week. It's been nice. Relaxing. I have begun my thirty dollar clothing project in which I will not spend over $30 on any piece of clothing, pair of shoes, or accessory for a year. I'm going to keep my receipts so that a) I can keep myself honest and b) at the end of the 12 months, I hope to add up what I've bought and see how much the damage was. I have noticed that I tend to think a lot more about what I'm buying when I have a project like this. Kind of a double take, because everything I buy will probably be considered a bargain, so it cuts down on the impulse purchasing in the clearance aisle. Or, at least, that's my initial hypothesis.

(Hey! I don't think I've used the word 'hypothesis' since a high school science class! And never in terms of fashion! That's a thousand dollar word right there...ka-ching!)

I don't think the birds have yet figured out the birdbath scenario. They seem to be a little slow in this neck of the woods. I'm anxious to see them use it and am probably hovering too much at the window next to it. I'm not quite to the point of shouting 'HEY! BIRDY! GET IN THE BATH! SPLISH SPLASH?!?', but I'm probably not too far from that cliff. I have seen some robins getting nearer and nearer to it, so it might not be much longer before they're in it. I'll probably stop stalking them soon...ish.

If you're a St. Louis Cardinals fan, you probably already know about the team's tendency to dress up in wacky ways on road trips. This week they were in Los Angeles and all dressed up in tuxedos or various other fancy-pants outfits. The team shot is making its way 'round the web and it's pretty fun. They are a fun team. I'm not sure who the instigator of it all is, but I have a hunch it might be Lance Berkman, because I don't remember hearing much about these sorts of things until he came on board. They did a lot of this kind of thing last year, too.

I don't know if I'm a little late to the game or not when it comes to this band, but I've been hearing Of Monsters and Men on the radio the lately and I really like it. The song is "Little Talks" and it's pretty catchy, I think. If you like Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, they sound a lot like that. It's nice driving music.

I've been trolling Dear Photograph lately. The book is finally out in stores. It's a really interesting site, I think. Everything is constantly changing, but some things really do stay exactly the same as they were when we were younger. And sometimes the photographs we have from those times can be relate-able entirely because some things don't change at all, like a certain building or a landmark of some sort. It's nice. It's a cool project. The ones about the pets are the ones that get me weepy. Sniffle.

I'm kind of in a rambling mood, blog-wise. Not much to mention, I guess. It's the lazy days of not-quite-summer. More to come after the weekend, perhaps.

Calming Manatee

I ran across the website Calming Manatee this morning on my routine twitter run-down. It's so great! If you're having a tough day, go talk it out with a virtual manatee. They don't judge. They just float there, all caring and stuff.

www.calmingmanatee.com

Sum-sum-summertime.

I recommend this movie: In Time. I was skeptical at first because I wasn't sure how I felt about Justin Timberlake being the star of a movie. Well, I am skeptical no more. He's not a bad actor. I was really surprised by the movie. It was good and I saw it on Saturday and am still thinking about it now. If you like stories that deal with future societies (in literature, I know it's called dystopian fiction, but I'm not sure if that same label applies to movies?), you'd probably find this movie as fascinating as I did. I don't want to spoil it, so I'll keep a lid on my gushing, but it was unique and interesting.

I ended up seeing it because I wanted to use a code I had for a free redbox rental. After grocery shopping, I thought it would be super-easy to just check out a movie on the way out the door. Well, it was kind of a fiasco than I thought it would be. First of all, my nearest grocery store has one redbox kiosk and it's inside the entrance to the store. This is fine and really nice in wintertime, but it's kind of cramped when you've got a grocery cart full of your purchases, plus there is already somebody standing at the kiosk using the machine with their own grocery bags at their feet, and then somebody else shows up to return a movie at the kiosk. Not to mention the flow of people in and out of the store around you. Plus, a woman who decided she would force her way out of the automated entrance door and spent a moment or two grunting and shoving the door open despite the other one willingly flinging itself open for her just across the little banister. But, she had committed to shoving her way through the entrance door and, by God, she was going to do it. I tried not to stare. I was also trying not to stare at the dude picking his movie in case he thought I was looking over his shoulder or something and judging his selection. I was running out of places to look, so I just sort of stared at my coupon code in my hand for a bit. I had tried to be prepared for my selection, but between the pre-grocery trip perusal of movies available and the post-grocery trip actual checking at the kiosk, the movie I had planned to get was already rented. So, whilst people bustled around me and my grocery cart, and people waited behind me for the kiosk, I hastily tried to find something else to use my coupon on. Finally, I just picked one and it turned out to be a great thing. I love it when hasty decisions work out in your favor.

Over the weekend I did a lot of yard work and put in that birdbath I had mentioned earlier. Plus several hostas and some fresh mulch. It looks really nice. I'm pretty pleased with it. It works with the house pretty well.

 It took me a long time to get the bush out of the flower bed. There was also a baby-ish tree that had decided to grow in there. Getting the tree out was almost worse than the bush. All the early morning joggers were jogging by as I was attacking the flower bed but I kept my cussing to a minimum and I only nearly fell over a few times while trying to hop on the top of the shovel to get it into the ground. All in all, it was yet another homeowner learning experience, but ended up being really great. Not only do I like the end result, but during the day of yard work, I got to meet a couple of my neighbors whom I hadn't met yet. I've been living here almost three years and got to know several of my neighbors, but over the last six months they've all moved away. So, we were all outside doing yard work or tinkering on Saturday and it felt like a nice neighborhood work day. My dad helped me to clean out a really overgrown area in the back of my house and, after hauling away three truckloads of yard waste, it looks a little more manageable now, too. Another yard tidbit: my Asiatic lilies that I love so much are blooming. I actually planted those, I didn't inherit them, so I'm extra proud of them. They've survived a lot. The first year I had them, somebody threw my whole flower pot off the wall and into the street. I thought they'd not survive that at all, but they did. Then last year they bloomed and someone came and pulled all the heads off of them, which made me mad except that I imagine it was someone who liked them so much that they put them in their hair or something. They didn't just pull the flowers off and dump them on the ground, they took them. So, I didn't get to enjoy them very long last year. This year, they've lasted a few days so far without anybody messing with them. Fingers crossed! I took a picture though, just in case:

Today was the first weekday of summer vacation at Mizzou. It was really nice at work. It felt like we all were kind of enjoying a break, even though we were at work and nothing was really different. It was a really calm vibe all over campus. I like this time on campus. I like the hustle and bustle of semester-time too, but when all the thousands of students go away for a while, it's really relaxing and nice. It's got everybody thinking about vacations of our own. Summertime roadtrips!

Cicero

Momma's gotta eat and she can't eat her clothes.

I came across something the writer calls The $30 Project. This freelance writer gave herself the challenge to not spend more than $30 on any one piece of clothing for an entire year (2010). In 2011, she budgeted $100 per month for clothing. And for this year, she's giving herself a budget of $1200 to spend on clothing any time she wants (so same budget as previous year without the monthly strings attached). She recently wrote an article that got published in The Huffington Post about cutting all her hair off and going pixie after having long hair. I haven't read it yet, but I probably will. She did that last month and, from my cursory glimpse at her Pinterest pages, it looks like she's discovering how having super-short hair suddenly changes everything about the way your outfits look. (I remember that moment, too, when suddenly the outfits you used to wear all the time don't look right any longer and you start to go crazy trying to come up with new outfits that suit your hairstyle.) Plus the girl looks way more chic with the pixie cut than she did with her long hair + bangs...and if you're going to write on a topic like fashion on a budget, you should probably look as chic as possible to try to get your 'Look, you can look nice without spending a ton!' point across.

You can see her project blog here: http://thirtydollarproject.tumblr.com/

p.s. I'm a big fan of women chopping their hair off (if they want to) once in their lives. I think women should do it simply because it forces you to go outside your comfort zone a little. We can get stuck in hairstyles and keep them for no other reason than we're bored and don't know what else to do. It does take some courage to take the plunge and drastically alter your hairstyle, especially when you know that it's not an easy fix if you hate it. And I know a lot of people have a strangely deep-seated hatred of this sort of drastic chopping off of hair thing. People think it's unfeminine. Others think you're making some sort of statement. But, this is the real secret of it all: it's just hair. I think every woman should chop their hair off at some point. You can say you don't have the right face shape for it; you can say that you can't cut your hair off because your husband/boyfriend/significant other won't like it (although, don't say that to me because I'll probably say something snarky in response. I have a very low tolerance for doing/wearing only that which you think another person will approve...yuck.); you can say you're afraid people won't be able to tell if you're a guy or a girl (true fear, I know); you can come up with whatever excuse you find handy. But, from my own experience, I can tell you that it's not that big of a deal. When you go short, you don't have your hair to hide behind any longer, it's true. What that means is that you're forced to change the way you act and the way that you express yourself. You no longer can nervously twirl your hair or constantly brush it behind your ears when you're shy. You can't hide your face behind bangs or long layers. With short hair, you clearly show your face to the world and there's nothing to hide behind, but this doesn't mean that you're vulnerable. It means you have to [wo]man up and face your own insecurities. It can definitely make you more confident in yourself, which will change the way you're viewed by those around you--in a good way. Will everybody like it? No. Does everybody like the haircut you have now? No. Will people more freely give you their positive and negative opinions when you chop all your hair off? Probably so, yes. I never got more compliments from strangers on my hair than I did when I had it super short. The important thing to remember though, is that cutting your hair doesn't change who you are; it doesn't turn you into something you're not...it's just hair.

But, this isn't a post on hair. Or, at least, it didn't begin that way. I love the idea of the $30 project. It wouldn't be very hard to do at all. I tend to shop very low-cost stores like thrift stores and consignment stores as it is. Columbia's got some good ones. I might do this? I could begin it in June and go for the whole year buying no piece of clothing for more than thirty bucks. Hmm...mulling, mulling, mulling... Yes!

I would say I'd budget $100 a month, but that would actually break the bank for me. Gotta stay realistic, here. Momma (and Bea) gotta eat, and jeans don't make a meal.

Hey, I just met you and this is crazy.

Phew. I think I'm thisclose to being done painting. I'm waiting for paint to dry right now and have run out of things to do. You may remember that I mentioned painting the sunporch weeks ago? My house has been a disaster area since then and there have been some bookcases half painted sitting in another room for a while. I was reminded yesterday (none too soon!) that I get four personal days per year at work. It's close to halfway through the year and I haven't used even one, so I immediately decided to take one today and use the opportunity to wrench control of my house back from the messiness. I had a burst of brainstorming of ideas of other craft things to do today and I went on the hunt around town earlier to see what I could find in the way of supplies. I wasn't satisfied with anything that I found, so I decided to just stick with the painting for the day. And intermittently watching the ever-popular six hour version of Pride and Prejudice.

I have plans for the landscaping around my home. I don't know when I'll get to it, but I may have mentioned my veggie/berry garden plans for the backyard? I've been asking lots of people for advice on growing veggies, and have a somewhat thought-out plan of attack on how to build the raised bed. I'm thinking of trying my hand with a tomato plant, spaghetti squash, green beans, and strawberries. Maybe a potato plant, too. I'm not sold on that one yet.

That's for the backyard.

The front yard plans are beginning to come together. I'm going to tear up the one flower bed I have and remove one large burning bush plant and replace it with a birdbath. If I can find a decent birdbath that doesn't look too much like something an old lady would buy. I want it to be kind of a funky birdbath, you know? If I can't find funky, then just something very plain and classic. Surely, I can find something. Anyway, this will serve a double purpose of making the bushes less trouble to handle and give Bea something to watch and get excited about right outside one of her favorite windows.

When I was in the craft store parking lot earlier today the song "Call Me, Maybe" came on the radio and, after having watched the Harvard baseball team dance video several times yesterday, I immediately went into doing the dance motions during the chorus through the parking lot. Apparently, it's the signal for 'hit and run'? I don't know my baseball signals at all, but okay. If you watch it, be prepared to not hear this song without going into the hand signs ever again. I thought it was a catchy, if redundant, song to begin with, but the dance makes the song better:




I don't think I could ever do something like this on camera with a straight face. I wonder how many times they had to tape it? I'm not sure there's a road trip to a baseball game long enough for me to have been able to do this without laughing and messing it up. Big bravo to them.

"I'm terribly sorry, but I can't seem to remember my own verses"

This is kind of neat. Robert Browning, the English poet and playwright, gets so excited to use Edison's wax cylinder phonograph at a buddy's house in 1899 that he can't help but try it out. I guess just saying 'Hi, it's Bob' into the machine wasn't grandiose enough so he decides to recite part of his poem, "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix". This is cool and all, but he forgets the lines and apologizes for it. He doesn't let that a little forgetfulness stop him, though. At the end, he lets out a few shouts of "hip hip hooray!"

Yay for recorded sound!

Let them eat cake...and strawberries.

 Good weekend has been had by all, I hope? It has been really nice around here. I made sure I took some pictures this weekend to try to document some of the happenings.

I was not disappointed in the baby birthday cake scenario. May I introduce you to my baby cousin, Mr. A. L. Bennett, on the occasion of his first birthday:

What is this?

I'm not going to get in trouble for this? Mom?!?

Getting cheered on by Grandma, Mr. Bennett digs in with gusto.

He had a blast and then fell asleep shortly thereafter. It was pretty warm today in the park we were in, even though we were under a shelter. It was babies galore, with probably 5 or 6 little ones all under the age of 2, but nobody had a crying fit at all. No tears, no whining, nothing. I was amazed. They were all some unique St. Louis breed of cheerful, smiley babies.

Also, this weekend, there was some picking of strawberries at a nearby farm and the making of some fresh strawberry shortcake! Nom, nom, nom!

Fresh strawberries home from the field!

Strawberry shortcake after the Kentucky Derby. Yuuuum.

J.R.R. Tolkien

*whistle break*

An upbeat song for a happy Thursday! I saw a box turtle make it safely across the highway this morning on the way to work and I couldn't stop cheering the rest of the drive.

Additional posting, 12 hours after first posting:

Also, today is my birthday! It was a good day all around, beginning with the turtle making it across the highway.  Remember when you were little and family members or friends took pictures of you as the birthday boy or birthday girl? And then somewhere along the line, maybe that stopped happening? And so you might have photos of yourself from your first several birthdays in life, but then there's a gap? A few years ago I decided to try to make sure I get a picture of myself on each birthday I have. I have the one from last year, and one from the year before, but it's kind of hit-or-miss before that. I have pictures of me that I know where taken around my birthday, and so when I'm not entirely sure, I just count those.

But, here is my 28th birthday picture:

28th birthday!

The birthday was a nice one, not in the least because, for the first time in years, I am not studying for finals. I have no scary papers to write for any classes. I am under only one (work-related) deadline, and that's pretty sweet! Life is good, my blog friends. I hope your day was good, too.

In the name of Maggie, Judi, and Helen, let us watch films.

I'm anxious for my hair to grow longer so I can do fun updos. Patience, patience.

I'm watching "The Queen" right now. I found it at the MU library. I've started plumbing the depths of the library on my lunch breaks and right after work. It's easier than driving back home and heading over to the local library sometimes. I've seen most of the movies at my local library. Well, I've seen this movie before, but it's good. I like it. My holy trinity of actresses is Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, and Helen Mirren. I've seen most of all of their movies, I think. This particular copy of "The Queen" is practically unwatchable though due to all the halting and pixelation from overuse of the dvd. Oh, library copies. I might have to switch over to one of the others. I got "Rear Window" as well, which is the only Hitchcock movie I like. It's creepy, but not so creepy that I have nightmares. Jimmy Stewart is excellent in it, too. He might be in my holy trinity of actors if I made one up.

Speaking of the holy trinity, Judi Dench's new movie "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" is coming out this weekend! Whether it's boring or not, I'm excited to see it. Also this weekend, we have the Kentucky Derby! I was looking at the potential field of horses. Twenty are running again at the moment. It's too many. People complain that there'll never be another triple crown, but what do you expect when you pile in all of these horses? And most of them shouldn't even be running in the race. They're not running on their own merit, like they used to. They're in it purely because their owner(s) forked over the money to get a gate. Then, when the horse comes in dead last, they can turn around and put the horse out to stud for an exorbitant price by stating 'This horse ran in the Kentucky Derby.' I hope one day to see a triple crown winner. It would be cool. I don't think winning three high-caliber races in a row is impossible for horses nowadays, which is what some people say. Surely it can happen again. It will be quite a deal if it ever does.

Another event this weekend: my cousin's first birthday party. It's really my second cousin, I guess? My first cousin's baby... Anyway, I haven't seen him yet and now it's been a whole year since he was born. Although, honestly, infants are kind of boring if you're not the parents. Kids start to be fun when they can stand up and walk and make cute noises and smile and be overall more entertaining than when they're really little and all they do is eat, burp, poo, pee, sleep, and cry. He's going to be entering the fun phase now. Judging from his Christmas picture, he's a pretty big fella. He was already sitting up at Christmas and he was only about 7 months old. I don't know if that's advanced or not, but I was impressed. I'm hoping that now that he's 1, he'll be pretty active and all cute and stuff. And shove cake in his own face! Yay! Pictures to come I hope!

It's getting kind of warm around here. We had a lot of rain and now it's hot and muggy. I haven't given in to turning on the air conditioner, but my ceiling fans are going strong.