I officially can’t stand teenagers who think they should still be allowed to trick-or-treat.   Kip and I live on the third floor of an apartment building and I understand that not all children will climb that many steps for candy, but a few did this year.  We had a total of two groups come by.  The first group was a bunch of cute kids dressed up with their mom, or some adult figure.  The second set came about forty-five minutes later, and they came in the form of two boys, not walking together but one leading tthe other.  The leader was a much older boy who was taller than myself, and looked like he was in high school.  I thought nothing of it at the time.  We recieved no other trick-or-treaters for the remainder of the night.

As a way of showing people that we were giving out candy, we made a little flier and taped it to the door saying that trick-or-treaters were welcome.  I also took my adorable little pie pumpkin that I bought to be festive for the fall season out on the banister so that people below might see it and think to come up.  Well, only moments ago I realized that I hadn’t brought my pumpkin back inside, and I didn’t want anything to happen to it (like it freeze over night) as I was planning on using it to make a pumpkin pie from scratch for Thanksgiving.  Well, when I openned out door and looked right there, I was surprised to find that my pumpkin is no longer sitting there on the ledge but missing.  I even took the time to look over the banister to see if it had been smashed.  However, there are no remains of my cute pumpkin, it is simply missing.  I’m sure that a lot of you are sitting there saying to yourselve, “it was just a pumpkin get over it.”  But it is the principle of the situation that iritates and upsets me.  I put that little pumpkin out there as a sign of politeness and welcomeness, and someone had the odacity to steal it.  Take it from right in front of my door and leave me with nothing.  To top it all off, tied to that little pumpkin was a very cute little ribbon that at one time was attached to Punky’s pony, and my mother had added it to the pumpkin to make it look even cuter.  They not only stole my pumpkin, but the decorations that had been added to it.  I spoke earlier about the teenage boys that felt that they were in need of candy so badly that they had to go around asking for it (not even in costume I might add) because I am relatively certain that they are the ones that felt it neccesary to steal my pumpkin.  I say I’m relatively certain because Punky made no more outbursts toward people outside the door after those boys left and we didn’t hear anybody upstairs after that.  I realize that those people who are responsible for the pumpkin disappearance will doubtlessly ever read this post, but I feel that there are people out there reading it that will sympothize with me in my loss.  Now I have to hope that Harris Teeter is still selling pie pumpkins so I can purchase another one before Thanksgiving and make my pie.

Just wanted to update everyone on my current Solitaire rating.  I’m pretty sure you will all be impressed to learn that my top speed for beating the game is now 63 seconds with a top score of 11758.  That is just crazy in my book.  Hope you are all practicing.  Later!

It’s been over a week since a new blog post, but stay tuned. I am working on giving you the freedom to comment on my posts! Hopefully the first comment-able post will be made Sunday or Monday. And I’ve already got a good idea of what it’s going to be about...

Your secret’s out and the best part is it isn’t even a good one

I’ve just added commenting to the site.  Appropriately enough, my first post on this blog was one year ago tomorrow.

So to get the whole commenting thing started, here is a list of actresses that I think are not attractive, seemingly in disagreement with most of America.

Pamela Anderson: Maybe it’s because I’m not a rock star, but I just don’t find her attractive. She’s very fake, but that seems to be what she’s going for.

Catherine Zeta Jones: I’m not sure what it is about her that bothers me. I watch movies with her in it, and I see her and think “she looks like she should be attractive, but she’s not.” Maybe you agree with me and know just how to say it? It’s like her body doesn’t match her face. Like she’s supposed to be kind of chubby but she’s not, and it looks unnatural. But not in an anorexic kind of way, it’s something else.

Katie Holmes: I suspect that this will be the most contested member of this list. It’s something about her face. It reminds me of Steven Tyler somehow, and I think that is what I dislike.

Alyssa Milano: Of the three sisters on Charmed, I call her “the ugly one.” The other two are “the cute one” and “the red head”. She looks like she’s unpretty and they do their best with makeup but continue to give her that ugly short haircut. If it weren’t for the hair maybe she wouldn’t be on this list.

Angelina Jolie: I don’t think I know anyone who’s ever said that Angelina Jolie is hot, and yet she gets media attention as if she is. I don’t get it. She just looks very.. butch. I’m not even going to comment on the lips. She looks “dirrty,” as it were, but I guess “pretty” isn’t really her thing. Which would be fine, except that TV tries to convince me that she is hot.

Well that’s my list.  Start telling me how right or wrong I am.  Let’s get this comment thing going!

A few things to say:

I’m glad to see lots of people posting comments. If you are wondering what the magic rules are governing whether or not you can leave/edit comments, here they are:

1. You can add comments to any post that is less than one week old.

2. You have one hour to edit your comments.  The feature is there so that you can fix a typo, not so that you can change history.

3. In order to edit a comment, you must be in the same browser session. In other words, if you close the window you’ve lost the ability to edit.

4. You may leave the name field blank, but if you do so you will be labeled “Anonymous coward” in long-standing internet tradition.

5. Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.

If you’re having trouble making comments, there’s now a link (you really can’t miss it) to go to the javascript-free version of the site, which should work fine with any browser made since 1994. This includes Internet Explorer for Pocket PC (the reason that I implemented the feature to begin with). Does anyone else ever browse my site--or any site for that matter--from a PDA/cell phone?  If so my site should be about as accessible as they come.

As far as my life is concerned, I have no complaints. Today (well, technically yesterday, since it’s after midnight now) was my birthday. Stephanie and I went out to Tsunami’s (a Japanese Steakhouse) for dinner. Probably my favorite type of food. Although I think Kanki in Raleigh is my favorite. We went sorta late and ended up being the only people at our table, which was a little bit awkward, but we ended up getting way more rice than usual. Which I don’t really have a problem with. Well this story isn’t really going anywhere and I have to be at work in about six hours so I’m going to bed.

All I really wanted was a Happy Bird Day card from my boss

Sometimes at work I am at a meeting and the topic of conversation doesn’t really involve me in any way.  And sometimes this happens when I have a pencil and a piece of paper handy.  And sometimes I doodle.  Usually, I am doodling The Ninjas.  The other day I scanned some of these drawings from the past fourteen months.  Now, you too can enjoy them.

Who are The Ninjas?
Who aren’t The Ninjas!  They are a totally rocking awesome hard rock band comprised solely of ninjas who are dedicated to rocking hard.  They’re so awesome that they don’t even care if they have fans.  That’s what makes their fans love them so hard.  Their music rocks so hard that you’d stab yourself in the ear with a rusty screwdriver, just because you’re psyched so hard.

Here is a drawing of the whole band.  Notice how the lead guitarist is totally rocking hard!  And the lead singer is totally getting into it.  And check it out- there are people crowd surfing to show just how much The Ninjas rock!  And check out the bass player over there, he’s totally all “whatever man, I’m just too cool for you”.  And the drummer--check out the drum!  It’s got The Ninjas’ logo on it!  That rocks so hard.  These guys are so cool.  I’d totally do them all if I were gay.  Twice.

Here’s a drawing from The Ninjas’ latest music video.  That’s no special effect- the lead guitarist actually set himself on fire for the video!  He was recovering in the hospital for nine months!  That’s how much he rocks!  But it doesn’t stop there--dude totally brought his guitar and amp into the hospital and rocked the nurses’ pants off.  They all totally wanted him, even though he was covered in third degree burns.  That’s how hard he rocks.

Here’s a shot of the lead guitarist rocking so hard that he had to be airborne to do it.  You can’t tell from the picture, but he’s actually jumping off of a fifteen story building without a rope or parachute or anything!  Dude’s totally crazy!  He landed on his feet and kept right on rocking!  And that rocks hard.

Finally, here is a video of the lead guitarist rocking hard, then smashing his guitar in the middle of the song.  That rocks.  That guy rocks so hard.  (fyi- there are only ten quick drawings in that.. I didn’t waste as much time on it as you might think)

Click here to download my The Ninjas wallpaper!  It is not a typical desktop size, but it is in the correct aspect ratio (4:3), so just set the position to “stretch” and it will look right.  That’s the actual size it was scanned at (600 dpi), but I’ve adjusted the color balance a little so that it is darker.

Run away, go ahead and try
  run away, before I stab you in the eye
Because you’ll never know (you’ll never know)
  how far to go (how far to go)

--The Ninjas - Hands Off My Girl (Nozomi’s Song)

I know I haven’t posted in a while, and I’m sorry to keep you all waiting. We have had a very busy Thanksgiving and Christmas season already. For those of you just starting to read this blog, Kip and I are newlyweds, and this was our first Thanksgiving married. It is sometimes said that new brides have the need to attempt making a big Thanksgiving dinner for their new husbands. I did not have this desire, I did however attack the area of dessert.  I made two pumpkin pies from scratch, including the crusts using my grandmother’s recipe, and a turkey army.  Both of my deserts were huge successes at the Robinson Family Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, so that makes me happy.

We came home from his parents house Sunday afternoon. Kip had planned on going for the Christmas tree on Monday night, but since we got back so early, we went ahead and went to two different tree lots and picked out what I think is the most perfect Christmas tree ever!!! You have to understand that I have never had a real tree due to my mother’s allergies. We carried the tree up two flights of stairs and placed it in our living room. That night we hung lights and the ornaments that I have been collecting my entire life.  We also hung two ornaments that we just purchased as our two first  ornaments as a married couple.  That night I also decorated our mantle with figurines and candles. The tree lot guy gave me some of the branches from the trunk of our tree to use in decorating around the apartment as well, and I’ve been trying to find places for them to go. On Monday I went by Wal-Mart and picked up tinsel to add a little sparkle to the tree and it just makes it shine!!  Unfortunately we are still short one tree topper.  But we’ll hopefully get one soon!

Tonight, Kip and I finally had the right staples that fit into our staple gun, and we were able to decorate the porch of our apartment. There are blue twinkle icicle lights across the top, a strand of plain white Christmas lights wrapped around the corner pillar, and these new snowflake lights along that banister that twinkle and sparkle and look totally awesome. Kip took Punky for a walk afterward and got some pictures of the lights. I think that we are like the first ones in our apartment complex to get lights up outside, at least the first that I have noticed. I hope that everyone else is enjoying the holiday season as much as I am. Merry Christmas!!!!