Light in the Darkroom

Today is Ash Wednesday, and I have been contemplating what I am going to give up for the next 40-days. It's really hard making a decision, but I think I am going to be able to come up with a short list. I asked our resident preacher in the office for more insight into the details of Ash Wednesday and I learned quite a bit of knowledge, but what is knowledge if not applied? So my contemplation has begun, wish me luck, as I wish luck to all who are also going to willingly give up something and use this time as self-reflection.

Happy Wednesday!

Maybe, just maybe, I am the biggest dork ever, but have you noticed that this month and next month's day and number pattern are the same, until you get to the 29th of course. So next month there will be another Friday the Thirteenth (are you scared). So since I noticed that I went ahead and compared all of the month's and low and behold most of them match up...

January and October
February and March
April and July
September and December

So the only ones left out are May, June, August and November. I thought it was pretty interesting, of course there is probably some long drawn out mathematical explanation as to why this is so, but who cares really.

Just thought I would pass along this bit of rather useless info. Why keep all of it for myself, I know how to share sometimes :-) I know you're going to go look at the calendar now that I have brought this revelation to your attention!

Ha ha, you're very welcome!!

OMG I can't believe it's been 9 days since my last posting! Shame on me!! In lieu of being missing in action...I will do a brief recap of events:

~February 10-12th, I don't really remember so nothing to discuss there!

~~February 13th, Whoo hoo it's Friday the 13th, but again nothing I remember!

~~~February 14th, the day of love, (Happy B-Day C) I had a lovely Cupid Day and I hope all of you did too!! I'm not a big fan of commercialized holidays, but that does not mean that I don't enjoy the presents, I mean who wouldn't! But hopefully you tell somebody (even if it's just yourself) that you love them everyday and not just on occasion.

~~~~February 15th, Good ole' soul food dinner at Mama J's house. And it was sooooo good!! She even fixed some collard greens and I don't even like greens, but they were so good! And the company was hilarious! I thought I was watching Comedy Central for a brief moment.

~~~~~February 16th, President's Day, While the only thing I know about this holiday is, the celebration of Washington and Lincoln's B-day's and all the stores have sales, I enjoyed the free day off from work. I went to visit my favorite baby in all the land and of course took some pictures. Some were better than others, but I have an absolute favorite. The lighting worked, Z was still for just the right amount of time, and I actually figured out how to work the camera a little bit more (I don't read instruction manuals so I learn by trial and error). I was so impressed with myself (can I say that?!?), because not all photos come out the way I have them imagined in my head (go figure). Anyhow, here it is:

Isn't she just a doll!?! I am so ridiculously proud of myself for this shot, I just can't stop looking at it! And her socks give just enough color without it being too much. I love black and white much better, but this is a great color photo. I may have to actually order the print for this and surprise her mommy with it, (hope she's not reading this, well surprise if you are). Back to my recount,

~~~~~~February 17th, Pres. Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which is to create or maintain 3.5 million jobs, cut taxes for middle and working class families and help with health care and clean energy. The administration has developed a website, that will track milestones and show you, the public, exactly how money is being spent. While I think it's nice to be informed, I really hope that this new development will have a deep impact on our current situation. Just driving down the street and being able to see all of the yellow and black signs in the front yards or homes that used to be inhabited by families is sobering.

~~~~~~~February 18th, Today, fake snow prevails again...while I am still holding out for my 2 1/2 feet of snow, time is not on my side. All in all it's going to be a long day...Oh how I ♥ angry people...I hope I make it.

Have a better day than me, or at least try :-)

Good Morning and Happy Monday!

Not much to say today, but some interesting items for you to watch. They are not too long so check it out!

Have a Great Day!

Octuplet Mom

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

First off, Congratulations Mike Tomlin!!

Superbowl parties are the best, especially when all of the guys are going for the losing team. When I say I have half a voice today from yelling and talking trash, I definitely mean I had the best time ever!! Although I had Ben's jersey in his own special chair, he got abused at halftime by a salty Cardinal fan. I tried to get them to convert during Springstein, but they wouldn't commit. I unfortunately had to quiet down in the 4th quarter since the Steelers made me nervous and let the Cardinals get in two touchdowns, but fortunately that was only for a little while!! By the end of the game it was pretty quiet in the house, quite funny!

There are a few things that I would like to highlight;

~Jennifer Hudson was awesome doing the Star Spangled Banner, even if she didn't sing live. I was really happy to see her!
~~James Harrison with the 100 yard return touchdown. What more needs to be said about that.

~~~Santonio with the beautiful catch with seconds on the clock in the fourth quarter.
~~~~Fitzgerald's walk off the field...I don't know if anyone else caught it, but the people I was watching the game with did and it looked real sweet to us!
~~~~~Halftime show sucked majorly (thanks Janet)

The commercials were rather dull and boring. I only liked four of them.

The Sobe Life with the lizards, mostly because I like the lizards.



The spaceship getting jacked for it's wheels...that was funny



The talking flowers, partially because I'm mean and thought it was hilarious!!!



And finally the Coca Cola ad with the bugs because it was cute!



In other happenings, it is Groundhog Day. I'm not particularly interested in it, but for those of you who believe in this superstition, I hope Phil does or does not see his shadow (whichever you prefer).

Happy Monday!

Happy Friday and best of all, the sun is shining, the birds are singing and the Steelers are going to win the Super Bowl!!! I don't know much about the Cardinals and I admit to not even knowing such a football organization existed (clearly I only knew of the Cardinal baseball team), but regardless they're going down!

It seems every time I turn on the news a major company is laying of thousands of workers. I was shocked when I heard about Microsoft, but no one seems to be exempt. I have compiled a running list (courtesy of Forbes), all of which happened in January (yes this month):

AT&T - 12,000 jobs
Credit Suisse - 5,300 jobs and 1,200 contracting jobs
DuPont - 2,500 jobs
Viacom - 850 jobs
Avis - 2,200+jobs
State Street Corp - 1,600 to 1,800 jobs
Jefferies Group - 358 jobs plus closing 3 international offices
Carlyle Group - 10% of staff
Boeing - 4,500 jobs
Microsoft - 5,000 jobs
Caterpillar - 20,000 jobs
Pfizer - 8,000 jobs
SprintNextel - 8,000 jobs
Home Depot - 7,000 jobs
General Motors - 2,000 jobs
Texas Instrument - 3,400 jobs
Phillips Electronics - 6,000 jobs worldwide
Corus Group - 3,500 jobs
ING - 7,000 jobs
Starbucks - 6,700 jobs, closes 900 stores
Target - 600 jobs, 400 positions closed
AOL (Time Warner) - 700 jobs
Merillat (Masco) - 70 jobs
SPX - 400 jobs
Intel - 5,000 jobs
Walt Disney - 600 voluntary buyouts for executives
Wynn Resorts - 53 jobs, construction
Eaton - 5,200 jobs, 78 in Iowa
Warner Brothers (Time Warner) - 800 jobs
Clear Channel Communications - 1,850 jobs
Deere & Co - 120 at Iowa plant
ConocoPhillips - 1,300 jobs
Hertz Global Holdings - 4,000 jobs
WellPoint - 600 jobs, 900 positions closed
Advanced Micro Devices - 1,100 jobs
Xerox - 275 jobs in NY
MeadWestvaco - 2,000 jobs
IBM - 2,800 jobs
Lincoln National - 540 jobs
Ambercrombie & Fitch - 50 jobs
Harley-Davidson - 1,100 jobs
Huntsman - 1,175 jobs, 490 contractors
Burlington Santa Fe - 2,500 jobs
UAL - 1,000 jobs
Autodesk - 750 jobs
Marshall & Ilsley - 830 jobs
General Electric - 1,000 jobs
Ecolab - 1,000 jobs
Delta Air Lines - 2,000 get early retirement
Motorola - 4,000 jobs
Google - 100 jobs
Cummins - 800 jobs, salary freeze in place for the rest of the year
Mosaic - 1,000 jobs
Textron - 2,000 jobs
Best Buy - 500 jobs
Precision Castparts - 40 jobs
Oracle - 500 jobs
Freeport-McMoRan - 1,550 jobs
Smithfield Foods' - 75 jobs at Missouri plant
Union Pacific - 230 jobs
General Dynamics - 179 jobs
Walgreen - 1,000 jobs
EMC - 2,400 jobs
Alcoa - 13,500 jobs, salary and hiring freeze globally
Aqua Glass (Masco) - 30 jobs
Cigna - 1,100 jobs
United States Steel - 50 jobs, Texas production closed

I cannot begin to imagine the feeling of not knowing whether or not you are going to have a job by the end of the day. Hopefully the newly proposed economic stimulus plan will help to alleviate some of the pressures of this failing economy, I guess time will be the truth serum.

I will say that I actually enjoy reading the White House website. I love the fact that President Obama (love saying that!!!) is allowing the public that elects these officials into office the opportunity to see what's going on.

Finally, and on a slightly lighter accord...there are times when a really cute commercial catches my eye. I must say that the commercial below I LOVE not only for the message behind it, but it is sooo adorable and the old lady looking out the window has the best reaction! I hope you enjoy it also!!!!



Have a great day!!

While I was really excited to have snow on Tuesday, the ice that followed kind of ruined it for me. Snow I can deal with, but ice?!? It was really pretty though and while I did venture to work yesterday even though my car, as you can see, was covered in a thick sheet of ice as well as my neighborhood street...the commute to work wasn't too painful. Sarge enjoyed the snow, but had a slide sink walk on the ice covered snow. It was cute, but I felt bad for him.

I am however very optimistic for my big snow storm! I want at least a foot and a half so hopefully February brings in the snow. I know all of the summer people are going to hate me for saying that but SO WHAT :-P It's winter get over it!

Toodles!