heard on the radio this morning

"This report was sponsored by Heritage for the Blind. Don't sell that old car, donate it to Heritage for the Blind..."

I'm sorry, but what are blind people going to do with my car? I'm a little disturbed by that.

Should I donate my old stereo to the deaf foundation??

Adding pictures to your blog was never easier! Thanks Blogger!

Yes, these are our children with the "children" I had when I was a child. Try saying that three times fast.

It's scary that I know that some of you will actually try to say that three times fast...

as the blog turns

I will now begin a typical Heather blog in the typical fashion...

There really is not much going on. But, it has been mentioned to me that my blog has been a bit light of late.

I was mocked for being happily married and thus not having an blog fodder.

Well, that's ridiculous.

Technically, there is blog fodder but I don't always want to blog about it.

And I haven't had any funny events lately.

I need some funny events, damn it.

I mean, I've had fun. But I was really fucked up and don't remember much of what happened. (That was for you, K & H.)

Best thing to happen lately was that I spent this past weekend with my girls. HP2 and the Librarian. GOOD times, lots of drinking and venting and drinking. And venting. If I hadn't been so hungover, I would have felt GREAT all weekend!

I have started working out again. In fact, I'm sitting here blogging while I procrastinate going to the gym. But, I will actually go. And that is a BIG change in my life. Before I procrastinated going to the gym to the point that I would just not go. Now I am going a little bit. I don't want to spend my life in the gym, but I don't want to keep beating myself up about being fat anymore either. (Especially since you burn 0 calories beating yourself up. How fair is that?)

I read the new Harry Potter book. I cut work to read the book all day last Monday because Scott got his grubby hands on it first and I was left with sloppy seconds. I think it's my favorite. So sad what happens, but just soooooo good! Far better than Harry grumpy and pissy like he was in book 5.

I go back to school on August 18th and I am really looking forward to that. Get back into the habit of thinking again -- now THAT is a challenge!

Okay -- I really do have to go to they gym. To anyone reading, thanks for continuing to stop by my blog even though it's so rarely updated.

This is what happens to your material when you eliminate drama from your life other than Felicity, eh?

xoxo

HPL

PS: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CUZZIN SUMITRA!

ONE

Well, looks like we made it. Yesterday was our one year anniversary.

24 more to go and then it's time to move on! :-)

We didn't do anything incredibly sexy or romantic or even all that exciting, but we did spend the day together and talked a lot -- which is the greatest gift I can ever get anyway.

The thing is that Scott and I went through a LOT in our first year of marriage.

Before we even got married, we had the fun-filled ordeal with the Mominator. Scott's mom cancelled the rehearsal dinner, stirred up bunches of drama and caused a mutual severing of ties. I became Public Enemy #1 for causing a woman to "lose" her son. The facts of the case were not important, it was all my fault.

We hadn't even been married for a month when his cat Jasper died. Jasper was honestly his best friend, his buddy, his compadre. Jasper is the only cat who willingly, eagerly came when called and didn't try to make it look like an accident. Jasper loved his Daddy and openly showed affection for every little thing that Scott did for him -- and the feeling was mutual. It was heartbreaking to go through that loss with him, and I honestly would have done anything to have kept that from happening.

Then there was the great move in. This was pretty horrific and undocumented. I hadn't lived with a man that wasn't my dad in 6 years. He'd been living on his own for well over a year. We didn't mesh terribly well and getting cozied into my 1100 square foot townhouse was somewhat of a nightmare. Still, it forced us to really work on our communication skills and, in the long run, made our marriage much stronger. He learned that I'm high maintenance but sort of pretend not to be. And I learned that "whatever makes you happy" roughly translates to "whatever will make you stop bitching at me."

There is still a toilet seat problem that I gave up on.

In December, still not even at a six month mark for our marriage, my dad died. There is no way for me to ever be able to sum up how grateful I am to Scott for getting us through that time. He was my rock and he helped hold me up and then rocked me to sleep at night when I was crying. And still helped keep my whole family's sense of humor up a little. Prime example: Scott went along when we went to the funeral home to make the arrangements. The funeral director was very nice and compassionate, as they are prone to be, and was pretty matter-of-fact in how much the service was going to cost. Scott just flat out asked him if there was anything he could do to lower the price of the services, and the guy came down in price. Later on, Scott admitted to feeling bad because he didn't want anyone to think he was trying to cheapen Dad's memory, and then added, "But baby, you know I don't pay retail for anything."

You have no idea how often I think of that phrase.

2005 has been the year of career shifting. Scott is in his 3rd job for the year. Filing our taxes next year should be mighty interesting.

We've helped my mom move and inadvertently run a low-frills, er, couch and breakfast for my gimpy cousin. We've had a new cat arrival. We've seen friends come and go.

I just did the math and figured that there are 8760 hours in one year. Really, it doesn't seem like that much when you compare it to a lifetime -- which is how much time I hope we have together...

Mrs. Big Daddy :-)

Random Pre-Coffee Thought

I can't help but wonder if it is the internet that really spoils the real customer service experience. You go to a store and no one is there to help you. When you find someone to help you, they don't know the answers to what feels like even the most basic questions. They seem to be lying to you about the very product you are about to buy.

Then there's the internet. You don't really need anyone to help you when you're shopping on line because it's all right there at your fingertips. No one has to show you where something is -- it's right there. If there are no answers to your questions, you just go out on the web and surf for the answers. Want the truth about the product you're buying? Here are 50 reviews hyperlinked under it's name. Or just see what Google has to tell you. You can even Ask Jeeves.

In real life, you have to actually deal with people and all of their underpaid short-comings. They don't want to be where they are answering your stupid questions. Even if they were being paid more, they would still think your questions are stupid and not really want to help you. Sure, you come across a random person from time to time who gives you amazing customer service, but is it really going to equal what you're getting at Amazon.com?

I understand why it's hard to go out into the real world and be treated like an idiot by some 17 year old that you are about to hand over your personal needs to and try to get them to care. But we've got to keep the need for the people out there going, don't we? Underpaid and less than helpful, it's still someone else to interact with.