friday favorites.

I've been a complete Scrooge and really totally lacked in any Christmas spirit posting and for that I apologize.

For some reason (maybe the lack of snow?) I've really kind of missed the mark with Christmas spirit this year.

But I am completely looking forward to being with my family all weekend.

Anyways, on to the favorites.

First up from National Geographic Photo of the Day: a girl with a kite in India, taken by Simon Christen, love it.

And then this one of Upper Yosemite Falls, California, taken by Andrew Coffing.  WANT TO GO.

Went to go see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo last night.  OBSESSED with the books is an understatement, and generally I don't like movies based off of books, I get all sorts of frustrated with the differences, etc....but the director did an awesome job with this movie.  Lisbeth Salandar kicks so much fucking arse.

I'm a huge fan of well done street art, and well, here is a slideshow of the 10 best street art works.  Check 'em out.

Because smiling is my favorite - here's some rationale behind why you should all smile more :)

Dr. Seuss love, obvs.

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?  It came without ribbons.  It came without tags.  It came without packages, boxes or bags.  And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore.  Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.  What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.  What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.

Winter landscape in Bavaria, Germany....photo via bing.

Happy Holidays - remember the reason for the season and enjoy your Christmas this weekend!

only once.

friday favorites.

Heyyyo.

I've got a busy busy busy weekend ahead - not what I really dig, but I'll make do. 

Let's just hope everything goes according to plan, including my cookie making attempt on Saturday.

Anyways, I'm going to go right skip ahead into the favorites.

LOOOOVE this idea.  Global Giving - give a giftcard with a designated amount and the recipient gets to pick the charity of their choice....talk about the gift that keeps giving!

I have a seriously low attention span - so having a site devoted to providing 10-12 short articles or links a day, is seriously awesome in my book.  Brilliant, 22 Words, brilliant.  It totally allows me to keep up with what's going on the web.

Best quote I have stumbled upon today: nothing is more badass than being yourself.  Truth.

My travel list is seriously like never ending, 12 Most Beautiful Lakes in the World - ummm, duh, count me in.

Honestly, how freaking true is this?

via hellogiggles.

Sorry not much on here today - but alas, I will leave you with this little gem from Marilyn Monroe.

Stay crazy creepsters, I'm obvs gonna.

Enjoy your weekend.

thought for thursday.

LOVE this, enough said.

invisibility.

Before us small town girls headed off to the big bad city....I got a text talking about wearing some flannel plaid to put our small town roots on display.

Immediately I knew I must take it a step further.

So alas, I threw on my black skinnies, knee high gray suede boots, a lovely cream tunic, and are you ready....a camouflage sweatshirt as my final layer, for the win.

So my 2 friends picked me up and were completely astonished with my last minute decision....which I will say, fucking rocked.

Off we went, me chattering a mile a minute in the back seat to which prompted the ever normal statement: if I didn't know you I would totally think you were on drugs.

I wish I received like a dollar everytime someone said that....seriously it would pay for a flight to Florida to visit my BFF.

Anyways, we had some road sodas en route, got lost in the ghetto - seriously was way scary -and got safely to our friend's condo.

We had some beverages and then headed to a restaurant where I made myself laugh several times with statements to the waiter along the lines of this:

Don't joke with me sir, if I throw on this here layer, you won't even see me....I'm serious.

Is that a branch - ohhh, nope just my arm.

Anyways, so we had some drankks and dinner - where I charmingly waved to an entire table full of gentlemen.

It's weird going out with a group of girls and having everyone at the table either be engaged or married, except for your single self, but I classed it up, no worries.

After dinner - and some "birthday" shots....thanks girls, we headed off to a bar.

Where eye contact was made with a mister mister across the room, who began a dance off as he made his way our direction....he stopped upon arrival and immediately asked if my camo was the result of a dare.

No, no dare....I had to one-up my friend here in the flannel plaid.  I figured camouflage was the only appropriate solution.

He immediately started laughing and said he was impressed.

That's right, I said impressed.

At that point - I removed said camo layer, immediately becoming visible once more, and a dance off ensued.

It was awesome, except the music was fucking terrible dance off music - think accoustic guitar, classic rock-esque, etc.

We made it work.

He then got my number....and soon after friended me on facebook.

I even heard from him already this week, and to be honest, he's fucking hilarious....and even proposed us getting together at some point in the future.

Sooooo....I'm gonna come right out and say it: clearly the way to pick up a man is to rock some camouflage.

Get on it ladies.

friday favorites.

ohhh heyyo.

It's Friday, phew.

I'm wicked excited because I'm off to a big city this evening with some fellow small towners to visit the very first friend I ever had.

Legit, like we had our picture taken in preschool so that I could take it home with me and I would know I had a friend there and not cry obnoxiously EVERY DAY.

I still cried.

Anyways, we kinda got separated in high school - and didn't stay in touch in college - but we recently got reconnected, so I'm excited to go visit her and party like a rock - or something.

Onwards to the favorites.

I've posted about living in smaller spaces before.  I'm a huge supporter of it.  I don't need a lot of room for me and my dogster and besides, less space means you live pretty minimally, you keep the clutter non-existant, and cleaning takes up so much less of your time.  So check out these options of the small home variety.  I especially love the Z-Glass house.

A photo gallery of Ryan Gosling, did I just pee my pants?  Yep, a little bit.

And a big shoutout thank you to People for wasting lots of my minutes perusing all the Best of 2011 various photo galleries.

Two photos from Bing.

The first is early morning light over Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, in California.  Love sunrise, and this one is pretty damn gorgeous.

This second picture is just really, really interesting.  It's the Plain of Jars, Phonsavan region, in Laos.

I mentioned my sweet ass shades in another post.  But perhaps you'd like a shirt, a trucker hat, even a beirut table?!  I give you the sorry for partying online store.  I need some more of these goods, immediately.

Historical (among other things) properties being utilized as completely awesome hotels - talk about GO GREEN in an amaze-balls way!  New travel idea?  I think yes.

And why didn't I think about wearing something so simple, yet fucking awesome, before seeing Mary Kate Olsen in it?

I hate money and all the associations with it.  This might be because I have minimal cash flow, ya know.  But for real, I think this is spot on.

And finally, spot on Maya Angelou, spot on.

"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass."

Go kick some ass creepers.

Enjoy your weekend - ok byeee.

thought for thursday.

I'm one of the most indecisive people EVER.

I more or less waffle back and forth until someone decides for me.

But giving up that decision means I lose out on choosing what will make me the happiest, or most content.

I think I'm gonna need to start listing to my gut.

“It’s important to know that there is a difference between listening to your instinct and listening to your gut. Your gut knows everything. But your gut isn’t cocky. It isn’t loud. It doesn’t force you to listen to it. It subtly lets you know what’s right, and then it gets quiet while you figure it out the hard way. Your instincts are trained habits that you created somewhere along the way. And they are usually just what you’re comfortable with. And some of us are comfortable being unhappy, being taken advantage of, being walked all over, ignored, overlooked, under respected, being made to settle. Your gut tells you the truth, it tells you when something is off. It tells you what no one else will…”

via everything lovely.

sorry for partying.

Any potential love affair I might have been considering with BCBG is done, caput, over FOREVER.

My sister had a company holiday party on Friday and I was her date (classy, per usual), and well seeing as I don't really have fancy shmancy dresses just laying around I clearly needed to buy one.

I ordered one from BCBG, which generally is a brand I LOVE.

I got the dress on Wednesday afternoon.

It was the most horrible article of clothing I could have selected.

Literally, the material was terrible and the actual form (you know how they like sew hips & shit in) was awful!  Honestly, I never would have even given the dress a second glance in a store.

Never.

Thankfully my Mom is a good sport and didn't mind a late night shopping extravaganza on Thursday night.

And thankfully, White House Black Market is as fucking amazing as it is. 

Even more amazing is the sale rack and the fact that I got a sparkly little black number for $50.

So anyways, onwards to Friday.

I woke up with a terrible cold, the kind that punches you in the face.

So I opted to take a dayquill around, oh I don't know noonish, figuring it would wear off in time for alcohol.

So off I went to the hotel to meet my sister, where we dazzled ourselves up with hairspray and 4 inch heels.

And down to the party.

After 4 hours of standing in 4 inch heels, I quite seriously could no longer walk. 

Well, I suppose the open bar helped the walking situation and I was able to saunter quite appropriately.

We went back up to the hotel room where my sister informed me she had brought me a change of clothes appropriate for going out to the club.

Ohhh, um ok....well I'm kinda like ready for bed, with this cold and all the beers, you know?

SHUT UP, go change, we're going out.

Obvs all the convincing I needed.

I changed, put on some flats, hopped in a cab to a bar, where we got a table and bottle service.

By bottle service, I mean everyone was drinking vodka sodas, puke.

So they kept making me cups, I kept taking a sip, and putting it down some other location in the bar.

I also cleared the dance floor and threw down the most epic dance party of my whole entire life.

Where I also somehow scored some sweet ass old school rayban-esque shades with neon blue sides that say "sorry for partying" on the armband.

After the club scene got old, a cab was taken back to the hotel.

Where I legit wrapped my sweet shades in my clothes in order to prevent any stealing from anyone (who, I don't actually know).

Then we went back downstairs and 5 of us hopped in a limo to go get Chinese food.

Yes, I said limo.

No, I have no idea how much that cost.

The limo also waited while we stuffed our faces with Chinese deliciousness.

We then raced from the restaurant and hopped back in our limo.

Back to the hotel, where I curled up for slumber.

I woke up feeling like my head could possibly split open.

Apparently dayquill that did not leave my system might do that.

Or the beers, I don't know.

But I do know that I couldn't pick my head up off the pillow to put my necklace (which I had taken off the night before) back on, which means that I laid it on the bed until I could pick my head up.

I then proceeded to drive home with my head laid back against the car seat wearing my sweet ass shades.

It then dawned on me that somehow I left the hotel without putting my necklace on.

I cried, on the inside, because I wasn't physically capable of making real tears.

But in all seriousness, should you want to score some shades like the ones I brought home, I give you: sorry for partying.

thought for thursday.

So gosh darn true.  And it's a good thing me and my sidekick dig adventures.

hunting season.

I hate hunting.

I get the point of it and all that so I don't publicly bash on it (although sometimes I'd like to, especially when people post their photos of dead deer on the FB, I mean seriously I don't want to effin see it jackass!).

Anyways, besides the picturing innocent animals getting their lives taken at gun point....I really hate it because it kinda upsets my outdoor adventuring.

Although, it does mean me and my dog get to match day in and day out (hunter orange, woot woot!)....it also means we get to totally blow up hunter's hot spots on a regular basis as we trudge through the woods.

But the best thing about this hunting season is that the baby fawn colored cow on my road gets to wear a sweet ass orange colored neckwarmer.

friday favorites.

My Thanksgiving was absolutely delicious, like the whole day.

I literally stuffed my face, cleaned my plate, and went up for seconds before anyone else was done with the first round.

And the pecan pie my Mom made, swooooon.

I swear Thanksgiving meal is like the fucking best ever.

Anyways, on to the favorites because yesssssss, it is Friday.

First some National Geographic Photos of the Day.

I'm Lithuanian, and totally embrace it.  This picture of a Lithuanian morning landscape by Eugenijus Rauduve is amazing.

And this one by Michael Melford of the Salmon River in Idaho, rocks.

Ummm, I want to be on this tundra trek in Svalbard, photo by June Jacobsen.  Seriously, I want to go, like yesterday.

I found this article on Cities That Have Vanished to be really neat.  There are so many reasons why a city could be found desolate, and the history of the place and the people just captivates me.  Yes, hello dork, I just said captivate.

Prepare yourself: 25 Sexy Chests to be Thankful for.  Seriously, and my man Ryan Gosling is the first photo, boom.  And then, Prince Harry, sigh.

Another photo slideshow, this one of Marilyn & animals, love it.

No secret I love Nicole Richie, and when I saw this photo I was so pumped!  I loooove the dress, but my favorite part is how amazing each accessory is!  Literally, she owned the arm party, neck candy, simple clutch, and kick ass heels.

And finally, well said Ward Foley, well said.

Enjoy your weekend!

thankful.

I have a lot of things to be thankful for.

A lot.

A kick ass dogster side-kick.

A great family.

Fantastic friends.

A sweet place to live.

A steady job (although I hate it).

And an absolutely delish meal tomorrow.

Despite all these things, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.

By wrong side, I mean that side of the bed you wake up on and want to punch everyone in the face all day.

I'm aiming to wake up on the right side tomorrow and fill my face with complete deliciousness until I'm quite sure I will explode.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving creepers.

friday favorites.

Lemon drop martinis are delish.

But they permit me to convince myself I should send facebook messages, probaly when I shouldn't.

Like to the guy I suggested getting drinks to last night - which I will likely not get a response from.  Whoops.

Or to a girl I used to coach in soccer who is going to become a hairdresser - a link with a picture requesting that she learn how to make my hair look exactly like that.  And that if she so happens to find mermaid pants like the ones being worn - to please snag them for me because I would like to wear them everyday.

Realistically I would probaly only wear them every weekend.  They look like I could own the dance floor.

Anyways, it's Friday and I can drink as many martinis as I would like as long as a computer is not within reach because I have zero self control.

Favorites time!

I'm a big fan of well-done graffiti or brightening up old and falling apartness.  Like not tacky, smorgasborg of shit, but well done murals.  These Love Letter For You Murals are amazing.  More places please!

Really?!  A photo gallery of Ryan Gosling versus Ryan Reynolds and their dogs?  Holy crap, love times about a thousand.  And as a side note, I'll take 'em both anyday.

People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive and Honorees, oh yea....um sure....let me just browse through those pictures several times today.

This photo from bing kinda looks like it should be from Jurassic Park or something, but instead it's clouds covering a seabird rookery high on a sea stack cliff on Boreray Island, St. Kilda archipelago, in Scotland.

So I have a pretty serious love affair with gold colored dresses (I swear it's because of the dress Kate Hudson wore in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days)....and well, so when I saw Zoe Saldana rocking this dress, I definitely ran a google search for some look alikes.

And then I came across this picture of Nicole Richie.  Honestly, I want her closet, everything she wears is fucking awesomeness.

My must travel to list grows by the day because of articles like 10 islands to explore before you die.  Holy crap, yes!

Now for a whole slew of pictures from National Geographic Photo of the Day. 

First up, holy amazingness.  Photo of a lion in Uganda by Joel Sartore.  Blew me away.

The Owyhee River in Idaho, taken by Michael Melford.

I love this shot of a girl with a pail in Tibet, taken by Li Fan.

I'm no city girl, as I've said before.  But this picture of skyscrapers in Dubai by Catalin Marin is seriously sick.

Annnnd, that's all I've got for now.  I gots to wrap up shop and get home to my dogster with the hurt leg.

We're majorly bummin' and laying low hoping like heck he heals up asap.

Have a good weekend creepers.

thought for thursday.

disaster set-up.

99.9 % of the time I refuse any offers of being "set-up."

It's just not my thing, it's uncomfortable, I end up talking way too fast & too much, and generally being absurdly ridiculous.

However, I have a friend, who happens to be the best friend of an ex-boyfriend, who I was with for nearly 4 years, that wanted to set me up with one of his buddies.

His rationale: he's a really nice guy, rich, and travels all over the world.

After a couple months of brushing it off, I figured why the hell not.

So Friday night we made plans for my friend to pick me up and we would go meet his buddy for dinner & drinks. 

I even had rules: I had to wash my hair, not wear moccasins, and no plaid.  So I fussed myself up, think skinny jeans, knee high boots, hair spray in my Shakira-esque hair, and threw on some extra make-up.

We had some road sodas on the way, which was way necessary to calm my nerves - or rather loosen me up so I was my chatter-bug self, plus some.

We arrived, met, grabbed some seats at the bar, he seemed nice, we chatted, had some drinks, and ordered burgers.

I love that I ordered an enormous cheeseburger, and the boys did too.  No ensaladas here creepers, no sir.

Anyways, my first impression was that he was a bit smug and very army.  By very army, I mean you legit looked at him, and you knew he was in the army.  There was no question about it, ya know?

So then we proceeded to head to the Legion bar for the town.

We began playing some pool, which I'm terrible at, but I'm a pretty enthusiastic player and I enjoy myself, mostly.

There was a rogue girl sitting at one of the pub tables near the pool table, that I began chatting with.  Several minutes into the conversation she started bawling.

By bawling, I mean seriously, crying.  Tears down the face and all.

I began to panic, like what the hell happened here.

She ran outside to smoke a cigarette.

Phew ok.

Anyways, back to pool.  A ways into playing, which I was teamed up with my friend, and we were playing 2 random guys who were already there, the set-up man teamed up with a girl at another table.

No biggie, but it was pretty clear we weren't hitting it off.

So after a while, when it became blatantly obvious that every time we spoke it turned into a discussion of the army, or him becoming very intense, or an argument that I would attempt to diffuse by being silly, I gave up.

I decided damn, that guy at the bar is smokin'.  I'm gonna go chat him up.

Which I did, and he bought me a shot.  And we flirted a bit.

Then on my return to my friend, a girl pulled me aside:

Heyy, um are you from around here?

Not really, like 45 minute away.

Well, I am, and just a heads up, that guy you were chatting up is on trial for manslaughter.

Oh, right, ok thanks.

Sigh, are you serious?

Anyways, so on the night progressed and the arguments continued.

Now I would never bash the army, I wouldn't.  I respect it, I know my life is the way it is because they are present.

But I have zero desire to discuss the army ALL NIGHT LONG.

I also have zero desire to hear how every single country in the world is miserable and terrible and there is nothing positive about it.  And that if I adopt a refugee child, it will murder me in my sleep.  (I'm serious, that's what he said to me).

Because that's just fucked up.

There is something positive in everything, EVERYTHING.

So I high tailed it to the bathroom where on my way a pleasant gentleman told me I resembled Salma Hayek, which nearly made me pee my pants, because my body is like that of a 12 year old pre-adolescent boy....and in no way close to resembling Salma.  But anyways, apparently I resemble a young, Only Fools Rush In, Salma or something, minus the curves.

Anyways, I got back, to find out manslaughter man and his friends were going to fight army man, like 3 versus 1 style.

I flat out told them it was the dumbest thing I ever heard and then went and threw down on the dance floor.

I mean, there were some good tunes happening.

Thankfully, someone threw a white flag and there was no after bar brawl.

Anyways, the night had clearly come to an end.

Clearly.

So me and my friend hit the road and dialed my sister up and put her on speaker phone.

She was obviously drunk as she somehow misconstrued the situation to that of my friend setting me up with a murderer.  Which she was screaming at him on the phone.

It was hilarious, and a great closer to the evening.

Apparently though the set-up man felt bad the next day and thinks he came across like a douch bag (duh).  And was actually interested and wants to talk to me, about things other than the army, to which I said he has to talk about unicorns and moonbeams.

So now the real question is, second chance, or no second chance and how daring do I truly feel?

pee brain.

In the woods, like all the time.

If I'm headed somewhere and it hits me, on the side of the road.

In parking lots, on beaches, at soccer fields.

If there is a hold up at someone's house, a backyard.

Which one time in college, I was headed back from a party and stopped to pop a squat in a yard, because quite honestly I wasn't going to make it back, and as I was peeing someone inside the house threw on the outside lights.

Peeing in the spotlight, not amazing.

Sometimes when I wake up in the morning and bring my dog outside, it will strike like lightening, and I swear there will be no way I will make it back up my stairs to the bathroom, so I pop a squat in my own yard.

I know, I'm fucking classy.

But really, I just don't care.

If I have to go, I'm gonna go.

So as I was out hiking yesterday, and I hadn't seen anyone in nearly 2 hours, it hit. 

I've got to pee.

So with a quick glance either way down the trail, I popped a squat.

Boom, hello silent bicyclists appearing from no where.

There was clearly no way to cover up what I was doing.

So I just chirped a quick hello, which they proceeded to ignore, and everyone continued on their merry way.

It's a good thing running into those people in the future is seriously unlikely.

thought for thursday.

via blinks of life.

driving genius.

Remember that time I drove around for a couple days thinking my steering was messed up and in all actuality I had a flat tire?

I do.

I even remember attempting to put air in said tire and being incapable and having a worker come out, move my car to the garage, so that an elderly man could properly fill it up.

Then I got to work and as I headed down the stairs to the other building to pick up mail I sang to my coworker:

Here's the mail
it never fails
makes me want to wag my tail
when it comes I want to wail
MAAAIIILLL

The best part was as I opened the door with the final note of the Blue's Clues song, an administrator stood there with a huge smirk on his face.

Sigh, I'm so fucking amazing sometimes it's almost scary.

normalcy is over-rated.

I used to attempt to zip my lips when company came over and behave as "normally" as possible.

As I've become comfortable with being the whack-a-doo I am, I no longer sit in silence.

I chat and blabber on....and generally make myself laugh.

By generally, I mean ALL THE TIME.

But I've come to realize that with my endless chatter, I make outsiders more comfortable.

For example my sister brought a boy to the house for the first time I can recall.  Mind you it was for an errand, but regardless, he still was the one who drove her there, 2 hours out of his way.

Anyways, it was not a request, but rather a demand that I be at the house when they arrived.

And I'm quite certain it was because I can sit there, tell ridiculous stories, get chit-chatter going, and make it more comfortable for everyone else present because they can band together and laugh about my absurdities.

I'm cool with that.

friday favorites.

Alright so an electrical truck came down to our lost valley this morning.

Threw down some cones and shouted "Holy fuck!  This is nuts!  That's the high voltage wire!"

Talking about the wire that nearly tore me down.

Then they beat feet and drove away.

Getting my power back is not looking good friends.

Anyways, it's Friday - so power or no power, keep on keepin' on.

National Geographic Photo of the Day right off the bat - serious they had 3 amazing photos I'm so diggin.  And it just dawned on me that all three were taken by this Michael Melford.  I didn't pick them based on the photographer, but ironically they all were him.  Kudos Mister Melford.

Here is the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes in Alaska - photo credit: Michael Melford.

Next the Merced River in Yosemite, photo credit: Michael Melford.

And finally, Leaves on Cascade Lake, photo credit: Michael Melford.

Throwback anything rocks my world, I mean seriously I spent the first half of my week feeling like I was living in Little House on the Prairie.  Anyways,  I kinda want to take a trip to visit all these Time-Warp Towns.  Who's in?

I love arm candy.  And these Mango Tree ones are way neat.  Kinda want a whole bunch.

I'm all about doing your part in making changes and helping the world any way you can.  Could it be anymore simple than just clicking your computer mouse?  Feed animals, feed people, protect wildlife, and so much more!  DO IT PEOPLE.

Cute little article on how owning a dog prepares you for having a baby.  No baby for me anytime soon - no worries, but the article is cute!

Awwww, dinosaur love!

Enjoy your weekend creepers!

pretty disaster.

I posted a picture on my facebook this morning.

It was a photo of the snowy trees after the devastating snowstorm last weekend.

I labled it "a pretty disaster."

One of my friends immediately wrote underneath it

just like you Twigs!

I suppose being a pretty disaster isn't such a bad thing.

I mean at least I'm a happy mess.

the lost valley.

We received a freak Halloween snowstorm.

Well really, it was before Halloween, but that's just specifics people.

Anyways, it was snowing like crazy - and me and my Momma-dukes got stuck out on the roads after running errands.

By stuck I mean a 40 minute drive took 2+ hours.

I ended up having to call my landpeople's son to come meet us because my Moms was nervous she wouldn't make it down my road.

It was an excellent choice as he needed to plow the way down the road to get me home.

So I got home, bundled up and decided to take a quick trip with my dog down the road.

Off we went - him gloriously happy about the thickening snow and me happily trotting behind him.

Then we turned back, we got to the end of my driveway and SNAAAAAP, whiiiip, blackness.

I hope you appreciated those written sounds.

A tree snapped directly in front of me.

The whiiiip was the wire falling down too.

And the blackness, well, not really a sound but everything went black, ya know?

So I took my headlamp and looked down.

The freaking live wire missed me by approximately 1 foot.

1 foot, people.

And then that wire nearly started a fire, but the snow was coming down too heavy.

I booked it for the house.

Clearly not my apartment.

This called for drastic measures.

I moved into my landpeople's home, because it was warm.  Wood stove warm.

The following morning, me and my dog went for a trip down the road to check out the situation.

The situation looked like a tornado barreled through our little valley and everything was covered in snow.

Chainsaws rock my world.

So do the gentlemen on my road who chainsawed our way out.

The wires, well.

We are all driving over them at this point.

Facebook friends are all status posting about these electric trucks, town vehicles, and army trucks.

We've seen none of this in the valley.

NONE.

It's likely to be a couple weeks before we re-gain power.

I mean seriously, the entire road is gonna need to be re-wired.

But I will say I have a new found respect for generators.

A neighbor lent us theirs after a few days.

GLORIOUS.

friday favorites.

Dive on in friends.

It is frightening how much time I have spent going through this everything lovely site, to say I'm obsessed is an understatement.

Snow gum trees in Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park, Tasmania Australia - from bing....sooo pretty.

The first snow was yesterday - and while both me and my dog LOVE the snow, seeing articles about laying on the beach invokes some pretty lovely images.  And so I give you, the World's Best Islands.

I want this bike and I want it NOW.

No secret I love elephants which means I love this, a lot.

And I think this is pretty fitting, especially after last weekend.

Have a lovely weekend!

not alone.

The best part of having an overzealous drinking wine extravaganza?

Having your BFF call you 2 days later after an overzealous beer drinking extravaganza informing you that she peed in her boyfriend's underwear drawer because she "couldn't find" the bathroom.

Peas in a pod?

I think yes.

Lover it.

wine is not water.

Friday night was wino night with the girls at my friend's house. 

Her hubby was out of the state for a teaching conference or something, so we had a group of us, all with a bottle of wine (or 2) in tow.

For some reason - I was ready to drink, drinkk, drank.

After skipping lunch, I had a couple pieces of pizza and a beer.

Then the wine shenanigans began.

I was putting glasses of wine back like no one's business. 

Like I'm actually serious, I was drinking like 2 glasses to everyone's maybe 1.

Along came midnight, and my realization that I better get the fuck OUT.

So without saying a word, I disappeared upstairs to the spare bedroom and promptly passed out with my feet on the floor.

As it goes - 45 minutes later two of my friends realized I had never returned.  So they ran upstairs to retrieve me.

They bounced me around the bed, tossed me around a bit, attempted to stand me up, before I removed my footwear and slipped under the covers after telling them to fuck off.

They returned to the party.

Apparently (I say apparently because I have no fucking idea what actually happened, HELLO BLACK OUT CITY), but apparently I booted in bed.

I awoke, realized what happened and removed myself from the bed.

Rather than head to the bathroom, I headed to her master bedroom.

I must have gotten all a-fluster after booting some more on her floor (which I cleaned in my drunken stupour thank you very much) - because I booted some more but attempted to hide it.

After this all occured, I took my slightly puke covered self and got under the covers in her bed.

Uhhhh, classy, I know.

Eventually my friend came upstairs - found the puke in the spare room - rounded up all the blankets and sheets and threw them in the wash.

She then returned to her bedroom, aka my new location.

Where is the puke Twiggs?

I didn't fucking puke shut up.

It smells like vomit in here, you puked in the other room, and I need to know where it is.

Shut up, I didn't puke.  I cleaned it up in the bathroom.

You are the only one up here, you did puke, now tell me where it is.

Then she opened her window curtain.

DO YOU SEE THIS?

I drunkenly sit myself up to take a peek.

I didn't do it.

DO YOU SEE THIS?

Ummm, is that puke on the window?

YES, IT IS PUKE.  ARE YOU FUCKING MIA HAMM AIMING FOR THE UPPER 90?!

Yes, friends, not only did I puke at the window - I puked in the upper left hand corner of the window.  I then promptly shut the curtains, hiding the disaster.

I finagled myself out of the bed and proceeded to drunkenly clean the window with toliet paper.

Pretty sure it was unsuccessful.

I then changed out of my attire, threw on some sweet plaid jammies, and walked back down to the still going on party.

I announced that I arose from the dead - threw my hands in the air - and then walked back to bed.

I called my sister and relived the experience with her.

She hysterically laughed.

I did not.  I was mortified.

I then fell asleep with my dog and my friend's dog on the bed.

I woke up, bought everyone brekky (the humiliation I felt and puke still in my hair was free).

I eventually dragged my sorry ass home after repeatedly apologizing to my friend.

Several hours later she sent me a text - I think you need to purchase us some nice candles.

Which I did and dropped them off that day.

Honestly, I have not ever gotten to that point of drunken vomiting.  NEVER.

Apparently I do not know how to gauge my wine tolerance. 

Seriously, please remember that only 2 weekends ago I was ripping shots of vodka, whiskey, having mixed vodka drinks, and beers.

But wine.  Nooooooo.

Perhaps I needed this slap in the face.

With the slap, I officially concluded that I will never again drink wine like water.

In fact, I will likely not drink wine for a very long time.

Barefoot Moscato, you've officially been ruined.

Damn it.

thought for thursday.

I was hoping to steal a few minutes today to post a Friday favorites a day early.  Unfortunately I had a bugger of a day and was unable to do so.

I will be running around crazy tomorrow, out of the office, and then well....it's the weekend.

So, I will leave you with this simple amazing-ness.

Receiving feedback regarding workable necessities is one thing.  But if someone doesn't appreciate you, for who and what you are, then seriously, move it along my friend.

You are awesome - be willing to fully embrace that.

brightening a day.

I've mentioned before that me and my dog are a certified therapy team.

This means that we get to go to hospitals, libraries, nursing homes, etc and visit and brighten up someone's day.

Now I just recently set up regular visits with a children's psychiatric unit - which I was pumped about.  I love working with children - it's what I miss most about working at my stupid desk job.

So we had a visit this past Sunday at 1PM.

We arrived and immediately 2 high energy, extremely loud approximately 8 year old boys were all up in my dog's face - chasing him around the room, exclaiming at his face, etc.  I embraced their excitement but helped them to understand they needed to be a bit more settled until he was more familiar with them.

After about 20 minutes of this, they more or less lost interest and one of them actually ended up having disruption issues for the next hour and a half (by disruption I mean shouting, banging, stomping, and all that jazz).

The rest of the population in the room was teenagers who were definitely more subdued in their interest. 

So me and my dog just kind of hung out in the room with them, and occasionally someone would come sit and pat him and talk to him.

We generally leave at about 2PM, which is about an hour of my dog being on extreme good work behavior - which is tiring for him.

However, right around this time, a young boy entered the room.

He had an angry "tough-guy" look on and sat himself in the corner.

Despite this look, he kept eyeing my dog.

I asked if he would like to come meet him.

Nooooo, ughhhh!

He quickly crossed his arms and looked away.

Every question he was asked - was responded to in a similar fashion.  Extreme whiney, angry voice - one word answers.

But his eye would keep returning to my dog.

I offered him a dog treat, to just you know, hang on to in case he wanted to give it to my dog.

The chair inched towards us a bit.

For the next 45 minutes (which all the while there was major yelling, banging, and other disruptions occuring pretty extremely by the other boy), there was a slow inching and peaking interest.

I got questions of:

Is he a wolf?

Does he have big teeth?

How is he 2 different kinds of dogs? 

That last one was fun to explain.

Ultimately, after 45 minutes, this young boy was laying on the floor eye-to-eye with my dog, rubbing his head, scratching his ears, and playing with his paws.

All the while having mundane conversation with me as my dog stared happily into his eyes - and offered a few licks which were received with happy laughter.

Seriously my dog is a freaking rockstar.

At about 3PM, the boy was called to head to his next group and one of the nurses came over to thank me.  She also informed me that he had had a really tough couple of days and that today was especially rough for him, in fact most of his morning was spent in tears.  She said that what my dog did for him was huge and that she was so appreciative we never questioned the time or staying an extra hour.

Staying the extra time was no concern because quite seriously, that extra hour and the brightening of that young boys' day is why we do it. 

If we can turn around one day, change one life - even by a minute amount - it's totally worth it.

That short hour was totally worth it.

must remember.

friday favorites.

I'm attempting to regain some normalcy.

I like the rockstar lifestyle, but I also have to get back to being the everyday me.

Although, if I could live the rockstar way everyday - I would do it, for reals.

Anyways, I'm thrilled it is Friday - even if it was only a 4 day work week.

First up, from National Geographic's Photo of the Day, here is a photo by Matt Eich, of Grevy's Zebra named Elvis at a refuge center in Ohio.

Considering October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - here is a great link to Survival Diaries: 10 Real Woman who Share their battle with Breast Cancer.  Check it out.

I love Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, from Full House days on.  They're sooo purty.

I have a history of driving, A LOT.  I think it's because I can't just sit still at my apartment, so I go, go, go....after seeing this article, I want to take all of these Most Iconic Drives.  After I trade in my gas guzzler of course.

Nicole Richie is my style icon.  But she also is inspiring - she's overcome a lot and really settled into being her and I love that.  I think she rocks, she has a solid hubby, and her children are adorbs.

New shopping site obsession: LuLu*s....prepare to spend some serious browsing time.

Please check out this post Nature Lovers by Chanel Bags and Cigarette Drags.  Some serious LOVE from this girl.

I didn't blog about anything regarding Steve Jobs' death immediately after it happened because I wasn't sure what I would want to say.  I stumbled upon this and I think he says things better than I ever could.

Have a lovely weekend all :)