snow ponies!

Right Front

Right Rear

Left Rear

Left Front

sitter or squatter?

There is something everyone will come in contact with many times during the course of their life, it is unavoidable. It brings shivers down some spines, and chills to others. At work, at the movies, at school, in the mall…It is…the public restroom! (duhn duhn duhnn).

In this location, three types of people are born.

There are the "sitters". These people could care less about germs or organisms left by the person who used the bathroom before them. They dismiss the notion of anything “dirty”rubbing against their bare bottom. They sit, and do their business.

There are the "squatters". These people hover above the toilet seat, balancing with their hands on their thighs. At times the end of the urine stream will trickle down their leg. They suspend their booty in mid air, and do their business.

There are the "liners." These people don’t have the leg muscles of the squatters, but are still germ-conscious. They line the toilet with a half roll of toilet paper, sit down comfortably, with a cushion of TP under their bum, and do their business.

*EDIT*: I have also been informed that their are holders. These people put their bladders to the test and no matter what, they hold it until they get home, where their tush has nothing to worry about, then they do their business

The last first day of school ever (I hope!)

In 23 mins it will be the beginning of the end. The first day of my LAST year of school. Though I feel like I've already said this when I entered into this point at U of I with my undergrad degree.... I swear, this is it!! I don't think my nerves can handle anymore.

This year has already started stressfully . I'm not officially signed up for some of my classes because the only spare day I had to do it was Friday, and the school was closed Friday, even though the 1Ls had orientation. (helpful) I don't have all of my books. My friend Brian delieved his to me (which I have yet to pay him for), I'm getting another 1 or 2 from one of the girls I got some of my 1L books from, but those are "in the mail" and have yet to be seen on my doorstep. My last book is crux on a girl who got married this weekend... so I'm guessing that one is lost in the mounds of useless kitchen wedding presents and most likely under a silver ice tong set no one will ever use.
Le sigh.

I also begin my year with no contract ofr my job that starts at 8am tomorrow with the university. I have been strong armed into accepting a contract that not only can easily throw me under the bus, but contridicts itself in many areas. Not that I expect everyone to hire an attorney to do all of their contract work... no wait... if you're going to do specific contract work that is worth a few thousand dollars... then yea... hire an attorney, or listen to me when I tell you what you've written is BUNK.

I'm off to make myself some coffee for my chipper morning tomorrow. If you were to read back to about this time last year, you would know that the coffee prepared at my lovely job leaves MUCH to be desired and can easily be akin to brown water.

So, I'm off to follow a schedule that is not a schedule and to go to a job that I don't technically have and then later to study with books that I do not have.

And as a sidenote: I am not a slacker in any of this. I tried to get the school schedule worked out far in advance and did not hear from my porfessors and the Dean about the correct method until last week. The same goes for my contract at Career Services... I heard hide nor hair of the department until about the 30th of July and was given 1 week to sign, only to find that everything was screwed up... hence the lack of contract at this point. The books I ordered are here on time, and aside from Brian, the books from freinds are those that are lacking and to me... the $400 I saved is worth being behind a few days in reading.

I haven't been able to go see the pony since Wed. I've been stuck here with a bad headache, had a wedding... among all fo these other things... maybe tomorrow he can help with my sanity.

You know its special when you have a horse that totally loses his mind, and you still love. Today wasn't that day... today was a day on the horse where we melded and understood each other. Today was nice... no one at the barn and a horse in tune to a day of work. I had a rough time today, my back was not going to let me do everything that I wanted to do.. but Fire understood and decided to go with the flow and do the exercises I was able to do.
Even with we fight and he gets frustrated, its okay! I realize he's just a baby and he's only throwing a fit because he thinks something I'm asking of him is unfair. Thats just to me... we can work through frustration, I'm sure I'll get it too.
Sorry for the ramblings... its just hard to put down on paper how nice it is to take time to do something where theres no talking and just behavioral responses. Its a very Zen feeling... a guess a kin to people who get runners high or that can sit outside in the dirt for hours tending to flowers.

Even my computer pet dog has decided he is done. God... this is just going to end and then I'm going to start up with more BS after the weekend. I wouldn't be surprised if I just take a time out break on my own. This pace is NOT something I can keep up with for much longer. Run run run... blah.

Our house... is a very very very fine house

this is the house from the front. The driveway is off to the left. You can see part of the fence to the ard on the right. Back yard, that the dogs love, as you can see! The thing on the left is the garage... which I still haven't even seen the inside of.
This little room is off the back of the house and was an add on as a mud room, then finished by our landlord into what I think they were thinking could be a breakfast spot. We find it a great place for recycling and animal stuff.
This is one side of the fully refinished kitchen. The window over the sink goes to the animal room. Joe is pretty excited to have a dish washer, though I think I'm the only one who has used it so far. (Add: Joe said he has used it twice. I know it has now happened once- and that was after the original writing of this. So I'll give him... one.)
I was walking out of the kitchen when I took this photo. To the left is the staircase, the right is the bedroom
This is the little dining area. The built ins are great off behind the table!
This is 1/2 of the living room... its the side that has stuff in it so far!
Having a covered porch is great. I'm so happy to have this!
shot from the front door showing the other part of the living room that is a bit bare, and then the stairs and dining area.
Odd hall space upstairs. Bathroom is behind me, spare bedroom and office is ahead.
Not too much to see here right now... Joe will get his stuff out of storage and add here.
this is just a closet. Just what I need!!! Too bad its so far form the bedroom... being in the office. But its still nice to have the extra closet storage space.
Part of the office. There is a pullout couch to the left.
I think this one explains itself?

The bathroom is behind me here. We have an awesome really deep tub. And the closet in this room is very large.

How To Violate Facebook Etiquette And Piss Off Your Friends

As Facebook becomes a center for our personal communication there is an etiquette that has become standard. Over the past few months I’ve been talking with people about their experience with Facebook and the more people I speak to, the more that I learn there are a number of best practices when using the site. After talking to a lot of people, I’ve noticed that I break the rules daily so hopefully you don’t make the same mistakes I have.

1. Update Your Status About Mundane Activities

It’s seriously great to know that you just pigged out on a half pound filet mignon but unless you are giving context to your experience, your friends probably don’t care. Status updates were not made to let your friends know about the fact that you are standing on an elevator, or even on a boat! If you’re going to take the time to enter your status, at least take the time to be a bit creative with it. While it may be cathartic to let people know about the horrendous service you just got, it really doesn’t provide much value, so just quit it!

2. Keep On Poking Away

What the hell is a poke? I think we all know what it means to poke people. You are trying to flirt but if you keep it up, it shifts from funny to annoying. When was the last time that something positive came out of walking up to someone in a bar and beginning to poke them until they responded? If you can successfully turn a poke into a lasting relationship then you are truly a master of manipulation because most people would find it flat out annoying.

On Facebook, poking wars can be fun at first but there’s an unspoken threshold that can be surpassed. Don’t surpass it if you don’t want to piss off your Facebook friends.

3. Sharing Your Quiz Results

It’s great to know that you are destined to be a “True New Yorker”, but do all of your friends really need to hear about it? There are thousands of entertaining quizzes on Facebook but keep the entertainment to yourself rather than share the insignificant results with your friends. While you may be good in bed, do you really need a quiz to tell you that? Also, do your friends really want to know about the most private details of your life as described through quiz results? Probably not.

4. Invite Your Friends To Some Sort Of Battle

There are tens of thousands of applications on Facebook and while there are plenty of games that are fun to play, not all of your friends are interested in joining you in a battle on Mafia Wars. Yeah, all those invites will quickly result in your friends removing you from their Facebook contacts. Don’t believe me? Keep on sending those Farm Town invites to all your friends and see what happens. Seriously, when you’re clicking on all your friends to invite them to the next game you are playing because you think it will boost your score. The only thing you’re going to end up accomplishing is annoying the hell out of your friends.

5. Reply To Broadcast Messages

You’ve seen it before: one of your friends sends out a broadcast message to update their friends about an event and then suddenly a threaded conversation erupts. We know that you’ve probably been too busy to catch up with many of your friends recently but don’t take mass messages as the opportunity to reconnect. You’re flooding everybody’s inbox with information that isn’t relevant to them and it’s flat out annoying!

6. Tag Your Friends In Unattractive Photos

Not everybody can look attractive from every angle but that doesn’t mean you should take this opportunity to highlight the angle that doesn’t work. Even worse is that you continue to tag everybody else that’s in the unattractive photo so that it can be circulated among all our friends. If you want to quickly damage your relationship, go find the most unattractive photo of your friend and tag them in it. Don’t be surprised when you end up unfriended for doing it!

7. Friend People Who Hated You In High School

While this one isn’t going to damage your existing relationships, it’s just bad form. Remember those people that you hated back in high school? They were part of the inspiration behind becoming successful yet for some reason they now want to reconnect years later. Personally, I don’t really mind since I don’t have any unforgivable experiences but most people are not going to friend you after you put them through years of torture. If you were a jerk, don’t expect to become mister (or miss) popular now that we’ve all grown up.

Are there any other Facebook etiquette tips that I’ve missed here?

I hate moving

Does anyone out there actually love moving?? God... what a pain in the butt. I feel like I've just been packing and pack and I'm not getting anywhere.
This packing and shifting things is driving the animals nuts. They don't know what to do and are acting all strange. River has eaten my FAVORITE little wooden figurine that my uncle gave me (RIP Mr. One Eyed Kangaroo) and my stieff seal, which barrister nicely dropped in her lap off of my dresser.
I just want to be done with this. Its going to take forever. Joe wants to do a bunch of work on the move on Friday after I get form home and he gets home, but I just don't see it happening to the mass amount he's seeing. I can't see myself going to work all day, and then working moving stuff for quite a few hours at night after Joe gets home at 10, then waking up early to meet my parents and all of the nice people that have offered their help to move. No.
God help me... I'm already completely to the hilt with stress with this.

Awe. Miss him

I also have a second cat... he does exist

Barrister comes out when Joe is gone :)

the vegetable thief strikes again!

so, Suzette gave me a great huge zucchini from her garden, that I was going to promptly make bread out of... until the brat cat decided that she wanted a late night snack and that OH OH!!! there were veggies out so she had to go ape-shit on it.

Great. My carnivorous F2 bengal cat would be happy as a vegetarian!

get $5 off just enter paigewillis@gmail.com as the promo code!!!

Alright... this weekend is crazy awesome sales on my favorite clothing discount site!!!
All the brands are awesome... everything I've gotten I love and right now I'm wearing Joe Jeans and a Cino top I got from there that are worth easily over $350.00 combined and I'm sure I spend under $100 for the pair.
So go... run... click... www.redtagcrazy.com
on your first sale, enter: paigewillis@gmail.com in the promo code and you'll get $5 off!! Umm.. awesome!
You're nuts if you don't at least LOOK.

I'm thrifty

Cat... craigslist
flowers... neighbor's yard

Its a Fire!!

We finally decided to do a few formal shots. Forgive the bad braids... he's not the biggest fan of having his hair pulled on. Hopefully... video to come soon.