Ah, nostalgia.

Saw this video thanks to @sethmeyers21:

Of the movies John Hughes directed, I think my favorite is Ferris Beuller’s Day Off followed by Uncle Buck. I miss John Candy.

Madison Avenue, we’re ready!

Here’s what we’d look like if we were characters on Mad Men. (Hey, everybody else was doing it!)

We no longer subscribe to a cable TV service so that means no more Mad Men for me as far as I can tell for as far as I can see into the future. I would watch it online but I can only find the first two seasons, which leads me to believe that online episodes are a season behind (like videos) , which means I won’t get to watch Season 4 until Season 5 premieres. <sigh> And just when I was starting to be cool…

9 Signs I’ve Met The One

eHarmony Advice tweeted a link to an article called 9 Signs You’ve Met The One. I read through the article and decided to use it to publicly examine, point by point, my relationship with Bill. Keep in mind that I am speaking in the first person because the only one whose feelings I can truly account for is me.

1) I’m Not Chasing the Relationship’s Potential
In the beginning I would say that, yes, we had a relationship fraught with obstacles. In many ways we still do — we both have jobs that can be stressful, one of us has an ex that is hard to deal with, we have vastly different styles of parenting (not to mention that the child is not ours, so to speak), and I’m sure each of us has habits that the other finds distasteful. But I realized that these are issues that aren’t going away — if anything, we’re likely to gain more obstacles over time — and the difference would be to change my perspective. To paraphrase Reinhold Neibuhr, I sought/seek to accept the things that I can’t change. Life is challenging and hoping for a relationship that’s not is foolish.

2) Who I Am Is Good Enough
Bill loves me for who I am. I have never felt that to be so true with anyone else. He is proud of me. He thinks I am smart, sexy, and fun to be with. He tells me those things all the time. I love Bill for who he is. I am proud of him. I am attracted to his mind, his body, his sense of humor. I hope I adequately express those feelings to him.

3) We Manage Conflict Well
We fight. It’s true. But our arguments don’t involve insults or violence or destruction. And more times than not they lead to discussions that ultimately mitigate future conflicts about the same issues. We made it a point to seek out and learn tools that would help us gain a deeper understanding of one another with each conflict that we resolve together. We are not masters at this, but we try. Hard. And I look forward to being part of an even stronger couple as time goes on because of that effort.

4) The Mundane Is Suddenly Interesting
The minutiae of Bill’s life doesn’t capture my attention all the time — okay, hardly ever — but the small details of our life can come alive. I adore his sense of humor and, although I give him a hard time about being ridiculous sometimes, I am so glad to have him around to lighten the mood. His reported conversations with the dog are hilarious plus, as KT says, he does the best Goocher and Charlie voices.

5) There’s Minimal Drama
I fight fair — my parents did not fight fair and I’ve always made it a point to avoid being hurtful like that to someone else. I might not always admit when I’m wrong, listen to Bill, or acknowledge his good points, but I try to as much as possible; every time I miss one of those opportunities and I find out about it, that’s one more chance for me to be more self-aware for the next time. I apologize when I cross the line. I can be full of high emotions, sure, but I am careful not to use them to consciously manipulate Bill or cause turbulence for the sake of drama. He exhibits all of these behaviors for me — some better than I do — and certainly deserves my best effort in return.

6) My Friends and Family See What I See
I definitely fell in love with and married someone who the people in my life want me to be with. My friends and family all enjoy Bill’s company and think he is a great partner to/for me.

7) I Know How To Make Him Happy
I know what Bill wants and needs. I know that I know because he tells me that I know. I also know that I know because when I say, “Here’s a [movie, meal, book, website, article, shirt, etc.] that you’ll like,” I am usually on the mark. I also know that I know because I try hard to understand those things, I work at it, and I strive to meet those wants and needs. I don’t know what Bill wants and needs because of some we-were-just-meant-to-be-together, mind-reading magic, I know because I seek to know and he is mature enough to share with me.

8) We Have The Same Life Priorities
Our priorities in life, our core values, match up well. I look into to the future and imagine growing old with a partner who is honest, emotionally balanced, financially responsible, supportive, open-minded, and kind-hearted, and I see Bill with me. He is that partner.

9) I Respect Him Deeply
I respect Bill. I think he is a good man. More than love him, I like him. He has chosen a path in life that shows what good character he has. Even when I am annoyed (or infuriated) at some decision he has made, and I am questioning why on Earth he thought it was a good idea, I never have to question his motives because I know that they originate in the desire to do right by others.

I have met the one for me. Lucky for me he’s also the guy I married.

We need more hawks.

Shot from inside the house through my screen door.

I bought this bird feeder because it was not supposed to accommodate squirrels. This guy looks fairly accommodated, no?

I noticed that the lid of the feeder has been twisted off when I come home from work. It had tell-tale scratch marks on it so I knew it was a squirrel. What I didn’t know was that the damn squirrel was sitting INSIDE the bird feeder while he/she ate seed meant for the birds. Jerk.

Resolution accomplished.

I made one New Year’s resolution for 2009 and that was to start a compost pile in some shape or form. Today I fulfilled that resolution. First I bought a 115-gallon “super composter” made of 90% recycled materials at Lowe’s (#219273, not found on website, $49.97). Then I assembled said super composter — no tools required! — and placed it in our back yard in a spot that gets sun and water. Then I put in watermelon rinds and strawberry stems. Exciting, right? It’s only a matter of time before our “kitchen and yard waste [turns] into useable nutrition for all plants.”

For some reason this costs twice as much elsewhere.

That’s my name, don’t wear it out!

Spell with flickr, created by kastner, found these letters for me. Awesome, right?

POM354

I heard James Brett while listening to The Spendid Table podcast and immediately looked up POM354. Good stuff. Before I could stop myself — although, why would I? — I adopted a tree for £8.00 (AKA $12).

Pomegranates are yummy. Poverty and heroin are not yummy. Adopt a tree and help the world move one step closer to yumminess. What goes around comes around, people.

I want this bike.

Trip to Marsh? No prob. Target too? Okay. Hell, I could even take Anna with me!

Click on the photo -- I'm trying to win a bike here!

Madsen Cycles is having a link contest and anyone who drives traffic to their site is eligible to win this super duper Precious Cargo bike. Head on over there to check it out (to help me out) and then, if you have a web presence, link to them (to help yourself out). The bike also comes in light blue (second choice) and black (third choice).

Goodbye, pay-to-watch TV (at least for now)!

Bill and I agreed to drop U-verse cable from AT&T. No matter how many times a tech comes out to “fix” the problem, the reception is spotty and we regularly lose minutes of programs that were previously recorded due to freezing. I wanted to like U-verse, I really did. This should be our last month of service if all goes as planned.

The truth is, though, that dropping bad cable service and thereby savings LOTS of money each month is just a bonus as far as I’m concerned — I really just wanted to stop making it so easy for all of us to veg out in front of the tube. We each have our own weaknesses re: the siren song of various programs but Bill, Anna, and I are each just as likely to plop down in front of the TV and turn our brains off. It’s bad. We are setting a bad example for the child and signs point to her inability to handle it: Last Sunday afternoon she chose to watch a few hours of TV in a row and, even though that was the first time she had done that all weekend, it ended with her teary, in a bad mood, declaring that she was utterly bored and we just wouldn’t agree to do anything that she wanted (never mind the fact that she hadn’t actually sought to interact with us). That’s when it hit home that WE are the adults and WE should be making the choice to limit the amount of time she spends letting her precious brain atrophy. That incident was clear in my mind when I read this post and heard the unspoken context of Anna’s laments echo in my head — “Entertain me!”

Bill is reluctant to go cold turkey. He still likes to watch the local news <gag> and (I think) worries about what having no television connection to the outside world might mean. I assured him that we could get service again if we decide that we absolutely can’t stand not having cable/satellite…although I think we’ll be fine. Also, we have Netflix. In the meantime, I was approved for two coupons toward buying digital converter boxes, which we may use to bridge the gap.

UPDATE 05/10/09: We bought an antenna last night from Wal-Mart since my friend Charlie told me that’s all we need for our HDTV. Bill hooked it up to the HDTV this afternoon and, even with little to no fiddling, we now get several local channels in HD (including channels we didn’t get with cable, like alternate feeds of PBS). My blathering about how we don’t need TV went right out the window as we proceeded to flop down and zone out in front of the television…although I think it had more to do with a post-Mother’s-Day-dinner lull. I have been enjoying not being able to turn on the television and veg like I was (apparently) accustomed to so I hope to continue reading more, which has always been a love of mine. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Youniverse Personality Quiz

A quick visualDNA summary goes like this:

MOOD — Dreamer
FUN — Thriller
HABITS — New Wave Puritan
SOCIAL — Fun

I don’t know if I agree with the details of some of these assessments but it certainly was an interesting way to have my personality evaluated (pictures instead of straight up questions).

Take the test yourself and see how accurately it judges you!