THE BLOG OF ETERNAL STENCH

Le Tour de France 2009

2009-07-04T11:18:00.003-05:00

Jeff and I started off the morning with some pancakes and watched the Wimbledon women's championship match between Serena and Venus Williams. Then we both realized that today started off the TOUR DE FRANCE! Something we both love to watch every year. So we turned our cable to the Versus channel just in time to watch Lance Armstrong start his time trial. For someone who retired from the world of competitive cycling in 2005, he did awesome. Of course he's been training and competing all year, but for a man who is 4 years older then he was last time he competed, I'd say he did awesome.

Today the riders started out in Monaco (you know, where Grace Kelly was the Princess) and briefly rode into France, then back into Monaco. A time trial as mentioned above, but 20 minutes of pure hard cycling.

I'm excited to watch the rest of the race over the next three weeks. Not only is it exciting to see these cyclists in action, but the scenery is just gorgeous. Too bad the French are already showing there true sportsmanship, as they've already been heard booing Lance Armstrong at the beginning of the race.

GO LANCE and team Astana!

Fourth

2009-07-04T10:40:00.003-05:00

Happy July 4th, Everyone! Independence Day for us Americans where we give thanks and celebrate our nations history, even if it's not as long compared to the rest of the world. We are headed over to my Aunt's house for her annual shin dig that she's put on for 30+ years. Hope you have a great one!

Yes, I Have Gone Crazy

2009-07-01T20:36:00.003-05:00

On Sunday afternoon, I broke the news on my Facebook and Twitter pages that I was starting my new job as a Communications Coordinator for a credit union here in San Antonio. Well, I did start the job on Monday and pretty much came home in tears. Tuesday was slightly better but something was still nagging at the back of my mind. Today was no good.

It's hard to explain to rationale people (and I would of considered myself amongst the 'rationale people' last week) that I just knew this was not going to work. However, I know I've completely gone off the deep end here, but I refuse to regret a decision I knew was the right thing to make.

I have decided not continue with this position. For once, I am standing by my choice and that's all you need know. I am planning to continue contract work out of my house until I can find another full time position.

What I will tell you, however, is that I have the most awesome, loving and supportive husband in this world! He is fantastic and has been a total rock (as always).

Odd Week

2009-06-25T22:19:00.003-05:00

If the events of the Air France flight a few weeks ago didn't have my nerves on edge for the "They happen in 3's" phenomenon, this week has proved there is some sort of weird truth to the superstition.

First, Ed McMahon passes away. Sad, but the man led a long life and experienced a lot. Then, this morning, I got the breaking news alert that Farah Fawcett had died. This was a little more upsetting than Ed McMahon, although I can't say unexpected since we knew she had been suffering for quite some time now. However, I think the thing that got me the most was that she had stated somewhere along the line that she didn't want this disease to take her. And it's upsetting to know it did. Cancer is so evil. It's affected two of my grandparents to date and inevitably ended up taking the lives of one of them. Now another beloved family member, my Dad's cousin, is suffering with the disease and the outlook is dismal.

However, if the day wasn't sad enough with the passing of Farah Fawcett, the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, passed away by what is still being deteremined. Possible cardiac arrest? We're still waiting for results.

I will be the first to admit, I shed a tear or two over this one. But let me explain myself. I am not the hugest fan of the Michael Jackson of today. Did he molest children? My better judgement says yes. Did he have severe psychological issues? That's obvious. Did the man need help? Yes he did. Yes, yes, yes he did.

But Michael Jackson will ALWAYS hold a piece of my childhood with his music. The man had talent. You can't deny. Yes, I was 2 when Thriller came out. But I loved, loved, loved Billie Jean and Beat It with the passion that any child could who totally lived the '80's. His music holds some of the best memories for me and I will always love that style. As any of my friends can attest, I am a die hard '80's music lover and Jackson quite frequently shows up on my playlist.

I have a fuzzy memory of a summer spent in Florida at my grandparents. My cousin, Michele and I had just finished performing in one of our 'Talent Show' skits that was common place when we all got together and then my brother, and perhaps my other cousin, Travis took the stage (aka: the large wall in the living room). While I'm not certain of the routine, I'm pretty sure it involved my brother lipsyncing Michael Jackson's Thriller or another song while wearing, and this part I can testify too, a sleeveless white tshirt with the words "THRILLER" splashed across it. Classic.

And, if that doesn't prove our 80's love of MJ, then perhaps the fact that we had a cat named Billie Jean will. I remember that cat. Brown tabby. She had mange. And she lived in the old, dead oak tree that is STILL on my parents property.

Jeff and I discussed this tonight and we both think that Michael Jackson was the Elvis of our generation. I whole-heartedly agree with that. I hope his music will live on forever. But only time will tell. My kids will know who he was. And maybe Jeff can teach them how to moonwalk.

Rest in Peace, Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcetta and you Michael Jackson. I hope that God forgives you and you find your place in Heaven.

Visit here to view my favorite Michael Jackson song.

Lost and Found

2009-06-24T10:47:00.002-05:00

I bought a book this morning from Half Price Books. This was inside of it. Kind of dangerous as someone could get a hold of it, scan it and post it on their blog.

Destination Wedding: St. Augustine, Florida

2009-06-20T20:34:00.006-05:00

I know I put this blog off for a week, but trust me, I didn't want to deliver a poor quality post and you didn't want to hear me ramble. So finally, I'm getting around to recapping our trip.

Jeff and I took a trip to St. Augustine, Florida from June 11 - June 14, 2009 to watch one of my closest friends, Meghan Hokom wed Mark Stapleton. Here's our trip in a nutshell - a very LARGE nutshell.

Jeff and I flew out early (early, early) morning last Thursday. I booked us on AirTran, because at the time, it was the cheapest way to get us from point A to C (via B of course). AirTran is based out of Atlanta. And if there is one airport I never want to see again, it's Atlanta. To start, the place is huge. But I think my distaste mostly comes from the 5 hour layover we spent there on our way to Jacksonville.

taken via iPhone en route

Let me just start by saying, I will never skimp again on tickets if it involves this long of a layover again. Never. I am not a patient person as most of you know, but I have a fondness for airports which I attribute to one of my favorite hobbies - people watching. However, after about an hour in that place and the chaos that ensued, I was done with people watching and ready to get on the frickin' plane. There are only so many iPhone apps I can mess with and only so many pages of a book I can read. And did I mention our plane was late? Of course it was. Only 30 minutes, but please, after what I had just sat through I was pulling my hair out - and Jeff's too.

Finally, after a thankfully brief 1 hour flight, we arrived in Jacksonville. This was the closest airport to fly into as St. Augustine was only about a 1 hour drive south. While Jeff battled the conveyor belts to get our baggage (which we ended up forking over about $130/total in baggage check fees) I went to go get our rental car. I reserved a mid-size car, which online said was similar to a Mazda 6 - fair enough, I thought. Four doors, not too big and economical in price. But do you think Jeff and I got a Mazda 6? Of course not. Instead, we pimped out the following:

A Chevy HHR. Otherwise known as ghetto fabulous. If any of my friends or family drive one of these, I wish I could apologize for my dislike. But I can't. Aside from it's overall look, it's pretty much plastic on wheels. After a good laugh on both Jeff and my part, we decided to make the most of it and try to look as cool as possible. We probably failed.

We took the scenic route out of Jacksonville and rode down AIA (Beach Front Avenue!!) all the way in to St. Augustine and ended up arriving around 5pm. Just in time to check into the hotel and refresh ourselves for dinner. We headed to AIA Alehouse in downtown St. Augustine to dine with Meghan, Mark and her family along with the Tye's. Jeff sampled the beer and, what has now become a Koenig tradition, we bought a pint glass to add to our collection at home.

Meghan & Desmond at AIA Alehouse

Afterwards, Meghan organized a 'Girls Night' in Jacksonville that included a lot of her friends from the school she used to teach at when she lived there. The night was pretty humid, but we made the most of it, bought Meghan plenty of rounds and ended up dancing at some small joint by the end of the night. A pretty fun night, but after a late night run to Krystal's (barf), I was running on 23 hours without sleep and pretty desparate to get back to the hotel.

Meghan and a Duff look-a-like

Jeff was sympathetic the next morning and let me sleep in a bit. Friday was our chill day. We decided to explore downtown St. Augustine which has a lot of historical landmarks. Including El Castillo de San Marcos, which we did not end up taking a tour of. After spending the morning exploring and taking plenty of pictures, we decided to go to the beach.

awesome building in downtown St. Augustine

If you know me, you're probably aware of the fact that I am NOT a beach person. It probably is due 60% to the fact that I have to stuff myself into spandex/lycra to enjoy it and the other 40% I attribute to sand (not a fan) and humidity (also, not a huge fan). But I was pretty cas (as in short for casual) about the whole thing this time and we went down there not caring if we scared anybody off the beach with our white skin and farmers tans. The water was FREEZING (not expected) but once we dunked ourselves in we got used to it. I have to say, the Atlantic ocean is so different from the Gulf. MUCH cleaner. While the water wasn't crystal clear, I still didn't have seaweed or manwar grasping at my legs like you do on the Texas coastline.

We returned to our rooms, beet red from lack of sunscreen (stupid, I know!!) and got ready for the rehersal dinner that night. The event was held at The Reef restaurant and had a great view of the ocean, awesome mojitos and a killer stuffed chicken breast.

Jeff & I at the rehearsal dinner

The next day was wedding day!! Jeff and I were crazy and woke up super early to catch some pics of sunrise. Watching it on a semi-deserted beach, when temperatures were cool and people were out walking their pups really made me appreciate the beach life. I could totally go for it if temperatures were like that all the time. Of course, by 10am, I had changed my mind. Jeff had left to go golfing with the men at the World Golf Village course, which is apparently some big deal, but Jeff appreciated it way more than me and was excited to go, which made me excited for him.

sunrise over the pier

Meanwhile, back at the hotel things were starting to get busy. At noon, the hair and makeup lady showed up and I was first on the schedule. Things were progressing relatively smoothly for a wedding day except for the fact that Desmond (Mark & Meghan's son) was so very sick. Poor baby was running a 102.7 degree fever and the bride was starting to freak out. Luckily they were able to get some antibiotics for him, but the poor guy just wanted to be held for most of the day.

Michelle (sister) & Meghan

By 7:15pm, we all caravaned down to Anastasia State Park where the ceremony was held. Thankfully(though, not at the time), 2 hours prior to the event there was a HUGE downpour, which ended up cooling temperatures by 15-20 degrees. And, the best part? It provided the perfect backdrop to any wedding - a rainbow! The bride was beautiful and walked down the aisle with her son, and was met halfway by her Dad. Too cute!

Meghan & Mark exchanging rings
(photo by Jeff Koenig)

Everything went beautifully during the ceremony and then afterwards we were probably half way through the photos when it started to RAIN! Not hard, but enough to scare away most of the wedding guests and concern the photographer because of his gear. They snapped a few more but then it was time to call it a wrap!

On to the reception! Originally the reception was to be held on the patio, but because of the showers, they had to move everything indoors. It was still beautiful, if not cozy! The cake was gorgeous, the meal superb and the guitarist was amazing (too bad he's not for hire in Texas). Meghan and Mark got to share a first dance and Mark's dad, Desmond (yes, the name is popular in his family) gave a nice toast. All-in-all a beautiful event!

Mr. & Mrs. Stapleton cutting the cake

We shared a drink with the newlyweds and some of their friends at a bar afterwards, but could only make it through one drink before we tired out. We had to get packed since we were headed out in the morning.

Sunday dawned and Jeff and I loaded up our hoopty-ride and headed out of St. Augustine around 7:30am. One last stop to take a pic of the lighthouse (which apparently is haunted, though we missed this tour as well). It was a smooth transaction returning our rental car and we actually ended up getting to our gate a little early, which meant, of course, more time to WAIT. *sigh*

We had another lenghty layover on the way back (4 hours) but made it back to good 'ole San Antone by 5:30. We were exhausted and sick of traveling (I think the layovers did us in).

But we had a great trip and were so excited to see Meghan married. Destination weddings are so much fun. And I encourage any friends or family members who plan a wedding in the future to go this route!

Picture Jeff and I holding a cardboard sign that reads:
We'll Travel For Weddings.

I organized each event into sets which can be viewed on the right side of my Flickr page.

Where the Wild Things Are

2009-06-16T18:06:00.002-05:00

Jeff and I were at the movies a few weeks ago and saw a preview for Where the Wild Things Are - if you read a lot as a child (or even if you didn't) chances are that this one made it to your bedside about as as frequently as The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Jeff doesn't remember reading this book, but I think he just doesn't remember.

I hope that mothers are still reading this book to their children. It's a classic.

Here's the trailer:

Back From the Beach

2009-06-14T21:29:00.003-05:00

Well, we made it back to Tejas this afternoon after a 4-day trip to St. Augustine, Florida to see Meghan and Mark get hitched! The bride was beautiful. The colors (teal and chocolate brown) looked fantastic and really fit the entire beach theme. I took a ton of pics and will be posting more soon. So stay tuned!

I Think I'm Finally Getting Over It

2009-06-10T20:50:00.002-05:00

I love photography. I really do. But, ever since I took up that real estate gig back in February, I've not had much desire to pick up my camera for fun. That saddened me as I've already missed some great photo opps. But the blandness of shooting house after house after house drained me of any creative juices.

A month has passed since that gig ended and the urge to start taking some shots has started to come back. I hadn't posted on my Flickr site in over a month. That's when you know things were looking bad. This past weekend Jeff and I went up to Austin to watch Lauren compete in a triathalon. I decided this would be a great chance to dust off the lens and start getting back in the groove of things.

Tomorrow we leave for St. Augustine. Meghan is getting married and what better an opportunity to take photos! Plus, she's going to let me take some shots of the wedding party (although some of that will be tricky considering I'm IN the wedding. Merely details! I'll have my handy assistant Jeff with me :D ). I'm also excited to take some shots around St. Augustine itself. If your not familiar with the town, it's one of the oldest cities in our nation. There is a Spanish fort that dates back to the 1600's and I'm hoping we might get a chance to check it out. It also has some great cobblestone streets that vehicles are not allowed to drive on.

I can't wait! I'm itching to get behind the lens again.

Something I Never Expected to See in My Lifetime

2009-06-05T16:15:00.002-05:00

My mother riding an ATV.

The proof:

Going Digital Garage Sale

2009-06-03T17:48:00.003-05:00

Over the last few months, I've taken up the project of converting all our DVD's into digital format so that we can play them on our AppleTV. It's a tedious process and there's still a LOT to do. But when all is said and done, we're sitting on top of 200+ DVD's that I really have no desire to keep around. Of course there are a few (Harry Potter, Star Wars) but the other stuff, not so much.

With that being said, I'm going to have an online garage sale. I'll list out my titles and (on the honor code) if you'd like to purchase a DVD, then please, by all means, put your name next to it. I'll figure out a better system, but I'm hoping to have everything ripped within a month's time. What a chore!

Don't worry, Scrooges out there. These DVD's will be family/friend priced. CHEAP. So stay tuned.

I'll probably be making a Google doc with all the titles listed, so if you are interested in checking it out, let me know so I can share the document with you!

Weekend Fun

2009-05-31T15:50:00.004-05:00

I didn't have much planned for the weekend, and the possibilities for fun got even worse when I found out Jeff had to work the entire weekend in Houston, no less. So I was flying stag, with only one thing on the agenda.

Yesterday, after enjoying a quiet morning, I headed to Steele HS to watch Carilee coach the Lady Pirettes (Poth ISD) in game 2 of the regional finals for division 2A softball. Jeff and I had gone to game 1 on Friday and Poth was behind 1-0 in the 3 game series. I thought I was ready for the game. I had my camera, my folding chair, some water. But then I got there and as I observed the rest of the spectators under the 95 degree, burning sun, I realized shade was visible nowhere. Except for under the bleachers. Lots of people brought umbrellas. Doh! Luckily, Carilee's mom let me borrow some shade from her large (and in charge) umbrella and we settled down to a rowdy game 2. Poth pulled out that game and won over Halletsville! We had a 20 minute break, and then on to game 3. While they fought a mighty hard game (and also some idiotic calls from the 1st base umpire), unfortunately halletsville took game 3 to advance on to the state semi-finals.

Carilee did an awesome job coaching, and what a fantastic team of girls to coach. It was great!

Later that evening I picked up Mom & Dad from the airport. Late flight at 10:15pm. They were exhausted and had that 'travel-funk' smell to them (don't worry, I told them as much). :D Boy were they glad to be home. They had a fantastic time in Alaska, but 12 days is a long time for anyone, let alone anyone traveling with my father (haha, inside joke). So I dropped them off in Pipe Creek around 11:30 pm, in which they loaded me down with a ton of souveniers for both Jeff and I (thanks m&d) and I finally got home around midnight.

This morning I didn't want to sit around the house, and after mowing the front and back yard, I realized that our house looked like white-trash-ville since our flower beds, etc were all over grown. I headed out to lowes to find some flowers for the front bed and to stock up on some mulch. 3 hours later and the yard looks fab!! I'm itching to bbq, too bad Jeff's not here to enjoy.

Then I did something I hadn't done in about 2 years (sad). I took a towel, a book, and some water and went and laid out in my yard to catch some sun!! I used to layout all the time (might regret that one day) and I haven't really enjoyed it since we have this house (a thing with privacy and all that). But the day was too nice, and my legs were to pale to ignore! Needless to say, I'm a bit lobster-fied right now, but hopefully at least 2 shades darker once the redness goes away! ha!

Carilee's planning on coming over later to hang, watch a movie.

All around a great weekend. Nice and relaxed, but plenty to do as well. Hope you had a great one!

Real geeks Ride

2009-05-25T12:22:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure how I came across these guys. Could of been Twitter, could of been Flickr. Regardless, this a pretty cool adventure these guys have mapped out for themselves.

They are biking across the U.S. to raise awareness for geeks to ride to work (cycle). They started five days ago and are documenting their journey on their site realgeeksride.com. This is a serious undertaking with plenty of sponsors and friends helping them along the way. There journey is slated to end on August 2nd, so we're still early on in their adventure.

I've done some initial browsing, but I like what they are doing. Photos, videos and blog posts are documenting their journey (and of course, they are also twittering @realgeeksride). I'm sure they'll have a ton of experiences and exciting memories after this is all said and done. Check 'em out.

Library of Congress on Flickr

2009-05-25T11:49:00.003-05:00

Woman Suffrage Party

I came across their site awhile back, but thought I'd share for those who love browsing old photography. I could look at this stuff for hours. Early 1900 photography. The technology was still so very new and the quality of these images are awesome. Enjoy.

Library of Congress on Flickr

Remembering Those on Memorial Day

2009-05-25T11:07:00.002-05:00

Happy Memorial Day everyone. Before you hop on that boat to take a ride around the lake or swing in your hammock reading your favorite book, don't forget to absorb the actual meaning of the day - those brave men and women who have lost their lives defending this GREAT country. They are easily forgotten behind our cushioned lifestyles, especially for those of us who do not serve. I am grateful for their service and will continue supporting our troops wherever they are in the world. Thank You!

We have spent the early morning doing some much needed chores around the house. Jeff is cleaning the garage (Shhhh, one word on the subject and he might stop. Let's just let him continue. It's looking good!). I went to Lowe's this morning in search of a few hanging plants to replace the dead shrubbery that, for some reason, I still had on display. *cringe*. I bought a desert plant that was, get this, drought resistant! I hope that means it is also, Colleen-not-so-green-thumbed resistant as well. It looks pretty in it's pot. Let's hope it stays that way. I also bought two new hanging plants that were on sale and some shears to clean up our red-tipped photinia shrubs that have gone wild in our backyard. Our back porch is clean and very inviting. Maybe we'll have to bbq something this afternoon so we can enjoy it.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

John and Pat tackle the Alaskan Wilderness

2009-05-21T10:16:00.002-05:00

My father turned 60 ("I'm SIXTY!" + high kick) back in March and we threw an incredible surprise birthday party for him. It was great. But this isn't the point. The point is that this week he's cashing in on his present. A trip to Alaska.

They flew out early Tuesday morning and arrived yesterday in Denali, AK. Mom said it was a beautiful lodge and the mountains are amazing. They'll be in AK for another 9 days. And on Sunday, they hop on a cruise line to enjoy the rest of their trip.

Mom is blogging about their misadventures (?) on her new, family-friendly-no-political-talk-what-so-ever-blog that can be found here.

Not So Much

2009-05-15T21:33:00.006-05:00

I was reading one of my blogs, dooce.com, earlier this evening and saw one of her banner ads with an unflattering picture of a prego woman wearing a full body suit (if you will). The words next to her read "Yo Mama! Soft and Stylish looks that are perfect for pregnancy." My interest was piqued as, after seeing their 'advertised' outfit, I was dying to see the rest.

Check out the site here: http://store.americanapparel.net/expecting-looks.html and I urge you to take a good long look. Make sure you watch the entire Flash reel at the top.

Would you be caught in any of these outfits as a pregnant woman? Nay! Not even pregnant. Would you be caught in any of these these outfits, PERIOD!?

Now. Scroll down. I particularly like the suggestion of wearing the Tri-Blend Halter Romper. Rather than hiding all the extra 'luggage' pregnancy tends to bring a long, this piece only insinuates why you are in the, ahem, condition you are currently in.

And it only gets worse! After visiting the home page: http://store.americanapparel.net/ their banner reads "Night Moves: Look Your Best After Dark" - Now am I just reading waaaay to into it or is that woman in the pink number suggesting a profession? I'll leave it at that as this is a family friendly blog.

Good laugh for the evening. Hope you enjoy. And as always, would love to hear from you.

Are you lost on LOST?

2009-05-13T23:31:00.003-05:00

Season finale was tonight. And with great anticipation Jeff and I bunkered down and watched the 2-hour event (see what I'm saying about tv?). Anyway....this finale hardly answered any of my questions and as usual, bumped what I thought was my 200 question list to well over 300.

One more season to go and destiny will be found.

I won't say more as I know some of my readers *wink* are going to save their viewing for a few more days, but I would LOVE your thoughts if you are LOST watcher.

In For Treatment

2009-05-11T10:09:00.003-05:00

Well, our beloved Sonny bun is undergoing treatment this morning for heartworms. I feel like the worst dog parent in the world. We had him on heartworm medication on and off over the years and then when we lapsed again, bam, he gets them.

But the vet is very optimistic as the tests showed a light tracing. The hard part is going to be recovery. The doctor said no 'strenuous activity' for 60 days. Hello? Has he ever seen a lab!?! They are nothing but hyper. I asked Jeff to ask the doctor for a light sedative we may be able to use on him just to keep him mildly calm.

So we had to put his rope away. And his ball. So he doesn't get overexcited. They said that if they do too much, the could have an aneurysm during recovery.

Anyway, he's staying overnight at the vets office today for observation after his treatment and we can pick him up in the morning.

Next on our to-do is take the cats in to get them checked as well. argh.

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T09:08:00.002-05:00

To my Mother and all the other mothers out there!

I'm Taking it as a Sign

2009-05-06T16:31:00.002-05:00

About two weeks ago, in the midst of my self-pity party, Jeff and I had a 'Come-to-Jesus' talk on many aspects of our lives. Without delving in to every detail, I'll touch on one. The existence of t.v. in our lives. I am the first to admit I watch a ton of it. I've got a 'show' for almost every (but not quite) night of the week. You would think that thought would of made me cringe earlier on, but alas, the thought has only recently begun to gnaw on my conscience.

There are things I keep saying I want to do. I remember at the beginning of 2008 I was going to have my personal finance blog up and running, and yet, mid-May of 2009 I've yet to do it. I also want to start my freelance travel writing, but have I sat down to write one article? Negative.

Although my days are scattered with random bits of work these days, I can attest that my daytime television is minimal. An upside, if you will. However, any kudos I can give myself from that is quickly destroyed with the amount of hours I watch in the evening. And really, who's trying to tally that up.

The second sign (the first being my discussion with Jeff) came last week, I was scrolling through some tweets when I came across this article. Aptly named, "How Dumping TV Allowed Me to Quit My Job, Create an Online Business and Fund My Retirement Account" http://tinyurl.com/3crwuz

Finally the last straw came this afternoon. I had read a blog entry that a guy I went to high school posted on his Facebook page. He gave t.v. up (and urged the rest of us to try it) and instead read, and not just magazines. Heavy stuff. Deep stuff. And, though I don't know much about his life since h.s. it looks like he's also been spending that time getting fit, another plus.

I'm taking it as a sign that enough is enough. I thought the world would end when there was no more Friends. But you know what? The earth is still rotating, and I can hardly remember all that time I devoted to the show. As a matter of fact, if I wouldn't of watched it in the first place, the world would still keep turning.

Cutting cable could also help the pocketbook, which could lead to one of my FIRST blog entries in that personal finance blog I've been meaning to start... Hey. I think this is all leading somewhere.

Cinco De Mayo

2009-05-05T16:41:00.002-05:00

Happy Cinco de Mayo. Don't forget to drink a cerveza in celebracion!

To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

2009-04-30T15:09:00.003-05:00

Twitter: Is it the question?

As a four month veteran to the tweeting world, I can hardly call myself a newbie anymore. Forced into yet another social media outlet by suggestion, curiosity kept me coming back. For some of you, you just don't get the appeal. It's understandable. But have you seen it work?

I've been fortunate to have been taken in by a small community (and growing) in the Twitter-verse. The awesome folks at Blellow are all Tweeters and are extremely active, promoting the company, networking, etc. Plus my brother and his fiance tweet. If my close personal friends do, than I've yet to share their twitter names, but discussions during our hang outs have never eluded to this fact. But the biggest shock to them all? My mother tweets. And that's not it. She's got two accounts (pick your jaw up from the floor, darlings, it's not at all ladylike).

So let me guess. You don't think your life isn't interesting enough to share anything about yourself. Or, you think Twitter is just a place for me to inform you that I just gorged myself on a double-meat, double-bacon, double-cheese concoction from a local dive. Well, it can be. But more often it's not. I have, in fact, tweeted once about my dinner. It was burnt. It was humor. At least to me that is.

But Twitter can be so much more. Especially for businesses. It's a way to reach out (for free) to a community. Especially if your entire community is the web. Blellow, for instance, uses Twitter to drive peeps to their website. You can see their more targeted tweets by visiting their Twitter pages:

@Blellow
@BlellowSean
@blellowvj

Aside from just driving people to their website, they also give back by providing tips, tricks, and job resources to any/all of their followers.

What about celebrities? They are crawling on Twitter. Recently, Ashton Kutcher became the first tweeter to reach the glorified 1,000,000 follower status. Alas, I'm not one of them. However, I do follow the likes of Anthony Bourdain (No Reservations), Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Eats), Samantha Brown (Great Weekends), Lance Armstrong (duh) and Dhani Jones (from the Travel Channel show Dhani Tackles the Globe). And guess what, Dhani follows me? But why?

It's simple. I RT. RT?!? What's a RT? RT = ReTweet. It's basically copying and pasting someone's post, but giving them the credit. RT @koenigkc (insert message). Well I've RT'ed enough of Dhani's posts and the others that they took notice. As well as other travel sites as well. Which has led me to some interesting/fascinating/bizarre websites/articles/other twitter sites. I'm also followed by the Travel Channel (which to me, is kinda cool).

Your bank may even be tweeting. I know for a fact USAA does. I mean, the information comes a lot faster than that monthly newsletter. And for your 'greenies' out there, it's a lot more environmentally friendly as well.

But online buddies are one thing and face-to-face is another. But many people offer/host TweetUps. I've been to one that Blellow hosted in the not too distant past. It's fun and interesting and a great way to meet new people.

I'm sure Twitter is used in many more ways than the ones I've just mentioned. But, I'm sold. And I'm definitely on the bandwagon. I know social media is the wave of the future, and if companies don't get on the bandwagon, they're going to be left behind.

By the way, I tweet here.

End of My Rope

2009-04-26T21:52:00.002-05:00

I need prayers this week. I've put my resume in to a few different places, and I'm really praying that I get an interview with a company that I've been working for, indirectly.

Please, please, please.

I'm at the end of my rope, I think. I've been super emotional lately (no, I'm not pregnant) and if you've noticed, my blog posts haven't exactly been 'peppy'. I think it's all starting to come down on me. Though, I'm trying to not let it happen.

Crossing fingers.
Kissing rabbits foot.
Tossing salt over my left shoulder.
Chanting.
Praying.

Perez Hilton is a Joke

2009-04-22T11:16:00.003-05:00

Warning: Typically I tell you when I post a political blog. Well, I think this is less about politics and more about class. Be forewarned.

If you've been hiding under a rock, you've missed the huge fuss that arose out of Sunday's Miss USA pageant. If you want to know more, check out this video.

Well, I can't hold my tongue on this one any longer, not that I really have. I am so irate over this entire thing. To start, this contestant was the only one that received such a controversial question, in comparison to the other 4 contenders and I absolutely think that because she was representing California she was set up for this question and by no other than Perez Hilton, a gay rights activist and celebrity webloger.

Perusing articles online yesterday I had read that the Miss USA pageant does not ask politically controversial questions to contestants. Oh funny, how did this one get through the cracks? If this was the case, then why did no one interfere immediately after the question was posed? Controversey sells, ladies and gentleman, and now the Miss USA pageant has gotten more press and noteriety than they have in the past 10 years, no matter if it's good or bad.

The issue, to me, is not about gay marriage. That was the question, yes, and no matter how you feel, you are all entitled to your own opinions. That is the beauty of America. Differences.

But here's my biggest issue. I went on to this Perez Hilton's website to check out his video in which he refers to Miss California as a 'dumb b****" - and I ended up perusing more of his articles to see exactly his 'style'. I saw pictures in which he drew a penis in place of a microphone, drew nipples onto a picture of a big chested celeb and many more along those lines. Oh, yes, yes, please let's get this man (??) to judge a beauty pageant for goodness sakes, because he is the epitomy of class and beauty. Right. Why didnt we do this sooner? WHO could of possibly thought to use this guy!? Trump? Shame on you!

And then the second biggest issue is this. There is no right and wrong answer. There is never a right and wrong answer to ANY Miss USA question. No one asks them what the square root of 144 is. There is no definite. So what is the big deal!?!?! She answered how she felt. That's what you wanted, that's WHY you ask a contestant an answer. To see how they answer, to see how they hold themselves.

Well guess what? She did. It just so happens she didn't agree with Perez Hilton (and also 99% of Hollywood turns out). But so frickin' what? It was HER answer. And if you don't like her answer, you should of NEVER asked her the question. I was floored when he came on talk shows afterwards and said "She should of answered like this...." and proceeded to map out how exactly she should of stated her reply. Are you kidding me? Put the shoe on the other foot.

It's not about agreement and conforming. Again, the issue isn't about your stance on gay marriage. The ISSUE is that he wanted her to answer one way, he already made up his mind, and she didn't and now she's a dumb b**** because of it?!? Utterly ridiculous. I absolutely feel bad that the gay community has this idiot championing their causes. Get someone classy, someone level headed. Stop feeding fuel to this guys fire. Perez Hilton just sent women's lib back several generations by making such a statement. Way to be 21st century... Oh and by the way. I had something else you can add to your site: