Michelle's Daily, Semi-Annual, Bi-Monthly Blogfest.

Stupid People: Part Two.

2009-07-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

I've seen I don't know how many newscasters, politicians and pundits toss around the term "reverse racism" alot lately. And I keep asking myself, self? what the hell is reverse racism? And I can't figure it out. As far as I can tell, either you're a racist, or you're not. It's pretty simple math really. There seems to be some sort of reasoning that racism is a white thing. And if someone of another ethnicity is a racist towards white people, then it's reverse racism.

Double-u, Tee, Eff?

The way I see it, if you're a racist, regardless of your race, and regardless of the race you despise, it's just plain racism. No? I mean, the closest I can come to defining reverse racism, would be.. say, someone who hates their own race. Does that even exist? How self-hating do you have to be to accomplish that?

I dunno. I guess I'm just tired of seemingly intelligent people saying stupid things. And maybe it's just me, 'cause no one else ever seems to point it out.

Diamond Clubs Are a Girl's Best Friend.

2009-06-06T12:33:00.000-07:00

So I had a landmark birthday a couple weeks ago, and as a gift, Scott made one of my dreams come true, and that was to see a Mariners game from excellent, close seats (and sitting 7 feet from our 56" HD TV doesn't count). So, he surprised me with a couple tickets to sit in The Diamond Club at Safeco Field, right behind home plate. It was.. in a word, awesome. It was easily the closest I've sat at a game. Usually we sit in the upper deck somewhere, or in the cheapo outfield bleachers. But not this time. Here we were, a mere 30 feet or so behind home plate. We could practically smell the player sweat (or maybe that was the garlic fries).

Okay, so I admit, I don't dream real big, but it was still something i'd always wanted to do, and in 30 years of Mariners fandom, never had. So this was a real cool experience. But the seats we're only part of it. One perk of the Diamond Club is all the free food and drinks you can eat. And we're not talkin' peanuts and popcorn either, though there's that too. When you enter the club, you're greeted by very friendly staff, seated to a reserved table, and welcome to help yourself to your choice of delicious foods. We didn't really indulge as much as we could have, but what we did have was delicious. And once we were done with that, we headed outside to check out our seats. Here's a few pics of the experience..

Inside the Diamond Club club.

The view from our seats. a mere 8 rows back. It's actually closer then it looks here. My cam has a wide lens.

The Huskies won the championship, so they were on hand to throw out the first pitch.

Yeah baby, sweet dugout closeness!

My favorite Mariner.

Felix Hernandez striking out the Twins' Mauer.

Woo hoo! Home run!

Ichiro striking a pose.

The Twins' Justin Morneau in the batters circle.

Extra innings..

Jose Lopez waiting his turn.

We're down, so pinch hitter Griffey comes in to try and save the day.

He tries, but ultimately we lose the game.

Regardless of the loss, it was such a cool place to sit and watch a game, it really didn't matter. Oh, and the best part was when we got home and checked the broadcast to see if we made it on TV. Well, we sorta did. Apparantly the 8th row just barely makes it into the frame on TV, so you can see Scott's arm occasionally, and once in a while our torsos. We found it pretty funny that we thought we'd be visible in alot of the home plate shots, but it turns out when we are, our heads are cut off by the top of the frame. Good times..

Obama Lifts Bush's Stem Cell Restrictions.

2009-03-09T11:06:00.000-07:00

"We will lift the ban on federal funding for promising embryonic stem cell research," Obama said."

"We will also vigorously support scientists who pursue this research. And we will aim for America to lead the world in the discoveries it one day may yield."

Yay! It's about damn time.

Link to article.

The Seligmans Couch Gag.

2009-03-06T09:09:00.000-08:00

So we're getting our 3rd couch in 4 years today. We had the same couch back at the apt for 7 years, then we got a new one right before we moved into the house and that one lasted a little while, but then broke. So, we went out and got a new one at Mor furniture. Double reclining again, storage console in the middle, y'know, nice we thought. But after a month one side began collapsing and was very difficult to open and close. Now ok, I admit i'm a little overweight, but christ, I shouldn't be collapsing couches!

So, we called Mor and they came out and looked at it, and fixed it a little bit, but there was a problem with the mechanism, and they ended up replacing the whole thing. So, they bring another, and that lasts a couple more months before Scott's side collapsed and wouldn't work at all. We said fuck it, Mor sucks, and went out on New Year's eve to find a new, nicer couch. Or so we hope. It gets delivered today, and we're hoping it lasts longer then the last couple.

And if not, maybe we'll just have to resort to bean bags.

Happy 10th Anniversary ScottandMichelle.net.

2009-03-05T10:30:00.000-08:00

White & Nerdy.

2009-02-26T09:07:00.000-08:00

Just not as much as Scott apparantly..

Happy Trails.

2009-02-02T09:44:00.000-08:00

So Scott wanted to go see the Flying Karamazov brothers at Snoqualmie Casino. I'd never seen them before, but Scott had when he was younger, and wanted to see them again so we went. I have to say, I expected more. I've been familiar with them for many years, though not a big fan. And unfortunately, I didn't leave as one either. The show was okay, but fell a bit flat. For a juggling act, there was about 85% comedy, 15% juggling, and I was hoping it'd be the other way around. Nonetheless, it was still an enjoyable time out and a good time was had by all. We gambled a little while at the casino, won some, and lost more. So there was that.

But the best part was the rest of the weekend when we stayed at the Sahalish lodge on the falls and celebrated our Valenvacationversary. Combination anniversary, valentines and get away. It's a nice place. We had a nice room with a huge spa tub. We took a walk down to the bottom of the falls, got some nice video and pics, had a wonderful fancy dinner at the lodge, saw some old trains which Scott loves, and just had a nice relaxing time.

Scott decided one night that we should go eat at the Sahalish restaurant was quite a bit fancier then I expected and am used to. I wasn't really dressed for it, and the food was very Iron Chef. Fancy, expensive, and classy. The kind of place that makes the Keg look like McDonalds. It's not really my style, but I really enjoyed it even if I was a little uncomfortable in that kind of setting. Still it was a good time, with my first Appletini's, excellent food and even better company.

Here's some pics from the trip..

When we first went out to see the falls, the fog was moving in and out. Mostly in. Great view huh?

A moment when the fog started to clear..

We took the walk down to the bottom of the falls. It was a very tiring hike back up.

We wuz there.

There couldn't be trains nearby without a trip to see them..

This was a cool train car we saw, it was used to clear snow in the Cascade mountains.

MINI Cake.

2009-01-19T11:16:00.000-08:00

So when you order a new Mini Cooper, you can track the build and shipping process of your car online. When the car begins the build process, they call it it's "Birth Day". Yep, Mini is all cutsey like that. Anyway, this last Thursday, Jan 15th, was the 1 year anniversary of our cars birth day. So, as a sort of celebration, and because I was feeling adventurous, I decided to try and make a cake version of our car. And while admittedly it isn't much to brag about, (the top is too high, and the frosting isn't exactly smooth), I do have to give myself some mild props that I was able to end up with something that even remotely resembled our car in any way at all.

Beta The Betta.

2009-01-14T13:35:00.000-08:00

So after putting our first Betta, Alpha out of his misery, we decided to get another one and try again. We named him Beta, (get it? Can you guess what the next one will be called?) and having learned a couple things from my previous mistakes, we'll see if we can't keep this guy alive a little longer.

Prop 8: The Musical.

2008-12-04T08:36:00.000-08:00

Flushing Nemo.

2008-11-26T13:29:00.000-08:00

So I awoke yesterday to find our Betta fish, Alpha, with a giant open wound on his side and his flesh bulging out. It was a sad sight. I have no idea what could have happened as he lives alone in the aquarium and was just fine the day before, though he had been sitting low in the tank for a couple days so I knew something wasn't right.

We had just changed the water last week, and did nothing different then we usually do. But still, there he was, injured and looking sad as ever. We figured it wouldn't be long before he was a goner, and when we checked him this morning he was hiding in his barrels, not moving except for one small front flipper wagging weakly. He wouldn't even come out to eat, and he couldn't even really swim. Whenever he tried he wobbled severely and couldn't stay up in the water very well.

So, we decided it was time to put him out of his misery. We took him to the bathroom, and sent him on his way down the great water slide like Finding Nemo where he can rush through the plumbing out into the great wide ocean. Perhaps even finding his family who can take him to a Dr. and get him fixed.

Or so i'll keep telling myself.

Fools.

2008-11-11T10:03:00.000-08:00

On a day when I felt tremendous happiness that the American voter finally did the right thing by electing Barack Obama, I was brought back down to earth almost immediatly when Prop 8 passed in California amending the state constitution to ban gay marriage, as well as similar props in Arizona, Florida and Arkansas.

I don't know what to say. That it passed makes me want to puke. It really does. I feel sick to my stomach by it. I have no idea how, in a country that is supposed to be all about how "All men are created equal" we continue to repeat this ignorant move over and over again. How in a country that used to have slavery, that used to deny blacks and whites the right to marry each other, that used to say women couldn't vote, we can learn from those mistakes, correct them, and still continue to do it over and over again.

There's no excuse. You people who believe in God, who is supposed to be about peace and love and good happiness stuff, you continue to use it to spread hate. You pass laws that spread hate. You think you're doing the right thing, but you're not. You are hateful, spiteful, ignorant morons. You think the gays are trying to impose their agenda on you? Take a look in the mirror and ask yourselves how GLBT people are imposing anything on you by wanting equality. Then take a look at what you're doing. If you can't see who's imposing on who, then I don't know what to say.

Sanctity my ass.

The divorce rate is 50%. Fifty percent! One out of every 2 marriages will fail, and yet you claim some sort of sanctity to the institution. An institution that allows criminals of all kinds to marry. Murders, pedophiles, rapists. All can marry. An institution where a large portion of which cheat on their spouses. An institution where you can go to Vegas, get drunk, and marry someone you just met an hour earlier in a pool, naked, by a guy dressed as Elvis. This is the sanctity you keep referring to?

Please.

I keep hearing opponents of marriage equality say "I don't have a problem with gay people, I just don't think they should be allowed to get married." Do you people hear yourselves? I have an impossible time understanding how fucking stupid someone can be to actually think those words let alone utter them aloud.

This is seperate drinking fountains all over again. Something we had just 40 years ago. Have we forgotten already?

Oh sure, supporters of Prop 8 claim that they voted yes not to deny rights, but to protect churches from losing their tax exempt status if they refuse to perform such marriages. And look at that, we're back to religion again. Churches shouldn't even have tax exempt status in the first place. And if they do, if they get any benefit from the government at all, they SHOULD lose it if they discriminate. If you are a private organization of any kind, religous or otherwise, feel free to discriminate. It's stupid and wrong, but you can do it. But if the government is involved in any way, you don't get to. Period.

Oh I know, it's all about protecting the children. The poor poor children. What will happen to them if the GLBT's get equal rights? Whatever will we do if our kids see two men or women holding hands or *gasp!* kissing. We might have to explain something to them, teach them something, and we certainly wouldn't want to do that now, would we?

I have tried and tried to understand why anyone would oppose this and I can't come up with anything logical. Nothing at all. It just doesn't make sense. Remember the old saying "Those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it."? How can we possibly repeat the same mistake over and over and over? Will you idiots never learn?

Marriage isn't a religous institution. If it ever was, it isn't anymore. Any heterosexual couple can get married with or without a church. Atheists can get married. You don't need a church to do so. We have a friend who can marry people and he got ordained by signing up for some website online. Some random website that has no religous affiliation. Marriage a religous institution? Please..

What are we missing? Is it a slippery slope? If gays can marry, what's next? People marrying animals? Children? Trees? Hershey's chocolate bars? Is that the problem? Maybe what's missing from the contract is the words "consenting adults". Because I don't care what your relationship is, I don't care if it's a man and woman, a man and man, a woman and woman, or 15 women and 30 men. If everyone consents, what's the problem?

Oh sure, it's an alternative lifestyle right? I mean, people choose to be gay or transgendered. It's fun! Sure it is. It's fun to be ostracized, it's fun to be judged and denied rights! It's a blast to be kicked out of your home because of what you are. Why wouldn't someone choose a life that is full of anxiety and stress, to be told you're not normal and that god doesn't love you because your different. Did you choose to be straight? You made a conscience choice to not be gay? You could just as easily have chosen to be attracted to men instead of women? Get a grip you fools. A person has no more choice over wether they are GLBT then they do over their skin or hair color. And if you think otherwise, then go read a book, because you don't know enough yet.

America made me very proud to be a part of this country on Tuesday. And then just hours later, it took that away.

It makes me very sad.

Con Air.

2008-08-01T23:44:00.001-07:00

So my cool new HD camcorder, the one I got for my birthday a couple months ago that records to SD cards and that I really really liked? Yeah, it's gone. Some asshole stole it.

As you may have read on Scott's blog, he went to San Diego this week for work. So coming home last night, he had to take a small commuter flight from San Diego to LAX, where he then boarded a regular airliner to Seattle. Well, somewhere along the way his suitcase got lost. Someone forgot to put it on a plane, or take it off, whichever, point is, it wasn't there when he arrived in Seattle. And he wasn't at all happy about it.

Well, this morning, we get a call from Alaskan Airlines saying they found our bag and are going to deliver it to us today. Awesome! Problem solved.

Well, not so much. See, once the suitcase arrived and the guy left, Scott was going through it unpacking, and everything seemed to be there. Clothes? check. Work laptop, check. My camcorder bag, check. Etc.. That's when he opened the camcorder bag only to find it was EMPTY! That's right, some fucking minimum wage asshole prick at the airport went though our suitcase, saw the camcorder bag, opened it up, became enamoured by the cool shiny HD logo on the side, and decided he deserved it more then we did.

I have never seen Scott so pissed off in the whole 10 years we've been together.

Yeah, I am too. After all, it was my birthday gift. And it wasn't a cheap one.

So now we get to fill out a form. Woo. I'm sure that'll get it back. The airline will of course apologize profusely, the guy will get caught and fired and justice will, as it always does, prevail.

I'll just go ahead and start holding my breath right now.

Headline Of The Day.

2008-07-20T11:16:00.000-07:00

"Jerry O'Connell & Rebecca Romijn Are Trying to Get Pregnant"

I admit i'm no Dr, and call me sexist if you must, i'm just sayin' that I think the smart money is on Rebecca.

"Kind Of A Letdown."

2008-07-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

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Actually, our 4th wasn't a letdown at all. Though we did joke after a few unimpressive fireworks that they should be more accurately titled. Y'know, like instead of being called "Monster!" or "Happy!", they should actually have names like "Kind of a Letdown", or "Sorta Cool, But Not Really" or, "I'm Probably a Dud" which would be especially accurate for Ground Bloom Flowers. You light some hoping they'll be this big cool thing, and it just kind of ends up wimping out. I think if someone were to open a fireworks stand with more accurate names like that, the "That's It?!" would be a best seller. Hey, maybe I finally found my calling.

Anyway, don't let me fool you, it was a good time, there were several good ones in the bunch, plus we had food, family, and the kids had fun lighting some of their first fireworks, and that's no bad time at all.

Summer Lightning, Had Me A Bla-ast..

2008-06-30T09:07:00.000-07:00

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Last hight, after a 90+ degree weekened, it began thunder and lightning! Kind of a weird follow-up to a sweaty weekend. But, me being me, I grabbed my cam, and went out and got some footage of mother natures early fireworks show. Going purely by the 1-one-thousand, 2-one-thousand.. method of counting time between the lightning and it's thunderclap, it was about 4 miles away from here. Scott also mentioned to me this morning that I guess a group of 4 people nearly got hit by it.

... J, K, L, M, N, O, Pee.

2008-06-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

So I was sitting at the table eating breakfast when I noticed some 20-something guy with a shaved head and a long black beard walk into our yard but off to the side of the house. So I get up, and go to the window to see what he's doing in our yard. He walks over to the edge of our backyard (pic), unzips his pants, and starts urinating.

The asshole is peeing in our yard!

So i'm on the back porch now, and I yell out "Hay!" but get no reaction. He's only about 20 feet away and I know he hears me. I say it again, louder this time, but still nuthin'. I say it once more, more angrily, and he continues to pee, but finally sends back a sarcastic "Sorry, had to pee.." with a cavalier tone like "What's your problem lady? I had to go.." I said, "What the hell, you don't just walk into and pee in peoples yards.." he shrugged, turned, and as he walked away said "Hay.. had to go.."

I'm weirded out just from the sheer oddness of it. What the hell is wrong with people?! Who does that?!

Even Better Then The Real Thing.

2008-06-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

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So we decided to go to the Point Defiance Zoo and give my new HD camcorder a little workout this weekend. The footage came out great, and I'm just in love with the whole recording to flash media thing. It's just so much nicer and easier to manage.

The catch is, AVCHD video is a highly compressed format which takes some serious computer power to edit, which means we need to upgrade my computer. But, I found a way to work around that a bit and got a video made anyway. It won't look as good as it could (certainly not HD) but you get the jist.

In A Crabby Mood.

2008-06-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

So for a while now we've wanted to go check out a restaurant we'd heard about called The Crab Pot. It's a seafood place where they bring you a big bowl of crab legs, mussels, clams, shrimp, red potatoes and corn on the cob and just dump it all out on the table where everybody picks from the same pile. No plates, no silverware, just a wooden mallet, a shell cracker, and a small cutting board. It's not all that dignified I admit, but it is kinda fun.

We had planned to eat outside, but it was lightly raining off and on so we stayed indoors and got ourselves a window seat. Since the restaurant is located on a small man made lake, we could watch the ducks and geese swim around while we ate.

We tied our bibs, grabbed a tool in each hand, and were all ready for the fishy feast.

Then the food arrived. What's kind of odd about the place, is you HAVE to order 2 bowls of food. It makes sense in that one order wouldn't be very much, but at $30 a pop for the Alaskan (which is the one we wanted) it adds up fast, especially since Scott's mom was treating us for my birthday. Anyway, the food came and was dumped on the table. We grabbed our mallets and a crab leg and began hammering them to pieces like we were Mario in a real life version of Donkey Kong.

It was a little messy (moreso once I spilled my water and some butter, but hay, it's what I do..), but that's all part of the fun. And while the food was maybe a little overpriced, especially since I doubt it was all fresh, it was still a cool experience. We ate just about all of it save for a couple crab legs. You just get tired of trying to dig the meat out after a while. My only real complaint is the lack of lobster tails in the bucket. Of course that would skyrocket the price even more, but they're so much easier to eat, and just that much more delicious.

Best Birthday I've Had All Year.

2008-05-23T22:58:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a little while, so I figured i'd share a couple of my recent birthday treasures.

The big surprise gift was Scott wanting to upgrade my old camcorder. I had a MiniDV cam, and it was nice, but it's over 4 years old and things have advanced significantly in the camcorder world since then. So after some research, I settled on the Canon Vixia HF100 Hi-Def cam. The footage is Hi-Def all right, I didn't really expect it to be as good as it is for a consumer cam this small, but I was pleasantly surprised. Plus, you don't need tapes anymore because it records straight to SD cards which is far more convienent and easier to manage. Now I just need to upgrade my computer so it can handle editing Hi-Def footage.

I also got the "I am Not A Paper Cup" coffee cup, and if you haven't heard of it, It's an insulated porcelain mug with a silicon lid that looks exactly like the tall white paper cups you get at your local coffee shop. The whole point of it is to be more environmentally friendly, though I really just like it for it's novelty.

And then Scott wrapped up the day by making me a delicious steak & crab legs dinner. And even though we had the right tools for the job, getting meat from crab legs is still a ton of work.

So despite the life odometer advancing a digit, it turned out to be a very good day.

..And DB Was It's Name-o

2008-04-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

We got our vanity plates yesterday. As you may remember, we bought a Mini Cooper recently, and I made a spontaneous pun on the name before we even got it, (it's a Cooper, so I joked we should name it "D.B.") and it just sorta stuck. So, in the spirit of taking things too far, we ordered a vanity plate. Since "DB" was already taken, we got our alternate. It works.

So there you have it. The tale of DB Coop the car. And as if that wasn't interesting enough for ya, we live in the northwest, the same part of the country where our car's namesake jumped from the plane.

I know!

Got A Piano You Want Smashed?

2008-03-25T18:12:00.000-07:00

So brother in-law's can be a pretty cool thing. Mine works as lead security for various concerts and shows that come into the area. And as such, he sometimes gets swag from backstage. You know, guitar picks and the like, and becuse he's just that kind of a nice guy, we get some of it!

So he stops by last week, and brought with him a pretty cool souvinier for us from the Blue Man Group show he worked recently. It's the piano smasher mallet they use to, well, smash the piano. It's just a cheap mallet made out of PVC pipe and foam, and the foam head is split because of the pounding it took during the show (yep, it's used), but cheap or not, as fans of the Blue Man Group, and having seen them in Vegas, it's a really cool thing to have, I know people get drumsticks and paintings and stuff at the show, but not sure how many have an authentic piano smasher. All I know is, I feel quite special to be one of the few.

Anyway, here's a couple pics..

Peep Jousting!

2008-03-23T14:27:00.000-07:00

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So we finally decided to try some peep jousting this year. What? You haven't heard of peep jousting? Well it's easy, simply take two peeps, give 'em each a toothpick, set 'em in the microwave, and place your bets. Typically, the winner is the one that doesn't implode. Well, that's what usually happens anyway. Our tournament turned out a little different. Let's just say the old saying "Two will enter, but only one will leave" may not always apply.

Anyway, enjoy!

Are Eggs Supposed to Look Like That?

2008-03-23T10:15:00.000-07:00

Wow did Easter sneak up on me this year, I didn't even realize it was this weekend until Friday! I thought it was the 3rd Sunday in April? Apparantly not. Or maybe the leap year just screwed it up somehow. Regardless, I was completely caught by surprise. So, we rushed out, got some eggs and dye and did our annual egg coloring yesterday. We'll hide a few this morning for each other 'cause we're just that weird. Besides, who says you gotta stop having fun just because you grow up? Nobody I respect, that's for sure.

Oh, and we did Peep Jousting for the first time this year. So that was... fun. I'll put video up in a bit.

Anyway, Happy Easter!

He's Baaaaaaack!

2008-03-05T11:57:00.000-08:00

Yep. Our pal Woody is back for '08. Tappin' his little heart out on our chimney to try and attract his one true love. It's always interesting when something like a woodpecker ventures into your yard, and how quickly you go from "Hay cool, a woodpecker!" to "goddamnit... the f'ing thing's back.."

It typically takes about 3.8 seconds.