Eco-Rant

As I was driving to work today, I spotted a dark, wide cloud of smoke hovering above the car in front of me. I looked at it and peered around to see if maybe there was a nearby fire. No fire. I then peeked around the front of the car. Of course. A huge semi-truck with a smoke stack (hereby referred to as a spout) on the side which was continuously releasing gas into the air. I get really steamed up about these trucks. I once called the cops because there was a huge truck in front of me on the highway (which of course was also spouting clouds of smoke right in front of my car) with a ton of cardboard in the back of it. As it sped down the road, big pieces of cardboard just flew off of it and on to the grass. I was livid. When I called the cops, they didn't seem to care much. They took the license plate and asked where the truck was headed, but I doubt they ever did anything about it. So anyway, after I see this pavement truck ahead of me on my way to work, I started counting to see how many I could spot on my way to work. Come on, it's a 40 minute drive each way, and especially in the morning when I'm half asleep I have to do something to keep myself busy. I counted 12 semis (with the big spouts) and 5 large trucks (significantally larger than my little Mustang) pulling large piles of things. I meant to blog about this awhile ago, but on my way home from work a couple of weeks ago I was stuck at a red light. I glanced to my left where one of the schools was letting out. The parents were waiting to turn left as I was waiting to go straight ahead. Every single vehicle waiting to turn left was either an SUV or a full-sized mini van. There were nine of them. I felt like I was watching the opening scene of Weeds. Which, by the way, is turning out to be a fantastic show. I just recently picked up on it, and I'm very glad that I did. I just started Season 3.

So my question is this: Why can't they work on some type of hybrid semi-truck? I know it may take a long time to develop something like that (since most, if not all, semis take diesel), but don't you think that's a little more important than some of the hybrid cars they've been creating? Plus, all of the hybrids are so expensive that most of the people in the lower/middle class who are driving around beaters to save a few bucks that are also putt putting around, spitting out smoke can't exactly afford to swap them out for a brand new Toyota Prius. So what kind of good are these cars doing? I truly feel like these cars were made because of the recent "green" trend. Yes, in the process of developing ideas to boost car sales, they came out with some nice cars that are very efficient on gas and the environment, but that wasn't their main objective. If it was, they would've also come out with some more affordable cars so that everyone (who cared) would be able to drive one. Don't get me wrong, I would love to hop into a Prius and only have to fill the tank once every two weeks, but who can afford that? /end rant

A Family Get Together.

This is just a tiny portion of my huge family.

Some of my family came in from Chicago yesterday for ONE day. They own a house in Cape Coral, so they spend the majority of their time in Florida there. So in order for my Mom + kids and my Aunt Caryn + kids to see my Aunt Cathy + kids, we all had to pile into my house. I then proceeded to give them a delightful tour of the house. We ordered five ginormous pizzas from Pizza Hut which ended up coming to us as 10 small pizzas because they didn't have large boxes. Needless to say, we'll be eating pizza leftovers for a few days. While all of the girls sat at the dining room table and caught up, all of the guys (and Brooke) engaged in playing Rockband. I think my favorite part of the whole Rockband experience was when Tyler, my four-year-old brother, sang That's What You Get by Paramore. He knew every word. Needless to say, it was a great night. I love family get togethers.

Problem: I'm sure you've all ran into this problem at one point or another. You want a big group photo... But who will take the picture? You're not somewhere where there's a large crowd of people where you can just grab a random person and ask them to take a photo for you. In fact, you're in your house with none other than the people you actually want in the picture. Solution: Have two people take the same picture and then ask me to Photoshop it.

Our Son, The Weedeater.

Yes, you read the title correctly. Who needs a weedeater when you can get your two-year-old to hand pick them out, roots and all? Gavyn's new hobby while playing outside is to pick our weeds. He grabs ahold of them, scrunches his face up (as if he's having a difficult time pulling them up), tugs them out, and says, "YAY!!" He then proceeds to look over at us and wait for us to clap and say, "YAY!!" back.

Funny thing is, no one ever taught him to do that. He's a natural. I took a few pictures of him today and I'm really proud of the one to the left. Mainly because I think I hit the focus dead on, which is something that I've been trying to work on. If you click the image, you'll see a larger version of it. You can practically make out every little hair on his adorable little face! I got a few good shots of him smiling, too, by letting him throw magnetic letters at me. Go figure.

I woke up this
morning with a stiff neck and it remained that way all day. Of course it had to happen on the day that I had 67 check outs. 50 of which happened within the time span of an hour. So if I had to turn to someone, I had to pretty much turn my whole body at them instead of just looking their way. I will really appreciate the flexibility in my neck from now on, once I have it back that is.

I feel like I spend way too much time in front of the computer and the TV. I'm in front of a computer all day at work, and even at home when I'm uploading photos and/or updating my blog. Then I'm either watching one of my shows, instantly streaming movies with Netflix on my XBOX, or playing one of the many new video games we've recently purchased. James is playing Lego Batman right now, which Russyl let us borrow. I'm about to join him because it's a lot of fun, but first I must induldge in a real lime popsicle! They are so delicious, try them. Eddy's. You'll thank me.

Food? Food, food. Food!

James and I have marked every other Thursday as our official grocery shopping day. Today is that day. Here's what's on the menu for this week:

• Party Chicken (It's a party in your mouth!) with a side of potato dish
• Baked Teriyaki Chicken served over brown rice
• James' delicious marinated steaks with asparagus
• Sloppy Joes with chips
• "Potato Delish!"
• Creamy Potato Soup with bacon and green onion
• Hamburgers on the grill
• Meatloaf with homemade scalloped potatoes
• Homemade Lasagna with breadsticks
• Ham steaks with homemade mashed potatoes

Typing that made me so hungry it's unreal! I'm especially looking forward to trying out the Teriyaki Chicken for the first time. On an unrelated note, Gavyn managed to poop everywhere a couple of days ago, AGAIN. It was all over his hands and all over the playpen at Tammy's house. Yum. Another random fact, one of my co-workers, Melissa, told me that the other day James said, "There's no one in the world like Ashley. I know that for a fact." So cute. I'm always flattered when people say things like that to/about me. I don't think that there's a better compliment you could receive.

When we get home from grocery shopping I'm doing one of the following: a) Passing out for a nap or b) Playing Toe Jam & Earl on Sega (if it has arrived). And I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty excited about choice b). By the way, I know you might be thinking to yourself... Damn, she talks about food A LOT! You might even be wondering if I'm some kind of fatty. The answer is yes and no. Time to go.

Our Family.

I love our family, that is all.