Pepper had a rough weekend

So the other night Pepper kept chewing on her back left foot and when I looked, there was this weird bump there. Saturday morning we went to the vet and turns out she has ringworm. Apparently it's in the soil and she stepped in it. Even better, she can pass it on to me. Now every time I itch, I get paranoid that I have something . . .

Now she gets a topical cream of the next 4 weeks and I have to watch that her foot doesn't touch my skin, good times.

The vet also mentioned that she's 3 lbs overweight. Time of weight control dog food.

Dachshund overload

A shoutout to Pepper's longhaired relatives.

The Hoff is just a normal person too

Apparently this is a video of The Hoff that his daughter took to help wake him up about his drinking problem. Good luck The Hoff. (It is really funny though)

IC in NC

I finally got around to uploading my pictures from last weekend's World Beer Festival in Raleigh. One highlight was running into a booth for good ole Iron City and IC Light. Although after trying all kinds of fruity micro brews, it wasn't exactly the best beer there. Still, it was a pleasant surprise and helped contribute to my overall drunkenness.

Really NPR?

Apparently PBR love NPR. I was just listening to a concert and PBR sponsored it. I tend to think of PBR having to do more with frat boys than public radio . . .

Draft review

Here's an interesting article on how the Steelers are going to use their recent draft picks. This just feels like such a different team now . . . Little over 4 months till the season starts . . .

Something to do on your lunch break

Next to The Office, one of the funniest things on television is 30 Rock. Unfortunately, it's on opposite Grey's & CSI so I never get to see it. Imagine how excited I was when I saw NBC has the entire season streaming online. My crackers and applesauce has never been so wacky.

The Downfall of Web 2.0

You know how there are all of these cool web 2.0 sites out there let us interact with each other and junk like that? While MySpace has always been kind of trashy, this is really trashy. People get to vote who can date New York on I Love New York 2. Seriously, why is this woman's 15 minutes not over yet?!?!

I'd be on this reality show

Since Sanjaya is claiming he is straight (Denial is not just a river in Egypt), imagine if he had his own dating show, Flavor Flav Style

Freaky real

Have you seen this yet? It's kind of scary how real Elvis looks . . .

Corrupting Children

Hilarious, thank goodness he obviously doesn't know what words and/or what they mean

It's the worst day of the year

Every now and then I have days when I can't stand being at work, but one of the worst the entire year is "Take Your Kids to Work" day.

Everybody brings his/her kids to his/her cube and lets them run free and be loud. Now when you are used to a sterile work environment of white noise, little kids running around can be quite distracting and annoying. I'm already counting down the hours till I can leave . . .

Something about this disturbs me

I can't quite put my finger on it, but there is something really wrong with this movie . . .

So excited

When the showed the part with Harry & Co flying past Big Ben & Parliament, it gave me chills. July 13th is sooooo far away. Good news is I have that day off to recover from jetlag, so I may have to go to a matinee :-)

How not to expand your medical practice

This doctor in Florida dressed up as Captain America and put a burrito down his pants. Amazingly, those were the least of his problems.

Go Tartans . . . or not

I've often complained about how CMU doesn't have a real mascot (a plaid, while quite popular with the preppy crown, is not a mascot). I've often even mused that this might be one of the reasons why CMU has absolutely no school spirit, especially when it comes to sporting events.

Turns out the school's administration has also figured this out.

Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apparently there is a rumor going around that my future husband, John Krasinski and Renee Zellweger are dating. While I'm sure it's untrue, I was even more upset to learn that the supposed date went down in Charlotte, a mere 2 1/2 hours from me. We're experiencing the same weather for goodness sake people!

Bunny chaos

I often worry that I'm going to become the old cat (or miniature dachshund) lady when I grow up. Glad to know that bunnies are also a definite option.

Poor Kate Middleton impersonators

If you think things suck for Kate Middleton right now, try being one of her impersonators. Let's just say job security isn't looking that great.

P.S. I put the picture of both Kate and the impersonators to show that they look NOTHING alike, meaning that they probably weren't raking it in to begin with . . .

Dragon Fire

I love The Onion, but it always took so much effort read. Thank goodness they've solved that problem.
In The Know: The U.S. Moat

The Irish Hoff

Ever think to yourself, man I distantly resemble The Hoff, be I could make some money? This guy did.

You know kids drank the "pretend" milk

Where I'm from, milking a cow isn't considered fun, it's called a living.

Taking over the Internet

As if dominating the movie box office wasn't enough, now Will Ferrell has moved onto viral videos.

Planet Unicorn

So VH1 has this new show called Acceptable.tv that shows funny shorts that compete against each other every week. I haven't gotten around to adding it to Tivo yet, but if the Planet Unicorn series is any indication, I need to add it tonight. After enjoying this episode, be sure to check out Episode 2.

Steelers 07-08 schedule

The schedule for next season was released today. Looks like a pretty good balance of teams, with the 1st few games looking pretty easy, which could lead to a good start . . .

I NEED to marry this man

Turns out John Krasinski narrates the new Apple TV commercial. I saw it last night and didn't even recognize his lovely voice . . .

Thanks CSI:Miami

On tonight's episode featuring Indian Casinos and scalpings, the one random lab guy was missing because he was attending a conference on "Graphical User Interfaces." The cool CSI dude was all like "Nerd Alert" when he heard.

It always cracks me up when there is a reference on a TV show that is so wrong. No way some guy who works in a crime lab would go to a conference on GUI's, that's something I would do. Of course this is also ironic since all of the GUI's on CSI look extremely unrealistic. OK, done being a nerd now.

PS The other weekend Eleni, Matt, and I were talking about UI's and Megan was like "What?" It took for a moment to remember that normal people have no idea what a UI is. I truly am a nerd.

I've been doing this for years

One day back in college, my roommate Astrid and I were talking about some guy she had a crush on and we decided she should Google him. Turns out he was obsessed with bugs, total turnoff and the end of the crush.

Ever since, I do this every time I start dating someone, although I haven't really found anything creepy about anyone. Yet.

Sadly, it takes a while to find me.

Too Cute

Jen keeps telling me to get a cat friend for Pepper and after watching this video, I'm almost brainwashed into doing just that. Almost. Until I think of having to clean out the litter box.

Voy a España!!!!

The trip to Spain has been booked for this June, yippee!!! Now I'll get to try authentic Sangria!

Oh Sanjaya

Now I've only watched 1 1/2 episodes of Idol this season and I'm already obsessed with the guy. I'm jealous because he has prettier hair than me. Look for yourself.

Sheetz is OPEN!!!

Just now when I was driving home to work, I saw that the Coming Soon sign at Sheetz had changed to a Now Open sign! Since Eleni and I already tried to go there Monday for lunch with no success, you can imagine how happy I was.

I hurried up and pulled in. The place was incredibly busy and I had just eaten lunch, so I didn't need any food. I did however find Galliker's iced tea! Brings a tear to my eye that little old Galliker's from Johnstown, PA has made it the whole way to Raleigh.

Unfortunately, they don't have the gallon size. I also forgot to check to see if they have their ice cream too, that would be awesome.

Animal lovin'

Sometimes even animal crackers can be X-rated.

Will Ferrell + Ninja = Comic Gold

So there's this website out there, Ask A Ninja, that features a Ninja answering questions and it is HILARIOUS. So what could make this concept even better? Having the same Ninja interview Will Ferrell and Jon Heder. How psyched are you for "Blades of Glory"?!?!?!

Advancements in Dog House Training

As many of you know, Pepper's favorite room in my house is the spare bedroom. There she likes to lay in the sun in the afternoon and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night while I'm sleeping. She likes to lay in the sun there because that room gets direct sunlight and so becomes really warm in the afternoon. This of course makes it the worst possible room in the house for her have accidents because warmth + dog piss = even more foul odor.

Recently when I had constant visitors for ~2 weeks, I noticed something. Pepper does not get up in the middle of the night if my bedroom door is closed and thus no accidents (which is good since half the time my grandmother was sleeping in the spare room and I never would have heard the end of it). After everyone left, I returned to sleeping with my bedroom door open at night and Pepper returned to peeing in the spare room at night.

So Monday night I started to close my bedroom door to test her and sure enough, the past couple of nights she's slept through the night with no accidents. Who knew that's all it took. Now watch her wake up tonight just because I've blogged about this! Now if only I could get her to lose those 4 lbs she's gained since last fall . . .

Peanut Butter disproves Evolution

Take that Darwin.

Poor Apex

First a chemical plant fire and now this. Some suburbs just can't catch a break.

This will be the topic of tonight's nightmare

Scientists have bred sheep that are 85% sheep and 15% human. Was this really necessary?

I need to watch more of The Daily Show

TiVo has taken 2 things out of my life, The Daily Show and The Food Network. After watching this clip, I obviously need to put at least one back in if not both (Paula Deen, I miss you!)

I wish I lived in Japan . . .

They have such crazy television. Kinda makes me feel better about watching "Flavor of Love."

Yikes, I haven't posted in a week!

I've been so busy at work and with all of my visitors that I haven't had a chance to find anything good to post . . .

How about this, yesterday some guy winked on me from match.com. He was wearing a cowboy hat and had a picture of himself holding a rifle. Guess who didn't get a wink back!

Crap, I missed Pi Day

Yesterday was Pi Day and as a proud CMU alum, you'd think I'd remember such an important day. I guess when you don't have a bunch of math nerds to cover your campus with one long continuous string of Pi, it kind of slips your mind. (4/20 is also a big holiday at CMU)

P.S. When I googled "CMU pi day", the first hit was for one of my all time favorite TA's, Tom7! The man kept me and Liz from flunking out of our CS classes.

Happy Birthday :-)

Emoticons turn 25 years old this week! Did you know that they were created at Carnegie Mellon? Man, emoticons, Ted Danson, Ethan Hawke, and Josh Groban all came from CMU. Go Tartans! :-B

More Flavor Flav kinda

OK, I'll admit it. I stopped watching "I Love New York" a couple of weeks ago. I thought maybe I'd enjoy it, but New York was so trashy and the guys competing were so awful that I couldn't stomach it.

Now comes news that VH1 is collecting some of the craziest girls from the 2 seasons of Flavor of Love and giving them their own show. The idea of this kind of makes me sick too . . .

I thought about getting this at CMU

So very, very wrong

This hurts my brain.

Pepper the Blue Heeler

I just got this interesting email from match.com -

Your dog in the picture...is that a blue heeler?

I have a cat that I rescued 7 years ago. I've been thinking about getting a dog and though I grew up with German Shepherds, I've thought about getting a blue heeler. I want a dog I can take riding with me (horses I mean). I thought a smaller dog like a heeler would be better company for my cat, less intimidating than a larger Shepherd.

What do you think?

I don't want to get a dog that is going to negatively change my cat's personality....

This is hilarious because check out what a blue heeler is. Now anyone who has met Pepper knows she is about the farthest thing from a cattle dog. She barked for 1/2 an hour tonight because my neighbors moved their deck furniture so I doubt she's going to go near horses or cats for that matter . . .

A Near Miss

I knew that one day my being such a player was going to come back to bite me.

Friday night I was at the grocery store, doing my normal grocery store thing when I looked up and recognize this guy at the self checkout. Now since I really don't know that many people in Raleigh, so I'm trying to figure out how I know him. And then it hits me, I went out with him a couple of weeks ago and never returned his calls. Crap.

I brushed my hair over my face and quickly went up the next aisle. I don't think he saw me, but just in case I went to the frozen food section (on the opposite side of the store) and returned a few phone calls just in case he was one of those people who take 20 minutes to use the self checkout because they get confused by the UI.

So the point of the story is that I should go grocery shopping at 7 AM Saturday morning to avoid such occurrences.

We're not even going to be able to recognize the Steelers next year

The Steelers cut Joey Porter yesterday, one of the more colorful and talented players on the team.

I know it seems like every season they lose somebody recognizable (last year was Randel El) and that's the way a game with salary caps goes, but still it's kind of depressing.

I guess I should count my blessings that Big Ben and Hines are still around. Is it bad that I'm already dreading next season?

Dancing Clowns = Low Mortgage Rates

The past couple of days cnn.com has been showing this really annoying ad. It's one of the typical refinance your mortgage ads that are always a little crazy, but this one is really odd. It pictures a freaky dancing clown on top of a house.

Does a clown somehow imply trustworthiness or extremely low rates? Is the clown a mortgage broker? Can you imagine the conversation that went out when this ad was pitched?

My that dog who has been dead for a week looks sexy today

The best part of this story is that no one is disputing that the guy had sex with a dog that had been dead for a week . . .

Oh no!

I'm glad to know that with serious issues facing us today like the war in Iraqi and global warming, this local news station decided to report on the dangers of emo. I found an emo test online like the talk about. Also, could you take a sheriff in a baseball cap seriously? Especially a hat that looks so much like last year's NFL sideline hats?

Seriously?

So some of you may have heard me talk about this guy from match who sent me a couple of emails each over 1,000 words (I wrote an essay on The Hobbit in Junior High that had less words).

Despite my better judgement I kept writing back to him, mainly because I didn't have the energy to really read his emails to see if we'd get along or not. I finally gave in and told him my number so he called me one night last week (I didn't answer because I screen calls not in my address book as every player should plus Tivo was really backed up). Before I even had a chance to call him back the next night, he sent me yet another epic email (including a very thorough list of the different activities we could do that included a breakdown of possible locations and where they were geographically located in Raleigh). Once more against my better judgement I wrote him back and suggested get just get coffee at Crabtree (I had to return some pants to Anne Taylor so why not kill 2 birds with one stone?).

When Friday came around and I still hadn't heard from him, I assumed he realized that my proposed date was a blow-off (FYI if a girl ever tells you she wants to meet for coffee instead of dinner, she's not that interested and is just giving you a pity date). Low and behold he called Friday to see if we were going to get together later on that night. At this point I realized that he had never got my email and took it as a sign and so didn't call him back.

Now keep in mind, he hadn't heard from me since roughly Monday night despite an email and 2 phone calls. I'd assume at this point any normal guy would think, "Hey I don't think she's all that interested. Guess I'll have to go find someone else who isn't nearly as hot and interesting as Heather, but I'll live." Imagine how surprised I was just now when I got email from him with ~400 words asking if I've met someone and what he did wrong . . .

Don't even get me started on yesterday's date who keeps texting me.

If I was you, I'd be worried about my own quarterback

Ken Whisenhunt commented to reporters that the reason Big Ben sucked last year was because of Ben's motorcycle accident. While most football fans figured that out months ago, Whisenhunt is just stirring up trouble and trash talk now that he is with the Cardinals.

If I had quarterback who already has one child out of wedlock and has been seen the morning after with Paris Hilton, I'd be more concerned with him instead of what Big Ben is doing wrong.

3 and 1/2 minutes of my future husband

Got to give John Krasinski props for consistently doing all of these faces. Sigh.

Reno 911! The movie

I've been so busy recently I haven't had the chance to talk about how incredibly excite I am about the new Reno 911! movie (not as excited as Borat, but still pretty excited). I found this list of the top 10 scenes from the series to tide me over until I can go see the big screen version.

The Hoff in Drag

Samir emailed me about this a while ago, but I've been busy and so just now gotten around to posting. The Hoff is starring in the Vegas production of The Producers and being the fame-seeking narcissist that he is, he let People take pictures.

Gracias mi amigos

Sounds like the Sangria party was a success! No one got taken to the hospital, everyone left with the person they came with, and Pepper only barked for the first hour and a half, so I'd say it was a good night. Thanks for coming out people.

I know your dog is jealous

In about 4 days, I created this masterpiece. While not a perfect work, there are still many more patterns in the dog sweater book for me to create!

Something Big Ben would never do

Knock up his girlfriend and then break-up with her. Nice one Tom Brady.

I hope Blogger isn't too risque

A guy is suing IBM after they fired him for logging into an adult chat room at work. Ok, I've added another item to my list of things not to do while working for IBM.

Fun with the new computer

Checkout my latest project, knitting Pepper a sweater. I took the picture with the built-in camera on my laptop.

I got a new computer!

After my iBook sat broken on the bottom shelf of my entertainment center for 6 1/2 months, I finally broke down and bought my first new computer in almost 6 years. Yay Mac book! It's sooooo nice. It has a remote and a built in camera! Be very, very jealous.

I totally called this

When we were watching the pre-game SuperBowl coverage and Bill Cowher was on CBS being a guest analyst, I totally yelled to everyone at the room that they were going to hire. No big surprise, they did.

I'm still not buying it

Apparently Google was going for a more edgy design with yesterday's logo. Whatever. On a different note, the article also has a link to all of the past logos.

364 days till next Valentine's Day

Celebrate by checking out these poorly conceived valentines. Makes the corny dog and kitten best friend valentines I've been sending to people from Pepper for the past 3 years look a little more sane, huh?

Somebody's getting fired!

Suddenly Google may not be such a great place to work today. Apparently no one noticed that when the visual designer created today's special jpeg, he forgot the l in google. Nice.

Happy Valentine's Day

"Mom, romance is dead. It was acquired in a hostile takeover by Hallmark and Disney, homogenized, and sold off piece by piece." - Lisa Simpson

Bill Cowher's new job

Since multiple family members have forwarded this to me, I figured I should post it. It's actually a really good photoshop job.

That's Special Agent Flipper to you

Quote of the story - "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: Dolphins aren't good defense" That's an understatement.

Happy 2 days before Valentine's Day

Apparently I'm getting the entire online dating thing wrong . . .

Bunny Jumping - The Sport

Even with her superior jumping abilities, I doubt Pepper could do this . . .

This video blew my mind

How cool is this?

Disturbing video

Call me crazy, but isn't this a little more creepy than cute?

Dating Etiquette

So with my entire New Year's resolution to be more experienced when it comes to dating, I have learned a few things. However one thing I didn't think was that my post-date responses were incorrect.

What I thought was that at the end of the date, the guy will say the obligatory "Can I call you again?" and the girl will say, "That'd be nice" whether either of them meant it or not. If the guy didn't want to see you again, he wouldn't call and if the girl didn't want to go out again, she wouldn't answer. Isn't this how it's supposed to go?


Well, imagine my surprise when I opened my inbox this morning and got this:

I was hoping when you said I could call you again that you were actually going to answer your phone or call me back. No worries though. I had a good time at the movies with you, and I can't be anything but thankful you tolerated my company for a couple of hours. Good luck in the future.

I'm still not entirely sure how to react this this. At first I thought he was being snarky, but now I think he's being nice, although there is really no reason for him to email me. The kid did call me a couple of times and he obviously got the message that I wasn't interested, so why email?

My question is this, should I have emailed him back after ignoring his call and say thanks, but no thanks? We only went on one date and I paid for myself. Thoughts? Comments?

The Price of Fame

Apparently MTV has sunk to a new low when it comes to reality television. Checkout this clip where a girl gets a bikini wax from her soon to be mother- and sister-in-law . . .

Online dating tip

When choosing a screen name for an online dating site, using "69" somewhere in the name does not inspire a air of chivalry and refinement. FYI.

It happened again!

Once again I had a guy re-wink at me on match.com. In this case, I have talked to this guy on the phone and he winked at me again. So does he not remember me or is he trying to start-up a conversation again? Geez, stupid men.

It's that time of the year again

Valentine's Day is a little less than 2 weeks away and I'm already starting to cringe. Being someone who has never had a boyfriend on that special day, I have a great hatred for the holiday. Although, I do enjoy going to Target on February 15th and getting all of the 1/2 priced candy . . .

Sangria Party

I'm calling the 24th for my Sangria Party.

An alternate look at The Office

Wouldn't you be my Valentine?

While I have no one to send a Valentine too, I still really, really want these.

Web 2.0 Scandal!

Apparently Microsoft tried to hire a blogger to change Wikipedia entries for them. Microsoft felt that the articles were slanted and written by IBMers. This may sound boring to all of you non-techie people, but it's kind of fascinating.

The power of DVR

Checkout this video. It's kind of creepy to think that McDonald's is using subliminal advertising. What's even scarier is that they didn't realize someone would see and slow it down with his DVR . . .

How not to get the girl

Things are been pretty quiet on the freak front this time on match.com, but today my mailbox had a really winning email in it. I'll be nice and not include the picture incase someone actually knows this kid (although it is priceless, email me to see it).

Subject: Nerds of a feather ...
Dear Heather,

I am green with envy over your job. One of my favorite parts of software development is user-interface design. But, alas, I have not found my way into such a position, yet.

You seem like a really sweet person with a good outlook on life. I am interested in getting to know you better. Why don't you take a look at my portrait and see if you have any interest in getting to know me. If so, maybe we can chat back and forth over e-mail or perhaps, we can even meet someday for a bite to eat and some good conversation.

Thoughts?
Pepper

So first of all, don't call a girl a nerd unless she has already done so herself. I know I'm a nerd, but it's not a good pickup line buddy.

Second of all, his name is Pepper, as in the exact same name as my dog. Could you imagine the awkward social situations that this could create? Like saying, "Pepper stop licking me" would take on a whole new context. Although, I do have the line, "Pepper I do not want to make out with you" down pat thanks to my affectionate dog.

Third, I also like how he outlines the entire online dating process for me. Thank goodness, because I was getting really confused. I thought we went out first and then had awkward email conversations. Glad to have that one cleared up.

Last, it's kind of ironic that he writes he thinks I'm a sweet person when I've just written an entire blog entry bashing him.

P.S. Who uses "alas" in an email?

Start of a New Era

So the Steelers are getting ready to hire a new coach and this all makes me kind of nervous. If they had hired Russ Grimm, most of the coaching staff would have stayed the same, but now this new guy is going to bring on a whole new coaching staff and guys like Dick LeBeau will leave. Having everything brand new like this makes me weary since things were going so well.

Also, less than 2 weeks of being the Superbowl Champions remaining . . .

Update: The Post Gazette is reporting the Dick LeBeau is sticking around, yay!

This cat is mocking me

You know how when you wake up early and it's still dark outside and you know that your dog is going right back to bed as soon as you leave? That's what this tiger reminds me of . . .

Yay!

The Office got renewed for another season, yipee!

Sigh

The Office may not have won anything last night, but at least Pam and Jim looked good.

My newest obsession

The trailer for the new Will Ferrell movie is out and it has Jon Heder, Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, and Pam (aka Jenna Fischer) . I'm pysched. It opens March 30th.

Laser Cats 2!

In case you didn't Tivo SNL this weekend like me - Laser Cats 2
FYI, SNL isn't too bad this year.

Google hearts Somerset

I was just perusing the RSS feeds on my Google homepage and what should I see under the Google News Steelers section? A shoutout the the Daily American, Somerset's best (and only) newspaper!

Freaky weather?

Or bug in their code? Notice anything odd about the weather forecast for Raleigh on Saturday?

My heart has been broken

Carson Palmer is married. *sniff* *sniff*

Turns out a lot of quarterbacks are married, Big Ben may be the only single one left . . .

Douchebag Alert

So say you're a guy on match.com and one week you ask a girl for her screename and she gives it to you (because she's trying to be less picky). Then say a week later you ask the same girl for her screename, never acknowledging that you previously had communicated.

Chances are you're a big player who can't keep his online women straight.

Oh, and you wear those slightly tinted sunglasses that really don't keep out the sun but look supercool.

Sounds like someone isn't getting a reply to his email . . .

Move this one to the top of the queue

So I think this may be real . . .

Be glad you're not a duck

OK, so this video is adorable and all, but seriously, they are jumping out of trees. Not small little trees, like big trees that I wouldn't even jump out of. How do they not get hurt?!?!

Goodbye old friend

I just realized that Bill Cowher has coached the Steelers for over half my life, 60% of my life to be exact. Wonder who they'll hire now. Here's a good article highlights his career and analyzing possible replacements.

What better way to proclaim your love

Now I remember why I stopped at a belly button piercing in college. Check out some inspired tattoo work.

Pepper's on YouTube!

When I was home, I uploaded an old video of Pepper trying to escape from a paper bag. Note, she did this to herself by putting her head through the handle, I just taped it for a bit . . .