Tick Tock Boom!

As I get ready to go with a friend to get a quickie pedicure at lunch…I wonder…How many of you have checked out our new sister site? Articdote? Seriously! Check it out! If you don’t…Poley may have to make use of all the gamma radiation I frequently give him. (Just kidding, Peta, I never use gamma radiation on my dogs as a punishment. I just shake this can full of pennies at them menacingly).

So…what’s going on today? Well, first and foremost I’m CRAZY excited that today is friday. Who doesn’t love fridays? I think it’s my favorite day of the week, actually. Even though I have to go to work during the day…I have the evening and the rest of the weekend to look forward to! We have planned…some cleaning. It is time for step two of our “cleaning for the arrival of my father and uncle so they don’t think we live like slobs in a trailer park”. We will be attacking the mud room and the living room. Neither of them are particularly nasty, just need to be picked up.

I also plan on doing some scrapbooking. On that note, here are two pictures of a layout I recently did. It was an inspiration challenge offered by my friend, Martha, who not only has some adorable pugs but is an amazing scrapbooker. She is definatly the artist I most want to be like when I grow up. Anyways, the challenge was about layering and I think that this has anywhere between 8-10 layers depending on how you count them.

And a close-up:

Articdote

Welcome, dear readers. Today I would like to draw your attention to a new feature on our blog, aptly named ‘articdote’ and it’s about art, design, creativity, irreverent things that inspire me, etc. It will be updated at least daily…as the muse strikes me. Which will probally be fairly regularly. Check it out!

In other news not much is happening. Oh, we bought a new television. It’s 52″ inches of Sony Bravia LCD goodness. It’s gorgeous and beautiful. I want to marry it. Sorry, Terry. I’m leaving you for the high-definition sexiness that only Sony can provide.

What is it that you say? Love, respect, honor, conversation, companionship? Oh, bother. I guess I’ll stay with you. Besides, I don’t think the TV wants to cuddle.

Tipping: A Thesis

Some friends and I were discussing tipping this morning and it really got me thinking. People seem to think it’s something to be proud of to refer to yourself as a ‘good tipper’. And while you certainly wouldn’t want the monkier ‘bad tipper’…isn’t blindly being a good tipper, almost worse…?

I believe that tipping in the United States has gotten out of hand. Everyone asks for tips, from the barista at Starbucks, to the cashier at Burger King. But think about it - what IS a tip? According to Wikipedia, TIPS does not stand for To Insure Prompt Service, as most people believe. But most people believe that it means this and when they put the little “tip cup” out on a bar - that is the impetus behind the creation of such a vessel. It’s like I’m being guilted into tipping these people, regardless of worthiness.

And there’s the rub. WHO deserves a tip? Does the barista that takes my order and then hands me my $4.00 coffee deserve a tip? I do not believe so. They are doing their job. That’s what they get paid to do. It’s part of their job description. However, waiters who bring you your food at a restaurant, they not only bring you your food (that’s in their job description) but they can also go above and beyond and provide good service. They can be friendly, be very prompt when bringing refills, bring the correct order (and be extremely contrite should their be an error), they should come back to check on you after leaving the food. They should bring condiments without having to be asked. These are the EXTRA things that a waiter can do, and for these things I believe they deserve a tip.

Tipping without considering these factors is irresponsible. If you blindly tip 20% - you’re rewarding bad behavior - and that waiter will continue to give mediocere service because they know that even if they do the bare minimun they will continue to receive this gratuitiy, their 20%. But that’s not how it should be. The tip should be directly proportional to the quality of their work. When I sit down, a waiter starts out with no tip. They have to earn that tip. And I do not feel badly, if I get bad service, leaving only a quarter. And I believe it’s important to leave something…because I do not want the waiter thinking that I might have forgotten. I want them to know I think they were lousy. The twenty-five cents is a statement.

My point is to get you to think before you tip - ! Do they deserve your money? You work hard for your money. I know I do. I had to put up with bosses, stupid coworkers, getting up at 5am and driving an hour to work. Paying for gas. I work HARD and does this person deserve MY money? Think about it before you just blindly put down 20%. Thank-you. My name is Nevis and I approve this message.

And if you read all that, I would like to reward you with a funny video that perfectly illustrates my ideas on tipping. Enjoy!

Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces

Today has been a weird day. Lots of drama at work, on various message boards and friends via email. It’s like the world has PMS.

Here’s picture of Terry and his friend and co-worker, Belcher at 4H Camp last weekend. I put it through photoshop in this cool new feature I just learned how to use where it makes pictures look all old and very saturated or whatnot. Cool, huh? I’ve been doing it to all sorts of pictures but this is the first one that I’ve put up on here.

In other news not much is happening. Terry is obsessed with GTA4, I’m obsessed with World of Warcraft, scrapbooking and our upcoming vacation.

I  vacation planning…! There is something infinately wonderful about planning for a vacation. I love the entire process. Choosing hotels, dates, activities, budgeting, reading books on topic, surfing the internet about the topic, compiling notes, making lists, plans, etc. It’s intoxicating. It’s (almost) more fun than the vacation itself.

Too bad I can’t do this for a living!

Weekend Warriors

Happy Monday everyone! Well, what did we do this weekend at the Manicdote house? Well, my Dad is coming to visit in 20 days (for my birthday) so we’re in high gear for cleaning. This weekend? Our task was simple. Clean the bathroom. We armed ourselves with rubber gloves, bleachy cleaning products and sponges. We worked our ass off for about two hours scrubbing that bathroom clean. Cleaner than it’s ever been. It’s still ugly, but at least it’s clean! So clean I don’t want to use it. We are weekend warriors…!!!

Next weekend - our target shall be laundry room/mud room and living room. They’re not dirty - just cluttered and need attention! I keep telling the pugs to clean while I’m at work and they’re not listening. Lazy mutts…they’re not earning their keep. Pug kissies don’t pay the bills, baby.

We also played some Grand Theft Auto 4 and World of Warcraft. I’m almost up to lvl 20 so I’m pretty stoked about that. I also scrapbooked. I finished a page I recently did as part of a challenge at a scrapbooking website I frequent. It’s a layout of pictures taken while at Disneyland last summer; Terry on the teacups:

And a close up:

Also - we finally decided on where we’re going for our summer vacation: DISNEY WORLD!!! Of course, we’ll also go to Epcot and all the other parks there. I’ve wanted to go there my whole life so I’m totally excited!

School of Redd

Goooooood morning, people! Happy Friday! I got my wonderful new Dell XPS Laptop in the mail…! It’s SO awesome. Pictures of it’s awesomeness to follow…

I’m especially happy today for a couple of reasons. #1 - my Dad suffers from a disorder called Trigeminal neuralgia (causes episodes of intense pain in the eyes, lips, nose, scalp, forehead, and jaw) and has suffered from it for almost 20 years. He has taken various medicines over the years to try and squelch the pain…to no avail. It’s gotten a lot worse over the years and the medicine just isn’t working.

So yesterday he underwent Stereotactic Radiation Therapy which is a treatment that sends concentrated bursts of radiation at three parts of the nerves in his head/face. Well, the surgery went awesome yesterday and he’s doing great..! It should take 1-3 months for any effect to be noticable and if all goes well the statistics say that 83% of patients were pain-free at 12 months, with 58% pain-free and off all medications within a year. So everyone - please continue to keep him in your thoughts/prayers.

And as an update - I did not win the scrapbooking contest (the one where I showed you guys the cards that was my entry). While I personally feel that my entry was waaaaay better than the girl who won - I realize that I might be biased. However, it hasn’t soured me on that site (Paper Popcicles). The people who choose the contest winners may have bad taste when it comes to choosing a winner who has creativity, artistic vision and oodles of talent like myself - they do have a good website and I like the ladies on it. Also I love their montly scrapbooking kits. Good stuff.

Speaking of scrabooking kits - I used some of the stuff from the kit and I created a layout of Terry…it’s talking about this being his first year as a teacher. Here are some pictures of the layout:

…And a close up of it:

Also I’m just happy because I love Terry, I love my parents, I love my puggies; I’m just happy and loving life today. It’s ALSO a friday and tonight I get to play World of Warcraft! Hooray! Saturday we’re going bowling with friends and more World of Warcraft playing. And Sunday we’ve got chores to do, but I’m also pretty sure that the day will include some World of Warcraft!

Memoirs of a Blogger

Got this meme of Michelle’s blog. I thought it was fun so I totally pulled a Winona Ryder and stole it. It’s called “5 Things” and it’s a variant of one of those chain emails I remember getting years ago at work.

1. What were you doing 5 years ago today?

I was living in Los Angeles and just starting to work as an entertainment underwriter. It was a great job. I really loved it; I hated my boss…but I loved the job. The work was interesting and I really liked most of the brokers I dealt with. And the salary was…grrreat.

2. Name 5 snacks that you love:

• Puffy Cheetos
• Roasted, salted almonds
• Zebra cakes
• Coffee (I know you drink it, but I drink A LOT of it).
• Peanut butter melted on toast

3. What are 5 things on your ‘To-Do’ list for today/ Or things you’ve already done today:

• Cleaned out the litterbox and fed puggies. Little beasts! Oh, I love them.
• Stopped at Circle K for coffee. Yum…they have this coffee bar and you can get mini-marshmellows. A giant 16oz cup for only $1.28. Beat that, Starbucks!
• I’ve got a “e-Conference” at 4:00 that takes place online and on phone. Ooo…exciting…I’ll be learning about ratings or something…? I must read through that email before attending…
• Pick up our pre-ordered copy of Grand Theft Auto IV from Game Stop (This was a demand from the man, Terry…since he’s out of town currently. Aparently I must get it so that he’ll have it when he returns…)
• Scrapbooking! I’m currently working on a layout regarding Terry’s classroom and being his first year as a teacher. It’s coming along nicely but I got tired last night and ended up just laying on couch watching Fraiser re-runs. I love that show.

4. Name 5 things I would do if I won five million dollars:

• Pay off credit cards. I know that’s a boring answer, but how awesome would it be to have no debt - no montly payments? Sweet!
• Buy a house…..one with a beautiful kitchen!
• Go on a long, long vacation to one of those gorgeous hotels on the beach that I could never normally afford.
• Quit my job and spend my life managing my finances and making sure it lasts us the rest of our life. I’d probally try writing that “great american novel” that I’ve always wanted to write. Can romance novels be considered a great american novel? Who knows, who cares.
• Pay someone to clean up after us. I want a full-time made. I need a Rosario to my Karen.

5. Name 5 bad habits you have:

• Junk food. Oh, how I love thee! My fat ass; oh how I hate thee!
• Going to bed without brushing teeth. I really need to get better about this, to brush twice a day. Seriously - especially because I absolutly hate going to the dentist (Sorry Bella & Perogi’s dad).
• Buying the same magazines every month off the newstand. I reallly need to just pick up subscriptions because I’m wasting so much money this way.
• Procrastination. Need I say more?
• In arguments…correcting statements and getting hung upon always having to be RIGHT. And having the last word.

6. Name 5 places you’ve lived:

• Santa Clara, CA (…it’s in the bay area)
• Rancho Penasquitos, CA (…it’s in San Diego)
• Woodland Hills, CA (…it’s in Los Angeles)
• Hollywood, CA
• Auburn, AL (…near enough to it)

7. Name 5 jobs you’ve had:

• Call Center for San Diego Blood Bank - I was that person who’d call you and remind you to donate blood again
• Worked in my mom’s Tole Painting store for years during High School and College
• Collections Department
• Entertainment Underwriter (wrote insurance for bands, actors, commercials and movies)
• Glorified Secretary  (technical term)

And one more meme today…one that I was tagged by two seperate people to do (Two Cute Pugs and Pug Possessed). So I cannot ignore it. Everyone knows you have to do a meme if  you’re tagged. But if you’re tagged by two seperate people? That’s like a double-dog-dare … and you cannot back down from that.

This meme is a “6 Word Memoir” - basically you have to describe your life (thus far) in 6 words. So here is my entry:

Painting is by one of my favorite artists, Max Beckmann.

And I tag: Frances, Paul, Melissa, Rusty and Norman. Wow, it was actually rather hard finding people who hadn’t yet done the “6-word-Memoir” meme yet. Of course, if I didn’t tag you but you want to do it - you’re welcome to do it anyways. I love reading them about everyone!

Missing: One Bed Hog

Lots of news! Let’s see…my laptop should be here wedensday. I’m crazy excited about that as my current one is just dying by leaps and bounds lately. It’ll be Vista so there will be a small learning curve from that and I’ll have to reinstall all my programs and transfer over data, etc. But, I’m very excited about all of it. And Terry will help me with all that jazz.

Terry is actually currently, off at 4H Camp - he’s a chaperone. It’s a work thing. Although from what I hear from other teachers who will be attending, it’s a lot of lazing around, a lot of pranks and sitting by campfires telling ghost stories. This, of course, means that myself and the pugs have the house to ourselves. The remote control to ourselves. The ENTIRE bed to ourselves. And what I mean by ‘ourselves’ is really just me. The puggadoodles sleep in their crate. I cannot sleep with them. They snore too much, move around, fart - and I’m afraid of waking up in a “gift” of some odiferous nature.

I also entered a contest to be the “Guest Designer” for the month of June at Paper Popsicles. I don’t know if I won or not yet but the last day to enter was yesterday, so it’s all up to them, to choose. Nevertheless, I really liked the cards I created for the contest - here’s a picture of all four of them together.

I don’t know if I won yet, but since no one can enter anymore, I thought I’d throw up my entry on my blog. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I want the trophy. Okay, there isn’t an actual trophy - but there should be.

Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride

I’m totally excited. Last night, Terry and I ordered a new laptop for me. My current (5-year old) laptop is dying. It’s been a slow, agonizing death, but it’s time has come. All but one of it’s USB ports are dead. When I want to plug in my iPod or camera…I have to unplug my mouse in order to do so. It’s like a bizzare electronic juggling act. The thing constantly drops my internet signal. It can only run one program at a time. And my latest addiction, World of Warcraft, is completely taxing it’s overworked hard drive. So, for $40 a month, I now have a brand new tricked out Dell XPS laptop. It’s so nice. I cannot wait until I’ve got it!

Oh, and the first picture there today is of both Terry and Napoleon sleeping on the couch. This was back when Poley was a puppy. I had to dive into my archives to find this picture as it was just too adorable. Aren’t they sweet? But you can’t have them! No sugar for you!

That actually reminds me of that terrible new show on Food Network. “Down Home with the Neely’s”…and I have to ask you…who acts like that? They’re such a characture of southern black people. Trust me - people in real life do not act like that. And the woman is constantly kissing the husband and then accusing him of trying to steal her sugar. It’s so insipid! So now Terry and I mock them when we’re in the kitchen. I shake my ass at him and then turn around and accuse him of trying to steal my sugar.

Oh, I also found this hilarious quiz called “An Artist or an Ape?” - where you decide if a painting was painted by a monkey or if it was done by a serious (human) artist. This test further confirms my idea that art is not only in the eye of the beholder, but something anyone can do. So get out there and…do some art! Btw, I scored only an 83% on the quiz…so it’s not as easy to tell as you might think.

Who’s your favorite artist? I have three favorites. Hiroshige, Hockney and Max Beckmann.

And because I know you’re dying of curiosity…I’ve got some new pictures of our current dog-litter situation. It’s working. The dogs are using it and not going on the floor, or their bed. Right now our only issue is that they track litter out of the litterbox in to their crate area. To solve that I think we’re going to get one of those small wet/dry mini vaccums…like a dirt devil or something. Do they still make those? So, without further ado, here are a few pictures of their new crate. And Terry crafted that litter box with his own two hands. We used a dremel tool and cut out the doorway. It works perfect!

First picture you see the gorgeous pug-litterbox; Poley is watching Rukia chow down on dinner.

Second picture. Um, no…Napoleon is not peeing in that picture. He’s…watering the litter. Yeah…that’s it.

And in closing, Terry and I are trying to decide where to go on our summer vacation. We’re trying to decide between Las Vegas or possibly Cancun. Frankly either one would cost about the same. However we would have to find our passports if we want to do Cancun. So our closing shot today is a picture of Terry and I at Disneyland last year. One of my favorite pictures!

My Pugs are Lazy

I was watching videos on YouTube in a stream-of-consciousness way, where you go from one inane video to the next and I was struck by the thought that my Pugs are Lazy. I watched videos of Pugs driving cars, skydiving, swimming, attacking cats, going through obsticale courses, rapping humorous songs, humping strange stuffed animals, immitating a blender - the list goes on and on. What do my pugs do? They sleep. They fart. They chew up their bed.

Oh did I fail to mention this? We woke up monday morning to find Napoleon on the ground snoring, and Rukia in a giant puddle of stuffing. What stuffing, you ask? Well, the stuffing from the inside of their brand new bed. We bought the pugs a new bed ($22) from Walmart on Sunday evening and it didn’t even last one day. Rukia broke the zipper, ripped out the stuffing and completely demolished it. She had the audacity to sit in the middle of all that mess, wag her tail at me and look completely adorable. With peices of the stuffing fuzz, still sticking to the side of her face. She’s pure evil - I’ve come to realize this. No, I did not take pictures. I was too busy yelling and punishing her with the claw hand. I know she’s just teething (she’s 4 1/2 months old) but she has like three different chew toys and a bone in her crate. Why the bed? The brand NEW bed!?!!

My pugs may be lazy (why are the dishes and laundry not done when I come home..!?) but aparently their breed is intelligent when it comes to food. Check out this hilarious japanese video of one smart pug!