has it really come to this?

i'm not really sure what is more pathetic: the fact that home-depot sells "plant-kits" that consist of small watering-can-pots, a mini-pack of seeds, and dirt "pellets"......or......the fact that carlyn and i are both proud owners of afore-mentioned "plant-kits" and are growing desk-zenias/blue-bells/marigolds. (and find the need to photodocument their process, almost to the level of anoyingly-proud mothers.)

so, play-by play of my little zenia:

stage 1:
can. pellets.
(yes, i was being quite literal when i said "dirt-pellets")



stage 2:
after DAYS of waiting...you can see a small speck of green. (not that i'm bitter or anything, but carlyn's zenia had already grown about 1/2 inch by this point....) But, it's ok. i can love a late-bloomer.


stage 3:
(today)
seed #2 is poking its way up! i feel like this is what it feels like to find out you're having twins....

so, yeah....we're pretty cool (cough*lame*cough), aaaaand you should probably check out carlyn's plants too...: click.

nooooooooo...

if i was forced to choose two food groups that i could not live without, i'd have to say they would be: cereal & salt.

(*and you may want to argue that salt is not a food group...but, trust me--if you've ever seen me with a salt-shaker, you know it most definitely is...)

so, you can imagine my dismay when i received an email this morning with "healthful tips"...and THIS was one of them:

obviously i'm not in the market to cause "excess calcium secretion" (*what the heck is that anyways?) but, really? LIMIT my salt-intake? this is like my one guilty-pleasure. (And before today's email informative- it wasn't even "guilty"...just "pleasure".)



...well, looks like i'm just going to continue secreting calcium at a rapid rate.

sweaters for all.

today is the birthday of this man:




(do i have have an unhealthy predisposition to love oldmen+sweaters?)
yes.

(is this man potentially to blame?)
i think so.

and, dear pittsburgh has declared today "sweater day"...in his honor. http://kdka.com/local/Fred.Rogers.sweater.2.963813.html
isn't that just the sweetest thing...


*and yes. i am currently wearing a sweater. i should go home and see if they still play reruns of his show. (but, then again- it IS friday night...and i'm not sure where that would fall on the scale of ultimate-lameness.)

sure, you can have my freckle.

so, i went to the dermatologist last week. i had "the-hiv" above my right eye. (i lovingly refer to "whatever-it-was-i-had" as "the-hiv" for two reasons: A) my boss was convinced i was going to die of it, and B) i didn't really know what else to call it. *not even WebMD could help me...

anyways. i was at the dermatologist (and it had been a week since my first visit with "the-hiv"-->during which multiple doctors/nurses/(i-still-don't-know-what-they-were) came in and "hmmm-ed" and "haaaaa-ed" and took pictures of my sad little eye.) oh- and it did eventually go away, once they gave me pills and had me rub steroids on it daily. But, knowing that they cured me of "the-hiv" was not good enough for them. Nope. they wanted to look at all my freckles. (and when i say "all"...i mean "ALL" my freckles.) And, being a semi-fair-skinned individual, i have quite a little collection...

so- the next thing i know two of the doctors/nurses/(still-don-know-what-they-are)'s were poking around on my back and convincing me that it would be a good idea if they just "scraped" this one suspicious-looking-freckle off of my back. (so, of course i agree- i mean, i can spare a freckle, right?...especially if it's a suspicious-looking one.)

but, let me just clarify: "scraping" has two very different definitions. Leslye's definition: non-abrasive removal of something...such as "scraping" off a sticker(?) Dermatologists definition: GOUGE-IT-OUT!

#1-enter nurse (yes, by this time i had figured out which ones were nurses) with a large needle. (just imagine that i received the back-equivalent of mouth-novacaine.) very weird feeling.
#2-enter doctor with scalpel. (imagine the most horrific scraping you have ever received.) but...keep in mind i was also blessed with back-novacaine.
#3-and then they SHOWED ME MY FRECKLE.

dermatologist-friends. (or friends who one day wish to be dermatologists) note to self: DO NOT show your patient their freckles once they have left the afore-mentioned-patient's body. There is just something fundamentally wrong with a body-less freckle. (ugh)

so, now i am a proud owner of a chasm in my back (currently crudely-covered with a bandaid) and i am one-freckle less than i used to be.
(tragic)
and i cannot get that awful image out of my head of my poor little freckle. laying so helplessly on that doctor's scalpel.

tapping into our adventurous sides...

so, carlyn and i---(aside from dressing up in snuggies. *see post below)--also have been plotting major life changes.

(*disclaimer: in the mildly-frigid-late-winter months in western pennsylvania, when 80% of your life is spent in front of a computer screen...."major life changes" may take various forms---which, to the untrained observer, may not seem very "major." but trust us: they are.)

so- step 1:
leslye moved into a house. (this really was not part of our office-scheming. but, i'm counting it...because it looks good on the list.)
step 2:
carlyn gets glasses. (and not just "glasses"....moderately funky/artsy glasses.) this is a definitely a big step.
step 3:
leslye gets a haircut. (after a year of cutting my own hair? not only had this become minorly necessary...it was also pretty big.)

now we're wondering what's left to change. (i mean---besides the obvious: world hunger, world peace, and rescuing all distressed pets from the local animal shelters.) or- if you have any other ideas. please let us know.

(photo of major-life-changes steps 2 & 3)

(oh...and a note to carlyn's mom.)

taxes & tornados

i finished my taxes this weekend....

hmmm. let's rephrase that:

my dad finished my taxes this weekend...while i looked on in bewilderment and overwhelming-confusion.
(partially because i had piles of W2's....and i have technically been a resident in 3 different states in the past year.) yikes.

HOWEVER- thanks to the fact that i lived in a midwestern disaster state, i saved $600 on my taxes. (yes. a tornado went through siloam springs the night before i graduated. and in the eyes of the u.s. government, this constitutes a $600 tax break?)

but, seriously- i think that night will remain my favorite natural disaster of all times. (*and not just because of tax breaks, but because i spent it huddled in the hallway with all my housemates...debating whether or not we actually lived in a trailer, if afore-mentioned trailer would blow away, and if the skylights in the hall in which we were whimpering and huddling in were really the best architectural choice, for a tornado-prone state...)

{ thanks }

just my luck...

so, i've often said that my dream-life/job would include a career as a children's book-illustrator.

but, knowing the types of random/awkward/ridiculous things that happen to me---i'd probably be stuck illustrating books like this:

{which would NOT be so cool...}

snuggies.

they happened.
at the office.

(if anyone can rock flannel, it would be the ClearBrands staff....)