gender bias

Gender bias and sex discrimination is so weird to me. I mean, I'm so surprised that there is still so much of that going on! Really? In 2016? I know I tend to be kind of naive about those types of things. I'm always surprised when people turn an issue into something race related when, in my opinion, it doesn't need to be. Oh, but I digress, I was talking about gender...so, I read an article this morning about mean tweets from men, directed at women. Honestly, it was shocking. You can view it here;

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-twitter-harassment-more-than-mean-20160426-snap-htmlstory.html

It's ugly, really ugly.

Now, on lighter, albeit similar train of thought, it's hard to work for a whole group of women. I hate to say that, because I AM one, but dang. A whole group of women are moody and lack focus and absolutely try too hard. There really needs to be at least one man in the mix. But in the same vein, it stinks to work for a whole group of men too. They lack empathy and don't really care about personalities, in general. For instance, today is Secretary's Day (call it what you want) and not ONE single boss, of which there are 5, even acknowledged my co-worker or myself. 

Just let me say, as a woman, I want the same pay for doing the same job; I want to be treated with respect; I want my opinion to count; I want to be protected; you know, I want the same things every human being wants. Is that so hard? 

Last, and just because I'm talking about gender bias, I want people to stop acting like the transgender "community" consists of something more than .5% of the population!!!! Good grief! I would be willing to bet, and maybe this is just my naivete showing, that using the restroom was never as big a deal as it is now! I suspect that most transgender people have used the restroom they wanted without much ado, until now. 

silly things

yesterday morning, when I opened the door of the bathroom, this is what I saw;

She was just sitting there, waiting for me to come out and play. Silly girl :-)

I never really cared that much for beets. They were always just ok for me. I wanted to like them because they're a "super" food. Like blueberries. Which I also don't care for. Anyway, one night we went to dinner at this little place called Hollyhock Hill - best fried chicken dinner in the state, look it up! They serve beets on a relish tray. OMG they were soooo good!!! A couple weeks ago I found these in Costco;

I could eat this whole jar in one sitting they're so good! I'm gonna need more. A LOT more!

Next up, what the hell are all these little holes in my yard???? There are 100's of them! At first I though they might be from cicadas, but they're not. Somebody told me that they look like yellow jackets holes?! Does that mean there are hundreds of them in my yard??? 

Last, look how pretty this is;

I cut all these veggies up, every Sunday. I fill 7 containers full and I eat one every single day for lunch.  And I've been doing that for about 8 weeks. You would think I would be sick and tired of them! I'm not though. Sometimes, if I have extra, I eat a bowl for dinner too! I crave them! Of course, it's better than craving chips, but still, every day? My fella is starting to wonder about my eating habits!

Is it just me?

I want celebrities to entertain me.  That's their job. That's what I pay them for. I DON'T want them to be my social conscious. Yes, I understand what free speech is about. But what makes them think their opinion is bigger than mine? I'm not just talking about politics either. Also, I'm a firm believer that just because you CAN, doesn't mean you should.

Remodel *update*

Whoa, he's been busy!!

Here are some before and during pictures;

Remember, you can click on the picture to see it larger.

Wow!!!

As I had anticipated, Garth Brooks was FANTASTIC!! It was better than fantastic!!! Even my man really enjoyed it. He's not a huge country music fan or a big Garth Brooks fan. But he really likes him now! How can you not love an entertainer that clearly appreciates his fans and LOVES what he does?! I mean really, he did a 7:00 show that ended a little after 9:00. Then he did another show, that started at 11:15 and didn't end until 1:35AM!  That's a lot of energy right there. Here's the review in the local paper;

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/entertainment/music/2016/04/08/garth-brooks-louisville-concert/82717070/

Oh yeah, and we also went to Churchill Downs, since we were in Louisville! I love an event and history, so that was pretty cool. I had no idea Churchill Downs was so big though. I guess I didn't have any expectations and I'm not horse racing fan, so it was all a surprise to me. It's a beautiful facility for sure. 

I guess Louisville is ok. It's a bigger city than my hometown, more freeways, LOTS more people, but some things about were cool. I like how they seem to be really trying to keep a lot of the old buildings. There was one whole block that looked like a movie set because just the fronts of the buildings were up. I guess they were going to build new, behind the old fronts? It was hard to tell though what their night life was like, with 22 thousand people leaving and 22 thousand people coming, all at the same time! I didn't make me want to spend the day there or anything. I would however, go back down again for another show, if there was someone I wanted to see. (Nashville is still better!!)

If you're a real Garth Brooks fan, here's the set list!

Man Against Machine
Rodeo
Two of a Kind
Beaches of Cheyenne
The River
We Shall Be Free
Two Pina Coladas
Papa Loved Mama
Ain't Goin' Down
Unaswered prayers
If Tomorrow Never Comes
That Summer
The Thunder Rolls
Shameless
Callin' Baton Rouge
Friends In Low Places
The Dance
Encore (all accoustic)
Piano Man
Which One of Them
Sing Me Back Home (Merle Haggard)
Somewhere Other Than the Night
The Change
Wild Horses
Amarillo By Morning (George Strait)
Mom
Lonesome Dove
Night Moves (Bob Segar)
Encore (with the band)
Much Too Young 
Standing Outside the Fire
American Pie

My name is Cynthia and I'm an addict

It's true. And it's serious. Just ask my husband. He'll tell you. He'll tell you while he's rolling his eyes and/or scowling. 

I'm addicted to;

adult coloring books
empty jars
gel pens
OK, pens
needlework kits
graph paper
crafts/hobbies I don't know how to do!

Lord, please help me. No really. What's wrong with me???  I have at least 200 colored gel pens and last night, while I was in Costco, I bought these!!!

I almost passed them up but they were 8.99 for FORTY pens!!! I couldn't resist. BUT...they're only ballpoint pens, not gel pens. So I brought them to work. Whew. I justified my purchase. I think that's a sign that you're in trouble. When you know you're doing something wrong but can justify it anyway. Yikes!!


Then, I found this fabric on-line;

It's quilting fabric. I DON'T QUILT!!! Did that stop me??? Pshh. Nope. I think I can make my own little lap quilt. You know...someday. Sigh. Please, pray for me.

I got the music in me...

I love music. I guess you know that already though. It's barely April and already we have some great musically driven events happening! In February, we drove down to Nashville to see Yanni. It was a win win for me - I LOVE Nashville and Yanni is pretty cool :-)

This weekend, we're going to see a musical revue called, In The Mood. Big band and Swing! I love big band! This is what the ad says;

IN THE MOOD is a celebration of the music of the 1930s & 40s – the Big Band era. It was the last time that all Americans were listening and dancing to the same kind of music. With our live sensational 13 piece String of Pearls Big Band Orchestra and our fabulous IN THE MOOD Singers and Dancers, the great melodies and lyrics that are still with us today are presented in a musical revue that is jazzy, sentimental, rhythmic, nostalgic and patriotic – all happening at the same time. With music arrangements, costumes and choreography IN THE MOOD is as authentic as it gets.

It sounds like fun, doesn't it?

And next weekend, we're off to Louisville to see Garth Brooks. I'm pretty sure nothing will top that, this year! Because really, GARTH BROOKS! 

I know, our music tastes are very diverse. Except, Bill loves all classical. I only like some of it. I like Vivaldi and Tchaikovsky. You know, happier sounding music! And he really doesn't care for musicals and I LOVE musicals :-) Oh, but we both don't like rap at all. 

I'm looking forward to discovering what else I can find to go see!

barf

I read an article yesterday about a man who was scheduled to be put to death today, for murdering his young daughters. Good. It happened in 2001. It pissed me off that the state of Texas has been supporting him for 15 years. I mean, his trial happened right away so it wasn't like he had to wait 5 years to be found guilty. That irritates me. Today, I read this article;

http://www.wthr.com/story/31596179/texas-man-gets-reprieve-hours-before-scheduled-execution

This irritates me even more. You have to be sane to be executed?? I mean, if you kill your own children just to piss your ex off, you're really NOT sane to begin with, right? Oy


Why am I reading the news?? Geez, will I never learn!!

full disclousure

I don't like being fat. Especially since I've been thin most of my life. Actually, I hate being fat. I just can't figure out what to do about it! Apparently, I'm not very good at dieting on my own. I'm also not very good at holding myself accountable. Humph. So, I joined Nutrisystem. I started on February 1st. In 8 weeks, I've lost 15.4 pounds. HOORAY! Finally, success. I know exactly why too - because I didn't have to do anything. I only eat what they send me. I don't have to think about what to cook, how much to cook, calories, fat, blah, blah, blah. It's perfect for me! So, here are some things I discovered; I don't miss sugar. That's a big one for me. But, I am totally a carb-o-holic. Man do I miss potatoes, and chips. But, I'm not craving them now so that's a plus. Also, it's really hard not to over eat! Starting April 1st, I'm going to go it alone and see what happens. Wish me luck! I know what I have to stay away from now. Oh, and fruits and veggies are free food! THAT, I love! I can eat a lot of veggies :-)
And lots of walking. 10,000 steps a day is hard when you're an office slug. So, I walk 30/40 minutes every day at lunch. I park far away. I take the long way everywhere.
Already there are huge health benefits too. According to my fitbit, my average heart-rate the week of Feb. 1st, was 87. The week of March 1st, it was 71. This week, it's 67. Whoa. THAT'S AWESOME!

Oldies

When you think of oldies, in regard to music, which era/decade do you think of? The 50's? The 60's. When I think of oldies, I think of Motown, The Temptations, The Supremes, Smokey Robinson, The Four Seasons.  In the 70's, my friends and I called the 50's and 60's, oldies. Maybe the 50's were, but I don't why we called the 60's, oldies. Most cable TV services have music channels. Ours has about 30 music channels. They have a channel for the 80's, 90's, 70's, and...Oldies. Does that mean that the Oldies are classified as their own genre? I was wondering about all this because just the other day, somebody said the music I (ME) grew up with, IS the oldies! Na ah. So I looked it up. Wiki says that "Oldies is a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 25 to 55 years before the present day." 
Wait. So the music I grew up with, mid 70's, became 'oldies', technically, in about the year 2000. SIXTEEN YEARS AGO???? I forget how old I am allll the time. 

weekend things

Saturday, we celebrated our 12th year with sweet Greta. I can't believe we've had her for 12 years already!! Best dog EVER! She got canned food for dinner. She thought that was so awesome, she went back and checked her bowl 3 times! Sheesh! It was pretty funny.

Also, after serious dieting for the last 6 weeks, we all went out to dinner Saturday too! We went to a place called Hollyhock Hill. If you're ever in Indy, you have to go. Everyone says it's the best fried chicken dinner in the state. It was dee-lish! And not just because we haven't had real food in so long either! But mom and Bill were sad that you only got one scoop of ice cream for dessert.  :-)  I was happy to have the mashed potatoes. I love potatoes. ALL potatoes. sigh. Back to the diet.

The remodel is going slow. But we're both still alive and not threatening divorce so, so far it is successful. 

Do you like daylight savings time? I think it's dumb. I liked it better when we didn't change our clocks. Everybody says, but now you get an extra hour of daylight. No, you don't. It's the same, silly. We should just do away with that.

I made this super cool Cubs logo, over the weekend. One of my co-workers is going to go work for the Governor. He's a 'rabid' Cubbies fan. He's been very supportive of my quilling so I wanted to do something nice for him. Plus, he'll hang it in his new office - which gives me good exposure. It's a win, win! I dig it.

And, today is National Pi (3/14) day, National Potato Chip day, and National Napping day. So, have some chips, take a nap and eat a piece of pie! It's a good day!

Nature vs you

Are you ever amazed at how quickly nature takes over, once you've stopped occupying that space?

I drive by a mostly abandoned shopping mall - not in the ghetto, on my way home. Last summer, the city started spraying the weeds and trying to make it look like it still has potential. It might...but anyway, I've been so surprised by how quickly nature started taking over the parking lots!

I was thinking about that this morning, on my drive into work, through the ghetto.

There are a couple vacant houses, there's actually a lot of them, but a couple of them have started to "cave in" now. They didn't appear to be in that bad of shape a couple years ago. I wonder, what is it exactly that we're doing, inside our home, that keeps nature at bay? Is it climate control? Is it simply moving around through the rooms? Is it because we spray to keep the bugs out? Or because we mow the lawn all summer? I wonder.

Monday stuff...

If you're not eagle peeping, you should be! There's babies hatchin' all over the place! It's so cool!!! And who knew baby owls were so white and fluffy?!

You've probably seen the story(ies) about country duo, Joey and Rory. She passed away Friday. They weren't a famous couple or country duo. They didn't make headlines for anything spectacular. But Rory, has a blog. He's been writing about Joey's struggles and her death. It's just the sweetest most heartbreaking thing. I can't tell you how many times I cried, reading it. You can find it here;
http://thislifeilive.com/

I don't know if I have talked about this before - or maybe I just think to. Anyway...I'm so sick of what big babies people are. Seriously. I want people to stop saying they have a migraine. Trust me babe, if you have a migraine, you wouldn't be at work whining about having a migraine. Especially if all you take it Excedrin Migraine. Please. And if you have to stay home because your head hurts so badly, then you should see your doctor, because there are plenty of prescription medicines that can help you. 
Also, why does your place of business have to provide you with everything you want to make you more comfortable? Good grief. If you have tendinitis or carpal tunnel, and you want a wrist pad for your keyboard or mouse, just go buy one for yourself! By the time you go to the Dr., get a note, fill out all the appropriate paperwork in HR, not only will it be a couple weeks later, but it will have cost hundreds of dollars just to get a stupid little $7 wrist pad. Narcissistic, pinheads.

Maybe, maybe not

I got this email last week, about things that will disappear in the next 10 years. Like most things these day, it was kind of misleading. And of course, it's just somebody's  opinion. Anyway, it was interesting and it made me think about those things.

So let's see;

1.      The Post Office

Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in

financial trouble there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email,

Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to

keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

Junk mail is all about advertising and marketing. That's not going away. And bills aren't going away either. In my opinion, there are still plenty of people that get their bills via snail mail. But I'll buy that the Post Office, as we know, will definitely go away.  

2.      The Check

Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018.

It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks.

Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of

the check. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never

paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office

would absolutely go out of business.

Yeah, I buy that. But not using checks won't lead to the death of the Post Office.

3.      The Newspaper

The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly

don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. It will go the way of the

milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to

pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused

all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have

met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a

model for paid subscription services.

They got that right - the younger generation doesn't read the paper. Hell, I don't read the paper. I find all the news I need, online. I don't believe that they'll pay for an online version though.

                                                                                        

4.      The Book

You say you will never give up the physical book you hold in your hand and

turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from

iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I

discovered I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home

to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books.

I hope not. While I can admit that I love being able to read on my Kindle, at night, in bed, I still love having books. I know avid readers love having tablets to read on. I get it. I believe this could be true. But it would make me sad.

                                                                            

5.      The Land Line Telephone

Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't

need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've always

had it. But you are paying double charges for the extra service. All the

cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell

provider for no charge against your minutes.

I haven't had a land line in about 10 years. I don't miss it. buh bye

6.      Music

This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is

dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack

of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who

would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record

labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40%

of the music purchased today is "catalog items," meaning traditional

music the public is familiar with, older established artists. 

This is misleading. Music is NOT going away. Please. The music industry is changing though. Young people are finding new artists all the time. Just not through the traditional music industry. And those artists, don't want to be a part of the "music industry" anyway. Yes, I can see music radio corporations failing though. Greed ruins everything.

7.      Television

Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of

the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their

computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things to

take up the time usually spent watching TV. Prime time shows have

degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator.

Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes

and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It's time for the cable companies to be

put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch

online and through Netflix.

Again, misleading. TV isn't going away. But certainly, cable companies need to change their business models to survive! I can watch enough on Netflix and Hulu and On Demand, that I could easily, and happily, get rid of 2/3 of my cable channels! For sure, people are tired of having to pay for a 100 channels to just to watch 3 of them.

  

8.      The "Things" You Own

Many of the very possessions we used to own are still in our lives, but we may

not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the

cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures,

music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can

always re-install it if need be. But all of this is changing. Apple,

Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services."

It means when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the

operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied

straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. In this virtual world, you can

access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or

handheld device. This is the good news. But, will you actually own any of

this "stuff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big

"Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical?

It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out a photo album, grab a

book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.

For me, this is just another example of how I want to embrace technology,

but it's so creepy!! I have at least a dozen movies that I "own" digitally. I like it too! Same for some "e-books" I have.

  

9.      Joined Handwriting

Already gone in some schools who no longer teach "joined handwriting"

because nearly everything is done now on computers or keyboards of some

type (pun not intended)
I think they've been talking about this for too long.

10.   Privacy

If there ever was a concept we can look back on nostalgically, it would be

privacy. It's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway.. There are

cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your

computer and cell phone. But you can be sure 24/7, "They" know who you are

and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the

Google Street View. The TV show "Person of Interest" isn't as far out as you

may think. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and

your ads will change to reflect those habits.. "They" will try to get you to buy 

something else. Again and again.
Privacy is just an illusion. It always has been. It's just more obvious now!

This is awesome!

My man and I have the same color birthstones. Well, not exactly, but close. One is a garnet and one is a ruby. You never see them together, in jewelry. I'm guessing it's because they are so close together in the red spectrum. 

Last month, I happen to be thinking about that and wondering to myself, doesn't anyone make jewelry with both gems together? They must, right?

So I got on Amazon - the largest selection on the planet - to see what I could find. Guess what? I found one!! I was so excited. And better yet, they are cut as hearts. Awwwww. OK, so the ruby is lab created, but still! 

Isn't it cute? I love Amazon :-)