the devil's dog treat

never. ever. NEVEREVER buy these for your dogs. my dogs have had them twice (i bought them once and my mom bought them once), and each time BOTH dogs writhed in pain as they wretched the remnants of the evil oinkies out. i feel like writing hartz a letter and telling them they can shove their oinkies up their oinkes.

this dude can rock

over the weekend, the hubs, some friends and i saw this guy in concert.

these folks opened for him, and i was even more excited to see them (little big town) than i was the main show. little big town did not disappoint - i love the way they've fused the fleetwood mac vibe with contemporary country music. awesome.

but keith urban blew me away. i've always liked his music, but he's never entered my list of favs or must-sees . . . until now. the man is a seriously talented musician - he rocked no fewer than a half dozen guitars, and had more energy than the energizer bunny on speed. most of the show, i felt like i was at a rock concert and not a country pop concert because keith and his band kicked some serious ass. if you get a chance to see keith and company - take it - you won't regret it, even if you're not into country.

winter song

i've had this song on repeat all morning. i love it. i can't remember the last time i heard a song that captured my soul the way this one does. is love alive?

precarious

i know i haven't been a very good blogger lately.

i guess there are lots of reasons, and no reason at all.

i'm in limbo right now and i'm scared. i want to find an answer but i don't want the answer that i suspect i'm going to get.

image via ffffound.

93 words per minute

i enter my fair share of blogger contests. but i'm really keeping my fingers crossed for down and out chic's latest contest, which is a giveaway of this shabby apple dress. so friggin' cute. reminds me a bit of mad men's christina hendricks . . . what's not to L-O-V-E??

incidentally, i type 117 words per minute. what about you?

nice = moron

i heard that according to a recent study, portland has the nicest drivers in the entire country. oh, how i beg to differ. if you substitute any of the following words for "nice," then the study is correct: stupid, air-headed, sunday-driving, spacey, or just plain f*cking retarded. seriously.

one who doesn't live in portland, might think that the driver that just let you merge into traffic is being oh-so-considerate: i assure you, this isn't the case. he's too engrossed in his thoughts about the soil he uses in his vegan garden to notice that a world exists outside of his prius. i, too, made the mistake of thinking portland drivers were supernice when i first got here, but i have learned the truth. a truth that involves daily encounters with lame ass drivers who choose to drive 20 miles under the speedlimit in a 50 zone, come to a complete stop on the freeway to allow another car to enter their lane, put their blinker on for 3 miles, so you have no idea when they actually plan on turning, yielding to cars that don't have the right of way, etc etc.

makes me want to SCREEEEAM and almost makes me miss the aggression of LA drivers. almost.

the definition of courage

i had a whole list of crap i was going to rant about today to mark the return to regular blogging. but then i read this post. and everything else seems so insignificant and irrelevant. talk about being humbled.

public speaking

i am ridiculously busy this week taking a class on public speaking for work. two words for you: no likey. tomorrow i get to give a 20 minute presentation in front of the class on a topic of my choice. i chose to speak about the group above . . . should be interesting . . .

are you kidding me?

didn't like it. not one bit. i do think that gordon-leavitt did a wonderful job, but i was thoroughly bored with zooey's flat performance. i so desperately wanted her to tuck those swarthy sideburns behind her ears but it never happened: muy distracting. the story line was uncomfortably depressing - perhaps reminding me too much of relationships past to appreciate its unconventional approach to the romantic comedy. my final gripe: LA is an awesome city in its own right, so the director's obvious attempt to make it look like NYC pissed me off. sorry folks - i know everyone has ranted and raved, but i want those 2 hours and 500 days of my life back.

be still my colorful heart

a little surprise arrived in the mail last week. usually i am annoyed when i discover that my information has been sold to some catalog publisher, but when my first boden catalog arrived unsolicited, i was thrilled. i discovered that i love LOVE love their clothes - particularly because of the use of lots of vibrant colors. just take a look at a few of the things i plan on purchasing . . .