Absolutely Hilarious Video

One of my friends at work showed this to our staff... since then I've watched it about 20 times and it gets funnier every time! Click the words to watch... enjoy!

The Front Fell Off

Monterey

I've been meaning to blog about it, but hadn't uploaded my pictures yet, so here we are, 4 days later. This last weekend, Mike and I went to Monterey. It was spectacular... we dubbed it our "27 hour vacation" because when we got back, we really felt like we had been on vacation even though we were only gone Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday morning I had a CERT class, so Mike drove out to Livermore to meet up with Sean and some other friends to ride Mount Diablo. Sounds crazy to me, but they had a great time and a really good ride. I drove out Saturday afternoon after my class, picked Mike up and we drove down to Monterey. We spent the evening at Cannery Row, which was totally fun. We had dinner at a little bar called Sly McFly's (yummy pasta alfredo!) and then wandered along the beach. The weather was a little in and out (for most of the weekend it was either misty or full on raining), but I'm such a beach lover that I don't really care what the weather is like!

Sunday morning we got up and had breakfast at a little diner on the beach. As we walked down, we saw this whole little pod of dolphins swimming alongside a boat... it was so cool! You can see one little fin in this picture:

We then spent the rest of the morning at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I don't think that I've been there since I was really little (if at all), so I was super excited. We spent a good 3 hours checking out all of the fantastic sea critters (including watching a feeding in their main tank where the sharks and tuna were kept). It was such a blast! Here are some more pictures!

Jelly fish. I can't believe what amazing pictures my camera takes on the aquarium setting!

Sharks, tuna and anchovies/sardines:

And my favorite, the seahorses:

No trip would be complete without one of these!

Movie Review: Valentine's Day

Tonight I headed out to dinner and a movie with some of the girls from work. We decided to see Valentine's Day, which definitely falls into the chick flick category. To be brutally honest, I was a little worried. After all, it was an "all star cast", with names like Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Ashton Kutcher, Taylor Swift, Tayler Lautner, Anne Hatheway, Topher Grace, George Lopez, Queen Latifah, Julia Roberts and Shirley MacLaine. Typically, those movies really fall short with me. This one did a really good job!

The movie had a great story line... couples and singles living in LA and how their lives intertwined. It was funny (seriously, Jamie Foxx played a great character), sweet (the Julia Roberts story line) and pretty entertaining. I was also really entertained by the dude in front of us that I've dubbed "Guy Who Laughs Too Loud". About everything.

Definitely see this movie (maybe wait until it hits DVD thought... movies are up to $10.25 now!).

Insurance

Well, thanks to the Great Flood of 2009, my home insurance bill almost doubled this year. I called my dude at Farmers Insurance to ask for a little explanation (after all, they couldn't possibly penalize me for something that I had absolutely no control over and that could not have been prevented, right?). He was a super nice guy who started off by telling me that once you file a claim you're 3-4 times more likely to file another one. I get that if, say, you're an insurance scam artist. I don't really see how I had much of a choice, coming home at 10pm to an inch of water throughout my whole house. But I get it... people abuse the system, so we all pay for it.

I moved on to ask him if there was anything else I could do to bring my rate back down (apparently a single claim says on your "record" for 3 years... so my premium would be up for that whole time period). He said I could try switching over my car insurance (which would save at most a couple hundred bucks). Then, followed one of the best conversations I've had in a long time...

Insurance Agent: "Well, I see that you currently have a $500 deductible."

Me: "Yes, I do."

Insurance Agent: "If you were to bring that up to, say, $2,500, you could significantly decrease your yearly premium."

Me: "Well, wait a minute. Didn't you just say that I'm 3-4 times more likely to file a claim now? If that's the case, why the heck would I raise the deductible I have to pay?!"

Insurance Agent: "Well, um... uh, well, that was an, um, a statistic. I wasn't speaking specifically to you."

Yeaaaaahhh... so, needless to say, today I did some insurance shopping. I'm happy to report that AAA (who currently carries my car insurance) was more than happy to pick up a new customer at a similar rate to what I was paying last year. And, I'll get a 10% discount on my car insurance now! I'm super proud of myself for not only standing up to Farmers, but for taking the time to go find even better insurance! Hooray!

Album Review: Josh Turner "Haywire"

Apparently it's country week here on my blog. I just purchased the new Josh Turner album, titled "Haywire". I absolutely love his voice... he's got that bass that I'm totally in awe of (maybe because I'm a soprano?). My favorite song by far is "Why Don't We Just Dance". It's catchy, it's sweet, it's the perfect first single. The video is also super cute. The single "Haywire" is great also, and Josh co-wrote it. The album also has a couple of live cuts, including "Long Black Train" and "Your Man" from his last album. Definitely worth the money!

My Little Wolf

My sweet little Shadow did the most hilarious thing last night! Mike and I were watching a show called "Yellowstone: Battle for Life". It was actually a really cool two hour documentary on life in Yellowstone during the winter. Apparently it gets up to -66 degrees F in the winter sometimes! No wonder they close the park! Obviously, we were totally hooked, having gone there last October.

One of the animals that seems to thrive during winter (as opposed to the other critters that just struggle to survive) is the wolf. They had a good half hour segment that followed one of the wolf packs and show them hunting, playing, mating, howling, etc. Shadow was completely captivated. Seriously. I've seen him watch TV before, but never with this much attention. Mike's TV is much closer to the ground, so I think it's at a better level for him to see. He raced over, sat a couple feet away and just watched. For like the entire half hour. At one point, they showed the pack chasing an elk and one of the wolves ran out of the camera frame... Shadow raced around the side of the TV to look behind it. I'm so not making this up. Mike and I were laughing our heads off!

I'm pretty sure Shadow had some great wolf dreams last night!

Album Review: Lady Antebellum "Need You Now"

I recently bought the new Lady Antebellum album, called "Need You Now". I absolutely love it. I think this is one of the hottest groups in country and if they're careful, they'll have a long career. This album debuted at number one on the billboard charts last week.

The two songs you've probably heard on the radio already are the title track, "Need You Now" and the last single, "American Honey". Of the two, I absolutely love "Need You Now"... I really love when they switch the vocals back and forth between the Charles and Hillary. I also really like the song "If I Knew Then"... it sort of has a sad 80's country song feel to it.

Funny for Today

Mike sent me this today... it cracks me up!

These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts, and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.

ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said , 'Where am I, Cathy?'
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan!
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo?
WITNESS: We both do.
ATTORNEY: Voodoo?
WITNESS: We do.
ATTORNEY: You do?
WITNESS: Yes, voodoo.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
____________________________________
ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He's 20, much like your IQ.
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
_________________________________________

ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Getting laid!
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death.
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard.
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I'm going with male.
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_________________________________________

ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral.
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 PM.
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?______________________________________

And last:

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.