The family grows

I introduce to you Mary-Agnès:



Sister of Mary-Kate:




...and of Mary Michael:



Also making themselves at home in the Poppy house are Geneviève (and kittos):



and Bunbun:



Here's the full set of everyone, including my favorite photos of everyone getting to know each other:



Welcome to the family, everyone!

Your results:
You are Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman

		70%
Green Lantern		65%
Catwoman		65%
Robin		62%
Superman		60%
Supergirl		60%
Hulk		60%
Spider-Man		55%
Batman		45%
The Flash		40%
Iron Man		25%
You are a beautiful princess with great strength of character.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz


Yaaaaay. :) Thanks, P'nut!

Wonder Woman is my co-pilot

I loved Wonder Woman growing up. When I was asked in kindergarten who my idol was I answered, “Wonder Woman”. Everyone else answered “Mom” or “Dad”. I was a weird kid. ANYWAY...

A new Wonder Woman movie is in negotiations with screenplay by our favorite Firefly/Serenity creator, Joss Whedon. Guess which beautiful person is up for the part? Charisma Carpenter!




I just sent her a message on MySpace asking what the fans can do to help make that happen. Perhaps spamming Joss Whedon with “We love Charisma!!” would do the trick...

What the heck?

Anyone know what happened to Danielle's Daily Dish? It was there yesterday... Maybe she got a lawyer letter?

Because we just haven't seen enough of Carmen Electra

She wants you to know: She'll soon be single* and she's very flexible.



*Just a rumor at this point.

Escape (the Piña Colada song)

This one goes out to all of you lovers who are in a rut:

I was tired of my lady
We'd been together too long
Like a worn-out recording
Of a favorite song
So while she lay there sleeping
I read the paper in bed
And in the personal columns
There was this letter I read

"If you like Pina Coladas
And getting caught in the rain
If you're not into yoga
If you have half a brain
If you'd like making love at midnight
In the dunes on the Cape
Then I'm the love that you've looked for
Write to me and escape."

I didn't think about my lady
I know that sounds kind of mean
But me and my old lady
Have fallen into the same old dull routine
So I wrote to the paper
Took out a personal ad
And though I'm nobody's poet
I thought it wasn't half bad

"Yes I like Pina Coladas
And getting caught in the rain
I'm not much into health food
I am into champagne
I've got to meet you by tomorrow noon
And cut through all this red-tape
At a bar called O'Malley's
Where we'll plan our escape."

So I waited with high hopes
And she walked in the place
I knew her smile in an instant
I knew the curve of her face
It was my own lovely lady
And she said, "Oh it's you."
Then we laughed for a moment
And I said, "I never knew."

That you like Pina Coladas
Getting caught in the rain
And the feel of the ocean
And the taste of champagne
If you'd like making love at midnight
In the dunes of the Cape
You're the lady I've looked for
Come with me and escape

Speech! Speech!

Oregano, you're probably on honeymoon, but I'd just like to congratulate you on getting married almost two weeks ago. I hope the day went perfectly and you're enjoying sand between your toes and a margarita or two with your sweetest heart.

Cheers,
Poppy

Are you a nerd, geek, or dork?

Brought to you by the letters, P and Q, the numbers 4 and 7, and the lovely Barbie Martini ladies Emily and Cariel. :)

I'm not dead yet!

Unlike this Monarch butterfly, I am not dead.





I found her under a clump of grass in our back yard. I think she died of natural causes, but she might have died when the clump of grass squashed her? Who knows. No CSIs for butterflies. Well, okay, there are Is for butterflies but no CSIs.

In case you're like P'nut and want to know how the porch building is coming along, here's a shot from this morning!



Complete with vinyl beadboard under the porch roof!




A reminder of what it looked like before the work started:

AI feedback

I'm not going to bother, I thought last night was a disaster.

However, Kris and Dan have eloquent synopses, so go check 'em before you reck 'em.

INFP

Oh, just one thing. Yesterday I found out I'm an INFP. And, the profile for the rest of America: ESTJ. Yes, the exact opposite from me. Sucks balls to know for certain that the rest of the world will just never understand me and vice versa.


For those who don't know, INFP and ESTJ are Myers-Briggs personality indicators/types. INFP basically means I am a loner who gets my energy from doing solitary actions and who tends to see the big picture but not all the steps to accomplish the big picture, and who tends to be intuitive about things rather than collecting data. The rest of the world being ESTJ means they get their energy from being around others, use data to make decisions, and need processes broken down and compartmentalized to accomplish goals.

Go away, kid, you bother me.

Apparently the wonder drug that magically makes my back and leg pain disappear also renders a side effect more common in children 3-12 years of age: behavioral problems.

I am not saying I'm the most stable person to begin with, but. This just can't go on.

I've got nothing else to say on the matter at this point. Please, feel free to peruse other blogs in the sidebar. I'm just not coping so well right now and I don't want to pretend that I am.

No pity (or pithy) comments, please. I just want to curl up in a little ball and tune out all the sensory that is trying to make its way in. Oh, and call the doctor to say, “might I please have a different medication, please? oh, and please. thanks.”


Please note: Comments for this post have been disabled, but my skin doesn't quite know how to tell you properly.

Avatar

Why do people post avatars of themselves which include other people in the picture? If your name is Kathleen but there are three women in the photo, which one are you? Or, if your name is Kelly but there's a man and a woman in the photo a) which one is Kelly; b) why is Kelly so insecure that s/he needs to have a picture of her/his partner included?

Okay, one more. Last one. I promise. Although, I break promises...

Created by Married to the Sea

Speaking of bears with wooden poles, when I was a sophomore in high school my Earth Science teacher told me and my classmates the harrowing tale of his brush with bear death. He and his wife were camping and were attacked by bears. They were both pretty banged up and bloody but both were able to get away (he dragged her away from the bears) and both survived. Unfortunately, his wife soon after died from cancer. Very sad. Makes me think that the idea of Final Destination has merit - that if you cheat death it just finds another way to get you. I know we all die, but it does seem ironic that my teacher's wife would survive a very bad bear attack (the doctors weren't sure she was going to live) only to be attacked from the inside out. ... Kind of a buzzkill from the pole joke, sorry.

Six degrees of separation. Or, is it three?

I completely forget how I got to Nattering Natalie (anyone?) but she led me to Married to the Sea who made this funny art:



My day is now complete. Is it time to sleep now?

My mind has just officially been blown.

Spray-on fabric. From a can. Que the freakando f is the world coming to? Incredible, but scary.

Thanks to Betta Don't for bringing this mind-blowing product to my attention. Mon chien...

BWAHAHAAHAHA!

Apparently my Monday is funny.



Thanks to Attu.

Leave out the Jack and this is pretty darn accurate

Your Monster Profile

Insane Fiend You Feast On: Jack and Coke You Lurk Around In: Candy Factories You Especially Like to Torment: Your Exes

What's Your Monster Name?

Thanks, B. Hope your day goes better!!!

If I saw one of my exes, I would love to torment him. Sweet revenge and a side of toast, please!

Sleeptalker

Reports say Islamic couple must wait 100 days to remarry

NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) -- A Muslim couple in India have been told by local Islamic leaders they must separate after the husband "divorced" his wife in his sleep, the Press Trust of India reported.

Sohela Ansari told friends that her husband Aftab had uttered the word "talaq," or divorce, three times in his sleep, according to the report published in newspapers on Monday.

When local Islamic leaders got to hear, they said Aftab's words constituted a divorce under an Islamic procedure known as "triple talaq." The couple, married for 11 years with three children, were told they had to split.

The religious leaders ruled that if the couple wanted to remarry they would have to wait at least 100 days. Sohela would also have to spend a night with another man and be divorced by him in turn.*

The couple, who live in the eastern state of West Bengal, have refused to obey the order and the issue has been referred to a local family counseling center.

India's minority Muslim population is governed by Islamic personal laws on issues such as marriage, divorce and property inheritance.

"This is a totally unnecessary controversy and the local 'community leaders' or whosoever has said it are totally ignorant of Islamic law," said Zafarul-Islam Khan, an Islamic scholar and editor of The Milli Gazette, a popular Muslim newspaper.

"The law clearly says any action under compulsion or in a state of intoxication has no effect. The case of someone uttering something while asleep falls under this category and will have no impact whatsoever," Khan told Reuters. (CNN)

---
*Dude, that's messed up.

Just one more (or is it less?) thing...

Dearest Britney,

You are looking fantastic!



One less accessory on your right hand and your incredible look will be complete.



(Bye-bye Kevin-pie!)

Cheers!
Poppy

For P'nut

Today Hay and I went to a new Mexican restaurant for lunch. I ordered a virgin strawberry daiquiri, specifically because P'nut had hoped I would have one at the bar on Friday night, but I only had Cokes. I didn't have my camera, but here's basically what it looked like:



Except the glass decoration was a lime wedge instead of a strawberry. Very tasty! :)

Sun...day? Gar...den?!?!

Could it be? Has Sunday Garden returned? I might have to say no since I need to send my camera in for repair, but it can't hurt to sneak one early edition in. :)

The teaser:



(Hey, I dug in the dirt all day, my nails are trashed, deal with it! :P ;)

The full set of Sunday Garden photos is here.

You Are Apple Pie

You're the perfect combo of comforting and traditional Those who like you crave security

What Kind of Pie Are You?

(Thanks to Sara at i like to cook!)

The good kind of sore

The kind of sore that comes from a good day's work. Today in Poppyland the weather was wonderful for outdoor activity - in the mid 40s, overcast, with no precipitation. I was able to clean out and trim down the dead parts of all of our garden beds today. That is an all day endeavor, and I'm just now writing about it while it is firmly dark outside, so you know it took me all day. My back is happily sore, because it knows it was productive today. And, it was so nice to see how much new growth we have!



Gorgeous...

In case anyone's interested, here's a photo of the double cut of the coax cable leading from the house to our satellite dish:



(Oops.)

Not too much progress was made on the porch yesterday, so I'm not going to bother posting a photo. BUT, last night's birthday party at the karaoke bar was a ton of fun. I didn't achieve bravery to sing a birthday song other than the traditional song one sings with others on a birthday, but here's a little photo of the exciting time:



That's the birthday girl on the right and her partner in civil union on the left. They are such an awesome couple, and incredible individuals. (I know it's dark, but I didn't dare to use the flash in the bar... If you click the photo you'll see a slightly clearer version.) Here's the set with the rest of the photos, including this lovely:



That's the candle that was at our table.

Dirty 30

My co-worker is having a dirty 30 birthday party tonight at a karaoke bar. I may have interesting photos and/or tales to tell later tonight. I may drink one alcoholic beverage (my first in over a year, so I don't think it will mix with my morning medication and cause me to have a bleeding ulcer). I love parties. :)


Update: I had two Coca-Colas. :) But, but but!! I did stay out until after midnight and had someone drive me home as if I were drunk!!

Good news, good news

When you were in chorus/choir/madrigals/etc. in high school did you have to sing an inordinate number of religious-y songs? Yah, me too. And, I unfortunately still remember those better than the rest. Like, "my lord, what a mor-or-or-ning" and "et in terra pax hominibus" blah-de-blah.

Anyway, the whole reason for me posting: I just went to visit my gram in the hospital and she wasn't there! Sooooo, I called the house as soon as I got out of the hospital and my uncle answered. He told me the doctors increased her meds and she should be fine. A visiting nurse and a meal service will take care of her needs until she's back to full strength.

In other news, Hay tells me that the chimney smokers in flannel accidentally cut the line to our satellite dish, so no TV for us this weekend. Totally okay, since we have a lot of DVDs to watch. I'm pretty sure if we can't get a signal we can't get the information for what's stored on the DVR and therefore cannot watch it. Hay thinks the opposite, but seems to me when we have dish problems due to weather we can't see what's on the DVR either. Anyone know the definitive answer?

Why baseball is America's favorite passtime*

Because the players do amazing shit like this:



Effing a, that play was so incredible that I need to take the rest of the day off to recover.


(Save Manny)


---
Apparently passtime is really spelled pastime, but it's a contraction of "pass the time" so I'm leaving it!

[Middle English passe tyme, translation of French passe temps : passer, to pass + temps, time.]

F U English language! (I'm really going after the langues today... oh, and swearing a lot. Oh well.)

Before and...well, not quite after

This was our happy home Monday morning:



...and then little bearded men wearing flannel and chimney smoking came over and caused a raucous. By Wednesday they had turned the outside of our home into a wasteland:







When we came home Thursday there was something that resembled a deck(!!!):





Looking forward to what the site will look like tonight, and to a construction-free weekend. Ahhhhhhh....

Oh, totally random: We watched The 40 Year Old Virgin last night and laughed hysterically. Definitely worth your time and money. Who knew that Catherine Keener has such a smokin' hot bod?! Loved the chest waxing scene, which was real - Steve really had his chest hair ripped off for the movie. Dégoutant*, but hilarious. :)


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*In Poppyworld this means “disgusting”, but en français it actually means nothing. Proper use of disgusting/disgust is “dégout”, and if something is disgusting it's “répougnant”, but it's my blog and that's what I say, so l'Académie française can shove it. :D

Here I am, rock me like a hurricane

I have returned from under the pile of rubble! It will take me exactly one hour to catch up on comments, blogs, and the entertainment world. Please note that I shall be posting more today.

My teeth effing hurt, my class effing sucked, my grandmother is still in the effing hospital, there are still effing little men crawling all over the outside and inside of my house, and the cats are still effing pissed about it, but at least we're all alive to be effing anything, right? Rock on!

Say yes because it's what we do best and I've had such a hard day

Let's see, what'd I do today...

1. Had a fight with Hay first thing this morning because I'm an idiot and can't deal with the fact that men are crawling all over the outside of our house and freaking Georgie out.
   
2. Then I stormed off to work and got freaked out by the head of IT who said “you're all getting shuffled, but I don't know where yet.”
   
3. Then I freaked out with my coworkers about the meeting we had just attended while I finished putting together my packets for tomorrow's class.
   
4. Then I bought Hay a “sorry, I'm an idiot” gift.
   
5. Then I went to make sure my classroom had what I expected it to for tomorrow and helped someone else for their class.
   
6. Then I returned a call to my mom who told me I really need to call my grandmother in the hospital; I called, no answer.
   
7. Then I called Mom to let her know I didn't reach my grandmother and that life is crazy so please let her know I'm trying.
   
8. Then I read my email to find that after several years of being on the waiting list I finally got a parking spot in my building's lot! Le woot!
   
9. Then I called Hay and apologized for my idiocy and warned him I have a gift.
   
10. And, now it's the end of my day and I haven't read blogs and I haven't accomplished anything other than some really tense shoulder muscles.

I'm exhausted.

A-ha

Whenever I get behind in reading my favorite blogs I get tagged for a meme, and this time I got tagged by the delightfully charming and talented Melissa at Wonders Never Cease. Soooooo, here we go...

1. Choose a search engine (e.g. Google), click "images."
2. Pick 5 random blogfriends.
3. Think of a word or a phrase that you think describes each friend.
4. Do an image search of that word or phrase.
5. Pick an image that makes you say "A-ha! That's it!"
(6. Tag somebody)

Melissa “twisted it a bit and decided to just search for things I think of when I think about these bloggers.” So, I'm gonna do it that way, too.

1. Anonymous Coworker = necropheliac (thanks for reminding me, BitterMom :)





2. Jules = snowboarding chick





3. Diamond Lil = Howard Stern


FIYAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Can you tell I'm an Artie fan?)



4. Bdogg = Playmobil nun


Good evening, Sister Mary-Michael. Or, wait, is that Sister Mary-Kate? I can never tell the difference. ;)



5. Stacy = Jürgen (my nephew!!)


That's just a freakin' cool cake. Oh, and it says für on it which really means for but it's similar enough to the plain old fur that coats my nephew.


Who to tag, who. to. tag. Let's see. *cluck of the tongue* ... *a bit of Jeopardy music* ... MALIAVALE! Sorry, Sweetie, that's what you get for doing the recipe swap a few months late. ;)

Dinosaur invasion

23 minutes.

That's how many we missed when our DVR decided it just didn't feel like recording American Idol tonight. We did catch all of Paris's performance, but not the two before. And, really, who cares, because Paris rocked it and I love her and wish I could just bottle her up and carry her in my pocket. :)

Oh, but, HOLY SHIT that Chris can rock! His rendition of Johnny Cash's I Walk the Line was freakin' fantastic!!!!!!!!

Fragglicious

What fraggle are you?

Thanks to the Tini girls: Emily and Cariel.

Bryant...Gumbel?

Kevin Federline's supposed MySpace page has a new song playing which claims that his first track, Popozao, was a "curve ball", not "this shit", and the exclusive kfederalf is the real song.

...

What?? Let me just say I never listened to Popozao, but the baseline of this new song exclusive kfederalf is a total ripoff of Thomas Dolby's song.

Is this shit for real??? It's really offensive, really ripped off, and really stupid. Who sings about Bryant Gumbel?!


---
a link directly to the song (opens veeeeeeeeeeeery sloooooooowly, can take a few minutes)

Web-only episodes of The Office

Adam Avitable* tells me (and the rest of the blog-o-sphere) that The Office is coming to the web this summer. ARS Technica further explains:

All of the broadcast networks are faced with the same problem of declining viewership in the face of competition not only from hundreds of niche cable networks, but also from the Internet, video games, and a number of other activities that draw viewers away from the boob tube. Jeff Zucker, the CEO of NBC Universal Television Group, recognizes the problem, and is encouraging would-be producers of TV shows to come to the company with a strategy that extends beyond TV.

(That Jeff Zucker, he's kinda brilliant.) Who's excited? (I am! I am!)


---
*For those of you who I emailed to say I was not available for comment because I'm prepping for my class: I found Adam's site while searching for the text of a CNN article that has expired since I first found it. Thanks to Adam for totally ripping CNN's content and pasting it to his blog so that I could use the article in my class again!!

Quickie

Girls Talkin' Smack reports that Constantine has left Pray for the Soul of Betty. He has released an official statement:

I will keep this brief...

Due to both creative and business reasons I have decided to leave Betty.

I thank you all for the love and support you have shown me and the boys. You are amazing. I know this comes as a surprise to most of you but it has been in the cards for a long time coming. We had an amazing time on tour and have had some great shows. It is just time. I can no longer expect the band to wait for me to pursue my solo endeavors...it is not fair to them. I will not bore you with the rest. They are three very talented artists and I trust you will continue to support them in whatever they chose to do. I know you will. I hope you will continue to support me as well.

Please know that some amazing things are instore for me and I assure you...you will be the first to know!!

Thank you...for everything!!

Love always,
Constantine~

Kinda sucks for the rest of the band...

FourFour does Liza montage

Larry King had the pleasure of interviewing the zany Liza Minnelli. FourFour has condensed the very best bits of the interview into this masterpiece of a clip:

It should win an award. :)

Thanks to City for pointing this gem out.

An open (or is it closed?) letter

Dear Poppy's emotions,

You were doing so well. You were keeping the human in general happiness mode. Nothing phased her. She made great decisions. She even could argue with a clear, calm head. What the fuck* happened? Now she's pissy and moody and downright grumpy for no apparent reason, and you aided and abetted in the gaining of 4 lbs in one weekend. What is wrong with you? Shape up or ship the f out.

Sincerestly,
the human element referred to as Poppy


---
*I only spelled out the f word once, so this post is rated PG-13. Right? I think.

A gripe, a book, and a kiss

Looks like Blogger is behaving again. FOR THE MOMENT. I guess that's what I get for a free service - shittiness. (Free shittiness!) You're only as good as your last page load, Blogger, so let's TRY to keep the page loads under 60 seconds?!?!

/gripe off


The library finally had Cell! Remember when I mentioned that I went to the library to get it but it was the only missing Stephen King book?! When I visited today its status was "Returned" so I asked the nice young man at the counter to paw through all the books to be shelved and locate it for me. He said it was the very last book he checked. My lucky day! I am now juggling 4 books, although I'll be honest with you and admit that I'm committed to finishing Kathy Lynn Emerson's book for the following reasons:

1. B lent it to me and I'm feeling guilty about possessing half her library of books.
2. It's REALLY good and I want to keep the momentum going.
3. It's the book out of the 4 that I've had for the longest, so by default it deserves to be finished first out of the 4.

And they lived happily ever after. The end. Goodnight, Poppette! Back to Sopranos from the DVR for la famille Cede. *les smoochies*

Le murr

It is not my fault my page is loading slowly; it is, however, BLOGGER'S FAULT. Effity eff eff eff effing effer eff!!!!!#!!!#!@#@$!!!!!

ANYWAY.

Got this from the Spider Lady herself who got it from Luna Niña. Ahhhh. I like it when people make me think. :D

Sugar rush:: Orance Crush
Chemical:: Burn
Suspension:: Bridge
Defending:: Your Life
Conference:: Jitters
Dance:: Pants
Weather:: Dreary
Fuel:: Hotness
Heartbreak:: Hotel
Insult:: Injury

In the 1200 club

Remember I told you about Attu's desktop project? I made it onto the project! (scroll down to the bottom of the post)

I am semi-shocked at how naked many of the desktops are out there. They must be home computers. I mean, a girl eating out another girl is pretty NSFW. Unless of course you work for ...well, I'm not going to defame any business characters, but you can all think of at least one company where photos of naked kitty eating might be encouraged.

La Lohan and a puppy

I can't help myself, I just love this photo of Lindsay with a little doggie:



Image courtesy of Linds-Lo.com via Danielle's Daily Dish