You can't have the Mango (polish)

Photo just shot for Christine -- my submission for "Polish It!"
posted at 01:33 AM | link-

Two guesses where I got the song quotes from
The June 2002 "Fifteen Minutes of Fame" wedding is up!

I'll be out of the "office" all day Saturday, so if you need anything...well, tough! No just kidding. Please contact Stacy for all things Sekimori, and Christine for all things Blogomania.
posted at 12:20 AM | link-

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It's a clean machine
Ok, can the new pMachine blog converts let me in on a little secret... Do you have to make people register in order to comment at your site now? Is this part of the software? Because quite frankly, I have too many friggin' registrations to keep track of elsewhere. The last place I want to do it is for all the blogs I read now as well.

Anyone else bugged by this (or have any idea of what I'm talking about)? Am I being too cranky? I'm not saying the software isn't the latest, greatest thing since Movable Type, because I haven't even tried it yet. But if registration is not required in order to make the software work properly, registration should be optional on your sites! And to think I got bitched at because I used to ask people to just leave an e-mail address so I could e-mail them with comment responses...
posted at 05:51 PM | link-

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Love to love you baby
Ok, so I've done lists for chick rock songs, do-me songs, and break-up songs now.

Christi has requested that we all put together another list of the "greatest love songs". (Word of warning: Even think about listing a Celine or Mariah song and you're out of my blog. Seriously. Just go.) For my pick, it would have to be "Head Over Feet" by Alanis Morissette. Your turn!
posted at 04:02 PM | link-

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I see dead people
I'm the first to admit our country is way too sue-happy for my own liking. But here is a couple suing MTV and the Hard Rock Hotel for $10 million dollars, and based on the facts (haven't seen the photos), I'm not sure if I blame them:

"The couple became unwitting participants in a practical joke filmed for a series under development at MTV called 'Harassment' while they were on vacation in January. Upon entering the hotel room, the Ryans 'discovered what appeared to be a dead human body covered and surrounded by blood, evidently the victim of a homicide,' as hidden cameras recorded their shock, the suit says. As the couple tried to flee, two actors posing as security guards blocked their way, and a third individual in the guise of a paramedic entered the room. The show's host and co-producer, Ashton Kutcher, who has described the series in interviews as a 'guerrilla-style Candid Camera,' finally emerged to reveal the prank."

Ok, it's a joke. Sure. I'll give 'em that. Ha ha. Funny. But then I try to put myself in the couple's shoes. Todd and I haven't had a real honest-to-goodness vacation since June of 1999. I guarandamntee you that if we waltzed into our hotel room to finally kick back and relax, and found what appeared to be a MURDER scene, the relaxing would end right then and there. Even if it was a joke. You don't go through that kind of instant-fear -- much less being prevented from fleeing the scene -- and just get over it and go drink by the pool.

Having seen a dead body taken out of the neighbor's house a couple of weeks back, I still don't look left when I go outside. It just creeps me out too much. Yet this couple was expected just to smile, pull down the bloody sheets, and start the vacation? I don't think so. I hope they get their $10 mil. And a free vacation at the Bellagio. (Article from CNN.com.) What do you think?
posted at 02:33 AM | link-

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Turn and face the strain
My momma raised me right. Had a bad week? Not feelin' so good? Time to get your hair done! Mine had definitely got into a rut...but that's nothing hacking a few inches off and adding some highlights couldn't fix... And here are a couple more of the front just for fun! Would you call that perky, Stacy?
posted at 11:10 PM | link-

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Side-by-side on my piano keyboard, oh lord...
Just overheard - comedian Chris Rock: "It really is the end of the world. The best rapper out there is white. And the best golfer is black."
posted at 04:31 PM | link-

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I'm handi-capable
Maybe it's just because I've been really sick today, and when I'm like this I get blindsided that this is my life after a string of really good days. Or maybe I've just been picked on one time too many. But I read a comment over at Annessa's blog (not by her) that made my blood boil. You cannot possibly imagine what I go through each and every time a local or national news program does an expose on handicapped parking and the "healthy" people using the spaces. Comments like these turn into actions out in the real world:

"My dark side? Well, I'd definitely run into/over someone non-handicapped if they blatently parked in a handicapped spot after they saw me coming. No, I'm not hostile."

I look healthy. You've seen my photos. I'm under 30. I'm not in a wheelchair. I don't use a cane. I don't walk with a visible limp. But like it or not (and believe me, I don't) -- I am handicapped. I do have a handicapped parking tag (even though I have been unable to drive myself since 1996). And on the days I need it, I do use it. What may seem just a few more spaces down and not much extra walking to you can literally make the difference on whether or not I can continue my shopping or have to leave early without my intended purchases.

In the state of Florida your drivers license number is printed on your handicapped tag -- and believe me, mine matches. I know this because we have had the cops called on us after entering pharmacies and stores to do our shopping, only to exit and find a police car blocking our route until we were investigated. The only times we are free from harassment when using the tag is when my grandmother comes down to visit and gets out of the car with us. Ironically, her visits have been to do things like help us move or help Todd with the cooking and cleaning when I have been too sick to do so myself. She can run circles around me -- but she "looks" the part. So I guess that must mean she is entitled and I am not.

The following is a letter I sent to the local news editor back in 1998 after being verbally attacked and physically shaken while trying to enter a store. When I tried to go the non-confrontation route and walk by the person (Todd walks faster than I do and had already entered the store without me unaware of what was occurring behind him), I was grabbed, flung around, and made to account for my use of the space. And that's not the only time. As mentioned in Annessa's blog -- I have been cursed at, flipped off, chased across a parking lot (and believe me I don't walk fast), had nasty notes left on my car, and stopped more times than I care to count.

I carry a Medic Alert card on me at all times. I wear a Medic Alert bracelet around my ankle. I am prepared when I'm stopped. But why should I have to be? Who made you judge, jury and executioner? Think about that the next time you're tempted to open up your big mouth and/or run me over. And please read this essay.

July 2, 1998

Hey you! Yes you, the one giving me the dirty look as I step out of my car and grabbing me as I try to go by to "justify myself"... Or you, gesturing towards me, pointing me out to your friends... And you over there, yelling obscenities at me, and telling me that I don't look handicapped... Even you, the one that put the nasty 'anonymous' note on my windshield while I was inside doing my shopping... Didn't your mothers ever teach you that it's rude to stare, that it's not polite to point fingers, or that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all?

How do you know that I don't have a heart condition? I do. I'm only 25 years old, but I do. Does every handicapped person need to have a wheelchair or cane? Do you have to be over the age of 65 to park in a handicapped spot in the state of Florida, or anywhere for that matter? Maybe not legally, but judging by the general public's reaction, certainly logically... WHY is that?

When did our society become so close-minded and petty, that we need to have 60 Minutes and 20/20 reporters chasing down healthy-looking individuals who park in handicapped spots? Even though a few healthy people might abuse the system now and again, do we then assume that every healthy-looking individual should not be entitled to disabled parking? Did any of you ever stop to think that some disabilities CAN'T be seen? Do you know there's a box for the doctor to check when they fill out the handicapped parking certification form that states, "Patient cannot walk more than 200 yards without rest"? This includes, but is not limited to, a host of lesser-known illnesses such as Lyme Disease, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Neurally Mediated Hypotension, Fibromyalgia, Gulf War Syndrome, Valley Fever, and Lupus -- just to name a few. HIV, cancer, and heart disease aren’t always 'visible', but they are very real and serious illnesses too.

You do not have to be missing a limb or be caught popping a glycerin tablet to legally, morally, or ethically park in a handicapped space. You do not have to be in a wheelchair like the universal handicapped symbol depicts. You do not need to be bald or have gray hair. You don't even have to be a passenger in the car -- you can be a disabled DRIVER, and still use a handicapped parking tag.

I've fought long and hard with the national government to be termed legally disabled. I don't have the strength or energy to fight with you too. It's not good for my health anyway. So leave me alone, and go pick on someone else. If you really think I'm breaking the law, then call the police and let them sort it out. It's not like I haven't been through that one before. Just stay out of it and mind your own business. I simply want to get my shopping done so I can go back to bed.

Sincerely,
Robyn L. Pollman

For more information, please visit invisibledisabilities.com. This quote rings quite true:

"Most people with illnesses and injuries would jump at the chance to trade their plates and placards in for the ability to walk from the farthest parking space! To those who are healthy and able to walk, they see these spaces as a bonus or luxury! But, for those who are sick or in pain, it is just a reminder of what they have lost. After all, these spaces do not make life easy, they make it possible."

posted at 01:15 AM | link-

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We are the champions
So are we the only ones that mutter as victorious teams slap the losers hands at the end of a game on TV... "Good game. Good game. Kiss my ass. You ruined my life. Good game. I hate you. There goes the Nike deal. Good game. Good game. You suck. You suck. You suck. The wife ain't gettin' any tonight. Good game. Where's the beer? Bite me." Too many years playing soccer and softball, I tell ya'.
posted at 11:46 PM | link-

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This space for rent
Yeah, I'm supposed to be sick and offline right now. Sue me. (And don't tell Todd). This was just on "Call For Help" though:

"YahooPOPs! is an application which emulates a POP3 mail server and provides free POP3 access to Yahoo! It does not depend on Yahoo's POP3 mail server which became a paid service in April 2002. You can use a POP3 mail client of your choice!" (Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, etc.)

And someone e-mailed me this cute wedding announcement movie Had to share it, too. Back to the bottle...of NyQuil...now.
posted at 06:18 PM | link-

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I'm a little farklempt

I awoke that that sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever, so I'm pretty much out for the count feeling. In other words I have a shpilkes in my gonnec-tica-zoink, so talk amongst yourselves. Here's a repeat edition of "blogblogbaby.com". Enjoy.
posted at 04:22 PM | link-

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On the cover of the Rolling Stone
Whoeee -- I'm in the Lockergnome Windows Daily. Thanks Chris!
posted at 04:05 AM | link-

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Here's looking at you kid
Here's another list for today -- the American Film Institute's "100 Most Romantic Movies". I only caught snipets here and there, but Todd watched most of the show and told me when to look up. I was quite surprised to see that my very favorite movie of all time made the list ("Jezebel" with Bette Davis and Henry Fonda), coming in at #79. My favorite actress and actor, Ms. Katharine Hepburn and Mr. Cary Grant respectively, had the most films in the list -- each with six. Some titles were predictable, and even more caused our eyes to roll. But all the same, it will be a good list to keep handy for Netflix as repeat season kicks into full-gear. (Article and list from CNN.com.)
posted at 03:27 AM | link-

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Don't let it bring you down
~~Today~~, errrr yesterday (which is still today to me), was quite literally hell. Nothing went right with the project I was working on. By 11 p.m. Todd decided I'd had enough. He dropped Taco Bell to-go (yes, it took me that long to stop for dinner) and an Orange Hooch in my lap. And then...he made my day... After watching me pull more 5 a.m.'ers in recent history than back when I was in college, he brought up a very interesting fact I had neglected to recall. Saturday is June 15th -- the two-year anniversary of the day I was sliced, diced and julienne fried -- all in the name of trying to have a baby. That day, and each June 15th since, has been marked on the calendar as "Pamper Robyn Silly Day".

So my wonderful husband announced that this year he's taking me to Sephora in Orlando! And once the sun has started climbing back down the horizon, over to Cocoa Beach on the east coast (and back here again, too). I think I can manage to get through the rest of the week now! No, no. You can't have him. He's mine!

posted at 03:08 AM | link-

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This is how we do it...
Ok, because I'm a sucker for peer-pressure...here's the mini-Blogrolling tutorial I wrote up. Please keep in mind this was not meant to be a thorough "on the web" unofficial tutorial. It was meant to be a small set of e-mail instructions for friends having trouble only. So it's really not fancy -- just how to set up a Blogroll and get it to appear on your site.

The beauty Blogrolling for someone who's afraid of editing templates and HTML is that once you've set up a Blogrolling list, you never have to touch your blog templates again when you add, edit or delete your links! All you do is either go to the Blogrolling site and login, or use the handy dandy little bookmarklet to auto-add the page you're currently at. (The bookmarklet will fill in the site name and URL for you -- very cool. You can find more about the bookmarklet feature when you're logged in. It's in the center column under the title "One-click blogroll addition".)

Another big praise -- you can put what Jason calls a "prepend" or "append" either before or after your links. You add this feature when you're getting the code for the link-list, not in the actual entering of the links themselves. Once this is working, you will know directly from your site when each link has updated (if they ping weblogs.com)! On mine I got a little fancy and used star and starburst icons for my updated links, but you can make it as simple as "*" or "NEW". Or whatever you wish. That way when you've got a million reads like I do, you can tell exactly when they've updated (again, as long as they're pinging weblogs.com) straight from your site, rather than visiting each individual page one at a time, or waiting for weblogs.com to update.

And yet another reason I'm in love -- you choose how you want your Blogrolling list to appear. When you enter your links, you can give them a priority of between 1 and 9. (One for high, nine for low.) It's in a little drop-down box when you're entering the link. Then when you get the code to make the list, you can check for the list to display by priority. So your list won't appear in alphabetical order or random order (which are both options if you prefer them instead), but rather in the order of what you read most/first.

To get started, go to Blogrolling.com and login. If you haven't created a Blogroll yet, click on the link in the lefthand column that says "Create a Blogroll (Start Here)". Give it a name and your URL. (The reason to enter this information is so your links will be counted in the stats here, which also helps you see who has linked to you when you make the list.) Then back on the main page, once you've entered the above information, you should see your new Blogroll that you just made over in the right-hand column. Click on "add links".

At the "add links" screen, enter the Title and URL that you want. The description field is optional -- it will create a mouse-hover pop-up when you hover on a link. (I leave that blank for most of mine.) For the "target" section, instead of target_top I have target_blank so they launch in a new window. If you prefer to change top to blank, check the box that says "set as default target". Otherwise, just leave it as-is. Make sure to use the pull-down menu to set your priority between 1-9, and then click the "Add Link" button. As long as you want to keep adding links, keep the "add another link" radio button selected, and it will take you to the same "add link" page all over again.

By the way, you can also do multiple lists if you want to break your links up in chunks -- for example, here's my link list page:

http://www.tobynopoly.com/robyn/links.html

Each one of those is a separate Blogroll list (all under the same account).

When you're ready to add one (or more) of the lists to your site, click the "get code" link for each list. Select the radio "alphabetic", "random", or "priority" bullet depending on which way you want your list to display. Leave the "recently updated" box checked if you want sites updated on weblogs.com to display as recently updated. Then you fill in either/or/both the prepend and append fields with how you want the update to show up on your site. (HTML is ok if you want this to be a little icon image like mine. Or you can just take the easy route and type an asterick.) Just note that it takes 20-30 minutes after you create the code and install it for the weblogs.com updates to appear on your site. More information here:

http://www.blogblogbaby.com/archives/2002/003347.html

Ignore the table attributes section if you prefer to use CSS. Link goodies is also an optional section. Click how you want the blogrolling.com link to display as well (short version or long version). And then click "Generate my Blogrolling code" and paste into your site. If you want to customize your CSS, check out the instructions here:

http://www.blogrolling.com/css_documentation.phtml

That should be all there is to it!
posted at 07:30 PM | link-

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Do you understand the words comin' outta my mouth?
WM! got another new advertiser today... The company is "Occasional Words". If you have to give a speech at an upcoming wedding, anniversary party, retirement party -- or even a eulogy -- this site is for you!
posted at 06:19 PM | link-

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Gentlemen prefer blondes?
E! has a ranking (with photos) of "Hollywood's 25 Hottest Blondes". Could they have picked a more frightening photo of Jaime Pressly there? Her chest looks like old leather. Kim Cattrall needs to keep her neckline covered more often and lay off the plastic surgery -- she's getting Joan Rivers perma-grin face. And dear God, Pamela. Eeep! [/retracts claws]
posted at 04:11 AM | link-

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Keep rollin', rollin', rollin'
I've had a few people write me that were stumped about how to create a "Blogroll" for their site and get it up and running, so I wrote up a small little step-by-step mini-tutorial via e-mail. If you're one of those people still scratching your head, drop me a line and I'll forward it on to you, too!
posted at 01:47 AM | link-

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Just to be with you is having the best day of my life
In case you were wondering what the advantage of posing in your Superman skivvies might be...this is what walked in the door with my husband tonight... (photo 1, photo 2)
posted at 07:32 PM | link-

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You grow girl!
I'm working on a site logo right now, and the client sent me this gardening site as an example of what she had in mind. Thought I'd pass it along. It has "weekly updates that present plant knowledge for beginners and experts alike", plant journals, tips to making your own herbal vinegars and more... With all we're about to face with the front lawn, I'm sure I'll be visiting "You Grow Girl" often!
posted at 05:27 PM | link-

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My name is Ted...and one day I'll be dead yo yo...
Now I'm really torn...Gnomedex this August...or the new National Cowgirl Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. Life is full of such difficult choices. (Article from CNN.com.)

In other news: Ol' Liz will knight just about anydamnedbody these days won't she? Don't get me wrong -- I'm a huge "60s Stones" fan. But didn't it used to actually mean something? (Also from CNN.com.)

And last but certainly not least: Whoever sold their soul to Satan for this to happen, THANK YOU! I never gave up hope. (Courtesy of MSNBC.com.)
posted at 04:21 AM | link-

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Let me see you stripped down to the bone
Edited with a new warning: Do NOT open image linked below or links in the comments at work! Mmmmk?

This one is for Mikey from me and Todd. Your turn! (Read comments below for Easter egg.)
posted at 01:24 AM | link-

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I need TP for my bunghole
Touchee, Jennifer. Touchee. Too freakin' funny!
posted at 06:44 PM | link-

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Let us in -- we'll tear this mother out
Well I have to say "Undercover Brother" was everything you'd expect it to be. Very silly. Neil Patrick Harris' character was hysterical. (I kept waiting for a "Yo, Doogie. Pick up the phone!" line, but only got a "Whassup?") Good for no thinking required and some serious belly laughs. Seeing it intoxicated might make the experience that much more special. (Just kidding mom...) Two thumbs up!

And we just took the "FindYourSpot.com" quiz (found over at Christine's). Number one on our list? Tampa, Florida! (Followed a close second by Orlando.) Imagine that. Good thing we liked it here enough to settle down and buy a house last year, I guess. I was also amused to find Philadelphia and Mobile on the list as well. Two other cities I'd move back to again in a heartbeat. And just for the Sooner in me, they included the Oklahoma City metro area. Can't rule out a fall/winter retirement home back in Norman one day...have to have an excuse to wear those red and white polyester plaid pants I've had my eye on...
posted at 02:32 AM | link-

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