Come join the shout-out party, and find out your new name!

Now for the moment you have all been waiting for... You will officially be named, my wonderful followers, by the end of this blog post. So I have until then to make up my mind for sure, right? Good, because I am still debating between a couple of things, and I don't know how to handle it.

I figured I would go ahead and pimp out... I mean, give a shout-out to everyone who participated in the contest and/or decided to steal my fancy new button. Since your responses and suggestions were so great, I'm putting them all here for everyone's enjoyment. Feel free to comment and give us all a link to your blog even if I didn't link you up here so you can join in on finding some new blogging friends.

Cinderita from The Adventures of Cinderita: Fellow bullshitters (She was worried that was wrong? Not with this crew!)

Amy from This House Gets Crazy at Three O'Clock: Little Lovelies (She did the wonderful drawings on my site, by the way!)

Vicki from Glitter Frog: Bullettes (get it? like bullets but... shit, never mind, she says)

Abby from Abby Has Issues: We could be "calve-aleers" or "bullies" or something with horny in it...

Alessandra from The Life and Times of A. Nighbert: How about Tauries? You know like the Tories only better... Hey, how about Boveeners?

Oilfield Trash from Make Daddy a Sammich: I would say bullshitters but you don't have a dirty mouth. So how about Ballsy Bulls? (Ha! He doesn't think I have a dirty mouth. Tell that to my momma.)

Amber from Amber LaShell Rants and other blogs: Hmmm, maybe Talkers? Is that stupid? I was thinking Bailey Bugs, you know after your dog..but that might be just cause I was looking at a picture when I thought of it. LOL (I thought they were both cute and NOT stupid, by the way! And she did the new design for my blog.)


Yvonne from Writing my life away!: How about "Talkative Readers"?

J.Day from The Ramblings of Charlie Brown: Oh man! I was gonna say "bullshitters"! LOL Oh well, if we stick with the cow thing... um, your "herd"?

ib from The Habitual Hobbit: Krissy's Kurmudgeon's  - A curmudgeon is defined as one that dislikes humanities absurdities. But, see what I did? I replaced the (C) with a (K) to fit better with Krissy, cause it's fu... ahh, forget it. I'm suck. (You most definitely aren't suck, and I SERIOUSLY considered this.)

The Adorkable Ditz from The Adorkable Ditz' Missteps: Taurites, Cow Pies, ChatterCows, Literate Bulls...

lyndylou from The Giggle Fest: How about My Little Taureans?

Don (who doesn't write a blog but should and gives many of us mad blog love and encouragement): Name your followers "Beautiful Babes and Horny Jerks." LOL (Virtual hugs and kisses being sent your way at your request, Don.)


becca from My Life: I like the name Scoobies, or bullpen.

AbsolutelyPrimed from Over Developed, Under Exposed: Hmmmm... Bull Chasers? Running with the Bull?

The Tame One from Thoughts of an Oxymoron: Taureans! Well, except I'm a Scorp, but still. Either way, I'm your bullshitter baby. ;-) (And I love that you are, girl!)


John from Full-On Forward: Total BSFrom... or BuckOff.. How about Matadorians, or Bullfighters..

Emily from Shut Up and Smile: hmmmmm how about your pitbulls. I know it's a dog.. but I think it sounds cool. (So did I!)


Canadian Blogger Girl: Still sticking with your Zodiacs for the name of ur peeps. (She is in the process of moving, but you'll love her when she comes back if you don't already follow her.)


Kat from Tapetum Lucidum: Well naturally you know that I like Rita's "The Bullshitters." ;-) Members of the Bull Pen? Since a Taurus=Bull, Pen=writing, and it's... I'm overexplaining, aren't I? I'm so sleeeeepyyy... (I thought that explanation made it so much cooler!)


Patty from Patty Punker: Toros!

Now, before I reveal the winner that I have not listed yet, I want you all to know I LOVED all of your suggestions. It was very hard for me to choose, and I honestly needed the extra day to make up my mind on a couple of things. But I won't stall anymore... The winner came from...

Average Girl from It's an Average Life (and other great blogs!): THE ZODIAC ZOO CREW

I absolutely fell in love with that one as soon as I read it! Though it incorporates what CBG suggested with the Zodiacs, I think expanding it to The Zodiac Zoo Crew means I will actually call you my Animals for short. I hope you all like it because you are stuck with it now. I thought you all being Animals was kind of fitting since many people give me praise on their blogs for being such an animal lover, and you all know I love you all to pieces!

So there ya go, my Animals. (AG, let me know what website you want your $25 gift certificate from, and I'll be sending it your way.) Thanks so much for all of the help, everyone! And for those who didn't participate, don't forget to give us your link in the comments so others can find you, too.

Update: Since AG is a woman after my own heart, she has chosen for me to donate the money instead to my local shelter. Because she was so generous to give up her shopping trip so readily for something I hold dear, I've chosen to double it. We just saved some puppies and kittens, people!

Built for speed

For those of you who are like me and have only used point-and-click type cameras, you know the frustration that led to a purchase I made yesterday. You know what I'm talking about. When you see something you just have to get on film and by the time the damn camera is ready the moment is gone. Yeah, that kinda frustration. Like my nieces and nephews doing something thoroughly adorable like this...

My grand-nephew J.. Ain't he adorable??

But what you get on camera is more like this....

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Sorry I didn't have one of my own pictures that fit the bill because I usually delete the ones I don't like. But you know what I'm talking about. They are too busy having fun to pose for you, for God's sake. And heaven forbid you take a picture a second too EARLY and then try to get the damn thing ready for the shot you REALLY wanted. Too late! By the time the camera is ready again, you've missed it.

Well, no more for me! I ordered this little gem yesterday, and I can't freaking wait for it to get here!

Canon EOS Rebel T3i 18 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera and DIGIC 4 Imaging with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens

This is the new Canon Rebel T3i that can not only snap pictures quickly, but it can also do video if I want it to. Yes, I see video taping Bailey at the water for all of you in our future. Wooo hooo! Are you excited? I sure hope so because you all are going to be graced with some awesome photos and other things once it gets here and I figure out how to use the damn thing. Let's just hope I'm as good as I always hoped I would be with a REAL camera. If not, lie to me, m'kay? My family and friends always seems to think I do a pretty bang up job with my older camera so imagine the possibilities. I am usually the designated picture taker which is another reason I'm not usually IN many pictures. Well, that and because I can't stand to see myself in pictures. It took everything I had to send Amy those pictures to do her drawings of me.

I'm sure my new photos will be fantabulous though! You just wait and see, my people. Oh, that reminds me! You've got a couple of more days to get your butts over to my giveaway and help name yourselves. I'll decide on Monday who gets the prize. I have been thoroughly enjoying the responses so far, and it takes everything I have not to comment on what I like and don't care for. But they are all great, so there's not much I didn't care for.

Don't forget to let me know if you promote it so I can pimp you out.. I mean, give you a shout-out. On that note, I meant to return the favor for my girl Thundercat over at Colorful Rants of a Fed Up Sista. She calls me Little Ms. Keep It Real, which I absolutely LOVED. She is a trip and a half, so you need to go check her out if you haven't already.

Catch all of you crazy folks later!

Friday foolishness and a new look!

For those who weren't around last night, I revealed in stages my new look. Go check it out here and enter the giveaway, and I might be giving you a shout-out if you play your cards right. Regardless of whether you enter, come see my site and tell me what you think.

Amy over at This House Gets Crazy at Three O'Clock did the awesome drawings on my header. She does such fabulous work that you should all go follow her blog and keep her in mind for your business needs, too! She is simply amazing! What started as a request for her to draw a picture of Bailey turned into an awesome idea to help us create my new blog.

Amber over at Amber LaShell Rants came up with the wonderful blog design and had the patience to sit through I don't know how many "ummm, I don't know what I want" conversations. This whole thing started because of her innocent Friday night Tweet asking if anyone wanted to be her guinea pig. (That statement always reminds me of the line from Dr. Doolittle where the guinea pig asks Eddie Murphy, "Why do they call me a guinea pig anyway? I'm not French and I'm not pork!" That cracks me up every time!) Anyway, I'm sure she regretted that I was the one who answered her, but I was the one with no life sitting at home Tweeting on a Friday night. Ha! I'm super grateful to her for all of her work, and rework, and she writes a couple of blogs I'm sure will catch your attention.

Now I didn't have too many bizarre things happen this week for my Friday foolishness. But I found this laying behind my desk yesterday.

It's no pot of gold, but it brought a smile to my face on St. Patrick's Day. I'm easy, I know.

The pollen is falling like crazy in our southern state. The hood of my Jeep looks like this every day when I go to leave work.

I'm waiting for the urge to claw my face off to start any day now. I'm surprised it hasn't already. When the hell did this sinus problem start anyway? I never had problems growing up around here. Stupid wildlife!

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. I took Bailey to the river the other night with a friend of mine to introduce her to the water for the first time since the park near my house was packed with teenagers. She walked on the edges of it at first, then she stepped in a deep hole that took her all the way under. She came up with her eyes as big as saucers and it was ON! She was all over that river after that. I was splattered with mud of course, and with my work clothes on no less, but she had an absolute blast. I told Steph we should have brought my iPod to film it. We'll have to do that next time so you all can see her antics. It was hilarious. She's such a water dog that I knew she'd enjoy it. I can't wait to see her reaction to the ocean now. I'll have to do that this summer.

A friend of mine told me the next day to be careful of gators at the river if I go too close to sunset. What the...?? That crap never even crossed my mind! I would be freaking out if Bailey was innocently playing away and a gator snatched her happy ass.

Well, at least it's Friday, folks! This has been a hectic but productive week, for the most part. Have a great weekend, and go enter my giveaway now. I said GO.. What are you waiting for? You're still reading this, aren't you?

'Cuz I'm a tease like that.. But sometimes I just give it away.

Want a taste of what is to come? Check out my new button! I dare ya to display it on your blog. Ain't it purty??? I'll have to come up with a giveaway to go with the launching. Oh, what should it be?

Let's make it a competition. Come up with a name I should call my followers. Whoever comes up with the best one will get a $25 gift card to your favorite website. So send everyone this way! You have to be a follower to enter the giveaway and display my button on your blog. (If you have one.. I don't want to exclude my friends who don't blog but enjoy that I do.)

*Evil laugh going on with my cocktails!* I love making my _________(s) work for me. What are you people? Well, besides awesome for having the good taste to follow me.

To add a little something extra, let me know if you tweet this, blog about it, send this out on Facebook, or whatever, and I'll pimp you out! Just leave a comment letting me know so I can go see it.

Update: Someone who shall remain nameless (yes YOU Vicki, ya froggy woman) told me that my button was ginormous. It's not when you post in on the side. See, look to the right. The right is -------> that way. :)

Some Linkage and Giveaways!

Okay, now that I wasted so much time trying to do something simple like set up a Facebook account, I think I got it done finally! Geez, Facebook was being testy about verifying my email address. It's hard enough to keep my personal, work, and blog emails straight without them messing with me about it! Anyway, you can go here to follow me there now.

If you aren't following me on Twitter, you should! I've been having some fun conversations over there lately with Canadian Blogger Girl, Amber, and Simple Dude. Well, it's mostly been us picking on him, but it's been fun anyway! So click on this to follow me so you don't miss out!

Speaking of CBG, she is having a giveaway on her blog, and she's got a bunch of exciting things going on over there. Go check her out and today you can even read a guest post by the crazy Simple Dude, too.

I've heard some blogging friends getting frustrated with losing followers lately. I have been lucky and haven't had that problem (and please tell me I didn't just jinx myself!), but I was wondering. What makes you leave someone you're following? Do they say things that offend you? I mean Average Girl had a FANTASTIC idea that involved a battle of the sexes on posts and she lost followers for it. What the ...? I didn't think any of my followers were that sensitive, but I could be wrong. Honestly, the only ones I think I've ever left are ones that I started following when I first got onto Blogger, and they just didn't interest me anymore. Seriously, you all aren't picky people, right? If so, I'm sure I'll offend you at some point. This is my stress free zone!

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I finished up my classes last night. Yay! Unfortunately, I only get one week off before I have to start three more though. Geez, is it June yet? I am sooooo ready to be done with school. Now, if my slow ass professors will post my grades, I will be a bit happier.

Oh, Studio30Plus is having a giveaway for reaching 500 members, too. So click on my button over there, join us, and go sign up for the giveaway! It's a great little community that's coming together nicely.

Tomorrow, Bailey and I have a little surprise for ya. I think you'll all enjoy it, and we got a little help from Bruce and Tuck.

Final thought.. I think the Frito Lay guy who put these signs up in a store near me knew the Super Bowl was going to be shitty. What do you think?

 Honestly, it was a good game. It was just not a good outcome for me and those who love me. *sigh*

Friday Wrap-Ups and other silly stuff

I have a bunch of little things I need to take care of with you all today and some funny news things I just have to address. First and foremost.. It's Friday! Wooo hooo! I am so glad because this has been a long damn week. I am ready to get my weekend started even though I have a lot to do around the house.

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Secondly, I have to announce the winner to my first giveaway. After randomly assigning you all numbers, I used one of those automated generator thingies and Jimmy from Jimmy's Opinion won the gift card to CSN Stores. Congrats! I know he will be so thrilled about this since it's what he's always wanted, I'm sure. Well, maybe he can give it to his wife or someone if he doesn't want it. If you don't follow his blog though, you should go check him out. (I'll email you the information for the gift card, Jimmy.)

Now on to more fun stuff. Did you all hear about the smugglers at the US/Mexican border trying to use a catapult to launch drugs over the border into the United States south of Arizona? Freaking. Medieval. Catapult!

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The US Border Patrol saw what was going on and informed the Mexican authorities so they could be detained. This just goes to show how desperate they are with the crackdown on Arizona borders. Those guys are sitting over there going, "Shit! How do we get our drugs in now?" 

"Fuck it! Let's just throw it over. I know, a CATAPULT!" 

"Dude, that would be classic, ese." (Don't ask me why he sounds like a combination surfer/Mexican. He just does, okay? Shaddup!)

I love that the Border Patrol guy said he had never seen anything like that, but that they are trained for anything. Huh? If you've never seen anything like that, how are you trained for it? 

On another note, someone has officially proven that it doesn't matter what your degree is in as long as you get one. A Canadian woman who attended Liverpool Hope University is the first person to get a Masters degree in Beatles studies. No, I don't mean the bugs. I mean the freaking Beatles! Someone please explain to me what the hell you do with that degree? I'm trying to think of how that conversation would have gone with her parents when she made the decision to enter that program. I know my parents would have told me I'd lost my damn mind. I'm thinking "you're an idiot" and "who the hell is going to pay you to do something with that for the rest of your life?" would have been stated at some point. 

That's about as brilliant as this sign someone put on the sink in our kitchen at work the other day.

 

Finally, I mentioned that I got an award yesterday. I actually got it from two different people. On My Soapbox and The Habitual Hobbit both think I'm funny enough to have granted me this little gem.

Thanks so much to both of you! Please go check out their blogs, because I think you'll love them. This award means a lot to me because you all know I try to make people laugh if nothing else. Even in my rants, I can be pretty humorous at times. At least I think so, and obviously someone else agrees... or, two someones. 

Now, I am supposed to give this to 7 people and tell you 7 things about myself. Honestly, I don't think I'm going to pass it on simply because I have seen this award around A LOT lately. I know there are some of you who still deserve this award, and I'm sure you will be getting it. Just not from me. Not right now. I'm being a rebel today, can ya tell? 

So Happy Friday, everyone! Have a great weekend, half-assed or not. :)

A day in the life... of Bailey

Bailey had such a hard day yesterday that you just wouldn't even imagine. First, I took her outside when I got home from work and apparently she thought it was way too quiet. So she barked down toward one end of the street..

And then barked to the other end of the street to get a stereo effect going...

She is so fierce! Of course, everyone in the neighborhood was very impressed by the time we went inside, especially the other dogs who were singing her praises long after we were gone. 

I went into my room to change clothes, where of course, she decided it was wrestling time! Granted, this is kind of a daily routine with us, but she was in rare form last night.

This is her "you should be very scared" face. I couldn't quite get one with her cutting her eyes at me. 

She's really getting mad at me at this point. Can ya tell? 

My neighbor ended up coming over to ask if we wanted to go to the park. There's a park not too far away where they have recently made it so we can close all of the gates. Bailey and I hadn't been yet, but I knew she would love being able to run free so we went. I left those pictures at home on the camera so you'll just have to imagine her running her legs off so hard that her tongue was pretty much hanging on the ground by the time she was done. She had the best time, and the park is going to be seen a lot in our future.

When we got home, she drank a whole bowl of water (and yes, I made a mental note to take water to the park next time, so don't nag me about it!). This was her the rest of the night. 

And when she needed a change, she looked like this at my feet.

I think I can see now what I need to do on nights when I have homework to do, and I don't want her to be barking at me all night. That park is now officially a dog park for us! Suffer, neighbors. Bailey is here to stay. Wasn't that a rough day? It sure wore her out. She packed a lot of stuff into her evening.

Now, Jumble Mash is having a really cool giveaway over there, so go check her out and get yourself entered! You'll enjoy being over there anyway, because she is one cool chica. So cop a squat and stay awhile. You have to to enter anyway. 

And don't forget about my giveaway. It's not as cool as hers, but you can enter on the post I put up yesterday. 

Redecorating with a giveaway!

My house needs a serious makeover in the furniture department. My living room furniture is ancient, my bedroom furniture has needed to be replaced for some time, and I need a new washer and dryer. Where do I begin? I've heard those steam washer and dryers are awesome, so when I get a new set (which will probably be soon) that's probably what I'm going to go with. I've heard the dryer finishes faster than the washer! I've got to see that to believe it.

I've been looking at furniture off and on for several months, but I couldn't be as lucky as my sister. She found a sectional at a garage sale for like $100! It's beautiful, too. She was actually there looking for other things with my niece and saw it. I just don't get lucky like that.

My bedroom needs some serious help too, and I'm thinking I don't sleep well because I need a new mattress. I was dating this guy once who had a mattress that felt like you were sleeping on a cloud. I swear, you hardly even felt the thing touching you.

The folks at CSN Stores has given me a $20 gift certificate to give to one of my awesome followers as my very first giveaway! This doesn't include shipping, but some of their stuff has free shipping anyway. They have over 200 sites that you can use it on, and you can go check out their modern furniture. In order to enter, just tell me down there in the comments what room you purchased furniture for last or if you managed to get a good deal somewhere.

Good luck! I hope to get some pointers from some of you decorative people.