Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Halloween pictures!

Cleopatra


Kaycie as MandeeFoFandee



don't mind Zeus & Jesus in the back... or our double chins



Justin Bieber



sumo fairy?



flip cup



Justin Bieber & KaleBear



MandeeFoFandee & Cyndy Crobsy, complete with girly wig & tampon filled fanny pack



Jesus & Cleopatra
 
 
 
 drunk Jesus!



just in case I ever want to go blonde




men........some down....most up




































Monday, November 1, 2010

October Photo Hunt | Crisp

giving thanks | day one

I've decided that since the month of Thanksgiving is among us, I want to make sure I'm thankful for everything I have in my life. so for the next 25 days (until Thanksgiving), I'm going to blog every day about what I'm thankful for, starting right now



_________________________

today, I am thankful for my job. I know I complain about my job a lot, but I really do love what I do. I'm extremely lucky to still have a job in the construction industry, especially when commercial construction hasn't been doing too well in the grand scheme of things. I'm paid well, I get to wear whatever I want to work, have two weeks of paid vacation/sick leave every year, and occasionally, I even get free lunch. 

I'm so grateful that I have a place to go to everyday, where I can be myself and not have to wear a stuffy persona. don't get me wrong, I still consider myself a professional, but the type of work I do is really laid back, and I can have a joking, personal rapport with the people I come into contact with on a daily basis. I'm not the hoity-toity-suit-wearing-so-I-can-impress-the-people-who-sign-my-paycheck-regardless-of-my-attire kind of girl, and therefore, this job is perfect for me. 

for the most part, I like my co-workers. my dad (boss) can be a huge pain in the ass sometimes, but I'm thankful that I get to spend so much time with him, even if it's under sometimes stressful conditions. I often think about what my relationship with my dad would be like if we didn't work together. I don't think we'd have the tight-knit and close relationship we have now if I didn't see him everyday. 

I'm fortunate that I like my job, and that I don't dread coming to work everyday because I'm unhappy with my choices. I really, really, really enjoy the estimating portion of the construction process, and I'm always learning something new about my profession. and even when I come across something that stumps me, I don't mind doing a little research to find a solution. I take pride in my work, because I put 100% of my energy into my work, and I don't half-ass anything when it has my name on it. 
I hope I can continue to learn more about this business, and hopefully, maybe even take over my dad's company one day. I'd love to learn to manage a business and see how thinks work from a different perspective. I love to educate myself, especially when it's something I'm passionate about.

and for that, I'm thankful.

men.....in beautiful pose with a little tuch















weekend recap!

I hope everyone had an amazing Halloween weekend! we don't get trick-or-treaters where we live, so I saved my thighs by not consuming 10lbs of candy. hallelujah! 


FRIDAY
Friday evening, Sean and I went up to the mall to see a movie. we grabbed some Chick Fil A in the food court, and because we had time to kill before the movie started, we browsed around a little bit. since I'm not allowed to buy anything for myself until Christmas, it kinda sucked to walk into various stores and have to walk right out... especially after seeing these boots! va-va-voom!



despite our strict shopping ban, we decided to go into one of our favorite stores, Buckle. I made a Buckle wish list not too long ago, remember? well I went to send that very wish list to my mother-in-law last week, and to my disappointment, almost all of the items had sold out already. 

I mentioned this to the sales associate, and she informed me that if I ever see an item sold out online, I can just call or visit the store to see if they can find it at another location. again, HALLELUJAH, I say. I asked her to look up this sweater for me, and there it was, in another store. so this baby is now en route to mi casa, along with a pair of shoes that Sean was coveting. 





after we broke our shopping ban, we went in to see Paranormal Activity 2. holy crap. scared the piss out of me... I was seriously, TERRIFIED. I liked it though - much like the first one in the beginning, but got creepier and creepier as it went. I did NOT like that we were literally the oldest people in the theater and that we had to listen to stupid tweens/teenagers talking and laughing the whole time. I actually yelled "shut up" twice to those kids.



SATURDAY
Saturday morning, I got up semi-early and headed back up to Annapolis to run some errands and get my hair done (finally). it's been months since I've had my hair cut and dyed, so it was well overdue. I decided to stay away from dying it red again, because it ALWAYS fades super fast and I find myself disappointed when it turns to copper within a few weeks. instead, I did my normal black all-over dye job, along with caramel colored highlights. 

I also got it trimmed (I'm trying to grow it out), and made a super huge change - BANGS. I was nervous at first, since I haven't had bangs since middle school, but I love them! I think they look chic and sophisticated, and it definitely adds a little more dimension to my otherwise plain jane haircut.



when I got home from the hair salon, I laid around the house for a bit before packing a bag for the night. we packed the truck with our overnight bags, Halloween costumes, and the cooler and headed down to meet our friends at the hotel we booked for the night. 

to my surprise, my friend Kaycie walked in, not dressed like her normal self (or as a pirate as I thought she would be), but as ME. she applied temporary tattoos to her left arm, her neck, and her foot, and even bought a fake nose and lip ring! it was HILARIOUS. I think that she played a better Mandee than I do.

from the hotel, we met up with Kaley and her family at Red Robin for dinner before heading out to the party. we stopped at the liquor store on the way back to the hotel to get changed. after getting all ready in my Cleopatra get up, we hung out in the hotel and pre-gamed for a little bit. we consumed some beverages and then hit the road. 

this is the only picture I have of my costume so far, and it was taken in my mirror at home on Friday night, when I decided it would probably be a good idea to try my costume on.



the party was a blast! I'll have pictures tomorrow (hopefully) of everyone's costumes. we played flip cup, sang lots of tunes, took pictures, and devoured Joey's mom's homemade rice krispy treats. we took a cab back to the hotel at the end of the night, and then crashed as soon as we got home. well, Adam and I stayed up talking about god knows what. he was drunk and I was on Ambien, so I'm sure it was an interesting conversation. the night was full of one-liners that we'll always remember, that's for sure! 


SUNDAY
yesterday morning, we struggled to get up and get ourselves ready to check out. the four of us stopped for breakfast and then went our separate ways. I was pretty much laid out on the couch all day, dozing off between football games (boo Lions!). 

Sean snapped this picture of me on his cell phone. please note that I am surrounded by ALL four cats... Mama Cat sleeping on my chest, Bear on my legs, Lily & Pheobe on the couch behind my head. folks, this is my life. 



NOTE 
Kaycie's "Mandee-isms" of the evening included:

- "I love my cats! they're so cute!"
- "ugh, I have to meet with my trainer tomorrow."
- "FUCK YOU, SEAN!" 

it's scary how well she knows me! 


Happy Monday!

Blekko

Blekko SE To Rely On The Human Touch

A small Silicon Valley company with some big name backers will release a test version of a new SE that the company says has a key ingredient that is missing from Google, the human touch.

According to Blekko, the Web has increasingly become saturated with spam-like websites, specially designed to pop up in Google's search answers but whose content is heavier on marketing pitches than substantive information.

The remedy, Blekko Chief Executive Rich Skrenta told Reuters, is to narrow searches to groups of websites that people, not computers, have pre-approved as being the best sources of information for particular topics.

The approach is decidedly old-school in an industry where computer algorithms developed by engineers at Google and Microsoft Corp have for years been considered the ideal way to find information in the sea of online data.

Blekko has raised $24 millions in funding as it's developed its product over the past three years, with angel investors including Marc Andreessen, the creator of the 1st browser, and Ron Conway, who's invested in tech companies including Twitter, Foursquare and even Google.

Blekko joins a long list of search engines that have tried to improve upon Google's business, with a less-than-stellar track record. Cuil, a high-profile search engine launched by former Google employees in 2008, quietly shut down in Sept; Powerset, a search engine that let people ask questions in plain the English, was acquired by Microsoft in 2008.

Greg Sterling, an Internet consultant and a contributing editor for the online blog SE Land, said he doesn't expect that Blekko will displace Google any time soon. But he said the company has developed a creative approach to search that might become popular as a secondary SE for certain types of queries.

In an emailed statement, Google said that it welcomes competition that helps users get useful information and gives people new choices. "Having great competitors is a huge benefit to us and everyone in the search space-it makes us all work harder, and at the end of the day everyone benefits from that," said Google.

Blekko is launching with a special directory of sites that can provide spam-free results in seven general search categories: health, recipes, song lyrics, hotels, automobiles, colleges and personal finance.

Blekko also allows users to create their own personal directories of websites for any topic, so that the SE only looks for information from sources the user deems relevant or trustworthy.