My Date With Drew

We watched My Date With Drew the other day. It's a quirky little documentary about this guy named Brian who wins $1100 on a game show and decides he's going to dedicate that money toward getting Drew Barrymore's attention and earning a date with her. The catch, they buy a camcorder from Circuit City, but they have to return it in 30 days to get their money back. So essentially he has 30 days and $1100 to get a date with Drew. It was really fun and funny and you really feel for this goofy guy. Truly worth watching.

First Second

This story has been added to my list of bookmarks that I intend to return to at some time and read. No idea what it's about, but it looks interesting and I linked to it from Neil Gaiman's Journal so that's a good sign.

Tons of old t-shirts??

If you have drawers and storage boxes full of old college t-shirts, this is the site for you. I think the duvet cover is awesome. (Tiff - this was found specifically for you!)

a-ha: Take On Me

My favorite song and video from the 80s, by far...
Doug posted a list of links to 80s videos on You Tube.

The kids with us

Can you believe how grown up they are?

Andrew's truck

In all the excitement, we weren't able to get a good picture of Andrew and the truck until that night. That's a picture of a happy boy.

The graduation present

Chris was very happy for Andrew ... so much so that he bought him a new Ford F-150 extended cab truck. Andrew had no idea, and it was funny watching him realize that the black truck outside was his. He flew off the couch and ran out there. Then his friend Skipper, brother Aaron, girlfriend (?) Annie and sister Brittany all piled in and took it for a spin.

Proud parents

Jackie and Chris should be proud of themselves. Their first son has graduated and they raised him to be a good and respectful young man. This was such a great picture of all of them.

Brittany and Dean

Brittany submitted to a photo with Dean after graduation and actually smiled. She's growing up so fast ... makes us nervous. We think Chris and Jackie may need to lock her in a tower for a few years to keep the boys away.

Jeni and Andrew

Jeni and Andrew took a moment to get their picture by the reservoir. The wind was kicking up, but it was a beautiful day. Andrew has grown up so much. He certainly is a young man now.

The graduate

Andrew in his cap and gown just before graduation.

The family at graduation

The whole family got together for a nice family phot just before Andrew's graduation. It was a nice visit and great to have everyone there. Jackie's family came over for graduation too. Despite Andrew's last second senior hijinks (TP'd the school with nine other boys) he graduated and will be attending Southern Miss this fall.

Who do you search with?

There are so many search engines out there and so many ways to try to make sense of the internet. Most people think of Google when they think search. I use Blingo for my Google results, because I can win prizes but still get the same search results. My startup page is Excite, which is an amazing news portal, and I enjoy the Search Spy feature just for search voyeurism, although I don't search with it often. I tried Yahoo as a news portal and search, but they never just felt right.

I also use the A9 toolbar, more for the portability of the bookmarks and less for the searching though (unless I'm looking for something on Amazon). A9 has changed it's searching some. They now get their search results from Windows Live, but the image results come from Flickr or Webshots instead of an internet image search, so you end up with snapshots mostly. I'm not real happy about that, but I really like the clean toolbar. I also like the street views you get from their yellow page search. They actually show you photos of store fronts in many places.

But an Ask commercial really struck a chord with me the other day, where the little kid says "Google's not better, it's just more popular." So I started poking around Ask just to see what they offer. Ask seems to have some neat features, and I like the map and directions because you can switch from driving to walking directions and still drag the map like Google does. It also appears you can save search results like A9, and do a desktop search like Google Desktop.

I guess with technology like it is, these companies must always be evolving and innovating. It can be exhausting from the consumer side trying to decide which service is best. I guess that's how we end up with email accounts at Yahoo, Hotmail, Excite, Gmail and Bellsouth. And in the end, I still feel like I'm searching the junk drawer whenever I use a search engine.

Neil Gaiman

My favorite author is Neil Gaiman. People who know who he is have certainly read some of him. If you don't know who he is, you have no idea who he is. Oddly, there seems to be little wiggle room inbetween. I started reading his stuff when I collected comic books in high school (Sandman) and have read most, if not all, of his novels. Anyway, he keeps a journal (blog) and answers readers' questions. Someone posed the question of how he balances his family side with his celebrity side and his response was very neat and entertaining. What I think I enjoyed most was a link he included to tips someone wrote who had assisted him several times in the past. It is interesting in the way it highlights all that goes in to assisting a keynote speaker/celebrity, but also just fun in the cadence and overall tone of how it is written. My favorite line was "Neil's shoe size is 10 US / 9 UK. I have no idea why you might want to know that, but there you are." Definitely a good way to spend five minutes.

Sultan's Elephant

Did you see the Sultan's Elephant in London?
BBC article, video, (maybe BBC video? May have to go from BBC article link.)

"A 40ft-high mechanical elephant has been striding across London, as part of an ambitious street theatre show. The creature, accompanied by an 18ft girl, was created by French company Royal de Luxe. Sarah Harris reports." From the BBC video...

Create your own search engine

Do you use Firefox? Did you know you can create your own search engine/criteria for the search box? You just enter the sites you want to search and when you enter the keyword, it will search these sites for you. Neat idea.

Happy Brithday, Cathy

Happy 39th Birthday Cathy! (Margin of error +/- 1 year)

Just a little bragging....

My nephew, Aaron, is the Mississippi Class 5A state singles champion and he's only a sophomore. (He turned 16 just a week ago.) He finished the season unbeaten! Here is an article from the newspaper .

You rock Aaron!

And my oldest nephew, Andrew, is graduating from high school tomorrow. So Dean and I will be heading down to Jackson, MS for the graduation.

I personally can't believe how fast time flies. I can remember when both of the boys were born and mom would buy them matching outfits and they had the cutest little toe-headed bowl haircuts.

Anyway, Dean and I are so proud of the boys (and Brittany of course!!). I will post stories and pictures after we get back.

New doo

Jeni's new doo... She was so tickled, she kept on laughing while we tried to take the pictures (notice pink cheeks). The cut frames her face very well and is very flattering. She is so happy with her cut.

The ponytail

Jeni hold up the ponytail after getting her hair cut to donate for Locks of Love. Can't believe they managed to cut 11 inches off. It is really amazing. The ladies at the salon were all very nice and flattering and treated her very well. They're even going to handle shipping the hair off so Jeni doesn't have to fuss with it. As nerve-wracking as it is to go to a new place to get your hair cut (remember, it's been alomst two years), Jeni was very pleased with her experience. And her cut is so cute...

Right before the cut

Here is the ponytail before the cut. Katie, the stylist, cut off 11 inches for Locks of Love.

Before

Before the haircut... Jeni had been growing her hair out for almost two years in order to donate it to Locks of Love. It was so long! She was ready to cut it off about six months ago, but needed to let it grow just a little more.

After

After the haircut... It is much, much shorter in the back after losing 11 inches, but will be perfect as Columbia starts to heat up for the summer.

Procrastination

Does this video remind you of anyone you know?
(Doug, we only pick on you because we love you...)

More funny videos and comics

My little greenspace

One the biggest things I miss about living in a house is having a yard. I have always loved plants and try to have a couple of good pots on the porch to enjoy. This year the pots are doing double duty, well at least the big ones. I put together two 24" pots that look alike, along with the hibiscus tree, to use at the bridal shower I'm hosting in June. The two pots are filled with a pink hibiscus, hot pink dwarf wave petunias, and vinca vines.

Other pots in the picture are (from r-l): a pot of herbs (rosemary, basil, thyme, flat leaf parsley, and chives); a plant I bought a the zoo/botanical garden plant sale- the blooms are red and yellow and look like chinese lanterns (I'm sorry I just completely blanked on the name); and the last pot is oramental pepper plants. To the right of the herbs there are two rose bushes. They have several blooms just starting so when they all show their pretty little faces I'll post a picture.

The other side

Here is the other side of the porch. (the matching pot with purple dwarf wave petunias and the hibiscus tree) I also had some extra wave petunias so they are in a pot on the little tables. (Just a side note: I stained those tables a couple of weekends ago and they turned out really good. A cheap little facelift for the tables.)

Hibiscus blooms

Personally I just love hibiscus blooms. They are big and gorgeous and with the dark green leaves, I think they really make a statement of beauty.

Huge hanging plant

Lisa and Gracie came over on Saturday and we took the Farmer's Market by storm. We completely filled the back of the Tahoe. This was my big purchase from a local grower. It's a beautiful basket filled with pink wave petunias and white verbena. It is about 2' x 2' x 2'. It is absolutely beautiful. I may go back and get another one.

Flowers

We've been doing a lot of planting lately. Jeni took lots of good pictures of the flowers and they should be posted soon...