Life.

That's me, the white car... tall, dark and handsome husband

beautiful and healthy boy-girl twins.

Chillin on a Payday, nonetheless.  

Life is good.

if only real life were this clear cut...

Season of Lent...

"What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ." -Philippians 3:8

more to come. maybe tomorrow.

Ponder that verse for now.

neighbor boys.

We like to decorate our neighbor boys' door for special holidays.

they like to decorate back :)

seriously... this is awesome.

"Your call is important to us"

I sit here at my desk... waiting.. waiting for my turn to talk to a NJCLASS representative.

In the amount of time I have been on hold I have completed the following things:

waiting 14 minutes and lost connection... had to redial and start the "press three to talk to a representative" process over again..
cooked lunch
ate lunch
put on make up
blow dried my hair
brushed my teeth
checked my email and facebook....and twitter
typed this blog post

I am starting to strongly dislike the woman's voice on the other end... she keeps telling me "The call volume is high right now and that I can leave a message or to hang up and try again later.."

26 minutes (on this second call) later I am still waiting...

to make it worse.. that last time I talked to someone at NJCLASS they made me cry because they were so rude to me.  Can't wait until someone answers..

patience...
patience...

*******

47 minutes later.. talked to a representative. 

She did not make me cry.

she actually called me "dear."

NJCLASS, you have not redeemed yourself in efficiency, but maybe a little bit in the department of my emotional well-being.

They are going to mail me the necessary paper... 

Lord please don't make me call the 800 number again..

Whimsical.

So for like 3 years.. I have wanted this duvet cover.

There is an artist Masha Dyans who I am obsessed with who designed this duvet cover.  

It was sold at garnethill.com, but not anymore.. wah!

I fell in love with her almost 4 years ago when I bought my first greeting card at Target that looked like this: 

something about her whimsical style...

how cute is this?

Now.. to find a way to get that duvet cover.....

Jug Handles & You!

This little article on New Jersey's Jug Handles made me laugh tonight..  Especially living in Norfolk for 6 months, I truly, truly appreciate a good jug handle... or even a clover-leaf for the matter!  I'm sure the Jersey crew will only be able to appreciate this... ;)  (Monmouth Park and Rt. 35 get a shout out towards the middle!) Enjoy!

"There is a reason that Jersey drivers are the best in the country. Our traffic system forces us to be. Driving in Jersey is very much “learn and adapt, or die.” The majority of the country has highways that have only one name, have clearly marked exits, and when there is a left hand turn, the cars can actually turn left. Not here, though. Not for us. That would simply be too easy. Instead the NJDOT came up with the brilliant idea of the Jug-handle. Now it is true, that many other states use jug-handles, but no other states employs the use of jug-handles with such reckless abandon.

Theoretically, jug-handles ease congestion by removing stopped, turning vehicles from the roadway. With this in mind, the state of New Jersey went and built over six-hundred of these things.  However like most government projects, they never factored in the human element. And in case any of you haven’t noticed, the human element is unpredictable. Instead of easing congestion, we now have people slamming on their breaks because they missed their exit.

Think about it; if someone told you in all seriousness, “to turn left, you must make a right,” you would either think that you were speaking to a Native American mystic, or perhaps a special child who missed the short bus to class. In either situation, you would simply say, “Ok,” and be on your way, completely ignoring the encounter. However, this is exactly the logic behind a jug-handle. A jug-handle consists of an exit ramp on the right side of the highway that then loops around to form a left turn. When viewed from above, the roadway looks remarkably like a jug-handle. (Incredible, right?)

Surprisingly, jug-handles are a fairly recent addition to the NJ highway system. The first jug-handles were constructed on Rt.46 in Montville, US 22 in North Plainfield, and Rt. 35 at Monmouth Park Racetrack, during the late 50’s. This plays into my theory that the majority of jug-handles were built to confuse undercover Russian KGB Agents that might have been trying to infiltrate one of the military bases in our area during the Cold War.

The strange thing is that jug-handles are just small potatoes compared to the Cloverleaf. Imagine a teenage jug-handle in high school. He plays baseball and gets a scholarship to college. He makes it to the pros, but finds he can’t keep up with his teammates, and his lack of home-run power keeps him out of the limelight. So this honest little jug-handle goes on a steroid regiment that would make Jason Giambi cry. The resulting roid-monster would be a cloverleaf.

In a cloverleaf, left turns are handled by loop roads. To go left, vehicles first pass either over or under the other road, then turn right onto a one-way, three-fourths loop ramp, or merge onto the intersecting road. (Now aren’t you mad you didn’t pay attention in geometry class?) However, the Cloverleaf is a true Jersey native, with the first one being constructed in 1929 at the intersection of what was at the time Rt. 4 and Rt.25, now Rt. 1/9 and NJ35.

So next time you’re stuck in traffic because some jerk from Maryland or Delaware couldn’t figure out how to navigate a jug-handle because he wouldn’t believe his Garmin GPS telling him to make the right to go left, Just sit back and laugh at him, knowing he could never survive in the state of champions." -awesomenj.com 

proofread..

65 printed newsletters
10 emailed newsletters
equals 75 newsletters read with a typo...

I swear I proofread my newsletter like 20 times before I print.

IN REMEBMRANCE.... fail.

my next concern... why didn't spell check pick it up?

anyway.
no biggie. just one of those things.