With a little help from my friends.

As things get crazy around here, I bring to you my first ever post from a guest blogger. So sit back, and enjoy a post from my friend, Tito!

So today I was looking at my Google talk and like every other day I checked out everyone's status. Margaret had posted a link to her blog on her status so I followed. This led me to pictures of the awesome rainbow on Wednesday. If you didn't see it live, make sure you check out the pics below, it was awesome, not only was the rainbow mad bright but there was a double rainbow!!! Maggie was even able to get where the rainbow ended! First time I've ever seen that!

To this end, I decided to give Maggie a hard time about not posting about either one of her trips to Wolf trap last week (one trip to see some show I don't remember, and the other to see RAIN: The Beatles Experience). She then decided that hey, Tito's complaining, I should totally make him write my blog entry and here I am, my name is Tito and I will be your guest blogger for today :-D

Now, let's start with Maggie's first trip to wolf trap. She went to a show with Carlymo. The End.

Moving on to Maggie's second trip to Wolf Trap. It was AWESOME. It was especially awesome because Tito, Ros, Tito and Ros' Mom, Julie, Jon, Kel, and Carlymo were there! Carlymo and Maggie were awesome and got there early to reserve a nice space on the lawn and we all had a great time. Rain as always put on a GREAT show and we all danced (including Maggie in her blue poncho which made her look like she had only hands and no arms, it was grrreat), sang along, and had a great time overall. We all brought food to share and Maggie hooked us up with cupcakes (High Five!!), and Carly of course provided the liquor (lick-her, giggity), I forget what it was called exactly, but it was from the Czech Republic and was rather interesting, it was strong at first, seemed to calm down a lot, and then came back up to level out nicely, for you engineers out there, Strong-->Weak-->Smooth.

Oh, I can't forget to mention Maggie's traumatic growing experience with a douche bag Aussie at the wolf trap gate. Apparently Mr. Douche decided he'd mash his GIGANTIC (like King Kong size) folding chairs into Maggie causing her to almost fall backwards and suffer great injury. When she wimperingly asked Mr. Douche to be more careful he told her to "Step back Bitch!" Maggie decided to be the better man, eh, woman and bite her tongue instead of backhanding Mr. Douche so hard he ended up in China. (disclaimer – Tito may have taken soooome liberty in telling this story….)

All in all, the concert was great and I found it a very nice touch when the group played "Birthday", considering that the very next day was my mother's birthday :-D She had a great time and helped all of us to relax and enjoy the night. I'd recommend them to anyone that is a Beatles fan.

Ok, fans I'm ending this here, considering that Germany and Turkey are tied 2-2 in the 2^nd half and I need to get my work done so I can get outta here and see Kel :-) It has been my pleasure to write to you and I hope I you enjoyed my stories.

Love,

Tito


Maggie here again. Thanks for the great post, Tito! Unfortunately, due to the sputtering rain before the show started and Wolftrap's no photograph's policy enforced by Stalin-like park service officers, I only got one pic of the night. But it's a cute one of Tito's sister Ros and their Mom.

Awwww.

Now that's what I call a good omen

It has been raining everyday the past few weeks. Yeah, I'm not exaggerating. It has been raining every FREAKING day. It starts out sunny and nice, just enough to make me feel bad that I have to spend the day cooped up at work, and then when I get home and am all ready to hit the pool, it rains. Now I usually love thunderstorms, I really like watching them blow in on my balcony, but not when I want to go swimming.

The upside of these recent storms, is that they have been accompanied by some gorgeous rainbows. The first one I spotted last Wednesday when my Dad and I took my Grandmother to dinner (apparently, she loves the hamburgers at Chilis. Who knew?). But I didn't have my camera with me.

But this time! I was prepared. As I was getting ready to leave to run some errands last night, I happened to glance out the window, and there it was. A huge, bright, double rainbow. Camera in hand, I sprung into action!

Super Action Double Rainbow!

You can actually see where the rainbow ends here. It goes right into the roof of this house. So do those people have a pot of gold? Because I will totally break in and steal that shit.

This was taken when the rainbow was fading. You can see how it got cut in half by a cloud. Pretty cool, huh?

I called my Mom to tell her about the rainbow, and she said that it must be a good omen for her surgery on Thursday. Which I think sounds exactly right. :o)

Latest and the Greatest

I've been receiving a lot of questions about my Mom lately, so I thought I would take the chance to fill everyone in. Mom is currently scheduled for surgery to remove her esophageal cyst on Thursday, June 26. It will require her to be in the hospital for about 2 days (hopefully no more than that), and they are going to be doing a mid-line abdominal incision.

I am trying really hard to not be nervous about this and to think that everything will end up fine. As I am 90% sure it will be. It's just that other 10% that makes me worry. At least Bill will be here with us.

As for her heart, her surgeon ordered a stress test for her to make sure her heart would be ok during the operation, and she passed with flying colors. So her heart seems to be doing fine.

But then Tim Russert died of a heart attack at the age of 58. Only a few years older than Mom. And all of a sudden we are confronted with her mortality again. And I'm not ashamed to admit, it's freaked me out a little. I just wish the surgery and the aftermath was all over and then I wouldn't have to worry about it.

PLUS, I have my first doctor's appointment in more years than I care to admit tomorrow. And that makes me nervous about myself. I mean, with my recent family history (including my Aunt's thyroid cancer--she's fine btw), it's scary to think that something might be wrong. But, if it is, I know it's better to find out. And I am sure it will be ok. I am the picture of health. *snort*

Anyway, that's where things stand. Basically, I am trying to not let myself freak out about the next couple weeks. Let's see how successful I am!

Color Splash!

UPDATE: Purple it is in a landslide, 7 to nothing. Thanks, everyone!

Ok, time to get some fashion advice from my friends. I have picked out the dress I want to get for when I go on my fabulous Mediterranean cruise with Chris and Kent in September (!!!), but I need help on picking out which color. Here are the options:

Purple

Or green

I really like them both. Purple is my favorite color, but green used to be my favorite. Also, I am a redhead, so green would be the classic choice. But the purple would look hot with my pasty, hopefully non-sunburned skin. Since both are jewel tones, I think they would both look great, but I just can't decide! Also, both come with the little black bolero that the green one is shown with, so don't let influence your decision. Leave a comment/email/IM me with your vote!

PS: I literally just cheered because I spelled Mediterranean right on the first try. Booya!

Picture > 1000 Words

I stumbled across these pictures online the other day, and just felt the need to share them. I'm not going to include any commentary, I don't think the pictures need it.


Here is a lone Jewish woman resisting Israeli security forces in the West Bank. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Oded Balilty.



This year's Pulitzer runner-up was taken by Mahmud Hams of Agence France-Presse. It shows an Israeli rocket about to land on Palestinian villagers in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.



A man walks on a street strewn with bullet casings in Monrovia (the capital of Liberia). Carolyn Cole won the Pulitzer prize in 2004 with a set of pictures including this one.


If you want to see some more Pulitzer pictures, go here. But be warned. Some of them will break your heart, and I'm not kidding.