I was going to wait to announce this, but I might as well come clean.

I have a new blog at NathanExposed.com. I've been working feverishly on it all weekend, and I'm making progress. I still have messages and comments to move over, plus a few messed up CSS bugs.

But my friend Michael over at popbytes has already found the blog and commented on it, so I think I'll go ahead and announce it.

So check it out, my new home is http://www.nathanexposed.com. Please update your bookmarks, blogrolls, and feeds. Thanks!

Google is fast on my blog (thank you Google).

On Thursday, I posted a very simple message saying 'Happy Birthday' to all the Libra's I know.

Within 48 hours, I came up on Page 1 of the search results for "Libra" on their Blog Search. See for yourself.

I bet people who find me that way are expecting some insightful analysis of Libra's.

Sorry guys, I don't have the answers. This bitch here is a Scorpio *snaps tail*

Apprently I'm a little bit of both.

I know real IQ Tests are very involved and require a lot of answers. But remember, I think I have ADD, so I don't have the patience for it.

So I took quick IQ test online and my score was 100. The national average is 90. The average for people in Tennessee was 94. So I'm smarter than your average guy.

But when it comes to being logical, apparently I'm a moron. Sidenote: There is a direct relationship between politics and IQ. People who voted Republican typically have a lower IQ than people who voted Democrat. Really, it's been surveyed.

Your IQ Is 100

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Average Your General Knowledge is Above Average

PLANTATION, Fla. (AP) - Jane Scarola's veterinarian thought the X-ray was a joke. He's seen strange items get into the stomachs of dogs before, things like kebab skewers and small utensils. But a 13-inch serrated knife that somehow was swallowed by a 6-month-old puppy?

That was a new one.

``I was just flabbergasted,'' the vet, Jon-Paul Carew of Imperial Point Animal Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Elsie, a Saint Bernard puppy, apparently had the blade between her esophagus and stomach for about four days before it was removed earlier this week in a 2-hour operation.

The puppy has an 8-inch scar, but is fine and back with her family. And the knife is back in Scarola's kitchen, albeit this time wrapped in a towel and placed in a cabinet atop the refrigerator.

``I'm going to frame it and give it to Dr. Carew,'' Scarola said. ``He should hang it. Everybody should know what puppies are capable of putting down their throats.''

Scarola used the knife to carve a turkey, and placed the blade on the counter - far from the edge.

She thinks one of her six other dogs - four Saint Bernards, a German shepherd and a Labrador - somehow got the knife, which eventually made its way to Elsie.

``She wants to eat everything and anything,'' Scarola said.

Information from: South Florida Sun-Sentinel http://www.sun-sentinel.com

Confessions on a Dancefloor

01) Hung Up
02) Get Together
03) Sorry
04) Future Lovers
05) I Love New York
06) Let It Will Be
07) Forbidden Love
08) Jump
09) How High
10) Isaac
11) Push
12) Like It Or Not

Source: Madonna.com

(Note: "Forbidden Love" was also track 7 on her 1994 Bedtime Stories CD. I doubt there is any connection, but it was something I noticed.)

Well folks, starting tomorrow it's Libra season. I don't know how it happened, but a lot of the blogs I frequent are written by Libra's. And most of my friends outside the blogosphere are *also* Libra's.

So a very Happy Birthday to all you boys born in September and October. On a good day, you're warm, funny, witty, and charming. On a bad day.... well, you know how you can be ;)

It's been awhile... But this photo is "hotter than Cheney at a gay wedding"

The end of September must be a special time for my fellow bloggers. Cory just celebrated his 1 year blogging anniversary, while Jackson recently celebrated his 4th year.

As for me...hell, I've barely been here very long. I'm coming up on 2 months. Despite my short run, I feel like taking a trip down memory lane.

These are some of my most visited posts (and also some of my favorites):

• Watch out, he's cumming!


• Morning Routine


• Baby Steps to Fatherhood


• Expose Yourself, Part 2


• Dirty Dicks - The Sequel


• "It only hurts when I breathe..."


• You Don't Know...

It's hard to focus during the day. For some crazy reason, I still meet my deadlines and come out ahead. But it takes effort, and I have often thought I have ADD.

I'm easily distracted, and most recently my distraction is blogging. I love reading blogs, and I have to force myself to only take small breaks to read them.

I went to a site to take an online test to see if I have ADD. It just isn't fair! The test is 78 questions long! How can a person with ADD focus long enough to finish it?

I got to question 40, lost interest, and decided to post this instead. Yep, I've got ADD. If you don't have the attention span to take an ADD test, you probably have it.

Here's the test. It will open in a new window so you won't get ADD and forget where you came from ;)

Anyone who has pets knows how great it is to always be loved no matter what kind of day you're having.

We have 2 cats. They are both very lovable, but they do have their favorites. Purr Purr is almost 5, and she tends to favor me. Prissy Magoo is 2, and she tends to favor Rodney. Sometimes Purr Purr will sleep with us at night, but she's very particular about it. She has to be in the middle of the bed, and she doesn't like to be bothered or moved.

Well last night, Purr Purr was in a spot and I just couldn't get comfortable. I picked her up and moved her next to me, but figured she'd get mad and jump off the bed. To my surprise, she snuggled up against my chest and then licked my arm. I leaned in to kiss her on the cheek, she tilted her head so I could, and then she went back to sleep. It was so cute.

No matter what, I know at the end of the day both of them will be waiting at the door when we come home. It's nice to be loved.

Over at Jackson's blog, he's added a new bumper sticker that says "Buck Fush". I love it!


Click here to buy one.

I've had the same web-based e-mail address for 8 years now, and I am certain we will never part. Too bad I get so much damn spam, which will never go away since I will never close the account. But I stopped giving out my e-mail years ago, so hopefully it will never increase.

Here are some of today's subject line highlights:

- Get a Sony VAIO Laptop on us!
- A martini without the right glass just isn't the same.
- Vote now on XXX Prize! See the Winning Porn!
- Purchase voltmeters online (huh?).
- This 6.3 Megapixel Dig Cam could be yours!
- èñïîëíåíèå æåëàíèé (I get a lot of these...who would open that?)
- Re: Pxharmaceutical It Works Amaz ing

At least the Viagra offers stopped.

I was thinking about how I look forward to Madonna's new CD coming out. Then I realized I have been a fan of hers for over 15 years now. Wow, that's a long time. She really is incredible.

That lead me to realize my first CD was a Madonna CD. I got her album "True Blue" either in 1990 or 1991, I cannot remember which. I have no idea why I picked that to be my first. I had most of her others on cassette, I guess "True Blue" was the missing link. In addition to "True Blue", I also got the Nelson CD "After the Rain" at the same time.

And that's a little embarrassing. Madonna has stayed, but the long haired rockers of Nelson are long gone. For those of you who are too young to remember, CD's originally came in these tall boxes that had the actual CD + jewel case inside.

I miss those boxes. They were cool for some reason. They usually had additional artwork, which I liked. Believe it or not, if you ever go into a Sam's Club, I think they still have those damn boxes on new CD's :) I guess somebody liked them.

It's an annoyance when a co-worker e-mails me, then calls to tell me they have e-mailed me, then follows up with an instant message to see if I've read the e-mail yet.

It the same thing happens to you, I sympathize. And if you're one of those people who does this - get a life.

This is too funny, I have to pass it on.

The Catholic church has a Matrix theme campaign to promote a new generation of repressed homosexuals priests. So Kirkkitsch created a mock campaign for the Baptists and posted it on his blog. I love it, he is full of funny, creative ideas.



Click here for Kirkkitsch's original post on the campaigns.

It's always a trip to see what people are searching for when they end up on your blog. I'm going to post a few recent examples of how people found my blog:

Using Google Blog Search: searched for "cute girls snapshots flickr" (bet they were disappointed!)
http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&q=cute%20girls%20snapshots%20flickr&btnG=Search%20Blogs

Using MSN: searched for "toilet paper/urinals"
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=toilet%20paper%2Furinals&FORM=QBRE3

Between the "cute girls" and the "toilet paper" I think the search engines have got me all wrong. You will *never* see any cute girls on this blog. As for toilet paper... well, I still believe guys who don't wipe after they pee are Dirty Dicked Breeders.

Okay, we've all done these online personality tests. They are fun, and usually pretty accurate, though very generalized. Well now they are being re-invented for the blog age. My friend Sunshine is on a big personality test kick. He's taking all kinds of online tests and posting them. It's actually fun, and I'm learning a lot about him.

So here are the results of my pattern test. I picked an image that appealed to me, and it gave an analysis on how my mind works. Actually very accurate in my case.

Your Brain's Pattern

Your mind is a firestorm - full of intensity and drama. Your thoughts may seem scattered to you most of the time... But they often seem strong and passionate to those around you. You are a natural influencer. The thoughts you share are very powerful and persuading.

Last week, I was feeling all confident, and I wrote a post proudly announcing that all our personal problems were going to be over, and everything was going to be okay. What a perfect time for reality to slap us in the face.

On Friday morning, Rodney's Dad had a very serious heart attack. His Dad was with his employer outside, and he fell over flat on his face without warning. He was barely alive, his heart was only doing 4 beats per minute. He was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance and in very critical condition.

Rodney called me at work, I rushed home, we packed up some stuff and headed over to Illinois. During the 3.5 hour trip, so many thoughts went through our heads. There was plenty of time to cry and think about all the bad things.

When we got there, his Dad just didn't look good. He could not breathe on his own, they had put him on life support. He was not conscious at all, and there was 90% blockage around his heart. They put a stent in behind his heart to open up the flow.

He had multiple heart attacks 2 years ago, and the doctor told him then he would probably only have 2 good years left. Ironically, the 2 year anniversary was just one day before this happened. So we wondered -- was his time up? Was this the end?

Skipping ahead, on Saturday his Dad woke up and eventually could breathe on his own. He started talking, but he was very disoriented. He continued to be extremely disoriented through Sunday. He remembered certain facts, but everything related to the hospital, the heart attack, etc.. he would forget. We were all very concerned about brain damage due to the lack of flow to his head during the heart attack.

Yesterday, his memory showed quite an improvement. So we're getting optimistic that he will recover. But there are still a lot of questions that will only be answered with time.

We still don't know what the future will hold. He remains in the Intensive Care unit, we are just praying that he continues to get better.

These things are very scary. I can't stand the thought of either one of us losing a parent. I know that day will come, and it's going to be very sad. One day at a time, I guess. We have to enjoy what time we have.

It's been a really rough weekend and I really should be blogging about more important issues. But right now I just wanted to make a quick post about something I look forward to -- Madonna's new album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, which comes out on Nov. 15th in the U.S.

So here it is, click the image to enlarge.



Courtesy of Madonna.com

DELTONA, Fla. - A convenience store worker has admitted urinating into a soda bottle, causing a customer who drank from it to become violently ill, his bosses say

The victim, a foreman with a Daytona Beach construction company, became suspicious of the drink after he chugged the beverage last week, his attorney, Daniel Newlin, said

"He vomited three or four times afterward," said Newlin, who did not release his client's name in order to protect the man's privacy.

Click here to read the full story.

There are so many unusual things we see on the way to work each day. These are just a few from my perspective:

Undercover Cop?
While on the way to work this morning, I was behind this lady who had Fraternal Order of Police on the bottom of her license plate. I have no idea what that means, but obviously her vehicle is somehow registered with the police because it is a registered Tennessee plate. But then she had a sticker in her back window that said Mary Kaye. What??? Is she an undercover cop selling make-up?

That could be really clever. She would go to people's houses and deliver their order, but it would actually be a drug bust. Gotcha!

Happy Asia
I call her "Happy Asia". She's the painfully skinny Asian lady who is always walking. Every morning, I can count on seeing her walking down the street as I go to work. She always wears a white shirt, tucked into khaki shorts. Sometimes she has on big dorky headphones. Sometimes she wears a big straw hat! No matter what, she always looks content. She has an easy glide, she's just moving along at a casual pace, and seems so peaceful with her life.

But she literally does walk every morning and evening. And Rodney has seen her in the afternoon, so this lady walks at least 3 times a day. I think she might have an eating disorder, judging by the amount she walks and how skinny she is. Nobody walks that much.

And does she work? How can she afford to always be walking and never working? Maybe she gets paid to test the lifespan of tennis shoes. And she has to see how much she can walk to wear them out. Whatever, I love you Happy Asia Lady!

Thou Shalt Not Kill
Anytime you see a car with American Flag bumber stickers, you are guaranteed to also see a "W" sticker close by. Well this morning, I saw a bumber sticker that said "The Ten Commandments"... of course, it was under a big fat "W" sticker.

Hmmm... wasn't there something in there about "Thou Shalt Not Kill"? How exactly do you justify killing all these innocent people in Iraq?

The Casual Arm
Anytime I see a driver with their left arm resting casually outside their car window, you know it's going to be slow going. And they are always in front of me, in the left lane. How and why? The casual arm is the universal symbol for not being in any hurry at all. They are driving 20 MPH down the road, and there is no way you are getting around them. These people don't have a care in the world, and are not the least bit concerned about the people behind them. Nor do they have any interest in getting in the right lane. They've got a left turn coming up in 20 miles and they want to be prepared!

I wish I could be a carefree asshole like that.

This summer started out pretty rough, and it's seemed to be a downhill thing ever since.

At the end of May, my Dad's doctor discovered that Dad's heart was extremely blocked, and predicted my Dad would have a massive heart attack and probably pass away within 4 weeks.

4 weeks...do you have any idea how short that is?

Just to imagine not having my Dad in my life is unbearable. This was when we still lived in North Carolina. So the first week of June, my Dad was taken in to have triple bypass surgery. It was too scary to even imagine my Dad being operated on. Rodney and I rushed home on a plane to be there. Seeing Dad wheeled off to surgery brought us all to tears.

With a lot of prayer, a lot of faith, and a lot of support, Dad made it through the surgery. This was very traumatic.

The day after his surgery, when we were on the way to the hospital to see him, a bitch ran a red light and smashed up our rental car. On top of all the emotional stress, we had this. And I was injured, so I felt like shit.

We were scheduled to move to Tennessee 2 weeks later, so we spent time with the family, then had to fly back to NC, pack up our home, finish out our careers there, and move everything to Nashville. June was very rough, but thankfully we all made it out alive.

Everything took a turn for the worse with our insurance. Even though the original investigation clearly found that girl who hit us at fault, all the facts were ignored on and State Farm claimed we were at fault for the wreck. So we spent the remainder of the summer fighting that.

I shouldn't have taken it so personally, but I did. I felt personally offended that this bitch put us through hell in the wreck, then we were taking the fall for it. Unbelievable.

So I spent way too many days and nights feeling pissed about that, and fought with everything we could.

But for the first time in a loooong time, I am starting to feel peace. We have found new insurance who is willing to ignore the wreck because of the facts and the police report. So even though the "at fault" won't be erased for 3 years from records, at least we can pretend they were. We have exhausted every outlet, and it looks like there is no chance our current insurance will take our side. So our only choice is to drop the bastards and start with a new set of coverage.

But today, poor Rodney... He was basically in a wreck. He was driving to work on the interstate, and this huge piece of metal flew out of a truck, hit the car, knocked off 2 rims, and roughed up the bottom of the car. We don't know if any damage was done under the car, but the rims are gone now. The scratches aren't too bad, and thankfully God was with Rodney to keep him from being hurt.

So it seems the bad news continued. But I am really making an effort to bring optimism into our lives. We've had a shitty run. My Dad is healthy and recovering, so that's good news. We are dropping the insurance that has irritated us all summer. I think I have found an alternate route for Rodney to get to work, so maybe he can avoid all the dangerous shit on Nashville's intersate system by taking some backroads instead.

I really feel like the nightmare is finally going to leave us alone. I am ready to stop being angry all the time. I am ready to rest easier and enjoy myself.

It felt good to get that all out. It has been so long since I really opened up on my blog. I'm looking for better days to come.

I think Blogging is like any other addiction or obession. I started in July every couple of days and by the end of August I was doing in on a daily basis. By September, I was sometimes posting multiple times in a day.

I reached a point where I was always thinking about it, and always looking for new information on other blogs too. I would come home from work and jump on the computer instead of eating dinner. Then I'd hang out on blogs until late at night, not get much sleep, then start again the next day. Pretty unhealthy.

But my friend Jackson told me I'd get over it, and he was right. I think I'm finally finding balance. Hmm... this was going to be a somewhat tongue in cheek post, comparing blogging to drugs. But the humor has passed. Oh well, at least I got it off my chest. Time for bed after one more post ;)

I know I'm a day late with this post, but yesterday I wasn't able to blog so I wanted to post a short note today. I mainly wanted to pay tribute to all those affected by 9/11/01 and say that you are still in our hearts.

I recently found out that one of the bloggers I frequent actually survived 9/11. It's amazing who we meet through our blogs.

Anyway, as I've said in other posts, God be with you.

Can you guess the gender of the photographer? Look closely.



I love this photo, because the punchline is subtle.

Have you seen the commercial for Alan Cumming's new cologne... called "Cumming"?

It's the gayest cologne ad I've ever seen. Here's the set-up:

Alan comes home, greets his dog, and starts getting undressed. Cut to some scenes where he's rolling around in bed naked, then cut back to the scenes of him getting undressed piece by piece. Throw in some scenes of his bare ass walking around, and you've got a classic gay ad.

It really took balls to film an ad like this... and believe me, he's sure got 'em (you can see them dangling). My only complaint is the gigantic bushes growing out of his armpits - he needs to trim those fuckers. And I think we all could have done without the eye shadow and weird dog scenes.

Despite it's strangeness, it's a brave campaign. The cologne name is so gay to begin with, why not do a naked gay commercial? At the end he says "I'm cumming..." :)

Click here for see the commercial.

If you are looking for Anti-Bush bumper stickers, my friend Jackson has the original Impeach Bush stickers.

Visit Jackson's online store.

I hate getting political because it really brings out the worst feelings in me. But thousands of innocent people continue to die as a result of the sloppy way our country is run.

It may be politics, but it is also human life we are dealing with. So please participate in the following:

On September 24, thousands of Americans are banding together to promote the impeachment of George W. Bush. A fellow blogger described it like this:
-------------
"President Bush has totally and utterly failed the American people. Almost every day we are presented with further proof why he should not be our president. From 9/11, to WMDs, to Iraq, to Katrina-- the reasons are many and obvious. We need to impeach him NOW.

The only point that should be discussed is-- "IMPEACH BUSH NOW!" We need to pound this point over and over again. It should be mentioned wherever possible, and it should not stop until the mainstream media and all politicians realize that we, the people, will not stand for gross negligence, willful and wanton misconduct, nor the utter lies, any longer."
-------------

For more information on how to take action, please visit VoteToImpeach.org and sign the petition to support the actions. I know you probably read these like this all the time---

But there is no doubt the American people MUST SPEAK UP and demand a change.

WE DESERVE BETTER! When is the last time you felt good about our president?

Special thanks to the Martian Anthropologist for his blog entry that brought this to my attention.

At this time 5 years ago, the #1 song on Billboard was Madonna's "Music". Has it really been that long?

That sure does bring back memories. I remember when Madonna was American. She's British now, you know... she has the fake accent to prove it.

Come to think of it, I also remember when Madonna was black. And then there was that time in 1999 when she was a geisha.

Oh, Madonna... nothing ever stays the same, huh? Anyway, I loved "Music" as I love all of Madonna's albums. And I look forward to her new album coming out this year.

The world was such a different place in September 2000.

I love it when I ask an open question on my blog, and other people respond to me on their blog. Seeing my name on their site is always flattering.

So I was wondering... what is your morning routine? How do you start your day? Are you high maintenance, low maintenance, etc...

Here is mine:

- Get out of bed after alarm has been going off for 30-50 minutes (I'm a heavy sleeper).

- Pet our cats, who are sleeping on the bed or near it.

- Take a shower, dry off, put on underwear

- Shave, and put contacts in

- Put on body lotion and anti-perspirant

- Go downstairs and eat Total cereal and drink water (boring, huh?)

- Go upstairs, put on my shirt, and then style my hair with glue

- Wash my face, brush my teeth, scrape my tongue (very important), and rinse with Listerine

- Put on my pants, socks, belt and shoes

- Grab my rosary, stomach medicine, wallet, and cell phone

- Kiss Rodney while he's sleeping

- Pack my lunch, give the cats their treats, and I'm out of the door

Whew. That made me tired just writing about it. I *am* high maintenance and it takes me an hour to get ready.

By the way, I purposely left out the obvious parts about using the bathroom.

Now...what do you do in the morning?

Today my friends Jackson and Cory were taking a color blind test online, and I joined in as well. There are different levels of being color blind.

Actually a lot of men have some sort of color blindness. Some hues affect 1 out of 12 men. Interesting huh? You might not even know it.

Here's a quick online test for color blindness. Each one is a little more difficult, so you might have to stare for a bit:

Click here to take the color blind test.

Even though I'm not very religious, I do consider myself very spiritual. When I was growing up, my Mother would tell me "God Be with You" every morning before I went to school.

Those 4 words brought me comfort, and they still do today. I felt like today was bad for numerous reasons. Other people have been having a bad day/week too. Maybe it's the stars and planets, I don't know.

Whatever you're going through, I just want to say "God Be with You." If you don't believe in God, disregard this.

But if you do believe in God, just know that are you never alone. I know one guy who is mourning the anniversary of a death. I know another guy who has ended an 11 year relationship. And another guy who was disappointed by a missed opportunity for the 4th time.

Whatever it is, take care of yourself. And if you need someone to listen, I will listen to you.

Related Post: "You were created for a specific purpose" 08/18/05

Isn't this freaky looking? Someone carved the features of a woman's head out of a watermelon and filled the eyes with grapes. It took a lot of talent to do this, but it also just looks scary.

Click to enlarge

I read this insightful article questioning some of the regular oddities we encounter in life. Here is an excerpt:
-------------
"What has happened to all the men at the construction sites that clog traffic in every city where I travel? The cones are there, permanently narrowing the lanes as dramatically as bacon fat clogs my arteries. Now and then you spot someone in a hard hat, smoking. Other than that, it’s a ghost town out there. Where have all the workers gone? Are they meeting in some secret location, laughing about what they have done to the traffic? Can they be found, so that they finish a project or two before I die or retire, whichever comes first?"
-------------

I couldn't agree more! Click here to read the entire article by Stanley Bing.

This isn't a real "review" because it's getting late and I mainly want to say how much I liked "Diary of a Mad Black Woman."

It was so funny, and I recommend it to anyone. Aside from the general good humor and life lessons, it had a scene mocking Whitney Houston that I had to watch several times.

When I started my blog, one of my first posts was talking about how crazy Whitney Houston is on "Being Bobby Brown" and how she is always yelling "Bobby!!!!!!"

Apparently I'm not the only one who has noticed it. There is a court scene in this movie where the judge says the next case is going to be Bobby Brown. Then you hear a woman yell "Bobby!!! Bobby, I love you!!!" And the judge says something like "Calm down, Ms. Houston."

Bobby and Whitney have nothing to do with the movie plot, it was just funny to see them mock Whitney's constant yelling for Bobby.

For more info about the movie, visit the film's promotional website. Let me know if you've seen it, I want to know what you think.

These homos in Australia have really caught on to my post about "exposing" themselves :)

Yesterday, Sunshine posted photos of his ultra-modern home with a great narrative tour. And Kerri posted photos of her refrigerator, complete with dirty words hidden in the magnets.

The concept is simple: take a photo of something in your home and post it on your blog with details about the items in the photo. You can learn a lot about someone just by seeing their home.

Try it on your blog, and let me know when it's posted.

The blogs listed on the left-hand side of my site are ones I actually do read on a daily basis and I know most of the authors personally. They aren't a link exchange.

The hard part is removing them if I stop reading them. I want to be honest on my blog, and if I decide to stop reading a blog, I can no longer say it's a "blog I'm reading" because it wouldn't be true.

Today I removed a link to a really nice guy that I like talking to, and I feel kind of bad about it. The problem is that his blog just became too heavy for me. I think he's a smart guy who will understand where I'm coming from.

I also removed a funny, lighthearted blog last week. He was also a really nice guy. My only problem is that he added this bright background with white text over it, which makes it impossible to read. It's even worse in the RSS feed because it's white text on a white background. Since I can no longer read it, I had to remove the link.

So I wanted to let it be known that the "Blogs I'm Reading" section will change on a regular basis. If I stop reading your blog, the link is coming down. But don't take it to heart.

I've been such a bum today. When I have a day off, it goes by too quickly. When I am working, it goes by slowly.

Well it's 1:46pm here in Nashville, and I need to eat lunch and take a shower. Then, if I can force myself to, I need to go check out paint for our guest bedroom. Rodney is at work, he'll be so impressed that I even got out of bed, much less went out :)

So we decided we would probably go with Lemon Twist for the walls. But now I'm thinking about also using Parakeet. We could paint the top section of the walls Lemon Twist and the bottom section Parakeet, so it would be split.

Nah, that would be a pain in the ass. Maybe we'll just paint the doors parakeet and the walls yellow. Or maybe I'll just eat and then go back to bed.

UPDATE: We didn't get the Lemon Twist because Sherwin Williams was closed. I was in the mood to paint, so we went to Homo Depot and found a great alternative called Kayak Yellow. We're actually really happy with it. I'll post pics when it's done. These damn purple walls take a lot of paint to cover up.

This Labor Day weekend has been all about the babies for me. Rodney and I traveled to be with our family and had a great time. I got to spend time with my 4-year-old niece and my 5-month-old nephew. I love them both so much.

I don't have a lot of experience with children. I was the youngest child of 3 and most of my Mom's friends were done having children as well, which means I grew up around a lot of kids my age, but very few babies.

I'm now in my mid-20's, and each year I have become more interested in children. With each new birth in the family, I have worked to become more involved.

Someday down the road, Rodney and I will have children. Because he is 11 years older than I am, there is a definite presence of ticking clocks. Age-wise, we really need to have a child today in order for things to balance out. If we do it now, I will feel like I'm a bit too young. If we do it later, it will feel like Rodney is a bit too old.

The happy medium

Rodney still feels like he is in his 20's. He is youthful, energetic, and doesn't even look his age. "You're only as old as you feel" and Rodney has no worries about how the age gap might affect raising children. So as long as he feels young, then our ages will balance out.

He also has plenty of experience with children. He basically raised his 2 nephews, who are now in their early 20's. Rodney is great with children. I get inspired every time I see him with them. They love him, and it makes me look forward to the future.

Ideally, I would like Rodney to be able to quit work and raise our child(ren). If we can do it financially, he supports the idea. I guess I'm old-fashioned in the belief that one parent should stay home and take care of the child, cook, and take care of the home. Rodney is excellent at all these things.

And somewhere I would learn about being a father myself. Nobody is ever really prepared for children when they first start out. It's a learning experience, and I know I would pick up on it. This past weekend really has me thinking about when.

So those are my baby steps to fatherhood. I'm learning a lot from my nieces and nephews.

A new episode of "The Ellen Degeneres Show" will be on this Monday, Labor Day! She's my favorite comedian, and a person insiration to me. Season 3 wasn't supposed to start until Tuesday, Sept. 6 2005. But in response to Hurricane Katrina, she has filmed a special fundraiser episode in which Warner Bros. is donating $500,000 and has pledged to match donations up to another $500,000...totally a potential donation of over $1 Million.

I am so glad that she will have a special episode for the relief efforts. Be sure to watch it. You can find out more information on Ellen's website.

Ellen grew up near New Orleans and the hurricane has been a devastation to her and her family. If you haven't donated already, please help.

I love Michael Moore...he is very good at getting the point across with a strong, clear message. Today he posted an open letter to Bush on his website. Click here to read the letter.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention, popbytes.

Continuing the trend I'm starting of people posting snapshots from inside their home, this is my next contribution. I'm cheating a little because this is actually not our house. It's a photo taken 4 months ago from the apartment we had in Raleigh, NC. But the story behind it is too cute to pass up.

Overview: Rodney works in an industry that requires flexible hours, and sometimes he has to work at night. When that happens, he doesn't get home until close to Midnight, and I stay at home with our baby girls (our 2 cats). We're so sad without our Rodney :(

When Rodney is on his way home, he calls me and Purr Purr (in the photo) knows it's him. She starts making this excited sound when the phone rings. Then she goes and sits by the door to wait patiently for him. This photo was taken one night while she was waiting at the door.

Couch: A bright red couch in our living room. We love it, and it's always the center of attention when we have guests. A contrasting lime green throw is on the top of it.

Artwork: I created a series of 3 different striped patterns in Adobe Illustrator, printed, matted, and framed them.

Tables: Distressed wood tables with grill-style trays underneath for storage. I bought Rodney the lamp from Kirkland's (he loves that store) and it's red with this glass texture like rock candy. There are also some Feng Shui items on the table, a striped bowl that matches the artwork, the phone, a Yankee Candle, and a flower arrangement by Rodney.

Okay, bloggers - your turn. Show me yours and I'll show you more of mine.

People as far away as Australia are "exposing" themselves! I posted an entry last night with a photo from our house and said I am always curious to peek inside other people's homes (you can learn so much!). Well Miss Kerri, a sweet and sassy girl from "down under" responded by posting a photo of her bedroom on her blog. Thanks Kerri, love the stripes.

And then Purple Twinkie posted a comment with a link to a photo of his computer, bed and TV.

So now I *know* I'm not the only nosey person here who likes seeing what other people have in their house. Keep exposing yourself, bloggers, inquiring eyes want to see what you've got!