For the most part I really enjoy living in Arizona.  Of course my number one choice would be to move back to Southern California but it’s not happening until we can at least sell our house.  But Arizona is definitely my second choice.  Some of the drawbacks include 1.) 115 degree heat  2.) the Rednecks and 3.) the lack of Diversity.  The biggest drawback by far though is my extreme fear of scorpions and the fact that they live in abundance here.  Thankfully in the four and a half years that we have lived here I have not seen one, ever, that is….until today.  Not only did I see a SCORPION today but it was IN MY HOUSE!  Yep that’s right, in my very own place of refuge there it was, the satanic looking creature.  I went to put my shoes on in the laundry room when out of the corner of my eye I saw something scurry from beneath one of them.  I thought it was a baby lizard but wasn’t sure so I very carefully turned over the other shoe that the demon thing had run under and there out it ran, making his escape across the desert colored tile on my laundry room floor.  I quickly grabbed my husbands huge ass shoe and smacked the crap out of that thing until it lay a still, flat, mess.  Then I screamed, and screamed, and screamed some more all the while staring at it for fear it might come back from the dead and crawl up my leg {shudder}.  Finally my showering husband came running, soaking wet, in his towel to see what the emergency was.  Then, he kept watch while I grabbed the bug spray and dowsed it for good measure.

Here is a picture of the little creep resting peacefully.

These freaks of nature have caused me so much anxiety in the past and I have had many sleepless nights because of them.  All it takes is to hear about someone being stung in their own home for me to shake the sheets out ten times before getting in bed and then jumping out and doing it all over again every time I have the slightest bit of nerve sensation.  My husband LOVES this by the way.  Poor guy I don’t think he’s getting any sleep anytime soon after today’s shenanigans.

I’m reading this book for one of my classes called “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman.  I won’t get into too much about what the book is about except to to say that globalization has leveled the playing field among countries so that the world is now indeed flat instead of round like we once thought it was.

What I wanted to share with you are all the amazing abilities of Google that I never knew about before!

1. Want to know what’s for dinner, just google three ingredients in your fridge and see what pops up.

2.  Go here to see pretty much every service under the sun that Google offers.

3. Did you know you can translate something whether it be a simple phrase, a whole document, or an entire webpage?

4.  If you download the Google toolbar you can add what services you are most interested in like a translator button that also allows you to just hover your mouse over any word on a web-page and it will translate the word for you right there.  My favorites are the dictionary, facebook feed, and Craigslist button.

5. Oh ya and let’s not forget about Google scholar where you can view entire books right there on your internet browser.  Go ahead and try it, go to google scholar type in a book or an article title and see if it comes up.  They’re not all there yet but I hear it’s just a matter of time.  I tried it with The Five Love Languages and there it was!

How long has this been going on for?  Have I really been sleeping through it, am I the only clueless one left or what?  When did Google become my very own FREE personal assistant?

I swear I am not getting anything from Google for writing this, I just think it is really awesome.

I realize that you could call me a hypocrite right now since we did take Eva to the circus a couple of months ago and she LOVED it.  I had never been to the circus before because I knew that their treatment of the animals was most likely questionable but this time we were offered free tickets so I thought “why not”?  When we arrived I immediately spotted the protesters handing out fact sheets on the cruel treatment of the animals.  I declined to take one because I did not want to know what I already feared in my heart and I wanted us to be able to enjoy ourselves.   I know that sounds incredibly selfish and it was but I did vow to investigate before I ever went to another circus and that is what I want to share with you.

Here are some facts about Barnum and Baily from investigations conducted by PETA.

http://www.circuses.com/pdfs/RinglingHiddenTruthFSetc.pdf

http://www.circuses.com/pdfs/RinglingFactsheet.pdf

http://www.circuses.com/pdfs/RinglingElephantBreedingFS.pdf

The statement that affected me the most was this…

“Elephants in circuses are bought and sold,
separated from companions, confined, chained
and forced to stand for hours, and frequently
moved about in small compartments on trains or
trucks. They are required to perform behaviors
never seen in nature. … In order to keep elephant
behavior under tight control in the close proximity,
‘hands-on’ conditions of circuses, it is necessary
for a handler to establish and maintain supremacy.
Domination of such a large animal must
unavoidably involve an element of cruelty, often
including the liberal use of an ankus—a bullhook
euphemistically termed ‘guide’ by those in the
business, a whip, or an electric prod. … The totally
unnatural existence of captive elephants in a
circus, which includes significant physical and
emotional suffering, is a travesty. To allow this
practice to continue is unjustified and unethical.”

What also sealed the deal for me is that the elephants are kept chained up, barely able to move,  for an average of 26 hours at a time up to 100 hours while traveling between cities.  I mean at least when you go to a reputable zoo they attempt to replicate the animals’ natural habitats, give them room to exercise and good veterinary care.  So there it is, do with it what you will.

Here is a list animal free circuses for your consideration.

I mean seriously.  Seriously?  You just can’t help bashing each other to the Media?  You’ve both said yourselves that you don’t want your children reading this stuff one day.  But yet, you just continue on.

What is it with people and there frickin’ selfishness!!!  I’m so mad right now I could scream.

I just wish I could somehow make them read this but I know they probably wouldn’t care anyway.  Just get over yourselves already.  It’s not about YOU!  It’s about your children.

Sorry, I really can’t believe I’m talking about this one here, but after seeing the latest two headlines I just had to vent.

Thanks for listening.

http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=430029

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20302916,00.html

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20300421,00.html

So what do you think? I personally love it. Thanks hunny! Hopefully this will inspire me to do more blog posts.

Actually tomorrow I will have a product review on a really cool purse and a giveaway for one lucky reader, so don’t miss that.

I apologize for being MIA lately. We’ve been busy going to California and I started school so that is taking some adjustment. However, I’m not working so I should have plenty of time to update this site regularly. No excuses!