New Camera

So the highlight of this week was getting myself a digital camera. And boy, is it fancy.
It's a Nikon Coolpix S550. And yes, it is a purple one. Possibly one of the major reasons I bought it, besides the fact that it is completely awesome.
Unfortunately, since there hasn't really been anything picture-worthy in the past 2 days, these are the kinds of pictures I'm resigned to taking to play with it:
Oh so happy about my camera!
This is my roommate Kimberly reading us all a bedtime story.

Roommates Kimberly, Lydia and Meagan and that punk Greg that comes over to visit a lot. Roommates Lydia and MeaganThis is me telling Greg Do not take a picture right now you fool.
And we also played around with the video feature.

I am such a great eye roller.


And in closing, I'll leave you with some words of wisdom Seth said the other night and which I happily wrote down so I could come back and read them again and again.
"I think people should scream uncontrollably more often. The world would be a funnier place. Wouldn't it?"

The 20 Million Dollar Lawsuit.

Apologies for the super long blog posts I've been writing. In reward for your diligence in reading through all of that, here is a nice short one for you.

The other day in my Deafness and the Law class we started discussing the lawsuit against McDonald's with the woman who sued for spilling her hot coffee in her lap. Everyone agreed that this was ridiculous, how did she get so much money for being so clumsy!?!

Because that's not what really happened...

This is what happened. (According to my teacher, who is in fact a lawyer and studied this in law school. But feel free to be skeptical of this story. I don't care. I believe it.) McDonald's got new coffee machines. And these coffee machines boiled the water SO hot that if you pushed the temperature any higher, the water would turn into steam. Why the change? Because the hotter water allowed them to use the filter bags for many more cups of coffee. Less filter bags being used = more money. Only there was a problem. McDonald's didn't change the cups so that they could handle this hot hot water. They still used their styrofoam cups. And these cups would start to disintegrate from the boiling hotness of the water. And sometimes these cups disintegrated completely away. And people would get boiling hot hot water all over their hands. and they would burn. And McDonald's had been paying out money to these people for their injuries. But the cost of getting new cups was still higher than the cost of paying out these people, so they continued to do it.
Until one day, when a woman came through the drive-thru. And she bought a cup of coffee, and then she did what most people do when they are getting stuff from a drive-thru window. She stuck it between her legs. And then it disintegrated away. And she got 3rd-degree burns on her thighs and genital area so badly that she had to get skin grafts. (My whole class flinched backwards and exclaimed "oooo!" simultaneously when my teacher announced this.) And so she sued. and she won 20 million dollars.
And why did she get so much money for it? Because part of that money was to ensure her cooperation with whatever story McDonald's gave to the public. She was not allowed to contradict anything they said.
And as my teacher said, "They villified her in the press and she didn't care because she took her 20 million dollars and she bought an island!"

Yes, she did. She bought an island. An island. How sweet is that?!

Dang it, still a long post. I suppose brevity is not my strong point. It's a great story though ain't it?

Hell, Frozen Over.

*If the word choice seems a little weird it's because I wrote it Monday and then waited until today to post it. I wanted to include the video at the end and I didn't have it then.*

First let me give you a little background.
These are the kinds of things my boyfriend Seth likes doing: camping, hiking, rock climbing, kayaking and generally outdoorsy things.
These are the kinds of things I like doing: watching t.v. , watching movies, eating, playing on my computer and generally indoorsy things. Especially during the winter.

It was only a matter of time before these two preferences would collide.

So last week he asked me to go on a hike with him and another couple of friends of ours today, since it's a holiday from school, and I agreed.
My first mistake.

This morning when I woke up I realized what a fool I was and I waited for him to come fetch me for our little hike so that I could tell him I was not going.
My second mistake.

Because he was not going to come fetch me. He was still asleep. Even though it was noon. and we had planned to eat lunch on our hike.
This is the point where I started to get really annoyed.

So I wander on over there and wake him up. He then spends the next hour frantically planning our hike and trying to persuade me to come, and I caved.
My third mistake.

So off we go on our hike. Now, of the four of us that went, I am the only one who does not like hiking and/or adventure. If someone was going to suffer on this hike, it would be me. and suffer I did....

We were unable to do the hike they had planned because there was so much snow that they had blocked off the road. Except we did not know this. This is because the boys didn't want to let on that our plans had been ruined since we had already given them so much grief about being unplanned in the first place. I'm not sure why they thought it was a good idea to instead wander off down one of the other paths in hopes that it would be a nice hike...
This path was somewhat beaten down because I think some snowshoers had gone before us. However, I'm pretty sure we were the first to actually hike it in tennis shoes (since everyone else is smart enough to know that you don't go hiking in 2 feet deep snow) My feet were soaked.
And since they didn't know this trail, we didn't know where we were going so we kind of wandered along it for about an hour until we found a little ridge with another trail going through. It was there that we decided to stop and make hot chocolate. They also brought along hot dogs! which we did not cook and eat. because I don't like them. and we (meaning me) wanted to get back.

So, all in all, we were trudging around in the snow for almost 2 hours. and I don't think I cracked a genuine smile once.
It's been a very long afternoon.

Videographic proof:

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Visit to Seth's House
The Good
-Seth!
-his parents were very excited to meet me. very excited.
-getting to meet his family and also some of his friends. not intimidating at all.
-actually getting some time to relax over the break
-Looney Tunes marathon
-his mom busted out the baby books. oh. yes. there were quite a few amusing pictures in there.
-learning how to drive stick shift. well... kind of.
-walking on the Greenway (a little trail through some woods, by a lake, etc. etc. very nice)

The Bad
-having the Greenway built over sewage lines so it did not smell very nice in some places... actually the only place it did smell was where we decided to stop for a while. clearly not a good choice on our part
-Not being able to find his house because g-mail maps were WRONG!
-The cold, oh my sick, it was so cold.
-Seth beating me at Wii bowling, Wii boxing, Wii baseball and Wii tennis. pathetic.
-The Labyrinth. Has anyone ever seen this movie? It is Seth's favorite, and I do not know why. Those tight tight pants of David Bowie's are going to haunt my nightmares.

Amanda's Wedding
The Good
-delicious food. oh the pineapple... oh and the cupcakes.... oh and the ka-bobs.....yum
-getting to see all the people I grew up with in Richmond in one place
-getting a new outfit. i know i know-vain, but i looked so pretty! and so did my sisters.
-Amanda's husband being from North Carolina so I could go see Seth for New Years Eve
-My HILARIOUS grandpa, aunts and uncles
-several cans of diet coke. i went through withdrawals when i left.

The Bad
-SO MANY ENGAGEMENT JOKES!!! People - what part of "The next time you make another crack at me I will cut your tongue out, blend it up, and make you drink it" do you not understand?!? (you see how violent I was getting? It was that. bad.)
-SO MANY TWIN JOKES!!! People - just because Amanda and I look alike does NOT mean that we are exactly the same. I know, shocker. But it's true. really. And I don't care if you're good friends with Amanda and she lets you touch her. You are not allowed to touch me. Got it?
-Freezing cold temperatures + thin jacket and skirt + thousands upon thousands of pictures = unhappy Janette
-SO MANY PICTURES!!! I think we did every arrangement possible at least twice. AT LEAST.
-it is so weird having your twin sister get married.
-That husband of Amanda's can be real annoying when he wants to be. man i'm telling you

The Ugly

Taking Care of Business

Coming soon: Posts about New Years Eve and Seth's House and Amanda's Wedding

when I have time.

And now for your feature presentation!

Since I am in the habit of using people's full names and their pictures on this site I have decided it would be safer if I made my blog private. If you want to continue reading my oh so thrilling posts please let me know through a comment or by e-mailing me. I'll need your e-mail to do it I believe. Thank You!

New family theme song: Low by Flo Rider. This change has been approved by my father.