happy leap day

on this festive of holidays, i was going to try to find lots of fun facts about leap years and leap days to share with you - but alas, leap day is not much more interesting than the facts you learned in 3rd grade. we get it every four years because a year is actually 356.245 days - and since it's not exactly 365.25 days, every 400 years skips the leap day.

it's also folklore that women can only propose marriage in leap years (as initiated by st. patrick). and some queen back in the day created legal fines for men who did not accept the proposals. and then the greeks believe that it is bad luck to marry in a leap year...good thing i'm irish/german.

so, the very fun part of this leap day is that my sister-in-law is in labor and might have her very own leapling! i'm hoping this baby comes before midnight tonight.

i also read that if you have an annual salary, you aren't actually paid for leap day...i'm not sure if that's true or not, but either way, i'm going to slack off a bit extra today at work just in case. i'm not working if they aren't paying.

hope you are having a happy leap day - if you live in stl, it looks like a spring-ish weekend is in store so enjoy it.

get up to speed stl

the world of tv is going digital, and my hometown is ill-prepared. apparently 19% of homes in st. louis are incapable of receiving digital signals, as compared to 10.9% across the us. are we seriously that backwoods here? don't worry, we're not dead last...just close to it.

this transition to digital, along with the introduction of hd, is the first time in my life that i've truly felt behind the times in technology. i find all of the tv lingo and specifications very confusing, and i'm not very interesting in learning them either. i now know what my grandparents felt like when people told them they had to have a computer at home. if i feel this way at 25, it's going to be a long road for me to figure out what the hell i'm doing.

in other news, the final 24 have been chosen for ai. man, is it going to be a great year. i have 14 weeks of singing and voting to look forward to. if that's not good news, i don't know what is.

a few things that i think you should know about

i have had the privilege of being exposed to a few new fun things this week - that I'd like to share with you. you can choose to like them or not, and i will continue to like them myself.

1. pandora.com

if you listen to music, and like music and hope to keep finding music to like that isn't the same 5 songs you have liked since you were 18 (this was kind of me before finding pandora) - you HAVE to get on pandora. basically you can enter in any song or singer that you like, and it will identify a never-ending playlist that resembles it. the "music genome project" basically assigns a DNA code to just about any song, and will find songs like it for you to listen. the best part? it's free.

2. gladys hardy

this was going to be a lot cooler - but i can't embed youtube today...perhaps i shouldn't be doing this from work. anyways - it's funny, so watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuT0Zf3kJX0

that's all for today, have to do some actual work now. i'll be preparing for my marriage, babysitting and doing laundry all weekend. man am i boring.

oh geez...

so my good friend kirby informed me that i'm a blog-slacker, and that i have ended a record-breaking monthly blogging streak for 15 months with my recent state of hiatus. what a shame...i was hoping to win some kind of record for this. damn.

well anyways - my life since last post has been filled with lots of business and craziness: working like a fool, planning my wedding, and watching american idol. all the important things in life.

speaking of american idol, i think the novelty of the "bad karoake on tv" has finally worn off. fox is trying to hang on, but they've even shifted the shows since the beginning of this season. they are showing more good people, less cheesy back stories...and i like it. actually, i'd be fine if they started the whole season with hollywood.

in other news - there's a presidential race going on. did you hear? well, if you haven't, i'll give you a quick recap. for the dems, black man v. white woman: the showdown. for the gop, old v. mormon: gauntlet. i think mccain is a standup guy - but MAN is he old. if he were to take office, he would be our oldest pres at 72. maybe he should just retire and play bocce instead.

and speaking of old presidents...i wondered if mccain would actually be the oldest president, and it's true (according to wikipedia at least). so i wondered, who is the oldest president now? that would be reagan. and the youngest? you're thinking jfk, right? WRONG. crazy, i know...but look it up. i'm not telling you - you'll have to do the research yourself. keep your mind active, you know.

so friends - this has been a quite terrible blog, but i have to call a few printers about wedding invitations, so i'm signing off. enjoy your mardi gras/superbowl weekend...if you were hit by the snowstorm of the century, make a snow angel. actually, build an igloo and watch the superbowl in it. that would be awesome.

see you next week.

ps. it's theodore roosevelt. i felt bad not telling you.