When you live in an apartment builiding with at least 5 other folks...

Realizing that you are the only ones home on a Friday is pretty much the best thing ever.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

Won't you be my neighbor?

Thanks, Google Maps Street View!




Via: stlstreets

BTW - it appears the Google car hasn't made it to my neck of the woods yet, for some reason, the stretch of densely populated neighborhoods down the central corridor and North of I-44 haven't really been mapped yet. I'm sure it'll happen soon enough.

Blogger?

Not that I blog enough to truly have a case, but I am not so sure I really like blogger. I don't think it's very mac friendly, for one, and I hate how if I email I post to the blog it looks like one thing and if I actually come to the blogger site to post, it looks like another. Any opinions?

(for the record, this was done at blogger's site. The two posts below were emailed).

Taking Pizza Very Seriously

As it should be, I suppose, since I consider pizza to be one of God's greatest gifts to humanity.

Now if I could just find an oven that I could cook said pizzas in without my apartment turning into a blazing hot mess, I'd be in business. Maybe it's time for a trip to Katie's (once I get over my absurd broke-ness, that is). If you haven't been, go. Or get take-away if you don't have a lot of patience for slightly sketchy service (what can you expect though from a baby of a restaurant run by a girl MY AGE, holy crap. I have a hard enough time making scrambled eggs in less than 15 minutes, but that's another story!).

I'm in absolute LOVE with this house

This amazing house has totally caught my eye. What a super cool way to live! I love the fact that it's really tiny but in the middle of big houses and busy streets and I'm in love the idea of keeping the blinds up. I find that this is a way Americans are just crazy. I mean, I'm not gonna walk around half-dressed in front of my windows and not give a damn, but the idea of living all the time with the blinds pulled down really doesn't make sense. What are you hiding from? Is the rest of the world really that bad? One of my favorite things to do in Chicago is to stare into all the apartments you pass while riding the El. Just for a split second you can realize that even among millions of anonymous people in a bustling city, we all have a lot more in common that we'd admit. And that's a good thing.

Summer thoughts

It's absolutely here with a vengeance as all of you St. Louisans might realize. With every ferocious crack of lightning from our all-too-frequent thunderstorms, the past few weeks have meant that heat waves, humidity curls (in my hair), and AC breezes will be accompanying us for the next several months.

As such, I've decided already that:

1. Next time the ice cream man rolls down my street playing it's super-happy song, I'm in. Better gather some dollar bills so I can be ready at the first sounds of "it's a small world" tinkling down the block.

2. I had better start doing multiple sets of sit ups and push ups (girly style of course!) and yoga DVDs, or else! I quit the Y (WAY too big of a drain on the finances lately) and have a trip to Lake Michigan, and therefore a swimsuit, in my relatively near future. Also, I do need to fit into last year's sad selection of shorts and tank tops.

3. I'm pasty, I will always be pasty, and I should probably start embracing it. Though doing something other than laundry, cleaning, or aimless web-surfing catch-up on Saturdays (aka going OUTDOORS) would help.

4. Wait - do I have to wear a swimsuit this summer?? Oh man! I better start the search. It's never fun and like 99% of women, it's absurdly awful for the ol' self esteem. Crossing my fingers I can find something that's a good fit but NOT $100+. Wait, is the 1-piece back in style?!

I can't say that summer is my favorite season...it's somewhat tiring because it tends to be super busy, which is counter-intuitive because you'd think that it was all about relaxing and stuff. But it turns out that it's just when everyone makes tons of plans in the spirit of kicking back and taking it easy and next thing you know you find yourself barely holding your head up after the third cup of coffee on Monday morning wondering if you really needed to eat those three servings of potato salad, two brownies, a hot dog AND a hamburger on top of the mini keg of Bell's Oberon you and your friends took care of in no time. Then you do it again the next weekend.

Oh - and as a tribute to one of my hockey-obsessed readers: NOW it's officially summer, because the Stanley Cup has been handed over to the Red Wings for a victory tour and this winter sport's season has come to a close.