Belinda's Baby Girl

Belinda's daughter was finally born today. I drove her to the hospital this morning at 7am and Avery Elizabeth Potter was born at 5pm on the dot. She was 6 pounds, 9 ounces and 20.5 inches long. She's a healthy little girl and I got to see her tonight. Here are all the pictures I took while there. She slept almost the whole time, which I thank her for.

Excited!!













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Toby's Not a Grumpy Old Man

Belinda is horribly mistaken about her dog, Toby. He's not a grumpy old man. He needs a puppy in his life. Look at how much fun they are having!

It's not really that bad having four dogs in the house. I wouldn't mind it if I became the crazy old dog lady. It's actually pretty entertaining.

Although, someone told me that over the course of their lifetime dogs cost, on average, $36,000. Somehow I think Remy costs way less than that and River will cost way more.

I found a muzzle for River. We're working together to make sure that she thinks the muzzle is the best thing in the entire world and means that she's getting treats. Not sure how it's all going to pan out and I still have some reservations about keeping her in it all day, however I can't think of a better solution. I know that if I spend $150 on a new plastic-type kennel, she'll undoubtedly be able to get out of that one, too. (Her sister, Scout can get out of hers like that.) And she will probably hurt her nose doing so.

So, we'll see how this works.

She didn't eat anything in the house on Friday. Not that it's improvement, but... a mini miracle. Maybe my two doggy guests kept her entertained. I'm beginning to think it's not so much separation anxiety but boredom.

We shall see... the thrills continue.

I just realized that if you're not following my pictures on Twitter, you likely didn't see what she did on Wednesday. So, I shall leave you with this, my moment of anti-zen.


Her toys were under the couch and I think she tried to go through it since she couldn't reach them. She's too smart for me. I put pillows under the couch so nothing else can get under there... and so it continues.


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PS, the fenced in yard is fabulous! I love it so much. Thanks for all your hard work Mom and Dad.

Our Own Amusement

There is a room in the lab called the wet lab where crime scene techs package all their stuff. In this room, there is a vault where they keep things until they're logged into property. This vault has a door with a little window.

On the door there was a sign that stated “Loaded Gun on Shelf!!!” (Yes, 3 exclamation points)

So, I screamed the note out loud to Belinda, who was in the wet lab with me, with enthusiasm, like it was intended to be read. Then, being naturally curious, I looked in the window to the vault. On the shelf in the lab there was another note, “Loaded gun” and on that shelf there was a box (presumably containing said gun, which, by the way, I’ve inferred was loaded) and written on that box was “loaded”.

I told Belinda I wanted to go outside of the wet lab to put up a sign, “Loaded Gun on Shelf in Vault!!!!”

To which she countered that she wanted to go outside of the building and make a note, “Loaded Gun on Shelf in Vault in Wet Lab!!!!!”

We just found it ridiculous how many times it said there was a loaded gun, as if the gun being loaded is somehow remarkably dangerous if it’s sitting on a shelf. Like they just go off by themselves or they’re extremely flammable or volatile or something. Plus, it was the end of the day and I was with Belinda and we make each other laugh. And I may have been dancing around and making wild hand gestures about the loaded gun on the shelf in the vault in the wet lab.

I texted Belinda like 3 or 4 times last night telling her there was a loaded gun on the shelf in vault in the wet lab. It was hilarious.

And thus, it will always make me laugh.

Good story.


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Pub Crawl for Cancer

Saturday a group of us participated in the Pub Crawl for Cancer in Westport. It is an insane event that must raise a ton of money based on the number of people that were there. And it turns out it's an excuse to be completely ridiculous and offensive in public and people will cheer for you as they pass.

Let me explain.

The group that I was with was a bunch of college frat friends of Daniel/Alex/Tom, and then my friends who joined their group. There were over 20 of us. Their group dressed up based on an SNL skit/music video "I'm on a Boat". (See below. If you don't already know about this, you have to watch it to understand these pictures. I had not seen it before Saturday, so the joke was completely lost on me. It was sad. I think this means that I am old.)



Because we didn't know what the theme was on the other half of the team, and we were encouraged to "dress silly" by the team captain, we decided to take our fake mustaches out in public again. They were also a huge hit. I get more compliments when I wear a mustache than at any other time... ever... in my entire life. Scratch that - you get just as many compliments in a fake mustache as you do when you're wearing a bridesmaid's dress. I know which I'd rather, but as long as the end result in these costumes is getting drunk, it doesn't really matter much. Right?

I think that is all the background story you need. Enjoy photos from the pub crawl.

Howdy!

Team captain, Alex in his ascot. Classy.

Only Brenda and I managed to keep our 'staches the whole day. This is the free after party. Trust me, there were way more people there than it looks.


He'll probably kill me for catching this photo at such a perfect time and putting it up on my blog. All the guys felt the need to rip each other's sleeves off. I'm sure it has something to do with being a boy, so I'll never understand.



I have no recollection of this. I don't know what they are doing. Maybe it was when I went to the bathroom because I didn't think I was so drunk that I wouldn't remember...


Messy much? She puts ketchup on her ketchup.

Brilliant! Best photo of the day.

Hungry found us and followed us around all day. We said he could stay as long as he wore a mustache, too.

If you don't know who hungry is... (Is this a lesson in pop culture or what?)

I think Ashley's hungry...

Hungry for beer!

And Tom's hungry for Hungry.

This little dude was obviously too fun.

And this, folks, was how our group walked through the streets of Westport. We had a boombox that continuously played the SNL song. We were on a boat!

There was a buoy. His back read "No Wake Zone". He would stop traffic in the middle of the street. It was amazing we didn't get hit by a car or arrested in the streets. You can kinda see T-Pain behind him.


Colleen somehow convinced the people working the burger line to let her flip the burgers. It's amazing what being appropriately dressed will get you. The back of her shirt also stated "I Flip The Burgers"

I can't tell you how many strangers on the street asked ME how this was possible. I would shake my head and say that I wasn't sure, but I did know that she gave him crabs.

It was a pretty awesome day. I'd totally do it again. Nothing like getting cirrhosis to cure cancer. It's worth it though.


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Everyone's Doing It

Even Belinda is in on the puppy picture spam!

http://everyoneelsehadone.blogspot.com/2009/04/free-labor.html

Everyone loves her. It's impossible not to... I mean - look!

'Nough said.


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Retro Flashback: Thanksgiving 2008

I once said that I was working on getting up some videos of the Economic Stimulus Package Thanksgiving Road Trip Spectacular. Well, truth is, I forgot about it for quite a while until Brenda asked me why they haven't been put up yet. I was planning on putting together all the videos into one like I did with my Texas Road Trip, but it appears that this is not going to happen since I haven't done it yet. So, I've decided on giving you the highlights in chronological order, as uploaded to Blogger. This took forever, the autosave kept failing, and my 'connection to blogger' kept getting 'lost'. So, you better like it for all the frustration it caused. No wonder I hadn't done this before now...

The first thing I learned was that all you have to do is point a camera at Brenda and she will perform like a monkey without any prompting. Here we are stopped at a gas station to fill up and have dinner. It is very cold. Very. Very very. And as you will see, we're not wearing coats because we are geniuses.

I just got back in the car after running Remy around outside so that she would do her thing, which is why I am breathing so heavily, and why I am so cold and glad to be in the car.

We spent the night at a La Quinta in Indianapolis and got on the road again after a few hours of sleep. Brenda drove from Indianapolis until right before the Pennsylvania boarder, where I took over. Right after that happened, there was a wreck on I-70 and we got stuck in traffic... forever. Here I am, thrilled about the situation. As soon as we made it to the next exit, like an hour later, I took it and trusted Garmin to find our way back to civilization. I believe that we detoured through Washington, PA, home of Washington and Jefferson College, which I think we may have drove by. There were very dark and twisty roads. I do not recommend going to this town when it's this icy out.

After the detour, the driver's side windshield washer fluid sprayer froze up and stopped working. Why is it that you can always see better out of the passenger side of the windshield than the driver's side? After a few terrifying minutes of driving while unable to see because there was salt all over my window, I finally found a place to pull over and try to remedy the problem. You'll see here that I do not manage to get the driver's windshield washer fluid sprayer to work, but it started to dry up outside and the window wasn't nearly as bad after that. Although, for a while I did think that I may have to time travel back to high school and spray a Windex bottle out of my window like I used to in the Mustang. (I had one on hand, just in case.) Days later it finally warmed up and I haven't had this problem since.

Also, we've reached Pennsylvania, home of Tasteykakes.

The reason for this trip was ultimately to go to the Madonna concert in Atlantic City. I drove to Atlantic City and saw her limousine on the way there. Here is the video proof.

I like musicals and when the drive was getting long, we usually opted to put something in that we could all sing along to. Wicked was one of my favorites, and a fun song to sing was What is This Feeling? Funny thing, I accidentally replaced Galinda's name with Belinda's name once and thereafter, anytime that song came on, it was about Belinda. This camera angle is from the dash just so you could enjoy the dash dirt and dash dog hair and the Garmin being all awesomely in the way.

I had a really hard time switching my camera between video and pictures. A really hard time. In fact, I have several videos just like this one (or shorter). But you're only getting to see this one. I can hear your "thank yous" already.

It was always fun to piss off Garmin or sit idly by as he went completely insane. This joy may only be appreciated by those in the car with him for four days... recalculating!

Brenda apparently loves Diet Coke. I don't even know why she was doing this. There was no reason. This is Brenda. If you have ever wondered exactly what her personality is, or what she is thinking, or how she behaves... This is the epitome of Brenda. Now you understand why we are such good friends.

This is also very Brenda-esque. Do not judge her. Spice up your life.

I was pretty excited about the time changes. Phones are super smart. Do not judge me.

I talked repeatedly about doing a Chinese Fire Drill (I know, but there is no politically correct term for this, and if the Chinese are going to get mad at me, they already did for my Summer Olympics blogs) the entire time we were on the trip. So, when we were nearly home, we decided that we better do it or be forever regretful. I thought it best to have the jumpy video of me running around the car instead of a stationary camera on the interior. Just so you know, the reason I am screaming as soon as I get out of the car and the reason I cannot stop laughing is because when I got out, I jumped in a giant puddle that made water cover my entire shoe. And it was very cold.

Surprise, it snowed again... and though I didn't have problems with my windshield washer fluid sprayer this time, my driver's side windshield wiper just about fell off my car. Man, those things are awfully tricky to get back on. Okay, they're impossible. The only reason I have a windshield wiper on my car is because Brenda played the hero.

So, those were the main highlights of the trip. I hope you can see why I agreed to drive instead of fly for this. It was really a pretty fun vacation all around. I thank my traveling companions for so much fun.


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Halloween 2008

I found the perfect costume. It didn't require a lot of work, effort, or time to put together, and it was probably the most comfortable I've ever been in costume on Halloween. There were several other costumes Friday night that also looked very comfortable, but I was the only one not wearing pants. Because I was Tom Cruise in Risky Business... or anyone in a Guitar Hero commercial. And I was very pleased about the no pants thing. I'm pretty sure it's all I talked about. (I also bought men's underwear for this because you can't do this costume without them.)

Beth was turned into a zombie before the big dance and gnawed on her boyfriend Steve's arm all night. She was pretty fabulous posing for pictures.

She attacked people all night, until the most frightening costume of all arrived and kicked her butt. Her name was Sarah Palin, but I called her Tina all night.

We also had Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus show up together. I was waiting for Clark Kent and Superman to do the same, but they never did.

Battlestar Galactica also had some crew members in appearance: Starbuck (Dany) and Boomer (Brenda). These ladies actually put effort into their costumes, so kudos to them. They were pretty awesome. Brenda shot you if you tried to shake her hand. Even Steve got shot.

Alex had another comfy costume, although he had to be hot because I wasn't... and I didn't have on pants. In case you missed that part.

Comfy costume number three was actually one of my favorites. The only thing that would have made Waldo better was if Tom had made it his personal mission to get in every single picture.

Also, Zorro was there. I'm pretty sure Carolyn thought she was Dracula though because she kept posing with her cape all night like she was a vampire.

The Prom Queen of 1992 was also murdered, but came to the party anyway. I think Belinda, Beth, and Paul were the only ones with fake blood all over them. They were pretty cool.

Suppose the doctor can save Beth?

Carolyn's brother Bobby and Cherylann came as military and we had a fun trip to the army supply store to get their costumes. Sadly, I couldn't get them to buy a hand granade.

This is stewardess Linda. Her name tag said something about the Mile High Club because she's awesome like that.

Ashley and Daniel were both farmer types in overalls or flannel and fun hats. Not that Dan is in his here.

Candra came in the most ridiculous outfit of all - a designated driver. (Dan's hat is on his knee.)

And somehow I ended up with Belinda's prom queen crown. I think it looks good on Tom Cruise, don't you? Man, that popped collar is so awesome. As are my super white legs.

And Steve ended the night passed out in the candy pot.


It was a super great night and I had a lot of fun. I love the annual Anderson Halloween Bash.

Also, this took me forever to post because I got a new 16GB memory card for my digital camera and my computer couldn't read it even after I updated all my drivers and card readers. My camera had no problems with the card, but my computer's mind exploded because of it. I had to get a usb cable to hook my camera up to the computer to finally get the pictures off, and even that didn't go very smoothly. But I got them. Finally. And now I am able to share them with you.

I hope they were worth the wait.

Happy Halloween, everyone!


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Slice and Dice

Here are the six pumpkins that we carved last night at Belinda's house.

Carolyn did the one on the left, Belinda the one on the right. It's clearly the creepiest of the six.

I did the one on the left, Belinda, again, the one on the right.

This is Carolyn's pirate skull, although the picture's not the greatest. It's sitting on my front porch. (The first four are at Belinda's house.)

Here is my pumpkin. I got a white one this year. They are different. They even smell different when you're cutting them up. But, since it was white, I decided to make a spider web. And I carved a spider on the back so that it'll cast an orange glowing spider on the wall behind my pumpkin, like it's coming back to its web.

I had to go back and fix the spider so that you could see its legs better, but I think it's gonna look neat. These pictures don't show it really well.

Also, I carved the pumpkin on its side because I don't follow general pumpkin carving rules. And I am awesome.

We also picked out all the seeds and separated them. Belinda is gonna toast them. I hope I get some.


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Escape from Certain Death

It was really nice out yesterday when I got home from work. Kinda cool, but not cold, and sunny. I thought that it was prefect weather to cut my lawn and hoped that it might be the last time this season. The grass was kinda high and ugly and had gone to seed, and as I was mowing, like 5 other people in the neighborhood had the same idea.

I finished the front yard and was hoping that I had enough gas to finish the back, but only a few passes into the backyard and the mower died. So, I went to the gas station and got some more, came back, and continued mowing.

When I had about 1/3 of the back yard yet to finish, I was trying to get this really big weed along the fence out of the ground, and I felt this sharp pain on my right hip. I thought maybe something small shot out of the mower and hit me, even though it would have been a ridiculous angle to do so. Then I felt another sharp pain on my left ankle. My next thought was that there was some sort of thorn or something that I had picked up while trying to tame the jungle along my side fence. I looked at my ankle and didn't see anything hostile.

My hip was still hurting though, so I looked at it again and rubbed it. As I did, I saw a yellowjacket, pulled my hand back, and let's not sugar coat it... I panicked. I know that yellowjackets are evil, so I was scared. The devil's minion was out to get me. I know this because yellowjackets 1) are evil, 2) can sting more than once, 3) release pheromones calling their buddies to attack you as well, and 4) I wasn't sure if I was allergic to them or not. I've only been stung one other time by a giant wasp in high school, and I know that sometimes you don't develop allergies until after you've been stung.

This picture is so creepy!

So, I felt that panicking was an appropriate reaction. All of those things ran through my mind in a split second and I knew I had to get out of there or face the wrath of 9 million other angry yellowjackets.

So, because I'm smart, I had left the back door locked, and therefore had to sprint all the way around my house to the front door. I was flailing my arms and hoping that the yellowjacket I saw was not tangled up in the shirt I was wearing, and 9 million other yellowjackets were not following me. (I've seen My Girl, I know how this could end.) I got inside and headed to the bathroom to assess the damage. I'd been stung through my clothing.

I looked at my hip and ankle and saw them starting to swell around the sting sites. I was on my way to get some ice when I realized that I had spots on my inner thighs that were also very painful. Was I stung more than twice outside? Did I just get stung again?

You thought I panicked before!

The first thought I had was, "There's a yellowjacket inside my shorts!" I immediately ripped them from my body, along with my underwear (because who the hell knows where the yellowjacket is!) and threw them across the floor. Remy was excited by my actions and I said to her, "I'm so scared of my pants!" It was kind of pathetic, but in retrospect funny, so I thought I would share.

I ran into my room and put new underwear on, because I didn't want to run around my house with bee stings AND no underwear. It's one or the other - not both. You just can't do both. Plus, if I was about to go to the hospital because of anaphylactic shock, at least they would be clean.

Then, avoiding my pants of death which likely contained a living yellowjacket, I got some ice and tended to the swelling. In all, I managed to get five - count them, FIVE - bee stings. Luckily about this time, Carolyn called me, and foregoing whatever it was that she wanted to talk about, I asked her to be the best person in the world and go buy and bring me Benadryl so that I wouldn't die. She kindly obliged. I suppose that's bad timing on her part, eh? "Oh, and, while you're out doing that, could you pick up a gallon of milk for me?" (I was planning on going out for one later, but I knew this had pretty much done me in for the night.)

She also bought me a box of cereal to go with my milk, which I didn't ask for. It was kind of her, except for the fact that she obviously just did it to MOCK me. The cereal she bought was Honey Nut Cheerios.


She bought me BEE cereal! I could have been dying while waiting on her Benadryl delivery!

She claims that it was unintentional, which is sad because it's probably the most hilarious thing anyone has ever done to me. So, I had cereal for dinner, which was nice because I didn't have to cook or worry about what to eat at all. And... really... hil-aaaa-rious!

Meanwhile, I'm still afraid of my pants of death and to finish mowing the last of my yard.

It didn't help that Belinda told me a story about her dogs being attacked by yellowjackets who had an underground nest in her old yard.

Even covering everything and then mowing isn't a good idea because it stung me through my clothes! Or, quite possibly was somehow inside them. I'm still not sure how it happened.

The Benadryl knocked me out though (I took only one) and I slept from 8:30pm to 7:00am. And even though it was ten and a half hours of sleep, it was drug induced and I didn't really feel that well rested this morning.

The added bonus is that the stings still hurt a wee bit and now have become super itchy.

Bee venom, I hate you... Yellowjackets, I hate you more. I always thought people that ran away from them were crazy, that if you didn't bother them, they wouldn't hurt you. I have a sneaking suspicion I'm going to turn into one of "those" people after this.

Five times!!


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