Idiot News of the Day

From CNN: Group's new ad features beauty queen, celebrity blogger

My favorite part of the article:

Brown also said Tuesday that the group is concerned that people of faith who oppose same-sex marriage are being cast as bigots in much the same that people who opposed racial integration were during the civil rights movements of the 1950's and 1960's.

Um, hello? People who opposed racial integration in the 50's and 60's WERE BIGOTS. And so are you. And the bigots lost then, and so will you. Just in case you didn't see it, here is another somewhat-related article: GOP set to launch rebranding effort

Methinks it will be hard to rebrand when Republicans continue to be intolerant of minorities.

Anyways, just sayin!

A note about sunburns...

So as I mentioned in my Mutt Strutt blog, I got burned like hellllllllllll. Like a flaming lobster. Exhibit A:
This is me in Chicago with a baby burn. It started to fade...and then...Mutt Strutt:

Yikes I know. It hurts just as bad as it looks. But please, please, please....refrain from saying the following comments:

"OMG, what happened???"

Oh this? Um, I decided to airbrush myself to look like I was permanently wearing a white tank top.

"Geez! Have you ever heard of SUNSCREEN???"

What? What is that? Some revolutionary new product??? Must make mental note...study chemical properties...find out if it works.

These are the two things I heard ALL DAY on Monday. CLEARLY I got burned because I FORGOT to use sunscreen. Not the best move I KNOW. I just wanted to choke someone by the end of the day. Now I know how my sister felt during pre-election. Everyone thought they were so witty when they would call her "Hilary (Hillary) Clinton." She was always like "LIKE I'VE NEVER HEARD THAT ONE BEFORE..."

On the other hand...if you are an attention whore I would highly suggest this tactic. It hurts, but damn you get some serious attention.

Mutt Strutt!

After our whirlwind trip to Chicago we participated in Mutt Strutt. I had wanted to do it last year but I wasn't really interested in doing it alone and I didn't really have anyone to go with. This is the advantage of having a partner, especially one with similar interests as you!

So every year the Humane Society of Indianapolis holds a fundraiser called Mutt Strutt, where they let you walk your dog at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and have all sorts of goodies and fun stuff too. All the money raised goes to help support the animals at the Humane Society.

So we didn't realize that the event was a big deal. We thought it would be casual and yes lots of people but not LOTS of people. We got to Speedway and realized that traffic was out of control so we parked outside of the IMS on Main Street and walked into the Speedway thinking registration would be right where everyone was entering the track. Um, wrong. Turns out, registration was at the very back of the track opposite from where we entered. Probably a good mile from where we parked. So we walked all the way to the back, checked in, got our shirts and wandered the booths a bit before we decided to start the walk.

Here we are at the start of the walk. Sam was already ready to call it quits. Caramel was spazzing about everything. She gets overwhelmed easily.


Our family photo minus Daisy, Duke, and Stone. 5 dogs is way too many to bring to a walk with only two mommies.


Me with the iconic pole with the 33 race places listed on it. Caramel was still spazzing. It was around this point that we realized that you couldn't get off the track except for where the walk started/finished. So there went our plan to take a short cut back to the car. And the great idea to forget sunscreen.


Sam took every opportunity to rest that he could. He considered it a bonus if there was water on the ground. Kind of like the beach!


We took a break about halfway around SINCE WE COULDN'T EXIT THE TRACK so the doggies didn't get too tired. Caramel decided she was afraid of grass that day so she would only sit on my lap. It was 85 degrees by the way.


It was about this point that we realized the fatal error of no sunscreen coupled with must complete entire track walk. Red ladies we were.

5 miles later we were back in the car on the way home with two little dogs that were tired as hell. They passed out cold and slept the rest of the day. Must remember that next time their exuberance is too much to bear.

Notes for next year: Bring sunscreen and water bottles. Possibly a backpack for all the swag. Definitely park INSIDE the IMS...traffic be damned!

Chicago: Outakes of Silly Girls

Did I ever mention that one of the things I love best about Ange is that she is a crazy wackadoodle just like me? If not, I'm telling you now. Crazy Crazbo. So of course you can only imagine when the two of us are together what kind of shennanigans we get into. Here are just a few examples from the trip:

Ange was scraping the skyscraper book in the Sears Tower gift shop...

I got attacked by a wild monkey in the Sears Tower...

Ange discovered that Chinese people have small heads while modeling a hat in Chinatown...

I love Wolverine! Here I am doing my best Wolverine impression...


Always time to stop and sniff the flowers...check out the nostril flarage!

I was zooming up the escalator. Look at my wings! So fast!

I wrote earlier on my previous blog (on MySpace) about how Ange is trying to teach herself Braille at work when she's bored. So far she's mastered "Women's Bathroom." Here she is showing off her skills in the Sears Tower:

Um, who doesn't like Jazz Hands at the Sears Tower?

Finally, Chicago isn't called the Windy City for no reason. It was windy as hell on Saturday. Here is Ange posing in the wind:

Ahahaha. We're so silly!

Last Stop in Chicago: Chinatown

So after we checked out of our swank hotel and collected our car from the expensive as hell valet, we decided that the perfect stop on the way out of town was Chinatown! Chinatown is right off of the interstate and has reasonable parking. It's also very compact so it makes it a quick and easy stop where you can get a lot of stuff done.

What does that say???


In love in front of the Chinatown Gate:


After doing some souvenir shopping, we randomly picked a place for lunch. The dim sum was great, the rest...not so much. However, love was following us everywhere as evidenced by this little heart shaped onion.

And sadly, that was the end of our trip. It was a whirlwind weekend packed with so much fun! We are already planning our next trip. Good thing Chi-town is only 3 hours away from Indy! Here we are...so sad to be leaving.

Chicago: Girlyman & The L

So the whole purpose we were in Chicago was to go to the Girlyman concert. It was a good concert. Ange looooooves them. I was not familiar until I met her and I can say that I like them. I'm not a fanatic like her, but I can definitely rock out to them. They were especially cute in concert. We didn't take any pictures there sadly so you'll just have to visualize it. Here's a picture if it helps...The most exciting part of the Girlyman concert was that we traveled to the show by taking the L. Ange was like a little kid excited to go on her first ride! She was so cute. She even took some pics just of the L. Here it is zooming by:



Here is me on the train:


And here is Ange on the train:


By the way...we had to take this pic like 85 times. My girlfriend is just as vain as me. She might look "butch" but she's actually more girly than me at most times. How's that for stereotypes?

Hop-On Hop-Off Tour: Sears Tower

So one of the spots on the tour was the Sears Tower. We both knew we really wanted to do the tour to the top because neither of us ever had. So we actually got a bargain by buying our SkyDeck Tour Tickets in conjunction with our Trolley Tour tickets. However, events beyond our control plus a general underestimate of time did not allow us to actually do the tour in conjunction with our trolley tour. So we actually had to go back the next day to do it. The downside is that the weather was much crappier on Saturday (rain was looming) but the upside is that we didn't delay our arrival to the concert on Friday night and we missed the crowds early Saturday morning.


Also sad was that the 103rd floor (the regular tour destination) was closed for maintenance so instead we had to visit the back on the 99th floor. I doubt it made a serious difference.


The view from the 99th floor! I don't know what direction this is, but whatever.


We also got a peek out of a telescope. It was pretty cool...would have been better if it were sunny but what can you do.


Of course, we couldn't be there and not be silly. So we had to get some pics with President Obama.


I highly recommend the Sears Tower. It was only $11 with the purchase of our trolley tickets. I think it was regularly $16. Totally worth it. Great views, cool experience. Shoot for a sunny day if possible.

Hop-On Hop-Off Tour: Random Shots from the Trolley

Like I mentioned, there are 13 stops you can get on or off on the tour. We only ended up visiting 3 of the spots but we did drive by almost all of them so we got to at least see everything on the tour and hear about them via the tour guides. We also got some nice pictures.

The first stop of the tour at the point that we got on the bus was actually the Art Institute. I've been here a million and one times so we didn't really do anything with it other than take a picture.

Um, just more love. And I like this picture. Sun can do that to you. And a really strong and loving relationship.


Foots! Actually it was legs. But we love to say foots (inside joke on that one). The art piece is actually a really cool sculpture exhibit by Magdalena Abakanowicz called Agora. It's 106 iron leg sculptures in Grant Park.


The Chicago River is a focal point of the city. The tour goes over and around it about a million times. We were lucky to pass right by the Centennial Fountain. It sprays for 10 minutes at the top of every hour. It was lovely.

We drove by the Field Museum (Natural History) which was pretty cool. They had a special exhibit on pirates...to which I can only say ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

We also drove by Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium. They sit right on the water. Wish we would have had time to explore them. Guess we'll just have to visit again real soon!

Lots of lovely outdoor places in Chicago. This is Buckingham Fountain which is in the park where Obama gave his victory speech on Election Day!

At one point they made us switch from the lovely trolley we were riding on to this hot musty double decker bus. Sadly the top was full so we had to sit in the yucky downstairs. Luckily we were getting off at the next stop so we didn't have to stay too long. And luckily one of the most fantastically awful mullets in the world was sitting in front of us. And luckily my girlfriend is super sneaky with the camera and took a picture of it!


Next stop was the Wrigley Building and Chicago Tribune. There is a giant American Gothic sculpture in the plaza where the stop was. It was even creepier than the actual paining. I felt like old lady was about to come alive and grab the pitchfork and stab me. Thankfully it was a short-ish stop.

There are lots of bridges in Chicago, so several times during the tour our tour guide would say "Stay sitting or you might lose your head!" or something crafty. It was pretty close but we left with all the body parts we left with!

Hop-On Hop-Off Tour: Navy Pier Stop

So on the hop-on hop-off tour it works exactly as it says. You can get off at any stop you want (I think there were 13 stops) and could get back on the next bus when you were done. So the next stop that we actually got off on was at Navy Pier. There were many stops in-between but we didn't have all day (sadly) so we had to be very selective. (Side Note: If you ever go to Chicago and plan on doing this, I would plan this for an entire day. The website says that the tour takes 2 hours, but I think even if you never got off it would take longer than that. We didn't even do the full tour and only got off twice and we were on there for over 3 hours.)

Navy Pier was pretty cool, although we didn't do much in terms of specific events. When we first got off the bus the first thing we saw was this long sea wall that had a bazillion birds on it. This was just an hour or so after the bird crapped on her so not only were we grossed out anyway but we had to give the birds dirty looks for the actions of their cousin.


Navy Pier is famous/visually known for the giant Ferris Wheel. You can see it from miles away.

When we were in Tennessee for Ange's birthday she really wanted to ride this ski lift thing, but because I'm a wuss I wouldn't go. Then later I felt bad so I thought I should have sucked it up. So I tried to get her to go on the Ferris Wheel as a consolation prize. So I walked all the way up there to see how much it was then came down cause Ange was then being stubborn and not going up. She tried to say that she didn't really care but I'm not so sure. She knows I'm terrified of being suspended in the air with just a few cables that may come crashing down and kill me, so I think that was more of it than actually not caring if she went. But here is me trying to convince her to come up and we could go. But we didn't.


We wanted a picture of us posing by the water on the glorious day so we finally broke down and asked some lady who was chillaxin by the water.


It seemed to be a recurring theme throughout our trip that we could never find any food or drink whenever we wanted/needed them. We walked down one side of the pier and then decided we'd get something quick to eat on the other side...well there is nothing on the other side of the pier except a nice walking path and views of the city. We spent so much time messing around that we ended up not eating at the pier because we were concerned with time. We ended up starving and parched until we got back off the bus at our hotel because of a fire at the Sears Tower (more on that later). But we did get some nice views of the city!

On next hop we went mostly sight-seeing on the bus, but this time we got some primo seats on the top of the double-decker so we used that chance to snap a pic of us being all lovey-dovey in Chicago!

Hop-On Hop-Off Tour: Millennium Park Stop

So while we were looking for things to do/explore in Chicago, my lovely came across the Chicago Trolley Company and saw that they had these wonderful Hop-On Hop-Off tours that take you all over Chicago and hit most of the highlights. We booked our tour for Friday and set off shortly after we checked into our hotel.

The first stop was Millennium Park. We walked around and explored the park. It was quite lovely. Lots of green space, cool architecture, a huge concert area, and nice walkways. Some of the highlights included:

Cloud Gate aka "the bean". Super cool shiny sculpture.

My lovely in front of the bean. You can see me in the background!

Inside the bean looking up.

My love in front of the concert pavilion.

My silly girlfriend impersonating a T-Rex. She's so fierce.

Perhaps the weirdest part of the park...a Chinese exhibit featuring a giant red pig eating another golden pig and two people...

The weirdest part was the level of detail dedicated to the anus and vaginal opening of the pig. Click for detailed image.

Sadly, on the way out of the park, my poor baby got pooped on by a bird!

Damn bird!