People I’m Impressed With:
JMo has been promoted to an Inside Sales position at work.
Jamie has been promoted to something fancy-pants at his work but he has to move to Cleveland!
My cousin Sara and her friend Jewlee performed at open mic night last night and landed an actual paid gig in the process! See them August 12 at the Rumba Cafe!
Ellen had another 4.0 quarter at CSCC.

Up and Coming:
Fourth of July weekend will be busy and packed with family. Can’t wait to see Miss Persephone on Friday, not to mention her parents, who are bringing her in from St. Louis.
Saturday is the historic tour of homes and balloon festival in Ashland.
I should know by next week if I’ve gotten into Capital’s MBA program for a Fall start.
Haircut tomorrow!
A trip to Boston with Mom next weekend.

The GMAT sucked but it’s over. The roof leaked and the basement flooded with sewage, so that was delightful. Ellen cleaned it up, which was even more delightful. June was a roller coaster of a month at home and at work and July is shaping up to be more of the same in terms of schedule insanity. If school does start for me in September I can only imagine how much nuttier things will be. I hope I’m ready for that.

I’m feeling a bit old and busted these days, and it doesn’t help that I look like the shaggy dog with an unfortunate stress-induced acne outbreak. Consequently, I keep talking about things like, “going completely blond!” and “Getting a tattoo on my forearm. Last night, Ellen shook her head and said, no, you don’t want to go blond, it’s messy and painful and you won’t like it, concentrate on the tattoo.” I yelled out, “BUT I NEED A CHANGE!!!”

I want to clean out the garage and set up a new recycling station. In the interest of health, money and energy I want to see if I can go several months without drinking beer. I want to get rid of all the televisions and only listen to music. I want to purge STUFF.

My head is full of all kinds of things I want to change, which probably means there is fundamentally something else going on but I’m not entirely sure what it is yet. I don’t necessarily feel discontented, just kinda cluttered and boring. WTF.

And that’s the news from the land of Mo.

I am incredibly proud of this Website. In fact, I might just be a tad obsessed with it. Apart from the fact that it is gorgeous and just plain fun, it represents something new and perhaps even a bit unexpected from a well known brand that is boldly taking a chance on an OPEN approach to the Web-made world.

This site encourages interactivity, community and exploration without overt sales pitches or tedious registration forms. And hey! If you like what you find here, we’ll give you a coupon just in case you actually get inspired to paint a room in your home the color of that amazing sunset you snapped a photo of the other day.

Color of Inspiration

Editor’s note: The site has been down for a while now but it should be back up soon. Don’t give up!

Automatic toilets: Have we really devolved so much that flushing a toilet handle is beyond us? I mean seriously. Are people not home trained anymore to such an extent that the auto flush is now standard issue in public restrooms? It’s a lever. You push it down. Easy-peasy! But no. Thanks to the laziness or ignorance or just plain nastiness of our neighbors we are all forced to endure the auto-flush in public places, which is at best, completely random and at worst, a touch sadistic–you know that toilet is calculating the exact WORST moment to flush. The doors to public restrooms should all be changed to read, “Complimentary Douche with Purchase.”

And since I’m on the subject of public toilets, let’s chat about paper seat covers. Chances are, if you’re using a paper seat cover you’re doing so in conjunction with an auto-flush toilet. Therefore, all you really have to do is turn your ass around and make sure the toilet flushed it FOR you. Few things are more disturbing than someone else’s crumpled butt paper ringing a toilet seat. We’ve taken something designed for personal hygiene and turned it into one of the most unsanitary elements in the bathroom. Flush your f-ing paper ladies. You’re nasty.

Large crowds of people who need to shower: Been to Walmart on a weekend lately? I don’t recommend it. In fact, I never recommend it, for any reason. EVER. But Sunday I had to go there. Which brings me to another thing that annoys me lately…

My cats: I love them all individually, I really do. But collectively they are a giganormous pain in my ass. This week particularly. They cost money, they’re messy, we are forever feeding and cleaning up after them (thus, the Walmart experience). At least we’ll never have to put them through college or buy them designer clothes.

…i have to do this week

Today I’m getting a cavity filled. Tomorrow is finally a haircut (good grief) and Friday is a graveside interment service for Grandpa Mo. Additionally I’d like to wrap up the essay portion of the MBA application and get the gmat scheduled.

Other things

I had a really productive weekend and got a lot done on both the home and the professional front, and still managed to enjoy a martini or two at MoJoe.

And even though the subject of this weekend’s trip is continued sadness about Grandpa, I’m always glad for the chance to spend time with my extended family. This trip is taking us to Belpre, Ohio, which is historically a hub for my Dad’s side of the family, and a place I haven’t visited since I was a kid. It should be really interesting.