...Catalina Sandino Moreno. What a gorgeous choice for an absolutely gorgeous and talented actress. Too bad she didn't win Best Actress but at least she looked good!

New hairdo
Originally uploaded by Belleadore.

This is a super drunk pic but I'm just so happy that I had the guts to cut my hair finally.

Now that I've mastered posting pictures I feel like I should do it for every post today. Plus, I want to keep a record of these shoes around because I want to buy them. If I have it right here on my blog I can just open the page up and decide if I really want them or if I'm just having one of those "I need to buy something on the Internet" day. Plus, I have a shoe fetish and I like having pictures of shoes everywhere. I even have a desk decoration that says world famous shoes shopper with a red show atop a spring. Brilliant. This one is much sexier, though:

It's so great when you can actually do things on your own! Wow, what a revelation that was! Now, I can completely dedicate a post to my dog while simultaneously being fired for HTMLing all morning!

But to the real matter at hand: Gus, I love you for being my inspiration and for making as much noise as possible when I come home at night from work so I know that I'm completely loved. Thank you for being there for me no matter what. Love always, Your Human.

Thanks to both Ms Nobody and Bathroom Reading for helping me keep my blog as up-to-date as possible so that Islandgirl will one day have all the tools necessary to take over cyberspace! I've tried both of your suggestions and am enjoying the feeling of learning more about HTML. I still have no clue what either of my new additions will do or whether they work or not but at least I'm appearing to be technologically savvy. Now, if anyone would like to give me a step by step presentation on how the hell to add pictures to my blog (I know the HTML but I can't figure out what picture addresses work because neither Ofoto nor Flickr seems to work within the HTML text). I'd like to dedicate at least ONE post to my dog but people really can't get the full affect of his cuteness through writing alone. I know I'm probably going out on a limb here but can someone please help Islandgirl win over the intricacies of HTML?

In honour of my blog-mentor, Ms Nobody, I'm going to start my own weekly something other. She has a Friday list and, for me, I will start a weekly battle. Something vs. Something. Last week it was Urban Legends vs. Spam. This week it will be long hair vs. short hair.

I'm having one of those moments where I need change. I like changing my hair style every now and again whether it's going from chocolate brown to sandy blonde. What I haven't done in a while is cut it short. The last time I did this (February 2001) I cried for days- I hope this isn't a February thing. But in the end I was happy for the change. I've found the cut that I love so now it's time to battle it out as I head to the hairdresser on Saturday. Will I cry myself to sleep every night or will I embrace the need for change?

New favourite word: tarnation.

To be used whenever necessary but especially to describe people's actions such as:
"My mother was gallivanting all over tarnation," or to be injected into questions such as: "Where in tarnation are you from."
Makes one sound as if they're a Southerner with a piece of straw stuck between the teeth.

Another reason not to live in Alabama: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050222/us_nm/court_sextoys_dc

I know there are plenty of things to be happy about on a daily basis but today has been the best day because:

1) Tori Amos' new CD The Beekeeper came out today and it's as amazing as all of her wonderful albums. Anytime she puts out a new studio album my life just gets a little happy notch.

The other reason to be super happy today is because:
2) I'm finally off the jury duty hook. Hopefully there will be no more deliberating. Ever again! One thing it did prove is how messed up the justice system is here. I sat on three cases. One ended with a hung jury, another woman changed her plea after finally securing legal counsel and the jury was discharged at the last one because the defense counsel fell down the stairs. How are we supposed to bring anyone to justice and get through the backlog of court cases when we've got all this to be up against. In any case, I'm done. It's over for me.

Other great reasons to be happy on a daily basis:

American Idol, California Turkey Wraps from East Meets West, Lucky Magazine, dogs and friends who get married so you can live vicariously through them and help them plan their wedding while not actually having to be sworn to eternal celibacy.

I've been winning a battle that's become like a little mind game for me. I have so many well meaning family and friends who send me their version of advice through e-mail but are actually sending me dreaded spam. So instead of blocking these well intentioned people I read the information and then with my better judgment I've started typing in parts of the information into a Web search. So, I've basically been searching for things like '10-year-old still missing family after Asian tsunami' and 'plastic containers cause cancer' to debunk all of those Internet rumors but also to give myself a boost. This last one I received was really interesting. It was about a woman who was supposedly guarded from a rapist by two angels. Finding this last one online was fun because I didn't think I would find 'rape woman saved by angels' on Yahoo!, but of course this was not the case. There was a great explanation that proved all of my cynical thoughts about these e-mails. I know people aren't really thinking too deeply about these e-mails that they're forwarding on to dozens of friends and family, but you know they're the type of people who are going home and refusing to put Rubbermaid in the microwave. In the five minutes that it takes to search a warning like that and find out whether there is any truth behind the tale, people could potentially eliminate sending so much junk to their contacts. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy researching the latest cancer scare!

It's been a while since I've posted anything just because of the sheer amount of things that have been going on during my workday. I have a very hard time doing too many things at one time (I could never tell a potential employer that I'm a good multi-tasker) because I get distracted by small unimportant things. But as it is my "favourite" day of the year and because I heard the best name for it, hence the title of this posting, I just had to write today. Happy VD, a friend as a group of us girls passed him on the street. We were on the way to celebrate our least favourite holiday. It's not that I don't like being in love but if I see one more cheesy flower arrangement or one more heart-shaped balloon, I think I just might be sick. Hallmark has taken all the fun and creativity out of love. If love was such a meaningful thing to people, wouldn't you want to celebrate it everyday, or at least get a little bit more creative. In honour of my least favourite holiday I thought I'd add this great little compatibility assessment of me and my truely favourite man!