I walked face-first into a very lovely surprise this morning: The DIY wedding favor project I worked on for my job was featured on what could arguably considered the biggest blog in the wedding industry!

I bet you didn't know I could be so crafty!

 I came up with the idea and the awesome graphic designer brought it to life!  We took approximately 3,018 pictures, assembled and re-assembled the favors, and generally had a fun time taking pictures and making arts and crafts.  We even staged a fake wedding reception:

Look at all the pretty!

We celebrated this huge accomplishment with bagels, naturally.

An interesting side-effect of not having cable television (besides not having to pay for it every month) is that we’re perpetually a day behind everyone else in terms of our familiarity with breaking news, and we’re reliably a full year behind everyone else on popular shows.

When everyone was freaking out about The Hatch (on Lost, if you’re a newb) we had just started the show and were trying to figure out what in the blue blazes was up with the scary smoke monster.  When co-workers were laughing about “Support the Rabid” (on The Office), Wes and I were tensely wondering if Jim was going to stay with the other branch.

It’s strange living your life like this, continually out of touch and behind the times, but also nice as well.  It’s easier to disappear.  If I’m stressed because economic news is getting me down, I don’t have to worry about seeing a commercial touting the Latest Scary Headlines at 8!  If Wes and I feel like disappearing for a weekend, all we have to do is stay away from our computers and then it’s just us and the puppy.

This is turning into a lengthier intro than I was anticipating but oh well.  Onto the point!  I was talking to my good friend yesterday and she was filling me in on the gruesome chimp attack that happened awhile ago.  I hadn’t heard anything about it and she was giving me the terrible details.

When she was done, she said something interesting and I’ve been pondering it since.  She said that, if it had been her in the attack, she would have been angry at the doctors for resuscitating her.  In my friend’s opinion, life wouldn’t be worth living with a terribly disfigured face.

This ties in with the whole isolated-from-civilization thing by virtue of me having space to think about this issue without being pummeled with new information every few seconds.  I heard the succinct details from my friend and now I’m digesting those details.

I’m genuinely trying to figure out whether life would be worth living if my face looked like ground beef.  Of course I’d like to say I’d be willing to go on after such a horrible thing, but I’m not going to pretend that the prospect of spending a lifetime with those injuries wouldn’t be a bleak consideration, either. 

Still, even though I wouldn’t look forward to all the stares and disfigurement, I would rather be alive and kicking than dead.  So I guess that’s the choice made.  It’s still a tragic situation, though.

What I’m puzzling over is what this issue is.  Is this an issue of values?  Whether you value your life or your looks?  Or is this more a question of where your priorities are and how you view yourself?  As a blogger, I could look like a centaur and none of you would ever be the wiser.  If I were a sales person or a PR rep, would I make a different choice?

It’s a tough issue, and one I’m glad I don’t have to make.  This whole incident will make me think fiercely before taking my kids to the ape house at the zoo.  Of that you can be sure.  On the plus side, I have no doubt that if a chimp tried to attack my kid, the chimp would be the one who ended up without a face.

Just in case you were wondering where our staircase is…
I have helpfully outlined it for you in HOLIDAY CHEER!

Perhaps you are confused as to why I am so unshakably excited about the presence of holiday lights in my home. Allow me to elaborate: This is the first time Wes and I have decorated our house to celebrate the holiday season.

I know, it’s shameful, really. Nearly three years of marriage and nary a single Christmas decoration, we must be Scrooges, right? Wrong! We’re frugal, which means we have simply been waiting for someone to get tired of their Christmas decorations so we could helpfully volunteer to give them a new home.

One of the ladies at work is converting to LED Christmas lights and so is clearing her house and garage of her old-fashioned ones. Wes and I gladly took three strings of lights off her hands and this is what we’ve chosen to do with them.

It’s frightfully cheery, no? I’m not exactly a whiz at decorating things (this is why I have such a great mother-in-law and sister-in-law) but I’m pretty sure this looks nice. Wes certainly seemed to think so and, as he’s the only one who lives here and reads this blog, I’d say that’s good enough.

We haven’t let Doc in yet to inspect our handiwork, though. I’m assuming his initial reaction will be to try to eat them and, when he learns that this is not allowed, he’ll react by steadfastly ignoring them until he thinks we aren’t watching, and then he’ll attempt to play with them.

We still haven’t worked up the nerve to get a Christmas tree yet. We’re not huge on gift-giving, so it seems a bit silly to get a nicely dressed-up tree in order to put absolutely nothing under it. When we have kids we’ll definitely rock the indoor foliage but for now we’re content with our lights.

With a staircase this pretty, wouldn’t you be?

There’s a new special something in my life. It’s cute, it’s red, and I think we’re really going to hit it off. It’s sitting right next to me and it’s name is: Blackberry Curve.

As I’m sure you have guessed, you being the capable and intelligent readers I know you to be, my new cell phone came today. Zipadeedoodah! That being said, today’s post is woefully short. I have a metric ton of names and phone numbers to transfer over, not to mention lasagna to make from scratch (I’m a bit of a culinary masochist, yes?)

Never fear though. I’ll be back tomorrow with more fun, games, and nonsensical bric-a-brack.

If you’re not familiar with Fail Blog, I highly suggest that you rectify the situation and get yourself acquainted pronto. Wes and I peruse it together and every single time we check in we laugh ourselves silly.

It’s a blog dedicated to failure. You get tall trucks bringing down low buildings, unfortunate wedding snafus that plunge brides into pools, cars smashing into one another during freezing conditions, and, my personal favorite, English translations that go seriously awry:

If you like my nonsense, you’ll probably like theirs too.

In other news, election season is over! I’m so relieved I could dance a little jig right here. In fact, you can’t see it but I just did!

I am practically giddy over being able to again turn on the radio without having to hear yet another radio commercial sponsored by the Washington state Democrats that claims that the Republican contender for the Governor’s spot is pure evil and probably eats babies.

I don’t care which party you support, political commercials are annoying, upsetting, and lame. Hooray for the next four political-commercial-free years! I’m curious, do you or anyone you know actually enjoy political commercials? If not, then why do politicians spend so much money forcing us to listen to them? Isn’t that a tad expensive and counter-productive?