toots mcgee

tooting for all the world to see... somewhere else

2006-10-20T23:28:00.000-07:00

i've got a new blog location. it's at our new spoontr site. check it out.

http://spoontr.com/tpblog/

what's in your water? ... part 2

2006-10-18T21:22:00.000-07:00

as you may remember in part 1 of my 2 part series titled what's in your water?, i explored the stank of a turtle's 3-day-old floating feces in a container full of water. in part 2, i explain how genius of an idea it was for us to put the turtle into my bathtub.

so, with the amount of water we were using to fill up the turtle's container and the frequency with which we were changing its water, it was suggested by me that we bring the turtle to my place. i don't have to pay for water so this becomes a cost-saving move. additionally, i have an extra bathroom with a bathtub. we thought it would be cool to let the turtle roam free in a big bathtub instead of a container that is about 1/4 of the size. so i filled up the tub and let the turtle swim about with reckless abandon. she was still getting used to us as her new caretakers so we thought we could ease the transition and let her have one of her favorite treats... live fish. now the first time i saw this, i was horrified to see the helpless fish get eaten by the ginormous green monster in an aquarium. i was in fact cheering on the fish to swim away. but the turtle managed to outsmart those tiny goldfish and down they went one by one... down into the belly of the monstrous green beast. this time, i felt bad for the turtle. she must have missed her regular home and her owner. so we wanted to calm her down and make her happy by giving her a few fish to eat. we bought 5 goldfish, went to my place, and dropped them into the tub with the turtle. the fish swam around and freaked out when they spotted the turtle. the turtle, on the other hand, was really excited to see the fish. you could tell she wanted those fishy suckers in her belly. this normally slow reptile had now become a quick moving predator. it was like dropping off a fat man at a buffet. =) ... so the turtle starts chasing the fish around, and after a few minutes, we begin to notice the vastness that is my bathtub. man, that tub is pretty big for those fish. it allowed them to swim past the turtle with little effort. the poor turtle couldn't move fast enough. the fish would go over and under the turtle and quickly dart past the turtle as she made a quick snap at them. i began to wonder if the turtle would ever catch the fish. i thought, "crap. if this turtle doesn't eat these fish, i'm going to end up raising 5 goldfish and a turtle... in my bathtub. how whiskey tango is that?"

drift away

2006-10-17T22:16:00.000-07:00

so this past weekend, spencer, his brother and i went to irwindale speedway to watch some formula d drift action. it was quite awesome. i'll put pictures up once i get some from spencer. =P (thanks spencer! i love you!) it was cool watching the cars drift. their cars were so close to the boards. just a few feet away. it was nuts.

before the competition, we were just walking around checking out the booths. of course, there were booth babes (female obviously with very bouncy features) and plenty of males to look at their assets. as its getting closer to the start time, we were walking to toyo tires looking for some swag. as we approach, spencer gets closer to this ford mustang and some dude signals for us to wait while this super cool mustang backs up. once it passes, we go to the table to see what toyo has. they didn't have anymore lanyards, but they did have plenty of cardboard cutouts of ken gushi's head on a stick. so we got a couple of them. how many people can say they have a picture of an asian man's head on a popsicle-like stick? i know you're jealous.

so then we go get some seats and the competition starts. it was pretty damn cool watching them drift. now i want to get some remote-controlled drifitng cars (gas powered of course) so i can drift too. you're crazy if you think i'm gonna try to drift in a real car. i drive an SUV. notice the rollover warning stickers in the car. not so much. i'll try though if you let me use your car. =) until that happens, i'd like to get a remote-controlled drift car. spencer... can i get one for christmas?

what's in your water?

2006-09-29T17:03:00.000-07:00

SPtheALIEN and i are petsitting while his parents are out of the country. so we've got 2 birds and a turtle to look after (in addition to our awesome guinea pig). so the turtle was staying in the spare room at spencer's house. spencer was instructed to change the turtle's water when he couldn't see the turtle anymore. in other words, we could have the turtle swim in its own filth until the water to crap ratio was almost 1 to 1. after a few days, the water was murky but we could still see the turtle. that's when i made a tragic mistake. believing that the water was still okay, i stuck my head into the turtle's container for an aerial view of the turtle. and then, as most humans do, i breathed in some air. after all, i did need some oxygen in my system. unfortunately, i instead got a big ol' whiff of stanky, old, vaporized turtle feces. needless to say, i changed the turtle's water right after that.

nothing new

2006-09-26T06:59:00.000-07:00

so i have nothing to report. i had a few ideas to blog about this weekend, but i forgot them. i really should write them down or something. instead, i forget the topic and give you boring entries like this one.

ta-da!

fish in the waterrrr

2006-09-20T21:35:00.000-07:00

well this fish has nothing to do with this post. i just thought i'd share this fish with you. it's at the san diego zoo in case you're interested. =)

anyways, not much to report. yesterday was talk like a pirate day. i should have posted yesterday, but alas this pirate was not online. my sister did give me a couple jokes though...

q: what is a pirate's favorite part of your body?
a: yar booty!

q: what do a pimp and a pirate have in common?
a: they both say, "yo ho!"

til th' nex' post. laterrrr, readerrrr.

chowda

2006-09-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

so i had some clam chowda from the yacht club for lunch today. i don't normally eat out, but i decided to because i don't get many opportunities to eat there since you have to be a member. so i decided to hold off on eating my oh-so-delicious spicy thai fried rice for this day. the chowda was good. the price for the meal was not. but i guess i'm getting my money's worth still since every time i burp, i can get a little taste of the chowda again. =)

*buuuurrp*

ah. fresh clam chowda.

supper time!

2006-09-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

today, spencer and i decided that we should use the word "supper" now because we don't know anyone who actually uses the word "supper." everyone knows what "supper" is, but i don't hear anyone say it in real life. i've heard it in commercials. you know the ones i'm talking about... the perfect family living in the suburbs. then mom has prepared "dinner" and she proclaims "supper's ready!" now i know you can picture that in your head.

if you've heard someone use the word "supper" in their regular, everyday speech, you: 1) have bad hearing; 2) can't spell and think i've been talking about "super"; 3) live in a commercial; or 4) haven't taken your crazy pills today.

sleepy

2006-09-10T00:48:00.000-07:00

a few minutes ago, i was working on our website. then my brain ahsploded (exploded for those non-homestar fans). so i stopped and blogged about it. =)

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Father & Son

2006-09-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

This is a forward I received at work.

True Story - Inspirational is putting it mildly. This will bring tears to your eyes and joy to your heart. *Be sure to watch the video at the end of the story.

Strongest Dad in the World - strongest love [From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck. Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day. Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right? And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life. This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs. ``He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an institution.'' But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain.'' "Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want to do that.'' Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore for two weeks.'' That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!'' And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon. ``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year. Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?'' How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried. Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think? Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together. This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon , in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time. ``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.'' And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.'' So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life. Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day. That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy. ``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.'' Here is the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryCTIigaloQ

Yup. So my officemate and I were crying this morning.

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the secret is out

2006-09-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

since the news is out about our engagement, i can talk about how i'm going to use cleaning products to create our website. we'll of course post our dot coooooooooom's URL when it's ready for your viewing pleasure. =)

woohoo!

i love you, fiance!

i learned about cleaning products that don't clean

2006-08-31T20:21:00.000-07:00

so for the past two days, i was in training learning about ajax, soap, and comet. yup. cleaning products... for the internet... nerds are a funny folk. =)

so now that i've learned about ajax, i want to use it. i can't wait to use it on my dot coooooooooooooom (said just like the expedia.com commercial). it seems quite fun. i'm so excited i could pee in my pants. but i won't because i'm on spencer's couch, and he wouldn't appreciate the scent of urine on his furniture. i don't know. just a guess.

i'm thirsty

2006-08-27T01:30:00.000-07:00

right now, i'm taking a long break from the LAN party. just blogging while the guys frag each other in f.e.a.r. combat. not my kind of game. it feels too slow because it feels real. i like the unrealistic fps games. the ones with the sci-fi looking environments that create more fast-paced shootouts and more fragging. the characters move faster and shoot faster, and they can do super springy quad-jumps. fragging at its best when it's not real... you could almost say unreal*... =P

*i'm going to guess that only spencer understood this reference. if it's not funny, it's because i'm tired. i need to sleep soon. i can't focus. you have no idea how long it took me just to write that paragraph above. it's really quite pathetic. in fact, i don't know why i even wrote this blog entry. oh well. you're reading it.

bizzay!

2006-08-25T22:13:00.000-07:00

it's been a busy week. i actually have stuff to do at work. and i'm tired now from the whole 5 days of working. and now, we just arrived at a LAN party about 1.5 hours ago. sleep will need to wait. gaming comes first.

let the fragging commence, beeotches!

recap

2006-08-22T08:02:00.000-07:00

hello loyal readers!

i see that that SPtheALIEN hasa recapped our fun weekend here. so no point in recapping now. thanks, spencer!

it was a pretty fun weekend. very tiring with all the walking, but still fun. i must say that the san diego zoo has a crazy hilly layout. no flat land for them. so once you get to the back of the zoo to see the polar bears, you're tired and you still gotta make it back to the front. and that involves going uphill. who was the dee-dee-dee who planned that? they should have made the back of the zoo higher, and then gravity can assist you on your way to the front. they've got the skyfari, but i think a zipline would be way cooler. scarier and way more dangerous, but cooler.

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dur hur

2006-08-16T08:36:00.000-07:00

so i just went to the bathroom, and i looked in the mirror. i noticed that i had incorrectly buttoned my shirt. now the sad part is, i'm wearing a polo shirt. there's like 3 buttons.

THREE BUTTONS.

who can't button a polo shirt? and i'm only buttoning ONE. and it's the bottom button. the part where the shirt starts to split for the buttons helps guide you in buttoning your shirt. feel for the lowest button and put it through the lowest hole. simple, right? well this dee-dee-dee decided to put the middle button through the lowest hole. so my incorrect buttoning had created a bump. kinda like when you sit down and your pants bunch up at the crotch to create something that looks like a "special appendage." well i decided to name the bump i had craeted with my polo shirt. i'm going to call it "button boob."

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don't read this post

2006-08-15T21:14:00.000-07:00

i told you not to read this post.

it's not interesting.

i don't know what to blog about.

i can't believe you read this far.

dork.

i speak english but not like that

2006-08-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

so yesterday i was at a party with all sorts of different people. after hearing a few conversations going on around me, i realized that my vocabulary collection stored in my head is not very big at all. many sounded like english majors. i heard someone use the word "pretense" in a casual conversation. i mean, i've heard the word "pretense" before. i know what it means. but i don't think i've ever used that word in a sentence before. it is definitely not part of my day-to-day vocabulary so you will never hear it pop out of my mouth during a casual converation. you are more likely to see me squeeze cake icing out from between my teeth... oh wait. i did do that yesterday. =)

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i'm tired

2006-08-11T19:06:00.000-07:00

man. i slept at 4am last night. as my spencer would say, "i'm tore up."

i miss you, spencer!

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taiko

2006-08-09T23:01:00.000-07:00

so i've been trying to play taiko drum master on the ps2. it seems easy enough to hit the drum on beat, but it's not. it's harder than i thought. i think i've learned through this game that i have no rhythm. that is why i'm an engineer. nerds rule!

inside the train

2006-08-09T09:32:00.000-07:00

i think i took this during a layover at union station

Zooomr :: DSC06162

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dagnabit

2006-08-09T09:18:00.000-07:00

so i've been trying to keep my face all clean so i don't get any zits this week. well...

that didn't work.

i've got a nice, big, oily zit on my face. friggin zit.

sorry no pictures. that's just disgusting. what's wrong with you?

more from the train

2006-08-09T09:02:00.000-07:00

the infamous los angeles river in all its man-made, concrete, green water-flowing, graffiti-filled glory.

it's a pink and purple building. think about it. have you ever seen a pink and purple building before? i haven't. therefore i present this picture.

PICT1815 Hosted on Zooomr

if you click on the picture, you can see people down on the LA river floor. too bad they're not krumping. =) *

* see the movie rize and you'll want to see people krumping in the LA river too. =P

pictures from the train

2006-08-09T00:03:00.000-07:00

so i'm looking through the pictures i took while on the train. quite a few of them are blurry. it's definitely not easy taking pictures from a train. you have to take it quick. and hopefully the train doesn't shake you as the picture is being taken.

i tried to take pictures as the train stopped at every station. those were my clearer ones, but there were only a few stations that looked at least somewhat photogenic. below are a couple of pictures i took. i'll post more later today which is now wednesday. dang. i didn't mean to stay up this late, but i wanted to post after i got some other work done. ah well. here they are. more later. =) time to sleep.

fullerton Hosted on Zooomr

oceanside Hosted on Zooomr

union station

2006-08-08T14:02:00.000-07:00

now we're approaching union station in LA. most people are getting off the train there. i'm not. =) but still, this shall be my last post of this most adventurous trip. my laptop shall be taking a break. my picture taking shall not. once i reach my destination and get some faster internet, i'll upload the pictures.

in conclusion, trains are cool. they are air conditioned. pretty quiet (though i wouldn't fall asleep here because everyone would hear my snoring thus negating my previous comment about trains being quiet). it's got an outlet for power. they don't smell. and they make... time go by (by by) so quickly (quickly)... time go by (by by) so quickly (quickly)...

later, my loyal reader (aka spencer)!

irvine

2006-08-08T13:51:00.000-07:00

so now we're in irvine. so far, not bad. i haven't even noticed i've been on this train for almost 2 hours now. i've been taking some pictures, surfing the internet, instant messaging my boyfriend. he's now inspired me to take more pictures. so here i go!

between two hills and near a freeway

2006-08-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

rollin, rollin, rollin

2006-08-08T12:12:00.000-07:00

woo! i'm on the train right now. i retardedly sat on the east side of the train that's heading north. hopefully you know your directions because then you'd truly understand my dee-dee-dee mistake.

oh well. maybe there's something cool on this side. i usually look west towards the water whenever i drive north anyways. maybe i'll notice something i don't usually see.

so... onto the train.

first, i forgot my sony camera at my boyfriend's so if i take pictures it will be with my honker of a camera plus my awesomely fantastic 50mm.

second, i didn't think about the gentle rocking on the train as it moves. it's kinda giving me motion sickness. but not that bad. i just have to look up ever now and then to prevent the blowing of chunks in front of many strangers.

third, trains are a lot quieter than i thought. all you really hear is the air from the ventilation thingy and the ocassional child saying random stuff.

fourth, uh. there's no fourth.

well that's all my observations for now. right now, i'm between some hills. somewhere in san diego county. no houses. just dirt and plants and trees. i still have a good signal with the cell phone. as long as i have that, i have internet. and then i won't be bored. yay for internet!

peace out, loyal reader.

that didn't work

2006-08-07T23:23:00.000-07:00

okay. elevating the legs didn't stop the spider from attacking my leg.

apparently spiders can climb couches.

damn it.

HNL

2006-08-07T23:10:00.000-07:00

sitting here with my boyfriend.
chilling on the couch.
watching madtv.
with our feet elevated.

we're on a hole nother level...

because there is a spider on the floor. and we don't want the spider on our legs.

garbage disposal

2006-08-01T09:46:00.000-07:00

so yesterday morning, i woke up and got ready for another monday at work. i got dressed and went out to the living room to check on our guinea pig. she was fine and dandy and being her usual round, fuzzy self, but she needed some water in her bottle. so i proceeded to the kitchen to fill it up.

i approached the sink.

as i turned on the faucet, i heard a *tkk*. kind of like someone flicking the counter with their finger. so out of nowhere, i saw it.

a cockaroach.

i knew it wasn't there before because (trust me) i would know if it was there before. you would too because humans just do not act calmly upon seeing one. seeing one usually ends up with one of the following reactions: 1) freaking out. this includes profanity, screaming, and fleeing the scene or 2) anger at its arrival in your home.

i was actually surprised at my reaction which was option 2. anger. i saw it and knew immediately it must be stopped. normally, i would freak out, but i stayed calm. maybe because i was still adjusting to waking up. it was early. mornings are too tiring to scream. so instead, i reached for a nearby box. i locked in on the target. lifted my arm. swung down. and then

WHACK.

i missed.

but i think i injured it because it limped it's way towards the sink. then i gave the cockaroach a nice shower of water to help it along and down it went towards the drain. and for good measure, i also turned on the garbage disposal. that's what happens when you surprise me in the morning.

"that's what you get when you mess with the warrior!"*

*if you're a fan of scrubs, you'd understand this reference

socks are fun

2006-07-30T00:39:00.000-07:00

so tonight, a bunch of us played the sock game. it's quite fun. you should try it when you're bored. what you do is you get a lot of socks. maybe around 8 - 10. preferably ones you don't use anymore. and they should be clean. i say clean cuz who wants to play with socks that are old and nasty and look like they've been on somebody's foot recently. anyways, you blindfold a person and then they have 1 minute to try to put as many socks as possible on both of their own arms. sounds easy, but it's not. it's tough to feel the sock openings once both hands are covered.

truly, hilarity did ensue when we played the sock game tonight. and hilarity always brings about fun.

hot and sticky in the ghetto

2006-07-28T23:02:00.000-07:00

so i'm in the ghetto this weekend. it was hot and gross and my skin was sticky. and this afternoon, i was outside basking in the hot sun's rays as i wore a long, black robe with a thick, fleece scarf. ah wait. i can't forget that i was also wearing an oxford shirt with a necktie. can you guess who i was dressed like?

if not, i was supposed to look like her:

but my brother thought i looked like hermione. either way, it was freaking hot in that black robe.

if you are wondering why i was dressed like this, it's because my family is crazy and we dress up like harry potter characters for fun on hot days. we all think that we can use our "hogwarts" powers to lower the temperature. and it works. but only if you do it around sunset. =)

if i lose, at least i know i can spell

2006-07-28T22:51:00.000-07:00

well, tonight i discovered that my awesome boyfriend can't spell "definately" correctly. ah. what a shame. a post tainted by the misspelling of a word. *sigh* i know he'll say that it's because he wasn't born here (aka the US), but he knows that excuse doesn't work with me.

so far, i'm behind in the "post the most" competition with spthealien. if i am to lose this competition, i can lose with the knowledge that i can spell better than my man. you better believe though that i'm not gonna give up.

i am woman. hear me toot.

good morning

2006-07-28T07:34:00.000-07:00

i'm awake at 7:30am, and i'm not working today.

weird.

maybe it's because i'm in a "who can post the most" competition with the man, the legend... SPtheALIEN.

i see the score is

tootsmcgee 1
SPtheALIEN 0

spoons

2006-07-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

i love spoons.

first post

2006-07-25T14:16:00.000-07:00

i am toots. hear me toot.