Queen Anne Snow

And I thought that Seattleites were bad drivers in the rain but they are REALLY bad in the snow.

Queen Anne Snow

Something you don't often see.

Weekend Wrap-Up

I can't believe it's over already. The highlights:

• Babysat the *cutest nephew in the world* on Friday night which involved a whole lot of *genius* behavior including banging one's head against the wall and playing Choo-Choo (trains), Beep-Beep, (cars) and ball.
• Speaking of banging ones head against hard objects, did you know it's a sign of superior intelligence, well at least according to my brother it is.
• Following babysitting Don and I went straight to Rock Bottom Brewery for some adult beverages and pool. We shut the place down (which I have never done) only to find that the garage where the car was parked was closed. Luckily the security guard was down shortly to let us in so we could spring Don's car and go home.
• Slept in on Saturday morning.
• Had lunch at Red Mill. Yummy!
• Watched Grey's Anatomy Season 1 on DVD.
• Babysat again on Saturday night and accomplished the impossible by getting him to go to sleep after only 4 minutes of drama tears.
• Reorganized my iTunes library and created several new smart play lists in an attempt to fully enjoy my library and listen to the 7,872 songs that have never been played.
• Uploaded pictures from Christmas to Flickr.
• Took down the outdoor Christmas lights.
• Completed a bunch of household chores and futzing.

How was your weekend?

War Against Pink

I remember when Yoplait began their campaign to Save Lids to Save Lives campaign year ago, I carefully cleaned my lids and at the end of the month filled an envelope and sent them off to Yoplait. I was so proud that I was doing something to help the fight against breast cancer.

As a marketing person I have to admit that I thought the Yoplait campaign was a very clever one but that was before everyone else in the world jumped on the bandwagon. The infiltration of pink over the past years has just become too much for me to deal with. During Breast Cancer Awareness month last year I was shocked by the sheer numbers of products turning pink in the name of fighting cancer and began to get suspicious about how much money was really going to breast cancer research.

This morning I was reading one of my regular blog reads, A Sizeable Apple and noted an article she had written about the same thing. She refers to a website titled Think Before You Pink which exposes the real truth behind many of the pink campaigns out there including the amount of money donated and the company's commitment, or lack of, creating safe products. It's shocking how little money is being donated from many of these campaigns when you think about the sheer volume of sales generated. I will certainly use this as a tool when decided whether to buy pink products or not in the future.

4,159 visits

I have been tracking visitors to my site for 1 year now and ClustrMaps just archived the first year of data (map appears above) and the new map is nearly blank. I really enjoyed watching the little red dots appear this year and hopefully I will get even more visitors this year. :-)

iTunes Top 40

I just finished reorganized my iTunes library and the playlists that sync to my iPod in an attempt to better enjoy the 12,857 songs in my library. I have 7,872 that have never been played. I think that is because I listen to the same things/artists over and over and over and over again. I am interested to see how my stats on LastFM change over the next couple of months. Here is my Top 40 play counts as they stand right now, let's see what reorganization does to that.

1. Harbor - Vienna Teng
2. Shasta - Vienna Teng
3. Drunkard Logic - The Fat Lady Sings
4. Hope On Fire - Vienna Teng
5. City Hall - Vienna Teng
6. You Dance – Eastmountainsouth
7. The Tower - Vienna Teng
8. Nothing Without You - Vienna Teng
9. Suddenly I See - KT Tunstall
10. Homecoming - Vienna Teng
11. Soul Meets Body - Death Cab For Cutie
12. Providence - The Fat Lady Sings
13. Feather Moon - Vienna Teng
14. Life Less Ordinary - Carbon Leaf
15. If I Had $1,000,000 - Barenaked Ladies
16. So Are You To Me – Eastmountainsouth
17. Forever My Friend - Ray LaMontagne
18. Streetcorner Symphony - Rob Thomas
19. Hard Times – Eastmountainsouth
20. Eric's Song - Vienna Teng
21. Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell
22. Push - Sarah McLachlan
23. Winter – Eastmountainsouth
24. Dirty Little Secret – Sarah McLachlan
25. Enough To Go By - Vienna Teng
26. Chocolate - Snow Patrol
27. Celtic New Year - Van Morrison
28. A Girl And Her Horse - Carbon Leaf
29. Crooked Teeth - Death Cab For Cutie
30. Father & Daughter - Paul Simon
31. Unwritten Letter #1 - Vienna Teng
32. Whatever You Want - Vienna Teng
33. Blue Eyes Blue - Eric Clapton
34. The Atheist Christmas Carol - Vienna Teng
35. Looking at the World From the Bottom of a Well - Mike Doughty
36. 1 Br/1 Ba - Vienna Teng
37. On Your Way – Eastmountainsouth
38. Blue Caravan - Vienna Teng
39. There She Goes - The La's
40. It Never Entered My Mind - Miles Davis

Sibling Fun

My brother Dave snapped the above shot and sent it to my phone this morning and hence began the following:

Dave: Dave's dork out Friday. These be my big monitors.
Jewells: Two monitors? Is that because you be uber smart?
Dave: Aren't first borns smarter?
Jewells: Abso-fucking-lutely
Dave: Then I need 2 monitors 2 be as smart as u
Jewells: Good point. That's why I only need one. :-)

Neon Frosting

Smears of frosting on the lid of the container.

Anniversary

Today marks a significant milestone in my life and it is a day that I have been waiting a very long time for.

Five years ago today I lay in a hospital bed as my oncologist walked into my room to tell me that the surgery, chemotherapy, numerous drugs and blood transfusions had worked, for all intensive purposes I was *cancer free.* Holding on to that *cancer free* declaration is the key to really beating this horrible disease. Today I am no longer a statistic, I am officially a member of the 42% of people are diagnosed with my type of cancer and live to celebrate 5-years.

I will mark today in a very ordinary fashion as it will be like any other Thursday. That in itself is a celebration as 5 years ago I was unable to do even ordinary things. I have spent a great deal of time recently reflecting on my journey and all of the different emotions I have been through. For the past week my mind has been racing with many different emotions including:

• Joy - for reaching this milestone!
• Relief - that I don't have to count down the years, months and days anymore.
• Anger - that I had to have cancer in the first place.
• Frustration - for the ways that my life is changed forever as a result.
• Gratitude - for having exceptional medical treatment and talents of wonderful physicians.
• Appreciation - for the path that cancer set me out on and where I am today.
• Love - for the people that have made a difference along the way.

I have also been thinking a great deal about the people that made a profound impact on me during the last 5+years. There are few words to express my gratitude, but I'm going to try anyway.

Elisa: Thank you for taking the lead when I didn't have the strength to do so, for giving me a home, spiritual support and unmeasurable love.

Jenna: Thank you for picking me up and brushing me off (literally) over and over again, for buying me hats, making me laugh, watching movies that I slept through and listening to me.

My Mom: Thank you for your unconditional love, for cooking all my favorite meals to keep me off TPN, listening to me and wiping away my tears.

Paige: Thank you for being next to me when I faced my darkest day, for listening to my "crazy talk" and crying with me.

Don: Thank you for giving me a safe place to share my feelings and my fears, for listening to me, for reminding me about the big picture and for never patronizing me.

Okay, that is enough "sap on tap" for today! I've got neon colored cupcakes on my desk so right now I think it's time to post this and take a coffee/cupcake break!

Cupcakes

I walked into my office to find these on my desk this morning.