Sunday was nice, I’m not really a football person but it was entertaining to watch Levi cheer for the Patriots. Not only because they lost, but also because he didn’t really know what was going on – he just wanted them to win. Aside from Levi being silly, not much happened. Some of the commercials were funny, I really liked the one where John Stamos got headbutted – that one had me rolling.

Monday night was pretty normal. Levi and I enjoyed sandwiches for dinner and stayed home. Tonight, Levi has class but is now on his way home. Tonight we are heading out to the store for groceries and we’re going to pick up the game “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning” – I’ve heard great things about it. (Also, my cousin’s fiancé was one of the people who worked on the game, which is actually how I heard of it.) I’ll be sure to blog about the game as I start to play it.

I have to cut this entry short, because Levi is now home and we need to get going. We’ve got a lot of stuff to do before nine, when the game store closes.

Today I finished the first season of The Big Bang Theory. I’m sure my neighbors will appreciate the inevitable decrease of laughter coming out of their walls at two in the morning. I can’t really get over how hilarious this show is. I’d seen bits and pieces of it before getting the first season, but I’d never really gotten into the show because I didn’t want to invest myself into something halfway through it. (I’ve never been able to watch a sitcom without catching up on it beforehand. This is usually very expensive.) I am looking forward to watching the rest of the series in the next few months. It might give me something to do when Levi is in school and laundry doesn’t need to be done.

Our tax returns came in this week. Levi and I both used them to pay off our credit cards. For the first time in about 6 months I have zero credit debt right now. (OK, that’s not entirely true..I used my credit card yesterday for bowling alley reservations – I’ll get into that later..) Another thing we did with the extra money was upgrade my cellphone; I’ve gone back to a BlackBerry, specifically the Bold 9930. Some of you will probably scoff at the idea of owning a BlackBerry, but hear me out: this phone has the best keyboard I’ve ever used. I really loved my iPhone and the large selection of applications, but the BlackBerry platform offers everything I need and a good keyboard. (Not to mention, the Bold 9930 is the sexiest phone with a keyboard on the market right now.) While the iPhone was a gorgeous device, my need for a keyboard just wasn’t met with it. The keyboard isn’t the only great thing about the Bold 9930, the screen is also fantastic. The pixel density is high enough that images are crisp and the colors are fantastic. My only quibble is the battery life. The iPhone definitely beats the Bold’s battery life. That being said, the battery life is good enough even if it isn’t as good.

Now, back to bowling. We went bowling last night with our friend Angie. We don’t meet up with Angie all too often, but when we do we have a lot of fun. The last time we met up was my first trip to a bar since turning 21, which was a lot of fun. Bowling went as well as it can go for me. (I’m not very good at bowling..) Levi beat us every time. After bowling we went to Target and then Bertolino’s Espresso Bar. We sat outside because there were so many people, but it was OK because it was very hot in there.

Today, we’re going to be heading over to my Mom’s house to watch the Super Bowl and eat her food. My parents are going to be making Chip Dip and French Bread Pizzas. I freakin’ love chip dip.. I’ll be sure to blog about the time spent at my parents house later tonight. (Ok, don’t hold me to that one..)

Today has been pretty calm. After work today I came home and relaxed a bit and payed some bills before Levi came home. When Levi got home we went out to get the rent for the cats and out to REI to get a bike rack for our bedroom. The bike rack worked great and we now have a little bit more space in our bedroom for moving around. (Levi has been getting into bed from the end because the bikes took up all of the space on his side.) Living in a small apartment forces us to get a little creative with storage. After REI we went to a couple of stores for groceries – I finally got to use the coupons I got out of the newspaper this week. (The newspaper subscription has paid for itself at this point..which is nice.) All of this lead to right now, with me blogging and Levi editing the final draft of a paper for his English class.

We’ve found that Levi will only work on his classwork when away from home. There are no distractions away from home because he can’t play World of Warcraft on his iPad. Coffee shops are great for working on homework because of the Wi-Fi…and the Chai Lattes of course. We found this out last Saturday when we were out at Forza with some friends, Levi finished his entire first draft while there..something that would never have happened at home. It was fun to enjoy time with friends as well. Another benefit of Levi doing his work at a coffee shop is that I get to work on my blog. I don’t really get a lot of time to blog between my job and my chores at home. (If I were home right now, I’d be doing dishes..not blogging.)

There is only one problem with blogging right now – it’s supposed to be a Wordless Wednesday. Despite the fact that it is a Wordless Wednesday, I’m going to be publishing this. Maybe next Wednesday I’ll be doing a better job at not using words. That is, if I remember to participate next week. (I’m flaky…I know.) I really do need to blog more, eventually I would like to monetize my blog and it’s a bit difficult to do that without regular content flow. It’s also hard to do that without regular readers, something I am also working on. (The two kind of go hand in hand..)

I plan to be here for another hour, but I’ve already run out of stuff to blog about. Levi is only halfway done editing his paper, and I’m completely done with this blog entry. In fact, this last bit is just filler so that I could tell everybody about how I am out of stuff to do and Levi is not. It’s going to be a long hour.

1) What is one of your favorite ways to spend a Saturday?

Photographing stuff. Seriously.

2) List your top three favorite TV shows.

In order, my top three would have to be: Will & Grace, Weeds, and 3rd Rock from the Sun.

3) Would you rather be in pictures or take them?

Take them. I’m not too fond of having my picture taken. I’m not very photogenic.

4) Why do you blog?

Initially, it was because I wanted something to do and I’ve always loved setting up websites. Now, it has evolved into giving me an excuse to operate my web server. I also like talking about myself, of course..

5) Share five websites that you visit regularly.

Facebook, Twitter, The Verge, Ars Technica, and the Photography on the Net Forums.

6) If you could have lunch with one person from your Twitter list who would it be?

Well, I only have four people on my twitter list who are actual people, and of those four people one of them only has a twitter account so she can enter contests. That one person is my sister, and I miss her a ton. So I would have to choose her.

7) List a few of your favorite snacks.

I really enjoy all snacks, so much so that I can’t buy them because I have no self control. When I do buy them, I find myself gravitating towards various types of cookies.

8 ) Do you have a pet? If so, what kind?

I have two cats, Bella and Peanut. Both are obnoxious. Bella is the black one on the right, and Peanut is the orange one on the left.

9) Which three material possessions would you struggle to live without?

My iPhone, my camera, and my iMac. My phone, because it’s the only way I can keep in contact with Levi to make sure he gets to work safely every day. My camera, because it’s my means of expressing myself through artwork. My iMac, because it holds all of my music collection and enables me to edit my photos.

10) What’s your favorite drink?

Various forms of the Chai Latte. So good.

11) Do you enjoy cooking?

I enjoy baking a lot, but cooking dinner? Not so much. I always feel disorganized when I cook.

12) Do you have children?

No kids.

13) What are your favorite hobbies?

Photography, reading, and blogging are my favorite hobbies. But, you’ve probably already figured those things out.

14) Would you consider yourself to be shy or outgoing?

I tend to be a little shy around new people. So much so that I will avoid meeting new people, especially when I am by myself. I guess you could say that I need a support system to meet new people.

15) If you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change?

My negative outlook on life. I’m not sure why, but I oftentimes have trouble seeing the positive side of a situation. I’ve been working on changing this about myself for quite some time, and I think it’s been mostly successful.

16) Who is your favorite actor/actress?

I don’t know if I could choose just one, but if I absolutely had to I would probably pick Julia Stiles. Followed by Debra Messing, of course.

17) What’s the coolest thing you’ve done this week?

Well, it’s Sunday…so…clipping coupons this morning? If I include last week, it would probably be getting coffee yesterday with friends.

18) Do you live near your family or far from them?

I live near my immediate family, except for my sister who lives in texas with her husband and daughter. My extended family live all over the place.

19) List three of your talents.

Well, I’m pretty good at cellular respiration..there are at least three chemical reactions involved there. Just kidding. I consider myself to be pretty good at photography, though I will always have room for improvement. I’m also fairly decent at managing time and cleaning.

20) What is your greatest attribute?

I like making people laugh.

Aside from the information above, there isn’t a lot of information on this subject available. It’s really just a waiting game at this point. Every morning, I check the newspaper for any more information, and I’ll be sure to post it here when I find anything. Speaking of said newspaper, I still need to pay for it. When the guy came to my door and pressured me into the newspaper, he took down my credit card information but then never charged me. They sent me a bill last week, and I just haven’t had the opportunity to pay it yet. It’s a little frustrating waiting three weeks to be charged and then getting a bill. Well, not as frustrating as getting pressured into the newspaper to begin with. Thanks, Seattle Times…thanks.

The guy who signed me up for the paper gave me a sob story about how he didn’t want the Times to end up like the Post Intelligencer. (Out of business because of the internet.) And of course I felt bad for him, so I signed up for it. The paper hasn’t been a bad investment so far. For one, I have a lot of rubber bands now. If I ever find myself needing a rubber band, I’ll always have one. (Unfortunately, I’ll probably never need one.) Also, I have a whole bunch of material to place under my bike when I clean the chain now. (Now I just need to start cleaning the chain..)

I really just don’t have much to say right now. Levi and I are sitting with some friends in a Forza down the street from our apartment. I’m on my second Spiced Chai Latte, and Levi is eating a weird smelling sandwich.

Overall, it’s been an interesting day. We woke up early, and I made us waffles. (We didn’t have much syrup, so they were a bit dry.) After waffles, we went on a bike ride around town. That was kind of fun, except the “mostly cloudy” weather was more like “completely overcast and a bit wet” weather. I can’t wait until it warms up a bit around here, then my photography and cycling can start back up again with more frequency. Everything kind of stops for me in the winter, on account of the fact that it’s always so dark. And dismal. And cold.

Speaking of photography, in about two weeks I will be photographing a dance for a local elementary school. I hope the turnout is good, because last year I had a lot of fun doing it. This year, though, we are going to be making some changes to the organization of the whole thing. Last year it was a mess. This year, it’s going to be more organized. I will blog more about it when it happens.

There isn’t much else to talk about right now. Aside from some boring server administration stuff, I upgraded PHP to 5.3.9, nothing new has happened with my blog. I guess it’s time to finish this entry. My laptop battery is about to die, and I’ve got things to do.

We can’t say we have the same rights as somebody else, when somebody else has the right to a marriage and we don’t. This is the fundamental issue with a domestic partnership. No matter how many rights you give domestic partners, they will never be able to say they have a marriage because a domestic partnership was created to give same-sex partners similar rights while keeping them separate from heterosexual partners. (Why? Because, apparently, same-sex couples aren’t good enough to have the same title as heterosexual couples.) Keeping people separate but equal isn’t acceptable, and it’s a lesson we should have learned many years ago. Separate isn’t equal. Separate can’t be equal.

Equality is important. Not just so grown adults can have the right to say they are married, but so young gay children can look to the future and have hope. Hope that, one day, they too will be able to have a family like their heterosexual friends. Hope that, one day, they too will be able to marry the person they love – not just partner with them. (You see? It’s just not as nice..) Hope that, one day, they too will be accepted. No child should ever be told that they don’t deserve the same freedoms as another child.

While the support of our legislators is important, and exciting, it may not be enough. If this bill is passed it will, most certainly, come under attack by the same people who attacked Senate Bill 5688. If, and when, this happens we will need to fight just like we did before. The only difference is that today, we have the knowledge that we have won before and we can do it again; however, that knowledge could easily cloud our judgement. The fight isn’t over when the bill is passed. The fight is over when we no longer live in fear of losing our rights.

The fight is over when we can stop explaining to people what domestic partnerships are, and how they are “sort of like marriages.”

The party was a ton of fun. We played some munchkin game, and then trivial pursuit, and then cranium. I probably don’t need to spell this one out, but I was not very good at any of these games. Fortunately, my brain was somewhat functional this evening so I could play most of them without extreme handholding. I think the best part about tonight, was playing with the play-dough from cranium; I made a pretty badass bandaid.

Overall, it was a lot of fun and definitely worth missing my vacuuming day for. (I wish I had a good reason to skip vacuuming day every day.. If only cat litter could just move itself out of the carpet.) This is going to be a short one tonight, I’m very tired and have a lot of chores to do tomorrow. I need my sleep.

When we were finished in the snow, we came home to relax before heading back out again. We went to the mall to pickup Levi’s iMac from the Apple store, but we found out that it was closed when we got there. Since we obviously couldn’t pick up the iMac, we stopped to get some food and then left the mall. The drive there and back wasn’t so bad, but it was very icy. I’m pretty safe when it comes to driving in the snow, but there are others who aren’t careful at all…and they deserve to be slapped or something. On our way home, there was a truck following so closely to my car that it would have slid into my car if we had had to stop. We made it home in one piece, and didn’t get stuck on the hill leading up to our apartment building like 20-ish other people did. (Seriously, there are around 20 cars parked along the hill because they couldn’t make it up. Fortunately, we live towards the bottom of the hill..)

At home, I did my vacuuming and some quick cleaning and sat down to relax. After a few hours, Levi and I went out to get some groceries. Not wanting to risk getting stuck like those other people, we walked. The walk wasn’t so bad, especially because Levi let me wear a pair of his winter boots, but when we made it home we were both a little worn out. Overall, today was pretty eventful. Hopefully the roads will just be wet tomorrow morning when I have to drive to work.

Yesterday was eventful as well, it was my mom’s birthday. (She turned 19.. True story..) Levi and I both worked during the day, but his classes had been cancelled in the evening so we headed to my mom’s place after work. We stopped by the grocery store to grab her a birthday cake before heading there. She seemed surprised and happy that we got her a cake, and I am glad.

That’s all for today. Hopefully all of this snow melts soon. I’m not really a fan..

I was supposed to work today but, on account of the fact that I couldn’t hold in the contents of my stomach longer than a few minutes, I wasn’t able to go. Instead I took the time to recover and, when I was finally feeling better, I did some housework and ate lunch. I still have a lingering headache, but it isn’t so bad anymore. I always feel bad when I can’t make it into work – especially under today’s circumstances: snow. I wasn’t calling in “snow” today, but I know a few people probably did and my migraine didn’t help matters. I’m sure they were happy I called in four hours in advance, instead of 10 minutes like some people like to do.

It’s been snowing for the last few days and I’m not a big fan of it. Now that I live so far away from work, snow is kind of a big deal. The road was pretty icy when I would have needed to go to work today and, in a way, I think that this migraine might have been a blessing in disguise. My car is quite small and doesn’t handle well in any kind of wet, especially if that wet is frozen. Hopefully the road isn’t so icy tomorrow when I need to go to work. (And hopefully my migraine doesn’t come back..)

I need to cut this one short, because I need to cook dinner. We’re having chicken and rice.