annieology

Got my bag.

Purple, I know.  Be shocked. I couldn’t decide between purple and T-Moro Brown (who comes up with these?).  The universe decided for me.  No, T-Moro Brown left.

You probably heard about it on Twitter.  Well, some of you anyway.

So excited I was to have saved $80 I had to tweet it.  Immediately I got asked by Mr. B that I know IRL (in real life) “Where?”, because he has been trained to jump when someone says Dooney.  Good job Renee!

Guess what I did?

I asked him which bag his ever lovely bride wanted. Because it was a good sale and there were slim pickins, and I wanted my friend, his wife, to get the right thing at a great price.

Um hello, she possesses the only uterus in that coupling.

He had no clue, which was a good thing for him.  Had he known the model of purse his wife wanted it would have required me to make Tech Support punch him in the face in order for him to keep his man card.  But still giving credit for his training to jump at the words “Dooney. Sale.”

Not like this information is new to me.  I got omom a Vera Bradley for Christmas.  When I told Tech Support that I had the perfect gift for his mother and then told him “Vera Bradley” he was all like “oh, I have no idea what that means.”  And when I gave it to her and she showed it to her Tech Support he had the same look of “oh, I guess, whatever.”

Men????

Anyway, after buying my bag, I went to the grocery store, where I saw a man polishing his Geo.  Yes, I know.  They DID stop making that brand back in 1900 something (or if ESPN gets their way 2K-4).  You don’t have to tell me.

Somewhere along the way I ran into a cat person.  My face is on fire.

I actually remembered to pay for daycare.  I made it a point, for two very important reasons.  The first was that I LOVE them for taking (the kids off my hands) care of my kids three days a week.   Second was that I was walking in with a NEW PURSE that cost as much as a month of daycare for one kid, it would be kind of lame to stand there with my new purse and explain “I can’t afford to pay you right now….”.

Although, have you been to the local WIC office lately?  Yes, I know.  But I don’t qualify based on need, the kids qualify based on being in foster care.  Anyway, I drove the lamest car and people would openly mock my lame purse.

“Yeah, I can’t buy a Coach and a Navigator, I had to buy food.”

I know.  I am so going to hell.  Did I tell you I failed the compassion test at church?

Surprised aren’t you?

It’s not a lack of compassion universally, per se.  There was a time in my life when I needed help.  A short time, and instead of working the system, I worked.  It helped.  It was there when nothing else was. My car was a piece of crap and had no reason to get a purse of any kind.

Anyway, me and my heartless self need to fill out a BUNCH of paperwork to end the most boring portion of our life.  And pray that stupid attorney calls us back because they want us to do something that we aren’t required to do that will cost us money, and you know, I’ll pay the attorney 4x as much solely on principle.  I refuse to do ONE more thing than required by law to get these kids.  But will save that boring story for another day.

Yesterday, Mountain Momma awarded me this

*

as a way to suck up to me for, well for being fabulous and kicking her ass in this…

*

Just kidding of course, I want to be like her when I grow up.  Paid to write. Anyway, to fulfill my duties as a fabulous blog I have to tell you five of my obsessions.

First, as you all have heard, I love me an Old Navy tank or twelve.

*

The rest of my obsessions are in the picture below.  I know when you add the Old Navy tanks into the mix you get way more than five.  But one of the images is me, and I am not my own obsession.  Well, who are we kidding, I so totally am.  I also know that my headband does not match my annieology shirt.  I love them all.  If you want to see a bigger picture click on the image.  Tech support says it will work, if it doesn’t we’ll blame him.

My ring is totally more awesome than this picture would indicate.  And symbolic of my obsession of my man, married these 11 years.  That’s like half my life as far as you know.

The shirt, is a gift from my friends.  I love it almost as much as I love them.  Skip and Susie rock!

The glasses are really cheap Vera Wang’s from Kohl’s.  I tend to lose things, so $20 sunglasses totally rule.

My headband, a total necessity for the bangs transition.  I haven’t decided if I’m going to keep the bangs or not, they are cute, but I have to get them cut every two weeks or they look all lame.  The headband is great, and it matches my 50s housewife apron, AND is reversible, just like my apron.

My phone, is purple, and I can read blogs, and it has Facebook.  I’m set.  I hear it also can be used as a phone, but that has yet to be determined.

I think that pretty much covers my obsessions.  My next duty is to pass this award on to five fabulous blogs.  In keeping with the obsession theme, I decided to award the award to my five most obsessed blogger friends, according to the webalizer top referrers.

It was close, only two referrals difference between the top two finishers.

1. Suite Life of Lucy and Ethel
2. The Monster Wrangler
3. Miraculously My Own
4. The Accidental Mommy
5. Reptiles in the Icecream (top Facebook sharer)

If you look carefully, you will see many black spots on the sand.  Look towards where the guy with the camera is facing.

This is the up close and personal.  A Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle hatchling, making his way to the water.  We got up around 5:45 to drive out to the sea shore to see about 200 of them make their way from the beach to the water.

This is, probably, my fifth time to see a turtle release.  I’m still totally fascinated.

It fascinates me that something this tiny

Can go into something this big

and remember where it came from.

Thanks to Joy for this photo

It wasn’t by chance that we happened upon this little marvel of nature.  In 1979  humans got involved in gathering the eggs from turtle nests in Mexico and bringing them to Texas to incubate and release.  Nest were first noticed on the Texas seashore starting in 1996.

Kemp’s ridley nests documented on the Texas coast since 1996

Year	No. of Nests	No. of Eggs	Hatchlings Released
1996	6	590	369
1997	9	968	893
1998	13	1,270	800
1999	16	1,681	1,364
2000	12	1,160	1,000
2001	8	837	584
2002	38	3,771	2,536
2003	19	1,718	1,426
2004	42	3,928	3,298
2005	50	4,700	3,402
2006	102	9,717	7,475
2007	128	12,555	10,596
2008	195	17,958*	15,819**

*Of the 195 nests discovered, 185 of the nests kept in protected incubation contained 17,958

This year 197 nests were found and incubated at the Padre Island National Seashore, setting a new record.  The final clutches were released this morning.

There were 200 turtles released this morning.  Of those 200, only a fraction will survive to maturity.  Released turtles have a 1/100 chance of surviving to maturity, their wild counterparts fair much worse with a survival rate of about 1/1,000.

The nest season starts in April and generally run until June.  The clutches released this morning were found in the beginning of July.  Padre Island National Seashore holds hatchling releases from late May until August every year.  The bulk of those releases held in June and July.

If you would like to learn more about attending a future sea turtle release in Texas go here.