I'm still here...

Just mainly posting on www.xanga.com/ttwedding

Yes, I've become one of those bride-to-be bloggers that I used to hate. Go figure.

Probably should've stuck with this one...But, oh well.

PETA kills animals.

Hypocrisy is the mother of all credibility problems, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has it in spades. While loudly complaining about the "unethical" treatment of animals by restaurant owners, grocers, farmers, scientists, anglers, and countless other Americans, the group has its own dirty little secret.

PETA kills animals. By the thousands.

From July 1998 through December 2006, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) killed ober 17,400 dogs, cats, and other "companion animals." That's more than five defenseless creatures every day. PETA has a walk-in freezer to store the dead bodies, and contracts with a Virginia Beach company to cremate them.

Not counting the pets PETA spayed and neutered, the group put to death over 97 percent of the animals it took in during 2006. And its angel-of-death pattern shows no sign of changing.

Skeptical? Go here for proof: http://www. petakillsanimals. com/downloads/PetaKillsAnimals. pdf

On its 2002 federal income-tax return, PETA claimed a $9,370 write-off for a giant walk-in freezer, the kind most people use as a meat locker or for ice-cream storage. But animal-rights activists don't eat meat or dairy foods. And during a 2007 criminal trial, a PETA manager (testifying under oath) confirmed the obvious -- that the group uses the appliance to store the bodies of its victims.

In 2000, when the Associated Press first noted PETA's Kervorkian-esque tendencies, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk complained that actually taking care of animals costs more than killing them. "We could become a no-kill shelter immediately," she admitted.

PETA kills animals. Because it has other financial priorities.

PETA rakes in nearly $30 million each year in income, much of it raised from pet owners who think their donations actually help animals. Instead, the group spends huge sums on programs equating people who eat chicken with Nazis, scaring young children away from drinking milk, recruiting children into the radical animal-rights lifestyle, and intimidating businessmen and their families in their own neighborhoods. PETA has also spent tens of thousands of dollars defending arsonists and other violent extremists.

PETA claims it engages in outrageous media-seeking stunts "for the animals." But which animals? Carping about the value of future two-piece dinners while administering lethal injections to puppies and kittens isn't ethical. It's hypocritical -- with a death toll that PETA would protest if it weren't their own doing.

PETA kills animals. And its leaders dare lecture the rest of us?

source: http://www. petakillsanimals. com/petasdirtysecret. cfm

I *hate* Valentine's Day

And as I've spent more years single than in relationships, most people who know me were not surprised by this angry declaration. However, when I've had a significant other - and especially now that I'm engaged - I tend to get very odd looks when I express my hatred of this particular day-o-love.

Maybe it's just a hold over from my single days, when those not fortunate enough to be joined at the groin with a member of the opposite sex had to endure the parade of roses, chocolate, and teddy bears. Knowing, of course, that we would recieve none of it. It is rather humiliating; but even more so that stores awash with red and pink in celebration of a Hallmark holiday could actually make us feel so worthless.

Even now that I'm soon to be celebrating my own marriage, I still can't bring msyelf to feel happy on February 14th. I still can't bring myself to feel that, because of the numbers on a calendar, my fiance is obligated to shower me with candy, flowers and adoration.

Am I the only one who thinks this is a rediculous idea?

Even today, while picking up my dinner at the grocery store, the palce was packed with last-minute shoppers - mostly of the male variety - loading up on roses, gigantic baloons, and boxes of Russell Stover. And I had to wonder: how many of them are spending the extra cash out of true feeling or simply because of obligation?

How many relationships have ended needlessly because the male half forget Valentine's Day, and yet the woman somehow forgot all the little things he did every other day of the year to show how much he cared.

Seriously, girls. How shallow have we gotten?

Wouldn't you rather be surprised by a hand-picked boquet of wildflowers in the middle of June because he drove by a pretty field and thought of you? Wouldn't you rather find a love note in the pocket of a seldom-worn jacket that he "just happened" to pull out of the closet? Wouldn't you rather find a rose on your pillow for no reason at all?

...No wonder they say that romance is dead.

hehe. I just had to!

(The truly ironic thing is that, despite all my protesting against the dreaded Singles Awareness Day, my finace still sent me two little stuffed dogs and a miniature rose plant, as well as a card that read, "Wishing I was here to celebrate with you, Love Chris" ...Even the most hardened anti-VD individual had to )

And in other news...

...If you know the symbolism of the Claddagh ring, you'll know what this means

 ...After all there's only one more sleep 'til Christmas.