First link-up EVER! Backthatazzup.

So This is my first link-up EVER! I felt that it was only appropriate that my first link-up would be called "Back That Azz Up Friday.” Seriously. #backthatazzup

Thank you Whitney for creating this awesomeness!

My selection for today’s backthatazzup Friday is (drumroll) … Slam Dunk (Da Funk) by 5ive!! or Five… Yeah, I don’t know. They have the numerical figure of the word they are trying to “spell” in their name, so that really makes them fiveive. It was a ploy at creativity or cleverness but it really didn't work out.

This song is from the days of watching Smart House on Disney Channel, but it made an appearance on a “pre-party” playlist in college at one point. I can’t for the life of me find it on my iTunes now, so it must have been someone else’s playlist. Either way, this song never fails to get me pumped up! It isn't a particularly jammin’ song… but it is just so amazing.



Please watch the video when they do the close ups. It is just so incredibly hilarious!

1.) What are they wearing!?
2.) I cannot for the life of me figure out who the “hot one” was. I know there was one and I think there was a consensus! Right? Help me! No wait, I think the hot one was the bad ass with the spiked hair wearing a windbreaker at the beginning… never thought I would type those words.
3.) The rap section
4.) The haircuts
5.) They took themselves SO seriously!
Okay, I don’t feel that it is appropriate for me to go beyond 5… for obvious reasons.

One of the guys looks like Spot from the Newsies, one looks like Justin from 98 Degrees and one looks like the host of Singled Out. Is it an illusion? Tell me!!

Enjoy your weekend and don’t forget to #backthatazzup!

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Tricks vs. Trix

Pretty Woman taught us that you don’t want to “turn tricks.” BUT General Mills taught us that "Trix are for kids."

Tricks vs. Trix

It just doesn't make sense. Didn't General Mills (not a real general btw) know that the word tricks/ trix had a different meaning? Did no one on their marketing team find it at all inappropriate?

So the rabbit was silly for thinking that he could have Trix. Duh, they were for kids. And oh my gosh, remember Trix Yogurt!? Gross. Google image search Trix Yogurt. Why our parents thought feeding neon colored yogurt to their children was okay is beyond me!

Okay n/m I’ll Google for you:

I really have nothing else to say. Or anything to say at all. I know this was super random. Except that it isn't! I'll let you in on how my mind works real quick. I thought of this because I heard "Kiss" by Prince on the radio, which of course sent my mind to think of Pretty Woman. It then spiraled quickly.

Moral of the story: Don’t turn tricks. Also, Trix are for kids… and probably terrible for you. So maybe we should all just stay away from both.

Pretty Woman on the other hand? It's good. Watch it.

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Jump jump through heaven. RIP Kriss.

So the “Kriss” of Kriss Kross died. Sad. I also would like to mention that somehow he stopped being a teenage boy and died at age 34… Soooo that is weird. I was pretty certain that he was still a pre-teen wearing backwards clothes.

This news has not rocked my life or anything, but it does make me sad. Kriss Kross provided a lot of awesome dancing times for all of us. And when I say dancing, I clearly mean jumping. Because even for the non-dancer peeps out there, you could fully participate in "Jump." Why? Because all you did was “jump-jump” with one arm in the air. It was a “we accept everyone” dance. You didn't need to be able to "Tootsie Roll," drop it like it was hot w/ Snoop or "Cha Cha slide" (and more specifically the Charlie Brown. Not that any of us knew what to do at that part). All you needed to do was jump!
(Click on that Snoop link and get sad at how beautiful Pharrell Williams is. Beautiful and engaged.)

So today in honor of Chris Kelly AKA Kriss, let’s remember the lesson he taught us, accept all dancing levels on the dance floor.

Never forget: “Kriss Kross will make you, jump jump. Booooyaaaaa”

This is not to be confused with "Jump Around" by House of Pain. Another great jumping song! And probably more heavily played at school dances than "Jump." BUT we do not discriminate jumping songs on this blog.

RIP Kriss. I hope the heavenly cloud jumping is off the hook.

The art of the mixtape.

I am not old enough to have had the experience of waiting for my song to come on the radio and hit record as quickly as possible, just to ensure that my song was being recorded onto my cassette. Okay, maybe I did it once or twice. But just when I was in my (short lived) country phase. In hindsight, I am glad that I didn’t waste my “hard earned” allowance on country music CDs. Why? Because that means my money was instead spent on boy bands and trips on my bike to 7-11 or Dairy Queen. So much better.

Anywho, this post is about how I have officially lost the art of creating the perfect mix. I blame technology! And iTunes. And college. And terrorism (I just feel like terrorists should always be blamed).

My sister and I used to spend so many "homework hours" in high school illegally downloading music. Get off my back, you know you did it too! Napster was a thing. Remember? And at the time it wasn't illegal! Well… it might have been. Beyond the downloading, we also had an insane CD collection. It was the 4-per page book and it was amazing. I think it is still at my parents’ house! Now I am determined to find it. Anyway, because of our amazing music collection, we became artists when it came to creating the perfect seasonal mix. Oh gosh, and remember the importance of the sharpie art? Especially if it was going to a boy.

A perfect mix would of course have an appropriate rise and fall for your day:

- Starts off slow for the drive to school (3 songs)
- Awesome sing along jams for off campus lunch and car dancing with your gurls (4 songs)
- A medium song for the immediate post school wind-down
- A slow rise back up for pre-practice pump-up (3-4 songs)

These days with iTunes and even Spotify or Grooveshark, you can select an entire album and just “shuffle.” That is what I have been doing on my iTunes playlists for a while now… and I can honestly say that I have officially lost the art of the mix. It is gone. I take my most recent purchased albums and random songs and just hit shuffle.

At one time there were mix rules! I miss the rules. If you had new songs by a fave artist, you could only put a 3rd song by that artist if it was a classic. For example, if I was about to make a new mix that had some JT 20/20 on it, I could only put a third JT track on there if it is a classic (ala Cry Me a River). Do you catch my drift?

A mix by me would usually include some Britney. A mix by my sister would usually include some DMX Dr. Dre (My sister called after the post went up to correct me) or Biggie. She actively thought we lived in the hood. It was SW Portland, not the south side of Chicago Linds. BUT her hoodness did give her an uncharacteristic love of rap that carries through to today. Most people would be shocked to learn this fun fact. She comes off as so straight laced!

For a post with good playlists from someone who has not lost this art - visit Venus!

Alright folks, have a great Tuesday! Tomorrow is May. I hope you have all seen that ‘Nsync GIF. Okay, just in case:

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Fears Realized!

Can we chat really quickly about what happened on the Marquam Bridge last night!? Let’s move beyond the fact that you were in heinous traffic for hours okay? Instead let’s talk about some scary stuff! Isn’t it your worst fear any time you pass a semi that the stuff on the truck will fall on your car? Or that you will get wedged between two trucks? Your fears are valid folks! Because that ACTUALLY happened to someone last night here in PDX.

For those of you who don’t live here, or maybe you do live here but don’t watch the news and you also don’t listen to KEX on your way home… Here is the reason traffic sucked:

Yesterday a semi was taking a turn on the freeway and a concrete beam that was loaded on the back of his truck somehow shifted the balance of the truck bed and tipped, crushing the car next to him and pinning down the driver of the car with a concrete beam. The driver was okay, but her hand was injured by the beam.

I have this strange fear of trucks on the freeway. Especially if it is raining, or if they are log trucks, or really if there is any kind of exposed cargo. This just confirms that those “irrational fears” are straight up VALID! It is a miracle that this woman came out of the accident with only a hand/ arm injury.

Check it:

via

via

And a vid:



Okay, happy sunny days you fools! Enjoy the 70+ degree weather while it lasts! Only one post by me this week. I’m a busy lady with sunshine to enjoy and a boyfriend to go visit in Seattle. Peace!

PS. Remember my post about fear?... oops.

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A news break.

I cannot stop watching the live news feed of everything that is going down in Boston and the surrounding areas. I don’t know about you guys, but I could use a little something happy when most of my news feed and twitter is so incredibly depressing. Brian Williams just reported that people in Watertown have been told that they should not answer their doors! Scary scary scary.

In my attempt to bring you a smile, please enjoy an episode from season one of Boy Meets World. Not only is this a great after-school special type episode that teaches about acceptance, but it is FILLED with future D-list celebs! Be on the lookout for Yeah-Yeah from Sandlot, the klepto guy from Can’t Hardly Wait, Val from Brink and that chick from Full House, babysitters club etc. It is basically a who’s who of future 90s stars.
Side note: Shawn had a sister in this episode!? She was never mentioned again...

Enjoy! And be reminded that the lesson Ke$ha taught us was really first shown to us by Boy Meets World and the free spirited Topanga Lawrence. We are who we are!

Also, no more blowing stuff up or killing people. Okay? That is enough. Seriously.

Have a great weekend everyone!

A very vino weekend!

This weekend I wine tasted and it was fantastic!

One of the major benefits of living where we do, is that we basically have our very own Napa Valley just a hop skip over in Yamhill County. Yes, it is a much chillier and really probably not like Napa Valley, but it is very beautiful none the less. And they have wine! So… yeah. It’s awesome. Know what else is awesome? The fact that I went to college out there! I would say that we all (speaking directly to my fellow wildcats) took for granted that our college was in such a beautiful place. At least I can say that we took advantage of the wineries for a couple years. Turning 21 in wine country was not so shabby!

We started the day with brunch and mimosas, packed the car with snacks and hit the road! We visited Penner Ash, Adelsheim, Bergstrom and Colene Clemens. Our least favorite was Adelsheim. They were crazy pretentious and had pathetic pours. We paid to be in here! You might as well be nice and quit being so stingy with your vino! You have a few grape vines… I don’t think you’re going to run out! All the others were marvelous though. Amazing wines at Penner Ash, snacks and cool stories at Bergstrom and Colene Clemens had a pup and a fire place. Who doesn't love a cute puppy and cozy fireplace!?

Get ready for a ridiculous amount of photos!

Sista friend! 

Marina and my lovely mother! 

Mama Jo was our chauffeur extraordinaire! 

Just a few texts went out... Sorry I'm not sorry Brian! 

Pretty friends and tasty wine. This was the place w/ snacks! We were about it. 

Marina's new friend

I hope your weekends were stellar too!