this and that

i finally finished reading jodi picoult's my sister's keeper yesterday. actually, i think i'm probably the last chick-lit reader on the planet to get through this book, but whatever. just in case i'm not, i won't spoil the ending, but let's just say that i couldn't even get through the last chapter because i was crying too hard to see straight. holy hell. i don't think i've cried that much while reading a book since the 5th grade - where the red fern grows.

*sob* old dan and little ann. *choke*

anyway, i was seriously so surprised by the way the book ended that i literally threw the book onto the floor in shock. i think that a big part of my emotional reaction to it is that one of the main characters is the teen's age. and it's never easy to imagine anything bad happening to your kid(s), which you can't help but do whenever you read something or see a news story or some shit.

i hear cameron diaz is currently shooting the movie version of this book. i don't know if i'm going to want to see it. i'm not a big fan, and it's such a serious subject. besides, whenever i see ms. diaz, i always picture her dancing in her underwear with christina applegate in "the sweetest thing." meh.

i had a couple of gifts to mail out, which i finally did yesterday. one was a housewarming gift for the hub's CW, and another a thank-you for that bbq we attended over memorial weekend. here's the cards i made:

and then when i picked up my mail, i found a large, rigid envelope from BMW. i totally cackled when i ripped it open and found this:

i swear, BMW wastes so much cash on bullshit like this. because, really - WTF am i gonna do with this thing? it's not like i'm going to scamper home, frame it and put it on my wall. if you appreciate my business so damn much, comp me a payment or something equally useful. kthxbye.

this morning, i stopped at good ol' BofA to make a deposit. they'd just replaced the old, crusty ATMs with fancy new high-tech machines, and as i looked around for deposit envelopes, i noticed a sign that said "no envelopes needed." huh?

so i inspected the machine a little more carefully and noticed two new elements i'd never before seen on an ATM: a slot marked "insert cash here" and another that said "insert check here." whoa! and when i finally stuck my card in, entered my PIN, and selected "deposit a check," i poked the check in that slot and a few seconds later, a scanned image of it appeared on the screen.

maybe i'm just easily amused and impressed, but i thought that shit was cool, yo.

oh dear. perhaps i just need to get out more.