Or at least photos of animals…and of children, cartoons, comics, celebrities, nudity, artwork, or images that may be copyrighted. I just received this notice from eVite after using the above monkey picture as my my profile photo for some time now.

Dear Andrew,

Thank you for uploading a photo to your My Info page.

Unfortunately, we had to take down your photo because the one you
posted contains animals, children, cartoons, comics, celebrities,
nudity, artwork, or copyrighted images.

The photograph you upload should be of you and should be current.
Your face should be clearly visible in the photo. We will accept
photographs which show yourself plus another adult person (spouse,
family member, etc) and/or your children, and a graphic containing a
logo provided that you are the copyright owner.

Please go back to My Info to post another photo of yourself:

http://www.evite.com/pages/gt/people/view.jsp

*Be sure to copy and paste the entire URL into your browser window.

For more information, read the Photo Submission Guidelines in our
Terms of Service:

http://www.evite.com/html/popups/terms.html

Cheers,
The Evite Team

This was a pretty lame move…I mean, who cares that I use a monkey for a profile image? I know for a FACT that other people liked it and that it actually ads to any viral-ness that my profile had…because people send around things that are funny and a monkey for a profile photo is funny.

Now this very quick post means no disrespect to my girlfriend (or previous girlfriends) as she take great care of me on many levels. In fact, this is props to her and other similar girls out there that take care of the things that guys like me will never do on their own.

As I look around my apartment, I notice very quickly that there are numerous things that make it a better place that I had nothing to do with picking out, purchasing, hanging up, thinking about, or doing. They are things like drapes, shower curtains, table cloths, fake plants, coasters, bathmats, nice towels, nice pillows, and other general knick knacks that I would never even think to buy — but they make my life better.

When I first moved in to my apartment, I had an argument/discussion with the girl I was dating at the time over the need for a shower curtain. My opinion was that the shower curtain liner I found at Wal Mart for $3.99 was plenty barrier between the inside of my shower and the rest of the world. I didn’t understand the need for a $25 second layer that seemed to do little more than make my bathroom slightly more attractive (to her). Long story short, after debating the point for a bit, I ended up with a floral print shower curtain (under protest) that she found and put up. In the end….it made things better.

The above incident was over 2 years ago, and last night I underwent my third shower curtain related upgrade and it is the best one yet. After the current girl bought me a new shower curtain this past Christmas, she went added a new clear liner to the mix recently, and what a difference. It is clear, it is clean, and wouldn’t you know…it makes a huge difference in my shower experience. How do girls think of this stuff? Brilliant.

I have had a discussion about yard sales with my father on numerous occasions. My point is they are a giant waste of time, equivalent to moving things from garage/basement to yard and then back in the hopes of making $12.50 over an 8-10 hour period. If I really want to make $1.25 an hour for manual labor, I will go make shoes for Nike. I know the thought of haggling pennies over my old toy xylophone from 1982 does sound like a load of fun, but I will take the option of preserving my Saturday and just paying to have someone lug away my useless junk any day. Yard sales to me are a losing proposition every time.

That brings me to the mother of all yard sales, the flea market. I happen to live across the street from one so I get to check it out every now and again. Not necessarily to buy, but more to marvel at the garbage that is spread all over these 8 foot tables, and the people trying to sell it. Some actual items I noticed on my most recent trip were:

• A package of mens underwear
• A box of Rice-a-Roni
• A “set” of 7 billiard balls
• 3 8-bit Nintendo games
• A stack of random, non-collectible magazines

The best part? They were all on the same table. I mean, what possesses someone to load these things into the car at 7am, drive to Grafton, pay $25 for the table, and set up shop to sell this stuff? Even if they have the best possible sales day and sell ALL of it, the quick math tells you it is a loss. The items on the table don’t even add up to the $25 it costs to rent the space! And who is buying back issues of family circle magazine??? If I want old, irrelevant magazines, I will steal them from my dentist. I just don’t understand the mentality of these people…I don’t think I ever will.