Short post tonight, since I need to get to bed soon. I celebrated my birthday with family today, or should I say part of my family. I went out to lunch with my adopted mom and adopted aunt, then we went to see The Sentinel. My cousin and his girlfriend were supposed to join us, but they never showed, and neither one of them answered their phones when we called to see where they were. I was very disappointed that they flaked on us, but what do you expect from 23 yr olds.

I got a bunch of shot glasses. In case you didn't know it, I collect them. I have several cases on my walls here, to display some of them. One of these days I need to update my list of what I have and don't have. I also got a lounging outfit for home, and a couple of holiday tops to wear for Christmas. My big present from my aunt was my printer/scanner/copier that she and I have been talking about for months. We've been waiting to see them go on sale, and she kept putting me off when I'd tell her where I saw one cheap. Turns out she bought this one a while ago, and didn't tell me, lol. I'm going to try to get it set up this week, but not sure itf I'll have time.

Deb is coming to town this weekend. Woooooooooo Hoooooooooooooo I'll be busy in the evenings after work making sure this place is spotless for her, cause I know how much of a neat freak she is, and let's just say I'm not so much of a neat freak, lol.

Oh what a night! Late April back in 2006! LOL, my own version of the KC & the Sunshine hit!

I never even got a chance to get on the computer tonight until after Kerry was in bed! Oh my goodness, I was busy! It started out at maybe 5:15-5:30, when the phone rang. It was our long lost friend Deb. Her husband (I love saying that) Rick and his bell ringers are coming to Chicago for three performances next weekend, Deb is coming with, and would like to get together while she is here! We talked for awhile. She hasn't posted in forever for a couple reasons.

First, her back hurts when she sits down at the computer, so she hasn't really been on the computer much at all lately. Second, she hasn't posted in her blog for the first reason, but also because she FORGOT HER PASSWORD! And then she didn't have the energy to send Kerry or I an email to get her password. I will be emailing it to her tonight before I go to bed, lol. Other than all that, she's doing ok.

After I was off the phone with her, I called Darlene real quick to let her know Deb was alive and still coming to Chicago. While on the phone with her, my other line rings. I switch over, and it's the most recent match I received this week from The Right One! I switch back to Darlene, tell her I gotta go, then switch back to Tom.

Tom lives about 90 minutes away in a small town called Marseilles. He doesn't like the big city area at all. He's a truck driver, but didn't want to do it all his life, so he's back in school to be a nurse. He graduates next weekend, and already has a job waiting for him. He seems really nice, so we agreed once his exams are over with and he's finished with school, we'll figure out a time and place to meet to get better acquainted.

So while talking to him, I was taping TAR, cause I couldn't miss that. There's no repeats of it to watch later, lol. Since I was taping TAR, I missed Bones. I'll keep an eye out for possible repeats during the summer so I can catch this episode, it looked REALLY good!! By the time I got off the phone with Tom, it was almost 8pm CDT, time for Idol results show. I called Darlene back real quick to make sure she was going to watch. Andrea Boccelli was performing, so I told her she only needed to watch the first 15 minutes or so, then could watch whatever else she wanted. Andrea was great! And Kellie Pickler is FINALLY GONE! Wooooooooo hooooooooo

After Idol is Unan1mous, the show ended tonight waiting for the results of another vote to see if they can unanimously pick one of the remaining three to get the remaining $490,000 or so. What a waste...1.5 million dollars has dwindled to less than 1/3. One guy had the audacity to boast in secret to one of the others about how he just purchased a mercedes! And he claims he "needs" this money?? Once that information became public knowledge, there was no way anyone was going to vote for him to get the money!

Supposed to be another beautiful day tomorrow (it better be! I ordered one, lol) before cooling back down and getting rain for the weekend. Well, time to check the weather, take the clothes out of the washer, hang them up to dry, and start getting ready for bed. With traffic being so bad in the mornings lately, I'm having to leave by 6:45 to get to work by 8am.

Now that Blogger is back up from the upgrade or whatever it was tonight, I can post.

An update on my attempt at a lovelife: The third match I was given never called me. So after two weeks, I sent in my follow up thingy, telling them I'm not comfortable being the first person to make contact all the time. He never called me, so obviously he's not interested in finding a match. Well, a week ago, while I was still waiting for that guy to call, I got another match in the mail. After a week, he hasn't called me either. Well, guess what I got in the mail today? Another match, my fifth. I'm hoping he calls, but I'm not holding my breath. That would be a waste of some good oxygen and carbon dioxide, LOL

I have not made any decision about streaming again. I am excited for Kerry, because I know she was missing it something terrible. I just have reservations, because we're coming on the warmer weather, and the same thing happens every year when it gets warm. The chat rooms empty out, because everyone is spending time outdoors, going on vacations, etc. So why would I want to go back to streaming right before summer? I just don't know what to do. I enjoy sharing my music, I really do! I'm just really torn.

The year was 1924. Easter Sunday, April 20th in Wheatland, Wyoming. A nurse and a master sergeant, both veterans of World War I, welcomed a baby boy named Orion Ernest into the world. He was blessed to have a beautiful little sister, a second chance at love, one son, five daughters, and seven grandchildren (more came later that he never saw). He worked at his fathers car dealership, installed television antennas, repaired televisions, flew airplanes in World War II, and was the most handsome man I've ever known.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

I've been meaning to do a post to let Kerry know about the show Unan1mous. It airs on Wednesday nights, after the Idol results show on Fox. So here it is in a nutshell...

Nine people agree to go down into a bunker (underground), with no contact with the outside world, and have to come to a unanimous decsion for one and only one person of the 9 to win 1.5 million dollars. That's the basic plot. However, as any reality show viewer knows, there's always more to it.

It's weird, these people are being controlled. They are told when to eat, when to sleep, when to vote, etc. Everyone comes from different backgrounds. One is a minister, one is a poker player, another is a truck driver, another is a real estate salesman, etc. They don't have much time to get to know each other before they have to make their first vote. It's all done anonymously. There are these metallic looking balls that open up, and inside is this scrolling wheel with everyone's names on it. Each person has to choose which person he or she thinks should get the money. And you can't vote for yourself.

The first vote was not unanimous. Everyone is told to leave the room where the voting takes place. They go and explain why they think they deserve the money. Everyone starts agreeing that the truck driver is the most deserving of the money. When it's time to vote again, they are all supposed to vote for him. BUT, one person lies, says he will, then changes his vote at the last second. No one wins the money.

The game isn't over though. At this point, three folders are raised up out of the table, each folder has a secret that belongs to one of the players. They don't know who it belongs to. They have to read all three secrets, decide which one is the worst, and that person become an outcast. They are no longer in the running for the money, but they still vote for the others. Boy does the shit start to hit the fan! By this time, the minister says she's had enough of it, she wants out, and if she leaves they are told the money will be cut in half! She leaves anyway. It's now down to750,000 dollars. With her departure, the first outcast is brought back to the group. But they are still not able to unanimously decide who should get the money.

So now the money starts decreasing by one dollar every second...tick, tick, tick...money going down the drain. With people being outcasted, everyone starts turning on each other. They are making alliances, fake alliances, lying, all in the name of somehow trying to make the strong players outcasts and hoping to convince the rest to vote for them. All of this makes another of the players physically ill. She gets a horrendous migraine, is sick to the stomach, she cannot take the conditions down there. She leaves due to her health (which causes no additional decrease of the money), so there is one less person in the mix.

All I can say is this show is very weird! It's unlike anything I have watched before. I don't know if I would watch it if they do another one. But it is interesting to see what lengths people will go to, for 1.5 million dollars. The real estate salesman told everyone he has testicular cancer so they'd feel sorry for him and give him the money. He even went so far as to do a little limping so they'd think he was in pain! Everyone is lying to everyone else, there are no loyalties, the show is down to seven people, three are outcasts, and it's up to the outcasts to pick one of the four others to be another outcast. It's almost like a last man standing game, lol.

Anyway, that's Unan1mous! LOL (click on the word for show info)

Watched American Idol tonight, everyone was truly good tonight! Will be difficult to see anyone leaving tomorrow night. This week's theme was The Great American Songbook by Rod Stewart, and the contestants got to meet with and sing for Rod Stewart. He will be performing one of his songs tomorrow night. I think this is cool, because Kerry and I have two of his Songbook cd's, and we want the other two. She and I are starting to expand our music collections even further than before, branching out into more Jazz and old classics. I am enjoying this!

After that, I watched some strange British mystery I think, it takes place at some nursing school Very weird, but I had to keep watching, lmao. Then of course, I realized the Cubs game was on so started watching that. Then during a commercial, I changed to an Independant station that shows a lot of inspirational shows, like It's A Miracle. This episode had a story about a woman visiting Hong Kong and was in a motorcycle accident right before heading home to England. She appeared fine, but once on the plane started complaining about chest pain. Turns out she had a collapsed lung, and while ON THE PLANE, a doctor made a makeshift chest tube and INSERTED IT, actual surgery, so she could breathe until they landed at Heathrow! What an amazing story!

Once that story was complete, I continued on my channel surfing way, lo and behold, I came to USA channel and Nashville Star! I completely forgot it was on tonight! I saw the last performer, and who was voted off, that's the really important part, but I would like to see Chris Young's performance. So I'll check out usanetwork.com before going to bed, because the show will be re-aired about midnight or 1am. Never fear!

It will be just like last night, when I had to tape a re-airing of Days of our Lives. A former Governor of Illinois, George Ryan, was on trial for 22 separate counts, ranging from fraud, to racketeering, to who knows what else. Well, he was found guilty on all charges and faces up to 20 years in prison. The man is 70 years old. I can just picture him spending 20 years in jail, and coming out at 90, lmao. So anyway, all this came down, of course, right when Days would have been on yesterday afternoon. NBC was nice enough to re-air the broadcast of Days in the wee hours when nothing else is on, so viewers/fans could tape it and not miss that episode. NOT that anything exciting happened, lol. Nothing exciting EVER happens in Salem anymore!

Well, I think that's enough chatter, time to check the weather, check when NS will be re-aired, and head to bed.

Now that I've scanned the requisite blogs in my favorites, I can post in my own blog.

Ok.


Umm...


Went to work today. Whoopee. Boring, I did filing all afternoon.

Came home, watched Celebrity Cooking Showdown, or whatever it's called. I only watched because Ali Sweeney from Days of our Lives was on it. Of course she didn't win, even though she fixed the HARDEST dishes of the three competing. So now I don't need to watch on Thursday or Friday, lol.

Umm...

I guess I'll go to work tomorrow. That would probably be a good thing.

Umm...

I did a couple loads of laundry tonight. And I sent Kerry one last cd, Chris Botti. She's lovin' his music!

Umm...

Guess that's about it. My life is so exciting huh?? Oh yeah!

Yesterday was Easter (Resurrection Sunday for those that choose that reference, since the word Easter is never mentioned in the Bible), and I got together with family and we went out for brunch. I call it brunch, because we go to a local restaurant that serves a buffet on the big holidays like "Easter" and Mother's Day. Breakfast is at one end, then changing to lunch/dinner at the other end. I always have the breakfast, of course! It's my favorite meal of the day!

Boy did we have some fierce storms go through yesterday afternoon and last night. Not a lot of lightning and thunder, but heavy heavy rain. I was trying to drive home in part of it, and I could hardly see the road at times. We needed the rain, but not that much all at once, lol. Was beautiful today, lots of sunshine, if not a little chilly. But I can handle having to put a Spring jacket on again, lol.

Lake and Michelle are gone from The Amazing Race!!! Wooo Hooo! I think Ray and Yolanda have a good shot at winning, but it looks like next week they start to fall apart. I'm posting now because I'm taping the Idol results show. They decided to start it during TAR, and I can't watch both. So I'm taping Idol and Unan1mous, then will watch them at 9. Shouldn't take too long, lol In the meantime I can finish converting all this music Kerry sent me!

Tomorrow is the last work day of the week for me. It feels weird only being three days long, but that's as far my complaining will go, lol. I just wish I wasn't having such a hard time falling asleep. Once I'm asleep I'm fine, it's just getting there that's a problem. So today at lunch, I went out to my car, closed my eyes for about 45 minutes, thinking that I might doze, just to keep me going until I went to bed tonight. I actually fell asleep, deep enough to start dreaming in those 45 minutes! It was a very strange dream, and it had to do with work...of course!

I dreamed that I was going on vacation or something like that, so I wouldn't be around. One of my customers had a load of steel that they were waiting for, and we were expecting the truck driver to need directions. So I had a map out and I was writing down the directions to the customer, to give to my boss, because the driver was somehow going to be calling him! The call was going to be forwarded from his phone at work to his cell phone or something, lmao. When I told him about this dream at lunch, he told me I need to stop thinking about work so much. I tried to tell him work was the LAST thing on my mind! (At least I didn't dream about dirty toilete stalls again! That's a story you DON'T want to hear about.)

I'm trying to finish watching Nashville Star, but I also wanted to start my post before I forgot. It's down to three contestants, and one won't make it. So far my fav is Chris Young! He wrote an awesome song! Next contestant is up...

Today was back to work day. Not too much going on. I specifically told my boss that if a release came in for a specific customer, that I would do it when I came in today. Did he listen? No...he did it anyway. I ended up having to cancel two loads with the warehouse, because of the coils my boss was putting on the same truck. I wish he would listen when I ask him NOT to do something. Grrrrrrrrr. I know he means well. But I also know he's been really busy and stressed out, having problems with a processor, so why he spent the time to do part of my stuff, and then put a note on the paperwork saying "I hope I did it right, it's been a long time since I did one of these." If that's the case, then DON'T DO IT! Oh well, I guess next time I shouldn't waste my breath.

Down to two on Nashville Star, one man and one woman...who will be leaving tonight? Sssshhhh, I'll never tell!

Ok, color me confused! As Nashville Star was ending, I switched over to CMT, which is airing the CMT Music Awards. I SWEAR I saw Wynonna on stage with Kenny Chesney as he was accepting an award for Who You'd Be Today. If Nashville Star is supposed to be LIVE, and the CMT Music Awards are supposed to be LIVE, how can Wynonna be in TWO places at once, wearing TWO different outfits???????

Well, I thought today would be nice and relaxing getting up, seeing as how I had the day off. My alarm went off at 9am, but I had a headache, so I hit snooze and laid back down to see if I could take the edge off before actually getting up for the day. About 4 minutes later, there's a banging noise, possibly at my door. I get up, stumble to the peephole, and outside my door is one of the maintenance men. Apparently, my water heater was leaking and it was going down to the apartment below me. So I threw enough clothes on to be decent, let him in, and they proceeded to spend the next 15 minutes replacing some seal I guess. I can't remember what they called it. I was only half awake at the time and I was on the phone with my official wake up call (Kerry), lol. It was a connector for the meter that reads how much hot water I use. I pay for my electricity to heat the water, I pay for the water that I heat, but not the cold water I use. It was just a drippy leak, nothing major for my apartment, but I would have noticed it this morning when I went to do laundry (my water heater is right next to my washer and dryer).

Anyway, once they were gone, I took a couple advil, checked my email, did a couple loads of laundry, showered, and started my day. I cleaned some old clothes out of my closet that I haven't worn in a while. Some were good enough to be given to Goodwill, others were tossed. I also had some other things in the second bedroom that could go to Goodwill, so I got all that together and delivered them. Hopefully, people should get some use out of all of it. I also got a haircut. It wasn't terribly long, but my bangs were starting to get into my line of sight, which bothers me. So I figured since I had the day off, I'd get it cut now. I also did my taxes today; I can't believe I actually have to PAY both federal and state! I haven't had to pay federal in YEARS! So much for using that to pay for my car maintenance. I scheduled that today, since I'll be at 15,000 miles in a few days. I also washed the outside of my sliding glass door and the screen. The screen didn't actually get "washed", I just took a cheap broom I use for sweeping my balcony, and I brush off the screen to get all the dust that accumulated all winter off it.

I still have more things to do around here, possibly Friday I will get more done, once I'm back from the dealer with my car. But at least it's a start.

Aaaaaahhhhhh, it's nice knowing I can go to bed tonight and have an extra day off tomorrow. I'm planning on getting started on my spring cleaning, running some errands (haircut, grocery store, etc.). It will be nice being able to open the windows and air this place out. I didn't do it really at all this winter, so it needs it badly. Should be a perfect day for it, high temp near 70F.

I saw Take The Lead today, starring Antonio Banderas. It was very good. Brief synopsis...he's a ballroom dance instructor and decides to teach some high school detention students how to dance ballroom style. They of course resist, he insists, and in the process everyone learns something. The dancing was entertaining, and of course Antonio was looking very nice! If you are an Antonio Banderas fan, are a fan of ballroom dancing, or just want to see a feel-good movie about down-and-out kids making their lives better, then go see this movie!

I love Saturday, the one day each week I allow myself to sleep in...usually. Last night I stayed up until 3am reading a book. A very good historical romance about a woman from Virginia who goes back in time to right before the Revolutionary War. She got to meet Patrick Henry, and (lol) helped him with his famour "Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death" speech. Of course she fell in love (the whole point of the story), and stayed in the 18th century. I love happy endings!

After sleeping till noon, that was only 9 hours of sleep, hardly enough to consider sleeping in, I got dressed and ran some errands. I went to Best Buy first, not sure if I was going to buy anything there. I ended up purchasing the blank cd's I needed while I was there, and I also purchased the two copies of Narnia while I was there, since they were on sale for 14.99 there, the same as Target. Since that was my big reason for going to Target, I didn't need to go there anymore, one less stop to make. Also while I was at Best Buy, I glanced at the printer/scanner/copiers, because I've been wanting one for awhile now. The cheapest one at Best Buy was $150, not exactly cheap. I've seen them at Target for $65, so decided I would keep looking. My aunt also wants one, so she's been telling me that she's waiting for them to go lower in price before she buys one. (Turns out she bought one for me for my birthday in a few weeks, so I'll be getting one very soon!)

I decided not to get my hair cut today. Being off on Monday, I thought I'd go then, when it probably won't be as crowded. So from Best Buy, I headed across town to Big Lots to pick up Laundry Detergent. I ended up buying 6 of them, they probably had about 8 more. But I couldn't fit any more in the cart. I will probably keep three of them, and off the others to my aunt and/or her sister.

Once back at home, I watched the end of the Cubs game (Cubbies won!), and talked to my aunt in CA on the phone. She agrees with how I handled the guy who called to apologize (after three weeks) for not wanting to meet me. She also encouraged me to not give up, which I hadn't planned on doing anyway. I might be seeing her later this year, we discussed meeting up in Colorado in September. My great-niece will be four I think, and we might end up going there for her birthday.

Kerry sent me a LOT of songs tonight, we spent three hours in msn transferring songs. Only 8 more cd's to go! Woooooo Hooooooo And I was even doing that while playing NTT, which I won again! Na Na Nee Boo Boo to Jopete! :P Now I'll have to play again next Saturday to defend my title, lol.

It's Friday night, and I have a long weekend ahead of me. I took Monday off as a personal day. It would have been the 38th birthday of a dear friend of mine, and I miss her dearly.

Today at work I spent most of the day filing. That's a good thing, because there's so much filing to be done. But it made the day go by slower than I would have liked. Things have quieted down quite a bit at work, not only am I free to do filing now, but two other people in my department (well three, but the third doesn't pitch in) also are helping with this filing. Between the three of us, it should get done pretty quickly.

Tonight, despite the extreme tiredness of Kerry (hey, that could be a story!) we got two cd's transferred. It was more like three, because one cd had 18 songs on it. And msn wasn't cooperating, the file transfers were going very slowly, about 7-10 minutes per song.

Tomorrow I have errands to run. I'm going to Target to buy two copies of Narnia (to give as a birthday present and a Christmas present) later this year, going to Big Lots because I am told they are currently carrying the laundry detergent I use, and it's getting harder to find so I buy it when I find it. I will also probably stop at Best Buy to pick up some blank cd's, since I only have one left. It's time for a haircut too; my bangs are long enough to be in my line of sight. Hopefully, after all that, Kerry and I will have time to transfer some more cd's. I still have to convert all the songs she's sent me the last few days, and move them to their respective artist folders. Plus I might go in to c2c tomorrow night to defend my title at NTT, lol.

I'm trying to type this during commercials for Nashville Star. All I can say so far is, Chris Young is awesome! I started out liking Matt Mason, but my allegiance is moving steadily more and more to the side of Chris Young every week. Two performers done on Nashville Star and I think there must have been some communication between Nashville and Hollywood this past week. The first two performers on Nashville Star sang the same songs as were sung on American Idol this week. Of all the country songs out there, what are the odds? I'm wondering if any more will be duplicated, lol. ( I bet Kerry liked Kristen's song)

OH yeah, and I just HAVE to comment on Naomi Judd being a guest judge on tonight's show! I just love the banter between mother and daughter! It's nice that the two of them have a better relationship now than they used to have, so people can see them together like this. It's really making the show enjoyable this week. Keeping having judges like this, instead of John Cena from last week, or Larry the Cable Guy from the previous week. I didn't care to listen to either one of them, I don't value their opinion, and if they're there for entertainment, don't make them a judge, just have them be a guest host or something.

Speaking of country...I picked up Rascal Flatts' new cd today, it's called Me and My Gang. If the first release off it is any indication, the cd should be just as good as their previous three. ( I also got a Jack Johnson cd and a David Gilmour cd, but they aren't country, so I won't mention them.)

Things might be slowing down just a tad at work, which is good, cause I have enough other things to do besides my regular stuff. And end of month is over with, so that makes things easier. It'll still be only in the 50's tomorrow, but the office is so warm, I'll probably wear short sleeves just so I don't break out in a sweat if I get the opportunity to do some filing tomorrow.

Ok, going back to the show. Hope everyone watching it is enjoying it as much as I am!

Happy Daylight Saving Time!

Is everyone appropriately messed up on what time they should go to bed? LOL It's almost 11pm CDT, and I'm just now starting to get tired, which is good. Now if I can just fall asleep when I crawl into bed.

Since Kerry was going to her orientation for school tonight, I thought I'd take the time to not only watch DooL, but to watch a show from Friday night that I hadn't watched yet. By the time that was done, and I got online, I didn't see Kerry anywhere. She was either in bed, or just not online and didn't see me, lol. So I went into AD since BillCal was streaming, and I usually like his streams. WildAngel was in there, and I remember Deb commenting to me that she thought WildAngel and Wendy were the same person. Turns out they aren't the same person, they are SISTERS! And Ticat was their brother, Mustang is their brother, and Foxybabe is their sister! Chatting...the new family affair, lmao.

Was another busy day at work today. I keep waiting for it to slow down again so I can get more filing done, cause it's still just piling up, lol. I got most of the file drawers straight so I have room to actually DO the filing, but now I don't have the TIME to do the filing! Argh!

I discovered something this weekend that I knew Kerry would want to know about. On Tuesday nights, we both watch The Amazing Race, and Nashville Star. The problem is they are both on at 10pm EDT. Not anymore! TAR has now moved to Wednesday nights at 8pm EDT, which puts it opposite Bones, which I watch before the Idol results show. So now I don't have to tape TAR while I watch Nashville Star, but I have to either tape TAR or Bones on Wednesdays. I can't seem to win, there's either nothing on to watch, or I have multiple shows all on the same night.

Here's hoping I can fall asleep! Nighty night!