Almost the end of Idol for this season! The remaining four contestants sang two songs each tonight. It's too late now for me to post a review, so I hope to do that tomorrow night, perhaps during the hour long drag it out forever results show. Barry Gibb was the mentor this week, so it was definitely interesting!

Until tomorrow!

Idol Gives Back Part 2

Wow, what a show!! There's no way I can properly put into words the emotions I felt tonight as I watched all the clips of Ryan, Simon, Paula and Randy visiting poor neighborhoods here in the U.S. and the abject poverty in Africa. You hear about it, and you see images, but until you see them putting a woman in a truck to get her to a hospital for medical treatment, only to have her die 2 days later...or the mother trying to get her son to a treatment facility for malaria, only to have him die in her arms on the way there.

Just during the 2 hour show, over 30 million dollars was raised by people calling in or donating through the website, www.americanidol.com.

As for the Idol contestants...all were safe tonight. With the show trying to raise money to help so many people, they didn't want to vote anyone off. So the votes from last night will be combined with next week's votes, and the bottom TWO will leave next week. Will be interesting to see what next week's theme is...


4/26 12:00pm UPDATE: I read this morning that Jon Bon Jovi will be on next week's show, so the theme is mostly likely Rock. I almost hate to say this, but can you imagine what Sanjaya would have done to his hair for THIS theme?

Idol Gives Back

Tonight's theme was inspiring or uplifting songs. Chris Richardson was up first, singing Change the World, originally done by Eric Clapton. Not my favorite performance by him. He had to do his little head shake thingy, and with his "pop" sound, I wasn't too impressed. It wasn't his worst performance to date, but I think he will be inthe bottom three. Not sure what style he has going on either. A dress shirt with a tie sorta loose, shirt is untucked, a jacket over it all, cargo style pants and sneakers. Is that what passes for pop stars these days? You'd think he would use a little more style considering the serious subject of this week's shows.

Next was Melinda Dolittle singing Faith Hill's There Will Come A Day. All I can say about Melinda is AWESOME. Her version was just as good as Faith's, and that's saying a lot, because Faith is one singer that is usually up there with Celine, Whitney, Chaka, etc as a "do not sing their songs cause you can't compare." I can't wait for this song to be available to download! Loved the poster in the audience that said Melinda Dolittle does MORE, lmao.

Blake Lewis performed John Lennon's hit Imagine. This was not as good as I "imagined" it would be. It's not vocally challenging, in my opinion, and I think Blake could have done more with it. But then, when they try to do "more" with a song, to make it their own, I usually don't like it. He hit all the notes he needed to hit, didn't forget the lyrics, but it just didn't WOW me. Blake might be in trouble this week.

Next up is LaKisha Jones singing Fantasia's version of I Believe. I always preferred Diana Degarmo's version better, but let's see how LaKisha does. Well, no "yeah yeah's" like Fantasia put in, lol. Not too hot on her performance tonight. She's hitting the notes, and she's belting it, but there's something about her singing that has me not liking her so much the last couple weeks. I don't know if it's because she's oversinging songs, or just her song selection is sitting well with me. She was in the bottom three last week, and I think she'll be there again this week.

Phil Stacey is going back to his roots again tonight, singing The Change by Garth Brooks. He has a really good tone to his voice that suits him for country music. However, I have a hard time getting past that big bald head and his ears, lmao. As far as the song goes, it was one of his better performances. I'm not sure if it was good enough to get him the votes to stay out of the bottom three or not. Maybe he should have gone on Nashville Star?

Jordin Sparks closes out the show singing You'll Never Walk Alone. This song has been recorded by several artists, was written by Rogers & Hammerstein for the musical Carousel. I can honestly say I didn't really listen to it. I heard it, but I didn't listen. I don't even know what the judges said. All three judges loved it, so I'm sure Jordin is safe. And based on her vocal ability, I'm sure it was every bit as good as the judges thought, and it will be one of the songs I download.

Tomorrow night is the superstar performances for Idol Gives Back. Should be a great night with a lot of entertainment.

I have just four words to sum up tonight's American Idol results show:

IT'S ABOUT FUCKING TIME!

Inside some of us is a thin person struggling to get out...but she can usually be sedated with a few pieces of chocolate cake.

Ok, can't say I'm that upset about Haley finally being gone from Idol. HOWEVER, it is WAY PAST TIME for Sanjaya to be GONE!!!!

Oh, and I read in next week's TV Guide that Simon was joking when he said he would quit if Sanjaya wins.

TV Guide also says that Martina McBride takes the stage next Wednesday during the results show. But another page says Fergie from Black Eyed Peas will be performing on Wednesday 18 April. So will there be TWO performances, like there was this week, with Akon and J. Lo? And which one will mentor the remaining 7 contestants on Tuesday? Hmmmmmmmm

OMG, I woke up to the wind HOWLING, looked out the window and the rain we were supposed to get was SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Runs shrieking back to bed and stays there 'til it melts)

Just wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive, lol

Idol was a joke this week. Sanjaya and his pony-mohawk? It was probably the smartest thing he could have done to keep his ass around for another week. It distracted everyone from hearing how bad he really was, and once again they voted enough times to keep him there. He wasn't even in the BOTTOM THREE!!!

Work is slow, it's an effort somedays to make the trip to work, knowing all I'll be doing that day is filing. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that things will pick up as we head into summer, but I'm not holding my breath.

I stopped at Target tonight to buy some birthday presents I needed to buy for this weekend, some toiletries and such that I needed, and of course...cd's! I was all caught up on EVERYTHING, all cd's, all music, everything to Kerry, until tonight! I bought the Elliott Yamin cd, even though it wasn't on sale anymore, it was 13.99, better than the Taylor Hicks cd, which I still haven't bought cause it's now up to 15.99 or something. I bought The Evolution of Robin Thicke, all because Kerry told me it would be good, lol. He's the son of Alan Thicke, a Canadian who was married to Gloria Loring (ex-Liz Chandler, Days of our Lives), and a sitcom star here in the U.S. back in the 80's. I bought the new Good Charlotte cd, alternative rock that I know Kerry doesn't want, lol.I bought the new Tim McGraw cd, of course!!!!! We have his whole library, all cd's, even greatest hits. And, I bought the new Jack Ingram cd that has Lips of an Angel on it. So now I have 4 cd's to send to Kerry, in between her sending me tons of music from all the cd's she's been buying, lol. Busy, busy, busy!!!!!

The weather was SO nice on Monday, why did it have to leave so soon? Now it's back in the 40's and feeling like typical March weather, lol. I just about froze my ass off Tuesday afternoon, when I didn't take a jacket to work with me and the temperature dropped in the afternoon. 50F and short sleeves don't go together too well, lol.

Have a great rest of the week everyone!

We have a missing blogger. Lainie was supposed to be around on Tuesday night to watch American Idol, but never showed. Then I thought for SURE she's show up tonight to watch the results show. Did she get snowed out of her house? I hope she's ok! Lainie...where are you???

Hungry Squirrel:

Kerry commented about the birds and bunnies coming out for Spring, and that got me thinking about the pictures I took of a hungry squirrel a few weeks ago before our last big snowfall. This was the best picture I took of it, just sitting there at the top of the tree eating leftover berries that the birds hadn't finished. The poor thing probably didn't store enough food. I wonder if that was because we had the big snowfall on December 1, then bitter cold temperatures (for December?) Whatever the reason, this little guy didn't plan well at all, lol. What the picture doesn't show, simply because it was overcast that day, was the fact that this is a red squirrel. I know what some of you are thinking. What's so unusual about a red squirrel? Well...most of the squirrels I see by me are the grey squirrels, so to see one lone red squirrel was unusual and a treat for me. Oh, and his name is Charlie too, LMAO.

Ok, I know Spring is really here for two reasons:

A red-winged blackbird I saw on my balcony over the weekend.

And an American Robin I saw this morning in the tree outside my window chirping. Both are migratory birds that start showing up when the weather warms up. Now I KNOW Spring is here! Wooooooooo Hooooooooooooooo

Tonight's American Idol, watched by myself, Kerry, and Lainie. Following are my thoughts as each performer sings.

First, Diana Ross is there to mentor, help, guide them for this week. Does this mean they will sing Diana Ross songs tonight? We'll see...

Brandon starts off first, singing Can't Hurry Love. Not bad! I liked that little dance he did in the middle, lol. Randy wasn't impressed, for sure. None of the judges were impressed. Will be interesting to see how the rest of the contestants do.

Oh goody! Melinda Doolittle is next! I love her voice, and her attitude, everything. Diana Ross gets goosebumps when Melinda sings! Singing Home (from the Wiz), this should be good! OMG, she's AWESOME! I pick Melinda to win it all this year. She's so amazed at herself, she's crying. And Paula was crying, and Simon was wowed, if that's possible, lol.

Chris Sligh doing Endless Love? This should be interesting. I like his voice, one of the better guys. Tonight's performance was interesting. He's got good vocals, but not sure about the melody. He tried to do it to Speed of Sound by Coldplay, which just came out weird. Not my favorite performance by Chris, but I think he has the vocals to stick around.

Gina Glocksen, singing Love Child. You must pronunciate every word! Randy isn't that impressed, thought it was pitchy and boring. Guess she didn't enunciate, Paula said she was shouting in parts, well she was told to project by Diana, lol.

Sanjaya is next, singing Ain't Not Mountain High Enough. This should be interesting, since he can't dance. Ok, that wasn't very good. Better than he's done in the past, but still not at the same level as the other 11 performers. Randy hated it! Simon's positive comment was Sanjaya was brave. He really really really should be gone this week.

Haley Scarnato is next, singing Missing You. I didn't know that song was about Marvin Gaye! Wow, Simon was the only one who liked her? She apparently forgot some of the lyrics, but I didn't notice it. Guess I should listen to the words closer? lmao. She was crying, all because she actually got a semi good comment from Simon? She's way too emotional.

Phil Stacey, chooses a song Diana did with Marvin Gaye, Make You Love Me. Don't think I know this song. This isn't half bad! He's showing some power with these vocals. I still don't like his bald head though, lol. Paula thinks it should have been more uptempo, but Simon disagrees, what's new?

Lakisha Jones is next up. A Billie Holiday song, God Bless The Child. She's always great! One of my favorites, toss up between her and Melinda. Randy loved it, of course! Paula loved it, of course! Simon? Loved it! Oh yeah! And no comment about her outfit this week!

Blake Lewis, after the break! You Keep Me Hangin' On...let's see how it sounds. Not too bad! Not the best vocals tonight, but he did a good job, and he's one of the better overall performers. His arrangment was better than Chris Sligh's. Again, not the best vocals, but a good performance.

Stephanie Edwards singing Love Hangover. Diana Ross thinks she has star quality. I love the vocals, she's really good! The judges didn't like her, didn't like the arrangement, blah blah blah. She's still one of the better singers in this competition.

Chris Richardson is next, without a commercial break? Wow! Singing The Buzz, there he goes to the little stage behind the judges, so he can "work the audience" lmao. Not too hot on his vocals, this isn't one of his better songs, in my opinion. Simon thought it was dreadful! I can see why Simon said that. I don't think it was that bad, but not one of his better performances.

Jordin Sparks closes tonight's show. If We Hold On Together? Don't think I know that song. She's doing a great job so far. She could be a sleeper on this show. Usually one every year, Taylor last year, could be Jordin this year. I think she did a fantastic job on this song!

Going to be very hard separating the women, so many of them are great this year! Blowing away the men this year. Can't wait to see what happens when the votes are tallied tomorrow night!

Thanks Kerry for the glitter Chicago script!!!!!!!

HOW THINGS WOULD BE DIFFERENT IF MEN GOT PREGNANT:

1. Maternity leave would last two years - with full pay.

2. There'd be a cure for stretch marks.

3. Natural childbirth would become obsolete.

4. Morning sickness would rank as the nation's number one health problem.

Thought for the day:

Keep smiling! The luscious plum forgot to - and became a wrinkled prune.

Idol Update!

Here's the singers I liked this week on American Idol:

Men - Chris R., Blake, Chris S, Phil, and even Sundance was much better than last week. I'm wondering about AJ's sexuality after his performance, lol.

Women - Gina, Jordin, Lakisha, Melinda, Stephanie, and Sabrina. I don't think any of these have changed from last week, lol.

I still think, overall, the women are stronger than the men. Will be interesting once we get to the top 12 or so...

Today's Forecast:

Partly rational with brief periods of coherent thought giving way to complete apathy by tonight.

Sherrie Weaver

I just finished watching Idol, and I must say...the women did a HELL of a lot better than the men last night. I can't remember more than one or two of the men that impressed me, but tonight...I counted FIVE or SIX women who all kicked some ass before taking names. Gotta support the hometown girl, Gina Glocksen. But she probably was the poorest performer of the ones I liked. Jordin, Lakisha, Melinda, Sabrina and Stephanie all brought the house down. The other women were all very forgettable. Of the men from last night, I liked the two Chris's and Blake. Will be interesting to see what the results are tomorrow night.

My bathroom is almost done. The tile was grouted today, so that's done. I figured out I did NOT get a new toilet. The idiots put my old toilet back down, so now I have to clean it! Grrrrrrrr. And the bottom shelf thingy under the cabinet below my sink still hasn't been replaced. I called the leasing office this evening when I got home, and left them a message about it. Guess they were all busy doing other things, and couldn't answer the phone. I asked them to call me about replacing it, maybe I'll get a call tomorrow. Oh, and I have new vertical blinds in my living room too. We have a sales meeting tomorrow, lunch is provided. Fortunately, it's for the salesmen, so us inside people only have to be there for about 30 minutes, lol. And it's so friggin' HOT at work, I'm considering wearing a tank top and shorts to work. This afternoon I was so hot, I thought I was going to pass out.

Well, guess I'll go read some more...

I'm getting a new bathroom!

Well sort of. I'm getting a new toilet and a new tile floor. Monday afternoon I received a call on my cell phone from my leasing office, alerting me that maintenance had been to my apartment because of water leaking from my toilet down to the bathroom below me. They said it would be installed today. I came home from work, and it's still in progress. I now have NO toilet in the bathroom, lmao, and the tile is down, but still needs to be grouted. This isn't the cheap stick-on square tiles that I had before. These are NICE ceramic tiles!! I'll take a picture of it once it's all done. It's a dark brown, but very nice looking. MUCH better than what I had before.

I also bought my very first mp3 player tonight. Best Buy had 2GB Sansa Scandisk c250's on sale for $69.99. I think I got the last one at the store by me. So I bring it home, plop down in front of the computer and start checking it out. I was determined that I would get the battery cover off, but couldn't. After 15 minutes of struggling with it, cussing a blue streak, and threatening to return it, I put my shoes on and went BACK to Best Buy to see if they could figure out how to get the battery cover off. The gal there told me the lithium battery inside it is very good, and will last for about a year. Also, each time I hook it up via the USB plug to my computer, it charges the battery, so I probably shouldn't ever need to worry about replacing it. At least not for quite a while.

Then I tried to put music on it. I couldn't get MusicMatch to recognize it! I put the cd in my computer that came with the player, read through some instructions, rebooted the computer and VOILA, it worked. I put a bunch of songs on the player, listened to part of one to make sure it worked. I didn't get as many on as I wanted, but still over 100. Most of my music on my computer is at 128 kbps, larger sized files that limit the number of songs that can be loaded on it. Maybe this weekend I'll work on converting some of my music down to 96 kbps.

I've done just fine without an mp3 player, I'm either at work or in my car or at home, and at any of those places I have access to either an online radio station or my computer or a radio. Why get an mp3 player? Well! My building at work is working to put in a fitness center, free to all tenants! Once that's open, I can go down there after work and get a workout, and I wanted an mp3 player to listen to while I do that. The fitness center was supposed to open this month, but due to the cold weather, it delayed some of the plumbing work, so now it won't be done until next month. But I wanted to pick up the mp3 player while it was on sale. I've been watching for a sale for a few weeks, didn't want to miss this one. Now I'm almost all set. I might need to look into getting an exercise outfit or two. Maybe next pay period, lol.

We also had our performance appraisals at work today. Overall, mine went very well! I got approximately a 3% pay increase retro-active to Jan 1. I'll take anything they will give me, to keep up with the cost of living. I also got a bonus of about $4400 (before taxes)!!!!!!! I might use part of that to buy a new bed, to replace the one I have now that's jabbing me with a spring and causing a pain in my ass, literally.

Watched Idol tonight, the men performed. Some were pretty good, some were ok. I have a couple that I'm starting to like, others that I'm not so hot on. Even though we can vote, I'm not going to until maybe the top 10 rounds. Going to go read for a bit before going to bed. It's so hot in our office at work, I'm digging out a summer outfit to wear to work tomorrow, lol.

Middle age is when you want to see how long your car will last...instead of how fast it will go.

I wish I'd received this poem a week or two ago:

Winter

SHIT! It's Cold!!

by Abigail Elizabeth McIntyre

It's going to be a looooong night...

I was watching the Grammy's, and all of a sudden I heard a whooshing sound like running water coming from the bathroom. I thought, "Oh goody, the pipes finally un-froze!" If only I were so lucky! A pipe BURST, and was seeping water into my bathroom from under the sink. I started throwing down every towel I could find, hand towels, bathtowels, a sheet, a blanket even, to try and stop the advancement of water. Half the floor was covered in wet towels, and water was coming into the bathroom below me too.

I called maintenance right away once I saw the water on the floor. While I was waiting for a callback, the man who lives below me came up and knocked on my door, wondering what was going on. We talked for a few minutes, then he went down to call maintenance himself, so they knew both bathroom were affected. He got a callback from maintenance, he would be here in 30 minutes or so. I found out later, the maintenance guy had JUST gotten home from another call when he got paged for our problem. So he had to put his shoes back on and drive all the way back here.

Turns out a pipe in the wall behind the sink burst, and that was causing the leak. He had to shut off the water to the whole building for about 45 minutes or so, until he could cut out the section of pipe and weld a new piece in. He left about 11:30pm. Now I have a mess to clean up, sopping wet towels that need to be washed and stuff thrown out from under the sink cause the water was making the bottom of the cabinet wet too. That stuff is strewn out in the hallway right now, need to get it out of the way. Plus all the water, despite my efforts to soak it up, still leaked under the wall next to the sink and got the carpeting wet in the 2nd bedroom. So once I figured that was probably happening, I had to move the stuff I had in that corner of the room.

Tomorrow first thing, Jack from maintenance (who I've talked with almost daily this past week, lol) will be here with a painter to fix the drywall under the sink. Also, the carpeting people are being called to be here first thing to soak up as much water as they can from the carpeting. From what I hear, the man downstairs from me had a LOT of water in his bathroom. I probably would have too, but I soaked most of it up.

The good news is that none of my pipes are currently frozen! But the bathrooms a mess, so I can't use it yet. I was trying to get some dishes washed this evening, I have all the towels that need to be washed and dried...gonna be a long night.

Drip...drip...drip...drip...

That's all I'm hearing right now as I type this at 7:32AM. I have a drip in my bathroom from the bathroom upstairs. Maintenance has been called, I'm just waiting for them to show up.

Let me start back at the beginning. We have had zero or sub-zero temperatures at night for the past week. My one bathroom is on a north outside wall, with little protection. I have left the sink faucets dripping to try to keep the pipes there from freezing. Last week about Wednesday or so, my hot water pipe to the shower in that bathroom froze. This didn't cause me any great concern, because I have a second full bathroom in my apartment. And there's nothing that can be done except wait until it warms up. Well, it hasn't, LOL.

The next thing to freeze was my toilet; That happened on Saturday. Again, no great concern because I still have the other bathroom. I can get by with one bathroom. Last night, however, I came home to the frozen toilet "overflowing" with water, that had backed up into the toilet. I immediately got the first thing I could think of that would fit in the toilet bowl to scoop out water. A red Solo cup. I started scooping it out into the sink, but the water level wasn't going down. WTF? So start furiously scooping water from the toilet into the shower, since I didn't have to be so careful with the water placement. Finally, the water level started going down to a normal level, but my hand was now frozen, since the water was ice cold. I ran the hot water in the sink to warm my hand up again, and the toilet started filling right back up again. WTF? I shut the water off to the sink, and again started scooping like mad from the toilet to the shower.

I dried my hand off, grabbed the phone and called the office to have maintenance come, because I didn't want to stand there all night bailing out the toilet. While I was on the phone with the office, I noticed the toilet wasn't filling back up. How observant I am! The toilet was filling up because I was running water in the sink! They suggested I shut the water off completely to my bathroom, using the shut-off valve under the toilet. Maintenance came about 10 minutes later, they tried to rod the toilet to make sure it wasn't a blockage, and when that wasn't the problem, we agreed it was the frozen pipe and they'd come back tomorrow (meaning today) to look at it. Although I tried to make the guy understand there's nothing they can do unless they want to tear all the walls apart and rip all the siding off the building. It's gonna be like this until it warms up. He leaves with the assurance that someone would be back to look at it today.

Fast forward to this morning. I wake up, take my shower, and as I go to take a pair of pants out of the dryer, I notice a drip...drip...drip...drip...coming from the bathroom. I turn the light on, and there is a steady drip of water coming from around the light/vent in the ceiling. *Sigh* I cuss a few times, then I call the office so I can get a message to maintenance about the drip. Then I call work to leave a message for my boss, letting him know I'll be out this morning because of this leak from upstairs.

While I was typing all this, my phone rang, it was maintenance, asking what kind of leak it was. Was it a "gush" or a "drip", that sort of thing, trying to determine how bad of an emergency this is. I said, "It's not a gush, it's a steady drip coming from the bathroom upstairs into my bathroom." The guy on the phone said they'd have someone there as soon as they could. I wonder how long that will be? I'll keep you posted...


Update at 11:30, while my car is warming up...Maintenance was here at about 9am, they went upstairs and determined the drip is from a backup in the bathtub above me. That may be caused by the freezing temperatures, I'm not sure. They said once the water goes away upstairs, so will my drip. So in the meantime I have a couple towels on the floor to catch the drip (and they're probably soaked by now). Nothing more I can do here, so I'm going to brave the snowy streets and try to go to work.

Chicago hasn't completely frozen over....yet!

Brrrrrrr it's COLD outside!!! And I heard it's pretty much below average temps all over the country. Gonna be even colder this weekend too! I'm going shopping, getting all my food for this weekend tomorrow night, and I'm staying in. I see no reason to go outside in 5 degree temps, except to start the car to keep the engine and gas tank from freezing. If it's going to be that cold where you are, make sure the gas tank in your car is nice and full before Saturday.

Now that I've done my public service announcement...lol. I went to the dentist tonight for my 6 month cleaning. I was ALMOST out of there when he says, "Sit back down, I want to look at something." Damn if he didn't find a small cavity! Now I get to go back in a couple weeks (on Valentine's Day) to get it filled. Good thing I never have plans for V-day, lol.

For those of you that read Kerry's blog, you know we've started sending music back and forth in email. Seems every time we try to do it over MSN, it acts up and won't transfer the files. And there seem to be so few times we're both on together and HAVE the time to transfer music. So, we're reduced to email. That's the only way we'll get caught up right now. Tonight, I will be sending her....the Kellie Pickler cd. I've only heard one song off it so far, Red High Heels. It's played all the time by the online country stations I listen to during the day at work. It's not bad.

Not much happening at work. It FINALLY slowed down for me and I'm working on getting caught up on the filing that has been accumulating for a year. Yes, I said a YEAR! Not hard, just never had time to do it, and now I do, lol. I'm thinking things will stay slow like this for me for a while. We're losing the business from one of our bigger customers in a month or so. Their slowdown in business and then the ending of that contract will keep me slow, and allow me to continue spending about half my day, on average, filing. Boring, but it's something to do.

Going to go start sending these song to Kerry so she has them in the morning when she wakes up, get something to eat, and plant myself in front of the tv at 7pm CST for Bones, then Idol.

MORE? YOU WANT MORE?? Ok, you asked for it...

This is my sister's mother-in-law, Katherine. She was in Hawaii with her son back in October. Can you believe this beautiful lady is 100 years old??? And what about that sunset!! I didn't see anything like this when I was there, it was too overcast. *pouts*

You can see part of the pool in this picture. This is the patio we sat on every morning and every evening. We ate breakfast lunch and dinner out here (when we weren't eating out.) The darker wicker chairs and table are no longer there. Instead the chaise lounger that's currently behind the pole is there with another matching one, plus a table. There's also a huge hammock just off to the left, omg so comfortable. The pool is cool because as you're in it you look out to the ocean, and the outside edge allows water to run over into an overflow area, so it looks like a waterfall from the street.

This is looking towards the front door of the house. The floor is slate, and it runs all throughout the whole house, even into the master bedroom, bathroom and outdoor shower. Yes, that's right, I said OUTDOOR shower! The bed with the white coverlet on it is one of the spare bedrooms; the other is on the left, by where the wooden steps are. Both bedrooms are up on wood floors, whereas the master bedroom has the slate floor.

Here's the kitchen, with a stainless steel refrigerator. The microwave oven is below the counter on the island. So roomy and spacious. From what I'm told, one of the ladies that owns the house loves to cook, so of course this kitchen is a dream for her, lol

Those are all the pictures of the house that my sister sent to me. I'm hoping I can get more in a couple months when she goes back. I know she has more than this on the computer there, lol.

Next I'll try to find pictures of all the colorful birds I saw there!

You wanted pictures? Ok, here's a start on some pictures.

This is the Fair Wind II, the pontoon boat we were on for the snorkel cruise.

This is the crater at Mt. Kilauea, you can see the active steam coming up from the crater, indicating the heat only 1-3 miles below the surface.

Here's the lava tube we walked through. It is about 500 years old, and the only way to get to it is to walk down the steps and incline to the bottom of a rainforest.

This is my Aunt Val, standing next to a sign warning visitors not to feed the Nene, the Hawaiian goose. Interestingly enough, during my whole week there, I didn't see one single goose.

My sister Sue and myself at the crater of Kilauea, with the steam vents behind us.

CHICAGO BEARS WIN THE NFC CHAMPIONSHIP !!!!

The Chicago Bears beat New Orleans 39-14 at snowy Soldier Field, earning the right to play the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLI Feb 4, 2007 in Miami, Florida!

Chicago Bears Fight Song!

Bear down, Chicago Bears,
Make every play clear the way to victory.
Bear down, Chicago Bears,
Put up a fight with a might so fearlessly.
We'll never forget the way you thrilled the nation,
With your T-formation.
Bear down, Chicago Bears,
And let them know why you're wearing the crown.
You're the pride and joy of Illinois,
Chicago Bears, bear down.

Yesterday was rainy and dreary. We made the best of it though. We went to the crater of Kilauea (kill-a-way-a) and saw steam vents of sulphuric gas all around the rim and basin of the crater. We walked through a Lava Tube, in the middle of a rain forest. A Lava Tube is a cave created by lava that you can walk through. The one we walked through, ran through was more like it, was about 500 years old. It was pouring rain while we were at the lava tube, we had no umbrellas and no rain gear. We looked like drowned rats when we we came out, lmao.

There was no active lava flows where we were at, that was all down by the ocean. We didn't have enough time to go see that, as it's best viewed at night. We were a good two hours from my sister's house, and wanted to get home around supper time. I did take some interesting pictures of the steam vents and of us (my sister, aunt and me) at the steam vents.

Driving to the volcano, we took the southern road around the bottom of the island, past lush greenery. Coming back home, we took the northern route, a few more miles, but less traffic, so also about two hours. We had the ocean on our right, and we'd pass over what they call gulches, but they were HUGE gulches, to the left were these awesome waterfalls. I wish we'd had a place to stop so I could take pictures. Words alone cannot express the beauty I saw. There were also massive grasslands with pasture after pasture of cows. I'm told there's a huge ranch on that part of the island that raises all the beef. It felt almost like home seeing all the green grass and cows, lmao.

The last part of the drive was through what feels like the middle of nowhere. Only fields to the left, fields to the right, no other cars on the road, no lights. There are no houses anywhere. The remoteness of it was eery, almost. But still such an interesting part of the island itself.

Today has been cool and rainy, so we're going to go and try to do a little shopping indoors out of the rain. I think we had enough of the rain yesterday. Aloha!

Yesterday afternoon we went snorkeling down at the beach. There's a little inlet where the water is calmer, it's not very deep, and there are lots of fish to see. They were EVERYWHERE, and SO beautiful. All different colors, yellow, and blue, and green, spotted, striped. At one point there were so many of them, I was afraid to put my feet down to get my bearings. They wouldn't let me touch them, but they would still come very close, sometimes brushing my leg, or staring at me with their mouth half open. Almost like they wanted to take a bite out of me. LMAO! Don't worry, they don't bite, I won't come home with some fish disease.

There was also one lone sea turtle in some very shallow water that some people were standing around watching. I walked over to look at it, but didn't want to disturb it too much, so I walked back over to where the water was a little deeper so I could look at the fish. The water wasn't as warm as I thought it would be, less than 80F, but once I was in it, I adjusted to it and it didn't feel cold. We were there for maybe 45 minutes, although I probably could have stayed for several hours.

There's also a chicken that wanders around by my sister's house. This morning between 7 and 7:30, it decided it wanted to try to be a rooster. It was a strange sort of incomplete crowing noise. This went on for about 15 minutes, then it went away. Then my sister's husband was up and outside, so I decided to get up also. My aunt is arriving today about 12:30pm, it will be nice to see her and share this wonderful experience with her.

Aloha!

Here I am in lush, beautiful Hawaii, wearing shorts and a t-shirt, looking out over the pacific ocean! OMG, it is GORGEOUS here! My sister's house has an outdoor shower, with a wall around it (of course) so no one can see you. I want one at home now, lmao. I'm waiting for my sister to come home from playing golf at the club. I think this afternoon we're going to go snorkeling! We had a little bit of rain last evening at the restaurant. I arrived at about 4:30pm Hawaii time; overall, about 10-1/2 hours travel time from when I left Chicago. Even napping on the plane, I was tired and HUNGRY when I arrived in Kona. All we got to eat on the plane was "food for purchase." WELL, I'm not gonna pay for my food on the airplane, so I brought a PB sandwich with me. I should have brought two, lmao.

When we stopped in Maui, I disembarked, bought a shotglass, then got back on with everyone else. It was nice to get up and stretch my legs a bit. Then the last part of the trip, to Kona, was about 30 minutes. Flying over the islands, looking down on the lush greenery, was breathtaking. After a few hours of nothing but water, it was very nice to see land again, lmao.

I'll be sure to take lots of pictures, to bore you all to death with, lmao. I'm going to go back outside on the patio, read the paper, enjoy the sunshine, and look out at the ocean! Aloha!

Here's a picture I received in a Christmas card the other day. It's of my nephew Doug's family. Top left is his daughter Alycia, the boy waving in the bike helmet is his son Aaron, as is the picture in the top right. In the middle is my nephew Doug on his unicycle that he received this year for his 40th birthday. To the left of that is his wife Margie, below her is their son Aaron again. To the right of the unicycle picture is their daughter Alycia again, my nephew Doug and below him in the lower right corner is Margie.

It's been a few years since I've been out to California to see them. Aaron has Muscular Dystrophy, and the last time I saw him he was still walking on his own. Now he can't walk or even stand on his own anymore. He has a couple scooters he uses at school and home. He's 13 and I'm sure still has a lot of spirit and humor to share with everyone.

Alycia is 16, taking both high school and junior college classes. When she graduates high school, she'll be a sophomore in college. I'm told she's looking at a private art school in San Francisco. I'm so proud of her, as I'm sure her parents are.

With the upcoming wedding in March of Doug's younger brother, I'm looking forward to seeing the whole family next spring.

This is an article submitted to a 1999 Louisville Sentinel contest to find out who had the wildest Christmas dinners. This won first prize.


Christmas With Louise

As a joke, my brother used to hang a pair of panty hose over his fireplace before Christmas. He said all he wanted was for Santa to fill them. What they say about Santa checking the list twice must be true because every Christmas morning, although Jay's kids' stockings were overflowed, his poor pantyhose hung sadly empty.

One year I decided to make his dream come true. I put on sunglasses and went in search of an inflatable love doll. They don't sell those things at Wal-Mart. I had to go to an adult bookstore downtown.

If you've never been in an X-rated store, don't go. You'll only confuse yourself. I was there an hour saying things like, "What does this do? You're kidding me! Who would buy that?" Finally, I made it to the inflatable doll section.

I wanted to buy a standard, uncomplicated doll that could also substitute as a passenger in my truck so I could use the car pool lane during rush hour.

Finding what I wanted was difficult. Love Dolls come in many different models. The top of the line, according to the side of the box, could do things I'd only seen in a book on animal husbandry. I settled for Lovable Louise. She was at the bottom of the price scale. To call Louise a doll took a huge leap of imagination.

On Christmas Eve and with the help of an old bicycle pump, Louise came to life.

My sister-in-law was in on the plan and let me in during the wee morning hours. Long after Santa had come and gone, I filled the dangling pantyhose with Louise's pliant legs and bottom. I also ate some cookies and drank what remained of a glass of milk on a nearby tray. I went home , and giggled for a couple of hours.

The next morning my brother called to say that Santa had been to his house and left a present that had made him VERY happy but had left the dog confused. She would bark, start to walk away, then come back and bark some more.

We all agreed that Louise should remain in her panty hose so the rest of the family could admire her when they came over for the traditional Christmas dinner.

My grandmother noticed Louise the moment she walked in the door. "What the hell is that?" she asked.

My brother quickly explained, "It's a doll."

"Who would play with something like that?" Granny snapped.

I had several candidates in mind, but kept my mouth shut.

"Where are her clothes?" Granny continued.

"Boy, that turkey sure smells nice Gran" Jay said, to steer her into the dining room.

But Granny was relentless. "Why doesn't she have any teeth?"

Again, I could have answered, but why would I? It was Christmas and no one wanted to ride in the back of the ambulance saying, "Hang on Granny, hang on!"

My grandfather, a delightful old man with poor eyesight, sidled up to me and said, "Hey, who's the naked gal by the fireplace?"

I told him she was Jay's friend.

A few minutes later I noticed Grandpa by the mantel, talking to Louise. Not just talking, but actually flirting. It was then that we realized this might be Grandpa's last Christmas at home .

The dinner went well. We made the usual small talk about who had died, who was dying, and who should be killed, when suddenly Louise made a noise like my father in the bathroom in the morning. Then she lurched from the panty hose, flew around the room twice, and fell in a heap in front of the sofa.

The cat screamed. I passed cranberry sauce through my nose, and Grandpa ran across the room, fell to his knees, and began administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. My brother fell back over his chair and wet his pants.

Granny threw down her napkin, stomped out of the room, and sat in the car.

It was indeed a Christmas to treasure and remember.

Later in my brother's garage, we conducted a thorough examination to decide the cause of Louise's collapse. We discovered that Louise had suffered from a hot ember to the back of her right thigh.

Fortunately, thanks to a wonder drug called duct tape, we restored her to perfect health

Ok, a week ago or so, I received an email from a friend. You know the ones...20 questions, all to be answered and sent out to all your friends so they learn new stuff about you. Well this one was about Christmas traditions, etc. I answered it, and sent it out. I got some very nice responses, some never responded, and then there was THIS response. (I've removed names to protect the guilty)

1. Eggnog or Hot Chocolate? Is the eggnog loaded? Meaning does it include whiskey? No. hot chocolate then. With lots of those mini can never seem to catch them in your mouth before they melt marshmallows.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Do I look like Santa Clause? How should I know what he does? I do know that he seems to miss my house every year though. Guess it has to do with not having a chimney.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? WHEN we decorate the outside of the house, we use colored lights. But we haven't done that in a couple of years. Hubby now threatens to make me do it. and I am NOT climbing my fat ass up on the roof. Not even for Santa.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope. That gives hubby more incentive to try to kiss me. We wouldn't want that, now would we?

5. When do you put your decorations up? Please see question number 10 for my Scrooge reference.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? The big ole dried out turkey that Gramma "slow" roasts in the oven from midnight 'til noon. Thank God for gravy!

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? I was never a child. I was born infinitely wise. Okay even *I* can't say that with a straight face.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What do you MEAN truth? Santa's really a secret Russian spy who infiltrates US homes by cooking up some wild scheme about dropping presents off through people's chimneys that are actually small cameras and listening devices? I've known that for years now.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Nope. We begged Mom and always refused.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? We're related to Scrooge at my house. To put up decorations means that one has actually put up a tree. In the last seven years that hubby and I have lived together we've not done that. so there's no need for decorations on it, now is there?

11. Snow? Yes PLEASE!! I would LOVE to see it snow in Florida. It'd be funny to see about a foot of it just pile up. *I* know how to drive in snow.

12. Can you ice skate? Yeah, on my ass.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Disclaimer: before you read this answer, please finish chewing and/or swallowing any food or drink like substance. Thank you. My favorite Christmas gift came from two of the best friends a girl could ask for. I was 21 and involved in a long distance relationship, so. well. I wasn't getting "any" on a regular basis. These two caring friends thought they would help rectify this problem. We threw a party and exchanged gifts. First I would like to point out that I purchased tasteful gifts for these friends. I was an innocent victim. My Christmas gift, ladies and gentlemen (drum roll please) an 8-inch cyber skin "feels like the real thing" jelly penis. Top that Santa!

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? To stay as FAR away from malls as I possibly can. A person can lose themselves (or sell themselves, depending on the person, I guess) in a place like that.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Whipped cream. It's delicious, has a nutritional value, and can be served on a variety of desserts. not to mention body parts.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Gathering at Gramma's three hours before food and/or presents were ready to be dug into. Sitting there, listening to the constant bickering of my family. And waiting for the inevitable irritability of someone storming out, disclaiming that they don't know just WHAT the heck crawled up so and so's ass. but they're never coming back to this house EVER again. Ten minutes later the phone rings with the now cooled off individual calling to apologize and asking if they can come back. Aahh. the joy of family for the holidays!

17. What tops your tree? Let me tell you a story. if I had a tree, my cat would knock it over. Why? Because he's a damned heathen, that's why. So if I had a tree. and after continuously picking it up and redecorating it, I would have to say the cat. He would be my angel. Okay so now that I think about it. I wonder if he'd light up.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? That's a loaded question. I thought this was a nice, innocent Christmas quiz! Oh, you mean GIFTS! Right. Got it. Moving on.

19.What is your favorite Christmas Song? I like it when they're over, does that count?

20. Candy Canes yum or yuck? Oh I love month old candy that's been hanging on someone's Christmas tree. I particularly like the ones where half the plastic has "melted" off and have been exposed to the air and the dog licking them for the last week. Those are the BEST!

I GOT A PACKAGE WAITING AT THE POST OFFICE FOR ME!!!!!!!!

IT'S FROM CANADA, WONDER WHO IT'S FROM??????

/GIGGLE

Well, after that first adventure flying, do you think I was eager to do it again a week later? Nope, me either. This flight to Charlotte was earlier than the flight to Indianapolis. It was scheduled for 6:35AM, which means I was supposed to be at the airport at 5:30, I had to leave home at 4:45, I had to get up at 4:00AM. Me?? Get up at 4:00AM?? Kerry maybe...but ME????? Actually, it was easier than I expected it to be, lol.

Amazingly enough, our flight took off on time! Everything went well at the warehouse, counting the coils to make sure our records matched what the warehouse said was there, and was actually there. I got back to the airport in Charlotte in PLENTY of time to make my flight. In fact, I was so early, my flight wasn't even listed on the departure board yet. I didn't even know what terminal to go to. So, I wandered up and down the closest one, and by the time I returned to the departure board, my flight was listed. Lo and behold, my flight was scheduled to leave from a gate in the terminal I was at. Since I still had at least an hour to kill, I walked to a bookstore, bought a magazine and read through that. I returned to the gate and made myself comfortable.

As I sat there, I noticed the gate next to ours also had a flight coming to Chicago, leaving 30 minutes earlier. To back things up a bit, earlier in the day, I was talking to my boss on the phone and he told me my flight would probably be delayed coming home due to fog and a low ceiling. As I sat there at my gate, I began to wonder just how delayed this flight might be. The gate attendant came on the speaker to announce that the 3:33 flight leaving from the gate next to us, was not going to start boarding until 3:30, and that once boarded, the plane was going to pull back from the gate and the plane would be parked for an hour due to delays in Chicago. At that time, she had no idea how long the 4:00 flight (mine) would be delayed, but if any of us wanted to get on the earlier flight, there was still room. I figured with the delays, I might as well take a chance and hope to get home quicker.

I got re-booked onto the earlier flight, with a seat assignment of 20A. Then I went back to the bookstore and bought a book to read during our hour delay on the plane. Turns out, when we started boarding that row 20 was the next to the last row. When I got to the back of the plane, the flight attendant back there, suggested I wait to see what might be available closer to the front, since the flight was not full. There were also two other people standing back there waiting for better seats. Once everyone was boarded, she walked towards the front, then motioned us forward, and I ended up in row 5 (second row back after first class) in an aisle seat. Can't get much better than that! The doors were closed, we backed away from the gate, we parked, and I started reading to pass the time. It was a romance novel, three stories in one book, all having to do with NASCAR, one of my favorite things, lol. I finished the first story only minutes before we were able to start taxiing out.

After we took off, I reclined my seat back and snoozed almost the whole trip home. If my original flight had been on time, I was supposed to land at 5:30PM. After switching to the earlier flight, plus the hour delay, I ended up landing about 6:20PM. As I walked towards baggage to take the stairs down to the parking level, I was curious about how delayed my original flight was. Turns out it was 30 minutes out, so I did better by booking the earlier flight, despite the hour wait on the plane. Again, a long day, up at 4AM home at 7:10PM.

I hope my flight to Hawaii in January doesn't have any delays, lol.

Wow, it's been over a week since I've posted anything here. I guess I wasn't feeling up to posting anything, or I didn't have the time. So here I sit on a gray and dingy Saturday afternoon, with some time to kill (now that I've finally done the NTT playlist and sent it to Kerry.) So I guess it's a good time to get everyone caught up on the last couple weeks or so of my life. Beware, it may not be nearly as interesting as you might think.

First, despite things being generally slow at work due to the holidays and the coming end of the year, I seem to be constantly busy if not swamped. It doesn't help that in December so far, I have not been in the office for more than two days at a time. I ended up scheduling every Friday in December as a vacation day. Plus on the 5th I took a day trip to Indianapolis to see a customer. Then on the 12th, I took another day trip to Charlotte to do physical inventory at a warehouse. Both trips were eventful.

The trip to Indianapolis is about 30 minutes actual air time, but about an hour total, counting the time to taxi on and off the runways. My flight was scheduled to leave at 8:05AM and arrive at 10:00AM or so (one hour flight plus one hour time change.) At 8:00AM they announced a delay until 8:20. Then they told us we were switching gates. Fortunately, the new gate was only two or three down from where we were at. Then at 8:20 they delayed us again until 8:40. Then at 8:45, they delayed us until 9:00. With all these delays, they never once told us what was causing the delay, which I think added to the frustration. Finally about 9:00AM we started boarding. It was a small plane, only three seats in each row; One on your right as you got on the plane, and two on the left. I was sitting in a single seat on the right, in row 8 or so. Since I'd been up since 5:00AM, all I wanted to do was sleep. I got comfortable and closed my eyes for a snooze.

Very quickly, my legs got very cold. So cold that I was shivering, even with my coat still on. Finally, the flight attendants closed up the plane and the captain came on the intercom to introduce himself and explain what was going on. He told us that the plane had been having some "on board power" issues. They had tried to get power in the air, and that didn't work. Then they tried to get power from the ground; that didn't work either. They thought we might have to switch planes, but they were able to get it fixed. In the meantime, they had already taken some luggage and started moving it over to another plane thinking that we'd switch planes. When we didn't, we had to wait for the luggage to come back. By the time we took off, it was almost 10:00AM. As I mentioned above, the flight to Indianapolis is quick, only about 30 minutes actual air time, but by the time I landed in Indianapolis, it was 11:30AM. That messed up the entire day, because the customer I went to go visit is about an hour and a half drive east of Indianapolis. As soon as we landed and could use our cell phones, I called my salesman who was waiting for me. He called the customer to let her know I had just arrived and we were running late. She had a meeting to be at, about the time we would have gotten there. So instead of going to see her first, I called the warehouse where we store her material for her, and asked if it was ok for us to stop by then, instead of later that afternoon. Fortunately, that was fine with them, and it gave me an opportunity to meet some people that I'd only talked to on the phone. And, we were lucky enough to be there when the driver was loading up his truck to deliver more material to the customer, so I got to meet him too.

After spending about 45 minutes there, we left to drive the 90 minutes to the customer. The meeting went well, we just went over her usage, and what we have on order to determine where we wanted to order more so as not to run out. I had a 6:05PM flight back to Chicago, arriving at 6:10. Remember, an hour time difference, going backwards, so it was a 55 minute flight, minus the hour time change. So it feels like 5 minutes, lol. I got to the airport in plenty of time, the flight started boarding on time, we pulled back from the gate, taxied out to the runway, and just as we were ready to turn the corner and take off, Air Traffic Control stops us. Initially, all we were told was that ATC had called a stop to all traffic in and out of Chicago O'Hare, and we would be sitting there for an hour and 20 minutes. You can imagine the collective groan that went through the entire cabin. After about 10 minutes, the pilot came back on the speaker. Apparently, O'Hare Airport had decided to "switch runways", whatever that means, and that he was trying to see if we could take off earlier, instead of sitting there for an hour and (now) 10 minutes. He had already killed the engines, and allowed us to turn our cell phones on. Everyone was making calls advising whoever that the flight was going to be late. About 10 minutes later, the pilot came on the speaker again, and announced we had been cleared for takeoff, and for everyone to turn off the cell phones and buckle the seat belts. He started up the engines, we turned the corner, and ZOOM! We took off. I did go to sleep on that leg of the trip also, as I usually do on most airplane flights. As we started approaching O'Hare, I thought our approach was odd. I can't really explain it, other than it felt like we were moving too slow, or too high for how close we were, something... I could see the darkness of where Lake Michigan was off to our right, and I could see the lights of the streets and houses off to our left. Just as I was thinking it was my imagination, we turned to the right, out over the lake. We ended up in a holding pattern for about 30 minutes over Lake Michigan. By the time I got to my car it was 7:10, and it was 7:45 or so when I arrived home. I was just glad to be home!

More to come, later!

Your Life is 37% Perfect

So your life isn't exactly perfect, but it's not horrible either. Things are fairly bad at times... at least they're not likely to get much worse!

How Perfect is Your Life?

Your Vocabulary Score: A-

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

Will the Christmas shopping ever be done? I'm one step closer! I found some things I think Kerry will really like, so I'll get those wrapped maybe Thursday night and mailed on Saturday. Yes, we have mail delivery and open post offices on Saturdays, lmao. The "other" item I bought that will be too late to get there for Christmas can just wait till next year. One of the items I bought was found sort of by accident. I was actually looking for something a little different, and while I was at that store, I thought I'd pick up something I still needed to get for a family member. While I was looking for that, I didn't see what I really wanted to get for Kerry, but then saw something else that I think she'll like just as much if not more. Confused yet? LMAO

So, while making that purchase, I got a discount coupon for the bookstore in the mall, and decided to look there for the book I needed to get for my adopted mom. They had it, and I got 15% off. Not bad! I was still walking around the mall, my feet were killing me, I was about ready to leave, when I passed this small kiosk selling stuff (don't all kiosks at the mall sell stuff?) Anyway, I stopped to look at what they were selling, considered maybe buying one for Kerry, and the guy really got me convinced of the benefits of it. I was trying to just buy one part of it, but then he offered me a deal ($15 off) the other item I wasn't going to buy, so of course, I had to buy it too! So Kerry gets both, lmao. And because I bought the second item, the first item wa s free! Really confused yet? Bwahahahahahaha

A friend called me tonight, asked if I wanted to go see a movie with her tomorrow night. I haven't seen her since the weekend before Halloween, so figured I better take this chance to see her. Who knows when I'll see her again. After some discussion about what movies we've already seen, which ones we don't want to see, and which ones we can't go see because we'll probably go see them with other people, we narrowed it down to The Santa Clause 3 and Deck The Halls. I would rather see The Santa Clause 3, I thought the first two were very cute, and can't wait to see this one with Santa battling Jack Frost. Should be funny and entertaining.

Well, it's after 10 now, I should get to bed. Didn't sleep well last night, and it didn't help that the guy living upstairs from me decided to ask an elephant to teach him to tap dance at 2:30am. They tap danced across the bedroom floor directly above my bedroom, out into the living room, got their feet tangled up and fell down. Loudly! At 2:30 in the morning! I wasn't sleeping well to begin with, and then to be woken up by that? *mumbles to myself about inconsiderate young men*

Well, now that Thanksgiving is over with, and my leftover turkey is almost gone, I have started focusing on Christmas. That one joyful day of the year that is preceded by a month of more stress than I normally like to deal with. There's Christmas cards, decorating, buying presents, wrapping the presents, shipping the presents, plus all the normal everyday stuff that still has to be done (work, eating, sleeping, paying bills, etc.)

I paid bills tonight, and I made a few purchases online, I'm only worried about one, though. Kerry's gift says the estimated delivery day to me is the 18th, which is too late to try to get to her by Christmas. I thought maybe I'd have it mailed directly to her...the website said states/provinces are required for shipments to the U.S. and Canada, but when I went to change countries, it only lists the U.S. So I guess I can't ship it directly to Canada. I really want her to have her present by Christmas, especially since last year my gift didn't get there in time. Yeah, I procrastinate for just about everything. Thought I was getting a head start this year, doing this before December 1, and well it didn't help me, lol. Then I had another idea as I was perusing another magazine, checked that item out, and it's out of stock too! So tomorrow night after work, I have to stop by a book store to pick up a present for someone, and the book store is by the mall, so I'll just zip over there and wander around, hoping I find something, lol. One way or another, I'll find something to send her, even if it's just a box of burned cd's! LMAO

So Kerry and Tori are having fun setting up their new blogs in beta. I don't think I'll have any time to do more with mine than what you see here, not in December, and probably not in January, since I'll be off the mainland for a week. That will be my big rest after the hectic pace of December, lol.

I had a nice five day weekend. Went shopping on Wednesday, then rested the rest of the days. Mostly I was a lazy bum, never even got dressed on Sunday, lol. But I didn't sleep that well Saturday and Sunday nights, so I wasn't ready to get up for work this morning. I watched the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie on CBS last night, Candles on Bay Street. Those movies make me cry EVERY time! But I love them just the same. And I love the Hallmark commercials, but they really need to make new ones, they're all a few years old now.

Happy Thanksgiving to the residents of the United States who are reading this. To everyone else, I'll eat a piece of turkey and a bite of stuffing for you, lol.

Sorry I haven't been posting anything lately. I guess I feel my life is pretty boring right now, and I have nothing to talk about. I get up, I go to work, I come home, I go to bed, I get up, I go to work, I come home, I go to bed...and the circle continues. Work is ok, nothing really interesting there to report. My love life sucks, like always. My personal life is as boring as always. I chat some nights during the week, I stream on Fridays, some weekends I go see a movie. I watch football on some Sundays and Mondays.

Ya'll know I'm going to Hawaii in January, I've already mentioned that. I did get a "save the date" note in a bottle from a nephew, he's getting married for the second time in March. So it looks like I'll be going to California then.

Wednesday I'm taking the day off work to get a lot of my Christmas shopping done. Then after Thanksgiving, I need to work on Christmas cards and wrapping presents so I'm not rushing on Christmas Eve to get everything done.

That's about it for now. Hugs!

Your Power Color Is Lime Green

At Your Highest: You are adventurous, witty, and a visionary. At Your Lowest: You feel misunderstood, like you don't fit in. In Love: You have a tough exterior, but can be very dedicated. How You're Attractive: Your self-awareness and confidence lights up a room. Your Eternal Question: "What else do I need in my life?"

What's Your Power Color?

You Are a White Flower

A white flower tends to represent purity, simple beauty, and modesty. At times, you are dignified like a magnolia. And at other times, you represent great ecstasy, like a white orchid. And more than you wish, you're a little boastful, like a white hydrangea.

What Color Flower Are You?

You Are a Centaur

In general, you are a very cautious and reserved person. However, you are also warm hearted, and you enjoy helping others in practical ways. You are a great teacher, and you are really good at helping people get their lives in order. You are very intuitive, and you go with your gut. You make good decisions easily.

What Mythological Creature Are You?

Short post tonight, going to go get ready for bed. Had MORE rain today, when will it stop?? (I know, I know...it'll stop when the snow comes.)

My trip to Hawaii is all settled. I leave on January 5th and return on the 13th. OMG, I can't wait! My sister and aunt are splitting the cost of seven hundred some dollars roundtrip, that is my Christmas present from the two of them. Keeping my fingers that I lost another pound or two when I weigh myself on Saturday. It would be great to be more lightweight when I go over there.

Have a great Friday!

Finally a day without rain! Of course, it's freaking COLD! And we're supposed to get more rain on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, lol. I'm hardwired, and I got my money back from Best Buy for the wireless router, USB adapter and 50 foot network cable. That was nice seeing a credit go back to my account for 170.00. Then I went to pay my first cable bill, which came in the mail at 257.20. I had complained about the installation charges and part of that had been credited to my account. So I was thinking about 220.00 would still be due. I went to pay online, and it said 257.20 was more than what I owed. Since I hadn't made a payment yet, I was kind of confused. I tried again for a payment of 200.00, again it said it was more than what I owed. Now, it does give you the option of going ahead with the payment, but I couldn't understand how I didn't owe all this money all of a sudden. I tried a new amount, 140.47...the amount just for the cable service from 9/29 to 11/10. Again, it said it was too much, but I didn't want to take any chances so I finished the payment for that amount. Will be interesting to see my next bill and find out why they said I didn't owe anything.

I went out to spend my normal Sunday afternoon with my aunt. She has had a taste for turkey with all the trimmings for about a month now, but never felt up for fixing it. She finally did, so we had a pre-Thanksgiving turkey dinner today. I didn't do too bad; I didn't over-stuff myself, I stopped when I got full. And I brought some turkey home for lunch tomorrow. After lunch we were supposed to go see The Prestige, with Hugh Jackman. But my aunt was not feeling well at all, so we felt it was best if we didn't go see the movie this weekend. Instead her sister and I drove to a small town west of there called Malta, where there's a farm that also grows apples. They have this little shop where you can purchase all different kinds of apples, you can buy fudge, a donut, apple pies, caramel apples...omg it was so tempting. The only thing I got while I was there was some Amaretto fudge. (winks at StygianMuse)

Last night we played NTT at www.thewolven.com. Kerry hosted and I kept score. Lainie missed another chance to get in my box...sigh! Voodooman won a close game. Most of the artists are ones you would recognize when you hear them, but not the song. And Kerry's hubby even came in and played! I had fun and I hope those who played also had fun.

Going to try to rip a couple cd's before The Amazing Race starts. Not sure if Kerry will pull her nose out of the book in time to watch it with me. Will wait and see.

If your apartment fills with smoke, what do you do?

Trivia question for you. Do you...

A. Open all the windows

B. Open the door to the hallway

C. Both


Under NO circumstance, if there's no fire, do you open the door to the hallway. All that will do is fill the hallway up with smoke, the fire alarm will be triggered, the building will be evacuated in the middle of ER, two firetrucks will arrive, firemen will bring in fans to blow the smoke out of the hallway, and you'll get the honor of standing outside in the cold for 20 minutes.

I thought this song would be appropriate since it rained AGAIN today!


Who'll Stop the Rain by Credence Clearwater Revival

Long as I remember the rain been comin down.
Clouds of mystry pourin confusion on the ground.
Good men through the ages, tryin to find the sun;
And I wonder, still I wonder, wholl stop the rain.

I went down virginia, seekin shelter from the storm.
Caught up in the fable, I watched the tower grow.
Five year plans and new deals, wrapped in golden chains.
And I wonder, still I wonder wholl stop the rain.

Heard the singers playin, how we cheered for more.
The crowd had rushed together, tryin to keep warm.
Still the rain kept pourin, fallin on my ears.
And I wonder, still I wonder who'll stop the rain.

Your 1920's Name is:

Blossom Esperanza

What's" Your 1920's Name?

I thought I'd post the letter written by the Management of my complex, to be given to the technician on Thursday.

Dear Comcast and Affiliates:

This letter is to allow Comcast Technicians and or any of its affiliates to run cable from a room through the common adjoining wall, which shall feed through bushings installed on both sides to make the additional outlets in the adjoining room.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the management office.

Sincerely,
Country Lakes Management


I decided to call the office and speak to Gwen, who I have been dealing with since Saturday. I wanted to make sure they were aware that I was wanting the 2nd bedroom wired, not the first bedroom. To give those of you that have not seen my apartment an idea of what's involved, let me describe my apartment to you. When you enter the door, in front of you is the living room. There is a bedroom to the right and a bedroom to the left. Straight ahead on the opposite wall is the sliding glass door leading out to the balcony. Right next to that, on the left, is the fireplace, which is at an angle (not perpendicular to the sliding glass door.) That wall that the fireplace is part of, is the wall that separates the living room from bedroom number two. The cable coming into my apartment from outside is on that same wall as the sliding glass door. The wall separating the livingroom from bedroom number one is where the tv is, due to the necessity of being close to the cable outlet. Bedroom number two is where the computer is, and therefore the cable would have to be split off (probably outside), run across the balcony and drilled through the bricks outside and into the second bedroom.

Obviously it would be much simpler if I were having the cable going into bedroom number one, they could split the cable off inside, go through the wall, put the outlet there, and it's done. NO, I have to be difficult and want cable in the opposite bedroom from where the cable comes into the apartment, lol. Gwen assured me that it was still no problem, and they should know what to do when wiring the bedroom. If they have any questions about what to do or how to do it, she told me I could call and ask them to page the Service Manager. Apparently, there's some Town Hall meeting they all have to go to, so the leasing office will be closed at 1pm. Just in time for my appointment from Comcast, lol.

Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over technology - John Tudor

More computer issues! Grrrrrr!! I have been on this wireless cable internet for two weeks. I have streamed three times, not without problems, but I've streamed. Friday night, I go into chat, listen to Kerry stream, get all set up, reboot, come back in, connect to producer, 30 seconds later I get disconnected. I try again...same thing. I go in another room and talk to the owner, stream leader, and tech guy. They have me turn off a bunch of stuff that they feel is blocking me from connecting to the stream server. I try again...disconnected after 30 seconds. The tech guy has me set up to allow ports within a certain range to be accessed from my computer, I try again, doesn't work. I was on the phone TWICE with the stream leader. Nothing is working. After two hours, I give up for the night.

My only options are to see if I can get this room wired for direct connection to the cable and ditch the wireless, or go back to my dsl. Saturday I set the alarm for 9am, call my leasing office, and find out I CAN get this room wired for cable tv/internet. They state all I will probably need is a written letter from them to give to Comcast for permission to drill the holes for the cables. I call Comcast, and now have any appointment for Thursday afternoon between 1pm and 5pm CDT to have this bedroom wired. Saturday night before NTT I advised the stream leader and the site owner of what I'm doing and they both agree that will solve my problem.

So once I have the cable hooked up to my computer, and I am off the router, I should be able to stream again. Man, did I miss streaming Friday night! I hope Best Buy will let me return the router, adapter, and network cable. Although I don't have the original packaging for the cable, it was in that plastic crap that I had to tear to pieces to get the cable out. I would really like to get the $170 back I spent on everything.

So in a few days, I should be good to go, keeping my fingers, legs, toes, eyes...all crossed!