I really wanted to get a better picture of all the cicadas, to give you a better idea of just HOW MANY there are by my work. I went out to the front of the building this morning, hoping to get a picture in the sunlight before they got too active and swarmy (is that a word? lol). Unfortunately, even with the zoom lens, my digital camera could not focus close up on one cicada, nor could you really see all of them on the trunks of the trees or on all the leaves when I stepped back and widened the view. Oh well. Suffice it to say, we probably have millions of them across the street from my building, which is part of a forest preserve (I think), with a river close by (hence my building is on N. River Road, lol).

I wish I had a recorder so you could hear how loud they are though. From inside the building, in our office on the second floor, we can hear the buzzing outside. When I was standing out front this morning, looking at a single cicada that was on a flat part of the base to one of the posts in front, all of a sudden it vibrated it's tymbals, and I was astounded at how loud it was! One little bug making a noise that loud. Fascinating. Put the million or so all together, and no wonder we can hear it inside our building. Of course, we have them on trees and ground on all four sides of the building, so I don't think any office is immune to the sound, except possibly the 12th floor, lmao.

For those of you who have never heard cicadas, here's a link to the song King of Cicada and in the middle part of the song they have some cicadas. The song itself is pretty bad, but at the middle of the song, if you turn your speakers up about halfway, that's how loud it is in some areas. C'mon, you know you want to hear it! LMAO!

Ok, enough on the cicadas. There was a note posted on the outside of the buildings in my complex yesterday. The note was dated the 11th, so it was only a day late. Apparently, the complex has money to spend, and they are going to be doing some refurbishing to the insides of the buildings. Things like paiting and new carpeting. That's all fine and dandy. I wish they'd spend it on better lighting in the parking lot before replacing the carpeting in my hallway that's only about 2 years old as it is. I haven't mentioned it to them yet, but maybe I will offer it as a "comment" tomorrow on the way home from work. I prefer talking to them in person whenever possible. Anyway...today I came home and they've started the painting already.

To give you some history, the outside of the outer doors used to be a dark green. Then a couple years ago, they came around and painted them a cream color. Made them look much nicer, and made the doorways more visible at night (in my opinion). When they painted the outsides of the doors, they left the insides of each door white. Within the last year, they replaced all the doorknobs and locks, and replaced the kick panels. Sometime today, they started painting the insides of the doors, and one wall. All fine and dandy, except for the color they picked. Maroon/rust. Very dark color for a stairwell that has one round light on each landing. I tried taking a picture of the fresh paint tonight, but the lighting is SO POOR, my camera couldn't even see anything, lol. Maybe tomorrow when it's lighter out. I just hope they don't paint ALL THE WALLS that same maroon/rust color. OMG, it will be so dark in the hallway if they do that. They only light we have, other than the artificial, is a small window next to the front door, and two windows in the front of the building above the door, one at about the 2nd floor and one at about the 3rd floor. And the front of the building faces NW, so it doesn't get any direct sunlight. Might have to ask the leasing office about the wall painting too, lol. Not that it will do anything, but they may not realize how dark the hallway will be if they paint all the walls that color.

Ok, finally sending the last few Don Williams songs to Kerry. I would start a few, then get distracted, remember 30 minutes later, start some more, get distracted, finally sending the last 9 or so. Will read an email or two while those go.

Hugs and smooches!

Here's the one picture I was able to get of the cicadas. These stones are about 18 inches square and run between the parking garage and my building. I was standing in the parking garage to take this picture, because so many cicadas were flying around and I didn't want them landing on me. In fact, when I first walked up to that area and saw how many were crawling on the ground, before I could take a picture one landed on my stomach area, and naturally I freaked. They don't bite, they don't carry germs, but I do have this thing about "flying bugs" coming at me, lol. There was a higher concentration of the cicadas underneath one of the tables that's out there for people to sit at. I would have loved to have gotten a picture of the cicadas crawling up the trunks of the trees, they were all lined up, reminding me of the old bread lines from the Great Depression.

I've decided that I am VERY happy not to have the cicadas by my apartment. There are so many of them flying around, crawling around and buzzing in the trees by my work. The buzzing is so loud we can hear it inside our office. As I leave work to come home, they fly across the road, landing on the car, landing on the road. They're sort of funny to watch fly; I think their wings aren't made for any long term flying, so they sort of dip and twist almost out of control, lol. Definitely an experience to see. Since they are more active in the late afternoon (when I took the above photo), I'm going to take my camera to work again tomorrow and try to see if there are any out in the morning, when I won't be attacked by them. Within a couple weeks, the females will have laid their eggs in the trees, and then died. Once the eggs hatch, the nymphs drop to the ground, burrow down to find tree roots where they stay for 17 years, to emerge in 2024, molt, mate, and start the process all over again.

For those brave enough, here's a link to CicadaMania, a website with pictures and videos of the cicadas, many close up photos, so you can see the red beadie eyes. I haven't seen any with white, blue, or mustard colored eyes yet. Not sure if the variance in eye color is widespread, or limited to just some areas. Here's another interesting website with some interesting facts about cicadas.

Ok, shake off that buggie feeling, and scroll down to my next post, lol.

I thought I'd post this in addition to the picture of the cicadas, to keep everyone from being so freaked out. This is my desk. It's actually a U shape, I just didn't include part of it in the pictures. My desk is quite neat right now because I don't have a lot to do. I have gotten a few new customers in the past month, but so far, it hasn't added a lot of work to my day. So now ya'll can picture me sitting there day after day, doing whatever I have to do that day, lol.

I'm so glad my legs aren't as sore today as they were yesterday! I did not go on the elliptical today, wanted to give my legs another day's rest. I did walk on the treadmill for about 30 minutes, and then did some reps on the weight machines. I was hoping to maybe spend part of my time on the one stationary cycle, but another woman came in and got on it while I was still on the treadmill. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

Tonight I came home, cooked my pork chop on the bbq, went in to chat for a bit. It got boring, so I left, and decided I'd try to work on some of the clutter in this room. I pulled out some empty boxes and matched them up with a few figurines I used to have displayed but no longer have space for. I also noticed I had a few duplicates I had forgotten about. I marked those boxes as duplicates. I found one box that I cannot figure out what went in it. Something somewhat breakable, because there's styrofoam on the inside. I searched the apt and couldn't find anything close to resembling the shape of the styrofoam. I'll hold onto the box for a bit, maybe I'll come across it later. I'm still deciding what I'm going to do with these figurines. They are by no means a complete collection, but overall a good deal of money was spent on them. Wondering if I should try to sell them? I have Calico Kittens (discontinued) by Enesco and several unicorn figurines I'm going to pack away. The unicorns have been on a corner shelf in my bedroom, but I'm also getting tired of that, so that's part of my overall plan to reduce clutter.

At least I know I did get at least SOMETHING accomplished tonight.

Tomorrow I'll be bringing you the adventures of the 17 year plague! LMAO

Another unproductive weekend bites the dust. My legs have been just killing me this weekend, so I didn't have the desire to do much of anything. I started working out at the new workout center at work during my lunch hour. Well, let me just say that to go more than 5 minutes on the elliptical, you need to have killer thighs. Since I don't, the 5 minutes I tried it almost killed me. And I've been paying for it all weekend. Every move to stand from a sitting position or vice versa just KILLS me. THE PAIN!!!! CALGON, TAKE ME AWAY!

So needless to say, I didn't do much of anything this weekend. Yesterday I took my car to the dealer to have the oil changed and the tires rotated. Wanted the car to be in tip-top shape for my trip to Memphis on the 22nd. I also bought an adapter, that will allow me to use my new keyboard with my old computer. It's a PS/2 to AT reverse keyboard adapter, not that it means anything to most of you. I'm just glad AliceKay helped me find it at TigerDirect.com. AND, it gets shipped out of the warehouse IN THE TOWN I LIVE IN, so I should have it tomorrow. Too bad I can't just go pick it up and save the shipping costs, lol.

Today I got up nice and early for Kerry's stream, got on the computer, started up msn (no kerry, but that's not unusual), logged in to chat, no Kerry. That IS unusual for a Sunday morning. I was told by the few people there that she had to go somewhere. I thought, "Since I didn't get an offline msn message, maybe there's on on icq." I logged in to icq, nothing. Hmmmm, ok I'll check email, everyone in the room knows so she wasn't going to be there. Oh look, an email! Hmmm, going somewhere with LH, she'll let us know where later. Ok. I sat in the room listening to Cry, until he played something that I didn't care to listen to on a Sunday morning. Shut that down, and clicked to see if AliceKay was still streaming (since I know she sometimes runs long on Sunday mornings). She was still streaming, for a few songs anyway, then when she was done, I left chat and went to do something else while I waited for the race to start.

Or should I say, I waited and waited and waited and waited, and FINALLY it started after 4pm because of a rain delay. The race was just starting to get interesting and they start talking about more rain coming to the area, and just after halfway...you guessed it, rain. They stopped the race and after about 30-45 minutes, finally called it official. Rain-shortened races are never very exciting because you don't get the scramble at the end for positions. Oh well, at least the winner was one of the drivers I have in the fantasy league I participate in.

After that was over, I checked and there's NOTHING on tv tonight. Not interested in watching the Tony's, I don't go to Broadway, so why bother? LOL. Figured I might as well come and type something up for people to read either later tonight or tomorrow morning. Then while typing it, I get a knock on my door. I go answer it, it's one of the guys from upstairs. Apparently his girlfriend lost an expensive bracelet through the slats on their balcony and they were hoping it was on mine. I look out there, nope no bracelet. But, it could have fallen between mine and been in the tarp thingy the guy below me put up to catch all the birdseed from my feeder. I grabbed my flashlight, found it, asked her to describe it, she did; I suggested they ask the gentleman on the first floor to pull back his tarp to get the bracelet. Fortunately, he was home. I grabbed my broom, because I knew there'd be seed to sweep up after. He got the bracelet out, went back inside his apartment, the youngsters left, I swept the birdseed off his patio and came back up here to finish the sentence I was in the middle of, lol.

Oh yeah, and I did two loads of laundry today.

Such an exciting life I lead!

The best laid plans.............

Tonight my plan was to set up my old computer and run WipeDrive, to clean the hard drive of any of my old information, so I could recycle the computer on Saturday here in town.

However, after digging out the old tower and monitor, hooking them up, and trying to hook up a mouse or keyboard to it, I realized the only mouse and keyboard I have are too new to be compatible with the old computer.

*Sigh*

Guess that project will have to wait, and now this bedroom is in worse shape than it was just 30 minutes ago, lol.

Sorry, no time to post tonight, was busy doing something since I got home. Was either fixing dinner, or doing laundry, or ripping music, or receiving music. I also stopped at Best Buy on the way home to pick up a couple cd's and some software to wipe clean an old hard drive.

And I think I came up with a theme for NTT on Saturday. Not going to say what it is, because AK reads this and I don't want her to have any greater advantage over the other players, lol. Although, I'm sure you've probably already done this theme for your OWN NTT, lol.

Sweet dreams!

Ok, got my last of three loads of laundry started for tonight, now I can sit for a few minutes and post something.

Friday night I came home from work with the intention that I would barbeque a pork chop on my Smokey Joe. Unfortunately, when I opened it up, I found what I believe were nesting materials that may or may not have been used by an animal. It was a big ball of feathers and dryer lint. I attempted to clean the Smokey Joe, but after seeing how rusty both grates were, I decided it would not be a good idea, and that I would be much better off just buying a new one. And I figured I got a lot of good use out of the old one, I'd had it since 1989 after all!

So Saturday afternoon, I drove to Target and picked up a new one for $30. After putting it together, I started some coals, put a pork chop in a container with some marinade I bought, then cooked it, so it would be ready in time to give me a chance to eat it before NTT started. Mmmmm, it was delicious!

(The only bad thing about Spring when the weather is nice, is I have neighbors that like to talk on the phone outside, and with my windows open, I hear everything. It's very annoying when I'm trying to think of what to talk about here, lol.)

Today, I drove out to see my aunt and go to a movie. She made me one of my favorite meals...pot roast! After that, we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. It was good. Better than the second movie, but still not as good as the first. I read afterwards in Sci Fi Magazine that Pirates of the Caribbean is a trilogy, so all three movies intended to be made have been released. And apparently, this third one was supposed to give us some closure with some characters. My opinion was, it still left the door open for further adventures, especially if you watch a clip that is shown at the tail end of the credits. Even if another movie is not made, I'm not disappointed by this series. I'm not sure if I'd want to own it, to watch over and over again (like Harry Potter for instance), but still a good series of movies to see at the theatre. I guess I'm particular about what movies I purchase for keeps, lol.

I love the warmer weather, because I get to wear all my summer outfits, which gives me a change from my winter outfits. However, being inside the air conditioning all day, I get cold. I end up wearing a sweater by afternoon, because of the goosebumps. I wear bulky sweaters in the winter and I'm still cold, I wear short sleeves in the summer and I'm cold. Why do I always have to be cold?? I want to work someplace where I'm not freezing cold, but not sweating profusely. Is that much to ask?? LOL

Speaking of movies, I watched most of The Wizard of Oz tonight. Or Wizard Of The Boz as a great-niece once called it, lol. I still enjoy watching that movie, it was always a big event in my house growing up, we'd all get together in the den to watch it, my dad would make popcorn...a nice memory I have. The only part of the movie that I tune out is where the Lion sings about courage before they go in to see the wizard. For whatever reason that part is boring to me, and I either walk away during it, or I turn the channel, lol.

One of the things I did, as part of my "less clutter is good" decisions, was buy a plastic record case. It's sorta like a box, but made of this corrugated plastic, and it will hold my 33rpm records that had been sitting in a stack under the bed in the 2nd bedroom. It's better they be upright that laying flat, and I want them protected just in case I have another water problem that I'm not here to deal with. It arrived in the mail this week, I put it together, so I'm going to go put the records in it tonight before bed. Slowly but surely, I'm getting things taken care of. I'm doing a little each week, instead of trying to get it all done in one weekend, spreading my expenses out.

I also have my old computer that I want to recycle, but I'm trying to decide if I should wipe the hard drive clean before I give it to them. I remember taking off anything that would have been important, but I also know that even deleted files can still be accessed if you know how. I'm not really looking forward to hooking up the old computer, but if wiping the hard drive isn't too hard, then I'll deal with that, to ensure the computer is free of my information before recycling it.

Ok, think I've posted enough for tonight, lol.

It finally cooled off a bit here. High temp today was 77F, much better than the 87F we had yesterday. A little bit of rain came through, but not much. It seems like we shouldn't need any rain, since we had so much in the fall, but it already looks like some grassy areas are yellowing. Hmmmm, I wonder what our rainfall is for this year so far?

Work was...well, what it always is. There, lol. Not so busy today...did a few invoices, worked on a couple of old claims, sent a few more orders over to the mill before tomorrow's deadline. Tomorrow I should have some spreadsheets to work on, to help out my boss. He got an email from a salesman today, that handles a customer that has given the business we had to someone else. In the meantime, they want how much we sold to them all of last year and so far into this year, by location. Not as easy as it sounds with our stupid system, and all the different warehouses we've used in the last year. My boss was going to start running the reports tonight, then they have to be formatted so they're readable, missing information has to be plugged in, all before 5pm EDT tomorrow! That's why I told him I'd help him with whatever he needs me to do. Normally he does it himself, but this is the biggest time frame they've asked for, which makes it a lot more time consuming.

This same boss is turning 50 on Sunday. So a few of us decided we're going to decorate his desk tomorrow. I stopped at the store on the way home and picked up some fun stuff, some Over the Hill and 50! black balloons, a blow up cane that he can threaten to beat people with when they make fun of his age, a head stone that says The Big Five-O, you get the idea. Another girl is going to pick up a bunch of plain black balloons, we're going to try to get in before he does and fill his cubicle with them. She's also going to make a cat litter cake. It may look disgusting, but I've been told it's quite tasty...once you get past eating the turds. LMAO Just kidding, those are tootsie rolls!

So, it wasn't super busy at work today, I actually had time to check my home email, but it wasn't boring either. I got most of my orders faxed off to the mill this morning/afternoon. I have one I'm waiting on pricing for, and another I was told to hold it an extra day, I have no idea why. YOU try asking a japanese that speaks very little English and see if you can get a clear answer, lmao.

I stopped at Target on the way home. There was a cd I wanted to buy, Jason Aldean's new cd Relentless. I also picked up some bottled water that was on sale, cases of 28 for $4.50 each. And I bought a plastic tub to store blankets in, part of my "clean up this bedroom" project.

Then I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some needed food supplies. Like...turkey and cheese for sandwiches, milk for my breakfast, a package of pork chops for grilling, some Nutri Grain bars for breakfast this weekend (because my cereal is kept at work), 100 calorie packs of oreo thin crisps, some cantaloupe, some apple slices...and I think that was all.

It's nice not being controlled by what's on tv, but some nights, when it's warm like now, it's hard to figure out just what to do until bedtime. I was going to start a book last night, but decided against it due to the late hour. Maybe I'll go start one as soon as I send this cd to Kerry, LOL.

Back to work today! It was nice having a long weekend...when's the next one? Oh yeah, July...and it's not even a long weekend, it's broken up because the 4th is on a Wednesday! However, I am taking a couple vacation days in June to drive down to Memphis to visit my dear friend Catharine, the first friend I made when I moved to Illinois. She's a doctor now, and while in school she was determined to be a brain surgeon. Well, she's not a brain surgeon, but she IS a doctor!

Today at work was pretty steady. I wasn't sure how busy I'd be after being off on Friday. But I did have enough to pretty much keep me busy for most the day. We had some changes at work a couple months ago. The co-ordinator that worked with our cold rolled mill moved over to handle the coated mill, and we have a new co-ordinator for cold rolled. He's straight from Japan, and of course has to be trained. After all the orders for June had been placed, it's his responsibility to tell not only the outside salesmen but us inside people too, when July opens up for orders. He must have told the outside salesmen, but didn't tell those of us on the inside. Today I was copied on an email that said, "The deadline for entering July orders has been extended to June 1."

Damn, I was glad of that, because I had about 900 tons (1,800,000 lbs) worth of orders I needed to enter. Plus another 320,000 lbs for another customer. I was just waiting for someone to tell me I could! Needless to say, the end of the day was busy getting those entered and printed to give to the co-ordinator to double check pricing and such. They should be waiting on my desk in the morning when I get in, and I can print out the PO and fax them over.

I'm thinking tomorrow will be slower than today. Monday's (or the first day of the week if Monday is a holiday) is status report day, which takes up the first couple of hours of my day. I have to print out two different status reports for various customers I handle and fax them to the customer so they know how far along their orders are. And for one of the customers, for one reason or another, we not only send them the status report, but I have to go online to the mill website and see what the current expected ready week is for each order and write it on the report. Time consuming, and worthless if you ask me. The mill is hardly ever on time, and the information changes constantly.

As of right now, I have to match up paperwork to some invoices and mail them out. And I should have a couple shipments to invoice tomorrow. Plus the orders I entered (see above) that will be faxed to the mill. Other than that, it's unknown what else I will do tomorrow to keep myself busy. *Sigh*

Since it's been such a quiet weekend and I don't really have anything to post, I thought I'd load a couple pictures.

Yes, this is my refrigerator. It used to be filled with magnets, as Kerry and Debby can attest to. I have gotten into a mode where I want less clutter, less "stuff" laying around, and am slowly working in cleaning things up in general. The fridge was just one step in the "I'm tired of looking at this" movement.

This is my bathroom floor. My NEW bathroom floor that I got in March. I promised a picture to Ladystyx, and since Kerry is the only one who has seen it in person, the rest of you now can see it for yourselves. It's a very nice tile floor, but unfortunately, the bathroom is so small the dark tile makes it feel even smaller. What you can't see to the sides of the picture are the tub and other door. In the lower left corner you can see the edge of the one door which opens from left to right. It blocks the tub when open. Just to the right of the toilet, is the vanity sink, which is in the corner and right in front of it on the side wall is another door which I closed for the picture. The two doors give some privacy to whomever would be sleeping in the second bedroom and using that hall bath.

Today I am sad :-(

I went to a wake this evening for my best friend's father who passed away Sunday night.

Paul E. Wagner, age 67, of Woodridge, beloved husband of Janice; loving father of Dean Wagner and Wendy (Jeff) Stapleton; proud grandfather of Angela, Roxann, Kyle, Dean Jr., Nikki and Daniel; dear brother of Robert (Linda) Wagner; fond uncle of many nieces and nephews. Chapel Service Friday, May 25, 11 a.m. at Adolf Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 7000 Madison, Willowbrook. Interment Clarendon Hills Cemetery, Darien. Visitation Thursday, May 24, 3 to 8 p.m.

I took tomorrow off from work to attend the funeral. The weather channel says it isn't supposed to rain tomorrow, and I hope they're right (for a change).

This long weekend will be my time to do some spring cleaning. I was supposed to be going to my aunt's house on Saturday to paint, but the plans for that got changed, so fortunately I can stay home (and save gas) to get some other things done.

I hope everyone in the U.S. enjoys the holiday weekend, and for you Canadians reading this, enjoy working on Monday! LMAO

My next to the last post about American Idol! (I guess next week I'll have to start making posts about my feelings.)

Tonight was the final singing competition between Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis. I have just one thing to say about tonight's show....Go Jordin! She definitely deserves to win the whole thing. Her singing ability is SO much better than Blake's, even if he does "outperform" her. And to top it all off, Simon said Jordin wiped the floor with Blake vocally! Wow!!!

The song that was selected for the winner to be their first single, was intended for a woman. You can tell in the lyrics, and the notes, everything about it screams female. Blake struggled with it, but gave it the "old college try."

Tomorrow night, all 12 contestants will be there performing together, not sure if they're doing the big extravaganza like last year with 12 different stars for them to sing with. Will be interesting to have, as Kerry put it, 2 hours of nothing but Jordin. LMAO

The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was.

And the shocker of the week for me............

MELINDA DOOLITTLE IS GOING HOME. Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis are in the finale! I'll buy anything you get produced and in the stores, Melinda!

I just thought of something...what will I blog about once Idol is finished? LOL

Last night was the performance for the final three, Jordin, Melinda, and Blake. Jordin went first, starting the show off with Simon's song choice, Wishing On A Star by Rose Royce. Her second song, as picked by the producers (not Clive Davis?) was She Works Hard For The Money by Donna Summer. For her final performance of the night, Jordin chose her own song, I Who Have Nothing by Dusty Springfield (previously sung in the top 24). I think all three of her performances were quite good. I believe during the second song it appeared she struggled a little with the footwork on stage. She was trying to move back to the middle of the stage for the ending, so it was a sort of side/back step, and it looked jerky, like she wasn't sure how many steps to make, or how far she needed to move. But if that's the worst I can say about her performances, then she has an excellent chance of becoming the next American Idol.

Blake was second, starting out with Paula's song choice of Roxanne by The Police. The producers (still not Clive Davis) chose This Love by Maroon 5 for his second song. Finally, Blake himself chose When I Get You Alone by Robin Thicke. How many people have even HEARD of Robin Thicke, let alone heard the song? I happen to have the cd, although I haven't listened to it yet, so I can't compare Blake's version to Robin's. Maybe that was a good thing, so viewers didn't have the original stuck in their heads to repeat...the original was better, the original was better. Can anyone sing Roxanne and NOT be compared to The Police? I personally believe Blake's best performance was This Love by Maroon 5. His voice was perfect for that type song, since he doesn't have the range that other singers have. Unfortunately, I don't think any of his performances were good enough to get him into the finale.

Finally, Melinda closed out the show. Her first song, picked by Randy Johnson...I mean Jackson, was I Believe In You And Me by Whitney Houston. Ok, whatever happened to the judges telling them to never EVER pick a Whitney song, or a Celine song, or a Chaka Khan song, etc? Randy goes against his OWN advice and picks an obscure Whitney Houston song? Was he trying to sabotage Melinda? Or was it merely a test to see how she would handle a more difficult song? It's definitely not a classic Whitney song that everyone thinks of, but a good song nonetheless, and Melinda knocked it out of the park. Her second song was Nutbush City Limits by Tina Tuner, as chosen by the producers (again no Clive Davis). THAT'S the style of music I think Melinda could do and sell a million albums. I LOVED it! She rocked, with some soul, giving Tina a run for her money, and if she wasn't a lock before, she just sealed her place in the finale. Even though Melinda didn't NEED a third song to convince her fans of her ability, she still sang her own choice of song, I'm A W.O.M.A.N. by Peggy Lee. This is a song she had previously sung in the top 24 round, and if you didn't hear it before, this performance was just as good.

Final two will be Jordin and Melinda, and like three years ago, it will be a catfight to see who wins. Personally, I'll be happy if either of them wins, I like them both. Each will do well in the music industry. I've heard others say Jordin should win because she's more marketable than Melinda, and Melinda could end up like Taylor Hicks from last year...putting out a cd that really didn't connect with the buyers. Melinda may be older and "less marketable" but she has a fan base, and she has a singing style that can do many diffferent genres. That may be just what she needs, if she wants to sell cd's.

The concert is tonight!! I'm wearing my CN Tower t-shirt. This is my first time to The House of Blues, so I'll let everyone know how it was!

God loves me so much that He will accept me just as I am...
But He loves me too much to leave me that way!

I just sent the weekly Yahoo TV Idol Report Card to Kerry, and we were forgetting about Clive Owen week! Next week isn't the finale! Clive Owen is with them, he picks a song, the judges pick a song, and the contestants each pick a song. So we have three songs by each next week! It should be VERY interesting to see what song Clive Owens picks for Blake, lol.

Tonight is the results show for American Idol, presenting the music of Barry Gibb. This was the first week the performers got to sing two songs, and it was interesting to hear their choices.

Melinda chose "I Love You Inside And Out" and "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart." What else can be said except that once again she showed her professionalism. I couldn't find fault with either performance. She should make it into the finals easily.

Blake chose "I Should Be Dancing" and "This Is Where I Come In." Both songs were performed with some beatboxing. I preferred his second performance; The first one was sort of weird with this staccato reverb that didn't wow me at all. He is certainly in danger of being eliminated.

LaKisha chose "Stayin' Alive" and "Run To You." I was surprised she selected Stayin' Alive, since the song is performed in male falsetto. Singing in the lower key, I feel she did a pretty darn good job with the song. Her performance on the second song wasn't as good, in my opinion. There were moments at the end where she was either trying too hard, or just plain overpowering the lyrics unnecessarily. LaKisha is also in danger of being eliminated.

Jordin chose "To Love Somebody" and "A Woman In Love." Some have said, at 17, Jordin is too young to sing A Woman In Love. In some respects yes, but I believe she pulled it off. I'm no expert, but I didn't hear her pitch problems. She isn't as much of a longshot to win it all as some might think. She should be safely into the finals.

I'm assuming Barry will sing tonight, along with another surprise artist. In one hour, we will know who will be in the finale next week.


Update at 9:10pm EDT: Pink is the surprise performer tonight!

THINGS TO DO TODAY:

• Get up
• Survive
• Go to bed

Corey J. Rose

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!