No picture tonight, so this post will probably be considered boring by some, lol.

The past few days have been tiring. I was bad and stayed up too late Sunday night and Monday night. So last night (Tuesday) I was ready to crash early. Ready but not willing. I think it was about 11pm before I actually turned the light off to go to sleep. Needless to say, my ass has been dragging all week.

Work has been steadily busy for me since the first of July. In June I had hardly anything to do, now I can't seem to get it all done each day. Because I was so slow, new customers with orders were being directed to me in the hope that at some point they'd start shipping and I'd then have something to do. Boy howdy, did that ever happen!

Plus, tomorrow I'm going to go visit one of these new customers, located in Peru, IL. About a 2 hour drive from home. The salesman that I am going with wanted to go down the night before, stay in a hotel, get up in the morning, visite the customer and return to work in the afternoon. I couldn't grasp the concept of driving an hour to work, then towards the end of the day, deal with rush hour traffic to go back the way I came, practically go by my apt, to go down to the hotel in Peru. So he agreed that I would drive down in the morning, while he went down this evening and stayed in a hotel.

On top of all this, is it's end of month, and tomorrow is the last day we can complete July transactions and date them in July. I had to try to get it all done today. Then, my boss decided he wanted to have a meeting at 2pm today about this stupid checklist/form that we will have to start filling out for EVERY ORDER as part of our Japanese Sarbanes-Oxley certification. The meeting lasted 2 hours, which I could have used to get stuff done. Our department is contesting the logic behind this checklist, because of the added time it will require of us. Unfortunately, when this was all discussed, and the areas were decided upon, as to what was going to be put on this checklist, our accounting department didn't talk to our department. They didn't even talk to our international department. They went out to California and talked to the 2 people out there, who handle a miniscule fraction of the orders we do. Are we supposed to pay because they don't follow the rules? Apparently!

Our computer system automatically checks the customer credit line when we enter an order to determine if their credit is good. Now we will also have to check the customer credit before we can invoice. What good will that do, when the mill has ALREADY shipped the material, and in some cases, the customer picked it up themselves? We HAVE to invoice it once it ships. And when we pay the mill for that material, it cross references the individual coil number and our PO number to the mill, along with the mill invoice number. Yet we are still supposed to write the payment voucher number on a line, next to the invoice number for that coil (after we've generated the invoice to the customer). I could go on and on and on with these stupid procedures we're going to have to follow. AND after the 2 hours discussing this? We weren't even DONE! We are having another meeting on Friday morning to talk more about it.

After exiting the meeting at 4pm (the time I would normally leave work), I still had work that I needed to get done since I'm not there tomorrow. Nothing important, just invoicing customers and paying mill invoices. By the time I left it was almost 6pm. Because I'm visiting a customer tomorrow, I'm driving the company car (why the salesman didn't take I have no idea). I left my car in the parking garage at work, and filled out the form so security knows my car will be there tonight and tomorrow night. Nice thing is, the company car is the same as mine, just an upgraded model. So it drives the same and feels the same. I grabbed my IPASS transponder out of my car so I would pay the cheaper toll rates coming home tonight and going to work on Friday. It's easy to just add the company car to my IPASS account for a couple days, then remove it.

I also stopped by the library on my way home. I had reserved Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, and they emailed me to let me know it was ready for pickup. Since I saw the movie on Sunday, I wanted to read the book again so I could see what all they left out. I already know of a few things, but can't wait to read it again to get all the details. At least I have three weeks to read it before it's due back, so I don't have to rush through it like I did with The Deathly Hallows.

Well, I think that's enough rambling for tonight. Keep cool everyone, and pray for the injured people in Minnesota who were on I-35W when the bridge over the Mississippi collapsed.

I've been staying up way too late the last couple of nights, and am exhausted. I'm posting this picture, although it's not very clear, of a shot glass AK sent me. You can't read it, but it says Watkins Glen on it, it's from a National Forest in NY that Terri was at for some reason or another. TY TY TY AK!!!!!

Here's the new tile on the main floor of my building. I stood with the front door open and took a close up picture to try to give a better idea of what the pattern is. I'm calling it a sort of "sandstone" look.

Here's what the whole floor looks like, and yes it really is about that dark in person. Good thing the side walls stayed white, or it would be REALLY dark in the hall.

Here's a close-up of the new carpeting the put on the stairs and the landings on floors 2 and 3. It has rows of blue and green weaved together, and rows of tan and maroon weaved together. The colors match what they did with the walls, but to me it's just too dark for an aparment building that has one little window by the door on the first floor, and three windows directly above the door that you can't even reach from the landings. I'll try to take a picture of those to give you a better idea of what I'm talking about. And of course, with the tile on the first floor now, every time the door closes it echos in the hall area, which I knew it would do when they decided to put tile in. Even with the carpet on the stairs and landings, it's not enough to absorb the noise from the door closing. Now if they would just add one more light in the parking lot like I mentioned they should do...

I FINISHED HARRY POTTER!!!!! OMG IT WAS SOOOO GOOD! I can't wait for the whole series to be released in September as a complete set. Only $195, all in hardback and they come in a trunk!

Now I can go finish the other book I have that needs to be returned to the library tomorrow, First Into Nagasaki by George Weller.

Supposed to be 83F tomorrow (Tuesday). Guess I should dress for winter again so I don't freeze at work. Been busy messing with winamp the last couple nights. I have pictures to post from this past weekend, hopefully I'll get to them in tomorrow, because in a few more days I will have the new Harry Potter book, and will be on a deadline to get it read and returned to the library.

Have a great day/night/today/tomorrow, whatever it is when you read this.

This is my last racing picture, I promise, lol.

One of the men at Track Time handed me this picture and a marker, so I could have Bill sign it. Just so you know I'm not making him up!

On the way back from my adventure in the car, we went past this sign as we were looking for some Longhorns. I was told that the owner of this property often enforces the sign with a shotgun, lmao. And we didn't see the Longhorns, they weren't out by the road. :-( I did see a few on the drive to Michigan, messed me up good to see Longhorns there. Thought I went the wrong way and was in Texas instead, lmao

Thanks Kerry, for reminding me that I have a program on my computer to edit pictures! Here's the picture of me in the car with Bill Eversole.


And here's a picture of a car that Jamie McMurray drove before he switched race teams.

Yup, that's me! If you aren't familiar with NASCAR or racing, I'm sitting in a former stock car that is now used for driving school and ride-alongs at a place called Track Time. I got the surprise of my life this weekend in Michigan. The friend I was visiting set it up with her step-mom, who knows the guy who runs Track Time, and he used to drive in the ARCA series, which is two levels below the top-tier of the Nextel Cup series.

I'm really disappointed the pictures came out so dark. They looked much better on the camera! I also have one of Bill Eversole, the driver/owner of Track Time, standing next to the car with me in it.

This is a Kasey Kahne car, a display version of the car he drives in the Nextel Cup Series.

This is a Busch Series car (the level between ARCA and Nextel Cup), currently driven by Greg Biffle, but I think this car has the signature of a different driver on it. If you look closely, just above the window opening is a yellow squiggly line. In person, it's actually the driver's signature.

Here's the guys loading up the Kasey Kahne car to take it to an event in Akron, OH. You can't see him that well, but that's Bill Eversole by the drivers side. He even signed a photo for me!

It takes three of them to push it up into the trailer, then they secure it in place with locking cinch straps to keep it from moving forward or backward.

I picked up a brochure, and next time I go to Michigan, I'm going to sign up for the 3 lap ride-along, it's only $99! I would get to sit in a real race car and go around Michigan International Speedway for three laps! OMG, how cool is that???

Just a couple photos that will have to hold you over until next week. I'm heading to Michigan in the morning and won't be back until late afternoon on Monday. These two pictures are looking down from my balcony, at a couple chipmunks that live under the patio below me. The guys above me were eating Ritz crackers, and dropped several down to the ground. The next day, I went outside and saw the chipmunks nibbling on them. So I came back inside, grabbed my camera, and took a couple photos of them, lol. Bet they had full bellies after eating all that!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Not sure if I mentioned it or not, but along with the "fantastic" paint job on the doors and walls, the carpeting is also being replaced. The main floor of each building will be tile, with the stairs, 2nd floor, and 3rd floor remaining carpeted. This picture is of the main floor after the carpeting had been ripped out. The dark part at the bottom is a mat that used to sit just inside the door, for you to stand on when you came in with wet/dirty feet, I guess to protect the carpeting. It also subbed as a door stop when you needed it held open for long periods of time. The tile has now been laid and grouted. Now if we would just have a sunny afternoon, I could take a picture of it. It looks to be more of a "sandstone" pattern, as opposed to my bathroom tile which looks more marble like.

I forgot to post this picture when I mentioned the trip to the Memphis Art Museum. It was about 95F outside, but I wanted to take a moment before going in to get a picture of the outside. I thought it was an interestingly shaped building. Plus there are the three statues on the outside. I'm not sure what they are of, like I said, it was very hot, and we didn't want to stand outside in the sun for very long. Of course, once we were inside, it was quite cold, and I ended up being eager to get back out into the heat. I know, museums need to keep it cool to protect the art. But this was a spur of the moment decision, so I didn't have the opportunity to change into pants and bring a jacket.

Where was I? Ah yes, the excitement of Memphis.

Turns out Saturday was the most interesting day of the weekend, lol. Sunday, Cathy got up early and went into work for a few hours before church to write up all the medical charts she didn't get to on Friday. She wanted to do it before she forgot everything, which I think was a pretty good idea, lol. So I got to sleep in, sort of. I just needed to be ready to go by 9:15, so we could make the 30 minute drive to church in time for 10am service.

She attends a church called Fellowship Memphis, held at a local college. I don't think it's any specific denomination, at least that I could tell. They have a band and some singers up on stage, and that lasts for maybe the first 30 minutes or so. There are three pastors that rotate and take turns with the weekly message. This week, however, they had a guest speaker. He was very good, his message was about "complacency." Part way through, they have everyone say hello and introduce themselves to the people around them. Seated in front of us was a nice looking "young" man (probably mid 20's?) from Little Rock, Arkansas who was a friend of the guest speaker. When I told him I was from Chicago, he started asking me questions about it, lol. He asked me to name one good thing and one bad thing about Chicago. The bad was easy, it was the good thing I had a hard time with, there are so many! LMAO. My answers were...bad was the traffic, good was the food, museums, (didn't want to say nightlife because after all, we WERE in church, lmao). He seemed satisfied with my answers, lol. Then at the end, before we left, as we were shaking hands goodbye, he asked me to name one thing to see in Chicago that most people don't know about. First thing that popped into my mind was a place I didn't even know about until May when Kerry and Michael were here...The Historical Museum of Chicago. I told him it was the perfect place to go to get a complete overview of the entire history of Chicago, and everything that has happened in and influenced the city.

After church it was almost lunchtime, so we stopped at a little deli nearby, bought sandwiches, and headed over to a nearby park to eat outside. The rain had stopped and it hadn't quite gotten super hot yet. Then we headed to borders, just to wander around and look at books. I had no intention of buying any books, and I was successful in walking out without making a purchase. Cathy however, discovered a nice little paperback that she started reading, then decided to buy. It was about Corrie Ten Boom, a young woman who entered the prison camps in Germany to try to help the Jewish prisoners. It sounded like a good book. I tried looking for it at my Borders once I was home, but didn't know exactly where she found it, and after an unsuccesful search in their database, gave up.

The only other thing Cathy thought I might be interested in, was going back downtown so she could show me "mud island." It's an area along the riverfront that have some very nice houses, sort of a private little community, but we were able to drive around in it looking at the houses. We also parked and walked along the river's edge, to a bench that was in the shade so we could sit, relax and just talk for a bit. A very relaxing afternoon.

Another reason to come downtown, was the other bbq restaurant she wanted to take me to was supposed to be downtown. That turned out to be an adventure. Since she's only been in Memphis for about 6 months, Cathy's still learning her way around. She thought she knew what street the restaurant was on, but after driving around for over 30 minutes, she gave up and declared she must not have remembered the address correctly. So we headed to an alternate location, same family chain, further out of the downtown area, more on the way home. Unfortunately, we got the bottom of the barrel ribs, mine didn't have a lot of meat on them, and there was a lot of gristle. But the flavor was good, lol. The restaurant is called Neely's, we went to the first location listed in the link, on Mt. Moriah. We had been driving around trying to find the Jefferson location, and finally gave up.

The interesting part of the story, is that Neely's is owned and run by the nephews of Jim Neely, who owns and runs Jim Neely's Interstate Bar-B-Que. There's a lot of competition in Memphis as to which is better. Cathy has tried both and her opinion is that Neely's has a better tasting sauce, so that's where we went. Too bad I was disappointed with the quality of meat. Would have been interesting to have the two side-by-side and done my own taste test, lol.

After the rib dinner, Cathy and I went back to her place and we very quickly crashed, as it would be an early morning for both of us. She was going to work, and I was packing up and heading home. The drive home was longer than the drive down, I was more tired, for some reason, and had to stop at a rest area just to close my eyes for a few minutes to rest. I also had rain for about an hour as soon as I crossed into Illinois. I was so exhausted when I got home, I had to sit and relax for a bit before I could even think about unpacking, lol.

All in all, a very nice trip! I'm so glad I went. Cathy and I both agreed that 18 years is WAY too long to go between visits. Sorry there aren't more pictures, but there just wasn't anything interesting to take pictures of.

My day is not starting out too good. With the sunshine I sent to Ladystyx, I now get all the rain! We need it, so it's not all bad. But most of the lightning and thunder came when I would have "wanted" to go to bed last night. I decided to stay up for a while, to see if it would eventually let up enough to allow me to fall asleep. Finally, about 1:30AM, the storm let up enough for me to try to get to sleep.

As I was turning out the lights to head to bed, the guys in the building across from me, decided to come out onto their balcony and start talking very loudly, laughing, having a good time. Since my windows were still open, I could hear them very well. I went to bed anyway, hoping I could block them out, or they'd go back inside, and I'd get to sleep quickly. Fortunately, they weren't out that long, and I was able to fall asleep.

It only lasted about 2 hours. They came back onto the balcony about 3:40AM and were talking and laughing so loudly, they woke me up! I was having none of that. In my nighshirt (that went down to my knees) I went out onto my balcony and hollared over at them to please keep it down, people are trying to sleep. At first they were sort of rude, like why should they have to keep it quiet, and who was I to ask them to do it. But my mission was accomplished, they were quiet and I was able to get back to sleep. Until about 6:10AM.

That's when the guy started mowing the grass of the fairway outside my building. With him going back and forth, lengthwise, cutting the whole fairway, there was no way I could block him out on my own. I had to resort to tougher methods. Closing my bedroom window and turning on the fan portion of my a/c would work. Ah, sweet bliss, I was able to fall asleep AGAIN. Until my alarm went off at 9:30 to complete my intended eight hour sleep cycle.

Needless to say I'm not feeling that rested after being woken up from a sound sleep TWICE. I might need a nap before heading out for what I hope will be fireworks tonight.

Happy Independence Day to all my American friends!

Update at 10:08AM. If my alarm hadn't woken me up at 9:30, I'd be up by now anyway, I forgot about the parade that started at 10 today and goes through the neighborhood behind my building. Of course, they are running their sirens to let everyone know what they sound like and to know they are there. It's bad enough here, I can't imagine if it was right outside my house.

Scroll down and read the earlier entries first.

Here's a shot of the sign outside BB King's when we were leaving. Each letter would light up individually, and I learned that I had to wait for it all to be lit before taking the picture, or you wouldn't see a thing, lol. The live band was very good. We stayed for one set, had some chicken fingers, had someone take our picture, I had a shot so I could keep the shotglass, and we made our way back to the car. Getting out of the city was the hard part, lol. The streets are all one way, and with many of them blocked off, you really have to know where you're going to get back to the highways, lol. Eventually we did, and arrived back at Cathy's apartment safe and sound. We both crashed right away, because Cathy was getting up about 6AM to go into work for a couple hours to get charts done, coming back to pick me up to go to church. A full and fun day!

Scroll down and read the earlier entry first, lol.

Here's a shot of Beale Street before it got dark. They barricade it off so no cars can drive down it, so people walk basically wherever they want, lol. Lots of stores and restaurants, but mostly clubs to hear live music. There was a group of gymnasts right outside BB Kings, who had a large group of onlookers cirlcing them. As we walked up Beale Street, there was a four-man group on the sidewalk playing, and just as we stopped to listen, they started up with Sweet Home Chicago. Of COURSE I had to tip them and tell them I was from Chicago, lol.

The continuing adventures of Denise...

Saturday morning dawned early for both myself and Cathy. She had a hair appointment, and I learned that I was in for a day at a spa. Cathy felt bad about abandoning me for her weekly hair appointment, so she wanted me to be treated and pampered Saturday morning.

She dropped me off at the spa for a full-body massage, a vichy shower, a facial and a manicure. For those not familiar with a vichy shower, click the link for a picture. You lay on a bed with a pad, they rub a sea-salt and oil mixture all over your body then rinse you off. A true vichy shower has the top thing with the shower heads spray the water all over you. But since I can't lay on my stomach, she used the hand sprayer to rinse me off. Your skin feels so soft and smooth when you're done. And after the full body massage, I was RE-LAXED!

Then it was time for the facial. All sorts of stuff massaged into my face, wiped off, a hot towel over my eyes, a hot steam to clean out my nasal passages, I think I could have fallen asleep in there given a few more minutes, lol.

I then got dressed, went downstairs and had my manicure done. I asked the girl to suprise me, I didn't want to pick the same old neutral color I would always look for. What did she pick? A very very pale pink, very neutral color, lmao. I think she hadn't been doing it long. I had some really nice nails and she trimmed them all down so they didn't even reach my finger tips. And I don't like my nails squared off the way she did it. But oh well, they'll grow back, lol.

About the time I was finishing the manicure, Cathy showed up with her hair done for the week, and we went to eat some RIBS! We went to a place called Corky's for some dry rub bbq ribs. OMG were they GOOD!!! I've never had the dry rub before, and it was so tasty, and you don't have as much as a mess like with the wet ribs. You still have messy fingers, just not so bad. We each got a 1/2 slab, with beans and cole slaw, and neither one of us could finish it all.

Afterwards, we went to a local art museum, where we saw some very interesting art pieces that really grabbed our attention. Before going downtown for the night, we went back to Cathy's to change into long pants and rest for a bit. I napped on the couch for maybe an hour, changed into slacks, and we headed to Beale Street for some blues!

I knew the drive to Memphis would be boring. The only thing to see for most of the drive, whether in Illinois, Missouri, or Tennessee, is farms, farms, and more farms. I took this picture from a rest stop on the way home, but the view is the same heading south as it is heading north.

I left Friday morning about 10:30am. I wanted to leave earlier, but just couldn't get out of bed and get everything done in time. I wasn't worried too badly, even if the drive took nine hours, I'd still be there about 7:30pm. Early enough to still eat dinner when I arrived (and have it not be dark yet), late enough that I knew Cathy would be home from work. The drive did in fact take about nine hours. I arrived about 7:30pm. I was just entering her town, and was thinking to myself that I should dig out her number and let her know I was almost there, when my cell phone rang.

It was Cathy, asking where I was, lol. I was trying to tell her where I was at, and suddenly I saw the sign for her apartment complex. I made a quick right turn and said...I'm here! It's gated, with a pass card/code, she tried to explain to me how to do it, but it didn't work when we tried. So I sat and waited for her to drive over to the gate to let me in. She showed me around her apartment. It's a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment on the third floor. They are brand new, all the walls are painted a light brown, very neutral color. Not something that I might want on every wall, but it's not my apartment, lol. We went to a restaurant close by for some catfish and salad. Gotta have catfish when you go down south!

We went back to her apartment, sat and talked for awhile, then went to bed, as we had an early start the next morning.

Ok, I figured if I didn't post SOMETHING I'd really get it tomorrow from Kerry. So here's a quick picture of me and my friend Cathy at BB Kings Blues Club on Beale Street.

This is to remember me by this weekend while I'm gone. This really is my last post before I leave.

AliceKay...do you know what this is???? I went out on my balcony this evening to start the barbecue so I could finish off the last porkchop before I left, and there was about four times as much of this today as there was yesterday.

Then while I was getting the coals nice and hot, something wasn't happy about my intrusion out there. I started hearing these squeaking noises coming from overhead, between the balcony above and the bricks of the building. Figure it out yet?

Yup, they're baaaaaack! My bats must be seasonal travelers and only come through in early summer. I think they are small brown bats, very common around here, although I never see them flying around at night. And from what AK has told me, bats (like mice) can fit into very small spaces, lol.

Everybody lose their appetite yet? LMAO

Short post tonight, because well...I already posted a picture for AK earlier today, lmao

Work was SO slow today. I stretched about an hour's worth of work into three hours, then finally had enough. I checked my available vacation days, saw I had a 1/2 day hanging around, my boss approved it, so I came home for the afternoon.

I started wathing Sunday's race that I had taped, hit stop to take a little nap, Kerry called to wake me up cause she knew I was sleeping, lmao. Then I watched the rest of the race. I already knew who won, found out accidentally from an email, oh well.

Tomorrow night there will be no post, as I will be packing for my trip to Memphis. It's supposed to be very hot there this weekend, upper 90's. Shorts sound about right. I'm going to have some barbecue while I'm there, go find some blues to entertain us, and just hang out with my friend. I'm getting so excited. I called her on the phone tonight just to make sure of how to find her apartment, and what time she'll be off work, etc. It was SO GOOD to talk to her, I think we'll have a blast!

I'll take my camera (AK) and post pictures when I get home!

Here you go, AliceKay...

Workers painting lines on the street in front of my building at work. LMAO

Much cooler today, thank you very much. Not much exciting happened today. Work was pretty slow. I basically got anything that needed to be done, off my desk. So tomorrow, who knows what I'll do, lol.

Been sitting here on the computer most the night. Should have called a friend, which I intended to do tonight, but g0t caught up with sending emails with Kerry. Maybe I'll try to call her tomorrow.

Maybe something exciting will happen tomorrow, so I'll have a blog subject, lol.

How many days in a row can I say it was hot? I guess today is the last time for a couple days at least. Tomorrow is only supposed to be about 80F.

Had a semi-boring day at work today. I had a few orders to enter, didn't take me long, but then I got to make the file folders for them, so that killed some time. Not much invoicing to do...only one customer, with one shipment today and one from Friday. Not enough to make it worthwhile to go through all the effort of printing the checklist for my boss to approve and then print the actual invoices. I'll wait until tomorrow when I should have a couple more to print.

This afternoon the sky started getting dark, as the storm system moved in that we were expecting today. It rained almost my whole way home, fortunately not that hard, pouring-down rain, just drizzle. Enough to make me put my wipers on medium delay. We really did need the rain, despite all the rain we got in the fall, and the snow in the winter; I had already started to notice the level of the lake by me was going down. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of rain with this system. What we need is a good daylong soaking rain. But now that June is here we are more prone to the odd thunderstorm with brief periods of heavy rain.

I stopped at the store on the way home to pick up some food for this week. I think I bought just enough to get me through until Friday, when I head down to Memphis to visit my high school girlfriend. I have three porkchops to bbq, a banana for each morning (including Friday), some cantaloupe which I can inhale in one sitting, lol. I LOVE cantaloupe. I also saw some blackberries at the store, mmmmm, don't know how much they were, it's been so long since I had some, I HAD to buy them. Will take them to work tomorrow and have them with my lunch.

Tonight's dinner was a cheeseburger, just the burger and a slice of cheese and some katsup. No bun, lol. I also had a salad with it, to get some greens. I'm still working out during my lunch hour at work. I weighed myself late last week, but hadn't lost any weight so far. BUT, this weekend, my aunt asked if I was still walking. I told her I what I was doing at work, and said I hadn't lost any weight yet. She said, "You're compacting first, I noticed your butt was tighter." LMAO! Imagine that coming from my aunt! Kerry and Debby have met her, so they understand the hilarity behind that. She signs her emails to me "Your crazy Ant" and yes we spell it A-N-T. Can't remember why, she's my adopted aunt, not related by blood or marriage, so it started before I ever was "adopted" by the family.

Oh, and Hitch was great. I really liked that movie. It was on TBS last night, so not sure when they'll air it again. I'm sure you could rent it though. It was cute enough that I wouldn't mind seeing it again. Classic love story, boy meets girl, fall in love, won't admit it, hurt each other, make up and live happily ever after, lol. But it's what happens in between all that that makes the movie funny and cute. It's one I probably wouldn't mind owning.

I also borrowed Blood Diamond from my aunt to watch one of these days. And I still have to watch Sunday's Nascar race before Friday, since I'll be missing this next weekend's race, I think in Sonoma. Anyway, I've rambled on enough for tonight, time to start getting ready for bed, or I'll never get up in the morning.

Should I bother mentioning how hot it was here today? I'm glad air conditioning was invented!

Today I went to go see Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. It was awesome! And in the comics, the Silver Surfer appears repeatedly to help them, so assuming there are future movies, he could be in more of them. It was only 89 minutes long, short enough to not make you antsy to be out of there, but long enough to give you some action and conclude the story.

Afterwards, I vaccumed my aunt's floors, then drove home. I was about 1/4 mile away from my exit and traffic came to a screeching halt. Apparently, there was an accident on the left shoulder, with the left lane closed around it, plus everyone had to gawk. I'm not sure what happened, but one of the cars had no rear bumper. It was laying on the ground behind the car. Must have been a nasty impact to completely remove the bumper. There was an ambulance there, but couldn't really tell if anyone was seriously injured.

I bbq'd a chicken breast tonight, did some laundry, and am watching Hitch while I type this, lol. So I don't miss too much, I better pay some attention to it, cause it's pretty hysterical so far.

Hot Hot Saturday. My Weather Underground link says it's 92F/34C out, but it might be hotter. I was holding off on turning my a/c on as long as I could. Last night while streaming, it was SO warm in my apartment, with nary a breeze through the windows. (It's gettin' hott in herre, so take off all your clothes) Sorry, I digress...but I always think of that song when someone says it's "hot in here."

Yesterday after work, I finally got my adapter for my keyboard, so I could hook it up to my old computer and run WipeDrive. After streaming, I turned on a small oscillating fan I have, sat in front of it, and started it up. After one minor problem with the startup, I finally got it working and proceeded to wipe the drive. The oh-so-easy instructions included with the software don't mention anything about change the boot sequence of your computer so it will boot off your cd-rom drive. I had to use my current computer to go to the website and troubleshoot it. *Sigh* Good thing I sorta knew what I was doing when I went into the old computer's BIOS, lol.

To make a long story short, the drive was wiped, I went to bed about 1:30, layed there in the heat for at least half an hour, partly due to the neighbors on their balcony that were talking way too loud for 2am, partly due to the fact that if I moved I was sweating. At 8:30, I woke up HOT, said F**K IT, and turned the a/c on in the living room. My alarm then went off at 9am, I hit snooze till 10am, finally got up, showered, dressed, checked email, then took my computer to the recycler across town. Then I headed north to Fantastic Sam's to get my hair cut. It's too hot to not get it cut, and I don't want it long and droopy for next weekend.

The a/c in the living room doesn't really cool this bedroom much, but it is just enough to take the edge off, so I'm not sweating as I sit here and type.

Tomorrow, I'm going to go see Fantastic 4: The Silver Surfer. I hope it's as good as the first one, I loved it!

NTT playlist has been sent to Kerry, so I'm all set for tonight. I might putz around in here for a bit, maybe see what else I can take care of. It's nice not seeing that old computer in here anymore, lol.

Sorry, had to show you one more cicada picture, lmao. This is a dead cicada that was found yesterday afternoon just outside the door to our office. One of our salesmen picked it up and brought it in to toss in the garbage. Instead, Cathy wanted to leave it for our boss John, as a surprise when he came out of his meeting. First they just put it on his desk, but then decided it would be funnier if they taped him to the windshield of this toy HON truck he has. They even wrote a note and made fake blood drips on the paper, lmao. The note said something about the cicada got hit by his HON truck. John got a good chuckle out of it, and it has been left taped to the truck still.

Then today, when I got to work about 8:15, Cathy mentioned to me that she captured a cicada that somehow made it into our office and was flying around. She put it in a cup , put a small plastic plate on it, and was going to leave it for Debbie, because she FREAKS when ever we talk about them. But then Cathy had a better idea. Instead of the plate, she got some plastic wrap and a rubberband, covered the cup with that, then punched air holes in the plastic. Debbie freaked when she came in and saw that on her desk. She almost turned right around and went home. We moved the cicada-in-a-cup to John's desk and put it next to the dead one still on the truck windshield. Everyonce in awhile, I would pick up the cup, and tilt it so the alive cicada could see his dead brother, lmao.

Late morning, one of our coordinators was outside smoking. Unbeknownst to him, a cicada bummed a ride up to our office. It flew around the office, so Cathy being the attentive bug lover she is, quickly scooped it up and put it in the same cup with the first one. We were hoping one was female and they'd mate. No such luck. Whenever one would fall over on his back, he'd vibrate his tympas. That was an interesting sound to hear in the office, lol. About lunchtime, John took the cup outside and set them free.

We do actually have a little fun in the office, thanks to Cathy, lol.

Here's the newly painted inside of the front door to my building, and the wall around it. The door is the rust color, and the wall around it is sort of a mustard color. Pretty disgusting if you ask me, lol. Before, the inside portion of the door and the wall were both white.

It's kind of dark, but that sort of gives you an idea of what the back door and wall to my building look like now. Before both the door and wall were white. The walls on either side are still white, I'm sure they're going to be painted, but just what color, I have no idea. Just to the left of the picture, which you can't see, is the door to my apartment.

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!