The Thumper Zone

Sending Out Prayers

2008-05-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

I was just reading updates about the horribly sad earthquake tragedy in China. It just is too much to think about so much life lost in one fell swoop.

I was on Guam in 1993 when an 8.2 earthquake lasting 60 seconds struck. It was the most terrifying minute of my life, as I knelt in a doorway of my 3rd-floor apartment while the whole building rose and fell around me, praying for myself and the others on the island. Even though all my furniture and belongings came crashing down, the building held together.

I can't imagine what it must have been like for these thousands of people in China to be trapped or crushed under those collapsing buildings. It's too disturbing, and I will continue to pray for those who have died and the many survivors who have to rebuild their lives.

Time for a Religious Flashback

2008-05-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

A couple of my young sibling progeny (aka, my niece and nephew) are taking their First Communions this month. It's a big stepping stone in the Catholic faith. I remember my own First Communion well, surprisingly enough since so much else of my life has disappeared from memory as the grey matter disintegrates with old age. I was going to Catholic school, St. Joseph's, in Indiana at the time, and it was my favorite of all the schools I went to. I was only there for grades 3-4, which was a little late for making a First Communion, but for some reason I had been delayed a year. This resulted in my having the same ceremony as my younger brother, Danny. Here's a picture of me in my white dress and veil. Look at those chubby cheeks! I actually kept that angel pendant for many years and passed it on to my Goddaughter when she made her First Communion. I like to think she'll keep it and pass it on, but who knows? Kids today!

I discovered it's much harder finding appropriate sacrament gifts for boys than girls. Girls have all the jewelery and figurine and girly stuff options. What do you do for boys? I have to say I don't still have anything I was given as a gift for my First Communion (other than the pendant), so I'm not too sold on getting any type of keepsake. It's tricky. Card, easy. Gift, not so much.

Ok...quit laughing at my picture and go back to your daily lives now!

A Courtesy Reminder

2008-05-09T07:20:00.000-07:00

Randy and I attempted to clean our office this week. I say "attempted" because I'm looking around now and thinking, "What the heck happened?" It's amazing how fast the crap re-accumulates!

We actually did get a lot done. There was an amazing layer of dust on everything. I can't get over how dusty this place gets. Mind you, I'm not the best person about keeping things clean; but I NEVER had to dust as often or remove as much when I was living in Ohio. It's not just inside either. Our patio starts looking like a dig site when I don't sweep it regularly. It's bizarre.

The other major thing we accomplished was going through the stacks of paperwork we had both accumulated. This is bad to say, but we both had unopened bills and letters going back a couple of years just piling up around us. Now regarding the bills, obviously for the most part they were accounts we'd taken care of online or automatically, and the paperwork was redundant. But little did we know how close we'd come in January to losing our cable/internet/phone when we failed to open an important communique from Comcast. Check out this letter, paying close attention to the red highlighted areas. (Click for large view.)
Yes, you read it correctly: Comcast was going to terminate our service because we had paid our bill and had a $.00 account balance! My goodness they're getting strict! And we had never opened this letter. Just imagine...we would have been sitting around watching "Dancing with the Stars" or "The Amazing Race" and all of a sudden...nothing... Then we would go to our neighbors and borrow their phone (ours would have been cut off) to place a call to Comcast only to be told our service had been disconnected because we didn't owe them money. I'm almost sorry it didn't happen; that's a phone conversation I would have LOVED to experience!

Annie he Ain't

2008-05-04T16:42:00.000-07:00

This week is Children's Week on our favorite computer game, World of Warcraft (aka, WoW). We got to pick up a little orphan child with our players then take the child around with us visiting different cities and sites he was interested in. Here's a picture of my orphan boy, Randis, with my warrior player (seated). He wanted to get an autograph from his favorite hero, Lady Jaina (standing, facing away from camera), so there we were. We also got some Orc orphans with our Horde characters. This pic is of Randy's and my Tauren (moo) characters taking the orphans for a boat ride. They spent a lot of time while they were with us asking weird questions like, "If a glove is too big, does it still fit like a glove?" or "If a fly doesn't have wings, is it a walk?"

Once we finished escorting our orphans around Azeroth, we had to turn them back in and were given the option of selecting a pet or a cash reward. I wanted to keep the orphan, because he was really cute running around with my warrior. But I realized I couldn't take him with me, into the face of danger, since the frequent bloodbaths I find myself in might scar him for life. So I returned him to the home, and selected a pet rat as my reward. I didn't expect to particularly like the rat, but look at him--he's pretty snazzy!!

Scrooge that he is, Randy took the cash reward instead of a pet. I asked him if he'd like to go get a REAL orphan for a week, take him around to see some sights, etc. His immediate and emphatic response was, "Not particularly." I've learned this is his pat answer when he is not sure how serious I am about something. He's a man of few words, so I've had to learn to interpret. It means, "I really don't want to do that at all, but I will do it if YOU want to do it because it would be easier to go along than try to get out of it." Sometimes I will respond with, "Ok then, let's do it!" In this case, I let him off the hook. I don't think the orphans are ready for us...

Another Birthday...sort of....

2008-05-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

I know it seems like this is becoming the birthday blog, but I have another one!

My father turns 72 today. (Here he is in a picture taken almost 12 years ago, passing on his fashion sense to a hapless grandchild.) Allow me to point out that today isn't his actual date of birth, just the day we've always celebrated it. I didn't find out till I was an adult in my 20s that he wasn't really born on May 2. I'm not quite sure how it slipped his mind to inform us of this fact, but it took that long for it to come out. We were just sitting around chatting one day and he said, "You know, I don't think I've ever mentioned it, but May 2 isn't really my birthday." My reaction, of course, was, "Whaaaaaaaaaaa....??????"

Here's the story, and I'm sure he'll correct me if I get this wrong, since he's now reading my blog for a change. He was actually born on April 29th, in Puerto Rico, where they had a law stating newborns had to be registered within 5 days of their birth or their parents had to pay a fine. My grandmother didn't feel this law should apply to her, so she didn't get around registering him till well into May. Rather than pay the fine, she fudged the paperwork and said he'd been born on May 2. Now you know where I get my clever, scheming gene.

So my dad went through his formative years celebrating his birthday on the real day, April 29th, since the family all knew this was when he was really born. It wasn't until he joined the Air Force that this falsification came into play. Because his documents all said he'd been born on May 2, that's when people started recognizing the event. So he started getting birthday wishes and parties etc on May 2 instead of April 29th. By the time he got around to having kids, it had become the traditional celebration day, so that's when we celebrated it as a family. And it never occurred to him to mention it till years later.

Does anyone out there have a weirder family than mine?

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Dad! Hope it's a good one, whatever day it is!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-04-14T23:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, it was my birthday today--Happy Birthday, Me! Randy took the day off to help me celebrate. We went out to IHOP for breakfast, then to a movie. After the movie, I spotted a Cold Stone Creamery, so we hit that for some ice cream, then spent some time walking around the shopping center. We found an Apple store to go look into, since Randy is interested in switching from PCs to Macs after all our computer problems. We got a lot of questions answered and the systems were very cool, but much out of our price range for now. Maybe in future.

We were supposed to go to the Cheesecake Factory as my birthday lunch or dinner, but I was so full from the breakfast and ice cream we decided to pass on it for today and do it tomorrow or Wednesday instead. It's like having an extended birthday!

The movie we saw Nim's Island, which was pretty good, if not very original. Shades of Romancing the Stone, As Good As It Gets, and Stranger than Fiction in there. The upcoming movies we want to check out (and saw some previews for, so we're getting excited!) are Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and one we hadn't heard about before we saw the preview, The Forbidden Kingdom. That looks VERY cool! Good special effects AND Jackie Chan slapstick...how can you go wrong? Gonna be a good movie summer!

All in all, it was a good birthday, shared with someone special, so I'm happy. Thanks to all who made it happier with your good wishes!

A Sweet Birthday

2008-04-08T12:27:00.000-07:00

Today is the birthday of my most faithful blog reader--my mother. That's her in the picture on the left, holding my little hand and preggers with my little brother. Don't you love the glasses? She hasn't been able to read what little I've been blogging lately because her router crashed. She and my dad are working on getting back up and running, though, so hopefully that will be in time for her to see her blog b-day shout out! Happy Birthday, Mom!! I'm dying to hear if you liked your present.

I am celebrating my mom's birthday by getting back to a job search. I'm feeling a lot better in the last few days (woohoo!), so it's time to get the feelers out so I can return to making an honest living for myself. The lottery winner jobs all seem to be taken, so instead I'm looking for some type of office work. I dusted off my resume and will be sending it out today and tomorrow. We'll see what crops up!

I've also been celebrating by noshing on some Lindt chocolate eggs. I scored some on sale that were left from Easter. Foolish shoppers don't realize Lindt makes the best chocolate ever and left them on the shelf. I bought a mixed egg set, and while I figured what 3 of the 4 egg types were before I got it, the fourth was a mystery. Red is my delicious favorite, the milk chocolate truffle. Blue is Randy's favorite, the dark chocolate truffle. Gold is the okay-but-not-as-good-as-red white chocolate truffle. The mystery was the orange wrapped truffle egg. I gave one to Randy last night and after he ate it I asked what flavor it was. He said he didn't know, and that it tasted the same to him as the milk chocolate ones. At this point, I realized I was wasting Lindts on him because he obviously has an underdeveloped palate. Back to Mars bars for him. I had one today and realized the orange wrapped eggs were peanut butter truffles. Very subtle and very tasty! I'm a happy camper.

My birthday is next week. Maybe I'll get myself a whole bag of the orange wrapped truffles to celebrate!

A Hairy Situation

2008-04-06T13:01:00.000-07:00

I was feeling a little frumpy last week, especially in the hair area. My hair is usually a frizzy mess, but it cleans up nicely so I let it be. But lately the uneven ends have been distracting, and it came to a "head" a few days ago. I woke up early one morning, looked in the mirror and said, "NO MORE!!"

Now a normal person at this point in time would have picked up the phone and made an appointment with a stylist to get the scraggly hair cut. Then there's me. Instant gratification monger that I am, I couldn't go that route...I needed it taken care of right then and there!! I was on the verge of picking up some scissors and chopping it away at it myself when I realized...hey...there's another person here! heh, heh, heh!

So while Randy slept soundly, I broke out the hair color (Revlon Colorsilk #11, Soft Black, for those who are interested. Good stuff!) and removed all the grays. Then I washed, blow dried and straightened it. This was an easy way to figure out where all the different lengths fell. It was already looking a lot better...but not enough. It was time...I woke Randy up and informed him he was going to cut my hair.

He's a brave soul and didn't balk, until I told him I wanted him to cut all the hair up to the point of the shortest section. He argued, but I made him do it. He made the first cut, then handed the hair to me. I suddenly understood why he had balked. It was a good 8 inches! Yikes!

I let him finish (kinda had to!) and by the time he was done my hair had gone from being down to around my butt to just below my shoulders. I'm starting to get used to it now. It's a weird feeling...my arm keeps moving with the brush long after there's nothing there for it to hit. It looks a LOT better, though, and that's what's important. And even if it didn't look good, that's the cool thing about hair...it grows back so you get do-overs!

Return of the Prodigal Daughter

2008-04-03T06:38:00.000-07:00

Oh, such a sad, pitiful, neglected little blog! Now you know why I could never be an award-winning writer--besides the fact that I don't write well! Such lack of commitment. Bad, bad blogger!

Well, let me do a categorical update, since it's been so long...

Health - I continue to mend from my surgery. Sadly, it's not the major difference I'd hoped; however, I'm slowly but surely getting better. I try to do a little bit more every day so I build my stamina back up, and I'm hoping to be back on an exercise program soon. I still have a lot of pain in my back, but the side and front have let up somewhat. It so doesn't help that the site of the worst incision--by my navel--is right at kitchen counter height. Talk about some zingers every time I forget not to lean in!! Someday I'm sure I will be pain free--hallelujah!

Randy - Randy is doing fine too. He's been taking great care of m e, or trying to since I'm a difficult patient. He went to see his endocrinologist yesterday, who got on him about some high blood sugar readings since his last visit. He claimed holidays. You know...Valentine's chocolates, Easter candy...the evil stuff. We of course were on a special portion control diet over the Easter holiday--eating Cadbury mini-eggs instead of regular eggs. I guess it didn't go over well. So now we have to get him back on track. But overall she says he's doing fine, much better than when he first started visiting her last year!

Family - My dad is recovering from his cornea replacement surgery last month, and after a corrective surgery this past week to reduce the pressure on his eye, I'm sure he will continue to do very well. He's a little concerned about the fact that the eye is now blue instead of brown. This is not supposed to happen with a cornea replacement, since eye color is determined by the iris, not the clear cornea. But my dad has to be weird, like me. His doctor says it will go away, and he says none too soon. I'll have to get him to send me a picture to post. In other family news, my sister Veronica is laid up after a fall that tore the ligaments and tendons in her left ankle. The damage was so extensive they want her to wear a boot for a month and let the swelling go down before they even evaluate it to see what they can do to fix it. She tried going back to work with the boot, but the swelling was too bad so she's on bed rest now. So I anticipate some calls to keep me company from a bored sister this week. Woohoo!

Webkinz - You know you want to hear about them!! Two of my pets celebrated a birthday last month--Rumpy, my basset hound, and Dian, my gorilla. They had a big party (see first picture) to celebrate, and got a little loopy, but not too out of hand. I can't remember if I'd mentioned my newest pet, Puddles the duck. I've had him for awhile now, and he's fitting right in. The big news with my Webkinz is that I finally won the Webkinz Crown of Wonder! Took a lot of gem collecting, and the final gem, the Ember Amber, eluded me for quite awhile. But victory is mine! Dian is modeling the crown here at right. Yes, I know...it's quite stunning. And for those of you who were following my scavenger hunt progress with bated breath, still now word on winners from that contest. I figured it would take them awhile to go through the entries, but this is ridiculous!

Lottery - Still haven't won it. Dammit.

Not much else for me to report right now. I'll save my Dancing with the Stars critique for another day! Thanks for continuing to check in on me over my dry spell!

Holey Belly Button, Batman!

2008-03-19T06:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have a few hours of blessed clarity now that Randy is sleeping and not over medicating me, so I must get my blog done while I can!

The surgery went fine yesterday. I have no recollection of it at all...I lost 3 hours of my life there. One moment I was putting on my little blue hat, the next I was waking up in pain and confusion. (Reminds me a bit of a college party I went to, but let's not go there...) I was quickly doped into a painless state and able to leave the hospital within 2 hours. I almost didn't get out of there--the nurses kept arguing that I needed to stay overnight. They had a room all ready for me. But I was actually feeling pretty good with all the drugs (er...meds), so I decided to go. They were even surprised I was able to walk out on my own without a wheelchair!

Of course, I'm paying for it now. It's a lot more painful so far today, but I'm a lot less dopey. Randy insisted on giving me a Vicodin every couple of hours yesterday, since he said the prescription says I can take 1-2 tablets every 4 hours. He and the nurse both were on me about staying ahead of the pain instead of waiting for it to hurt and trying to control it then. But then you fall asleep and wake up 8 hours later with no meds in your system and your lead is gone!

I also discovered I couldn't sleep lying down. Luckily I have a very comfortable chaise lounge which, after we pillowed it up, worked quite well for me. Slept very soundly. I have the feeling I'm not going to be moving out of that chair very much over the next couple of days. These are the times I wish my laptop were working!

I didn't get to see my gall bladder or gall stones, and I'm kind of bummed about that. Maybe they showed them to me and I don't remember. The doctor did say they were pretty big stones, so they were going to send them to pathology to have a look at. I don't know if that's normal procedure or not...since it's me, probably not...oh dear.... I have 5 little holes in my belly now. Randy says that the surgeon really only needed 2 holes to work, but the other 3 were for students to observe. No stitches, just those really sticky tapes that stay on for days. My belly button is all taped up too. I hope it's ok...it was such a cute little belly button before the surgery!

The only other problem I'm having is that they seem to have chipped my front tooth with the breathing tube! It's very minor and I think it might just smooth out on its own over time, but right now it's driving me a little nuts. I think I'll mention it to them if they call me for follow up today. Maybe they can have someone at their dental school smooth it out for me.

Thanks for all the good wishes! Here's hoping for smooth sailing from here on out!

Luck o' the Irish to Ya!

2008-03-17T17:42:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Paddy's Day, everyone! It's a good day, since not only is it a good reason to do some drinking, it's also the start of the new Dancing with the Stars season. Woo-hoo! We'll of course be rooting for whoever is teamed with Cheryl Burke. More to follow.

I know I haven't blogged much lately, but computer problems and pain have kept me away. My surgery, which was supposed to have been last week, was postponed. So I've been staying doped up and trying to chill waiting for the new date, which is tomorrow. Should be in and out by the end of the day, but I don't know when I'll be back to blog. I'm excited to get it over with!

Randy is taking a few days off to cater to my every post-surgery whim. And to kill things in World of Warcraft. I know how his mind works! I have no doubt I will be well taken care of, if I little bored because I won't be able to do much. Luckily, HBO has a new mini-series on John Adams, so perhaps I can spend some time watching that and learning a little of my US history. I've also done all the laundry, but haven't folded it, since I figure that's a good bed rest activity. See how I think these things through?

So wish me luck, and I'll see you all after the knife!

Update

2008-03-07T06:51:00.000-08:00

Looks like I'm going to live! Sorry for not posting CT results sooner. Everything looked good...except for my gall stones, of course. But they said the gall bladder doesn't look infected or enlarged, so it should be easy to come out. So we're proceeding with the surgery next week. I have to go for my pre-admission testing (whatever that means) either today or Monday. I'm not too nervous about the procedure, since I figure, no matter what, I've got to feel better once it's out....right?

My mother cracked me up the other day because she was telling me I would be fine after the surgery, but to be careful because I would feel so good I would want to do things I shouldn't, like "mopping." Through my hysterical laughter I responded, "Who do you think you're talking to?" I'm not even sure I know where my mop IS right now, that's how often I mop! I am definitely not the happy homemaker type. I like living in a clean house...but I don't like cleaning it. I did, however, give the bathroom a thorough going over today, since I figure I won't have any interest in cleaning it after the surgery. The tub is so smooooooth now!

Randy is getting quite pumped up about taking care of me. He took my car away the other day because I told him I was going to go grocery shopping while he was at work. We had gone to Costco the day before and I had to rush us out because the pain was building up towards the end of the trip. So he didn't want me doing the groceries on my own. Of course, it could also have been that he just wanted to drive my car, since his doesn't have a CD player or FM radio. hmmm.... Seriously, though, I know he's going to be great to have around while I recover.

I'm going to take my camera with me when I go to the hospital for the testing and take some pictures of the view from there of Portland. It's been too long since I've had pictures on my blog!

Diagnosis X - The Mystery Blogger

2008-03-03T22:53:00.000-08:00

Had my follow-up appointment with the Emergency/Trauma Surgery Clinic at the Oregon Health and Science University Hospital today. They think I'm weird too. The doctors I saw today said they are not sure the problems I'm having are completely related to the gallstones. Apparently my "pain pattern" isn't consistent with gall bladder ailments. So they decided to do some CT scans of my abdomen and pelvis to see what, if anything, else is going on. I should find out the results tomorrow. If they don't find anything else, they'll go ahead and do the gall bladder removal and assume that the other pain I have is referred pain from that. If they do find something else...we'll figure out what to do from there!

I have to say I'm getting a little tired of the IVs. I had to have one today for the contrast for the CT scan. As with my ER visit, it took two pokes for one IV. It seems I don't have good veins, so it never takes just one poke to get me hooked up. They've been using the veins on my hands, which are now sore to the touch and will I'm sure be bruised tomorrow.

Other than that, the service has been just great at this hospital. I get completely lost there because it's huge and comprises several buildings built onto a hill. So you can park in the parking lot and walk into the building thinking you're at ground level, only to find out you're on the 8th floor because of the hill. I had to go to three different buildings for services today, and it was a bit like playing my World of Warcraft characters, trying to find out where on the minimap I had to go to find the appropriate offices. I was very glad they were able to squeeze me in for the CT scan today so I wouldn't have to go back tomorrow and navigate the maze. And I can call in for the results so I'm good to go!

Looks like my dad's surgery is going to happen before mine after all. He's having a cornea replacement on his left eye on the 10th. He's pretty worried about the recovery period, especially the first week after the surgery. It's always a little freaky having someone mess with your eyes (as I remember from my Lasik procedure); having them mess with your eyes and leave stitches is even worse! But I'm sure he will be just fine and all will go well. I wish I didn't have this gall bladder thing hanging over me, because I'd like to be there to help him out, but it's not to be. He has to have two lenses put in, so maybe I'll be there for the next one.

We're quite the ailing family, aren't we? Someone forgot to put some chlorine in the gene pool!

Feed Me, Seymore!

2008-03-01T18:34:00.000-08:00

Since finding out I need to have my gall bladder removed, it's amazing how many people have told me they (or someone they're related to) have had theirs out. It's good to hear the positive stories, and there really aren't too many negative ones. I've also gotten a lot of advice from people, particularly regarding eating habits. Everyone has told me to stay away from fatty foods, especially fast food, fried foods, acidic fruit, and spicy foods. Since I've been dieting this year, most of these items have been taboo anyway, but I do miss the fruit.

I find it interesting, though, that my pain is at its worst BEFORE my meals, not after. For instance, I was hurting a lot last night in the evening, and it was difficult to find a comfortable sitting position. We were busy, so we decided to order pizza. My sister was horrified and kept telling me I would pay for it. I had two slices of pieces and some cinnastix and let me tell you I felt GREAT last night! Slept very soundly and had very little pain. Now that might be due to the Vicodin I took a couple of hours before bed; but I didn't take any after I woke up and we had left over pizza for lunch and I'm still feeling fine! As usual, I seem to be a medical anomaly.

Of course, I'm seeing this as license to go out and get lots of fatty foods for myself, since they seem to make me feel better. All the stuff I've been missing since December...ice cream, chocolate, cinnamon rolls....mmmmmm...and it's all for medicinal purposes!

Happy (if confusing) Leap Day!

2008-02-29T07:28:00.000-08:00

It kind of stinks that I haven't been blogging regularly this month, because it robs me of the chance to yak about how I get an extra post in February because of the leap year. The number of blog entries I've done each month has been steadily declining...I have to be careful or I'll end up winding down to zero!

I did a little reading about why we have a leap year in the hopes I could blog something about it, but I have to admit it just confused the hell out of me. For instance: "The revised Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by four, except for years divisible by 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900." huh? Who comes up with this stuff? The Chinese, Hindu, and Hebrew calendars add an extra MONTH instead of an extra day. That would totally throw me off. Although maybe I'd have a better chance at getting extra blog entries in.

I've Got Some Gall!

2008-02-28T12:30:00.000-08:00

My poor blog has suffered in the shortest month of the year...even for a leap year. I'm sorry to have been away for so long. Unfortunately, I didn't have much to blog about, then I didn't feel like blogging because I haven't been feeling well. Lots of pain in my right side, especially while sitting at the computer. It was like SOMEONE was trying to tell me something...trying to make me stay away from my Pogo and Webkinz and Warcraft addictions...like THAT could ever happen!

I ignored the pain for awhile, but this past weekend it got to be too much. So Randy and I decided it was time for me to see a doctor. We opted on going to the emergency room, since we figured if we went through a regular doctor, it might be weeks for me to get an appointment, then more time to get scheduled for any tests they wanted to do. Given my insurance-free state (oh joy), we opted for the Oregon Health Sciences University Hospital. So this past Tuesday we headed over after Randy got back from work.

After sitting in the waiting room for over 4 hours, we began to think this may not have been such a good plan. We had assumed we'd be there 4-5 hours total...not just waiting room time. They really hadn't seemed that busy when we got there, but I guess all the beds were full and ambulances kept coming in taking priority over those of us sitting and waiting patiently. (damn you, accident and shooting vicitims!!) Finally, at about 9:30 pm, after 5 long hours of waiting, my name was called. Hallelujah!

We were shown back to my room, which thank goodness had a TV in it because we were in for a few more hours of fun times. Everyone was very nice, very professional, but obviously also very busy. While others might make a stink, we could see they were doing their best and just chilled while watching a "Without a Trace" marathon. Chilling was made much more pleasant for me when they got around to administering some morphine for my pain. Niiiiiiiicceeee!

I got to go through a whole battery of tests--pee in a cup, bloodwork, EKG, and ultrasound. Thank God for the morphine or the ultrasound would have been a killer! My side was by then so painful and sensitive that the pressure from the ultrasound hurt even with the drugs. I didn't get to see the pictures from the ultrasound, but the technician commented, "I'm no doctor, but sure looks like you've got gallstones to me."

Sure enough, that was the final diagnosis--my gall bladder had betrayed me and was hording a whole mess of very painful stones. The doctor thanked me for stopping by and referred me to the Emergency Surgery Clinic for further dissection, aka gall bladder removal. Happily, he also prescribed some Vicodin for me until the offending organ is removed. It knocks me for a loop when I take it, but has made life more pleasant otherwise.

I'm scheduled for evaluation by the surgery team on Monday, and will then be scheduled for surgery sometime thereafter. I hope soon, because by all reports I should feel a LOT better after the little bugger is out of me. I hadn't realized how much pain I was actually in until the drugs took it away! It's amazing what you learn to live with.

I'll try to keep the blog up to date with news and information as I have it and while I can. I was wishing for something more exciting in my life so I would have blog fodder...guess I should be careful what I wish for...or at least be more specific. Something along the lines of, "Let me win the lottery so I have some blog fodder." Damn hindsight.

"I've just picked up a fault in the AE35 unit."

2008-02-19T02:21:00.000-08:00

(50 geek points to whoever gets that title reference.)

It occurs to me I failed to mention I'm working on a different computer these days. This is due to a recent "accident" with my computer.

You see, since we've started playing World of Warcraft in the past month, we realized our pitiful 512 MBs of RAM just wasn't going to cut the mustard. So last week Randy hit Fry's to buy some 1GB chips for us. After manuevering through a hotbed of tricky sales tactics (watch out for those Fry's guys!), he managed to score 4 chips for us at a somewhat reasonable price. He came home and immediately installed 2 in his own computer. All went smoothly. Encouraged by his success, I popped open my own system and plopped the chips in. Went to turn on my computer...and was rewarded with a prolonged and very piercing
"BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPP!!!"

Not good, but not to worry! My computer had actually done this before on occasion, and all I had to do was turn it off, then turn it back on again and it rebooted fine. So I turned it off...about 20 times....and each time when I turned it back on I got the same sound. grrrr!

Saddened, I put my original memory chips back in...only to find the same results. It seems somehow I managed to completly fry my CPU. Don't ask me how...I've changed many different components in this computer before, including adding memory on a previous occassion, without incident. But apparently this was the last straw.

So in order to keep me up and running, we cannabalized my computer by taking out the video card and putting it in Randy's old eMachine. It was running the game horribly without a video card, but even though it has only the 512MB RAM (it uses different chips so we couldn't put the ones we bought in it), it's processing the graphics better than my computer did. I will eventually have to either ressurect or bid farewell to my computer...but I'm putting that off. If I have to say goodbye it will be too sad, especially after the tragic loss of my laptop. **whimper!**

Is nothing in life permanent anymore???

In Your Dreams

2008-02-16T09:32:00.000-08:00

Does anyone else have really weird dreams? I dreamt last night that I was at this huge media event and sitting across the aisle from me was Ronald Regan. I watched some female reporter who was filling in and broadcasting for the first time do her report live, and she started singing it. Then during a break I went to the restrooms, which were crowded with women. I found an empty stall and went in, but there was this woman in the stall next to me who had two small children with her, and her little boy had crawled under the barrier into my stall. So I shooed him out and sat down, only to find he had crawled back under and was now coming at me with a pair of scissors. I quickly disarmed him and handed the scissors to his mother by passing them under the barrier, sternly reminding her that she shouldn't give young children sharp objects to play with. I sat back on my toilet seat, resigned to the fact that the little boy wasn't leaving, when I looked up and realized he wasn't my only audience. The restroom had been built in such a way that the stalls were sort of tiered, so when I looked up I could see into the stalls across the aisles, and saw that all the occupants were looking down at the stalls in my row. I noticed that all the stalls across the way had 3 toilets in each, all filled with women happily chatting away while they watched us. Then I looked and realized that my stall had 3 toilets, too, but all were empty but mine.

I won't go on with the details of this and other dreams I had last night, because it would take quite a bit of space, and I'm guessing you get the picture about the weirdness factor. I have always had very strange, vivid dreams. My most recurring dreams are the one where I lose my teeth (hate that!), the one where I'm taking a test and haven't been to any classes all semester, and the one where I'm driving and the brakes don't work. I don't need psychoanalysis to know all three of those are telling me I'm feeling out of control with some aspect of my life when I have them. But what does the toilet stall dream mean? I'm stumped on that one. Anyone who's into dream interpretation want to help me out?

What did YOU dream last night? Share, share!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T06:48:00.000-08:00

Hello, all you lovers out there! Happy Valentine's Day to you! Happy Valentine's Day to the non-lovers too--love yourself!

We don't have any particular plans, since we had our special dinner last weekend. Randy is taking tomorrow off though, so we'll at least spend some quality time together over the three--day weekend. I sent him a cookie bouquet by Cookies by Design, and had it delivered to him at work. That was the first gift I ever gave him, years ago--a cookie bouquet for his 50th birthday. I didn't know him very well then (we were just newly friends); but I felt bad for him because he wasn't doing anything for the big 5-0, so I decided to do something nice. Who knew it would lead to him becoming my permanent Valentine! He's made me very happy, so it was a good investment. lol So happy Valentine's Day to you especially, my funny valentine. Looking forward to welcoming you home!

G'Day, Mate!

2008-02-09T07:03:00.000-08:00

Randy had some labwork to do after work yesterday, so he picked me up on the way and we went out to dinner afterward. We had originally planned on going to Benihana, since we've been talking about going there for several months and even went once but the line was too long. We were foiled again last night because the traffic was so bad leaving the doctor's office we opted to go somewhere closer. We ended up at Outback Steakhouse, and the dinner was fine, although I think they skimped on the crab legs Randy ordered. I told him it was so expensive we could consider that our Valentine's dinner and skip one next weekend. I don't remember that place costing so much! Randy had never eaten there so it was a surprise for him as well. If the food or service hadn't been good I would have regretted it, but both were fine so it was a nice night out for us...despite the price tag!

We stopped at a Hallmark store in the same area and took a look at some Webkinz. There's a new schnauzer out that I think is cute, but I doubt I'm going to see it anywhere. It's amazing how the cute ones get snapped up! I recently adopted the Easter duck, which I've named Paddles. So that's 3 pets for me now...the mantle of responsibility is getting so heavy!! Of course I'm not even close to the level of my nieces, who at last count had 7 pets apiece and were looking to adopt another. I've read on some webpages of people who have 50-70 pets...let's do the math on that, shall we? Assuming they're all Webkinz and not Lilkinz, even if you got a good deal on them and got them for $10 each, that's $500-700 you've invested in stuffed animals and an online game site! Tiny bit extreme, eh? I have to bring these people up so my friends don't think I'm TOO bad!! Keep in mind also that I only bought ONE of my pets...the other two were gifts. **grin!**

We're spending more time these days on World of Warcraft. In fact, too MUCH time, I think, since I've started to have very bizarre dreams about it almost every night. It's always a bad thing when you sleep to take a break from something and it follows you! I keep looking for William Shatner's shaman when we play, but I haven't seen it yet...maybe this weekend.

License to Kill

2008-02-04T11:25:00.000-08:00

Since the Webkinz scavenger hunt is over, I needed a new computer obsession. Lured in by the VERY funny William Shatner (I find it amusing that he's the only one of these three who has an official website), Mr. T and Verne Troyer (aka, "Mini-me") commercials (check them out if you haven't seen them!), Randy and I have started playing World of Warcraft recently. It's a very cool fantasy/adventure/quest/wander-around-and-kill-things game, which I've played before but to which Randy is new. He's enjoying it...except when I keep yelling at him for not keeping up with me! We downloaded the 10-day free trial and haven't stopped playing since. Well, ok...maybe for sleep and meals and bathroom and stuff like that. There's a monthly subscription fee to keep playing, so I don't see us doing it long-term, but it's fun for now. We also got my sister, Veronica, and her daughter hooked on it. Since it's an online game, we can group our characters with theirs and go on quests together, so it's been fun trying to figure out our teamwork. We're trying to get Randy's sons to try it out so we can build a larger group.

Unfortunately, the high level of graphics (see the screen shot above of my Night Elf flying on a hippogriff) was not supported by Randy's computer, which has been causing him problems for quite awhile anyway because of shut offs. So we bit the bullet and went out and bought him a new system--he even managed to find one with XP instead of Vista! It's actually just a newer model of his old eMachine system, and not really capable of intense gaming, but it works ok for this and the price was right. It's nice to not have to listen to him cursing out his computer because it's locked up or shut down on him again, but boy is it a noisy bugger!! We're guessing that they fixed the overheating problem by putting huge and loud fans in. Someday soon we'll win the lottery and trade in these primitive systems for state-of-the-art killer technology and wonder how we ever got along without it...but for now...this'll do.

I'm off to go kill some weird creatures...anyone want to join me?

Stew Day

2008-02-03T10:45:00.000-08:00

For some, it's Superbowl Day. For us, today is beef stew day.

During the wee hours of the morning, I pulled out my crock pot and loaded it up with beef, potatoes, carrots, onions, spices, and beef broth and it's been cooking since then. Smells wonderful. Unfortunately, Randy doesn't like my beef stew. Well, I guess it's not unfortunate depending on how you look at it--more for me! But what I have to do since I moved here is buy a big package a beef and divide it in half. I get half the meat for MY beef stew, and Randy gets half the meat to make his OWN beef stew.

Randy's beef stew involves some of the same ingredients as mine...beef, carrots, potatoes, onions. But that's where the similarity ends. He does his on the stove top, so it takes less than an hour where mine takes 9-10. He cooks it all up, then adds large amounts of ketchup. Yes, that's right...ketchup. It's a recipe he used to make with his mother. I can't stand ketchup, so this creation becomes all HIS to eat. He loves it and can consume copious amounts.

He is, in fact, a ketchup fanatic. When I helped him move last year, I discovered no less then 7 jumbo ketchup bottles in his kitchen, most nearly empty. He said he hadn't thrown them away because he had plans to combine the tiny bit left in each into one bottle...but it never happened. He doesn't eat as much ketchup since we've been together--only gone through two 64-ounce bottles in eight months. So I guess you could say I'm working on him. But ketchup stew day has arrived...I'm anticipating dancing in the streets to commence.

How's Your Resolution Going?

2008-01-30T07:03:00.000-08:00

Hey, you guys are supposed to keep on me if I don't post our weight loss progress! A little support here!!

We have been letting our exercise program slack...surprise, surprise. Like many other people with good intentions at the start of the year, we're finding it hard to stick to a schedule. We have made some progress, but not as much as we'd hoped. So far our combined weight loss total is 19/150 pounds...obviously we have a long way to go.

Our diet has centered around carb control, since Randy is diabetic, instead of counting calories or fat grams. We've noticed if you control the carbs, the other numbers fall too--assuming we stay away from the VERY fat foods (ice cream, our beloved cinnamon rolls), since of course that converts to sugar over a longer period of time than the cars. Randy's endocrinologist and dietitian recommended not doing carb-free diets because of this diabetes. If you take all the carbs and sugars out of your diet, your body compensates by having the liver produce sugar, and it's not as healthy a sugar as what you get from foods. What they recommended was having three 45-60 carb meals a day and three 15-20 carbs snacks--and you can't "save up" your carbs! You have to have them spread throughout the day. They said having a snack before bed also helps your body make it through the night without building up excess sugar. We had noticed before we started doing this that Randy's blood sugar would be higher first thing in the morning versus his evening reading. With the snack before bed, it stays stable or is less. Weird, huh?

Anyway, we both have the tendency to over snack, so one thing that has been helping is we're starting to either buy snacks or divvy out snacks ahead of time to make 15-20 carb servings. That way whatever we decide to snack on we know fits is a correct portion. That allows us to have some of the evil foods we love, but just in smaller doses. So 12 M&Ms instead of 1 cup of them...1 or 2 cookies instead of 4 or 5...1 sugar free Popsicle instead of ice cream. Don't worry--we do the healthy snacks too! It's just nice to be able to slip in a little taste of the contraband every now and then.

Where we're having more trouble is keeping the meals to that 45-60 carb limit. It goes fast! A small or half a large potato, 1/2 cup of peas, and a slice of bread or small biscuit and you're there! If you decide to have pasta (our downfall) or rice dishes, you better be ready for very small servings. This is particularly hard on Randy, who is used to big portions.

We'll get there once we get the exercise more on track, so stick with us and call me on it when you don't hear about our progress!! Share your diet and exercise tips with me in the comments, too!

We Interrupt This Program...

2008-01-25T07:23:00.001-08:00

Okay...one more post about the Webkinz Scavenger Hunt and then I PROMISE we'll get back to regularly scheduled blog programming!! I'm sorry, but this thing has me OBSESSED!! I have to have my response in by 1am tomorrow morning, so I'm "racking my brain!"

For what it's worth, here are my guesses so far for the Scavenger Hunt answers...I'm kind of going for the obvious. If you have any ideas on "Clues I'm Still Confused About," let's hear it in the comment section!

Missing Curios (I think there's 5, but I only have 3 definite answers I'm giving so far)
Ultimate Experiment Station
Knight of the Round Armor
Ornate Egyptian Side Table

Locations of Missing Curios (I'm stumped as to what goes where!)

Party House in Home Before Dark Game
Barking Mad Mine
Fluffington's Vault
Charm Forest
Goober's Lab

Thief/Thieves

Crows

Normally Found

Pumpkin Patch Protector

Items Needed

Ruby Slippers
Water
Moon Lamp

Here are the clues I'm still confused about:

TIARA - I'm leaning a little toward thinking this is the Charms Tiara and that it's a missing curio instead of the W Shop tiara as an item needed.

Polka Dot Eyes and Crossed Ts - no idea

Southern Hemisphere (Australia & New Zealand) - mentioned so often in Quizzy's Corner since the hunt started that it has me wondering

Numbers - 20 (from activities clues and Quizzy's corner)
40 (from game of the day)
35 (or 3 and 5) (from Quizzy's corner and activities giveaways)

Not a Cookie Cutter - Usually this expression refers to something that's not the usual thing, not the same as everything else. So if someone says "It's not a cookie cutter house" they mean it's custom built, not prefabbed. I think this clue is along those lines, but I can't think what it refers to.

Figure - This may refer to the new figurines, but I can't think how they fit in. My best guess is that they're an item needed, since if they're the thieves you have to say where they're normally from, and it doesn't make sense for them to be missing curios.

Milestone

2008-01-24T12:41:00.000-08:00

It may seem like a minor thing to those who have bigger, more frequented blogs...but I passed a milestone yesterday. I had my 1000th visitor to the blog! **blows horn, fanfare!** Yes, it was at 3:31pm, a blog surfer from Rancagua, Chile. I love the international visitors!

In honor of my 1000th visitor, here's a little information about Rancagua:

Location: Central Chile, about 87 miles south of Santiago
Population: About 207,000 as of 2002
Known For: The famed bloody battle of 1814 known as the Disaster of Rancagua, when rebel Chilean forces led by Bernardo O'Higgins challenged the forces of Spain for independence. They were slaughtered, but O'Higgins and some of his men escaped and took refuge in the Cuevas de los Partiatas, seven caves in the Juan Fernandez Archipelago...where Robinson Crusoe was stranded!
Also Known For: El Teniente, the "Largest Underground Copper Mine in the World"

Ok, I gotta say...the name Benardo O'Higgins cracks me up! Apparently he was the son of an Irishman who joined the Spanish army and a Chilean aristrocrat.

Thanks to all of you who visited--and re-visited!--my blog! Tell a friend!

The Hunt Continues!

2008-01-24T12:16:00.000-08:00

Yes, the Webkinz Scavenger Hunt does continue...but thankfully it will end on the 26th (Kinz Calendar, which means tomorrow for me because of the crazy timezone problem on the site). I'm still stumped. Today's clue was pretty obvious:

"Pretty unsure? Maybe. Possibly knowing if new friends are really marvelous? You will figure it out."

Spells out PUMPKIN FARM, which points again to the Pumpkin Protector game. But what about the friends it mentions? Who are new friends? Could "figure it out" be pointing to the new figurines as the new friends? If so, how are they involved? Thieves? But where would you "normally find" them? So confusing! I think I'm starting to read too much into it! lol

In case you missed the News Flash clue on the 20th, here it is:

"Knowing what he knows, Fluffington St. Bernard has joined in the search. Now it’s amazing what clues he’s turned up. “I can’t believe it - in my own vault!” Great news for Arte! Have you figured it out? Try hard and you will."

And yes, the highlighted letters spell out KNIGHT. (I'm just GIVING answers away today!) The word "figure" is in there again...coincidence? I think NOT!

Have I mentioned I will be glad when this is over?

Woot Mystery

2008-01-23T15:19:00.000-08:00

The Webkinz scavenger hunt (still totally confused on that!) isn't the only mystery we've got going on right now. Last month, about the same time as we ordered our Bags o' Crap, Randy also ordered some 2008 wall calendars from Woot. They had this sale of random calendars for $.87 each, so he ordered three for us. Only problem was you couldn't pick which style you got. You just said how many you wanted and they mailed you that many from the selection at left. There were enough listed that we liked so we figured we had a good chance of getting at least one nice one out of the three.

About a week after placing the order, Randy got an email message saying they were going to double our order at no cost to us. So this meant we'd get SIX calendars instead of three! We were having a hard enough time trying to figure out what to do with three calendars, let alone six...but we decided as long as it wasn't costing us anything, it was all good. Our odds of getting a good one improved, and we would have some extras to give away.

We continued to watch the tracking of our package via Fed Ex Smartpost...which isn't really...smart that is. We saw the package arrive at the distribution center in the right city. Then, we watched it being shipped to a distribution center in ANOTHER city! A message came up saying the package had been misdirected, so we waited patiently for it to be returned to the correct city. We waited...and waited...and waited. Finally, we gave up, and Randy sent a message to Woot explaining the situation.

We expected get a refund of our $.87x3+shipping, but to our surprise, instead Woot sent us a message saying they were going to keep looking for the package. (I'm pretty sure those calendar's are hanging in some Fed Ex geek's office right now, so good luck with that!) But to make up the problem to us, Woot said they were going to send us ANOTHER item while we waited!

Well, my goodness! The anticipation is high in our household now! What could the mystery item be? More calendars? More crap? Electronics? Or (**gasp of wonder!**) perhaps the long coveted ROOMBA?!?! We have no way of knowing. So we wait patiently, hopping the next package a) doesn't go Smartpost or b) doesn't get diverted again. Wish us luck!

P.S. In case you're wondering why I get so excited about the Bag o' Crap, take a look at the letter to the right here. One of my fellow wooters received this note in his bag of crap. Here's what he had to say when the item finally arrived:

"So, Monday has arrived and I just received my final crap. And TA DAH, it's the same 61" Infocus TV that was given away last time. It has a few scratches, did not come with a manual, but everything else looks to be in order. My guess is that it's refurbished, but I won't complain. I did only spend a buck on it! I'll have pics to post later today as soon as I hook it up to my uncle's satellite system to see if it works. THANKS AGAIN WOOT! "

...I hope this puts an end to the snide remarks from you Woot BOC non-believers!

W Games

2008-01-21T22:26:00.000-08:00

Great race last night! I would have been happy with any of the final three teams winning, but Randy called it with TK and Rachel. Hope they have something fun in mind to spend their million on!

I'm ready to give up on this scavenger hunt, but I feel like I've put so much effort into it already I can't! I'm sure when they reveal the answer it will all seem so simple and I'll feel like an idiot, but right now it's haaaarrrd! Now there's these clues about recycling and rainbows...I don't get it. Maybe if I were more familiar with Webkinz world I would be able to see the big picture, but right now it's eluding me.

In an effort to take a break from all things Webkinz today, I downloaded a free trial of Warcraft. Unfortunately, it took over 6 hours to download and an hour to install. I was kicking myself because yesterday while we were mall walking we saw a 2-week free trial CD-ROM for $1.99 we could have bought and saved the download time. Anyway, I waited till Randy came home to start the program so he could see it. Then, after we had dinner while the program spent another 40 minutes downloading an update (grrrrr!), we tried it out. I selected an Undead Warlock as my character. She went forth and got slaughtered multiple times...at least 4, but possibly 5. People kept trying to attack me because I'd accidentally entered a Player vs. Player realm instead of Player vs. Environment. I did start making some progress, but it was slow going. I think by the time my 10-day trial is over I'll perhaps be just starting to get the hang of it. Randy was interested enough to start the free download on his own computer....we're going to leave it running overnight so he can start tomorrow.

It's Race Day!!

2008-01-20T01:34:00.000-08:00

After the trauma of last week's missed episode of The Amazing Race, we finally caught up with the show via a DVD recorded by my wonderful bro-in-law. It was totally awesome seeing Jen and Nate kicked off (she was annoying to the very end), and I'm soooooooo looking forward to a race finale where anyone who wins is good for me! I like all three teams that are left; they were all long shots in the beginning, so it's interesting to see them still in it at the end. If I had to predict a winner, I'd go with Ron and Christina. Randy's preference is TK and Rachel. I'm going to have to come up with some sort of mnemonic device to help me remember to watch it tonight...I will be so mad if I forget again!

Apparently all I have to do to get traffic on my site is post information about this Webkinz Scavenger Hunt! Yesterday I had a record number of hits (I won't say how many...it's embarrassing since it's such a pitiful record!) for a single day after I posted my clues and theories on the 18th. I hope if anyone wins using my information, they'll at least come back and leave a comment giving me kudos! For anyone still "scavenging" for clues, here's the latest:

Jan 20 - News Flash: Knowing what he knows, Fluffington St Bernard has joined the search. Now it's amazing what clues he's turned up. "I can't believe it - in my own vault!" Great news for Arte! Have you figured it out? Try hard and you will.

And Speaking of Webkinz...

2008-01-18T14:51:00.001-08:00

The Webkinz site has a scavenger hunt going on now. Every day between 9-25 January they're posting new clues to help users find artifacts missing from Arte's Curio Shop. Starting January 26th, the first person to log in with the correct answers wins all the missing artifacts for their Webkinz account.

Trouble is the clues are pretty confusing. I've been trying to figure them out and I'm stumped. Here's what I've got so far:

Stuff to Figure Out
1. Where is each missing curio? (curio's name and location required)
2. Who took the curios?
3. Where would you normally find the curio thief/thieves?
4. What does Arte need to get his curios back? (3 items)

Clues
Jan 9 - Ask the cat...or the little laughing dog. One thing is for sure - you should make some space to find it.
Jan 10 - Racking your brain? It is quite LABorious but you are sure to figure it out.
Jan 11 - Mama mia! Even mama says that it is not a cookie cutter.
Jan 12 - Newz Flash: Every detective obviously enjoys giveaways. This savvy young hero turned expert may amaze everyone he talks to. "There's a lot of information to go through," Detective McWoof purportedly said. "Just gotta keep looking." Watch for special reports all week long, tracking the progress of our hunt!
Jan 13 - Free items given away: Carrots, Raspberries, Orange, Watermelon, Strawberries
Jan 14 - Newz Flash: The hunt is going well, according to Arte Fact. "So many unbelievably nice, daringly exceptional really terrific helpers - everyone - they're all helping out. It's wonderful to get all this assistance. I think that we're going to find everything in fairly short order - does everyone seriously know how grateful I am? I hope so."
Jan 15 - I didn't find any clues. :-(
Jan 16 - News Flash: Chef Gazpacho has been very busy these days. He's been working hard on lots of stuff in his kitchen. Trickle Treacle, Icy Frosty, Aquarus Jelly, Rice Pudding, Atomicolicious Punch - he's been preparing non-stop. First courses, second courses--but the focus in his kitchen has really been on the first.
Jan 17 - You could be sad; you might feel mad but just sparkle brightly and be glad!
Jan 18 - Newz Flash: Exciting things have been happening all week and Arte is pretty sure there's about to be a break in the case. "I've got Sam McWoof on the case," he said from his Curio Shop. "I have my own suspicions about who might be behind this whole thing, but there's now one thing - definitely, obviously, unbelievably good - it wasn't who I thought it was initially."
Jan 19 (yes, I know it's only the 18th, but my Webkinz account is 8 hours ahead of me!) - Ms Cowoline says "Do not forget to polka dot your eyes and cross your Ts."
News Flash: It's time to party, so put on your red ruby slippers! Things that sparkle, things that shine - things like that are quite divine! There's really no place like home for a party and there's nothing like ruby slippers when going to a party. So, when you've got a party to go to, wear your ruby slippers!

My Theories
1. I have a theory that this scavenger hunt is too hard and I'm not going to solve it. This is my most probable theory to date.
2. I think the Jan 9 clue is about the Hey Diddle Diddle nursery rhyme and points to an item called a Moon Lamp, which is a cow jumping over the moon available in the space theme of the W shop. This theory is backed up by a Quizzy's calendar question on Jan 14, the answer to which was "The Lunar Lugbotz have the moon...lamp."
3. If you take the first letter of every item given away on Jan 13, it spells out CROWS. The crows are characters in the Pumpkin Patch Protector game, which has been the game of the day twice since the scavenger hunt started. I think the crows stole at least one of the curios.
4. Again looking at first letters, some of the words in the Jan 14 Newz Flash spell out "under the desk." I have no idea what this means, but assume that one of the curios is hidden under someone's desk.
5. Sticking with the first letters theory, if you take the first letter of the first word (since Chef Gazpacho talks about "first course") of every food item in Jan 16's Newz Flash, they spell out "TIARA." This is an item you can buy in the W shop and may be something needed to get the curios back.
6. Again, first letters in the Jan 18 clue spell out "not Doug." Doug is Arte's old friend who is no longer so friendly with Arte. I think Arte's comment shows that he suspected Doug, but the hidden clue says it's not him.

That's all I have for sure so far. I'm hoping next week will be more enlightening.

If you're a pet owner, what are YOUR theories?

Help Save Dian's Family

2008-01-17T05:50:00.001-08:00

Dian the Gorilla, my new Webkinz pet (pictured here working out with Rumpy), inspired me today to take a look at a blog by two rangers in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park. Rangers Diddy and Innocent are risking their lives on a daily basis to protect the endangered mountain gorillas from poachers, warring factions, and refugees who are destroying their forest habitat. It's quite interesting and often frightening reading. Please take a look and help out if you can.

Ten Things I've Done You Probably Haven't

2008-01-16T22:07:00.000-08:00

My brother-in-law had to delete his list from his blog in deference to my sister's sensibilities, but here's my response to John Scalzi's list of Ten Things I've Done You Probably Haven't!

Lived in 20 different places around the world, including Japan, Italy, Guam, England, Spain, Puerto Rico, and 14 US states.
Sold John Boy Walton (aka Richard Thomas) 3 sets of rubber animal families for his triplets.
Hit a pedestrian with my car because he wouldn’t get out of my way and I was in a hurry. (I only tapped him--he was fine! Jerk.)
Walked away from rolling a car over on its top and a head-on collision with no injuries in either accident.
Been on Air Force 2…while it was Dan Quayle’s plane…and got to ask if he used the big screen TV to watch “Ren and Stimpy.” Response…”I don’t know what that is.”
Dislocated my own jaw with a frozen rack of ribs. Popped it right back in but spent the next 3 years in pain.
Experienced zero gees on a KC-135.
Broke my hip while dancing to “Hammer Time.”
Had two peeping Toms, one of whom scaled the side of a building to peep into my third floor apartment window. He got away but the second one (ground floor-er) was arrested.
Survived an 8.2 earthquake that lasted 60 seconds.

I have to say I'm looking at this list and am a little disappointed with myself that there's nothing I can think of to put on it from the last 12 years! Have I really become THAT boring?? Those of you who have known (and of course LOVED) me in that time, any suggestions on what I can add?

So what's on your list?

**1/18 editor's note: Looks like my bro-in-law has a revised, cleaned up list now, so check it.** out.

Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot

2008-01-15T06:27:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas Woot Bags-o'-Crap have paid for themselves, with the help of e-Bay. I put the case of Lexxus Dark Sienna coffee pods (all 216 of them) up for sale and it's got a few people bidding on it. Up to $19.50 so far. Unfortunately, some numb brain who must also have gotten a case from Woot decided to steal my sales ad, including the picture I took, and start a new sale of their own. If they had any intelligence at all, they would have waited until mine sold out. Gonna drive down the auction price on both if they know there's another case selling. I may have to sue for copyright infringement to make up the difference!

I have been saved by my brother-in-law, Russ the Daily Yak-ker, who TiVO'd The Amazing Race and is going to record it for me. I found out that Jennifer got kicked off on her birthday, so I can't wait to see her have a meltdown over it! I know it's evil of me, but I've had to sit through that woman's whining for WEEKS now! I deserve some compensation! Please, Race Producer Gurus, no more whiners next season!!

Christmas is slowly but surely disappearing from our apartment. (**heavy sigh!**) I love decorating for the holidays, and it always makes me sad to pack it all away. My tree is always very simple--just a few streaming ribbons and all the ornaments I've collected over the years. My parents used to give us each an ornament almost every year growing up, and I've bought or been given at least one each year. It's like reviewing my life as I decorate the tree. The oldest one is a little felt ornament I made when I was (I believe) in kindergarten. Don't know what I was going for, but it looks a little like Ronald McDonald. It's a little scary, but it goes on the tree every year! I also have a lot of Christmas items that were gifts from friends, so there are many memories and happy associations when I unpack and start decorating each year. Thank you to all my friends who have remembered me at this and past Christmases--you're in my thoughts!

Oh, Bother!!

2008-01-14T05:57:00.001-08:00

Drat it all!! I missed The Amazing Race last night and apparently my most hated team, Nate and Jennifer, got kicked off!! I've got to find someone who taped it, since once again a network is letting me down by not having the full episode available on their website. CURSE YOU, CBS!!!

I missed the show because I lost track of time while taking a trip down memory lane, showing Randy some video taping I'd done while living in Europe. The tape I had spanned a year's worth of trips I'd taken, from New Year's Eve 1994-95 in Edinborough, Scotland, to New Year's Eve in London, England 1995-96. I was so young and thin(ner) looking! Can't believe that much time has gone by. Apparently not enough time for me to have gotten rid of some of the clothes I was wearing or the Christmas decorations I had, though, since I was recognizing quite a few things that are still in my closet (even though I can't wear them anymore) or decorated my house this year. It was fun seeing my friends in Paris and giggling over present opening with my sister Mel at Christmas in Newmarket, UK. So I did enjoy myself with the tape, but I still wish I hadn't missed the race!! grrrr!

Going Ape

2008-01-12T02:29:00.000-08:00

Terribly sorry about the abrupt post regarding Randy's bag o' crap. I was trying to get the picture posted so I could link to it on a Woot discussion board. We both seem to have struck out this time with the BOC, though Randy got the screaming monkey I've been wanting. It was much smaller than I thought it would be! It has rubbery arms that you use to slingshot it through the air and it screams as it goes. Very cool! The rest of his mystery package contained some weird "vintage" junk, like a button card, metal taps for shoes, a flying steak, and a little black book. He also got 4 Kensington iPod sleeves which, along with the 216 coffee pods I got, will be going up for sale on eBay. Get 'em while you can!
Pictured in the photo with the screaming Superfly Monkey is my new Webkinz pet, Dian the Gorilla. Isn't she cute? I of course named her after Dian Fossey, the zoologist who was killed for her work with gorillas in Rwanda. My Dian has moved in with Rumpy (who has developed quite the posh pad by now) and they are getting along swimmingly. I was going to get a Valentine's Day Love Frog as my next pet, but I saw Dian and had to have her instead. I now see what I was missing by not having the actually stuffed animal for my Rumpy, since he resides in my sister's house. Dian sits on my shoulder while I play on Webkinz, so it's much more fun. Can't wait to see what my next pet will be...but will have to wait a year for it! :-(

Please Stand By

2008-01-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

This is Randy's Woot Bag 'o Crap haul....more later about it....

Watered Down

2008-01-09T06:38:00.000-08:00

We're off and running (figuratively...don't see either of us actually running any time soon) with our weight loss program, losing 8 out of 150 pounds between us in week one. Mind you, I'm pretty sure that's mostly water weight. We haven't been working out daily as planned, but we made it to the gym 3 times this week and did some walking over the weekend. So hoorah for us for getting the year off to a healthy start!

We've almost gotten to the point of eliminating all the evil food from the house. Coquito's gone...Christmas chocolates are gone...ice cream is gone. I actually looked in the cabinet today and thought about making some of the sugar free Jello that's been sitting there for months for Randy. (I don't eat it...eww!) I'm going to try to move us back to protein snacks over the next month. Our enemy is carbs! We don't try to do a carb free diet, since that's not healthy, but we definitely have to cut down to keep Randy on track with his diabetes and to help us lose weight over all.

Anyone else losing weight this year? What are your plans to cut down?

Yule Crappy

2008-01-08T16:21:00.000-08:00

Hope springs eternal that SOMEDAY I'll get a kick ass bag o' crap from Woot...but alas, my Yule Crappy bag was not the one. It was very big (I put the remote on the box to show scale), but very light. Sure enough, when I opened it up it was mostly full of air bags--68 of them. I may have enough to ship all my packages this year with that. The biggest box inside the big box contained 12 boxes of 18 Gourmet Coffee Cafe pods...that's 216 individual coffee servings for a coffee maker I don't have. Also in the box were 2 Faded Glory Girls Stuff keychains (I see gifts for the nieces!), a Special Agent Secret Weapon (which appears to be a plastic watch that somehow shoots tiny plastic bullets...yikes!), a Classic Marvel Battles & Team-Ups...umm..."thing"...I don't know what it is...but it has Dr. Doom vs. the Fantastic Four on it, and a D3L Digital Carry Gear camera case. The camera case is actually pretty nice, since it appears to clip on a belt.
We're still waiting to get Randy's shipment. Hope it has the screaming monkey other people are getting--I wanted one!!

P.S. What's with all the bags of Texas air Woot likes to send out? Can you guys still breath down there?

Happy Three Kings' Day!

2008-01-06T02:14:00.000-08:00

Today is the 12th, and last, day of Christmas, celebrated by Spaniards, hispanics, and latinos the world over as Dia de Reyes, or the Day of the Kings. It's the Catholic Feast of the Epiphany, or the day when the three kings--Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthasar--were said to have visited the baby Jesus and given Him their gifts. Melchior, the Arabian Sultan, gave gold for the King of Kings. Balthasar, the Nubian King, gave myrrh for the Healer of Healers. And Gaspar, the Emperor of the Orient, gave frankincense for the Priest of Priests. For many Spanish cultures, this is the official gift-giving day and Christmas is instead revered as a religious day. The tradition of gift giving on this day was in effect many, many years before the Santa Claus mythology came into being.

In my family, we got gifts on Christmas but also got a visit from the kings. We would put out grass for the kings' camels the night before Three Kings' Day and put our shoes at the foot of the beds for our gifts. Since my father's name is Balthasar, we figured we had an "in" with the kings! We didn't get as many gifts as on Christmas, but always at least one.

I'll be celebrating this year with my friend Gloria, who's coming over for a traditional Puerto Rican dinner of pernil (roast pork), arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas), and tembleque (coconut pudding--had to go with a lighter dessert since we're dieting). We'll be tossing down some coquito while we're at it. (hmm...so much for the diet!) I'm pretty good at making the pork, but I've never made the arroz con gandules so hopefully it will all come out ok. My mom sent me a recipe for it (thanks, Mom!) and if she didn't leave anything out, all should be fine.

Hope you all have a Happy Three Kings' Day!

Come on Down!

2008-01-03T14:34:00.001-08:00

I caught a few minutes of the new Price is Right, with Drew Carey hosting. It was...different! It's good they got someone who is nothing like Bob Barker--he doesn't even try to be! Where Bob was somewhat suave and urbane, Drew is his usual awkward, nervous talking, happy self. There's something about him you can't help but like him, which was a good move on their part for die hard fans of Bob Barker who might have been hating on the new host. What was funny is that he is so bad at showcasing the games. Bob would get you pumped up in his introduction of the games. Drew just kind of goes, "Here's what you're playing." I'm sure he will get better about it, but it's funny to watch right now.

Randy's heart CT results showed that he has mild Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), which we pretty much knew already. He sees his doctor in a couple of weeks and will find out then just how bad it is and what needs to be done about it, beyond the obvious lifestyle changes. We went to work out last night and I realized how out of shape I was when I had to take the pin out of the weight machine in order to do bicep curls. I'm so pitiful! Mind you, I've never had great upper body strength anyway. I'm probably the only person in history who managed to get through military training without doing a single push up. Never could get one done! But the Air Force loved me enough to take me anyway...must have been my sparkling personality! lol

My Bag 'o Crap is enroute! I promised Randy I wouldn't look at the Woot discussion board for Random Crap because other Wooters post what they get and it makes me all excited, then I get my crap and am disappointed. So I said I would, but I'm so tempted to look anyway!!! I wanna know what other people are getting! It's supposed to be here on the 9th, since apparantly it's on the slow boat. I'll let you know what I get...keep your fingers crossed for me!

Three's a Crowd

2008-01-02T06:20:00.000-08:00

Randy and I got pumped up to start our weight loss plan this year by watching The Biggest Loser last night. It was the start of the 5th season of the show and featured couples as teams. We figured if some of those old folks with heart conditions could work out that hard, we can get out and walk once a day. Randy's doctor has told him he needs to lose weight, and if I had a doctor I'm sure she would be telling me the same thing! So our initial goal is to lose a total of 150 pounds between us. That's a whole person! Think of how much more room we'll have in bed! lol

I'll post our progress on a weekly basis to keep us honest. Feel free to harangue me if you don't see an update, or if you don't see us losing weight or inches! We're serious about getting healthier this year.

Randy gets the results from his heart CT today. Hopefully everything is ok. I suppose if there had been anything major they would have called and told him to get to a hospital or something. We're anticipating there will be some sort of abnormality, but minor. His cardiologist had talked about getting him into a supervised exercise program for heart patients through the hospital. We're really hoping his insurance will cover that because it will make us feel safer about his workouts if he's doing it with medical supervision.

So what are YOUR new year's resolutions?

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T09:58:00.000-08:00

I was up at what seemed to me a ridiculously early hour for new year's day. But then, I think I should have slept in till 12 or 1 pm. Since I'm up anyway, though, allow me to wish you a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! And in case you're traveling this year, here's how to say "Happy New
Year" to your foreign hosts:

AFRIKAANS gelukkige nuwejaar ALBANIAN Gëzuar vitin e ri ALSATIAN e glëckliches nëies / güets nëies johr ARABIC aam saiid / sana saiida ARMENIAN shnorhavor nor tari AZERI yeni iliniz mubarek BAMBARA bonne année BASQUE urte berri on BELARUSIAN З новым годам (Z novym hodam) BENGALI subho nababarsho BERBER asgwas amegas BETI mbembe mbu BOBO bonne année BOSNIAN sretna nova godina BRETON bloavezh mat / bloavez mad BULGARIAN честита нова година (chestita nova godina) BURMESE hnit thit ku mingalar pa
CANTONESE kung hé fat tsoi CATALAN bon any nou CHINESE xin nian kuai le / xin nian hao CORSICAN pace e salute CROATIAN sretna nova godina CZECH šťastný nový rok DANISH godt nytår DUTCH gelukkig Nieuwjaar ENGLISH happy new year ESPERANTO felicxan novan jaron feliæan novan jaron (Times SudEuro font) ESTONIAN head uut aastat FAROESE gott nýggjár FINNISH onnellista uutta vuotta FLEMISH gelukkig Nieuwjaar FRENCH bonne année FRISIAN lokkich neijier FRIULAN bon an GALICIAN feliz aninovo GEORGIAN gilotsavt aral tsels GERMAN ein gutes neues Jahr / prost Neujahr GREEK kali chronia / kali xronia eutichismenos o kainourgios chronos (we wish you a happy new year) GUJARATI sal mubarak GUARANÍ rogüerohory año nuévo-re HAITIAN CREOLE bònn ané HAWAIIAN hauoli makahiki hou HEBREW shana tova HINDI nav varsh ki subhkamna HMONG nyob zoo xyoo tshiab HUNGARIAN boldog új évet ICELANDIC farsælt komandi ár INDONESIAN selamat tahun baru IRISH GAELIC ath bhliain faoi mhaise ITALIAN felice anno nuovo, buon anno JAPANESE akemashite omedetô KABYLIAN asseguèsse-ameguèsse KANNADA hosa varshada hubhaashayagalu KAZAKH zhana zhiliniz kutti bolsin KHMER sur sdei chhnam thmei KIRUNDI umwaka mwiza KOREAN seh heh bok mani bat uh seyo KURDE sala we ya nû pîroz be LAO sabai di pi mai LATIN felix sit annus novus LATVIAN laimīgu Jauno gadu LIGURIAN feliçe annu nœvu / feliçe anno nêuvo LINGALA bonana / mbula ya sika elamu na tonbeli yo LITHUANIAN laimingų Naujųjų Metų LOW SAXON gelükkig nyjaar LUXEMBOURGEOIS e gudd neit Joër MACEDONIAN srekna nova godina MALAGASY arahaba tratry ny taona MALAY selamat tahun baru MALTESE is-sena t-tajba MAORI kia hari te tau hou MONGOLIAN shine jiliin bayariin mend hurgeye (Шинэ жилийн баярын мэнд хvргэе) MORÉ wênd na kô-d yuum-songo NORWEGIAN godt nytt år OCCITAN bon annada PERSIAN sâle no mobârak POLISH szczęśliwego nowego roku PORTUGUESE feliz ano novo ROMANCHE bun di bun onn ROMANI bangi vasilica baxt ROMANIAN un an nou fericit / la mulţi ani RUSSIAN С Новым Годом (S novim godom) SAMOAN ia manuia le tausaga fou SANGO nzoni fini ngou SARDINIAN bonu annu nou COTTISH GAELIC bliadhna mhath ur SERBIAN srećna nova godina SHIMAORE mwaha wema SHONA goredzwa rakanaka SINDHI nain saal joon wadhayoon SINHALA suba aluth avuruddak vewa SLOVAK stastlivy novy rok SLOVENIAN srečno novo leto OBOTA dobir leto SPANISH feliz año nuevo SRANAN wan bun nyun yari SWAHILI mwaka mzuri / heri ya mwaka mpya SWEDISH gott nytt år SWISS-GERMAN es guets Nöis TAGALOG manigong bagong taon TAHITIAN ia orana i te matahiti api TAMIL iniya puthandu nalVazhthukkal TATAR yaña yıl belän TELUGU nuthana samvathsara subhakankshalu THAI สวัสดีปีใหม่ (sawatdii pimaï) TIBETAN tashi délek TURKISH yeni yiliniz kutlu olsun UDMURT Vyľ Aren UKRAINIAN Z novym rokom URDU naya saal mubarik UZBEK yangi yilingiz qutlug' bo'lsin VIETNAMESE Chúc Mừng Nǎm Mới / Cung Chúc Tân Niên / Cung Chúc Tân Xuân WALOON ("betchfessîs" spelling) bone annéye / bone annéye èt bone santéye WELSH blwyddyn newydd dda WEST INDIAN CREOLE bon lanné WOLOF dewenati YIDDISH a gut yohr

hic!

2007-12-31T16:50:00.000-08:00

I know everyone is drinking champagne to celebrate the new year, but here in Portland we'll also be helping ourselves to the coquito, or Puerto Rican eggnog, I made at Christmas. I thought some of you poor Americans who've never tried it before might like to make some, so as my New Year's Eve gift to you, I'm posting my dad's recipe. I got his permission to post this, but I will let you know he has in the past given different members of my family the recipe and it's had different ingredients. For instance, this version calls for 1/2 pint of rum, but a recipe he gave my sister called for a full pint, this recipe calls for 1 egg yolk, hers called for 2. Her recipe version also included a full tablespoon of cinnamon, while this recipe doesn't call for any.

Based on my experience making this, I'll recommend the following ingredient edits:

1. Put at least the 1/2 pint of rum, but you can go up to the full pint depending on how soused you want to get.
2. I prefer using a spiced rum instead of a white rum...adds a richer flavor.
3. Instead of adding cinnamon to the recipe, put a cinnamon stick in the bottle with the mixture.
4. I do fine with 1 egg, but 2 eggs works as well if you want the extra taste and don't mind the cholesterol.

So here it is--enjoy!

Title: Coquito (Eggnog a la Puerto Rico)

Description:
Traditional Christmas eggnog with a couple of twists--it's prepared with coconut milk and it's spiced with white rum.

Ingredients:
1 egg yolk
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp Vanilla pure extract
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 can cream of coconut (Coco Lope or Coco Goya are preferred)
1 can evaporated milk
1/2 Pint white rum (If it's Puerto Rican, it'll taste better!)

Directions:
Before you start, have shot of the white rum and pray that everything will come out okay.

In a coffee mug, combine egg yolk and sugar with a spoon until mix is creamy and sugar has completely blended. (If it doesn't cream and appears runny, add more sugar until corrected). You're doing good; reward yourself with another shot of rum.

Blend with remaining ingredients and taste for sweetness and liquor content. Repeat tasting as necessary to make proper adjustments.

Once you are satisfied that you've created a work of art, refrigerate for at least one hour. Serve chilled in a small cordial glass and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Have another shot of rum and pat yourself on the back for a job well done!

Number Of Servings:Approximately 20 to 25 servings.

Preparation Time:Thirty minutes

Say it Ain't So!

2007-12-30T23:32:00.000-08:00

Nooooooooooo! My favorite Amazing Race couple, Kynt and Vyxsin, are gone! And sadly it's their own damn fault for not using the U-turn on Nate and Jennifer (hisss, booo!), who would have been kicked off if they had. Now I don't know who to cheer for, except I am FERVENTLY hoping Nate and Jennifer won't last another leg. Sadly, there's still a non-elimination leg out there, so they're probably in for two more shows. grrrr! She is such a whiny wench. She actually was whining about how Kynt and Vyxsin seem to have "supernatural powers" they're using to get ahead...yeah, it's called the "power of not wasting time, energy, and brain cells by WHINGING all the time!!!" Sheesh!

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. I think I've had writer's block. Every day, I've sat down at the computer, opened up a post window, stared at it, then closed it saying, "I got nothing." Doesn't help that there really isn't much going on here right now to blog about...just hanging out with Randy enjoying his time off from work. So perhaps after the holidays things will pick up, as we both set off on our new diet and exercise program. Course, that's going to have to wait till we get rid of all the evil Christmas food we've got in the house right now...heh heh heh!

Have fun partying tomorrow night, but BE SAFE!!! I want to hear from you next year!

Merry Christmas to YOU!

2007-12-25T13:20:00.000-08:00

Yes, I mean YOU! Merry, merry Christmas! Hope you have, had, or are having a wonderful Christmas day. We're really enjoying ours here in Portland. I started off the day (while Randy was still asleep) calling up some of my relatives with season's greetings. Then I started getting hungry, so I woke up Randy. We'd decided to go out for Christmas breakfast, and knowing how long it takes us to get out the door sometimes, I figured I better get him moving.

Turns out we timed it just right because when we got to IHOP there was no waiting and service was quick, but when we left there was a line forming. I had some yummy pumpkin pancakes, just there for the season. They were goooooood! We left and came home to open up our presents and make some more phone calls. As we were talking to my brother Danny, he asked about the weather and I went online to check the temperatures. It said 35 degrees and snow. This made me curious, so I opened the blinds and sure enough there was our Christmas snow!! So our timing was even better than I'd thought because if I'd let Randy sleep another half hour, we would have taken longer at IHOP because of the line and would have been driving back in the storm.

Randy and I really enjoyed our gifts this year. I got a wrought-iron bench (it weighs a ton) for my doll collection and a rocking horse nutcracker for my nutcracker collection. Randy got some workout clothes (diet time just around the corner!), a tie clip, some hankies, and some sugar-free candy. (he loves cinnamon candy) I was pretty happy with myself because I'd hidden his gifts right in front of his eyes and he never knew they were there. Probably won't be able to get away with that next year, but I'll think of something equally sneaky!

I've done a slideshow with some pics of our day--take a look and enjoy!

Happy Holidays to all!

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Merry Christmas to Us!

2007-12-24T23:09:00.000-08:00

We're having an awesome Christmas Eve so far, in our own fashion! We headed out to the grocery story earlier before it closed to do some last minute shopping for coquito (Puerto Rican eggnog) ingredients. Randy was a trooper and let me put a Santa hat on him as we were heading out, so we showed up at Safeway looking like a couple of Santa's elves. We came home and had a Christmas Eve dinner of fried chicken, taters and corn, with lil' smokies appetizers. Yes, it's a non-traditional, but it sounded good. I make a mean, skinless fried chicken, since Randy doesn't like the skin. Tasty, if a little too crunchy. Then we watched my favorite holiday movie, Miracle on 34th Street, while sipping some coquito. Yum!

Rumpy got to participate in my Christmas Eve festivities since he's on UK time, so his Christmas box came early! We opened it up together to find a new Christmas tree topper hat, a snow globe, and a gingerbread monkey. Rumpy also got some Webkinz gifts from the pets of my family members, including a new medieval floor from my sister Veronica, another snow globe from my niece Elaina, a bear from my niece Gabrielle, and some yummy snacks from my sister Mel. Here's a shot of Rumpy enjoying his loot under his trophy room Christmas tree.

Knowing that Woot would probably want to wish us a Merry Christmas, we were ready and waiting at the computers at 10pm. Sure enough, when the magic minute arrived, we refreshed the page and saw it was a beautiful Christmas bag of crap! Some quick clicking and typing and we had scored three bags of crap each! (Which considering 4500 of them sold out in 1 minute 15 seconds is no small feat.) Nevermind the fact that all my other bags of crap have been...well...crap! I'm pretty certain this is special CHRISTMAS crap, and therefore magical. Roomba? Perhaps...

We're now sitting enjoying the Christmas Yule Log on KOPB TV. They're doing a live feed instead of a continuous loop. The blaze wasn't that impressive at first, but it's much bigger now and more cheery, as the logs . The problem is they keep changing the view and someone keeps putting an arm in to poke the fire. Much better when it just burns close up. We're hoping WGN's will be more impressive. The music is good, though, and we're letting it get us into even more of a Christmas spirit!

Best of all, we're together for the first time at Christmas, and it's a joy to be spending the holiday with someone I love. I hope we can look forward to many more Christmas Eves together.

Also hope you're having a wonderful Christmas with those YOU love!

Throw the Yule Log On

2007-12-23T23:48:00.000-08:00

Randy and I are looking forward to spending a quiet Christmas eve tomorrow in front of the fireplace, enjoying our Yule Log. What's that...you didn't know we HAD a fireplace in our lovely two-bedroom apartment? Well, technically we don't. But thanks to a couple of TV channels, we'll still be able to enjoy the Yule Log.

I've been watching the Yule Log on TV for the past couple of years. It was actually first created by WPIX in New York the year I was born, 1966, and had quite the audience, which is interesting considering it was originally broadcast in black and white. It ran for 23 consecutive years before the TV moguls decided it wasn't smart to have commercial-free broadcasting, especially for something as well-watched as the Yule Log.

We get the Yule Log courtesy of KOPB starting at 10pm and running till 12am. Then WGN picks it up starting 12am and runs it here till 2am. Randy is not totally sold on the concept yet, but has agreed to have it on while we do something else. He'll get hooked.

Hope you have equally thrilling Christmas plans!! Enjoy the holiday!

Discovery Day

2007-12-21T09:12:00.000-08:00

I discovered something interesting about making fudge...or at least making the Andes fudge I tried a few days ago. Remember I said it didn't come out stiff enough? Well, after sitting for three days, the left overs we have here are PERFECT! Very tasty, nice creamy texture....really good! So now I know that if I want to make some to give away again, I need to make it a few days in advance. Why don't they say that in the recipe? **sigh!**

I also discovered that if I want a nice all-expenses-paid vacation, I should try out for the Amazing Race. Yes, I've known for some years now that you get the opportunity to race around the world if you're selected as a contestant. What I DIDN'T know is that as people get eliminated, they're not sent home! Instead, they're sent to a lovely resort area to hang out while the race finishes, so that no one back home knows they were kicked off! This season, the contestants are hanging out in Portugal. Check out the video under the heading "Elimination Station" on this page and see the lovely villa they're staying at, the little exploratory outings they get to take... How rough is THAT? Almost makes me want to try out for the show and get kicked off first so I can enjoy it longer! Sheesh!

I think I might have better success on a show like Duel, though. Less strenuous, more cerebral. I was watching last night and was on fire, answering questions. If only it were a couples competition that I could take Randy to, because he seems to get all the ones I have no clue on. It might be bad if I went on that show, though, because I would be so rude to the host, Mike Greenberg, who is a total git. He says the exact same thing to every contestant who gets kicked off..."You've been a JOY to have on the show!" Get a new word, for gosh sakes! Not surprisingly, he's written a book called Why My Wife Thinks I'm an Idiot...I can safely say I join her in that opinion. If the show returns, I hope they replace him.

Read All About It

2007-12-20T07:29:00.000-08:00

My weird sleep schedule has reached new levels of weirdness. After being awake for 30 hours, I passed out last night at about 630pm and slept for 11. I was very high energy during the time I was awake, which is unusual for me, so I at least got a lot done.

I decided to brave the Christmas crowds at the mall yesterday. It wasn't too bad, but there were a LOT of little kids running around. I think stay-at-home moms go there during the day to meet other moms, since it's indoors and it's usually raining here. Washington Square mall has one of those big kid pits with lots of climbing areas for little kids. It's right by the JC Penney's and boy is it noisy! You can hear it well into the store. Would drive me nuts to work there and have to listen to that all day. The sales weren't as good as advertised, so no big purchases...boohoo.

I spent some time going through all the Christmas stuff I still have in storage yesterday and weeding out some things to get rid of. Even with all the decorations I have in the house and Randy's office, there was quite a bit to go through still in storage. It's amazing how it accumulates! My sister said my parents have the same problem. When she was helping them unload their pods during their recent move to Austin, she said the biggest group of boxes was Christmas stuff. Me too! When my friend Mark helped me move, he couldn't believe I had a whole box filled just with Christmas books. Hey, there are a lot of good Christmas stories out there! In fact, here's a list of my favorites!

1. A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens - Definitely a must read, and I read it every year to get me into the Christmas spirit. The story of the grouch who hates Christmas and is reformed by ghostly visitors has been told and retold in many different ways, but the original is the best. This version has some powerful illustrations by Roberto Innocenti--kind of dark and morbid looking, even the cheerful scenes, but very detailed and well done. My sister gave me the annotated version (Michael Patrick Hearn, editor) as a gift last year, and it's super interesting.

2. The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree, by Gloria Houston - This is a really sweet story about Ruthie, a young Appalachian girl whose father is away at Christmas time as a soldier during WWI, and her strong mother, who makes sure she and the whole town have a wonderful Christmas. Barbara Clooney's simple illustrations are lovely.

3. The Story of Holly & Ivy, by Rumer Godden - Another book beautifully illustrated by Barbara Clooney, this is a story I remember loving when I read it as a young girl. Ivy is a young orphan and Holly is a doll in a toy shop, and the story is about how they find both each other and a family who needs them for Christmas.

4. One Wintry Night, by Ruth Bell Graham - When a young boy is lost in a winter storm, he finds shelter with an elderly woman who passes the time while they are snowbound telling him the Christmas story. She starts in the beginning, with the story of Adam and Eve, and ends with the resurrection. It's beautifully illustrated by Richard Jesse Watson and is a great way to share some Old and New Testament bible stories with your kids.

Check for these at your local library if you don't want to buy them, but they are great additions to your OWN collection, especially if you have kids.

What are your favorite Christmas stories? Leave me a comment and share!

Race to the Fudge

2007-12-17T06:29:00.000-08:00

CBS didn't air The Amazing Race last night because of Survivor! How DARE they?!?! What am I going to do without my race fix this week? I'm already going through withdrawals! It was a crucial period for me, too, since I have to decide on my new favorite team. My former favorite team, A-Ha, got kicked off last week. They had somewhat lost their luster anyway, after I saw Azaria strong-arming his sister. That ain't cool. What's surprising is that the two old men, Ron and Donald, are still in it, and Ron and Christina even came in first this last episode! Goes to show you, it ain't over till it's over!

Well, I broke down and started YouTubing. I had some videos I wanted to send my nieces and nephews, but the files were too large. Webkinz has this item you can buy for your pet called Webkinz Studio that allows you to make your own cartoon film. So I made a couple and of course wanted to show them off. Since the Webkinz site is kid friendly, it doesn't allow you to show your cartoons to other Webkinz players. (In case you're a bad, bad person who types in evil dialogue in your cartoon.) So I did a screen capture to get the video to share instead. Check 'em out, and be sure to rate them if you like them! (Don't bother rating them if you don't like them....ahem!)

Busy day today, since we didn't get much done this weekend. Gotta get some cookies baked and (I'm ashamed to say it) Christmas cards ready to mail. I'm so pitiful that I don't have those done yet! Sorry if they get there late! I'm going to try cooking something I've never made before--fudge. We got these Andes Peppermint Crunch baking chips, which I thought would have some good cookie recipes, but they don't. So I'm gonna try their fudge recipe instead. Randy will be mad I'm using all his marshmallow cream, but sacrifices must be made! Besides, we're both going on diets at the beginning of the year, so gotta start weeding these evil foods out. Yes, that's right...I said it...DIETS!!! grrr!

Later that day..... (7:40pm to be exact)

Well, my first fudge attempt...questionable. Didn't really firm up like fudge is supposed to. Did I not cook it enough? Too much? What?? Who knows. It's tasty, though. Minty. Kind of taste like eating very stiff frosting.

Wax On, Wax Off

2007-12-14T09:30:00.000-08:00

Big shout out to my early bird blog checker, Jenny! She's my most faithful reader, and usually the first one of the day, so I always feel bad when I post later in the day and she misses it...like today. I feel especially bad when I've been such a blog slacker this month and haven't written every day. I'll try to be better. So hiya Jenny, and hi to the family in O-HI-O!

And because I've been such a blog slacker, I missed sending a birthday shout out to my big sis! It was her big day yesterday. Hope it was a good one, Mel!

The Christmas decorating is steadily progressing. Randy took lots of flak from his co-workers when I decorated his office (bah-humbugs!). But it got them in the Christmas spirit and they went out and bought a tree for the office, so it was worth it. We put our tree up here as well. I wanted to buy new lights, but Randy insisted on going through the annual holiday tradition of finding the loose bulb to make the old strings work. They're getting tossed this year so he's not tempted to go through it again next year. We ended up having to use the old ones because I couldn't find any fancy sets here like I'm used to. You know, the ones with a control to create bunches of different light effects. Don't they sell those here in Oregon? If so, I haven't seen 'em. Next on the Christmas agenda...the cookie baking! Yum!

The new Harry Potter DVD came out yesterday--Order of the Phoenix. We broke out our 3D glasses from when we went to see it at the IMAX theater to try them out on the DVD. Didn't work, of course, but we looked snazzy. I think it made the picture look better somehow. Sharper. Maybe I just need to start wearing glasses when I'm watching TV. Now Randy is pumped up for the next movie to come out, which sadly for him won't be for another year. He's always wanting to have an HP movie marathon, but I can only take so much. I created a monster when I made him read those books!

This is interesting...I went to Anne McCaffrey's website to see if there were any new updates on the Pern movie (I'm thinking I better give up the dream on that one for awhile) and instead I find a political plug for John Edwards! (Careful if you click on that link...it froze me up. Work on that, John!) I'm a bit surprised, since she's lived in Ireland for so many years, to find her campaigning for an American president. She was born a US citizen, but I guess I had assumed since she chose to live in Ireland that she'd changed her citizenship...wonder if she still mails in a vote. Strange to think that people who don't even live here anymore are influencing our elections!

OK, better get going before I wax political on you! Have a great day!

Wrap it Up

2007-12-11T03:41:00.000-08:00

I've been up and about since midnight, trying to get some things done because I know I'll probably crash during the day. So I did a load of laundry (neighbors must love me for running the machine at this time!) and started wrapping some Christmas gifts. Not a lot to wrap this year, since I'm not working so haven't been able to buy much for my family. I usually try to get a gift for everyone (parents, siblings, sibling progeny, and a few close friends) because I enjoy trying to find things they might like. It's fun giving presents! The last couple of years I've given most family gift cards, which isn't as much fun, but it's definitely easier and I guess people like getting them. This year I'm only able to get a gift for some of the youngest children, and my parents (cuz you can NEVER forget to give back to the people who gave you life!). But I'm sure the rest will understand, and look forward to "make it up to you" gifts next year!

We've gotten most of my Christmas stuff out of storage, but I haven't started decorating yet. The tree goes up today and I'll wait for Randy to come home so we can decorate it. Randy is not used to all my Christmas paraphernalia. In the years that I've known him, the only decoration he's had at Christmas is a little pre-decorated table-top tree that I gave him when I found out he had nothing else. The extent of his decorating endeavors involved pulling this tree out of the closet and putting it on top of his computer monitor. Needless to say, he is somewhat rebellious about having to do more this year. I'm trying to get him more in the spirit of things by buying him his own ornaments (see photo) to put on the tree, but it's an uphill battle. I know I'll convert him into a Christmas geek like me eventually...but it may take a few years.

Woot Me, Baby!

2007-12-08T13:21:00.000-08:00

The long awaited Bag 'o Crap from Woot arrived today. I ordered 1 Random Crap and got 4 items: one black backpack (that's the "bag" in "Bag 'o Crap" I guess) and three 3Com Megahertz Cellular Direct-Connect Cable. These range in price online from $8.95-24.95, so monetarily it's worth the $6.00 I spent for the Random Crap. Unfortunately, I don't even own a cell phone, let alone one that uses this particlar accessory, so kind of useless for me. Family, let me know if you need one and it's yours for Christmas! I'm a little bummed because EVERYBODY posting on the Woot discussion board about this round of BOC was saying they were getting XBox headsets, so I was hoping we'd get them as well to at least have Christmas gifts for Randy's kids. Once again, tragically disappointed by Woot. lol

So now we have to head out to do a little Christmas shopping for Randy's sons this evening. Hopefully it won't be too chaotic. I'm a big fan of online shopping during this season...so much more peaceful. If I HAVE to go out to stores, I try to go later in the day to avoid some of the early bird shoppers and parents with small children. Not that I mind small children in general...just when they're screaming down the aisles of crowded stores. We went to a Wal-Mart recently at 11pm and there were parents who had their small kids with them shopping, and of course tired and screaming. Couldn't believe it. Goes to show there's no bad kids, just bad parents.

Oops, almost forgot...movie review. The Golden Compass was okaaayyyyy....could have been better. I was a little confused as to why they left out the last few chapters of the book in the movie. To me, those were the whole point of the book! I guess they intend to start the next movie off at that point, but really it sort of made this movie just a piece of fluff without the endgame. (Can't say more because I know some of my relatives who read this page haven't read the books, and I wouldn't want to be accused of spoiling again.) It was also interesting how they went for the PG-13 rating in this movie. Lots of battle scenes, but you never see one drop of blood! Even when the bears are tearing at each other. It was a little weird.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Chriskinz

2007-12-07T08:34:00.000-08:00

It snowed today in Rumpy's Webkinz yard! I'm inordinately excited, though quite glad the snow is on the computer, not outside my door! It's a little incongruous with the hammock and pool, but he's working it. I bought him a Christmas tree and an elf hat to celebrate. Ok...I bought him four Christmas trees! What can I say, I'm a doting pet owner. The others are in rooms throughout his house, which is rapidly becoming a mansion as I keep buying him rooms. I'm thinking of adding another outdoor area so I can create a hedge maze, but maybe I'll wait till spring. I think I'm living vicariously through my pet, since I haven't won the lottery yet to get all this stuff for myself. I've got pet-envy though...I just visited my sister's pet's house and she has a hot air balloon! I want one baaaaaadddly!

Today was also a great day for Rumpy because he scored his second trophy! I'm actually quite excited about this one because it's for a game I'm quite good at--Operation Gumball. It's basically a take on the old Mastermind game, but using numbers instead of colors. I guess I'm very logical, since that's what it takes to win! I play it often and have never been rewarded for my high scores, so it was nice to finally see a trophy sitting in my dock. I renamed the hall in Rumpy's house as the Trophy Room in honor of the occasion.

Date Night

2007-12-07T05:59:00.001-08:00

My goodness...I haven't even received my Bag 'o Crap from the last Woot Off, yet here's another one! They seem to be trying to empty out their warehouses for the new year. Maybe it's a good thing I haven't gotten my BOC, since if it were a really crappy crap I wouldn't be trying to get another one! Sadly, if it's NOT crappy crap, I might not be able to share the contents here...Christmas gifts, ya know. heh heh heh!

Tonight is date night. Randy and I will be seeing The Golden Compass. We read the Dark Materials series last year (well...I reread them and he read them) and liked the first book anyway. Gets a little weird beyond that. Looks like they did a good job with the film from looking at the previews. I'm not totally a fan of the books as novels, but should make a good show anyway. The books I want to see made into a movie are the Pern series, and it looks like it's been optioned, but could take years to come to fruition, if it does at all. Anne McCaffrey is pretty protective of her work (unlike others who seem to write novels with a view of it going straight to film), so hopefully she picked well!

Break out the Videos

2007-12-05T17:36:00.000-08:00

Time for the holiday movies we all know and love! I always enjoy watching my old Christmas favorites. They just don't make them like they used to anymore! If you're interested in doing a little sappy movie viewing, here's a list of my holiday Top 5.

5. Prancer (1989) - It's corny, but I still love it and watch it every year! A little girl named Jessica finds an injured deer and believes it's one of Santa's reindeer. She soon gets the whole town believing with her. It's shot on location in Michigan, which helps the small-town ambiance of the film. Rebecca Harrell shines as Jessica, and her earnest, freckled, far-from-Hollywood face makes her likeable and the character believable. (Too bad she went on to B-movies and was never heard from again.) The rest of the great cast include Sam Elliott, Cloris Leachman, and Abe Vigoda. Don't bother with the movie's sequel, Prancer Returns. It's pretty awful.

4. The Santa Clause (1994) - Again, avoid the sequels, but I like this one. Tim Allen cracks me up with the big belly, as he starts turning into Santa Claus without realizing what's happening to him. The movie is very funny, but has a touching side as well as Scott/Santa tries to connect with his son. Eric Lloyd is adorable as his young son, and the children playing elves are cute as well. (Unlike in the sequels when the elves are annoying.)

3. The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) - I'm a sucker for both the Muppets and any take on my favorite Christmas book, Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol. I read the book every year, and this movie is a fun rendition of the story. It was done after Muppets creator Jim Henson died by his son, Brian Henson. It's funny, follows the story fairly well, and has great musical numbers. It also has the best Ghost of Christmas Present of any Christmas Carol movie I've seen!

2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (original animated, not that Jim Carey crap) (1966) - Even though the green guy scared the bejeebers out of me as a child, it's still one of the best Christmas stories ever. The story of a mean ol' grouch finding the true meaning of Christmas isn't in the packages is what the season is all about. And you can't beat the great song by Albert Hague, sung by the late Thurl "Tony the Tiger" Ravenscroft, which is so much fun to sing along with, even if you can't remember all the words.

1. Miracle on 34th Street (original version...of course) (1947) - Funny, well-written, poignant, and perfectly cast, this is the quintessential Christmas movie. Edmund Gwenn is perfect in his Oscar-winning role as the old man who believes he's Santa Claus...and just may be! Maureen O'Hara glows, and Natalie Woods is cute and charming. I love how director George Seaton filmed it so you never really know if it's really Santa or not, unlike later versions that make it quite clear it is Santa. This one leaves it up to you to decide, and it's more fun that way!

Yes, I know....It's A Wonderful Life (1976) isn't on my list. I guess it would be on my top 10 list, but it really is too depressing a movie for me, even if it does have a happy ending! Plus it irks me that NBC bought the rights and you can only see it once on their channel anymore. I remember when it used to play all the time on different channels. Stupid NBC!

I may be adding The Nativity Story to my top 5 list in future. I'm really liking it. Keisha Castle-Hughes (of Whale Rider...go get it you haven't seen it! Excellent movie!) is so subtle in her acting, and so beautiful to watch. It's a shame it got banned by the Vatican just because she got pregnant as it was coming out, because it's a very nice telling of the bible story.

Here's some Honorable Mentions to watch for on TV, since they're hard to track down on video.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974) - A town is left of Santa's delivery list because of a letter from a not-so-smart braniac mouse.

The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974) - Santa decides to take a vacation...guess 11 months isn't enough! Catch this one if only to hear the Heat Miser/Cold Miser song!

A Christmas Carol (1999) - This was a made-for-TV version, I think originally done by TNT. It stars Patrick Stewart and is a really nice version that follows the book pretty closely.

"December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn."

2007-12-04T03:15:00.000-08:00

Our "getting into Christmas" plans continued this past Sunday with a visit to Portland's Rose Garden Arena to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra's seasonal performance. Randy had asked me last month if I was interested in going, and I said yes because I thought I knew what type of music TSO plays. I later found out that they were a rock orchestra. I think I had them mixed up in my head with Mannheim Steamroller, whose Christmas music I know and who are also playing in Portland later this month. So I was a little leery about what to expect from this concert, since I'm not a big rock fan.

Other than a few small sections of screaming guitar and gravely-voiced singing, I was pleasantly surprised by TSO. I'm having a hard time categorizing their music...it was quite the mix of classical, rock, r&b, and kitchen sink. They unfortunately decided to do this Christmas story around the music, so after an introductory piece they had this guy come out and start narrating the story, done in rhymed couplets. There are very few people who can do rhymed couplets in a way that isn't trite and annoying. I think the last person who was exceptionally competent at it was Theodor S. Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss.

"So the writer who breeds more words than he needs,
is making a chore for the reader who reads."
-- from Seuss-isms

TSO's Christmas story was NOT written by Dr. Seuss, or anyone even a fraction as talented, so it was pretty unbearable. For example...

"So I walked up to the counter shook the snow off my coat.
Then I ordered a whiskey that I used like a moat."
--from Christmas Eve

Used like a moat??? What the hell is that?? Talk about stretching for a rhyme! And it went on for over an hour...bad poetry narrative, song, bad poetry narrative, song. You can go here to see the full text and you'll understand how I suffered. I was cringing everytime I heard the narrator's voice saying the oft repeated words, "And soooo...."

When they finally finished that segment of the show and started just playing music, it improved immensely. Some good singers, great string section (that I found out at the end was made up of Portland musicians, so go figure), interesting arrangements, and very talented musicians. They also had lasers and pyrotechnics going like crazy, and that's always fun. And I was totally fascinated by the engineering involved in using ten huge light fixtures on hydraulics over the stage to form different architectural combinations and abstract patterns. Overall, I would definitely recommend the concert, if you have the chance to see it in your area. Check out their website for tour dates and more audio and video clips.

Christmas is Coming

2007-12-02T11:10:00.001-08:00

Randy's office Christmas party was last night, so the holidays have officially begun for us! He works for Laminations, a division of Great Northern Corperation which is a national manufacturer of cardboard products like commercial packages, store displays, those weird shaped things that hold things in place in a box like your electronics, and edge protectors for pallets. His plant makes VBoard, basically a long folded piece of cardboard that goes along the edge of a pallet. He's been with them for 21 years, first in California then moving up here to Oregon 10 years ago.

It's a small plant, so definitely the smallest holiday party I've been to. We sat at a table with two of the ladies from the office and their companions. Only a couple of people were dressed up, it was pretty casual...but we took the opportunity to clean ourselves up and look snazzy! Randy never wears a sports coat or suit, let alone a tie, so it was nice to see him in one.

The party was at the Century Hotel, which has a lovely lake front view. The dinner itself was pretty good, but the dessert was apple pie, which I'm not a big fan of. So after everyone bugged out once the prizes had been given away, Randy and I went to the hotel's restaurant , Hayden's Lakefront Grill, and had dessert and coffee. I stuck with my usual creme brulee (yum!) while Randy had the other dish I was drawn to, the red velvet cake. It was a nice evening.

Well, Randy is calling me for breakfast, so I'm off for some peanut butter pancakes. (sounds gross, but try it!)

Shhhhhh!

2007-11-30T17:46:00.000-08:00

For want of anything better to do last night, Randy and I watched a couple of shows we'd not seen before. We don't usually watch TV on Thursday, going out to shop or staying in and Pogo-ing or reading instead. Since we finished our Pogo badges early this week, Thursday was wide open. So while flipping to see if there were any good Christmas movies (there weren't), I put on Fox and we started watching Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader. We definitely were, but boy those nitwits on the show weren't. Then we watched Don't Forget the Lyrics, which came on right after. (Allow me to digress...did anyone else watch that? What was up with that girl from Michigan and her sweat glands? She just melted away! She was a tiny little thing, and I don't usually associate tiny girls with profuse sweating; but by the end of the show, her hair was plastered to her head and dripping and the host, Wayne Brady, was commenting on the puddles on the floor! Ewww! I started wondering if she had some sort of disease.)

ANYWAY.....we may have to start watching these shows more regularly, since Randy seemed to like them. In order to explain how I know he liked them, let me first fill you in on our TV viewing styles.

Me: For me, watching television is an interactive activity. I talk back to the TV, I yell at stupid people making mistakes to try to get them not to make them, I laugh out loud if something is funny, I cover my eyes or flip the channel if something is embarrassing, I comment frequently and critically on whatever is going on, and I generally have a good time. (FYI, this is also pretty much how I watch movies, so if you embarrass easily, don't go to the movies with me because you'll want to crawl under a rock as soon as the first person turns around in their seat and asks me to be quiet.) If I like something, I comment on it as I'm watching. If I don't like something, I comment even more.

Randy: Randy is much more passive in his TV viewing. He goes into a trance that's hard to break (I have to stand in front of the screen or turn the TV off to do it), and is usually so quiet I often have to ask if he's awake...and sometimes he's not. Even if I'm commenting away and asking him questions about what we're watching, he either doesn't hear me or doesn't choose to respond beyond the occasional grunt. When something is funny, there's an occasional smile from him, but rarely a laugh. He will not give an opinion of how he likes the show until it's over. If he doesn't like it, I'll get a roll of the eyes or an "Well that was weird." If he likes it a little, I'll maybe get a smile, but not much beyond that. If he REALLY likes it or REALLY hates it, he will want to thoroughly dissect it once the show is over and discuss it at length, which is too late for me because I've already given my feedback during the show.

Now I'm slowly getting Randy over to my style of viewing, because let's face it, it's much more fun. The breakthrough programs for him have been Dancing with the Stars and The Amazing Race. There is no way for an intelligent person to watch The Amazing Race without at some point yelling at the racers and/or commenting on SOMETHING that goes on, even if it's just the beautiful scenery. That show invites discussion as it happens. DWTS is more of a stretch for him to talk during, but I can at least get him to give an opinion on what he thinks the judges scores will be.

The reasons I knew Randy liked the shows last night were twofold. First, when I flipped to the Fox shows last night, we were in the office because Randy was hooking up his new turntable-to-digital system on his computer. At some point, he actually stopped doing this and turned around in his seat to watch the shows. This in and of itself is not unusual, because he can walk into a room where a TV is on a commercial and he'll go into his "TV trance," forgetting whatever else he was doing before. What made it unusual last night is that he was really excited about the turntable, and was getting into reading ALL the instructions and the owners manual. So the fact that the shows were able to distract him proves he was interested.

The second sign was the fact that he was actually laughing out loud during BOTH shows! That is a rare occurrence. I myself was surprised by host Jeff Foxworthy on the 5th grader show--he was quite quick with the quips! Randy was also singing along on some of the songs from the Lyrics show, since he knows the 60s (and likes) stuff better than I. All in all, it was an enjoyable couple of hours. I don't know if this is because I've now completely rubbed off on him, or if it was just these two shows that got him out of passive and into interactive mode. But let's hope it's a continuing trend, so we can both look forward to embarrassing each other in movie theaters in future.

Winner by a Smile

2007-11-28T07:50:00.001-08:00

As expected, Helio Castroneves beat out Mel B and won this season's Dancing With the Stars, proving once again it's not all about your technical skills on this show, it's about making the voting audience love you. I will say, though, that I think his partner, Julianne Hough, is probably the strongest choreographer on the show, despite her young age. Her routines are always fun and on point. I'm interested to see how she would do if she got an older partner, the way Cheryl and Edyta have in this and past seasons. Could she choreograph as effectively to their pace? Maybe we'll find out next season! I still think Marie Osmond had the best webpage...she has some kick-ass people working on that thing for her!

I'm not sure what to do with my Monday nights now....there's a void!

My next update....Webkinz! Yes, I'm still playing it...whenever the site isn't down for its frequent maintenance. grrrrr! After talking to my brother Danny on Thanksgiving, I discovered it was possible to win trophies at some of the games, so I started trying to do that. Unfortunately, most of the trophies seem to be random awards, not for any particular merit. If I had a kid, I wouldn't be too happy about that little aspect of the site. How are you supposed to help them learn to make and strive for goals if they're not rewarded for them? Anyway, I won the Cash Cow trophy after spending almost an hour trying to follow directions I'd found online from other people who'd won it. I did everything they said and nothing worked. So I finally gave up and started playing, and low and behold a trophy pops up. Makes no sense. Here's my pet, Rumpy, wearing his Thanksgiving hat and giving a big paws up after winning it and enshrining it in his entertainment room.

Rumpy had a rough day yesterday because he caught the flu from some of the other germy pets. I could tell as soon as I logged on that he wasn't feeling well because he looked like this.
<--------- So I had to hurry him off to the doctor, Dr. Quack, who checked him out and prescribed some very expensive medicine for him. I talked to Veronica today and she said her pet had gotten sick too (and my pet was over at her pet's house the other day....hmmmm...source of Rumpy's disease, perhaps?) but she wasn't able to afford the medicine right away so her pet kept getting worse and worse. The site says you can't kill your pets...but apparently you can make them suffer.

Off to get my day started. Hope yours is good!

Grab a Seat, Bring the Chips

2007-11-27T06:53:00.000-08:00

Time for me to get back to dishing on my TV shows! Like what was Marie Osmond thinking with that free style dance last night on Dancing with the Stars?! I know Jonathon is the choreographer and is mostly to blame, but she's enough of a professional to realize how bad it was and say something. Maybe all the lifts and twirls around him got her dizzy and disoriented to the point that she didn't realize what was good dancing. My prediction stays what it was from the beginning--Helio (who took a page out of Marie's book and started marketing for votes on his website) for the win. Only thing that can stop him is if Marie has enough doll fans and Osmond relatives out there!

On the Race (as in Amazing) front, I'm so glad Lorena and Jason got kicked off so I don't have to watch her having anymore meltdowns. I know I should have been rooting for her since she's Puerto Rican, but she was too annoying! I've nicked named my favorites, the brother/sister team of Azaria and Hendekea, "A-Ha" since I can't ever remember (or say) their names. It cracked me up when they beat the other whiny-got-to-goers, Jennifer and Nathan, to the mat and Jennifer started going on about how A-Ha had come in first three times and they should let someone else come in first. Did the word "Race" in the title not give you a bit of a clue there when you signed up, Jennifer? My only concern with A-Ha is that they will get overconfident and slip up. Always the downfall of racers who are strong early on.

The Bravo channel has started Season 4 of Project Runway, a show I love to watch as well. For those who don't know about it, it's a weekly challenge for fashion designers. Their clothes get modeled and voted on by industry experts and one gets eliminated every week till there's a winner. I'm interested to know how they decided this year that Elisa, who sews her outfits on herself instead of a dummy (though one could argue she IS using a dummy!) and spits on her fabrics to mark her cuts so the cloth is "imbibed" with her essence, deserved a spot on the show. It seems the producers are going the route of a lot of reality shows and picking people who aren't more skilled than others, but seem like they'll make better TV. I don't see her lasting very long, unless there are more group challenges that allow her to piggy back on the talent of others. I don't have a feel yet for who I think should win, so it should be an interesting season.

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

2007-11-25T17:10:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy but enjoyable week with Jason and Gene here visiting. Randy really enjoyed spending time with his boys again. He got to watch all sorts of manly movies instead of my chick flicks. We also were able to take the boys out to do a few different things in the area, which was fun for us because we got to explore Portland a bit.

After a restful Thanksgiving, we slept in on Friday and then headed out to Bullwinkle's Family Fun Center. It was a beautiful sunny, if cold, day. The plan was to play some laser tag, but since it was so nice out we also got in a game of miniature golf and a ride on the go carts. Randy started off with a hole in one on the golf course, then went downhill from there. Meanwhile Gene started off maxing out the first couple of holes, then seemed to get the hang of it and did really well. I was the only one involved in a course collision on the go cart track...go figure...but I'm pretty sure it wasn't my fault! (ahem) After that we went up for laser tag. It was a little disappointing considering the one I used to go to in Ohio was so big and had a lot of topography. This was pretty much just one room and some barrels. The other team was a bunch of kids, yet they still kicked our butts. Too small and quick, the little monkeys.

We spent some time in the arcade after that, the boys finding some sort of jungle shoot 'em up video game to spend all their time in, Randy and I wandering around on the other games winning tokens. Randy scored big on Deal or No Deal, garnering us 200 tickets in one shot. We cashed it our tickets for a pair of handcuffs (heh heh heh!) which came in very handy on the drive home! (see slide show at the bottom of the post for details) Then Jason wanted to climb the rock wall and made it very quickly to the top before we headed out for dinner.

After dinner, we decided to make the transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas by going to see the Winter Wonderland electric light display at the Portland International Raceway. It was fun going through and seeing all the lights. My photos didn't come out so great, but here's a short video clip. When we went home, the boys went over to a friend's house to make gingerbread houses, something they do annually and to which Jason and Gene had been invited. Check out their creations in the slide show!

Saturday we had tickets for the Mount Hood Scenic Railroad's Turkey Bowl Express. It was unfortunately not as pretty a day as the day before, and we didn't have very good views of Mount Hood or Mount Adams during the trip. The train runs from Hood River to the town of Odell, through the pear orchards on the foothills of Mount Hood. I thought we would be bowling when we got there to try to win some turkeys...instead we were bowling WITH the turkeys! They had a 5lb, 10lb and a 20lb lane set up. The big prize on the 20lb lane was tickets for the Sunday Brunch train, so we really wanted to win that. Unfortunately, as you can see from the video I posted yesterday of Randy bowling, it wasn't as easy as it seemed! None of us got more than a couple of pins on that lane. After embarrassing ourselves on the 20lb lane, we moved over to the 10lb lane and Randy did much better, winning himself a railroad hat. I posted lots of pictures with captions in the slide show, so take a look!

Randy took us back home via the scenic route around Mount Hood. It was still too overcast to get a good view of the mountain, but it was nice driving up and seeing the snow. We went from an elevation of 99 feet above sea level to about 4000 feet, getting to Government Camp to watch some inner tubers. I was expecting it to be cold on the mountain, but I really wasn't expecting all the snow. I didn't even have a pair of warm gloves with me, and Randy didn't even bring a coat. The roads were a little bit slushy and gravelly, but it was still nice to drive around and see the sights. We stopped at a Candy Kitchen on the way back and bought some sugar-free treats for Randy and some caramels for me. Yum!

Make a slide show, scrapbook, or ecard

All in all, we enjoyed our week. Jason and Gene flew back to California today, very very early, so Randy and I are ready to get back to our daily lives. This means Randy goes back on a diet and gives up the evil food he enjoyed while the boys were here!

Stop Gap Post

2007-11-24T19:18:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted much lately, but we've had a busy last couple of days with the boys. I'll do a full post tomorrow, including lots of pics. For now, enjoy this video (Large file, be ready.) of Randy bowling with a turkey--aren't you dying to know what THAT'S about?!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T23:49:00.000-08:00

Woohoo, 10 minutes left in the day for me to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving! We had a relaxing day, cooking a great meal and getting some chores done around the apartment so we can enjoy the weekend. Randy and his kids were a big help getting things done, and the dinner preparation was a team effort. We had a good time playing Taboo (Jason and I won...sweeet!) and watching some movies. Our plans to go see the Winter Wonderland at the Portland Raceway fell through, but we hope to make it out there tomorrow night. So all in all, a good day. Hope yours was as well. Gobble, gobble!

Pics and Pudding

2007-11-21T11:47:00.000-08:00

Okay, here's a photo of Randy and his kids for my poor confused sister, who thought the kids were 8 feet tall based on the last photo I posted. That's Gene, the youngest, on the left, and Jason on the right, both freezing so I could get the shot outdoors. We went out to dinner at McCormick and Schmick's tonight and enjoyed a very nice meal together. I gave up on trying to find a non-seafood dish and just ordered surf and turf, then passed the crab legs over to Randy. But at least I got a lovely bourbon creme brulee at the end of the meal! yummmmm... I have a strong affinity for the creme brulee, since Trinity College in Cambridge contends for the honor of having created the first creme brulee, and I went to Trinity College...well, the one in Hartford, CT, not in Cambridge, but still! Any excuse to help myself to one whenever a restaurant serves them!

I decided today to make a traditional Puerto Rican dish called Arroz con Dulce or Arroz con Coco (rice pudding made with coconut milk) for some of Randy's co-workers, as well as for us. As usual, I had trouble with the recipe. It never seems to cook right for me. It took forever for all the liquid to absorb into the rice, and I was in a hurry to meet Randy in time for his lunch. (didn't happen) It seemed to taste ok, but I didn't have enough for us, just for the co-workers. So when I came home after doing some grocery shopping (turkey secured! yea!), I started up another batch. This time it seemed to cook perfectly, and I was quite happy...till I tasted it. Don't know what I did differently between the first batch and the second, but it's just not right. Oh well...guess I'll have to wait till my next holiday with Mom to get the good stuff!

So we're all set for the big holiday meal tomorrow. Randy seemed quite surprised at dinner today when I asked him what he was cooking. I think he had envisioned kicking back watching tv all day then being summoned to a wondrous meal lovingly prepared by his house frau. I quickly disabused him of that notion. You wanna eat in this house, you better pitch in and help! I've added a new item to my Thanksgiving menu this year that's all up to him, since he'll be the only one eating it: beets. He likes to take fresh beets, cook them up, and eat them. I can't stand beets. He hasn't had any since I moved here, so I got some as a surprise for him. I think I'm gonna hand off all the vegetable preparation to him. Are you ready for it, Randy?

Gobble Gobble!

2007-11-20T07:53:00.000-08:00

The big turkey day is looming! I still haven't bought a turkey yet, simply because I have no room in my fridge for it. I'm hoping there's still a good selection when I go shopping for one on Wednesday. I'm also bummed because last year I used a turkey rub seasoning mix I bought at Kroeger's, but since there's no Kroeger's here, I can't seem to find anything even similar. So I guess I'll have to get creative with my own seasoning. Very dangerous since I'm a garlic lover! I was remembering that when I moved to Ohio the first wild animal I saw was a turkey. I haven't seen ANY wild animals here. I'm sure they're around somewhere, but they hide well.

For Thanksgiving fun, check out these turkey towns!

Turkey, TX
Turkey, NC
Turkey Creek, LA

Speaking of avians, we were expecting to be eaten out of house and home with two teenagers here. Surprisingly, Jason and Gene eat so lightly I've taken to calling them "The Birds." We went to Costco to let them pick out some snack foods. After strolling through like 4-5 aisles of junk which tempted the hell out of ME, we still had an empty cart. They finally ended up picking a big carton of grapes and some beef jerky. Then their dad talked them into buying a big bag of chips, but they haven't touched it since Saturday. Obviously that's gonna be more for Randy then for them. It's nice that they're not into junk food, though...healthier for them. But eat up more of the regular stuff, guys!

They killed Kenny!

2007-11-18T12:44:00.000-08:00

The only thing we bought at the Portland Saturday Market yesterday was a board game called The Game of Real Life. We played a demo setup they had there and it cracked us up. Inspired by Milton Bradley's The Game of Life, it takes you on a bizarre life journey, but with grown-up (and somewhat twisted) choices and events. You start off the game having to flip a coin to see if you're male or female, and the game changes depending on which you end up. For instance, females get paid less in most jobs. You roll a die to find out if you're poor, middle class, or rich, so you you can start off the game with $0 to $1000 depending on your economic class. And you roll a die again to find out how healthy you are to start with, getting 10-60 health points as your base.

The goal of the game is to die as happy as possible, so you have to collect as many little happy faces as you can as you go around the board. But you also have to collect health points, and if you lose all your health points (by landing on spaces like "You life in North Korea. Lose 20 HP") you die and the game is over for you. So for instance, you can land on a Drugs space, and get offered certain drugs, like coffee, sugar, or heroin, that you can choose to use or not to use, then roll a die and find out if it just gives you a high (happy face) or if you get addicted and have to keep rolling till you lose all your health points and die. Or you can choose to have Sex if you land on that square, and a roll of a die tells you if you get happy faces or get a disease and lose hit points.

We played and none of us made it through the game alive. Jason and Gene got killed so often we started calling them Kenny. Before we died, though, lots of interesting things happened, like getting abducted by aliens and starting World War III. (If someone rolls a 6 on the war square, it's a nuclear war, game over for everyone!) Randy won, but just barely. And I was the last person to get killed off. We bent the rules a bit, so we'll have to see what happens in the rematch when we play by the REAL rules!

The guys are off to see the manly movie Beowulf in IMAX 3D this afternoon. So I get to have the place to myself and maybe take a snooze. We piled the boys' air mattresses on top of the bed, since there was really nowhere else to put them during the day, so I can't just crawl into bed. I may have to climb aboard and take a nap there a'la The Princess and the Pea!

Full House

2007-11-17T18:42:00.000-08:00

Gene and Jason arrived safely! We spent the afternoon at the Portland Saturday Market. I took a few pictures which looked like they were going to turn out nicely, but unfortunately when I got home and tried to download them the computer ate most. grrrrrr! Here's a couple that were salvaged. Jason is the one in the solo shot, Gene is with his dad Randy.

The boys (scuze me...young men!) are already helping out around here by hooking me up with a nice background for my rather barebones myspace page. I started the page really only to be able to view the pages of some friends of mine who had private pages, so I don't have much on it. But it's nice to have a cool background now, even though there's not much content.

Should be a full week for us. I'll try to post every day and let you know what we're up to!

Read It and Weep

2007-11-16T15:38:00.000-08:00

Ah, it's a beautiful thing, is it not? The ever elusive Random Crap receipt from Woot. It took me two days of dedicated Wooting, but today, I managed to get my order in for one Bag o' Crap. Will it contain a Roomba? I should be so lucky! Whatever it is, I'll be happy just because I finally got one. My new method is to order only one instead of three like they tell you to do, since it takes me to another screen if I order three and that takes too much time. I've noticed by reading the comments from other wooters that no matter how many you order you tend to get the same amount of crap, so I'm rolling the dice and hoping that's true.

At long last...I can sleep peacefully.

I Know I Said I Wouldn't, But....

2007-11-15T15:34:00.000-08:00

Well, it's another Woot Off today, but Woot seems to be having server issues, so let me take a break to blog a bit. Interestingly enough, I've gotten over a dozen hits on my blog since this Woot Off started with people searching for Woot Off and finding my post from the one over a month ago. I hope it answers their questions about the addictive nature of the Woot Off and the type of crap to be expected from the Bag o' Crap. I will say that a few weeks ago there was another Woot Off, and I just barely missed getting a BOC because I entered my security code for my credit card incorrectly...or so they say. Come to find out the damn BOCs had the Roombas I wanted in them! grrrr! Seems like every time I miss a BOC, there's Roombas.

Hang on please...site's back up....keyboard with iPod dock is just finishing up...took them a couple of hours to sell just over a hundred, so you know they suck...let's see what comes next...

Ok, it's a toaster, so I'm back.

Anyway, as you can tell I've been doing little else today besides Wooting. Oh, I've managed to get a few household chores done in preparation of our holiday visitors, but not as much as I would have liked. Dang...toaster sold out already...what is it, magic? Oh, they only had 6. Hang on.... No BOC. Philips Streamium Wireless 80GB Music Center with Station up now for those who have money to burn. Looks like this one will run awhile.

As I was saying, time is running out for me to get things done here. Luckily, I'll have some free time on my hands since Randy's sleep study is tonight. He has to check in by 7:30 tonight. It will be interesting to see the results of this, because I told him he's a twitcher. There are times I have to get up and sleep elsewhere because he's kicking and twitching so much. More importantly, of course, we want to find out if he's getting enough oxygen with his CPAP, as that could be causing his high blood pressure if he's not. So hopefully we'll have some more info next week.

Yeah, this music center thingy is gonna be selling at least an hour. I better get some vacuuming done while I can.

Sleep and Slide

2007-11-14T12:05:00.000-08:00

I've discovered a new tool in the ever present effort to improve my sleep. During a trip yesterday to JCPenney, I noticed while heading to the cashier a box labled "bed risers" on a clearance shelf. I took a look and went "ooooooo!" I've suffered from acid reflux for years, and Randy also has problems with it. Doctors have always said put something under the head of the bed to put your body on an incline to reduce acid reflux. These little puppies were 5 inch risers, and they were on sale for only $5! Needless to say, I quickly liberated a set from the clearance shelf.

We put them on last night and they really do hike the head of the bed up there. I can no longer reach the floor with my hand when I'm lying down. What's interesting is that they resolve a few other sleep issues for us. Since his use of his arms is limited by the shoulder problems, Randy always has trouble sitting up from a sleeping position. The incline makes it easier for him because he's already sort of leaning forward. Also, the change of position relieved some of the pressure on his shoulder at night, so he woke up less sore this morning. I have problems with pressure on my hip joints when I sleep. While the risers didn't relieve the pressure completely, they shifted the pressure point, so it's kind of a break for those areas that have been getting beat up for years.

And I have to say it really did help with the reflux issue. I got really nauseous last night (greasy dinner) to the point where I was compelled to take an Alka Seltzer, and I HATE Alka Seltzer!! First time I've taken one in over 10 years, and I have lots of stomach problems. Well, normally when my stomach is that upset, if I lie down I better have Tums handy because the reflux is going to kick in. But it didn't! So I was pretty impressed with that.

My only concern about the risers (other than boy does our bed look funny!) is that Randy and I have both had elevated blood pressure lately, and are struggling to get it under control. I don't think elevating your heart above your legs is such a good thing for high blood pressure. So we'll have to keep an eye on that and make sure it doesn't adversely affect it. But otherwise...loving the risers!!

Holiday Full House!

2007-11-12T15:05:00.000-08:00

Woohoo, just got word from Randy that his oldest son, Jason, called and will be able to join Gene when he comes for Thanksgiving! Gonna be a full house here in Portland! Randy's very excited to see them both, and I'm looking forward to meeting them. Just have to start thinking about logistics to make it work in our itty bitty space....my brain is clicking away!

Happy Veteran's Day!

2007-11-12T12:24:00.000-08:00

Happy belated Veteran's Day to all the vets out there! I'm a vet too, so I've included myself in that greeting. I should have broken my medals out to wear...dang it! Always forget about that.

I'm finally getting to see the weather the Northwest is famous for...and ewww! Here's a look at our forecast for the next 10 days. It's pretty much been raining non-stop today. Guess I better get used to it. Good thing I'm already a shut-in by nature!

The Amazing Race was cracking me up last night. Dad of the father/daughter team sure went from Mr. Nice Guy to Mr. Psycho in a week! She may end up killing him if they're on much longer...and I think she might be acquitted if a jury gets to watch tapings of the show. The manly men were certainly put in their place by the women during the hoisting detour. Randy couldn't believe how many of them couldn't tie a decent knot. See what happens when you don't send your boys to scouts??

I was sorry to see the lesbian ministers go, because they seemed to be pretty levelheaded about the race. After seeing so many teams over past seasons say, "We were MEANT to win this!" it was refreshing to see a couple say, "I don't think God cares one way or another whether we win the Amazing Race." Finally a team that had a true perspective on their place in the universe!! Now we're stuck with the fighting couples for another week...fun fun.

After some shopping this weekend, Randy is completely outfitted, down to the socks, for his holiday party this year. In past years he's attended in jeans and a polo. This year he's going to be tripped out in a sportscoat, nice button down shirt, dress pants and shoes. He picked some really nice ties to choose from as well. It was so nice seeing him in a jacket at the store that I couldn't get the grin off my face! The party is December 1st, so look for me to post pics after the weekend.

Did anyone else get the flu shot this year? I did and my arm is killing me! Got a nice golf-ball-sized lump on it that's all hot and red. Veronica says the same thing happened to here and it went away in 3 days. This is day two for me....hope it goes away early!

Looking forward to some great dancing tonight on Dancing with the Stars!

Baby You Can Drive My Car

2007-11-09T15:12:00.000-08:00

I am now officially an Oregon driver. After my car failed to pass its DEQ inspection, had to have some work done on it to get it up to specifications. And since it didn't make sense to me to stand in line at the DMV twice, once to register and once for my license, I waited to both together. Picked the car up Wednesday at Tyler's Automotive (p.s., OUCH to the bill!!) and this morning it passed the emissions test with flying colors.

I was a little nervous about getting my license because I had to pass a written exam. Randy had sent me a link to the online Oregon Driver's Manual a month ago, but of course I hadn't studied. So this morning I opened it up before I left and started flipping through. I found a sample test just as my sister Veronica called me, so I quizzed her over the phone. She missed the first 3 questions. I ended up failing the sample test, getting only 7 out of 10 questions right. Questions like this one, which I missed, here in the poll. What do you think the answer is?
**The first answer is correct, but I guessed the second one. WTG, those smarties who got it!! 12/6**

I started reading the manual after that, but really, 100 pages is too much to go through and I had to hurry to beat the lunch crowd at the DMV! So I headed out the door, thinking I could always retest if I failed. I went to DEQ, passed my emissions test, then headed over to the DMV and got my number. I was sitting there waiting for about an hour, so you'd think I could have picked up a manual and studied instead of just staring at the walls, but noooooo. Registered the car first, then on to the dreaded test.

I sat down to the computer screen and the first question flashed up: How long is your license suspended for a first time DUI? Well heck...I didn't know that! It wasn't in the pages I'd flipped through! But instead of skipping the question, I hazarded a guess--3 months. The correct answer was 1 year, so I got my first question wrong. Now I was VERY nervous! Next question I didn't know the answer to either...skipped it. Next question...didn't know the answer to that one either! Skipperooo! FOURTH question was finally one I could answer! I was so excited to finally get one! But now I was really sweating it. As I kept going through the questions, it seemed like I was skipping quite a few--at least 8. What happens when you skip is that once you've answered all the ones you know it comes back to the skipped questions. As I went through more and more questions I started dreading getting to the pack of skipped questions waiting for me at the end. Then all of a sudden a screen popped up saying I'd passed the test! Apparently I'd answered enough correctly that I didn't have to go back to the skipped ones. Hallelujah!! Kind of made me wish I'd not answered that first question, but oh well.

Then came the worst part of getting a new license: the photo. On the one hand, I was quite happy to be getting a new license because the picture on my Ohio license was absolutely atrocious. I was embarrassed to show it to people, but it did at least make me feel better when people said it didn't look like me. On the other hand, I'm too much of a pessimist not to believe I couldn't take a worse picture. Knowing I would be getting the picture, I picked a flattering sweater to wear (in blue, to go with the blue background), put on tons of mascara (since my eyes disappeared in the last license picture), then sat in front of the mirror practicing my facial expression. I decided on a look that I liked--shoulders back, neck extended, big smile, teeth slightly apart, eyes open wide--then practiced it several times so that I knew what it felt like. I think I spent more time on getting the look right than I did on studying, but I knew it was important!!

Sadly, it was all for naught. There I was standing in front of the blue box, with the lady saying, "In 3...2...1!" and instead of focusing on my expression, I got distracted by the orange beanie baby they had tied up to the camera. I remembered just as she was saying "1!" and managed to get a smile on my face, but it wasn't the one I'd practiced. So here's the driver's license picture I'm stuck with for the next few years. (It will be in color on the permanent license, which I'll get in the mail.) I will say that it came out better than my frightening Ohio license, but it's disappointing after all that preparation. Why oh why don't they put a mirror by the camera instead of a beanie baby??

Meet Rumpy

2007-11-08T00:55:00.000-08:00

Since, between my blog, Pogo, and Woot, I apparently do not spend enough time on the computer, my sisters and their children decided to hook me up with a new children's game site called Webkinz. It's similar to Neopets, but more interactive and with a twist. Webkinz are stuffed animals created by Ganz that you can buy in any department store these days. They come in all sorts of species--frogs, dogs, ponies, hippos, cats, etc.--and two different sizes. The larger ones are Webkinz and the smaller versions are Littlekinz. Once you buy your critter, you take a look at its tag and you'll find a code. Go online to the Webkinz site and you can input this code to get access to the game site. You will get an electronic pet (that looks just like your new stuffed animal!) that you can adopt and build a home for.

My younger nieces and nephews are now as addicted to this pastime as I am to Pogo. It's nice for the little kids (ages 5-8) because while there is a chat feature, it's "canned" chat, i.e., they can select prewritten messages to send each other rather than typing in messages. So you don't have to worry about your little ones running into people online who say not so nice things to them. The kids get to create a house for their pet (here's a picture of my pet, Rumpy, snoozing in his bedroom) and then take him/her to clubhouses to meet others, tourney rooms to play games, the pet doctor, and a quiz show with questions geared by age group. They can even get jobs for their pets at the Employment office to earn kinzcash to buy their pets more things. They can also invite people on their friends list to play games with them or bring their pets over to their pet's house.

My sister Veronica gave me the code for my basset hound, Rumpy. I've yet to see the stuffed animal itself and have a feeling my niece will be taking him over. I've been online with him about a week now, and as you can see from the picture above have bought him a few items to make his home cozy. The site is definitely not up to the standard of Pogo, particularly in terms of its technical capabilities. It seems that Ganz et al were not ready for the level of response they've gotten for this website, so currently while you're online you get booted a lot, especially if you're trying to interface with other people. The chat program/friends list is also dysfunctional. The chat program has different "zones"--blue zone, green zone, pink zone, etc. Unfortunately, if I log into chat and get put in the pink zone, and look to see if my friend Zippy is online, I can't see him as active unless he's also in the pink zone. If he's in the green zone, it shows him as off line to me. Unless I call Zippy on the telephone and tell him to meet me in the pink zone, we could wander around in our separate zones for hours and never know the other was online. The friends list is SUPPOSED to tell you what zone your friend was last in, but it doesn't. Seem complicated? Well, try explaining it to a 6-year-old!

I was on the phone with my youngest niece and nephew yesterday trying to play with them, and there was definitely a frustration factor for all involved as we kept having to reboot the site, try to find each other in the different zones, and send invites back and forth. Once we managed to get all the pets sitting down for a game of Go Fish, the game itself went fine. It is the early stages for this site, and I'm sure it will improve over the next few years dramatically. Pogo is pretty seamless now, but it's been around for a decade. So give it a try, join the frustration, and have some fun! Even if you decide the website isn't for you or your kid, at least they get a cute stuffed animal out of it!

Dancing, Death, Donations, Driving

2007-11-07T07:17:00.000-08:00

Guess my votes didn't help save Jane Seymore this time. She's gone from Dancing with the Stars. Actually the show might more aptly be named, "Grieving with the Stars" this season. First Jane's mom passed away during the show, now Marie Osmond's dad. Very sad. I'm sure that will be a bond Marie and Jane will share for the rest of their lives. I didn't know (guess I should have, since Marie is so heavily involved in it) that it was her father George Osmond who founded the Children's Miracle Network, which helps raise funds for children's hospitals. He founded it when his first two sons, Virl and Tom, developed degenerative hearing disorders. The family is asking for donations to the Children's Miracle Network in lieu of flowers for George's death, so if you're so inclined, please contribute! You can donate to the national office or earmark funds to your local hospital.

Randy (who can be very bright sometimes!) pointed out this morning that the reason they didn't show the bottom two last night was probably because Marie was the other person in the bottom two, and she wasn't there. That doesn't bode well for her next week, but maybe (sorry to be cynical) she'll garner the sympathy votes. Perhaps that's why Jane stayed in so long.

My parents are on the road to Texas either today or tomorrow. They're leaving their home in Florida to settle in the Austin area. I'm a little disappointed not to have pool access anymore on my visits to them, since apparently there would be dynamiting involved in putting in a pool in Austin and they didn't want to go that route. I say a little dynamite never hurt anyone...well...I mean...nevermind....

Have a safe trip, folks, drop a line when you arrive!

Oh No He DIDN'T!!

2007-11-06T11:20:00.000-08:00

I have to say the best thing about last night's Dancing with the Stars show was when judge Len Goodman got political. Commenting on Helio Castroneves's dance, he said, "Being from Brazil doesn't mean your a good dancer, just as being from Texas doesn't mean you're a good president." (paraphrasing) That cracked me up! I know my parents the Republicans probably didn't appreciate the comment; but before they get all up in arms, I will point out that Len never said he was talking about George Bush! If you happen to infer that...well, that's YOU...and shame on you for going there! heh heh heh!

I thought the dancing was a bit mediocre overall. The judges seem to be quite taken with Mel B, but I just don't see it. If a woman is going to win at all, I think it will be Jenny Garth. But I still predict Helio will win. He's just too damn charming not to get the votes!

I guess I'm going to have to put spoiler alerts on my page, after the comment from Russ regarding my Amazing Race post yesterday, though I have to say I'm not willing to accept the blame. If you record or TiVO something with an ending in suspense, I feel it's YOUR responsibility to stay away from any type of media that might spoil the ending for you till you view it! It's like when the last Harry Potter book came out. As soon as I found out that people had gotten their books early and were spreading info about what was in it, I boycotted Internet, TV, radio, newspapers, heck I barely even left the house until I got my book and was able to read it myself! Wouldn't have been as much fun getting through the bloodbath if I'd known about it beforehand. You just can't leave these things to chance. You want to be surprised, stay in the dark as long as possible.

By the way, I just bought what I'm pretty sure is a winning lottery ticket. More Thursday after the drawing when I find out for sure. Hope springs eternal!

Go Go Racers!

2007-11-05T06:13:00.000-08:00

The Amazing Race is off and running! First show was great, as usual. How can you go wrong heading to beautiful Ireland to start the race? And the donkeys were classic--nothing like stubborn animals to bring out a team's true colors!

I'm quite happy the team I thought was going to be annoying, Ari and Staella, got kicked off because they WERE annoying! But I would have been happy with either of the teams the came in at the end getting kicked off. The team that came in tenth was Jennifer and Nathan. Anytime you get a team with a man who has cheated on his wife/girlfriend, you know they are going to be a pain in the ass. Not that any guy who cheats on his wife/girlfriend can't redeem himself, but one who does it and then goes on a reality show to air it out is bound to be a jerk. If they're already snapping at each other in episode one, I really don't look forward to them getting beyond episode two. Contrary to what the producers of the show may think, annoying fighting couples do NOT make good tv as far as I'm concerned. This show would be great even if every single couple got along like Ozzie and Harriet. With that in mind, I'd like Lorena and Jason to go right after Jennifer and Nathan. How many times did she start crying during this episode? If you have to think about it, it was too many!! Good bye!

I'm still digging the Goths, Kynt and Vyxsin. (What was with Nathan calling them "freaks?" Another symptom of his jerkiness.) How does Kynt keep his face so white? Is that make up or did he do something to the skin? I'm also liking the brother/sister team, Azaria and Hendekea. I like people that aren't afraid of being intelligent. Their problem on this race is going to be second guessing themselves, as they did on this episode when they were in the lead heading for the airport then turned around thinking they were going the wrong way. doh!

All in all, a good premiere episode! I'm looking forward to another amazing race!

Japanese Garden Visit

2007-11-04T18:51:00.000-08:00

Randy and I went to the Portland Japanese Garden today. We were a little misdirected by Mapquest at first and ended up in downtown Portland. So we drove around trying to get back on the highway and discovered we were right near the Portland Saturday Market we went to the other week. As soon as I realized that, I developed a craving for an elephant ear (the pastry, not the plant), so I had Randy drop me at the side of the market, then drive around the block again while I ran in, got an elephant ear, and ran out to meet him as he swung back past. It was well worth it because those things are delicious! Then we got back on the highway and headed out to the garden, delayed but sated.

We decided this outing would be the perfect chance to try out our new Vivitar digital camera. I'm a little bummed at the results, though, and am wishing we'd tried it out on something else first. Don't know why, but our photos came out a little washed out and a lot blurry. Guess we need to do some more reading of the instruction manual and figure out what we're doing wrong.

We took my old Polaroid digital camera as well, so we could compare results. For example, here's a shot of a sand garden taken with the Polaroid on the left, and a shot of the same scene taken with the Vivitar on the right. Aside from the fact that the one on the right is portrait and the one of the left landscape (we need to coordinate these shots better), there are also some noticeable differences in picture quality.

Here's a second comparison with pictures I took of Randy while we were standing on a path overlooking another sand garden. The Vivitar picture (right) definitely does a better job of capturing the details in the background--you can't even see the raked sand in the Polaroid shot (left). And don't be saying that I didn't zoom in close enough with the Polaroid--it doesn't have a zoom! Only two shot options: close up or distance. That's what we like about the Vivitar; now we just have to learn how to improve the photos we're taking.

Anyway, it was a very nice visit. The day was a bit overcast (maybe another reason we had troubles with the photography), but the temperature was perfect for all the walking around we did. I had visited this garden 14 years ago with my friend Gloria, so it brought back a lot of memories seeing it again. When we first got there, it was so hazy we couldn't see Mt. Hood or Mt. St. Helens in the distance, but by the time we left there was a great view of Mt. Hood, and a still hazy but just visible view of Mt. St. Helens between some trees.

I've done a couple of slideshows--one Polaroid and one Vivitar--of the pictures we took during this outing. Check them out!

Make a slide show, scrapbook or ecard

Order Up a Laugh

2007-11-03T23:30:00.000-07:00

My brother Danny (oops sorry...he likes to be called "Dan" now that he's a grown up...) called me the other night. This is a rare and unusual occurrence, kind of like Halley's Comet, so I have to enjoy it when it happens. And I usually DO enjoy talking to him very much because we both have a goofy sense of humor. There's nothing more fun than a conversation with someone who GETS you!

So during this conversation, Danny (aka, Dan) was driving home from one of his grad school classes. On the way, he stopped at a McDonald's drive thru to get some ice cream to take to his wife and kids. I could hear the conversation between him and the order taker, and here's how it went:

OT: Welcome to McDonald's, may I please take your order? (ok, I'm making that line up, but it was some sort of generic greeting like that...work with me!)
Dan: Yeah, I'd like two ice cream cones and two plain McFlurries.
OT: Two cones and....two what?
Dan: Plain McFlurries.
OT: ......
Dan (in an aside to me): Watch this...
OT: You don't want anything in them?
Dan: Yes, just plain.
OT: um....ok...drive ahead

So then Danny moves ahead to the window. In the meantime, I ask him, "Excuse me, but isn't a plain McFlurry just ice cream?" He says yes. So naturally my next question is, "Why don't you just order ice cream?" He says, "Because if I order ice cream, they'll give me a little cup. I want the big amount you get in a McFlurry cup. Plus I just like messing with them."

He gets to the next window, where he's now face to face with the order taker, who once again asks him if he's sure he wants plain McFlurries. He says yes he does.

Then he gets to the window to pick up the items and has to explain again that he wants just "plain McFlurries." And that he also wants the two cones turned over in cups and all four items put in a drink carrier for him.

I have to say that if it weren't for the fact that I really like M&M McFlurries, I might try this order next time I went to McDonald's, because it really was funny. It reminded me of when I would go to Burger King with my friend, Aurelia, who would always order "meatless Whoppers." It was the special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun...minus the two all beef patties. The order always drew the same consternation from the servers as the plain McFlurry order. The most fun I ever have when ordering fast food is having them hold the onions. Somehow it just isn't the same....

What's most fun about the goofy orders is that everyone is a winner. Not only do you have fun messing with the workers, but they have fun after you leave talking about the nut who ordered plain McFlurries. It's a win-win situation!

So what will YOUR next funny order be?

Happy Anniversary!

2007-11-02T02:46:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's my one-month blog anniversary! Boy that went by fast. Over 300 visits to my blog since I started in October. Mind you, probably half of those have been me checking to see if everything looks ok, but still....

I'll never be able to make a living writing my blog. I do have advertisers, but so far in the month I've been blogging, I've earned only a whopping 2 cents. Mind you, I'm not exactly gearing the content to money making--I wouldn't call my life reader-drawing. I do get people other than friends and family checking out the site, and it's interesting to see how people find my blog using web or blog searches. I get the most hits after I write posts on either the Meerkat Manor or Dancing with the Stars. I imagine once The Amazing Race starts, those posts will be big draws as well. My brother-in-law, posting over at the Daily Yak, says that he gets his most traffic from people searching for Marvin the Martian. He had a post about a Marvin the Martian cup he was selling on ebay and it gets hits all the time. I should root around my stuff in storage and see if I have any cartoon characters floating around. Like those Garfield mugs I got from McDonalds. hmmmm....

Anyway, thank you to those of you who have been faithfully reading. I hope I've made you smile a few times!

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T11:09:00.000-07:00

Yeah, my tooth is fixed!! Turned out the tooth itself was cracked too, not just the filling. I was worried when the dentist told me that because, depending on the direction of the crack and how far below the gumline it goes, I know there's sometimes nothing they can do to save the tooth. Luckily, the crack didn't extend much past the top of the crown, so he was able to remove the cracked portion of the tooth. So a bit more complicated a procedure than I'd originally anticipated, but at least it's done and over with. I anticipate feeling a lot better than I have in years on that side of my mouth...just as soon as the anesthetic wears off!!

Also took my car to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality for a vehicle inspection prepatory to getting my car registered here in Oregon. Unfortunately, my wonder mobile didn't pass...go figure. Couldn't have something to do with the fact that the check engine light has been on for several years, could it? grrr. Anyway, the error code I got was "Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold." From what I've read, could be something as simple as resetting a switch, but could also mean I need a new catalytic converter. I'll find out today or tomorrow when I take it to the shop. Whatever it is, I need to get it fixed or no registration for me!

Almost forgot...but HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!! For those interested, the History Channel has a nice Halloween mini-site set up. It has details on the origins of the holiday, recipes, customs from around the world, ghost stories, and fun facts. For instance, did you know the per capita consumption of candy by Americans in 2006 was 26 pounds? I really don't think I got my share!!

Looks like my Nose Picker mask is the front runner in my Halloween poll, so guess I'll be wearing that tonight. We're not going anywhere, just looking to impress any kids who show up. I'm sure their mothers will love me encouraging them by having my finger fully inserted in a nostril when I open the door!

Blindsided

2007-10-31T00:33:00.000-07:00

Whoa, have to admit I didn't see THAT one coming! Guess my 7 votes for Jane Seymour to stay on Dancing with the Stars paid off, because she stayed safe...so did Marie with her crafty campaigning...but poor Sabrina Bryan is goooonnnee! I honestly thought she would be in at least the top 3, because she was quite good. Figured Cameron or Jennie would get kicked off if not Jane or Marie. You could tell Sabrina was pretty shocked too...looked like she was going to be sick during the results show.

Sabrina was my mom's favorite on the show, and she really did dance well. My problem with her is that she really wasn't what I consider an "amateur." She's trained in a different style of dance--hip hop--but she's still a professional dancer. The choreography may be different, but the discipline, the muscle development, the instincts are all there and worked to her advantage. While I'll miss seeing her snappy turns, I have to say I'm looking forward to a more balanced competition among the remaining true amateurs.

The unfortunate part of Sabrina being gone is that the women lost their best chance for a female win. I think that Helio Castroneves will take it now, and I happen to really like him. If the women want a win at this point, our best bet is Jennie Garth, and it's a heck of a long shot. She's shown a lot of improvement, and as more time goes by she loosens up and gets more used to doing the live performances. What's gonna kill her is her own lack of confidence. She sabotages herself. But I wish her luck and hope she pulls it off.

Dancing and Health Update

2007-10-30T13:17:00.000-07:00

I hate to say it, but it looks like the two "old ladies" of Dancing with the Stars are heading for the chopping block. Marie Osmond and Jane Seymour were both on the bottom of the scoreboard at the end of the show last night, and with reason. I dialed in all seven of my votes for Jane, only because I figured Marie has a bigger fan base to see her through. Marie is working the votes through her webpage, YouTube videos, and even getting some merchandising in with Johnny and Marie t-shirts! What a mogul...she's my hero!

I went with Randy for the follow up visit to his cardiologist today. Unfortunately, the stress test had some inconclusive results. Looks like there's some blockage, but they can't tell exactly where or how much. And the doctor said the results may be the due to Randy's blood pressure being elevated rather than any defects in the heart or arteries. His systolic (top number) pressure went up to 256 during the stress test...normal is 140. The stress test pressure went so high because he wasn't allowed to take his meds that day, but even with the meds it's in the 150-170/90-115 range. The doctor said the image they took of Randy's heart after the treadmill stress test showed some enlargement, which they would normally attribute to blockage in all three arteries, but since his blood pressure went so high it might be because of that. The high blood pressure might also have been the cause of the abnormal EKG in September.

So this means more tests. First, though, he's changed his blood pressure medicine to try to bring that down. Then he's going to get a cardiac CT, which should tell the doctor conclusively if there are any blockages or not. He's also ordering a renal ultrasound to check the health of the arteries supplying blood to the kidneys. Finally, he's having Randy do a sleep study. Randy has sleep apnea, which causes high blood pressure. He sleeps with a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, but there's the possibility he's not getting enough oxygen with it for various reasons. We've been trying for weeks to get a sleep study referral through Randy's general practitioner, since Randy's been twitching and kicking a lot in his sleep, but they never call him back to help get it scheduled. So the cardiologist said he'd take care of getting one set up. I'm liking this guy!!

We're hoping the tests show everything is ok with his arteries, and we just have to get more aggressive with the blood pressure treatment. I'll keep you posted as we find out more!

Smile if You Got 'Em!

2007-10-29T08:46:00.001-07:00

I finally made it to the dentist today for a tooth that's been hurting me all month. Turns out the filling in it is cracked, so I have to have it replaced. Glad it's the filling and not the tooth cracked! And at least I caught it early enough that the tooth hasn't gotten infected under the filling...at least it appears so right now, without having taken the old filling out yet. I haven't ever had to get a root canal and I really don't want to start now. I go back on Wednesday for the work. I have to say that tooth has bothered me ever since I first got it filled 5 years ago, so I'm glad to have it cleaned out and checked and redone. Hopefully I'll have better results this time!

Randy made me watch The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly this weekend. They left out The Boring when titling it. I really loved director Sergio Leone's movie Once Upon a Time in the West, so I was hoping I'd like SOMETHING about this one...but no. That's three hours of my life I'll never get back. Randy typically likes the manly man movies, and is a big time John Wayne and 007 fan. He is very good about watching movies I like, though, and I think I've only had maybe 2-3 selections he really hasn't liked.

Only today and tomorrow left to get in your vote on my Halloween mask, so check them out if you haven't already!

Enjoy the Sun While You Can!

2007-10-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful day in the Portland area yesterday, so despite the fact that I said I was going to spend the day in bed mourning Mozart, we got out of the apartment and did some running around.

I usually don't like to go anywhere near shopping venues on the weekend, unless we go very late in the evening. Somehow we ended up going to Costco in the early afternoon and it was awful. I couldn't even walk next to Randy without someone bumping into me, so I let him go ahead and break a path. We went there first because we needed gas, but we ended up inside because we'd lost his membership card. While there, we decided to purchase a much needed new shower head. The one in our apartment was so low and close to the wall that Randy had to duck to get his head under it. Here's a photo of our new one, which has a rain shower head and a hand held massager attachment. Niiiiiccceee! You can see looking at the bottom of this contraption where the original shower head was attached. It's only about 5'3" high, so would be perfect for my mom, but not for us!

We also went to the Woodburn Company Stores, a factory outlet. It seems to me that factory outlet centers used to have a lot better prices than they do now. We did find some steel toe boots for Randy that, after coming home and pricing them online, turned out to be a good deal. But for the most part prices there seemed to be exactly the same as prices in the mall, so what's the point?

By the way, you may be seeing some much better pictures on my blog in future, since during the last Woot-off I wooted and purchased a new digital camera. I've had this camera, a Polaroid PDC 700, for longer than I can remember. It cost me $78 at Wal-mart. It's fine, but there's no zoom and and it's only .8 MP. My new camera is a Vivitar 8625 and it's 8 MP 6x optical zoom. That's a big difference!! When it gets here I'll have to take comparison photos to post. What I'm worried about is I constantly drop this camera, but it's pretty tough and survives. I don't know if the Vivitar will be as hearty. Also, I really like the Polaroid imaging software, Photomax. I use it for all my photo manipulation, even if the photos don't come off this camera. It's got lots of great tools, including airbrushing, which I use to get that instant face lift effect in my photos. I don't know if the Vivitar will include photo software, but even if it does, I'm pretty happy with the Photomax.

Happy Birthday, Bro!

2007-10-28T06:04:00.000-07:00

Today is my brother Mario's birthday. I think he turns 50 or something like that. He used to be a bit of a dope growing up, but he turned out ok, despite his flatulence issues. So happy birthday, brother of mine! Hope it's a good one!

How I Became a Shut In....

2007-10-27T01:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, these darn meerkats from Meerkat Manor are really starting to take their toll on me emotionally. After Flower's death, I had started to get attached to her daughter Mozart. Flower had chased poor Mozart out of the family group shortly after she was born, but Mozart survived and became part of the Starskies. Then, as I mentioned on a previous post, the Starskies were decimated by illness and went down to the three sisters, including Mozart. Then one sister went missing and the other died, leaving poor Mozart all alone.

This week, on last night's episode, things started looking up for Mozart, when she found love with roving male, Wilson, the son of the Commandos' brutal leader, Hannibal. They share an intimate interlude (read, "make out") then spend the night together bonded by the terror of a lightning strike caused brush fire. In the morning, they set off together from their ravaged borrow to try to rejoin his family. A battle between the Whiskers and the Commandos interrupts her introduction to his family group, but I still had high hopes for them getting together the next day. And sure enough, at sunup, he goes off looking for Mozart...only to find her ravaged body lying in the desert, an apparent victim of a jackal attack. It was horrible!

This is my second tragic fall from high hopes this week, following the horrible culmination of the Woot-off on Thursday. I placed my order for the ever elusive Bag 'o Crap, then was informed I was in line to get one pending the processing of other orders before me. I figured it was not meant to be, but kept the browser up while it auto refreshed to see if I would get to the front of the line. And sure enough, it refreshed and there was the joyous message that the BOC was MINE, and they were processing my credit card!! I was rejoicing and gloating over my poor father, who didn't even get to the computer in time to TRY to order a BOC, when all of a sudden the message comes up that the security code I'd entered for the order was invalid, so my order got declined. No BOC for me! grrrrrr!

I probably would have been fine if the BOC order had never gone through in the first place. But as with this last meerkat episode, the bad part was that my hopes were raised, then cruelly and brutally crushed. It was terrible the first time (ask Randy...he had to put up with me moaning about it all day!) but this second blow is almost too much to take. I may have to spend the whole day in my unmade bed today recovering...and I WON'T have the tv turned on to Animal Planet while I do!

Don't Make Your Bed!

2007-10-26T08:50:00.001-07:00

Sorry, Mom, but scientists have now justified my sloppy habits. According to a BBC article, it's actually HEALTHIER not to make your bed! So I will continue with my unmade bed therapy...it's for my own good! :-D

Pick Your Horse

2007-10-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

CBS finally has information about this season's Amazing Race racers, and I think I know why they waited so long to post it. They've stacked the deck!! Tired of the all-male teams always winning, they only have ONE all-male team this season, and it's a grandpa/grandson team, so they'll never make it. The rest are all boy/girl or girl/girl teams. Can you say "fixed?"

The other demographic that concerns me is that no less than 50% of the racers are from California. I find it hard to believe that as much viewership as this show has nationwide they didn't get enough people trying out from other states to get a wider representation. It's not like this show is being filmed in CA, so you get more people from there participating!

Based on the write ups, my picks for the strong contenders are the LA Blondes, the Goths, and the Hippie Daters. It will be interesting to see how the make up hound Blondes and Goths look after 2-3 legs of the race. The Hippies will, I imagine, look pretty much the same... My picks will probably change after the first leg, but we'll see how my instincts are.

My vote thus far for team I'm going to like the most is the father/daughter team.

Team I'll like the least...probably the best friends/restaurant workers. They seem annoying somehow.

What are YOUR picks and predictions??

Old Dog CAN Learn New Tricks!

2007-10-25T05:18:00.000-07:00

Once again, Woot is wooting off. You'll be happy to know I learned my lesson after the last Woot Off, and have not been a slave to the computer. I actually went to sleep last night, and stayed in bed once I went. And I'm even leaving the house for a few hours this morning to do some "regular" shopping. Mind you, I'll probably be back to the computer when I get home...but I think it's a start in breaking the addiction!

Grape Ape

2007-10-24T19:19:00.000-07:00

Randy and I may not be daring or adventurous on many things, but one thing we do take some risks with is FOOD! We're constantly trying different substitutions for missing ingredients in recipes, or just throwing in what sounds good. We also keep an eye out for new products to try at the grocery store.

Our latest find at our local Safeway was a fruit called "grapple®." The tagline on the container was "Looks like an apple. Tastes like a grape!" As you can see by the stunning photograph (copyrighted, all rights reserved) I took of our last one, it does indeed look like an apple. However, as it sits on my desk right under my nose while I type this, I can vouch for the fact that it not only tastes like a grape, it SMELLS like a grape. Well, not so much a grape as grape Kool-aid®.

We're not quite sure how the grapples® are made, and even if you go to their "how are they made section" on the grapple® website, you won't really know either. Apparently they were featured on the Food Network show Unwrapped, which DID tell you how they made them, but I missed that episode. What we DO know is that it doesn't involve any hybriding or genetic mutation of the fruit, which we're kind of bummed about because that would be cool. Instead, they seem to just take a regular old Washington Fuji Apple and somehow "infuse" it with natural and (here's the bad word) artificial flavors. Doesn't add any sugar or calories to it, just changes the flavor.

As to how we liked it...well, we both agreed that other than the "gee whiz" factor of trying something different, they're really not worth spending the money. We paid about a dollar an apple, which is pretty high. I'm kinda wishing we'd gotten some caramel apples instead. We both thought the grapple® was way too soft, and while it did taste like grapes (or grape Kool-aid®), we prefer the taste and texture of actual grapes. Now if you're a parent who would like to get your kid to eat more apples and are having trouble interesting them in the normal fruit, and if caramelizing isn't the way you want to go, this might be an option for you.

Save yourself the money, go to the store, open up a container of them, and smell them. You'll get the general idea that way.

It's About Time!

2007-10-23T20:01:00.000-07:00

At long last there's FINALLY some word from CBS about the upcoming season of my all-time favorite reality show, The Amazing Race. Unfortunately, other than the date, they have no information. But tune in on November 4th, 8pm EST/PST for the premiere, and watch my blog as I ~~bash~~ comment on the contestants!

Also, at long last, I have some new tires on my car. We've been putting it off forever and they were getting bald, bald, bald! Randy and Gloria both suggested Les Schwab Tires, so that's where we went. They got us in right away and finished while we did some grocery shopping. It's amazing the difference just in the short drive home. Can't wait to feel what it's like driving out on the highway. We also got some snow chains for the car. I never had to use snow chains in Ohio; but it's so much more hilly here that even though it snows far less, I figured I better make the investment. Randy's lovely (ahem) '76 Ford Granada is also in the shop this week. He had a fuel leak, but turns out the carburetor was bad too. I'm shocked the thing is still running, but it was his parents and he says his dad was a good "keep it running" mechanic. Randy has been keeping it running for over a year, but it's fading fast. Tune in next year as we go through the car buying process to get him a new one!

P.S. Randy just unintentionally became my blog's 200th viewer! Woohoo! Have to come up with a door prize for him....

Market Research

2007-10-22T22:49:00.000-07:00

Quite the exciting moment on Dancing with the Stars tonight, with Marie Osmond passing out! Of course, my surprise was lessened by the fact that my sister, Maria Elena, who's on CST, called me when she saw it 2 hours before me. But I didn't let her tell me exactly what happened--I just knew SOMETHING happened. As soon as I heard Marie hyperventilating I knew she was gonna pass out. Poor thing. Well, glad she's ok.

Randy and I had a fun weekend, getting out to see downtown Portland, OR a bit with my friend Gloria (my old college roommate). We took the city's Vintage Trolley to check out the Portland Saturday Market, an open air arts and crafts market. There was some wonderful artwork, a lot of impressive photography, and lots of great food! We didn't buy anything this trip, but I'm sure we'll be back.

I decided to get brave and try some east african cuisine. Don't know what the heck I was eating, other than it was a chicken combo plate. There was some sort of chicken pastry that was delicious, and this WONDERFUL green sweet sauce. It was interesting! Randy stuck with something tried and true--clam chowder in a bread bowl. Randy also got an elephant ear, but I was too full to have one. It's nice to know, though, that I can go get one any weekend until Christmas!

After the market, we went to do some shopping on 23rd Ave, one of Portland's more unique shopping blocks. It was a lot of walking, but there were some fun, interesting stores to visit, including Lush, specializing in fresh handmade cosmetics. They had some interesting massage oil bars, that look like soap but as soon as you pick them up they start melting into an oil. And of course we had to keep eating (ahem!), stopping off for some delicious gelato at Alotto Gelato. yummmmm! The photo at left was taken standing on 23rd looking up Hoyt St, which I thought had a lovely view with the changing colors and the houses going up the hill. Unfortunately, I have a crappy camera, so didn't quite capture it as well as I wanted. Gotta work on that!

All in all, it was a really fun day, and certainly nice to get out and explore some of my new city. It was also fun to spend time with Gloria--we've fallen right back into the great discussions and fun we used to have while we were roomies in college. She is her same genial, liberal, thought-provoking self, and I look forward to getting together with her and her two boys more in future.

A Busy Day

2007-10-20T03:00:00.000-07:00

Even though I'm once again up and about at 2am, I have this to say about my new mattress pad...niiiiiiiice! It really is comfy!! Mind you this is the second night I've not been able to sleep since getting it, but I can't fault the pad. Normally I sleep with a ton of pillows--a body pillow, 3 standard pillows, and 2 throw pillows. Randy calls it my "pillow throne." When I got into bed last night using not only the mattress pad but a memory foam contour pillow, I immediately had to start tossing all the other pillows out of bed--I was so comfortable I didn't need them. There is one potential drawback. When we went looking at Tempurpedic mattresses, the salesman told us that if we sleep warm (which Randy does...he's like a brick oven at night), then memory foam might not be the way to go because it reflects the heat instead of absorbing it. That really seems to be the case. It's fine right now, when it's cold out, but I can see it being a problem in the hot summer months. Guess we could always take it off then but...I want my soft!!

Randy's stress test is now mission accomplished. The treadmill part went fine. He got his heart rate up to target within minutes and was only on the machine for just over 5. His systolic pressure during the test went up to 260, which I'm guessing is not good. They gave him some Toprol right away. We'll know the results next week.

The bad part about the test was that no one told him he had to have his arms above his head when they did the imaging both before and after the treadmill, about 20 minutes each time. For a person in the thawing stage of frozen shoulder, this is NOT a good thing. He came out to the waiting room after the first image literally shaking from the pain, his muscles in spasm. I spent about 10 minutes massaging it out, but he did not want to go back for the second image. They agreed to let me go back with him and help support his arm, and I tried to massage it while I did so. This seemed to help and he didn't go into spasm again. While it was a bad experience for him, I'm hoping it kind of acts like a heavy dose of physical therapy and helps speed his recovery. I'm sure if he were here I'd be getting a dirty look right now for saying that. lol.

Since he was so sadly abused in the afternoon, I decided to treat him in the evening with a visit to The Vital Barbershop for a haircut and straight razor shave. I've been trying to talk him into getting a professional cut instead of the Supercuts buzztrim for a couple of years now. The stylist really did a great job getting the look I wanted. (Notice I said the look "I" wanted...Randy could care less, but he doesn't have to look at him!) The shave wasn't as relaxing as I'd hoped it would be because the place was pretty noisy, but she did a good job. It's nice to have him descruffified! I screwed up and didn't take a before picture, but here's an after.

After the haircut, it was pouring rain and lightning, so instead of walking all the way to our car without an umbrella, we ducked into The Container Store across the street. We ended up finding an Elfa over-the-door rack system to put in our laundry room, creating a sort of pantry so we could free up some of our limited cabinet space in the kitchen. It's so nice, and was so easy to install! It's nice to finally have some free cabinet space. Not for long, mind you, but at least it's there now! We're thinking about getting a similar system but with shelves to put over the washer and dryer so we can store some of our larger pots, rarely used appliances, bulk food items, etc. Yes, we're trying to get organized!!! Try not to die of shock.

While we were in The Container Store, apparently the storm got worse, because when we came out, the ground was covered with so much hail it looked like it had snowed. We never even heard it while we were in there, we were so into our Elfa ecstasy.

All in all, it was a busy but productive day. I capped it off by watching a new episode of Meerkat Manor, only to witness the entire decimation of one of the families, the Starskys, down to one lone meerkat, Mozart. This show is becoming a bit depressing!! And I see in the previews that coming up there will be a desert fire threatening all the meerkats. How much tragedy can one species take?!

Here's one last pic, for those of you whose page is still loading fast, this one of me and the shorn roomie. Enjoy!

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

2007-10-18T21:22:00.000-07:00

After getting about 2.5 hours of sleep last night and being drowsy all day, I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight. I'm especially looking forward to it because Randy surprised me by coming home early today with a 4" mattress topper and some contour pillows to soften our very, very, VERY firm mattress. It's the Novaform Choices memory foam topper. We'd been seeing this at Costco for a few months now and talked about getting it, but hadn't committed to the purchase. Randy has had a lot of problems getting comfortable at night because of his shoulder pain. I really hope this helps. We tried it out after putting it on the bed and it is definitely a lot softer. I bought my mattress 10 years ago when I was a lot younger and thinner, and my body totally loved the firmness. Now it just hurts being on it! We've looked into getting one of the pricey Tempurpedic beds like my sister Maria Elena just bought, but we really want to see how SHE likes it and wait till we move to get a new bed. This seemed like a good interim alternative for a small fraction of the cost. Gives us a chance to try out the memory foam thing and see what we think. I'll let you know tomorrow how it turns out!

After having to reschedule last week's appointment, Randy is finally going to take his stress test tomorrow. I'm interested to see how he does, since he always makes me slow down when we go for walks together! Lately our walks have been shopping related, since the rainy season has begun here. We went for a walk in the mall and it was like a spa day...a demo lady stopped me and straightened my hair for me, we both got 15-minute massages on a $5000 massage chair, and I did my make up at a makeup counter. We really need to go back again soon....

We bought plane tickets for Randy's son Gene last night. Gene and his brother Jason live in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. He'll be here in November for Thanksgiving week. I'm really looking forward to meeting him, and of course Randy is excited to see his son again. He talks about his boys all the time and I know he misses them a lot.

Ok...I'm off to bed...wish me luck!!

Buh bye, Floyd!

2007-10-17T07:40:00.000-07:00

Well thank GOODNESS Floyd Mayweather got kicked off instead of Spice Girl Mel B on Dancing with the Stars last night! That would have really irritated me if it had gone the other way. (Melanie doesn't have an official website...what's up with that?? Doesn't she know you need one to get ahead in the biz these days? Even Maria Osmond is all over that!) Poor Floyd just wasn't up to par, and he was quite the pouter so wasn't winning my sympathies. Plus I really can't stand his partner, Karina Smirnoff. (also no official site...) She's a little grating, and I'm never too happy with her choreography.

Of course there was again judge controversy over lifts. I will never understand why the dancers/stars feel they have to argue with the judges. Had Jane Seymore and Tony Dovolani just said, "Ok, we'll watch out for that" instead of arguing with Carrie Ann Inaba over her call, I would have had more sympathy for them. I still like Jane, though, and hope she stays in for awhile.

My call for the final four stars on the show is Sabrina Bryan (has an offical website!), Helio Castroneves (also has one!), Jennie Garth (does too!), and Cameron Mathison (and 4 for 4!). However, the final four I would LIKE to see are Sabrina, Helio, Jane and Marie. They're my favs so far to watch, now that Cheryl Burke (only a MySpace page...what's up with that?) has been booted. (boo hoo hoo!) It was nice seeing her dance with Drew Lachey again...even though he did almost drop her! Here's my favorite dance of theirs.

Randy and I have also gotten into watching Boston Legal, since it comes on right after DWTS. My sister, Maria Elena, and her hubby, Russ, have been trying to get me to watch it for quite some time now, but I wasn't interested. I have to say, though, it's quite amusing. But I have a question...do they ever lose a case? Haven't seen an episode yet where they have.

October Poll

2007-10-15T22:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, let's see who's out there reading the blog! Time for an opinion poll. Since it's October, let's make this one seasonal. Check out the photos in the Smilebox slide show and make a choice!

Make your own slide shows and scrapbooks

And for the essay portion of our exam...what was your favorite Halloween costume? Use the comments and let us know!

It's in here, somewhere....

2007-10-14T16:28:00.000-07:00

Sorry about not blogging yesterday, but we had a PROJECT to take care of. After living here for five months, we decided it was finally time to stop squeezing around boxes to get to our desks and organize our office. After spending so much time getting the rest of the place in shape, we had kind of taken a hiatus and kept putting off getting this room, which is actually where we spend much of our time, done. But with Randy's son, Gene, coming to visit for Thanksgiving week, we knew we had to get it done so he'd have somewhere to sleep.

What's bad is that, being the sloppy people we both are, the "we've just moved in and still haven't fully unpacked" mess had exploded into more of a "what the hell is going on in here, how can anyone live in this?" mess. Part of the problem was that I had decided to caddy corner our desks facing each other instead of facing the corners of the room. Knowing how much time we both spend on the computer, I felt it was important for us to at least be facing each other so we'd have SOME interaction. The problem is that the room is so small that facing the desk that way really ate up some space. And because my desk has a hutch, we ended up kind of having to peer around one of the columns to see each other anyway. I'm embarrassed to show the pictures, but here they are!! It really didn't seem to be this bad in person!

So we started at 2pm thinking it would just take us a few hours. Randy wanted to jump right in and get on moving the desks, but I insisted on going box by box and getting all the clutter either put in its rightful place, tagged to go to storage, or thrown out. I knew that if we didn't do the little stuff first, we would get the big stuff done and then quit and leave the little stuff to form big messes again. It took awhile, but we made it through to the point where we could see the desks and the floor again. Then Randy got to work taking his desk apart to turn it around. Mine is modular so no deconstruction needed...or so we thought till we realized we had to turn the door around on the CPU cabinet to fit in with the new orientation.

By the time 10pm rolled around and we'd Wooted, we decided it was time to call it a night. Mind you we weren't working 8 hours straight...we did stop for dinner. Plus we made the mistake of turning the computers on after we'd got them set up to make sure everything was connected correctly and...well...you know how that goes...like moths to the flame. But it was definitely a full day. Here's how it looks now. We got almost everything done, just a lot of filing and desk organizing left to go. It's nice to be able to get straight to my desk without wending through a maze of clutter anymore. But I do already miss being able to smile and wave at Randy over the desk tops...guess this means I'll have to spend a little less time on the computer and a little more quality time with him. **sigh!**

Fall View

2007-10-12T13:14:00.000-07:00

Even though I've lost my view looking out to the right from my patio (darn condos!!), I still have a bit of a view to the left. It's especially pretty right now since the big tree in the center of it is starting to change color. I love how colorful it gets this time of year! I can't imagine permanently living somewhere without season changes. Sorry, my Guam friends, it's just not for me!! I even look forward to the cold weather because I love wearing big roomy sweaters and snuggling into my soft flannel sheets under a down comforter. I love hot cocoa and warm bread, and I'd enjoy them both in front of a fireplace if I had one. A friend of ours has a lake house on Detroit Lake she's offered to let us use any weekend we want to get away. Maybe I should find out if there's a fireplace and go there on a cold weekend to hang out with my hot cocoa.

I've noticed that I'm still able to type almost as fast with my fingers taped as I was before, and not with anymore errors. I don't even really think about it usually. It's funny how the mind adjusts to your body's limitations.

We were thinking about going to the Portland Saturday Market this weekend, but may have to put it off till next. My friend Gloria, who was my roommate in college, has been wanting me to go since I got here and I haven't gotten around to it. I tried calling her to see if she wanted to go this weekend, but no answer, so I'll try for next. It's time I got out to see more of Portland so I can report on it to my blog readers!