July 30, 2003
I'm sleepy and I should be going to sleep. I got a nosebleed and am waiting for that to clear up. Tomorrow I am going over to my brother's house to goof off with the kids.
I've finally gotten some new speakers. Yeah me. They are pretty nice and apparently they were mis priced. Score for me, yeah. Now if only I could win the lottery! /sigh
I think I shall watch some Law & Order and get this cleared up.
Ok, this is ridiculous. Around 4:30pm they were saying we should have a clear night. It started thundering about 10 minutes later and is still going. I think the neighbors around the corner (one each side at that) were hit. I was washing some fruit and I saw it out the window. Eeek.
My day has been emotionally stressful. I don't want to go into details, but it just feels that way. However, I've got a new quote to save. "Our fence is padded" from Bubba on Monsters of the Mid-day. They were talking about changing beliefs/support to suit the moment. I just loved that quote.
I should also mention about Johnny English. Josh read my entry and thought I didn't like the movie. I liked it, just not as much as other comedies. Thinking back on it, I think it was John Malkovich's acting. He tends to overact and he just sucked in this movie. Though I think it was intentionally ridiculous, it really ruined it. Josh and I decided that Gérard Depardieu would have been great. He doesn't have to fake a French accent. ;)
I just got my issue of Newsweek in the mail today. I really didn't want to see pictures of Saddam's sons' corpses. I wanted to show Brittany the four page spread on the upcoming Harry Potter movie, but I'll have to make sure she doesn't look at anything else. There is a large wide angled picture on the index page which makes it virtually impossible to miss seeing the two bodies. I turned on the tv a few days ago while eating breakfast and couldn't eat anymore. It's not even the fact that they are dead bodies, it's the fact that we are doing exactly what we complain about others doing.
I started going into a rant about Geneva Convention it's lack of applicability in this case, but the wrongness on both sides none the less, but it got really long and winded. Let's just say I don't like any of the pictures coming out of this stupid war.
In other news, Tonya said she heard a boil water alert for us, but I haven't heard anything yet and can't find any stories online. More than likely it would show up in a few hours.
Oh and where in the heck is this thundering coming from? There are no clouds and nothing is showing up on radar. Did something just form overtop of us? It was just plain weird.
Update: Holy crap, I was kidding but apparently that is what happened. A huge nasty little bugger just formed over us and uh, it's not safe to be outside right now. There is some nasty purple on the radar over us right now. I don't mind lightning, but uhh, this is just way too close. Holy shit.. I think someone down the street got hit. bye
Josh and I were out and we decided to pop into Staples to get me a new set of speakers. My current ones bit the dust completely and now are just holding up stuff. So we went in and got about halfway through the front area and realized the large groups of people standing in the aisle were in line to check out. Needless to say we said "No thank you" and went home. Maybe we'll go tonight, I don't know. Oh and I'd like to add, why can't we find a damn fourth grade school supply list anywhere? I figured I'd see if there was a more specific list available for Brittany. Josh and I looked and we found K, 1, 2, 3, and 5. No general grade 4 list at any store we have looked at. What is up with that? She's supposed to get a more comprehensive list at a school meeting/picnic thingie this weekend. Let's hope they actually have it there. /sarcasm
Ok, look at this picture and tell me there isn't something wrong with the positioning of the movie title. The 'G' makes Jennifer's behind look HUGE while the little flat 'i' makes Ben's behind look tiny. It's not very proportional. I just found it amusing to see that.
Skittles is being a pain in the rear today, but she's being really cute while she's doing it. It makes it so hard to correct her. I'm a wimp, I know it.
What is with all of the wrong numbers on our cell phones? Even my poor parents are getting wrong numbers. I guess it's not as bad as getting calls at 3am from someone speaking French. He didn't grasp that he was constantly calling the wrong number. After the third morning he called my responses were variations of "Wrong number Celine!" and then I would hang up.
Josh and I went to see Johnny English today . I wasn't necessarily thrilled by it. Josh liked it, and I thought it was ok. Rowan Atkinson is a great comedian and actor and I really liked Ben Miller (Rowan's character's assistant). I laughed, but I've laughed more. I don't know, maybe it was just a bad movie day for me.
In other movie news, I'm curious to see Heath Ledger's 'The Order.' If John Travolta wasn't in The Punisher, I'd probably be more excited to see it. The soundtrack will be nice though! Also, I may see Whale Rider soon too, hopefully before it leaves the theater.
Goodnight Bob.
Last night Josh and I decided to go out. We went to a Chinese restaurant/buffet place. The food was ok. It was kind of bland and there wasn't much in the way of variety for me (a vegetarian). Nothing was really clearly labeled and it wasn't until after dessert that I discovered they actually had rice! I was kind of worried for a while.
The movie was League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. We saw it at a great new theater that not too many people know about. The prices are dirt cheap. It was $7 for an adult, $4 for matinees, and $3.75 for the first showings at 10am and 10:30am. How cool is that? Reclining seats set up stadium style.
As you can tell I was more impressed by the theater than by the movie. The special effects were great, the acting was pretty good, but the fast moving cinematography almost got Josh sick and just about made me cross-eyed. I don't think it was any of the casts best work, but you win some, you lose some.
Josh and I went to eat at a Tex-Mex restaurant today for a late lunch. Neither of us were impressed, though the salsa and chips were fresh (though not very flavorful). I did however discover the key unknown ingredient in Salona's mac and cheese. Once I finally get the recipe down, I'll post it. Boy do I miss that place. /sigh
I am glad folks survived the Blogathon. Every year I think about doing it, but most of Skittles' readers are young and wouldn't really be able to donate and I don't think I have enough readership here to do it. I will think about it for next year.
I only have the trim over the garage door windows to do. Other than that the front and sides of the house are completely painted. It took forever considering with the weather here we have until noon to get anything done, but it's done and that is what mattered. I have dressing to do after the garage. You know, with plants at the entry and to finished the stained glass look in the window over the front door. Pictures of all of it to come later.
I'm very bleeping tired. I've got paint on me and I don't care. I have a little bit more to paint and then it's fun stuff. We got held up doing the garage and then some weird ass storm was coming in but kind of stalled some and then started moving towards us, so I could have finished today if I wasn't so cautious! That whole dying thing would put one heck of a downer on things.
I bought some fake stained glass paint today, for the window over the front door. If I had it in me, I'd do real stained glass. For some reason I'm just not motivated to commit to something up there.
Whooot! Apparently we are supposed to get awared $$ from a settlement with the cable company. Guess how much $$$??? Go on, guess. $10!!! Can you believe it? We're going to be rich! I'm yawning as I type this.
The girls are spending the night. AJ had a lump on under his ear and has been kind of blah the last few days. The lump wasn't there this afternoon, but his parents noticed it this evening and took him to get it checked out. It's an infection and he'll be fine if he takes his medicine. If he doesn't and it gets worse, well, he won't be happy!
I didn't quite finish painting, but it wasn't my fault. Josh didn't feel like pressure washing the last wall today. He's going to do it tomorrow morning he said. I picked up the trim color and started painting the trim. Only problem was, it's quite a bit lighter than what the original color was. It still looks nice. The front porch now kind of resembles the Greek flag. Horizontal trim bands. Well, at least everyone likes the color. It seems brighter, even the neighbors noticed.
Bedtime for me. More painting to do tomorrow!
I'm giving myself three more days to finish this painting stuff. I'm tired of painting, yet I'm not. I enjoy it but I feel gross and tired when I'm done. /sigh
I've been working on an image gallery for SkittlesCam. I'm pretty much done except for a few things here and there, mainly the stylesheet.
Well, I have to climb onto the room tomorrow to paint some walls of the high walls, so I'm going to bed.
I am typing this while sitting here splattered with paint. I hate painting over my head, it sucks. Five walls have been painted and a large portion of the front porch are done. I only spilled paint in the grass once. Considering what time I started I think that is a miracle.
My carpal tunnel is kicking my butt right now. My fingers have been tingling for almost an hour now. I'm waiting for Josh to get out of the shower so I can stand with a scrub brush and get this stuff of my arms. Wait, wait, wait. /sigh
I would have finished the front porch if it wasn't supposed to rain today. Just the possibility makes it hard. Tomorrow I need to get up at 7:30am to get started on the wall over the garage. The guy that owned this house before did a really crappy job in general. He had just finished a messy divorce so I guess he didn't care. /sigh
Many, many moons ago I stumbled across something on the net. There was (is) a site that was battling a large computer corporation because of copyright/trademark infringement. They were saying said company stole their name and sent a C&D. Well, from what I understand they won their case and all that. Good for them.
However, I do find it interesting that when I sent them an email and posted a question on the site regarding the fact that one of their "support us" images was actually a trademark image taken from another site (which I knew they had no permission to use), I was first ignored and then my post was deleted all together. I was actually quite nice in my letter since I supported their cause. After their actions, I believe them to be no better than those they were fighting against.
Maybe this is why I've been so hesitant about joining any groups, cliques, or web rings. I mean I was a reader at Metafilter for almost two years before I finally signed up. I like to know what people are really like before I sign my name to anything, so to speak.
Well I have an early day of painting tomorrow, so I shall go. Maybe not to sleep but more to rest.
Yes, more testing.
Weirdo kitty is in weirdo mode.
I am trying to get this working so that I can update all of the different sites running movabletype. I have thought about using MT to organize a lot more data on SkittlesCam.com.
I caved in. I'm giving Zempt a try. This will be my first post using it.
I did some shopping today. A friend of the family is closing one of her clothing shops (she's opening up closer to her home) and so I bought myself some shirts and a few other things. I'll miss her and her fun cool clothes (my supplier of cool skirts for $5!), but I'll go visit her at her other store off and on.
Skittles has discovered she can fit in the two inch gaps of our bedside tables. I have been hearing these clicking noises in the middle of the night and couldn't figure out where she was making the noise from. Today I heard it and found her inside. She's so weird.
First off, Happy Birthday Matthew! You are a big boy now, so help mommy paint!
Weird dreams last night. Really weird.
First dream there was someone following me around, but in flashy cars.
Second dream, I found a baby under a car in my grandparent's driveway. We eventually discoverd who it belonged to (they were dead) and their family wanted it back. We adopted it because they were a bad, bad family.
Third dream, there was a hurricane being really weird and turning due west right towards us.
Then I woke up.
In the first dream I feel like I knew the person in the car, but I'm not sure. The other dreams, I have NO CLUE what those were all about.
I am not sure if I will get to scrub the walls today. It's been overcast and threatening to rain all morning. /bah That sucks.
Ok folks. I can't help it, I really like Steve's stuff, so buy Songs for Dustmites! It releases in less than a month (August 12th). Hear songs and learn more here.
Did some shopping with my mother and can't recall getting anything for myself other than a pack of peanut butter m&m's. I did get two xmas presents!! Go me!
Wall scrubbing tomorrow and painting on Monday. This will be one of the more difficult walls to do, shrubs everywhere! Hello Mr. Pressurewasher!
Skittles is being extremely lazy today. Actually now that I think about it, everyone seems to be blah today, even the kids.
I finally got a problem sort of figured out. Cookies were misbehaving on a discussion board I manage and I managed to get it solved after an hour of getting irritated.
Well, I'm off to go shopping with my mother. At least someone wants to do something!
I'm tired. I started painting a little late today. I managed to finish before 11am though. Josh was finally awake enough to help while I began working on the last quarter of the wall, so he finished that up while I cut in along the ground. All in all, it looks good and went fast. It's the side that the trash bins go on, so it gets messy easily.
I also woke to a message asking if I could watch the munchkins. Things get seriously turned upside down for those kids some days. At least they are being kept busy at Cafe 9 ¾. I finished up the menus and printed them out. Brittany decorated them and they've been keeping busy for almost two hours now.
I am already hearing talk of expansion. How much more room can they need? There are only three of them! They are so cute it's killing me.
Oh, and note to myself... if you work there, you will get it if you keep taking breaks longer than 15 minutes! Brittany got after Melanie (Shalyn's character) for taking too long on her breaks. I haven't figured out what AJ's character's name is. We were calling him "Cooook" last night. He didn't mind.
A little review of Thursday's fun with the kids:
Cafe Nine & Three Quarters With a little creativity by 'The Kids', the living room has been transformed into 'Cafe Nine & Three Quarters'. A quaint little fine fake food dining retreat, off the beaten path of the front foyer.
It comes complete with white table linen, deep red table runner, ambient table lighting (a tiny lamp of mine), and the finest plastic dishes west of Italy. The view is astounding. To one side we see the oceanic fish observatory (giant aquarium) and to the other side we see the natural dense canopy forest (front yard).
The cafe features an open kitchen floorplan so you will always know you are getting the freshest plastic dinners and cardboard desserts available.
Today's specials included:
Invisible Chicken
Barely There Roast Beef
Scarce Swordfish Unfortunately for us, Chef AJ informed us that they had fast sold out of all of the day's specials. We did however enjoy a wonderful necklace spaghetti (the chef's specialty). And for dessert we finished off with delicious cardboard ice cream and cookies.
For the price (which is high), you'll definately get your wand's worth.
As you can probably imagine, I've had my fill of fake food today. I've already been recruited into making "proper" menus for the cafe. I have the layout and images done but now the youngins must give me their list of specialties. I'm still trying to convince Brittany that she should give away glasses of water for paying customers. She insists that it's $1.00 a glass. She's as bad as Disney!
I'm dirty and I'm tired. It's only 1:23pm. I've scrubbed the side of the house and installed an irrigation system on the other side of the house. Yeah, I'm dirty and I'm tired. Josh is pressure-washing the driveway and I wish I could just have him pressure wash all of the dirt off of me. If it wasn't for the fact that it would probably take my skin off too (that suckers mean), it would be a rational request.
The nosey neighbor Delores drove by with a big smile on her face watching me. She's really nosey. She uses binoculars to watch people and calls her lawyer before talking to her neighbor. She's from MA too, so uhh, there you go.
Tomorrow morning I plan on painting the side I just scrubbed. So long as it doesn't rain. After that I don't know. I may just scrub another outside wall and prepare that for paint. I haven't decided. One wall at a time is all I can do.
This machine isn't reloaded completely, so I have the option of finishing that. Gee, can you tell the migraines are pretty much gone? Yippee.
Well, time to feed Skittles the starving kitty.
Oh, we bought one of those Atari Classics 10-In-1 TV Games tonight. The Virgin Mega Store was next door to the theater so we ran in. It was the same price there as anywhere else (amazingly), so we picked it up. It was scary, even my mom became obsessed. "One more game... I'll stop after this next game." AJ and Shalyn couldn't figure it out though. They need more time. Note to self, buy the
Activision 10-in-1, and Namco 5-in-1 as well.
I should note that Josh and I have all of the classic games, but don't dare play them. Frogger, Pac-Man, Q-Bert... evil stuff man.
Josh and I went with :brittany:, my brother, and my sister-in-law to see Pirates of the Caribbean. It was pretty good. It had comedy, drama, cool special effects, eye candy, and SWORDFIGHTING!
I've reloaded my machine, but barely have stuff on here. I loaded my links and email, but am so tired I need to sleep.
Uh, last night I started feeling bad. My temp was really low, my legs were wobbly, and my brain, well it felt weird. So Josh got me some food and some tea. I ended up sprawled out on the floor, then felt like I was going to puke, then apparently I managed to become completely incoherent. I don't remember anything after the feeling the need to puke part. Woke up this morning to find Brittany on the couch opposite of me. I never even heard anyone come in the house! I woke up because my neck was hurting. Very weird night.
Oh, and if anyone has emailed and I haven't emailed you back, it's because I'm reloading my desktop, so my email isn't really accessible right now. I'll email you once I am back together again. So to speak.
So, I ate some lentil soup and think I may have almost died doing so. It was spicy!
Josh is going shooting tomorrow, so I'm not sure what I'll be doing. I may go to the movies with my brother and :brittany:.
Feeling weird and having a hard time typing without a lot of mistakes. I think I'll go get something to eat and sit still.
Ok, the past few weeks this place has turned into a health journal. Sorry about that. But, I have to note that apparently I haven't been getting enough B vitamins (boy are there a lot of them). So, I'm taking some and maybe those will help.
So about those House Cup Points I was talking about a while ago...
I need a reward for the winner. I don't know what to get. I had thought about getting something from either Alivan's, Whirlwoods, or The Wand Shop but I don't know. If Brittany turns up the winner, I'm sure she'll want something from any of them. But if Shalyn or AJ is the winner then it could be anything. Maybe I could extend the game and tell them that the winner gets a full Gryffindor ensemble (cloak, broom, wand, scarf). Considering that right now the coat rack by the front door makes it look like we have a family of Gryffindor's living here, I don't know if that reward would sell well. Maybe I'll let them have a mini shopping spree of sorts. Who knows. Any ideas?
Cleaned up my bookmarks and found these:
Make fireworks with a grape
Make Safety Signs
Lite Brite Online
Hoping I will feel well enough tonight to get a decent nights sleep. Felt too tired from migraine to go see Pirates this morning. Try for tomorrow/today.
Fickle stock day made good for miftik and Josh's profits. :grin:
Let's see if this works. Something is up with the connection and it's driving me nuts!! If it wasn't so late, we'd probably get to work, but we're tired.
The day was about 80% migraine free, so we should be heading into the end of this extended migraine attack. (Usually lasts a week but this time almost two)
Josh and I are going to go to see Pirates of the Caribbean on Wed. We're going to a 10am show, so there shouldn't be too many kids (I hope). I can't wait to see what they do with the whole moonlight ghost effects. Hee hee.
“There’s absolutely nothing sexually threatening about an elf...”
-O. Bloom
Dear gord, I'm saving that one forever! Found that in a Newsweek article. It was actually a kind of funny article!
My brother got his car. It's a 2004 Toyota Matrix. It's pretty darn cool. Even Mr. Picky (Josh) likes it. He had been reading up on them before.
Gotta go find some files on the server. Oi Vey!
I'm feeling better. I did get a minor migraine but it didn't last very long. I need to get a decent nights sleep. Stuff needs to be DONE tomorrow and that requires me sleeping tonight.
I'm thinking about cancelling my usenet account. While I REALLY like having it when I need it, I'm not sure how much I really need it. I just don't know! Arrh.
Ok, spammers take note.
First, my cat is a girl. Second, she doesn't smoke, and third, if she wanted some hot action, she'd sit in the sun and groom! Now if you want to give her a credit card and not hold either me or my husband liable for any purchases she makes on it, by all means, send it to her.
And for me. Don't send me spam saying I have reached my limit on my credit card because I don't have one. Don't aske me to refinance, because I don't need it. Thank you and have a nice day.
This post was brought to you in part by an avid mail washer and sister/researcher to a frustrated car buyer (my brother is going insane trying to figure out where/when to buy his new car). /sigh
I guess since I'm too old to have a proper real life hissy fit, I'll do the next best thing. I'll have it online!
/WAHHHH THIS SUCKS /WAHHHH I HATE PAIN!
Oh and I'm hungry.
Thank you and have a nice day.
I have a headache! Not a migraine, just a headache! Yeah.
Waiting for my mom to come with the munchkins. We're going shopping somewhere if she ever gets here. It's kind of a free day to do whatever. I'm not sure what is closed today. I imagine not all that much considering how much of a tourist town this is. That would really piss off the visitors if they couldn't go shopping etc. Back in New England I imagine everything is closed. That always annoyed me. They closed for everything up there.
Weird dream last night. I haven't had nightmares in a really long time, but my dreams are definately weird. Silly-weird I should say.
I hate mosquito bites. I have a fresh one on my arm that itches like mad. Not as bad as the chicken pox, but still not fun.
My nephew was getting restless and upset yesterday because he didn't get to go see daddy at work, but his sisters did. So what did he and I do? Watch The Fellowship of the Ring (one of his favorites) and then we made him his own little pillow! He got to push the peddle and hold on to one side of the fabric as it went through the machine. Then I let him stuff a little. I think he had fun. At least he's not drooling all over my little pillow I got from a former boss (editor). It's a good little pillow and it's been everywhere with me.
I need an eye patch. I tend to feel much better when my eye is covered. A couple more days and hopefully it will be over. Nothing guaranteed though. Ugh, this sucks.
I've started something with the kids. House Points in a modified form. So far it seems to be working pretty well. Things are being done on schedule and there is a lot less fighting and whining.
More stuff has happened/is going on, but I don't really feel like going into it now. /sigh
You know, migraines really effing suck. I was dealing with it most of the afternoon and into the evening. I've got little tingles here and there, but ugh this sucks.
Anyone planning on seeing Pirates of the Caribbean? Brittany got a poster when she went to the movies the other day. She's excited about it and I think I'll probably be taking her. I really hope she doesn't get scared. I talked to her about it and she was ok.
Frequently Visited:
Etc