The Year:  2006
December 27, 2006
Christmas has come and gone and we have survived!  Yay!  

Monday morning, Brandon was at his dad's house, so my pups woke me up at 6am.  After letting them out, I really tried to get back to sleep, but failed.  So around 8:30 I got up and made coffee.  Brandon got home around 10am, but we had to wait for my mom and brother to come over before opening any presents.  hehehe  They got there around 11.  Many gifts were exchanged, but by far the best part of Christmas morning was when Brandon opened the Playstation 3. 

Let's backtrack a little... by no means was I intending to get him a Playstation 3 for Christmas, but Saturday night, while out shopping with Flynn, we ended up at Super K.  He wandered over to the electronics section while I finished up some grocery shopping.  My cell rang... it was Flynn telling me that they had a PS3 in stock and asking if I wanted it.  My initial response was - hell no, I can't afford one of those.  And I hung up.  But then I considered it.  They're really difficult to find nowadays.  I really wouldn't mind having one.  Brandon would LOVE it.  And I happen to have a credit card with nothing on it and 0% interest.  So I scurried over to electronics and asked the cashier about it.  Apparently someone had already put dibs on the one in the display case, but as my luck would have it, they had a second one in the back.  YAY!  Afterwards, we went over to EB Games and bought two games for it and the extra controller.  A million dollars later, we were on our way home.  After sneaking it in the house that night and while wrapping it, I wondered what Brandon's reaction would be on Christmas morning.

I made sure it was the last gift I handed him (except for the controller and games of course).  It's SOOOO heavy.  I plopped it in his lap and he started to peel the paper off the side... the look on his face was priceless.  He tore more paper off the top and said "holy crap!"  HAHAHA... that is EXACTLY what I thought he'd say.  He's like - you seriously got me a PS3?!  hehe  He even opened the box to make sure that's what was really in there.  We took pictures.  I'll add them to the blog later when I get them off my camera.

So Christmas day was spent vegging on the couch watching movies and playing PS3 games.  It was a good day.  :)

Aside from the above, Brandon got, in no particular order:  new skater shoes, an axe lab gift set, new music CDs, a 7UP basket ball game (like at the arcade), many gift cards, cash, candy, a DC beanie, and heck, I know I'm forgetting lots of stuff.  LOL

I got an iDog which I named Spot, a Sponge Bob cocoa set with coffee mugs, a sponge bob beach towel, two oven gloves, cookies, a sponge bob felt poster marker set, a scale, a travel coffee mug, candy, sponge bob playing cards, a votive candle holder and candles, and I think I've lost my mind because I can't remember everything else right now. 

Mason and Caleb got a slew of new toys.  Mr. P and Whitey got plenty of cat nip.

I love Christmas and all, but I'm kinda glad it's over and can't wait to get the tree down.  I'm tired of sweeping up needles on a daily basis!  Bring on New Years. 

December 24, 2006
My birthday was awesome.  Myself and 13 of my wonderful friends and relatives joined me for dinner at Bob Chinn's in Wheeling.  For those unfamiliar with the restaurant, google it.  Awesome food!!!!  *yum*  Expensive too, but hell, I only do that once a year. LOL  I had macadamia crusted sea bass over mashed sweet potatoes.  mmmmmm  And their garlic rolls are something you just can't miss.  You walk out of there reeking of garlic.  At least there's no worry of vampire attacks.

My birthday presents included:  a glass humming bird figurine, a diamond/tanzanite ring on white gold, a puppy picture frame, a Get Fuzzy calendar for my desk, a Quireboys CD, Poison (perfume), Pop Rocks, a cool tshirt and top to wear over it, a pillow neck massager and my bday dinner.  I'm gonna feel terrible if I missed anything... let me think.  I think that's everything from the dinner party.  At work, my boss gave me another puppy picture frame, a silver jewelry keeper and damn if I can't remember the third thing.  argh. 

When you turn 24, obviously your mind is the first thing to go. 

So all in all, it was a great birthday.  Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes!  Bring on Christmas.  haha

Merry Christmas to all. 

December 19, 2006
Ten weeks ago today... Mason was born!  YAY!  :)  Happy birthday to Mason!  Here's some new pictures of her:








It is extremely difficult to get two dogs to pose together for a picture! 


Here's Caleb feeling festive.  :)

They still get along great, though I think Caleb is grumpier than usual.  Can't say that I blame him though.  Hopefully he'll adjust.  Eventually.  lol

December 18, 2006

Cell Phone Faeries Exist!!

So today, after my visit at the chiropractor, I went to Office Max to pick up some shipping tape and paper, stopped home to wrap some gift boxes and then trekked out to the Round Lake post office to ship my parcels because they are open until 6:30pm.  After the post office, I went to Super Kmart to pick up a few things and then went home.  Had a terrible headache, so I grabbed the ice pack for my back and went straight to lie down.  Didn't give any thought to the whereabouts of my cell phone... until I woke up. 

I remembered that I had called Flynn earlier so I started looking for my phone to see if he called back while I was asleep.  No phone.  Not in my bag, or purse, not on the table, not in my jacket or on the couch.  I started calling my phone with my son's phone.  No ring.  Checked outside the house, no ring.  Checked in the car, no ring.  *panic sets in*

So then I call Flynn from Brandon's phone to see what time I had called him.  5:22pm.  ARGH!  That's right about the time I was on my way to the post office.  And he didn't answer, so I put the phone in my lap as I was driving and forgot to pick it up when I got out of the car at the post office.  I had left the post office around 6pm.

So at 9pm tonight, I'm on Brandon's phone talking to Flynn, hightailing it back to Round Lake in search of my phone.  He figured, the best I could hope for was that someone picked it up and turned it in.  I remembered that I was in the second parking spot and the vehicle on my drivers' side was an emergency type vehicle as they were directing traffic in and out of the lot.  As luck would have it, that vehicle must have sat there until well after the post office closed because my phone was sitting on the ground, flipped open, face down, in tact.  Not a nick on it.  It was right under the center of where that car was parked.  *phew*

So either it was luck or maybe cell phone faeries exist.  Go figure, the first cell phone I actually pay for, and it wasn't cheap, and I lose the damn thing.  I think I'll call Sprint and get hooked up with that cell phone insurance.  lol

December 10, 2006
One of Caleb's favorite things to do is taunt Mason with different toys.  Today he was dangling a mangled un-stuffed stuffed toy in front of her face until she'd grab onto it, and then he would drag her across the room in a game of tug-of-war:



If Mason won, she'd run off with the toy and Caleb would chase her and tackle her down.  If Caleb won, Mason would jump at his neck and *try* to tackle him down.  It usually resulted in him rolling over so she could chomp on him:



See?  They can play nice too.  haha  But boy do they REALLY bark when they are playing with each other in the house.  I tell them to use their "library" barks, but they don't listen to me.

December 8, 2006
Mason has been home now *almost* one week.  She is 8 weeks and 3 days old.  And.  Get this.  She will already sit when told to.    I'm sure she picked up on that faster because of Caleb, but I am mighty impressed that this little puppy will sit when I tell her to.  She hasn't quite mastered the "potty belongs outside" thing yet, but it's not even been a week yet, so I think we have time.

Mason likes to bite.  She likes to play.  She likes to play and bite.  I think she's a set of teeth on four legs, rather than a puppy-dog.  Her and Caleb love to play fight... as you can see:



I know they look vicious there, LOL, but really they love each other.  Mason follows Caleb around the house and really likes to play with him.  He's a good uncle.  Though he tends to be cranky with her first thing in the morning.  He must get that from me.  haha

I would weigh her, but apparently my scale is broken and it wasn't just the battery.  She about as big as my cats, which are 16lbs each, but I don't think she weighs that much yet.  I might put her at 10 or 12lbs.  She has a great personality, lots of character.  :)  Here are some pictures we took this week:











Poor Caleb... look, he's starting to feel invisible:


Kidding!  hehe... Caleb gets just as much attention as he's always gotten.  I just thought that picture came out pretty cool.  It's kind of weird having two of the same kinds of dogs, same markings, etc., but different colors.  heh

On a totally non-pet related topic, we put our Christmas tree up yesterday.  Here's a picture with the flash on:


and without:


I think it came out okay.  Not our best tree ever, but it's purdy.  We just have to hang the stockings and we're all set for Christmas.  I think I'll have to hold out on putting out the wrapped presents because Mason is definitely in an "I want to chew everything in sight" phase.

Hope you all enjoy the pictures and Happy Holidays!  :)

December 4, 2006
We survived an entire day with Mason in the house.  YAY!  heh  Boy is she a chewer and a biter.  Gotta nip that in the bud right away.  Caleb was the same way though.  It's just a puppy thing.  :)  She's sleeping on my lap right now.  Caleb is asleep in the other room and the cats are still hiding under the dining room table.  They only come out to eat and use their litter box.  LOL

Here's some pictures from yesterday... Mason meets Whitey:



Whitey slowly walks away and hides under the table:


It went well.  Mason just wanted to sniff at Whitey.  No biting or chasing... yet.  haha

Here she is out in the snow last night.  Caleb was making sure Mason knows who's boss around here:



Then she found her bark, which is quite loud, and gave it right back to him.  She chased him around the yard.  It's so funny seeing this little pup chase a 60lb dog around.  hehe



Here she is today after her first bath.  Nobody else was home to take pix of her in the sink, so this is after I toweled her off and had time to grab my camera:





And lastly, here's Whitey and Mr. P hiding on the chairs under the table.  They're not as pissed as I thought they'd be, just mildly perturbed.  LOL  My cats are awesome.





Okay I guess I have stuff to get done today, like laundry and dishes and house cleaning, since I only have one more day off.  I have to get to the post office too.  And I think stop at PetSmart for some better smelling shampoo cuz this stuff I washed her with doesn't smell very nice.  *ack*

Hope you guys are enjoying the pictures.  :)

December 3, 2006

I got you at 81 in a 65 ma'am...

As if it wasn't hell enough trying to weasel our way across a 2" thick sheet of ice on the tri-state at 9am on Friday morning with cars, trucks, vans and semis in ditches and spinning out left and right in front of and behind us, further down south, in Mound City, IL, a fine Mound City police officer clocked me doing 81 in a 65mph zone.  Where's the dignity in that?  I mean, at least if I was going to get pulled over on the highway, it could've been a state trooper.  And since I wasn't willing to fork up the $75 for the ticket, I had my license confiscated until I pay the ticket.  *sigh*  And so began our trip...

It was fairly uneventful.  Caleb was VERY well behaved, for the most part anyway.  lol  We got to the Red Roof Inn in Jackson, MS at 11pm on Friday night.  Not too shabby.  Here's Caleb all tuckered out on the bed:



The first thing he did when we got into the hotel room was run up to the huge mirror and howl at that other dog that was in the room howling right back at him and following his every move.  It took a while to convince him that the "other" dog wasn't a threat.  So we settle down to sleep.  Then there's some people talking outside, so Caleb howls and barks at that.  FINALLY he calmed down and went to sleep.  He was a very good boy at the hotel and waited until 6am to wake me up to go out.  We hit the road again at 11am, heading to Mize, MS to pick up Mason.

Over many twisty, turny dirt roads, we arrived in Mize a little after 12:30pm.  We were immediately greeted by 3 cattle dogs, one of which hopped into the car and freaked Caleb out.  :)  It took him awhile to get used to all the clones running around, but he eventually calmed down. 

Here's our little Mason:


Here's Caleb meeting Mason:


He barked at her a little bit.  Growled and snapped some, but after 14 hours in a car and being home since 6am this morning, he's getting along with her a little better.

Mason all ready to head home:


She slept most of the way home all curled up in her blankie. 


Caleb stayed in the back since he tends to be very excitable in a car and likes to chomp at other vehicles passing by.  Caleb in prison:


Mason came home to a nice surprise... We went from 60 degrees and sunny beautiful weather in Mize, MS to 10 degrees, bitter cold and 10" of snow.  Poor puppy.  LOL  She doesn't seem to mind it much though.  I'll take some snow pictures later.  Right now they are napping, somewhat together.  Caleb won't admit yet that he just loves her to pieces, so he keeps a little distance:



14 hours there and 16 hours back.  OY.  But so worth it.  We had a lot of fun walking the dogs at the rest stops and watching Mason make Caleb jump into the air when she'd sneak up behind him.  HEHE  And so our happy puppy family has now increased to 2.  Many, many more pictures to come:  playing in the snow and the irritated cats (who have been hiding since Mason walked in the door).  Hope you enjoy them!
 

November 27, 2006
Mason will be 7 weeks old as of tomorrow.  I got her picture a day early.  This is the last one we'll get before picking her up this Saturday.

She is SO cute.  I love her white snout.  hehe



Only 5 more days.  I'm starting to worry about bringing Caleb with us to pick her up.  I'm hoping he won't be too much of a psycho-dog.  He's a bit exciteable at times.  But I'd also hate to leave him at home.  I think he's looking forward to the car ride. 

November 14, 2006

In five more days... we'll be on the road to Mississippi to pick up Mason.  I didn't get a new picture last week (6 wks old).  I'm guessing probably because of the holiday and all.  Hopefully I'll get one more on this Tuesday.  If I do, I'll be sure to post it.

 

FIVE MORE DAYS!!!!!!!


Hope everyone had a great Turkey Day and lots of visiting with friends and relatives.  I am NOW ready to start decorating for Christmas.  My shopping is 99% done (I am thankful for the internet and the ability to purchase goods through it. haha).  I have a zillion cookies to make, pack and mail.  A tree to buy.  Presents to wrap.  A puppy to train.  (and a partridge in a pear tree).

And CJ... if by some chance you might be reading this (hey, you never know), I'll ship your xmas exchange gift after payday, which translates to December 4th.  I think being that I'm in Illinois and you're in what, West Virginia, it'll still be there in plenty of time for Christmas. 

November 14, 2006
Alas, it is Tuesday.  Puppy Picture Day!  Mason is 5 weeks old today, which means we get to pick her up in 3 more weeks!  *woot*

I'm told she is very healthy, friendly, playful and curious.  All the things a puppy should be!  She's changed SO much from last week... actually looking more like a puppydog than a roly-poly dog.  ;)  (or little piggy in the case of some people's opinions...)



She had been out playing in the rain, thus she's a bit wet in this picture, but still cute as ever.  :)

And that concludes your weekly puppy update.

November 7, 2006
Mason is 4 weeks old today (which also happens to be my dad's 64th birthday).  Here's a new picture of her (sorry, no new pics of dad, he lives too far away):



She just gets cuter every week.  Now we only have four more weeks until we can pick her up!  I think I'm heading down there the first weekend in December.  So cute. 

Here, let's post a few pictures of Uncle Caleb so he doesn't get jealous...

Action Caleb:


Tired Caleb:


That's it for this week's puppy blog.  :)

October  31, 2006
I dressed as a vampire for work today.  Took the train in.  1 1/2 hour ride.  Wearing makeup and fangs.  And hardly anyone noticed.  I tell ya, it's a rare breed that works in the city.  LOL  They're tough!  :)

Besides being Halloween, today, Mason turned 3 weeks old!  And she's cuter than ever if I don't say so myself.



I'm working on a show review from last Friday's L.A. Guns' show and I've narrowed the pictures down a bit.  Just need to re-size them and get them posted.  Hopefully by this weekend.  I've just been REALLY tired this week.  *thud*

In other good news... I now have tickets to see Monster Jam in February 2007.  Boy it seems like those tickets go on sale super early, but what're you gonna do?  I can't wait, I love monster trucks.

Okay that's it.  8pm, trick or treating should be nearly over.  I've barely had any kids come to the door.  HMPH.  Now I have a bunch of leftover candy that I'll have to eat myself.  ;)  hehe 

I think it's past my bedtime...   ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
 

October  29, 2006
Here's Mason at two weeks old.  She's a little fatter and has more of her color coming in... this coming Tuesday, Halloween, at three weeks, she should definitely have a lot more color.



Haven't started an official "countdown" until we pick her up yet because I'm not exactly sure when we'll be picking her up.  End of November / Early December I suppose.  :)

October  21, 2006
So I have this fantastic recipe for turkey chili that I kind of threw together out of many recipes I found on the internet.  It's awesome, if I don't say so myself.  So I was making a pot of turkey chili this morning and thought to myself, "Self, you're such a sharing person." (and then myself laughed at me) "Why don't you post a blog and share your Turkey Chili recipe?" and myself thought "That's a great idea!"  See what happens when I spend too much time with me, myself and I?  The three of us come up with some great ideas.  So, having said that, here's my recipe for the most awesome turkey chili ever:

1 large sweet onion - chopped (I usually end up using 2 though)
4 cloves minced garlic (or 2 tsp. of that pre-minced garlic)
1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
2 lbs. ground turkey (I use the 93% lean)
1 red bell pepper - chopped
1 yellow bell pepper - chopped
1 green bell pepper - chopped
1 15oz can black beans
1 15oz can dark red kidney beans
1 15oz can light red kidney beans
(or use any mix of dark, light, black beans you wish, as long as it's 3 cans)
1 28oz can tomato sauce (that's the big arse can)
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes (that's the big arse can too)
2 tbsp. chili powder (or more to suit your taste)
1 tbsp. crushed basil (same as above)
2 tbsp. ground black pepper (same as above)
brown sugar to taste (I prefer sweeter chili)

Directions
Start with a fairly large pot, this makes a LOT of chili.  Caramelize chopped onions in olive oil with the garlic.  Add the turkey.  Brown.

Just before the meat is all browned, add the chopped peppers. Continue browning meat until no pink is seen.  Add the beans with the juices, crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce.  Stir together and bring to a near boil.  Add in chili powder, crushed basil and pepper.  Reduce heat to simmer.  Add brown sugar to taste.

At this point, I usually transfer the entire thing into my crockpot.  I start in a pot on the stove because it's faster for caramelizing the onions and browning the meat.  Cover the crockpot and let cook for four to five hours.  No less.  More is okay.  The longer you cook chili, the better it tastes!

Serve topped with shredded cheese, chopped green onion and sour cream.

TA-DA!  Here's what it looks like:

This picture was taken right after I transferred it to the crockpot.  After it cooks for a while, it gets darker and thicker.  Maybe I'll take another picture later this afternoon.  LOL

And, here's the other "Stuff" I mentioned in the subject line... my two pretties doing what they do best, SLEEPING.


Ooops, I woke them up.  Darn.  haha


That's all for today.  I'm going to cook my chili, clean up the house a bit, maybe read some, and hopefully make some major progress working on my kitchen floor today.  YAY!

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

October 17, 2006
Mason is one week old today.  She's growing one of those cute "puppy bellies".



awwww...

October 11, 2006
Here are the three puppies I got to choose from when picking out Mason:







While I really like the full double mask on the first one, I was afraid that because it was so full, she wouldn't have much of a "bentley mark" on her forehead when she got bigger.  The second puppy has more white between her mask, therefore, better chance of a nice bentley mark.  She looks a LOT like Caleb did at 1 week of age and she's only 1 day old!  The third one didn't stand a chance with me since she barely has a mask at all, but she's still cute and I'm sure someone will snatch her up quickly.

Here's Caleb at 1 week:



See the snout resemblance?  LOL

So anyways, we picked the second puppy.  Note her unique lil red coloring going down her shoulder.  :)  So cute.  8 weeks until we get to go pick her up!

October 10, 2006

Uncle Caleb (or, Our New Puppy is Born!)

I got the email today from our breeder that Katrina had her puppies last night.  4 girls.  3 reds and 1 blue.  I don't have pictures yet, but should by tomorrow.  That's when I get to pick out our new puppy!  Looks like we're getting a girl after all.  It's all very exciting.  I can't wait to see what they look like.

Then, the countdown begins over the next 7-8 weeks until I get to go pick her up.  It'll be a long drive down to Mize, MS and back, but totally worth it.  Plenty of time to bond with the new puppy.  Much better than having her tossed into a crate, on a plane, and shipped up to O'Hare where I'd pick her up all jostled, scared and helpless.  Besides, I love road trips and it'll be one helluva car ride for her Uncle Caleb.

I say uncle because the new puppy's daddy's parents are the same parents as Caleb's, a few litters removed.  So that makes them brothers.  :)  I do believe we are naming her Mason.  And no, Mason is not a serial killer name.  psh.

Okay so that's it, until I get pix.  Happy day!

October 2, 2006
My dog just scared the bejeezus out of me.  It pouring rain, it's lightning and thundering like there's no tomorrow, there's a tornado siren going off in our neighborhood and they were announcing something over a loud speaker.  So I've got my screen door open, on the phone with my bestest friend, trying to listen to what is being said over the loud speaker when Caleb decides to run out the door, toward the street, howling at the weather.  So I'm trying to get him to come to me and every time I get near him, he walks away.  At least he wasn't running frantically.  I was panicked enough as it was.  I managed to get him back up to the front door and grabbed his collar, but because he was freaked out, he growled and bared his teeth until I got him back into the house.  OY.  So that was my excitement for the evening.

Other than that, my night has consisted of getting home at 5:30, hurrying to change into workout clothes, scarfed down some food (a nice healthy taffy apple.  It's fruit you know), and then high tailed it to the Lindenhurst Park District for my 6pm Jazzercise class.  Afterwards, I had fun going to Walmart and picking up some cat litter and other misc. stuff.  By the time I got home it was really stormy outside and still is.  I was too lazy to make dinner, so I had a tasty blueberry bagel (I know, I'm just a healthfood nut).

OH SHIT.  It just occurred to me that due to the storm, my satellite is out and therefore it will not DVR my Monday night shows!  WTF.  I'm going to miss Two and a Half Men and The New Adventures of the Old Christine.  ARGH.

The National Weather Service just interrupted the radio to tell us that the severe thunderstorms are quite south of us, producing nickel-sized hail and winds strong enough to knock down power lines and blow trucks off highways.  Literally, they said that.  They said "seek shelter now and stay away from windows".   I dunno, sounds like those severe thunderstorms are right outside my friggin' window.  Silly National Weather Service.

Okay so this is exciting... only 6 more days until our new puppy is born!  Okay well it's actually closer to 5 days now.  We're working on picking out names.  I've got bunches of friends helping on the LAG board, but if you have any suggestions, feel free to post them in this blog or message me!  I do believe we'll be getting another male.  So gear it toward boy names.  heh

Huh, not really much else to talk about.  The flooring project in my house is coming along.  Hopefully the kitchen/laundry/half bath will be done by the end of next weekend.  There's a slight possibility I'm holding my hopes too high on that one, but let's not trash my hopes before their time.  Then I have the joy of ripping up carpeting and padding to see what new discoveries we can find underneath it before having a chance to put down the new laminate wood floor. 

I am exhausted, but I hate to go to sleep during a storm like this.  It's freaking me out.  It's freaking the dog out... though maybe not so much since he just went outside and wanted to play frisbee.  The cats seem pretty calm.  Not much phases them.  Maybe I'll go to sleep with the radio on just in case our trusty National Weather Service has any more inclement weather to report.  I also should probably post this before the power goes out.  Because it would suck beyond sucking if the power went out and I lost this entire blog.  Oh wait, I'm on a laptop and it's battery operated.  HEHE

Having said that, I'm off.

September 17, 2006
It's felt like a rather long weekend.  But I guess that's not a bad thing.  :)  So I thought I'd post a blog before our sunday night shows come on.  I took a few pictures to go along with it.

Thursday we picked up some laminate wood flooring for the living room and hallway because our dear Caleb decided the carpet was tasty and did this:



Friday night I went and looked at some ceramic tile flooring to replace the kitchen floor, which currently has laminate wood flooring that is buckling up from soaking up all the water from the fridge leak, also indirectly caused by our dear Caleb.  No pictures of that.  It doesn't really LOOK that terrible, but you can feel it when you walk across the floor and the back door now scrapes the floor when it's opened.

Saturday we went back and actually bought the tile and other supplies for the kitchen floor.  So now I have piles of flooring around my house waiting to be installed.  Next job, tear up carpet and kitchen floor.  Big fun.

See?  Even the animals look forward to tearing up the floor (well, technically, Caleb has already started).


Whitey's resting up so that he has plenty of energy to help with the floor.


Mr. P is giving Whitey a dirty look for hogging the small couch all to himself.


He doesn't look the least bit sorry about ruining the floors, does he?  ;)

Today I did some yard work.  Trimmed trees and mowed the lawn.  My yard is somewhat presentable again.  And now it's raining.  At least I got done before it started to rain.

Not much else exciting going on.  Back to work tomorrow.  OH JOY.  Hope everyone enjoyed the weather this weekend.  :)

September 12, 2006

We're Expecting!!

A new addition to our family.  Estimated due date is October 8th.  :)

Here's the momma, Katrina:



Katrina is what we hope our puppy will look like.  We're hoping for a female red with a double mask.

Here's her pappa, Rowdy:



Rowdy's parents are the same as Caleb's, only obviously he's several years older than Caleb.

We haven't come up with a name yet, so if you have ideas, SHARE!  With a due date in early October, that means I'm driving down to Mize, MS in early December to pick her up.  YAY!

September 10, 2006
So Brandon had his first Homecoming dance last night.  I took him to the parade in the morning (too early for me on a Saturday).  And though it threatened to rain, he went to the football game afterwards (and they lost miserably unfortunately, but hey, it didn't rain!).  And then I toted the kids around and headed to the dance.  Picked them up afterwards and went to IHOP (cinnamon swirl french toast is AWESOME).  And then we watched Hoodwinked, again. 

Here are some pictures I took before the dance.  Brandon started out wearing a tie, but since it terribly didn't match Ashley's dress, I let him take it off (he didn't want to wear it anyways) and what is with leaving shirts un-tucked nowadays?  heh

September 6, 2006

What a day...

I've been sick with a stupid cold (or maybe a smart one...) for just over a week now and I'm damn tired of it.  My head hurts.  My nose hurts.  I'm congested.  I'm irritable.  I'm just not a happy camper.

So I decided to stay home from work today and spend the day in bed to get better.  But no, apparently that wasn't in the cards because this morning when I woke up, I discovered that the water line to the fridge sprung a leak.  My kitchen floor feels quite damp.  I managed to temporarily fix it with some tape, but that won't hold forever.  *sigh*

Hopefully help is on the way this afternoon.  *fingers crossed*  I don't think it'll be difficult to repair.  It's just the slight matter of me not wanting to go into the crawlspace with the enormous spiders (larger than a quarter even) to find the shut-off valve to the fridge water line.  Okay well I suppose even if I did brave the spiders and manage to locate the valve, I still don't really have the skills to replace the water line.  I'm useless I tell you.

I just want to crawl back into bed and pretend this day never started.  Let's try again tomorrow.

On a happier note, my dog has his very own Myspace.  http://www.myspace.com/wootchie   He's super cute.  You know you want to add him as a friend.  Besides, dogs are peoples' best friend you know.

August 20, 2006
I'm Wearing Monkeys to Bed

Seriously. I have monkeys on my jammie pants and I fully intend on wearing them to bed.

OMG, could this have been a longer, more boring ass day if it tried? Even the dog was bored today. You should see him, he's been doing his best impersonation of a bear rug nearly all day. Hell, even the cats... okay well, you can't judge the cats, they always look bored or asleep.

My big excitement for today has been reformatting my MP3 player. I had this wise idea not long ago to convert all my MP3's into WMA's, so I could fit more songs on my player. Well that backfired on me as the songs lost most of their ID3 tags and got all mixed up. So I deleted all 937 of my songs and I'm starting from scratch. Which isn't exactly fun. (Hold on, must put in a new CD to rip. I'm only on the letter L in my CD collection, this is absurd). So, consider it a lesson learned.

And, I suppose at least I got my laundry done and put away. This is a good thing. Now I won't have to go to work naked tomorrow. I don't think many people would appreciate that. I'm almost thinking that public nudity must be illegal.

Let's hope for a little more out of tomorrow. So far the only bad thing tomorrow has going for it is the fact that it's Monday and that means back to work. Other than that, I predict it's going to be a good day. That's right, me, with a positive attitude. See? Things are looking up already. *heh* 

August 10, 2006

New Orleans in Review

2006 L.A. Guns' Message Forum Meeting - New Orleans, LA

We've been planning this trip for well over a year now and I'm so glad that  we went. :) Our group consisted of me, Flynn, Brandon, Teresa, Al and Jacob  (Illinois), Freerk (Amsterdam), Angela and Rob (Virginia), Sheila (Idaho -  originally Kentucky), Jeffers (also Virginia, I think),  Tina (California), Kip (Massachussetts), Amber and Alex (Mississippi).

While the drive home wasn't exactly all that and a bag of chips (19 hours), the ride there was fairly  quick (14.5 hours). We left home at 10:50pm on Wednesday, August 2nd and rolled into the French Quarter around 2:30pm on Thursday, August 3rd. Here's a picture  of Teresa, Al and Jacob trying to keep up with us. ;)

And here's our hotel, the Prince Conti:

Our room was on the third floor and didn't have much of a view. The elevator was rather slow, but at least we HAD an elevator! Thursday night we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner with Sheila, Angela and Rob. (When I reference "we" I mean myself, Flynn, Brandon, Teresa, Al and Jacob). It was definitely a rockin' place. The music was just a bit too loud to even hear yourself think  much less have a decent conversation with the people at your table. I was too tired to think about bringing my camera to dinner, so no pictures.

Friday morning we all met up for the Cemetery Tour. Our guide gave us a little history on the walk to the cemetery about mistresses, brothels, the birth of jazz music and such. He was actually a very good guide. Here's some pictures:


Flanagan's Pub is where the tour departs from.


Inside the pub wasting a bit of time before the tour started.


Outside view of the cemetery.  This was at about 11:00am and already close to 90 degrees outside. Within the cemetery walls, it's anywhere from 10-15 degrees hotter! And it was. *phew*


A natural "oven" built within the cemetery wall. Some can be purchased by individuals or families, but most are swept out every year and re-used.


The Tomb of Marie Laveau - the Voodoo Queen. they say she's not actually at this cemetery anymore. Her body was moved early on for fear that her followers would try to eat parts of her to gain her voodoo powers.


  As seen in the movie Easy Rider.


  Our tour guide, telling us about an individual (Bernard Xavier de Marigny) who gambled away all of his wealth left to him by his father, including his    plantation piece by piece, until he was so poor he couldn't even afford a    proper burial at the cemetery. So his "friends" who mostly won all his money bought him this plot.

After the cemetery tour, we walked the streets of the French Quarter and visited shops. The woman behind the counter didn't appreciate us playing with the alligator.


Jackson Square

On Saturday, after breakfast at Cafe DuMonde (YUMMM!) we walked over to board the Steamboat Natchez for our 2 hour tour up & down the Mississippi River.  It was threatening to rain most of the day and actually did later in the afternoon.


Leaving NOLA behind...


Freerk and Flynn


Look out below!  Brandon's had just a bit much of his Kiddie Strawberry Daquiri.


Steam from a steamboat... go figure. :) One long whistle, followed by 3 short whistles, repeated once, means we're returning. IT'S LOUD.

After the steamboat tour, we walked over to the Aquarium, had lunch and took  lots of pictures.


Outside the aquarium.


  Our first encounter with a ray... stingray I'm guessing? There wasn't a sign.


  A penguin picture for Stephanie!


Brandon and Jacob in, um, yeah I don't know what that stuff is supposed to be. Some sort of replica of sea plants I suppose.


When petting a shark, REMEMBER: One finger feels like a POKE. Three fingers feels like a GRAB. Two fingers is just right. Seriously, that's what they tell you.


A most awesome jellyfish picture.


JAWS!!!

That evening (Saturday) we went on a Ghost and Vampire Tour. This is wherewe met up:

I was a little disappointed in the tour as we hardly heard about vampires  and the only ghost I saw was Teresa walking through my picture:


(Can you see her?  Look from the bottom center, to the right) ooooo scary.    :)~

Jackson Square at night, while closed off to the general public, hosts a clowder  of cats.

There were SOOOO many of them! All different colors, shapes, etc. It was eerie because they weren't there during the day!


Picture of upper balcony taken for Freerk.

And of course, no trip to the French Quarter is complete without a visit to  Bourbon Street. I have never smelled such a barfy-smelling street in all my  life. OMG... you seriously had to plug your nose at times. YUCK. But, we had fun regardless. Just have to watch where you walk.


Me and Sheila in our new boas and my spiffy new hat. (photo courtesy of Sheila's camera)

I snagged the Bourbon Street photos from Sheila.  ;)


Freerk, Me and Sheila.


Jeffers, Flynn, Me, Freerk, Sheila and Teresa in the hotel lobby.

I thought I had a picture from the Huge Ass Beer Company, but I can't find  it. They had huge ass cheap beers. LOL Everything else was incredibly expensive  all over the place.

Sunday we had brunch at the Court of Two Sisters. Teresa has the group picture.  I'll add it when I get it from her. Brunch was yummy, but overpriced. WAY overpriced.  Afterwards we got turned around trying to get on the bridge across the river to get to the airboat departure location for our swamp tour. But we did arrive, and only a few minutes late, and it was AWESOME!!!!


Brandon took the picture, so he's not in it. L to R, F to B (Jacob, Sheila, Al.  Teresa, Freerk, Me, Flynn. Two people from California. Our Captain.)


I'm certain that if Sheila had seen this shack, she probably would have moved in. She was REALLY loving the swamp. :)


Another captain's dog who tried to pick fights with all the alligators. Early on in the tour, a smaller gator actually jumped partially onto the boat and the dog snapped at him several times. Our captain pushed the gator back in and shoved the dog away. GOOD GRIEF!! We were told that for every alligator we saw, there were about 100 below that we didn't see. We saw about 10 or 12 gators in the 2 hours we were out.


They feed the alligators marshmallows because a) it's white and the gator can see it and b) it floats. See the marshmallow in his mouth? heh *CHOMP*

We took turns holding a baby alligator. This one is probably about 2 years  old, I think we were told.
 

After our swamp boat adventure - myself, Flynn, Brandon and Freerk decided to head to the Gulf of Mexico in search of a beach. We were directed to the nearest place with white beaches... Biloxi, MS. It took a while to find a beach  that was somewhat open and populated due to all of the hurricane debris still  around. The ride there was a reality check on what Katrina really did to these cities and outlying towns. :( Below is a picture of Biloxi from in the watersof the Gulf.


Brandon and Freerk.  As you walked out, the water would get shallow, then deep, then shallow.  You could go way out to the pole on the right and the wateris only up to your chest.  Yep, we went out there.  :) The water was SO warm too. Very nice and relaxing way to end our day and our trip. Here are some more pictures:


Compared to some of the other buildings we saw on our way here, these two had not so much damage. We passed a hotel where nearly the entire front half of it was blown off it's supports. Entire neighborhoods were dark and deserted.


The sunset was beautiful and definitely picture-worthy.

We stopped at a Shoney's for an all you can eat meal on the way back to NOLA.  Finally, some reasonably priced food! haha Got back to the Prince Conti around  11:30pm, dropped Freerk off and then headed home. Teresa, Al and Jacob were  already on the road, an hour ahead of us. Funny thing is, they managed to stay  just an hour ahead of us the entire time, even though we stopped several times  to nap on the way home. It took forever! And that IL State Trooper didn't help  any either. Stupid speedtraps.

The trip was a blast and it was so much fun to meet new people and hang out  with old friends. I can't wait until our next get-together.

July 27, 2006

The Infamous Pet Blog

Or okay, not so much infamous, but here are some new pictures of my beautiful and most awesome pets:


Here's Whitey doing what Whitey does best, which is absolutely nothing.  LOL


And another of Whitey simply sitting around.  Really, aside of lying around and eating, this is all my cats do.


Mr. P perched on top of the TV.


A closeup of Mr. P on top of the TV.  LOL


My pooch, waiting for me to throw his toy down the hallway so he can chase it like a mad-dog.


Another of Caleb waiting for me to throw a toy for him.  He has no patience for still pictures.

Okay so there's the new pet pix as promised.  :)  If I hadn't already put my camera away, I'd go take some new ones of Brandon too.  *grin*

July 26, 2006

One Week From Today...

We will be packing the Vue and heading off to New Orleans to meet up with friends and have a great time. :) I'm very much looking forward to the Ghost & Vampire Tour. And the aquarium. And the boat tour too. The 15 hour drive down there, not so much looking forward to that.

I gave the pooch a bath and wanted to take some pix of him, but turns out the battery in my Nikon is DEAD. Phooey. So no pix today. But probably tomorrow. However, no bath pix.

We're off to get some ice cream to make smoothies. YUM. Smoothies. :)

BTW... Tom Petty's new album, Highway Companion, is awesome! 

July 14, 2006

New Orleans (8/3 - 8/6)

Only 20 more days until we make the 15 hour trek down to New Orleans for the L.A. Guns' Message Forum get-together. I think we've got around 17 people coming. Promises to be a good friggin' time. :) For those who have that *huh* look on their faces right now, a bunch of us from the L.A. Guns board, from all over the world, pick a place to get together and just hang out. It doesn't involve the band, only people who happen to be fans of the band and have become friends because of that connection. The first get-together was in Canada. Good times. hehe And now New Orleans. I've never been there, so I'm really looking forward to it and to seeing friends again whom I haven't seen in some time. And even meeting new people!

I can't believe it's only 20 more days!! I need to start planning. Ghost/Vampire tour. Boat tour. Cemetery tour. Market place. Restaurants. Shopping. At least I've already taken care of the hotel and printed out all the maps, etc. So I'm a step in the right direction.

It would have been cool if even more people were able to make it, but I'm sure the rest of us will have a great time for everyone. I'm bringing the camera, so there'll be a full report with pictures to come after we get back!

Specials thanks to my brother, the Dog-Sitter, for taking care of Caleb while we are away. *hug*

June 30, 2006
Pets are a funny thing... you gotta love them.  You gotta wonder, what would you do without them?  They entertain you, they love you (usually unconditionally), they care about you (okay maybe not so much the cats) and they make you laugh.  And they worry you sometimes too.

Today the tarantula must have thought it'd be a hoot if he got out of his cage and wandered into the hallway to scare Brandon half to death when he got home.  Yeah, what a riot.  Glad it wasn't me.  I would've screamed loud enough to wake up people on the other side of the earth.  Lucky Caleb wasn't hungry I guess.  Here he is safely back in his cage:



Here's Mr. P getting ready to be shipped off... why is it that cats love empty boxes that are too small for their big fat bodies? haha


Whitey lying about on the breakfast nook bench... he takes up about 3/4 of the bench and it's about 3.5 feet long!




And here's one of Caleb herding his favorite new toy. It's a "horse" ball made of hard plastic so he can't pop it like his basketball toys. He chases this thing around the yard at very high speeds and barks when it doesn't go where he wants it to.


Who's a cute puppy?


And my favorite new action shot... I tossed the ball into the air for him and:

June 20, 2006
I'll start with the bitching and complaining just to get it out of the way first. We arrived at the school around 5:45am on Thursday, June 8th. We're on Bus #1 with two other female chaperones (teachers/sisters) and the tour moderator. I'm told that the tour moderator would like me to find a seat in the middle or rear of the bus. No biggie. So I grab a seat in the middle. Once the bus is full, he two chaperones and the tour moderator all sit up front in the first three seats. :wtf: This probably should have been my first clue as to mistake #1... The trip is going pretty good. Turns out the kids to the back of me are the rowdy bunch and Brandon, up front with his friends, are the mellow bunch. After one of the stops, we're back on the bus and this kid behind me decides to toss some goldfish crackers around. After the 2nd or 3rd one, I made my second mistake... I said "Yeah, could you stop throwing those around or you're going to be picking them up." He sits down. A minute later a goldfish comes flying my way. *sigh* I look back and he's looking out the window all innocent. Then another goldfish. Another innocent look to my glare. So I make mistake #3 and go up front to tell our dear tour moderator about an unruly child in the back. So he follows me back and has a word with "goldfish boy" which was probably mistake #4. They settle down for a few minutes and I manage to doze off a bit. Then one of the DC trip shirts comes flying over my seat and whacks me in the head. :angry: I glare back again and he and his friends are trying to look all innocent. I threw the shirt back and that was that. He was a little shit pretty much for the rest of the trip and tour in DC. I avoided him. These kids in the back of the bus had no respect for each other let alone any adults. I couldn't believe how rude and ignorant the majority of them were. Doesn't say a whole lot for their parents unfortunately. Needless to say, I sat in the front of the bus for the remainder of the tour and all the way back home, much to the dismay of my fellow chaperones who did nothing but give me a look. They didn't even keep track of or hang out with any of the kids in their "assigned" groups. The majority of my assigned group of kids were in the front of the bus with Brandon behaving themselves. Go figure. So, on to the trip and pictures:Here's the sunset on day one as we pulled into Virginia. We stayed at the Doubletree Tysons Corner, which was very nice.

Oh one last gripe, I came down with an incredibly terrible sinus cold on Saturday morning.  Had to track down cold medicine at a gift shop that barely did anything for me.  Managed to also track down kleenex at gift shops since I quickly went through the box I snaked from our hotel room.  I thought I was gonna die.  Thankfully enough, on the ride home Sunday night, I finally found some Nyquil at a rest stop and got some sleep on the bus.



We were initially going to see the Ford Theater and Peterson House, but the line was crazy long, so we headed to the National Archives.


We were warned NOT to use our flash inside.  I turned mine off, but apparently my camera has an auto-focus illuminator and I was promptly hollered at by security to turn it off or stop using the camera.  Ooops.

Here's the best group of kids ever!  (psst... that's goldfish boy to the left of Brandon)


After the National Archives, we returned to Ford's Theatre. 


And then we spent the majority of the day walking up and down stairs like these at Arlington National Cemetery.  That's our step-on tour guide, Marie (Poppins), with the red umbrella in the front.


This is the view from the house at the very top of the cemetery.


The changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier:


Me and my adopted girls:


Then we went to the Kennedy Center.  It was a rainy afternoon.  This was the view from the roof-top terrace:


And we stopped by Iwo Jima:


We wrapped up our day at the ESPN Zone for dinner, where we ran into a cross-dresser outside while waiting in line to enter.  I did not get any pictures of him, but the kids found him entirely entertaining.  LMFAO  It was a riot.  The guy had on a red wig, large sunglasses, bright red shoes and kept posing for the kids.  I should've took a picture.  Dinner was fun, the food was acceptable and the kids had a good time playing video games afterwards.

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day.  A little windy.  We all had our blue Woodland shirts on for Picture Day in front of the Capitol Building.  But first, a trip to the Library of Congress:


And then we stopped by the Supreme Court:


And off to the Capitol Building:


We also visited all of the various Memorials on Saturday (Lincoln's Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, Korean Memorial, FDR Memorial)  This is the view of the Washington Monument from Lincoln's Memorial:


We had lunch at the Old Post Office.  This is the inside:


Here's a cute lil squirrel that we passed by:


One of my favorite parts of the trip, the National Cathedral. I'm not a churchy-type person at all.  In fact, I hadn't been in one since I was probably 10 years old until this point.  But it was very cool inside and out:


After the cathedral, we went to the World War II Memorial where we managed to misplace about 10 kids because the other chaperones didn't know how to keep on eye on their groups.  Then we were off to the National Zoo, which I was initially very excited about, but ended up being rather disappointed in.  It wasn't all that.  But they did have a Panda:


And a giraffe:


And a lion:


Outside the White House, a protestor has been camped out for 20 years:


Apparently, so has the dog:




That night we had dinner at the Old Country Buffet and then took the kids to a recreation center for swimming and walleyball.  It was a VERY late night.  We didn't get back to the hotel until after 11pm and had to be up at 7:30am on Sunday.

We spent Sunday at Mount Vernon.  Here's our tour guide at George Washington's first tomb:


And lastly, George Washington's mansion:


We also went to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (where we had lunch) and to the Museum of History and Technology.  We spent about 5 hours at those two museums altogether, which while everything was really interesting, it was difficult to keep the kids busy for that long inside a museum.  Oh well.

That night we had our dinner at a pizza buffet place and hit the road for home around 7pm.  Got back to the school at 9am on Monday.  All-in-all we had a really good trip.  :)  YAY!

June 6, 2006
Brandon's graduation went off without a hitch... okay well there were a few kids who either were handed the wrong diploma or none at all. I'm thankful that wasn't MY kid. How incredibly embarassing. *ack* Here's some pictures from before and during the ceremony... which lasted about 1 hr 15 minutes for 379 graduates which is only half of the 8th grade class. They split it up over 2 nights. Glad he graduated yesterday and not today. HEH


*snickers*


Brandon with Uncle Ken.


Brandon with Grandma.



Nice dress.  j/k  hehe  :)~




Waiting in line to receive his diploma.


Yay!!!


Brandon and his girlfriend looking for parents... he spotted me.

*sigh*  High school is right around the corner.  I'm not ready yet.  :)~  I guess we still have a few months to adjust. 

Congratulations again Brandon!  We KNEW you could do it!  Hooray!!!

June 2, 2006
AWWWWW... look how cute.  :)  Brandon had his 8th grade dance tonight, since they graduate on Monday.  Here he is all dressed up:







And then we stopped to pick up his friend and I made them pose for another picture.  LOL 


And here's one of him and his g/f:

May 30, 2006
In only 6 more days, Brandon graduates 8th grade.   I'm going to have a kid in high school by Fall.  *thud*  Funny, I don't feel any older.  He's gone and gotten all growed up and I don't feel a day older.  heh  I suppose that's a good thing.

In only 9 more days I get to be a chaperone on Brandon's Washington DC trip for 8th grade.  So far, I believe, the majority of my "group" are girls, except for Brandon and one other boy.  We leave at 5:30am on 6/8 and get there at 9:30pm that evening.  ACK.  Am I insane for being on a bus for that many hours with a bunch of 8th graders??    I'm actually looking forward to it.

Then I get a weekend off.  And then....

On 6/17, we drive 10 hours up to Sault Sainte Marie, MI to see RATT and Skid Row at the Kewadin Casino.  We'll probably actually leave on the 16th... or shortly after midnight on the 17th.  10 hours is a haul.  But c'mon... RATT and Skid Row?!?  YAY!!!!!  *happy dance*  Cheap hotel is booked.  Maps are printed out.  We're all good.

Then the rest of June should be pretty quiet.  I hear that L.A. Guns will be in the area in early July.  No other plans for July as of yet.  And then the first weekend in August, we trek down to New Orleans.  Should be a fun 14 hour drive...   Hotel is already booked for that one too.

I luvs road trips.  Too bad gas prices don't love me.  And too bad my SUV doesn't love to conserve gas.  I guess it could be worse... 23mpg in an SUV ain't all that bad.

Okay so that's that.  No new pictures to share today.  And I'm too lazy to get out my camera and hunt down the aminals for pix.  My AC is on the blink, it's a sauna in my house and I feel like a slug.  Very pleasant.  LOL

May 14, 2006

PIX! Tracii Guns Band (my new career as a mic stand)

Friday night we ventured up to Vnuk's in Milwaukee, WI to see the Tracii Guns Band.  Milwaukee's an easy drive, we got there in less than an hour, around 9:40pm.  The first band was still playing and after surveying the place, I discovered that my friend was running late.  We did bump into Trevor at the bar (if you don't know him, you're probably not from the LAG board) and sat down to talk for a while.  And um, drink.  (I paid for this dearly the next morning when I had to get up at 8:15am to go to the dentist.) 

Another band played next... entirely instrumental and I'll swear they played a weird version of the Snoopy song.  LMFAO  They were good background music I suppose.  Everyone but Tracii came in the front door and walked by.  Except Paul, he stopped to talk to us for a while. 

I have no idea what time they actually went on stage... had to be at least 11pm?  My sober friend can probably comment and fill in the blanks in this review.  I grabbed a spot front & center, which probably later lead to the decision that I'd make a good mic stand during Jayne... anyway.  They opened with L.A.P.D.  I'd actually never heard it before because of course I didn't buy the CD until AFTER the show.  I didn't snag a set list and I don't think they played in the order the songs were listed anyways... but here's the gist of it: 

L.A.P.D.
One More Reason
No Mercy
Sex Action
Trash
Rip N Tear
Jayne
Winter's Fool
One Way Ticket (they did this, but I don't think it was on the set list)
I Don't Care
Electric Gypsy
Never Enough
S.T.F.U.

I hope that's all of them.  Again, I'm sure *someone* can post a comment with the correct set list.  =P

I have REALLY missed listening to and watching Tracii play.  I don't mean that to be derogatory toward our current LAG lineup at all, because I love them just the way they are right now.  But nobody else is Tracii Guns.  :)  I'm no musician, so I can't get into the technical aspect of how everyone played, etc. etc. but they sounded great to me!  Paul is *crazy* on stage, in a very good way.  heh  Very personable and interactive with the audience.  Love it.  Jeremy seemed a little hidden off to the left of the stage to me, but it was a very small stage...  and as far as drummers go, I don't care if he did say it's been some time since he's played, Nickey sounded great to me. 

So as you've read in other reviews, I had the honor of being the mic stand for Jayne.  Not a difficult job, I guess somebody's gotta do it.  I'm not sure what happened with Paul's geetar during the song, someone turned it off or something because it was all plugged in, we checked.  *shrugs*  During One Way Ticket, Tracii sat down and played, Paul sat down next to him and sang.  It was very mellow and very cool.  :)    Is it bad that for the life of me I can't remember during which song it was that Paul tried to pull me up on stage?  *argh*  I wasn't really wanting to go and I put up a good fight.  LOL  But then they had a lot of girls up there and reluctantly, I agreed.  But it caused me to lose my primo front & center spot to some dumb jerk.  What is it with the guys wanting to be right up in front of Tracii?  *eek*  *grin*  Overall the show was awesome and there was lots of audience participation, which is always fun.  I had a really good time.  *two thumbs up*

Afterwards, I spent time chatting with Paul and then Jeremy, who had some guy at the bar asking if he'd tried this drink or another and buying him whatever was mentioned.  heh  Everyone was just really sweet and friendly.  I bought the Black List CD and the 2nd Brides CD since I didn't already own it.  Before we left, Paul walked us out to their van where Tracii was hiding out.  Okay not really hiding because lots of people knew he was there apparently.  Honestly I haven't seen or talked to Tracii for a few years now, but he was as nice as ever.  :)  We chatted for a lil while and then we had to head home.  Didn't get in the door until about 3am.  *ack*

At some point during the evening, Paul had asked if we were coming to the show in Madison the next day... well originally, I hadn't planned on it, mostly because I had no idea they were playing Madison the next day.  So the decision was made that we were going to Madison on Saturday and THIS TIME, I brought my friggin' camera!  The show was fairly similar, they went on just as late as the night before.  I was the mic stand again for Jayne and again ended up dancing on stage, which Flynn took pictures of, which I refuse to post, and thankfully enough my wonderful friend wasn't there to take and post pictures of her own.  MUA HA HA... hehe  The set list was about the same, except for no One Way Ticket and no S.T.F.U.  Oh and this time I got to help sing Never Enough.  I'm sure I must have sounded terrible, good thing I couldn't hear myself.  LMFAO And there was one other slight change in the show, when Tracii introduced the band... they've now changed their names to Tracii Butterknife, Paul Lewis, Nickey Riley and Jeremy Nickels Hamilton, from what I gathered anyway... All in good fun I'm sure.  =)  On to the pictures...


"the grapes of wrath" - uh, that's what's in front of Nickey's drums.


Paul.  (I tried to take pix w/o the flash so the lighting effects would show up, but it didn't always work out very well.  This pic is one of the better ones w/o flash)


Nickey (also w/o flash) I love the blur effect. 


ALWAYS smiling!  :)


This is one of my favorite pix.  :)


Jeremy Guns...


Paul spent a lot of time on the stage floor this weekend... whether sitting and playing guitar or just plain acting crazy. 


Geetar face...


Monkey! (on his shirt, not Tracii)


My favorite hat.

(fyi... the red-eye reduction feature on my photo program crashes it every time, so I didn't try to fix any of these photos and Paul's eyes kept turning out red in every one.  *ARGH*)


hehe... me singing w/ Paul.  :)


I totally love this guitar!!!  Blue is my favorite color tho.


Me & Paul after the show.


Me, Trooper & Nickey after the show.  (Um, Trooper is Nickey's pup in the middle of us.  I was dog-sitting.)

I have probably 150 pictures from the show that night, but obviously can't post all of them.  These are some of my favorites.  Thank for letting me share.  I really hope I get the opportunity to see these guys play again.  What an awesome weekend!   They're still on tour... go check 'em out!

May 8, 2006

Flycell.com is a bitch.

If you do not have text messaging service as part of your cellular package, stay the hell away from this dumbass website. OMG. Me and Brandon were goofing around trying to get free ringtones for our cell phones and signed up for a free subscription at Flycell.com only to find that their free ringtones sucked and then they proceeded to text me my stupid horoscope on a daily basis costing me 10 cents each time. In my numerous attempts to cancel it using their instructions on their website, it continued to cost me 10 cents each time I cancelled, 10 cents each time they confirmed my cancellation, and then another 10 cents each time they continued to send my horoscope on a daily basis! Unable to find a phone number on their website or anywhere for that matter, I emailed them, used their dumb email form, everything possible and still nothing cancelled it. I think I might have just found another way to try cancelling. It says it's cancelled, but I won't really know until tomorrow around the time they usually text me my horoscope. In the mean time, my cell phone bill is 10 bucks more this month than it should have been. ARGH. It better have cancelled this time.

So anyway, wanted to forewarn anyone out there who is looking for free ringtones... STAY AWAY FROM FLYCELL.COM!!

May 4, 2006
Hooray!  I was chosen to be a chaperone for Brandon's trip to Washington, DC next month.  Well, actually I'm only going by default because another parent dropped out for one reason or another and I was next on the list.  But still, I get to go! 

We had a meeting tonight at the school for it.  Apparently I will be responsible for at least 10 kids.  Brandon will be one of them.  MUA HA HA HA... and two of his friends asked to be in our group too, cuz I'm cool mom or something.  But I fully intend to be Evil Mom for this trip.  j/k  :)

We leave at 5:30 in the morning and get there at 9:30 at night.  ACK.  That's a lot of hours on a bus full of kids.  120 kids in total.  I think there's 3 buses, maybe 4.

I've never been to DC.  I'm very excited about the trip, even if I do have to get up at 6:30am each day and make sure the kids get downstairs for breakfast.  We'll be sure to take lots of pictures.  :)

May 3, 2006

Day One at the Office

These pics are from move-in day.  We managed to get 95% unpacked by the end of the first day.  This is an amazing feat for our department.  LOL

Here's my space ... my keyboard tray wasn't installed yet and I didn't have it entirely set up exactly the way I wanted it, but it worked:



We have nifty dry erase boards built into every cubicle that we practice our artistic abilities on.


This is the view looking down from our floor (28th floor out of a 45 story building)


This is my boss' office.  It's the cleanest her office has ever been in the 7 years I've known her.  hehe  So far, it still looks real clean.


You can see the Sears Tower outside her office window.  Benefit of being on the same side of the building as the CEO and General Counsel.  :)


And this is my friend's cubicle.

I tried out a few different train schedules last week... getting up at 3:45am and on the train by 5:23am wasn't working for me.  Getting up at 5:20am and on the train by 6:25am didn't work either because I got into the office too late and didn't have my "me time" before my boss gets in.  So now I get up at 4:15am, take a 5:45am train that arrives downtown at 7:16am.  So far so good.  And I'm back home by 5:30pm.  Makes for a long day, but I sleep on the hour & a half train ride.  I hope I adjust soon.  I dunno how people do this day in and day out. 

Anyway, the new building is awesome.  The area is cool.  Plenty of restaurants.  Very nice.  :)

I'm gonna crash.  Downfall of working in the city, I'm friggin' beat every night.  I'll try to post another blog soon.  Maybe some more pix or sumthing.

April 22, 2006

Since starting this Monday I will have to take the train to and from work in Chicago, we did a trial run today down to Union Station.  I haven't been in that train station in over 20 years.  LOL  It seemed simple enough to find our way around and we even found the building I'll be working in.  It's a block away from the train station.  Here it is:

It's the white one in the center, obviously. 

And then we walked to Millennium Park, about a mile East (I think).  Here's some cool pix of the Cloud Gate (a/k/a Bean):


In the lower right hand corner.

Here's a cool picture of Brandon underneath the Bean:

Directly under the Bean... if you focus just below the center of the picture, you'll see us standing upside down taking the picture:

Here's one of a fountain we saw on our way to the park:

And these are from the train ride back home:

It was a LONG ASS train ride.  Blah.  Not looking forward to it, but then again, on my way to and from work, there shouldn't be any uncontrollable screaming, hollering, bickering children... so that's definitely a plus.

And now for something completely different... The Jeep's Homecoming!  This Jeep sat in our garage in Round Lake almost since I first met Flynn and now it is back on it's feet (err, wheels) and in the hands of it's rightful owner, Flynn's mom... Kris.  YAY!!!  She was SOOOOO happy to see it.  hehe

She even let Brandon take it for a test drive around the circle in her driveway... after, of course, a quick lesson on how to drive stick.

So that's my photo update for today.  I'm sure there'll be some lovely train-ride stories to share next week.  Maybe I'll bring my camera in on Monday and take pictures of the new digs.

April 16, 2006

New York Super Fudge Chunk is the best Ben & Jerry's ice cream ever, even if it is extremely overpriced, I love it.  LOL  And so a pint has become my Easter dinner.  Okay well I really don't intend to sit here and eat the entire thing, but it's a start. 

I managed to get my house clean yesterday before leaving for Cruefest.  And the fest itself was alright.  I don't know what I was expecting... more of a crowd maybe.  We stayed for a while.  Watched some of the bands, auctions, raffles and drank some beer.  It was a good time.  Then we came home, made something to eat and stayed up until 5am watching Stargate Atlantis Season Two episodes.  heh... good times.  I totally LOVE this show.  And not just because that one guy is really yummy either. 

Today has been a big ol' lazy ass day.  I am not religious in any sense of the word, so I have/had no intention of celebrating Easter.  It's cold out.  It's damp.  Gray and cloudy.  BLAH.  I slept until 1:30pm.  Made some breakfast (best meal of the day, I love breakfast).  Laid around with the cats for a while.  Took a nap.  Cleaned the Betta tanks.  Which brings me to the point that Nacho Betta passed away.   I dunno what happened.  I fed him and his tank was nice & clean.  *shrugs*   So yesterday I went out and bought Not-So Betta.  Hopefully he'll live a little longer.  Tre-Betta is still alive, but doesn't look very well.  I can't get him to eat. I'm going out tomorrow to find a different kind of Betta food and hope that encourages him to eat.  *sigh*  My poor fishes.  Here's a pic of Not-So Betta:

And here's some pictures of Mr. P and Whitey I took earlier today lazing around on the couch.  So cute. 

And just so he doesn't feel left out, let me go take some of Caleb to post... (runs off with camera):

And that's all there is for today.  To those who celebrate, hope you have a Happy Easter and holiday or not, hope everyone had a great weekend! 

April 13, 2006

The Countdown Has Begun...

OMG, I can't believe there are only 5 more business days of driving to and from work left.  I'm torn, really.  On one hand, I'm very excited about our company moving into downtown Chicago.  New digs, new building, new atmosphere, new things to do and places to go on lunch, new scenery.  On the other hand, I'm facing getting up at 3:45am (as opposed to 5:30am), driving 15 minutes to the train station and a 1 hr. 15 min. train ride into the city.  Then, facing Union Station, OMG, that's a whole nother thing.  YUCK.  ICK.  And then, losing the luxury of having my car at the office.  Being tied to a train schedule.  Getting home later due to said train schedule.  *sigh*  I'm sure I'll adjust, but before I do, I fully intend to bitch and moan about it.

Change is good though, right?

Other than that, nothing really profound has happened in my life lately.  Same shit, different day.  But it's good.  

On a completely different note, I'm going to my first Cruefest this weekend.  Saturday to be exact.  Should be a good time.  Hope to bump into people I know. 

Sorry I'm too lazy to find any new pictures to post.  Later taters.

April 3, 2006

They better anyway, because we're getting alot of friggin' rain.  I really don't care much for rain.  I'd take snow over rain any day.  I know, I'm weird.  It's okay to say it.

So... anyway, April has begun and that means less than 3 weeks until our big move to the city of Chicago.  :hmph:  I don't really wanna expand on it any more than that.  This dumb move is causing me to not be able to go to Hawaii, to filter our files into records retention, and to pack our entire department.  :double hmph:

There weren't any Adventures in Cat Sitting to speak of last week.  Daisy hid under the bed the entire week and Wakko only came out twice for pettings.  Oh... wait... they did kinda move their water bowl across the kitchen floor.  AND wait, there was a nice hairball for me on the living room floor last night.  That's about as adventurous as it got.  LOL

So, for lack of anything better to talk about, how about some AIR pictures of Caleb? (Soon I plan to scan in more old pix of me and post them as well... I know you all won't be able to stand the suspense.  HA)


I cannot believe how high this dog can jump. He's freaky.  LOL


Such a pretty puppy.  :)  Except for the grass on his tongue, that's just gross.

And, since I stumbled upon it, here's one of Brandon skateboarding in front of the house.  I took this through the living room window.  hehe

In other exciting news, we went to see Ice Age 2 over the weekend.  OMG, that movie was the best.  Okay so the story line was probably pretty weak, but the comedy was high!  I love Scrat!  There was so much more Scrat in this one than the first.  Awesome!  Scrat rulz.  Go see the movie, you'll laugh your ass off.

In some sad news... Betta II has passed.   I think it was just old age.  Cuz he seemed okay last week.  *sigh*  And so as not to dwell on fishes gone, we have bought ourselves a new betta.  He's a crown-tail betta.  Brandon named him Nacho Betta.  Sir Betta the IV was a close runner-up. Here's some pix of Nacho Betta.  The first one his face was blurred by the curve of the tank... but it's a good color shot of his body so I posted it anyways:

Yeah, so that's all I've got for today. 

Rain rain go away, come again another day... like a day when I don't have to go outdoors would be good.

oh... PS... April 7th is Flynn's birthday!  hehe... I think he's gonna be like 52 or something.  Wait, maybe it's 53.  No wait, that's backwards... 35.  Yeah, that's it.  So wherever you are on Friday, remember to stop and sing happy birthday to Flynn. 

March 22, 2006

Road Trip!

I'm heading up to Minneapolis (okay Columbia Heights) on Saturday to see L.A. Guns.  Hotel is reserved.  Maps are printed.  Oil changed on the Vue.  Which, by the way, when did it go from spending $19.99 to the $97.95 I spent today?  Good F'ing Grief!  Oil change (synthetic blend) new wipers (20ff) and new air filter and it cost me nearly a hundred bucks.  WTF?!?!  Okay enough of that.  Hopefully my gas mileage improves.  So anyway, we're leaving Saturday morning, hope to roll in just after noon, catch a cat nap and then head to the show.  I will be better prepared with the new camera this time since I've had plenty of photo shoot opportunities with my dog since purchasing it.   heh  Sixx hour drive each way aside, should be a fun weekend.

What else can I fit into this blog... hmmm... I'm shopping around for an MP3 player.  I think I have it narrowed down to either the Creative Zen Microphoto 8GB (in black) or the Samsung YP-Z5 4GB (also in black).  Anyone have any experience with either of these?  I realize they are two different types of players... micro hard drive vs. flash media.  Creative has the FM tuner, but that's not a big selling point for me.  Creative also has the removeable battery... eh.  I'm more into the appearance.  LOL  I'm leaning more toward the Samsung based on appearances alone. Sad isn't it?  I'm so superficial sometimes.  *sigh*

Oh.  Here's a good one.  Because my place of employment decided that the corporate headquarters is going to be moved downtown Chicago on April 21st, I don't get to go to Hawaii for our annual RIMS conference.  I was supposed to fly out on the 23rd.  We officially cancelled the registration today.  Oh well.  Guess I'll have to plan a REAL vacation for next year.  How ya'll feel about the Cayman islands? 

Get this... my brother and my son are in the other room complaining to each other about who's feet smell worse.  Oy.  Suddenly I'm very thankful to be in the office and not in the living room.  LOL

Crap! (damn, I owe Brandon another 2 dollars)

Edited to Add: I received my copy of Unhappy Endings a few days ago.  I've read most of it.  The first story will have you laughing your ass (no pun intended) off and by the time you get to the 4th story, you'll be quite disturbed.  SAVE THE KITTENS!!!!!  Poor kittens.  Buy the book. You'll dig it.  www.jizzypearl.com

So that's about it.  Next week... Adventures in Cat-Sitting.

p.s.  They are still discussing foot smell and now they're saying the dog passed out because of it.  I'm skeered.

p.p.s.  My son just said to the dog "Oh, hands are for loving, not for hurting"  "Ow!"

I truly have a weird family.

March 12, 2006

UNHAPPY ENDINGS...

So... I can't say that I've read it yet since I haven't quite received MY very own personally autographed copy just yet.  But the last two were fuckin' great, so that's enough reason to get your butt over to jizzypearl.com and order Unhappy Endings right now.  Don't delay... the first 100 copies sold will be personally autographed by Jizz himself.

http://www.jizzypearl.com

March 4, 2006

America's Favorite Puppy

Okay maybe not so much America's favorite puppy, and probably not even so much your favorite puppy, but he sure as hell is MY favorite puppy!  CALEB!  :cheers:  LOL  My brother was kind enough to toss a ball for Caleb to jump and catch while I snapped off about 60 pictures. Here's some of the best action shots.


I love when he jumps in the air like that.  Rarely does he miss the ball.


You can throw it past his head and he'll turn and dive for it, still catching it.  It's very cool.  He's REALLY fast.


Poor tired lil puppy.  hehe

Cute puppy. :) 

And after all that action, a quick update on Caleb... he had developed a bit of an attitude problem with us... as in, he's running the house, not us.  So I brought in a therapist from BarkBusters.com and it's worked like a miracle.  He's not the perfect dog yet, but he listens and doesn't give us any lip.  He's definitely getting the training he needs.  They come to your home and spend hours with you, multiple sessions, lifetime guarantee, for one set price.  So yeah, it was a lil pricey, but this is a dog we have to live with for at least the next 15 years (let's hope more!) and we have to get along.  :)  Things are so much better already!  I'd definitely recommend them to anyone having problems training their dog.  Check it out at www.barkbusters.com.

February 22, 2006

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!!!!

Okay well actually we went on a Saturday in the afternoon, but still, it was a MONSTER TRUCK show!  heh  Tested out the new camera a bit.  Still getting used to it.  Here's a few of the better shots, I made them smaller since there's quite a few:


Nice air!  OOPS...


Gotta hate when that happens.

It was quite cold. There was a LOT of exhaust fumes.  And Grave Digger, as cool a truck as it is, did not deserve to win the freestyle!  I say the judges were fixed.  Ah well.  We had a good time and it gave me some practice on the new camera.

February 11, 2006

Some new Pet Pictures

Just messin' with the new camera today:

Because of the zoom, I can be in the other room and take a picture of the dog without him sticking his snout on my lens!

And because of the speed, I can get lots of pictures of the cats in before they get bored with me and walk away!

I can even catch Whitey licking his chops.  lol

I'm sure I will inundate you guys with many more pictures in the days to come as I learn how to use this thing.

L.A. Guns - Club Fever Review

Leaving home yesterday, we forgot to take into consideration the friggin' hour ahead time change.  I had called Phil when we left my house, probably around 3:30pm, thinking it'd only take about 2 1/2 - 3 hours to get there and he said they went on at 7pm.  Okay, so we'd still get there in time, just get there.  Then as we got further into Indiana, through TRAFFIC and friggin' BLIZZARD like snow, it occurred to Flynn that we were suddenly an hour ahead.  So in a panic, I call Phil again and he answered "something bar and grill" I didn't hear exactly what he said due to my state of panic.  LOL  I asked what time he had, 7:15pm I'm told.  Fortunately, for me, their start time was changed to 8pm.  We got there just before they went on stage.  I had no time really to get the camera together, and it was a bitch to hold my jacket, purse, camera bag, beer and take pictures at the same time, especially with not knowing exactly how to use it.  So I snapped a few with my old digital, but all it did was piss me off because it's so slow, so I gave up and enjoyed the show.

I believe the set list to be

It Don't Mean Nothing
Sex Action
Vampire
Never Enough
Electric Neon Sunset
Over The Edge
Nothin' Better To Do
Marseilles
Electric Gypsy

But probably not in that order.  Phil made a comment during the show about security being there for a beauty contest after the show since they were all perfectly lined up in front of the stage, mind you, there was a very big metal guardrail between the crowd, security and the stage.  Oy.  Overkill if you ask me.  

The show was good.  Stacey's hat was awesome.  heh  I'm sure I have a picture here to share...

Sucks that his mike kept going out on Nothing Better to Do because I totally LOVE that song live.  The place was way way more crowded that I expected, I'm lucky I was able to squeeze in up front, unfortunately right in front of a stack of speakers, so my hearing is buzzing today.  Steve drums were vibrating my hair all night.  LOL

We caught a little bit of Firehouse from side stage.  It's amazing how CJ still sounds exactly the same as he did ages ago.  I'm not much of a Firehouse fan, but they were good.  

Warrant was okay.  We only stayed for a few songs.  All the bands went on so damn early, that we were back home by 1:30am!  

I really hope there's some midwest shows coming up soon that are closer to home. 

February 9, 2006

Tomorrow I will be the proud new owner of a Nikon D50 digital SLR camera, complete with 18-55mm and 55-200mm lenses.

It's a 6.1MP, has a boat-load of features that will probably take  me a while to learn to use, but it's tons better than my current 5MP Sony standard digital camera, which in itself is still a decent camera, but just not fast enough in-between shots.  Here's a pretty thorough review on it if you're in the market for a new digital camera - Nikon D50.  I ordered mine from Adorama.com and they gave me a really good deal on it.

I'm hoping I get the camera early enough to bring with to the L.A. Guns show tomorrow, but I'm not gonna hold my breath.  Depends upon UPS and how quickly they feel like getting my camera to me.

On another note, YEA!!!!! L.A. GUNS TOMORROW NIGHT!!!!!!!

January 30, 2006

A Wootchie Photo Shoot

I really really tried to get an action shot.  Not much luck.  Lots of goofy close-ups though!

Earlier when me and Brandon were playing "keep away" with Caleb, he did a backflip in the living room.  Now THAT was a Kodak moment.  Of course, I didn't have my camera handy.  HMPH.

January 28, 2006

So we go to Club Energy last night to see Tommy lee DJ.  EH.  I wasn't impressed, but I was also very tired by the time he went on.  The club was okay.  I'm not a club person though and would never go back, even if Tommy was DJing again.  heh

Today was a crap-ass rainy day.  But I spent it with my brother and that was cool.  :)  Saturday night and I'm blogging.  Boy what a life I lead.  *sigh*  Hope everyone's weekend was more exciting than this.

January 21, 2006

Let it snow... let it snow... let it snow!

Holy cow.  On January 19th, it was like 55 degrees here and not a lick of snow on the ground to be found.  On January 20th, by 4:30pm, we started getting a frozen rain when I left work.  At 5:30pm, by the time I had driven 23 miles north toward home, it turned into a snow blizzard.  By midnight, we had a good foot of snow on the ground.  YIKES!  That's it.  Our ozone is depleted.  The weather fairy is frowning upon us.  We're doomed. 

However, in the mean time, I do believe I'm going sledding with my son today!

This was early on... maybe around 7:30-8pm when Caleb went out to play.  Snow was only a few inches deep at the time, but still really coming down:

This is a little later, probably around 10pm.  Caleb's kennel is a snow cage.  He loves running circles in the snow and snapping at flakes:

Even later, 11pm, still snowing.  My poor Staghorn Sumac tree is now a snow tree:

And my poor Vue is buried, yet it is STILL snowing:

Brandon shoveled some of the front walk and driveway around midnight.  Here's what the walk looks like this morning (6am), finally the snow has stopped and now it's all pretty and sparkley:

I love love love snow.  So this is good news for me!  heh  My Vue loves snow too.  My dog loves snow.  My kid loves snow.  I'd venture to say the cats probably don't so much love the snow, but I suppose we could find out... *evil grin* Maybe later.

Hope everyone has an awesome weekend!

January 14, 2006

ROAD TRIP!!!!!

Finally.  Something worthy of travelling for.   L.A. Guns has a few dates coming up in February in IN and MI. 

I'm taking February 10th off to drive the 3 hours to South Bend, IN for their show at Club Fever and then the next night, driving 4 hours to Saginaw, MI for the show at Shooters.  And then 6 1/2 hours back home on Sunday.  *phew*  But they are so worth it.   I love road trips!  And I don't think my new Vue has really seen a genuine road trip yet.

Gotta get it warmed up for my trip down to Eldorado, AR that I want to take over spring break.

 

Caleb, calling Dr. Caleb!

This isn't the first stuffed toy that Caleb has performed "surgery" on.  He had a blue Monkey, you might recall from previous pictures, that was his favorite toy, but eventually he did a full scale lobotomy on Monkey and then tore out his guts.  There was a substitute monkey I bought, thinking it a tougher monkey than the other, and he unstuffed it within 30 minutes.  Alas, I have no pictures of those.  But today, sitting in my office, I turned back toward Caleb and saw an enormous pile of stuffing on the floor.  Where on earth did that come from???  Wasn't there a minute ago.  Then I found Dinosaur with a tiny hole in his chest.  Funny, I always though Dinosaur was a foam toy.  Who knew?  I can't believe all that stuffing came out of him and through that tiny little hole, but it did!

My dog, an aspiring surgeon.  I'm so proud!  heh

January 6, 2006

The new year is off to a rather boring start.  :hmph:  I guess all-in-all, that's not a bad thing.  At least it's not off to a bad start.  Mediocre I guess.

I don't have a whole lot to say really.  I haven't been doing much.  The internet has been boring me a bit lately.  I am a bit more than halfway through the awesome new book my bestest friend ever bought me for Christmas.  I've been a Tom Petty fan for a good 20 years now (yeah, since I was 4 years old, HAHA) and I'm learning things reading this book that I've never known.  And it's given me a different understanding of the music he's written when I go back and listen to it again.  So totally cool.  :)  I've met a lot of musicians in my life ... Tom Petty is definitely someone I'd like to meet.  I don't know what I'd say, probably something stupid.  LOL  Probably never get the chance though.  I can't say that I know anyone who knows anyone who knows Tom Petty.  heh  Tom Petty rocks.  So there.

Other than reading, (hold on, Dog is eating Cats in other room), I've been playing with the puppy, working, cleaning house, playing with the puppy, working, etc.  You get the picture.  Here's the puppy:


He's bored.  I wish I had an action shot of him catching a tennis ball.  He does this jump up, turn around over his head and catch the ball thing.  It's very cool.

And here's Whitey, also quite bored:

And Mr. P chillin' on the dining room table.  He's probably bored too.

And me, also bored... bored to the point where I must run around taking pictures of my pets to amuse myself.

Here's our Christmas Tree:

And the candles Brandon made me for Christmas:

That's really all I have picture-wise.  Hope your new year is off to a great start... and if you haven't started it yet, what are you waiting for?!

 

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since October 31, 1997