A Gorilla on Munson

Sheesh!

2007-07-05T10:40:00.000-06:00

I swear I haven't been a lazy blogger I just haven't been able to access my blog from my home computer!! Okay, maybe at first I turned into lazy blogger but that was over pretty quickly and by the time I decided to start writing again, my computer goes berserk with the blogger website and won't let me in...go figure with my Flintstone era computer....
At the moment I am using Lou's computer (thanks Lou!) and thought I would just let people know that, no I did not get abducted my aliens, die, or join a traveling circus....but that would have been cool....um, so yes, all is well and I shall try to get my computer to obey me so I can start regaling everyone with the most fascinating of stories. Like the one time, when I was in the supermarket checkout line, and this lady was buying all of this bleach and I thought who needs this much bleach?...... Yup, truly fascinating...!

Lights out. Stay Calm Teresa!

2007-03-31T05:18:00.000-06:00

Yikes! Last night a huge storm blew through causing my lights to go out. Now this sounds harmless enough until you realize that I am deathly afraid of pitch blackness in this apartment! When I go to bed I leave like, oh, three to four lights on. But remember this is only about a three to four room apartment!
So, last night I traipse off to bed and start to fall asleep when suddenly the storm comes through causing all kinds of commotion. The lights flickered but they held in there but then they flickered again and all was dark. For a few minutes I'm just stunned because I have never had this place absolutely dark since I've lived here (one year, that's quite a record I'm sure!). Soon, the darkness started pressing in on me so I hopped up and went to get the flashlight. Hmm...flashlights just make things a lot creepier I soon found out so I quickly turned it off. I then went back to bed and huddled under the covers for the next few minutes praying for light to return, but alas it did not.
You are now wondering, Teresa, why are you so scared of this apartment, and I would reply....because it's crazy old! It was built to be a neighborhood grocery store back in....1892!!! Do you know how much this building has seen? Or who knows what has happened here?! Do you people not watch horror movies??
But I digress. Huddling under the covers I soon realize, hey, you could suffocate like this, so I pulled them back and just stared at the wall. Staring at the wall seemed safe so I did that for a while but soon I started falling asleep (thank you God!) and all seemed well. And it was. The lights came back on, my apartment was lit up like a Christmas tree again, and all was right with the world.
Now I'm wondering, in the event that this happens again, if they sell battery powered lamps. I would not have freaked out so badly if my lamps would have been able to stay on. Oh, and battery powered night lights, and battery powered Christmas lights, and battery powered battery chargers...just in case!

2007-03-30T05:05:00.000-06:00

Newly discovered "Guilty Pleasure": Disney's Kim Possible

While on vacation with the rugrats, I was forced into major cartoon watching and this one was one of my favorites!
So funny, with the names of the main characters being Kim Possible and Ron Stoppible, who could resist?

2007-03-28T05:03:00.000-06:00

Trip Pictures!

Galveston Redux

2007-03-27T04:51:00.000-06:00

Got back with only a few gray hairs to report. The trip went better than expected (I expected some sort of apocalyptic event to happen) so that means the trip is given 3 1/2 stars. 4 stars would be if a Gilmore Girls/X-Files convention would be going on down there. That would have been sweet.
The trip seemed to have evolved into just a major shopping trip. No NASA, no submarine, no Moody Gardens. Just a lot of shopping...mostly at stores we have in Kansas! We did make it to the beach and the zoo. The beach was rather harrowing with the wind whipping pretty strongly and the surf was very high. We had a cookout there where we fixed hotdogs and smores and boy, I must tell you, you have never had hot dogs and smores until you have them sprinkled with sand! Yes, the wind was so strong that sand blew into all of our food and you really didn't know it until you started eating your hot dog and found it to be quite crunchy!
I got bit by some very aggressive fire ants, I got my foot caught in a baby stroller and fell, and had to sleep in the same hide-a-bad as my little five year old niece who seems to suffer from some very wild dreams. I got hit in the face a few times at night while she flailed her little arms about. Shoving her to the far side of the bed seemed like the best tactic but the little bugger always found her way back to the middle where I would endure more face slapping for the next two nights.
The trip went fast and overall went very well. New York City is in two weeks so I better stay in travel mode. That means I won't unpack from this trip. No I'm not lazy...just prepared!

Galveston, oh Galveston...

2007-03-16T05:50:00.000-06:00

Vacation time. Off to sunny beaches, warmer weather, and a submarine! Yes, I am heading down to Galveston with my sister and her kids. Two small children, a teenager, and my sister who always asks "so....what's going on with your hair...?". It might be a very very long week.
But we are thinking half glass full here so let's focus on the good stuff. Like I said, the beach and warmer weather are going to be waiting for us and yes, we are going to go visit a WWI submarine. The one other place we'll go for certain is the NASA space museum but besides that I'm at a total loss on how we're going to spend the better half of the week. The temperatures are only supposed to be in the upper 70's so I don't know if swimming will be something we want to do. Most likely just play in the sand and chase seagulls or have seagulls chase us, depends on if they spot us with food!

VICTORY!

2007-03-16T05:40:00.000-06:00

UPDATE UPDATE:

The first tennis match of the year, Craig vs. Teresa, came out with Teresa as the victor.

Team Craig blamed his loss on rain spots dotting his eyeglasses due to the sprinkles coming down during the game, but I think Team Teresa's superb handling of a weaker opponent was the real key to her win.
Good show Teresa!

Digital Dunces

2007-03-11T07:25:00.000-06:00

Yesterday Mary Lou and I went to a Digital Camera class offered by a camera store where Mary Lou bought her camera. Kind of like an intro class for new digital camera owners. I was actually expecting Mary Lou and I to be the only ones there but I was wrong, there were quite a number of people that showed up. At first we thought it was gonna be this huge spiel on "hey, buy more stuff from us because you really need to protect that camera you already paid big bucks for so why not drop more money on stuff you really don't need?" kind of thing. But the class actually was kind of helpful. The thing I couldn't stand was that half the class had these amazing cameras that they must have been "helped" into buying from the camera store, and they have NO IDEA how to use them. I'm surprised they could turn them on they were that inept!
There was this one lady that I kind of felt sorry for at the beginning of class. She had a super nice camera but knew nothing about it. Now I'm no genius on digital anything, I could be classified as a "digital dunce" but this lady was not only totally unaware of what basic terms such as view finder, cd, and memory card were but she had no idea what a Sharpie was! Yes, a Sharpie marker. No idea. She was totally clueless! At that moment Sympathetic Teresa was gone and was replaced by just plain Exasperated Teresa.
In the end though, I think Mary Lou and I might have graduated to the Semi-competent level of Digital Camera ownership....hmm...that may be pushing it!

R.I.F.

2007-03-09T06:34:00.000-06:00

Over the weekend I bought two new books that I had wanted for some time but haven't had the financial means to justify buying them. But alas, Mr. Credit Card came through and so they were purchased. I read the first one in one day (man, the book was great but reading it in one day seemed like such a waste!) and the other I have just finished. It's a good thing that I am a "re-reader" because hardback books are pricey! Knowing that I will most likely read them again somehow makes things a bit better. But I could have had like, fifty Wendy's dollar menu items for the price of those two books!

Craig with Hammy 1

2007-02-28T06:31:00.000-06:00

I keep forgetting the hamster's names so now they will be known simply as Hammy 1 and Hammy 2. Very easy to remember. Now I have to keep straight which one is 1 and which one is 2!

Family Ties

2007-02-28T05:56:00.000-06:00

Over the weekend I went to visit the family. While there I went to see Bridge to Terabithia (so sad but so good!), went shopping, and had lots of food. Not so much homemade food but food nonetheless. Hmm...the more I think about it the more I realize when I head home no big Sunday dinner's happen like they used to but when I call home on Sunday's usually they are getting ready for or have just finished the big Sunday meal! What's up with that!? Momma's got some 'splainin' to do.
Speaking of mother, my cousin (on my mother's side) is starting to research my mom's side of the family. Not much research had been done that I could think of so I decided to put my thinking cap on as well and see what I could find.
Earlier this week I located my great great great grandfather in the 1870 Missouri census. The earliest I could find my grandmother's family was in a 1900 Kansas census. Maternal sides are harder to research with a wife taking her husband's name after marriage. But I shall persevere and keep looking. I'm bound to find someone either in an asylum or prison....that would explain so much in my family!

Oscar Night

2007-02-28T05:41:00.000-06:00

Oscar Night was at Lou's again this year. The only costume wearers were me, Lin, and Brian. (yes, that IS Lin in the middle, hard to believe isn't it?)
I am of course, The Queen, and Lin and Brian were Pirates of the Caribbean. Or they were just really really into paper pirate hats, who knows.

Teresa's Big Night Out

2007-02-23T08:13:00.000-06:00

Last night I went to my first (and hopefully only) big karaoke night showdown. Julie was a karaoke finalist and asked if I wanted to see the final night of singing where the grand prize would be a whopping One Thousand Dollars!
Hmm..as I arrived I realized that I hadn't been in a real honest to goodness bar in quite some time. I soon discovered why. I hate smoke and most of the time I can't stand the people at bars and sure enough both of these were well represented last night. I must say though, it was quite an interesting experience. I saw Julie sing outside a church setting for the first time. She was phenomenal! She really does have a great voice. There were a few others that were pretty good but the majority were just painful to watch and even worse, painful to hear. My ears have stopped bleeding so that's a plus.
I think the best part of last night was when this guy went up to sing Neil Diamond's Forever in Blue Jeans. Before he went up on stage he did this magnificent? move where he grabbed both sides of his jeans and ripped them off revealing very tight leather pants. So singing Forever in Blue Jeans needed no blue jeans but rather leather pants instead? Interesting.
After the MC started a second round of free shots and had yet to reveal the winner of the contest I decided it was time to leave.
I hope Julie won, she surely deserved it but I just couldn't bring myself to watch one more kid gulp down some unknown alcoholic drink or see one more young kid light up.

2007-02-19T06:35:00.000-06:00

Slow down. Take a breath. This weekend has by far been one of my busiest. Between going out, house sitting two animals, and getting new animals, I think I'm just plain tuckered out.
Saturday night Bob and I went to Mickey's and ate some homemade lasagna and then played half a game of Trivial Pursuit. I suck at Trivial Pursuit. Bob and Mickey, they are good at Trivial Pursuit. That should give you a clue on how well I did.
Sunday was the completion of house sitting (yeah!). I had a lost kitty on my hands at one point but luckily lost kitty has been found. Kitty Clover found an ingenious hiding spot and for the hour in total I looked for her I never could find it. Only the magical aroma of Wendy's hamburger and fries lured her out of her hidey hole.
Sunday morning I ate breakfast with Lin and Brian and then we went to the garden show. It never fails to amaze me that at every one of those kinds of shows, garden shows, tractor shows, home shows, there are two demonstrations that are ALWAYS there. The magical shammy and the magical broom. People buys these things like they are going out of style! And they always say "Whoa! What a deal I got! Two for one! Two for one!"
The shammy man and the broom man sure know what they're doing!
Later I met up with Lou and Kristen to eat lunch and go see Pan's Labyrinth. Hmmm...I knew this movie was not going to be like a children's fairly tale but man! what a gruesome little movie in some parts! It was not what I expected to say the least. Very nice music though. Soundtrack buying might be necessary...it probably is time that I move Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron out of my cd player.

The critters have landed!

2007-02-18T21:10:00.000-06:00

The new additions: Scully and Mulder

Yes, they have arrived and are still, oddly enough, alive! So far everything is going well, I had a bit of a harrowing incident with one of them jumping out of my hand but the fall didn't' seem to phase the little bugger.
The wheel is irritatingly noisy at night but I've solved that problem by just moving the entire aquarium into the kitchen when it's time for bed.
They don't seem to understand that only one of them can fit in the wheel. Both try to cram their chubby little bodies in there and I'm afraid someones going to get their little hamster head taken off! I guess that will teach 'em.!

Hamster Rescue

2007-02-15T05:59:00.000-06:00

I am in a bit of a quandary. Last night at the nature center Dennis (head of the Nature Center) told me that we had two more hamsters that needed homes. The last hamster and her babies went to a better place (please don't ask where!!!) and so this was my opportunity to save these two hamsters before they, um go to "a better place". They are just about the cutest things I've seen, besides our prairie dogs Hans and Frans, in such a long time! One is peach with white spots and then the other is just solid peach. I even have names for them picked out. But I digress. My quandary is: should I rescue these hamsters? The last time I had hamsters it all ended up quite badly. I got two dwarf hamsters and they ended up being kind of smelly, and one of them turned into a baby makin' machine. Baby hamsters are not so cute. In fact they are downright icky.
Another problem is that I am gone quite a bit. Who will take care of Mulder and Scully (those are their new names). Mary Lou? Bob? Craig? Hmm...Craig likes the animals....
But here are the good things about getting these two hamsters. I get a free aquarium to keep them in, I'm saving them from a fate worse than death but death being their final fate! And it gives me some cute little furballs to take care of that don't require much time, attention, or expense.
So if you have any thoughts, opinions, or most likely concerns, on me actually trying to take care of a living thing besides myself....keep it to yourself...I'm sure Mully and Sculder will be just fine.....

2007-02-11T10:29:00.000-06:00

Audio Books to enjoy! Of course reading the books is just as enjoyable

A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 by Simon Winchester
and
The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition by Caroline Alexander

2007-02-11T09:49:00.000-06:00

Busy times. Friday night Lou, Kirstin, Karly and I went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was really quite good! They only thing I was concerned about was that some of the boys wore very short....skirts? that could have led to a very interesting wardrobe malfunction if they didn't watch it.
I worked all day Saturday, nothing too exciting happened there, and then last night tried to watch Team America: World Police. Hmm, I thought I had seen movies that I thought were a complete waste of time but until I saw this, I really hadn't. I couldn't even finish the movie it was so....boring. Yeah, the creators of SouthPark couldn't even make this movie funny. The puppet of Kim Jong-il was pretty neat though.
Today, is jazz concert day. But before that it's shopping time! I am heading out to shop with a full debit card and a need for new clothing! Poor Bob will never see the rest of his NYC money for my hunger for new socks is insatiable!
A new backpack is also needed. My current backpack only zips on one side. If by chance I zip it on the wrong side, the zipper doesn't catch and everything falls out. Not very fun.
There is a silent auction going on at work tomorrow that might produce various traveling bags I can bid on, but what usually is there is always stuff that I don't really need. And as I write this I know for certain that I will end up buying several things that will just end up right back in the auction next year. Yeah, the rooster birdhouse that I won last year at the auction? Right back in again this year. Sheesh!

A brief respite

2007-02-07T22:13:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow I get the day off! Yippee! Do I have plans you ask? Well, more like ideas or semi-formed plans that may or may not get executed. I would like to start implementing a filing system that I have been thinking of doing for sometime, and I would like to get my car washed (high of 28 degrees tomorrow, yikes!), and I would like to perhaps vacuum, dust, and read a halfway intelligent book, Sophie's World perhaps?...but I will most likely watch dumbed down tv and go to Barnes and Noble, get a latte, and peruse their magazine section.
I also might go a rental house huntin'. Not that I am currently unhappy with my place but there is always room for improvement. And for some reason, I'm excited about getting a yard. I really want a yard! True, mowing is not fun but the end result is fantastic! Great looking yard and a wonderful freshly mowed grass fragrance hovering about.
Hmmm...I'd have to get a push mower...maybe I can get Lin to give me her manual mower. You know, the kind you push with all your might all the while your neighbors mock and laugh at you because you're the only bozo on the block with such an archaic piece of machinery?
I am actually quite impressed with people that have the manual mowers. You are a) being a nice eco-friendly do gooder b) getting a good deal of exercise and c) okay, I'm out of reasons but I'm sure there is a "c" out there.
So,. overall only about one of the above will actually get done but better one than none, right?

Time Warp

2007-02-06T06:18:00.000-06:00

How funny! I was flipping through my photo album the other day and came across an old family vacation photo. The picture on on top is my family in Cripple Creek, Colorado, oh, about 1989. The other picture is of Craig and me in almost the exact spot fifteen years later. So weird...!

Back...!

2007-02-04T09:58:00.000-06:00

Housesitting is finito! I got back yesterday and it feels good to be back at the old routine. Sunday morning paper, sugar laden coffee, and now sitting at my old comuter...my really old computer...why does it feel good to be back at this old computer?!
Let's see what happened while I was away? Not anything too exciting. Work has been a bit stressful of late but I think it's starting to smooth out. Donna starts back as a page this Tuesday, we have a work day tomorrow so these arms of mine will look like Popeye's arms...okay more like Wimpy than Popeye.
I talked to my best friend yesterday for an hour and a half. Charla and I haven't' seen or talked to each other since our ten year high school reunion in August so we were well overdue for a nice long chat. Lot's is going on in her family so it was nice to catch up. Growing up I think I spent more time at her house and with her relatives than my own. I think those were the days, months, years, when Randy would wail on me whenever he could so it was good to get away anytime!
Speaking of Randy, he had a job interview in Florida this past week. They called later on and offered him the position but he's unsure if he wants to go. It would be a nice vacation spot for me to visit but it would be hard to have him so far away. But still...beaches! The Everglades! Universal Studios! Um...gaters!

Gone...

2007-01-25T06:18:00.000-06:00

I shall be incommunicado for about a week. Yes, it's that time again...house sitting time! Er...in this case puppy sitting time! I'm packed and ready to go, the only thing left to do is figure out how to fit all of the shows I want to record while I'm gone, onto one VHS tape. The obvious solution would be not to record all of the lame shows I like but for me, not an option! My motto is: "No tv show is left behind!" Hey, Bob has a VCR. Bob, if you are reading this, record Smallville! Uh-oh, I just publicly outed myself as a Smallville watcher. There will be mocking today, and tomorrow, and next week....
Here are a few things from my pending calender: tonight the gang and I are meeting up with Sandy to go eat. There was a Survivor like vote that took place on deciding where to eat and the retrieval desk tribe won with four votes for Texas Roadhouse while the IT tribe (Craig) had two votes for Thai (we gave him a pity vote so it wouldn't have been one vote against five...so sad).
Then I think Sunday Lou, Kirsten, and I are going to go see a high school performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. There was a fierce battle brewing between that musical and Les Miserables but after much deliberation we are sticking with Joseph and his coat.
That seems to be it for now. Be back in February!

2007-01-21T21:47:00.000-06:00

Snow!

2007-01-21T08:49:00.000-06:00

We have confirmed that snow is on the ground! It started snowing yesterday and a few flakes are still flying today. I got up around 5:30, looked out the window and saw massive amounts of beautiful white powder! I went to get the paper and spent oh, not too much time excavating my car, and then navigated the treacherous streets to Walgreens, where, upon arrival , I was the only car in the parking lot. Sissies!
Mickey called and asked if I wanted to go four wheeling in the snow this afternoon. I tried to contain my excitement but the shrieks of joy bubbled out and I think Mickey is now deaf. I haven't been on a four wheeler in two years, I can hardly wait! The last time I was on one, my brother was going way to fast, jumped a rather large bump in the field we were riding in, landed in a mud puddle, and had to push him out....mud being flung high into the air and eventually landing on me.
But this time no mud, just lot's of snow. Much cleaner! I can hardly wait...have I said that yet?

Hazzah!

2007-01-17T06:10:00.000-06:00

Hazzah: to express extreme excitement.
I am very excited, how fitting! I got my computer back from Craig last night. Mojo is running like a dream. There was a moment of trepidation when I couldn't find one of the cords thus thinking to myself "did I plug the cords I do have, in correctly?" but after a quick panic call to Craig, I was good to go. He had cleverly hidden the cord in his backpack knowing that the most obvious place would be the last place I would check. He is a sly one!
I even think my army of printers can work now. I'll going to be patient and wait to try them out over the weekend. I want a working computer for at least a few days before I try to destroy it.

2007-01-14T10:44:00.000-06:00

Movie to AVOID- The Warriors- just FYI

It is on!

2007-01-14T10:28:00.000-06:00

New York City here we come! Mary Lou just got word from her sister Jayne that she got show tickets for us. For those of you who don't know, Jayne stars in the Broadway production of Wicked. We've all been waiting on pins and needles to see if getting them would be possible, the show is sold out for several months, but Jayne had some pull with the box office and got us the much sought after tickets.
I'm gonna head over to Lou's today and we're gonna order plane tickets. We think we can get some pretty reasonable through Midwest Air. Poor Mary Lou's credit card is going to get QUITE the workout! The tentative plan is heading out April 12 and getting back April 16. Hotel rooms are going quick so we need to get those as soon as possible or Craig, Bob, and I are going to be staying at a hostel...hmm...that sounds kind of cool!
Some of the sights we want to see are the Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and Bob wants to go to the John Lennon memorial in Central Park, I think he said it's called Strawberry Field.
Now that I'm sure we are going, I must read the book Wicked. Pat gave me her copy to read and now I must start. I've heard word that the play is much different than the book but I think it will be good to read it nonetheless. So I need to stop reading Steven Hawking's A Brief History of Time....darn!

Mean Streets

2007-01-11T06:24:00.000-06:00

Cities. They chew you up and spit you out. Or in my case they wreck your car and empty your wallet.
Two days ago I unintentionally ran over the biggest curb I could find. It was kind of one of those curbs with the drainage grates under it making it ten times higher than it normally should be, the Pikes Peak of curbs if you will. After getting out of the way of oncoming traffic, I pulled over and took a look. Hmmm...cracked hubcap. Not so bad. Then later on at work it was noticed that there was something wrong with the hubcap, it seemed pushed in too much. Again, no problem. But that night as I was driving home I noticed that my steering wheel was pointed to the left as I was driving straight!! Noooooo! So I took it into the Midas place the next morning to get the hubcap adjusted and they got it all fixed up for free but now I have an appointment Friday to get the car aligned. Yeah, empty wallet. It's not like I'm trying to save up money here for the pending NYC trip, nooooo, I have tons of money to spend on stupid car problems. I guess I'm lucky that I didn't ruin the tire, have to buy one, and then get the car aligned, so there was good news in that.
I wonder how the public transportation is in this city. It can't be too bad. Oh wait, I have a bike! I am a master bike rider. I will ride my bike everywhere I go and then I won't have to worry about stupid car problems. Problem solved. Now I just have to get air in the bike tires. I need an air pump. I need to go to the store for the air pump. I need my bike to go to the store.
Hmmm...this doesn't bode well, does it?

Success!

2007-01-09T06:08:00.000-06:00

I've added a picture to my blog! Whoo-hoo! You may not see this as a huge deal but for me, the technically challenged, it is like climbing to the top of Mt. Everest, except I would never climb to the top of Mt. Everest, but I'm sure it would definitely be like that.
This picture was taken at Lou's New Year's Eve Party.
Bob on the left, then Lou, and drunken Craig on the right.

What ever happened to Pac-Man?

2007-01-07T08:14:00.000-06:00

Wow, it has been a game playing kind of weekend. It all started out with me wanting Zoo Tycoon and has snowballed into getting and playing SIM City, Grand Theft Auto, and playing Perfect Dark over at Julie's for like three hours yesterday!
The SIM City and Grand Theft Auto games are Craig's (yeah, I know, he has a game with prostitutes...who'd a thunk it?). I tried playing the SIM's game but my city totally crashed and burned. The basic premise of that game is build a working city that people want to live and work in and then keep them there. Sounds easy doesn't it? But not so much. Within a year my city was in deep debt, hooligans and shanties were everywhere, and everyone was fleeing my city!
So I shall try again, this time I will be victorious!
Grand Theft Auto is soooo bad! Not as bad as I was thinking but still soooo bad! You beat people up with baseball bats, and you can run people over, blow people up, shoot at people, and I think, just maybe you can, um, use the services of the prostitutes!!!
Last week, Julie was given an old Nintendo 64 game system from her brother, so yesterday I played a racing game, which I was actually good at, and then a shoot em up game, which Julie was always "accidentally" shooting and killing me on.
I never did get the Zoo Tycoon game, maybe I'll find it in a bargain basement bin somewhere and will finally get the opportunity to play it. All I want out of life is to build a super cool polar bear habitat, is that too much to ask?

Disaster Redux

2007-01-04T06:26:00.000-06:00

Mojo lives! Craig called me last night and told me that my trusty computer still has some life left in it and that he shall make a full recovery. Well, there are still some issues with the USB ports but the huge problem has been solved, something about a power supply doohickey. Anywho, I was asked if I wanted the computer back to check my e-mail but I declined. I have in my possession (temporarily) Neutrino, Craig's laptop. I found the name cold and uninviting, so I have nicknamed her Neutrogena. Much better, right? So for now, Neutrogena and I shall be bonding over cups of coffee and spoilerfix.com
I think to make the bond even stronger I better go out and buy the computer game Zoo Tycoon. Mojo was never capable of playing such a highly sophisticated game but now that I have this wonderful bit of computer hardware I have every hope that I will become a master of zoo tycoonery!

Disaster!

2007-01-03T19:23:00.000-06:00

My computer has sounded it's death rattle. Mojo (named after Homer Simpson's helper monkey) went into what I term "computer cardiac arrest" Monday, January 1, and is in critical but stable condition. A team of poorly trained EMT's (okay, just myself) tried to save Mojo by
unplugging it and then plugging it in over and over and over again.
Attempts failed. Top computer guru Craig came over this evening
to takeMojo to a special care facility (Craig's house) to see if perhaps the condition isn't fatal.
For now, I use a stand in for Mojo. Not the same but for now will have to do.
With the recent death of Protron in December, things look pretty bleak here. I must now go and warn my only standing electronic devices, Mr. Answering Machine and Mrs.
Microwave. Off to the kitchen I go!

Count down to 2007

2006-12-31T08:31:00.000-06:00

New Year's Eve...wow, 2006 went by very quickly! Let's see, anything good happen this year...thinking....thinking....I guess all my family and friends are healthy so those are definitely good things.
Yesterday I went over to Julie's house and we had a Gone With the Wind marathon.
Good Lord I forget how long that movie is! I think we began watching it at 5 and it ended about 9:30. I also forget what a big brat Scarlett is. Brat is the word I shall use since this is a PG rated blog.
Let's see, for Christmas I gave Julie a lovely bamboo plant and photo album. She gave me a back massage thingie that I used earlier yesterday and it made me kind of nauseous. Perhaps I used it on an empty stomach and that's a no-no. I wonder if that's mentioned in the instructions?
And boy did I call it! Protron is a piece of junk! Again the PG rating comes in handy here. I opened the box, removed Protron, plugged all the correct wires into the correct places (I hope), and....nothing happened. The little door that is supposed to pop out and take the dvd didn't open, no scrolling message that says "hello, menu, busy" or anything halfway helpful happened. I eventually had to
pry the little door open and it took the dvd but after that, zip! Dead in the water. So I called Mom and asked her to mail me the receipt and then just hooked back up my old but trusty Samsung dvd player.
Craig said he will take a look at the junky dvd player today but I really hold out no hope. I think that this dvd player came with the capacity to work for no person.
Tonight Mary Lou is hosting her annual New Year's Eve bash. Quite a crowd is
expected to come, I think about ten of us in all. Texas Hold'em is on the agenda and boy have I been practicing. My brother Randy has been teaching me all the tricks and I am ready to rock! True, the last time I played with this crowd I lost all my chips pretty early on but that's not gonna happen this time....good luck is on my side tonight!

Mr. Sandman is sooo fired!

2006-12-31T08:12:00.000-06:00

Oooh...a four day weekend for me!
Alas, I cannot fully enjoy having these days off because I can't do the most sought after weekend pleasure...sleeping in!
Yesterday I woke up at four in the morning because I had fallen asleep on my sleep inducing couch earlier that night. I willed myself to stay in bed until six and thus formed a headache that took massive aspirin consumption to get rid of. And again, this morning I was awake at six!
Hmm...I could blame all of this early rising to not staying awake past ten most evenings but....I'm sure the blame lies elsewhere....perhaps the newspaper people are to blame. When I wake up that early I am prone to go get a newspaper from the scary convenience store down the street. At six in the morning you would think all the scaries are still asleep but noooo they are at the Kwik Shop waiting for me to arrive with my uncombed hair and my unflattering pajamas just so they can give me that "wow, you just woke up and boy does it show" kind of look.
I shake my fist at you Slumber Gods!

It's all about location, location, location

2006-12-28T05:47:00.000-06:00

Have I mentioned yet that I have had ongoing problems with my apartment? Well, if I haven't then you are in for quite a read!
I moved to this place a year ago. It's situated right outside the ghetto
but at the time I thought "hey, I can co-exist with the thugs and the
thugs can co-exist with me" and I thought that would be my only worry, but noooooo, the real problem seems to be the apartment itself! For a while I thought it was haunted and then I realized that haunted would be easier to deal with, Ota Mae Brown to the rescue!.
Here are just a few incidents that have happened over the last year.
The place was getting new shingles one weekend and when I got home the
roofers had thrown every last shingle into my patio, the only entrance
to my apartment! My landlord, neighbors, and I had to make a bridge
from plywood to cross the moat of shingles to my door. It was very
harrowing, rusty nails to my left, old shingles to my right, I'm lucky
to have come out of that alive!
One time I came back from a trip to Colorado and upon entering my apartment
the first thing I see is an entire wall missing to my hallway that
blocks the downstairs renter from my apartment. I could see into her
place and she could walk up to mine! Argh! I think that one was the worst. The other bad part to that was Craig was with me at the time and told EVERYONE at work! I think he even told some street people but I still can't pin him to that....
Another incident was when my patio gate got swung in the opposite direction of
the way it's supposed to open, got stuck, and I couldn't get in. I had
to go get someone who works for my landlord, she tried to open it but
with no luck. I then had to give her a boost over the gate (yeah, I
actually did the cupping of the two hands, she put her foot in it and
up she went), and still couldn't get the gate open. Now to this story
there is a bit of a "silly Teresa" mistake that was made. I'll just say that
the darn door WAS stuck and that trying to open it the wrong way was
not the only problem that the door had!
There are so many more incidents that I could mention but I would probably start thinking "why am I still at this place?", and want to move out. Alas, I have moved so many times in the last few years my friends and co-workers refuse to
help me move anymore. What I really need is an army of movers at my
disposal. Ooh, a robot army! Or maybe just one robot, the upkeep on an
army of robots could get costly. So, your mission, blog readers, if you
see an idle robot, send him my way. Unless he looks like a thug, then
just move right along....

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

2006-12-27T06:10:00.000-06:00

Who cares! It can't compare to the sound of a house full of children! I
forget how noisy and rambunctious kids can be but as soon as I enter
into my parent's house I have four little reminders begging me to play
tea party, hide and seek, Twister, and I think "I forgot this?"!
Anywho, I had a very nice Christmas, lots of family time was had, lots of loot was received, and now it's back to the ol' coal mine today.
My mom got me this new dvd player that I need to unbox and plug in but I'm rather wary of this new machine. It's a brand I have never ever heard of (it's a cheapy brand and believe me, I know ALL the cheapy brands). It'a Protron dvd player. It sounds like it belongs on the cartoon Transformers. But my Protron dvd player would be a Decepticon, the bad guys. It just sound rather menacing. "I AM PROTRON. Give me all of your digital video discs and I will not destroy your puny planet." So I hesitate to plug this new fangled dvd
player in not only for the well being of planet Earth but it seems like
the last time I plugged a new electronic device into my television I
totally fried the tv. Tonight I will make my decision. Maybe during the day, Protron will unbox itself and go off, trying to take over the world. That at least will take the decision out of my hands.

A little early but, Merry Christmas!

2006-12-22T05:38:00.000-06:00

This will be my last post...until I get back from Christmas vacation! Ho, ho, had you fooled didn't I?
I leave for the zoo (my parent's house) tomorrow morning with a laundry
basket full of gifts. When I need to take lots of things home, I use
the ever handy laundry basket. I think this innovative carrying procedure started with my two aunts on my mom's side. Every Thanksgiving they bring food in laundry baskets and it seems to work like a charm. These baskets serve a dual purpose by not only being able to carry the food in but they can take your cranberry and gravy soiled clothes out!
But I digress, tonight's excitement is a Texas Hold'em poker night at Lou's house. Her sister is visiting for the holiday and we always love to take unsuspecting relatives for their money! Sigh, okay, we only play with poker chips. But still, we shall bleed her dry of all her poker chips!
Today at work, the people I supervise and I are having our Christmas exchange. Yesterday I received two FANTASTIC gift from Bob. He not only gave me a gift certificate to Panera but he got me, ready for it?....a hanging fruit basket type thingie! You know, one of those things that hangs from you kitchen ceiling so
your fruit won't go bad so quickly? That is what I got and that is soooo
what I wanted! My reasoning for not buying fruit so often is because I
just place it on my counter and it goes bad on one side and then I won't eat it, thus forcing me to go buy chocolate as a means of solace for my lost fruit. So now, no more sorry chocolate, I am after apples, oranges, mangoes, and coconuts!
I also received a warm fuzzy blanket from Lin's sister and her children, and from Lin and Brian I received a very lovely Orlando Bloom puzzle. NICE!
Mary Lou gave me a poinsettia that I have not killed yet, yeah me! and Craig got me a very fragrant candle.
So all in all a good Christmas so far. Now to see if my Mom and Dad got me that pony. Cross the fingers!

A Pre-Christmas lament

2006-12-19T05:58:00.000-06:00

Christmas shopping is finito! After many stores and debit card swipes, sprinkled by a bit of cash here and there, I have finally completed shopping. My family seems to be growing by 1.2 children every year and it seems like there are more co-workers to buy for as well, making this one of the costliest holidays I can remember. Even as I write this, I have a coffee mug right beside me with the depiction of the painting "Scream" on it....how fitting, that is exactly what I feel like doing! I'm not even going to bother wrapping the presents this year. I feel that bags are the wave of the future. The wrapping paper companies should be very afraid of these Christmas bag makers. Bags are easy to use, fairly inexpensive, and no tape or scissors are required! It's a no brainer! And the best thing about bags are if you are sneaky and careful enough you can reuse them over and over again with no one ever knowing! *insert diabolical laugh here*.
Hmm...I've also been harassed by the state of my Christmas tree. It's a six foot artificial tree with only lights on it. No ornaments, no tree topper, just lights. Knowing this outraged Julie and her family. No ornaments or tree topper? That's an abomination they cried!
I don't want ornaments darn it! If you have them, you have to keep them stored somewhere and then put them on the tree when the time comes and then take them down, then find their storage space again that has probably since been filled up by Christmas bags that you are going to reuse next year!
Maybe when I have a large house that can sustain my bag recycling center, then and only then will I think about purchasing ornaments. But about that tree topper.....

Hairy Situations

2006-12-15T06:02:00.000-06:00

After many months I finally broke down and got a hair cut. Not that I am opposed to haircuts it's just that when I do get one I end up looking like a ten year old boy for a few weeks because they cut my hair so short.
I tend to go to the cheap-o chop shops mostly because I am pretty indifferent to my hair. The trade off is that I get my hair cut quickly, cheaply, and it usually looks good but I am subjected to the wackiest hair cutters. I usually strike up a conversation with them while they cut away and the stories they tell me are so funny! One lady told me about all her children and I commented on something mundane like how were they doing in school and she replied that she didn't know because they had all been taken away and put in child protection services. Yikes!
Another time I had this very very odd lady who was to only give me a haircut but ended up giving me a haircut, shampoo, massage, and facial! I was too scared to tell her "stop touching my face!"
Yesterday's girl was equally funny. She referred to herself as an "open-mouthed" hair cutter. She leaves her mouth open while she cuts hair. One day she had lip gloss on and this guys hair she was cutting ended up all over her lips from the lip gloss....ewww!
Then another time when she was back in cosmetology school she was giving a pedicure to some older lady. I guess a toenail was clipped and landed right into her mouth. Ugh, if I EVER bad mouth my job, slap me around a bit. For all of the maddening troubles that go on at the library fortunately I never have had toenails launched at me.

Technical Difficulties

2006-12-11T06:26:00.000-06:00

Okay, I admit to being no genius when it comes to electronics. I don't know much about computers except how to break them, I can't change the songs on my MP3 player without A LOT of assistance, and if you ask me
if I can at least print from my computer I will gladly stick a fork in my eye....for that has been an ongoing problem for me. Basically, my computer won't print to it's printer. My friend Craig gave me this computer without a printer so after some time I thought, I'm ready to print something and ended up getting a printer
for Christmas. But weeks went by without me hooking up the thing until finally in the spring I decided to do the deed and install my printer...by myself! Whoo-hoo! The installation went great, true, I didn't have a USB
thingy but Craig got me set up with one. So now I'm ready to print right? Um, no. I try to test print a page and when I hit the print button the whole computer reboots itself! Yeah, no printing just rebooting! I tried several different ways of printing but they all failed and I think my computer restarted itself up to ten times. I
could tell it was getting a little cranky so I waited for help. The seller of my wonky computer(hmm...Craig again, sense of foreboding should have been steeling over me) came over and also had no luck
fixing it. He thought it could be the computer's problem but did not rule out my printer. I then thought, what the heck, I don't need to print no stinkin ' papers, and left it alone.
Many moons passed until I was able to get another printer from my sister. This one was neat
and free, so I was ready to try it out. Hooked it up, ready to rock,
and I was met with failure once again. Rats! Stupid,junky, no good computer rebooted over and over again.
More moons passed and a meteor shower went by until finally I was given a
super sweet printer/scanner from Craig. It has tons of bells and
whistles and is very heavy, heavy means quality in my world. If one bag
of chips is heavier than the other, I say go for the mega-weight one! I
know, I'm pretty wild!
I lugged it up to my apartment and started the arduous process of hooking it up and installing the software. This actually went fairly quickly because I am now a Printer Master of the Black Belt variety. I had the nice little "installation complete" box come up and it asked me to test a print page. YIKES! Moment of truth
here. I pushed the "print" button. A white light brighter than anything I've ever seen started to appear before my eyes. A loud booming voice said to me "Teresa, do not print anymore. It is time for you stop
hitting CTRL P and rest."
Um, okay, that didn't happen. In truth, nothing happened excpet a red "!" light came on meaning trouble with the printer. Sigh... I give up. Has anyone ever seen Office Space? There is a great scene in that movie
where the office workers take the reviled office fax machine out to a field and just bash the heck out of it. Very cathartic. Hmmm...does anyone happened to know where I can find an open field?

Not Your Mother's Broomstick

2006-12-10T08:26:00.000-06:00

I think I have found the funniest magazine EVER! I was perusing the magazine rack at Hastings yesterday when I found myself next to the "paranormal" section. The main topics of these magazines were UFOs,
conspiracy theories, and alien life. The best one though was one called "New Witch: Not your mother's broomstick ". I flipped through it for about ten minutes and I just couldn't look away! It was too nutty to put down. The main story
was pretty good, I can't mention it here because it's pretty darn racy,
let's just say they don't shy away from anything! I think the best part
was when I looked at an advertisement and it said "Absinthe,
Belladonna, Hemlock....you call them poisons, we call them perfumes."
How good is that?!
They also have a column called "Goodwitch/Badwitch". Here's their tag line "Do you have a problem you want the witches to tackle? Get two views for the price of one! Ask goodwitch and badwitch." Who needs those crazy newspaper advice columnists when you have two witches that could help you out? And two for the price of one! Can it get any better?!

Free means free, but geez!

2006-12-06T06:06:00.000-06:00

While shopping at the grocery store the other day I saw a husband and
wife duo go hog wild over the free sample offering by the deli.
I think the sample was something as mundane as colbyjack but that didn't matter!
It was free and by gum they were going to take as many as they wanted.
Between the two of them I think they took about eight pieces of cheese.
That's crazy! Maybe if it was some kind of fancy pants cheese I could understand, because who can afford fancy pants cheese? But no, this was all around normal cheap-o cheese!
This caught by attention not only because I thought it rude but
Julie's mom works at Sam's Club as the free sample lady and has these kinds of
people come by her little sample stand all the time. She was telling me
that this old guy (sorry, not very pc ) always comes to the store and
drops by her stand to get the free eats. This is not so abnormal until
she tells me that he does some type of weird costume change to distract
her to the fact that "hey, I'm the same guy!"
He comes by with a hat, then no hat, then a coat, then no coat, and so on and so forth. Then there's this one lady that seems homeless and stays in the store all day eating from the sample stands. FOR THE WHOLE DAY! I thought Sam's would kick her
out but apparently they're not that worried about their free sample supply, or the fact that someone is hanging about and not buying anything! I, myself do partake of the goodies offered but never more than once and never if it looks like something gross....I shudder at the thought of minced fish bites....

But I don't wanna make lemonade

2006-12-04T06:29:00.000-06:00

My car the lemon. Today I take the little bugger to the collision center to have them take a look at the scrape I received at the airport. I don't think it should be too much of a problem, it's only about two feet long and a couple inches wide. I guess I could have used a magic marker to cover it, but oh well.
This car has been one big headache ever since I got her (yes, it's a she and her name is Bluebell).
The car before her was my beloved Nissan Sentra. I got that car in 2001 and never had a lick of trouble with her. She was so dependable and forgave me some really really dumb driving mistakes. Like the big curb drive over of 2001, the toddler miss of 2004, the innumerable flat tires throughout her life, and the list goes on.
This year I wrecked her and had to replace her quite quickly. I eventually chose my current car, a 2004 Honda Civic and have regretted that decision ever since.
I've had the car for over six months and out of those six months I have had her in the shop over ten times. A couple emission sensor problems, my door handle broke, my rear defrost didn't work, new front brakes, and what I think is a bit of a heater problem that I haven't told anyone about yet.
Sigh, I lament over this car constantly and should be happy with what I have, but I can't help wishing that I never had that stupid wreck and that I would have my trusty old sidekick still with me.

Poisoning the Guacamole!

2006-12-02T08:28:00.000-06:00

While I was sick this past week I watched a lot of daytime television. I think perhaps jumping out of the window would have been a better alternative. I don't think I've every watched so much drivel in all my life; unless you count that time I was hooked on the first season of Flavor Flave, but let's forget about that for now. I mean there is absolutely nothing redeeming about daytime tv! I know that soap operas are by most peoples standards mindless entertainment but I think they have really scraped the bottom of the barrel these days. Has anyone ever took time to watch five minutes of "Passions"? I know, I know, your right hand to have those five minutes back, right? Currently they have a toddler on there who apparently plays some kind of witch, and since the kid is too young to make sense verbally, they have thought bubbles coming out of her head! Thought bubbles! Out of her head! Nuts!
I then switched over to watch some news but they kept reporting the same stories over and over again that I had to stop watching. Yes, I get it, the White House decorated for Christmas and I'm happy that Laura Bush gave every news reporter a tour, good for them!
I think when I switched to a non-news station my eyes got confused by NOT having a news ticker line at the bottom of the screen!
Anywho....just a reminder that if you do stay home during the week, be sure to have a really good selection of DVD's or a nice selection of books to read. My suggestion: kill two birds with one stone and read the book Pride and Prejudice and then watch the movie(s).....that will last ya a while!

The Flu and Bad Car-ma

2006-11-30T10:10:00.000-06:00

Monday, November 27. A day which will not be forgotten by me anytime soon. Oh, it sounds like a nice enough date, very unassuming, very modest, but don't let it fool you! It took me out, like wind being knocked out of you when you are on the wrong end of an ill fated teeter-tot war.
The day started off bad. I woke up to a severe case of flu symptoms which lasted most of the night and morning. That day I was to pick my friend Mary Lou up from the airport. I felt like death so I tried to find someone to drive there and meet her but alas no one could be found. On my way to the airport Lou calls me and tells me her plane will be late...two hours late. No biggie I thought, I'll just sleep in my car until she arrives. So I pull into the airport parking lot and commenced falling asleep only to be awoken by my car being hit! I popped out of the car and took a look at the damage (a two foot scrape on the back quarter panel) when I saw the person who hit me was driving off! I dashed after the car in the rain, oh, did I mention it was raining? Yeah, it was! So, I dashed after the car in the rain and told her she had just hit my vehicle. She didn't seem very agreeable to getting out of her car, or giving me any insurance info but I finally got it out of her.
Cold, miserable, and cranky I went inside to wait. When Lou finally arrived I asked her if she could drive us home because I just didn't think I could have made it back without ending us up in a ditch. Mary Lou readily agreed.
Over the next few days what I thought was a case of the 24 hour flu bug turned into strep throat. So now I am at home, quarantined, and on antibiotics. Oh, you know what else? I misread the instructions to my meds and was accidentally overdosing myself ! Now I'm a penicillin junkie to boot!

It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world....

2006-11-30T09:27:00.000-06:00

The big holiday event this year was me trying to purchase an obscenely cheap laptop at Best Buy on Black Friday. My brother, nephew, niece, and I left home Thursday evening, ready to spend the night in the store parking lot so we could have first dibs. We arrived at the store around ten and what greeted us (and I use the term "greeted" very loosely) was a line of people stretching almost beyond the parking lot to the service road next to it . We were stunned! What time did these people get there!? The answer: 1:00 that afternoon. That's the time the first person in line arrived there to wait on those stupid laptops! They had spent almost their entire Thanksgiving day waiting in line for cheap electronics. I figured there was no way I was going to be able to get one seeing as the store probably rationed them out hoping to create a huge shopping frenzy. Highly dejected and discouraged I went home empty handed....only to wake up the next morning to go shopping! From five in the morning til five in the evening we too were among the frenzied hoard of shoppers.
All in all, another headache inducing event that we get ourselves into every year knowing better, but hey, I found a neat-o bag regularly priced $40 and got it for $5!!! Vindicated!

Turkey Time

2006-11-22T06:02:00.000-06:00

The day of giving thanks is almost upon us. Tomorrow I will be heading to my parent's house to celebrate Thanksgiving with the rest of my family. And what a family it is! Currently my brother has moved back home thus taking up the ONLY extra bed in the house relegating me to a lovely air mattress in the computer room. The computer room has kind of turned into the grandchildrens play area, which in turn has turned into crumb central. I swear, whatever food they are eating, seventy percent of it falls onto the floor. You don't dare walk barefoot in this room (this phenomenon seems to be spreading to the living room) for fear of ending up with a Lays potato chip lodged in your foot! The salt? My God the pain!
My Mom's side of the family joins us for this holiday. The tradition is for everyone to bring some type of side dish while the aunts make the big ticket items; ham, turkey, homemade noodles, etc., we then pile the food high upon our Chinaware heavy duty plates, roam off to the living room or wherever there is space to sit, and become large roly-poly like creatures that go for seconds, thirds, and even sometimes fourth-sies.
After the eats, its game time! Not football mind you. Some stay inside for that, but we LOVE badminton in my family. Okay, I love badminton and thus force the kids to play with me. If no badminton can be played, darn you Kansas winds!, then we play tons of hide and seek, and croquet. Now just imagine these games being played with 3, 5, 7, 11, and 13 year old kids and that is exactly what it is like. Pure chaos. Very enjoyable indeed.

Movie Mania

2006-11-21T06:20:00.000-06:00

Last week I saw three movies at the theatre. I know, I know, who sees
three movies in one week? For some reason, my friends and I had TONS
of free time so we took advantage of it. The first movie was
Invincible. I could have sworn as we we were walking into the theatre
that this was a Jet Li movie but to Bob and Craig's astonishment (and
my own!) it was that crazy MarkWahlberg movie about the Philadelphia Eagles! At first I thought, what's Mark Wahlberg doing in a Jet Li movie and then the light bulb flashed over my head and *ding*, we were at the wrong movie. But alas, we stayed and it turned out to be quite the enjoyable film.
We then saw Borat a few days later. Hum, how should I describe my feelings about this wonderful social commentary....funny? Yes, it was funny. Disturbing? Yes, the fat man wrestling naked was disturbing. Overall, it was like nothing I'd
ever seen before, nor do I think I'll ever see it again. My mind was
traumatized for a few days after seeing it.
Last but not least was my favorite of all three, Casino Royale, the new Bond movie with the new James Bond. I've never been a James Bond fan, even though they have such interesting character names such as Octopussy and Miss Moneypenny, but this new installment was quite good. The new Bond, played by Daniel Craig, was just what was needed; a shot of new blood for perhaps a sagging franchise.

Not to be morbid, but...

2006-11-19T09:29:00.000-06:00

I saw the most interesting obituary today. A fairly young woman (is 52 young these days?), passed away earlier this week. Not that I habitually read the obituary section of the newspaper but young ages usually catch my eye so I stopped to read the notice. What I found interesting was that they were going to have the memorial service at a bowling alley. Yes, a bowling alley! A few words were going to be spoken and then the "attendees" were asked to play a round of bowling in memory of the deceased! How cool is that?

Animal House

2006-11-19T08:57:00.000-06:00

Every Wednesday I volunteer at a nature center. Mostly this nature center focuses on educational programs for school children and rehabilitation for injured animals.. The animals we take in our mostly non-domestic creatures that most people don't know what to do with....nuisance animals I guess you could call them. Turtles, possums, raccoons, etc.
When I went in this past week, I entered the "rat room". The rat room mostly houses animals that are going to be at the nature center temporarily.
As I entered, I heard the most vicious growling noise I've ever heard! I crept in, turned on the light, and beheld the surliest raccoon I've ever laid eyes upon. It was growling one minute and making some other disturbing noise the next. It looked as if it's back leg was injured and couldn't move around very well. I crept near him but as I got closer he got more agitated so I backed off. I realized that I would have to feed and water him but I was too scared at the moment to think of how I was going to do this. In the end I put on two HUGE leather gloves (used to handle our large birds of prey) and tried to cajole the little raccoon to settle down a bit. I slid the food into his little pen and that's when he attacked my hand!....Thank goodness for leather, I could have been a rabies victim! After the initial interest and attack on me, he dove for the food. I guess "dove" isn't the correct word since we couldn't move all that well....perhaps, lunged. Yes, he lunged for the food and paid me no more attention.
Since I mentioned rabies I thought I'd include this little known fact: Unlike raccoons, possums are not carriers of rabies. There have been a few cases but it is VERY RARE for possums to ever have rabies.

I keep my eyes wide open all the time.

2006-11-16T06:31:00.000-06:00

Diligence. Attentiveness. Alertness! All these my friends, are what you
need to be practicing for *gulp* deer season. Yes, deer season is fully
upon us here in Kansas. That awful time of year when deer are out and
about, lookin ' for a good time with some other deer, making highways
and interstates places of death and destruction.
A friend of mines car was hit by a deer this week and totalled the vehicle. I believe someone told me that the highest deer/vehicle accident day is sometime this
week, so...for all of those heading out in the early morning or early
evening, be on guard!

While I was eating lunch yesterday, we all started talking about deer accidents when someone said they had seen a deer get hit by a semi-truck. He started going into detail of the accident when they stopped, looked at me and said "the deer kind of
ended up looking like chili". Of course, I was eating chili. Yum.

Now That's a Spicey Meatball!

2006-11-15T21:26:00.000-06:00

Last night I was invited to an "authentic" Italian dinner. Now most of
my friends think this was some kind of pity invite but I know I was
wanted there for my fine conversation skills and wonderful table
manners. No elbows on the table for me!
One of the guests included a nice older gentlemen who immigrated
to the US after WWII. A co-worker of mine is hoping to obtain an oral
history from him about his journey over here and his experiences right
after settling in the States.
While visiting with him at the dinner, he showed
me a nice little pill box he stores his medication in. On the pill box
was a picture of a flower and as I looked at it he asked if I knew what
flower that was. I am probably the most ignorant female on earth when it comes
to flowers so I didn't try to even guess so I just said that I
had no idea. He then said, "Edelweiss". And I did a mental head slap after that! Of course "Edelweiss". Hadn't I seen Sound of Music a bazillion times!?
But the really interesting part was when he started singing "Edelweiss" to me...in Russian. At this point I didn't' know what to do. Smile, sway, I had no idea! So I did both. He seemed to enjoy it!

Game On!

2006-11-13T06:37:00.000-06:00

Ugh, people seem to have way too much money! The PlayStation 3 that's coming out in the US this winter will sell for around $600 but has been selling on eBay for around $2500! People are nuts! This kind of seems reminiscent of the whole Elmo doll fiasco several Christmas' ago but only fifty times worse.
The BBC article I was reading about the launch of the PS3 in Japan on November 11 stated, "The first buyers of the PS3 were largely elderly Chinese men and young Chinese women with shaky Japanese language skills. Opportunistic Japanese business men have the largest presence, hiring poor Chinese men and women to wait in line for a PS3." Nuts I tells ya!
On the plus side of gaming, the new Nintendo Wii that comes out soon will sell for around $250. No need to mortgage your house for this one!

My new pal, Stephen King

2006-11-12T09:54:00.000-06:00

Stephen King and I both adore audio books. I found this out by running across his monthly opinion page in Entertainment Weekly (my favorite magazine!). In this article he weighs the pro's and con's of reading the written word as opposed to listening to it.
Of course it's crazy to think that we do not enjoy reading, it's Stephen King for crying out loud, but I do enjoy listening to someone tell me a story. I sometimes have a bad habit, especially with LARGE books, to skim and skip pages just to reach the end.
I'm still relatively new to the whole audio book scene but the ones I have listened to have been really enjoyable. Here are just a few so far: The Prodigal Summer, River of Doubt, Horatio's Drive, and Undaunted Courage (I'm still in the middle of this one).

Goodies for T

2006-11-11T22:00:00.000-06:00

My parents came to visit me this weekend. I LOVE when my parents come to visit me! Not only because they are my only parents but because I always get tons of goodies lavished upon me. Yes, I'm old enough not to have my folks buy me clothes, groceries, and other such things but.....what the heck, I don't care if I'm too old. I like free stuff, so sue me. I got new pants, new socks, new gloves, some groceries, this list could get pretty long so I'll stop here.
Went to a really good bbq restaurant while they were up. Famous Dave's has really great food and they get two great big thumbs up for offering sweet tea. Ah, sweet tea, my source of strength and I'm sure future problem with diabetes.
Famous Dave's also has this huge menu item that basically costs $55 and feeds five people. Just about everything offered on the menu but in smaller portions. But just so you don't forget your in abarbecue restaurant they serve this feast to you on a trash can lid. Yum!
I found a very fitting quote from the meat master himself, Homer Simpson.

Homer: Are you saying you're never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon?
Lisa: No
Homer: Ham
Lisa: No
Homer: Pork Chops
Lisa: Dad, those all come from the same animal,
Homer: Heh. Heh. Heh. Oooh, yeah, right, Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal.

Patio Problems

2006-11-09T07:26:00.000-06:00

I've taken to locking my patio lately. I've done this to ensure that the stuff inside my patio doesn't wander off (in ghetto terms: stolen!). I came home a few weeks ago to find my bike falling over from it's previous upright position. Now I could attribute this to strong gusty winds, playfully strong squirrels, or the ghosts that I think reside in my apartment, but.....I really think someone was trying to steal the bike. Luckily, I have it locked around a pole and it just wasn't worth the trouble of breaking the lock I guess. I wonder if they saw the flat tires and thought it just wasn't worth it!
And yes, where I live does skirt the ghetto so this makes much sense to lock anything that can be locked.
Last night I unlocked the patio to find a huge tarp inside on the ground. This was to be expected. Earlier this year my building was painted by my landlord and co. After they left I noticed they had "accidentally" taken off with one of my tarps (to conveniently cover my bike in the winter) and a hose nozzle. Now, these items cost less than five bucks combined BUT I know if I had "accidentally" taken such items from my landlord they would want them back ASAP or charge me for them. So it took me a few months to gather the courage to ask about of their whereabouts and I guess they finally found the tarp. It shall now be my mission to discover the fate of the hose nozzle. Luckily it's getting cold outside and watering seems to be last on my things to do. They soooo lucked out this time. But when spring comes.....they better watch out!

Hello World!

2006-11-06T13:55:00.000-06:00

I know, I know, another blog entering cyberspace! Not to worry though, I shall make this one as mindnumbing and trivial as possible. Nothing too heavy; mainly because I have a very limited understanding of most heavy topics!
Um, what else, what else.....I think I shall just leave this as it is and make it my first official post. Whoo-hoo!