On the brighter side...

.....It's FREE CONE DAY at Ben and Jerry's.


Woohoo!

:-)

I wonder how many times I can go today? I think I need at least a double dose after my recent loss, don't you?


Life is good.

10:14 PM Update

I MISSED Free Cone Day.

How perfect. :-(

I forced number one son to go to school today, despite his protests that he was on death's door and that I SUCK because I'm mean. I caved yesterday and picked him up at lunch for an ear ache, but com'on, he slept a gazillion hours and had enough spunk and energy to argue with me. I think that qualifies as well enough to schlep off to school.

Anywhooo, he was well enough to walk home from school and not take the bus. so, I told the kids that we'd go to Free Cone Day later on - woohoo! right?

I fed them early, took them off to number one son's frigid baseball game. (45 degrees!? WTF? - last week I got a sunburn) Anyway, dh arrived to cheer him on, so I took darling daughter to run a few errands - drop off dry cleaning, rob a bank to afford a few ounces of gas before I ran out (now *that would be embarrassing), and sneak off to the mall to find something cute to wear to a work event with dh tomorrow and try on some new bras. (Don't I know how to live on the wild side?)

After all that, dd and I were on our way home (after dutifully stopping for milk for breakfast) and we realized we missed it. :-(

No chunky monkey, no cherry garcia, no chubby hubby. ::: sniff:::

I'm consoling myself with leftover lasagna (NOT as good as Karen's) and a glass of merlot.

See you tomorrow,

Tragedy strikes

Well, I didn't think it was actually a tragedy until it affected me.

Yes, I'm shallow.

The computer downstairs in the family room crashed last week.

Dd and I successfully printed some stuff for her science fair mouse project; and then ds wanted to boot up to play Runescape. He has this bad habit of not waiting until the little hour glass thingy stops and keeps pressing buttons and getting frustrated. He's been warned. And banned a few times.

Because of his crippling addiction to Runescape, the time he gets on the machine is rationed and monitored (sometimes ineffectively) by AOL parental controls. (Did you know that you can use them in Internet Explorer now, not just when signing in to AOL?)

Anyway, he *claims that it just froze and that he DIDN'T DO ANYTHING.
"Really Mom, I didn't. It just went black." Uh-huh.

Anyway, I wasn't terribly upset. We had a computer geek guru coming over anyway to fix something on DH's computer. When I tried to reboot it, I got a message that something ws corrupted. Number one son could suffer a little without his precious game. Heck, the weather turned nice, go outside and play. And baseball and spring hockey started last week.

Then the news starting getting bad. When computer geek guru looked at it and inserted the start-up disk, he was puzzled because none of his abracadabra worked. So, he took the offending machine away to his magic den.

Then the really bad news came. He couldn't get ANYTHING off the hard drive. Nothing. Zipo. Nada. It's gone. All of it. Now, I've been using a nifty little Apple Macbook since June so I wasn't toooo worried.

Until I realized that all photos for about a year or so prior to my laptop were lost.
Okay, disapointing, but I can deal. If I couldn't remember what was there, I wouldn't miss it right? Besides, Dh has some stuff on the digital video camera.

Then I started thinking more.

All, ALL of my music was on Windows Media Player there. I bought a Sansa mp3 player before I went to the Apple, and so everything I own was on that. Was.

In a misguided attempt to declutter my life and home, I sold all of my CDs at a local consignment shop. And no, not all of my music was on the mp3 player. I ran out of memory. Yes, my wonderful dh bought me more memory - a memory card ( a year ago) and I never used it. I am just sick thinking about all that music gone. GONE.

And I feel stupid.

I think I need a large glass, no goblet of wine. Now. Yes, I realize it's before noon.

I know I'm going to hell for laughing at these

Okay, I have a bad habit of peeking in on blogs around the net. I'm not picky, some are rude, some are thoughtful, some are funny.

It's kind of like watching trashy reality tv - I know there are better things to do with my time, but I just can't help it.

Here's one I read semi-regularly, and last night, it was just too true:
http://www.thewvsr.com/042508.htm

Doesn't it make you feel a little superior about your fashion, manners, and parenting when you're in a crowd like that? It's a good little ego boost once in a while to remind you that you're not doing everything wrong.

Here are 2 more:
http://www.uglyoutfitsnyc.com/
http://fannypackantics.com/

What do you read? What do you find amusing and/or are slightly ashamed of? Your guilty-pleasure web reading?

Creepy crawly things

no, they don't go bump in the night, but I don't doubt that they crawl over us at night.

:::shudder:::

We have ants. Lots of them. The really big ones. Carpenter ants. They always surface this time of year, but they seem really bad this year. They've taken over the cereal boxes in the pantry. They are particularly fond of Honey Smacks. :-(

They've joined the spiders. Little ones. Everywhere. In the bathroom on the wall. The ceiling of the shower. Over the kitchen sink. This morning a HUGE black one was in the kitchen. Number one son said it was in his hair, he brushed it of (cool as a cucumber). Then he told darling daughterthat she stepped on it. She screamed and shrieked like something out of a horror movie. Then dropped the phone book on it. The yellow pages. Hah. There was a lot of yucky spider juice everywhere.

I've called the man from Orkin. He'll be here this afternoon. Not nearly soon enough. I expect John Goodman from Arachnophobia to show up and do a thorough inspection.

I almost died of a heart attack this morning. Number one son came up behind me and placed something cool and wiggly on my neck. I jumped and screamed and then tripped and nearly went face first into the kitchen counter. I'm sure that motion was really good for my stitches. Not.

It was a plastic snake. I don't usually fall for that nonsense, but this was moments after the spider excitement. Oy. Or, as my grandmother would always say, Uff da.

Oy

Have you heard about this:
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=143101&in_page_id=2

Naked Vlogging, or video blogging on You Tube.

Umm, no. Hell, no.

Not that they really *show anything, You Tube has it's standards, you know. But, really, why?

Not me, nope. Maybe I *am old.

What will they think of next?

Who I'd like to meet..

Anyone interesting. Well, duh. But I'm not pickey - they could be famous, or not. I just like to find out (as Paul harvey would say) "the rest of the story".

Including, but not limited to: Martin Luther, my great-grandparents,the Queen of England, Harriet Tubman, Walt Disney, Lynn Johnston, Gary Larson, message board posters,....

I'm not sure why Harriet Tubman is listed there, I actually wrote the list for my now defunct MySpace page. But why not? She's at least as interesting as anyone else from the past and she did some amazingly courageous stuff.

And Lynn Johnston and Gary Larson are two cartoonists who I'd like to get inside of their minds. How do they come up with the their funny insights?

Ouch

dammit.

&*^&*%&*% I just typed out a thoughtful post (yeah, really. and semi-interesting, too - but you'll bnever know that *now) and it got swallowed up in cyber space.

I wrote about sunburn and spring/summer weather; about baseball practice and a spring hike.

Grrr. It's lost now and I don't feel lilke recreating it.

:-PPPPP

Things *are happening around here

I just don't seem to have the time to put them down on paper, er, computer.

Last weekend was a blast - it was busy and I was exhausted, but it was great to have Emma's godparents John and Denise visit for her First Communion; and for my brother Erik and his wife, Sue to come up as well.

We hung out, we laughed, we ate, we lounged in the hot tub (Boy, am I glad I got it out of my laundry room), we drank, we ate. Okay, I didn't go in the hot tub, but I wanted to. Doctor's orders.

Did I mention that we ate and drank? And laughed.

Woo, boy. And then I slept all day on Monday.
But it was worth it.

So, I have a little time this morning, and what do you know? I forgot what it was that I was going to write about. Grrrr.

Isn't that always the way?

I have to get ready to go to a funeral today. Another one of my friends' mom died. I hate that we're at that age where we're losing parents. It sucks.

This could definitely be worse...

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	8.1
Mind:	8
Body:	6.6
Spirit:	8
Friends/Family:	7.2
Love:	5.5
Finance:	6.8
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

And of course, things could always be better. I guess I should say it's a 10 point scale. :-)
Take the quiz and rate your life.
Yes, of course, I took this off another blog I read.
It's a beautiful, sunny, warm day - I wonder if that influences people's answers and rating?

Kristin-ology

I copied this from Kate who ripped it off from someone else. No tagging, just a survey with random questions. Copy the list, edit the answers, and call it your name with "ology" on the end.


MOUTHOLOGY

Q. What is your salad dressing of choice?
A. A really good bleu cheese or bleu cheese vinigraitte (sp?).

Q. What is your favorite fast food restaurant?
A. eh, I don't really have one, but that doesn't mean I don't frequent what's convenient. :-)

Q. What is your favorite sit down restaurant?
A. Depends on the city. :-)

Q. On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant?
A. about 20% or more

Q. What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of?
A. Steak, or a good salad, or potatoes.....

Q. What are your pizza toppings of choice?
A. Cheese. And lots of it.

Q. What do you like to put on your toast?
A. Butter and honey

TECHNOLOGY

Q. What is your wallpaper on your computer?
A. a pic of our Sea-Ray boat

Q. How many televisions are in your house?
A. Too many. 3 But there's none in my living room or kitchen. :-)

BIOLOGY

Q. Are you right-handed or left-handed?
A. Right.

Q. Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
A. Teeth, splinters and more.

Q. When was the last time you had a cavity?
A. I haven't had too many - my first was in my late 20's, so I'm not sure.

Q. What is the last heavy item you lifted?
A. I'm not supposed to lift anything heavier than 5 lbs for about another month. :-)

Q. Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
A. No.

BULLCRAPOLOGY

Q. If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
A. No. But I would want to finish everything and clean my house.

Q. If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
A. I don't think I would.. Maybe just change it to Kirsten

Q. What color do you think looks best on you?
A. Corals, sort of?

Q. Have you ever swallowed a non-food item by mistake?
A. Gum. I don't remember swallowing any other non-food item.

Q. Have you ever saved someone’s life?
A. No. Don't think so.

Q. Has someone ever saved yours?
A. Depends on how you interpret that.

DAREOLOGY

Q. Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100?
A. Maybe.

Q. Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000?
A. No way, Jose!

Q. Would you never blog again for $50,000?
A. Um yeah… I'm new at this anyway.

Q. Would you pose naked in a magazine for $250,000?
A. Nobody, but nobody wants to see that..

Q. Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000?
A. I'd try. Would I be able to have a beverage of my choosing on hand?

Q. Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000?
A. Absolutely not.

DUMBOLOGY

Q. What is in your left pocket?
A. Nothing.

Q. Is Napoleon Dynamite actually a good movie?
A. It's not good, but parts are humurous.

Q. Do you have hardwood or carpet in your house?
A. Both

Q. Do you sit or stand in the shower?
A. Stand.

Q. Would you live with roommates?
A. One husband, 2 children, 2 cats, 2 mice, one dog and one fish

Q. How many pairs of flip flops do you own?
A. Too many

Q. Last time you had a run-in with the cops?
A. I don't think I've ever had a "run-in", but my last speeding ticket was several years ago.

Q. Who is number 1 on your Top 8?
A. Huh? Is this the same as the Friends' List of Five?


LASTOLOGY

Q: Last Friend you talked to?
A: Friend? I've only talked to family today.

Q: Last person who called you?
A: A spam call :-(

Q: Last person you hugged?
A: My son, he fell off his skate board a few minutes ago.

Q: Last person to stick their foot in your face?
A: My daughter.

FAVORITOLOGY

Q: Number?
A: 7 or 13

Q: Season?
A: Fall

CURRENTOLOGY

Q: Missing someone?
A: Mom and Dad, definitely

Q: Mood?
A: Ambivalent.

Q: Listening to?
A: Yankees game in the background

Q: Watching?
A: Staring blankly at my computer screen.

Q: Worrying about?
A: Family, peace, deadlines.....

RANDOMOLOGY

Q: First place you went this morning?
A: nail salon :-) But it was really the afternoon.

Q: What can you not wait to do?
A: See family and friends this weekend!

Q: What's the last movie you saw in theater?
A: Wow, it's been so long, I'm not sure. But I've seen a lot on my DVR this week.

Q: Do you smile often?
A: I try to.

Q: Are you a friendly person?
A: Yes, I think so.

Move along, nothing to see here

Sorry folks, I've been a slacker. No updates in a week. :-(

I'm slowly trying to get back into my routine, but it's still really hard to limit my reaching, lifting, bending, etc - and when I do, I regret it and suffer for it.

And when I try to resume semi-normal activity levels, I find myself tired and in need of a nap. :-) That's not all bad, but it shows me that I do need to slow down.

I had 40 dollars worth of gift cards and Borders Bucks, so in a moment of generosity, I told my kids that I would share and let them pick out a book. That was great, except that I picked out more than I thought and ended up owing about 10 more bucks on top of the gc's. grumble...grumble....

Oh well, there are worse vices. :-)

These are 3 of the books I got:
Alice Hoffman Skylight Confessions
Elizabeth Berg Dream When You're Feeling Blue
Marisa De Los Santos Love Walked In

(I tried to insert them as links, but I'm not that html savvy, apparently)

I'll try to keep up more.
Toodles.