June 13, 2011
Alice: The Madness Returns.
Tonight at midnight is the launch party for the release of Alice: The Madness Returns, the follow-up to the original game, American McGee's Alice, for the pc.
I played the original pc game and loved it, so when I saw that they had finally made a follow-up game for it, and it's for the consoles, the xbox 360 and the PS 3, I knew that I had to have it.
I snapped this picture with my cellphone at the video game store in the mall when we went to the movies a few weeks ago.
The teens remember me playing it all of the time on my pc, and back then, it was really kind of creepy so they didn't watch me play some parts of it because it was too gory and the sounds were kind of scary sounding.
But that's what I liked about it, I like that Wonderland is all creepy and scary, it's dark and twisted, and everyone is out to get Alice.
If you played the original game and liked it, you can buy the new one, Alice: The Madness Returns, at Buy.com on sale, and get free shipping too.
Here's the official launch trailer, and a demo of some of the game-play, it looks absolutely amazing and I can't wait to get it tonight and start playing!
The new game also comes with the old pc game, but it's now playable on the console, and so I'm excited about being able to play the old game too, it was always so much fun.
The graphics back then weren't great, but now for the xbox, they look amazing.
I'm so excited for this game!
I pre-purchased it, and we are going to the launch party tonight, myself and the teens, and a friend of mine is driving us there and then we're all gonna come back home and play the game until our hands cramp up. Hahaha!
I have no idea what's going to happen at the launch party, but I'm excited, and I'm going to take my camera and snap some pics of the party and stuff, it should be a fun time.
Later days!
February 12, 2011
Home alone for the rest of the weekend.
Mark just left with his friend Jeff, he won't be back home until sometime tomorrow, probably after dinner time.
Sebastian left yesterday with my sister, he won't be home until tomorrow, probably sometime after dinner time.
My sister is taking him and my adorable nieces to do some fun things this weekend.
They are finally going somewhere that Sebastian wanted to go when he was little so so bad, and they are finally going today.
Even at age 17, Sebastian was very excited!
Where are they going?!
You might all think it's totally hokey, but it's not really, it's kind of like Jurassic Park but the dinosaurs are not going to eat you.
They are going to Dinosaur World, they have over 150 life-sized and life-like dinosaurs that are all man made, and I think, think, that some of them move, not really sure about that, but I could have sworn that some of them have some robotic movement.
I am sure that Sebastian is going to have a really good time, he always wanted to go when he was little, so he was very excited when he came home yesterday and I told him to pack his clothes for the weekend.
I can't remember why we didn't take the boys when they were little, but we just didn't.
We took them to every other theme park in Florida, but not that one.
Is it really a theme park?
I don't think so, I am sure there are no rides, I think it's just all dinosaurs, but it should be a good time anyway.
My nieces love dinosaurs just like the boys did, so sis is taking them there today.
Mark didn't want to go, he's just not as interested in them as he was way back when he was little, I guess.
Mark prefers video games, food, and sleeping these days.
In my clumsy news, I often lose feeling in my feet, worse if I cross my legs, and I was sitting here in my chair last night talking to a friend on the phone for about an hour with my legs crossed.
When I finished and got up to hang up the phone, I didn't even realize that I had put my right leg and foot to sleep, and when I stood up, I came right back down between the couch and the coffee table with a bone breaking and very loud "cruuuuuuuunch".
I have obviously done something really bad to it, I am pretty sure that at least one toe, the big one, is broken, along with maybe a fracture in the top of my foot, and a really bad sprain of the ankle.
My entire right foot is swollen and black and blue, that means broken right?
So I'm just taking it as easy as I possibly can today, just hanging out watching movies and crap shows from the couch.
I'm watching and actually enjoying, Julie & Julia right now on Mark's LCD HDTV that he brought out here for me so I could enjoy a good picture.
My sis got him the tv for graduating high school, and he just thought I'd like to see movies look good today.
Heck, everything looks good on it, not just movies.
It's not too bad of a movie, or maybe that's the pain killers and the muscle relaxers talking, don't know, but it's really not that bad at all.
Later days.
December 22, 2010
Getting things done for the Xmas weekend.
I've been doing a lot around here since getting the all-clear from my doc on Monday to be off of bed-rest because of my lung.
The house was a total disaster, the teens did what they could, they did almost all of the cooking, laundry, and shopping, so that I could follow my doc's orders to not lift anything or do too much bending or other things that could cause my lung to not heal up properly and completely.
Being on bed-rest for so long was really, really boring.
I've watched more stupid tv shows and movies than ever, even more than I did in the days, weeks, and months following my surgeries, than I care to even admit.
I will say though that I've found a few stupid shows that are just addicting to watch, like Married To Rock.
I LOVE Josie, and hate Etty. God, Etty is so damn annoying! Her voice, her whole attitude, gah, she just sucks.
Our neighbor's son went and saw the movie Tron Legacy the other day, and said it was great which only makes Sebastian want to go see it even more.
The neighbor kid has never seen the original movie Tron, and Sebastian has, he's been dying to see the new film since he heard about it because he loves the original movie so much.
He also wants to new video game Tron Evolution which Buy.com has on sale for under $60 with free shipping.
I will more than likely get it for him, not for xmas though, but after, I've already gotten them all of the video games and WoW stuff that they asked for and that has left me tapped out broke.
I will probably get it next month just because he's been so good and helpful over the last several weeks while I've been healing up and not able to do much around here.
OK, time to get going again, I need to go to the store, get some more people food, cat food, and some other things that we need, and then come home and do some cleaning up around here.
I've tackled most of the cleaning, but there's still quite a bit to go.
Later days!
December 8, 2010
One gift down-loaded.
Both of the teens have been playing WoW (World of Warcraft) for a few years now, and the newest expansion pack came out on December 7th called World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
I know absolutely nothing at all about this game or the expansion packs, but millions of other people do including my sons and my sister too.
It's a visually beautiful game, I admit that I am awed by how gorgeous the game is every time I go in the room to check out what they are doing and who they are chatting in-game with, and Cataclysm is even better looking than all of the other game packs if that's even possible.
I like all of the various creatures that they have created, elves, night elves, trolls, all kinds of odd but interesting looking creatures.
I already bought and downloaded the game for the teens the day that it came out as an early Christmas present, they had been asking for it since the day they heard it was coming out, and I had made a promise months and months ago, that on the day it came out, I would get it and they could play it right away.
If I hadn't made that promise though, I would still be able to get it at a great price, the same price as the official site too.
Buy.com has it on sale for the exact same price as the official game website, so I feel good about buying it and letting them download it early.
It made them happy and they have been doing every single thing that I've been asking them to do for weeks now.
Bonus! Hahaha!
They have so many things on sale at really good prices for Christmas like SanDisk mp3 players, and these Altec Lansing earphones with Swarovski crystals, which I have and love, they're so pretty and they have awesome sound too.
I'm glad that their computer is working again, it had been months of hell and agony with their computer not working, three separate trips to the repair place with the computer actually staying at the repair place for almost 2 months in total time that it was gone from our house, and no one could figure out what was wrong with it.
It worked perfect at the repair place, but as soon as we got home, it wouldn't work.
Everything was tried, power supplies, new motherboards installed twice, new video cards, new power cords, all kinds of stuff.
You know what it was?
I'm so mad at myself for not thinking of it and testing it out sooner.
Grrrr! could kick myself over it!
It was a possessed keyboard.
No, really.
The keyboard had something wrong with it, some computer chip malfunction or something, it was shutting the computer down on it's own, making it re-install Windows, telling us it had viruses, all kinds of whackness, so it's no wonder that when at the repair place it worked, but at home it was whacked out and making us nuts for months!
This went on from August right up until about three to four weeks ago.
We finally figured it out by just for the fun of it, (Ha! Fun!? I was at wits end ripping my hair out!) I took their keyboard and plugged it into my computer, and bam! It shut my computer down instantly.
OMG! So so mad at myself for not thinking of something so simple sooner, it would have saved me countless trips to the repair place, which luckily, cost me nothing because the computer is still under warranty until February, but damn, what a huge pain in the butt.
Anyway, I have a lot to do, so much to catch you all up on if anyone is still around.
I know, it's been such a long time, but so much has been happening, just crazy, nutty, health and friend and life drama.
I should have blogged it all as it was happening, but half the time I couldn't even sit up.
OK, things to do be back later on.
October 30, 2010
Sims 3 for Xbox360 at Buy.com
This is definitely on our family Christmas list for this year!
The new Sims 3 for the Xbox360!
Hopefully Buy.com will still have it on sale for the awesome price of just $57.99 with free shipping, which most other e-tailers are not offering on this item.
For the longest time, the Sims has been a strictly pc game, and even though there have been a few versions for consoles, honestly, they sucked.
This version, the Sims 3, looks A-ma-zing!
It looks just like the pc version, and from what I am reading in the reviews, it plays just like the pc version.
The only "negative" things that I've read are that the ability to "slide" the sliders in the "Create-a-Sim" section are not there.
That means that you cannot slide to make noses, ears, and mouths, bigger or smaller, you have to choose from what is already there as far as the sizes of noses, ears, and mouths go, and that there's no direct control over your sims, meaning that you don't play in first person, that it's exactly like the pc version, you see the Sims and tell them what to do.
Apparently, some people wanted the Sims 3 for the console to be more like most console games, like first person shooters or something.
Personally, I like seeing my Sims and telling them what to do, and then watch them do it.
Like this image below, I love being able to tell my Sim to play a game of chess with Death in a game of win or die if the Grim Reaper comes a calling for your soul.
It would be very fun to watch your Sim play against Death, and if you win, tell and see your Sim to do a happy dance, and then watch as Death gets mad that he doesn't get to swallow your soul! hahaha!!
There is something new in the console version that is NOT in any of the pc versions, it's called "Karma Powers".
From the game features information:
Unlock All-New Karma Powers - Wield the ultimate control over your Sims giving them wealth, beauty, and love, or take it all away with the click of a button.
This feature sounds like so much fun!
Some of the other key game features:
Build and Customize - Build the ultimate home for your Sims, improve your town with building upgrades, and more.
I absolutely LOVE building houses! I can spend hours and hours of my game-play time, just building and decorating my house. I once spent about 6 hours of game-play time over the course of five straight days, doing nothing but building and decorating their home.
I bought a huge empty lot, (gave myself tons of Simoleons using the cheat code of course) and then spent all of that time building the most beautiful home that I could possibly imagine. It was truly incredible.
Then the game crashed.
*sigh*
Control your Sims' Destinies - Choose whether or not to fulfill your Sims' destinies by making their wishes come true, or letting their dreams die. Will your Sims be emperors of evil, world leaders, or expert thieves? It's up to you.
I love that in the Sims 3 we were given far more choices for what our Sims' would be, what their careers would be, and then make them do things to achieve those career goals.
Build and Share Online* - Connect to share your creations and download content from other players around the world, without ever leaving your game.
Some of the coolest clothes and furniture that I've downloaded for my Sims' were all things that I've gotten from other users who created stuff. I simply do not know how to create clothes or furniture, houses I can do, but I have no idea how to make the clothes and furniture, you have to be like good at some program, and I don't have the patience to learn a new program even though I would LOVE to design my own clothes and stuff.
Both Sebastian and I love playing the Sims' and Mark does too, but he doesn't like the controls of the pc, he prefers the video game console controls, so if we do get this for Christmas, then I know that Mark will play it too.
Yeah, we are so definitely going to get this, I just need to do way more work and as fast as I can to ear my Christmas spending money!
Hooba Noobie!*
Continue Reading �
September 27, 2010
Buy a banned or challenged book at Buy.com
Every year, the ALA, the American Library Association, holds banned books week.
This year banned books week is September 25 through October 2, 2010.
You can learn more about frequently challenged books by reading this page on the ALA website.
I love to read, I don't read as much as I used to or as much as I would like, but I still love to read a really great book.
It really bothers me that individuals and groups try to get books taken off of the shelves of public and school libraries, they try to limit what we and our children can read simply because they don't like the books for political, sexual, or religious reasons, but our first amendment rights protect each of us, it allows us to read these books if we want to, if we want our kids to read them.
"Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.Intellectual freedom - the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular - provides the foundation for Banned Books Week. BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them."
I would love to see people buying and reading any of the books on the top 100 list, and you can even save some money when you buy one or more of the books by checking to see if they are on sale at Buy.com.
I picked a random title off of the list, The Lord of the Rings, and they have it on sale in paperback for just $10.97, and that price includes the shipping.
Why is The Lord of the Rings on the banned and challenged list?
People believe that it, along with more of Tolkien's novels, are satanic.
In 2001, The Lord of the Rings, along with more of Tolkien's novels, were burned in Alamagordo, NM outside of the Christ Community Church.
Here are 10 books that you might not expect to be on the list via Yahoo!, and the reasons that they are/were on the list at some point.
You can read the other titles and reasons by clicking the link above. *!*
Captain Underpants - One of the top 10 most frequently banned and challenged books for 2002, 2004 and 2005. The books were said to contain offensive language, to be sexually explicit and to be anti-family.
Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary - Contained an offending term, oral sex.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? - The Texas Board of Education banned the book, in January 2010, because it thought the book was written by the same Bill Martin who penned the nonchildren's book "Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation."
James and the Giant Peach - James was disobedient and there was violence in the book.
American Heritage Dictionary (1969) - It contains 39 objectionable words. It was also banned by the Anchorage School Board in 1987 for its inclusion of slang words, including "balls."
Grimm's Fairy Tales - A couple of California school districts found a whole new reason to ban Grimm's Fairy Tales in 1989: misuse of alcohol. Little Red Riding Hood's basket for her grandmother includes wine.
In the extended entry, you will find the top 100 most banned or challenged books.
The titles in bold represent banned or challenged books.
The titles not in bold may have been banned or challenged, but there have not been any reports on them.
I have placed two stars ** next to the books on the list that I have read.
I would love to see other bloggers post the list of the top 100 banned and challenged books on their blogs, and to see them check off, mark, or star, the books on the list that they have read.
Will you post the list on your blog?
*!* The books and reasons were copied directly from the Yahoo! article.
Continue Reading �
September 19, 2010
Taffy was a Welshman.
It's a very old nursery rhyme, and the lyrics vary, but these are the ones that I remember from when I was a kid, and this picture is the exact one that I remember being in my big book of nursery rhymes.
Taffy was a Welshman,
Taffy was a thief;
Taffy came to my house
And stole a piece of beef.
I went to Taffy's house,
Taffy was not home;
Taffy came to my house
And stole a mutton bone.
I went to Taffy's house,
Taffy was not in;
Taffy came to my house
And stole a silver pin.
I went to Taffy's house,
Taffy was in bed;
So I took up a poker
And I flung it at his head
August 10, 2010
Rain, sick, sleepless.
I have been sick and in pain for like the last four to five days now, and it has totally sucked.
Between the rain and my arthritis, my back, insomnia, and meds running low, I have just been a totally useless waste of flesh laying around the house.
Sebastian spent most of the weekend at my sister's house, and Mark spent most of the weekend at his friend Jeff's house playing video games, so I didn't feel quite so bad about being so sick and sleeping off and on, complaining about my pain and the crappy rainy weather.
No one was here to listen to me. haha
I spent the whole weekend either sleeping for 15-30 minutes at a time or watching movies when I had insomnia and just couldn't sleep at all.
I watched the entire Indiana Jones collection, Iron Man, The Karate Kid, and a ton of other movies that the names are currently drawing a blank on me.
The only thing of any real importance that happened this weekend is that my doctor's PA Mary, (physician's assistant) called me on Sunday afternoon, and she told me that my doctor and her are no longer at the office that they were previously at, and she gave me all of the new information on where they are and stuff, and so then today, I called and scheduled my appointment with them for this month instead of at my old office.
I never saw the other doctor from that practice, so I want to stick with my doc and the PA Mary if I can, so I did.
I have no idea why they left, but hey, whatever, as long as I get in for my appointments every month I'm happy. I'll ask why they left when I go in to see them.
I figured that I should at least check in here in case anyone was wondering about me.
Not that many people do anymore, and I know that it's because my posting has become totally sporadic, I often don't post for days at time and I wish I could get back on track, but I don't know, I just feel so out of it for the last few months.
Like I wake up in the morning and just feel, empty, blank, just totally empty.
Ever feel that way?
Like not sad, not happy, no depressed, not hungry, not tired, not sleepy, not anything, just blank, empty feeling, like no emotions at all.
Empty.
That's the best way that I can explain things.
Empty.
July 27, 2010
Trying to stay cool, day 4.
It has been so hot out the last few days, I am totally ready for it to be winter again.
We have just been trying to stay as cool and a comfortable as is possible under these hot temps.
It has only been in the low 90's, but there has been a high heat and humidity index every single day making the 93 degree temperatures feel like 103 degrees.
You take one step outside, and you are immediately covered in sweat.
It is really rather gross and disgusting, take a shower, go out to get the mail, and need another shower.
Yuck.
The poor air conditioner has been struggling to keep the house at 78 degrees, we only have window units, an LG window air conditioner, and it is just working really hard to keep the house cool.
All of the appliances are working over time, so tomorrow I have a plan to clean the dust out of all of them.
I am going to clean the filter on the AC, and have Sebastian and Mark help me move the refrigerator so that I can vac behind it and vac out the refrigerator filters of all of the dust so that it can work more efficiently.
I am also going to clean the hose on the dryer, vac it out and clean the lint filter really good.
If you let dust stay in all of those filters, not only does it have the potential to cause a house fire, but it also causes the appliances to work harder which increases you electric bill.
Tonight we are just chilling out, relaxing and watching movies.
Right now, we are watching Clash of the Titans, and so far, it's not too bad.
It just started, and I know that it got some bad reviews, the story line and script is bad apparently, but the special effects go good ratings anyway.
Meh, it's something to watch, something to do that doesn't take up any energy and make you sweat, so we'll watch it.
Not too much else going on here, really just trying to take it easy and chill out as much as possible.
July 23, 2010
My horriblscope for today, July 23, 2010.
My horriblescope for today says:
Today may be a totally exciting day at work that is filled with surprises, yet you may not be amused with all the uncertainty. You have had plenty of unexpected twists and turns in your life and you're not looking for any more. Fortunately, your upbeat mood should enable you to make the best of nearly any difficult situation, so don't hold yourself back too much.
Yuh.
I have had plenty of twists and turns in my life, and I certainly do NOT want any more.
Do not want.
OK, so, a totally exciting work day that is filled with surprises, but I won't be amused by all of the uncertainty that may come up.
Got it.
Watch out for uncertainty, breathe deep when it happens.
And yes, I am in an "upbeat mood', I finally got some sleep, I feel good, happy, only a little bit of pain in my left hip, but that's from my arthritis that is all flared up due to Tropical Storm Bonnie that is on the way this weekend.
So, it will be an exciting day, some stuff is going to happen that I won't be thrilled about, but my good and happy mood will see me through whatever that stuff is, and I am not allowed to hold back.
Got it.
July 16, 2010
She's Out of My League.
Mark and I just got done watching She's Out of My League starring Jay Baruchel who is mostly known for supporting roles in films like Knocked up and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and is currently starring in The Sorcerer's Apprentice with Nic Cage.
He stars as Kirk who meets Molly played by Alice Eve, and she's hot, like a 10 hot, and all of Kirk's friends and family, and Molly's friends and family, believe he's just a 5, maybe a 6, but that the two shouldn't be together.
This movie is incredibly funny, but it's not the standard dorky guy meets hot chick movie, it actually touches on envy, insecurity, social awkwardness and anxiety, and not believing that you're good enough for someone else.
The truth is, Kirk and Molly are perfect for each other, convincing everyone else is the hard part, and if the friends and family aren't convinced, they try to talk both Kirk and Molly out of a perfectly good, perfect for each other relationship.
Like I said, the movie is totally funny, we laughed almost the whole way through, and it was just a really good, fun, and funny, guy meets girl movie, you should definitely check it out.
July 14, 2010
True Blood at Buy.com
I absolutely love the show True Blood on HBO, I'm actually watching a repeat of the latest episode from season 3 right now.
I have always loved vampires and vampire movies, books, tv shows, and this is one of the absolute best vampire shows that I've ever seen.
I never miss an episode.
I would like to own the first two seasons on DVD, and I could if I had the spare money because they are actually on sale at Buy.com right now.
Season 1 is on sale for $35.25 down from $50.00, and season 2 is on sale for $32.89 down from $50.00.
I would also like to get and read the Sookie Stackhouse books too.
I would like to get those because the show is different from the books, they take some liberties with the show, change it up quite a bit, they kind of have to because they don't know how many seasons they are going to run the show, plus, it's always good to change things up for the entertainment value.
I know with other "vampire" books and movies that are out right now, the fans pick teams, and I know that there are teams with True Blood too.
Team Bill and Team Eric.
I don't have a team, I like both of the lead vampires for different reasons.
I also like Lafayette a lot, he's Tara's cousin and a friend to Sookie, as well as now working for Eric and Pam.
Lafayette is just one of the coolest characters on the show, I just adore him.
Eric is the sheriff and Pam is like his assistant vampire at the club Fangtasia.
And now in season 3 of the show, there are werewolves.
Oh, unlike the other current vampire stories, Sookie Stackhouse is a strong woman, a strong female lead.
The other vampire stories, the lead female torn between the vampire and the werewolf, she's weak, she simply can't be without a man in her life, she goes from the vampire to the werewolf, when the vampire leaves her to protect her, she ends up sitting in her room pathetically for months.
No no no!
Sookie Stackhouse is a strong female lead, she can handle anything thrown at her even when Bill breaks her heart, she doesn't just sit down and mourn for months, she just gets up and keeps on going, trying to find him because she knows something's not right.
This show is simply amazing!
I know it's not for everyone, but if you're a vampire fan, then this show would be a good one to watch.
July 8, 2010
Vaio, Vizio, not quite the same thing.
My friend Nik stopped over yesterday for a little bit and she kept staring at the tv.
I finally asked her what was up, and she asked me if it was a Sony VAIO tv.
I said "No, a Sony Vaio is a laptop."
She was like "Oh, it looks just like my tv, it even says the same thing at the bottom."
I laughed a little bit and said "So it says Vizio at the bottom?"
She looked at me all confused, so I explained it to her, a Vaio is a laptop, they don't make Sony Vaio tv sets, and if her tv looks just like our tv and even says the same thing at the bottom, then it's a Vizio LCD HDTV.
She kept asking me if I was sure, and I said "Yes, they really don't make a Vaio tv, I've seen your tv Nik, it's a Vizio just like ours.
She finally agreed that it was the same tv when I showed her the Sony Vaio laptops on the computer, I just Googled it and showed her, and that's when she finally got it.
She's not very technical. hahaha
July 7, 2010
Oh! There it is!
For the last couple of weeks I have been in a total funk.
I have had absolutely no motivation to do anything at all, I have been mildly depressed and I hate to admit it, but I have to, talking about it helps, says my doctor.
I have been feeling this way ever since Sebastian told me that he had a decision to make about whether to live up in Maine for a year, or come back here and finish his education.
Every time that we talked on the phone, I have been totally supportive, telling him that no matter what he decided, I would stand behind his decision 100% even though it was ripping my heart out to even think about him not coming back home to stay.
I've done hardly anything at all, my house clearly showed what was going on with me mentally, it was a mess.
I haven't been sleeping, and I have barely eaten anything at all in weeks.
With me, the very best natural diet supplements is the thought of not having either or both of my sons with me for whatever reasons, be it an accident, going away to college, or moving away to live with the other side of the family for a year.
It was killing me inside, I ate probably once every two to three days, and you couldn't really call it eating, it was more like nibbling on a single slice of deli ham at one am or whatever.
I have been laying around on the couch most days just mindlessly watching the tv, or sitting here in my chair and mindlessly surfing the internet.
I had lost all motivation to do anything at all.
My home and work have both been suffering because of it, and I just couldn't shake it.
Then around 1:15-1:30pm this afternoon, my Mom called and then I called her right back because I have free long distance, and I talked to Sebastian for about 45 minutes.
Sebastian is spending the night with my parents to help them out around the house and go grocery shopping with my Mom in the morning because she has a hurt knee and a broken vertebrae, so she needs some help and he's great at grocery shopping, he always goes with me and he's really great at helping.
Sebastian said that he'd be home on the 18th, and I asked if he had made a decision yet because if he chose there, then we needed to hurry and try to get a child custody court date, transfer his school records etc.
He told me, "No Mom, I'm coming home on the 18th for good. I'm going to finish my school and then go to SCF for the required classes, and then try to go to Full Sail for my computer and digital art classes that I want to do for my career."
I was Soooooo happy to hear him say that!
To hear him make his education a priority, that makes me so so SO proud of him!
I feel sad that Great-Gram and Aunt Heather will be sad and miss him terribly, but his education is the #1 priority right now, when he finishes, he can go back if he chooses too.
Gah!!!! I miss him but I'm so happy that he's going to be coming home!
Yay!
Yeuuuusss!!
After I got off the phone with him, it's like my mojo came back!
Mark and I went and did the grocery shopping, and then tonight, I finally cleaned the floors like I have been saying I was going to for oh, about two weeks now.
I vacuumed the rug, and I mopped the totally sucky terrazzo flooring in the kitchen, hallway, and bathroom.
I hate the terrazzo flooring, it is so hard to get clean.
You can mop it repeatedly and it still looks filthy, it's just the way the floor is, it's this yucky stone type stuff, and nobody knows how to get it to look clean.
I've talked to people who clean for a living, and nobody knows how to get it to look good.
You can mop it over and over, your mop will wring totally clear, no more dirt is coming off of the floor or wringing out of the mop, the floor is clean, but you look at the just mopped floor, and it still looks totally gross.
Ugh.
Then I did almost all of the dishes, I have just the silverware and cups left to do, I folded all of the laundry in the drier, and I even cleaned the kitchen counters.
Hearing that my baby boy is coming home and he's going to stay home, totally brought me out of my funk.
I got my motivation back.
Sebastian is coming home on the 18th.
To stay.
July 6, 2010
Been doing nothing much here.
I know that I haven't posted in quite a few days, there just really isn't much of anything going on here.
Mark and I are just hanging out, each of us doing our own thing, it's been really kind of boring around here.
It rained all day yesterday which sucked, the both of us just laid around watching movies because the both of us have arthritis, so the rain just makes both of our backs hurt a lot, so we just laid around so as not to make it hurt even worse.
Mark was digging around in his keepsake box, where he keeps all of the things that are special to him like birthday cards, his collector edition Boba Fett, stuff like that, and that's when he found a gift card to AMC theaters, so he asked me to check the balance on it.
I called the 1-800 number, and it said that he has a balance of $19.50, so that's enough for him and I to go see a matinee and maybe get a small popcorn and a small drink.
There's a movie coming out that he wants to see, the new Predators movie that starts Friday.
We're planing on going to see it sometime next week in the afternoon.
Mark loves the Predator series, so I figure what the hell, we'll go see this new one together, it will give us something to do.
It actually looks pretty decent too.
July 1, 2010
Overwhelming emptiness.
It has been very, very quiet around here, both on my blog and here at home.
I never realized just how much Sebastian and I interacted with each other until he was gone.
Mark and I are very much alike, we go and do our thing and we stay doing our thing, we only interact with each other at meal times and if we're watching a movie or going to the store or something.
Other than that, it's very quiet here.
I am out here at my desk mindlessly surfing the internet or playing with my Sims 3, and Mark is in the other room playing his video games.
I have been a complete wreck without him here, knowing what I know about what's going on up there and the decision that he has to make, and so I have been under a ton of stress.
What used to be my "hives of unknown origin", has now officially been labeled as "stress hives".
When I get stressed, I break out in hives all over every single inch of my body.
We know, the doctor and I, that the hives are from stress because I make a very strict point of not going near any of my triggers, and making sure that none of them come in to the house.
There are never, and never will be, any peaches or strawberries in the house.
Those are my food triggers, and I don't use any of my other triggers either, one of which is the Bounce dryer bar, and thanks to that experience, I am allergic to all fabric softener sheets, so I can only use the Purex 3-in-1 laundry sheets, and I really hope that I never become allergic to those.
After doing some journal writing, writing out the dates that I broke out in hives and what I ate and did, what my mood was, what was going on in my life on those days, my doctor figured out that they are 100% stress related.
At least I know now so that I can attempt to keep my stress under control, but that's not really working right now, not with this situation.
So because of the massive amounts of stress that I have been under, I have been broken out in hives almost every single day, all day and all night long for the last 4 or 5 days.
The Benadryl is not working, but I'm taking it anyway in the hopes that it will eventually kick in and start working.
I also wasn't getting much sleep at all, so I had to pick up some sleep aids when Mark and I were at the store the other day, and so I have been getting about 5 hours of sleep per night now.
That's better than nothing, definitely better than not getting any sleep at all like what was happening, so I'm at least feeling a little better.
I don't know, I am just dealing with it all the very best that I can, just trying to be patient and at least I know that he will be home on July 18th.
That's when his return ticket is for, and I know that at least I will see him when he comes home that day, and then from there, I don't know what will be happening, but at least I will get to see him and hug him again.
I just miss him so very much, I know that I'll probably hug him and not let go until he tells me I'm squishing him or something. hahaha
June 28, 2010
Keeping myself busy.
I want to thank you all for your words of support and encouragement, it really means a lot to me, and I am sorry if I am unable to personally respond to each and every one of your comments, there are just far too many of them.
Do not get me wrong, I LOVE all of your comments, they really do mean so much, it is awesome to know that I have so much support from so many people during all of this.
I got tired of crying and decided to do something to keep myself busy, so I went and looked up how to make my own ringtones for my cell phone because A) I could not find any on the Virgin Mobile site that I liked, and B) they are just too expensive when you start adding them up.
I found a great site to make ringtones that really works awesome, so if you want to make your own for your cell phone, just go to this site.
It is fast, easy, and there are no harmful things on the site or when you download your newly made ringtone.
Then I needed a way to get them to my phone.
I don't have the USB cable or a micro SD card to use to store and transfer them from my pc to my phone.
They are on sale this week for really good prices, so maybe when I get paid this week after I pay some stuff, I'll pick those up so that I can transfer whole songs to the phone so that I can listen to music on it using the media player it comes with.
But I did find a way to do it.
I needed to download and install Opera Mini 5, and I tried upgrading Opera Mini 4.2, but it wouldn't do it, so I deleted 4.2 and then tried to install 5 for like 2 hours but I kept getting the message "Access Denied" when I went to the site www.m.opera.com, m.opera.com, I even tried the link for Virgin Mobile phones specifically, opera.mini.com/virgin, no matter how I tried it, I was denied.
So I did a search on Google and found that I needed to type in to my phones default web browser, mini.opera.com, and it will download.
The file size on mini.opera.com is like 1kb bigger than the others, so maybe that's why it works, who knows.
Then once you get Opera Mini 5, you need to make your ringtone, then if you have gmail, attach the ringtone file to an email and email it to a yahoo mail account, so if you don't have one of those, get one, they are free.
Then open up Opera on your phone, go to your yahoo email account, click on the email with the ringtone, (hopefully you labled it by putting something in the subject line) then click on the attachment, then click on the box shaped icon that appears, and then in the lower left of your Opera browser, you will see that it says "save".
Click that and it will download the ringtone to your phone, to the ringtones folder.
It will not be labeled the title you gave your ringtone, but instead, it will just say "securedownload" as the ringtone filename, but it's there and it will work.
I have now made two ringtones and emailed them to my phone.
I am way happy that I figured it out, I supposes that sometimes it helps to have OCD, it makes me complete every single thing that I start no matter how frustrating it was to keep seeing that "Access Denied" message.
June 24, 2010
Get an Amazon Kindle for just $189.00!
Amazon has put the Kindle on sale for just $189.00!
The Kindle was priced at $259.00, and it is now just $189.00, that's a savings of $70!
PLUS!!!
Amazon is offering FREE Two-Day Shipping
I normally do not put up posts like this, an 'OMG you should totally buy this' kind of post, but this is a really great price for a really great product.
Everyone that I know who owns a Kindle, absolutely loves it and raves about it.
I know a couple of people who bought a Kindle and they are major book readers, they can read two to three books per week, and almost every single time I talk to the both of them and ask what they are doing, they tell me, reading a great new book!
Both of them have said that they really don't know how they used to carry around all of the books that they would take with them everywhere now that they have a Kindle.
The difference in weight has made an impact in how they walk, and their posture has improved, they are standing up straighter, because they aren't lugging around a giant bag with two or three books in it everywhere they go anymore.
One friend said that the very first day that she had her Kindle in her bag and she wasn't carrying the usual two books that she used to carry with her every single day everywhere that she went, she kept marveling at how light her bag was now, and that's when she realized just how much extra weight she had been carrying around every single day for as long as she could remember due to her love of books.
She had a huge bag too, it was big enough to carry all of her normal purse stuff and had room for at least three hardcover books, which she preferred over paperbacks because paperbacks tend to get ripped up she said.
Once she got used to carrying just the Kindle with her, she downsized her bag and is now using a normal sized purse for the first time in years because the Kindle is so small and lightweight, and she's very happy with it, loves it, and she said the Kindle is the coolest thing that she's bought for herself in years.
I would love to get a Kindle for myself, but I have some bills to pay off by mid-August, (responsibilities first!) but if the price stays this low, (or maybe it will get even lower!) I just might have to buy myself one for Christmas.
I checked the coverage map to see how the 3G signal is in my area, and it's good, so I know I wouldn't have any problems downloading the books in the 60 seconds they say it takes.
I can't believe that the Kindle is so small, yet it can hold 1,500 books at a time, and there are now over 600,000 book titles available to download and read.
And for those of us who don't have a Kindle yet and can't get one for awhile, but we'd still like to try out the technology, we can download the free Kindle app for our pc, and they even have an iPhone Kindle app for free download too.
I think I'm going to download the free Kindle app for my computer to give it a try, and I'll be able to download books to it and read them, so why not right?
While it's downloading, I'm going to go look for a few books that I have been wanting to read for awhile....
June 10, 2010
He can buy his own.
Now that Mark has a job, (he likes it!) he already has plans for his paychecks, (haha!) and he's going to save up his money so that he can buy himself an Alienware gaming computer.
He likes the one they have now, but he wants a super awesome gaming pc.
Hey, it's his money, he an do what he wants.
But this also means that when they break things, or the things just die every 2 years from constant use, he can now buy his own xbox 360 gaming headsets.
If I had known that Buy.com was going to have that headset on sale for just $10, I would have waited and bought that one instead of the one that I just bought for $20.
The one that I just bought is the same kind that we've been buying, and they break every two years or so.
It's cheaply made, damn, I wish I would have waited because the one that is now on sale for just $10, is a totally kick ass headset.
I am kicking myself for not waiting just one more week, if I had waited, the teens would have had an amazing headset instead of the one that is guaranteed to break in two years, and it's now too late to return it because we've already opened it, destroyed the packaging, and been using it for a week.
Ugh.
June 3, 2010
Ambition and adventure!
Now that I finally took the super awesome Radeon HD 5770 graphics card and the 4GB of memory out of the teens old computer and put them into mine, I can finally play my Sims 3 again.
It looks totally amazing too, no lag at all, crisp clear lines, excellent detail, and I can finally turn on reflections so when they are looking in a mirror or even just near a mirror, you can see the reflections.
I am so very happy that I finally made the swap, I have not been able to play in ages, and playing is not only fun, but a huge stress reliever for me because if I am stressed out or angry, I can kill off a Sim in very bad ways and it makes me feel tons better.
But now that I have made the swap and my computer can totally handle the Sims 3 and even some stuff to download made by other people, (the old graphics card prevented items and hair from being visible in the game) I can now get some of the expansion packs that are out.
I will only buy them if they are on sale, and if I have the extra money, which I don't have at all right now, but that's ok, I can wait.
But eventually I would like to get both Ambitions and World Adventures.
In Ambitions, you decide whether your Sim will be the brave town hero or cause loads of mischief among their neighbors. Make your Sim save the day as a brave firefighter, change the town as a leading architect, or live on the edge as a tattoo artist. Will your Sim find success as a billionaire high-tech inventor or eke out a living as a bumbling mad scientist?
In World Adventures, there are travel opportunities available to your sims, which allow for everything from pleasant family vacations, all the way to an adventure-filled, possibly even dangerous Indiana Jones like adventures. Along the way your sims can accumulate unique skills and abilities, learn about new cultures, enjoy a unique soundtrack of real songs recorded in Simlish.
Simlish is really kind of cool, they take real songs, even some of the newer songs that are popular right now, and they translate them to Simlish, and sometimes, the real artist sings their song but now in Simlish.
This is Matt and Kim singling their song "Daylight" in Simlish.
June 1, 2010
My baby turned 17.
Sebastian, my baby, turned 17 today.
He had to go to school today, it's the last week, the last day is Friday, so when I woke him up at 6am, I gently called out his name, I gently rubbed his back, he opened his eyes a little bit, and I sang happy birthday to him very quietly.
He let me sing the whole way through, all the while he was smiling, and when I finished, he sat up in his bed, thanked me, and then told me that he loved me.
His day at school went OK, some of his teachers remembered that it was his birthday and they gave him some special treats, a HUGE candy bar from one teacher, a free pass from another teacher to not have to do any of the last days of school grunt work some teachers like to do, (1 teacher had the students write out multiplication tables, another had them copy down 100 words from different letters of the dictionary, etc) and another teacher just let him play on the computer through the whole class.
When he came home, my sister called and had decided to take them all out to dinner and then do some video game shopping.
I did not go because A) there is not enough room in my sister's new car for her, me, both boys, and both of my nieces, and B) because I am on bed rest for blood clots in my ankles and feet again.
It started on Sunday night, and I thought if I rested, kept them elevated, that it would go away, but it did not, so I called my doc this morning, and he puts me on bed rest and to keep my feet elevated.
They are elevated right now too.
When I sit in my chair, I have this little table that is like thigh-high, it is like a small side table, and I use it as a foot stool when I am sitting here.
I sit like this all the time, my feet are always elevated when I am at my desk, my keyboard on my lap, it is a totally comfy position.
I am really hoping that the swelling goes down soon, and it should, the new blood pressure medicine, Triamterene, 37.5mg, has me peeing so much, that I will probably drop another 10lbs using it instead of any diet supplements.
Anyway, they went out to eat and then to Best Buy for a new video game.
He got Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce for their Xbox 360, from my sister, and then when I get paid later this week, I will be buying him Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires.
Both of the boys love those Dynasty Warriors games, they have played every single one except for these last two which Sebastian will now have this week.
They came home from eating out and shopping, and both Sebastian and Mark sat down and cracked open the new game and played right until Sebastian had to go to bed.
Tomorrow is the last full day of school, and then Thursday and Friday are half days, and I am really hoping that by then, all the swelling will be gone so that I can take Sebastian out for his birthday.
He told me he wants to go to Taco Smell to eat, and I will buy him the other Dynasty Warriors game, we will have a chocolate layer cake, and he will be a totally happy kid, excuse me, a totally happy young man.
Hard to believe, Sebastian is now 17 and Mark turns 19 on August 15th.
The time just flew by didn't it?
I started this blog when we moved here, Sebastian had just turned five years old when we moved here on June 3rd 1997.
He was just a small, wiggly five year old kid, and here he is now, a really tall deep-voiced 17 year old young man.
Time just flew right by me.
May 28, 2010
My teens are the awesome.
Ever since like last Thursday, not yesterday, but like Thursday the 20th, I've been sick and battling health issues again.
I'm not going into it all over again, you can read about it at KatScan if you want to, but I'm sorta starting to finally mend from that, but now tonight it's raining and so my back is killing me and my ankles are swelling up from blood clots again.
When they said, 'when it rains, it pours', they really must have meant that saying for me, because it's just been 1 thing after another since last week.
I'm like beyond fed up with my body at this point.
So anyway, I've been home all week now, mostly laying on the couch watching tv and movies, resting as much as I could stand to do like all of my doctors have all told me to do, and then my tv started acting all funky.
First, while watching a movie on Tuesday evening, Empire Records, the colors started fading in and out, black and white, then all funky and stripey during the brownie Gwar scene, so I checked a few other channels and they seemed to be ok, so I just chalked it up to being either the movie being old, or an error with the movie channel.
Then later that same day on another channel, it happened again.
And it kept happening until my tv set was showing absolutely nothing at all but black and white on every single channel.
*sigh*
I do have another tv set, it's the one that I was using before my sister had brought over this one that is now faded, and so I knew that I was going to need to go get it from my bedroom, haul it out here, and make the switch, but I physically just couldn't do it, so I just decided to deal with the black and white until I could do it later on when I felt like I could do it.
Here it is now Friday evening, and I still hadn't done it, I had just gotten to the point of I don't really care anymore because it has just been 1 of those weeks in my life where when I dared the made-up gods to just go ahead and send me just 1 more damn thing that they felt like throwing at me, and *poof*, my big 26inch tv went *poof*. ha ha
I decided to go and take a long, hot shower, hoping that it would at least calm me down, soothe me if it did absolutely nothing else at all, and so I went in there to stand in the hottest water that I could possibly stand, even allowing the tub to fill up over my ankles because they've started to swell up now too this evening, and I just stayed in there for oh, maybe 20 minutes or so.
I stayed in there until no matter how hot I turned the water, it was no longer getting hotter, but colder.
When I came out, I went to other other room, threw on some comfy clothes, and came back to sit in my chair.
That's when I looked up and noticed that my now all black and white 26inch tv was gone, and now in it's place, was Mark's Vizio 26inch widescreen LCD HDTV that he got for graduating last year.
I asked the teens, who were sitting here smiling, why they did that, it was their tv for playing their video games on, I have another tv in the other room.
They said they knew, and they went and got that one and hooked it up in their room to play video games on.
I asked them again why they did that, why didn't they just put my old tv out here and keep theirs, and Mark said that it was his tv to do with what he wanted, and he felt wicked bad for me because of the really super crappy week that I had, because all of my docs yelled at me and told me that I need to stay laying down as much as possible, and because I never sleep, because all I can do when I have insomnia and I'm being forced to lay down and behave myself, is to lay on the couch and watch tv and movies, so he decided that he wanted me to be able to watch tv and movies on a wicked nice tv for a change, that I deserved to have at least 1 nice thing this week, so he and Sebastian swapped out the tvs while I was in the shower.
I do have to admit, it is a really super nice tv to watch movies on.
My old tv worked really good for like the last 10 years, great picture and color quality, I never complained once about a movie looking bad on it, but yeah, this is a really super nice tv.
Mark told me that he'd rather I just keep it out here from now on too, as this is the room where we all watch movies together, and the other tv set is actually much better for playing video games on, he says.
I don't buy that at all.
Not for a single second.
I've seen him play Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, on the Vizio, and there's a big, massive, HUGE difference when playing video games on an old standard television set, and on one of the new LCD HDTV flat panel sets.
BIG DIFFERENCE.
I tried talking to him about it, tried talking him into swapping it back, it's his tv that he got as a present for graduating high school last May, it was given to him specifically so that when he played his video games, that they would look so super cool on it, and he said that he knows and agrees, games do look really super cool on it, but he said that he wanted me to have a really wicked nice tv to watch movies on for the next week or however long the doctors tell me to stay laying down and resting because I had such a really bad, totally sucky week.
He said I deserved to see all of the super gory details of a fave horror movie if one comes on that I liked, in the most awesome picture quality, that I should at least be able to enjoy myself a little bit while my docs force me to rest 24-7 even though they still haven't got a single clue as to why I should be being forced to rest.
He said that even though his back totally sucks too, he's going to see if the owner of the corner store up the street needs to hire anyone, and he'll get a job to try and help out financially around here, and if the owner says yes, he'll work his butt off for the guy.
He said that he's old enough to work any of the shifts alone too, because you only have to be 18 to legally ring up cig and alcohol sales.
He really wants to start pitching in financially around here, to help make it easier on me because he knows how difficult it is for me sometimes to do the work that I have to do, and because he sees just how hard I work to not just make sure that the bills are paid, but so that I can pay for all of the things that make them happy.
He said that he really wants to get a job, start helping to pay the bills, and then return all of the love and generosity that I give to them when I pay for their video games, game subscriptions, and all of the little tiny stuff like bottles of soda and bags of hot fries whenever I go to the corner store, and so he wants to be able to buy me my own LCD HD flat panel tv on sale some one of the days he earns enough pay.
You know, sometimes, teenagers can be real jerks, they can say things that really hurt your heart, they can shoot you the most painful looks, and they can say 90 million times that they will clean the cat's litter boxes and not do it, and then watch you do it like you should have been doing it yourself all along.
They can do and say a lot of things that make you wish they would age from toddler to adult in less than a year because the teen years are the hardest years that you'll ever face when you decide to have a kid, but then sometimes, they do something as simple as swapping out your old crappy box tv set for their nice one that they rightfully don't have to share with you at all, and it can be the nicest thing that's been done for you all month long.
And then they can just say that they want to get a job and pitch in on paying the bills, and that they want to help pay for all of the hundreds of dollars worth of food that they inhale every week, and that they want to buy you your own really nice tv set, and even if it doesn't ever happen, even if they do get a job but never buy that tv set, it's the fact that they said they wanted to do it, and because they said that you deserve it, that makes you feel like you got the best damn kids in the world.
Yeah, I know, this is all stupid and mushy sounding, and it's like wicked way long, but really, just swapping out the tv sets to surprise me while I was taking a shower, really made me happy after the week that I've had.
It's just like, wicked nice to know that they've been paying attention, they saw how hurt and upset I am, and they were at least trying to understand how this week has made me feel and they wanted to do something nice for me to try and make me feel better, and it did, it has.
It's been a very lonely and scary week, and they did one of the nicest and coolest things for me.
April 23, 2010
Dropping the weight we put on while in Maine.
When we went home to Maine to visit everyone, both Great-Gram and my Mom, fed us huge meals every single day, there were leftovers on top of leftovers stacked up in both of their refrigerators.
Now don't get me wrong, we totally loved every single thing that they cooked for us, but oh man, we were so stuffed after every single meal.
All 3 of us put on quite a few pounds while we were there, I put on about 12 pounds.
Yikes!!
But since being back at home, we've all started getting back to our normal eating habits and losing the weight we put on.
I've managed to lose the whole 12 pounds that I put on and another 7 pounds without having to use my usual diet supplement that I used to take to help me lose weight.
It really works too, I absolutely love it and when my friend Shell emailed me about it the other night, I gave her the name of it and told her how she should take it, and that it works if you remember to take it every day.
I used to buy it at my old pain doctor's office, he highly recommended it to his overweight patients because being overweight can cause your back to hurt more because you're carrying around all of that weight which just puts stress on your back.
I did notice that once I started dropping some weight, that my back didn't hurt quite as much as it normally does, but the pain never truly went away.
I was just happy that some of the pain was gone and that I was losing my belly fat.
_______________________________________
The movie Avatar came out on DVD today and I want it.
I absolutely loved seeing it in the theater in digital 3-D, and I know that the DVD won't be in 3-D, but that's ok, it's still stunning to look at.
I've added it to my wish list so that I remember to buy it when I have some extra money to get us a new movie.
I like to buy us a new movie that we all really loved when I can so that we can watch it over and over again.
The teens have certain movies that they've watched like a gazillion times like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Evolution which they watched every single night that I was in the hospital, both times that I was in the hospital.
I asked them why they watched it every night both of the times that I was in the hospital, and they told me that it just comforted them, it took their minds off of me being gone, and it took away their worries about me while they watched it.
I found it interesting that that particular movie is what comforted them.
I honestly don't know why, I've watched that movie and I cannot figure it out.
March 10, 2010
Lift, tighten, and dance.
I stay up so late that I think that I have seen infomercials for just about any kind of product that you can possibly think of.
The latest one that I watched was last night, it was for the kymaro body shaper.
I thought I had seen it before, and I was kind of right.
Back in January, both the LA Times and The Huffington Post, had reported that one of Lady Gaga's costumes was in fact just a Kymaro Body Shaper.
The story was not true of course, but you do have to admit that her costume does look like it.
A rep for Lady Gaga says that it's definitely not true, and that the skeleton part of the costume was designed by Gary Card.
I have no idea if the body shaper actually works or not, I just found it interesting and kind of funny that people thought she used one of them as a costume.
March 9, 2010
Late to the Glee party.
Tonight the teens and I watched Zombieland, and we thought it was absolutely hysterical.
We love zombie movies anyway, one of our fave funny zombie flicks is Shaun of the Dead, and Zombieland is like the American version of that in my opinion.
The 32 rules for how to survive a zombie invasion were so funny, they were things that fans of zombie flicks have talked for as long as there have been zombie flicks, things you need to do just in case there ever really is a zombie invasion.
Rule #1:
Cardio.
If you're out of shape and can't outrun a zombie, you're going to get eaten.
Rule #2:
Beware of bathrooms.
Zombies tend to attack when you're most vulnerable, and really, "dropping the kids off at the pool", is probably the most vulnerable any of us ever are.
Rule #19:
Blend in.
Zombies don't eat other zombies, so try to blend in with a little cornstarch on your face, some berry jam dribbling out of your mouth, you'll fit right in.
Bill Murray had a cameo in the movie as himself, one of the last survivors in Hollywood, he made himself blend in using the makeup techniques mentioned above, and was able to go play a few rounds of golf because zombies don't eat zombies.
Tallahassee, played by Woody Harrelson, talks Murray into playing a trick on Columbus, played by Jesse Eisenberg, as he's sitting watching some of the classic Bill Murray movies in Murray's own home theater seating, but Columbus mistakes Murray's makeup for being a real zombie, and takes out Murray zombie.
Ooops!
But there's so many fabulous and wicked funny scenes in Zombieland, there's all of the awesome 'Kill of the week' scenes, it's just a great movie and I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet.
After it went off, the teens went off to play, and I had some stuff to look up online, so I just left it on Fox 13, the channel it was on before I popped the movie in, and I listened and watched parts of American Idol.
Some of them were actually pretty good, and some of the girls really just sucked.
If you just can't hit the notes in "Smile", it doesn't matter how much you love the song, loving the song isn't going to help you sing it awesome, so just don't even try, pick something that you can actually sing considering that tonight's round was to pick the top 12.
End of the line for you, sucks for you, oh well.
Then I just left it on that channel again and watched Glee.
Everyone is always raving about Glee, and I think I watched the first 2 episodes or so, and then found other things to watch on Tuesday nights, but now I can totally see why people love the show and why I should have probably watched the third and fourth episodes before I gave up on it.
I really like the kid in the wheelchair's version of Dancing With Myself, it's just a very cool version.
I'll probably watch it again sometime if I can't find other stuff to watch.
March 7, 2010
Debating if I need it or not.
There are a couple of things that didn't come with my new cell phone, a Kyocera X-tc, that I'm debating on whether or not I really need or want, and would need to pick up at some point.
One of them is a micro SDHC card for storage, as the phone only as 70mb of storage space available, and so if I wanted to store more pictures or music, I would need to get one.
The other is a must have if I want to be able to play music on my phone, listen to it through my earbuds, is a micro USB data cable like this one in the picture below.
I was hoping that Buy.com would have one on sale, but all they have is the one that I linked up there, but I don't want that one because it comes with a house charger that I already have as it came with the phone, and a car charger which I don't need because I don't have a car.
I'm really debating on getting those items.
Like, do I really need my phone to be able to double as an mp3 player?
I have an mp3 player, so I don't really need my phone to be one.
While having a ton of pics on my phone is nice because then I can show them to everyone, it's not like I really need the micro card for storage because I can upload all of my pics to the Virgin Mobile 'My Pix' account page, and they also automatically get uploaded to my Facebook page too.
I guess it just depends on how much stuff I want to carry with me when going on long distance trips like our trip to Maine.
Do I want to carry my phone and charger, and my mp3 player and it's USB charger, or do I just want to carry my phone and charger?
It's too late for this trip to get the micros USB data cable, but I'll have to think about it for my next long distance trip.
February 22, 2010
Verizon nickel and dimes it's customers.
I got this bill emailed to me on Friday night, and I started going over every single inch of it like I always do, and I was like, mouth agape at how they nickel and dime their customers.
Just take a look at all of those things, (it pops up for biggie size) just look at it.
.34cents for federal excise tax, negative -.32cents for state tax, $1.86 for local communications services tax, $8.26 for state communications services tax, $6.58 for another local communications services tax, etc etc.
They get as much money as they can out of every single one of their customers.
I do wonder why they even put the negatives on there though.
State tax is negative -.32cents, sales tax is negative -.02cents.
Why even put those on the bill?
It just frustrates me, my OCD kind of goes nuts when I see things like that, it just annoys me to no end.
It's a negative charge, so why put it on the bill of charges that need to be paid?
I would also like to know how they got their late payment charges figured out.
I was late paying the bill last month by like 2 days, so they charged me $7.00 in late payment charges.
Is that like a percentage of the total bill?
Or is that what they charge everyone who pays their bill late, like a standard late fee?
I go over every single bill from them because a few months ago, I found some charges on the bill that were definitely not mine.
It was so obvious that it wasn't mine because the telephone number that the calls were made from, dialed from, are not mine.
It was an 813 area code, which is Tampa.
The calls were dialed from a Tampa number and all of the calls that were made were going to Tampa, so how did they get on my bill?
The customer service rep had nothing to say other than "I don't know how that happened, let me get a supervisor."
The supervisor wasn't even sure how they got on my bill, but she removed them all, 37 charges in total, so yeah, I check my bill with a fine tooth comb before paying it every single month.
I refuse to pay charges that don't belong to me.
February 22, 2010
Before I plan our trip to Maine.
I'll be getting a decent sized refund from the IRS this year, and once I have it, I'll start planning our trip to Maine to visit the family, all of them.
I have a totally enormous family to try and visit, so we may have to take a full 2 weeks in order to visit with everyone.
It's going to be hard trying to fit everyone in, but I'll figure it out when the time comes.
But one of the things that I want to do is to get the teens a better pc.
The one they have is ok, but ever since it had to be repaired over a year ago, it just hasn't run quite the same, it doesn't run well at all is what I mean.
It's constantly lagging on the simplest of things, it takes forever for stuff to load and start up, so yeah, I want to get them a better pc.
They really have earned it, the teens do so much to help me, they do a ton of things to help out around here, they never go out with friends or anything, every once in awhile they do, but they really have earned it by being here and doing so much.
So I'll be looking to see what Buy.com has on sale for the next few weeks while I wait on my refund to be direct deposited.
They don't have any desktop computers on sale this week, and that is what I want to get them, not a laptop, so I'll keep looking every week to see if one gets added.
They do, however, have a ton of stuff on sale this week like a SanDisk Sansa Clip 1GB MP3 Player for $14.99, it's the one that I have and absolutely love it!
They also have a VIZIO 19" Widescreen LCD HDTV, refurbished, for just $149.99, a savings of $80.00!
My tv out here is good, it works just fine, nothing at all wrong with it, but Mark has a Vizio LCD HDTV in his room, the game room, that he got from sis for his graduation present, and it's truly an awesome looking tv.
I am totally jealous of how incredible the tv in there looks on video games and movies.
If I could physically stand being in the room for longer than 20 minutes, I would totally watch all of my shows and movies in there.
Anyway, before I plan our trip to Maine and buy the tickets, I need to pay a few bills like the rent for March, pay back 2 loans, and buy a lot of cat food and litter so that whoever comes to feed them while we're gone, won't have to worry about the cats running out of food.
I don't plan on being gone for very long, a max of 2 weeks, so yeah, someone will need to come by either every day, or every other day, and feed the cats and clean the litter boxes out.
I have 2 pet feeders, one for food, one for water, they look exactly like this but in pink, but the way the cats eat if there's a lot of food in the feeder, (especially Carmine) they will eat it until it's gone.
They don't stop eating, so if I fill the food feeder dish, all of the cats will chow down until they are totally bloated and ready to burst.
I don't understand how they can just eat and eat, do you think that animals do that, eat whatever is in front of them until it's gone, because they fear being without food?
I think that may be part of it, afraid that the food will run out and they will starve or something.
Anyway, I have a lot of things to do before I can go to bed again.
I posted about what happened on Thursday and the whole weekend on KatScan.
February 8, 2010
For faster, easier control while gaming, and school, Mom.
Sebastian found a mouse that he wants, and now Mark wants it after seeing it, too, to be able to do everything much faster while playing their pc video games like WoW.
They want a Kensington SlimBlade Trackball.
This trackball has a lot of features that can be used to control much more than just navigational like clicking the cursor and scrolling, and it can be all be done with a few spins of the trackball, and a few clicks of some buttons that my trackball doesn't have.
The multi-function ball navigates through music, videos, pictures, and documents, using media and document mode.
It can also control cursor and scrolling, volume control, play/pause, stop, and next; zoom in/out, and pan, all with the ball, all of it right at your fingertips.
The teens both said that this would make playing WoW much easier, they could be faster at stuff in game, and then Sebastian said it would also come in very handy for his digital stuff that he does for school.
Got me.
What didn't get me was the price of it.
Some online e-tailers have it for as much as $199.99.
Ouch.
I found it slightly cheaper at one for $149.99, and then Buy.com, which has become one of my most favorite places to shop, has it for just $129.99 all of the time.
This week, they have it on sale for just $75.99 and free shipping.
*sigh*
I would love to get it for them this week, especially since it's priced so low, but I can't do it this week.
I just got done paying an outrageous electric bill for their once every 3 years security deposit updates, and my website/domain hosting is due next week, so this will have to wait for awhile, like maybe for an upcoming birthday, or maybe when I get my income taxes back, (after I file them of course) or maybe for an upcoming holiday or something like that.
At $129.99 all of the time, that's not too too bad for a price, and can be do-able if I plan for it far enough in advance.
January 28, 2010
I am so proud of Sebastian.
I haven't been feeling very well at all since last Thursday, I have an intestinal thing, that's all anyone really needs to know as I'm sure if you've ever had some sort of intestinal thing, you know all too well what I'm dealing with.
Anyway, Sebastian is doing so well in his digital design class and in his technology class, that a teacher has helped him prepare for something greater than where he's at right now.
There is a special high school here in town called Suncoast Polytechnical High School, that specializes in technology based programs.
You can read a bit more about them at that link, but their mission is as follows;
The mission of Suncoast Polytechnical High School is
to provide a highly personalized educational experience where students master a rigorous career and technology driven curriculum within a thematic, analytical, and interactive teaching and learning environment.Vision
It is the Vision of Suncoast Polytechnical High School to be recognized for providing a world-class technical education.
Not only do the students have to adhere to some very strict classes and rules to stay in the school or be dropped back to their regular district high school, but the parents also have to do certain things to help their student stay at SPHS.
Parents have to volunteer 15 hours per year in the booster program or in the classroom, they have to check their students work every single week and sign-off on it, they have to be able to provide a computer and high speed internet connection, and they have to make sure their student attends every single day.
Any mistakes in following the rules by either the student or parent, results in the student being dropped back to their regular district high school.
Part of the admission process is to write an entrance essay explaining why they want to attend SPHS, and tonight Sebastian had me read his entrance essay.
I was absolutely blown away by how amazingly articulate he has become, what he stated as his career goals, and some of the reasons why he wants to work in the technology field, what he excels at, what he wants to excel at, and what his future employment plans are after attending SPHS and post-secondary school.
He also stated that he wants to improve his life, to not have to struggle to make ends meet like his mother has for so many years.
He explained in his essay about me and my work ethics before my body quit on me, the surgeries which completely changed my life and theirs, and how during the last surgery, I died twice on the table, had my lung collapse, and ended up in a medical coma for 4 days.
He explained that almost losing the only parent that has ever been there for him, that has worked so hard to provide for him and his brother, and still tries to provide the best that I can for my children, but struggles every day to make ends meet, to give them everything that they need, that he wants to be the absolute best that he can be at a career that he absolutely loves to do, so that once he's made it and providing well for himself, that he will be able to take care of me when I'm older and on my own.
He said,
"My mom has always been there for me, she provided not only my needs, but also provided me with all of the love, support, and encouragement, that has enabled me to have the courage to follow my dream career. I could not do any of this without her, even with all of her own physical limitations and problems, she has never once told me that I couldn't do anything that I wanted to do. My mom has always told me that if I want it, go get it, fight for it, be the absolute best that you can be, and that you will have the career of your dreams, the life of your dreams, and be able to stand up and be equal to any other person applying for those dream technology New York jobs where I want to live and work. Once I make it there, once I make my dream job come true through attending SPHS and any further education that I want to pursue, I want to be able to give back to the woman who has stood by me my entire life, loved me, supported me, and encouraged me to reach for this and to never let it go. If you allow me to attend SPHS, I will work hard for you, I will give you my all, and my mother will be here for the parents portion of enrollment, and then you will see where I learned to go after my dreams.
Thank you for your consideration in allowing me to attend SPHS for the 2011- 2012 school year. "
The giveaway for the book Bubble Gum and Hula Hoops will close at midnight tonight, Thursday the 28th, and the 5 winners will be drawn.
So far, only 5 people have entered, so if no one else enters, all 5 of them will automatically win a copy of it.
So if you'd like a chance to win a copy, you have until midnight tonight to get your entries in.
January 15, 2010
Extraordinary Measures movie review.
Last night Mindy and I went and saw Extraordinary Measures at the Muvico in Tampa.
Many thanks to CBS films for letting us be at the advanced screening of the film for free, it was most definitely appreciated as we both needed a night out, just us girls, so we could see a good movie, talk, and have some fun.
Synopsis
"Extraordinary Measures" is inspired by the true story of John Crowley, a man who defied conventional wisdom and great odds, and risked his family's future to pursue a cure for his children's life threatening disease. From his working class roots, John Crowley (Brendan Fraser) has finally begun to taste success in corporate America. Supported by his beautiful wife Aileen (Keri Russell) and their three children, John is on the fast track. But just as his career is taking off, Crowley walks away from it all when his two youngest children, Megan and Patrick, are diagnosed with a fatal disease. With Aileen by his side, harnessing all of his skill and determination, Crowley teams up with a brilliant, but unappreciated and unconventional scientist, Dr. Robert Stonehill. (Harrison Ford) Together they form a bio-tech company focused on developing a life-saving drug. One driven to prove himself and his theories, the other by a chance to save his children, this unlikely alliance eventually develops into mutual respect as they battle the medical and business establishments in a fight against the system - and time.
I thought the movie was going to be a total tear-jerker, but it wasn't.
There was only one scene where I felt like crying like the main character did, John Crowley, played by Brendan Frasier, when he thought he had screwed up so bad that he ruined his chance to help save his kid's lives.
Based on a true story, John Crowley was doing everything that he could do and think of to try and save the lives of his kids who suffer from Pompe Disease.
In Pompe Disease, normally, the body uses GAA to break down glycogen, a stored form of sugar used for energy. But in Pompe disease, mutations in the GAA gene reduce or completely eliminate this essential enzyme. Excessive amounts of glycogen accumulate everywhere in the body, but the cells of the heart and skeletal muscles are the most seriously affected.
Kids with the disease often don't live much past the age of 9-10, so John Crowley gave up his job, moved his family across the country, to try and prove the theories of Dr. Robert Stonehill, played by Harrison Ford.
Thanks to the hard work and sacrifice of both Crowley and Stonehill, an enzyme replacement therapy drug was created and it is actually working to help babies and kids with the disease to keep their hearts and other organs from growing too large and breaking down the muscles.
It was a really fantastic movie, I really enjoyed it, and as I said, it wasn't the tear-jerker that I thought it was going to be, not at all.
It was a movie about the hard work, determination, and love a parent has for their children.
I would highly recommend the movie to anyone to go see, it was definitely a movie worth watching as both Frasier and Ford did an outstanding job in their roles.
Harrison Ford plays a really eccentric and cranky scientist with a theory about the disease and how to treat it, but he's never had a drug go to trials, and never had a drug approved, so getting the venture capital needed to make and test the drug was an impossible feat for him.
That's where Frasier's character comes in, he has the business skills needed to get people to invest, he does whatever he has to to get the funding so Stonehill can get the drug made and into trials, and then approved, including having to sell-out to a larger drug company so that everything can happen at a much faster pace.
The things he did, he had to do even though it really angered Stonehill to have to sell-out and go work in a huge pharmaceutical company, but it had to be done, Crowley's kids were drying, they didn't have much time left at all.
In the end, Crowley even had to be fired from his job in order to get his 2 kids into the sibling test trials for the enzyme replacement therapy.
As a parent, I would do anything for my kids, I know how Crowley felt, do anything, everything, to try and save his kids.
Luckily, my sons don't have any life-threatening diseases like this, but Mark does have problems with his spine and I am fighting with the doctors and insurance almost every single day to get him treated now, not in 15-20 years when it may be too late to help him, when it may be so late that he ends up like me.
He's 18, has his whole life ahead of him, I can't let him end up like me, so like Crowley, I will fight and do what it takes to help my son get the medical treatment he needs now, not later.
The movie isn't that long, so we made it home before midnight, and I was dead tired from the long ride there and back, and sitting in the theater seat all that time.
I woke up this morning exhausted, I had big dark circles under my eyes, so I grabbed my eye ice pack and laid back down on the couch for another couple of hours.
I'm still tired but have a lot to do including the grocery shopping.
Ugh.
Oh, when we got to the theater, CBS had saved us our seats because I had asked to be in the handicapped row, middle seating if possible because of the tilt of my head, I cannot be way down front.
Sharon, the host of the screening, escorted us to our seats which she had roped off with caution tape.
The theater was totally packed, there were a lot of people there for the screening, so walking into a packed theater and being escorted to our roped off seats was kind of embarrassing.
Everybody was staring at us because she escorted us to the roped off section and she said really loud that the seats were for the VIP movie screeners for CBS Films, and that they had to hold up the movie for a few more minutes for a few more VIPs.
Ha!
All of the other screeners were from some group that I want to look up, GOFOBO or something like that, but we were treated as VIPs, given special seating, and thanked like a million times, so it was fun and kind of embarrassing, but kind of cool too to be given special treatment.
So thank you very much to CBS Films for allowing us to be a part of the advanced screening.
Extraordinary Measures will be in nationwide release on January 22nd, and I highly recommend the movie.
January 14, 2010
Off to the movies in a few hours!
Tonight Mindy and I are going to see the movie Extraordinary Measures all of the way up in Tampa.
It starts it's nationwide theater release on January 22nd, so we are going to see an advanced screening of it tonight, then come home and blog about our thoughts on the movie.
I'm really excited to go see it, it looks like a good tear-jerker of a movie, and I like seeing movies like this especially when they are based on true stories, and I don't mind a good cry because of a movie or tv show every now and then, but I will be prepared for sitting in the movie theater this time.
I'm bringing a pillow with me to sit on so I hopefully don't end up with the same kind of horrible pain that I was in when we went and saw Avatar.
This time, I am going to do whatever I need to do to try and make sure that I don't end up in too much pain from sitting all of that time.
I'm going to take my pain meds and use some of the joint pain treatment things that I have to try and relax my muscles and stuff before we go, and use the pillow to sit on while we're there.
I'm going to take a nice, long, hot shower, rub on some of the pain gel stuff that I have, take a muscle relaxer, and use my wearable heating pad for the ride up to Tampa.
Hopefully, this will keep some of the pain away so that I can enjoy the movie.
I'll let you all know how the movie is when we get back.
It starts at 7:30, so I don't expect to be home until around 11:30pm or midnight.
January 13, 2010
Sick of the Special K commercials.
The Special K commercials are getting more and more annoying, but there's one that drives me absolutely bonkers.
Every single time I see it, I start yelling at the tv, I end up leaving the room I get so upset.
I can't find a video for it on youtube, but it's the one where a mom and daughter are sitting at a CHILD'S PLAY TABLE AND CHAIRS, and the phone rings, the mom gets up, and her butt is stuck in the chair.
A chair that is made for a child, but this freaks the mom out so much that she goes to eat some more Special K cereal to help her with quick weight loss.
It's a child's chair, the mom is already skinny, but OMG! She wants to lose even more weight because she gets stuck in a child's chair, one that is made for like a 40-50lb child.
Every single one of the Special K commercials is like this, the women in them are already skinny, but they need to lose more weight, they just have to, so all they eat is Special K.
I hate these commercials, can't stand them, I think they are just sending the wrong message to women.
Skinny but not skinny enough?
Not anorexic enough?!
Eat some more Special K!
January 9, 2010
Girls' night out in Tampa this Thursday!
This Thursday night, the 14th, Mindy and I will be having a girls' night out in Tampa, to go see the movie Extraordinary Measures.
Synopsis
"Extraordinary Measures" is inspired by the true story of John Crowley, a man who defied conventional wisdom and great odds, and risked his family's future to pursue a cure for his children's life threatening disease. From his working class roots, John Crowley (Brendan Fraser) has finally begun to taste success in corporate America. Supported by his beautiful wife Aileen (Keri Russell) and their three children, John is on the fast track. But just as his career is taking off, Crowley walks away from it all when his two youngest children, Megan and Patrick, are diagnosed with a fatal disease. With Aileen by his side, harnessing all of his skill and determination, Crowley teams up with a brilliant, but unappreciated and unconventional scientist, Dr. Robert Stonehill. (Harrison Ford) Together they form a bio-tech company focused on developing a life-saving drug. One driven to prove himself and his theories, the other by a chance to save his children, this unlikely alliance eventually develops into mutual respect as they battle the medical and business establishments in a fight against the system - and time.
I know, not your typical girls' night out, no partying at a nightclub until dawn, but it's a night away from home and family, no kids to tend to, no cooking, no cleaning or dishes, but a night out to see a what looks to be a good movie, with a friend.
Now when I went and saw Avatar 2 weeks ago, I loved it, it was a fantastic movie, but sitting through the movie was very difficult on me.
I may have wide hips and a bit of a belly, but I have a very bony ass.
And not just my bony ass, but I also have two 4 inch titanium screws in my hips, and the titanium rods from my spine fusions that go all of the way down to the bottom of my tail bone.
Even though the theater chairs are very well cushioned, having a bony ass and that titanium in my tail bone, made sitting for almost 3 hours, extremely difficult.
Not even at the halfway mark, I could feel my tail bone in my butt, I could feel the titanium in my butt, and I kept trying to shift side to side to make it a little more comfortable.
When I'm sitting here at my desk, I do have a great office chair, it's very cushioned, but I have to have a pillow on it to help, and I still can feel my tail bone and the titanium after a few hours.
What am I getting at here?
Well, when I go see the movie this Thursday night, I'm going to have to bring a pillow with me to sit on, but I would honestly pay $20 for a movie ticket if there was at least 1 specialized movie theater.
What kind of special theater?
Well, one with good and comfy, home style seating.
Maybe some super plush but contemporary sofas, some big and squishy recliners, super long and soft sofas, furniture like people have at home.
I would totally pay $20 per movie ticket to be able to either kick all of the way back with my legs and feet up in a super soft recliner, or lay down on a big and soft sofa.
I would totally love it.
Heck, a big movie theater could makeover just 1 of the many theater rooms they already have, into the special theater room, and play the top movie release of the week, maybe change out the movie in that 1 theater every day or something, but charge $20 a ticket and see if people would buy tickets.
I know that I would, my sons would love it too, so I would pay for them to be in the theater with me on a big sofa or in recliners.
Those of you who have a home theater in your house, you know that it's awesome.
You have all of the benefits of surround sound, a really great and big HDTV, but with the total comfort of home.
I think a special theater would be really cool and totally work, and so if a theater made-over 1 theater room to have the super comfort of home, would you pay more for a ticket to be in there?
January 7, 2010
Bubble Gum and Hula Hoops review and 5 book giveaway!
I received a free copy of the manuscript for Bubble Gum and Hula Hoops: The Origins of Objects In Our Everyday Lives, about a month ago to read and review here on my blog.
It's a really fascinating and funny look at why certain things got invented, and why they were named what they were.
Take the bra for an example, a lot of people believe that it was invented and named after someone named brassiere, not true.
It's kind of a long story, but all the way back in 2500bc in Minoan Crete, they were using pieces of fabric strapped around the chest to support the bosoms, it probably resembled a sports bra of today because it was wrapped so tightly.
Corsets had been around since the 16th century, but it was in 1893 when American socialite Mary Jacobs was dressing for an evening event when she got really upset about her whalebone corset.
She took 2 hankies tied together with ribbon, and used them to keep her breasts looking the way she wanted them too under her tight party dress.
She was so pleased with it, that she patented the design and began selling them as "Caresse Crosby" bras but with very limited success.
Eventually she sold the design rights to the Warner Brothers Corset Company, and they went on to make a huge fortune from Mary's idea.
By the 1920's, they were in wide circulation, and now today, we have a huge assortment of over the shoulder boulder holders that flatten, tighten, plump, support, volumize, and of course, push up!
There are a ton of very interesting stories in this book about all kinds of products like the breathalyzer, the condom, toothpaste, cigarettes, bubble wrap, paper clips, bar codes, the camera, lipstick, the airbag, the GPS, parking meters, aluminum foil, canned food and carbonated drinks.
There so many things in this book that I'm sure you've heard a story about how they were made and it's probably wrong, so this book tells how and why things were made and why they were named what they were.
It was a really fun book to read, I learned a lot and laughed a lot along the way, so I want to share the learning and laughs with 5 lucky readers.
Do you want to win a copy of Bubble Gum and Hula Hoops for yourself?
Or maybe you know someone who enjoys learning about why things were invented?
If so, all you have to do is follow the rules below.
Here's how!
Rules:
The giveaway is open to United States, (including Alaska and Hawaii) and Canada!
This giveaway is open to all, not just bloggers, but rules must be followed.
Only 1 entry per person/family/household.
Only 1 person per IP address can enter the giveaway and complete the required entry and extra entries.
No entering on behalf of others, using extra identities or others identities, no automated program entries, etc.
I can check and verify IP addresses and email addresses. *wink*
If you are caught cheating, you will be banned from this giveaway and any future giveaways on my blogs.
This giveaway is only open to those ages 18+ only.
All entries must be received by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Thursday January 28, 2010.
I will pick the 5 winners randomly using random.org on Friday January 29th, 2010, email the winners, and they will have 48 hours to claim their prize.
If I do not get a reply within 48 hours, I will pick a new winner using random.org again.
How to enter:
The required entry:
This is mandatory, if this one entry is not done, you will not qualify for the giveaway.
For a chance to win, leave me a comment telling me what you would have named any current product/invention, and why you would have named it that.
For extra entries:
The following are all for 1 additional entry each, and you must leave a separate comment for each 1 that you do.
If you bundle entries in 1 comment, the comment will be deleted and disqualified.
1.
Post a new comment telling me what you would like to see invented.
2.
Blog about this on your blog, and leave a separate comment with the url to your post.
The post must remain on your blog for the duration of the contest.
3.
Post about this giveaway with a link back to this post on Twitter, and then leave a comment on this post with the link to your Twitter post about this contest.
You can use this link in your Twitter post to tweet and tell others about this giveaway! http://tinyurl.com/yb4zlw3
5.
Post about this on Facebook and give me the link to your Facebook profile so I can verify it!
That's it!
***There are 5 books in total, they will be shipped directly to the winners from the publisher, so you will need to leave me a valid email address when you enter, and if you win, I will contact you for your mailing address which will only be given to the publisher, and only for the purpose of sending you the book.
None of your information posted like full name, email address, or mailing address which you have given for contest entries, will ever be given or sold to any person or company, it will only be used for the purpose of contacting you, if you win, to send you the book.***
Good luck!!
January 1, 2010
Happy 2010!
In just 9 days, I will have been blogging in some capacity for 13 years.
I can't believe that I've been doing this for that long, but I'm not complaining at all, no way.
I love everything about blogging, mostly the ability to connect with people.
I've made friends from around the world because of it, that's really pretty awesome.
I've seen a lot of bloggers come and go, I've seen people give up their blogs entirely to use Facebook or Twitter, and I've seen the greatness of the community of people who blog to raise money for charities and fellow blogging friends.
It's really been an awesome experience that I don't plan on ending anytime soon.
________________________
We're not doing too much of anything today, the teens are still sleeping after staying up to watch the ball drop and then a movie after that.
I'll be going grocery shopping at some point, doing the laundry at some point after that, and then I need to sweep and mop the kitchen and bathroom floor tiles as they are quite a mess.
I have no idea what got spilled on the kitchen floor, but it's a sticky mess that is making me a bit more irritated every time I have to go in there.
*stick stick stick*
Yuck.
What movie did we watch?
We watched Inglorious Basterds and it was pretty damn good.
For a fun fantasy film, it was really pretty good.
Anyway, not too much going on here right now, just me awake and waiting for the day to move a little faster.
December 30, 2009
I hate the cold weather.
For the last 24 hours, it has been cold and just generally yucky around here.
It was in the low to mid 30s which usually doesn't happen for the last few years, but it was super cold last night, and it will be super cold for the rest of the week too.
I really hate it when it gets cold like this, nobody wants to go out and do anything, everyone is dressed like we live in Alaska.
Seriously, I saw someone in a big thick winter coat, a scarf, and gloves.
It was cold enough to wear a winter coat, but it isn't cold enough to dress all of that on.
The weather really hurts me when it gets cold, the titanium screws get frozen, then they make me feel like I'm frozen, freezing to death from the inside out.
When it gets cold like that, I wish that I could just pack up all of the stuff we need, and then go on to find someplace warm to stay in the cold has gone away.
Rent a motor home, get the insurance and a motorhome warranty, and start driving to the lower portions of this state like Miami maybe, or even further south.
A motor home would be cool because we could all fit in it, our kitties too, pack up whatever food we have in the house, all of our sodas and stuff, and just start driving south to get to warmer weather near the equator.
Someday I will do the things that I talk about, going to the mountains, motor home, just go wherever it takes up.
December 23, 2009
Go go Power Rangers!
I remember when the teens were little boys and all of the cartoons and shows they just loved to watch.
I swear we would watch the same movie a dozen or more times in a 24 hour period.
The Little Mermaid, The Fox and the Hound, and the Power Rangers.
Oh, sorry, my bad.
Sebastian told me to get it right, (he's reading over my shoulder) it's The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Duh Mom. *eyeroll*
They knew every line and every single song in The Little Mermaid and The Fox and the Hound, they knew every single line of the Power Rangers too.
How could they not know every line, song, and dance?
They watched them a million times over the course of their childhoods.
We didn't have DVD players when the teens were little, all of our movies were on VHS, so once the movie stopped, the screams to rewind would begin.
They would do this little butt-squiggle-fidget-dance on the living room carpet until the movie got done rewinding and I pressed play again, then there would be a few claps of applause and then silence while staring at the opening scenes of the movie.
They absolutely loved all of their movies, they had so many of them, still have most of them too.
I have so many kids movies on VHS still, all kinds of Disney movies, tv show episodes, cartoons, all kinds of kid movies.
I remember when the local grocery store in Maine had The Land Before Time movie on sale really cheap, for like $3.99 if you bought some other stuff with it.
I think you had to buy 2 boxes of cereal and a gallon of milk, and then you could get the movie for just $3.99, and I remember the promotion was only for 1 month, and every single time we went grocery shopping with my mom, Mark would beg for the movie.
He knew exactly what end cap the movie was on too, and he would get so excited when we got closer to that end cap aisle.
He would start doing the butt-squiggle-fidget-dance in the cart seat as we went up and down every single aisle and he'd get a glimpse of it, then down an aisle, glimpse, up an aisle, until we were at it and then he'd get this huge grin on his face, he just had to see the box for the movie, hold it in his hands.
He had absolutely no idea what the movie was about, but he saw those dinosaurs and just knew he had to see it, had to or his little 4 year old life would be over.
My mom and I had talked about getting it for him, that she wanted to do it, so I made Mark put it back on the shelf and I told him I would buy it next week, that mommy didn't need any more cereal and milk right now, we had 3 boxes and a gallon of milk at home already, and his little face just got all sad on me in an instant.
His lower lip pouted out, his big brown eyes looked down at the box one last time, and he sadly placed it back on the shelf.
My mom was right behind us and she put it in her cart, hiding it behind the boxes of cereal and gallon of milk in her cart.
The entire ride home to my apartment, Mark talked about the dinosaur movie at the store, he didn't know what it was about, he didn't know the names of the characters, but he just knew he was going to love that movie so so much, and next week mommy was going to buy it he told my mom.
I carried all of my groceries into my apartment while my mom stayed in the car with him, she told me to slip it into one of my bags and so I did.
I grabbed the last bag and unhooked him from his cart seat, he hugged "Ninny" good-bye, and we went into our house.
I put all of the groceries away with his help, he would take one item at a time out of the bags and hand them to me.
I made sure that the movie was going to be in the last bag to empty, and when we got to it, I waited for his surprised response.
He pulled out 2 boxes of spaghetti pasta, a package of sliced cheese, a box of rice, a can of soup, and then he reached in the bag and grabbed the box.
At first he thought it was another box of Rice-a-Roni until he got a really good look at it.
He almost handed it to me and then pulled his arm back staring at the box with wide-eyed awe, and then he screamed, "Mommy! The dinosaurs! The dinosaurs movie! It was in the bag! You said next time! Mommmmmmy! The dinosaurs!!!!"
I told him that Ninny bought him the dinosaurs movie because he was such a good boy helping with the shopping, and she loved him very much.
I swear he had tears of joy in those big brown 4 year old eyes.
He asked if he could watch it, I told him we had to put the rest of the food away, go potty, make some lunch, and then we could watch it together.
He did everything as quickly as he could, he helped put the rest of the food away, he helped make his sandwich for lunch and carried his plate to his little table in the living room, and I put the movie in and pressed play.
He and I sat there watching The Land Before time together and eating our lunch, not a sound came out of his mouth the entire 1 hour and 9 minutes that the movie played.
He didn't take his eyes off of the tv screen that whole time either.
When it was all over, he said that he loved Littlefoot and all of his friends, this time tears were in his eyes, and he asked to watch it again.
I re-wound the movie and while it was rewinding we cleaned up our lunch plates, and then when I pressed play, he came to the couch and curled up with me to watch it.
This time he did talk through the movie, getting all excited when it started, crying when Littlefoot and his mom got separated, happy when Littlefoot made new friends, yelling at the T-Rex when it was chasing Littlefoot and friends, he really did love that movie as much as he knew he would from just seeing the box in the grocery store.
When little brother Sebastian grew up a little bit more and they could watch movies and tv shows together, they both loved the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Mark wanted to be the green ranger, Sebastian the red, they had all of the action figures and played with them non-stop.
They had sweatshirts, t-shirts, books, playing cards, little kid-sized chairs, all with the Power Rangers theme, and they loved every single one of those things.
Sebastian would cry if he spilled some juice on one of his fave Power Ranger t-shirts, Mark wouldn't be able to go to bed until he made sure that each and every action figure was safe and sound safely laid out in order of loved the most across the top of his dresser.
They still have almost every single one of those action figures too.
About a month ago, an advertiser sent us one of the new Power Ranger RPM Racing Performance Cycles with an action figure, it's the racing performance wolf cycle, the black ranger, and man, Sebastian just loves that thing.
When the UPS man knocked on the door, Sebastian got excited, he didn't even know what was in the box, he just gets excited when any kind of box or package shows up.
I opened the box up and made him stand back a few feet not letting him even get a peek inside, I read the accompanying letter, and then smiled at him before handing him the package.
Even though he's 16 years old now, his face lit up and his eyes grew huge, just like when he was a little kid getting a new Power Ranger action figure for the first time.
He went and dug out all of their old Power Ranger action figures and began playing with them all just like when he was little.
It makes me smile when I hear them playing with the toys, they are grown up, growing up, pretty soon they will be totally grown up and leaving my home, so seeing and hearing them play with their action figures, makes me think I get to keep my little boys for just a little bit longer.
Sebastian was in the room playing with those action figures tonight, I could hear him from out here at my desk, and it just made me smile and remember all of the movies and shows, all of the cute little things they did when they were little kids.
December 15, 2009
Video games, kitty food, and front teeth.
I just ordered the video game the teens wanted for xmas, Cally of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, I got some money in sooner than expected, so I ordered it now before I got stuck having to order with 1 or 2 day expensive shipping.
I also bought the kitties a present, a food feeder, because it's been a total pain in the butt having to constantly add food to their bowl.
It matches the waterer that I have already, so I know that it's a good quality product to have.
The money order from Mom and dad came in today's mail, so I don't have to watch for the mail for that, but I still have other things coming to watch for, so tomorrow while I'm getting my tooth fixed, Mark will have to be the lookout.
I think I'm going to try and go to bed early, see if my body and brain will let me sleep or if it's going to be another night of insomnia.
Later days.
December 13, 2009
Shopping, decorating, and no sleep.
Once again I've been up all night with insomnia, and then when Sebastian woke up on time because we had planned to go do the big grocery shopping this morning, I had started to doze off right here in my chair.
I hate it when that happens.
I'm so tired from being awake all night long with insomnia, fighting to go to sleep, being unable to sleep so I give up and play on the internet all night.
I end up either goofing off online all night doing totally stupid stuff, or like last night, I was actually checking out all of the various e-tailers looking to see who had the best deals on the video games that the teens want for Christmas, hoping that there will be a good sale when I get paid this week, and also hoping for free and super fast shipping on those video games.
I do not want to have to go into a brick and mortar store to get those games, but because I am doing the Christmas shopping so late, I just may end up having to go to a physical store.
Buy.com does have the best price for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and they do have it with free shipping, but according to their holiday ordering deadlines, if I don't get it ordered by Wednesday the 16th at noon, if I still want to order it and get it by Christmas eve, I will have to pay for 1st or 2nd day air which would cost a lot more money than I want or have to spend, so I may end up having to go to a physical store.
As of right now, the price for 2nd day air is only $4.50 more than the standard of $4.40, but that may change the closer we get to the holiday and shipping schedules get tighter or busier, or maybe that's just their really awesome super low price for 2nd day air all of the time?
Wow, I just looked, and 1 day next day air is only $6.00 more!
I know that other e-tailers charge way more than that for 1st and 2nd day air, a whole lot more.
I don't know and I'm really trying to not stress out over being able to order their games on time without having to pay crazy shipping fees, but that's just how I am, my OCD will drive me absolutely crazy every single day until I can actually place the order.
I just hope that I will be able to get it regardless of being able to order it or have to buy it in store.
I know that it's a popular game, so all I want is to definitely be able to get it.
Ok, off to do the grocery shopping now that it stopped raining and the sun actually came out, and then when we get back home, I need to decorate for Christmas.
I've been putting it off all week, and I promised Sebastian that we would definitely get it done this weekend.
Shopping and decorating on no sleep, should be totally awesome.
Not!
December 12, 2009
Up, up and away
Tonight the teens and I watched the movie "Up" by Disney and Pixar.
Well, Friday night, it's now officially Saturday morning.
Once again I've been up all night, spending the entire time crying off and on, just beyond tired and stressed out, and frustrated, and angry, and all kinds of emotions all just slamming into me all night long.
It's not just one reason for this, it's many different reasons and it would all take far too long to explain so I'll just talk about the movie ok?
Ok.
The movie was really good, it was happy and cute, funny and sad, and just a truly wonderful love and friendship story.
I absolutely loved the character of Russell, I thought that kid was just downright adorable!
I wanted so much to just reach out and hug that little guy, his heart was just so open even though it was hurt and broken because his dad wasn't around any longer.
Russell just wanted so much to get it right, to earn that last Wilderness Explorer badge, the Assisting The Elderly Badge, because then maybe his dad would pay attention to him again.
Go camping again, go eat ice cream cones and count the red and blue cars while sitting on the curb, Russell just wanted so much to get those boring things (he called them boring) back.
At the same time that this cute little adventure story is going on with Russell and Carl going up and away in the balloon, we have another story, a love story that happened and is the reason for the whole house going up in balloons.
Carl and Ellie, their love, their life together, ups, downs, happiness, and extreme sadness, but through it all they remained together and on their own adventures together.
Love, friendship, adventure, belonging.
I loved every smile, every laugh, every single tear that this movie made me feel.
It's on sale right now and if I have enough money left over after getting the teens their gifts for Christmas, I might just get this for myself, I enjoyed it that much that I can totally see myself watching it on rainy Saturday afternoons while I lay on the couch with a blanket, a cat, and a few tears sliding down my cheeks.
I know I did a terrible job telling you about this movie, but this post wasn't a movie review, it was just me talking about how my Friday night was, how I'm feeling now at 5am Saturday, just a weird random post filled with all my feelings, mostly sadness.
There are several reasons that I should be happy, but I keep finding myself just totally overcome with sadness every so often these last few days.
I just keep welling up with tears, they start to fall and then I feel the reason that I started crying, it's supposed to be the other way around, feel then cry.
I think this movie just made me feel put on hold, it reminded me that I'm on hold, and I can't get off of hold.
I know that I'm not making a whole lot of sense, I'm exhausted and frustrated with things, and I just want to, actually, I have absolutely no idea what I want other than an intense need for a cigarette right now and I don't have any. hahahaha!
December 7, 2009
Only 9 days till Christmas vacation?!
Ack!
In just 9 days Sebastian will be on Christmas vacation, or winter break as they are now calling it so as not to offend anyone.
I really wish people would get off of that battle, there are bigger things to argue about than what to say to people, either Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, it's no big deal.
I say Merry Christmas and I'm an atheist.
Oh my! The horrors!...LoL
I will be doing the shopping for the teens Christmas gifts next week.
I know, so late, but I am waiting for a few things to go on sale.
I'm so glad the boys are older, they know and understand the financial situation, so they don't ask for a million things anymore, and they also don't ask for super expensive things anymore.
I remember when they were little, every single commercial for a toy, they wanted that toy, they had to have it.
Little kids are just naturally greedy.
They don't mean to be, they just get that way at Christmas, they get excited because they believe in Santa Claus and want everything that they can get or think Santa will bring them.
Now that they are older and know Santa is not real and know that it's me, mommy, who buys all of the gifts, they know that they cannot ask for everything they see, but they do ask for just 1 big item that they would like to have.
They both want Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for the Xbox 360, and they also want something for the World of Warcraft game.
Something about a character transfer I think, I don't know, I don't pay any attention to that game at all, it bores me to be honest, I cannot understand why people get so addicted to playing it.
All I want is some more memory for my new pc to make it really fly and also be able to handle my Sims3 game way better.
It can handle it right now, but with 4GB of memory, it will be spectacular!
December 4, 2009
If I had a nice yard, I would so have one of these.
When Sebastian and I took our nightly walk around the neighborhood last night, we could smell a wood fire burning and coming from up the street, so we walked that way to see where and what it was.
The new people (5 months new people) were sitting outside in their nicely done yard and had 1 of these kinds of outdoor fireplaces going.
It didn't have that dome cover, theirs appeared to be just a mesh screen type cover, I picked the 1 that I posted when I went searching for them online, found that awesome looking celestial cover, and then went to see how much they were.
The price isn't too bad, it's well out of my price range of course, (that is until I win the Powerball baby!!) but I just think that it looks really nice in a nicely done up yard.
If I had a really nice yard, maybe even fenced in, a lanai perhaps, maybe with a swimming pool too, I would totally have an outdoor fireplace or pit.
The people up the street just looked so totally relaxed and happy sitting outside enjoying the fall air and talking to each other around the fire.
A few weeks ago when Mark was spending the night with his friend Jeff, Sebastian and I went and hung out with some friends of mine who have a fire pit.
They got it going really good and it was so nice to just sit there on their wooden swing with the super comfy cushions, and chat by the fireside.
I sat with my friend Jen who is a couple months pregnant, and so swinging felt really good to the both of us.
We both got into a nice rhythm going back and forth, and talking about babies and weddings and stuff while the guys sat and talked sports and video games.
Sebastian was telling the guys all kinds of ways to get stuff in WoW, that game is still totally over my head, I know absolutely nothing about it, so once anyone gets talking about it, I just tune it out completely. haha
Jen and Rusty are getting married in February, so they are starting to plan things out, just a really simple wedding at the beach with a justice of the peace.
I've often thought about becoming an ordained secular humanist clergy-type person so I can marry my atheist friends and stuff.
I'd also be able to do things like baby namings, funerals, commitment ceremonies, affirmation of love ceremonies, invocations, renewal of marriage ceremonies, and holiday ceremonies.
All I would need to do this would be to get a Notary Public license, and then bada-bing bada-boom!
I could marry atheists and other secular individuals, or just couples who don't want the traditional religious ceremony done at their wedding.
I think it would be like a pretty cool little side job to have, and if gays ever get the right to be married in Florida, I could marry them and do those weddings too.
I think it's a pretty cool idea and so did Rusty and Jen, they asked me if I could possibly become a notary by February, so I said that I would look into it.
They don't want the traditional vows done at their wedding, they want to write their own vows, they want a peaceful and friendly ceremony, so I'm looking into it.
Pretty cool huh?
Me, an ordained clergy-type person. Ha ha haha!
December 2, 2009
I just realized that it's December. *blink blink*
Holy crap, it's December 2nd already?
I'm not ready for Christmas yet! No!! Not yet!!!
I'm not actually panicked about it, the teens know that they are each getting one gift with a value of just $80 bucks or less, and then all kinds of stocking stuffers from me.
They know that I cannot afford to go crazy shopping for Christmas even if stuff is on sale.
The teens are really easy to shop for though, they either want Xbox 360 games like Assassin's Creed II or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, or they want a couple of characters moved around in their WoW account.
Doing stuff in Wow is just as expensive as an in-hand video game purchase, and I will be leaving it up to them to decide exactly what they want, but they have to stay within the price range of $80 each.
That's just all that I can afford to do this year, things have been super tight with having to replace the AC twice just since February, and then having to pay a lot of out of pocket for Mark's doctor visits and meds, and transportation to and from both of our appointments, pay a lot of cash out of pocket for some of my meds not covered by my insurance, things are what they are.
But I know that I'm not the only family that is struggling this year to try and provide a half-way decent Christmas for our kids, everybody is feeling the pinch of the economy.
The teens are really great about it though, they know what's what and they are ok with it, plus they know that they will get cash from relatives so they can go buy what they want to buy themselves.
You ask them what they want from a relative for Christmas because that relative asked, both of the teens say cash. haha
They just like money, hey, who doesn't right?
They like to get cash because they then can spend it on what they want or save it for awhile.
Last year, they both managed to save the majority of the money they got all of the way into spring, I was impressed by their ability to not go crazy and spend it.
But when they do want to buy something like a video game, they hand over their money to me and I purchase it from Buy.com or wherever with my debit card.
That works out really well because I don't have to go over to teh video game store where they are just looking at everything and can't make up their minds.
Shopping online makes them have to make a decision with no dilly-dallying at all, it's definitely my preferred way to shop.
November 25, 2009
Getting things ready.
My sis came and took me to Publix to get some last minute food needs for the holiday, it was absolutely crazy in there today! OMG!
But I knew it would be, day before Thanksgiving, everybody was in there getting their last minute food items and pies.
After we went shopping, she took the teens to her house for the night so they can babysit the girls while her and her husband go out to dinner and a movie for their anniversary.
The teens love babysitting, they totally enjoy playing with the girls and then watching movies or playing WoW after the girls go to sleep.
She'll be bringing them back in the morning so we can have our traditional T-day breakfast, and then sis has to go to work for a few hours.
She said that on the way home today, she and the boys will be hitting a few stores to try and find those Zhu Zhu Pets
The girls really want them, so she's trying to get them for the girls for Christmas.
Those are some pretty expensive little toys, holy crap!
I had no idea that they cost that much, and of course, they are THE hot ticket item this year, every kid wants to have one.
She's also looking at those FurReal Friends
I just called her and told her that Amazon
They want the kitty that I linked to, Susan and Skye both said 'he looks like Aunty Kat's kitty Carmine', and they're right, it does!
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My newly extended family, my bio-siblings, (squeee!) are all getting together for turkey day tomorrow, I wish I could be there, they wish I could be there, Joanne and I messaged each other back and forth on FB about it, exchanged holiday wishes and birth-dates of all of our family members, but I told her that going to Maine is just not gonna happen this year, maybe next year.
I'm hoping for a February visit if my income taxes are good enough.
When we do go, I'll have to get Mark a second form of ID for travel because he's now a legal adult, and anytime I have flown since homeland security set up all of the new flying rules with the TSA, I've had to have my ID, a credit or debit card, and my 'I have metal implants which may set off metal detectors' card.
When Sebastian and I flew to NYC to meet the siblings and do the Today show, Sebastian had his school ID, and that was it, and the check-in person told me that he should get a second form of ID when he turns 18 if he plans on flying anywhere, and Sebastian piped up that he wants to go see Australia, and the lady said that he might have to do an international background check if he plans on leaving the country, that homeland security has gotten much more strict and thorough when issuing passports.
I don't know how true that is, I've never heard that said before, so I'll go look it up at some point before we fly up to Maine to check and see if Mark is really going to need a second form of ID now that he's 18, and I'll look up that international background check rule too.
I've never left the country so I have absolutely no idea what all you would need to leave the country other than a passport.
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Ok, I haven't eaten anything at all yet today, so I'm going to go grab something to eat.
I bought some of Publix's most awesome chunky chicken salad, so I'm going to make a yummy sandwich and then get cracking on doing the dishes and getting all of my stuff organized to make the turkey and everything for tomorrow.
November 25, 2009
Bohemian Rhapsody Muppet style.
This is truly the awesome!
October 22, 2009
Halloween horror movie fest.
Sebastian doesn't watch a lot of horror movies, actually, he doesn't like them, so when I am watching them, he's usually in the other room playing video games or watching cartoons or something.
Mark and I are the ones who watch them, like the other night when we watched Wrong Turn 3, he was not in here, he was in the other room with the door closed, he just isn't into inbred cannibals, but Mark and I laughed through most of it, we find them funny.
If I had my way and a lot of money, I'd buy every awesome horror movie that's on sale right now, and have myself a little horror fest for Halloween.
I just love all of the grossness and scares, I don't get scared, I'm usually laughing, but I like to see if there's a movie that can try to scare me.
I would love to own the entire Nightmare on Elm Street Collection, I thought Let the Right One In was an awesome new vampire story, I would also like to own the entire Friday the 13th Collection, and I still think that An American Werewolf in London is one the best horror films ever made, and I would love to own Trick R Treat, and so so many others.
I usually watch most of the movies that I watch long after Sebastian is gone to bed, so I don't think that his nightmare was brought on by any movie that I watched, because he hasn't been watching them with me.
I think he just had a bad dream, it scared the crap out of him because dreams can feel very real when you are having them.
I am not one of those that believe dreams are the answers, or can be describing your future, I don't buy into dream or dream colors interpretation at all.
I think it's just our subconscious showing us a movie of fears or wishes that we have for ourselves, but not actually telling us any kind of truths for our past or future.
One of Sebastian's greatest fears, it's something he's talked about ever since my surgeries, is to be alone, to have something happen to me or to both myself and Mark, which leaves him completely alone in his life, so his nightmare was just that, showing him his greatest fear.
October 18, 2009
Considering a mini.
Sebastian is doing really well in his digital design class at school, he's getting better and better at it every day it seems.
He sends me some of his projects by email while he's in class, and I reply back what I think of them.
The other day, he sent me a picture he was working on as he went, so I got to see each step of how he designs something, it was really pretty cool.
Anyway, he really wants to go to college for digital design and video game design, and he's one of 5 students being given the opportunity to be 'looked at' by a technical design school in Tampa.
At the end of every week, the students and the teacher pick the student's best project from the whole week, and they email it to the design school contact, who then sends back his opinions and critiques of each student's work.
Sebastian has been getting some really good feedback from both his teacher and the teacher at the design school, and each year a couple of scholarships are awarded to 2 students from the digital design class, so when he becomes a senior and graduates, he just might get 1 of those scholarships.
He's really excited about this whole thing, he talks about it every day practically, so I am definitely encouraging him to keep doing his best work when we talk about it and when he sends emails home from class with his projects attached.
One of the things he's also been talking about is having another computer, perhaps a netbook like this Samsung Netbook which is on sale this week for $319.95 with free shipping, but no, I can't get that one, or get one this week, but we have been talking about getting him one to bring back and forth to school.
Even though most netbooks don't have cd-rom drives from which to install the graphics programs that he uses, external disk drives are available to add on separately, and his teacher has a program that can upload the graphics programs by either USB or an SD slot.
I'm really thinking of getting him a netbook for Christmas.
He really wants one, he could really use one so that he can do his projects at school and at home.
Another reason to get him a netbook so that he can work on his projects at home, is so he wouldn't be having to take up too much computer time of the one that the teens share now.
Mark loves to play WoW on it, and he's really great at sharing the computer, he either goes and plays a video games or watches a movie while Sebastian is working on a project, having a netbook would allow the both of them to be on a computer at the same time, and Sebastian would be able to work on his stuff for as long as he wanted without feeling guilty about how much time he spends.
Right now even though the teens both share the pc time really great, Sebastian said he always feels guilty if he spends a lot of time on it when he knows that Mark wants to hop on and play.
So yeah, I'm really seriousy thinking that I'm going to buy him a netbook for Christmas.
Yeah, that would mean that I would need to get Mark something of similar value, or something that he really wants in the same price range, but it should be do-able. (keeps fingers crossed I'm not jinxing myself)
Below the cut is one of the projects that he did last week that he really likes.
I asked him to pick out which one he wanted me to put up, and he chose this one.
Continue Reading �
October 14, 2009
Trick 'r Treat.
Last night (Tuesday night) the teens and I watched a most awesome Halloween movie!
We watched Trick 'r Treat
It stars most notably, Anna Paquin of HBO's True Blood, and her Academy Award winning role in The Piano, when she was just 9 years old.
Trick 'r Treat is 5 stories interwoven into one tale that takes place on Halloween night, all on the same block in one neighborhood, and they have a special little trick or treater.
That special trick or treater is named "Sam", and he is the spirit of Halloween itself.
Sam does not like it one little bit when people do not follow the traditions of Halloween.
Don't blow out your jack o' lantern before midnight, don't mock the dead, always give out candy to children when they say trick or treat, and several other traditions or rituals of the one night of the year when the dead are said to walk to walk the earth.
There is one story that is just so beyond messed up, like whoever thought of it is just totally screwed in the head, it is quite possibly the most evil tale that I have ever heard in my entire life.
I don't want to give anything away, so let me just say that Trick 'r Treat is probably one of the best Halloween movies that I have seen in ages!
The stories are perfectly played out, the blood and gore totally adequate, and some of the tales are just fabulously beyond twisted, I loved it!
I was sitting here in my own house applauding the ends of each of the 5 stories arcs, they were that perfect!
If you love Halloween movies and like a bit of a scare, (it's not super scary at all, it's just right and totally twisted!) you need to Netflix it or get it on demand from your cable provider like now, it's really just a totally super awesome Halloween movie.
I would so totally love a little stuffed toy of Sam, he's freaking awesome!
October 11, 2009
Where The Wild Things Are movie.
Every single time I see the commercial for Where the Wild Things Are on tv, I am completely amazed at how awesome it looks.
It looks absolutely fantastic doesn't it?!
They did a great job making the movie look like the book, the wild things are done so cool looking, they look like they could be real.
There are several scenes where Max is riding one of the wild things around, it just looks so comfy and fun, riding on a big wild animal like that, the fur/hair looks real, I love that!
When Max is riding one of them, he doesn't even need a saddle or other horse supplies to stay on, the wild things are so gentle with Max, they make sure that he doesn't fall off.
Where the Wild Things Are
In just 48 pages, kids are transported through their imaginations to the place where the wild things are.
The movie looks incredible, it looks just like my imagination has taken me at some point in all of the years I've read it to my sons, my nieces, and any kids that I babysat.
Every time that Sebastian sees the trailer, he gets this huge smile on his face and says that he can't wait to see it, he says that it's one of his favorite books.
Mark even said he'd like to see it, so age doesn't really matter, if the movie is as good as the book, kids and parents alike will love to see it.
October 11, 2009
Kindasorda back.
I am still battling the tail end of the flu or whatever it was that hit me last week and made me feel like crap.
I feel better now, not perfect, but at least now I can stand up without feeling nauseous and dizzy.
The past few days have just been hellish on me, the smell of what the teens were eating made me gag, finding lizard heads on the floor made me gag, cat gack on the floor made me gag, I think you get the picture, everything just made me feel like hell.
Mark has been over at his friend's house since yesterday, and he's staying there again tonight.
I really don't mind, it's nice and quiet, there's no one fighting over any video games on the pc or the Xbox 360.
As a matter of fact, the teens are chatting with each other on WoW.
It's been nice and quiet all night yesterday, and all day today, and it will be quiet all night again.
That's just what I needed, peace and quiet so that I could rest.
I need to pick up some more acne skin care stuff for the teens (both of their faces are broken out again because they ran out) when I go shopping on Thursday, or maybe after I'm done at the doc's office on Tuesday while I wait for the pharmacist to fill my prescriptions, I could just buy some there.
I have pretty much spent all of my time on the couch or my bed, but once I was good enough to sit up, I sat and watched the trailers for new movies that are coming out.
I watched the trailer for The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day.
Boondock Saints is one of my all time fave movies, and part 2 has the original cast which I'm happy about, it would suck if they changed actors in it.
It looks ok, I'd like to see it but no clue when or if I could go to the movies to see it, not sure how rough the chairs would be on me because I'd have to practically lay back in order to see the screen.
I am not a fan of remade films, there has been far too many of them the last few years, and now Hollywood has remade A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Sorry, but it's just not going to be the same without Robert Englund, he is Freddie in my opinion.
They are calling it "a contemporary re-imagining of the horror classic."
I dunno, I just don't know about this guy that is playing Freddie this time around.
Jackie Earle Harley is playing Freddie in this "re-imagining" of the story.
He played Rorschach in The Watchmen, he did a good job, but I just don't see him as Freddie, not even while watching the trailer, he just doesn't look like Freddie.
Maybe they got a sucky make-up artist.
*sigh*
I'll be back, off and on when I feel even better.
I think I'm gonna go read updated blogs now.
Later days.
October 7, 2009
Might be doing a talk show!
Our story is still being talked about, people want to hear more, know more, so many shows and magazines wanting to interview us, it's like wow.
We are in this weeks issue of In Touch Weekly magazine, it's dated October 12, 2009, we are on pages 74-75.
This is the cover if you want to flip through the magazine while in the checkout line. ha ha
I actually went up to 7eleven and bought the issue so I could have it as a memento.
I was told that we're going to be in this week's People magazine, it comes out on Friday, and when that issue of People comes out, I'll buy that one too.
My friend Christie is the one who told me about In Touch Weekly, she posted it to the forums we chat on, she said that it made her grandma who is in hospice care now, smile the biggest smile, that our story is touching people.
It must be, other shows want us to come on their shows.
The one that I think we've all agreed to do is the Tyra Banks show, we just have to work out 1 small scheduling conflict.
I've sent the Twitter contact for her show a message asking him to call me so we can work the schedule out.
Yes, the scheduling conflict is my fault.
They want to fly us out to NYC on Tuesday morning, do the show taping on Wednesday morning, and fly home Wednesday night, but I can't do that because I have my monthly pain doc appointment on Tuesday at 11am.
I cannot cancel or reschedule that appointment, it is set by the laws, you can only see your pain doc once per month, once every 30 days, so yeah, I cannot reschedule it, and I definitely cannot cancel it or I won't be able to even get on a plane, I'll be in too much pain to get out of bed even.
So yeah, I hope that the Tyra show can reschedule us, like I can fly out on Wednesday morning, but not Tuesday morning.
I am hoping that they will reschedule us, my brothers and sister want to do her show, so I don't want to be the one who messes it up and we can't do it, so keep your fingers crossed that they will reschedule us.
I am still in a state of shock over all of this, so much publicity, it's kind of nuts really, but I understand why people want more of our story.
Life is pretty depressing right now for everyone because of the economy, so people want happy stories, feel good, heart warming stories, and ours really is a pretty damn amazing story.
It's really incredible still how it all came together and I'm sooo glad that it did.
Joanne and I keep texting each other back and forth, talking to each other on the phone, and I've been in touch by email with Randy and Gary's families, so yeah, getting to see them again in NYC will be awesome if the schedule can be worked out.
Mark said he will go this time too, the first one was just so rushed, it all happened so fast, but with the Tyra show, we are getting enough notice that we can make plans to have someone come feed the cats and get the mail for us.
I am so hoping the schedule can be worked out, I really want to see Joanne, Randy, and Gary again.
I just want to get to know them, far too much time has passed in our lives, we need some time to really talk to each other and get to know one another, so if we can work out the schedule and if they put us all in the same hotel, we can spend the first night we all fly in, just hanging out and talking to each other and our families.
I will keep you posted if we can work this out, and also tell you what day the show would air too!!
October 5, 2009
Sickness, movies, and mice.
Sebastian and I spent the entire day feeling like crap even with some Nyquil to take.
We both spent the entire day sleeping off and on, and now that I took naps all day long, I can't sleep.
I've been up watching tv and surfing the net all night long.
I found a bunch of free online auctions to look at to pass the time.
It's amazing to me how much some stuff is worth, like old toys.
I wish I had hung on to more of my old dolls and toys, some of them would be worth a ton of money now like my Tuesday Taylor doll that I had.
I think she was like less than $10 back when she first came out, now she's selling for about $100.00
Damn.
I watched a bunch of horror movies, some I had seen like Children of the Corn
It wasn't too bad, but it's not something that I would watch again unless someone paid me.
Death Tunnel that is, not Children of the Corn, I love that movie.
"Outlander! Outlander! We have your woman! Outlander!"
Malachai was one of my fave characters in that movie, so perfectly cast in my opinion.
Carmine is our kitty that goes in and out of the house.
He was the stray kitten we found last December.
Yes, I said that we were only going to keep him for a little while, try to find his owners or give him away, but we fell in love with him, he's such a good kitty, so well behaved and loving, we couldn't part with him.
Anyway, he goes in and out all of the time to do his business outside, play around, whatever it is that he does out there, and then he always comes back.
When he came back in tonight, he brought us a gift.
A mouse.
A big fat field mouse.
He came running in the house with it in his teeth, and then dropped him at my feet, looked up at me, meowed loudly, and then rubbed all over my legs.
He brought me dinner I think.
We of course picked up the mouse with tissue and threw it away outside, but he brought it to us as a treat or a thank you, not really sure, but it was meant as a gift, so I rewarded him with lots of love, pets, cuddles, and kisses which he absolutely loved.
I also gave him a piece of cheese which he gobbled up quickly and then joined me on the couch.
It's now just a few minutes past 4am and I'm wide awake.
I still feel like crap, but I'm wide awake.
September 30, 2009
My life changed watching the Today show, part 3.
Ok, sorry this part took so long, I just really needed a few days to rest my tired and sore body.
When we were in the lobby talking to each other, Katie came up and told us that the crowd outside wanted to meet us, see us, so we were all escorted outside to the area where all of the people stand to watch the Today show.
People started clapping for us and taking our pictures, we all stood together and people took our picture, that was kind of weird, we're not celebs, just a bunch of people who found each other, but we did it anyway.
This is how we posed for about 100 people to take our picture.
It was really cool to see the whole thing how the fans of the show do from the outside too.
After doing that, Katie said that the limos would come and pick us up and take us back to their hotel (Joanne, Gary, and Randy's) so that we could all have breakfast together and talk for about an hour before they had to leave for the airport to go home.
So we all went to the Hilton and had breakfast together and talked for about an hour.
It was so great to be able to just sit down and talk to each other and Gary's adoptive Mom and Joanne's fiance too.
This is where Joanne and I learned that we have a ton in common aside from looking a lot alike.
Both of us have pink cell phones that had charms that fell off, her charms were a sterling silver 'J', mine a sterling silver 'K', and she had an animal, can't recall what she said it was now, but my animal charm was a cat.
We both swear like sailors, smoke, and one of our fave foods is cinnamon rolls.
We were both bummed out that they didn't have any for breakfast...LoL
Both of us were married for 4 years and divorced, and both of us have bad backs.
Joanne has never had hers treated because she hasn't had any insurance, but she said her back has been in pain for the last 20 years.
I hated to hear that, but relieved at the same time, the bad back stuff really is genetic.
Sitting there looking at her and Gary, Randy was at another table eating with his fiance and her kids, I could see so much of myself, of my kids.
For the last few years Sebastian has been saying that he doesn't have my nose or the Cooper nose, but he definitely has Gary's nose.
So weird to finally say hey, that's where you got that feature.
The hour just flew by, eating, talking, I could have sat there all day talking with them, learning all about them.
We made sure to get each others info, phone, cell phone, addresses, so that we could all stay in touch and figure out the holidays.
It was such a fast hour, they had to go get their stuff and check out, they had to be at the airport at 11:30 to fly back home, but Joanne made sure to show me a printout of our bio-mom's health issues.
Quite a few of my health problems were on it and some other stuff, she said she will make sure that I get copies of all of the medical records that she has.
I hated to see them go, I just found them, I didn't want them to leave.
After they left, Sebastian and I had about 5-6 hours before we had to leave for the airport to go home, so we wandered around Times Square that whole time.
We went in like every store that we liked, the M&M store, Hershey's, the Toys R Us, Sebastian wanted a slice of real New York pizza so we made sure to get some, it was awesome.
Sebastian loved the Toys R Us store the most, it was wicked cool, 3 stories of just tons of toys and cool stuff like this T-Rex from Jurassic Park.
It actually moved and roared, way cool.
We hung out in Times Square for hours just walking around and people watching, there is so much there to look at, it was just an awesome afternoon hanging out with Sebastian, everywhere we went though, we kept saying how much Mark would have loved it if he had come.
We missed him so much, we bought him a Star Wars toy in Toys R Us while we were in there.
Around 4:50, the limo SUV came to pick us up and take us to the JFK airport to come home.
The flight home was nice, Jet Blue is an awesome airline man, tvs in every seat so you don't get bored flying.
Sebastian loved that, something to do to pass the time that won't make you motion sick. ha ha
We got back to Tampa airport and our limo driver was already waiting for us, so we grabbed our 1 suitcase and rode home.
Mark was up and trying to clean the house for us, the kitties all came running and mewing for us, it was good to be home but sad too.
I had just met my bio-siblings and only got to spend about an hour with them.
I came home to find like 1,200 emails, some from my new extended family members who were all so happy for us, reading each of them made me cry.
This is so hard, I just found them, it's still such a shock to me, I'm still in shock over the whole thing, I don't know when that feeling is going to go away, if it ever does.
I keep thinking if I hadn't watched the Today show on Tuesday, I would have never heard Joanne say my name, Claire Marie.
It feels like a dream, like did she really say it, and I know that she did, but wow, so huge, it's all so huge.
Joanne and I keep texting back and forth, and I plan on writing Gary a letter, he's not online but his mom is, and she has emailed me, and several of his aunts too, so there's a way to get in touch with him.
I also have Randy's info so that I can stay in touch with him too.
It still feels like a dream, I never thought I'd ever find any blood relatives, I never knew my birth parents names, I had nothing at all to go on except for my birth name, so finding out that I had 2 bio-brothers and that Joanne from back in high school really IS my sister, is totally freaking amazing.
I can't even explain how this feels, all of the emotions that keep coming up, it's so hard to put into words, I just keep saying wow.
How do you even begin to put it into words?
I have blood siblings now, I have this huge extended family now, the empty places are finally filled up, it's impossible to explain how this feels.
I'm just so grateful though, grateful that they went on the Today show, grateful that Joanne said my name, grateful that the Today show flew us out there, words cannot explain how I feel.
I'm overwhelmed and overflowing.
I don't even know what else to say really, I'd be happy to answer any questions people have, I'm sure that I've left something out of the whole thing, so if anyone has any questions, feel free to post them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them in another post.
And thank you all so much for the amazing show of love and support, it's really so awesome, thank you.
*Edited to add*
I need to say a HUGE thank you to the Today show and all of the staff there, especially Katie, Lexi, and Kari, the 3 of them went like above and beyond to make this happen.
Katie was the intern who took my frantic phone call at 8:20am on Tuesday the 22nd of September.
I made about 10 phone calls that morning right after watching the segment to every single phone number that I could find on the Today website and the MSNBC website, I started dialing at like 8:12am, within seconds of the segment ending.
All of those calls went unanswered, so I had to call 411 to try and get a good number.
The first one, someone answered and told me that I had to call back at 9:30am when the offices open, the lady wouldn't even listen to me and then she hung up.
Katie is the one who answered my second call to the second number.
The poor girl must have thought a lunatic was calling, I was screaming "Don't fucking hang up! Do not tell me to call back at 9:30! I am the missing sister, Claire Marie, from the last segment! Please!!! Patch me through to somebody, anybody who can get them a message before they leave the studio, I saw, I'm here, give them my name and number please!"
Katie took all of my info and said she'd call right back, Lexi is the one who made all of the travel plans and contacts to the local NBC affiliate in Tampa, and Kari is the one who interviewed me by phone for the local film crew and talked to me again when we landed at JFK and were on our way to the hotel.
These 3 women are amazing, they really worked hard and fast to get me and Sebastian to New York, to get the hotel, transportation, everything set up for us, so a big huge oh my god you're awesome thank you goes out to the 3 of them, they are simply the best ever.
I also need to say a BIG HUGE THANK YOU to NBC Universal for doing the segments, theirs and then mine, paying for all of us to be in New York, everything that they did to get us together, they rock.
And a BIG HUGE THANK YOU to Matt, Meredith, Al and Ann, they are all so incredibly polite and kind, welcoming and warming.
I wasn't expecting that, I wasn't expecting them to be so nice, they are reporters but they are celebs in their own right, so I was kind of prepared to not feel so 'welcomed', ya know what I mean?
Everyone at the NBC Today show studio, every single person from the reporters, the interns, the camera crew, the hair and makeup ladies, everyone was just so awesome and nice, they made me feel welcomed and not so nervous, they really are genuinely nice people.
Matt Lauer even signed autographs and talked to the kids, Randy's soon to be step-kids, Gary's Mom, and talked with Sebastian a bit more before we all went outside.
I totally forgot that I had this pic on my cell phone of him signing for the kids.
Whatever notions anyone has of the reporters on the Today show, if you maybe thought they were snobby or something, they are not, they really are very nice people, just incredibly kind and nice.
It made being there feel not so nervous.
All in all, this was a totally awesome experience.
Going to New York, meeting my bio-siblings, being on the Today show, it was all just so cool, I loved every minute of my time there and wish it could have been longer, it was just such a great experience to be a part of.
September 30, 2009
Slowly getting some back.
I'm almost back to full strength now, I just really needed a few days to rest, my body was just totally drained.
Everything happened so fast last week, it was just go go go, and my body cannot go go go without coming to a crashing halt sooner or later, and it hit me a couple of days ago.
Things are still happening, lots of phone calls and emails from places wanting to do follow-up stories with all of us, this apparently was such a feel-good story in this depressing economic time, that people are wanting more of it.
I have a ton of emails to reply to and quite a few messages on voice mail to reply to as well.
It's still all so overwhelming, I keep finding myself saying 'wow'.
But I am slowly getting it back, I have just been laying on the couch for the last few days just trying to let my back and body get rested so that I can get back up and do everything that I need to do.
I have a mountain of dishes and laundry to take care of, and eventually I'd like to clean the bathroom and vac the rugs, my house looks like a tornado hit it.
I also need to get in the bathroom and fix the shower faucets thingamajiggy because Mark keeps knocking the hand held shower head down and he's not putting it back right, so once you turn the water on, the shower head pops down and whacks you in the back or head.
It hurts when you get whacked with it, so I need to go in there and un-twist it and figure out what way it fits the holder correctly.
Anyway, I'm getting back to good so I'll be hopping on and off the net while I get some house stuff done.
Later days.
September 25, 2009
Kitties, pictures, and belonging.
I have 112 more emails/comments to answer, I am working through them as best that I can, but it's going to take me awhile, I apologize.
I had said that Mark stayed home, he wanted to be here to take care of the cats, and his other reasons, and he watched the segment Wednesday morning.
He said that as soon as it was my part, when I started talking, all of the kitties came running into the living room to try and find me.
All of the 4 cats get really upset when I'm not home, and they get really upset when I go away and don't come back for a long time, like gone overnight, so when they heard my voice through the tv, they came running to greet me, they thought I came back.
Mark said that they were really confused when they didn't see me in the living room but I was still talking.
That's when Nova saw me on the tv.
She ran to it, stood on her back legs, and tried to touch me through the screen.
Then Kali realized that I was "in the box", she got up on the tv stand and started pawing at the tv and meowing loudly.
Then Shahiro did the same on the other side of the tv stand.
Mark said Carmine was freaking out, he was running all over the room, up on the couches, jumping up on the coffee table, running to the tv and meowing, pawing at it, all of the kitties were crying he said, confused and upset, they could hear me and see me, but couldn't get to me.
That made me feel bad, just thinking of my kitties all crying and confused like that.
When we got home around midnight, they all came running to see me, meowing, rubbing all over me, following me as I unpacked, mewing like crazy, and pretty much wherever I went, they were all right with me.
When I finally laid down to get some sleep around 8am, Kali, Shahiro and Carmine all laid on the couch with me, and Nova laid on the back of the couch within reaching distance so I could pet her every few minutes till I passed out.
From left to right, here's Gary, me, and Randy.
From left to right, Joanne, Randy, Gary, and me.
It's really just so cool to have people who look like me.
I can totally see my face in theirs, their faces in mine, and features of both of my sons match all 4 of us.
It's really an amazing feeling, I can't even really describe how this feels.
I may have been able to hold back the tears on the show, but I keep looking at these pictures and crying.
It was really so awesome meeting them, I can't wait to get in touch and stay in touch, figure out holidays, all of it, this is what I've been searching for my whole life, where I belonged.
I think all adoptees have that feeling, where do we belong, do we look like someone, is there anyone out there that is a part of me.
I have that now.
I finally have that feeling of belonging, fitting, looking like someone, that empty feeling from knowing that you were adopted, from knowing that out there somewhere may be someone who is like you but you have never found them, is finally filled up.
It's all so overwhelming, I'm like exploding on the inside, all of the years that I just never thought I would find anyone, I had pretty much given up on it, and now all I want to do is see them again, talk to them, any kind of communication with them to get to know them better, to start making up for the lost time.
The size of my family just exploded, I have all of these people in the families of my siblings who are so thrilled for all of us, they can't wait to meet me, and I can't even tell you how that feels, it's so hard to explain.
And none of what I feel about this, about finding my siblings and being welcomed into their families, can ever take away from what I feel about my adoptive family.
I love my Mom and Dad so much, they raised me, took care of me, loved me like I was their own birth child, they never made me feel like I didn't belong, I belong with them too, this is a different kind of feeling, this is the empty spaces being filled, all of those empty places where there were no answers, those places are finally filled and I don't want my family to think that they aren't my family anymore, they will always be my family, they are my family.
My family just got a lot bigger is all.
September 24, 2009
My life changed watching the Today show, part 2.
At 6:30am, Sebastian and I rode down the 2 sets of elevators at the Doubletree Suites and walked outside to find another limousine SUV waiting for us.
NBC goes all out for their guests man, dark tinted windows on the limo service SUVs they sent for us for every single ride we took anywhere into and out of this whole adventure.
The ride from the hotel to the NBC studios wasn't far at all, just a few city blocks, and he dropped us off right in front and said that someone would be at the door to get us in just a few minutes.
Not even 2 minutes later, 2 NBC interns came out to greet us and bring us into the studios.
As we're walking down the halls to the green room, we saw Matt Lauer talking to some producers and he introduced himself to us, said how exciting it was for us to be there, that this story was amazing to start with, and then I called, he said that everyone was just blown away by it.
We were taken into the green room where the interns told us that someone from hair and makeup would be down to get me in a few minutes, and to just have a seat, relax, have some coffee or eat something if we wanted to.
While Sebastian and I were sitting there waiting and watching the local NBC news, (the Today show hadn't started yet, it was only about 6:45am) a man walked in and sat down.
I recognized him but for the life of me I could not recall his name.
It was Chuck Todd, he is the NBC News Chief White House Correspondent, NBC News Political Director, and Contributing Editor of 'Meet the Press'.
I knew I recognized him! haha
The interns told us that we were here on like a really huge news day, the United Nations is having a big summit meeting, and Benjamin Netanyahu was already in the building, secret service agents were everywhere, and so for me to not be surprised if there are certain areas where I would not be allowed to go.
I was totally blown away already, 2 huge name people in the building, 1 of them sitting less than 3 feet away from me.
Ack!
Hair and makeup came to get me, I had to leave Sebastian in the green room, and off I went up a couple flights of stairs and down a hallway where I met Al Roker, and then was taken into Meredith Vieira's dressing room where her hair and makeup ladies fixed me up.
Everyone keeps saying how good I looked, well it's thanks to them.
They did an amazing job making my hair look that awesome because believe me, on it's own in the humidity that was going on, my hair did NOT look that good when I walked in.
As I was sitting there with a giant curler in my hair and getting my face done, a camera guy/producer came in and said he needed me for those 2 shadow shots that they did, to sort of keep my face hidden until it was time to surprise Joanne, Gary, and Randy with my entrance.
So I went down the hall and into Studio 1A which is the kitchen area, the area where they do all of the cooking segments, and I sat in a chair, they did the 1st shadow shot and then we sat and waited.
While sitting waiting, Giada De Laurentiis came in and started getting things going for her segment, the food was already being cooked, there were about 10 people in there helping her, so that was really cool to see.
Then the reporter who did the switched embryos story, Amy Roebuck, came in to get through to the other part of the studio where she was going to report on that story.
Sebastian got to meet her down in the green room when Matt Lauer was in there talking to him, (to Sebastian) so he was totally psyched about meeting everyone too.
He actually got to talk to Al Roker the longest, and he said Al told him a few jokes, so Sebastian really had the most awesome time there.
After I did the shadow shots, I was taken back to hair and makeup so they could finish, and then we went down to the studio where Gary, Randy and Joanne were waiting, our story was about to air.
I was so nervous, all of these people were standing in the studio waiting to see this happen.
All of these other NBC reporters, camera and crew people, and Sebastian was also standing there with a bunch of people who I assumed were other family members of my long lost brothers and sister, they were.
I started to get choked up but stopped myself, I was NOT going to cry on live national tv! haha
Meredith did the intro and then called me out.
I was also really nervous about this whole thing because of my whole spine/head/neck thing, I can't raise my head, I knew it was going to look weird to people, so that was what the majority of my nervousness was about.
Joanne was already crying, I felt so bad for her, she knew all of these years who I was and she couldn't tell me, so I hugged her, told her that I always knew, she said she always knew but she couldn't tell me and that she was so sorry, I told her it was ok, and then I turned to meet my brothers.
I was just so excited, I had brothers, I mean, i have an older brother Mike, but he's not my bio-brother, these guys are, and all I could think to say was "Hi guys!" and I hugged them both.
Meredith said hello and I hugged her too. D'oh! hahahah ha!
I couldn't help myself, I mean, without NBC, without Meredith reporting this story on Tuesday morning, I would have never known they were looking for me, so I just felt like I owed her a hug for doing this.
You're probably not supposed to hug the Today show reporters, but I couldn't help it. hahahaha
We did the segment and then were taken down to the lobby so we could all talk and hang out for a bit before going outside.
It seems that the crowd outside wanted to meet us all.
That was kinda weird feeling, but eh.
But standing in the lobby and talking to each other, looking at each other, I saw my face in theirs.
I could see where my kids got some of their features.
Sebastian, Gary, and Randy look a lot alike, Sebastian looks like Joanne too, well he looks like me, so of course he's gonna look like her, (open these next 2 links side by side in new windows or tabs) Joanne really looks like me, and there's so much about Joanne and I that is alike, it's kinda scary.
There's so much more to tell, and I don't want these posts to be wicked long so I'm trying to break them up into smaller bits.
Part 3 coming soon!
September 24, 2009
Will post the rest soon, trying to wake and deal with it all.
I didn't even go to sleep until 8am today, woke up at 11:30am, sore, oh man so so sore, and dealing with emails, voicemails, Twitters, everything.
I really don't want to offend anyone, but I'm getting an overwhelming amount of emails from a lot of people who believe in the big dog up in the clouds, every single 1 of them is saying that this is proof of his existence, that they followed the story here, read, read my blog, and were extremely disappointed to learn that I am an atheist.
take care and think about what has happened in your life in the past couple of days and consider that god played a part in this
I really do appreciate all of the love, support, and comments, this has all been so amazing and overwhelming, and I'm still totally blown away by what has happened here, so much to tell you all, and I will, I just need to run an errand first and then I can get to explaining everything.
Run an errand ha!
Sebastian and I had like 5-6 hours to really explore Times Square and stuff, and my body is just now telling me that I am the suck, it hates me, and that I'm lucky my body hasn't let me drop dead yet.
I am in some serious pain today man, whoo!
My lower back, thighs, calves, and feet are on fi-yah!
We walked the entire length of Times Square at least 3 times, finding something we missed the previous 2 trips up and down each side of the street.
Walking to the bathroom and back to my chair is unbelievably painful. hahahaha
Ok, gonna go runcrawl that errand and then I'll be back to post some more.
Oh!
Aunt Sherri, Roe, Carolyn H., Pamela, Alicia, Mom, Dad, old and new family, (Pamela!!) old friends, I promise I will reply to each of your comments and emails, I just need some time to weed through the 1,200+ comments and emails in my inbox that started pouring in the second that I posted to my blog Tuesday morning, and have not stopped yet.
Magazines are calling and emailing wanting to do interviews, other tv shows calling or Twittering for the same, there's so so much going on and so time is definitely needed to rest, get a sort of grip on this whole thing, and be able to respond to everyone, but thank you all so much for getting in touch!
September 24, 2009
My life changed watching the Today show, part 1.
As I posted Tuesday morning, I was watching the Today show, saw Joanne sitting on the couch with these 2 guys, and my heart began to race because it was titled "Long lost siblings reunite", and I was sitting here talking to myself, I just kept saying over and over watching the story of Gary and Randy finding out they were brothers, "That's Joanne sitting with them, she's my sister, why is she there? She looks like them too, what the hell is happening right now?!"
I kept watching, they got to her story, "Yup, she's their sister, oh man, this is going to turn out, this is going to be my family".
Meredith asked right at the very end of the segment, about another sibling, a sister, and Joanne said it, she said "Yes, there's another sister, she was born Claire Marie, she would be 39 or 40", and I started screaming "That's me! That's me!"
My sons came running from the other room, asked me what was going on, I told them, I pointed to the tv, they were still showing clips as they went to commercials, I told my sons, "That's Joanne, Gary and Randy, they are all brothers and sister, they said my name, Claire Marie, they are looking for me!"
Both Mark and Sebastian told me to hurry up and call NBC, I searched all over the Today show site and MSNBC site, for phone numbers, Mark searched on his computer in the other room, I found a bunch of numbers and started dialing.
None of those phones were being answered, so I called 411, they gave me 2 numbers, so I called the 1st one, the person who answered said I had to call back at 9:30am when the office opens, so I called the next number and when the girl answered, I yelled "Don't fucking hang up! Do not tell me to call back at 9:30! I am the missing sister, Claire Marie, from the last segment! Please!!! Patch me through to somebody, anybody who can get them a message before they leave the studio, I saw, I'm here, give them my name and number please!" I begged into the phone.
I was asked to calm down and hold, so I held, nervously pacing the house, I just wanted them to give Joanne my name and number, to let her know I saw, that I am ok, to call me, that's all I wanted
Katie, a totally awesome super amazing girl at NBC, came on the line, she asked me what my last name was at birth, I told her "My full name was Claire Marie Ogden, I know Joanne, we went to school together, tell her if she hasn't left, tell her the name Kathleen Gilligan, she will know who I am, tell her please, she knows me, she knows me."
I was asked to hold again so I did, even more nervous now, starting to shake and cry, she really IS my sister, I have brothers, I have brothers.
Katie came back on, she said that as soon as she told Joanne my name, Joanne started to cry and said she always knew, then Katie asked me if she could call me right back, she promised to call right back, I said ok, hung up and started to cry.
When Lexi, another super totally awesome girl at NBC called me back, she asked me if I could get to New York today, I said no, I just don't have the money, maybe if I had a month's notice I could, but not today.
Lexi said that NBC would take care of everything, transportation to the airport, hotel, everything, could I go, bring my family, I said well yeah, if NBC can actually do that, yeah.
She said they could, and she'd call me right back, in like 10 minutes, so I said ok, started crying again, and called my parents to tell them the news.
They were so happy for me, when I told them it was Joanne, they said they always knew that too.
As I was talking to them, a call beeped in, I told them I had to go, switched over, it was Lexi again, she said that she was going to get my sister and brothers to stay another night, fly me out and do a follow up in the morning, and then it was a completely chaotic whirlwind from there on for the rest of the day, call after call, making the travel plans, Mark wasn't going to go, he doesn't fly well, he wanted to stay and take care of the cats, and he didn't want to go meet his new aunt and uncles, have an hour with them, and then not see them again for awhile, it's just so hard to come up with the money to fly to Maine where they all live, where all my family and GreatGram still live.
I respected that, but Sebastian wanted to go, he'd always wanted to see New York since he was little anyway, so tickets were set up for us, a car was coming at 3:30, hotel, everything was being setup and it would be emailed to me.
By this time it was noon, I hadn't packed yet, taken a shower, nothing, and then I learned the local NBC news team would be here to do a promo piece on me, the before the live segment stuff, and they'd be here at 2pm.
That's the 2nd time that news guy has been to my house, and he always does extreme close ups.
So John, thanks for not listening to me when I told you to NOT do the extreme close up stuff.
My face was red and puffy from crying all morning, my hair was still wet from just getting out of the shower, I looked like hell and now the entire country was going to see it. ha ha
Just as the local news crew was finishing packing up their van, the limo pulled in.
Yes, limousine service from Sarasota to the Tampa airport. Crazy!
I had packed everything right before my shower so we were ok to go, I threw my flip flops on, and we left.
The morning really was just a crazy and hectic time, NBC needed pics of me little, and they needed either my original birth certificate or adoption records, my Mom in Maine had those, so NBC asked if my Mom could fax it.
Um, no.
So my best friend Shell in Maine, who had now heard about it on the local radio, called me and was all "Did I hear that right?! Your brothers and sister?!", I said yes, and I asked her to go to Mom and Dad's house, get the adoption records and fax them to NBC.
She said yes and she did.
The whole ride and flight was just utter disbelief.
Sebastian and I just kept repeating it, "We're going to New York city, we're going to meet family, this is crazy!"
The plane ride was ok on me, we flew JetBlue, which I highly recommend, and it wasn't too bad on me pain wise.
I did warn the airport screeners that I beep, titanium implants, handed them my medical card that explains it, and amazingly I didn't beep.
JetBlue has extra leg room so even when you recline the seat-back, there's still a lot of room for whoever is sitting behind you, so at least I was able to recline the whole flight.
We got in around 10pm, NBC had gotten us a wicked nice (Holy biggest hotel room I have ever seen in my life!) room at the Doubletree Suites right in Time Square, and had also given us room service money so we could eat.
That was awesome because neither of us had eaten anything the entire day, it was crazy chaos all day until we left for the airport, so Sebastian and I ordered some room service and while we waited for the food, we investigated the room.
It was actually a suite, it has a living room, couch, a couple of chairs, a desk, the bedroom has 2 HUGE double beds with a gazillion pillows, and walking out the front door, you are right smack in Times Square.
I have never actually seen a mini-bar in a hotel room, only in movies, and I've never stayed at hotels that have them, so I just had to open it, and I just had to touch something in it.
Well, even touching something in the mini-bar means you just bought it, they are motion activated, so I ended up with a $2.50 Toblerone. LMAO!
Then our food arrived, and it was amazing!
Seeing as we were only going to be there 1 night and NBC had given us $200 for room service, Sebastian decided to live like a king and ordered the rack of lamb with mashed potatoes, and steamed asparagus, and I just ordered a chicken club.
I really couldn't decide from the 12 page in-room dining service menu, so I just ordered something simple, and we had a couple of $8 Cokes. (Diet for me)
After we ate, we were still nervously wide awake, so we went out to see Times Square.
We walked up and down a few blocks, took a bunch of pics which I will post later, and then we went back to the hotel and tried to get some sleep around 1am.
5:30am the alarm went off, I showered and dressed, then Sebastian, and then we went down to meet the car to take us to the NBC studios at 6:30am.
Part 2 coming up next.
September 15, 2009
Major update.
Let's begin at Thursday the 10th and taking Mark to the orthopedist.
This is going to be a long one, sorry, a lot has gone on here since Thursday.
When Thursday came around, I started to feel like total crap, I felt lightheaded and nauseous, I was basically feeling like I just got hit by a bus and I had to take Mark to his doctor appointment with the ortho.
Mark's Big, George, took us there and to the pharmacy after, and then home again.
The doctor took about 8 xrays of Mark's spine from all different angles and views, and then he sat down with us to tell us the news.
Mark does not have scoliosis, but he does have problems with his spine, it's genetic, what he has, all of his problems are genetic.
Mark has Spondylolysis and Spondylolysthesis.
The spine is made up of a series of connected bones called "vertebrae." In about 5% of the adult population, there is a developmental crack in one of the vertebrae, usually at the point at which the lower (lumbar) part of the spine joins the tailbone (sacrum). It may develop as a stress fracture. Because of the constant forces the low back experiences, this fracture does not usually heal as normal bone. This type of fracture (called a spondylolysis) is simply a crack in part of the vertebra and may cause no problem at all. However, sometimes the cracked vertebra does slip forward over the vertebra below it. This is known as adult isthmic spondylolisthesis.
What are the symptoms?
Isthmic spondylolisthesis may not cause any symptoms for years (if ever) after the slippage has occurred. If you do have symptoms, they may include low back and buttocks pain; numbness, tingling, pain, muscle tightness or weakness in the leg (sciatica); increased sway back; or a limp. These symptoms are usually aggravated by standing, walking and other activities, while rest will provide temporary relief.
Spondylolysis and Spondylolysthesis, is nicknamed "swayback", your back sways "in" which causes you to lean forward and hunch over.
This is something I have always been yelling at Mark about while he plays video games on the pc or the xbox, "stop hunching over! sit up straight!" and he'd always tell me that sitting up straight hurt, that leaning forward felt better, and I know that it does, I know leaning forward feels better because I too have "swayback", my spine not only curved side to side from the scoliosis, it also curved inward at the L3 to S1 vertebrae, so that's one of the many reasons that my surgeon had to fuse me so far down, all the way down.
To help you see what I'm talking about in regards to which vertebrae are affected in both myself and Mark, you can click on this chart and see those affected areas.
There are 4 sections of the spine, and each section is then broken down to individual vertebrae.
There's the Cervical spine, C1 - C7, the Thoracic, T1 - T12, the Lumbar, L1 - L5, and then the Sacrum, S1, and the coccyx which is also known as the tailbone.
I have been fused from C1 all the way down to S1, the very top to the very bottom, and S1, or the sacrum, and the coccyx, are actually connected, so when I was fused, it really was from the very top of my spine to the very bottom of my spine, stem to stern as one doctor said.
Mark is affected at the L5 and S1 areas.
His sacrum (S1) and L5, are pointing down and in instead of up and straight like you see on the chart.
I didn't have my camera with me on Thursday, and I don't think the ortho would have liked me taking a picture of the xrays anyway as Mark is a brand new patient of his, we don't have an ongoing relationship with this doctor like I do with my surgeon.
I have been with my surgeon since November 2005, and because I've been with him so long, he doesn't mind me taking pictures of my xrays and stuff when he puts them up on the lightboards.
But because I didn't take my camera with me, I couldn't take a picture of Mark's xrays, but this is a pretty accurate image of Mark's "spondy" or "swayback" as it is nicknamed by different doctors.
My surgeon calls it swayback, Mark's ortho called it spondy.
The third image (left to right) is exactly how Mark's spine looks, it is down and in exactly like this drawing.
Along with the spondy, Mark has arthritis in his spine as I said above, and he also has stenosis and some nerve impingement as well.
The ortho did a few strength tests on both of Mark's arms and legs, and he is definitely weaker on his left side, and he does not have as much lower body strength as he does in his upper body.
His upper body is very strong while his lower body and his legs, are very weak, and his left leg is much weaker than his right.
The ortho also noted the nerve damage by pinching gently on his fingernails and toenails.
If you take your index finger and thumb of one hand, and use them to pinch down on the fingernail of your other hand's index finger, you see how long it takes for the color to come back in the skin under the nail.
Pinching the nails makes the skin underneath turn white, un-pinching them allows the blood flow to come back, and the longer it takes tells the doctor if there is nerve damage or pinched nerves in the hands and feet and how severe it is.
The fingernails on both of Mark's hands were ok, a little damage on his left, but both of his feet, especially his left, took a bit of time, so this told the doc that there is definitely some nerve impingement on his left side.
Once medicaid approves the MRIs, the doc will be better able to see just how much nerve damage and stenosis he has, and he will also be better able to see the "spondy" and how bad it is.
Once he sees that, he will then figure out a plan of action for Mark which will probably be a combination of bracing and some really tough physical therapy to strengthen his core muscles and use the physical therapy to try and pull the spondy out of the falling down pattern.
The physical therapy will improve his strength and flexibility in his core, as well as teach him how to properly move his body so he does not damage his lower spine any further.
Moving your body the wrong way can cause the spondy to fall even more and cause much more pain.
His ortho gave him Tramadol and Mobic (NSAID) for the pain he is currently having, and he was told to rest as much as possible.
Trying to make an 18 year old lay down on his bed or the couch for a few hours while alternating between heat and ice to reduce the inflammation and reduce pain, is like trying to teach a mosquito to not suck your blood.
Basically, he's not doing it as long as he should, I can only get him to lay perfectly still for about 1 hour. I do 30 minutes of heat, and then 30 minutes of cold, and that's it, he can't stand it anymore.
Now we are just waiting for the ortho to call us and tell us when to come in for the MRIs if and when medicaid approves them.
That was Mark's update, sorry it took me so long Mom and Dad, I know you've been waiting for this news.
Continue Reading �
September 5, 2009
I did not sign up to detect the weather.
When I woke up yesterday, I had that feeling in my whole body.
The feeling that bad weather is coming, rain, a storm, whatever, something bad was coming, and I was right.
It's raining again, started sprinkling around 5pm or so, but I felt it all day and night yesterday, all day today.
When it gets like that, when I get like this, I can't hardly move, I don't want to do anything but lay on the couch, I don't want to do anything, not even eat.
I don't need any weight loss supplements or diet tricks when the weather is bad, the pain keeps me from eating.
It hurts to get up and try to cook anything, so I just don't even bother eating.
So basically all I've done all weekend is lay on the couch and watch movies.
I watched Across the Universe
I watched Wall-E
Wall-E is just so dang cute and it has a terrific story too.
Right now I'm watching Mr. Brooks
I've never seen it before, heard it was ok, and I'll pretty much watch anything once.
If I get to feeling better, like I can move a bit better, I may go and make a cake.
I just really feel like cake, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.
Yum.
I hope I get to feeling better, I really want cake.
August 30, 2009
Suuurrre, NOW I find it cheaper.
Do you know how many of these automatic RF switches I've bought over the years at $20 or more?
Man, too many.
And here Buy.com has them on sale for just $3.49 with free shipping as they do with like 99% of their items.
Unreal man.
We've had so many different games systems and VCRs, and DVD players, and when having 2 tv sets needing these switches, I've probably bought about 7 of them in the last 10 years.
We had a Sega Genesis, a Nintendo64, a Sega Dreamcast, a PS2, and now the Xbox360, so we've had to have these switches to be able to hook everything up to the tv but through the VCR or DVD player without having to constantly get up and manually switch the cable cords, but every time we switched out a game system or bought a new VCR or DVD player, something always ended up happening to the RF switch when hooking or unhooking it.
Something would always end up snapping off either end of it, or a cat would have chewed through it*, so I had to keep buying these switches in order to keep making sure that everything ran smoothly with no hassles, cuz let me tell ya, having to switch between a game system and a VCR so the teens could watch a VCR movie when they were little, was exhausting.
They'd go from playing Sonic the Hedgehog to wanting to watch the Little Mermaid, to wanting to play Star Wars Battlefront 2.
So needless to say, we went through a lot of these switches with each new game system that I bought them.
I have sworn, no, vowed, that the Xbox360 will the absolute last game system that I ever buy them.
If they want another system, they can get jobs and buy it themselves.
Continue Reading �
August 24, 2009
First day back didn't go quite so well.
Sebastian went to his first day of school today, and things didn't go quite so well.
The school isn't totally finished being built, the bells aren't set to the new schedule, the cafeteria workers are still using the old lunch schedule so things at lunch didn't go right.
They also enrolled 1,600 new students this year, so yeah, total craziness.
During lunch because of the mix-up with the schedule, a lot of students didn't even get to the cafeteria at the right time, so they didn't get to eat lunch today, and Sebastian was one of those students.
He had just gotten his lunch tray along with about 15 other kids, when 2 security guards walked over to them, told them lunch was over, took their full of food lunch trays, and dumped them in the garbage, then slammed their trays into the kids hands and told them to put the trays away and get to their next class.
Sebastian was not happy when he came home.
Not at all.
He hadn't eaten so he was starving, he was hot and thirsty from the walk home in 90 degree temps, and he said all of the teachers were in a wicked bad mood because they now have rules for what they can and can't do in their classrooms, so they took their anger out on the students.
In order for a student to use the bathroom, they have to ask the teacher if they can go and they have to have a hall pass.
If a teacher does not see or ignores their raised hand, they can't go to the bathroom at all.
If they hold it and wait until the bell rings, security guards follow them into the bathroom and give them about 30 seconds to do their business and get out.
Sebastian's friend Steven told him that a security guard stood in the bathroom and was yelling out a countdown.
He said the guard started counting at 30 and was making his way down, and he told Steven that if he got to #1 and Steven was not done and heading out the door, that when he did finish, he would be escorted to the office and given detention.
For taking longer than 30 seconds to pee.
Here's where I have a huge problem and I plan on calling the school to find out if this first day of school rumor is true.
When the school is completely finished being built, should only be about 2 more weeks, the main entrance doors, and all other exit doors, will automatically lock at the second bell once all students are in the building and in first period class at 7:30am.
The doors will be locked from 7:30am until school ends at 2:15pm.
The only door that parents or any visitors will be able to enter will be the main entrance, and they will be buzzed in.
A teacher who is not ok with the school being locked, told her students this today during class.
She was going over all of the rules that the students have to follow, and all of the rules that teachers have to follow.
Teachers will no longer be able to have any drinks at the their desk, no coffee, no water bottles, no food or snacks like granola bars or anything.
They will also not be allowed to have any personal items at their desks or in the rooms, no pictures of their families on their desks, no little knickknacks like a porcelain apple that the teacher was given as a gift last year, nothing.
The building basically looks like a prison, the windows are all small and thin, you can barely see out of them, and now with it being in lock down (unsubstantiated rumor for now) all day once the construction is complete, it will be just like being in prison.
I plan on calling the school and speaking to the principal who already dislikes me, and I am going to ask her if the lock down rumor is true.
If it is true, I will be calling the fire department to ask if they can legally do that.
None of the doors will be able to be opened from the inside or out during school hours, and if there's a fire or other emergency, the students as well as teachers, will be trapped inside until the principal or security staff hits the door lock override button.
This could be a very dangerous thing if there's any kind of emergency like a fire and the students can't get out.
I understand the principal wanting to make sure that students don't get in or out when they aren't supposed to, and making sure that strangers can't just walk into the school and do whatever they want, but if there's any kind of emergency, the students could be in danger.
The whole lock down thing makes me very nervous, I really hope that teacher is wrong about it, but if it's true, I really don't think it's legal for safety reasons, ya know?
Anyway, that was his first day, not a good one, not a great way to start the new school year, I'm hopeful that it gets better and that they sort out the cafeteria schedule so that students can eat when they are supposed to, not come home starving every day.
But just to make sure that he gets to eat, we've packed him a lunch for tomorrow.
He has a lunch bag and in it, a small bag of chips, a can of Mountain Dew, a package of chocolate pop-tarts, and in the morning before he leaves, (so it doesn't get all soggy and yucky) a ham sandwich, and an ice pack to keep the soda and ham cold.
I'm going to make him a lunch everyday until he tells me that they have the schedule all figured out and fixed.
He came home with a ton of "mommy papers" for me to sign, and his supply lists for his classes.
Yay! No laptop needed. W00t!
August 19, 2009
Cougar Town? Seriously? Ugh.
ABC has a new show starting on Wednesday September 23rd at 9:30pm, and it's called Cougar Town.
Can a woman of a certain age be a mom, a successful career woman and still be on the prowl? Jules Cobb (Courteney Cox) is about to give it a try.In a small Florida town, the center of high society is the Cougars high school football team... which is wildly appropriate since this town is the natural habitat for over-tanned, under-dressed divorcees prowling for younger men. Jules desperately doesn't want to be one of them, but with an ugly divorce behind her and 40 staring right back at her, she's longing for a little more action in her life. The available men her own age, like her silver fox of a neighbor, Grayson Ellis, only seem interested in dating barely legal hotties. Egged on by her very married and very irreverent best friend Ellie and her determined assistant Laurie, Jules reluctantly dips her toe back into the dating pool. To her surprise, she hits it off with a nice young guy named Matt -- emphasis on the young -- and discovers this gal still has the goods.
A cougar is an animal, a member of the big cat family, a wild animal that hunts, prowls, and kills it's prey.
How women over a certain age ended up with this nickname I'll never understand.
Older men who date younger women are called a nice and sweet name, sugar daddy.
According to Urban Dictionary, a site that lets society define words, sugar daddy means A man (usually older and well-off) who financially supports a younger woman (or man) in exchange for sex and companionship.
According to Urban Dictionary, a cougar is defined as: (see also hunt, prowl, corner, pounce). Noun. A 35+ year old female who is on the "hunt" for a much younger, energetic, willing-to-do-anything male. The cougar can frequently be seen in a padded bra, cleavage exposed, propped up against a swanky bar in San Francisco (or other cities) waiting, watching, calculating; gearing up to sink her claws into an innocent young and strapping buck who happens to cross her path. "Man is cougar's number one prey".
Why do older men who date younger women, get a cute nickname, but older women who date younger men, get the nickname of an animal who can rip your throat out and eat you?
I absolutely hate the term cougar.
I hate it so much that it caused a pretty serious argument between a friend and I, she calling me a cougar in a joking manner, but I took it as an insult, because to me, it is an insult.
The friend and I are actually no longer friends, that's how offended I was.
I do not think that it's ok to call women cougar, I don't care if society has accepted, even embraced the term, it's disgusting in my opinion.
There are a few shows that are about older women dating younger men now.
There's a show kind of like the bachelor/bachelorette, called The Cougar, where one woman, a 40 year old woman, she starts off with so many young men, and through a series of dates and adventures on the show, she widdles them down until she finds the one young man she wants to keep dating, or marry, whatever.
Season 1 has ended, and Stacey, the 40 year old mother of 4, chose a young man named Jimmy, age 23, and rumor has it that they are engaged and expecting a child.
And now we have Cougar Town, a comedy about a 40 year old single mom prowling for younger men after a divorce.
The cougar thing has even started happening on daytime soaps, with ABC (ABC has a theme going here now) and All My Children's Erica Kane starting a fling with much younger Ryan Lavery.
Erica's been married about a dozen or more times, Ryan has been married a few times, and now he's starting to pursue Erica, the mother of the last woman he slept with, her daughter Kendall Hart-Slater, who is the mother of Ryan's son Spike, which Erica is the grandmother of.
Erica and Ryan are RELATED to each other through marriage and childbirth, but ABC loves the cougar idea so much, they ignored the fact that they are related just so they could run the storyline.
Gross.
It's really gross.
If Erica and Ryan were not related at all, I wouldn't have an issue with their relationship, but they are related, she's the grandmother of his son, she is the mother of a woman who he was married to and had a child with, and had started seeing again right before he started pursuing Erica.
That's just all Jerry Springer episode right there.
The cougar thing has now become totally acceptable in society, and I don't have a problem with older women dating younger men, no, not at all, I just hate the term cougar.
It's a vicious animal that hunts, prowls, and kills its prey, why would any woman want to be called that?
What do I think they should be called?
I don't know, anything but a name that means something bad, cougar is an animal that kills it's prey, it hunts, prowls, stalks, why are older women being portrayed that way, yet older men are not?
Older men are always given cute nicknames, like if they are just older but not dating, they're an old bachelor, but an older woman who isn't dating?
An old maid.
See?
I'll probably give the show a chance, watch 2-3 episodes because it might actually be funny, it might show older women getting on with life after divorce positively, but if every other person is calling her a cougar, I'll change the channel.
I hate the term, I just think it's a nasty way to describe older women dating again.
August 16, 2009
A long and trying day.
Today was Mark's 18th birthday and I hadn't slept on Friday night, insomnia, again, so I was up and doing things in the very early morning hours.
Just doing some general clean up of the house, trying to get myself organized and ready for the day.
The teens had plans for dinner for Mark's birthday, so Mark insisted that we go grocery shopping before they leave for dinner so that I didn't have to carry, lift, and put it all away on my own, so I called and asked Mindy if she could help me out with a ride, she said yes, (thank you! Again!) and off Mark, Mindy and I went to do the shopping.
Sebastian decided to stay here this time (he usually does the shopping with me) and wait for my friend Jon to call/show up with their fixed computer.
Did I post about what happened to their computer?
It's one of the reasons we canceled/postponed our trip to Maine.
For several weeks, both of the teens had been complaining about some major lag when playing WoW, and even some lag when using the internet.
I did all the cleaning, deleting of stupid crap files, defragging, etc etc, and yet it still lagged.
I asked on the local forums what people thought could be causing the issue, and Jon replied that it was probably a blown video card, and if I wanted, he could get a brand new one, better than the one I had put in there a year ago, for way cheap and he'd install it for a wicked good and low price.
It was parts, labor, and a long drive from Orlando to Sarasota for less than the cost of the new video card had I gone and bought it myself.
I price checked video cards after his initial post on the forums about it being a blown card, and the same one he put in for me brand new, was priced at $199 and up at all of the tech stores in our area, so yeah, I got a helluva deal on the card and someone installing it for me.
He came here last Saturday, worked on it a bit, and then said he needed to take it home to fix it really good, so I said cool, he took it home, did the work, and brought it back early this evening.
When he got here, he must have wondered what was up, I looked a total mess.
I was sweating from running the vac on the rugs, doing some dishes, cooking Mark's hot wings for his birthday fave food like I do every year, and crying.
The birthday dinner plans that were made fell through.
Mark was upset but said he half expected it to happen, and Sebastian kind of lost it, so there was a lot of shouting, crying, and a lot of talking about all of the events of the last month.
It was not a good scene here, and then Jon knocked on the door while I was cleaning to try and de-stress myself while I bawled my eyes out some more.
I cannot fix what has happened, I can't make it better, and so I had to let the teens say what they needed to say, let their stress out, and Mark said something that made me feel better but horribly sad at the same time.
I'm not going to post it here, I'm just done trying to make it right when no matter how hard I try, no matter how much I show, it will never be enough, nothing will ever be the right thing or be good enough.
Every family has a black sheep, and I'm wearing the name tag.
After the computer was all hooked up and the teens were calmed down and ok, I finished making what I consider to be the best batch of super hot wings I think I've ever made for him.
1 bag of wing parts, 1 cookie sheet, 3 coats of cayenne pepper, twice baked, and then soaked in a 12 ounce bottle of the hottest sauce he picked out at the store today.
The wings were cooked so perfectly and the meat was falling off the bones, and Mark said it was the most awesome blend of hot and sweet I had ever cooked for him.
I got a thumbs up as he ate his wings and then went back for a bigger serving of seconds.
He eats his wings straight up, no ranch or blue cheese dipping sauce, just more hot sauce if he thinks he needs it, but this time he didn't add more sauce, he said they rocked as they were.
When he finished eating and I was cleaning up and putting the small amount of leftovers away, he gave me a hug and thanked me for the wings and for being a good mom to him all of these years even through some mistakes that I've made here and there along the way.
I know that it's gonna be ok around here.
After everything else was done and I finally sat down to chill out for the night, I realized that the furnace filters, I mean AC filter, was dirty again. It was so hot in here, you would have thought that I did have a furnace on with the heat cranked up to 99!
I know it was partly hot because I baked the wings in the regular oven, but as soon as the AC filter gets dirty, it stops pumping the cold air out as strong, and you notice the difference almost immediately, so I cleaned it out and it cooled off in here fairly quick.
I need to measure the washable filter that it comes with, and then I want to try and find a slightly thicker HEPA filter to put in it.
This house is so dusty, even more so with the sidewalk construction going on, that the filter gets wicked dirty wicked fast, and so I think getting a thicker, better filter might help cut down on the dusting issue a little bit.
I have to dust off the tv, tv stand, and coffee tables just about every other day, and I have to dust everything about every 4 days, that's how bad the dust gets in here.
Crazy dusty! ha ha
I just saw the clock.
It's finally not Saturday anymore.
Here's to hoping that Sunday is a better day for all of us ok?
I mean it, even if your day was rockin', I hope that today is even better.
August 10, 2009
Just a long boring weekend 'round here.
Sorry I once again haven't posted for a few days, I'm beginning to make that a bad habit eh?
Things with the teens are good, they are happy, healthy, and bored to death over summer break. Thank the whatevers that Sebastian starts school again on the 24th, they are beginning to really grate on each others nerves.
We've spent the majority of this weekend watching tv and movies, just hanging out around the house.
I really just don't feel like doing much of anything, saying much of anything.
Life is just at a stand still for me I guess.
Brain block, emotion block, everything block.
Ever get that way?
I am just in a place, an unknown place to me, a place I don't like, I am not enjoying being in it, it's just an empty, lonely place.
I cannot explain it any better than that.
August 7, 2009
All saved game data is gone.
When Sebastian wanted to play the Sims 3 last night, there were 2 new game updates that needed to be installed first, so I updated the game.
I should have ignored the updates because after the updates got finished installing, he logged in to play, and all of our saved games were completely gone.
Erased.
Deleted.
Poof.
Sebastian and I have been playing the game since the day we got it, we had a lot of stuff, our families were doing really well, and now it's all gone.
Dammit.
I'm not sure why it happened or if the files are even still on my computer somewhere, but I'm going to look for them, attempt to find them, and try like hell to restore them.
I hate it when this kind of stuff happens because after well over a month of playing, to lose everything like that just really freaking sucks pretty fucking bad.
I really hope the files are still there somewhere and that I can restore them, I hate having to start over especially since I got wicked far in the game.
July 30, 2009
I won a contest too!
Back on July 6th, I entered a giveaway at She Scribes to win an Only Hearts Club doll.
There were 139 entries and I only entered just once, that was it.
These are the super cute dolls, totally adorable, posable, and more real type of dolls, no unrealistic body figures, just real looking little girls that each come with their own pets.
I really love these dolls, they are just real dolls, no big boobs, no crazy body figures, just honest to good looking dolls that look like real pre-tween girls.
I had been talking about getting these dolls for my nieces for a long time, the dolls are just super cute, and I think that my nieces would love them, so it was such an awesome surprise to get the email saying that I won!
I went to Buy.com to see if they sold the dolls, and they do!!!
They may not be on sale right now, but they are not so expensive that I can't buy 3 of them one at a time for my nieces and their step-sister Kayla. I would never buy 1 child a doll and not give all 3 of the girls a doll too.
So even though my sister and I are on the outs, I am still going to go through with my plan to get the girls their own doll, and I'm already one up now, so whichever doll I get, I'll pick the other 2 that I don't have.
Have you ever seen these dolls?!?
They are just too cute!!
Check them out!
Kimberly of She Scribes told me to pick out 3 dolls in order of preference because there is no guarantee that I will get the one that I want first, so I had to pick 3.
So in order of preference, I chose Olivia Hope, Anna Sophia, and Lily Rose.
I don't know if the dolls will come in those exact outfits, but it really doesn't matter, I'm just excited that I won one so that I can now start buying the other 2 dolls so all 3 of my nieces can have one just like I've been wanting to do for months and months now.
So even though a lot of bad has been happening for me lately, something good has risen from it all and makes me feel better.
I can't wait to get whichever doll they send me so I can start buying the other 2 dolls for Susan, Skye, and Kayla.
I miss them like crazy, they are my girls, but if I can't see them, at least I can mail them a box full of cute dolls filled with my love for them.
So thank you Kimberly of She Scribes, you've made me very happy today, winning this is so much appreciated, I can't even express it, so really, just a huge thank you.
July 23, 2009
I love the internet!
Ha ha!
I do, really!
The teens and I had watched all of season 1 of the HBO show True Blood on Netflix, we rented all 5 of the dvds in the series and watched from beginning to end, but the new season just started a few weeks ago, and we were totally bummed that it was going to be a long time before we got to watch season 2.
Well I did some searching online and found all of the episodes that have aired so far on a movie watching site, kind of like Hulu.
I told the teens that I found them, and so every night at dinner now, we have watched a new episode, so now we are all totally caught up with the goings on with Sookie, Bill, Tara, Sam, Eric, and new vampire, Jessica.
I still don't know what Maryann is or why she's doing what she's doing, but it's very interesting that she can control people's emotions, make them angry, happy, or absolutely crazy happy.
This is just such a great show, so well written and acted, I love everything about it and the opening song by Jace Everett is quite catchy.
July 22, 2009
No sleep, sleep, and OCD.
I couldn't sleep on Monday night, and I didn't even get a nap in on Tuesday afternoon because Verizon was here installing the Fios internet.
The guy was here for about 3 hours or so, he had to run some new lines into my house because the lines that were there on the outside of the house, had all been cut by someone.
That's really weird, who would cut the lines every so many feet?
Anyway, by the time he left, I had a massive migraine and was dead exhausted, but I still had to make dinner for the teens before I could get some sleep.
So I made dinner and tried wicked hard to stay awake, but the tiredness was totally winning out.
I went and laid on the couch and set the alarm to wake me up in 2 hours, I just needed to take a quick nap so that I could get back up and do the rest of what I needed to do.
So I slept for 2 hours starting at 7:30pm, woke up at 9:30pm, and then I went and did all of the dishes that I needed to do from dinner, and I picked up the rest of the mess that got made by the Fios guy.
I had to put my coffee table back where it's supposed to be, I had to fix my monitor again, he moved it, ugh, he moved it from it's perfect spot and position, and it took me nearly 20 minutes to set it right again.
OCD is a terrible thing man, it's just very disruptive to my peace and well being to have my things moved around and things got dropped on the floor under my desk, and so yeah, it was kind of hard for me to have him here for 3 hours touching my stuff, moving things, dropping things.
Once I got everything picked up and back in place, finished the dishes, I was ok again, I could relax for the rest of the night.
I went to bed around 2am, which is actually very early for me, I usually don't go to sleep until 5 or 6am, and I slept until around 11am, which is very late for me, I actually got some sleep for a change which was nice.
The teens went to the store and picked up subs for dinner, some eggs so I can finally make the cake that Sebastian has been asking me to make for like a week now, and I talked on the phone to a friend who is dealing with the same stuff I have been dealing with.
Chronic pain, depression, medication and being accused of being a drug addict.
She has been dealing with it for 20 years, her family won't even speak to her, and when they do, it's negative, it's not understanding, it's misinformed about chronic pain and medication to treat that pain.
It was very helpful to talk to her because it helped me see that I am not the only one dealing with this kind of thing, and that no matter how hard it is, no matter how much it hurts to have people think that, that we know the truth, our doctors know the truth, and someday, or maybe even never, other people will learn the truth, they will get educated on chronic pain and medication. They will learn that the meds don't get us "high" or "stoned", that it's impossible for us to get messed up on them due to tolerance after years and years of being on the medication, that we sign contracts with our pain management doctors and if we break those contracts by doing any illegal drugs, that we will be kicked out of their office and blacklisted to all other pain doctors in the state that we live in.
Those contracts will be broken if we do any illegal drugs, and they will know if we do any illegal drugs because they urine test us every single month when we go in for our regular every 30 day appointment.
Our doctors can even call us up for random drug testing if they want to.
They can call us and tell us that we need to be at their office at a certain time that day, and we have to take a urine drug test, and if we test positive for any drugs other than what they prescribe us, that's it, the contract is broken, we get kicked out and blacklisted.
I have passed every single drug test, regular monthly testing and random call-up testing, for as long as I have been seeing pain management doctors, which is now 5+ years.
Someday, I hope, the people who think that I'm doing illegal drugs, will realize that I'm not, that they will get educated about chronic pain and the medication.
Until that day comes though, there is nothing that I can do except to cut the negativity out of my life, keep doing what my doctors tell me to do, and to keep trying to live my life the best way that I can for me and my sons.
Later days.
July 21, 2009
If what doesn't kill us is making us stronger,
Were gonna last longer,
Than the greatest wall in China,
Or that rabbit with the drum.
If there's one thing that I learned,
While waiting for my turn,
Is that in each life some rain falls,
But you also get some sun.
And we'll make out better than ok,
Hear what I say?
Yeah, any day.
_______________________________
I've been hearing this song, the theme song from the tv show Roseanne, playing over and over in my head for the last couple of days.
What's funny is that several friends who have been emailing back and forth with me, have also said the variation of the first line of this song to me, "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger."
I've been awake all night again, and I was clicking through the channels, and there was the show on 2 different channels.
So yeah, any day now.
Continue Reading �
July 19, 2009
Not the neck!
I was going through my blog feeds, trying to catch up, when I saw on Charlotte's blog that she posted about my latest love, True Blood.
Well, not the show True Blood, but the books the show is based on by Charlaine Harris, The Sookie Stackhouse Novels.
Charlotte posted that Buy.com had them on sale for $28.97, they are normally $55.93.
I actually have this set of books on my wish list at another online retailer because they also put them on sale, but for $1.79 more than Buy.com has them.
I know, that's not a huge difference in price, but when you are trying to save money, every single penny counts.
I started watching the first season of True Blood on Netflix because so many of my friends had told me how amazing the show is, and they were right.
We finally finished watching all of season 1, finishing the discs off yesterday.
Yes, even the teens are hooked on this show.
It has pretty much everything that someone would want to watch.
It has action, romance, thrills, horror, comedy, drama, and vampires!
It's a really fantastic show, I can't wait to be able to watch season 2, but I know that it's going to be a long time before season 2 is out on dvd and on Netflix, and because it's such a popular show, it will probably be awhile before I get to see all of the episodes in season 2.
I love all of the characters on the show, but I have to say that Lafayette is probably my favorite so far.
He is just so freaking funny!
They give his character some of the best lines to say, it's hysterical.
I love how you're never really sure what is going to happen next, who is trustworthy, who isn't, and they keep you guessing on a lot of stuff, like who the murderer was.
One of the characters was killing off any woman who had "been with" a vampire, and they were dropping clues here and there, but just when I thought I knew who the killer was, they go and show you something else that makes you change your mind and have to start guessing all over again.
I was really kind of shocked to find out who the killer was, the teens were surprised too.
And probably just like every other woman who watches True Blood, I have to say, the really old Nordic vampire, Eric Northman, played by actor Alexander Skarsgard, is an absolute hotty.
The man is really good looking as a vampire.
I don't think he's that good looking normally, but with the long hair and pale smooth skin, he looks really good.
I love to read, but I don't find myself having enough time to read anymore, especially when I have the internet, but if a book is really good, if it can hold my interest so that I stay reading and not get bored and hop on the net, then I'll read it start to finish in a couple of days.
I love reading vampire books, I read the entire series that Anne Rice put out, and just about every other book about vampires, and everyone raves about this set of books just like they rave about the show.
I'll probably either try to save up money to get this set after our trip, or I'll go to the library and see if they have them, and take out as many of them at a time as I can in series order.
I think our library lets you take out 6 items at a time, so I could take out 6 and then have 1 of the teens take out the last 1, so that I can have all 7 of them at once and I can read them in order from start to finish.
I want to see if the books are better than the show, or if the show is as loosely based on the books as people say it is.
The books are the basis for the show, but they took a lot of liberties and changed things up a bit to make the show, but the books are still a really excellent read people say.
July 17, 2009
Doing it on our own.
It doesn't matter anymore that plane tickets were bought for my sons without my consent, things got even uglier around here, so so much worse.
The tickets have been taken away from the teens, and it was said that it was all my fault.
The boys were told that they were going, they were so excited to be going, it has been over 2 years (February 2007) since they last saw their grandparents, Ninny, Pop-pop, Great-Gram, and their Aunt Heather, they were very excited and looking forward to be able to see them all.
I was angry that the tickets were bought without my permission, I wrote that post on the night that I found out about the tickets, my emotions were reeling, I was really upset that I wasn't asked, that the plan was to keep it a secret for awhile, "until I calmed down and got over it and myself", but I did say that the boys could go, I said that they could go in that post, I agreed that they should go and they need a vacation, they need to go and be with their grandparents for a week or so.
It was discussed and agreed upon with no arguing or other problems, that they would be able to go and spend 3 days with their Great-Gram and Aunt Heather, they do need to see their family on their father's side of the family too.
Great-Gram and Aunt Heather have been a part of their lives since they were born, they love and miss them, and vice versa.
But the tickets have been taken away, they were canceled.
I apologized, I said that I was sorry about 15 times for the post I wrote, I begged for the teens to be allowed to go, and nope, just more of the same.
They were told this by way of private messaging on their video game.
They were told they weren't going and it was all my fault, that I am a crazy and irrational person with mental problems, while they were playing WoW.
Don't.
Even.
Get.
Me.
Started.
On.
That.
Just don't.
There is simply no excuse, no reason, and totally unacceptable that the teens were told they weren't going to Maine over the World of Warcraft message service while they were playing the game.
I admit that I have some problems right now, I haven't ever denied it, I've been posting all along on this blog and on KatScan, that I was feeling sad and depressed, I even posted that I knew that my body was physically addicted to the pain meds, but I am working on my issues with my doctor now, he's going to fix my pain meds next month by either upping the dose or changing me to something that will work better and for longer, I am now taking an antidepressant every single night, and I'm seeing a counselor every week now.
It took some time to get some help, but I have known all along what was happening to me, I just couldn't get the help I needed until now.
I'm sorry, so incredibly sorry that it took so long to get the help that I needed, but I knew what the problem was, and I knew what I needed, I took the steps to get the help that I needed, and I am getting help now.
The boys are extremely upset, Mark is absolutely furious, and Sebastian has cried for hours now, he feels like he's being punished and no one loves him, so I am going to do whatever it takes to get the boys to Maine to visit their grandparents and their aunt.
I have to do it, the boys are just so upset, they had their hopes up, they were excited, and it all came crashing down, I have to get them there.
I found the absolute cheapest flight from SmartFares for the only dates that we can do before Sebastian starts school again on August 24th.
I have to see my doctor on August 14th at 2pm, this is with my doctor, so I have to go to that appointment, and Mark's 18th birthday is on Saturday August 15th, and that is the day that we would be flying out, and we could stay until Saturday August 22nd.
I found some really low rates though, and I am pretty sure that I can pull this off.
Click for bigger for the itinerary and price.
It comes out to $170.23 per person, and then with taxes, fees, insurance, and I even found one that gave us a $10 discount per person, it comes out to a total of $734.43 to fly with Jet Blue, for 8 days.
We could spend about 3.5 days with each side of the family.
It's from Tampa to Portland Maine, and we wouldn't be leaving here until 7pm, so we wouldn't get to Maine until midnight, with a stop at JFK on the way up.
It sucks to get there so late at night, but I needed a cheap flight.
The way back kinda sucks too, we'd be leaving Maine at 6am and get to Tampa at 11am, with 1 stop at Reagan National in DC.
Those take-off and landing times kinda suck, but again, I need cheap.
I will have a $500 payment the first week of August that I can use toward the tickets, and I will just have to save and use up all of my pay from now until a little before we need to go, and hope that we can get the same prices.
I can't buy the tickets now, I don't have a credit card, I only have debit cards that can be used as credit cards, but only if you actually have the amount of purchase on your card at the time of purchase.
I have a loan that I need to pay off first, but I can do this, I can just work really super hard to come up with this money, I'm even going to have a yard sale in a few weeks and see how much I can make from that to put toward this trip too.
This is something that I have to do, the boys really need this trip, they need to see all of their grandparents, cuz let's face it, none of them are getting any younger.
My parents are in their 70's, and Great-Gram is in her 80's, so yeah, I need to get the boys up there to see all of their grandparents as soon as I can.
Every time that I talk to Heather, she tells me that Great-Gram is doing less and less, and that she doesn't leave the house to do things much anymore.
Great-Gram used to do a lot of stuff for someone her age.
She used to go to church every Sunday, she used to deliver meals on wheels 3 days a week, she volunteered at the senior center serving meals and helping other seniors a few days a week, and would drive herself all over the place running her errands and doing her shopping.
Now she tells Heather how tired she is all of the time, Heather is now the one driving Great-Gram to make her errands and do her shopping, and Heather has told me that if I can somehow get the boys up to see her, it would probably be a good thing to do it as soon as possible.
So yeah, I am going to use that payment that I get the first week of August and any pay I make from working, any money that I might make from the yard sale, and if I get any child support between now and then, I'll use that money too.
I'll pay off that loan that I have first, but then all the rest of any money that I get, will go toward this trip.
If I end up not making the full amount plus about another $200 to have to spend to feed the boys at the 2 airports on our layovers, and a little spending money for them while we are there, I will only buy 2 tickets and send the boys by themselves.
So tickets for the 3 of us are $734.43, plus I'll need about $200 for spending money, so the total that I need is $934.43.
I will have $500 of it the first week of August, so I need a total of $434.43.
I CAN do this, I can, I have to do this, the boys need to go visit all of their grandparents, and they were so upset to be told that they are not going and the tickets got canceled, so this is something that I have to do for them.
I can't stand seeing my sons so upset, I hate seeing them cry and be hurt like this, so I am going to do this for them.
It's going to be tough, money is tight right at the minute, but it is getting better, I have more work this week than I have had over the last month or so, and I am going to have that yard sale, so I am pretty sure that I can pull this off, and like I said, if I can't get enough for all 3 of us, I will just send the boys.
This is going to work.
I will make it work.
July 16, 2009
Faster internet coming right up!
Back on July 3rd, I posted about the deal I got with Verizon for their Fios internet because of the 2 and a half years of being told that it wasn't available in my area, yet there was a Fios box attached to the back of my side of the duplex.
Well, Mel called me back again today to tell me that the installation tech will be here on Tuesday the 21st between noon and 2pm, to install the Fios internet for just $24.99 per month for an entire year.
I asked Mel like 3 times to make sure that the price was correct, that a supervisor's initials were on the order, and that it would be part of the contract.
I just really wanted to make sure that they weren't going to pull a fast one on me and tell me on the phone that I was going to get it for that price, and then when the 1st bill gets here, it says something totally different.
He reassured me that it does indeed say that I get it at that price, and he said it even says why in the computer that I get it at that price, and he even read it back to me.
"Customer was told for 2.5 years that Fios was not available in her area. Fios is and has been available. The neighborhood was mapped incorrectly as single family homes. The house at xxxx south Lockwood Ridge Road is 2 apartments, not a single family home. Customer will receive discount on Fios internet for the term of 1 year at the price of $24.99 per month beginning from the date of installation 7/21/2009 and ending on 7/21/2010."
It would be super nice to have, I agree, all those channels, HBO so I could watch True Blood, but we really don't need it, and definitely cannot afford it.
So just to make him stop trying to push the sale that he wasn't going to get, I told him that right now, due to the economy, there is no way that I can afford that much every month, but once the economy picks up and I can start working more, I'll more than likely call them back and order it.
That seemed to make him happy, so he stopped talking about it and we got back to talking about the installation on Tuesday.
The tech will be here on Tuesday the 21st between noon and 2pm, he will install the new 4port/wireless router, he'll hook up my pc, the teens pc, and he'll even set up the teens xbox360 for wireless because the setting we currently are using on the xbox, will no longer work after they set us up with Fios, the settings and the connect code thingy, won't work, so he'll have to set up an all new DHCP setting for it.
The teens are wicked excited about it, they cannot wait to have faster internet so that when they play WoW
I can't wait too, faster internet for me is going to be so awesome!
The teens and I all have our little things that make us happy, they with their video games and photoshop stuff that Sebastian does, and me and my The Sims 3
A lot of people say that the teens spend too much time playing video games, but I still think it's ok because I know where they are all of the time, they aren't out there with the local thug teens getting into any trouble.
I know that when I was their ages, 16 & 17, I was out there getting into trouble, drinking, staying out to all hours, and getting into all kinds of trouble.
I'd rather have them here and playing games than out there probably doing what I used to do at their age.
July 14, 2009
Update coming after dinner.
After we get done with dinner tonight, I will come back here and do an update, let you all know how things are going, as they stand today.
I did go see my pain doctor, talked about everything, the pain meds, the depression, all of what's been happening and happened last week, so I will update you all on that stuff.
Both the teens are home, we've done a lot of talking, I'll let you know how all of that is going too.
I finally got some decent sleep even though it took awhile to fall asleep.
Good thing that I charged up my Mp3 players battery and added some new songs, because it took forever to fall asleep, so I laid there listening to music until I did, but once I did, it was good.
I'll be back with a major update after I get done eating.
July 12, 2009
A quiet movie night.
Mark has been home for a few hours now, we spent some time talking about stuff, and then we had dinner and are now just taking it easy for the night.
Sebastian says he will come home tomorrow.
That's ok.
We're sitting here watching Batman Returns, and it reminds me of when they were really little and how much they loved Batman.
They had all of the action figures, the cars, the batcycles, all of it.
We would go see every single new movie that came out, and I thought I had all of the movies in my collection, but I am missing the latest one.
I went hopping around the net and decided to check out the weekly sale items at Buy.com, and what do ya know?
They have The Dark Knight special edition on sale this week for just $11.99.
I think this was probably the best Batman movie out of all of them, although I am a fan of the first Batman movie with Micheal Keaton.
Batman Returns is also really good, but I totally didn't like Val Kilmer as Batman, or George Clooney.
Neither of them seemed the right fit to me, I just thought that Keaton did the best job out of the three actors, just my personal opinion.
I hear that there's another Dark Knight movie in the works, I don't have any info on it yet, nothing but internet rumors, you know how those are, but I do hope that they make another one, this last one was really great.
I'll probably pick it up when things get back to normal around here, whenever that happens.
It's going to take a lot of time to be ok again, heck, to just be ok, but we're working on it.
July 12, 2009
Can't sleep, not a new problem.
I laid down, tried to sleep, even switched my sleeping location a few times, nope, no sleep for me yet.
So I laid on the couch for like 3 hours just clicking through channels, tons of late night infomercials for all kinds of things, one of the newest is some kind of add-on auto insurance that you can get that will cover the cost of car repairs.
The Magic Bullet Blender infomercial was on no less than 3 channels, and it now comes with an actual blender and a juicer! All for just $99.99! W00t!
The Jack LaLanne Power Juicer commercial cracks me up.
They say it's whisper quiet as they are yelling over the sound of the damn thing. ha ha
I love the lady on the GT Express infomercial, Cathy Mitchell.
That woman can cook just about anything in that little machine, and she's just too damn happy while doing it.
I love how she practically shoves the food in the guy's mouth while it's scalding hot and it's burning the crap outta his mouth. ha ha
I just get such a kick out of all of the infomercials.
You can tell that some of them are total crap, but there are some that really work, like the NuWave Oven Pro, it really works, I can totally vouch for that one, I own it and it's awesome.
I just wish there was other stuff on really late at night that I could watch, I get bored when I can't sleep.
July 11, 2009
Still home alone.
The boys still aren't home, I don't know when or if they will be back home anytime soon.
It's so very quiet here now, and time is moving so slowly.
I went and saw a doctor earlier this afternoon, I was in far too much pain to deal with, my lower back keeps having spasms, I was feeling sick, and having massive panic attacks all night long, so I called my friend Mindy to take me.
She stayed with me the whole time too, which was really nice, I had someone to talk to, as I said, I've been home alone for days now.
I feel like one of those cutout cardboard displays, flat, lifeless.
I'm just not ok.
I want to be ok, I want to feel happy and alive again, but I'm struggling so hard with all of this, it's too much at times and I begin to panic.
I feel like my heart is exploding, I was awake all night with pain and worry, sadness, fear, and it all just is too much to take.
I keep saying how crazy this all is, because it is crazy, it's just unreal what's happening.
Once people actually listen to me, what I have to say about what's going on with me, they get it, they understand that I'm dealing with a lot of stress and a lot of issues, and they wish they could help, but no one really can, this is all stuff that I have to work out on my own and with the new counselor I'll be seeing this coming Thursday.
I have years of pent up anger, frustration, guilt, it's all just built up inside of me screaming to get out, begging to get out, hoping that someone will understand.
The doctor I saw today understood, at least she appeared to, no judging, no shame on you, just wow, that's a lot of titanium, pain, and stress, no wonder that you're hurting and panicking.
It will be so nice to have someone to talk to, someone on the outside of all of this, who will listen to me and help me work through all of the issues that I have.
Mark emailed me late this afternoon, said that he loved and missed me, said he hopes I'm doing ok.
I emailed him right back, told him how much I LOVE and miss him too, how sorry I am for everything, told him about seeing a doctor today, about going to see a counselor to talk who will also work with my doctors so I can begin trying to fix all of this.
I miss them so much, it's so quiet here without them, there's no bickering going on, no beeping video games, just silence.
I am just so so sorry for everything I have put them through all these past years, I so wish it could have been different, I never wanted it to be like this, I hate this so much.
I want them to come home so bad but I'm afraid of any more hurt happening, I don't want them to be hurt anymore.
I'm just so lost right now.
Lost, confused, hurt, sad, angry, all kinds of emotions are happening, and I don't want what's happening with me to affect them anymore than it already has, I'm afraid of hurting them again, I love them too much.
It's so super quiet here, I can't stand it, so I think I'll re-watch the 3rd and 4th discs of True Blood
I wasn't really paying attention the other night when I watched them, I was too upset, so I'll re-watch them and try to relax for the night.
I really need to just relax, to try and get some rest.
July 6, 2009
Depp and dishes.
The teens are off with George, Mark's "Big", this afternoon, seeing the movie Public Enemies.
It's that new Johnny Depp movie about John Dillinger.
It looks really good, and I was invited to go along, but I just can't sit in movie theaters anymore.
Kinda sucks, but eh, when it hits DVD, at least I can watch it in total comfort laid back on my couch right?
Anyway, they should be back soon, and I promised brownies today, so in order to do that, I need to go finish the dishes.
Later days.
July 6, 2009
Monday morning can't sleep time.
It was a typical weekend around here despite it being a holiday.
While we value the freedoms that we have and thank the brave men and women who have fought and died to secure our independence, actually going out and celebrating the holiday is not something that we generally do.
I hate crowds, I hate the traffic to and from the fireworks, and all the smoke and different bbq smells get to me, so the teens and I stayed home and just watched movies and played video games and stuff like that.
I also wasn't feeling all that well, really super tired but unable to sleep, like right now, and I was having issues with my medication, so it was just for the best that we stayed home anyway.
Besides, several of our neighbors had plenty of illegal fireworks that they were lighting off and nearly setting everything in the hood on fire with.
One went off so close to the roof of our house, that our entire house shook, pictures fell off the wall, the cats freaked out, and I thought I was going to have a heart attack.
It was so loud and with everything shaking, I had no clue what the hell they lit off, but wow.
The teens went out to see what it was and who was doing it, turns out it was the drunk lady 2 duplexes down, with a driveway full of drunks, and they were lighting off these huge mortars and stuff.
Mark yelled at them to aim them the other way or he was calling the cops (all fireworks except sparklers and small stuff are illegal, those mortars they had are most definitely on the cannot have list) because that last one landed on our roof.
It didn't really, but him yelling at them was enough for them to start aiming in a different direction the rest of the night, they clearly didn't want to get caught with all of the fireworks that they had, it's a huge fine if you get caught, and so no more of our pictures fell and the cats were able to stop freaking out so badly.
It's very early in the morning and I can't sleep, so I've been browsing all over the internet, can't wait until the Fios gets installed and it gets faster, that's gonna be awesome.
I checked in on all of the forums I like to read and play on, posted to a few, caught up on 2 days worth of blog feeds, and then got bored, so I'm doing the laundry right now because Mark said that George is supposed to call in the morning and take the teens to the movies, so they need clean clothes, it had to be done anyway, and then after I move it over to the dryer, I think I'll go play Sims3 for awhile.
If you have not yet tried the new Purex 3-in-1 laundry sheets, you really need to.
I swear, they make doing laundry so much easier, just 1 product, no measuring, no extra products to buy to soften the clothes, it does it all, and it works just as good if not better than all of the other liquid laundry detergents that I have ever tried. You can get a coupon to try it out if you click that link so you can try it even cheaper, I am very impressed with it, that's why I keep telling people about it. I love how easy it is, how great the clothes smell, and how soft they are when they come out of the dryer, and if you have scent allergies, or sensitive skin, they even make a hypoallergenic version of it.
Those of you who are Sims addicts like me, do you find yourself playing for like crazy amounts of time without realizing it?
Like, I'll sit down at say, 1pm, and before I know it, it's about 7 or 8pm and the teens are staring at me to feed them or they begin asking me when dinner is gonna be.
Oooops!
And I hate that I get so wrapped up in the game, and then I have to do stuff, like answer the phone, or make dinner, or go to the bathroom. I think if I got even more into the game, I'd end up buying some of those adult-sized disposable diapers so I wouldn't even have to get up to pee.
I'd still have to get up and feed the teens and answer the phone, but at least 1 of the issues would be taken care of. haha
July 3, 2009
Born in the wrong time, or in my DNA.
Most of my regular readers know by now that I am an infomercial junkie, I usually can't sleep, and late at night is when the best infomercials are on.
I've seen the infomercial for The Midnight Special at least a half dozen times now, and each time I see it, I am just singing right along to every single piece of music, I know it all.
Being adopted, I know nothing at all about my birth parents, I was born in 1970, and The Midnight Special ran weekly from 1972 to 1981, but I'm fairly certain my parents didn't watch this show as it was on very late at night.
It aired every Friday night right after the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and it was definitely not the kind of music and comedy my parents liked or listened to.
Maybe it's somewhere in my ancestry dna or something, that my love of this kind of music comes from, this rock n' roll, funk, the mix of music that hit the stage on this show, but it was definitely not from my parents like I said.
Mom listened to the local radio which was mostly stuff like Streisand and Boone, Sinatra, stuff like that, Dad listened to classical and brass, my brother was into the whole college music scene, and my sister was mostly a Deep Purple, Led Zep, and Aerosmith fan, so where did I hear all this other music that I really feel like I grew up listening to?
Oh man, I see that infomercial and I'm like, 'me wants it' like Smeagol and the ring, I start not only singing along to the music, but secretly coveting the item, and now I wants this dvd set very badly.
If you go and look at youtube, you'll see some of the performances by some of the most legendary bands to ever set a stage, it's awesome.
I really feel like I was born just a bit too late sometimes, like if I had just been born a decade earlier, I would have been a teenager during the time that all of these incredible bands were on tour and I could have gone to see them, I would have gone to see them, and I know that I would have been up late every Friday night watching The Midnight Special.
June 24, 2009
Wind, rain, no boot.
There really hasn't been much going on around here, just lazy summer days and nights.
Like last night, we were all just sitting around playing our video games, Mark on WoW, Sebastian on the xbox playing GH, and I was out here playing Sims3, when we heard something hit our door.
It freaked all of us out wicked bad, so Mark goes and grabs a big knife from the kitchen, and he and I cautiously try to look out the front window.
We had no idea what hit the door, if someone threw something, if that someone was still out there, so we were a bit scared.
Mark peaks out the window, doesn't see anything, so we decide to open the door carefully.
We see one of our trashcans laying in front of the door, but we also notice that the winds are wild, just blowing in all directions, and we realize that it was the wind that blew the can up against our door, not a person.
We felt totally stupid, but better safe than sorry I suppose.
Within a few minutes of putting the trash can back and closing the house back up, the winds picked up even more, the rain, thunder, and lightening started, and we even got some small hail.
The power started flickering off and on too, so I shut down my computer for the night and went to bed on the couch in case the power went out fully, I wanted to be able to get up and light the candles and stuff.
This morning when I got up, I came over and hit the power button to start my computer back up, and it wouldn't start, I wasn't even getting the power on lights, nothing.
I thought 'oh crap, we must have had a power surge last night and it fried my computer'.
I had to pee wicked bad, so I went to the bathroom and when I came back out I tried to get it started again.
Still nothing, no lights, no beeps, nothing.
I was starting to freak out, what if it's dead I thought?
That would be a wicked bad thing, I work on my computer, so I need it to work.
I reached around the back and pulled out the power cord and plugged it back in, maybe just maybe, it was loose or something.
Yup, that's all it was, thank goodness, as soon as I plugged it back in and hit the power button, the lights came on and it booted back up.
I have no idea how the power cord got loose, but somehow it did.
I'll have to keep an eye on that, check to make sure it's in nice and secure every now and then, I almost had a panic attack at the thought of my computer being dead.
June 22, 2009
A cut, a scratch, and a nip.
Sebastian and I went and got his hair cut at the corner barber shop this afternoon, he said it was just far too hot for long hair, so off it came.
We got his ears lowered, the barber knew exactly what we meant when we asked for that.
He looks much better, although I think his hair looks awesome when it's long.
It's a beautiful blond color, shiny, smooth, wish it was my hair.
He said that it feels much better, he'll grow it out again now for a year like he always does, and then we'll cut it off again next summer.
Then we went out to Publix to get some more food, the teens are eating a lot again, and we found the mouse that Carmine the kitty loves to play with, way up high on a store shelf.
I had to buy another one because he tore the last one of these Scratch Rattle and Roll Scratcher Mice
He clawed and chewed at it non-stop until he got the 2 hidden bags of catnip out, and then proceeded to rip all of the stuffing out.
Every time I tried to throw it out, he sat at the garbage can and meowed until I got it back out, so now he has a new 1.
He's currently curled up in a ball laying right next to it with a paw on it, like he's hugging it.
When I put the new 1 on the floor and took the old 1 away, he looked at me like 'hey! wait just a minute, that's my mouse!', but then he saw the new 1, smelled it, realized there were 2 new bags of nip stuffed inside, and immediately began licking and chewing at the sisal back to get at it.
The other cats love the mouse too, but he really loves it.
He will chew on it and lick at it, until he gets the bags of nip, rips them open, eats his fill, and then he lets the other kitties chow down on some nip too.
One the last mouse, he also chewed the tail until he ripped through the fabric, bit through the plastic ball, and got whatever was inside of that out.
I have no idea what made the tail rattle, we never found the insides, just the demolished plastic ball that held whatever it was.
I think he may have eaten the tail ball contents.
Tonight while eating dinner, we watched Nothing But the Truth
This was a most excellent film.
Reporter Rachel Armstrong gets a tip that a woman is a CIA operative, she writes a story, the paper she works at prints it.
The government now wants to know her source.
She refuses, and normally, this would be protected, the right to not reveal her source, but due to a 1982 law, the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, if Rachel does not reveal her source, she faces jail time.
She chooses not to reveal her source which sets things in motion for her and the person whose identity she revealed.
It is only at the very end of the film that we learn who her source is, and wow, I was so not expecting that.
You should definitely add this 1 to your Netflix queue, it's really good.
Ok, I'm gonna goof off and play Sims for awhile.
Later days.
June 21, 2009
1 hour! I got an hour!
Of sleep that is.
I had insomnia last night and then babysat my nieces for most of the day today, from 10:30am to 4pm, and I'm wiped out.
Sorta.
I took a quick 1 hour nap after we all ate lunch, I was passing out in my chair, but once I woke up, that was it, I'm back to being wide awake again.
I can't sleep again, but the teens?
They passed out right after the girls went home, that's how worn out they are from taking care of 2 little ones all day.
Susan and Skye are typical siblings, they fight over stuff, they instigate each other, they tattle on each other, and they love getting the other into trouble by instigating and then tattling.
I'm still not sure exactly what happened, but from watching how they were interacting most of the morning, I am pretty sure that Skye did something to set Susan off.
It's hot, everyone was hot and cranky, the intense heat makes you tired, (the temp was about 93 with a heat index of 110) and so Susan who gets upset easily anyway, kinds lost it for about 3 minutes.
She had a minor meltdown, and it really was minor compared to some of the others she's thrown, so I just kept trying to talk to her (she's 6) about why she was upset.
She did some screaming, threw some stuff which I made very clear to her that she is never allowed to do at my house, she shed a few tears, and then I asked her if she was done.
She said yes and we got back to playing and watching movies.
Minor.
Seeing as the teens are asleep and there's nothing at all worth watching on tv, I think I'm going to reboot and load up the Sims of Sunset Valley.
It's time to get their lives fully in gear, they are engaged, now it's time to get them married, make it all official, and then work on their careers and lifetime wishes a bit more.
Oh, gotta go pick up Mark's diploma tomorrow after my MRI.
Mindy has to get Jeff's, too, so she's taking me to my MRI, and then we'll go get their diplomas.
Later days!
June 21, 2009
Sims of Sunset Valley.
I have wicked insomnia again, nothing new there, but I hate how it's always the worst insomnia on the nights before I have things to do.
Like today, I am babysitting my nieces all day, and here I am, going to be doing it on absolutely no sleep at all.
It's ok though, I'm kind of used to being dead tired and having to do stuff.
The girls will be fine though, I'm sure of it.
Kids always behave worse for their parents than they do for anyone else, so I'm sure they will be great for me, and then they go home and drive my sister crazy.
Seeing as how I couldn't sleep, I stayed up and did more with my Sims.
They live in Sunset Valley, so because I know that I'll be doing some Sims posts once their stories start going, I've added a new category for them.
I didn't get a whole lot done story-wise because the customization tools are just awesome.
I love how you can take any pattern and color from any piece of furniture, wallpaper, marble counter tops, whatever, and place it on a completely different item.
Your entire house can match perfectly because of this, so I have been messing around with the customization tool and making things match.
I found the most awesome re-color set from Parsimonious, it's called Gotharama, and so I took the patterns and colors of the chairs and coffee tables, and placed it on the dining chairs, the bar stools, the table and counter tops, because the down stairs is an open floor plan and I wanted it all to match.
The walls are a gray-violet color and the carpet is a gray color, and it looks amazing.
My Sims are so totally happy with their house, their mood icon, whenever they are downstairs, is at the highest it can be, and the message says "Kat and Tony love their exquisitely decorated home."
And speaking of home, I took a couple pictures of their house to show you.
The house came with that fence around it, but I'm going to remove it, I don't like it.
The house at night taken from the waterfall side of the property.
It's really quite amazing, the graphics are incredible, you can zoom all the way in and it doesn't get blurry or pixelated, it just looks fantastic.
I love this game because it gives me the chance to create, to decorate, to do interior design and I love doing that.
Sebastian used to get mad at me because I would spend hours and hours building and decorating a home, but now he understands why.
When your sims are totally happy in their surroundings, they are happy with every other part of their life too.
If the living room, for example, is flawless and beautiful, if they are in there flirting or being romantic in front of the fireplace, their happiness over the beautiful home helps them be happier in their relationship.
The good mood is contagious, they do everything else better if they are happy.
I guess I'm going to go back and play for awhile again.
My nieces are coming around 10:30, and if I try to sleep now, it will be impossible for me to wake up later.
June 21, 2009
Rendering honors and a proposal.
I love how fast the turn-around is with Netflix, I send movies back and get my new ones within 24 hours.
I sent back Gran Torino
I also sent back Friday the 13th
Lots of killings, some good gore, and finally, Jason moves at a decent clip.
I always hated that about these kinds of movies, our victims are running for their lives, seriously hauling ass, and here's our killer, walking at a snails pace.
Jason moves quickly, strikes quickly, and has some serious brutal strength in him, which makes his kills all the better,
I sent those back on Thursday, so today, we got the next 2 in my queue.
We got and watched Taking Chance
Kevin Bacon plays Lt. Col. Mike Strobl in the movie based on the true story of his voluntary escort of a fallen marine, PFC. Chance Phelps.
The movie is about him escorting the body of a fallen marine home to be delivered to his family for the funeral.
It is probably one of the most moving films I have seen in a long time.
The absolute care and attention to detail that our armed forces go through to get the bodies home, is amazing and beautiful.
They clean the bodies and personal affects meticulously, they dress the marines in their uniforms flawlessly, and the journey home is verified every step of the way, and honors are rendered at every single stop.
It was really a beautiful and touching movie, even the teens were touched by this one.
I may not support the war, but I always support the brave men and women who so freely give of themselves to serve, to protect my rights, and I found all of the rituals and things they do to bring the soldiers home the perfect way to show respect and gratitude toward these fine and brave people.
You should definitely add Taking Chance to your Netflix queue, or rent it at your fave video store soon, you will not be disappointed in this movie at all.
I also got Nothing But the Truth
I'll watch it tomorrow night after my nieces go home, it'll give me a chance to rest up, I'm sure they are going to tire me out big time. ha ha
I'm finally able to get going working on a storyline for my Sims.
I was so overwhelmed when I went into CAS (create-a-sim) to start designing my sims, there is just so much to do in there, every bit of your sim is customizable, you can make them look exactly how you want, there are so many controls, but anyway, I was so overwhelmed and I needed to give her a name, so I just named her Kat so I could spend the next several hours designing her, her clothes, and getting a house, and designing and decorating it.
But now that the house is done, (well mostly, I keep changing things I don't like as I go) I can start working on her life.
Her lifetime wish is to be a world famous chef, so she's cooking a lot, getting new recipes, working at a diner, (she's now a skill level 7 cook, and she got promoted to prep cook, yeuss!) and coming up with ways to cook all of the fish she's catching in the pond right behind her house at the base of the waterfall.
I really need to take some pics of her house and property, it's amazing.
She wakes up every morning to the most incredible sunrises and the view of the waterfall.
She is at total peace and criminally happy at home.
It actually says things like that, "Kat is having so much fun it's criminal!" when you hover over her mood meter. 
She met Tony Stark when he came into the diner to eat, (another Simmer created Tony Stark from Iron Man, and uploaded him for download on the Sims3 site. I downloaded him because he looks good. I'm better at designing female sims rather than male sims) and he needed a place to live where he could have a room and a place for his telescope and science experiments, and because Kat lives way up in the mountains far away from everyone, she let hm move in as her roommate.
Over the course of the next few weeks, he started flirting with her, and they spent a lot of time together, so the natural course of things happened, and they fell in love. 
Last night after Kat got home from work and went to sleep for awhile, she got back up and came downstairs for a little midnight snack.
Right there in the living room while still in her sleepwear, Tony got down on bended knee.
You can click for bigger.
Now her life is really getting started, she's happy, she has a great job, she's in love, all I have to do is keep her from getting knocked up because EA still has not created birth control methods for your sims.
If you're not careful, you could end up having a dozen kids, so their woo-hooing will be kept to a minimum if I can help it, and I'll keep my fingers crossed she doesn't end up pregnant.
She has a life goal man, getting pregnant would totally screw that up right now.
June 20, 2009
Comcast can suck it.
It absolutely amazes me just how many people still are not ready for the DTV switch, they've had over 2 years to get ready for it.
There's an article in Business Week magazine about the millions left behind, and the many reasons *cough excuses cough* that they did not get ready.
The elderly I can understand, a lot of them don't even know how to set the clock on a VCR, so setting up a converter box and getting the right antenna is a bit more confusing for them, and the cable companies know that so they wasted no time in convincing the elderly that they had to get cable or they would not be able to watch their shows.
But other people?
People like the Ortez family mentioned in the article?
Sorry, but I have no sympathy for them.
They are both on unemployment and receiving some help benefits, and they watch Law & Order, so I know because I'm a fan of the show myself, that the DTV commercials aired a minimum of 5 times per broadcast of the show.
They (the Ortez family) thought they needed to pay for cable to get digital service. "We are on public assistance and we really can't afford to get cable," says Ortez. "I didn't know, until I saw last week in the newspaper, that I could get one of those boxes."
The couple was also confused by the delay in the transition. They thought the government decision to postpone meant they didn't need to take action. "We had heard that the whole thing got canceled back in January," says Ortez. "We didn't realize they were still going to do it until last week."
Ortez says he hopes not to be without TV for long. He's trying to get his hands on a converter box so that he and his wife can start watching shows again soon. "Being that we are unemployed and at home so much it keeps us entertained and up with current events," said Ortez. "TV is such a big part of our lives. It's always been there for us. Now we can't even watch TV, it's really crazy."
I knew about it (the switch) for 2.5 years because I was watching tv and saw the commercials, I signed up for the coupon, got it, tried it with my antenna, realized that I needed a better antenna, and bought one.
I bought a Philips MANT950 Amplified HDTV Indoor/Outdoor Urban/Suburban Antenna, and it works perfectly now that the switch is in full swing.
Up until the switch happened, some channels worked better than others, I didn't have some channels for a long time, but now I have all of the missing channels and then some.
And they are telling us to keep re-scanning our converter boxes because approximately 10 new channels are supposed to be added in the coming months.
I paid $65.99 for it on sale, it's normally $75.99, and it's currently out of stock at every online retailer I've checked because people are realizing they are needing a much more powerful antenna than their old rabbit ears, but if you need 1 of these, and I highly recommend it if you have a converter box and not getting great reception, you can sign up to be notified when Buy.com gets them back in stock and puts them on sale.
I had a Terk low profile antenna before the switch, but it just wouldn't work well through the concrete walls we have here, so I had to get a new antenna.
We tried hooking it up inside the house first, but again, it just would not pull the digital signals through the concrete, so my sister hooked it up outside, and now it works perfect.
We do get some sun spot issues in the afternoon, but we had that with the analog too.
Other than that, I am really pleased with digital tv.
It's a very clear and crisp quality image, and the sound is great too.
When friends come over, they think that we have cable because of how perfect the picture and sound are.
I get approximately 35 channels with the antenna and converter box, so really, why pay an arm and a leg for Comcast cable when it's this good?
The coupon was for $40, so I paid $9.99 + tax for the converter box, and the antenna was $65.99, so I paid less than $100 in total to be able to watch digital tv on 35 + channels, instead of paying Comcast anywhere from $9.99 per month (only for the 1st 6 months then it goes to $19.99 per month) for their lowest basic cable package, which is nothing but the local broadcast channels, up to $199.99 per month for their cable, internet, and phone premier package.
I pay $20 per month for phone, and $19.99 for DSL, and I'm still paying less than any of Comcast's bundle packages.
I never have to pay anything for my tv again, just phone and internet, so paying about $80.00 up front for the box and antenna is a much better deal than getting cable, and the biggie, I don't have to deal with their super crappy customer service either.
June 19, 2009
Bill Ratliff to retire, WFLA sticks us with "Goofy" Gayle Guyardo.
WFLA announced back in April that veteran news reporter Bill Ratliff would be retiring in June, next Friday will be his last day at WFLA channel 8 NBC.
Taking over as the only news desk reporter, will be the horribly annoying and goofy, Gayle Guyardo.
They used to have 2 reporters at the news desk every morning, Ratliff and Guyardo, but once he leaves, she will be at the desk for both the morning and noon news broadcasts by herself.
Weather reporter Jennifer Hill, and traffic reporter Alicia Roberts, will be doing both of these broadcasts with her, they will still be doing the weather and traffic, but Guyardo will be doing the news alone.
I won't be watching.
When we first moved here 12 years ago this month, channel 8 is the news station that we started watching and have been watching ever since.
For years now, I have been hoping that Gayle would be the reporter to leave when the rumors would start about a reporter leaving or being let go.
Nope, it's never her.
Back in March, they let go of sports anchor Dave Reynolds (and 52 other employees!) who was a very enjoyable sports anchor, and I don't even like sports!
In May 2008, they let go of weather reporter Mace Michaels, another reporter cut for economic reasons.
Michaels was only 9 months into a 3-year contract with WFLA when they decided to break the contract and cut him.
The station's news director was quoted as saying, "This is just about money; it's not about Mace."
At least there wasn't a non-compete clause in his contract, he was free to work for another station, and he's now doing the weather in Iowa for KGAN CBS 2.
But WFLA has this totally screwed up thinking when it comes to cutting the budget.
They know that they have to let people go in order to face these hard economic times, but they are also in a very competitive market for the morning news time slot.
There are quite a few really good morning news programs in the Tampa Bay area, so cutting the veteran news reporters, sports, and weather reporters, because they get paid more, may just be the stupidest thing they could have ever done.
The viewers like Bill Ratliff, we don't like Gayle Guyardo, and it's pretty evident from reading the few comments on the article about Ratliff retiring.
People said things like;
*Good luck Bill and thanks! I only wish it had been Gayle, Jennifer & Alicia!
*Will really miss Bill in the early a.m., doubt I will keep watching those silly women-too much fluff.
*I agree with MaryAnn from Pinellas -doubt I will keep watching those silly women PERIOD.
*Now that Bill is going, I'd like to see more of Alicia and less Gayle.
*Just to say that when you you let Bill walk out the door for last time, that's when I stop watching WFLA. the girls are to much. Gail is the one that need to go.
*I realize I don't know you personally but, geez, you will be missed. The women are too silly to put up with without you.
---------------
I cannot stand Gayle Guyardo, I really can't stand her.
At least she's somewhat more entertaining when she's 3 sheets to the wind shitfaced at the Gasparilla parade.
That's a youtube video of an audio recording of how drunk she was, live and on air.
She claims she had the flu and was on medication.
Oh sweetie, there's not a single rational human being on the planet who believes that line of bullshit.
Those comments that said the girls are silly, are correct, and Gayle is the silliest of all.
She's not a good reporter, she's always stumbling over her words, she giggles a lot during the news, she giggles during serious news stories.
She comes off as a bubbly airhead, and it's very distracting to try and pay attention to the news story when the reporter has this giant and stupid looking grin on her face, and she's laughing between every single story.
Then you put the 3 women together and oh my, it's like a group of young teenage girls having a sleepover, getting dressed in mommy's pearls, and pretending to be news reporters and then laughing at how silly they look and sound in the mirror.
It's just awful.
This morning, Gayle wasn't there, but Alicia and Jennifer kept up the silliness without her.
At the end of the broadcast, Alicia pulls out a couple of swim float tubes, and starts waving them around and in front of Bill Ratliff's face, and she and Hill are laughing like a couple of idiots.
They are always laughing, always giggling about something, and always saying some really stupid joke, it's annoying.
I watch the news to get the news, not to see a group of grown women who are supposed to deliver that news, act like teenagers and goofing off from 5-7am 5 days a week.
Yes, when Bill Ratliff is gone, I will be too.
I'll probably jump around and check out Fox 13's Good Day morning show, then ABC Action News's morning show, I'll give the Daily Buzz another try, and now that the DTV switch has gone through, I have a bunch of other station choices too, but nope, I will not be watching channel 8 WFLA anymore after Bill Ratliff leaves.
Gayle Guyardo makes me want to punch puppies.
I also wanted to say that Gayle must have some sort of ace in the hole, if you know what I mean, in order to not only keep her job, but be promoted to being the only reporter at the news desk for both the morning and noon broadcasts.
Media General has got to know that she is a terrible reporter, she fumbles her words, laughs way too much, makes inappropriate comments to her co-workers on air, and is really kind of just plain stupid.
And after what happened at Gasparilla last year, totally wasted on live television, so wasted that they had to cut to the parade way more than they usually do instead of showing Bill and Gayle in the booth because she was visibly drunk, slumping in her chair, hanging on Bill, and looking like she was going to pass out at any second.
Yes, Gasparilla is a good time, there are beer vendors everywhere along the parade route, people get drunk during the parade, but Bill and Gayle were on duty, they were working, they were being broadcast live during the entire parade, she should not have gotten drunk, heck, she should not have even had 1 single beer!
All of her bad behavior and shitty job as a reporter, makes a lot of people in the Tampa Bay area wonder who at Media General is protecting her job, and why.
June 16, 2009
My boring but money saving day.
Summers are quite boring around here, we really don't do a whole heckuva lot, so there really hasn't been anything much to post about.
The teens sleep half or most of the day, and then are awake most of the night and play video games.
I don't sleep much anyway, so this sleeping pattern gives us our family time.
We sometimes end up putting a movie in the dvd player at midnight or later, and stay up late watching movies and talking, and then if I do fall asleep, I get to have some really nice quiet me time until they wake up after noon or later.
I really don't mind them sleeping during the day or so late, it's very boring around here and it's off season, there are no jobs for teenagers here during the summer months.
It's way too hot to go outside, the temps are in the low 90's, but the heat index is over 100, there is really nothing at all for teenagers to do around here, and I can't take them to the beach or anything, so they might as well stay up late having fun and then sleep half the day away.
_____________________
This morning, I went to my pain docs and got my meds refilled, told them about everything that was going on, they noted it all down, gave me my scripts and I left.
My friend Dustin had taken me, so from there we went to the pharmacy, got them filled, and then he brought me home.
Then around 3:30pm or so, Sebastian and I grabbed the list and headed out to do the grocery shopping at Publix.
They are having a great sale this week, a lot of buy 1 get 1's, so we stocked up on a lot of stuff.
They finally had some ground beef for less than $3.49 per pound, they had it at just $2.99 per pound, and I have several recipes that I need it for over the next few weeks. So I picked up 3 pounds, and Sebastian wants my awesome enchiladas tomorrow night, so yay for beef on sale! LoL
I had my coupon from the Purex Insiders for the Purex 3-in-1, and Publix finally got the refill packages in instead of only having just the starter kits, so I picked up 2 of the refill kits in the Spring Oasis scent.
It just smells really nice and I love cuddling up with my baby blanket* right after it comes out of the dryer. It's so soft and smells so good.
The Glade fabric and air odor eliminator was on sale for buy 1 get 1, and I had coupon for $1 off, so instead of paying $3.99 each, I got 2 for just $2.99. W00t!
They had so many things on buy 1 get 1, chips, cookies, brownie mixes, cereal, all kinds of stuff, and no, I didn't buy all of that junk food, but I could not refuse the buy 1 get 1 on Pillsbury chocolate extreme brownie mix!
I did really good on saving money this time, I had a lot of coupons and Publix was having a terrific sale, so my savings were awesome!
My total bill before coupons, specials, and in-store savings = $270.66
My total coupons, specials and in-store savings = $113.25
Total bill after coupons, specials and in-store savings = $157.41!!!
Woo hoo!
W00t!!
I LOVE saving that much money!
That was my totally thrilling and awesomely exciting, but money saving day. ha ha
I told ya our summers are really boring.
Ok, gotta go do some dishes, wash out my Rubbermaid containers because I need them to put all the new food in.
Later days!
Continue Reading �
June 15, 2009
Touch and brush! I wants it!
The teens are just absolutely disgusting with their toothpaste, that is why they have their tube, and I have my own tube that I keep in the medicine cabinet and they are not to touch it, ever.
They do not squeeze from the bottom, they squeeze from the middle, they let the toothpaste goop up the cap really bad and they don't clean it off, and no matter how often I clean it off, they just goop it up again.
It always looks like this;
and this;
I just found a cat hair in their tube.
Gag!
I was sitting here clicking through the tv channels, just looking for something to have on in the background to keep me company, and I saw a commercial for the most awesome product that would totally end the toothpaste cap gooping issue forever, AND! it would also make sure that the tube got totally used up, it squeezes from the bottom, it uses every last bit of the toothpaste up!!!
It's called the Touch N Brush, and I want it! LoL
You stick it on the wall or mirror with the suction cups, it sticks to just about any surface, insert the tube of toothpaste, slide on the cover, and that's it, it will dispense the correct amount of toothpaste every single time just by placing your toothbrush in and pushing forward, it dispenses the toothpaste out onto your brush.
No messy caps, and it uses up the entire tube, no more wasted toothpaste, which means no more wasted money.
It's not electric, it doesn't require any batteries either, it uses vacuum force to get the toothpaste out.
It's only $19.99 + $7.99 s/h of course, but you also get a free sonic 4x toothbrush, and you can order a limit of 3 per shipping address.
I really do want this thing.
If I have enough money left after paying for my doctors appointments and prescriptions and stuff this week, I am so buying one, and I'll hook it up and test it out and then do a review of it.
I just love all of this stuff. hahaha
June 15, 2009
Still more complaints about the Sims 3.
The reviews are still coming in on Amazon for the Sims 3, and people are still complaining that their computers are crashing or simply unable to play the game.
My daughter's computer is more than powerful enough, but she never got more than 10 minutes into the game without a hard crash (BSOD crash).
I knew before running the tests that my computer could handle it, but I ran both tests anyway and I updated my drivers even though I didn't really need to just because I knew that the graphics on this were going to be amazing, and they are.
Sebastian and I have even downloaded a few items including a really huge house that another Simmer designed, it's incredible, and I placed it up on the side of the mountain near the waterfall.
The house has a ton of windows all around, so my Sim can watch the sun rise and set and it is so so beautiful, not only that, but I had her go fishing at the base of the waterfall, and wow, what an incredible experience that was to just watch.
The graphics in this game are simply amazing, the waterfall is gorgeous, the water reflects the sunlight and the Sim, and the fish actually leap in and out of the water, and when your Sim is trying to catch the fish and they struggle, the water splashes about, it's just so good looking!
We haven't had a single issue with the game, no crashes, no glitches, no nothing.
The complaints these people are posting about are because they did not meet the minimum requirements, I can guarantee it.
June 9, 2009
My Sims 3 are here!!
I have been awake all night, still haven't slept, not even a wee little nap, and I posted at almost 4am how I was hoping that Fedex wouldn't take my Sims 3 to my local post office, that they would just deliver it straight me.
Well they didn't deliver it straight to me.
But!
They somehow got it from Orlando to my local post office, and my mailman knocked on my door at about 12:15pm, and handed me my mail and a box with my Sims 3 inside!!
It's here!
My Sims 3 are here!
And I LOVE the usb plumbob key chain that came with it!
I haven't looked at the special content that is on it yet, but the key chain itself is really pretty cool looking, I dig it.
I made a promise to Sebastian like 3 days ago, man I am a total sucker haha.
I told him that on the day came, that I would install the game on my computer, I would get all of my special downloads, the sports car, the extra town of Riverview, I'd register at the the Sims 3 site so I could get the $10 in store money to spend, and then I would very quickly watch the game opening, take a quick look at the town map, and then I would exit the game and then go install it on his computer and let him have the 1st play.
Go ahead, tell me that I am the worlds biggest sucker, I deserve it. hahaha
I have been waiting for this game since the day they announced it, I pre-ordered it way back in December, I have been counting down the days, stalking the Amazon, Fedex, and the USPS websites and going back and forth with Amazon's customer service about why my game wasn't shipped on game day, and here I am letting him have the 1st play.
I am the stupid that's what I am. hahaha
June 9, 2009
It's almost here!
Our Sims 3 is almost here!
It's almost here! *does the happy ass chair dance of great joy*
See?! You can click for bigger!
Our Sims 3 magically went from being only initiated to now having left Orlando, which means that it's almost here!
Hoo-ray!!
I can't wait to get into the game and get into CAS, (Create A Sim) and then I'll probably spend hours making my very first Sim.
You can customize every single detail of your Sim's appearance, hair and eye color, skin tone, weight, hair high and low-lights, make-up, you can add beauty marks, lash length, all kinds of things.
I am SO excited!
This is 1 of the female vampires that someone at EA or the EA creator's camp made using CAS, isn't she so cool looking?! You can click for bigger to see all of the details.
Not only can you customize every single detail of your Sim, but you can now customize all of your Sim's furniture, their wallpaper, their lamps, everything.
You can take a single pattern that you love, take plaid for instance, and you can put it on the walls, the lampshades, the couch, the chairs, the carpet, the curtains, everywhere that you want it. You can mix and match patterns, you can even build your own furniture and then make your own furniture patterns.
Below is the CAS trailer, it shows how to create the Sims, and the furniture, and the houses.
It is just so damn cool and I CANNOT wait to get my hands on the game and do this!
I really hope that the tracking is sorta wrong, and Fedex decides to not deliver it to the local post office, and just straight up delivers it to me.
If they do that, I *might* have it today instead of on Thursday the 11th.
I would so love to have it today.
It would kind of suck to get it tomorrow because I won't be home all day tomorrow.
I'll be at my surgeon's office and the hospital doing all of my pre-op testing and meeting with the anesthesiologist and stuff.
You watch, that's exactly what is going to happen.
That's the kind of luck that I have.
June 7, 2009
Reading quite a bit of negative reviews.
Seeing as how I don't have my copy of the Sims 3 yet thanks to Amazon totally screwing up the shipping by using Fedex Smart Post, I am just reading what other people think of the game.
If you go to Amazon, there's a lot of people not liking the game at all.
They are complaining about how when you go in a building like the grocery store, you can't actually go in, but are given a menu to purchase food items.
Do they not realize what an absolute resource hog it would be to have every single building be open world available?
It would bog down your computer in 20 minutes if they did that!
Some people are complaining about how the Sims are all fat looking.
Well, go into CAS and edit them because I've been on the official Sims forums, and looking at people's avatars and the pictures that people are uploading, and obviously other people are taking some serious time to edit their Sims because not all of them are fat and cartoon-y looking at all.
One of the biggest issues that I've noticed is that a lot of people bought this game and their computers did not meet the minimum requirements to play it.
I checked and double checked on 2 different sites to see if my computer could play it, and my computer exceeds the requirements so I shouldn't have any of the problems with cycle redundancy and the crashing that others are experiencing.
It's amazing to me just how many people bought this game and then realized that their computers couldn't handle it, and then had to go out and buy all new graphics cards and memory cards, and some people even had to buy an all new power supply because their computers did not have enough wattage.
That tells you how old some of these computers were.
I've put the results of 1 of my tests in the extended entry so anyone interested can see how much the game requires.
But I really cannot wait to get the game and create a single Sim, a house, and then go exploring the open world.
I'm going to get my Sim a bike and take them everywhere, on every road, every path, as far as they can possibly go.
Because I bought the collector's edition, I get the world map, so I can see the entire world, and I'm going to go as far as I can into the mountains, to the ocean, to the far outer banks, to the hills, to the inner cities, to wherever I can, explore every single road and path and nook and cranny of the open Sim world, and then I'll sit down and play the game.
I'll create a family, a story line, I'll think of a story and play it out, fulfill their lifetime wants and needs and all of that stuff.
Amazon sent me another email this afternoon saying that they are looking into where exactly my game is and how sorry they are for the inconvenience, and they hope to have an answer within 48 hours.
Well within 48 hours, I am supposed to have the game according to their original shipment date.
It still says on my Amazon order page that I am supposed to have it on Tuesday the 9th, but according to the Fedex smart post page, the package has not even been picked up from the seller yet, shipping has only been initiated, and then Fedex is supposed to deliver it to my local post office.
Amazon said that this is supposed to be faster delivery service. (???)
How is it faster to have it shipped through 2 different delivery companies and neither of them even have it yet?
Continue Reading �
June 7, 2009
A very lazy Saturday.
The Cooper clan didn't do anything at all on Saturday.
Not a damn thing.
I laid on the couch the entire day watching movies while the teens slept in late and then alternated between playing video games and watching movies with me.
I was so tired today, I don't know what was wrong with me, maybe I was still working off the effects of the medicine mix-up from the other day, but I could barely keep my eyes open.
I tried though, especially when Moulin Rouge!
That movie is just so bizarre that I love it.
All the weird imagery and the music, it's fabulous.
I can only imagine how good it would look on a HD LCD tv like this SyntaxBrillian that is on
sale at Buy.com this week for 54% off with free shipping.
That's a wicked good deal.
Eh, someday when things are better.
I have way, way too much going on right now to even think about buying a new tv set, but someday I will catch up with the times and get an HD LCD tv and start looking at tv the way the rest of you do. hahaha
What else did we watch?
Oh, we watched Gladiator
Mark went and spent the night at his friend Jeff's house, and so it was just Sebastian and I here at home all night.
We spent a lot of time talking about the Sims 3 which we still don't have because the shipping got screwed up even though I pre-ordered and paid for it way back in December.
Yeah, I am NOT happy about that at all.
Sebastian and I have been looking forward to this game for a very long time, it is one of the things that he and I do together, that we talk about and play together, and so not having it yet has really upset us both.
I wanted to have enough time to get it installed and learn how to play it, teach him how to play it before I have to go have my surgery so that nothing goes wrong with the game or the computer while I am away in the hospital.
They decided to ship it to FedEx, and then FedEx will ship it to my local USPS, but so far, the only thing that has been done is the shipping process has been initiated.
The game was released on June 2nd, and here it is, June 7th.
I am so not pleased with how they decided to ship this out, but because it's in the shipping process, I can't cancel it.
There's basically nothing I can do but wait.
I sent them an email asking about it, and they sent one back explaining how they shipped it and then said that if I don't have it by 6pm on June 16th, to email them.
Wow.
If that happens, I am going to be absolutely furious. .
And no, it is not Buy.com that I bought it from.
I have never had a bad shopping experience from Buy.com.
Ever.
June 4, 2009
Maw-chew Pee-chew. hee hee
Whenever I think of like Machu Picchu travel, I think of Pikachu from Pokemon, and then I think of the baby Pikachu Pokemon named Pichu.
I just also like saying it over and over really, really fast.
Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu
It just sounds funny when you say it as fast as you can as many times as you can.
Say it, Machu Picchu.
Now say it as fast as you can as many times as you can without screwing it up, or until you screw it up.
Phoneticaly, it's maw-chew pee-chew.
Maw-chew pee-chew.
Hahaha
I just drove Sebastian totally crazy doing this.
I was making dinner, and I just kept saying it over and over really fast, then really slow, and then saying Pikachu, then Pichu, then Machu Picchu, then maw-chew pee-chew super super slow, and then he got super mad at me and told me to stop but I didn't.
Then I hear Mark from the other room yell, "MOM! OMG! STOP! FOR THE LOVE OF PETE! PLEASE JUST STOP!"
Hahahahaaa!
Maw-chew pee-chew
Machu Picchu
Maw-chew pee-chew
June 2, 2009
Sims 3 is almost here!!
I bought my copy of the Sims 3, the collector's edition, back in December, and I should have it in my hands in a day or two.
But if you're a simmer and haven't bought your copy yet, Buy.com has the regular version on sale this week for just $44.95.
You can get the Sims 3 and play in a totally open world.
No more being stuck in your house or having to wait for loading screens while your Sims go from one place to another, you can now walk out the front door, go across the street and get into an argument with your neighbor for being messy.
You can totally customize every bit of the game from the Sims appearance, to their personalities, giving each of them up to 5 different personality traits that will make every Sim you create a totally unique individual.
I am totally looking forward to getting it, installing it, and giving that open world a try.
I also want to test how the Sims can die or be killed.
I know that's a bit sadistic, but when you create a Sim that turns out to be a total butthead, you have to get rid of them before they destroy your whole family or life plan.
I bought the collector's edition because it comes with a special down-loadable sports car, the official Prima guide book, some Sims 3 music, and a USB drive shaped like the plumbob.
I cannot wait for it to get here!
It's going to be so much fun!
W00t!
May 27, 2009
Expensive hobbies.
I don't watch a lot of sports, occasionally I'll watch some football, I do enjoy hockey, I check out a few games on tv every now and then, but I have never understood golf at all.
Whenever it's been on and I've stopped clicking through the channels just to check it out for a few minutes, I am amazed at teh self control of the audience.
They are all quiet, they don't make any noise at all until the golfer sinks his ball.
Then they just clap politely.
From playing some mini-golf a few times in my life, I do know that it's a hard game to play, you have to have good concentration, good hand and eye coordination, and I do know that you have to try and sink your ball in as few strokes as possible.
I've never known anyone who was totally into the sport, but I think if I had a husband or boyfriend who was totally into it and spent a ton of money on golf training aids, ($7600???) I'd be pretty dang annoyed.
I know that everyone has their "thing", the hobby that they just love to do and the cost is way down on the list of concerns to them when it comes to doing their hobby, but I just can't see spending thousands on that hobby, unless of course you have a ton of money anyway and spending it on your hobby is not going to affect the family food budget.
I am a huge movie lover, I love to watch movies and I buy the movies that I totally love.
But I don't spend a lot on them, I try to find them on sale, I'll even buy them second hand, I get them at yard sales, and I've found some great deals on movies at stores that were going out of business.
Do you have a hobby that costs a lot to do?
Does your spouse/partner have an issue with how much you spend on your hobby?
Does it affect your relationship because of it?
May 26, 2009
School's out for summer, school's out and they're happy!
Today was the last official day that Sebastian had to be in school.
He had 1 last final exam first thing this morning, and so he went, took his test, and they released him by 8:30am, said he was done, so he came home.
He was totally stoked, still is.
Then Mark had to go up to the school to pick up his cap, gown, and his 5 tickets for the graduation, and Sebastian remembered that he still had 1 last book to turn in, so they both walked up to the school to take care of those things.
When they got back, they were so happy, "It's over!" they yelled as they came through the door, and they've been just kicking back all day since.
Tonight we decided to watch the last 2 Harry Potter movies, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
I swear, we've watched every trailer for it at least a dozen times each.
We've seen all of the Harry Potter movies in the theater since the very 1st one.
This year and this Harry Potter movie, may be the 1st time that we won't be seeing it in the theater.
I was going to say that it would depend on how I'm feeling after the surgery, but I realized that surgery is June 29th, and I may still be in the hospital on July 15th.
I know that sounds like a long time to be in, but with my 1st surgery, I was in for 18 days, the 2nd for 9 and a half, and this one all depends on how things go, if there are any complications and stuff.
So I'm hoping that the movie will still be in theaters for at least like 5-6 months after it comes out so that we can keep up with our tradition of seeing these movies in the theater together.
________________________
I was also really hoping to be able to send the teens to Maine for the summer or part of the summer, to visit with my family and work at Funtown like we had been talking about, but it's simply not in the cards this year.
But my sister is still hoping to go up for a quick weekend or a full week, in August I think she said, and so she's starting to get all of that stuff ready again.
She needs to find a good deal on the tickets for her and the girls, make sure her car seats are ok for whichever airline she decides to go with, and get some travel health insurance for her and the girls, some car insurance through her credit card for the rental car if she decides to get one, and make plans to try and fit in all of the friends and relatives who want to spend time with her and the girls every time they go up.
She still doesn't know which airline she's going to fly with.
Ever since Allegiant Air no longer flies in and out of the airports closest to where our parents live, finding really cheap seats is a challenge.
We used to fly out of the Orlando airport, and land in the Portsmouth New Hampshire airport, but now the closest airport is in Bangor Maine, which is actually in state, but it's like a 5-6 hour drive to my folks house, whereas the Portsmouth airport was less than an hour away, less than 45 minutes depending on who's driving. *wink*
I really wish I could send the teens up, but it's just not going to happen this year because of my surgery, lack of money and time, and some other stuff.
But I am going to try like hell to get them up there next year.
I'm aiming for February or spring school vacation time, or summer if that's all we can do.
May 24, 2009
Catching up on my sleep.
I had been awake for about 3 and a half days with only about 5 hours of sleep during that whole time, so I finally went to sleep on Friday night around 12:30am, and slept through until 10am on Saturday morning.
I stayed awake for a couple of hours, long enough to make the teens some lunch and then start watching some old, but fun and cheesy movies, on a new station that we have here with the digital tv thing.
We have a station called This, and all it does is show old movies, classic tv shows like The Outer Limits, The Patty Duke Show, and Mister Ed, in the early morning hours, and the childrens' shows like The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, and Wimzie's House, until around noon, and then they show all of the old movies for the rest of the day.
It's a pretty decent station, so my plan was to try and catch up on some more rest by laying on the couch and watch Poltergeist II and Poltergeist III
Well that didn't quite happen.
I fell asleep about 1 quarter of the way through Poltergeist 2, and woke up just as Once Bitten was ending.
By the time I had woken up, the teens had already made themselves some dinner.
They decided to just let me sleep because they knew how long I had been awake, and there was plenty of easy things for them to cook for themselves in the NuWave.
They didn't make a mess or any noise, so it all worked out ok.
Around 9pm, we decided to take a walk to the store to get some more food, we were out of lunch meats and needed some more milk for breakfast.
I'm still not totally caught up on my sleep, I feel like I need at least one more really good nights sleep, and then I'll be ok.
During my wide awake for 3 days and my sleep on Friday and Saturday, it seems that all of the blogs that I follow decided to do a lot of updating.
A whole lot of updating.
It's either going to take me a very long time to catch on on all of those, or I'll end up marking them all as read because of how long it would take me to read through them all.
But while I was doing a quick scan of my feeds to see if there was anything that I should definitely read first before marking them all as read, I did notice that one of the female bloggers that I read, had a post all about shoes.
I saw a wicked lot of pictures of wicked cool looking women's shoes.
High heels, low heels, flats, chunks, flip flops, oh so many cool looking shoes that I will probably never be able to wear again.
I've been stuck wearing flip flops for quite a few years now, and it's starting to get very depressing.
I miss wearing heels so much, and chunks too.
I still have 3 pairs of my fave shoes just in case I can ever wear them again, but it's not looking too much like I will.
*sigh*
May 22, 2009
Insomnia! Leave me hangin' on all ni-ight! oh-oh-oh, damn insomniaaaa!!!
So uh, yeah, I've been up all night with insomnia again.
I did finally get some sleep yesterday afternoon, I was able to sleep for about 3 hours, and then I just woke up, and was totally ready to go again.
It's now a little after 4pm, and while I'm tired, I cannot sleep.
I had so many things that I wanted to do today, I have all this work that I wanted to do, I wanted to get it all done, but did I do it?
No-o-o-o!
I spent like the entire day just answering emails.
The whole day, answering emails.
That is not what I wanted to do today, but that's what I did.
I kept saying to myself,
"Self, as soon as you get done with this email, you need to get crackin' on all of that work that you need to get done or it's never going to get done."
And I would even answer myself,
"Self, I KNOW that I have work to do, but these emails, these are important, they must be answered. These people took their time to email me, the least I can do is take the time to email them back. As soon as I get done with this one, I will get started on the work that I need to do."
But then as soon as I replied to that email, I got another one that my insomnia deep-fried brain told me was just as equally important as the previous 7 emails.
So no, I did not get a single thing done today that I meant to do.
But I do feel like I accomplished a lot though.
It usually takes me like 2-3 days to answer emails, and I did them all today, so that in itself is a huge accomplishment.
All of the stuff that I needed and wanted to get done today is all work I can do on my computer, which is a good thing because my arthritis is flared up today big time.
My right knee is HUGE, it's all swollen and sore from the arthritis, I have been limping around all day long every single time that I needed to get up and pee or get a drink.
Owie wowie, painful.
I am really hoping that I will still be able to get at least some of what I want to get done, done, but I don't know for sure if I will be able to.
Dustin and Stacey are supposed to come over tonight for dinner and a movie, and then when they leave, whatever time that ends up being, I hope that I'm going to be somewhat coherent enough to get some work done.
I have a couple of product reviews that I need to write up, not telling you what they are for yet, you'll have to come back to find out, but I can tell you that none of them will be weight loss pill reviews because I haven't been allowed to take any weight loss pills since the beginning of September.
Ok, I need to get off of here for just a little bit.
I need to pee again, (damn blood pressure meds make me pee like a racehorse on lasix), get another drink, (that could be contributing to the pee thing too, hrm....) and call Dustin to find out what time they are coming and ask about what they want to eat for dinner, and also fold the last load of laundry in the dryer.
Ok, really gotta go now.
Later days!
May 9, 2009
To boldly go where no man has gone before.
I really want to take the teens to the Westgate or Westfield Mall theater, or whatever the name of it is, I can't ever remember, and go see the new Star Trek movie.
I'm not a huge trekkie, but I used to watch the original show with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, and I've watched most of the other various incarnations of the show too, like Star Trek The Next Generation and Voyager, I wasn't much into Deep Space Nine, and then I also watched all of the movies of course.
The Wrath of Kahn being one of my faves as well as the fave of many others.
I didn't like Nemesis at all.
But anyway, the new movie looks really good, and from what I have been hearing and reading, it's really, really good.
People are saying that when they've gone to see it, that people have been cheering and clapping throughout it, and that the casting is like spot on for every single character.
Knowing that makes me want to see it even more, I was worried about a few of the characters being cast right, but everyone is saying that the actors chosen are spot on and perfect.
I'm sure we'll get to see it sometime, in a few weeks maybe, things are tight right now, so in a few weeks when money loosens up a bit, we'll go.
May 1, 2009
Tired, really, really tired.
I don't know what's come over me the last few days, but I could just sleep and sleep.
I have no appetite at all, and when I do eat, everything tastes weird, like bitter and spoiled.
I'm eating the same foods the teens are, and they say their food tastes just fine, but to me, it all tastes bad and I'm not sure why.
I'm just exhausted, and all I've been doing is sleeping and laying down, and I just haven't felt like blogging much, and there really hasn't been much to say anyway.
Meh.
Sebastian is off with my sister tonight, she'll bring him home sometime tomorrow afternoon.
Mark is in the other room playing WoW of course, and the kitties are all sleeping in various locations.
We've been watching some movies in the downtime, like last night, we watched The Wrestler
It was a really interesting movie, a good human story.
I felt so bad for the character, wrestling was all he knew, all a lot of them knew, they still lived in their glory days of giving people a good show.
Rourke was incredibly good in it, he was believable right from the start, this was his role to play, he was the wrestler.
The supporting cast was excellent too, Marisa Tomei, wow, probably the most gritty and realistic role I've ever seen her do, was also very believable, I know a few strippers, and so yeah, an excellent portrayal of their lives.
When the screen faded to black, we all sat here in silence, and slowly each one of us said wow, tragic, but how he wanted it to go.
Tonight we watched The Burrowers
When a family goes missing, the hostile Indians are immediately blamed and hunted down, but it's not Indians doing the kidnapping and killing at all, but almost vampire like creatures that live underground, and have the ability to paralyze their victims, then bury them alive so they can come back and eat their rotting organs later.
Another group of Indians, the Ute, know how to destroy the creatures, but an over zealous military leader played by Doug Hutchison, kills the last Ute Indian who knows how to make an antidote for the poison, and our main character has figured things out and can save the lives of other settlers with that Indians help, but it's too late.
This was a straight to DVD release, but worth checking out, just like a lot of straight to DVD releases are.
Most people don't give those films a chance, but The Burrowers is one of those movies you should definitely check out.
They only had a budget of $7million, but it's a very good looking film with some major players in it like Clancy Brown, whom I've loved ever since Highlander
The scenery is gorgeous, the colors are muted but fabulous looking, and the acting, terrific.
A funny happened while we were watching The Burrowers, a couple of our cats, Nova and Shahiro, kept hearing the noises the creatures made as they were stalking their prey, and they did the same thing they do when I put the cat video on.
They start trying to climb up on the tv stand and tv set, to catch them.
It was amusing to me to watch them do that, trying to catch the creatures in the movie.
April 26, 2009
Three more than I was expecting!
My friends Dustin and Stacey called at about 9:30pm, (our plans were for them to get here at 9-9:30pm) and said that they were running late.
They had a drunk friend crisis.
One of Stacey's friends, Amy, had just gotten broken up with in a very bad way, and Amy, the friend, had gone to a bar, started drinking, was super upset, and so they were trying to get her out of the bar before she did anything super stupid.
They also unexpectedly ended up with Dustin's 11 year old niece Mariah with them for the night, and they were calling to ask if it would it be ok if they brought them along.
I said of course!
I so very rarely get any company, so it would be nice to have a full house of all kinds and ages of people, plus, I always make enough spaghetti to feed a small army, and I had bought a large loaf of garlic bread, so I had plenty of food to go around.
When they got here, I felt like maybe there was some unknown to me announcement, or maybe a HUGE flashing neon sign on my roof that says all are welcome, come on in! because I'm having a economy hotels promotions for dinner, entertainment, and lodging for the night, for one super low price!
Not only did they bring Mariah and Amy, but they stopped by the babysitter's house, and picked up Amy's 10 year old son Adam.
They wanted to make Amy realize that she had a lot more good in her life, that all of the cruel things the ex-boyfriend had said to her, didn't matter in the big scheme of things.
She had a good job, a great son, and good, caring, and loving friends around her, and in her life.
I really didn't mind at all having the extra people, I enjoy meeting new people, and both Dustin and Stacey are good people, so I was assuming that they have good people in their life too.
I was right, Amy is a doll, a total sweetheart.
When she came into the kitchen where I was finishing up dinner after Sebastian had welcomed everyone in the house, she immediately offered to help me get everything done.
I told her that I was good to go, the spaghetti was totally done, I was mixing the sauce and pasta together, (I HATE pouring sauce over pasta. That may be the correct or fancy way, but mixing it in makes the noodles absorb the sauce, the meat and onions stick to it, and it just tastes so much better that way) and I was just about to stick the garlic bread in the NuWave.
Stacey and Dustin hadn't seen it use yet, and Amy had never even heard of it, so they watched with awe as I placed the garlic bread slices (I cut the loaf into thick slices) on the 4inch rack, and turned it on.
I finished mixing the spaghetti, getting all of the plates and forks ready, got the parmesan cheese out of the fridge, and we all just chatted away while they cooked.
They were done perfectly in just 4 minutes, and they were all like OMG! that thing rocks!
I think Stacey was most loving it because she is a cook too, loves to be in the kitchen cooking stuff up, so she asked me a bunch of questions while we plated up everyone's dinner.
Then we all went into the living room and made ourselves comfy while the movie started up, and they all raved about my spaghetti sauce, and kept asking me what I put in it because it was so flavorful.
Stacey kept trying to guess, "Oregano? basil? garlic? is that honey I taste? brown sugar? wait wait, I taste something else too, marjoram? Parsley? Thyme? Is there red pepper in this too? OMG Kat! I love this sauce, tell me what's in it!"
I said I couldn't tell her, it's a secret, and she said she'd figure it out before the night was over.
She didn't. 
Oh, Adam is not a fan of horror movies, so he went into the other room with Mark and Sebastian to play video games.
He played Gears of War 2
The movie started, it was called Slaughter
Faith thinks she is leaving her abusive relationship behind when she moves in with Lola on her family farm. Each night the girls go out, Lola comes home with a man. When Faith realizes these men never make it off the farm, she starts to believe Lola's family might be killing more than just animals in the slaughterhouse.
It was a fairly decent movie, lots of gore, the plot wasn't too bad, the acting was actually pretty good, (surprised on that one!) and the ending was a total surprise and shock, not a happy ending at all.
Wow, I was so not expecting that.
The movie ended a little bit past midnight, they needed to get the kids home, the very well behaved kids I might add, and so they packed up all of their stuff they brought with them, but they left me one of the movies to watch, and they'd either pick it up tomorrow night or on Tuesday when Dustin takes me to my doc appointment.
They left me The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations
The third installment in the series. A young man with the power to time travel attempts to solve the mystery of his girlfriend's death...but in doing so, is he causing the death of many more?
I've seen the first two, so I'll watch this one too.
The trailer for it didn't look half bad, it has gotten poor ratings, but I think a lot of people who watch the 8 Films to Die For series are expecting like, regular mainstream horror movies.
They are not, they are usually pretty cheesy, mostly bad acting, but awesome kill scenes with gross-you-out gore.
I enjoy them because of that, I love close up kill scenes with a ton of gore, and these movies provide that.
Anyway, it was a very fun night, everyone enjoyed themselves, got full up on food, good conversation, and laughs, so I would say it was a successful night, and I'm looking forward to the next get together which will be at their house next weekend. 
April 25, 2009
Food, friends, and lots of cleaning to do.
I have a ton of cleaning to do for tonight, all of the dishes, clean the kitchen and bathroom, vac the rugs, and then make a huge pot of spaghetti for dinner and a movie with Dustin and Stacey tonight.
We're going to eat my awesome spaghetti and then watch a bunch of movies from the 8 films to die for series.
Both Stacey and I are huge horror fans, and while some of the movies in this series are total cheese fests, they always have awesome gore and special effects, so it will be a lot of fun to eat and get grossed out. LoL
I better get cracking on the dishes, both sides are full up and some of them need some extra elbow grease.
Yuck.
April 22, 2009
Food, computers, and stocking up.
The other day, I said that I was going to make my own video of how to cook with the NuWave Oven Pro, and post it here and on youtube, and maybe get NuWave's attention, so I can get the new pizza kit they have. (Hey, it could happen)
Tonight, I made a 5lb chicken in only 1 hour and 15 minutes, it was perfect, I put bbq sauce on it for the last 10 minutes of cooking time, and it came out incredible, tasted way better than those rotisserie chickens you can get at a deli, super yummy.
My video was so packed full of info too, I even got the names of the 3 ways that it cooks correct from memory, not having to read them this time, conduction, convection, and far infrared.
The last 2 times someone asked me how it cooks, I kept forgetting their actual names, and said conduction, infrared, and the circular heat cooking method.
haha
But I really did pack the 4 minute video with a ton of information, instructions, and even rattled off some of the foods I've made in it since getting it.
Anyway, I made videos every step of the way, I edited them in windows movie maker, it was a really kick ass video, and then I screwed up.
I wanted to name the video the same name as I had saved the first part of the videos I had made, and I wasn't thinking clearly, and I deleted all of the smaller video clips I had used to make the final video, and even deleted them from the recycle bin.
I tried 3 different programs to restore all of the clips, but nope, they were already being overwritten by my computer.
Sometimes, not all of the time, as soon as you delete a file, and also delete it from the recycle bin, your computer thinks that it's freed up space, so it starts overwriting the space on your hard drive.
I did find all of the video files, but they had already been destroyed and partially overwritten.
*sigh*
I'll just have to do again the next time I cook something in it, which will probably be tomorrow night.
With hurricane season coming up soon on June 1st, I've begun stockpiling our supply bins.
I start getting a ton of canned foods that can be eaten cold, plastic utensils, paper plates and bowls, batteries, water, snacks etc.
I think I may have gone a bit overboard last year though.
When I opened up the bins that I keep in my closet, I found some stuff that I left in there.
I have quite the surplus of toilet paper and baby wipes.
I have 10/4 packs of toilet paper, and 10 refill packages of baby wipes with 1 brand new container of wipes still wrapped in the plastic.
Well, at least I won't have to buy any of that stuff this year, now I just need to cross those items off of my shopping list so I don't buy even more of them.
I just need to find my list now.
Hrm.
April 21, 2009
Friends, food, and fun.
The teens and I had some company on Monday night, my friends Dustin and his girlfriend Stacey came over to hang out with us for awhile.
Dustin had taken me to my doctor's appointment and the pharmacy, and then he asked what we were doing tonight.
I told him nothing, the usual Monday night routine of dinner, maybe a movie or just some regular tv, and then bed for the teens at 11:30, and I'll probably stay awake all night again.
He asked if we'd like to have some company, if he and Stacey could come hang out for a few hours, he'd buy dinner, we could watch a movie, he could play some video games with the teens, and Stacey and I could hang out and get to know each other a bit better.
I only met Dustin about 5-6 months ago, and just met his girlfriend about 5-7 weeks ago.
Dustin and I talk to each other almost daily, he helps me get to my appointments and stuff, and as soon as Stacey and I met, we were like instant friends.
She is my age, she grew up in Maine like I did, in Portland and the Biddeford/Saco area, she moved here to Florida about 16 years ago, and I've been here for the last 12.
We both love horror movies, we've even worked at the same types of jobs our whole lives.
We're Jills of all trades I guess you could say, because whatever job was hiring, we took it to make ends meet and take care of our kids.
Yup, she's also a single mom, she only has 1 kid though, but it's still one of those camaraderie things.
Dustin dropped me off about 6pm, then he went and picked Stacey up from work, (her son is at his dad's until Thursday) they swung by the store, picked up some Mountain Dew for him and the teens, a gallon of water for Stacey, and some Diet Coke for me, and then they came in and we started our fun evening.
He ordered a super large pizza and a ton of Buffalo wings from Pizza Hut, and we picked a movie to watch while we ate.
Stacey and I both love the movie Stir of Echoes
After dinner and the movie, Dustin and the teens went in the other room and played a few games, Resident Evil 5
Stacey and I hung out here in the living room, talked about how much we have in common, which really is a lot, our lives practically mirror each other, it's kind of freaky.
We talked about our fave horror movies, our kids, our health, and then we watched a movie on my computer, "The Last House on the Left", the remake, because she hadn't seen the new one yet, but she has the old one, and we're going to have another movie watching night to watch the classic 1972 version too.
And we also planned our next get-together hang out night for all of us.
Sort of.
We didn't pick a night yet, but we decided on the menu at least, my awesome spaghetti and some of my killer garlic bread, and we picked the movie(s), The Burrowers
She said it's good, that I'll like it even though it doesn't have the best user ratings and reviews, she liked it so I'll probably like it too because our tastes are so similar.
I'm going to talk to Dustin tomorrow afternoon when he takes me to my appointment with the cardiac doctor, about what night would be good for them.
It's really nice having some company, having some friends over to hang out and talk to.
Since my surgeries, I don't get out much, really can't go out and party and go to clubs and stuff anymore, so most of the friends I had, sorta left me.
They all go out and hang out, go to bars and clubs, go dancing, and those are all things that I currently can't do anymore, I haven't been able to do any of that stuff since September, so most of my friends just stopped coming around, stopped calling, and just sorta faded away.
That saying that says you find out who your real friends are when you either get arrested or are in bad health, is all too painfully true.
Your real friends stand by you, they come bail you out or are sitting right next to you in the cell, or they visit you in the hospital, come visit you at home, just come by or call to see how you are, they don't just fade away.
Both Dustin and Stacey are homebodies, they like quiet nights at home watching movies and eating a decent meal, and they don't mind one little bit that I can't go out and party because they aren't party people themselves.
They both thanked me about a gazillion times for having them over tonight, they thanked the teens for letting them be here too, for playing video games, and the pleasant conversation and funny jokes.
It's me who should thank them, and I did, repeatedly as they left.
I've been stuck in my house for so long, only going out to see a doctor or go grocery shopping, so it was really wicked nice to have company, conversation, and make some new friends who don't mind my situation, who help me get to places, and just enjoy spending time with me, I had a really good time and can't wait to do it again.
April 17, 2009
A lot of awesome sale items this week.
I've become like addicted to checking out Buy.com's weekly deals to see what they have on sale, and I am rarely ever disappointed with their great deals.
This week they have the same mp3 player that I have and love, the SanDisk Sansa Clip 1 gb mp3 player, for only $14.99.
It's normally $69.99, so that's a huge savings of $55.00!
It is a reconditioned one, but it's a really great mp3 player, so being reconditioned is not an issue in my opinion.
I absolutely love mine, I use it all of the time, every night when I'm laying there not sleeping due to insomnia, I listen to it off and on all day long, I just love it!
It plays mp3, wma, secure wma and audible audio file formats, and it also has an FM tuner with 40 preset channels, but it's really easy to set it to your radio stations, it has up to 15 hours of play time, and recharges using a usb cord and your computer.
You can also use it to record yourself notes with a built in microphone.
I haven't used that feature on mine yet, but I'll probably play around with it at some point.
It can hold 250 mp3s, and 500 wmas, that's a TON of music.
It has really good user ratings, and like I said, I absolutely love mine, it's so easy to use and has a very bright display, you can set it to shut off after so many minutes too, which makes it perfect if you use it to fall asleep like I do, it just shuts off.
Just don't roll over on it like I did one night and then not be able to figure out why it needed to be reset.
Oooops!
Anyway, it's a good deal on a good mp3 player, so if you need one or know someone who wants an mp3 player, you should check it out.
It's as good as those bigger name brand ones that cost a whole lot more.
April 16, 2009
Tummy flips are mending.
On Monday, Mark got a card in the mail from a relative, it had $50 in it, so he decided to order dinner for all of us.
He ordered from a place that makes a wide variety of food, so he got wings, and Sebastian and I ordered some burgers.
The burger was really great, but by Tuesday morning, I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach a thousand times.
My muscles hurt, they kept tensing up, and I kept on running to the bathroom.
Over and over all day and night Tuesday, and pretty much all day Wednesday too.
It totally ruined my plans for today.
I had planned on going and picking up Sebastian's meds and then doing the grocery shopping.
Nope, the sight of food made me feel ill, the smell of it made me run to the bathroom.
And then Mark calls me in the bathroom this afternoon and asks me how he can remove blackheads from his face.
He's standing there popping all his zits and trying to squeeze out a huge blackhead.
I flipped the toilet lid and just let my stomach drain itself of whatever was left in there, which shouldn't have been much considering how many times I've puked since Tuesday morning.
I'm finally starting to feel better.
My stomach still hurts, but at least the sickness has stopped.
I am pretty sure it was food poisoning as Sebastian said his stomach wasn't feeling all that great either.
He wasn't anywhere near as sick as I was, but he said he just didn't feel right either.
I am hoping that by the time the teens get home tomorrow afternoon, (Thursday) that I'm feeling much better, we really need to do the grocery shopping and get some more cat food and cat litter too.
Oh, we did watch a most gory and awesome movie called The Midnight Meat Train
Vinnie Jones stars as the butcher, and he is absolutely terrifying!
Bradley Cooper is decent in his role as the photographer on the hunt for real and gritty images for an art gallery show, and the rest of the cast is likable and they do a good job with the script they were given, which really wasn't all that great.
But what the movie lacks in script, it more than makes up for in action and special effects.
This movie is NOT for the squeamish at all, the very violent scenes are up close, in your face, and disgusting.
I am a HUGE horror movie fan and even I cringed and had to cover my mouth a few times to hold back squeals of terror and disgust.
The Midnight Meat Train is probably one of the best adaptations of a Clive Barker story I have ever seen made into a movie.
So if you like horror, guts, gore, check it out, but don't say I didn't warn you about the up close shots of the killings.
April 11, 2009
Friends, computers, and fun.
A couple of my friends came over tonight, Dustin and his girlfriend Stacey, and we all just hung out and talked for a few hours about all kinds of stuff.
Stacey is a total sweetheart, she came in and marched straight to my kitchen and did my dishes even though I told her like 6 times not to.
She said she wanted to help because Dustin told her what a totally crappy week I've had with the AC and the heat.
Dustin and I talk on the phone several times a week, he has been giving me rides to some of my doctor's appointments and stuff too.
Even though I told her not to do them, and she did them anyway, I really did appreciate her doing them.
The kitchen is just way too hot without the AC, and I tried to do the dishes, but just couldn't.
It was so hot in there, I gave up after just 3 bowls and 1 cup.
Then we sat around my computer and I showed her how to do some stuff.
She really wants to get better at the internet, so I helped her with her myspace page, showed her how to add some stuff to it, how to save pics and then host them so she could post them, and then we're going to slowly do some more stuff together so she can set up her own website.
She has some ideas for what she wants to do, and she brought over a whole bunch of pictures on her flash drive that she wants to have on her website when she gets it up and running.
She wants to start her own dance/exercise studio, teach women how to get in shape through dancing.
She's been a dancer for 17 years, and she's in incredible shape, dancing is all she does to stay in shape, so she wants to teach other women how to dance to get in shape, and how much more fun it is than regular old boring exercises like sit ups and crunches, lunges, and stuff.
I think it's a great idea, and there aren't any of these types of fitness places around here, so I think she's got a really good shot at making it work.
She already has her studio planned out and is meeting with the property owners about monthly rental costs in a few weeks.
Dustin went absolutely nuts when he saw the giant box of Tootsie Roll candies I have...LoL
I swear, no mater how old a guy is, they all act like little kids in a candy store when they see that much candy.
His eyes lit up, he asked how I got it all, I told him I won it, and he was like OMG! You so rock! hahaha
We're going to plan a night of movies and dinner for like next weekend or something, pick a good movie, plan a good meal, and just hang out together.
The teens like the both of them, they showed Dustin WoW, and he was amazed.
He said he had heard about the game from friends, but had never seen it, so he was all "Wow, this is so freaking cool!"
Both he and Stacey like to play video games too, so when they saw that the teens had Resident Evil 5
I'm the same way, I love to play it even though it totally creeps me out. hahaha
So anyway, that's how our night was, I have some stuff to catch up on, and even though it's late, I'm still going to try and get some of it done.
I'm wide awake again.
Might have something to do with the amount of sugar I ate today...hahaha
April 3, 2009
I DO love them ya know.
I've gotten a couple of strong comments both in the comments and by email on the post below.
Things like I'll miss them when they've grown up and gone from my home, that if I hate having them home so much, why don't I send them to their grandparents for vacations, or why don't I tell them to go play outside, go hang out with their friends all week, stuff like that.
It is NOT because I don't like having the teens around at all.
I LOVE the teens, they are my everything, but they are teenage boys, brothers, just 2 years difference in age, they both want their space and privacy, they want to do what they want when they want, they are still growing so they eat, a lot.
On weekends, they can easily eat a whole pound of lunch meat, a whole loaf of bread, all of whatever leftovers we had, drink a gallon of milk, and devour pretty much anything that isn't nailed down.
So home 24/7 for a whole week?
It gets a wee bit expensive to feed them.
They are brothers who both play video games, they both want to play the same video game, at the same time.
This causes bickering and arguing over whose turn it is and for how long.
They have a computer to play WoW on, surf the net, whatever, and an Xbox360 to play a crapload of our other video games on, but in typical sibling fashion, they both always seem to want to play the exact same game at the exact same time.
Let the arguing begin!
After 24-48 hours of listening to that, yeah, I don't like it, but it doesn't mean that I want to send them away for their vacations, I love them, I do enjoy the good and fun times we have together while on their vacations.
We hang out and watch movies, we get to talk about anything and everything, we sit and laugh over really silly stuff, and we play games together.
I'm sorry if the post below sounded like, or seemed like I hate having them around.
I really don't hate having them around, I adore them even with all of the fighting and bickering, even if they eat everything in sight, even if I have to remind them a thousand times to shut off lights, fans, computers and video games when they are not being used.
The teens are probably THE best thing I've ever done in my life.
They have grown up to be really awesome young men, (even if they do bicker like all siblings do) they are kind, caring, and generous.
Generous of their time and with their love.
They are compassionate, empathetic, and incredibly loving.
So no, I don't want to send them away, I was just mentally preparing myself for the week to come, what was in store for me because of the whole sibling bickering that goes on.
I never want them to go away, even when they get older, which isn't too much longer now, I never want to spend a day when I don't see them or hear their voices.
They are my everything.
April 3, 2009
It's gonna be a long 9 days.
The teens are officially on spring break from now until Monday the 13th, the day they go back.
It's going to be a very long 9 days of them eating everything in sight, saying how bored they are, fighting and bickering, playing video games, fighting over video games, and so on.
I'm already tired just thinking about it.
I'll end up going food shopping at least 3 times during the 9 days due to excess food and milk consumption, I'll have to remind them repeatedly to shut off lights, fans, video games and computers, so they don't waste electricity and my money, and I'll probably break up at least a dozen arguments.
I feel a headache coming on.
April 1, 2009
iTunes has crappy custome service.
See that?
That is a $1 authorization charge on my credit card for Apple's iTunes. (scroll down to the $1 charge FAQ)
I DON'T HAVE AN iTUNES ACCOUNT!
I have never had an iTunes account, the teens don't have an iTunes account, they also use a totally different computer, no access to my credit cards, and no access to my computer's saved information, this is a fraudulent charge.
So, I try and contact Apple from the 866 number you see on the charge.
It's a recorded message that tells you to go to this support page for Apple iTunes.
As you can see, that page says support/itunes/store/creditcard/.
They don't have a live person you can contact for support, you have to use their chat window, and talk to people who type slower than molasses on a cold winter day.
It took 10 minutes for "Tremain" to finally type out the number to speak to someone in Apple's fraud department.
I called that number and got a recorded message saying that it could take several business days for someone to call me back regarding the fraudulent charge on my card.
Actually, not someone, just 1 someone, a man named Robert.
1 guy handles ALL of the fraud issues for credit cards and Apple iTunes.
1 guy.
So I called my credit/debit card holder, Amscot.
I asked what I should do, I explained everything, and the woman I spoke to said the only thing that we can do is to cancel that card.
I can't cancel it right now, my SSDI gets direct deposited to it at midnight tomorrow night, I have all of my rent and bills to pay, plus my doctor co-pays and prescriptions.
Then I asked how long it would take to get a new card sent to me after this card gets canceled.
7-10 business days.
I asked if they had like a rush delivery service, to get it overnight or much faster, she said yes, but it will cost me $26.00 to get a new card in 4 days.
The number on the card will change, but my checking account and routing number will not change, which is good, because I have money that gets direct deposited to it every other week and once a month.
A few months ago, this same thing happened but with some other online company, I think it was Best Buy and some promo they were doing, but a ton of credit card numbers had been stolen from compromised data from a grocery store.
I think that's what happened with this one too.
And guess which store I shopped at within the last month?
Sweetbay.
Sweetbay is the same store that my PayPal debit card got compromised at, I don't shop there all of the time, but about 1 month ago, I went and did some light shopping there because I was at the CVS picking up Sebastian's medicine for his migraines, and didn't feel like going all the way back to my Publix.
So now I have to get an all new card.
I'm tired of having to do this, and if I find out that it is because of Sweetbay not protecting their data again, or some Sweetbay employee stealing credit and debit card numbers, I'm going to be pissed.
March 28, 2009
Boredom, death, and movies.
It's very boring when you can't do anything but lay around with your foot up, I should be used to it by now, so many surgeries and recovery time laying down, but gah, the boredom gets to me after awhile.
Not being able to do much of anything drives me nuts.
I have tons of dishes to do, but can't.
Must stay laying down with my foot up, so sorta as a joke, but kinda hoping someone would say 'hey! I could use $50 bucks!', I posted to Twitter that if anyone in Sarasota wants to make $50, they could come do my dishes.
So far, no one has tweeted back.
*sigh*
The way I'm going on with my health these days, 2 major surgeries, tons of colds, quite a few illnesses of unknown origin, another surgery coming up, and now I'm starting to randomly break bones just by moving, I really think it's time for me to seriously look into getting some low cost term life insurance.
I am always saying that I'm going to do it and I never do, but it's starting to be one of those things I really need to do, like right away.
I mean, what if my next trip to the bathroom results in some sort of freak accident, and I end up dead?
And don't say it couldn't happen!
Kali (1 of the kitties) is always following me in there and tripping me up.
Just last night, she followed me in there, and when I started to stand up and get off of the toilet, she practically threw herself at my legs, causing me to plop my ass back down on the seat, grab the sink counter with my right hand, and the towel rack with my left, to prevent a fall.
All 4 of the cats are always getting underfoot, and let me tell ya, they are not fond of me walking with my dragon cane at all.
I think that may be the cause of the increased underfoot-edness since yesterday morning.
All 4 of the cats have been following me around when I get up to use the bathroom, go into the kitchen, or in to see how the teens are doing, and each of them has been rubbing on my legs, or dashing directly, like within an inch, of me as I walk. .
Damn cats are trying to kill me!
I got our new Netflix movies in today's mail, I hope they will relieve some of the boredom for a few hours at least.
We have, Punisher: War Zone
