What's In A Name?

I sit here at work, watching a rerun of a treasured childhood classic - Airwolf. Aside from realizing that the acting is even worse than that of The A-Team, I was also disturbed to learn that the lead character (portrayed by the venerable and intoxicated Jan-Michael Vincent) was named Stringfellow Hawk. How could I forget such a delightful piece of 80's television goodness? I guess the young lad was distracted by the cool helicopters and explosions and couldn't be bothered with characters and such.

Anyway, it occured to me that maybe Neil was just a little bit behind the times with his character names like Vryxnyr and Drant. If we'd made a crappy home movie in the 80's, he would've been the cat's pajamas.

Gollies, Labradoodles are Cockapoo

A brief note on the ridiculousness of our country.

I remember, back in the days of my youth, there were generally three options in the realm of dogs:

1) Pure Bred - These were the dogs you saw on the AKC dog show. They were probably in the $500 range, for most breeds.
2) Mixed Breed - These dogs had two distinct breeds as parents. An example of such would be the ubuquitous Buffy, who is a mix between a German Shepherd and a Norwegian Elkhound. My family paid $100 for Buffy back in 1990. I guess sometimes people cross-bred dogs on purpose, but probably more often than not it was just a little something something that happened out in the kennel and now there were some puppies the breeder had to get off his hands.
3) Mutt - Somehow your dog got out of the yard and came back in a family way, so now you had these indistinguishable mongrel puppies and you practically had to offer your friends an family members money to take them off your hands.

So, then, back to the original point. I am seeing an increasing and disturbing rise in, "Designer Breeds." A designer breed is nothing more than a mixed breed that someone has labeled by combining the names of the two parents breeds. Examples, as noted in the title of this entry:

Gollie - Goldren Retriever / Collie
Labradoodle - Labrador Retriever / Poodle
Cockapoo - Cocker Spaniel / Poodle

Normally I would say, fine, these people just have way too much time on their hands. But no, this apparently entitles people to offer their pups up for around $500-$1,000. Inflation is one thing, especially when some pure-bred pups now around going for upwards of $2,000, but for crying out loud, it's a freaking dog.

The aforementioned "Gollie" puppies, I saw on a Philadelphia classifieds website and they looked nothing like either a Golden Retriever or a Collie. They were jet black. And they were still $599 each. For a glorified mutt with a name that might be considered clever by someone who doesn't get out of the house much.

Ugh.

don't you...

don't you hate mornings like this? Yesterday, I was so excited that Tindall was going to let me have off today. But when Timmy's alarm went off at 6am, I got up to use the bathroom and I couldn't fall back asleep. I haven't slept well all week and was looking forward to sleeping in. I put on My So Called Life hoping it would help, but nope...Now, I'm lying in the dark, going on episode two of MSCL. I think I'm just going to get up. Target opens at 8am; I need to make an exchange and pick up one last gift. Maybe I can take a nap this afternoon.

Merry.... Christmas?

This is mildly disturbing, very long (6 mins?) and may contain a little bit of provacative dancing, depending on your standards. Oh, and it's either hilarious or sad. Possibly both.

Let Down

So on Monday, after about 24 cumulative playing hours, I beat Marvel Ultimate Alliance on "hard" mode. And guess what? It gave me the same stupid ending as I got when I beat it on "medium" mode. What the heck? So I just played through the game a second time through, only it was more annoying this time, only to see nothing better? What a ripoff. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's a fun game and all, just a little bit of a let down. That's all. Sigh.

bummer

According to this, I didn't pass the third grade and the short bus is on its way to pick me up :(

Signs, Signs, Everywhere Are Signs

Anyone who has seen the motion picture Signs should recognize our apartment right away.

....This water is contaminated....

Now if only I could stop swinging this silly baseball bat.

Weird

So I never really buy it when people in other parts of the country tell me that I have a "Philly Accent". To me, a Philly accent brings to mind someone from South Philly ordering a "cheesesteak wit" or something along those lines. But me? No, I picture myself as sort of a vacuum of accent - neither good, bad nor indifferent. Even as I took this little quizzlet thing that I saw on G-Knee's blog, in fact, I thought my answers were all pretty middle of the road and normal. Yet, nonetheless, I have been outed as a Philadelphian. Go figure. Or should I say, "Fughetaboutit!"

What American accent do you have? Your Result: Philadelphia Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you're not from Philadelphia, then you're from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington. if you've ever journeyed to some far off place where people don't know that Philly has an accent, someone may have thought you talked a little weird even though they didn't have a clue what accent it was they heard.
The Northeast
The Midland
The South
The Inland North
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

smile

I love my boy. I know, I know, I'm sure everyone is sick and tired of hearing how much I love my boy. But it's true - I do. I was just rereading old emails. Actually I reread the first email - the email that started it all. I had sent him a couple of emails regarding worship. I was helping Luke out with some worship stuff and "Tim" had just joined the team. But one night, one bad night, I couldn't sleep. I was going through personal crap. Life sucked. I felt so alone that night, so I gave up trying to sleep and went on the computer. I looked to the brv discussion board and saw that "T!M" was online. He seemed like a nice guy. I went to PM (personal message) him, but he left before I could say hi. Boo. And then completely out of character, I decided to email him. It started like this:

I can't sleep. Sometimes life sucks too much to sleep. No one is
awake. No one to talk to. No one to tell that sometimes life just
sucks. So I went online to the discussion board and saw your name.
Tim's awake! And I went to PM you but before I was even done telling
you that I needed someone to vent that life sometimes suck, you were
gone and I was alone again. Just like a man - leaves me just when I
need him most - totally kidding!!

You're probably confused as to why I am even writing. Truth is, I'm
not really sure why I'm writing either. I just want someone to say hi
to. I think I like the fact that you don't know anything about me and
you seem like a nice enough guy to humor an insomniac.

I still can't believe that I sent him that email. And the above is just an excerpt to a really long, really random email. I swear it was God who filled me with that courage - no, it wasn't courage, because I wasn't "into him." I really was just lonely and wanted someone to talk to, but it was 1:30 in the morning and no one was awake. No one except Tim. So emotionally messed up and exhausted, I did something that I never would have done - ever. Truth is, I feel like many of those early days with Timmy were characterized by that - me doing stuff I never would have done. But it was Jesus. I really believe that. So, after I sent him this really long, really random email, I realize that I never signed it. So, what do I do but send him another email:

You would think we were like best friends that I should send you this
random email at 130 in the morning and not even sign it. Now tomorrow
morning this will be the email that I will make me cringe with
embarrassment. Oh well...

Melissa

(Melissa Rolon, the girl from kinship, the girl who emails you about
worship stuff, the girl who kept calling Bill "Tito")

What was wrong with me???? Nothing was wrong with me. I was being spiritually empowered. The Lord was supernaturally leading me to the man who would be my husband. Anyway, that last excerpt made me smile a lot. "You would think we were like best friends..." And here we are, best friends. Oh, I just remembered this great scene from High School Musical. Oh, I know that I will lose whoever stayed with me up to this point. But listen. The lead girl in the movie tells the lead boy:

Do you remember in kindergarten how you'd meet a kid and know nothing about them. Then 10 seconds later you'd be playing like you were best friends, because you didn't have to be anyone but yourself?

It was true. At least over email. In person, I was mortified and avoided him as much as I could :)

Ninja Warrior

So I'm currently way too into watching this show Ninja Warrior on the G4 network. It's basically like some weird hybrid of Most Extreme Challenge and American Gladiators, but it's strangely riveting. I find myself being disappointed when Bunpei Shiratori fails to finish the third stage, even though he trains so hard in the course he's replicated in his back yard. I know, right? Oh well. I have to do something at 12am while I'm at work.

some thoughts

NO MORE FAITH by Andrew Peterson

This is not another song about the mountains
Except about how hard they are to move
Have you ever stood before them
Like a mustard seed who's waiting for some proof?

I say faith is a burden
It's a weight to bear
It's brave and bittersweet
And hope is hard to hold to
Lord, I believe
Only help my unbelief

Till there's no more faith
No more hope
I'll see your face and Lord, I'll know
That only love remains

Have you heard it said that Jesus is the answer
And thought about the many doubts you hide
Have you wondered how he loves you
If He really knows how dark you are inside

I say faith is a burden
It's a weight to bear
It's brave and bittersweet
And hope is hard to hold to
Lord, I believe
Only help my unbelief

Till there's no more faith
No more hope
I'll see your face and Lord, I'll know
When there's no more faith
And no more hopeI'll sing your praise and let them go
'cause only love
only love remains

So I will drive these roads in thunder and in rain
And I will sing your song at the top of my lungs
And I will praise you, Lord, in glory and in pain
And I will follow you till this race is won
And I will drive these roads till this motor won't run
And I will sing your song from sea to shining sea
And I will praise you Lord, till your kingdom comes
And I will follow where you lead

Till there's no more faith
No more hope
I'll see your face and Lord, I'll know
When there's no more faith
And no more hope
I'll sing your praise and let them go
'cause only love
Only love remains

This song has been on my mind the last couple of days. On Wednesday morning, I told Tindall how unprepared I was for group that night. He asked what passage we would be talking about: John 11, when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead and declares, "I am the resurrection and the life." Mark had a different perspective on this passage. At the time, his mother-in-law was sick, very sick, her final days. He asked me to think of that passage with her in mind.

I once had this interesting conversation with a friend about faith. I told him "It's true. This whole thing could be the greatest scam of all time. And if it is, I am going down with it." If we knew for sure, without a doubt, that wouldn't be faith. I once heard that the opposite of faith isn't doubt; it's certainty. And I believe that. I think of Mark's mother-in-law during her final days. I can imagine during my final days thinking, "this is it. All my hope and all my faith. And very soon, I will know for sure, no doubt."

And then I think of this song. When we die, we know without any doubt. When we die, there is no more need for faith or for hope. We will know all we need to know. No more faith. No more hope. Only love. Great song. I especially love to sing this song at the top of my lungs when faith is little harder than usual.

too good

Awesome!!

And the absolute best part: "Ortega [director and choreographer] said a potential Broadway production is in the early workshop phase." Double awesome!

BTW: Have I told you that my boy is taking me to New York for my birthday - any musical I want to see and a night in the city!! He's so good to me :)

Vote Holly!

With this entry, I might lose any credibility I am trying to gain as a small group leader, but I'm going to do it anyway...I love The Girls Next Door. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, good - you're probably a good, wholesome Godly person. Me, on the otherhand, I love to watch this cable reality show that follows the lives of Hugh Hefners' three girlfriends. The show is so funny and so sad at the same time. And you would think that the saddest part of the show would be all those women (and men) just throwing everything they have out there and partying it up all the time as if there was no sense of decency or morality. And still, I love this show because it's stupid - it consistently makes me laugh. Those girls crack me up.

Anyway, I digress. The part that I find saddest is my girl, Holly. She is my favorite of the three girlfriends. She is "Hef's #1 girl," which means of the three girlfriends, she is the main one. And what makes me sad about her is that she seems to genuinely love Hef. Don't know why - the man just turned 80 - he is 8 years older than my dad and when I think of my dad, I think "dirty old man" but no, Hef is a DIRTY, OLD MAN. Yet still she loves him. She just likes to be next him, to hang out with him. She doesn't like to go away without him. She'll call him regularly when she is out just to check in on "puffin." Seriously, I feel her. When Hef walks into a room, Holly lights up and screams, "puffin!" It reminds me of me, "Timmy!"

But there are a few minor differences between Timmy and Hef. Like Timmy doesn't have two other girlfriends living with us - ew. That makes me so sad. If you have ever seen the show, I am sure you have noticed the look on Holly's face whenever Hef kisses another girl. It's one of two looks - a growl with a muttered "i'm going to pull out all of your hair, bitch" or a sad puppy dog pleading "please, don't touch my puffin" Oh, it's so sad. I just want him to get rid of Bridget and Kendra and commit to Holly. Holly has said on the show before that she wants to get married and she wants to have babies. She wants little hefs - ew but still, dito.

So, why does Hef need multiple girlfriends? It seems to me that he cares more for Holly than the other girls. Holly is the one who sleeps with him every night. Maybe it's just the image. Maybe he can't commit to one person because that would destroy the whole playboy image. Wasn't he married? What happened there? I don't know. Maybe in his heart he really does want to make Holly his one and only girlfriend, maybe even his wife, but he can't because an entire empire rests on his dirtiness. So, sad. And another sad part is that it seems clear that Bridget and Kendra know that Holly's his favorite. They seem to be milking the whole "Hef's girlfriend" title while I think Holly is dreaming of becoming Mrs. Hugh Hefner. Dito.

In related nonsense, Timmy and I were watching VH1s Fabulous Life of Sugar Daddies. Do you know what craziness is reported in regards to Hef and his girlfriends? Besides the fact that the three girlfriends get to have Hugh Hefner as their man - ew. They also reportedly:
-have full medical and dental insurance provided
-get plastic surgery paid for
-get a $1000 a week of spending money
-are included in Hef's will: Bridget and Kendra will each get $500,000. Holly will get $3,000,000 - come on, Hef, commit!!
-oh and then there's that whole Playboy Mansion, celebrity status, and their own tv show because they are Hef's girlfriends. I just have to shake my head.

I stand behind Holly.

Oh and for those of you wondering: a sugardaddy is an older man who showers gifts on a younger, less financially stable women. Timmy says that makes him my sugar daddy. Guess that means I'm his arm candy. That's cool so long as I am the only one and I get to call him "puffin."


------

addition: sadness, deep sadness
Hef and Holly can't marry because he already is! Ug, he married a bunny in 1989. They separated in 1998 but never actually divorced (at least according to Wikipedia). Hef and that bunny have a 16 yr old and a 15 yr olf. He's just filling his time with pretty little things - oh Holly, RUN! Give your love to man who will love you as you deserve!!!!

Alas

So it turns out my six minutes of torture, and subsequent vomiting, were all for naught. I was not selected for the tactical team due to the fact that I was "too laid back" during the interview portion.

Oh. Okay.

I was encouraged, however, to try out again - if/when more openings should become available in the future.

Just incase I become less laid back as time passes? Let's not hold our collective breath for that one.

Color Me Relieved

After watching the Eagles' game yesterday, I was dismayed to learn that the Tennesee Titans have a player named Pacman Jones. Thankfully, I later found that "Pacman" is not his legal name, merely a nickname. (And a weakly earned one, if you read that part of his profile.) Hopefully his brothers Donkey Kong & Super Mario will have careers in the NFL as well, though.

great news!

Our landlord doesn't suck! It's true that he didn't call us for a couple of days, but during that time, he was tending to the issue. We will have a new oven Monday or Tuesday! Woo-hoo. Kris - I will keep your offer in mind in case this good news is too good to be true. But I am hopeful.

In other good and related news: I found my mojo!! It was at Giant.

load of crap

So what's with ovens not working right before Thanksgiving? Seriously, it's a load of crap. We woke up this morning and Timmy tells me the oven isn't working. Not sure if there was some sort of issue last night, maybe with the storm. But we have no oven as of right now. Apparently, Timmy actually got a hold of our landlord the first time he called (shocking!). However, after telling Timmy that he would call him back in five minutes, our landlord has yet to call us back. I look forward to the day when we have no landlord - I have bad experiences with them.

So, now I am bummed, hoping that Mr. Landlord hasn't call us back because he is tending to the issue. I want to continue with our Thanksgiving as planned. It's our first married Thanksgiving. We're having friends over on Wednesday. I'm going to attempt my first turkey. I was really excited. Now I am disappointed, trying to be optimistic, trying to think of alternate options without being a pessimist. Pooo.

no, i'm not being dirty

Ever google yourself? I'm sure you have...I googled my old self and found this. Then I googled my new self and found this. I think I would like my old self better. She seems more like me: latin, loves Jesus, seems a bit cheesy. Maybe, with time, I will become more like my new self.

oh and then I found this. Oh yeah.

Burlap and Bean

Burlap and Bean, a coffee house owned and operated by a couple at our church, opens next week. I was checking out their website earlier today and I thought it looked cool. Wish it were a little closer.

bumper

If you're like me, you can't ignore the bumper sticker in front of you while you are driving. Today, I noticed this sticker.



And I thought it was really clever. That's all.

The Oprah Show

What did I learn today while watching The Oprah Show?

1 - The Oprah Show's electric bill is $65,000 a month. That's a lot of money.

2 - After giving birth, dogs eat the placenta. There's a chemical in them that stimulates milk production. Glad that's not the case for humans.

236 days

Timmy had a playdate with Neily today. What did I do while they played 5 hours of Ultimate Marvel Alliance? I cleaned the apartment, washed my car, cleaned the inside of my car, and went shopping at Target. Although I had to deal with the nastiness of a beautiful Saturday afternoon in November shopping experience, it was worth it - new scarf, new hat, two new pairs of gloves, and a brand new puzzle. After Neily left, Timmy and I ordered some thin and crunchy pizza from Dominos, started our new puzzle, watched the Flyers lose again, and then spent some quality time reflecting on the last 8 months. Overall, it was a great anniversary. Thanks, honey. Oh, and I shaved for the first time in one month - ew.

dvds to sleep to

This week has been a rough week to fall asleep without Timmy. So, I have reverted to my single days method of sleeping - I've been falling asleep to a movie. I take the laptop to bed with me, place it on Timmy's side, fall asleep, wake up around 2 or so, turn off the laptop, and go back to sleep. Before Timmy, I would just put a movie on the computer and let it run all night, but that was a desktop. This is a laptop and I fear kicking it off the bed in the middle of the night. Already this week I have exhausted Little Women and Notting Hill. They are my sleepy movies. I know them well enough and watch them often enough that I don't feel bad falling asleep to them. Little Women in particular - that's my happy movie. That's why I put it on last week when I was sick and wanting my mami. I know Little Women so well that I can close my eyes and see the movie. Depending on how tired I am, I can be out cold before Marmie even gets home. Tonight, however, I have decided to fall asleep to Angela and her high school friends of My So-Called Life. My sister bought be the complete series (0ne season) a few years ago for Christmas. It was a good gift. Self-Esteem and Peer Pressure from Disk 4 are the best episodes (when Angela and Jordan finally get together and then when Angela and Jordan break up - the best). I would fall asleep to that DVD all the time. Unfortunately, I have beat up that disk; I fear using it much more since it seems to have a scratch already. So, tonight I will watch "Life of Brian" from Disk 3. Another good episode. It's the one told from Brian's perspective - he lies to Deliah about being sick so he can "go to the dance" with Angela. Jerk. Anyway, time for the show and hopefully I will fall asleep, but since I haven't seen this episode in a while, it may be harder to fall asleep.

Survivor: Darby Township

Well, I survived my tryout for the tactical team yesterday. I didn't for most of the course (I don't know if I could have even if I wanted to), but I completed it. My head was reeling throughout pretty much the whole thing, whether because I was taking cold medication and couldn't breathe through my nose or because I'm just woefully out of shape.

The good news is that I managed to hold off on pulling a Donovan McNabb until the team was off next interview and I was safely within the confines of the restroom. Go team? Or something. I felt like Ron Burgundy, when stumbling around in the street on a hot day and says, "Milk was a bad idea." Only my version was, "Drinking a big glass of orange juice and a quart of water before running the obstacle course was a bad idea." But I said it with the same voice, and I had the same sweet beard - even if only in my mind.

So anyway, whether or not I'm voted off the island still remains to be seen. But for now, I'm still a Survivor.

tonight's rambling

I'm sleepy. I could probably fall asleep if Timmy came to bed with me. However, he is on night shift this week so he needs to go to bed later to ensure that he is rested for work. Since I have gone to bed the last two nights without him and would rather not do so tonight, I'm going to blog a little instead. You know, I think the little picture in my living room at the moment is super cute. My beautiful boy is next to me playing his new Marvel Ultimate Alliance video game (Yes, it finally showed up today). I'm sitting here with the computer on my lap, curled up in my bath robe with the monogram Timmy and I share. (Yes, we have matching monogrammed bath robes.) Every now and then he turns away from the tv screen and gives me a little look and it makes me smile.

Okay, okay. This isn't just an entry when Melissa acts all girlie and sappy and the guys want to vomit and the single girls want to scream and the married ladies smile. I was just thinking about boys today. Not the beautiful boy next to me but the other boys, the ones before Timmy - the ones that broke my heart, that ones that made my heart flutter a little, the ones that made me cry, the ones that me grin really, really stupidly, the ones I wondered "is this the man I'm going to marry?" Unfortunately, I was like many single women who asked this question of any man that flashed a cute smile in my direction.

So, today I was thinking about some of these boys and they can still make me smile. I think about how much fun those crushes were before they became...well, crushes and then they started to hurt. I think about how silly I was and how sad and lonely I was. Some of those boys I don't smile when I think of them. Some make me sad. Some make me angry. But one of the feelings I feel when I think of all of them is the same. With each one, I am grateful. Grateful that God took such good care of me. Even though I dreamed a lot about these boys and they made me feel a certain way and I wondered of our future, nothing ever came of it. I was a silly girl daydreaming - at most, a little flirting here and there but God kept me very safe. Toward the end of my single days before Timmy showed up, I was pissed at God for keeping me so safe - I felt like daddy wasn't letting his little girl grow up and it pissed me off. I remember this one time: I was at a movie with a male friend. I said something like "I feel like God's always next to me and you will never touch me because of it." He smiled and said, "Yes. You're right. I won't." I was pissed. But I get it now and I'm so grateful.

For our premarital counseling, Patrick had us write essays telling each other why we loved each other. One of the biggest reasons I love Timmy or maybe one of the greatest effects of loving Timmy is that I feel like he makes sense of my past. He makes sense of all those nights I lay in bed crying, doubting God and His plan, wondering about all these silly boys and those silly girl questions. Now I sit in my oversized bathrobe staring at a boy completely enthralled in his video game and I say "thank you, Lord." Thank you for knowing me better than I know myself. Thank you for being "tough" with me because you knew the good you had waiting for me. Thank you for sparing so much of my heart and so much of my body. I feel honored and humbled that you would care so much for me and so much for my marriage that you would actually put so much effort to protecting me and Timmy.

I think Timmy is getting tired of his game. I'm going to suggest going to bed now. I'm sleepy and I missed sleeping next to my boy. He really is beautiful, you know.

annoyed

NOTE: I don't know how comfortable I am publishing this entry. In fact, I am very uncomfortable. It would not surprise me if I delete this entry in the morning. However, this is something that has been on my mind today. I apologize if I misunderstood or offended anyone. But just remember, I'm totally messed up too.








It's been a long time since I have watched The View. I found the show entertaining in its early years, but I got tired of it. I watched it this morning. It was the first time I saw it with Rosie O'Donnell. I should start by saying - I loved The Rosie O'Donnell Show. I didn't watch it often because of the time it aired, but I watched it whenever I could. It was a fun show. She talked a lot about musicals; I like musicals. I've heard people say not nice things about her because of her political/moral views, but I never really heard them, so it didn't phase me. But now, she's on The View and the whole first 15 minutes of the show is an open forum for the ladies to say whatever they want. Usually I don't care what people say on tv, but today I was annoyed.

They talked about Ted Haggard. I wasn't bothered so much with their opinions (mostly Rosie's). It made me sad, but I could understand them. I can't expect people who don't have my worldview to view the world the way I do. I look at everything from the fundamental understanding that we are ALL broken, messed up, evil, completely lost, unless you let God in and let him change you. I am annoyed when I hear people say "because I was born this way, it's right." Or "if I feel this way, it's right." Um, no. I'm not going to say you weren't born this way or you don't feel this way or you don't believe this way. What I am going to say, is just because you were born, feel, or believe a certain way, doesn't mean its right. Because I go back to my original statement: we are all messed up. Since I start with that understanding and lots of people don't, I am not as harsh when people say certain things, especially about the church. Makes me sad, but I'm not always annoyed or angered. Today, I was.

What bothered me today was attitude. It was the way the topic was presented. There was a tone in the voice that I heard as "Ha. Ha. Gotcha. Look at you fall." It felt like she was relishing in this situation. Again, I can understand that this man was vocally strongly opposed to a cause that is as close to her as any. But still, this was gloating. This was rejoicing. And it left a strong distaste in my mouth.

I hope I heard her incorrectly. I hope it was her comedic tone that sounded harsh to me. Like when Timmy makes a comment and it sounds harsher because of his sarcasm. I hope she wasn't happy that this man fell: that his marriage and his career are in jeopardy, that his faith is shaken, and not only his, but the thousands of people who looked up to him. I try to put myself in that situation: a horrible sexual scandal coming out in my church, with Mark or even with Patrick. I know they are only human, but I think my heart would break. I would hate the thought of people rejoicing in that pain.

Again, I hope I misunderstood.

Fuego

Urban renewal in Chester last night. All three stories of an abandon house, spontaneously burst into flames. Ain't that somethin'?























































































And lastly, this was just too precious - a deck gun with so little pressure it barely could make it into the front door. Fantastic.

still twelve...

Timmy's at work again tonight, so I find myself doing what else? Searching myspace and watching tv. But I think I am actually going to turn off the computer. I am fifteen minutes into A Cinderella Story with Hilary Duff and already, they have me sighing and giggling. I'm such a twelve year girl....

...

I was a junior in high school when I became a Christian. It was April 13, 1997. If you know my story, then you know that there were a bunch things that academic year that lead to me and Jesus. One of those things was my American Lit class. There were two moments that I will never forget from that class. The first was sitting around in small groups discussing some piece of literature and a biblical reference to Solomon. I had no clue what they were talking about. This girl said something like, "it's from the Bible." The tone of her voice was, "duh. are stupid or something?" I had no clue. But that pierced my heart. I was embarrassed. I had always been the smart girl so I didn't like not knowing or rather I didn't care about not knowing, I just didn't want others to know that I didn't know. And I was especially embarrassed to ask questions about religion or church or god or anything like that. I felt like I should have known. So, full of pride, I didn't ask. So, when that girl said that, man, it felt like someone punched me in the gut.

The second thing I will never forget about that class was this girl named Missy. We had been casual friends in middle school and then lost touch. We found ourselves in this class together. We had an assignment to do some poem like thing. I can't remember the particulars, just that you have to fill in the blank, "I am..." For instance, mine probably read something like, "I am Melissa, daughter of Nancy. Sister of Melody. I am a student. etc." I remember finding this assignment difficult and awkward. I don't remember if we all had to present our pieces orally or if just Missy did. But I will never forget what she said. She stood up in front of the class and said, "I am a daughter of God." I had heard a rumor that Missy was a Christian, that she became a Christian a year or so before this class. Again, didn't really know what that meant, but I was really curious. That was mostly me before me and Jesus. I didn't know. I didn't understand. I had questions. I was intrigued, but I was scared, I was embarrassed, ashamed to ask anyone. But when Missy said that, I was...I don't know what I was...I still can't quite put words to it. But when I think about how I became a Christian. I think of bunch of little stories and encounters from my entire life and how they all those little things culminated in April of my junior year with my accepting Christ. I can see how God was always a part of me. I always sensed him around, since I was little girl. Looking back, I know he was always there, always quietly wooing me. It was just that year that it became more...harder to ignore. It was April when I finally got the courage to ask someone one of my many religious questions. A week later it was me and Jesus, I've never turned back.

When I think of my "testimony," when I share my "story," I mention lots of things and American Lit is always one of them. Why do I share all of this now? I was on myspace. I found Missy. And in her details under religion it said "agnostic." Agnostic? What happened? I read through her blogs and she has gone through a lot. I don't know if her doubts came before, but it wouldn't surprise if they came after. But it made me so sad. I never forgot that, in front of the entire class, "I am a daughter of God." Bold. Courageous. Unashamed. And now, doubtful of his very existence or his goodness or something.

It just made me sad.

tv tonight

So, I really want to watch a movie on tv tonight. True, we have movies, but I don't want to see them. I want to see something on tv. I know, I'm weird. So, I check out the TV Guide channel and see that they are giving Breakfast at Tiffany's at 8pm on Oxygen. Awesome. I've never seen it and I've wanted to - sold. But, of course, just as the credits start, I change my mind. "I don't wanna see this." I can be so indecisive. So, I change the channel from 74 Oxygen to 76 We. A movie is getting ready to start; there's that "formatted to fit your screen" thing. And I knew what it was with the first screen - "Edfu, Egypt" That's Mannequin!! Ah man. Perfect. I love this movie. I love that song at the end when they get married. And I love that song when they dance around the department store after hours. Oh, it's such a good movie. I've seen it so many times. Mami owns it, of course; it's on VHS. Although, I think Melody bought it on DVD a couple years back. I know this movie so well, I can even continue roaming myspace. But, of course, just as the movie starts so does the music downstairs - someday, someday....

Why I'm Not Happy At The Moment

I ordered the "Marvel Ultimate Alliance" game from Overstock.com last week, as noted in a previous post. The tracking software for same says that my game arrived at the Philadelphia post office on the 27th of October - which according to my calculation is just shy of a week ago. And it's still not here. How can it take something a week to get from Philadelphia to... Philadelphia? I'm wasting valuable gametime right now. Sheesh.

No Oscar for me, thank you

Well, it's been a while since I have touched in with some entertainment news, and tonight I was saddened to hear about Reese and Ryan. It's sad. They seemed to have staying power. In an article, I read something interesting,

In the past 10 years, six of the nine Academy Award winners for best actress ended up splitting from the husbands or boyfriends they thanked on Oscar night: Witherspoon, Swank, Halle Berry, Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow and Helen Hunt. (The exceptions are Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand and Nicole Kidman, who was unattached when she won.)

There goes, no more daydreaming about giving an acceptance speech at the Academy Awards - I wanna keep Timmy.

a latin thang

This afternoon my cold went to my head. You know, the whole pressure thing - headache, slightly off balance thing. So, I wimpered and asked Timmy to make me some soup. I smiled and told him "I feel pathetic." He smiled and agreed, "You're not a good sick person." He goes to make my soup and I feel so icky, I start crying. Yes, I know, for you latin people reading this blog, I agree, "changa." It's true. The true test of that was when Timmy left for work, I checked my temperature - 101.1. I want to call Timmy but I know he won't sympathize with me. So what do I do - I call mami. Because mami cares that her little girl is sick. Even though, she will laugh at me and call me changa too. While in the shower, I realize what this night really needs - Little Women. I haven't watched my happy movie since last December. I guess I have been pretty happy until tonight that is - tonight, I just Timmy to put his nice cold hands on my forehead and I want my mama to make me some sopa de fideos

Color Me Surprised

So a few weeks ago, we switched from T-mobile to Cingular. There were several reasons for doing so, not the least of which being that Crozer (my employer) has a corporate contract with them which provides me with an employee discount. This discount affords 24% off our monthly bill as well as 45% off new equipment purchases.

The phones we got were priced at $199 with a 2 year contract, and that price came down to $149 after a $50 mail-in rebate. So with my 45% off, I figure that brings it down into the range of "reasonable".

Our bill in the store that day was still rather high, being sans-rebate firstly, but also sans-corporate discount. The salesperson at the store said that our discount savings would show up on our monthly bill.

Imagine my surprise when the bill came yesterday and was missing both the monthly discount as well as the refund from the phone purchase that I was expecting. So I called Cingular customer service post-haste.

Right off the bat, the guy was able to tell me that the monthly discount could take until the next month to show up on the bill. I can buy that, fine. But he was unsure about the hardware discount, so he put me on hold for a while so he could find somebody who did know what the deal was. Some ten minutes later, he was back on the line connecting me to someone in the billing department. That gentleman tells me that the price of $199 was actually a discounted price, that the "street price" of the phone is actually $350. If we were to use the discount, it would be off of that price. He then goes off on a short tangent about how salespeople in the stores sometimes do a poor job of explaining the discount or talk to fast or whatnot.

So I'm basically expecting, at this point, that I'm about to get a corporate sounding nicety like, "Sorry about the misunderstanding," and being left out of luck. But no, to my shock he tells me that since the salesperson didn't explain the discount properly, he was going to go ahead and give me the 45% off of the $199 price of each of the phones anyway. That means $178 refunded to my account, plus the $100 in rebates that will be processed in 10-12 short weeks. For serious.

That was basically what I thought the deal was in the first place, but hey, if it took another 20 minutes on the phone to solidify the details, then hey, it's cool.

Ickiness

I'm sick. I worked 70 hours last week and most of that time I was on my feet. My body ached. I had blisters on my feet. I could hardly think or speak straight because of the exhaustion. I was so looking forward to Monday when I could just rest and hang out with Timmy. Instead, I woke up sick and spent the day lying on the couch with a box of tissues beside me. NyQuil worked for part of last night, but I had to wake up in the middle of the night to take some more. Unfortunately, that little lapse of time was enough to drive my poor husband out of the bed and onto the couch - dito. Thankfully, Tindall said I could take a few days off to recover from the conference. So, I'm not going to go in today. We'll see how I am feeling tomorrow.

Oh, yeah, and Marti ate mold.

Coming Soon: Wasted Afternoons

So a morning of internet surfing helped me to find out that this was released yesterday:












It's basically another one of the X-men Legends games, only with about 150 different playable characters from the entire Marvel Universe. Seriously.

Sure, the games are basically mindless - walking around and punching things. But few video games have entranced me quite as much as the Legends games have.

Man. My pipe fund will never grow if I keep finding nerdery to spend the money on, but in this case, it is surely worth the sacrifice.

Oh, Right

An addendum to my previous post about laptop woes:

I forgot all about the "system restore" option. My music lives. Woohoo.

More Goodness From My Friends At DELL

So a couple weeks ago, I went to sign onto my laptop here and it informed me that my profile had been deleted or some such nonsense. I was slightly annoyed, but after rearranging my desktop and repopulating my bookmark list on Firefox, I felt like I was back in service. Fast forward to this morning and I went to look up a song on my iTunes that I'd been thinking about last night. All of my music is gone. Probably about 30 songs that I'd purchased, but also all of my CD's that I spent who knows how long ripping into iTunes over the course of the past year. Snarl. I don't suppose I need to say anything more about how aggravating this revelation is. So, once again, dude.... don't get a Dell.

Amazing

This woman in Chester yesterday got jumped by a few guys who then stole her crack cocaine. She called the police to report the robbery. I kid you not. The officer who was there suggested that she fill out a stolen property form, that way if they recovered her crack they could return it to her. I bet she actually would do it, too. The city never ceases to amaze me.

Re: All I have to say is....

I am pleased with today's Project Runway finale. Jeffrey showed at Bryant Park and the skanky ho Laura did not win. Okay, maybe, skanky ho is a little harsh. I was just scared that she would get Jeffrey kicked off. Not that he was my first choice. Michael was my first choice. It was unfortunate that Michael's show was disappointing. But if Michael couldn't win, I think Jeffrey is the next most deserving. So, congratulations to Jeffrey. Now onto Top Chef :)

Come again?

Normally I would be against a monopoly. Microsoft is a good example. But a nice byproduct of this trend of one company owning everything comes from my good friends at NBC. It seems that one of their executives decided it would be a good idea to rerun their primetime shows on some of their cable channels. This means that last night, I got to watch the first episode of "30 Rock" (that I missed on account of kinship) on Bravo. And it also means that at this very moment I'm getting to watch "Heroes" (which I missed this week because my partner at work wanted to watch Monday Night Football) on the SciFi channel. Shot - score! Thanks for actually thinking, NBC.

All I have to say is....

if Jeffrey doesn't show at Bryant Park, I will be pissed, and I will refer to Laura as a skanky ho and not in a good way. In fact, I'm already pissed and Laura's already a skanky ho.

what's melissa doing???

exploring myspace while her neighbors scream, curse, and slam doors....good times.




......an addendum to my post......

I can hear her crying. I don't understand how a man and a woman can claim to love each other and treat each other so harshly and violently. She's sobbing, downstairs. Now, Timmy and I have hurt each others' feelings and made each other cry; that's just a part of our broken nature. But when I hurt Timmy, I feel like my insides break, so much more than if anyone else hurt me. And I know that nothing hurts Timmy more than the thought of hurting me. So, what I hear downstairs makes me so sad and so confused.

myspace.com

Tonight, I gave in and created a myspace account. I didn't really want to. I was quite content logging in as Timmy and spying on my friends' pages. But then I would want to make a comment and think, "this might be inappropriate coming from Timmy." So I wouldn't leave the comment. So, tonight I made my own account, and it's kind of exciting. I even found an old friend, Roy Moore - some of you might remember him. It was so nice to see his profile. But now comes the scary part. I have invited a few of my friends to check out my profile. They're all people who have myspace. But what if no one responds? It's an unsettling thought the possibility that no one will say hi. I remember talking to a friend who never wanted to throw a party because he was scared no one would come. I didn't want to have my own blog because I was scared no one would read it. I remember how depressing it was when I got my first email address, which was in college, because no one emailed me. Even now, it's kind of sad when I go a few weeks without a real email. That's probably the main reason I have avoided myspace. Why put myself in a position to be ignored? Which doesn't really make sense. I'm happy with my nice little life and small group of friends and my husband and my family. Why do I care if people comment on emails/blogs/myspace? I have real relationships. I hang out with people. I actually talk to people face to face. Then why do I care?

Mystique

I was just on Wikipedia, reading some information on Mystique. I am sure that this is hardly the place to find the best information on comic characters, but it's the first place I hit when I have a question. Last night Timmy told me there was speculation that Mystique might be the mother to Nightcrawler. I found that intriguing. But tonight, I saw on Wikipedia that not only was she the mother to Nightcrawler but she was the foster mother to Rogue. In fact, for ten years, Rogue was raised by Mystique and her lesbian lover Destiny. It amazes me how complex the comic book characters can be. I suppose those there is no real difference than a soap opera character. But, Mystigue as Rogue's mother? That might be as bad as when we found out that Carly was Bobby's daughter on General Hospital.

Mutants

Just could not go to bed without mentioning what Timmy and I saw tonight on tv. After kinship, I went to visit Timmy at the station. We were flipping through the channels and we saw the Power Rangers. Not uncommon. They are on tv a lot. However, what was unusual that made us actually watch for a few minutes was with whom the Rangers were fighting alongside. Against the evil forces of I don't who were the Power Rangers and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Yes! It's true. The Power Rangers and the Ninja Turtles were fighting against a bad guy together. That in and of itself was so weird, but wait something is off: Leonardo is 1. Michaelangelo is 2. Donatello is 3. Raphael is 4. Who then is the fifth turtle kicking some alien like creature's butt? And why does it have breasts? There's a fifth Ninja Turtle and she's a girl?!?! And her shell has female curves on it!?!?!? I just don't understand.

Speaking of mutants, X-3 came out on Tuesday and was purchased on Tuesday. Very exciting. We resaw X-1 on Monday and then 2 and 3 last night. Unfortunately, Timmy fell asleep last night, but that was okay; I fell asleep while he watched it this afternoon. I really enjoyed that movie a lot. And I think Mystique is just the coolest mutant ever. I probably shouldn't make such a statement since the extent of my mutant knowledge are these three movies and a few things Timmy has told me. But I will still say of my limited experience with the X-Men and the brotherhood, Mystique is the coolest.

Ongoing News of Things That Annoy Me

I went to Kohl's yesterday in search of some new long pants for the upcoming cooler weather.
Sizes in young mens' pants are completely out of whack.
I tried on a pair of jeans with a supposed 30" inseam that were perhaps a half inch longer than my work uniform pants which are hemmed, by a tailor, to a 33.5" inseam.
I blame this trend in oversizing on the baggy pant phenomenon.
But now instead of buying pants that are too big for you, you can buy pants that are your size but made to look like they're too big for you.
And this is not a particular company's design theory, it applied to basically every pair of jeans I tried on.
I can understand if one manufacturer's size "Large" differs slightly from another manufacturer's.
But this is not an abstract size measurement.
"34 inch inseam" shouldn't really be a ballpark estimate. It should mean that the inseam is 34 bloody inches in long!

In other news of pants;
I wear a 33" waist in jeans.
32" waists are too snug.
34" waists are so big that they bunch up like a sack of potatoes when I tighten my belt.
Old Navy is about the only place I know of that regularly offers 33" waists on their jeans.

Today in the mail, I received another offer from AARP.
The first line reads, "Our records show that you haven't yet registered for the benefits of AARP members, even though you are fully eligible."
Last time I checked, being born in 1977 doesn't make me fully eligible.
It makes me just over halfway close to being eligible.
Yet they assure me in at least one mailing a month that I'm missing out on tremendous savings, whether I'm retired or not.

B.O.H.I.C.A.

We went to T-mobile to re-up our cellular contract and get new phones today.
The phone I had my eye on had a sign saying that after a $50 mail-in rebate I could have it for $49.99.
That's more than the free Nokia phone I got last year, but hey, I have a good job, so I thought I'd splurge.
The kind man at the store, however, soon broke to me the news that I could only have the phone for $49.99 if we signed a 2 year contract.
I'm not into 2 year contracts. It's just a matter of crappy phones not lasting that long, and me not wanting to pay for "phone insurance" just incase I break the cheap piece of plastic before 22 months is up and I'm eligible to replace it - providing I sign another 2 year contract.
So the kind man at the store told me that if I wanted a 1 year contact I'd have to pay $99.99 (After rebate) for the phone I'd selected.
After some deliberation, we decided that was going to be the best thing to do.
But then another kind (even if incompetent) man told me that the phone would actually be $149.99.
I said, nicely, "No. It's not. It says $99.99 right over there."
He said we weren't eligible to replace our phones.
I told him that yes, we are. We're on a 1 year contract and it ends at the end of the month, clearly placing us in the "after 11 months" percentile that is specified on the T-mobile website.
After several minutes of waffling (indeed, he was incompetent) he told us that we didn't qualify because our monthly plan is only $59.99.
In order to qualify to replace our phones, we would have to have a contract for $70 or more.
That is why the phone would cost $149.99. We didn't qualify to replace our phones and so would not get the rebate.
Neat.
I thanked him for his time and walked out of the store.
We will be changing over to Cingular after all.
Crozer offers a 24% discount on the monthly bill and a 49% discount on phones through Cingular.
T-mobile can bite me.
Even if their spokesperson is Catherine Zeta Jones.

Fascinating

After a question about assassinated presidents on the Discovery Channel show Cash Cab, I was inspired to do some web surfing and fact finding. The most interesting factoid I unearthed? James Garfield was the first president to be ambidextrous. He could simultaneously write in Latin with one hand, and Greek with the other. That's hot.

Squirrel, Please....

Does anyone know if it's squirrel mating season or something? I've been in and out of the house with various errands today and every time have noticed an uncannily high number of the fuzzy tailed terrors chasing each other around. I'm taking the high road and assuming that there's some fine squirrel lovin' in the air, because I guess the only other alternative is that there's some kind of squirrel gang war going down.

Remember When?

I miss the days when you could open a box of cereal and get a prize - a real toy. Seems like everything nowadays is just a matter of, "Send $8.99 along with a UPC code and get....." which is not really a prize, it's just something you could probably get in the store anyway and it wouldn't even have the word "Kelloggs" written in huge print on the front of it.

Along these same lines, has anyone else had a box of Cracker Jacks lately? The "prizes" there are even more pitiful. Instead of a secret decoder ring, you get a piece of paper that you can fold in three places and see a monkey walking or some such nonsense. It's a sad state of affairs to be sure.

United or Untied?

Does anyone else find it questionable that they released the movie United 93 on DVD the Tuesday just prior to the 5 year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks?

A New World

WARNING: Timmy, don't bother with this blog entry, and definitely don't click on any of the links. In fact, if you are a boy, don't bother. Unless you're JB, or maybe Jon, then you can click the Broadway links but don't bother with the MMC one. And if you're a girl, even then proceed with caution. If you don't approve of my loving RENT or High School Musical, don't bother reading this. In fact, Abby, you can read this. And Melody, you can read this. Everyone else, not sure, unless you're some other freak who can relate to my love of musical theater and/or Ryan Gosling.









I am trying to write a blog to adequately express my joy, but I don't think it's possible. All I can say is youtube.com. We're talking about: old MMC clips of ryan and justin and christina and matt. We're talking live performances of Kush singing One Song Glory on Rent: I didn't think I would ever see him perform Rent again. We're talking about Idina Menzel performing My Strongest Suit on Aida: I never saw her on this show and only wondered what she was like. This site is hours of pure enjoyment waiting to be had. It's all due to Abby. Thanks Abby!

Unfortunately, it seems this site lacks the one video clip I long for most. It's an old episode of Reading Rainbow that I saw last year where LeVar learns how to hip-hop dance. I can't begin to tell you how funny this episode is. I so want to find it and pass it along to "A." He couldn't believe it when I told him about it. Someday, maybe, I'll find it. Maybe someday someone will post it on youtube.

Hollywood Video

So tonight we found ourselves, along with half of the other residents of the tri-boro area, at Hollywood Video.

I was presented with two "choices" by Melissa: the recent attempt at "Pride & Prejudice" with Keira Knightley or "Shop Girl" with Claire Danes & Steve Martin. The following exchange then took place:

Me: (Holding up "Pride & Prejudice") If we watched this, I think my brain might fall out.
Melissa: Abby's seen it five times. She loves it.
Me: Honey, Abby also likes Meatloaf. I'm not exactly going to base my evening on her recommendation.

So, anyway, we ended up with "Shop Girl". We'll see how that goes.

(Oh, and also "The Constant Gardener" - my choice. It was not pitched against anything else. It was just, "I'm getting this one." That's how I roll.)

12 yrs old

Before I got married, I would say that I felt like I was twelve. It was that whole never been kissed thing, that whole I love cheesy girlie things, that whole Mary-Kate and Ashley thing. You know, those things that associated with 12 yr olds, that was me. But today, I said it again, "I'm such a twelve year old."

Last week, I made Timmy watch High School Musical with me. I've heard a lot about this Disney movie and I've wanted to see it for a while. I keep meaning to rent it, but I don't rent movies often so I never got to it. While shopping at ACME, I heard it was airing that evening so I made plans to match it. Yes, I made plans to watch High School Musical and I made my dear husband watch with me. And I thought it was so cute. I thought it was just about a high school jock who wanted to join the school musical, but no, it's a musical itself. It was cute; I enjoyed it. Then this weekend, Timmy bought it for me :) I thought he was just being sweet. He told me he hoped that since I owned it, I wouldn't make him see it next time it was on tv.

So, today I had a rough day at the church. I came home with a crazy headache and I wanted to just relax. So, I stopped at the state store before I came home, bought a bottle of wine, cut some cubes of cheese, put in High School Musical, and it's been a nice evening. True, I tried to follow the special features choreography lesson but was too tipsy from the wine to do anything. In fact, I've been having a hard time typing too. Wine really slows me down. Well, I just thought I would share. I am currently watching High School Musical, drinking my second glass of wine, and waiting until close to seven so I can make my dear husband his dinner. I'm kind of twelve.

104.5

When I was younger, I always had a hard time falling asleep. I'd lay in bed for an hour or two thinking, daydreaming, just waiting to fall asleep. I think it was middle school/junior high when I discovered Star 104.5 on the radio. After 7pm, they had "Between the Sheets": a bunch of love songs that was perfect for a hopeless romantic, teenage girl, always crushing on someone, wondering when the man of her dreams would come. I loved my time before bed. I would go to bed early just to make sure I had plenty of time to just lay there. The last time I remember listening to Between the Sheets was my freshman year of college. Occassionally, when Sarah wasn't around or when she didn't mind the sappiness, I would listen to my favorite love songs. But then it stopped. Star 104.5 was no more and Betweeen the Sheets was gone.

104.5 has gone through a few owners over the years. I haven't really been able to listen to them much. However, a couple of years ago, 104.5 became Sunny 104.5. They prided themselves on being a radio station that the whole family could listen to and mom and dad didn't have to worry about a questionable song coming up. They were okay. I had them preset in my car, but I didn't spend much time with them, especially in the winter. The first week of November they started playing Christmas music and they played nonstop Christmas music for the entire months of November and December. The best part of the station was after they gave the weather forecast, they always said, "and remember: here it's always Sunny 104.5"

It's been a while since I've listened to the radio. When I do listen to the radio, it's in the car. However, the last five months, I haven't driven in the car much by myself and we usually listen to CDs. Today, however, was a new experience for me. I was coming back from the church and I was driving Timmy's car. That meant, none of my CDs. I just searched through Timmy's preset stations and the usual stations I check for, but nothing. So I went to go see what was on Sunny 104.5. And as so many times before, it was gone. This time, however, I was startled and confused. What's this? Did I switch to the AM dial somehow? For those of you who don't know, Sunny 104.5 is now "Rumba 104.5, Orgullo Latino," Philadelphia's first ever full market Spanish FM station.

And I confess: I like it...a lot.

For as many ethnic issues that I may have and for as "white" as I may be in my heart, two things always tell the truth of my latin blood: the food and the music. I start to salivate at just the thought of rice and beans. I feel kind of bad, but as much as I love my family, the real reason I love our get-togethers is the food. I know that even a picnic at a public park, there will be rice and beans. And the music: what can I say? I have no rhythm, but when I hear the beats of latin percussion, I start to sway and move and in my mind, I'm going crazy.

That's all I have to say...

Must Be Nice

I just read an article on Foxnews.com about how the housing market is sagging in most parts of the country. How lucky we are to live in an area that is apparently more similar to Joan Rivers' mug, because last time I checked people are still expected to pay a minimum of $200,000 for a single home in any neighborhood where you don't need to leave a loaded shotgun behind your front door. I guess all those other poor saps will just have to buy reasonably priced homes while us cool cats enjoy being able to.... live near Philadelphia? Sigh.

Lost In Translation

Saw this on eBay, on an item being sold from Bejing. I think the translation needs a little work.

Before biding the item ask buyer to confirm you whether the product of real demand and whether can insure

the merchandise and can complete to pay in clinch a deal between 7 days, past expiration of date the one who did not trade raised to report the back pay all. Such as can't make sure, please want not to bid the bid at all.

Cooperation delectation!!!DO IT BY

Mrs. Frost

This was the big weekend: Rachel and Jon's wedding. As most of you know, Rachel and I were roommates up until this past March when Timmy and I got married. We were roommates our senior year of college and then the last two years. Rachel and I have gone through our ups and downs, but no matter what has happened or will happen, I love her. She is a true friend, always willing to listen when I need to talk, hug me when I need to be held, and cry with me as I cry. And she is the best dance partner I have ever had!! She has found herself quite the match in Jon. I am thrilled that they have each other.

She was a beautiful bride, and they were a handsome couple. I wish I had other pictures to share with you, but unfortunately, I forget my spare batteries :( However, this one picture will protect you from instantly seeing the Hoff when you open our blog. So, thanks to the lovely Mrs. Rachel Frost.

I Will Not Be Outdone

For you, Luke.

Slacker

Timmy says I've been slacking with my blogs. It's true, but I'm tired. I'm not used to actually doing work. I'm not used to being at the office at 8am. Even now, I don't wanna blog. I just want to watch The Simple Life. So, before I return to my exciting night of television, one thing: Dancing with the Stars is coming back. Although the big news excitement regarding this show is that Jerry Springer will be one of the celebrity dancer, I don't care about that. There are more exciting people than Jerry. For one: Joe Lawrence! And then: Mario Lopez! Now that's exciting.



Ah Joey, as he appears on his first CD Joey Lawrence. And yes, I do own the CD. In fact, this CD was my first CD, a gift from my mama. And yes, it's in my car :)



And Mario isn't super, super exciting. It's mostly because he knows Mark-Paul and Mark-Paul was the great obsession of my life. I'm mean, I'm past that now, but I still think of him fondly

Amazing

This fancy little USB hub that we bought a few months ago to try and get our printer to function properly become obsolete when we got a real Mac keyboard, which has extra USB ports built into it. I figured I would try to sell the hub on eBay, to get at least a couple of dollars back. As it turns out, the thing I paid $22.99 for at Comp USA sold on eBay for $26. Umm.... right. Makes perfect sense.

I Guess The Signs Aren't Working

Global Warming?

Bill Maher was on The Tonight Show a few days ago and was making one of his uncomfortable joke/political statements about how it was really hot for a few days there in California, which was a clear sign of global warming. Well, it was really hot here too and now it's 78 degrees on August 11th and not supposed to break 90 degrees for at least the next 10 days. So what happened to the global warming? Isn't that supposed to be a constant, not something that comes in short bursts? I mean, not for nothing, I know the environment is indeed screwed up, but let's not be so dramatic. It's not like the weather is staying at 105 degrees every day for months on end. Sheesh.

Happy Trails

The Flyers announced today that everyone's favorite werewolf, Eric Desjardins, will be retiring from the sport on Thursday. Even though he was slowed by age and injury in the past two seasons, we'll still miss the old boy and look back fondly upon his steady play. (Even Chris Therien managed to look vaguely competent when he was paired with Desjardins.)





(And, yes, I realize that probably not one single person who reads our blog probably cares about hockey, but it needed to be said anyways.)

Them's The Breaks

So I was telling Dave, a few weeks ago, about how I had just changed my guitar strings for the first time since I bought it - back in November, I think it was. I said that I figured it'd be good to do so I didn't end up breaking a string during Sunday service. I went on to say that it's been about 5 years since I last broke a string. This morning, I broke two strings in the span of an hour. Nice.

First, I was playing my guitar during rehearsal and busted the high E string. As luck would have it, the strings I'd changed just a few weeks earlier were the spare set I had in my case. Yeah, that would mean that I had no spare strings. Oops. Small tactical error.

I switched to Dave's spare guitar which is left in the equipment room, stage right, for just such an emergency. Got about half way through the set during church and, yep, broke the high E string on that one too. Ri-freakin-diculous.

Luckily (I guess) the first string broke just above the bridge. So I took the little ball from the broken end, passed the broken string through it and gave it a few twists - presto! a "new" string. It actually held up for a few songs, so I was pretty shocked about that one. I think maybe I'll still put an actual new string on instead. Here's hoping it lasts longer than 3 weeks.

Buck Rogers

So they're showing Buck Rogers on the Sci-Fi channel now, and I'd forgotten how freaking creepy the Twiki thing was. That's all I'm sayin'.

Randomness

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I love Katrina. If you don't know Katrina Briggman, you're missing out. So glad to consider her one of my dearest friends.

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A couple of my new favorite things:
1 - The Granite Run Mall: Dairy Queen, Chick-Fil-A, Boscovs. All of these places were just minutes from me when I lived in Conshohocken and worked in Blue Bell. I missed them when I left. None are close to me. But while looking for the closest Spencers, I found them all at the Granite Run Mall. Awesome!!! True, further away from home, but just minutes from "work" aka the church. Woo Hoo.
2 - Panera's bowl of soup and french baguette. Ah man, such goodness. And inexpensive. Great lunch.

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I love my wedding dress. True. I only wore it once. And I will most likely never wear it again. And it was the most expensive purchase from the wedding. In fact, it was about a third of the wedding. But you know what, I love my dress. I look at the pictures and think, "yeah, that was 'the dress'"

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I don't love my stomach. I've been sick to my stomach for the last week. I'm tired of feeling icky. I'm tired of being scared of eating.

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Serious thoughts of the last couple of weeks:
From Blue Like Jazz:
1. "Peter and Paul changed the world by starting small churches in godless towns."
2. "If you believe something, passionately, people will follow you."
3. "what I believe is not what I say I believe; what I believe is what I do."

From Mark Tindall, pastor
4. The two rules for being on staff at BRV: Have fun and Do work that matters.

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Genesis 2: 18-24

Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." So out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

"This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

This passage grabs me. It's so graphic. And it makes so much sense to my heart. It's beautiful. Some people don't like it. That whole "rib thing." But I think it's true and beautiful and awe-inspiring. I'm so happy it was the passage read at our wedding.

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Gotta get to bed. Work in the morning. Another thought: I still don't like waking up early. Once I get settled into the job, I'll start coming in in the afternoon and evenings sometimes, Timmy's schedule pending.

Have I mentioned yet in this blog entry that I love Timmy. I do. I think he's awesome. I mean, he sucks, but for being a guy who sucks, I think he's cool. I think I'll keep him :)

Photo Update

I finally decided to clean out my digital camera. So here are some images from the last couple of months...

In June we worked on the puzzle Andy and Amy gave us as a wedding shower gift. It was off the registry :) I love puzzles.



Unfortunately, I always seem to lose one piece of the puzzle. Such a bummer.



As part of the Christmas in July celebration, we made Christmas cookies.



And just like last year, Timmy decorated some interesting cookies. For example:

Santa and his grill...



Skull and crossbones...



Star Wars...



And the tortuga...we like turtles.



Last week was the one year anniversary of our engagement. We spent a few days in Spring Lake, New Jersey at The Evergreen Inn. This was our room. Take note of bed, jacuzzi, fireplace, and tv. What more could we want!



Great Inn robes. Almost bought one. The Inn was really cute and our hostess Laurie was awesome!



Timmy covered in bubbles. So cute.



And no, we didn't spend our entire trip in our room. We went to the beach too.



This weekend we were in Maryland for Christin Fenton's wedding. Oh excuse me, Christin Lawrence :)



The wedding was beautiful. I cried. So happy Timmy is my boy. The reception was fun. Unfortunatley, I forgot the camera at our hotel room. So no pictures of the beautiful bride and no pictures of Timmy and me dancing. I know, bummer.

That's all the pictures I have for you. At some point I do want to blog about life. I've been thinking about all sorts of things. But that I will have to wait. I'm going to join Timmy as he works on the new puzzle. And we both have work tomorrow early in the morning. Joy :)

The "News" Strike Again

Once again proving a formidable foe to my life, I need to give a shout out to ever resident of New York & New Jersey. From a few minutes after we got onto I-95 in Maryland until the exit for the Delaware Memorial Bridge in Delaware we averaged a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour this afternoon. There were a couple of small areas of construction, though none were active or restricted traffic in any way. No accidents to speak of. No..... no real reason for traffic to be moving so slow except that apparently every resident of both New York & New Jersey were vacationing in the south and decided to drive home at the exact same time as us. Go figure. But yeah, once they were able to go back to their respective homes via the aforementioned Delaware Memorial Bridge, things cleared up and I was able to drive the actual speed limit again. Glorious. I'm done driving for a few months now. Or until tomorrow morning when I have to go to work. Whichever comes first.

The Lady Can Stay In The Water

We saw M. Night Shyamalan's latest offering "Lady in the Water" this afternoon. It didn't necessarily feel long and annoying or anything, but in the end it left me feeling like "Signs" did - "Seriously? That's it?"

Out of all of M.'s recent movies, "The Village" is still my favorite and probably the only one I'd consider watching again if I happened across it on TV or something. I think it was a clever concept and was well executed - even if I did figure out the plot twist before it was even "revealed".

Advanced Comment on this post from Luke: "I'm the only person I know who actually liked 'Unbreakable'."

(Post note: M. Night Shyamalan apparently also wrote the screenplay for "Stuart Little". That strikes me as both odd & funny.)

Unemployed No Longer

Yes, it's true. I am no longer unemployed. This week I accepted a part time position at the church. I'll be replacing Rachel T. as the church's assistant. I'll be responsible for the basic day to day running of the church. Mostly, though, my job is to make Mark's life a little easier, let him focus more on being a pastor. I was a little hesitant about applying for the job. I would hate for my relationship with Mark to be affected negatively. However, God made it clear to the both of us that this is what He wants. And I have to say, I'm excited. I'm nervous, but excited. Today was my first day and it went well. There's a lot to learn. Rachel is moving to OH in three weeks, so when Timmy and I get back from the shore, I'll be having some intense training. I am confident, however, that as with my other jobs, I will pick it up and do just fine.

Gotta go. Marti's here. Gonna watch RENT!

For My Information

I got one of those bill/not a bill things today from the anesthesia people at Crozer. They billed my insurance company, but they just wanted to let me know that the cost of putting & keeping me asleep for my grueling 45 minute tonsilectomy was a paltry $900. My goodness, how do these people even feed their families?? I guess we better just hope that they are able to keep a busy surgery schedule and make ends meet.

Such a Girl

I have to admit, I'm feeling really girlie tonight. I really miss my boy. So, what do I do? I email him about how much I miss him and how much I love him. I make myself cry a little in the process. Then I check into my old email account and read those early emails between us. We were so cute. I'd love to one day print out those emails and put them together. Maybe store them with all my old journals. Then my children's children's children can read the letters between their great grandma and great grandpa when they first started talking. I do love him.

Time for bed. In just five short hours, I'll awaken to him moving about in his closet. That's one of my favorite sounds; it means, "Timmy's home."

I know, I know...such a girl.

Finally

So it turns out that reading this book (while laying about in a hydrocodone induced stupor last week) was time well spent. We played an eight player game last night that stretched out (painfully) to about 4 hours. But when Matt triumphantly called, "All in!" with his pocket pair of 9's and I quickly called with my pocket pair of 10's, the game came to an end with all $8,000 worth of chips resting squarely in front of me. (Okay, so that $8,000 actually equalled $25, but that doesn't sound nearly as impressive.)

What else can I say? It was glorious.

That's harsh.

I don't even know what to say.

Owned

So Missy & I taught my Mom, Brother, Sister-in-law and Grandmom how to play Texas Hold 'Em this evening. I got knocked out of the game by my grandmother. Had the ace of clubs & king of spades in the pocket. She called me with like 8 of diamonds and 6 of hearts. Flop was king, six, seven of different suits. I only had 4 chips left, so I went all in. She called. Turn was the ace of spades, making two pair - aces and kings - for me. We looked at the board and concluded that the only thing she could draw to win was a six for trip 6's. The river was a 6. Awesome. I got owned by my grandmom at the poker table. What?

O'er The Rockets' Red Glare

It's nice to know that these PA fireworks stores are doing so a good job with their restrictive sales. I have heard and seen more fireworks originating from peoples' back yards this year than any in recent memory. Even with all those stray bottle rockets and such, though, my true wonder would be reserved for last night here in the lovely hamlet of Norwood.

The yearly Independence Day fireworks display was held in the lower park last evening. Starting at about a quarter after nine, we had a nice, steady display of colorful explosions visible through our living room windows. (Watching the Wizard of Oz compete with fireworks is a delightful teaser for A.D.D., by the by.) Yet in the midst of this display, a fellow Norwoodian decided that he needed to light off some of his own products a scant 2 blocks away from the park. Thankfully, they were those really annoying sounding ones - resembling what I imagine it'd sound like if you tied a bottle rocket to a wiener dog's ear and lit it off. And so it was, there'd be 5 or 6 pops in the eastern facing windows followed by the wiener dog torture to the north.

What made the northern display even more fun, of course, was that most of the pops were followed closely by drunken cheers. (In my humble opinion, few things go together so well as explosives and alcohol.)

These additional displays continued on, increasing in frequency, for nearly an hour after the show at the park had stopped - finally prompting us to close the window around 10pm so we could actually hear the TV again. I estimate that these people must've spent several hundred dollars on their illegal explosives. But as they probably bought their beer for $10 a case, I guess the difference was a wash.

God bless America: the Land of the free and the home of the simple minded. Cheers!