"Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
~Hermann Goering, Hitler's Reich-Marshall, at the Nuremberg trials after WWII.

Well whatever happened has fixed itself but Im so freaked. Damn. My page was TOTALLy fucked up. Did anyone see?

Obviously, I've been hacked. more later..

I got up this morning to shower for my Advisor appointment, and sat outside for a bit enjoying the great weather. I decided that I couldn't go to school. Cancelled my appointment, then called back in 5 minutes to reschedule it for tomorrow. Bah, Im such a ninny about this. I will go tomorrow. if only to cancel my registration because of the waiting list. That part really gets to me. *sigh.

We hit 2 Sally's today for books, but only came home with 5 bags. Still pretty good tho. Katie went with us, and that was fun. She found a lot of fun stuff, mostly clothes but also some Sam MacDonald shoes or something (Edit - Steve Madden shoes) that she was really excited about, for 75 cents.

I have to get up at the buttcrack of dawn tomorrow to take my mom in for some eye surgery. I have to be at her house at 8:00 and she won't get done for 4 hours. I will probably come back home, or just go to her house and hang out and read my lovely Weiner book. (By the way Laura, it was splitting down the spine, and no I didn't break it..but Mark fixed it.)

I was just laying on the couch a while ago taping a "Maternity Ward" episode for Emma, and barely following along (although I did manage to pay attention enough to edit out commercials) and the whole show was mostly about this one obstetrician that was really nice (and cute) and all the mothers just loved him, blah blah blah. Then right at the very end, they said "In 1995, Dr. So-and-So pulled over to help a couple who had had a roll over accident on the freeway and was struck and killed by a tractor trailer." I was like...gah! I started crying, it was very sad. They showed his funeral and it was overflowing with moms and babies that he had delivered. Emma will love the show tho, lots of mommies and babies, and babies coming out of mommies. She eats that stuff up.

On Blogshares, and being a blog bitch.

What's it all about anyway? I really don't know. It seems pretty silly. Hostile takeovers, blog value, buying and selling shares in blogs. I don't really "get" it. Don't explain it to me, I really don't want to know. I registered, but it all seems like a big snooze if you ask me. But I will say that I have de-linked those who are playing but never reciprocally (I might have made up that word, so what) linked me, as they do not deserve the extra blogshare value. And you never even bothered to answer my email, Mr. M in Chicago. so... pfft. You're gone from the list. Y'all know that's a pet peeve of mine. People. If someone has the where-with-all and courtesy to read your stuff and then write and say "hey, what you're doing....keep doing that.." Dontcha think the proper thing to do is hit reply and let your fingers type out "thanks..."?

Also, it seems like just another reason for people to beg "blogroll me!!" Hey, I have an idea...don't blogroll me. Come and read if you you want and you think it's worth your time, otherwise, bug off. Blogrolling to me is simply an easy way for me to access my daily reads. If you click on them and like them too, great. If you don't..big deal. Believe me, I've clicked on plenty of links from other people's blogrolls (yes yours) and thought to myself..."they're reading this shit?!"

I don't read people because they're popular, I read other people's writing cause I like what they write, and I hope you're doing the same. I read blog writing that I find engaging, interesting, and I read writing from people whose lives are intellectually and emotionally contagious enough for me to want to check day after day and see what and how they're doing. Some of the the most popular bloggers remind me of Kimberly Look-at-me Caldwell on American Idol. Blech. I wouldn't link Sarah H*tt*r if you paid me a decent hourly wage to do so. (I'll let those searching for her name actually find her, wouldn't want someone to accidentally stumble here while eagerly searching for her name on the web.)

I don't know where all this came from. I don't rant about Bush and the war, and whether or not we should be in Iraq, so I'll stand on my soapbox and spew about blogrolling. That's as deep as it gets here folks. Move along, there is nothing to see here.


*~*~*~*~*

Six Feet Under was pretty good. That Lisa, lemme tell you. I just wanna..ooh, one of these days she's gonna get her come uppance I hope.

Katie's home - whee!

They had a hella good time, and now she wants to move to San Francisco ( a month ago she wanted to move to Canada)..ah, to be 17 and have the world at your feet...remember? Now Im stressing that Im too old to go to school, and stressing that Im too young to feel like Im too old to go to school. I have an appointment with an advisor tomorrow, I'm taking it as an omen that I haven't got nary a nibble from the resumes I sent out in the past two weeks...that that means it's in the stars to go to school instead. We'll see what they say. I'm a little put off by the whole "waiting list" thing. Seems ridiculous to make folks wait that really want to get to learnin'. In 53 days I will be 41 years old. creeaakk . I don't have time to wait.

We went to Laguna's as planned, and as usual the service and food was stellar-rific. We had a coupon, so the whole ticket came to a whopping 8 bucks. We had time to spare so we went across the street to CB&Potts and had a few ale's and played pool for a bit. Mark won every game, but I came really close a couple of times. We haven't played in so long, it took a couple of games to get back in the swing. Fun, fun.

Now we're home with coffee in hand, rewinding the Six Feet Under tape. Waiting for the kids to go to bed, there's still too much activity in the house to concentrate on a show. We're still watching "Coupling" every night too, and are getting close to the end of the series. That's been such a fun show to watch, we laugh out loud at every single episode. The American version starts on NBC in April I hear..I can't imagine it will even hold a candle to the no-holes-barred British version.

Well, I've blogged. It's more than I can say for some of you. Slacker be thy name.

Ack! I gotta go tape Six Feet Under! Brenda's back...

We're going up to Laguna's in Northglenn for a late dinner and to wait for Katie to call to be picked up from Charlies. Their plane gets in at 8:05, so we should have just enough time. A trip to Charlie's house always makes me want to come home and throw rocks at my house, (see below, Charlie's house) and yet very glad that Katie has someone to love whose parent's have been so fortunate in life. And, thankful that Charlie is the guy that he is, in spite of, or maybe because of. I love Charlie.

Will and Dave, the 9 year old and his dad that are crossing the country by bicycle have made it to Texas, yee haw! They could use some hospitality in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio if anyone is around there that could rustle them up a breakfast or something.

Seen elsewhere...

"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the US of arrogance, and Germany doesn't want to go to war."

*~*~*~*~*

I took Daniel to get his haircut, didn't do mine just yet. Took him to a franchise place which I wouldn't use anyway, so...

But anyway, I sat there in the waiting chair for about 5 minutes before I realized I had my sweater on inside out. Classy, very classy. Bee-lined it to the restroom to make the switcheroo.

What else, had to take some wet laundry to the 'mat, as my dryer is making noises like it wants out of the laundry room. Mark is "looking at it" right now. I think I just need a new one, but we'll see what kind of luck he has.

We had a yummy dinner of bacon wrapped filet mignon (don't get excited, it's from the door-to-door meat guy that came around a while back.) Damn, it was tasty tho. Pasta and broccoli with cheddar sauce, and some seasoned potatoes (yes two carbs - muwawawa). Yumm-myyy...

Katie comes home late tomorrow night. Guess we better clean up the kitchen.

I'm still trying to get my nerve up to go get my haircut. How ridiculous is that?

I hate bringing pictures into the salon, Im afraid they think that I'm thinking "I want to look like her." And I feel like they're just rolling their eyes behind the chair. And I try really hard to bring a picture of hair that's actually possible with my hair. Know what I mean? I've seen a lot of people go into salons with pictures and I hear the stylist say "well, that style is actually longer than your hair is now", or "your hair is too straight or too curly or too something or other..." Laura dear, do stylists hate it when you bring a picture? Do tell...

I better get to bed, or I'll be seeing pictures of Iraqi televisions again.

I've been sending out some resumes and posting my profile at some job sites to see if I get any nibbles. I still have 3 months left of Unemployment, and even after that there's no real rush, but I just want to have some money money. Not just enough, but I want to do stuff and go places and do more stuff and buy things. I'm grateful to have enough to stand still, but...

So anyway there's a couple of Exec Admin positions open, some very decent, up to 39K...so, we'll shoot for those, sit and wait for the phone to not ring, and continue to provide the United States with used books. Business is pretty good right now, Im wondering if it will slack in the summer. Our biggest surges so far have been fall (textbooks) and Christmas. Maybe we'll just suspend our business in the summer when we're on our lovely 10 week cruise to the wonderful Isle of NOT. *sigh.

Tomorrow is definately hair cut day. Nothing drastic, don't get excited. But the Marcia Brady look has worn out it's welcome. I have some ideas...yes? no? too samey?

We went thrift storing for no reason today, nobody had books on sale but we got some fun things anyway. A horse for Emma, a star basket for me and a USB computer mouse. Whee. Also stopped by the closing Kmart and got some panties (woot!) and some mexican candy for Daniel. He loves that stuff.

Then we stopped by an Irish pub we've been meaning to try and it was way good, and had Guinness on tap. Now I've had way too many beers, and I still need to go to the grocery store. All I really want to do is head for the couch.

A good note, however..Mark and I frequently guess how many orders will be waiting for us when we get home, and bet something fun on it. Suffice to say I will be enjoying a back massage with fancy oil later this evening. Ahhh....

No Emma this weekend. poop.

Mark was gonna go get her tomorrow, but then said it hardly seemed logical to only have her for 46 hours or so, and spend 10% of that time driving to and from. Which is true. He didn't go get her as normal today because of weather, although I saw that it wasn't that bad after all. So it would have been an ultra short weekend if he'd have gone tomorrow, and a lot of driving for it. Still stinks tho. The weather probably is iffy around Kenosha and all parts southward...but still...bah. Winter go bye bye!

Katie will be home Sunday night, that's something to look forward to.

Ooh, and I might get my hair cut tomorrow. Shh....

Hey, go check out the latest blogroll addition, a fun blog I found, courtesy of my guestmap. It's called the litter box and I sat and read every entry tonight. Very entertaining, interesting writing. Her daughter (age 4) even has a blog. (link at her site)

Go. Go on!

Guess what. Now I need a new clothes dryer. Bah.

It's snowing like crazy. Again. And c-c-old.

I'm so sleepy, I got very little sleep last night because of the wind. I woke up around 3 to go to the bathroom and it was howling. I could not get back to sleep at all. Mark said "If you can't block it out, focus on it, and turn it in to music". Nice sentiment, didn't work. Finally I got up and slept on the couch till 9 this morning. Fitfully, as you do on the couch. Now I need a nap..big time.

This is Mark talking to his dad in England about a computer problem his dad's having:

"The escape key. Hit the escape key. (pause)...It says E-S-C. (pause) It's in the top left corner.
No, not on your screen, on the keyboard...."(heavy sigh)
later..
"Click that button. Don't double click. Only double click if I say to double click."

Then he tried to get his dad to install icq so they could chat about the problems while his dad was connected to the internet. I heard Mark going round and round with him about it...then he tried to connect to his machine with laplink. Then he tried to get his dad to find out what his IP address was.

Then he said "I'll call you tomorrow."

I took a spin on the "find your old friends on the internet" ride...prompted by an entry at fussy's blog. There's two people I really regret losing touch with over the yars, my friends Lorri T, Debbie C, Julie C and Marion S. I found Lorri T easily enough..well sort of. Seems her and her hubby either opened or are planning to open a restaurant in Kirksville, Mo. Im thinking it already opened and closed, which is unfortunate. I didn't find any contact information at all.

I can't find Debbie because she has a really common last name, dead end there. I sorta kinda know where both Julie and Marion are, but I dont have email addresses, just phone numbers for them and I think it would be way weird to call them. Wouldnt it? What do you even say after so long?

It was fun tho, interesting to see people's internet presence "out there."

We've added quite a bundle of Books for sale. If you've got time on your hands to wait for the page to open, have a peruse. Gotta be something there you want, dammit.

Please dont make fun, Im really freaked out about this. I saved a copy of both pictures that I saw, I wish I'd have paid better attention and taken a screen shot, or looked at the "view source" to get more information. Instead, I just right clicked and saved them with a file name of my choosing. dumb...

Anyway..here's what happened. Yesterday I opened Living Nappy's blog and saw only a white page with this picture in the upper left hand corner.

She often has political-statement type pictures on her blog, so I thought thats what it was. I thought maybe she found this picture so profound or something that she removed everything else on the page to show just this picture. I really though nothing of it. Then later..hours later..I opened Dy's blog and saw exactly the same thing. A completely white page, with the pic in the upper left corner. I was instantly freaked out, because my first thought was Dy wouldnt know how to do that. (and I'm sure Dy will take no offense at me saying that). I made special note to look at the url, to see if I had been redirected. But no, it was her regular blog address.

Then late last night, I opened my own blog and saw this picture just above the tagboard, where the "your stinky makes me cry" picture should have been.

Now I was really freaked out. I right clicked and saved the pic, then I went into "edit" to look at my template, to see if someone had replaced that "stinky" pic...but the image reference was still there, I clicked back into the blog and everything was back to normal again.

Mark and I had a long talk about it last night, he had some informative ideas about how someone could do it, but we couldnt really come up with a motivating factor. It's really creeped me out, I went to bed thinking about it, and woke up thinking about it too. It's really got me spooked.

So there's what I've been seeing, is it some clever hacker, something sinister..or what?

What is with these pictures? Are you all seeing them? There's one here now. This is creepy.

Is blogger being hacked? Both living nappy and dy's site show only the same iraqi television picture, and no blog. Im backing up my blog right now.

"This is my new surround sound system.
I just got it from Soundtrack.
I think my wife likes it.
I can't hear a word she says anymore.
I'm so happy."

I love that commercial.

Not a bad day, in all.

Have you ever used one of those "u-scan" things at the grocery store? They're so damn sensitive it's ridiculous. " Please scan your next item." "Place your item in the bag." "Take the item out of the bag and put it in the bag again." "Remove items from the scan area." "Show your ID to the clerk now" "Don't touch that". "Why did you buy that?" "Bend over".

Katie called from SanFrancisco, said their hotel is very nice (of course) and that they are staying in the heart of downtown. I told her to take lots of pictures and have fun. She actually took her workout clothes with her. Gah.

We're going to Applebees because I have a hankerin' for a fried chicken salad or whatever the hell it is.

I am remiss -

Thank you so much for the book, Laura. It gave me something to do while I was up brooding till 5am this morning. I'm loving it.

Not blogging, a little depressed. Maybe a lot depressed. back soon.

A couple of thoughts about late night tv:

A really want one of those Gevalia Carafes. But I hate the way that woman talks, like she's better than me. So I'm not going to.

And if I catch that Leptroprin woman giving me that steely eyed gaze one more time Im gonna lose it. Blink, dammit!

Mark figured out I spent about 8 or so hours "working" today. He drove to Fairplay to return the midget to it's madre, and I stayed home and listed books. We had those 150+ books from the other day sitting around, plus 25 or so leftover from the last batch. I listed every single one of them..And put most of them away. My back is killing me, I look the same as I did when I got up this morning, and I've had entirely too much caffeine. But I feel like I've had a really productive day.

Tomorrow we are going to get up and out early, Katie found some really cool boots at payless and she said they had one pair left..Im gonna go see if they're still there. Tan suede looking with some fuzzie at the top. Really cute. $9! Then off to Northglenn for book buying and then home to see Katie off, she will spend the night at charlies before they really and truly leave for San Francisco on Tuesday. wah!

Speaking of Katie, last night she decided that the kitchen floor wasn't shiny enough, so she mopped it with Armour All. People. Do not ever mop your floor with Armour All. It's like a skating rink in there! I got up in the middle of the night and the first step into the kitchen found me flat on my ass. My feet went straight out from under me. I thought maybe I had splattered grease or something off the stove earlier, but no...it was all over the kitchen. lol!

I know, this is so boring. It's my life. Sorry.

I frequent a knife collector's forum, and we have a section there for "off-topic" subjects. W-aaa-y off topic. Today's new threads:

Does anyone think Moslem women are hot?
I just tried to cut my own hair.
Ever spell checked your own name?
You french hating bastids...
I took a really good crap this morning!
Another one bites the dust!
My Good Looking Daughter
Crit/J-Man show watchin', thong picture lookin', big ass dump takin' BASTIDS!!
The 5 day Bagdad forecast
Problems with chafing
Embarassed because your camel toe isn't pronounced enough?

Knife Knuts are nuts!

Free Cup Holder.

Hectic day.

Met Amanda this morning to go wedding flower shopping. We met some really nice organized people, and some really weird disorganized people. Guess which one is cheaper? Gah. Gotta go with organized people tho. We went to lunch at Las Delicias, which was...delicias.

On my way to meet Amanda, I stopped at the gas station for coffee. My cup had been in the car a couple of days so I needed to rinse it in the bathroom. I opened the door and was face to face with a little old lady sitting on the pot. "oops! I thought I locked that!" Groan....

Then after I came home Mark and I decided to go get some books down south at a Sally on Florida and Sheridan. We cleaned up big time. They don't do their books by the bag very often, so they had a lot of good stuff. We brought home probably around 150 books or so for $12.

Last week I applied for a job nearby, less than a mile away actually, at the American Cattlemen's Association (Hi Laura!) and I got a note back today saying I appear to meet much of their criteria, and I would hear from them next week regarding an interview. This could mess up the whole nursing dealio, but...it might be necessary anyway. Could be a good thing. There's even a little travel involved. Mooo!

The accompanying description of this outfit includes "One size fits all."



Have you seen my "all" lately?

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

Mark and I have found our new nightly ritual, now that we've watched all the Band of Brothers episodes. It's a BBC show called "Coupling" and it's funny as hell. It's a Friends mirror, and there's talk that the American version will replace Friends. We watch one or two episodes every night and it's been nice to get in that habit again.

*~*~*~*

What is it that cats are doing when they tear ass all over the house. Stopping for one second..looking around..eyes and head darting in every direction...then Zoom!!!..down the stairs..look around...run into the kitchen! Nothing here! zoom!

We had a grand time with my dad and Marla. Emma fell in love with them of course, and fawned over them all night. She made more pictures for them than they could carry home. She told them she wants to name her preemie baby diarrhea, and that me and daddy kiss too much, and that she wants to come to their house. Dinner was scrummy, and hectic. Why is it when you get 8 people in the house for dinner everything suddenly gets frantic and in no time Im sweating buckets. It was fine tho. Katie made a great Caeser salad and a low fat dessert....AND cleaned up all the dishes. Yay!

Tomorrow Amanda and I have some appointments at florists to talk about $wedding flowers$. Should be fun.

I wonder if people that come over for dinner realize that you've been cleaning all day. Granted, a good 2 hours was spent shoveling a narrow path up the driveway, across the patio and to the front door. I might be able to get my Elantra out tomorrow.

Cleaning cleaning cleaning. Thank GOD for Katie.

We're cleaning. Dad's coming for dinner. Cleaning cleaning cleaning. I need to borrow a snowshovel.

Super geekoid humor. Denny will love it.

Argh. It's snowing again.

And on a completely different note....

On the tail of spewing about Miss Tonia and her juvenile antics, I noticed this gem in my guestmap from Elsa and Adrian in Quebec:

Hi Danelle.
You should be very proud to have made such a wonderful site for yourself and everyone else to see and enjoy. You have a lovely family, with three children and a loving friend, you definitely are a rich woman. No money in the world can buy you that kind of wealth. We are wishing you on this time of austerity all the luck in the world to succeed in your e mail business; GOOD LUCK. It is nice to see a site as this, at present with all the talk of war, this is beautiful oasis of love and peace. You made a most awesome and wonderful website. I really enjoyed myself visiting your delightful pages. I have a family site. If you find the time to visit my site, would you please jot down on our guest book what you think of our pages. Thank you for the opportunity of visiting your excellent site.
Take Care, Elsa and Adrian :-).

What's especially nice about this note is it shows they took the time to actually read what I wrote. They know I have 3 children, Mark, a business, etc... You don't get that from reading a post or two.

Nice, very nice. Made my day.

Yea, so we were stuck in the house for a couple of days. We finally dug out (ok Mark did) today because I really needed to go to the grocery store, and we really needed to go to the post office too. Almost a wasted trip to go to the store, the shelves were bare! No bread, no frozen food, no eggs, etc. I'm sure they missed more than a few deliveries over the past few days.

It was kinda fun venturing out on foot yesterday, there were a few neighbors out and everyone was genuinely friendly. Everyone was asking each other "you guys doing ok?!" Need anything?!" That was nice. It would have been a much more enjoyable day if we'd have had cable and internet access. Instead we were forced to watch network television (the horror!) and quietly wonder how many orders were coming in. (a lot).

We also went to the thrift store today where I am pleased as punch to have picked up this beauty from 1953 for $5:



I know Mark really wants to sell it, they go for around $120 on ebay. But I've been looking for one for a long time, and finding a 1953 heavy-duty and
still-working mixer like this is a treasure to me, so we're gonna keep it. Even while I was walking around the store with it a man approached me and said "I don't suppose I could talk you into giving that up, could I?" Heh...."nope."

Katie did not get out to San Francisco, they are instead going on Tuesday. Minor inconvenience, but it works out. I was a little nervous with her being gone with all this rigamarole with the shrub going on, but I think I'm ok about it now.

Cindi comes home from Mexico tomorrow. We shoulda filled her easy chair with snowballs.

I have to tell you all about our day trapped inside yesterday, and tell you about our outing today! We made it out! And get this...my DAD is coming for dinner tomorrow!

I just received this lovely email, and I would like all of you to have the opportunity to write her back (her email is at the bottom of this post) , if you feel so compelled. I thought flooding her inbox might be fun.

i stumbled upon your web page today, why in heavens name why?
your little child is God ugly, looks like she hit every fucking branch coming down the ugly tree, and thats surprising since your cute. your site is stupid, and honey it looks like you are extremely bored and think to much of yourself to put every little thought you have online as if anyone cares. you need to go to jenny craig and spend some quality time there and stay away from your pc for a bit. your really pretty if you would get off you ass sometimes and out into the real world you would shed some pounds and be beautiful.
sincerely,
tonia

Here's her picture, from her yahoo profile:

Hmm, looks like someone could use to lose a few pounds, hmm? Oh, woe is me..why oh why can't I be as beautiful as Tonia from Missouri? I drag myself to the mirror everyday and sigh...if only..if only...I could be beautiful like Tonia. Tonia with the pig nose and fat arms, and cheeks so chubby they are ready to burst from her face. Her stringy hair and thin lips. How beautiful she must feel every day.

You can access her profile here. Her favorite things are singing, talking and playing with animals. Wow, what a fascinating life she leads. How does she have time to leave nasty emails with all that singing and talking she's got going on?

Do write her, won't you? Her address is tonia_p2001@yahoo.com. I think I'll put her on my buddy list.

Bottom line, say what you want about me. But when you start talking shit about my kids, and "my people's" kids, I will own you. I will make your life a living hell until I decide to stop.

Enjoy your fame, Miss Tonia.

We're back online..at least for now. The novelty of being completely snowed in has lost its lustre, for sure. Denver got 30", Arvada (where I live) got 36" according to reports. We won't be able to get out for a least another day or two..I think I am going to have to walk to the store today. Gah. More later..lots to catch up on.

Took a bunch more pictures yesterday, its absolutely amazing how much snow there is. Go see.

I was just thinking about Laura and Denny, and how they like to grow things....and was curious as to what their watering restrictions were this year..and came across this newsworthy tidbit in a site about their town:

1st Annual SLV Potato Contest
The Monte Vista Co-Op is sponsoring the 1st Annual SLV Potato Contest on Saturday, March 15th. Prizes will be awarded at 1:00 P.M. for the most unique uses for the potato in edible and inedible categories. Call 852-5181 for more information.

Wow, that just conjures up all sorts of ideas, doesn't it?

I swear if she doesn't get voted out tomorrow, I am seriously considering boycotting American Idol and spreading the word far and wide for others to do the same.

"It's ME! ME! I'm Kimberly Caldwell! Look at ME! Im on TEE VEE! Hello....did you see ME?!"

And her mother. Good lord almighty, that is one scary ass woman. Im pretty sure she's 98% plastic. And I wouldn't be surprised if she's been eating some Red #7 sometime in her life. Yikes. Go Clay.

*~*~*~*~*~

It's still snowing. Im getting a little worried about the roof. A lot of roofs (rooves?) have caved in around the city and this snow is really heavy. Really really heavy. The roofs that have caved in have a capacity to hold 40 pounds per square foot, Mark says that ours is designed to hold about 60 pounds per square foot. And the roofs that collapsed did so early this afternoon. Gah. I can't sit and worry about something I have no control over, I suppose. Newscasters said this snow has 6X more water than a regular snowfall. This is got to be good for the drought, however. New rules just released say - No watering of any kind, no new planting, don't even think about washing your car, and those filling up kiddy pools will be shot on sight.

Maybe I will set up Emma's pool tonight and let the snow fill it up.

Why bother to make a list? Just tell us everything is closed.

The news just said we've gotten 24" of snow so far here in Arvada, with no sign of let-up. Down south about 15 miles, where Mark used to live they are measuring 30". Conifer, where Dan (my ex) lives got 48" so far.

No flights coming in, nothing going out. They are expecting that tomorrow after 5pm some flights might start leaving. Katie leaves for San Francisco on Thursday, which will probably be crowded as hell at DIA with "find a flight, any flight" travelers.

But we're having a helluva time. The cable's working, people are buying books, and we've had coffee brewing off and on all day. I love Snow Days.

You know the absolute gall of some people sometimes really just floors me. People really just have no inclination of when they are imposing, do they. I suppose it's because they're used to too many people saying "Oh, it's no bother"..while thinking "You are such a bother..." I guess if people don't say what they're really feeling they have no reason to gripe about being imposed upon. But the imposers themselves...do they not realize how rude they are?

Pictures up, here's a couple. Make sure you go check them all out, they're really fun. (link below)

Driving to Wal-Mart:






And Mark and Emma inside the 'gloo!



All the pictures here. Look for the album called 2003 Snow Day.

Mark's spent the entire day building an igloo for Emma. It's fabulous. Her and Mark are in there now. She loves it!

I took a bunch of pictures, plus pictures of the drive to WalMart. Gonna get those ready to post in a minute. We only got hopelessly stuck twice, getting in and out of the driveway. But we're all in now and we have coffee brewing, wood for a fire, and movies galore. Whee! The internet and cable tv keeps going in and out, that's the only bleh. We've gathered all the candles in the house together, I expect the heavy snow may make the power go out. All the schools that aren't on spring break are cancelled and katie's Fazoli's closed so she doesn't have to go to work. Snow DAY!

We're snowed in. No really.

We buried Louie last night in a tasteful yet quick ceremony, as it was raining. This morning Emma saw all the snow and said "did the snow bury Louie some more?" We said yes..she said "How thoughtful of the snow. Very thoughtful."

Yesterday we had to take her with us to Northglenn to buy books. This is normally about a 3-hour ordeal, so we took turns entertaining her. At one point, her and I were wandering the store and she came up to me and said "Nell? I don't think I've ever been this bored in my WHOLE life." Giggle. She was so good while we bought books though that we took her to the McDonalds playplace for about an hour and even let her play before she ate. woot!

I need to get out, take Katie to Wal-Mart for last minute travel things. There's tire marks on the street, I know other people have gotten out. There is no try, I must do it. Of course I'll take some pictures out there.

I dunno why I'm not blogging. I will tho. Just tired. Or something..

Happy St. Patrick's Day and Happy Birthday to this blog. 2 years old today. Wow, Im starting my third year of blogging. Insane.

We're off to Northglenn, book buying day. It's gray and rainy outside and the kids are on Spring Break. Help me.

R.I.P. Louie.



I'm hiding in my room with the door shut. Why? I'm embarassed to be crying because Daniel's rat Louie is dead. Louie was totally my bud.

Im such a fuckin freak.

Mark just noticed him..dead. He's still warm but he is convinced he is really dead..so he must have just died. I came by and gave him some love and a tiny piece of pop-tart every day. He would nuzzle up against the bars and let me scratch him behind the ears. He was absolutely huge, abnormally big, really. He'd scare the beejeezus out of you if you spotted it scurrying in your house.




Onward and upward, Louie. Go and introduce yourself to the Big Guy and get you some pop-tart.

Mark pointed something out that was painfully obvious but I hadn't picked up on. My sister...went to Cancun...on Spring Break. Gah! What in the hell would possess a grown adult to do that? I have heard horror stories of "regular folks" accidentally planning their vacation to some Spring Break hot spot, ignorant of the throngs of college students (idiots gone WILD!) there to let loose on their own Spring Breaks. I dunno, as much as I want to go to Mexico someday, you'll never ever ever catch me there on Spring Break.

We had to run over to my moms this morning, Amanda called and said that she had had a flood in the basement, that her hot water heater had ruptured. We zoomed over there, and she wasn't even home. Her basement is full of stuff of my sisters, and a lot of it was soaked. Not good. We took a big rug outside that was sodden, heavier than hell. Also moved a bunch of boxes into other basement rooms that weren't wet. My mom had done a pretty good job of sweeping all the water into the sump pump and moving things out of the way. All in all it wasn't so bad. Told her on the phone later that I'd bring Emma over later this week to visit.

More later...foodie..

Sadly, we've yet to come across this book.

I am merely the vessel...

If you've ever read or visited at Halcyon's Cocky Bastard, or if you love the "switch" parodies, you will love this video. Ah hell, you'll love it anyway.

Watch.

Vote early, vote often. The Anti-Bloggies are here...and previously unbeknownst to me, I'm a sponsor. Heh. Davezilla knows why. I know why. Now I have to come up with a prize. This should be good.

Four fabulous new categories to embarass friends with have been added:

Most Unfinished Projects
Biggest Whiner After Being De-linked
Most Dead Links
Most “First to Post!” Comments

So go vote.

The most common things found between the pages of used books:

Bookmarks
Airline Boarding Passes
Photographs
Receipts

I know you were on the edge of your damn seats.

A quiz for you, put your responses in the comments. What do you think are the most common things we find tucked between the pages of used books?

I've been reading this one blog for a while, called LA2JAX. It's about a 9-year old boy and his dad who are crossing the U.S. from L.A. California to Jacksonville, Florida by bicycle. He's in third grade! It was only so-so interesting for the past few months, cause they were only getting ready to go. Well, now they've left and it's riveting! They left on March 2 and already Will (the boy) has been in the hospital, suspected of having appendicitis. They're back on the road now, just into Arizona, and I'm anxiously awaiting each entry. Check in with them now and then, it's fun. Maybe they will be coming by where you live.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Many times when we list books, we come across books we just can't list. Usually because they are over-the-top popular books, and too many people have them for sale already. It wouldn't be worth the precious shelf space to wait while 145 people in front of you sell their book. I just finished reading "The Rapture of Canaan" that I retrived from the unlistable pile, and man it was so good. I only just started it about 3 days ago, and finished it this afternoon. I gotta start reading more fiction!

Here's a list of the books I read in February and so far into March:

The Rapture of Canaan - Sheri Reynolds
Rock This - Chris Rock
Babyhood - Paul Reiser
Justice Denied - Robert Tanenbaum
'Tis - Frank McCourt
The Everything Wedding Book

In January I only read Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons, and Live From New York by Tom Shales, et al. Now I'm going to start a book called "Last Breath - cautionary tales from the limits of human endurance" Doesn't that sound yummy..? it's right up my alley. Similar to the book I tried to write for about 7 years. Ah well.

I always have books lined up to read. I know what I'm reading next, and I know what I'm reading after that. Even though I read a lot.. I usually have to wait about 24 hours after finishing a book to start another. It's just a weird little superstition/OCD/feng shui type thing with me. I need to get the old book out of my system, it feels like. Today, when I finished The Rapture of Canaan, I was still in a reading mood, and had time on my hands but couldn't pick up the next book. I didn't even want to. But now it's sitting here on my desk just staring at me. I think Canaan would understand.

The evening went much better than the day.

Mark and I headed back down south to a Kmart that's been "closing" for at least 6 weeks. Everytime we go down there the discounts are a little deeper, and the shelves are a lot barer. We did manage to find some things to stock up on, but we didn't go nuts. Then we went out to a nice dinner at Alamos Verdes, a restaurant that's been in Arvada for years..I remember going there as a kid. It was yummy scrummy, and the service was stellar.

While we were at Kmart, I asked Mark "what time is it?" and he said "7:01". I couldnt believe we were missing Vivor. I called home and had Daniel tape it for us...phew. And how about these new tribes, eh? heh heh. Shawna's all about making me puke, and I still love Deena. Heidi must go and soon.

Emma comes tomorrow, for an extended stay due to Spring Break. I think Im fully stocked on Emma must haves. Ham, beef stew, pop-tarts, Crystal Light with Calcium, goldfish, and oreos. The necessities.

Katie is going to San Fransisco in about a week. Big pout. We'll miss her. Here's a shot I took of her today while she was chatting to Amanda.

Im in a really grouchy mood today. No particular reason. Just wanting to be confrontational to everyone I know, but instead keeping silent, hiding in my cave and keeping my fingers away from people's comments.

"And all these little things in life they all create this haze
There’s too many things to get done, and I’m running out of days.."
~3 Doors Down

Man, I am loving this song. I have played it about 12 times in a row, with headphones on. I'm singing along way too loud.

Just in case anyone forgot, I have the nicest sweetie in the whole world. I told him today I wanted to have a birdhouse..and he set out helping me make one right away. Ok, he did most of it. It's all done now, and ready to paint.



And this was the gorgeous sunset we had lighting our work...



I love loving this man.

Do you believe it? They found Elizabeth Smart.

Katie and I were just laughing about something I used to make them do in school. 2 things, actually. I always told them that whenever there was a new kid in their class, that they had to ask them to have lunch with them, at least for that first day. It was a steadfast rule in our house, from 1st grade on. I don't know where I got the idea, or why it was even an issue, my parents lived in the same house through all my school years, so I never was the new kid. You'd think my motivation for instilling such a rule came from remembering how horrible it was to be the new kid, but I had no such recollection. Katie said she always did it, that she thought I would "know" if she didn't.

Daniel made a good friend this way, a boy who was sick with leukemia and in a wheelchair, Shiloh. I think he really appreciated Daniel's gesture, and they hit it off as good friends after the first lunch "date". Shiloh was gone a lot and in the hospital frequently. Daniel would always give me medical reports on what was going on with him. His mom was really nice and would come to the classroom all the time and let the kids know why Shiloh wasn't there, and how he was doing. He finally went into remission and could even walk again, he came back to school, and then *bam*.. his mother died unexpectedly. I know Daniel worried about him a lot, and eventually they lost touch with each other. We saw him about 2 years ago at a grocery store, and he looked great.

I also did another goofy thing. Whenever there was a field trip and the kids were required to bring a sack lunch, I always made two..and told the kids that if someone forgets theirs, give them the extra. And it seems there was always someone who forgot. An effortless gesture that probably made some kids day, I hope.

Katie also told me that whenever I bundled them up in the cold; neck scarves, hoods, etc..that they always took them off as soon as they were out of the house. Great, just great.
And..they (her and Amanda) hid pork that we had for dinner in their pockets. Brother.

I remember when I was about 35 I told my mom that when I was a teenager, my friend Tom M and I used to jump off the roof of the house onto the trampoline when she was gone. She got so mad, she was yelling at me. heh.

Man, I got so sick last night. I don't know why..just all of the sudden I was needing to barf and montezuma was revengin'. I laid motionless on the couch for about 2 hours of the food network (which Mark was kind enough to sit with me and watch) and went to bed, slept great..and I feel pretty good now. Trying to take care of a lot of niggly business today, my financial aid, call here, call there...you know all those little things you keep putting off..."ooh, I need to call them.." That kind of shit. Good to be getting it done tho.

Business is good, dunno what the hell happened in February, book buying moratorium or something.

We're going to the flea market on Saturday! Whee! It's huge! (Nation's 3rd largest) It's fun! (2000 vendors) We'll come home broke! (and dead tired!)

It's really becoming a trend. I hope you went and read the original Hidden Humor of Iconographic Instructions from the Homeland Security Website. If you didn't shame on you, cause I had tears rolling down my face from laughing so damn hard. Well, if you did go there, like I asked you nicely to..and enjoyed it...here's some more, though the first ones are much funnier. What? You don't like to laugh? You are a sour puss? Well then screw you.

We really do start losing our head when we can't find a book. Yes, it's the same book we couldn't find yesterday.
Danelle: whatcha doin cutie
Mark: walking in the laundry room lookin stupid
Danelle: yea? i doubt that
Mark: well i walk in ...
Mark: stroll up and down, i can feel the books nudging each other and nodding in my direction as if to say - "look, it's back again"
Danelle: ha!
Mark: then 6800 tiny sighs of relief as i leave without one
Mark: i think they are hiding it
Danelle: that's kinda creepy tho.
Mark: i want to start burning a random book in the laundry room until they turn it over.
Mark: i have had enough of this "I'm Spartacus" crap
Mark: it's book burning time
Mark: take the batteries out of the smoke detector - NO-ONE WILL HEAR THEM SCREAM
Mark: i think i need to stop reading Dave Barry while taking a shit, it's doing something to my head.
Danelle: I have to blog this

A good day, actually had fun at lunch with my mom. She was very talkative and wanted to know all about the bookselling biz. Showed her the library here at the house, and she was floored!

Six Feet Under is on in a few minutes, gotta love that.

Kt: hey
Danelle: hey
Kt: i instant messaged grandma and she goes "hey, did you have a half day at school today?"
Kt: and im like its sunday!
Danelle: oh dear.
Danelle: what did she say then?
Kt: she hasnt answered
Danelle: she's probably laffing herself to death for being so dense
Kt: she asked me to go out to lunch , cause mandi is sick. crap
Kt: i bet shed pick you up and go with you
Danelle: oh crap. NO.
Danelle: ACK she asked. you idiot, you told her i was home alone
Kt: yeah!
Kt: sorry
Kt: i figured it would be good for you!
Kt: it wont take all day. dont turn her down
Danelle: well does she know i dont have a car?
Kt: yeah
Danelle: FUCK
Kt: i told her im at charlies with your car
Kt: she will prolly pick you up
Danelle: no she'll want me to crawl over broken glass and feel guilty about it
Danelle: oh god she's coming I have to GO!
Danelle: you IDIOT!
Danelle: lol... bye
Kt: lol

SNL has been really funny tonight, for once. Who Farted? heh.

But who is this musical guest person? Miss Dynamite? Hmm..more like Miss DudSparkler. Get your teeth fixed, for goodness sakes.

Emma had a ball, we just got wet.



And playing ball on the stairs, Emma in her new bathrobe. (Mark and Emma do this all the time. ) Looking at the photo, it startled me to see how close to the stairs she was. We'll be changing this game. hee.

Do you ever find yourself chasing around blogger people you know in other people's comments? It's almost like you're all chatting.

Man Emma loves that Sk8er Boy song.

I know a lot of people don't like her, but I swear, there isn't a bad song on this Avril Levigne CD. A mood enhancing CD, to me. If I'm in a good mood, it makes me float all the more. If I'm in a bad mood, it's fosters the aggression. The Saves the Day CD "Stay What You Are" is the same way for me. Good tunes.

I just put up an 'about me' link. As Emma would say..."boring!" But I noticed the first thing I do when I go to a new site is look for an about me page. Thought maybe I should have one. OK, ok, ok I'm just BORED! Sue me!

Im so tired of this layout. Blah.

Today's been...I dunno. Dull, boring, and yet I had to be on my toes all day cause of Emma. Mark slept for a good 6 hours, Charlie, Kt and Daniel went to Dan's for dinner, and Daniel is spending the night there, so there was no one else here. Emma was having a particularly needy day, not naughty or anything just... "I want this, can I do that, where's this, I need a snack, Im hungry, Im thirsty, can I watch this, the tv's not working, can I wake daddy up..etc, etc.." augh. Mark is finally up now and is feeling much better. I've announced I am having some Nell time at present.

Amanda called me today..sick, sick, sick. Had it coming out both ends, so to speak. She didn't want to call Justin to go get her some meddies, cause she didn't want him to know she had diarrhea. Heh. Cindi had agreed to bring her some, but soon after Amanda broke down and had Justin bring it for her. Told her to get some immodium and some Gatorade asap. She called a little while later and said both were helping a lot. Immodium rocks. diddums...she was crying when she called me the first time, I felt helpless! I had no car and my girlie needed some stuff! Thanks to Cindi for agreeing to go, even though she ended up not needing to.

So what am I going to do about this layout, I wonder.

im bored. im bored. im bored. im bored. im bored. im bored. im bored.

That's how bored I am. Katie has had my car all day, Emma is contentedly watching a movie, Mark has been alseep on the sofa for hours, I've pulled 10 of 11 book orders..and can't find the last one... you know how mad that makes me. It's old. I've seen it. Where is it.

I just took a shower and washed and blow dried my hair and I am having a very bad hair day. How can someone with Marcia Brady hair have a bad hair day?

Today I'll be wearing my nursemaid hat, Mark isn't feeling well. Very nauseous and weak. Hmm sounds familiar about a week ago. We have absolutely no plans for the day or evening, so that's good..he can just chill and get better.

I've revamped the "reads" list, took off some and added some. The ones I took off were ones I had quit reading for one reason or another. One was getting really depressing, and it was making me depressed just to read it. Anyway, check out the new ones... bookslut, and working mom. I also added one called "pick up your own damn socks" which appears to be a rant place for wives to bash their husbands habits. We'll see how that one goes.

I had a dream this morning..something about dropping some papers off at someone's house, finding them not at home and rifling through their desk drawers which were full of knitting. Yes, knitting. They had a golden retriever with a plastic muzzle on....Then being in a car with Cindi who was being really rude to me. I don't know what it is, I am having some whacked out dreams lately.

I hadn't noticed this comment a few days ago from Katie: (re: the weird dream I had 03/03/03 - ooh that's weird, too.)

"that dream is just so gross. i can't get over how nasty it is. you are so weird mom. : ). PS THANK you sO much for taking me shopping. I know it wasnt that fun but I needed it. you kick butt
~katie"

aww. Katie rocks.

From the March 10th edition of Newsweek:

“There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.”
~Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, clarifying US policy on the war on terror at a pentagon briefing.

Has anyone seen him and Dan Quayle at the same place at the same time? They're the same person, right?

You have to go read The Hidden Humor of Iconographic Instructions from the Homeland Security Website. Funny, funny funny.

Putting Emma to bed, Mark asked if she thought she needed meddies, she hadn't had any since the parking lot wonderment. She said no, then i said, "Well, if you start coughing, I'll bring you one of your new meddies." She shut her door, then opened it and said "I think Im gonna start coughing." heh. We gave her one and she said "That was goodalicious."

I'm a proud member of the church of Triaminic.

We're getting ready to go watch the last installment of "Band of Brothers". It's been a fun little ritual for us to make coffee, squeeze onto the couch together under a quilt, and watch "Bob"..we call it. We'll have to find a replacement after tonight.

Night All...

I'm telling you, these are the greatest things since Gore invented the internet:



Emma hates taking liquid cough medicine (who doesn't), and even though she was usually pretty nice about taking it, it was still really yucky and she hated it. I bought some of these today, and gave her one in the parking lot. I took it out of the package and handed it to her, and said, "put it on your tongue, it says it will melt really fast." By the time I had the box closed she said "it's gone". And all the way home she was saying "wow, those are great!" She couldn't wait to run in the house and show them to daddy. I think the big pain of giving her cold and cough meddies is OVER! Woohoo! Dy, you know what to do. heh.

I just want to sit around and be lazy. Can I? I dont want to list books, I don't want to pull books..I don't want to make dinner. Emma wants macaroni and cheese and turkey ham tho. That I can do. I cant hardly keep any turkey ham in the house when she's here. Even if she just happens to see it in the fridge, she wants some instantly. I'm glad it's cheap.

Everyone else is getting left-over meatloaf.

I dunno. I just dont know.

Someone needs to poke dubya in the back and tell him Vivor starts in 5 minutes. This most unpopular President is not going to win any polls by pre-empting Survivor. God.

All's quiet. Emma needed some meddies for a cough, which she gulped splendidly..sometimes it's tricky. She's playing quietly in her room, Mark's taking a nap and I just put a yummy metloaf in the oven. Should be ready just after Vivor starts. My meatloaf never comes out the same, maybe a little italian dressing, bbq sauce, dry onion soup mix, possibly some crunched up wheat thins substitue for the bread crumbs, and always diced onions. This time I also dropped in a small dollop of hot mustard. Should be interesting, it always comes out good though. I like to use those little French's dried onion strips sometimes too, but didn't have any this time. Im the last person anyone should ever buy a recipe book for, I never use em, never have. I cook like my mom did, a little of this, a little of that and it usually turns out pretty good. We're meat and potatoes kinda eaters, so it's never too difficult to get something to come out well. I do a mean stir fry tho. I dont cook italian however, because I don't like it. I have perfected the art of indoor pork ribs tho, eh Dy?

Riveting stuff I know.

We just got back from the post office and I was looking around intently for Cyndi, to make sure I didnt miss her again. Damn, I still feel bad about that. Ah well...

Blah dee blah.

Mark is on his way to go pick up the midget. I was thinking of tagging along today, but we got up late and I didn't feel like rushing around. Plus there's a lot of orders waiting this morning, and yada yada yada I didn't go.

We watched "Catch Me If You Can" last night and it was really good. Makes me want to read the book, to see what all they left out. Gees louise, that Frank Abagnale was a slick one. I only fell asleep for about 5 minutes during the movie, which I thought was a pretty good feat.

We had to call the grannies (landlords) about the light in the kitchen that isn't working, despite our attempts at changing the flourescent tubes. We like the grannies, they leave us alone and we try to leave them alone. Our problem is only with their repairperson "Allie" who seems to be a little more than careless, from our past experiences with "her". Allie is somewhere between the "I was a man and now Im a woman" stage, which isn't surprising because the grannies are full blown lesbians. They make no bones about it, and if ya got a problem with that, well too bad. That's their attitude, which is cool with us. But Allie is just one of those TV's or TG's (Im really not sure how far she is into the process) that looks like just a really really ugly woman. And she's dirty. Really dirty. She's always got something smeared across the chest of her shirt, she smells really ropey, and her hair....well...let's just not go there. So tomorrow, Allie is coming to fix the light.

We've had a couple of negative run-ins with Allie, one time she came to fix something and "assumed" no one was home, opened the door without knocking and found Daniel sitting on the couch in his boxers. One time she broke a bottle of Jack Daniels and didn't tell us, and another time came to fix the plumbing and left a total mess when she was done. The last time she was here, we were on our way out and she asked if she could borrow a knife to cut some string. I gave her my boker auto and told her to just put it in the window where she was working when she was done. It was there when we got back, but looked like she'd been cutting sheet metal with it. *sigh.

So tomorrow she'll be here to fix the light. Hide the Jack and hope she brings her own knife.

Sooo...has anyone else noticed a lot of hiccups in blogger since the whole google thing was announced? *sigh.

And how come everytime I post how great Mark is he does something to totally piss me off. Bah. We worked it out tho. We just both have very passionate tempers, and are extremely stubborn. But...on the other hand who else could possibly live with us, except another hot tempered stubborn ass. We work damn hard for this relationship, I'll tell you that.

I couldnt pay all of Katie's dental bill this morning, But I got within $175, and I'm happy about that. She was there for 2.5 hours...augh. Afterwards I came home and chilled on the couch, watching episode after episode of "Birth Day" on Discovery Health. Late in the afternoon Mark and I went to buy books, go out to dinner, and to the grocery store. A pretty productive day after all. Now we're having some time to ourselves, we're hooking up on the couch under a quilt around 10 to watch a movie and share some coffee. Life really is good. Tomorrow is already Emma day...I can't believe it! We've already finished shopping for her birthday (a month and half away), and there's stuff laying all over the place that I need to hide!

A personal note to Cyndi P...Im so sorry I didnt see you in the post office. Was it yesterday, with Katie? I was so flustered, because it was so busy and I always take up so much time at the window. I pretend no one is there cause I can feel the daggers at my back. Seriously, don't let me get away with that again!

And...my sister is going to Mexico? I had no idea. That's like one of the top three things I want to do before I croak. Bah. I'll likely not make it out of Colorado for the next few years, much less out of this country. Ppffttt.... Hey, weren't we supposed to go somewhere when I turned 40?

Katie is safely tucked away in a dental chair, and I am at home pulling books. Lotsa orders this morning, that's good. February was a little slower than is comfortable.

We stayed up w-a-y too late last night, ceiling time and all. But it's so nice. I truly have the best guy in the world. No one has ever made me feel more special, encouraged and validated. Maybe 15 years with TheAss just makes it seem all the more wonderful. But damn, it's grand. Now if I just had an unlimited supply of money, life would be perfect.

I guess I need to put on my coat and boots. Just got an email that said "Danelle, your date is waiting! fh902js3".

I hate to keep people waiting.

Had a good time shopping with Katie, but it was a blizzard out, and that took some of the fun away. We stopped and had some lunch too, and shopped until around 7pm! Got a ton of stuff, for cheap as can be.

Now I've been listing books for about 2 hours, and Im ready for the couch. Katie has a 2 hour dentist appointment at 9am, and that's all Im going to say about that.

Came across this, and thought it was funny.

"Martin Luther King was all about peace. Non-violence. Getting along. But now it's just a holiday, and a street. In every town I've ever been in in America, there's a Martin Luther King Boulevard. But the street ain't about peace, and getting along. You can be certain if you're on MLK Boulevard, there's some violence going down. It isn't the safest place to be. You can't call somebody and say you're lost on MLK Boulevard.

"Dude, Im lost on MLK."
"Run! Run! Run!"

"And federal employees get the day off. That includes prisoners who have jobs. And prison guards. I wonder if James Earl Ray was walkin around prison saying "Damn, all these folks got the day off and nobody even thanked me."
~Chris Rock

Auugh. Feeling blah today. It's snowing again. Wondering what it is that's sucking in Dy's world.

Katie and I are going shopping after school. I have to shower and be ready to pick her up at school in an hour. She says she desperately needs summer clothes. Which is likely true, because she's dropped at least two sizes since last summer, and she's going to SanFran in a couple of weeks. So, away we go.

I have a really bad sore throat. But just on one side. That's annoying.

I had a weird dream again this morning after I got up to go to the bathroom at 7am. Sexual dreams that made no sense at all. It was some type of weird orgy..I was with who in my mind was Crystal..for God sakes..but her face was Anne Heche's, who I don't even like. She had this weird swimming fetish and I had to wear a swimming cap, a towel around my neck and a pink mouthpiece, like boxers wear. Mark had no penis, just really large testicles. Weird.

Through headaches and toil, blood, sweat and tears, We've managed to make a page of all our books for sale. Slow loading on a slow modem. Steam-powered dial up users..dont bother. We just wanted to see if it would work. It did, finally. Crazy. I'll put a permanent link up soon.

Buy a book, good for you, good for me.

Cologger pics are here. Click on "Cologgers Feb 03". There, happy?!

Fear Factor was so incredibly gross. My stomach is upset just from watching it. Time for a movie I think.

Well, just back from my testing and stuff. No surprises in the scores...97 Reading, 98 writing, 98 Sentence Structure, 27 Algebra. Helloo! I wonder what my weakness is...hmm...

So I've tested out of some pre-reqs but there are two light semesters of pre-reqs I have to take (mostly math) before I can even get on the waiting list for the nursing program...which is likely 13-18 months long. I know, blah. Im not going to let it deter me though, just going to keep plugging away and look towards hopefully being done by '07. Groan.

The good news is that my Financial Aid looks very promising. I have an orientation meeting I have to go to on Wednesday night, then an appointment with an advisor on March 31 to set up all my pre-reqs, and hopefully have all my financial aid in order by registration on April 17. Yee haw, we're having some fun. I just keep saying to myself...why didn't I do this sooner?! I'll be 108 years old before Im done.

I'm going to go take some Tylenol, I didn't eat until after 4pm, which for me is a recipe for disaster. So as a result I have a raging headache now. Thank you very much, that is all.

Pictures sometime before bed, I promise.

Yes I know it's 2:35 and I have a "test" tomorrow. We was talkin.

Six Feet Under was definitely trippy. I really don't like that Lisa person. Did they have to replace our "love to hate her Brenda" with Lisa? I'd rather hate Brenda. Lisa reminds me of too many people I know. No, not you two. Just, people. Radical, over the top trendy new agers. Lemme just go get my rainbow tie dyed flow skirt and raaalph. Hey, you don't have to read here you know. heh.

My stomach is better, but I'm still having um..other problems. I saw on tv where you shouldn't take immodium for you-know-what unless you absolutely have to because diarrhea (such a pretty name) is your body trying to get rid of something. So I've suffered with it most of the day, but I think I'm finally done. Bleh. My stomach feels a lot better. I want to go to bed early and wake up refreshed and intelligent for my basic ASSessment test tomorrow at Front Range. Blogging is to writing, as painting is to....oh screw you.

The creeping stomach crud is not much better, and am only online right now so I can help Mark pull books. Otherwise the day has been spent on the couch, in my jammies...sucking down popsicles and ice water. We watched episode 8 of Band of Brothers (we've been watching an episode every night that we had d'l'd some months ago). Also watched a copy of The Good Girl, taped from a movie theater in China, evidently. People walking around and coughing, waving things in front of the screen...and the movie was subtitled in chinese. Interesting. But a pretty good flick.

Tonight is the 3rd season opener of Six Feet Under, something we have waited for, for a long long time. Im so excited. Not excited enough to get dressed, tho...although I might take a shower. News at 11.

Im not feeling well at all. I feel like I have the creeping stomach crud. Trying to just ignore it and hopefully it will hate the inattention and go away.

We're planning a nice indoor day today. Dy and Emma will likely be leaving soon, after that we're gonna make a fire, play some scrabble and watch movies till my eyes wont stay open any longer.

It's been a oddball weekend having both Dy and Emma here. Dy's fine company to have around, she doesn't ask for much (nothing!) and sincerely appreciates the hospitality shown, even if that just means a fridge full of soda and toilet paper on the roll. And she was a fine thrift store shopping companion...she buys more for other people than for herself....just like I do.

It's been more oddball pertaining to Emma, tho. Normally Emma and I would lay on the couch together, watch silly shows, read, color crazy pictures and eat lunch at the kitchen table together. But with Dy here, Emma really didn't say more than a couple of words to me all weekend. And I didnt get any of the normal Emma rushing in to the room.."Nell..Nell...I love you". Not one. Ah well... I was surprised that I missed getting her dressed, giving her a bath, fixing her hair. All the silly stuff. I didn't feel like I had hurt feelings or anything, just kinda like I had the weekend to myself physically and emotionally..and didn't know what to do with it. It's totally understandable and no one's fault..it's just the way of kids. If mom's around, pretty much no one else exists. And that's the way it should be.

I've had a lot of really bad dreams this weekend, and Im not sure why that is. Had one Friday night about Emma going down the toilet. (Don't tell her this - she's already deathly afraid of this happening). We could barely see her still, but couldnt get her out. Weird.

Had a really disturbing one last night that brings tears to my eyes even recalling it just now. For some reason Mark and I were homeless, and were staying in some hovel downtown. I seem to remember in the dream that it was near "California St." somewhere. (We do have a California St in Denver). Anyway, it was really disgusting, we literally had no possessions. The mattress was pink and it had leftover puke on it from someone else. I remember that very distinctly. Anyway, for some reason..Mark and I had to seperate. I don't remember why, and we didn't want to, we just had to. So we were both somehow wandering the streets without each other...but we kept leaving and finding all these little notes and codes to each other. Signals that each other had been there. Eventually one day I found some cryptic note that took me a long time to figure out, but finally figured out that it means to meet him back at the old place on California. We reunited there...and that's pretty much when I woke up. I was crying about it when I woke up, but I told Mark about it and he said it was a good dream, and means that no matter what happens to us..that being together will be the most important thing. *sigh. That's damn sweet.

So, my stomach's settled a little, and I think I can tolerate some coffee. S' gonna be a good day.

Too much goin on, no time to write.

Had a blast at the Cologger's meetup last night, made new friends and chummed with the old too. Dy was here when we got home, having spent many hours on the road trying to get to Denver from the mtns. We thrift store'd all day today, then made a huge dinner and watched Bowling for Columbine. Now we're all beat and zombie-fied.

Cindi came over for a while, that was fun. Nice for her to finally meet Dy. People keep saying "Isn't it weird for Mark's wife to be staying over with you guys". And it is, but it totally isn't. I mean it seems like it should be weird...but it's just part of this whole extended family thing we have going on. And really, it's all centered around Emma. Everybody just wants to be cool cause of Emma. And that's nice.

Amanda rammed her snowmobile into a tree today. May have broken some fingers, and cut her face up a bit. Said it took them over an hour to dig the snowmobile out of 9 feet of snow, and then several hours to get back to Denver from..where else..the mtns. *sigh. People, people. It's winter in the Rocky Mountains. Stay down here in the city and drink wine, make a fire and be cozy. Please.