I should have done a little post about being grateful for my family, my husband, and my friends and for my many blessings. So belated thanks. We had a great Thanksgiving! I was off Wednesday through Friday, but the days went by in a blur. Wednesday I hung out with my mom in Destin, including a Krispee Kreme donut run, Old Time Pottery, Fresh Market, and some other places. That night Monkeys and I worked on getting dinner prepped for tomorrow and putting up the Christmas tree since we were under a bit of a time crunch. Normally I start Christmas decorating on my birthday (Dec 2nd), but this year it made more sense to take advantage of the days off. Thanksgiving was AWESOME. My parents and Toaster, who was orphaned this holiday, came over. Monkeys made five different kinds of stuffed turkey breast: traditional stuffing, artichoke hearts and feta, baby bella mushrooms and Swiss cheese, roasted garlic and bousin cheese, and Bree and cranberry. He also made a pumpkin desert and a homemade cheesecake. Toaster’s mom sent over one of their traditional family deserts and Mom brought a pecan pie and Waldorf salad. I made two different salads (my version of the O’Charlies California salad and my version of my coworker’s Napa salad) and cream cheese & garlic mashed potatoes. Monkeys made our favorite Indian Green Beans recipe. Mom made cornbread stuffing and corn pudding. So it was a good blend of healthy foods and OMG STARCHES.

Afterwards my parents let me open my birthday present early – Beatles Rock Band!! The five of us played for a bit. Mom did well on the drums in the end! It was hysterical watching my parents attempt it at first, however. Dad was in the drum corps in high school and my grandmother was a professional drummer, so I thought he would be most comfortable starting with that. I was soooooo wrong. He was so bad that mom took one of the drumsticks away from him so that he could just worry about watching one side of the drum kit while she took care of the other side. Neither of them were playing in sync, they didn’t seem to know what the other was going to do, and they kept talking frantically trying to tell the other person what to do. I laughed so hard I cried, and it looked like Toaster was going to fall out of her seat. I was kind of sad when they caught on.

Not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car." (Will Shriner)

My grandfathers were the first people to come to mind on All Soul's Day. It seems like they were radically different people. I guess they had one thing in common: They both had really white hair. I hope when my hair changes colors it's the same pure shade of white.


Most of my memories of my maternal grandfather are from when he was in the VA Hospital towards the end of his days. He passed away when I was six, and when he was alive he lived five or six hours away, so I didn’t get to see him often. But all the memories I do have, I cherish. There are pictures of me sitting in his lap while he read me the newspaper, sitting in his lap on the porch, swinging in his tree swing, or curled up asleep in his big green chair. I don’t remember any of these moments, but I remember feeling loved. I associate him with circus peanuts. I don’t have any specific recollection of him ever giving me a circus peanut, but I know that he must have with every visit because to this day whenever I see a bag of circus peanuts photographic images of him float through the back of my mind. I also think of him every time I am offered a thumbprint cookie. I remember being five years old and helping my mother bake thumbprint cookies before a trip to the VA Hospital. She mixed the dough and rolled out the cookies. I supplied the thumbprint, and she filled the hole with jelly then baked them. I remember carrying a giant plastic container full of yellow apricot and grape purple cookies into the lobby and offering all the nurses and attendants cookies. I loved the attention and compliments. Papa couldn’t actually eat the cookies because of the breathing tubes. These were the old days, when children weren’t allowed up in the rooms. I don’t know why we were banned from the rooms – maybe they thought we’d be traumatized, maybe they thought it wasn’t healthy for the patients, who knows. My parents had to take turns watching me hand out cookies in the lobby while they each took a turn up in the room with Papa. When there were no more cookies I got taken outside to the grounds, held up underneath a familiar third story window, and told to wave. I waved more emphatically once I spotted the hands waving back down at me through the curtains. Other visits I recall running around the grounds playing tag with my cousins, also too young to be allowed in the room for a visit. My mother lost Papa in 1976, but I lost him years before thanks to those hospital regulations.


I could write a book about my paternal grandfather. Actually, somebody ought to write a book about him; he was a real character. I loved him dearly because he could always make me laugh. Whether it was from stealing my dinner rolls then blaming it on my grandmother (surefire amusement for a six year old) or offering to spray down my boyfriend’s bushy beard with chigger spray for my protection (well, it amused me), he was always up to something. My favorite story involves one of his favorite pastimes – sitting at the counter at the Donut King in Odgensburg eavesdropping on conversations then butting in with unwanted advice. If anyone railed at him he would raise his eyebrows with a confused and hurt expression and apologetically protest, “Hey, I’m just a concerned citizen!” Someone actually bought him a baseball cap that said “Concerned Citizen” so that he could just point. Maybe that’s apocryphal, but I could totally picture him doing it.

ME: If you had to choose between Jennifer Lopez and ice cream which would it be?

DAD: Oh, that's hard. What flavor's the ice cream?



We were playing Apples to Apples with my relatives, and when my mother played "Fantastic" during her role as judge my Aunt Cheryl played the name of a cute actor. She won the round, and consequently won the game. My uncle and father grumbled and complained and accused her of cheating somehow. She mentioned that had a man been the judge she would have played Jennifer Lopez. Dad shook his head in resignation and said "well, if I were judging you'd have had another green card." We all laughed, and Dad made some sort of comment about how you couldn't not pick Jennifer Lopez. That's when we started presenting various options. After it was established that it would be chocolate ice cream, Monkeys moved on to number of scoops...

What am I not doing that I ought to be doing?
I feel a shoe drop is looming...

TWO MORE DAYS OF REGISTRATION!!! SIX DAYS TO DRAGONCON!!!! TOMORROW IS FRIDAY!!!! SUNDAY IS MONKEY'S BIRTHDAY!!! MONDAY IS CHARLOTTE'S BIRTHDAY. MONDAY WE CLOSE OUT GRADUATION!!!! SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH GOING ON!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monkeys baked an amazing chocolate cherry cake for Charlotte's birthday. My coworker was the person who fixed us up AND baked our wedding cake AND catered our wedding as a wedding present to us. (After much arm twisting she finally agreed to accept $500 and a homemade quilt as a thank you for the amazing food she prepared for us because you just can't do that much work on catering a wedding for nothing.) Oh, she also did half the reception decorating. :) Yeah, she rocks. So anyway, tomorrow I'm attempting to bring the cake in w/o destroying it or eating any of it.

I am more disorganized this Dragoncon than any other in the past. I don't know what's up with me. I did just dig out my Rutles DVD on the off chance of having Neil Innes autograph it. I have done nothing else in prep for that. I need to take down the MST3K film reel - sooooo excited about them being there!!! Monkeys asked me today if I knew where my Dukes of Hazard lunchbox from 5th grade is - LOL!

I wore one of the Shalwar Kameez to work today! My mom usually refuses to take things, even things I've bought for her specifically. She won't even let us buy her dinner for her birthday!!! So today when I told her that now that I'd worn the yellow SK out, I was going to give it to her I fully expected her to protest ("Raven gave it to you, not me" "I don't need any more clothes" "You look so pretty in it, you need to keep it" and many other similar comments) and that I would have to arm wrestle her into agreeing to take it, pointing out that I can borrow it back at any time, so it wasn't a hardship. Nope. Her eyes lit up and she said "okay!" almost before I got the entire sentence out of my mouth. I was kind of stunned. I was actually silent for a bit afterwards. Then I giggled. So anyway, I'm giving it to her on Saturday. Ha!

I can do the full Thriller dance now!!! The Vincent Price version, not the 3 minute radio version. Yay! I still need to play the video with the spoken dance steps; I can't do them completely on my own, but I'm getting close. I can do the radio version even without the spoken words, so now it's just a waiting game - some day I'll be in a Walmart or a McDonalds when the song comes on over the radio and SURPRISE!! Don't think I won't, either. I worked hard for this.

Work has been busy but not painful. So far people haven't been yelling that much, and I'm no longer adverse to pointing out that if they had put in their application, sent away for transcripts and filed for financial aide earlier (as opposed to the week before classes starting) they would have access to classes and free money by now, but there is nothing I can do to speed up your other college sending out a transcript or the federal government processing your pell application AND even if both did arrive tomorrow we can't guarantee they will be entered into our database before classes start on Monday considering how many other people are asking us the same questions about *their* late applications. I am friendly about it and phrase it in a way to point out this is a lesson for them to make life easier for them next semester. It's true. It's a lesson I had to learn myself back when I was a student. Meanwhile, I'm actually optimistic I may finish one major project tomorrow despite all the interruptions AND today was our employee appreciation luncheon (which most of our office didn't get to attend because we had to work) so I got a free meal. I brought it home for Monkeys and me tonight, and it was actually really, really good though crazy high in points. (Country fried steak, mashed potatoes, white gravy, green beans, red velvet cake.) We split it 75/25 in a vain effort to control points. Well, I lie. I ate all the cake. But I didn't get lunch today, so I'm hoping I stayed under points...

Tomorrow is lunch with parents. Friday is dinner and a movie with the old Reading Group. Saturday is Gathering. Sunday my parents are coming up to our house for lunch - we're going to watch the 2nd season of the IT Crowd (my parents love that show!) and I get to show them my Thriller dance and the headboard Monkeys built.

Now I ought to get of and work a bit on Dragoncon prep and at least one strand on my cross stitch project, darn it.

I have had an outstanding weekend so far!

First, I got to put my car in the shop to have the A/C finally fixed. Even though my warranty has finally expired, they still covered it since they ordered the part while it was under. (And probably because they were the ones who most likely broke it AND it took them two months to get back to me about the part. I think they forgot about me. I still adore them; they are lovely people.) While it was in, they also did an oil change and fixed my headlight. I dropped it off at 8 in the morning and got it back at 5 that evening. In the meantime, the plan was to hang out with my parents.

Plans change! Thursday night my cousin IM'd me saying she had to go to P'cola for work on Friday and could we meet for lunch. She lives in Tally, so I don't get to see her often. I was concerned about the timing, and I started babbling about cars and parents. She said "Well, my parents just got off the phone with your parents, and they are going to be visiting them tomorrow." I promptly called Mom to make sure they could still pick me up from the dealership, and we worked out modified plans for everyone (both sets of parents, me, Jay, Jay's kids) to meet up for lunch. It was a blast! I hung out all morning shopping with my moms, then we all met up in Destin for lunch followed by more window shopping. It was an awesome visit, loads of laughing and silliness. I was giving the kids horrible advice with a mostly straight face - after all, a godmother should look after their futures. We also had a bunch of crazy storms and awful traffic due to several (nonlethal) accidents, which caused additional hilarious conversations. I miss my family!

That evening we had dinner/movie plans with a friend. She brought along one of her friends who had driven up from South Florida and who turned out to be wicked funny. When I am more alert I should post more about her. Meanwhile I had sushi and got to watch Pass the Ammo & Saved.

Saturday I got to reunite with one of my best friends from high school. We reconnected thanks to Facebook, and I've been having a blast writing Shakespearean limericks and top ten lists with her. She carved out two hours of her time visiting relatives to have lunch with us at a local Greek restaurant. Again, there was tons of laughter and catching up and meeting the husbands and her adorable daughter.

After lunch, Monkeys and I went TV shopping. I think they guy we bought it from may actually outgeek Monkeys. Well, in some areas. We were there for maybe 2 hours, and only 30 minutes of it was spent buying the tv. The rest was a geekfest explosion. (In conversation we discovered he knew one of Monkey's fellow AF EOD guys.)

Tonight we have the Sat Night Gang over for Supernatural. We just finished watching four episodes. Now we are doing Garth M's Dark Place. So a perfect day!

Tomorrow my parents are coming up to watch that last Ms Marple again, because none of us had a clue about what was going on.

Earlier today I was typing on Facebook while wearing 4 pounds worth of wrist weights. Now I'm sitting here in tap shoes typing instead of tapping. I'm so tired! I just don't have the energy to do anything. I feel as though I would fall instantly asleep if my head were to rest against anything.

I have managed to get all my trip laundry finished and folded. I just need to actually put it in drawers. I also cooked our lunch and did dishes. That's something, I suppose.

We ate out pretty much every day up there. We had ice cream four of the eight days. We also had fudge (Alex Bay has two fudge shops) and cookies and scones and muffins and brownies (the Busy Corner Cafe has loads of sweets). We met some aunts/uncles at Pizza Hut. Another set of relatives had a massive and amazing cookout for Alissa's high school graduation. Oh - and then there's the legendary buffet in Troutville, VA called Country Cookin' - possibly my favorite restaurant in the universe. ::wistful sigh:: Did I mention the Caramel Turtle coffee drink at Busy Corner? Half coffee, half hot chocolate, real caramel sundae topping, and probably loads of cream that's covered in whipped topping and chocolate. It's fantastic. I had three over the course of our stay there. The last one I split with Monkeys, at least. I gained six pounds from the trip. I'm actually surprised it wasn't more - but I also made sure to go out walking every day, to take the stairs instead of the elevators most trips, and to just walk the stairs as exercise some evenings. Monkeys ate everything that I ate plus a little more (I at least split some of my meals with my mom), yet he seems to have lost weight from the trip. That's not fair!

I attempted a low-calorie version of the Caramel Turtle Coffee today, and it wasn't too bad. I got some sugar-free hot chocolate, some caramel flavored coffee, and some sugar-free coffee syrup. If I had added some fat-free whipped cream on top with some more sugarfree cocoa sprinkled on the cream it probably would have been 90% perfect. So my goal is to get some sugar-free caramel sundae topping and whipped cream before my next attempt. I must succeed!!

I saw this on loresinger and thought it was really neat, so I stole the meme. I'm not going to tell which band I picked; you can guess if you like. I'll make an icon for the first guesser. Instructions:

Using only song TITLES from ONE ARTIST and NO REPEATING SONGS, cleverly answer these questions.

I choose ...

1 Are you male or female: “ I'll Be That Girl ”
2 Describe yourself: “ A ”
3 How do you feel: “ Thanks, That Was Fun ”
4 Describe where you currently live: “ In The Drink ”
5 If you could go anywhere, where would you go: “ Long Way Back Home ”
6 Your best friends are: “ Conventioneers ”
7 You know that: " Everything Old Is New Again "
8 What is life to you: “ Beautiful ”
9 The best advice you can give: " I Can I Will I Do " or Never Is Enough
10 If you could change your name, what would it be: “ Maybe Katie ”
11 Something you're looking forward to: " If I Had A Millions Dollars ”
12 What you're going to call this list: ” Get In Line ”

Today's our last day in NY, so I won't be able to sneak off to the Busy Corner Cafe tomorrow and steal bandwidth. No one will be able to read my music title masterpiece unless our hotel tomorrow night has wifi. Yesterday we went to Alex Bay and walked the streets. Next visit I'm doing the boat tour darn it, but we still had fun, especially as we found some new shops this year. One coffee gift shop was extra fun. One of the owner's friends was in line beside me harassing his friend about bad service. The shopowner was giving back as good as he got. When it came my time to check out I was fishing around for pennies, and the friend handed me two. The owner made a snarky comment about the out-of-character act of kindness. Meanwhile, I found a penny from the Bahamas amidst my change and exclaimed "I've never even been to the Bahamas" which triggered more jokes from them. Finally I got checked out. As I was leaving, my penny-donor said, "He used to be my friend, but I changed my mind." I said, "You came to your senses." just as the door was shutting, and through the crack I heard both of them laughing and saying "oooooooooooooo" in startled voices. I was a bit afraid I had offended them, but as much as they were picking on each other, I think they were just pleased with the slam.I have more pictures of us eating ice cream to post eventually. Fudge and icecream and photoop THEN off to my Uncle's farm. I didn't get to tromp around the farm as much as normal, but we had a great visit and chat with relatives. In a bout of extraordinary timing, my cousin happened to be visiting from Germany, so I got to see family I haven't seen in possibly ten years. Today we have plans to meet up with three sets of relatives, so it will be a drive around day. Then we are doing loads of laundry and packing for an early rise return trip home. Woot!

bedraggled hermit delivering speeches to pinecones

Just about to leave the cafe, so no time to write a real post. It took forever to get the pictures loaded. :) THIS PLACE HAS THE BEST COFFEE!!

	Blue Ridge Mountains Can't see them too well, but that's the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background when we stopped off in VA for the night.
	Apples My uncle has a Macintosh apple tree in his backyard. Unfortunately they were not yet ready for eating.
	Me and Gram Stopped off at Pulaski for cheese curd and ice cream.
	Canada! W/o a passport this is as close as I can get now. I'm actually pointing at the building, not the ship. I was telling Monkeys to make sure to get it in the picture and didn't realize he was already pressing the button.
	Ship's a moving This is the same ship from earlier - it's made it all the way to the other side of the marina.
	Croak Croak Mom said it looked like he had pecans on his skin.
	Flower Power Monkeys giving me a wildflower.
	Monkeys gave me a flower! Monkeys picked a wildflower from the park and gave it to me. :)
	Busy Corner Cafe - again My favorite place in the 'Burg.
	Busy Corner Cafe If you are EVER in Ogdensburg, stop here!!! And get the caramel turtle coffee.YUM! Monkeys let me use his big laptop and took the small one so that we could take advantage of their free wifi to check email.
	GIANT marigolds Have you seen marigolds this big before?
	Ogdensburg banner Tried to get a picture of me near the sign. Gram's building is in the background on the left.
	Joining the Border Control I will be guarding the FL/AL border when I accept my new position...
	A is for Anarchy For some reason I really liked this bit of graffiti.

For Christmas last year I gave my parents a set of Margaret Rutherford/Ms Marple movies. Last Saturday my parents and I watched Murder at the Gallop. As Mom and I were sipping tea, eating madeleines, and pretending to be right proper ladies, I was struck by a resemblance between Pertwee and Rutherford:

I loved the Infocom Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy game. I actually prefer the text-based adventures to most of today's computer games. Anyway, I was goofing around LJ and found this link on someone's page (forgot to write down who's journal to give credit for providing the link...). It's an article from Wired magazine showing WoW if it had been a text based adventure. I've never played WoW, but this was funny...

http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/commentary/alttext/2006/03/70348


Meanwhile, Monkey's podcast got mentioned on Wired magazine's Cult of Mac site (again!)
http://cultofmac.com/25-years-of-mac-engineer-steve-capps-talks/11189


And we are home safe from Tallahassee. Loved visiting; wish we could stay longer. My godson graduated high school on Friday, so we went over for the ceremony. It was one of those weekends were we were nonstop - getting things ready for the ceremony, getting things ready for the after party, getting things ready for their week vacation, etc. We made a vow that one weekend we're just going over to do *nothing* but hang out.

We also saw Night at the Museum II when we got back - loved it! Even with my back out from the bad seating at the Tally civic center and sleeping on the floor, I still enjoyed the movie - so props to the movie as it was hard to get my mind to break away from the real world of owieouch yet somehow it succeeded.

I'm tired.

I am so excited about our upcoming New York trip!! I want to start packing now but that’s just stupid as we aren’t leaving until June 19th. Monkeys is coming this year; it’s the second time in the nine years we’ve been married, so I’m extra excited because I keep thinking about getting to show him houses and yards and plants and rocks. He’s probably not all that excited, because I’m sure nothing has changed dramatically since the other time he came with us. But two of my cousins got new homes with *amazing* yards, so I think Monkeys will enjoy tromping around their woods and streams, at least.

I’m not really much of a nature girl. I don’t spend a lot of time outside. But I think that’s because there isn’t much shade around here and I don’t handle sunshine well (instant explosion) and because all we have around here are sand spurs, beaches, and straggly pines and water oaks. Our beaches are gorgeous, truly. The Gulf is stunning; the water is often the most incredible shades of blue and green. (Often – “frequently”, not “one who has no children”…) When I was dating Ken of the Sailboat I was outside every weekend on the boat enjoying the coastline. But from shore, it’s not as fun for me. I love mountains and woods and streams. I love Florida more, so I imagine I will never permanently get my forest home, which I suppose makes the NY trips even more special.

I adore everything about the flora and fauna up there. I love visiting the plants as much as I love visiting the people, which seems a little wrong. But they have ferns and flowers and bushes that we just can’t grow down here. It’s insanely green and lush. Honestly, I could just lay out a sleeping bag in any of my aunts’ or uncles’ back yards and sit in the grass the entire week. Well, except for the bugs. I hate the bugs. They don’t get as many of them either because of the cold winters which would probably freeze me back to Florida, but they do have loads of mosquitoes. Then again, at least that part feels like home. :)

Lately I feel like my life is revolving around Wii Fit and food. :( That's all I can think about at the moment. I'm vaguely depressed. Saturday I got yelled at by the Fit for gaining two pounds in one day. Sunday I got another lecture for gaining *another* two pounds. I also got a lecture on metabolism which I fast forwarded through angrily. Today I got told after losing 2 pounds in one day that I'm losing weight at a healthy pace. I think the Fit is on crack. (I really did gain four pounds in two days/lose two pounds. My WW weigh in confirmed it. Hormones/water weight/bloating/blahblahblah. I'm just not counting this week. This week did not happen.)

Other stuff is happening.

* We had people over for dinner on Sunday. Monkeys cooked an amazing dinner, and we played Tribond. I love Tribond. Normally I'm extremely competitive, and our last dinner with this couple I tried very very hard to kill him in a game of Frag. This time I was really good, and I passed up on a chance to go out AND was really happy when he won. So I was proud of me. We also got to see a video of their last sonogram 3D image. It's amazing what doctors can do with prenatal stuffs nowadays.

* Saturday we had Gathering and it was awesome. We watched BBT, Castle, and a Bill Bailey routine. Earlier that day I watched a Midsummer Murder with my parents. The day was made of win.

* Friday we saw STAR TREK with a billion of our friends AND IT WAS AWESOME. I love my friends, and I loved the movie. I had massive crushes on Spock, Scotty, *and* Chekov as a teen. Massive. If I ever could have beamed aboard the Enterprise ... well, to quote the Young Ones, I'd have totally been "ship's cook and porcupine." I was relieved after the movie to have a crush only on Scotty. :)

* Thursday I went to my Godparent's class at church, so I should be getting my certificate of completion soon. Charity's son's baptism is July 5th, so I've got time to get it to them. Woot! I want to get him a stuffed St. Timothy doll. :) *giggle*!! They have stuffed plush saint dolls, I've been told...

* Wednesday I have blocked out but

* Tuesday was our graduation ceremony!! It was so beautiful. I do intend to write something about it, but I'm too tired.

Hmmm. I'm going to bed.

Vote for Pedro John

You know how I frequently brag about my fake-brother and Trigo, his bakery and café? (Cuz he’s an amazing chef…) Well he does other stuff, too. As a small business owner in Panama City he felt the same economic impact that other small businesses along main street were feeling, but he decided to try to do something about it. So he ran for office. He got first place in the votes!! But one other person came close enough that they may have a run off. Still, I wanted to brag about him and show off his campaign site and the article about the election. The article doesn't say much except the vote tally, but his website is pretty cool. It made me wish I lived in Panama City so I could help with the campaign!

Yay Johnny!! Fingers still crossed!!

Last week was super busy (Holy Week, first week of registration, and workshop). Plus, immediately after work Friday we were leaving for GARF. So when we got a call from Monkey’s nephew on Saturday saying they were coming down for the week and would arrive on Monday, I wasn’t thrilled with the timing. Saturday was Easter Vigil and there was no way I could do anything but church related stuff that day. My parents were spending the night, and we had plans for Sunday – dying eggs, watching movies. I had from 3pm to midnight to get ready for company and pack for GARF since I wouldn’t be able to pack during the week. I also had a steadily worsening ear infection. Oh, and Monkeys had to work late a couple nights that week prepping for an upcoming TDY and I had classes on Tuesday. Really bad timing. I did manage to find a few moments at work to print out info on the Gulfarium, some water parks and go carts rides, area beaches and museums, etc. so they’d have something to do during the day while we were at work since we couldn’t take off to show them ourselves.

They arrived before we got home from work, so it was good that I had the bed made up for them Sunday night! When I got home they were completely zonked from the drive (they drove straight down), so it gave me time to run to the store to pick up a prescription and buy them some sodas. That’s when I discovered I didn’t get my wallet back from Mom on Saturday. Ooops! No sodas, no pills. Mom brought me my wallet Tuesday, so I cut yoga to get medicines and some supplies for them before going to Catechism. I was not going to cut that. Despite the visit’s timing causing Monkeys and me all sorts of work/GARF/when can we do laundry?!?!?! stress, it was a *good* visit.

Monday I cooked dinner (which they lied and said was good!) then we watched YouTube stuff. I got to share a lot of the things Matt/Raven/Toaster/etc had shared with me. Tuesday they went to the Gulfarium and the beach and got crazy sunburned! Ha! But they had a blast. That night Monkeys made spaghetti and they watched movies until I got home from class. Then Bobby made us smoothies and the kids showed us pictures from their day and loads of pictures of their 6-month-old. Wednesday all four of us went out for pizza and Bobby and I played pool at some crazy biker bar. I suck at pool, but it was fun!! I actually almost made a comeback for both games, which was a relief that I didn’t look like a total loser. The bikers at the other table and I kept nearly bumping into each other. Thankfully, although they looked tough they were very polite. Apparently Celia and Monkeys had a good time, too. From where they were sitting watching us they could also overhear a drunk, older man hitting on the young girlfriend of one of the pool playing bikers. They did impressions of pickup attempts all the way home, but they also gave the old guy credit for being very brave (or stupid) to risk the biker’s anger and to use such cheesy lines. That evening we played Wii until late in the evening. Thursday we took them Goofy Golfing and then to my mom’s for dinner. It was cute seeing them eat flan for the first time. Friday they hung out at our house until we got home for work so that they could say goodbye to us, then they headed home to WI. They are both incredibly good kids, so we really enjoyed their company. I love that they wanted to show us pictures of their house _{(which was bigger and better than mine!!)} and their new daughter _{(it was their first time away from her and it was driving them nuts!}) and that they wanted to tell us about their lives and show us things they liked. I loved that they asked us questions and wanted us to share our lives in return. Not all 20 year olds are like that, you know? They were always quick to thank us for anything we did for them while down there, and they brought their own food/drinks to try not to be moochy (though we insisted they could have anything in our kitchen for their breakfasts/lunches and tried to make their dinners). We made them promise to come back with more notice so that we could actually take off time from work and hang out more.

We’re going up to WI in October, and they have offered to let us stay with them if Monkey’s dad’s house gets too crowded. They are even going to schedule their daughter’s 1st birthday party around our visit if possible so that we can attend. Sometimes I feel bad for Monkeys that his family lives so far away, but at least when he does get to see him the distance doesn’t seem to affect the affection.

For those who celebrate - Happy Easter!

My parents spent the night since Easter Vigil didn't get out until around 10:30 last night. We had scones for breakfast cuz Monkey's ROCKS and we dyed Easter eggs (beautifully, I might add) then watched almost the entire second season of Mulberry Days, then had ham sandwiches. Perfect. :)

Yesterday was amazing. I don't quite know how to put the last three days into words even. The three masses were each so powerful in their own very different ways. I was at times overawed and even weeped. Many thanks to Toaster for sponsoring me and helping me with joining the Catholic church. When I have pictures and time to organize my thoughts I'll try to write a little bit about it. (I want to for myself, at least. So might as well post it, too.)

I do want to say Toaster sang BEAUTIFULLY and also share some thanks and short stories about how generous some of my friends are -

Charity, one of my friends since 9th grade who also converted to Catholicism a few years ago and also offered to sponsor me but she lives in another city, actually called my parish priest, got the text for the Vigil, and made personalized missals (??) for me and all my fellow RCIA classmates. How amazing is that? Everyone was really touched. One of our RCIA teachers, the church secretary, made bracelets for all the girls in class - I wore mine that night because it perfectly matched the dress I had on. Another of our instructors gave everyone a Miraculous Medal. A third of our instructors gave everyone a Rosary! When she gave me mine she apologized because it wasn't my favorite color (they were out of blue) and said that she was going to be bringing me a shinier one to my office later on but for now she got me a white one for the color of baptism. She added that I could just keep the white one in my car! How sweet is that? Toaster gave me a cross with my middle name on it and a Catholic bible with my whole name on it. Toaster's parents gave me a medal with my confirmation name (St Barbara) and two books on the saints. So incredibly thoughtful of them all.

My parents, Monkeys, my very very very pregnant friend Charity & husband, and of course Toaster/Toaster's parents were able to attend the Vigil. Since my parents and Monkeys aren't Catholic I asked Steve&Charity/Toastents to keep an eye on them and make sure they were comfortable/weren't confused/etc. Apparently Steve took this responsibility very seriously, because Mom commented on how incredibly nice Steve was about explaining everything in the Missal and keeping Dad aware of what lines they were on, etc. My mom, who was always just a bit iffy about my conversion, is now 100% okay. Okay, iffy might not be the best word. She started out not particularly happy about me wanting to change, although she would never have forbidden it or disowned me or anything. Nothing against Catholicism as a religion, just against *me* as a Catholic. I know it's hard for a parent when their child makes a big change like that because it can feel like a rejection, you know? She'd been steadily getting better about it. I think the fact I picked Barbara as my saint (my mom's name is also Barbara) actually helped. The Vigil turned the tide completely though. My mom realized why I liked the Catholic church so much, which oddly enough is why it doesn't suit her. Nothing really about the basic belief system, she just doesn't like pomp and circumstance. In fact, her mother and mother's side of the family were Catholic. Neither of my parents are, however. They just like straight singing and preaching - no bells, no incense, no formal chanting, none of that color symbology stuff or holy water/genuflecting/etc. But it suddenly hit her - her daughter does like that kind of thing. I always have. It's what I like about our college graduation ceremony, it's in the types of fantasy books I've always read. Apparently seeing me up there during my Profession for Those Already Baptized and during my annointing with oil for Confirmation and even in the first time I had Eucharist made it click for both of them. Mom said there was a giant smile on my face (the priest said I was actually beaming) and all seven of them were impressed with how happy I looked. So after the Vigil, I really feel like my parents were proud of me, even if I was leaving their church and preferences, and I know they are actually happy for me. That is the best Easter present of all.

But I also got three packages of Cadbury eggs. :)

Apropos of nothing...to quote John Lennon - I'm so tired.
I can't begin to describe how tired I am right now. :( I'm going to take a nap.
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(I wrote this a work today during a break - it's a description of last weekend)
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First of all, if you live in or near Panama City, Florida – go to Trigo Café. It’s on Harrison Street, and the food is outstanding and reasonably priced. If you do eat there, before you leave you must buy a loaf of his Bleu Cheese Pecan bread. It’s unbelievable.
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Ten months after I was born, friends of my parents gave birth to their own baby girl. To this day I tell Janey that after a month of playing with me they wanted one of their own. Yeah, I’m humble.
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I say “friends of my parents” but really they are family, and they always will be. I think of her parents as my spare set of parents and her brothers as my brothers. So last weekend I helped out with her dad’s 70th birthday party held at Janey’s brother’s restaurant, Trigo. It was a huge affair! Three of his sisters and his brother came, along with many of their children. Also attending, of course, were Janey and her two brothers, their spouses, all of their children, my parents, and my husband – so I’m guessing there were about forty of us in all. It was a surprise party and there is a really funny story about that which I cannot publish but would be glad to tell you in person… Jay and husband and son came over the Friday before, so we made a birthday banner, played Quiddler, and generally just enjoyed being together. We live in different cities and although we email almost daily, we don’t actually *see* each other that often, so it was sooooooo good to have her over. The next day, after yet another pancake breakfast, we kidnapped my parents and drove to Panama City. It was a gorgeous day – it couldn’t have been prettier, and the drive involves passing loads of beaches so the scenery was lovely. We got there early enough to hit some shops and check into the hotel where Jay and nearly her entire family were spending the night. Mom got in a *great* slam on one of her brothers. (Janey’s family is Catholic and her brother, who is truly crazy, was trying to put a claim on my converting because he said it would give him seven years. I asked, “Off purgatory?” and his wife snickered. Then Jimmy started quizzing me and telling me how I needed to go to daily mass because he goes to daily mass. Mom asked him “And what good has that done *you*?” which triggered applause. Ha!)
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We left them by the pool to decorate the restaurant while Johnny and one of his employees cooked dinner. Slowly, family began to arrive and mill about catching up with everyone. Some live in Tampa, some in Panama City, some in Tallahassee, some in Pennsylvania, etc. so it was great having everyone in one room. Someone finally spotted the birthday boy’s car – lured over to help with “an electrical problem Johnny seemed to be having with the restaurant” – and suddenly 35 people ran down a hallway and into a storeroom noisily trying to hide. How they couldn’t been seen and heard from the street I don’t know. Anyway, some of the smarter people hid behind the counter instead, and they jumped out and yelled a weak surprise while the bulk of the crown was still stuck in the storeroom, which was pretty funny. Then everyone else had to file out of the storeroom one by one because of space constraints, so from my vantage point it looked like the Marx Brothers (Night at the Opera?) where people kept falling out of the tiny ship cabin. It worked out great as a receiving line; however, because as each person filed by John he gave them a hug and thanked them for coming.
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The rest of the evening was awesome because it was filled with everyone talking. I had an absolute blast. Many people in their family ought to be comedians because they can be hysterically funny. Jimmy, who is the craziest one and who used to tie me to furniture when he was six and I was one because he wanted to play with me and I wouldn’t stop crawling, is full of outrageous and questionable stories from being a bail bondsman. He used to be a private investigator before that, so he lives a wild and occasionally dangerous lifestyle. Nearly everyone is easy to talk to, so conversation flowed nonstop. And the majority of the people there I knew since birth (theirs or mine!) so, it was just really comfortable and familiar.
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Unfortunately, I can’t share many of the stories told (even with names changed to protect the innocent).
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We left around nine and made the two hour trek home. I can’t begin to imagine what happened after we left… The hotel is still standing, however, so that’s a good sign.

I'm up to issue 512 of Order of the Stick - Yay! I am so in love with Elan. I want desperately to play Quest or DnD or something so that I can be a bard. Despite all my OOTS reading today I have still have managed to do three loads of laundry, wash some dishes, pay bills, clean the master bathroom, practice tap, and get some stuff up in the attic. All and all, not too bad. Of course, my to do list was a lot longer, so I shouldn't be too pleased with myself. I still have to read chapter two and do the homework, do some grocery shopping, catch up on emails, and loads more housework.

Instead, I will babble a wee bit about Mom's birthday. She was hugged on behalf of all who emailed birthday wishes. :) I'm so excited about how much Mom loved her birthday present. I'm slowly getting her the entire set of Midsommer Murders. Well, I also got her some old Ms Marple movies. She was quite surprised. :) My dad is a big fan of the Midsommer Murders, as well. Normally I get him books, but his face lit up as much as mom's when she opened her presents, so I'm thinking I might switch to the shows for him, too. That way, it's kind of like getting presents for *both* of them all at once. Anyway, we haven't watched the Marples, but we have watched a bunch of the Midsommers, and with each episode I'm more impressed with the series. Monkeys likes it, too, so that's really nice. All four of us can watch them together. Oh, and we also got to call my grandmother, who has the same birthday as Mom. Gram turned 90, so she was getting LOADS of phone calls that night. She said she was stunned by how many bouquets and cards and calls she was getting. Really, she should have been stunned by our off-key singing. It was awful. OH - but later Monkeys and I played uke/mando for Mom. Thankfully we were on key for that.

There's a commercial on tv for the movie Confessions of a Shop-a-holic. I don't know what they movie will be like, but the book is actually quite funny. I laughed out loud (and quite loudly) on multiple occasions. I believe I even forced someone to listen to me read a few portions of the book that particularly amused and forced at least two other people to borrow the first book. There are maybe four books in the series? I don't know. I have read three, so I know there are at least three. The Manhattan one was hysterical, too, but I don't remember the third. Anyway, didn't mean to write about that - I was intending to get back to work, but the commercial distracted me. (Confession of a LJ-a-holic)

Fin.

I got about eight pairs of socks for Christmas!! They are insanely cool. I need to take pictures. I also got two pairs of converse hightops (one of them is more of a boot than a hightop).

Speaking of socks - in putting some of my socks away I discovered a pair of Alaskan moose socks barely hidden amidst the other socks. I can't believe I didn't notice them until now.

After Monkey's amazing dinner and the gift exchange, we sat down to watch Black Orchid. Mom and Dad actually really liked it. Turned out to be a good choice as it was more of a mystery than a traditional Doctor Who episode. (It was a birthday present from droidgirl's brother. I gave my mom season one of Midsommer Mysteries, so we watched those for the rest of the evening. A very nice night, indeed.

Meanwhile, I am obsessed with Word Challenge over on Facebook and do not see to be able to do anything else but play that.