Some Stuff to Share

Today’s my birthday. I’m firmly entrenched in my 30’s now. I really hate that. The Mister and I went shopping yesterday and I got a new purse and wallet to match and a new pair of sunglasses. I told him that I didn’t want anything, and I really meant it, but we were out so why not. We also got Fools Gold, Juno, and the first season of The Shield on DVD. It was a fun time and good enough for my birthday.

Friday night we went to Jacksonville for dinner. We got there early so we did a little shopping that day too, heheh. I got the cutest pair of sandals. Check them out:

I absolutely love them and they are very comfortable and they were on sale too. I also got a new pair of running shoes but the arches hit my feet wrong so I’m giving them to the oldest child. It’s too bad too because I really liked them and I have the hardest time picking out running shoes. Just ask Jennifer. She went with me back when we both lived in California and it was probably the most painful shoe shopping trip she ever suffered through. I still need new running shoes though because my current ones make my toes go numb on the elliptical. Not a good thing.

Oh. And I also got the newest “Stuff” pack for the Sims 2. It’s Ikea furniture and I love it!

When I’m depressed, I shop. I’m not a comfort eater, I’m a comfort shopper. I’m feeling much better these days, LMAO!!

I also have another picture that I want to share because I find it hilarious:

This is Bailey being silly with her rope. She cracks me up when she does this.

And this picture is the oldest child’s guinea pig, Bacon. We’ve been Bacon-sitting for her while she's in Ohio and he’s a cute little guy. He likes to sleep in this dish which used to be his food dish. Now he has another food dish that's too small for him to sleep in.

Lastly, the following picture is the view from our hotel room in Asheville. It was pretty nice, huh?

That's it for today. Sorry for all the previous funkiness.

In a Funk

I’m missing my kids. Yesterday, I turned the TV to the Disney channel while Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place was on and read my book. I told the Mister this and a friend and they both laughed at me. The kids are doing well in Ohio though. They call me at least once a day and we text off and on too. They’re having a good time with my dad and step mom. They’ve been visiting with my nephew too which is a lot of fun for them.

As for me, I’ve been bored out of my mind. I’ve been working, playing on the Wii, working out on the elliptical, cleaning house, shopping, reading, and we’ve visited with a couple of our friends both Wednesday and Thursday but it’s still not a lot to fill the days when I’m used to my kids hanging around me constantly. I’ve been going to bed before 11 out of boredom which kinda backfires because I’ve been getting up early in the mornings which just makes the day longer. How do people with no kids fill their days??? The Mister is taking a couple days of leave right after the 4th so that he can get away from work for a couple days so that’ll be nice. He’s taking more leave at the end of July so we can take a vacation of our own. We just have to decide where we’re going. We’ve nixed the Texas idea because I don’t want to go anywhere that’s going to take longer than a day to drive. We’re considering renting a beach house either at Atlantic Beach, NC, Myrtle Beach, or Virginia Beach but I’m afraid the pickings will be slim this time of year. We’re also considering heading back to the Asheville area and actually taking the time to see it and the Mister’s never been there before at all.I dunno. I just want to go somewhere that’s an actual city with shopping, great places to eat, and lots of people. I’m tired of the boonies. That might nix Asheville as well, heheh. GEEZ!! Who knows?!?! We’ll probably end up doing nothing at all because we can’t decide.

Anywho, I’ve been reading another Philippa Gregory book. This one is The Constant Princess and it’s the story of Katherine of Aragon. I’ve never read an actual historical account of her early life, so I don’t know how much of Gregory’s story is historically accurate but it seems to be very much romanticized. I have read how her life ends though so we’ll see how it turns out. It’s a good read and I’m really liking it so far.

Well, this killed ten minutes, lol. Now what?

Home and Kidless

I made it back home from Asheville.  I do NOT like driving that long by myself. The trip there was okay because the girls kept me company but six hours in a car with nobody to talk to isn’t my kind of fun. Also, Greensboro was confusing as heck because my GPS was lost the whole time. I seriously need updated maps for it. Or at the very least, an actual atlas, lol. My phone was dead the whole way home too because the car charger wouldn't charge it and I didn't bring the other charger.

The kids are in Ohio with their grandparents. They called and texted me last night. I miss them pretty bad right now. It’s not even any fun to have the house all to myself today. The dogs being depressed doesn’t help either.

Asheville was okay. The downtown area is confusing because they don’t use a lot of street signs. We went out for dinner at this place called Salsa’s. It’s Latin/Caribbean food that was WAY overpriced in my opinion. We all agreed that while the food was okay, it wasn’t good enough for us to want to go back. Oh well, right? Western North Carolina is very beautiful with all the mountains. It reminded me a lot of Vermont in the summer. Even so, I don’t care if I ever get to go back. I prefer the beach.

Now, I’m up to nothing. Sitting here at my computer is the very last thing that I feel like doing. I know. Big shock there. I just need to get used to the kids being gone.

That’s it. I have nothing else I feel like saying. This post sucks butt. I wouldn't have even bothered except for the fact that it's been a couple days since I posted. I’ll be in better form later. I hope.

Till Later

Today was a BUSY day. I spent the day packing the girls up which is no small feat when they’re going to be gone several weeks and their rooms are disasters. They each have their own roll along suitcase thing, two backpacks, and one empty suitcase to fill up with the stuff that their grandparents will spoil them with. I also had endless errands to run today too which involved the grocery store, Walmart, Target, and the mall. Sheesh!

I almost bought a new GPS for the occasion. Mine can’t find the street that my hotel is on so I figured that the software should be updated. When I went online to check for a map update I discovered that it would cost me over $80. Can we say, WTF?!?! I can almost buy a new GPS for that. I remedied the problem by finding the nearest intersection which is one street up and I should be able to find the hotel no problem. Most hotels have big ‘ol signs out front, heheh. I’m not happy about having to pay for a map update though. What a crock.

I have more to say but I’m tired and I have to get up early tomorrow. I won’t have a computer until Tuesday night but I will be able to send tweets. So, if you’re curious as to what we’re up to while we’re gone, either subscribe to my tweets or check out my thingy on the left which shows my tweets. I’m trishaj on Twitter just so’s ya know.

See ya’ll when I get back.

No Go

Doesn’t look like we’re going to the family day thing after all. It’s currently pouring down rain and thundering and lightening. It was supposed to take place in a clearing in a wooded area. NOT where you want to be during a storm. However, the dumb thing was supposed to last until 3 so there’s still a possibility that we’ll be making an appearance. Anywho…

We celebrated the oldest child’s birthday last night. She invited over her favorite friend and we all went to the Lobster for dinner. She opened her stuff after we were done eating which gave away that we were celebrating a birthday. As a result, dessert was served with a candle and the staff singing Happy Birthday to her. It was hilarious and she was completely embarrassed. Her big gift from us was an iPod Nano. We kept telling her that all she was getting was socks and underwear, heheh.

I had a very sleepless night last night. I think my anxiety over the kids leaving for Ohio is manifesting itself in weird dreams and insomnia. I dreamt that we were betting on horses. I’ve never been to a horse race in my life so I have no idea where that came from. I also had nightmarish-type dreams that I only vaguely remember. When I told the Mister about my horse dream, he thought that I said I dreamt were playing bedroom horses, lmao. Umm. NOPE! I actually woke him up at 4:30 this morning to tell him that I couldn’t sleep. I don’t usually do that. He was having weird dreams too.

As for the rest of our weekend, I have no idea what we’re doing. It hasn't rained in a month and now we're all confused, lol.

And Another Thing

I could probably turn this into a couple different posts, but why bother. Here’s some stuff I’ve been meaning to mention but keep forgetting.

First off, any and all of the products that I mention on my blog I mention because I want to not because I’m getting paid to. I like to pass on what I would consider to be useful information to my friends and my blogging friends. Here’s another little something that I’ve tried lately.

Ocean Spray Cranergy Juice. It’s sweetened with sucralose which I HATE. I hate any artificial sweeteners. They all taste like crap to me no matter how many times I’ve tried to force myself to like them. Aside from that, I really like this juice. I gives an amazing energy boost that lasts longer than a caffeine fix does and it’s better for you. To get past the distasteful tasting Splenda, I just down a glass as fast as I can, lol. It’s pretty great for energy though.

Next, a website called Musicovery. I discovered this while Stumbling the other day. Basically, it’s a website where you can listen to music. The neat thing about it? You can pick your genre, your decade, whether it plays hits, obscure music, or your favorites, your country (this influences which genres you have to pick from) AND your mood and Musicovery will select music to fit your criteria. You have to sign up in order to save your favorites, but it’s free to sign up for a lo-fi connection. I really like the interface and I’ve discovered some new artists that I like as well. I think the website is French but I’m not sure. It makes it a little confusing when you register, lol. You’ll need to be able to do a little translating but I think it’s totally worth it.

My next topic is something we call “Mandatory Fun”. I know that anyone who’s been a Marine (and possibly other branches as well, I’m not sure) knows what this means. Basically, it’s a gathering of Marines and their families for a bbq or an entire day of games, giveaways, and food. The catch:  You have to go even if you don’t want to. If you think I’m exaggerating, the following is a quote from an e-mail that went out to the Mister’s squadron:

…Just in case we have someone who does not understand what highly encouraged means, I will clarify. This translates to, "all will be there unless they have a legitimate reason that you approve of." We need good numbers…

Saturday, we had already had plans in place. We were going to go to the beach as a family one last time before the girls go to Ohio. This is important to us, being able to spend some quality time with our kids before they leave for several weeks. However, this would not be considered a “legitimate reason” not to attend so we’re going. I don’t normally, at least post recruiting duty, bitch about my husband’s job, but this is why he’s probably getting out with 14 years behind him and only six years to go before retirement. I’ve had enough of this type of thing. Doesn’t forcing people to attend something take away from the whole meaning of the thing, camaraderie and forging friendships and crap? Alright. Enough of that.

I put in some solid time on the elliptical this morning. I couldn’t get on it yesterday because my legs were so sore I could barely walk, lmao. I’m feeling pretty righteous. After my shower, I took this time to stop sweating, I’m taking the girls out to get their hair cut and maybe do a little clothes shopping. We bought them their very own suitcases last night. Usually, they just take ours but we have traveling plans this summer and will need them ourselves. We also got the oldest child her birthday present and we’re having cake and ice cream tonight. Her birthday’s not until July, but we won’t be with her to celebrate so we’re doing it tonight.

I gotsta get in the shower now. I’m starting to pickle.

Thursday Reading

I’m skipping the Thursday meme because I couldn’t figure out how to answer it. Instead, I’m going to take a look at what I’ve been reading lately.

I recently finished Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor by Stephanie Barron.

The synopsis:

On a visit to the estate of her friend, the young and beautiful Isobel Payne, Countess of Scargrave, Jane bears witness to a tragedy. Isobel's husband—a gentleman of mature years—is felled by a mysterious and agonizing ailment. The Earl's death seems a cruel blow of fate for the newly married Isobel. Yet the bereaved widow soon finds that it's only the beginning of her misfortune...as she receives a sinister missive accusing her and the Earl's nephew of adultery—and murder. Desperately afraid that the letter will expose her to the worst sort of scandal, Isobel begs Jane for help. And Jane finds herself embroiled in a perilous investigation that will soon have her following a trail of clues that leads all the way to Newgate Prison and the House of Lords—a trail that may well place Jane's own person in the gravest jeopardy.

What I thought:

I actually started reading this book back in March during my California trip. It was easy to put down and leave it for three months. If I had a rating system, I’d give it 2/12 out of 5 stars for “it was okay”. I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t grab me in the least. I like Barron’s writing style in that it truly seems like Jane Austen is telling the story. The “whodunit” aspect of the book was fun and I didn’t figure out who the murderer was until right before Jane did. I’m like that though. I never figure out the culprit until he or she is revealed, lol.

I'm not sure that I feel compelled to read anymore of Barron's series though. I have to be drawn in to a series to continue reading it and this book just didn't do it for me.

Absent

Boy! Don’t get on the computer for a day and playing catch up takes forever. I made a conscientious decision to not spend the whole day at my comp yesterday. Hence, I didn’t check my e-mail, blog, respond to comments, Plurk, Twitter, and whatever else I may do on any given day. As a result, I had over 100 e-mails to attend to, tons of responses that I missed on Readers Anonymous, I have no idea what happened in the news yesterday, 108 Plurk responses, 63 unread items in my Google Reader, as well as a host of other stuff. I’m going to be MIA Monday and Tuesday too with taking the girls to Asheville. My inbox will be a nightmare, lol.

So, how'd I spend my computer free day? I cleaned the family room and the kitchen. I watched two movies with the youngest child. Oh. I was online long enough yesterday to pay bills and balance my check book. Fun, fun. Our elliptical machine was delivered and the Mister and I  put it together yesterday. I watched the season two premier of Flipping Out. I finished a book and I’m in the middle of reading another. And I didn’t miss the Internet one little bit.

This morning I got my first workout on the elliptical. Boy!! Am I ever out of shape. I barely made it for 15 minutes. I’m going to try and get another 15 in this evening too. I LOVE it though. It has pretty neato features on it and I like the “walk in the park” workout. The only negative is that it kept telling me my heart rate was 72 and I know after 15 minutes my heart rate was way faster than that. Maybe I’m not gripping the handle thing correctly. Something to research. We had a little drama concerning the machine this morning though.

We unpacked it outside and brought it in the house piece by piece because the delivery guy said that the grime on the box would stain the carpets. After we had all the pieces inside, we had the girls clean up the minor mess of Styrofoam and then break the box down for recycling. It wasn’t much and it was about ten minutes worth of work. This morning, the Mister e-mailed me from work and told me that the girls’ way of cleaning the mess was to stuff the Styrofoam behind the bushes and now we have bits of Styrofoam all over the yard. I confronted the girls and the oldest child admitted that it was her doing. Now, she’s outside cleaning the entire yard and after that she has to clean the living room. She proceeded to tell me that she was not going to clean the living room because she doesn’t want to and then I had to threaten bodily harm. That resulted in her stomping to her room to change her clothes and haul her butt outside to clean. Now she’s on the front porch, as I type, pouting and probably thinking that she’s thrilled to be leaving this dark, mean dungeon in five days, heheh. Drama, drama, drama.

One last thing on the elliptical…I ordered it from Amazon.com. We got the free supersaver shipping or whatever it’s called which saved us $120. Our estimated time of arrival was 6/19 which is why I was so shocked when the delivery guy called last night to see if he could deliver it. What’s more, it turns out that it would have been delivered last week had he had the correct contact phone number for me. I’m not sure why Amazon had the correct mailing address online but not the correct phone number, but whatever. That’s pretty amazing delivery in my opinion though. Besides the fact that the delivery guy said we had to take the wooden pallet it came on, I was impressed with the delivery. Any suggestions what I should do with a pallet??

Now I’m off to catch up with my blog reading, my Readers Anonymous reading, and to work. Please, keep me in your thoughts that the oldest child’s mood will not result in my going insane.

A Day at the Beach

The girls and I took off for a girls only excursion to the beach today. It’s the first time that we’ve ever gone just the three of us and it was very nice. The temps were perfect and there was a steady breeze so it wasn’t hot at all. When we got there, it was a green flag which means that the undertows and rip currents are good so the girls were able to play quite a ways off shore. When we were getting ready to leave though, the lifeguards put up the yellow flag so our timing was perfect. Other than some minor road raging on the way home, the day was great.

Now, I’m killing time while I wait to chauffeur the oldest child to a sleep over. After that, I have a couple hours I need to put in for work. The fun never stops around here, heheh.

Sorry. No pictures today. I didn’t want to take the camera to the beach with me.

Funny Video

For those who own cats, are owned by cats, or just like cats.

My Day

We finalized the plans for getting the girls to Ohio. Turns out that I get to drive them to Asheville to meet my dad and stepmom halfway a week from Monday. The Mister has an inspection at work that he can't get out of so I get to make the six hour trip myself. I've driven 13 hours by myself from VT to Ohio so six hours is not that bad. This time, I'll have my GPS whereas the first time I had a map and two kids that hadn't a clue how to read it, lol. I'm totally looking forward to touring the Biltmore. Asheville was actually my idea because I've always wanted to see it.

Also today, we drove to Jacksonville to buy a mat for our new elliptical machine, food for Bacon the guinea pig, dog food, beads for crafts, rechargeable batteries, AND...I hit the Barnes and Noble and bought June's book plus TWO more which I'm totally excited about reading. I'll post more about them on another post.

Lastly, we're grilling black angus ribeyes and broccollini for dinner and I'm roasting potatoes in the oven. I was outside with the Mister putting the broccollini on the grill and got bit three times by mosquitoes. They're evil down here.

Tomorrow our plans are to veg. The Mister has homework to do and I have reading to do. Yay! Reading!

Friday the 13th

Did you know this is the only Friday the 13th in 2008? I tend not to be superstitious about these kinda things. I only have one superstition and I’m not even sure that’s what it would be considered. See, we have this lemur that the oldest child got out of a happy meal from McDonalds back in 1998. We had gone out to lunch or something with us (The Mister, the oldest child (the only child at the time) and me) and a couple Marines that the Mister was in MOS school with in Pensacola. Joe, one of the Marines, took the lemur and clipped it around the passenger side vanity mirror and the lemur has been in every car we’ve had since. He’s brought us pretty good luck when it comes to traffic accidents and moving violations. Before moving to N.C., the last speeding ticket the Mister had gotten was in 1996 and the various car accidents and fender benders the Mister has been in, he wasn’t found to be at fault in any of them. I’ve been pulled over once and I got off with a warning and I’ve never been driving while in a car accident. I’m not sure what happened here in N.C. (3 speeding tickets, one on base speeding violation, and one warning all within a year’s time) so the lemur gets lots of pets and attention now in hopes that his luck will return. Seriously. I pet him and talk to him occasionally. We thought that maybe his luck had run out because he had reached the end of his life. After some research though, ring-tailed lemurs live to be 18 in the wild and ours is in a protected environment so he’d live even longer so that’s not the problem. We need to find a good luck charm for the Scion because the lemur can’t be in two places at once. I’ve been giving it some thought but I don’t think it can be anything that we pick out specifically or it won’t work. The lemur wasn’t even our idea. And boy! Does the Scion need something. We got it back in March and it already has a dent in the driver side door, two dings and a paint scrape in the passenger side door, and sap that won’t come off windshield and rear hatch which has probably ruined the paint. The dent in the driver side door happened before I had even made the first payment if you’ll recall. It seems to be a magnet for inconsiderate people and tree sap.

Here’s a picture of our lemur from his perch in the Rav4. Isn’t he cute?

Thursday Meme

The Thursday meme courtesy of Booking Through Thursday:

A combo of two suggestions by: Heidi and by litlove

Have you ever been a member of a book club? How did your group choose (or, if you haven’t been, what do you think is the best way to choose) the next book and who would lead discussion?

Do you feel more or less likely to appreciate books if you are obliged to read them for book groups rather than choosing them of your own free will? Does knowing they are going to be read as part of a group affect the reading experience?

I’ve been a member of a Yahoo book club in the past. I don’t really remember how they picked the books that we voted on. As for who led the discussion, nobody did really. The group “facilitator” didn’t really facilitate. I was pretty frustrated with that group, left, and I don’t miss it all that much. Now, I have my own book discussion group on Ning. During a normal month, I pick three books from our list of suggested reading, minus themed books such as Christmas books, by using a MASH sort of method. Then, those three books are voted on by our members. Either Jennifer or I will start the discussion and then, as people finish the book, members contribute their thoughts. While a new book is chosen every month, the previous months’ discussions never close so that if someone misses out or new members join, they can still read and discuss the books too. For June, we had a contest so the whole method for choosing a book was way different.

I definitely am not less likely to appreciate the books we choose just because I didn’t pick them out myself. I look forward to the opportunity to read and discuss books that I might not have chosen myself. One of my favorite books that we’ve read so far is Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods and I never would have picked it up on my own. Our members have also voiced similar opinions even if they didn’t enjoy the book(s) at all.

Knowing that they are going to be discussed does affect the reading experience for me. If I’m reading a book that I’m really enjoying, I look forward to expressing my enjoyment with the group. If I’m reading a book that I know is a bit controversial for our group, I greatly anticipate the possible debates and just seeing what everyone else is going to say.

Overall, despite being apprehensive at starting my own group and the ups and downs, it’s been a great experience. The “main” members, or the ones who participate regularly, are a great group of people.

I hope this didn’t end up sounding like an endorsement for my group, lol, but oh well if it did. ;)

I Swear

Notice the haze in the above picture. I just took this about 2 minutes ago out my front door. I’m sure you’re thinking that it’s summer and hot. Of course you  have haze. Well, you’d be wrong. It’s smoke from brush fires that we have burning in the state. I thought I left all this nonsense behind when we moved from California. I do not like smoke and wildfires. I know. Who does? But I really hate it. According to the news, this fire could burn for weeks before they’re able to put it out and it’s so large that it has created it’s own weather system complete with lightening strikes which is what started the fire in the first place. How crazy is that?

1st Day of Summer Vacation

The oldest child is already gone. She walked to a friend’s house about 20 minutes ago. The youngest child is bored and being a bug. I found out yesterday that they’ll be going to Ohio in a little less than two weeks. We’re still in the planning stages of how they’re getting there though. My dad wants us to meet half way in Gatlinburg. This plan is cool with me because I’ve never been, but the Mister has a big inspection at work the same week and doesn’t know if he can get leave. I’d drive myself, but I really don’t want to. I’ve driven long distances alone with the kids before and it’s hard being your own navigator while driving and I didn’t enjoy the experience at all. Hopefully, it’ll all work out in the end.

I had a record day yesterday on my blog. I had 144 hits which is a definite high. I don’t put too much stock in it, however, because I’m sure most of them were Entrecard drops. I’m also sure that 144 is not going to become a trend. Still, I was shocked to see 144 as my final count for the day.

I haven’t talked about my reading habits in a while or in any depth. It’s basically because my reading has been really off lately. I haven’t found a book that has grabbed me in quite some time. No staying up until 3 am because I can’t put my book down. It’s sorta depressing to me. I’m currently reading Sense and Sensibility. I like it well enough but it’s not a grabber. I’m getting ready to start Readers Anonymous’ June book when I go out an buy it, lol. I can’t believe that it’s already the 11th and I haven’t even bought the book yet. That’s bad when it’s your group. My reading tidbits thing in the sidebar is way off too. I haven’t updated that in forever. I’m just one big slacker.

Pictures from the new camera:

This is my Hannah. This is also why she hasn’t found herself booted to the curb after chewing the sofa and breaking a window in the door.

This is my Bailey. Isn’t she gorgeous? She’s such a ham too. She always poses for pictures.

This is the two of them playing together.

School’s Out

Today is the last day of school for my kids and it’s a half day at that. On the one hand, I’m SO glad homework is done for the next couple months. On the other, now I have to find things to entertain them until they go to Ohio. Then, I have to deal with the inevitable drama that will ensue among the various members of our family while they’re in Ohio. The bickering over who gets the girls when and for how long. It’s pathetic, really. Then they wonder why we don’t send them every year. Whatever.

Going along with my school theme for today, I registered for fall classes. I’m taking;

• Medieval Renaissance British Literature
• 17-18th Century British Literature
• American Women Writers Since 1900
• The Religious Quest

I am looking forward to all four classes but especially the medieval and religious classes. The Mister is taking the religious quest class too. We both have such strong opinions about religion that I’m sure there are going to be epic battles and loud arguments next semester, lmao. I’m very excited!

Off topic now because you knew it was inevitable…

My friend found out that she’s having a boy yesterday. This is the same friend that I posted about some of the crazy names they were coming up with. I would tell you what they decided on, but I don’t post my own kids’ names so I can’t. Rest assured, it’s a doozy.

Lastly, here are some pictures of a lizard that I took on my front porch yesterday. Isn’t he cute?

Following Up

Arlene's comment gently reminded me that I neglected to mention a couple points in my earlier post today. I'm here now to correct the problem.

For those of you interested in Windows Live Writer, you can download it HERE . As I said, it's free and it's easy to download and install. As for the camera we bought, we got a Canon PowerShot SX100 IS. You can click on the name if you want to see what it looks like. It's a little bulkier than I wanted but I wasn't willing to pay $150 more for the same features in a smaller package. Also, it fits into our old case so that was a plus too.

I’m not sure if you can make it out or not here in Blogger, but in the above picture, that was taken from about 100 yards away and in the spray from the wave, you can see grains of sand. How’s that for detail???

It will also take up to an hour of video assuming you have a memory card large enough (we only have a 1GB at the moment) which I also consider to be a neato feature. Canon included some pretty neat software with it too.

There ya go! :)

Not So Bad

My Monday is off to a good start so far. I got to sleep in 20 minutes because I drove the kids to school this morning. The oldest child is going to an overnight fifth grade camp and I didn't want her to have to ride the bus with her duffle bag, pillow, and sleeping bag. Any day that you get to sleep in is a good day in my book.

It seems that I entertained some of you with my "Things" post, lol. I'm pretty surprised that I didn't get any negative comments. I'm not complaining, I'm just surprised is all.

So, our weekend went along pretty good. Friday was LOUD with the oldest child having a sleep over but they were so exhausted from the graduation activities that they fell asleep on their own around 10:30.

Saturday, we went to the beach. It was about ten degrees cooler at the beach, making it a chilly 90 degrees, heheh, and the water was perfect. I went boogie boarding with the oldest child and we had a lot of fun. All four of us ended up with a sunburn despite wearing 50 SPF sunblock and only being there for two hours. The weather here has been outrageous with highs in the upper 90’s and the heat index in the 110’s. I don’t know if I’ve said this before, but I have a bad feeling about the hurricane season this year. Our weather has been completely different this year than last, and last year we didn’t have any hurricanes hit the N.C. coast. It makes me happy that the kids will be in Ohio for part of the season.

Anyway, Sunday we didn’t do a whole lot of anything. I had to put in some time with my work because I got a little behind with stuff going on Friday and Saturday. The Mister had to work yesterday too because he took Friday off for the graduation. He got some neato pictures of the airshow from the roof of his building though.

This is Fat Albert. It’s the support plane that flies with the Navy’s Blue Angels. The Mister has gotten a ride in this before when we lived in California.

 

Today, I have some work to do and I’m going to my friend’s ultrasound appointment. They won’t video tape it for her so I'm going to record it with my nifty new camera. Did I mention we bought a new digital camera Friday? Yeah. It's nifty.

One last thing...I typed this post in Microsoft's Windows Live Writer. Me likes. Inserting pictures is super easy. It's a free application if any of you want to check it out for yourselves. I imagine it would make posting way easier for those of you with multiple blogs. You can also preview before you post, view the source code, insert tags, among many other things.

Things

That I find annoying right now and in no particular order...

1. My neighbor and his stupid motorcycle. I have nothing against motorcycles in general, but this asshead insists on rev'ing his until the windows in the house rattle and then speeds off down the street. HELLO!! There are kids out and about you dillweed.

2. That I have a virus or something on my computer that randomly pops up about 20-30 tabs in my browser. I know where I got it, but my virus scanner can't seem to get rid of it.

3. People who have music on their blogs. Don't get me wrong. I like the music and think it's nifty, but I have a headset and when music randomly starts blaring in my ears, it scares the bejeezus out of me.

4. Web 2.0 I need to give Twitter, Pownce, Plurk, Jaiku, and all the rest a break.

5. That I had to be on the phone for 30 minutes just to figure out that the audio on my comp had been disabled in my bios. Again, tech support people suck.

6. My house and the fact that it NEVER stays clean for more than an hour.

7. That I'm tired. I'm tired of being tired all the time. I'm beginning to wonder if something is wrong but since I hate doctors and I feel like an idiot when I go to see them, I'll never find out.

8. Skinny people. You suck too.

9. Single people who live alone and have housekeepers. Get off your lazy ass and clean your freaking house you slob. If I were single, my house would NEVER be dirty.

10. That I'm in a bad mood and it's not even that time of the month.

11. That women's bad moods must ALWAYS be because it's that time of the month.

12. That I have nothing good to watch on the DVR. I just finished watching season 3 of Weeds. It was awesomely funny, btw.

13. That it's probably going to be too hot to stay too long at the beach tomorrow. I LOVE the heat, but this is ridiculous. Our temps today: 98 was our high with a heat index of 110. Wtf is up with that??

14. That Jennifer can't find a job. Wth is wrong with people and this economy??

15. People who are all political because it's trendy to be so. You're not impressing anyone.

16. Parents who don't teach their kids manners and their kids that just walk uninvited into my house and proceed to raise a ruckus.

17. People who want Obama to be president just because he's African American or people who wanted HRC to be president just because she's a woman.

18. That highway 43 is going to be under construction for most of the summer.

19. That I don't have a crystal ball that will show me the future.

20. That my husband is incessantly tapping on something over at his computer. GRR!

21. That the air show on Cherry Point this weekend is going to make it impossible to go to the commissary.

22. That I just yelled at the Mister to stop it and he's now tapping just to annoy me and watching me get more annoyed by the second.

23. That I'm out of stuff to complain about and that I screwed up Whine-fest Wednesday and I'm whining on Friday.

THERE!!!

24. Wait, wait!! That Jennifer posted a nice, fantastically optimistic list on Thursday and this is what I manage to come up with.

25. Oh! And one last thing. All the freaking holier than thou people who can't shut up about conservation, going green, and that high energy prices are a good thing. You people make me want to go out and buy a Hummer. Stuff your conservation where the sun don't shine.

Quizin'

Mindless stuff. The cussing one I've done before but maybe the percentage has changed. I don't know. The things I do when I want a nap, lol.

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Thursday Meme

From Booking Through Thursday:

Have your book-tastes changed over the years? More fiction? Less? Books that are darker and more serious? Lighter and more frivolous? Challenging? Easy? How-to books over novels? Mysteries over Romance?

I would answer a definite yes to this one. I started reading Julie Garwood and Danielle Steele in high school. My reading tastes went along those lines for about eight or nine years. You know. The trashy novels with the Fabio looking guy and the girl with the torn dresses and heaving breasts on the cover? Then I branched out and started reading procedural crime, mysteries, and the like. Now I'm brave enough to read just about anything including the "classics" which I would have found terribly boring not that long ago. I read a Julie Garwood for the first time in quite a few years recently. I thought the story predictable and the writing...simple. I was really disappointed because I used to love her books. I feel a little like I outgrew romances. Okay. I still like Nora Roberts and I always will. It was while I was on a Nora Roberts high that I finally decided my major. If not for her, I'd still be aimlessly taking classes. I also happen to think that her books are a little more complex than the typical romance but I really am biased.

I think it's only natural for reading habits and tastes to evolve. If you keep reading Dr. Seuss and Little Golden Books when you're 30 and there are no kids around, people are going to stare.

Whine-fest Wednesday Episode 2

I don't really have too much to whine about. I am sitting here waiting for a friend to pick me up so we can go shopping. She's going to be ten minutes late. She's always late. I've never seen her be on time for anything since I've known her. She's just one of those people. Unfortunately, where we're going is an hour drive each way and I have to be home by 3:30 for the kids to get off the bus. Doesn't leave us a lot of time.

I can whine because The Tudors season is over!! WHAAAA!! The season finale was great but it won't be back until 2009. Ugh!!

That's it. I gotta pee before she gets here so I'm off.

Figure Out Your Own Title

We had a full day yesterday. We had to start our Sunday way earlier than we usually do because we had an hour drive to Jacksonville for the birthday party. We got to see the Camp Lejeune base theater for the first time, lol. Camp Lejeune is my favorite base of any that I've ever been on. You feel like you're on a military base when you're there. We passed a huge convoy and there was another one forming up in the theater parking lot. You just don't get that kind of thing on an air base which is all the Mister would ever be stationed on. Lots of aircraft taking off and landing, but no tank crossings, grenade launching areas, or ammo dumps. I've been coming and going on that base since 1991 and it still doesn't get old for me. They also have a nice exchange which we took advantage of while the girls were watching the movie. We bought ourselves a snazzy flat screen HDTV for our bedroom. It's an inch smaller than our old tv but the screen seems bigger. Maybe it's because it's not surrounded by the huge box our old one was in.

After the party, base exploring, and shopping, we headed over to our friends' house to hang for a bit and to say goodbye. They'll be moving to Texas shortly for a transfer. Hopefully, we'll get to see them this summer but who knows. We have plans to tour Texas but you know what they say about the best laid plans. After ten years, I am heartily tired of saying goodbye to good friends. I have more friends out of state than I do in and they're literally scattered coast to coast.

Anyway, we got home last night around 5'ish, ate a light dinner, and I explored the variety of Twitter spinoffs before hitting the couch to watch The Next Food Network Star. It was good. From the looks of it, someone cries on every episode, lol. Get a grip people. I'm really interested to see how far Shane gets because he's only 19. Wow! At 19 my specialty was a rotisserie chicken from the grocery story and a box of Velveeta shells and cheese, lol.

So, I'm really tired this Monday morning and feel really scattered. I hope at least some of this post makes sense. I'm off for some Cranergy and a coffee bar.

TOLD ALL OF YOU SO!!!

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland   "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
Boston
North Central
The South
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz